Katrina Gwynne-Jones

As promised, here is our journey around Europe (all in all, we have drove 2,980 miles in Europe but if I were to include UK then we have done 3,500-ish!). I didn’t know how I want to present this blog, at first I was going to do day-to-day diary-blog (but soon realised that my days were quickly fulfilled with family activities, if not driving. Hence, I have only managed to do day one as shown below:

Day One: Drove straight down to London to meet an Australian man who introduced us to our spaceship campervan, named R2D2! It’s well designed, yet compact; but my other half was disappointed to discover it runs on petrol & not diesel. I have later learned (over the next following days), how thirsty our R2D2 is!! The longer we want to take our journey, the thirst is huge and therefore, it used up most of our budget! 😦

Anyway, we made a quick visit to Brighton as it have been on my list of must see places in UK. Even though, we arrived around dusk, we all have fell in love with it; even if it’s only for a couple of hours. We all sat on the beach with our take-away in the warm night air, the kids got their fish/chicken & chips and us (parents) got Vietnamese food and boy, it was delicious!! Kids and Joe went to visit the pier whilst I stayed with Frodo (as they don’t allow dogs on the pier!). Soon after, decided to sleep in the Spaceship campervan near Folkestone, for our trip via eurotunnel the following noon.

Instead, here are my flash feeds:

There have been a lot of firsts on our trip:

* Went to Brighton, UK (finally – been on  my list of must visit places in UK)

* Ate the most delicious Vietnamese take-away for the first time (on a beach in the warm night air)

* Drove an automatic vehicle (properly) for the first time

* Went on Eurotunnel (Took all of us, only just 30 minutes & ate our BYO breakfast!)

* First thing, we did when on French soil was to buy and eat Nutella with breadsticks! (Nom!)

* Drove and visited Switzerland and North West Italy.

The pictures below are all listed chronically by date. (Note: Not all these pictures below are taken by me.)

Stumbled across this huge bike (in France) on our way to Geneva (Switzerland).

Frodo first proper walk without lead (day 3) – Joe!

Just across the border into Switzerland, found my first vineyard since arriving, along with this sign too! 🙂 – Joe

Drove through Mount Blanc via a very long tunnel (before Italy) – Joe

[Removed pictured for a good valid reason]

First night/morning in Italy, searching for a campsite. (Simply far too hot to sleep in the campervan, Frodo and I stayed outside instead. Too excited to sleep anyway.) – Me

Here’s our R2D2 campervan – Me

Portofino, Italy (Stunning, yet crazy!) – Joe

Miss C took some pictures of her own (just after our trip to Castlellane, France) – Me

My two gorgeous kids (exceptionally well behaved on a very long journey!) – Me

It was far too hot for Frodo in the car, a much-needed swim (& take ages to come out of the river!) – Joe

Our first night at La Fruitere home, learning a variety of new card games! – Me

Cows literally in our back garden! – Me

P on a hammock in the front garden! – Me

Kids playing badminton in the front garden – Me

Chilling out before the sun set! – Me

Our (borrowed) La Fruitere home, in France! – Me

Joe dived in the freezing wild pool (Gouffre de St-Sauveur, France)! – Me

And here P, too (Gouffre de St-Sauveur, France)! – Me

Drove by and can’t help but laugh, noticing the house is for sale but look what is parked outside the garage….. a horse! – Me

Look who is pleased to see us! – Joe

A little house cocoon in the rock, somewhere in France! – Joe

Miss C – Joe

Mr P – Joe

Frodo – Joe

Playing a card game of “Shithead” at one of the campsites – Me

Been at this pool from 11 till 5pm that day – just swimming! – Me

Kids having fun with their ringos down the water slides – Me

Seeing sunset at a campsite near Bordeaux – Joe

Gorgeous sunset at a campsite near Bordeaux – Joe

Never did self-portraiture with my hubby before (nor did we sat together on a single hammock until now) – Me

* I personally love Geneva (Switzerland), it’s like a scene out of “Sound of Music” (one of my childhood movie) for me. I also love where the young (from teenagers to young adults) people come out at night with their friends and not for a boozy night out but just to meet up in the square with coffee and conversations or when families and friends meet up on a weekly food festival in various local villages with their finest knives and forks and crystal wine glasses out of their picnic baskets! It was amazing!

** Extremely proud when French staffs at various places have complimented my kids’ etiquettes & manners, especially for them trying to speak to them in French (& not in English). They even did the same in Italian when in Italy. **

*** And another thing, when driving in centre Paris especially on a Friday night, be prepared! I applauded Joe (my other half) for his confidence and quick thinking with the amount of scooters and daring bikers, keep riding in front of many drivers. He was amazing that night and funny to watch the whole scenario, like I am watching from the outside!***

**** At one of the campsite, I was (and still is) perplexed at seeing some of the stuffs people (especially European) bring with them to camping! Ie. washing machine (Why? When you got a perfectly good one at every campsite!), DIY gypsy caravan (- now that was fun to watch!), oh there are so many to even be mentioned.****

Dissappointment:

* Most beaches in Europe don’t allow dog, hence we didn’t swim much in the sea! (Perfect, as it’s help us to steer away from the touristy areas and headed into the wild swimmings more!

* Was absolutely gutted to find that I have just missed the season of lavender-filled fields – they were all harvested before we came into the area

Our family recommendations

Campites:

* Camping de Martinet, St.Claude (France)

* Domaine du Verdon, near Castlellane (France)

Activities:

* Le Point Sublime (video not taken by us) – Walk via the miner’s cave to one of the pool by the gorge

* Swim in the Gouffre de St-Sauveur pool in a remote woodland, near Cales. (Have discovered that its a flooded sinkhole.)