On our travels.

Sunny summer - or at least, that's what it's supposed to be!

Seaming as the summer holidays are well and truly underway here in England, it's the time of year that most people pack their suitcases and head off to some place else for a week or two. Shabs are no different. The end of July and the beginning of August saw Shanice pack up and head to the Isle of Wight for a week, and Abby pack up and catch the ferry to Normandy. 

So, seaming as we have been out of the country and supposedly sunning ourselves, we decided to give you a little insight into just what we did for the week, and what we saw. So, whilst you reading this, we are dealing with the aftermath of AS Level results day!! ARG! 

Abby:

So, my holiday.

Destination: Normandy, France. 

In typical Sod's law fashion, we arrived on Saturday in a complete and utter downpour. I wish I was joking, but whilst it was sunny for most of the journey, half an hour before we arrived the heavens opened to the degree that you could barely even see the road in front of you. But, my family is from Yorkshire, and a little bit of rain never hurt anyone. 

Our Gîte was in the grounds of a stunning, Classic, French manor house just outside of Saint-Saëns. We even had a little turret! It was so cute! Thankfully - the weather even spared us a little and gave us the sun for a few afternoons and evenings. This meant I was free to read in the shade - I burn at a stupidly easy rate.

See! A turret!

Cheese. I ate so much damned cheese it was unbelievable; but it was very nice cheese! Neufchâtel, Brie and Goats Cheese. I'm fact, if I'm honest I spent the majority of my holiday eating; pain au chocolat, croissants, pain au raisin, chocolate twists, cakes, Madeleine's . . . It was so good! But the aftermath is that I need to diet!

We did, however, also did a bit of culture too! (We ate crepes in Rouen!) The cathedrals in the city were stunning, there must have been about 5 of them in a mile radius, each one had a different style, some were highly gothic whilst others were more simplistic. For me, however, the most incredible building was the 'Palais de Justice' which is essentially the court house. It houses all of the courts for that area, from the Magistrate's all the way up to the Court of Appeal. When you look at the architecture - intricate decoration and perfect arches - you would never believe it was almost destroyed in the Second World War! In fact it was almost completely destroyed because of the bombings.

One of the Cathedrals that we sat, this was
actually one of the smaller ones in the city
of  Rouen.

This is one side of the Palias de Justice,
unfortunately I couldn't get one of the front.

This is in Rouen, and it think it sums up
just how much of a beautiful city it is. 

Typical of my family, we also hit the cider and cheese shops! But we also took just over a 2 hour drive past Caen to go to Omaha Beach which was one the five beaches that the allied forces landed on, on D-Day.Omaha, Utah, Juno, Gold and Sword. It was such a humbling experience, especially as my great grandfather landed on Gold beach as a medic on D-Day, and was later asked to help out the American troops on Omaha because of the number of casualties. Seeing the place where he fought, and going around the museum was such an emotional experience. It's hard to believe when you see the place that just 70 years ago it was a place nicknamed 'bloody Omaha', where so much death and destruction occurred. It's especially moving when you find out just how close D-Day came to being a complete failure. It made me even more proud of my great grandad. 

Omaha Beach

Docs on the beach

Me and my family also had the honour of eating a traditional Normandy meal with a lovely family we met over there. The conversation was a little out of the ordinary as everything was translated from English to French and vice versa so that everyone present could understand. It was an incredible experience in the fact that there were two women - sister in laws - present who had lived in Normandy when the Germans had invaded. They told us stories that were almost unbelievable. 

I told you it wasn't all food!

So there we are, we got the channel tunnel back (i hated it) and now i'm on home turf!

Shanice:

I was a lot less exotic than Abby and stayed much closer to home. I visited the beautiful island, the Isle of Wight.

The gorgeous view while walking down to ventnor beach!

 I visited the little town of Ventnor. I went to the island to visit family as I hadn't seen them in well over 6 years, it was so nice to see everyone and catch up!
The island is so cute, and everyone there is so friendly. For example there is an arcade on ventnor beach  that my cousins and sister were at all the time, the owner of this place gave them over 300 tickets (nope I have no idea either) for absolutely nothing! When I asked him about it he said the best part of his job was seeing the kids and their families happy. I melted from his pure kindness and wanted to refuse to ever come back home.

The view from outside the arcade.

 The photo was supposed to show the beach, but I didn't realise until I left the island that the beach huts obscured the entire thing! I still think it's beautiful though.
 This trip couldn't have come at a better time for me. It reminded me of what is important in my life and helped me get my priorities straight before I started the next educational year. Being on the island gave me tons of inspiration and I think it was the first time I'd felt truly relaxed in years.

I highly recommend a visit to the island, any of it, but for me I love ventnor most. it's great for a long weekend, or even a few weeks. With sea front restaurants, arcades, walking trails and even mini golf it's just idyllic. 

I can't end this post without some family business promotion can I?! So, If you are interested in staying in ventnor I know a great little family run B&B that is perfectly located. MANSER B&B!
You walk out of the back garden gate and down a hill and you are in steep cove, AND it has a hot tub! What more can you ask for? 

That was us, but what did you do this summer? Go anywhere exotic?

-Shabs

P.S. Bucket List Update - Abby achieved the first thing - she got a job!