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Monday 20 May 2013

I've had a holiday!

So now I'm home with 1500+ photos to sort out, and a jungle in the veg patch. It's cold and drizzly and I've only gone and caught a cold so I'm not doing very much. Even sorting through photos is taking twice as long as my brain has turned to mush.

Here are some photos that sort of sum up my holiday. In good time I will post more, obviously, and probably put some into albums which I'll share. All in all we have had a fantastic time, could have done with a little less breeze/more warmth at times but having come home to about 12C, I am now thinking fondly of those 'cold' days in Spain when the temps dropped to about 17/18C!

Mandy goes bug hunting in SW France

Crosses the Pyrenees into Spain

Spanish bugs come hunting for Mandy (it's some kind of chafer beetle)

Mandy dips her toes into the Med and squeals with the cold

But does manage to have a dip in the hotel pool; first swim since 2000!!!

The Moorhen Lady meets her Spanish cousin, the Purple Gallinule (Porphyrio porphyrio)

Then visits a tropical bird and butterfly park and makes a new BFF

It really didn't want to get off me and pecked me and shrieked whenever I tried to get it
onto my fingers; I got snuggled for about 15 minutes before it finally had enough :-)

Unfortunately our car decided to play up and decided that, although it had crossed the Pyrenees at over 1600m, it would overheat every time we tried to climb a mini mountain after that. It had done this once before in the Basque Country 18 months ago, but after that holiday the garage could find no fault so we had forgotten about it, thinking it was one of those one-off things. Well it started again to the point that we could not trust it one bit, so had to do some hurried rearranging of the last 3 days of our holiday, as the two nights to be spent in a Casa Rurale up high in the mountains was not going to happen! So we stayed on longer in Roses on the coast and came home via the long and boring autoroute going from the Med coast to the Atlantic at Bordeaux then back up via a last night in La Rochelle.

The car is now history and we'll be looking for something more reliable. In the meantime, there are no mountains here, so it works fine....

19 comments:

  1. Thanks so much for sharing your holiday with us! Loved the bug and the snuggling bird was precious. I'm guessing you have more photos of both! Happy car shopping :-)

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    1. Hi Marianne, yes of course I have many photos of me pulling silly faces with a bird pecking my neck and cuddling up to me! Car shopping is not so much fun though :-)

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  2. Sorry to hear your automobile is not well............. Do you wanna buy a VW Golf??? :)

    A Nonny Mouse

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    1. If it gets up mountains or even steep hills we'll swap for a Mondeo estate.... :-)

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  3. Jealous is what I am feeling after reading this page. :-)

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    1. Why Carl, cos you want bugs and birds on your head, or a bit of Mediterranean sunshine....? :-) It is another world on the Med, much as I love our Brittany coastline. Just need to avoid it when it's full of people. :-)

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  4. welcome back! sorry to hear about the cold but i am so happy to see you had such a great time! Love the pic with the snuggling bird, you look adorable!

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    1. Thank you Ada, you are such a sweetie and always cheer me up :-)

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  5. Lovely pics Mandy, glad you had a good holiday.

    Philippa

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    1. Hi Philippa - it was great and much looked forward to but now I am happy to be home, which I think is always the best! It means I like home :-)

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  6. Wonderful photos that tell a story for us to enjoy, Mandy. It seems as if you had a lovely holiday full of fun and adventure. I am looking forward to seeing more. Glad you are back and safe and sound...

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    1. Thanks Michelle! Tons of photos to share which I will have to work out quite how best to, without boring the pants off everyone :-)

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  7. Hi Millymollymandy !
    It seems that you had your own paparazzi and that your got nice vacations !

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    1. I never thought about my husband being my paparazzi before, Cergie! I didn't know he was secretly taking pics of me taking pics of bugs, but I did spot him taking a photo of me in the pool from our hotel balcony!

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  8. Looks like you had a good time. 17 / 18 degrees is great when the alternative is wearing an extra jersey and long trousers. Just back from Jura (not the French one). One day blue sky, warm and amazing, next, day gales and heavy horizontal rain.

    Look forward to seeing the pics when your fluey thing disappears.

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    1. Hi Nick, those temps are actually preferable to 25C plus unless you are on a lazing on the beach type of holiday! Took me a while to figure out which Jura you meant, I thought you meant the Swiss Jura, then something in my fuzzy brain clicked ;-)

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  9. I have to ask, how was the hotel in La Rochelle?
    Have they updated the bathroom so it has a washbasin actually in it?
    Off on our hols tomorrow to our second home.

    Philippa

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    1. It hasn't changed Philippa, only it is now called an Ibis Budget hotel! Somehow being on the way home it didn't seem to matter so much, and the hard bed wasn't actually a problem this time. Have a good week and I'll catch up with you in the summer!

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  10. I'll look forward to that Mandy, miss you on GITS though !

    Philippa

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