Yesterday, despite all the financial woe, and the fact that we shouldn't have, but because we aren't going on holiday this year, we had a day trip to France. It was sort of Ned's 18th birthday treat (he didn't have a party) and Finn was desperate to go.
We took the Chunnel for once - which was only mildly unpleasant, and of course ludicrously quick, especially on the way back. It was a lovely day - windy, but very sunny. We started intending to go to the Dover Patrol monument at Cap Blanc Nez - but we were ravenous - so I suggested we went to a cafe in the next village Echelles - only there was no cafe! Nor a boulangerie - than I remembered that there was a fantastic cafe with views right on the sea at Cap Gris Nez - so we drove there - to find the cafe had become a restaurant, and was naturally closed - so we ended up going to Ardreselles - where there was a row of cafes - and sat in the sun at their tea room and ate croque monsieur, croisants and a fab thing called sandwich campagnard which is a small half baguette covered with melted cheese and ham - nicer than the mass produced croque that Ned and I opted for. Then we walked down to the sea - which was incredibly wild - we could hear it roaring outside the cafe at the end of the street. There is a beach there - but it was very rocky - so we climbed about a bit (I was, as usual when offered something new and interesting) more energetic than usual. Then we drove down the coast road to Ambleteuse, Wimereux and finally arrived in a big Boulonnais traffic jam. We ground up the hill to the ville fortifiee and parked in the Place Mariette - admired the topiary pyramid of lonicera nitida, and the statue of Mariette Pacha in his fez and the modal of the solar barque from the pyramid of Cheops. Then we went up into the citadel, looked at restaurants, got to the chateau musee and found it was closing in 35 minutes, so we went to the cathedral (which was closing in 5 mins) and sat there and admired the perfect classical lines, constructed on top of the medieval cruciform foundation. It was lovely - very calming and cool.
We returned to the commercial world, found a restaurant which enthused Ned (confit de canard does that) and booked a table - then back up the road to get some cash - and then lunch. We went to La Grillade in Rue de Lille. It basically does grills, I had salmon en papillotte - which was nice - Finn had steak - small, over cooked even for him, and Mark had andouiletee (yeurrgh) - the frites were average (of British, rather than French standard)...the starters were nice - the males all had salade montbeliard - which was smoked sausage, fried potatoes, on a bed of lettuce with a nice balsamic dressing. I had two fishy rillettes - the tuna version was a bit dry - the salmon one was nice. It was an OK meal - nothing to write home about, maybe I should have had a steak. My cheese was right out of the fridge - a bit too firm for my liking. With a bottle of house rose, an extra glass of wine, it came to E116 Euros... less than £100 - but still no longer uber cheap. The great thing was that we had a really cheerful meal together - the boys all had starters! and Ned ate his lettuce.
After lunch we began to flag a bit - but went around the museum - I forgot they had such a good collection of Greek vases - actually, most of them are Apulian - but there are one or two really good ones - Ajax preparing to kill himself, and Heracles and the Stymphalian birds. Then we walked around the ramparts to get back to the car - it was lovely - fantastic views of the sea, the town (mostly ugly) and green and leafy - witih benches. No quite up to the standards of the ramparts at Lucca - but a good place for a stroll - a higher level park.
Grumpiness inevitably began to set in - M was tired and became increasingly erratic, I had drink taken, and had blisters on my feet from my sandals, so was more irritable than usual. We went to Nausicaa - at vast expense (E55) - but I was too knackered to "do" it. We agreed that M & I should have gone to the beach and let the boys do it on their own. But it was meant to be a nice family day together - so we had water in the bar (we ran out of cash, because M paid for Nausicaa with our cash, rather than card) and watched the tropical pools - we went down, saw the tropical pools from below - and then spent a happy time watching the sea lions.... then, just before closing time we went to see the Cape Penguins... so a jolly day. Then we went to the Supermarket - Auchan, in the centre commercial to the N of Boulogne. It is huge. I insisted we were not going to buy 100s of things - but we still spent £150 without any spirits or anything - we did buy about 18 bottles of wine - but since some of those were only about E2.59 a bottle (rose) hardly extravagant. I did buy a bottle of pink Sancerre. By the end of that we were knackerd and had about an hour before we were due to go to the Chunnel... Ned began to lament (having been brilliant all day) that we had not been to the monument, so I suggested we had a trip there and picniced and took the next train. But he was happy just to go there and then eat in the car... so we went back to Cap Blanc Nez - by this time the wind was appalling - so I stayed in the car. We got back to the Chunnel with minutes to spare... got our train.
It was a lovely day - in the morning especially when we were just driving along the coast road and stopping here and there. I thought perhaps next time we should just go to Audreselles, go to the beach, have Moules frites for lunch E10 and perhaps go and see 1 thing.... alternatively, if we had the money, spend a night there.
We took the Chunnel for once - which was only mildly unpleasant, and of course ludicrously quick, especially on the way back. It was a lovely day - windy, but very sunny. We started intending to go to the Dover Patrol monument at Cap Blanc Nez - but we were ravenous - so I suggested we went to a cafe in the next village Echelles - only there was no cafe! Nor a boulangerie - than I remembered that there was a fantastic cafe with views right on the sea at Cap Gris Nez - so we drove there - to find the cafe had become a restaurant, and was naturally closed - so we ended up going to Ardreselles - where there was a row of cafes - and sat in the sun at their tea room and ate croque monsieur, croisants and a fab thing called sandwich campagnard which is a small half baguette covered with melted cheese and ham - nicer than the mass produced croque that Ned and I opted for. Then we walked down to the sea - which was incredibly wild - we could hear it roaring outside the cafe at the end of the street. There is a beach there - but it was very rocky - so we climbed about a bit (I was, as usual when offered something new and interesting) more energetic than usual. Then we drove down the coast road to Ambleteuse, Wimereux and finally arrived in a big Boulonnais traffic jam. We ground up the hill to the ville fortifiee and parked in the Place Mariette - admired the topiary pyramid of lonicera nitida, and the statue of Mariette Pacha in his fez and the modal of the solar barque from the pyramid of Cheops. Then we went up into the citadel, looked at restaurants, got to the chateau musee and found it was closing in 35 minutes, so we went to the cathedral (which was closing in 5 mins) and sat there and admired the perfect classical lines, constructed on top of the medieval cruciform foundation. It was lovely - very calming and cool.
We returned to the commercial world, found a restaurant which enthused Ned (confit de canard does that) and booked a table - then back up the road to get some cash - and then lunch. We went to La Grillade in Rue de Lille. It basically does grills, I had salmon en papillotte - which was nice - Finn had steak - small, over cooked even for him, and Mark had andouiletee (yeurrgh) - the frites were average (of British, rather than French standard)...the starters were nice - the males all had salade montbeliard - which was smoked sausage, fried potatoes, on a bed of lettuce with a nice balsamic dressing. I had two fishy rillettes - the tuna version was a bit dry - the salmon one was nice. It was an OK meal - nothing to write home about, maybe I should have had a steak. My cheese was right out of the fridge - a bit too firm for my liking. With a bottle of house rose, an extra glass of wine, it came to E116 Euros... less than £100 - but still no longer uber cheap. The great thing was that we had a really cheerful meal together - the boys all had starters! and Ned ate his lettuce.
After lunch we began to flag a bit - but went around the museum - I forgot they had such a good collection of Greek vases - actually, most of them are Apulian - but there are one or two really good ones - Ajax preparing to kill himself, and Heracles and the Stymphalian birds. Then we walked around the ramparts to get back to the car - it was lovely - fantastic views of the sea, the town (mostly ugly) and green and leafy - witih benches. No quite up to the standards of the ramparts at Lucca - but a good place for a stroll - a higher level park.
Grumpiness inevitably began to set in - M was tired and became increasingly erratic, I had drink taken, and had blisters on my feet from my sandals, so was more irritable than usual. We went to Nausicaa - at vast expense (E55) - but I was too knackered to "do" it. We agreed that M & I should have gone to the beach and let the boys do it on their own. But it was meant to be a nice family day together - so we had water in the bar (we ran out of cash, because M paid for Nausicaa with our cash, rather than card) and watched the tropical pools - we went down, saw the tropical pools from below - and then spent a happy time watching the sea lions.... then, just before closing time we went to see the Cape Penguins... so a jolly day. Then we went to the Supermarket - Auchan, in the centre commercial to the N of Boulogne. It is huge. I insisted we were not going to buy 100s of things - but we still spent £150 without any spirits or anything - we did buy about 18 bottles of wine - but since some of those were only about E2.59 a bottle (rose) hardly extravagant. I did buy a bottle of pink Sancerre. By the end of that we were knackerd and had about an hour before we were due to go to the Chunnel... Ned began to lament (having been brilliant all day) that we had not been to the monument, so I suggested we had a trip there and picniced and took the next train. But he was happy just to go there and then eat in the car... so we went back to Cap Blanc Nez - by this time the wind was appalling - so I stayed in the car. We got back to the Chunnel with minutes to spare... got our train.
It was a lovely day - in the morning especially when we were just driving along the coast road and stopping here and there. I thought perhaps next time we should just go to Audreselles, go to the beach, have Moules frites for lunch E10 and perhaps go and see 1 thing.... alternatively, if we had the money, spend a night there.
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