Eco-family Explorers

Norfolk is lovely. It really is. And I'm not going to intentionally tell you anything about it, because I'm sure it's all been written before and besides some people at Norfolk county council get paid for writing nice things about Norfolk. Not a broad and very cold - but beautiful none the less I'm going to write about us. It's been a while since I blogged because writing is something I enjoy doing when it's optional. Like lighting fires  - that's something I like doing when it's optional. After 2 weeks of having to tend solid-fuel stoves in order to stay warm I really don't feel like lighting fires anymore. After 2 months of blogging once a week-ish, it started to feel like a chore and so it hasn't happened for a while. And now I'm back, and looking forward to sharing with you some of the joys and trials of travelling with kids, in a motorhome, for a year. I think that as a family we agree that the last month has been better for us

Nous voici en Norfolk depuis presque 3 semaines, et nous y restons encore une petite semaine.. Oui, nous nous sommes accordés une vrai pause dans notre périple. Nous vous avions raconté que les enfants étaient las de devoir changer de lieu toutes les semaines. Nous avions organisé une échange de maison sur la côte est de l'Angleterre, et la famille nous a invité à venir les rejoindre avant. Donc nos enfants ont pu passer une semaine ensemble - 6 enfants et 4 adultes cela fait du monde à nourrir - heureusement qu'on a le camping car pour se coucher.. En plus, nous en avons profité pour voir des amis de James qui n'habitent pas loin - nous y sommes allées pendant 2 week-ends. Steve étant ingénieur électrique, les 2 hommes ont passés de bonnes heures ensemble à réparer notre chauffage, et à parler 'tech'.  Ils ont deux filles de 12 et 8 ans,  et l’aînée a adoré s'occuper de Myriam-  bonheur totale pour tout le monde! Entre le pub, un bon curry, un après-midi à

I've just spent a couple of days with Samuel in Paris, and while walking through the streets, looking at shop fronts, we had some great discussions about advertising. He wondered why people would buy from one shop as opposed to another (in Paris, shops seem to be in clusters - you might walk along one road and find 5 or 6 clothes shops, and in another street there will be several toy shops, for example).  I was surprised by Samuel's thoughts, and perception, and so I quote  "Mum - to run a good shop, what you need is 1) to have an attractive window display 2) to do good advertising and marketing, so that people want to buy what you have to sell 3) to sell quality goods that people want to buy 4) to sell at a fair price." This is quite rare from a boy who usually is looking how to make the most money he can! Meanwhile, back in the UK - we've borrowed a lovely house just outside Milton Keynes for the week. We chose the house primarily for its fantastic

We've just spent 5 days in Tilstock, Shropshire - visiting Grandad Phil and Nain (pronounced nine) Elaine. Samuel and Nathanael enjoyed investigating Grandad Phil's model trains and playing Settlers of Catan, and Myriam had a lovely morning bonding with Nain Elaine over Frozen!! (luckily Elaine was a drama teacher in a former life, so she's happy to sit down in front of a movie)... Den hunting in the nature reserve We enjoyed exploring the area, including a full day (oops, wasn't supposed to be that long) walk to a local nature reserve. We went through fields of horses, sheep, sweetcorn, and even a field of young bulls!! Not something we wanted to repeat in a hurry, so we found a different way home! We also had a great day in Shrewsbury - we'd downloaded a whodunnit style trail that took us through the town finding all our clues. We won't spoil it for you (partly because we didn't get time to find out all the answers), but I can promise it

Our travels have continued even while our blogging has been faltering. It is easy to tell you where we've been... just have a look at our updated map ...it's rather more work to write something interesting about our experiences. That's not to say that our experiences haven't been interesting, we just have to pick and choose which bits to share with you.  Over the last few weeks we have explored Lancaster Castle where Pilates was invented , raced a steam train on our bikes and won, helped some Australians operate canal lock gates, and camped next to the 5th tallest industrial gas flue (chimney) in England. If at least one of those things isn't interesting to you then presumably you'd like to hear about the state of Smart-Motorway upgrades on the UK road network? We have lots of experience with those too. Our final week in Lancashire was spent with James' Mum Sue and her partner Ian. We made the most of the comforts of a warm home and acce

En partant pour cette année d'aventures, je n'aurais jamais pensé à dire "et oui, il faut absolument qu'on ait des moments ou nous ne sommes pas tous ensemble, cela va être essentiel"... Et bien oui.  En septembre, j'étais déjà partie en France pendant 48 heures avec Nathanael- j'avais des rendez-vous, et c'était lui qui avait le plus de mal avec notre année sabbatique. Cela lui a fait un bien fou - il n'a plus le mal de pays.. (ou plutôt des copains!). Certes, il a envie de les retrouver, mais cela ne lui fait plus de la peine, comme avant. Mais bon, le but de ce voyage là, ce n'était pas de passer un moment seule avec Nathanael.  Nous venons de passer 10 jours avec ma belle mère et son compagnon, Ian, dans le nord-ouest d'Angleterre. Et là, quelle bonheur, ils nous ont proposé une journée de baby-sitting. Nous en avons profité pour faire une randonnée - sous la pluie, le brouillard, j'ai fini dans des vêtements tremp

At this point, in order to understand our choice of destinations it might be useful to introduce you to Atack-opoly A gift that sat unopened on a shelf for many years has become our overall plan for this trip. It's a make-your-own monopoly type game which we customised with a photos of all the places we want to visit, as voted for by each member of the family. Myriam said she wanted to go fish (sic) and so Fish & Relax is the 'Free Parking' square. If you zoom in a bit you'll see that Snowdonia National Park is on the left hand side and so that's where we went. (We're not doing the spaces in the order they are on the board, nor should you pay too much attention to the East/North/South/West thing.) We stayed at the southern foot of Snowdon in a lovely campsite which is currently fighting for survival. Beddgelert the nearest village kept us supplied with cakes and coffee and the other things you need when you go out for a cycle in the pouring rain. Onc

A couple of you are struggling with translating our posts. If you read our pages from our website, you can simply put the page link into Google Translate . Copy and paste the URL of our latest blog post from the address bar of your browser into Google Translate, like this: On the right hand side of the page first choose then language you want to read the post in and then click on Translate or the link displayed in the grey box. This should give you an automatic translation into the language that you specified. It's not perfect but it should give you at least a gist of what we want to say. If you receive an email with our post in it, either copy/paste the text into google translate directly, or else click on the title of the blog, which leads to our website, and then you can follow the steps above. ------------------------------------ Quelques uns d'entre vous ont du mal à traduire nos pages vers le français. Si vous lisez nos articles à partir de notre site web, vou

Depuis lundi, nous voici de retour à Wrightington, chez ma belle mère. Mardi, James et moi aurions souhaité passer la journée à la maison - cela faisait presqu'une semaine qu'on n'avait plus de Wifi😟 (oui oui, on s'est rendu compte qu'on est des accros!) Or, on s'est rendu compte que pour garder la sérénité dans notre famille, les enfants ont besoin de sortir tous les jours. Je me rappelle d'une phrase que j'ai entendu il y a un bon moment  - la seule façon d’être une famille positive est de passer au moins deux heures dehors par jour. Donc, direction la ferme de Greenslate , pour un après-midi en 'forest school' pour Myriam.. un atelier parents-enfants.  Nous avons utilisé des matériaux naturels pour un atelier art, ramassé le bois pour notre feu de camp, grillé des chamallows sur un morceau de bois que Myriam a taillé elle même, et terminé avec des jeu du style cache cache et chat. Entre-temps, James, Samuel et Nathanael sont parti

 If the primary objective of our year-long road trip is to give our children a taste of life in the UK, then our two days in and around Ravenglass were a specialist module in English holidays. We arrived having driven down the western edge of the Lake District and made the most of the good weather by heading down to the beach. Ravenglass is actually on an estuary of three rivers and the beach is really the banks of the river Esk, but Samuel was on a total mission to build sandcastles and so that's what we did. The rising tide provoked a conversation about the challenge posed by rising sea levels and the link to climate change. Their sandcastle was swiftly protected by substantial sea defences that gave it another 10 minutes of existence.  Paddling in the semi-saline waters of the river Esk and the Irish sea while complaining about the inconsistent structural characteristics of the estuary sand somehow captured the essence of an English beach holiday. I don't know ab

After Ullswater, we travelled South-West to the Ravenglass Camping and Caravanning Club site , which had been recommended to us by family. To be honest, we probably wouldn't have picked this site out of all that the CCC has to offer in the Lake District, if it weren't for their recommendation. For starters, it's not next to a lake! We also didn't like the fact that the play area is not within the campsite boundaries.  We're glad that they sold it to us. First things first - the practicalities. The play area is lovely for young children - probably up to about age 7/8 maximum. It's not campsite property, it is run by the local council, and is just next to the Ravenglass train station. So if you're a steam train fan, you'll be delighted to spend hours supervising your children here - the play area even has a train theme to it. There's also a large field opposite, great for ball games and wood exploration. However, not so suitable for

I made some vegetable broth for lunch and this is how. Warning : this is not a recipe. If this gets a good reception then I might try more detailed recipes but, for a start, I don't have a weighing scale so that could be tricky. PS. I'm also experimenting with software. If this works then I'll get rid of the watermarks in the video.

Nous sommes dans le nord-ouest d’Angleterre pour un peu plus d’un mois, et nous avons passé 4 nuits à côté du lac d’Ullswater. Comme je vous ai dit, nous avons choisi ce site pour sa proximité avec un village (Pooley Bridge) et aussi ses poneys.. Et donc nous avons profité de l’extérieur, du paysage magnifique qui nous a entouré. Mercredi nous avons fait un tour du lac en bateau touristique, ce qui nous a mené au petit village de Glenridding, de l’autre côté du lac.  Dans ces deux villages, nous avons pu constater les dégâts toujours présents du déluge dévastateur de décembre 2015. Des ponts temporaires, des maisons démolis ou inhabités, cette région a souffert, et va encore souffrir, des effets du changement climatique.  Il y a des maisons magnifiques autour du lac, mais elles sont à vendre, personne ne souhaite y habiter. A Glenridding nous avons marché 3km pour visiter un lac en haut d’une colline – nous étions fier de Myriam en particulier qui a fait le tout toute seul