People often ask what do you do with your time?  We’re always busy but these last few weeks have been full on.  We had hoped that having a house by the sea would mean plenty of visitors and that’s exactly what we have had, along with our usual canal boat holiday and a short visit to France.

Mid May brought us our first Couchsurfers.  We joined couchsurfing whilst on our travels and stayed with many hosts in different countries and even hosted people in the caravan, which given the space constraints was an interesting experience!  It was finally time to host in our new home now that all the pandemic restrictions have been lifted.  Lotte and Meinrad from The Netherlands contacted us about a two night stay.  We had a wonderful couple of days with them as they neared the end of their epic walking trip around Europe.  They set off about 18 months ago at the height of the pandemic.  It’s a long story, too long to post here, but in essence when they arrive home in mid-Summer 2022 they will have walked 5000 miles around many European countries.  They were a joy to host and we wish them a fabulous life together.

Cheryl has been busy with council duties and Neil has now been appointed a Trustee at The Gateway Theatre.  We thoroughly enjoyed our volunteering duties for the Platinum Jubilee Celebrations in the gardens overlooking the sea.  It was a free event with sideshows, live music and free ice creams for the kids and finished off with lighting a beacon.   Socially, we’ve had  a night of Italian/Maltese food in Pisani with Diane and Glyn, a hilarious evening of tapas with Paul and Maureen where Kathy at The Wild Caper kept us amused with her unique way of running a restaurant, excellent food and drinks with Eric and Laila, a French lunch at Don and Pat’s house following their recent holiday to France and a 70^th birthday celebration BBQ with Paul and Maureen and, finally, a Twinning Beach Hut Party.  Hey, it’s all go here in the heaving metropolis!

At the end of May Neil went for the chop – his eyes that is.  He had lens replacement surgery and now doesn’t need glasses for anything.  When he went around the house looking for all the various pairs of glasses he had for reading, driving, watching TV and working in the workshop he found a total of 19 pairs scattered around.  They’ll be going to The Lions Club who collect them and, presumably, send them off to more needy people around the world.  He’s had a couple of follow up consultations and, so far, it’s looking as though he’ll have better than 20/20 vision when his eyes finally finish adapting to the surgery.  For those of you that don’t understand what lens replacement means it’s just like having your glasses fitted into the inside of your eyes rather than wearing them on your nose.

The first of our annual narrow boat trips took place at the beginning of June.  A week on the boat with Gail boating from Gayton near Northampton to Warwick and back.  None of us had been to the famous castle so on the Wednesday we walked from the canal into the town and spent a superb day exploring the venue.  It is a quite stunning castle to explore but there was much more.  An amazing demonstration of birds of prey, guided talks of the main rooms of the house including some quite macabre stories, acres and acres of grounds to explore and more peacocks than you can imagine.  An excellent day out.  The weather for our boat trip wasn’t great but at least it was mainly dry and that’s all that matters.

We arrived back from the boat around 2pm on the Sunday just in time to hurtle around the house with the vacuum cleaner in preparation for the arrival of Clive and Karen who were staying for 3 nights.  They had been here in the UK for 3 weeks catching up with family before catching the ferry back home to Spain.  None of us could remember when we last got together but we did agree that it was at least 3 years ago.  Neil and Clive have known each other for more than 50 years so the reminiscing went on into the early hours.  There was much to catch up on and long walks, a day out on the tram with lots of laughs, some good food and drink. 

C&K left on Wednesday and it was time to get the vacuum out again, wash the sheets and get the main guest room ready again as Bill and Sue were arriving the following day, also for 3 nights.  What B&S didn’t know was that June and 2 of her daughters, Tracy and Anna, were also planning a visit.  It was a real surprise when they arrived to find them already here.  It was a hilarious couple of days, BBQ’s, another day out on the tram with good food and excellent company.

As B&S left on Sunday morning we jumped into the car for a day at The Haynes Motor Museum about an hour away.  Miranda had planned a father’s day surprise for Paul and it was superb to see his face when he took a second look after he realised that he was standing next to his Dad.  We had a fabulous day with them and our grandson enjoying the delights of the zillions of cars in the museum plus a session on the go karting track.  It was a great day except Neil was miffed that Paul won the karting with the fastest lap time although Cheryl did win the prize for funniest moment when the track guys commented that marshalling her had been ‘slightly terrifying’.   

Next in our busy busy month of June came our first visit to our twin town Thury-Harcourt in Normandy, France.  It was an early start, 5.15am to catch the coach to Poole where we boarded the ferry to Cherbourg.  As it was our first trip we didn’t know exactly what to expect but as Neil had been part of two twinnings, one in North Devon and the other near Bristol, he did have a rough idea.  What we didn’t know was who we would be staying with.

On the way to Thury we stopped off at Bayeux but the planned visit to see the tapestry didn’t take place as we were late getting off the boat, thank you very much Britany Ferries, so there was just time to wander through the town and grab something to eat before we arrived at the Town Hall to meet our hosts.  We arrived just after 6pm and we were introduced to Chantal, our host, before listening to the traditional welcome speech from The Major and the reply speech from our Chairman Steve.  This was followed by some local cider for which Normandy is famous and to be introduced to Chantal’s husband, Jean Philippe who had just finished work.  Then we all sat down to a meal, some wine, of course, and a chance to get to know our family.

We did strike gold with Chantal and Jean Philippe, they were just so hospitable.  They live about 5kms outside of the town in a tiny Hamlet called St Martin-de-Sallen.  The house was stunning, a very large, old stone building in a lovely garden.  Our bedroom had an ensuite bathroom with views across the valley from the bathroom and into the vegetable garden from the bedroom.  What we also found out is that Jean Philippe was a retired Pharmacist who decided to start a new working life to satisfy his passion for wine – he opened a cave selling wine, spirits and beer.  For the entire weekend we were given fabulous French wines and Calvados, another Normandy speciality.

Saturday brought us a visit to a local Cider and Calvados producer.  It was a really informative tour around followed by the inevitable tasting…..yum!  It was also an opportunity to buy some bottles ready for the family day on Sunday.  After the tasting we boarded the bus for the journey to Domfront en Poiraie a medieval walled town sitting on the top of a hill.  Before we had our guided tour we had an enormous lunch of excellent pizza and salad.  The tour itself took just over an hour then it was back onto the bus for another journey to an auberge for our 4 course evening meal, yes, more food and more wine!  Once back at our adopted home is was time for Calvados sitting in the lovely garden before a much earned night’s sleep.

Sunday was a little more relaxed with breakfast in the garden before the arrival of Chantal’s sister Marie-France and her partner Gilbert.  They were hosting Anita and our coach driver.  From Neil’s experience of twinning it’s quite usual for hosting families to get together on family day.  We enjoyed a leisurely lunch plus an afternoon trip to a local model railway centre.  We all had a lot of fun riding the very simple train, playing on the bouncy assault course and the zip ride……all very childish!

The journey home on Monday started at 9.30 from the Mayor’s office.  We headed to Pegasus Bridge to visit the site and museum which tells the story of taking of the bridge which was pivotal to the success of the Normandy Landings in 1944.  It was interesting and sobering at the same time with lots of information to take in.  We had lunch in Café Gondree which has so much history going back to the end of the 19^th Century.  At the time of the landings the café was run by Georges and Thérèse Gondrée. They had been involved in passing information about the defences around the bridge to British intelligence through the French underground.  The successful taking of the bridge played an important role in limiting the effectiveness of a German counter-attack in the days and weeks following the Normandy invasion. With the passing of the Gondrées, ownership was taken over by their daughter, Arlette Gondrée, who served us.  It was a lovely time spent chatting to her whilst she served other guests.

We stopped off at a hypermarket to top up with French wines, cheeses and saucisson before boarding the boat back to Poole.  Unfortunately, the boat had a couple of issues which delayed our arrival which meant we didn’t get home to after 1am. 

The trip was fabulous and we’re now looking forward to hosting Chantal and Jean Philippe when they come over in 2023.