Tag Archives: holiday

French adventures

We have finally dusted off the family passports and used them to travel a little further afield than we usually manage.

On our way – first time in the channel tunnel for me and the kids!

Rich was brave enough to take on driving abroad for our trip, but I helped a little with some extra car signage…

Our holiday destination was a place called La Croix Du Vieux Pont in Northern France near Amiens. We stayed in a static mobile home which was a tiny bit more comfortable than a tent but still it had everything we needed for our stay.

Our humble French home

On our first trip out we explored the nearby Soissons where we found the beautiful ruins of the Abbey of St. Jean des Vignes.

Sam helps the remains of the Abbey to stay standing

The next day we came out to climb General Mangin’s observation tower in the forest of Domaniale de Retz – this was a reconstruction of the original tower used in WW1 to help halt the German advance.

General Mangin’s tower peeping out from the forest

We enjoyed reading all about the tower as well as finding out about the wildlife in the surrounding forest.

Dodging raindrops from the top of the tower

After a damp day in the forest (and much use of the hair dryer on wet shoes) we headed off for a day enjoying the delights of Paris.

Underneath a famous landmark… any guesses?

We queued for quite some time and managed to get tickets to travel up this iconic tower.

Loving the view from the second level.

Sam and Emily were so excited to be able to come up the tower and couldn’t believe how small the rest of Paris looked from up at this level. We had a beautiful sunny day to enjoy the view in.

The Arc de Triomphe – seemed bigger than I remember it…

Before beginning the long drive home on Friday we had one last adventure, this time to the mostly renovated and very beautiful Château de Pierrefonds.

Lots to see in this slightly crazy castle including lots of impressive beasts and monsters in all sorts of nooks around the castle.

Light show & projected images in the basement of the castle

We’ve made it home after our lovely holiday, we are slightly more confident at ordering croissants and ‘glace’ and have slightly weary legs and also have lots of great memories.

Center Parcs

Having missed out on holidays due to moving and the birth of Emily… we’ve promised ourselves at least two weeks of holiday this year. Last week we spent 5 days at the Sherwood Forest Center Parcs. We booked a 6-person villa which easily accommodated the family and my Mum and Dad. Through some fluke of the booking process I managed to get a villa very close to the centre so the bikes that we’d hired felt a bit redundant.

We took Sam’s bike along as he is getting pretty good on it. He still has a bit of trouble stopping but he can now ride pretty well without me supporting him.

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Sam riding at Center Parcs

It was great to see all the animals at Center Parcs. There were plenty of rabbits, ducks, geese, bats  and squirrels that could be seen from the villa’s ‘lounge’. Samuel quickly learnt what a Moorhen looks like and was keen to point out any that he saw.

Coot and young

Coot and young

As always, there are loads of activities and Samuel had his first go at 10-pin bowling and crazy golf. Emily joined in with the bowling and had her first proper taste of swimming which she eventually learned to like. And with all these activities on offer… what was the highlight for Samuel?

Breakfast time

Breakfast time

The holiday cereal of course! We always buy a variety pack on holiday and this is often the only thing that Sam remembers.