Days out in France - Falaise Castle, Normandy

Last year we visited Normandy. Although we've been there many times, one place we hadn't yet seen was the small town of Falaise and it's famous castle.

This small town dates back to Roman times and is probably best known today for being the birthplace of William the Conqueror. We visited on a weekday in October so out of season (no crowds) but still warm enough to enjoy the town and the castle grounds.

The castle itself is a wonderful mix of modern and old. Some parts of the castle have modern 'repairs' and visitors are given an interactive tablet to use as they go around - the treasure hunt kept me busy for ages!

Armed with a tablet and ready for the treasure hunt!

I'm trying very hard not to look down here - those flooring I was walking on had very big gaps down to a very big drop!!  The view from the top was worth it though.

If you're ever in the area, this is definitely worth a visit. Be warned though, there's a lot of steps and climbing and if you can go out of season, you could almost have the castle to yourself like we did.

Thanks for reading

Cathy
xx

A September and October Instagram round up

Hello there,

It's been a busy few months. We travelled to parts of the UK we'd never been to before, met Stormtroopers and wandered through Bayeux under a spooky orange sky.

Here's a few photos of the last couple of months:

Castles, we did a few....

I learnt that selfies on a windy day in front of Bamburgh Castle are never a good idea. I also learnt that I'm not that found of steep stairs in York with not many handrails. And Alnwick Castle was as beautiful as I was hoping for.

I met all sort of people at Defcon VI in Totton

We spent a glorious week exploring Normandy:

More castles, more scary staircases and beautiful beaches.

Hope you enjoyed my round up. It's the countdown to Christmas now (#nevertooearly) - time for all those Christmas jumpers, silly hats and endless adverts for sofas and perfumes.

Thanks for reading

Cathy
xx

Booking a little French cottage - our experience

Hello there,

It's that time of year when the all the adverts are full of sunny holidays and exotic destinations. Beach, activity, cultural, city breaks, you name it, it's on offer. So where to start?

About this time last year, we decided we wanted to stay in a cottage in Normandy, France - easy we thought. Nope, not quite as easy to start with as we thought.

First up, we're awkward. We wanted a Tuesday to Tuesday booking. So many places we looked at only offered a Saturday to Saturday option. Plus we wanted small, really small. There was only 2 of us and we didn't want to rattle around a cottage during a potentially chilly time of year (we wanted to go mid-October). We wanted small, cosy, petite - you get the idea.

Unrealistic? Maybe...

So on a rainy afternoon, I settled down with a cuppa and ploughed through an awful lot of holiday and booking websites (btw - this isn't a sponsored post - I just wanted to share our booking experience). I found the website French Country Cottages which offered small cottages with midweek arrival dates - brilliant! So we chose a cottage, paid a deposit, gave our details and we were booked.

It looked lovely.

And then what? We'd never booked a cottage before in France. Where do we get the keys from? When will we get the address? What do we need to bring?

We needn't have worried, the booking confirmation gave us all the details plus the option of booking a bedding and towel package (definitely a good idea - less to pack!). A week or so before we arrived, we would be given contact details to phone the key holder to arrange an arrival time/key handover.

(That bit was scary. My French is basic at best and the thought of a phone call in French bought me out in a hot sweat! Thank goodness the key holder spoke some English and had a lot of patience!)

So what was it like? I can honestly say - much better than expected. The pictures we saw online were accurate and it was the perfect size for 2 people.

We were in Cerisy-la-Forêt and staying here felt like we were staying in a real French community. It's a beautiful village with a corner shop just a few mins walk away. Locals walked past and peered in through the windows (slightly unnerving, but you got used to it), the neighbours rooster woke me at an ungodly hour each day and the house creaked like something from a Hitchcock movie.

Would we do it again? Well we've just booked again for a repeat visit so the answer is definitely yes!

Thanks for reading

Cathy
xx