Sunday 23 May 2010

and a few more


New slackline getting a test in St Marc



The Gold Coast - not


Not my usual terrain


a few more


Michelin starred lunch by the sea

La Baule


Riding the Nantes - Brest Canal

Where Lisa ripped her pants and Lee his elbow!

Split Rock boulder. Bouldering in your own back yard.



The under 30's



Merci Alain, merci Olivier (Merci Gigi - photo to be added). More welcome

Wednesday 19 May 2010

La France

France – a week long relax
La France – Enfin les vacances


Feuille, plume, arbre, foret, roche, mouche, chien, fleur, chat
Leaf, Feather, Tree, Forrest, Rock, Fly, Dog, Flower, Cat……   These are some of the first French words I began reciting as we took walks through the forest with my new found friend, Noann. Lee’s 7 year old second cousin was more than happy to help me with my French in exchange for learning the equivalent in English, a perfect parrot and an enthusiastic teacher!

My speaking and understanding of French left me a little behind in conversation, but was made up quickly by the beautiful country side surroundings, the relaxed and welcoming nature of Lee’s French family and the time to finally just be…..

A house can be more than a home. Growing up in an environment where you are able to just sit and listen to the birds, look out to the lake for inspiration, run freely through the forest, climb on boulders unlike those in Fontainebleau in your own backyard and play outside happily for hours with the chickens, dogs, cats and horses could be taken for granted out here.

Time becomes irrelevant, yet a natural reminder is when the cock/rooster starts to crow at dawn, we sit down together for a breakfast, late lunch, 4pm tea, aperitif, dinner, followed by dessert/cheese. Enough to keep anyone happy and full!

Amongst this seemingly blissful and peaceful way of life we managed to sneak in a few hikes and couple rides through the countryside and the ancient Nantes to Brest canal-path.

Tomorrow we head south and gear up for a few days of beach bum antics with more family before a few final days in France through Paris, hoping to see Fiona in her show Lido.

We have been in about the most civilized and technologically advanced surroundings that we will be in for the next 13 weeks and yet it has taken 6 days to upload the first foreign post. Oh well. Hopefully more soon…

Merci a tous et a bientot.

Thursday 13 May 2010

From a shell to a home....... VW T4 1999 SWB

and so it begins...

Today marks the begining and the end of so many things for us. The begining of a huge adventure, the end of time spent living here in the UK. The begining of new friendships, the end of paying taxes. The begining of our 10,000 mile euro journey, the end of the planning, building, cutting and shaping of the van which will be our mobile base for next 14 weeks.
The bikes are loaded, the tanks are full, the boots are polished and the ropes are flaked.
There will be highs and lows, lefts and rights, U-turns and reversing but all in the spirit of having fun and exploring.
We will be keeping this blog as up to date as we can for all those who cannot join us on this trip but if you do not hear from us for a while, don't worry and don't come looking. We'll just be out enjoying ourselves.
First stop is the ferry from Plymouth to Roscoff in NW France.
Snack box full? Check. Off we go