9th June 2011
Travelled from Dumbarton to Weston Super Mud. Dads house. House of bacon butties, nom nom nom.10th June 2011
Left Dads and travelled to the channel tunnel. It rained. While we were in the tunnel the rain had gathered together from all over the world and decided to deposit itself on David and I until we could take no more. Not an ideal start to a 2 week holiday! Luckily Rose and Harry, Davids mum and dad, were also in France and rescued us.
St Quentin, apart from being very wet, was also my first experience of 'Flunch'. A french supermarket chain that will live long in the memory. Flunch is a really funny word! Along with tales of eyebrow shaving from Harry and how sat navs are a curse from Rose, we survived day 1, just.
11th June 2011
With a lot less rain clouds and even the odd patch of blue we set sail (still some puddles about) for Lake Annecy. With our very own sat nav of doom we munched the miles and made it to Annecy around 7.30pm, not without a wee trip round Lake Geneva for good measure. Technically no, we should not have gone via Geneva, but what the hell, another city ticked off the list!
12th June 2011
Due to extreme fatigue we took it easy and had a wander around Annecy. Followed by dinner and a few drinks in a Jazz Bar in an old prison! We also discovered a milk vending machine, for those late night emergency cups of tea!
13th June 2011
Typical french, Monday had to be a saints day so all the shops shut! How a girl is supposed to use up her euros is anyones guess! Lemon sorbet a go go along with a search for an adult sized coffee mug for David. Making 5 teeny cups of coffee in the morning to get your caffeine is simply not acceptable!
14th June 2011
To Chambery. I recognised the name and assumed it was worth a visit. Mmmm not so much. If you find yourself in the area with nothing else to do then go for it, otherwise I recommend finding somewhere to paraglide! There was an elephant fountain, so all was not lost.
15th June 2011
To the ski slopes. Chamonix was a really beautiful town along with some of the most stunning scenery in the whole wide world. We took the cable car up into the mountains and got an wonderful view of Mont Blanc, still snow covered in summer.
16th June 2011
As a part of David's birthday present he got a paragliding tandem. Unfortunately our first attempt was aborted due to bad weather. It did not feel like a great omen seeing someone being taken away by helicopter while we watched the clouds and rain appear. But not to be put off, we booked in for the next day
17th June 2011
It was worth the wait!
Pierre, David's instructor, kindly let me go to the launch site with David to see him fly off over the lake. I managed to get a very short video of him disappearing! We headed back to the pick up site. I was very anxious to see that David had landed in one piece, but more importantly, whether he was smiling. Cheshire cat was an understatement! So much so David promptly booked me to go up a couple of days later.
18th June 2011
As the weather was due to be rainy in Annecy, we decided to take the train to Lyon for the day where the weather was distinctly better. We got a hint of Paris Foot that day but really enjoyed the city, it is massive and we had to resort to using the underground on the way back.
19th June 2011
My turn! My first paragliding experience.
21st June 2011
Our time in Annecy was over, the long journey home commenced. Stop 1 was Troyes. Unfortunately on the way to Troyes David's bike decided it had had enough! 3 push starts, a trip to the Suzuki garage and a very helpful Green-flag service saw us on our way. Troyes was great, fantastic architecture and a well timed music festival. Sadly, due to the broken bike we had to carry on and couldn't fully appreciate the town.
22nd June 2011
To Lille or not to Lille. Turned out the whole city was booked up for a conference which meant we had to stay in a town outside of Lille. Not the most salubrious accommodation! Sticky floors is all I will say!
23rd June 2011
Due to our inability to get accommodation and the weather not being ideal, we decided to scoot off back to the bacon buttie house to spend and extra day with dad. Conveniently his birthday weekend.
Despite 1 broken bike, some showery days and numb bums, we had a wonderful time in Annecy/France. Paragliding over the beautiful lake, seeing David's massive smile after his first flight and seeing the mont blanc range will live forever in the memory banks.
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