Our Trip Across France (2 WEEK LONG JOURNEY)!!!

Heya everybody! Guess what?
We went on a 2 WEEK LONG journey across France on the 9th of September!
(Aaaand it's the 13th of November today. WOW.
...I've been taking a long time on this. Yaay me.)
It was so fun. We went on water slides, snorkeled in amazingly warm crystal-clear oceans, and even saw 2 outrageous castles!!!
I'll show you a montage of all the exciting things we did, and then I'll tell you all about our trip - the happy bits......and the non-happy bits too.
Ready?
Well, here we go!

Well, I hope that wasn't TOO boring...

..now let me tell you all about it (then I'll share some pictures) 

Early in the morning on the 9th Sept. we got into the car and drove about 3 and a half hours to the edge of England, where we stopped for lunch at the Eurotunnel services, and then got on the Eurotunnel.

Then we waited about 30 mins until the train stopped and drove off to mom's friend Mathilde's house, where we stayed for the night (and met their bouncy kitten, Cooka 😸).

The next day, at about 9:20ish in the morning, we got back on the road and drove a full 6 hours to our Eurocamp.

We stayed there for about 5 days, and then woke up SUPER early to drive ANOTHER 6 hours till we got close to the Spanish Pyrenees.

But before we got there (because the route was so long and dad wanted to break it up), we parked at a rocky beach and stayed there for a while. Mom and Dad went snorkeling, I took loads of pictures and the younger two made a trail with big, flat stones all the way to the sea so they wouldn't hurt their feet. After about 2 and a half hours we all trooped back to the car and continued driving to our destination - a big cottage just outside of a French town called Roumazières-Loubert. We had TONS of fun; driving to the market, petting horses and playing in the jacuzzi. We stayed in the cottage for about 6 days and then started driving - first to a castle, called Chȃteau de Chenonceau, and then to a 'pit-stop' - a little campsite tucked away on a roundabout (no, seriously.. we almost missed it), where we stayed for the night. The castle was AMAZING - it had beautiful gardens, a pretty cafe and LOADS of space to run around in. I'll show you some pictures later 😉

Well, when we got to the campsite, Dad, Mom, and us kids (well, mostly Mom and Dad) set up both tiny tents, and then we settled down to have our dinner under the stars (and trees...and bats...and...well, you get the picture). It turned out that the second tent had a leak, so Mom and I slept in the car while the rest of us squeezed into the remaining tent. I don't think Mom had a very good sleep, but I did, and I THINK the others did too.

After we had fully woken up, we packed up super-superfast, hopped into the car again and drove to another big castle called Chȃteau de Chambord. It was OUTRAGEOUS! There were so many rooms, staircases and beautiful paintings (my favorite part 😊). The only downside was that dad had bought us some sorbet, and - too late! - we found out that it had traces of milk. As you MIGHT know, milk is one of my allergies (among others), and so I had one of my WORST EVER reactions to it. But I didn't throw up, which was a huge relief.

 After we enjoyed the castle (or, should I say, the chȃteau..), we drove about 3 hours until we reached our last overnight stay - Mom's friend's house - which is just outside of Paris. We had a lot of fun; they have three kids and two of them are girls, Jenny and I had an especially good time 😊
We loved splashing each other in their outdoor pool, swapping and hiding our utensils at dinner, and playing with their black cat.
Unfortunately, we had to leave the next morning, so we all promised to write and communicate weekly with Skype.
And then came the 3 and a half hour journey to the French side of the Eurotunnel...

After we had waited for a looooong time in the parking lot and an even loooooonger time in the big queue of cars...
We finally made it on to the train, off again, until - after many hours of motorways, traffic lights, and car horns - we eventually backed into our own driveway,
and all of us breathed a huge sigh of relief.


So that was our trip, guys! I really hope you weren't too bored with that...
And now for the pictures!!!!

These pictures are from the first day(s) - before we got to Mathilde's house.

Enjoy!

So Mom took this pic in the Eurotunnel services.

David and Jenny look especially funny 😂

I think this horse sculpture looks amazing!

Haha -

I think this is some sort of rollercoaster..?

The sunset was awesome!

 I love these things :)

If you've ever been to France, you'll know that 

you have to buy a special thingy that sticks 

onto your car window and enables you to pass 

through these terminal-ish looking places 

without having to pay a fee.

I thought this was pretty cool :3

Now, these next few are from when we stayed at Mathilde's house overnight -

most of them star her kitten, Cooka!!!

They are totally super-cute ;)

Look!!!

This is me :3
She was so soft!!!

Here's a tiny vid 

:3333

These were the muffins I ate before we
got going to Eurocamp.


Here's a tour around the pool(s) at Eurocamp...

These next few pictures are from
when we went to our first French beach
(it was beautiful!!!)

Jenny...

...and the boys...

We saw these climbers go all the way to
the top of this big rock!!

Towards the evening the rocks
started to get really beautiful...

I used a special filter on that
was on my camera to get this effect...

These pictures are from when we were

on the road and when we
stopped at our 2nd French beach.
Enjoy!

Sunrise...

Getting to the beach...

..and at the beach!

I took some amazing pictures of French
sparrows (they were SO TAME!!)

Mom went snorkeling, too...

She also took David with her to just put his face in...

...it was so fun!!
(watching them, I mean)


Ok now these pics are from when
we were at the two castles.
I'm sorry I didn't include them in the
original video!!!

This was the first castle -
Chȃteau de Chenonceau - it had the prettiest
garden and was probably the prettiest
out of the two anyway
(but not the most outrageous!!)

We saw water rats on our way to the entrance!

This was me going through the labyrinth - 

it was SO easy though 😠

I loved this bed!!!

The gardens...

We even saw some awesome hot-air
balloons on our way back!

Now for the next castle -
Chȃteau de Chambord.
It didn't have gardens as pretty as the
first castle but it had amazing views!

I have a thing about beds :3

Not exactly sure what this is...

but it's cool anyways.

I'm really sorry this is so blurry -

my camera was about to die and so

I was in a hurry!

These videos were super-short 
for the same reason 😢

They even had made a tiny
model of the whole castle!

These are some pictures of the

 horses the cottage's owner let us go see!

Amazing, aren't they?

Well, I think that's all the pictures and videos I have for you today... I will continue to add some more if I find some important ones though, so keep checking!

That France trip was a once in a lifetime experience for us, and we loved it.

Once again, I apologize for posting this so late (3 months later!?), and 

I hope you all have a merry Christmas!

Thanks for taking the time to read this ;)

Val xx