I thought I'd change tact a little with this blog and rather than a chronology, tackle it in 3 unique parts.As you know we are making this trip up as we go and so we book accommodation on the fly, mostly using AirBnb, which has been good. So in Bordeaux, we requested a booking in Barcelona but hadn't heard anything before we had to jump on the train to head there. No big deal, plenty of time, after all its a 7hr journey.  You already know what's com...

After a relaxing late breakfast (including a bowl of tea ) followed by a nice home cooked lunch with Matt and Estelle, we set off from La Rochelle to Bordeaux, a lazy 2.5hr train ride south. We thoroughly enjoyed Ile de Re and wanted to say a special thanks to Matt and Estelle for making us so welcome and sharing a little piece of their world with us :) We booked a little apartment in Bordeaux on AirBnB which looked good. We arrived to discover that although it w...

Had an easy day on the 7th, rested in morning then travelled to La Rochelle by TGV train (top speed about 300km/hr), then bus over the 3km bridge to Ile de Re where we are staying with Matt and Estelle and little Artur at Matt's mums place in La Couarde, a small village on the southern side of the island right on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean.The island is a very popular summer retreat for the French, but isn't overly commercial which was perfect. Now,...

Another beautiful day in Paris, blue skies and 30 degrees C - loving this weather:)Shirley and I headed of to book our tickets on the TGV to La Rochelle at Gare Montparnasse then have breakfast in St Germaine - quite a pretty and posh part of town.We chose a quaint little cafe in amongst it all and took a seat. Breakfast was nice and the coffee was good. But all was not good, we realised we were in for some special treatment - spotting the differences between us ...

Had a leisurely morning, left the kids to sleep in while Shirley and I had some breakfast in a sidewalk cafe soaking up Paris. Today was Lourve day, which having done it is more akin to a day in Ikea as far as your legs and feet are concerned. Shirley made it all the way in through the queues only to bail, opting to stroll the streets of Paris and as I found out later, slipped in a little shopping along the way :/Regardless, the kids and I were determined to see ...