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Showing posts with the label Travel

Going With The Flow

  It has been such a treat to have good weather again, especially as we are on another pet sitting assignment. We decided to take a longer route to our destination in Hampshire - taking a more scenic route out of Cornwall, along the Atlantic Highway and a wonderful stopover with our dear friends in Glastonbury. As always, we enjoyed feasting with great company and left with full bellies, feeling relaxed.  We had already travelled from Cornwall, through Devon and into Somerset and the next part of our journey took us slightly north through Wiltshire and West Berkshire before landing over the border in Hampshire. It was a gorgeous sunny journey with little traffic and we thoroughly enjoyed taking our time, soaking up the sights and loving the changing scenery. It seems such a long time since we travelled through this part of the country...Frome, Trowbridge, Avebury, and Marlborough. Seeing delights such as:  Westbury White Horse   Silbury Hill   West Kennet Long Barrow   Savernake Forest

Slow Travel

We have always enjoyed road trips and you only have to search through our blog to find many posts featuring our trips. We like this independent, laid-back way of travelling. Staying away from the main routes and instead, exploring the quiet roads away from the traffic. On the rare occasions we have been stuck in hold-ups; we remain calm, go with the flow and if possible just look for an alternative way. Holidays for us start as soon as we exit the door to our home and not when we arrive at our destination. Travelling is very much part of the whole experience and we'll either pack a picnic for the journey or pick up food once we're on the road...sometimes even both! No hard or fast rules, just making decisions as we go and doing what we feel. Slow travel is quite wonderful, setting off early and seeing what happens. There are always opportunities presenting themselves - intriguing places we may come across on the way and the people and animals we meet. Leaving our plans open mea

Lonely Planet Goes Vegan - The Vegan Travel Handbook

                           It's a sign there are big changes afoot, when a company like Lonely Planet acknowledges that veganism is here. Although we are not into buying stuff anymore, we do have a passion for books...especially travel books! We have collected many travel guides over the years and we continue to use our French ones even though they are probably over 20 years old now. We bought our first Lonely Planet Publication in 1991... Europe On A Shoestring ! We found it to be a great resource, using it frequently to do research when planning trips, as well as taking it with us.  We love nothing more than sitting with maps and travel books, dreaming and planning our next or future adventures and always try to find whatever information we can about places to eat, so when we heard about a new vegan travel guide - we had to check it out. Click here for a preview of The Vegan Travel Handbook  The book features various lists like The World's

Fontevraud-l'Abbaye

This lovely village is in the Loire. It looks like it could be popular with tourists. But we had the place to ourselves. Lots of pretty places. And a huge Abbey where Richard the Lionheart is buried. A lovely old doorbell. Love Kay and Sime xx

Golfe du Morbihan

We have spent yesterday exploring this lovely area of Brittany. Nice to do when it's a quieter time of year. We drove to Port Navalo at the end of the gulf where it was warm and sunny. We found lots of quiet villages. Marshlands. Maps. Lighthouses. We watched a storm come in while we ate our picnic. There was a cormorant sat on the rock just out at sea, but the camera hasn't picked it up. Lots of the beaches were covered in red seaweed. Chateau Suscinio A 13th century castle with connections to Henry VII and the War of the Roses. We enjoyed a walk around Port Navalo's headland before the stormy weather started! Such a warm and quiet day!  Love Kay and Sime xx

Travelling On A Budget

We often get shocked at how much folks are willing to pay for vacations. Even if we become billionaires...no don't laugh, you never know...we will no doubt continue to travel simply.  We love camping for starters, so we can't imagine not doing it and then there's a real joy in bargain hunting hotels and holiday accommodation. We tend to camp if we can do more than 3 nights and the weather's nice. If it's not so good, then we usually look at self-catering accommodation and easily find great places. When we're on the road we tend to find cheap motels for overnight stays and book a few hours before arrival to save money. These can be anything from a motel chain to a more fancy pants country hotel...on our last trip to France we found ourselves staying in the grounds of a vineyard in Burgundy and it was lovely!  A lot of small hotels open up to business travellers out of season and when they still have rooms available, they reduce their prices and

Slow Travel

All you need is the plan, the road map and the courage to press on to your destination. ~ Earl Nightingale ~  We are pretty sure that we have covered this subject before... We absolutely love road trips and they start as soon as we close the door at home. We focus on the journey, rather than the destination. Sometimes the journey turns out to be completely different than we expected, but it never matters. What is important to us is that we enjoy it. Being on the road lights us both up - the amazing places we come across and the people we meet, the new friends and connections we make - it's all wonderful.  Even when we set out to explore a place only to discover that we have been there before, which seems to happen a lot lately...Hahaha!!! It makes us sad that most people are so keen to get to their destination as quickly as possible, they miss out on so much. Folks who drive long hours don't seem to think of their journey as part of their trip

Sur La Route

Some photos from our recent road trip through France... Old road sign in the Vendee Old meets new A private house now...hope they're still dancing! Spotted this in someone's garden... Looks like Romeo's been busy! Picnic area with quite a view Beautiful old car, but no idea what it is... Organic zero waste van Street art Biocoop Kitty Breton Marais Free books - take, deposit, exchange as you wish.  About to drive over the Saint-Nazaire Bridge Les Moutiers-En-Retz in the Loire-Atlantique...love this place! Bye for now, K&S xx

Calmness and Discipline

"Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom. It is the result of long and patient effort in self-control. It's presence is an indication of ripened experience, and of a more than ordinary knowledge of the laws and operations of thought." ~ James Allen ~ As August was coming to an end last year, we decided to make September a month of gratitude - writing down 10 things to be grateful for every day. It proved to be such a powerful thing to do that we've kept it going. Every night before going to bed, we compile our list together. At first, we were writing about all the big stuff happening in our lives and as time has gone on, we've found ourselves noticing all the little things too and just how quickly these come to mind. The list writing quickly became a habit, it's the last thing we do after cleaning our teeth and it feels so good to do every night. Our mornings also start with even more good habitual routines...medit