France 2012

Here are a few photos from this year's summer holiday in France. A fairly standard trip - a couple of days to drive down (staying at the lovely Auberge de la Hulotte in St Jacques d'Ambur, within sight of the Puy de Dome deep in the Auvergne), two weeks in a gite (booked via Halcyon Leisure) and then 4 nights on the way back (1 at the Hotel Le Pont Bernet in Le Pian Medoc, 2 at Hotel des Pins in l'Amelie near Soulac, and 1 at Hostellerie du Bois Guibert in Bonneval near Chartres). All of the establishments are recommended for both food and accommodation - as is the Logis de France chain. Anyway, on to the photos. A few from around the gite. Some landscapes and bits and pieces. I'm particularly pleased with the hay bales - I've been looking for a particularly photogenic set of these for ages and happened to come across these while looking for some caves (which happened...
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Devon, June 2012

Just back from a weekend down in Devon - an area I've not really done before. First up was a visit to Bicton Park, conveniently located only a short distance from our B&B (Lower Pinn Farm - clean, comfortable room, a huge bed and an excellent breakfast). Bicton was quite good - lots of different bits of garden to keep you interested. The rest of the weekend was spent mainly in Budleigh Salterton, initially to meet up with friends at the BN Beach Day on Saturday, but we gave up on that by 1:30 as it clouded over and the wind got chilly. Better weather on Sunday as it brightened up at lunchtime. ...
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Cornwall 2012

SWMBO and I had a break down in Cornwall a couple of weeks ago, staying at the rather lovely Gurnard's Head, just beyond St Ives. A couple of really excellent meals. It was also a good excuse to actually take some photos - I'll warn you now that if you're not interested in photos of waves then there's not going to be much here for you! After we arrived on the Friday, we took a stroll down to the actual Gurnard's Head - quite pleasant, and rather odd with the cloud level somewhere about the height we were at. Saturday morning was spent at Sennen - we had originally planned to walk round to Land's End but couldn't be bothered in the end. The seas were really spectacular, and combined with a blue sky and sunshine to make brilliant weather for photographing the waves. I like this sequence - it gives you a good idea of how big the seas were. In the afternoon we...
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Ducks On Tour

This is going back a fair bit - something we did in 2004. We "borrowed" two plastic ducks from our then-landlords, SWMBO decorated them in a His and Hers stylee, and we took them on holiday to France. It was the early days of my having a digital camera and I also had a portable Canon postcard printer, so we sent postcards from our travels. 1) Hampton Park, Bristol. 31/08 Hello! The rubber ducks are off on their holidays. See you in about 3 weeks time. Tarquil & Jocasta 2) Newbury. 31/08 Are we nearly there yet? Sebastian & Ludmilla 3) Giverny. 01/09 You know what's missing from Monet's water garden pictures? Duck! That's what! Jacquies & Nigella 4) Chateau de Chambourd. 02/09 OK, if we must slum it tonight. Hector & Clarissa 5) Puy-de-Dome. 03/09 No ponds! Claude & Henrietta 6) St Flour. 03/09 Ah, the joys of a luxurious hotel. Jeremy & Cynthia 7) Pas de Payrol / Puy St Mary. 04/09 The views are so good that I've taken up photography. Timothy & Audrey 8 ) Tournon d'Agenais. 05/09 Hooray! A pond at...
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