Ah, home.
Home is where the yarn is. Also, the third set of 4mm circular knitting needles, just in case a freak tidal wave washes away the other two sets. (We’re 50 miles from the sea, but it’s not a risk that I’m willing to take.) Home is also the last known location of the Stoic Spouse’s secret chocolate stash, but he keeps moving it and I’m struggling to figure out its latest hiding place.
I mention home because we’ve just returned there after a week’s holiday in the champagne region of France.
It was the twinnage’s first trip abroad. You could tell they were wary, until they realized that abroad is somewhat like home, but with better food and a temporary relaxation of the bedtime regulations that the Stoic Spouse and I normally attempt to impose. What’s not to like?
We took the ferry over to France, or at least we tried to, but crazy-force gales meant that ferry captains were sensibly noping-out at the prospect of navigating 40 000 tons of wind-tossed steel in or out of the entrance to Dover harbour.
So it was six hours later than scheduled before things calmed down to the extent that we could leave. This photo does not do justice to the degree of choppiness:-
It was late when we reached the coast of France, and there was still a long drive ahead. The owners of the old cottage we’d rented said it would be too late to disturb them by the time we got there, so whilst I drove south (muttering REMEMBER TO DRIVE ON THE RIGHT to myself all the way), the Stoic Spouse hit the internet hard, in search of a hotel that wouldn’t mind a bunch of scruffy Anglais pitching up way after midnight.
Say what you will about the general peskiness of my children (it’s nothing I haven’t said myself), but they took the sixteen-hour journey in their stride. That said, I never, ever, ever, want to play another game of I-Spy. Ever. At one point, they resorted to playing hide-and-seek with each other, which was a curious choice for people firmly strapped into car seats beside each other. One sensed that they were running dangerously close to the end of their list of Stuff To Do In The Car.
The Stoic Spouse came up trumps with a hotel room, I parked the car, and feet were at last properly placed on French tarmac. The twinnage expressed surprise at such culture-shocks as the fact that French light switches are larger than ours. Quelle horreur! No wonder our two nations once fought the notorious hundred-years war.*
But lets skip ahead to the pretty/fun/cool stuff. The old stone-built gîte that we’d rented turned out to be picturesque, and filled with beautiful antiques (which I inexplicably didn’t photograph). It was also obvious that somebody had been busy with a crochet hook:-
The owners lived next door and despite their first-night curfew, they turned out to be the most lovely and warm-hearted people you could imagine. They didn’t speak English, so our rusty French got a brutally thorough workout.
But the biggest love-affair of the week was between the twinnage and the owners’ dog, a border collie named Willow. (No, I don’t know why a French dog had an English name.)
The mutual delight, and the hours of throwing sticks for the eager dog, melted even my cold old heart. (When we left, one of my sons wept at being parted from Willow.)
I found a bench on which to sit and knit, from which to watch the goings-on. I could have sat there all week.
But the Stoic Spouse is definitely a go-out-and-see-stuff-all-day-every-day person and to be fair, this bit of eastern France is rather beautiful. We hiked through forests, we watched a falconry display in a chateau, and since we were in champagne country, we of course visited a champagne house (Mercier). This barrel? It holds 200 000 bottles-worth of the stuff.
Want to see the cellars? (Click on each of the images below to see them in full.)
I’ll spare you the lengthy slide-show of all the other places we visited because I know you’re far too polite to openly nod off half way through. That said, will you look at Reims Cathedral?!
It’s home to a stained-glass window designed by Chagall:-
But for a wildlife-lover, some of the best treats were to be found back at the gîte. The twinnage loved the lizards, woodpeckers, as well the tiny smooth-snake that paid the briefest of visits.
And if you follow my Instagram, you’ll have seen the hummingbird hawkmoth that spent its days making circuits of the garden.
Just look at this beauty!
Truth be told, I didn’t get much knitting or crochet done whilst we were away. But I did spend time noticing colours and textures and patterns, using the week as thinking-time for planning future designs. So it was sort-of productive, right?
But now we’re home, and I am still having zero success in finding the Stoic Spouse’s chocolate stash. Any ideas?
* Albeit rather a long time before light switches were invented.
Re: Secret chocolate stash…I’d suggest looking inside boxes which previously contained stuff you hate (or are completely uninterested) in for example, a mysteriously never ending box of Shredded Wheat, a container of bicycle inner tubes or anything to do with home brew….
Failing that, arrange a rota with the twinage to tail him relentlessly around the house – the chocolate cant hide forever!!
Hmmm, you might be on to something with both of these ideas. Thank you…
Perhaps the stash is under the bed, or in a desk drawer under old papers. It has to be somewhere where it won’t be crushed, melted, and will be somewhere in plain sight.
Good points…
You know, we’re worried about the chocolate stash but forgot to mention those windows of Chagall, so breathtaking beautiful. Chocolate wins all the time eh. Looks like the captain did you a favor. We’ve been to the UK multiple times but two times in a storm, caravan hooked behind my car. The boys slept through it, unbelievable, but I found my caravan rather messed up when we arrived at our destination making me happy we had a deck cabin and not inside that boat. Your gite looks lovely. And that dog. Mutual love there. Hawk moths are so special. We don’t have hummingbirds in Europe but they look so much alike. My friend used to put her chocolate stack in the laundry, machine or spinning thing. As your stoic spouse probably isn’t interested in laundry I think he hides it in a place he loves to roam and your not interested in like a shed. Good luck with the search.
Eek, I hadn’t thought of the potential horror of a caravan being bounced around on a wave-tossed ferry. I hope nothing important was broken. The Chagall window was magical – I stood and stared for a long time.
As I am the chocolate-stash-hider in the family, I hide it amongst my yarn, or, if it’s summer, I place it behind the Branston Pickle jar that languishes in a forgotten corner of the fridge (see Allison’s comments). That works until my daughter gets a wild hair and decides to have some pickle with her mimolette or chocolate stout cheddar. What is your husband’s yarn stash or pickle equivalent? ;-D
BTW, when I was in Hawaii, the house we rented was set in a tropical rainforest. I could have lazed around there the whole time and worked on my Zwieg sweater (which I did in the evenings and have since completed!), but the hubby had us driving all over the place. It was, after all, the Big Island.
Oh, and this should not be an aside, but here we are. The cathedral pics are fab! Do you have anymore?
A house in a rainforest must have been absolute wildlife heaven!
As for the chocolate stash, I’m beginning to suspect that it may be hidden behind the tools in his garage…
(I do have a few more pics of the cathedral. Don’t want to spam you and everyone else too much, though!)
I remember sobbing my heart out as a child the first night we were home from holiday after having to leave behind a pony by the name of Murphy who lived at the campsite we’d been staying at.
France looks lovely.
Try the under stairs cupboard for the chocolate.
Ouch, that must have seriously hurt at the time. I bet you were one of many children who fell in love with Murphy for a week and then had to leave.
It really did. I was horse-mad at that age, and it was the closest I’d got to a pony for any prolonged period of time. I’m sure I bounced back quickly though.
My granddaughter invented a game called I spy at the picnic. You don’t have to actually be able to see the thing ( it is usually an animal, often an elephant, wearing pink high heels. ) you can ask and give clues. Is it an animal? Is it large or small? Etc. It can be hugely entertaining even for adults.
That’s very cool! Is there a limit to the number of questions you can ask?
Any number you like
Three weeks ago, I was stood in the same cathedral, taking a quick snap of the same windows. They are amazing. Hope you find the chocolate – do you have some old videos lying around? I would check those boxes.
Gosh, that’s a coincidence! It’s an incredible building, isn’t it?
It is indeed.
We’r a retired couple, we both love chocolate, but no hiding, I don’t like his, he doesn’t like mine 🙂 His is in the freezer, mine in the refrigerator… we live in Charleston SC so chocolate wouldn’t last long in the heat here.
That sounds like the perfect arrangement.
Delightful post!!
Thanks!
I hide the chocolate in our house. Have you looked behind the books on the bookshelf? Behind things in cupboards (eg behind unused tins, Tupperware)? Inside a rarely used cake tin on a top shelf? In a carrier bag hanging in the closet on a coat hanger among the clothes? The drawer you keep kitchen linen in?
I wish you luck
I’m still looking. It’s probably hidden somewhere very obvious and clever in plain sight, knowing the SS.
Try the man shed, where the spiders lurk. Or in his car, no that would have melted. Defo the creepy crawlers favourite lurking space.
What a super holiday you had. We had a great one in a French gite one year with our boys, Biggest hit for them was the river where they could swim.
I have devised a new car game. Starting with A and keeping in strict alphabetical order find lorries with company names. So maybe Asda lorry first , then one with B and then C and so on. X is interesting but there are a few firms that call themselves Xpress or Xtra. Q is fun but there is a company called Quayside, they usually hunt in packs of three.
My boys would LOVE that lorry game – thank you!
You may well be right about the stash – I suspect it’s amongst the tools in his garage.
I expect the stash is not hidden but eaten. Glad you all had a wonderful holiday. No one was seasick enroute?
Nope, by some miracle we escaped seasickness. Phew!
Delightful post, Phil and I am so glad you all a lovely holiday. What a beautiful place.
Stash wise…..mmmm, does your bath have removable panels?
x
It does, now you mention it……….
What a beautiful place for a holiday. I get terrible motion sickness, so I can well imagine that chopping crossing. I’m glad you made it and that you found so much to wonder at once there.
Thank you. But yes, I really felt for anyone prone to motion sickness.
Wonderful post! I always love seeing and hearing about foreign places. I like to see them first hand, but know I will never see it all and it is exciting to see others adventures. About the chocolate hiding, I’m with Gallivanta, I would assume it was eaten. Time to restock, for him and you.
Thank you. And none of us will ever get to see it all, so it’s always interesting to read about other people’s travels.
We used to play imaginary hide and seek. Set the boundaries (eg real place or anywhere your imagination can take you). Take it in turns to hide and you can only answer yes or no. One of my twins was often found on a spaceship halfway to mars.
That is such a cool idea! *shamelessly steals*
We once spotted a humming bird hawk moth on the Isle of White, probably on a buddliea bush. Not knowing what it was we had a thorough look, so that we would recognise it again, then went and looked it up in Newport library when we were in Newport.
As we travel the Island by bus we were in Newport quite a bit and the library is handy for Newport Bus Station (apparent centre of the Island universe!)
A week later I noticed another humming bird hawk moth visiting flowers in our city-centre back yard, not on the Island. We needn’t have gone away to see one, but at least I knew what it was by then.
BTW – Reims is lovely. Look forward to seeing what you knit as a result of the holiday!
Oh wow, you’re very fortunate having them at home! Hope they become regular visitors to your garden.
Loved this post, the fun the twins had with the dog, the colour inspirations for you the chance to sit and knit outdoors in the peace and quiet. Sounds wonderful. It brought back happy memories of trips to France years ago. Would love to go again but even motorway driving at home is a nightmare.
Motorway driving in France is probably easier than motorway driving here, though. Our roads are so choked up.
Hello, Are you from France ?
Nope! UK.
oh.. its ok
May i know your name please.
Super photos as usual, your hawkmoth ones are impressive, and I think I mentioned on IG that I was amazed by the intrepid and brave nature of knitting on a ferry OUTDOORS! Very nonchalantly done too. France was our destination of choice for many years when holidaying with children as a mere hop across the Channel made it easily accessible by car – and we’ve many happy memories of those years, especially one farm-based holiday where puppies were in evidence, and of course the children wept as we left them heartlessly behind on our leave. (the puppies, not the children….)
Now we are packing for our second holiday without the kids…a week in Norfolk beckons with the promise of quiet marshy walks, seal viewings and plenty of peaceful knitting (me)/reading (Himself) time.
Enjoy the rest of the school holidays!
I confess that not very much knitting was completed on the deck of the ferry – and what I did manage won’t be winning any awards for evenness of gauge!
Yup, the accessibility of France makes it an ideal hop whilst the children are young. Hope your children eventually forgave you for dragging them away from the puppies!