ARDECHE holiday part 2

 This is the Ducal Palace in Dijon the front facade.

 Shopping in Dijon, the girls headed straight for their beloved SEPHORA.

 A roof pattern I liked.

 Ducal Palace from the side

 From a little street...

 Looking up

 Looking diagonally...

 Another grand building, by this time we needed to rush back as the parking meter would expire.

 Running along, admiring the banners and that LEAFY HEAD????

 Quick a photo of our hotel: the leafy grape-vines across the terrace

 Then a very very Looooong drive, and at last we have amazing views so I stop!

 This is the hairpin bend we had stopped at... We had amazing views on the way up earlier but had not stopped now on the way down on the far side of a mountain range I said we do it NOW.

 And then we arrived !!! PGL camp , it looked quite sparse and awful and made us cry so no photos were taken...Ugh tents and such plastic frame beds, such a lot of gravel and no flowers.
This is the guide to the river descent that we will do in the week:

 Now we DID it and it was FABULOUS but we could not and did not take cameras on board as a capsize was a distict possibility. Outrageously expensive and unflattering photos were taken and here are a few sample ideas of what it was like:

 This was kayak- day were we were solo.

 Mostly we were in 2 person canoes like this!

 With all sorts of small and large rapids! WHITE WATER!!!

 see?

 And YES this did happen to ALL of us at some time or other....

 THIS is what we canoed under and also with a kayak, it's at the beginning and we did it twice.

 Absolutely AMAZING!

 And Miss Y on activity days DID the HIGH ROPES! Not me, I did it once, never again!

 I'm photographer and video maker, keeper of memories!

 WOW she went so high, such courage! Just walking along?

 And also going up for the Trapeze jump...

 And swinging down after jumping the trapeze...

 THEN the DINNER!

 And late evening, sneaking out of camp to go to the village for ICE CREAM!!!

Wye Valley weekend continues...

Today it's raining cats ans dogs outside and it's grey and murky and turning a bit chilly now too.
So what better than a bit of reminiscent blogging about that glorious weekend around the 6th September?
I've done about 4 hours of crochet already but can't show you yet as I'm trying to get it published as it will reach a wider audience that way....

So the Wye Valley it is today.

It was a lovely walk, good company and sunny weather... At this point my feet are aching a bit but still OK.

 I love walking in a group, it's so friendly and interesting, chatting here and there or just staring and enjoying the view.

 The sheep were not so keen to see us.

 Some came close to have a good look....

 And then ran away sharpish!

 Aaaaaah Good for the soul, this view.

 the sheep left behind now.

 And more hills ahead.

 Then a descent. This is where my feet really started to hurt and toward the last mile or so I was hobbling about in agony.

 This was the walk:

 Then a very ENGLISH scene:  village cricket!

 And finally back at the church we started out from. Hoorah! We sat down and had a picnic.

 Then a drink and lovely live folk music - by our own folk club musicians-at the pub, I enjoyed it so much, forgot to take any pictures...Blessed we were, such talent, such fabulous music! a JOY.

And then a drive back to the hotel.

BYE BYE  WYE VALLEY.