The view along this stretch of the River Lune at Kirkby Lonsdale was said by John Ruskin to be ‘one of the loveliest in England, therefore the world’. It is a beautifully balanced pastoral scene of woods, hills, river and meadows which was also loved and painted in the 19th century by Turner.
Today the sun was warm, the air scented by meadow-sweet and the water clear. It was a very good place to be.
We drove up to Lancashire and are chilling out in a friend’s house. Hospitality has been a theme throughout this last year.
We are in receipt of the gift of time with friends and family and now the sunshine and warmth of the west coast has amazed us. This is the warmest we have been since Italy. Superboa!
These few days we are catching up on necessary jobs which have had to wait until we got back to the UK.
We still found time to visit an exhibition of photographs commemorating the first launching of the liner and telling the tragic story of the loss of life when the Titanic sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on the 15th of April 1912.
The image is of 6 year old Thomas Douglas Spedden who was one of the many 1st class passengers to survive. By contrast, few 3rd class passengers lived to tell the tale of that terrifying event.
Heading away from the exhibition we discovered a table tennis table and took on two Romanians. We didn’t quite hold our own.
This morning we said goodbye to our friends in Paris and drove to Dunkirk to catch the afternoon ferry to Dover. The roads were extremely wet, and the ferry crossing wild. Then, through the rain, we saw the white cliffs and were back on UK soil in no time.
We drove on to a small town in Berkshire where we met our latest family baby, just a few weeks old. It was incredibly precious to hold her and enjoy our first encounter.
We spent our last day in Paris with our friends at the French Open tennis tournament watching some fascinating games. It was sad to see Jamie Murray and his doubles partner, Bruno Soares go out in the third round of the Grand Slam.
However, the real surprise of the day was when the Williams sisters lost to Kiki Bertens and Johanna Larsson 6-3, 6-3 in a thrilling match for the winning couple.
Our hearts go out to the children and adults injured in yesterday’s thunderstorm in Paris.
The notable moments of the day seem to have revolved around food and drink.
We met a beautiful dog at breakfast, picnicked at lunchtime by the Seine, imbibed Champagne on a cruise along the river and just made it for crêpes and tarte au pommes as an electric storm with crashing rain hit.
Wonder what dinner will bring?
We arrived in Paris today to meet up with friends. After a meal together we sauntered across the Pont d’Iéna in close view of the Eiffel Tower.
It feels strange being in a huge city with so many people everywhere. Very different from the villages we have driven through in the Centre region where you have to look really hard to see anybody at all.
The 12th century tower of the castle of Châteaudun is a hugely majestic defensive building. We were suitably impressed.
Even better is the water tower in Le Gault du Perche which is pretending to be a medieval, cluniesque tower. Parfait!
We have enjoyed the flora and fauna of the Centre region. Mostly familiar to us, we are recognising a transition is taking place. We are almost on our way home.
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