A little trip to France

We haven't been to France since Our Month in France in 2024 and I have certainly missed going. As part of my birthday week we stayed in Kent (I'll write about that soon) and took an overnight trip to Calais with our son and his girlfriend joining us for the trip.

It's a while since we used Le Shuttle, it was son's girlfriend's first time, and as she said it is a strange concept driving a car onto a train. The cost of the journey even with a short stay offer, petrol, overnight hotel and eating out does not actually make any purchases cheaper especially now there are limits on what you can bring back to the UK .... for me it was all about being in France.

We shopped at Auchan and Citè de Europe buying a few bits for home, most importantly my vanilla sucre for my baking. We also popped to Lidl and Aldi as some of our UK purchaseable wines are much cheaper. Our dining experience was Flunch, it's such a great concept and brings back many memories of Flunch meals with my dad when our kids were young.

All in all it was a good trip, Calais is not as it was and I think our next trip to France will be a long travelling holiday but it was nice to be back. The car did chink home with some of our favourites and a few new finds, our son commented that that was the sound of a holiday in France!

Sparkling wine is one of my favourite French buys, there is sn abundance of choice from low priced easy drinking bubbles to high end champagne. Pol Remy and Paul Henri are good basic priced bubbles which we often enjoy as a Kir cocktail using Chambord. We found a couple of demi-sec mid priced wines along with a Blanc de Blanc on offer, it's always fun to try new wines.

I didn't pick up many whites as our cellar at home is white heavy, I must drink more! However I did include a couple of my cheap go to, I'm not sure if I bought them for taste or memory but we always bought Muscadet with the blue boat label and Pierre Chanau (Auchan's wine label) White Bordeau.

Two bottles of Sauvignon, one of which was from Touraine, a bottle of Chardonnay were easy drinkers for our cellar. Aldi's Cotes de Gascogne is one of my favourite wines, it was less than half the UK price so a good find. We have holidayed many times in the South of France near the Etang de Thau, Picpoul is grown there, and this quirky labelled bottle caught my eye. 

A lovely selection of white wine safely home and ready to be enjoyed. I was a little disappointed to not find Cellier des Dauphins white in full size bottles or a wine box, there was red or rose but no white. I did find small bottles which will be perfect for just me to enjoy.

Our red wine choices were a mix of favourites and bargains. Hubby picked three Bordeaux wines including his favourite Baron de Lestac, he also  selected Costellore an Italian favourite from Aldi. My choices of red were all based on our previous fab times in France, they were a Corbieres, a Ventoux and a wine from Cahors.

We did buy double bottles of our favourite wines; 

Blaye, Cotes de Bordeaux

Primivito, Puglia 

Croix de Ceyssac, Bordeaux

Cellier des Dauphins Cotes du Rhone

I'm very much looking forward to the darker nights now we have some super wines to enjoy, not necessarily expensive choices but I'm sure they will evoke great memories from flavour and aroma.

With Christmas approaching we stocked up too on a few favourite beers. There are more and more places selling French and Belgium beers, craft beer shops are opening all over the UK but as we were in France a few packs were added to our trolley.

Affligem is a family favourite that we're looking forward to sharing over the festivities. Grimbergen makes me think of autumn time and La Goudale always goes down well.

Nothing like enjoying a beer and a big bottle makes the enjoyment last longer. I have had Kasteel beer before, a very strong dark beer, and I like fruit beer so when I spotted Kasteel Rubus it was a no-brainer purchase. 

And so to my favourite beer treats. I do believe beer should be served in the matching brand glass and I do have a Kasteel glass ready for my Rubus beer.

I do have glasses for Triple Karmeliet, Rince Couchon and Kwak which is like a yard of ale glass on a vertical stand but I don't think we have a La Goudale glass .... might need a return trip to solve that one!

Neither of us are great cider drinkers but we do enjoy a glass of French cidre which is mainly produced in Normandy. We selected a bottle of brut which is dry, a doux which is sweet and a bottle of rosé cidre which is described as fruity. I don't think we've had rosé cider before although I guess it will be similar to the fruit ciders now available in UK stores.

Our final buys were at Le Shuttle duty free, Gordon's is my favourite standard gin and was such a great price two jumped into my trolley. Asbach brandy from Germany is delicious, when Hubby was working he was often given a box of chocolates filled with Asbach at Christmas. It's made in Rudesheim and most definitely on our tour visit list but for now we'll happily enjoy Asbach at hone.

We had a lovely time shopping in Calais, we didn't visit any of the big wine stores but as you can see we found plenty to bring home. It was so nice being back in France, I hope it won't be so long before we're there again.

RHS Wisley Gardens

My previous blog was about the Glasshouse at RHS Garden Wisley, a birthday gift from my son and his girlfriend. This post is all about the gardens with the beautiful flowers and plants still looking stunning in this year's heatwave.

Royal Horticultural Society Garden Wisley has 75 garden staff, 25 students and 100 volunteers all working hard on the 240 acre site. The original 60 acre site was given to the RHS in 1903 but only a small part was a cultivated garden.

The garden areas range from roses, mixed borders, world food, wellbeing, hydrangeas and the water lillies which looked stunning on the Jellicoe Canal.

The Laboratory has the look of a superb ancient manor house but it has been purpose built using reclaimed materials from old manor houses and is a training hub for horticultural students.

Every turn revealed another beautiful flowering plant, I especially loved the hydrangeas and the roses. As with my Glasshouse post I have no idea of all the names so just enjoy the photos.

As well as succulents being Hubby's favourite plants he is also very keen on acers, we have some here at home, one of which is growing quite tall.

These acers were beautiful and maybe the way forward if we buy any more. It takes years to develop a bonsai and great skill in knowing where and how to prune them.

RHS Garden Wisley isn't somewhere we would have visited unless we were holidaying in the area so it was a lovely gift that we both enjoyed.

RHS Garden Wisley Glasshouse & Afternoon Tea

A while ago we had a trip to RHS Garden Wisley, it was actually a birthday gift from my son and his girlfriend. As RHS Garden Wisley is quite a way from us we made a few days of it and also visited Grey's Court and Hampton Court Palace.

Royal Horticultural Society Garden Wisley has 75 garden staff, 25 students and 100 volunteers all working hard on the 240 acre site. The original 60 acre site was given to the RHS in 1903 but only a small part was a cultivated garden.

With so much to see, and it being one of this year's hottest days, we first visited the 40ft high Glasshouse before the heat of the day. It is home to the tender plant collection with a tropical zone, a moist temperature section and a dry temperate zone.

Sophie Ryder's Dancing Hares sculpture stands over 14 feet tall, they are very striking in their position just outside the Glasshouse

I love plants but I'm not a good gardener and I'm rubbish at remembering names (not just plants hee hee) 

It was amazing inside the Glasshouse, beautiful hibiscus and so many ferns and succulents which are Hubby's favourites. I have no idea about them so just enjoy the photos as I enjoyed walking round such beautiful plants.

Every where was so beautiful and very well cared for. I'm very pleased we did the Glasshouse first as it was very hot when we came out. 

RHS Garden Wisley has so many garden areas which we wandered through, thankfully I had my black lined parasol, and I will blog about those gardens in a separate blog.

As part of my gift our son and girlfriend had included Afternoon Tea in the Terrace Restaurant. It was a delicious treat, tasty sandwiches followed by scones with jam and cream with a few sweet desserts including melt in the mouth meringues.

We have not visited a Royal Horticultural Society garden before, the 30+ degree heatwaves had certainly affected the gardens but everywhere still looked beautiful. The heat made it a little uncomfortable walking round but we had a superb time and really enjoyed our gifted visit.

Gilbert & Sullivan in Buxton

Gilbert and Sullivan operas are still very popular with Buxton hosting a G&S Festival ever year. This year was the 32nd Festival celebrating the works of the talented dramatist and composer duo, although written in the late 1800s there are many similarities to our 21st century lives.

I studied and saw a couple of their operas as part of my music studies at school but Hubby had not seen any although he knew of their music. Gilbert and Sullivan  wrote comic operas with very funny characters and quirky plot lines all portrayed with songs showcasing amazing vocal ranges.

We booked a two night stay in Buxton at the Premier Inn, one night for the opera and a full day to then explore Buxton. It wasn't a long walk into Buxton, plenty of pub stops on the way with a short but very steep hill to get to the Opera House.

The Opera House is a stunning building, it's decor and layout transports you back in time which was perfect for Gilbert and Sullivan. The building was restored in 1979 with the original features kept, even the fire hoses!

The festival was over 2 weeks on with performances of The Pirates of Penzance, The Mikado, The Gondoliers, Iolanthe and HMS Pinafore which was the performance we booked.

It was superb, it's a very funny story with all characters having a role not just the leads. The songs are very catchy but there are also some operatic solos. We both really enjoyed our evening, so much so we booked to see The Gondoliers the following evening. This was a Bus Pass performance with every performer on stage being over 60, they were superb with amazing voices. 

For this performance we had a box (cheapest seats left) which everyone thinks is the place to sit but actually has quite a limited view unless you lean right forward, it made me wonder if the Royal Box in a theatre is more about seeing the Royals than the Royals seeing the show.

We really enjoyed both shows and the buzz around with the majority of the audiences being avid Gilbert and Sullivan fans who join in all the Festival activities not just the actual operas. We plan to return next year to see The Pirates of Penzance and the Mikado.

Our second day in Buxton was filled with discovering more about this Peak Distict spa town. Our first discovery was a flat route avoiding the hill which led us to the Pavillion Park, perfect place for breakfast. To my delight there was a miniature train although we didn't take a ride.

Buxton is England's highest market town at over 1000 feet above sea level with Georgian and Victorian architecture including The Cresent and St Ann's Well which still provides natural spring water.

The Buxton Baths building is now an arcade full of independent shops with original tiling and bathing features still in place. There's also a small museum with a Victorian bathing area and stained windows. 

As with all our trips away we sampled the local refreshments starting with Buxton spring water but progressing to visiting Buxton Brewery Tap where Hubby enjoyed a pint and I had a most delicious g&t. It was one of the nicest gins I have had in ages while and did buy a bottle of Buxton Distillery Dry Gin to enjoy at home. 

Not local but not far away in Stoke-on-Trent we also enjoyed Titantic Beer who make the superb Plum Porter.

Buxton was a great place for a short break and was a fabulous chance to see two operas, we both had a lovely time and are looking forward to the 33rd Gilbert and Sullivan Festival.