Friday 15 July 2016

Holiday 2016!

I am still sweating, wine, cheese and pain au chocolat. I'm certain. We have returned from a non-relaxing, busy and warm 2 weeks away in the Dordgone, South of France. My happy place. I seem to have spent the last few months willing the holiday to come around and as quickly as it starts we drive home. Bad times. As we have over the last few years, we stayed at the Gites Lacombe in their 3 gites Ferme de la Garrigue. This is collection of gites with a private pool with space for up to 4 people per gite - perfect for our family and our friends family. We spent the first week with our friends and their little girl before my BFF and her hubby came for the 2nd week.



So we left a VERY gloomy UK behind and set on our way to France (after waiting almost 2 hours to get past border control - not a great way to start the holiday, bloody Euros). 

To get to where we stay in the Dordogne it takes around 8 1/2 hours or so of driving (from Calais) but with a few stops it does take probably around 10 hours so we had an overnight stopped around halfway down to break the journey up. I love the French roads, yes you pay tolls for the privilege but they are much less stress than the UK roads in my opinion. I'm not going to write a huge amount in this post as it's mainly a picture post but I will touch on briefly some of the things we did. Because we have visited the Dordogne many years now I think a separate post will be beneficial with ideas and suggestions of places to visit.



So we arrived at our gite at about 5pm (ish), we had a fairly good journey with the kids  -other than Alfie having some travel sickness and chucking up in the car on the twisty roads. Luckily I managed to catch most of it in a plastic bag but then found this had a hole in it and some puke did manage to escape so I ended up chucking the sick bag back at my husband (while he was driving) in the hope that he would throw it somewhere (not sure where, out the window maybe) but in the end it ended up back in my lap to which I then threw it another bag that I found, fun times (LOL). I'm sure you can imagine the scene, our friends who were driving behind guessed something odd was happening as we were swerving somewhat, ha. Once we'd cleaned Alfie up in a services and started on our way we then had a HUGE panic that we'd left bedbear 3 aka teddy as we couldn't find him and ended up having to swing back round into the services to have a proper look and thank christ that he was just buried. So, no major dramas haha. 

When we got settled it actually wasn't very warm. In fact it was pissing down with rain.....not a great start. We have always been so lucky with the weather visiting at the end of June, in fact last year was our hottest year to date. We were all slightly concerned that we had packed the wrong type of clothes and for that evening we ended up sitting inside and our friends having the log burner on! We needn't have worried though because the weather did pick up and over the next few days it was beautifully warm and sunny.




Everything was delightfully green and lush this year. The Dordgone does tend to be a very vibrant and rural area but more so this year and when we were chatting to the gite owner she had told us that it had been a very wet few months which would explain just why it was so green this year.  God I just love the area, everything about it just makes me so happy. 




The view from Domme.

A view up to Castelnaud.


We managed to get a good mix of visiting tourist spots and chilling out. There is a hell of a lot to do in the area and we've managed to see quite alot over the last few years but there is always something that we like to return to and generally something we do that we've never done before or if we have, left it for a few years and it is fresh and new again. Like I said I'm going to talk about these things in another post but here is a brief list of the things that we did do.

  • Castelnaud - a large medieval fortress, alot of fun to walk around. The walk up to it is errrr steep, yes steep, very steep!
  • A visit to Domme, a beautiful Bastide town up in the hills - gorgeous.
  • Sarlat - my favourite medieval town (and where hubby proposed!), the Saturday market is a must.
  • La foret de singes, Rocamadour - a free roaming monkey forest!
  • Prehisto dino park, Rocamadour - a dino walk, this I wasn't overly impressed by.
  • Gardens of Marqueyssac - one of my favourite places to visit, miles of boxwood and incredible views, it is sublime.
  • Aquarium du Perigord Noir, Mirror Maze & Crazy Golf - A fantastic day out.
  • Canoeing - I didn't canoe as Elarna was too little but everyone else had a great day.
  • Gouffre de Padirac - A deep and underground cave, it is quite something else to see and sooo far down. I didn't visit this year but Adi took Alfie with our other friends and he loved it.

Sarlat.


We had a few boozy nights. There was several games of 'who am I' and cheat, we had alot of fun. We are soooo rock and roll being parents and all that I think our latest night was 12:30am. The fresh air and running around after 3 lively kids mixed with drinking copious amounts of booze on the evening made us all pretty tired to be honest.


A very rare shot of me makeup free!
Possibly THE best ice cream parlour.
A trip to Sarlat is not complete without a visit to the biggest and best ice cream parlour I have ever been to. Ahhhh there is so many flavours to choose from and I remember when we first visited and hubby got a 5 boule (scoops) cone, it was flipping huge - I must try and track down the picture. Seriously though every year I have a different flavour and it tastes amazing, I have been known to make a special detour for ice cream and cakes, because the cakes are pretty special too!


Elarna stole Daddy's ice cream, no really.


There was alot of fun to be had with the bubble tornado, I had to mention it because I took this picture of Elarna and I don't think I could have captured it any better, she literally looks like she is wearing bubble glasses. Love it. 



The next few pictures is basically spam. Some stunning views, a few from the gardens and the aquarium. There is just so much to feature!




















We spent a fair amount of time by the pool. Alfie has always loved the water and I feel Elarna is following in his steps and Daddys (when Adi was younger he was a triathlete and a fab swimmer so clearly the kids get it from him). Alfie would spend all day by the pool and in the pool if he could, his swimming has always been pretty good, he literally has no fear around and in the pool, this holiday he began to swim an awful lot without his floats on, when he did wear his floats he really was full of confidence - I adore seeing him develop like this in something that he truly does love. Elarna also just wanted to be in the water, she is such a curious little explorer at the moment and we did have to be very careful with her around the pool because when the big kids were in there she wanted to join them! She loved it.



I love this picture so much.

We even managed to get out for a meal out the 2 of us. Our lovely friends babysat for us and we jumped at the chance to head into Sarlat for a lovely meal out. We ate a fab little restaurant right in the market place, not one we would normally choose as we would prefer to head off the main street but I'm so glad we picked this one as it was lovely. It was so nice to get out just the  of us and not have to worry about entertaining a 1 year old and 4 year old!





We really did have a fabulous 2 weeks, it was over far too quickly and doesn't the end of a holiday suck. I apologise for the poor photos of our gites below, I've no idea why they have come out a little hazy as it wasn't when I took them. Anyway you see now the lay out of the 3 gites and we were in the one on the right as you look at the picture. It's such an idyllic situation and it was private and secluded enough to let the kids play in the garden safely. We love returning back to the Dordogne and I'm already looking forward to our return visit next year (not officially booked but it will be by the end of the year I'm sure!). 





We left on the Friday with one set of friends to have a stopover in Champagne before returning home, I'm not going to talk too much about it in this post as I think I might write a separate post on Champagne too - this is a fun place to visit but I feel we need more time there as we always seem to be rushing. 



Writing this post has given me the holiday blues back again! If you are looking for a place to visit that is beautiful, historical, warm, rustic and family orientated I can't recommend the Dordogne highly enough, if you don't want to drive the whole way there are several airports that you can fly to. 

I hope you've enjoyed reading my holiday rundown and the pictures I have shared. Would you consider a trip to the Dordogne?

33 comments:

  1. Not the best start to a holiday, but looks like you had a great time. Beautiful place #wotw

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  2. We've talked about a gite escape to Dordgone for quite some time now. This post just makes me want to book now. We've been to France quite a few times on city breaks, skiing and to coastal areas but never here. Your photos capture its beauty. I have serious holiday envy right now!
    Potty Adventures
    #binkylinky

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  3. Oh wow, what a wonderful holiday! It looks so beautiful there and you clearly all had a brilliant time. Glad that the weather picked up and you crammed in so many fab memories. Hope the holiday blues leave you soon - get planning your next one, that often helps! Thanks for sharing with #WotW x

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  4. Looks like an amazing trip! Might be a long drive but I think so worth it! We are not going to go anywhere this summer vacation but this post made me look forward to having some time to do just this have fun without worries! #wotw

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  5. It sounds and looks like you had such a wonderful time...Gorgeous photos x

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  6. The vomit thing made me laugh loads! It looks beautiful And so much yummy food and booze!! Hope the holiday blues are almost gone xx #binkylinky #wotw

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  7. Glad you had such a good time :) the photos are lovely :)

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  8. This all looks amazing - I have three weeks until my France holiday and I'm counting down.

    http://lizziedailyblog.blogspot.com

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  9. I bet putting on the log burner at the start of your holiday was a shock! But glad it picked up and it looks like you have an amazing time. We've often holidayed with friends or family and it is great when you get some time to yourselves to go out for a meal or just be away from it all for a little while! Glad you had a fantastic time & thnx for the location recommendation
    #Wordoftheweek

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  10. Wow that's some ice cream parlour. I've yet to travel to the south of France on holiday with the family. We've got family in the North of the country so we could stop there first. Thanks for sharing photos of your holiday with us at #WotW

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  11. Aside from the rain and the delay at border control it sounds like you had a good time. I'm not sure I could stick a 10 hour journey with kids so I admire you! Thanks for linking to the #BinkyLinky

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  12. I've never been to France but it looks wonderful beautiful photos Thanks for linking to the #binkylinky come back next week please

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  13. the photos all look amazing and the weather looks lush!
    Lx
    Http://workingmumy.blogspot.com
    #MarvMondays

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  14. Lovely photos, looks like you had a great time. I love your little girls rainbow swimming costume! x #MarvMondays

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  15. It sounds like you had a wonderful time and it looks idyllic. It's not a place I know at all but I would definitely consider it having read your post! Lovely pictures too X #MarvMondays

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  16. How gorgeous! It looks beautiful and that ice-cream parlour, I'm drooling just thinking about it. #bestandworst #MarvMondays

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  17. Popping back thanks for hosting the #bestandworst

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  18. Looks a lovely holiday. I've not been on holiday to France since I was a kid so would love to go back. Mainly for moules and fromage! #bestandworst

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  19. Gorgeous! I think that part of France is perfect for a family holiday - we went when I was about 10 and loved it. Sounds like you had an amazing time. #bestandworst

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  20. Ah wow, it looks like you had an amazing time! The photos are just lovely - I'd love to visit there! #bestandworst

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  21. Your photos are stunning! I've never really considered France as a holiday destination but we definitely like the idea of driving into Europe and this looks idyllic. So lovely that you have a place that you can return to with such special memories - especially with it being where you got engaged. Thanks for hosting and sharing your gorgeous holiday pics with #bestandworst xx

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  22. Lovely photos - seems like you had a great time! The ice cream looks amazing. Its making me all excited for our trip in october #bestandworst

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  23. aw no wonder you have the holiday blues - your holiday sounds and looks great :) love the photo of your girl in the crocodile mouth :) poor Alfie too getting car sick - but can imagine as it is a long trek. #bestandworst

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  24. Amazing pictures. It looks like you had an amazing time, and those cakes, that ice cream, the bread mmmmm. I love France, I haven't been in years though, really want to go back now #bestandworst

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  25. Looks like you and your family had an amazing trip! Might be a long drive but I think so worth it! Aww we are not going to go anywhere this summer but we are next year so we will look forward to that! #BestAndWorst

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  26. Looks and sounds like you had such a lovely holiday. Love the south of France though haven't been brave enough tp make the trip with kiddies yet though! Hubs certainly isn't! Xx

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  27. Aaah, the ice cream. And the bubble machine! Lovely... I think we might visit next year so really useful to read the tips here. #bestandworst

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  28. Brilliant - I think we're going next year so these tips are really useful. Love the ice cream and bubble photos - you must have all been knackered!! #bestandworst

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  29. Serious holiday envy! I love going on holiday to France. I stayed in Dordogne once ad a teenager with my friend and her family and it is such a beautiful place, we did a day of canoeing up the river. So lovely you got to have a date night and that all the kids had a lovely time xx #bestandworst

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  30. What a beautiful holiday! I love France and we actually went to the Dordogne a couple of years ago when the little lady was one, and rented a huge cottage with my husbands family- I think there were about 14 of us! It was fab, one of the loveliest holidays we've been on. I love the look of the place that you guys stayed at and am definitely going to have a look at it for next summer as we've always said we'd like to go back to that area of france. The long drive is a bit challenging though with very little ones! Such a lovely post and pics, glad you all had a lovely time :-) Emily #bestandworst

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  31. What a beautiful holiday! I love France and we actually went to the Dordogne a couple of years ago when the little lady was one, and rented a huge cottage with my husbands family- I think there were about 14 of us! It was fab, one of the loveliest holidays we've been on. I love the look of the place that you guys stayed at and am definitely going to have a look at it for next summer as we've always said we'd like to go back to that area of france. The long drive is a bit challenging though with very little ones! Such a lovely post and pics, glad you all had a lovely time :-) Emily #bestandworst

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  32. Looks lovely - we're off on holiday next week and I can't wait! #bestandworst

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  33. I can see why you love it so much and why you visit so often, it looks beautiful. Sounds like there's plenty to do too, which is fab for families. It's such a shame holidays whizz by isn't it! You little girly looks so sweet too! x #bestandworst

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