Lourdes

We arrived in Lourdes on time, it was hot, but the hotel was downhill, so we dragged our very loud suitcases down the streets to the Astoria Vatican.  Another 3 star hotel, we checked in, they were surprised to find I was a female, they had seen my name and assumed I was male, and put us in a twin room.  They found us a double bed opposite Tom's room and we made our way up to it.  The room was hot, hot, hot, but we put the air conditioner on and it worked - yahooooo.  However, every minute or so it growled at us - boooooo!   We tried everything, but were unable to stop it growling at us - it even growled at us when we turned it off!  Tom's room, of course was perfect, cold, air-conditioning with no growling and a view of the castle.   Lucky boy!

We had showers and then headed out for a panaché on the Pont Vieux - we are now under the impression that every town has a Pont Vieux.  Everywhere we looked there were monks, nuns and lots of people dressed in white with lanyards / neckerchiefs etc etc.  And oh my word the shops were insane.  We are talking mass consumerism, in every shop you could buy 100 different models of Mary - plastic ones, wooden ones, glass ones, neon ones, large ones, small ones and so on.  Also you could buy water bottles in the shape of Mary, for filling with holy water, a 100 or so different medals of saints, fridge magnets galore, towels, tea towels, t-shirts, mugs, shot glasses, towels, sweets, chocolates etc etc all with Mary.  

So we had to look up the story of the place.  Back in 1858, a peasant girl, Bernadette, saw an apparition of Mary in a cave.  She told her parents, they beat her and told her not to go back.  She went back and saw another apparition of Mary, and again and again.  In one apparition, Mary told her to dig in the mud to find water, she did so, and that is the source of the holy water.  In the end her parents and priests believed her - she saw Mary 8 times.  An artist was asked to make an image according to the apparitions Bernadette saw, apparently Bernadette was unhappy with it as the Mary she saw was very young the and the artist made her much older.  However, that image has stuck and that is what the souvineer shops all sell now.   Bernadette was made a saint. 

Catholics from around the world make a pilgrimage to the cave and church which is on top of the cave and take part in a candlelight parade in the evening.  Lots of ill people come to be blessed and drink the holy water. 

We felt like were in Vegas for Catholics,  not being at all religious, it was hard to take it seriously, as it was so over the top, but we did our best to keep our faces straight at the right times.

We had a good look around some of the shops, Matt couldn't help himself and bought a Mary water bottle for holy water. He also found me a patch which I was very happy about as it seems Catholics like tat but don't like proper tourist souviners such as patches!  We found ourselves in the Basilica of Notre Dame and after observing others, figured it would be ok to fill some bottles up with the holy water.  We were really surprised that 1) you could just walk in without any security, 2) it was free, 3) you could wander freely anywhere.  It was a big place.

By now it was tea time, so we went looking for tea and found it just outside the Basilica, sausage and frites for Matt, steak and frites for Tom and pork chop and frites for me - very French, very busy and unfortunately a little average.  The mass tourism here, has brought the prices down, but not driven quality up it seems. 

We then headed back to the Basilica for the 9pm torchlight procession.  Once again, it was open to anyone, and no-one was checked, all were welcome and there was a lovely atmosphere of peace about the place.  There were chariots galore with ill and old people in them, and then literally 1000s of pilgrims, with their banners etc (saw one from Ampleforth) who walked around the huge square, whilst priest prayed in French, English, Spanish and Italian.  There were people singing Ava Maria etc etc.  As I said it was quite peaceful but after an hour we decided to call it a day and headed back to the hotel.  We were just about to go to sleep when we heard some big bangs, and again.  Looked out the window - fireworks.  It is the 14th of July - Bastille Day.  Carine had told me that fireworks weren't allowed this year - Lourdes hadn't got the memo and we were treated to 25 minutes of really good fireworks.  Luckily Tom's bedroom had a really good view of them.

Next day it was boiling - it got up to 38 degrees, however, we had discovered that there was a really good cave system nearby and decided it would be good to visit.  We had tickets booked for 1.30, so we decided to head to the castle in the middle of the town for the morning. We got there easily, but stupidly decided to walk up the stairs to the top rather than take the lift, big mistake, in 5 mins time we were all sweating profusely!  Oh hum, we had a good explore around the castle - all the usual things - kitchen, portcullis, oil holes, herb garden, taxidermy animals - all of which were looking very grumpy, a tower and great views of Lourdes and the mountains around (some of which still had snow on them).

We walked back to the hotel and got ready for the caves, first stop lunch, we decided on icecream - which was served to us in the formation of a rose - never had that before, nice little touch.  We then fired up Uber to get a taxi to the caves, booked it, then it was cancelled.  Tried again, no joy.  The caves were a good 10 miles from Lourdes, so no chance we could walk it, and it was boiling.  We decided to walk to the train station and see if we could get a taxi from there.  They quoted us €50 - ouch!  Tried again with Uber, no joy, so we had to go with the other taxi.  So, it was a lovely trip out of Lourdes, very picturesque and we got to the caves in air conditioned bliss.  

Not sure how to describe the caves, they were amazing, and I mean AMAZING.  They were massive, and just full of formations - stalactites, stalagmites and pillars everywhere, you looked: big ones, small ones, MASSIVE ones etc, and it went on and on.  They had only named a couple of the formations because there were so many of them.  It was so full on that it just became normal to walk into a cavern and find it full of amazing formations. It made Ingleborough and White Scarr Caves just look rubbish.  Not sure any of us could go to them again now and be impressed!  Also, our guide was amazing, we had an audio translator device so we could hear commentary in English, but he was also fluent in English and funny too.  Also he was dressed as a typical French as you could get - a white shirt, blue suit type thing and a black beret.

After walking for about an hour through the caves we came to a dragon boat. 'Welcome to the White Star Line' our guide said as we got on (best line of the tour).  We sailed across a couple of flooded caverns and then carried on our way through tunnels until we came across a little train.  We all got on and then we had a high energy, fast ride back to the surface, bells clanging, lights flashing etc, great fun.  We were a little bit sad it was over, the temperature inside the cave was 14 degrees, it was 38 outside, we very much enjoyed being cool for an hour and a half.

We had a lovely tart each and then luckily we managed to get an uber taxi back (think our problem was that we were trying to get an uber taxi during lunch time which on reflection, probably wasn't a great idea!)  Our driver was from Chechnya - and we spoke to him in a strange combination of French and English.

We got back to Lourdes, had a rest and than headed back out in the heat for tea, ended up in a pizza restaurant which was about 40+ degrees but the pizza was good.  We then headed back to the hotel to watch France bow out of the world cup.

Béziers

A nice relaxed morning, hotel breakfast: granola with fruit and yoghurt followed by dippy egg (you can take the English out of England, but...) and cheese on baguette. Then a stroll to Valence station, a quick hop to Valence TGV station and then a 2 hour journey to Béziers.

It went without a hitch, except the boys were enjoying the journey so much that they didn't pack up in the and had a little panic when they realised we were almost in the station - luckily the train waited there for 5 minutes anyway.

We had to get an uber to the hotel as it was uphill and a good way away and it was boiling hot again.  When we arrived at 1.30, there was a notice that reception didn't open again until 3pm - arghhh.  Luckily we found a cleaning lady and managed to charm her enough that she opened the reception door and put our suitcases in it. meaning we were free to go.  Phew.

We were quite a way out of the main area of the city, so we decided to find a local Brasserie for a long lunch and then head back to the hotel for check in.  I think we found the only restaurant open - it is a holiday in France at the moment - coming up to Bastille Day on Tuesday.  The boys had poulet roti and I had escalope Milanese, with frites and salad and then ice cream for me and Matt and creme brulee for Tom (becoming the norm now) all washed down with...panaché.

We found a local supermarket which was open for cold drinks and crisps and then headed to the hotel where there was quite a queue of people ready to check in.  We checked in, 2 rooms, one with air conditioning working, one with air conditioning not working, guess which one we were in - arghhhhh.  I went to reception, they came to the room and said we weren't operating the ac properly, we took on their advice, it still didn't work - just blowing hot air around the room - in fact it was cooler outside than inside.  I complained again, but to no avail - we had a big fan in our room, Tom didn't - I think they knew the ac didn't work, they weren't going to move us!

Oh hum, we had showers and headed into to Béziers to explore. We found some Roman ruins, and then a square with lots of models of European cities, including London.  Not sure why, but I guess why not.  We then headed into the old town in search of the cathedral and bridges.  Béziers is the oldest city in France and pretty, but we had trouble finding the old town, we walked through the old town to get to the cathedral, but it was scruffy and had interesting characters hanging around it - the guide book talked of shops and scenic streets - unfortunately we didn't find them.  We did find the cathedral and the pont vieux which was very scenic. We then walked along the Canal du Midi to the 9 locks which the town is famous for.  They were ok, there were fountains, horse sculptures etc which were ok, but it was hot and humid and when we got there, everything had just closed.  So, we walked back to the town and headed to the main boulevard and the square with the European cities.  We sat down and had tea - an ice cream for me and crepes for the boys.  We waited around for the models to light up, but we discovered they didn't until 10pm and we couldn't be bothered to wait that long.  We walked back to our hotel for a cidre (in the fridge) and bed.  

Can't say we slept well, we ended up opening the window as it was cooler outside than in our room!  We got some sleep but not a lot.  Luckily we were were only here for 1 night.  We had breakfast, packed up and walked down the hill to the train station. 

I don't think we got the best out of Béziers, not finding the main part of the town and the hot hot hotel room didn't really charm us.  We are off to Lourdes now, not sure what to expect, been told there are lots of trashy Catholic merchandise shops, should be fun.  We are staying at the Vatican hotel!

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.