Italy

We have had fabulous time with Jacks' nan Carole in Italy. It's been hot and sunny. We feel like we are in a sanctuary here living in her second house on top of a mountain with stunning views. Her dogs and cats and herself are good company in this beautiful place. Almost every morning we have had breakfast and coffee at our favorite cafe in town. 

We have done a few walks around the area although walking up and down the mountains in this heat is not easy. We have spent most of our days chilling in and around the house, playing with the animals, sunbathing and helping Carole around the house. 

The team

The first full day in Italy, was market day and Jack had been waiting to get his hands on the local specialty Porchetta, a pork filled roll. We brought one each and they were so good we decided to buy them in bulk, breakfast sorted for the next few days. Our main day out was getting the train up through the mountains to Perugia. To get to the city itself you take a series of escalators up through an old village built into the hillside. Once you get to the top there are lots of beautiful buildings, squares and restaurants to see and enjoy. One of our favourite parts of Perugia was the incredible views you get from the top. 

In the queue for Porchetta

Perugia

Little local trains 

France III

The parents and more importantly puppies, have arrived! We have had a lovely week although the dogs have probably enjoyed it more as we spent most of our time walking them. The weather has been lovely and we have been topping up our tans whilst drinking french beer.

Choosing our cheese course

It was great to see Jacks' parents again and the highlight of the trip was having a 5 course meal at the nicest restaurant in the area the 'Cheval Blanc'. I don't think I have ever had so much food and wine at lunch time and the rest of the day we spent sleeping off the food, dinner was not needed. We have had lots of BBQ's and other lovely home cooked meals. We also had a wine tasting at a local vineyard where we got to try the local specialty 'Pineau' although neither of us particularly enjoyed it, the wine was great though.

France II

The house is lovely and warm, which took a while and a lot of logs on the fire. The weather has been typically English and we have rarely seen the sun, just clouds and rain. We have actually been having a great time, chilling by the fire and generally playing home. We have well and truly exhausted Nan and Grandad's DVD collection as well as their firelighters (we won't mention the logs, sorry nan and grandad).

We have still been getting around and seeing as much of the local area as possible. Our neighbours Kirsten and Dave and their twin children Dillon and Ella very kindly took us to the big supermarket nearby. We went with Dave in the morning after he had written his shopping list in the order he walks (or in daves case, sprints) around the supermarket. Once we were in the supermarket we turned around and dave had disappeared into the distance and his shopping trolley was already half full. We shopped as quickly as possible and managed to get everything we needed as well as learning the art of man shopping. 

Apart from the shopping trip we stuck to old fashioned transportation and cycled a lot. The nearest shop apart from the local Boulangerie (bad spelling) selling croissants is in Aigre, 5km away. The first time Jack cycled there alone in desperate need of biscuits, not realising it was a Sunday and the town was shut. The next few trips were much more successful and many biscuits were bought as well as the ingredients for a pancake cake. We also cycled through Luxe towards Mansle, stopping of at a pizza restaurant that Jack remembered on a lake in Eschoisy, which looked like it had been shut down for the best part of a century. We got to Mansle which is actually pronounced 'mal', the french seem to have a lot of useless letters in their words. It was still a fairly small town but we cycled through the town, down to the river and very much enjoyed the cakes at the local bakery. Jack brought a cake shaped like a penis whilst giggling like a child, although the rather miserable looking baker obviously didn't see the resemblance or get the joke.

It has been a quiet but very enjoyable and relaxing week, tomorrow Jacks' lovely parents and the dogs arrive. Marianne has been talking constantly about how much she misses the dogs. They arrive at 6am, I will be suprised if Marianne gets any sleep.