My first trip to France

Hi everyone. I hope you’re all well. It’s taken me my typist a long time to tell you about my first holiday in France. We went last year in June  and had the best time. We went to lots of pretty castles, saw lots of beautiful towns and villages, a big cathedral and one really tall tower.

Here is the first bit of our journey.

We drove a long way… all the way to Dover, to catch a big boat called a ferry to cross the Channel to France.

Here I am on the ferry and you can see the famous white cliffs of Dover behind.

Look how windy it is on deck – I nearly lost my beret. There were lots of other boats going backwards and forwards. The Hooms tell me that the English Channel is one of the worlds busiest shipping routes.

We arrived in Dunkirk safe and sound and went to our first campsite in a village called Guines. This is our first pitch of the holiday. Well, second actually. The Hooms had put the tent up on another pitch and then realised the cable for the electric stuff was too short so we had to move everything.

On our first full day we went to a nearby town called Boulogne Sur Mer and had a walk by the sea. It was very, very hot so being by the sea was the coolest place. The heat doesn’t really bother me so I sat on this buoy to catch some rays!

Wow this looks like fun. But my feet don’t reach the pedals

The next day we moved to another campsite a bit further south just near a little village called Touquin. We saw lots and lots of sunflowers on the way.

A field full of big flowers in my very favourite colour.

Next morning we were up bright and early to go and visit Chateau de Pierrefonds. I thought it was called Camelot because I’ve seen it on the TV with a chap called Merlin – something to do with the BBC.

Camelot Chateau de Pierrefonds up on the hill.

Here I am just about to cross the bridge and go inside.

Part of the Merlin set at the castle

From the other side it really looks like a stone bridge … you’d never guess.

Here is a video I found on Youtube someone was lucky enough to be at the castle when they were filming. It’s very interesting. Merlin in Pierrefonds.

Inside the castle.

Wow they made a little bear size castle just for me. Excellent … how do I get in?

We bought our first proper French baguette from the boulangerie in Pierrefonds and had it for our tea that evening with some sausages. It was yummy.
I hope you’ll join me in my next post to tell you all about our visit to the Palace of Versailles and our day out in Paris when I got to go up the Eiffel Tower.

Phil.

A trip to Hanbury Hall

We went for a day out to Hanbury Hall. It was built in 1701 so it’s quite old. The National Trust look after it now. You can find out more about it here .. http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/hanbury-hall/

Here I am outside the house on a sunny day. It’s fantastic inside too… lots of interesting things and huge paintings.

This pretty garden is called a sunken parterre. One of the previous owners had it all ripped out so the National Trust have spent years and lots of money restoring it.

What a lovely pattern the garden makes and the little shaped trees.

Rules, rules, rules! They can’t stop me standing on the rope.

I wanted to to go into the Orangery and find the 300yr old paw print on the floor but we weren’t allowed in because of the fruit growing

On the way out I slipped in the cattle grid. Harumph!

We had a lovely day here. There are lots of interesting things around the gardens to look at – and there’s a very good tea room too.

Keep Calm

I found a website today and it’s great fun.

It’s based on a really famous poster that was made for the war lots of years ago and now you can make one of your own with your own words and colours and everything.

This is mine. It’s mainly yellow of course

If you click on the photo you can go through to their website and vote up my picture and create your own.

Have fun making your own posters.

Holiday in Snowdonia

Hi everyone. We went to a place called Snowdonia National Park on holiday earlier this year. It was lovely and we had some great weather. We were staying in a nice caravan at a place called Greenacres in Porthmadog.

This was our caravan on Snowdrop Grove

The caravan place is right by Black Rock Sands which is a mahoosive beach.

We went for a drive along the coast to a place called Criccieth. Here I am near the castle.

Then we went for a drive and found a nice place to go for a walk. This is the Glaslyn River in Aberglaslyn Pass. It’s a warm sunny day so it’s nice to sit on a rock and chill for a bit in the sunshine.

It’s very pretty isn’t it? Wish I’d got some sunglasses though.

I think I’ll venture out a little further…

…and then I had to be retrieved by one of the hooms as I couldn’t jump back across.

The next day we went to a place called Portmeirion. They filmed a television show here years ago. One of the hooms kept wandering about talking about not being a number or something??

I hope there’s no gunpowder in this thing?

We went on the little coastal walk at Portmeirion. It was quite a hot day so the water was nice and cool on my paws.

Working with my photographer in the Piazza at Portmeirion. Shame he managed to position me so it looked like the fountain was coming out of the top of my head. The offending photograph is on Flickr, I shall not post it twice – grrr!

Perhaps I should go easy on the ice cream?

The next day we caught the Welsh Highland Railway steam train at Porthmadog and went for a day out to Beddgelert.

The dragon at Beddgelert Woodcraft thought I was some tasty morsel to eat. Thankfully I wriggled free.

We went for a walk along the river at Beddgelert to a tree where there is a very sad story from hundreds of years ago about a dog called Gelert.

The next day we went to see Mount Snowdon.

The evening before we went home we went back to Black Rock Sands and I claimed a little piece of it for myself.

We had a wonderful time in North Wales. I’m sure we will go back soon.

Kedleston Hall

I’m catching up on a few posts here. A lot in fact. I’m actually considering sacking my typist but it takes sooo long to type with my paws! I’ve put her on an improvement plan so we should do OK from now on.

I appear to have misplaced lost my picture of the house, so instead here I am sneaking through the railings.

You can find out all about Kedleston Hall here:
http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/kedleston-hall/

The view from the house is very pretty. I could eat my sandwiches here if anyone had bothered to make me any!

Harumph! People are so protective of their space. Private schmivate.

I asked the lion in the garden if I could play with his toy ball?

I guess the answer is no then?

This little pond was perfect for ice skating. Shame I don’t have any skates really. I actually think my bottom might be frozen to the ice.

Wimpole Hall & Home Farm

Here I am outside Wimpole Hall in Cambridgeshire

What a lovely old house it is. You can find out all about it here..   http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/wimpole/

We went to the farm at Wimpole too and I got talking to this big fluffy cow.

Then I went to talk to the pigs but they were all asleep.

So then I went to talk to the sheep but they clearly weren’t interested.

Then I had a walk round on the lovely gardens.

So many rules! Seriously, what kind of harm do they think a small bear is going to do?

We’ve had a lovely day seeing the house and gardens and all the animals. Now it’s time to go home and try and get these admission stickers off – ouch!

Kitchen Drawer Mysteries

I wonder, does anyone actually use the little twisty ties you get with sandwich bags? There’s loads in the drawer but hardly any bags to go with them! Why do they bother?