Valence

We were up at 7.30 so we could feed ourselves a good breakfast and then headed to the station for one of our longest train days. 

We were off to Valence.  We took the local train to Mulhouse, then the TGV from Mulhouse to Valence TGV and then a local train into Valence ville.  Met a lovely French man on the last train, who recommended we do a bike ride on our full day.

 We got to the Hôtel de France wthout any bother.  2 x air-conditioned rooms, yeah!  It was hot, hot, hot.  We decided to have showers and then go out for a little explore.  We looked around the park which is supposed to be the main attraction in the town, but it has obviously been too hot for too long and was brown and deserted.  We headed into town and found a nice square with bars, so sat down, had a panaché each and then went for another little look, but it was too hot, so we went back to our hotel room for a rest and decided to try again at 7.  

We met in the lobby at 7, played Uno and then headed out, it was a little cooler, we went back to the square found an outdoor table and enjoyed burgers x 2 for the boys and pasta and prawns for me.

Matt and I did quite a bit of research trying to find what to do in Valence, we couldn't find anything that wasn't archeology / art so we decided to go with the man's recommendation and hire some bikes.  We found a place to hire them for and then got ourselves on the bike trail: Via Rhona which hugs the Rhône from Geneva to Marseille.  It was flat (phew) and although it was screamingly hot (it got up to 40 degrees today) by cycling we were creating a breeze which actually made the heat more manageable.  The first bit was along the river, in the shade, we met a lovely friendly man who's parents lived in Camberley for a while, so he had some English (better than our French anyway!) In fact most of our interactions have been good, lots of friendly people.  People on the whole do revert to English when they hear us, but less so in Valence.  We haven't heard a British accent since arrival, we have seen a couple of cars, but that's it.

Luckily the bike route, which was apart from the road, took us straight past an Intermarché so we stopped there for a cold drink and then continued on our way.  The route took us into the French countryside, we passed nectarine (or where they plum) groves, a leaning castle tower, and a number of small villages.   En route, we saw an advert for a bakery, so decided to head there for lunch,  It was in the beautiful village of Charmes du Rhône.  We got there 30 mins before it shut (phew).  Tom and Matt shared a slice of pizza whilst I had a gorgeous raspberry tart.  We all had cold drinks.  The village was what I would describe as a typical rural French village - all shutters, stone and cobbles.  All very quiet.  

 We decided that we were as far as we were going to go, it was getting hotter and our bums were beginning to ache, so we headed back more or less the same way - didn't seem so far on the way home.  We stopped at the Intermarché again for a cold drink each and then arrived back in Valence.  We did have to climb a hill back up to the hire shop and I was concerned I would have trouble as these bikes were very heavy, but it wasn't a problem, I surprised myself!

We handed the bikes back, went to the hotel had a shower before we did anything, then a bit of a rest before heading out to the nearby Laverie with two big bags of sweaty clothes. (Very reasonable under €10 to do it all including drying - cost that for one item in the hotel!)

We then hid from sun in our air conditioned rooms until 7pm when we met in the lobby for Uno and then headed out to the same square (but different restaurant) for tea.  Cliques Ardechoises for Matt and I - a local delicacy (bit like a rösti) and a pizza for Tom.  A creme brûlée for Tom and Matt and I shared a mousse au chocolat.  Then back home, early night, we were all exhausted- didn't see any of the England world cup football match but woke up to find we had won.

Chateau du Haut Koenigsbourg et aigles

Today we decided to do a side trip to Chateau du Haut Koenigsbourg.  

First though a hotel breakfast - our first of the trip and we were excited.  It was good - unfortunately no pain au raisin which is Matt's go to breakfast in France, but there were croissants and pain au chocolats.  Also yoghurt, fruit, muesli, baguettes and lots of cured meat and smelly cheese.  We were all happy and stuffed when we came out. 

We staggered over to the railway station and got the local train to  Sélestat and then a shuttle bus up to the castle which was on top of a mountain.  On the way up we came across 3 other attractions - 'Flight of the Eagles', 'Monkey Mountain' and 'Cigoland' - a theme park based around storks for little ones.

Wow, just wow, the castle was straight out of Disney - it was hugging the top ridge of the mountain and had towers all over the place, we went in under a portcullis and were just amazed by the place - it has obviously been restored recently and was looking very handsome.  All the rooves were immaculately tiled there were spires all over the place.  We got to go inside, where once again the rooms were immaculate.  

The castle was originally built by the Germans in the 12th century.  It was made a ruin in the 1400s by locals torching it to remove undesirables, rebuilt and burned down again by the Swedes during the 30 years war in 1633.   Kaiser Wilhelm II started to restored it in the early 1900s, but it was handed over to the French in 1919 with the Treaty of Versailles.  However, they have kept it as found.

We enjoyed a couple of hours exploring it, it looked like it had been built just recently - it certainly was immaculate.  We didn't get to see it all, but we saw enough and with it only costing €6 to enter (we discovered we got a €6 reduction for getting the bus up!) it really was very good value. 

One thing we had never seen before, Kachelofen stoves - huge tiled constructions in each room which would be filled with fire and heat the room (it gets very cold here in the winter).  We saw lots of Imperial Eagles in the decorations.  But mainly it was the building itself which was so impressive - it even included a windmill!

Once we were done we had an ice cream to cool down (hot, hot, hot again) and then decided to try out Flight of the Eagles on the way down (our bus ticket was a day rover ticket).  This was a birds of prey attraction in a ruined castle (oh - interesting statistic - there are over 500 castles in Alsace!) we got more discount for using the bus - so much so that the bus ticket was less than free!  They had a fabulous range of birds of prey including:

+ Bataleur Eagles

+ White tailed Eagles

+ Stellar's Sea Eagles

+ Bald Eagle

+ Lots of vultures

+ Eagle owl

+ Great Grey Owl

+ Secretary bird

+ Perigrines

+ Black Kites

and lots more.

We went round the cages saying hello, saw that there was an animation, so went in to view it - it was a lecture by one of the keepers who was going into immaculate detail on the birds, their feathers etc etc.  Too detailed and too fast for us, so we left and got ourselves a good place for the show in the shade. 

The show was AMAZING, they got most of the birds out and they flew into the audience- literally a cm above our heads, I had a moment when I was staring the Eagle Owl directly in the eyes.  We all got swooped by various birds, which was thrilling.  Not seen a show like it, not sure it would be 'allowed' in the UK, shame!  We saw peregrines diving, kites catching bait in mid air, le Harry Potter owl swooping, a secretary bird taken for a walk, it was 45 mins of amazement.  We were very very happy customers.  If we were able we would have stayed for more shows, but time was marching on.

We got the bus and train back to the hotel, had showers etc, then headed out for tea at 7pm (we are getting better at being European!) found ourselves a restaurant on the other side of the rail tracks which was way cheaper.  Was a Turkish establishment - we decided on a bottle of rosé...it was Turkish rosé, our first wine in France wasn't French - arghhhhh!  Anyway we had a good dinner - Matt had Merguez sausages - he was served a plate with 8 - he was very very happy!  Huge pizza for Tom (he couldn't finish it) and chicken wings and frites for me. 

We then wandered back into the veux ville of Colmar - for another look around, we found much more to it, we thought it might empty out of tourists at night - oh no, it was buzzing.  We found some glaces and stayed until after 10pm, enjoying the vibe.  

Took our aching feet back to the hotel, watched France score 2 goals agains Morocco in the World Cup and went to bed.

  

Colmar

Wednesday and we were up early - had to (almost) bash Tom’s door down as he didn’t wake up even though he swears he had alarms set (think we woke everyone up in the corridor!)  Got to Gare de Lille Europe and got the TGV to Strasbourg.  A very pleasant trip - watching the flat countryside go by.  We stopped at Paris Charles de Gaulle (could see the Tour d’Eiffel), somewhere in the champagne region and Meuse and Lorraine before arriving in Strasbourg on time, time for lunch.  We had 2.5 hours layover, so what should we do…look for lunch of course.  

We wheeled our suitcases up a couple of streets and found a nice restaurant with outdoor seating.   First item was a basket of pretzels, (we are only 2.5 miles from Germany after all) and then a main course.  Tom went for curry wurst, Matt for hot dog with pork knuckle and I thought I would be good and go for a salad.  I ordered salad Strasbourgeise, not that sure what it would be, saw another table with a salad on it, it had beetroot, carrots, celeriac etc, I was excited…it arrived, it was basically a heap of grated emmental and ham, in fact Matt had more salad (veg) on his plate than me.  Oh hum, always a risk ordering something you aren’t sure of.  I will try again!

We returned to the station for our TGV train to Colmar, arrived, found our hotel, The Grand Hotel Bristol nethertheless, checked in and got our rooms - this time we had connecting rooms, and (of course) Tom’s was bigger and better than ours.  Rooms have air conditioning and shutters so we were all happy.  We then headed out to Colmar Ville Vieux - wowzers, what a place.  All old buildings with overhanging walls, exposed wooden beams, very steep rooves in a myriad of colours.  

There were canals running through too.  By now it was mid afternoon and very hot and we were getting quite hot and bothered, so we booked ourselves a boat ride on the canal and then headed into some souviner shops.  Didn’t take long…Tom fell in love with an animal - this time a stork - which is the bird of the region.  To be fair it is quite cute and goofy of course.

 boat ride was very pleasant, the designer of the statue of Liberty came from Colmar, we saw a bridge that the US troops installed during the war that is still in use today, but we didn’t find out why there were canals in the town, obviously for trade but not sure what trade?

After the boat ride we were parched, so we all headed into the nearest establishment for a large panaché each, it is shandy sort of weather, we all wanted something cold, wet and not too alcoholic.  Goofy stork was then christened Panaché.

We were quite comfortable, so decided to eat there too - seems that you can get a tart flambé for a reasonable price (€10-15 or something else for €25-40) We all went for tart flambé - basically a very thin pizza.  Bacon and cheese for Matt and me and salmon for Tom.

We then returned to our hotel, via Carrefour City for some drinks and snacks, showers, a couple of rounds of Uno and bed. 

France 2026 - Leeds to Lille

 School is out, Nicolas has gone home which means one thing, HOLIDAY!

This year, to help Tom out with his French we are in France for a couple of weeks. We have decided to do it by train to save with the arguments on who is going to drive etc.  We found a company who does trips around France, so got them to do an itinerary - we are doing a lap of France, visiting lots of places we have never been to - so something new for all of us. 

Our first 'proper' train was the first one out of Leeds in the morning, so we decided to stay the night in Leeds beforehand.  Then of course, our Eurostar train out of London was cancelled, meaning everything was put back by half a day.  We didn't need to stay in Leeds after all, but it was booked, we couldn't cancel and we like Leeds anyway, so we headed over as planned. 

Stayed at The Queens Hotel as a treat for Tom as it is on top of the station, I was expecting it to be shabby as it looks shabby from the outside, but it was really nice, we had a huge, huge room.  We were able to finish off our holiday shopping (sandals and goggles for me and shorts for Matt) and then headed to the station, got our train to London - forgot to say, because we booked our train trip by a certain date, we got a free upgrade to First Class for the whole journey which is ace.  Enjoyed the free food and drinks, arrived in London - felt more than 10 degrees hotter!  Walked across to St Pancras, had to wait an hour and then checked in for the Eurostar which all went well.  Our train got delayed by 30 mins, but it did happen, and we arrived at the time they said we would.  

Dragged our suitcases 1km over cobbles into the old city of Lille where we found our hotel.  Our rooms are quite compact, no air conditioning, but Tom found that the main light was also a fan, which was grand.  After a shower, we headed out and had a look around, we are on a Place, in the old town, all old cobbles and very old buildings.  Wondered up a street full of restaurants, here a 'Welsh' is a thing - Welsh Rarebit apparently imported in 1544 by a Welsh Guard during the siege of Boulogne by Henry VIII.  Hoping to get a chance to try it...

We had an ok sleep, were up at 9, headed to the Intermarche for breakfast (hot cheesy pastry for me, pain au raisin for Matt and a mega pain au chocolat for Tom.  Then we headed on our way into the old town, the old town is absolutely massive - we spent ages just pounding the streets discovering good looking bakeries and independent shops.  Found a great kitchen shop which sold everything except chocolate moulds (boo!), visited Gare du Flanders, Place d'Opéra, Place de la République, and finally Le Grand Place (or Place du Charles de Gaulle (he was born here!)).  Lots of gorgeous old buildings, even went in a couple of churches.  

We found ourselves a bakery for lunch, did a little more mooching and then headed back via Carrefour for a holiday purchase of a bottle of Calvados, and back to our square for a quick pint (I had a shandy and even that made me fuzzy - I really can't take alcohol without food these days!) and an afternoon rest.  Excited for tea tonight...will it be a Welsh, a galette, or something else French!

Canada - Mont Tremblant

Our last full day in Canada.  Today we headed to Mont Tremblant - a ski resort, which is supposed to be pretty and quite active for trails etc during the summer.  We got up early today as we figured with only one night there, we would want to do something today and the earlier we get there the better.  So we were up at 7am, had breakfast (bagel, cream cheese and boiled egg for me, the boys had cereal and muffins).  By 8am we were on our way, we decided to take the back route through agricultural land and then trees and lakes.  It was interesting watching the scenery pass by, some huge property, not many animals although plenty of fromageries?  One thing Canada isn't short on is space and wood to build property so property is that much bigger than at home and maybe there were plenty of cows - we just couldn't see them from the road.  We did see a Road Runner from the road though (alive) so that was a bonus.

My Beaver's Tail

We got to Mont Tremblant around 11.30, perfect (any only one route barrée).  Our hotel room was ready so we went to dump our bags - as predicted this hotel is the nicest of the lot - shame we are only staying one night!  We have a proper kitchenette and a huge amount of room.  We went in search of lunch and came across a Queue de Castor (Beaver's tails) a fast food restaurant where they deep fry donut batter into beaver tail shape and then add toppings.  M & T went for hot dog, but I went sweet which is more traditional - apple and caramel sauce - it was delicious but probably about 1000 calories!

We then walked up the main shopping street - they have a pedestrian village here which is great - especially as it is right outside our hotel.  We headed for the gondola which goes up the mountain (Mt Tremblant).  We wanted to get a one way ticket up and then walk one of the trails down, no can do you have to walk up the mountain and then you can get a one way ticket down!  Oh hum, we looked at the trails on offer - we decided on the one that took you straight up the mountain via a ski route - called "Le Grand Prix de Couleurs" it was steep, really really steep, and it was hot, really hot...we all dug in and we did it - they suggested it would take 60 to 90 minutes - I did it in 92 minutes and was very proud of myself.  It was 2 miles long and took us up 611 meters.  I'm guessing my knee is pretty much recovered now as it didn't get sore - very pleased we did that hike up the fjord the other day as that probably prepared us quite well.  

View from the top of the mountain

 when we got to the top the view wasn't the best as it was quite hazy, however, we all felt a great sense of achievement.  We walked to the observation post right at the top just to say we had gone right to the top and then got the gondola back down.  

We bought some tickets from a lady who we had a great conversation with regarding accents and understanding French French vs Canadian French.  For example when we bought the tickets from her - I said 'merci beaucoup' and she said what sounded like 'durron' I looked blank and she said it is what you say if some says thank you it was 'de rien' but pronounced very differently.  She said that yes the Canadian accent is very different to the French accent and also they use lots of different words.  She said that the French get confused when they come across and often don't understand what is being said either.  The other day for example we didn't understand when the waitress asked us if we wanted to order drinks and if we wanted the bill - simple things that we can understand and do in France but have trouble with here.  Maybe it wasn't such a great idea to bring Tom here after all - none of us have been able to progress our French really because we really can't catch what is being said to us and also as soon as we open our mouths people revert to English.  However, being surrounded by French for two weeks should hopefully have helped.  Tom should know all the baseball terms in French now eg "Grand chelem" is grand slam, 'prise' is strike, 'balle' ball, 'retirée' is out etc - not sure if that will help at all?!

The FREE stand up chair lift 

Anyway we got the Gondola down, and were amazed at how long it took, we really did choose ourselves a hard activity for the day!  Once down we saw a stand up chair lift which we noticed before.  We noticed no ticket barriers and wondered if it was maybe free - it was, so we got it down to our hotel - what a bonus!  We all had showers and flopped for a couple of hours.

Canada - Trois Riviéres and Baseball

We left Malbaie and spent most of the day driving to Trois Riviéres which is located between Montreal and Quebec. It wasn't the most scenic of drives - Matt did half of it and I the other half.  

We stopped at a Tim Horton's for lunch - mainly because none of us had been to one before and wanted to know what all the fuss was about.  The lunches we got were pretty average, however, we got ourselves a box of Tim Bits which are mini donuts with lots of different fillings which were pretty good and very cheap!  Little bit naughty though!

It was a hot hot hot day, we arrived at our hotel in Trois Rivierés around 3pm, checked in, had a bit of down time before deciding to do some exploring.  Our hotel is out in the suburbs, so we had to get back in the car. First stop was Parc Laviolette from which we could see the rather nice Pont Laviolette stretch across the river.  There were loads of people in the park with bbqs having rather nice meals - we were a little bit jealous, but also it was hot, hot, hot too hot to man a bbq!

We carried on into down town - guess what 'Rue Barrée' so we went around in circles for a bit until we found ourselves a car park - which turned out to be right in the middle of downtown so it worked out!  We went for a walk down to the river, then into old town.  Did I mention it was hot, hot, hot?  We began wilting, but I spotted a bar in the old town with a rather lovely outside area, so we headed in.  It was called 'The Buck' and it was proper posh - we had our own waiter who went through the menu with us - I only wanted a alcohol free beer (I was on driving duty) and Matt wanted an IPA, but our waiter took it very seriously and explained each one in depth and came back to us again and again to fill up our water and check we were ok.

We looked at the menu - it was posh - steak was the second cheapest thing on it!!!!  We looked around, we were the only tourists around (Matt was in his elephant shirt, Tom in his pink Rajasthan Royals cricket shirt), all other clientele were looking chic, with designer clothes and dripping in jewellery.  We were bringing the place down, however, it gave us a much needed rest and shade from the sun).

We then had a stroll around down town, until we started to get hungry.  We had noticed a restaurant that served sausages - we have seen Toulouse sausages in all the supermarkets we have been in, but hadn't found them being served anywhere until now, so we headed back.  Tom got a Toulouse sausage pizza (and chips) and Matt got 3 sausages with chips and hot sour kraut.  I got chicken and vegetables (and chips - of course - you can't have anything without chips!)  We were all quite hungry by the time it came, so we gobbled it up, had another look at the river before heading back to the hotel.  Matt had been drinking, so it was up to me to get us home, and I managed it even with a dodgy junction with no signals - very proud of myself!

Sunday, I had found that Trois Riviéres has a lower league baseball team and they were playing during the day today.

Tickets were cheap, so we thought we would go.  We tried to book online, but it seemed really complicated so hoped there would be tickets on the gate - we needn't have worried, there were plenty of seats free.  It was hot, hot, hot, again, but we had plenty of cold drinks and we spread ourselves out, hoping no-one else would come near to us (we were lucky, they didn't!)

This player was 6ft 8inches tall!

The Trois Riviéres team is called Les Aigles and have a great eagle as their logo and mascot.  Tom got himself a shirt, Matt got himself a shirt.  We met the mascot who came for hugs.  It was a good atmosphere.  Shame they didn't put on a good show for us!  They had won easily on Saturday but today was not their day.  The other team (Tri City Valley Cats from New York) out classed them, in all areas, and ended up beating them 11-2.  Oh hum, it was a good experience, I enjoyed it and don't really know baseball that well.

Just as the game finished a thunder storm arrived.  Rain was pelting down on the way home, the main road came to a halt, so we weaved our way back to the hotel.  The swimming pool which had been full to bursting with kids since we arrived was empty, so we donned our togs and went for a dunk - it wasn't really a swimming pool - really just a curly whirly slide, which was quite vicious, good fun though and it was nice to have a dunk after being so hot all day.

Canada - Malbaie

We didn't set any alarms and woke naturally this morning.  Well, when I say we, I mean Matt and I.  We had to wake Tom!  

We decided on an easy day after yesterday and a day off the car.  We are a bit out of the way of Malbaie here, but we are in a pleasant hotel looking over the St Lawrence River, the hotel has a free spa and there are some restaurants nearby.  We had our breakfast (hotels don't include breakfast so ours comes from the shop - granola and yoghurt for me and some sort of pastries for the boys) and headed out for a little explore.  We walked down some stairs to the the riverside where there was a jetty, we could see cormorants going about their daily business, and there was a seal sat on a rock.  There was also a train station. We scouted out the restaurants and shops and then at 12.15 the only train due today arrived, from Quebec - a tourist only service (think it was $280 per person!).  

We had a very pleasant lunch at Café de Chantal - another poutine each for the boys and a guédille for me (Quebcoise speciality - split hot dog bun, toasted and filled with a selection of fillings - the most authentic being lobster - but I went for egg being a bit thrifty!).  We then ambled back to the hotel and went for a spa - this place has a huge spa which is free to guests.  We had it to ourselves which was just lovely - it had a huge waterfall, jacuzzi pool, hot pool, infra red sauna and a huge barrel sauna - we used them all.  As we left lots of people arrived, we had timed it to perfection.

The boys spent the afternoon playing pool - I joined them and lost every match!  We then went back down to the jetty for the evening and had a meal at Café de Gare - moules for me tonight which was lovely.