Autumn Holiday

Back again!  How did the months/weeks between blogs go so fast???

We just got back from a 2 week holiday.  The kids had a 1 week school holiday (autumn break) and we took off a week earlier.  In the Netherlands you need to ask permission from the school if you want to take any time off outside of the official school holidays...........so the day before we left we filled in the form........oops a bit late!

Where did we go?  Distance wise it was sort of like driving to Rockhampton, Mt Isa and back to Townsville.........scenery wise you can imagine a little different :-)

Our first stop was Just's Aunty Margreet's place.  She lives with her German partner, Gunter, in a gorgeous little village in the Black Forest.  About 6 hours drive away.  We were only there 2 nights, as they both have to work during the week.  The village is called Kappelrodeck and is in a wine region.  This link shows a great picture of the village. http://kappelrodeck.de/

On the Sunday we headed into the mountains, and were lucky enough to be there for an annual market.  Where they sold lots of yummy german food and lots of craft things.  They were selling gorgeous woollen and felt slippers/shoes etc, but knowing what happens to wool in the tropics I used my willpower and kept my money in my purse. The pony ride was the big hit for the kids at the market.  The drive through the area was very picturesque, lots of autumn leaves, typical german houses, vineyards and stunning views.  And loads and loads of houses with solar power systems.

Gunter and Margreet took us to a secret little restaurant in the hills, we would never have found it on our own.  They made traditional german food and sold the new wine for the season (very sweet, cloudy and yummy!).

We had such a great time with Gunter and Margreet, and Finn didn't want to leave.  Unfortunately though we had to get to our next stop..........6 hours drive further at Just's cousins place, Herisson,  in the Auvergne in the middle of France.

Just's cousin, Ruud, and his wife Pierette, have a holiday house (gite) on their property.  They converted the old barn into their own home for themselves and their two daughters, Hannah (10) and Amy (8), and now rent out their old house to holidaymakers.  The pictures don't do justice as to how beautiful it is there, especially with the river running along the back, the fruit orchard and the typical French buildings.  We were lucky enough to have really nice sunny (but cold) autumn weather, so we even ventured out in Ruud's canoe.

Again the kids thought it was great.  They had 2 new playmates and at every opportunity the four of them played together, despite not speaking each others languages. Amazing really, how kids overcome the language barrier.  Finn played frisbee with a little friend of theirs, Finn spoke dutch and Jaimee spoke french, but they seemed to work it out and have a ball!!!

We caught up with Just's uncle and aunt, Jan and Thea (Ruud's parents), when the usual Monday pizza wagon   visited the village and were treated to some delicious french food from Pierette during our stay.  Which ended up being a day longer..................

After the first day in Herisson, I woke the next day with serious sinusitis......off to the doctor.......it seemed to be that the sinusitis was followed by a mild flu, which of course, Just came down with 2 days later and still after nearly 2 weeks can't shake off.  Needless to say this is when our trip took a turn!

We had booked an apartment in a villa 2 hours south of Herisson in a place called St Nectaire.  The region is an old volcanic area, which after our visit, I imagine is flooded with tourists in the summer.  It was quite a spectacular drive through the valley to our stop.  The villa looks like something out of Wuthering Heights.  With me not quite 100% and Just barely able to move we spent most of the 4 days in our tiny appartment, with my morning ritual being the trip to the bakers on the corner to get our croissants and french stick.  The kids were fabulous considering, and when they worked up the courage they put on all their clothes and ventured out to the garden in the freezing cold to shake some more chestnuts out of the chestnut tree.

We did manage to leave the apartment twice and took the scenic routes through the farms, along the gorges and even to the ski area!  Which to my delight on my birthday it snowed!  The kids thought it was great of course.

Who knows maybe one day we will get back to St Nectaire and experience all the region has to offer, skiing, hiking and cuisine. St Nectaire cheese is, apparently, world famous.

Our last stop half way between home and St Nectaire was a surprise for the kids, until they saw the direction signs with Mickey Mouse pointing to Paris Disney.  Now that we are back all you hear about from the holiday was Disneyland!  In the short time we were there they had a ball.  And Mara thought it was great too!  "More more" she said on the Cars spinning ride.  She was lucky enough to go on more rides than I think otherwise, as the full day we had there Just was bedridden (couldn't walk), so it was me and the kids and I couldn't leave Mara on the side to watch! That night Kirsten took sick too, but fortunately within 48 hours recovered, phew.  I was really dreading how we would get back from Paris with Just and Kirsten sick and a 6 hour drive ahead of us.

The drive home went really well, considering, and thank god there weren't any major traffic jams and that we found petrol (Petrol stations in France were running out of fuel due to a workers dispute), no fuel was the last thing we needed!

We have heaps of photos from our trip and despite being sick got to spend time with family and see some new parts of Europe where we'd not spent much time previously.