We took a trip home to Australia for 5 weeks over Christmas, which was the first time we’d been home in almost two years. It was fantastic – and much needed :)
Archive for the ‘Travel’ Category
Little Box Bags
In a bid to keep away from mobiles for a little while, I’ve picked up sewing again – this time in preparation for our big trip home at the end of the week. I decided that I needed some small bags to carry stuff in (as you do) and found an excellent tutorial for some box bags here. The instructions are really easy to follow, the only thing I had trouble with were getting all the corners equal (as you may tell from the photos!). I did end up doing a lot of unpicking, but by the 4th bag, I was a pro :D
Die Schweiz
After France we spent a bit of time in Switzerland, as you can see below :)
Canal boating the safe way…
Here are some pics taken on our recent canal boating adventure in France. As you will see, our little boat had a slightly unfortunate name, which provided endless entertainment for those on board of course.
A weekend in France
Last weekend we had the privilege of staying with our American friends in their beautiful French country house. We had the most perfect summer weekend, and I came home desperately trying to convince Dave that we needed a French country house too, preferably with lots of land, a creek, a chateau.. you know – the usual. He quickly reminded me that money is required to purchase such things, along with the fact that they speak French in France.. and we don’t know French. Hm. Oh well.. I think it’s definitely worth working towards!
So anyway, while we were there we took a trip out to a beautiful town called Vézelay, where we managed to stumble upon an antique shop that had boxes and boxes of old timber letterpress letters just lying around on the floor. I agree that this might not be so exciting for most people, but I have been dreaming of this day for a long time… and wouldn’t you know it, now that the time had come, I had no idea what I should spell with my new found letters! We ended up just getting our names, but I might think about it a bit harder for next time we’re out that way!
Wild Raspberries
This week we had the pleasure of having a friend from London come and stay with us for a couple of days. On Tuesday we took her for a drive into the Black Forest, ending up at a tiny lake (Nonnenmattweiher) where we could pick wild raspberries growing around the shore. We weren’t really sure what to expect, having never really picked wild berries before, but they were small and really sweet – great on pancakes the next day!!
Swiss National Holiday
This weekend Switzerland celebrates their National Holiday, and last night it kicked off in Basel with a bunch of festivities (much drinking, boat races, more drinking), and finished with a fireworks display over the Rhine. Dave and I, as well as our two lovely American friends Alex and Ally, decided to brave the crowds in Basel for a beer or two overlooking the Rhine as the sun went down. It really was a beautiful night for it, and considering it’s one of only two nights that the Swiss are legally able to set off their own fireworks (I think – second only to New Years), it was a pretty fun atmosphere.
We decided not to stay in for the fireworks, but instead drove back into Germany and found ourselves a patch of grass on a hill in Lörrach that overlooks Basel. What a great night!
la case de cousin paul
While we were in wandering around Sacre Coeur in Paris, we found this beautiful store selling all different coloured ‘ball’ fairy lights. It’s called ‘la case de cousin paul‘. While they do sell ready-made sets in certain colours, you can also browse the store with a basket in hand, and pick out the colours you would like to have on your string of fairy lights! All the different colours make for such eye-candy.. I literally had to be dragged out of the store. Luckily for those of us that don’t actually live in France, they have a website in which you can drag and drop your favourite colours onto a string of lights, and they’ll ship it to you. Brilliant!
Sweet Paris
I just thought I’d share a couple of photos of some old posters that were exposed in one of the metros in Paris. We had specifically planned the trip last weekend just to catch up with some family who were there over the weekend, but managed to extend our stay to 3 nights which was perfect!
On Thursday night we got ourselves caught in one of the most incredible storms I’ve ever seen.. it came up so suddenly that all we could do was just stop in the middle of the footpath while we were pelted with rain and bits of debris and hope the wind didn’t just sweep us off our feet . We were also hoping it wouldn’t pick up any stray coffee tables or chairs and throw them our way. We eventually managed to run into a restaurant (with staff desperately trying to hold down their awnings and tables) completely saturated and freezing.. far too much excitement if you ask me!
The rest of the holiday was much less dramatic I’m please to say!