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.

A weekend in Tenby

A wet November is the perfect time to look back at our holiday in Wesst Wales, although earky October it wasn't sunny when we arrived,, in fact it was a very stormy, with dy day. 

We have been to Tenby many years ago, before we were married and again when our children were young on a holiday with my Dad, so it was great to revisit. Tenby is a walled town, the medieval walls are Grade I listed and were built in the late 1200s by Llewelyn ap Gruffyydd to protect the town.

There are four gates giving access to the town and taxes charged helped maintain this impressive and important structure. The taxes provided enough income to also build a five arched entrance at the West Gate. In the late 1500s the walls were repaired with the lower sections strengthened, the walls raised by five feet and a parapet walkway added.

In the late 1700s there was less need for defences and much of the wall was dismantled leaving just the West Gate. The walls are now protected and the five way arch is an impressive entrance to the lively town that has a variety of small independent shops as well as some high street stores. 

 

Tenby has an outcrop of rock which geographically helps provide Tenby's harbour and was the perfect location for Tenby Castle. All that remains of the 12th century fortification is a tower; it's quite an exposed position with great views, the perfect position to protect the town.

In the middle of Tenby is the Merchant House, now a National Trust property this house and it's inhabitants played a key part in the  town's trading with the harbour bringing goods from all around the world. Now surrounded by other properties when built the house would have been dominant in the skyline and clearly visable from incoming boats, and with the house having a perfect view of the harbour the merchants knew exactly when a ship arrived.

Tenby is full of history and evidence of how the town has changed over centuries. There was a super Victorian post box, a rare sight and made me think about how many postcards have been sent via this red box over the decades it has stood here.

Castle Hill outcrop is also the location of Tenby RNLI's new lifeboat station, the old station is still there too. Tenby is in the far West of Wales on the Pembrokeshire peninsula and on the north coast of the Bristol Channel with Cornwall to the south. The RNLI station's location is vital for providing sea rescue on this busy channel as it leads out to the Atlantic Ocean. 

Our second day was much brighter and certainly less windy. We had previously walked into Tenby via the road but with the tide being out we enjoyed a Sunday morning stroll along the beach into the town and then along the harbour.

There are plenty of bars and restaurants in Tenby, it's a popular place for stag and hen weekends. We visited Harbwr Brewery which is located near the Merchant House. It had stopped raining and with the brewery being in one of the old alleyways it was sheltered enough to enjoy a drink outside.

We also visited Tap and Tan, this was our favourite brewery who do have a Tap Room next to the caravan site but unfortunately closed the weekend before we arrived for the winter season. There is a Tap and Tan pub restaurant in the food quarter in the town and is where we enjoyed a flight of beer, also outside as it was still dry and in a sheltered courtyard. 

Our other Tenby experience was a pot of prawns fresh from the fishmonger by the harbour. They were so fresh and far tastier than the prawns we buy in stores at home.

We had a great stay in Tenby, very different weather as you can see from our Saturday v Sunday photo. It is a place we would visit again but being the far West of Wales it's a long journey from home, however we can always have a stopover at our daughter's on the way. 

Guinness Storehouse

Our other experience in Dublin was a visit to the Guinness Storehouse for an amazing tour through the world of this delicious dark brew that we both enjoy especially when used to make Guinness cake!

As we approached the Storehouse through old streets surrounded by brewing buildings the excitement atmosphere was building. There were tourists chatting full of anticipation, coaches dropping tours off and horse drawn carriages waiting for visitors wanting a ride back into the city centre.

Once inside we were lined up with our fellow 12noon tourers not quite sure what to expect. It was amazing, we were ushered through into a massive 7 floor open plan storehouse with activity and noise on every floor. Our host guide explained that if we looked down we see we were standing on a huge circle and if we looked up to the topmost glass ceiling we'd realise we were actually standing on the largest glass of Guinness in the world. It was incredible design and construction and really did give that impression.

From then on our tour was self guided, each section leading to the next progressing up and up the building explaining in great detail about how Guinness is made and it's history.

 

Starting with fields of barley my photos will reveal all that goes into each pint of creamy smooth Guinness.

And there it is ... pure Guinness. The interactive displays were so good, the water was actual water falling in a sequence. 

Our tour then carried on upwards after going into the tasting room, jet black inside where we all had a tiny tasting glass of smooth black beer.

After the tasting room we wandered through exhibitions and advertising characters, including the fish on a bike, the hanging harp was so effective.

It was an amazing experience over 7 floors packed with interactive displays, knowledge and so much fun. 

Our tour ended in the high up Gravity Bar overlooking Dublin where we happily spent a couple of hours enjoying a pint or two chatting with visitors from America and Germany.

 

 

A few souvenirs to remember our amazing day in a very large glass of Guinness.