All dressed up smartly for 2 hour long catholic service all in French🤗
Had a really lovely family time in Cognac for our granddaughter’s first communion. We also (amongst everything we did) visited and were shown round the Courvoisier Napoleon cognac at Jarnac.
Here are a few photos of the barrels and cognac tasting.
the church where Alice was celebrated with the other children The Eglise Sacré Coeur cognac
This is the other church in cognac too
Today was a five hour journey…. plus breaks to the coast near to Arles. We had a bit of traffic around Bordeaux but otherwise plain sailing
We are here for 5 days.
Our apartment is right on the sea shore! Very nice but in a tiny town by an industrial complex. …..
Up early and showered in soft soft water. Last night we walked around the village of Ducey. It is very historic and has a magnificent chateau build in stone and brick in 17century replacing an existing wooden structure
Our hotel bedroom is the centre one overlooking the river
We went to join the crowds of Asian Dutch German and loads of French school children queuing for the buses to take tourists along the causeway to Mont st michel. Can’t imagine what it is like in the height of summer! We got our photos and explored the outskirts of the mount. Too many people to venture up to the top and also last time we came we were in our thirties…. More stamina then. It is an amazing sight and a world unesco site.
Next stop st malo
We managed to park near to the old town walls on the docks. And wander through the town. It is so like Quebec.
The cafes, architecture and narrow streets very pretty.
The sun came out and it got much warmer. Winter into summer in just a few hours.
We sat bathing in the sunshine along the battlements I hope you like my photos from my mobile phone. My cannon camera photos are much better but take too long to process reduce and upload
We had an early start to Dover and made the earlier crossing with Irish ferries
The hotel inn at Calais was so good again and so near to the port in a small village with a windmill and free range cockerel and hens in their car park!
Day2
Left Calais and headed towards Le Havre and the landing day beaches in normandy.
On the motorway A28 we crossed over the 2 steep valleys on high viaduct bridges.
(Last time I did this on my own in a thunderstorm with lashing rain and lightning all around. I remember being terrorised and scared! That was in about 2001)
As we crossed the River Seine we stopped at the viewing point to see the beautiful bridge and see the wetlands nature reserve
We heard lots of birds in the reef beds and saw a huge egret fly over,
We headed for Arromanches,
At Juno beach we saw the Canadian museum and the beach and memorials. Reading the soldiers memories was so sad. I felt very emotional . It was so beautiful that stretch of dunes and turquoise sea, It was wild with strong waves but peaceful. Very hard to imagine the scene as thousands lost their lives…..
(Need to open this one to see fully)
We then headed via bayeux to pick up the motorway.
Ironically for us the Bayeux tapestry is packed away ready to be shown in London! (But we knew about this and plan to see it in Britain )
We arrived in Boston at about 11am. The traffic going into Boston was heavy. We parked the car underground and then when we came out of the lift (sorry elevator!)…. You find you are inside a marble floored conference centre.
But we were central Boston just where we needed to be.
I wanted to practice taking photos of buildings at odd angles and also to get a feel of what Boston is all about. I hope I succeeded….
We spent about 5 hours walking around looking at buildings and seeing the harbour etc. We walked through Quincy market. It was heaving with people buying street stall food. Plates of lobsters Asian food smoothies ice creams cookies seafoods and sticky chicken pieces everywhere
We had a little adventure when we were looking at the outside of the gold plated dome of Massachusetts State House.
We wandered into the open gate on the side to see the statue of a man on a horse Equestrian statue of General Joseph Hooker
We found a notice saying the public could look inside the building.
We went up the steps and opened the door. We found we had to go through security checks, posting our bags through the scanner like you do in the airport and being x -rayed.
We were told the next tour is about to start on the second floor! So although we really didn’t want a tour we obliged by getting up into the lift. The second floor was so beautiful. Paintings mosaic floors marble and sculptures and flags. We wandered through and no one stopped us so we explored it all ourselves! There was a grand staircase and also the podium where a speaker would address the audience
In one room a meeting was going on about South Africa we listened in for a little while and again no one stopped us . There was food on tables to help yourself to ….no we didn’t!
We walked down two flights of stairs on this grand staircase and tried to find our way out. We found different security guards and they were surprised to see us. “Are you going out? “They asked us.
“Yes and we’ve really enjoyed looking round! “ we said. When we got out we found we were at the back of the state house on a different street. No wonder they were puzzled ….they were guarding the back of the building!
On our return to the car park we had to pay $40 😩
We stopped at a crackle barrel for dinner on the way back. Not a good experience.
We have had lovely breakfasts there in the past but their dinner was poor.
So tomorrow we fly home leaving Boston at 7.40pm.
I will write one more page about tomorrow but then that’s it for now xxxx Here’s a few of my many pics I took today…
Manchester- by -the -sea and the scenic route along Cape Ann
Much better weather today
warm and much brighter.
We had tried to find a causeway we visited in 2018 but the one we found was not that one🤭never mind it was a lovely spot. Eastern point lighthouse and causeway.There were fishermen all along and a group scuba diving. I took a photo of the lighthouse but decided it needed a lot of sprucing up.
Today is Father’s Day in USA so we decided to keep away from the main tourist spots and follow the scenic coastal way.
We arrived at
Manchester -by -the -sea and sat by the harbour. A train passed by as we were there. It was the perfect temperature to while the afternoon away .
There were children on the corner selling their home made lemonade and across the road was an ice cream shop.
I had frozen low fat yoghurt ice cream it was supposed to be a small size but honestly it was big. We wondered what a large sized one would be!
The houses around the scenic byway were huge with lots of manicured land surrounding them. They looked very expensive in the areas overlooking the sea.
It was a case of how the other half live.
The weather has held out all day and hopefully tomorrow won’t be as wet as yesterday.
The forecast was for rain in the afternoon so we decided to travel to Rockport. We have been here twice before and it is a beautiful seaside village with a harbour and a jetty. We were planning to continue from here along the Essex coastal scenic byway. But that didn’t happen …..
We eventually found a free park and ride shuttle (as there was very little public parking and only for limited times)
We stopped for coffee alongside the harbour with views of boats and reflections. The little shops are very artistic and different. We walked right to the end of bearskin neck in a mist with poor visibility. It was warm and dry but by 12 .30 pm the rain started. We dived eventually into a restaurant overlooking the sea. We sat under an awning and had chowder soup and a sandwich with salad grandad had mussels in garlic cream with other veg . The rain became heavy and the temperature dropped , so we moved indoors to keep warmer. We were in light summer clothes no rain gear and only one umbrella ! We were quite a walk from the bus stop and by the time we got there we were drowned rats 🌧️🌧️☔️
We sheltered under a tree but it wasn’t much help
When we got off the bus the water was like a river flowing over the car park. So got soaking wet feet too!
The rain was monsoonal and the driving was slow. There were huge floods in areas along the highway and water even spraying from cars on the other side too. At one exit the firemen were pumping the water from the road and had closed the exit.
We came back to the hotel to dry out and did not venture out again. It was 4.30 pm so not too early.
My photos are from the morning before the rain started.
Travelled from Gorham in Appellations to Waltham near Boston ma
Our last travel day to our last destination close to Boston where we fly out on Tuesday evening
We planned our route with sat nav help and decided to break our journey at a lake destination at a loon sanctuary.
Loon Preservation Committee in Moultonborough, New Hampshire ‧
A loon is a duck like creature with distinctive red eyes and pretty plumage of black and white and a blue collar and greenish head.
We went into the centre first to get a map of the walk down to see the lake and the loons nesting. It seemed simple and we set off. It was a walk through the woods with board walks over boggy parts. It was a path over and between large stones and boulders and over tree roots.
It was a walk where you could hear the water and hear the birds but never quite managed to spot them! At the furthest part you had a view of a loon on a nest in the middle of the lake but far away. The draw back was the biting flies. I was eaten up all over my arms neck shoulders forehead and fingers and I had repellent on. Fortunately I had long trousers on. So as you can imagine tonight I’m in a bad way 😩. Vince who wore shorts had about 3 bites only…. Typical
The rest of the journey was good but we saw a horrific crash on the other side of the motorway and jams going on for miles as people were leaving Boston.
Tonight we treated ourselves to a steakhouse dinner and it was melt in the mouth good.
Only a few photos today as every time I stopped to take one I got bitten by the black flies ahhhhhh!
White mountain national forest New Hampshire Today is hot very hot
We knew it was forecast for a hot day but not prepared for the humidity. By midday it was in the 90s Fahrenheit.
We were curious to see what
Santas village was like as it was only about 15 miles away. It was a lovely place for children but not for us…
So we travelled Gorham Jefferson Whitefield Carroll Lincoln
At Lincoln we wanted to revisit the moon bakery but it is shut Thursdays and Fridays! Along from there we found the moose cafe and were able to pick up their WiFi.
We found poor Louis is in hospital in Freiburg Germany having appendicitis and about to have the operation to remove them. He is on school camp (from france)and his teachers are looking after him. Matthew is on his way to be with him. He has a long journey…..What a shock and a shame Louis is away from his family. Such a worry for them.
It is so hot and we stopped to photograph a train. The nasty black flies are out today and vince has been bitten on his legs as he had shorts on. I have nasty bites too.
We went to a pharmacy and were able to buy strong antihistamines and sting kill. So different from UK but expensive to buy!
Thunderstorms are forecast over the next 24 hours and cooler air but hot again by Sunday when we will be back to Boston ( and hopefully away from the nasty biting black flies)
We spent some time by lower falls. Again grandad took more photos with timed release so the water looks milky.
Hope I can upload the waterfall pics soon but its difficult atm tomorrow we will be in Boston area and should have good WiFi
Retirement Here I Come 