Eco-family Explorers

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