Cast: Mrs Sue Bowman (author)
Mrs Sue Rose
Mr Bill Rose
Mrs Lyn Dobie
It took many years for us to realise our twilight years can be just as entertaining as the teens and often more so.
The Montpellier
Having booked two weeks in a mobile home near Montpellier
There was one occasion when Bill ordered what looked (only to him I hasten to add!) to be a very tasty meal – andouillettes by name. Bill is fearless in terms of eating foreign food; however, on telephoning a relative who is fluent in French with a text book at the ready she described the ingredients within this sausage specifically "the original composition of andouillette sausage is not known and there is no record of the andouillette's composition from earlier than the nineteenth century" although she seemed to be saying it was made up of dubious parts of the extreme nether region of the pig! Bill’s adventurous culinary disposition slightly wavered at that point but not entirely and he continued to savour this delight.
It wasn’t until after we had enjoyed lunch (at least most of us!) that I went into a children’s clothes shop to buy something for my granddaughter. Foolishly I hadn’t shared that information with my companions who carried on walking! When they realised I was nowhere to be seen panic set in, as it did with me, on leaving the shop – this in the days before mobile phones were regarded as absolutely essential. It was at that stage I realised Montpellier
My friends became frantic with worry searching for me as I did them – at least they were together whereas I was alone. The problem was exacerbated when it became clear my friends knew where the car park was but I didn’t and I had the car keys!! They travelled back several times to the car park (the car parks, like the roads, were all identical) and at one stage they left a note on the windscreen for me. All to no avail. In my basic French I asked person after person after person even calling one very stylish lady half my age Mamman instead of Madame! I recalled the car park was near a statue and when I asked a gentleman if he could direct me to a car park near to a statue of a man on a horse he was terribly offended telling me in no uncertain terms that that “man” on a horse was no other than Louis XIV!!
It was when darkness started to fall I realised I had found my way to the area where Montpellier
I eventually found a taxi cab and, to hell with the cost, asked the driver to take me to every car park in Montpellier located near a statue. Eventually I was overwhelmed with relief when I saw our car, 200 Francs in taxi fares later but worth every single centimes. I eventually found the caravan park (no sat navs in those days) to find my friends who had returned there to see if I had done the same heading back out in a taxi to search for me.
I have never been so pleased to see anyone (other than Louis XIV on his horse of course!) as I was at 10.00pm that night.
Unfortunately mishaps seemed to follow us on every trip to Montpellier
On one occasion while searching for one of the many beaches in the area my friends and I found ourselves in the suburbs. That particular area became increasingly cordoned off with crowd barriers. Having no idea what this was for we carried on walking only to find ourselves within the crowd barriers and several voices raining down “allez, allez”!. We then heard a very loud bang and turned around to see 15 or 20 bulls (complete with horns!) galloping towards us with young men running after them. It was at that precise moment I realised I had established a link between Adrenalin and diarrhoea! It was also around that time I realised just how fast a bull can run – although thankfully not quite as fast as a 55 year old woman!!! My friends told me this was a bad time to start preaching to them about the rights and wrongs of chasing bulls.
On another occasion armed with beach towels and picnic we settled down on an area of beach only to find ourselves surrounded by naked people of all ages – yes, we were on a nudist beach.
We went to Montpellier
§ 9 / 11 - resulting in a terrifying flight home to Stansted when both airports (Beauvais
§ The terrible untimely and controversial death of Princess Diana.
§ The petrol strike when we only just made it off the ferry before running out of fuel.
We decided at that stage to abandon the glorious south thinking perhaps the city was jinxed and made the unanimous decision to choose a different holiday destination.
Enter Pont L'Eveque. This amazing small town is situated in Normandy and is absolutely delightful. Bill and Sue bought a mobile home on a private French site near this very pretty town and this, together with the surrounding area, were explored to full extent over the next few years. Pont L'Eveque is equidistant to better known towns such as Deauville, Trouville, Caen and Honfleur.
On one occasion when walking through Honfleur we spotted a magnificent river cruise boat which had, we discovered later, sailed up the Seine from Paris over the previous 2 days. In hindsight I suppose I wasn't being very discrete when saying out loud "God I would love to go on that boat"!!! Lo and behold when I reached a significant birthday - in other words when I was 60 - my good friends surprised me with an amazing gift of a river cruise on that very boat saililng from Paris up the River Seine to Honfleur. This was facilitated by Croisi Europe and was absolutely fantastic. Indeed it was so fantastic Sue, Lyn and I took Bill as a surprise on his "special" birthday.
Leaving Carlisle at 8.30am on the Virgin Pendolino first class (we had saved for 12 months) we joined the Eurostar at St Pancras and made the first class journey to Paris. The first class Eurostar was superb from the glass of champagne offered as soon as we were seated to the hot three course meal with wine on the journey. Before we knew it we were through the tunnel and slowing down for Paris.
We stayed overnight in a very nice hotel in Paris and left the next morning almost penniless after paying 75 Euros for a round of 4 drinks.
We joined the Seine Princess at 6.00pm the next evening and settled into our cabins. We then made our way to the dining room for a welcome cocktail which was quickly followed by a fabulous 4 course dinner with wine - all you could drink.
I can highly recommend this cruise on the Seine - it was fabulous and I will definitely do it again.
This is 2011 and Bill and Sue have now sold their caravan in Pont L'Eveque so after careful consideration we decided to head back south to Montpellier this year. We found a reasonably priced 3 bedroom caravan on the site we usually visited and have now booked flights and hire car and await our holiday in September. Surely nothing could happen this time??? Mmmmmm!
Well we have returned from a fantastic 10 days. Quite a number of things have changed e.g. Montpellier is now awash with a fabulous tram system - wish Edinburgh would ask them for advice!! We just parked the car and got a tram into the city - easy peasy! The weather was amazing even in September and the food and wine was as we remembered it.
We paid a regular visit to the swimming pool at the site. On one occasion Lyn had a coughing fit whilst in the pool. To her immediate aid came a very handsome, very bronze French lifeguard to see if she was ok. She explained she was fine and he said "we call it having a cat in your throat" then Lyn remarked "we call it having a frog in ours" but then that was our Lyn! What did amaze me following that "rescue" was that Lyn seemed to have a coughing fit every time she was in the swimming pool from that day on.
We have already booked for 2012 it was so good. This time we are going to Les Angeleys which is still on the Mediterranean but only 30 minutes from the Spanish border. I wonder what that trip holds for us?
While sitting in Nimes airport waiting for our return flight my friends remarked on how we had finally managed to get through a south of France holiday with no disasters! Just at that very moment I received a text message from my daughter quote "Mum I assume you are all okay - there has been an explosion at a nuclear plant about 12 miles from where you are". Need I say more - the jinx had struck again!
Enter Pont L'Eveque. This amazing small town is situated in Normandy and is absolutely delightful. Bill and Sue bought a mobile home on a private French site near this very pretty town and this, together with the surrounding area, were explored to full extent over the next few years. Pont L'Eveque is equidistant to better known towns such as Deauville, Trouville, Caen and Honfleur.
On one occasion when walking through Honfleur we spotted a magnificent river cruise boat which had, we discovered later, sailed up the Seine from Paris over the previous 2 days. In hindsight I suppose I wasn't being very discrete when saying out loud "God I would love to go on that boat"!!! Lo and behold when I reached a significant birthday - in other words when I was 60 - my good friends surprised me with an amazing gift of a river cruise on that very boat saililng from Paris up the River Seine to Honfleur. This was facilitated by Croisi Europe and was absolutely fantastic. Indeed it was so fantastic Sue, Lyn and I took Bill as a surprise on his "special" birthday.
Leaving Carlisle at 8.30am on the Virgin Pendolino first class (we had saved for 12 months) we joined the Eurostar at St Pancras and made the first class journey to Paris. The first class Eurostar was superb from the glass of champagne offered as soon as we were seated to the hot three course meal with wine on the journey. Before we knew it we were through the tunnel and slowing down for Paris.
We stayed overnight in a very nice hotel in Paris and left the next morning almost penniless after paying 75 Euros for a round of 4 drinks.
We joined the Seine Princess at 6.00pm the next evening and settled into our cabins. We then made our way to the dining room for a welcome cocktail which was quickly followed by a fabulous 4 course dinner with wine - all you could drink.
I can highly recommend this cruise on the Seine - it was fabulous and I will definitely do it again.
This is 2011 and Bill and Sue have now sold their caravan in Pont L'Eveque so after careful consideration we decided to head back south to Montpellier this year. We found a reasonably priced 3 bedroom caravan on the site we usually visited and have now booked flights and hire car and await our holiday in September. Surely nothing could happen this time??? Mmmmmm!
Well we have returned from a fantastic 10 days. Quite a number of things have changed e.g. Montpellier is now awash with a fabulous tram system - wish Edinburgh would ask them for advice!! We just parked the car and got a tram into the city - easy peasy! The weather was amazing even in September and the food and wine was as we remembered it.
We paid a regular visit to the swimming pool at the site. On one occasion Lyn had a coughing fit whilst in the pool. To her immediate aid came a very handsome, very bronze French lifeguard to see if she was ok. She explained she was fine and he said "we call it having a cat in your throat" then Lyn remarked "we call it having a frog in ours" but then that was our Lyn! What did amaze me following that "rescue" was that Lyn seemed to have a coughing fit every time she was in the swimming pool from that day on.
We have already booked for 2012 it was so good. This time we are going to Les Angeleys which is still on the Mediterranean but only 30 minutes from the Spanish border. I wonder what that trip holds for us?
While sitting in Nimes airport waiting for our return flight my friends remarked on how we had finally managed to get through a south of France holiday with no disasters! Just at that very moment I received a text message from my daughter quote "Mum I assume you are all okay - there has been an explosion at a nuclear plant about 12 miles from where you are". Need I say more - the jinx had struck again!
