Octoberfest in London and a trip to Paris

October 2016

With my housesit over, I went back to London for a couple of nights before I headed to Paris for a spontaneous trip to see my good friend Emily to celebrate my upcoming birthday (which we had spent together with all my friends in Annecy the year before). First however, was London.
 The first night Joy and I went up together as we wanted to attend London's Oktoberfest and see what the fuss was all about! Located in an enormous tent with long tables, pretzels and mugs of beer, it was rather cool, though we decided next time it would be far more fun to go with a big group of people.

My good friend Justin from Australia (who I had become fast friends with in Annecy) was also in London for a night - though he was off to see the play 'Harry Potter and the cursed child' which I was green with envy about. So the next day we met up from a drink in the afternoon, and passed a few hours reminiscing about the good times in Annecy, and rather a lot of Harry Potter discussion. 

We hung out for a little longer while we waited for the doors to the play to open, chatting about each of our Europe plans and hopefully how we would meet up again next year. To the backdrop of the play just before we parted ways, we snapped this photo which I always find hilarious once you realise that Justin is in fact sitting on his knees in this photo so we could end up in the same frame.

And then suddenly, I was in France again. It was strange to hear the French language after just beginning to adjust to English, but it was also very welcome as I had missed it. Emily was a friend from America who I had met on my French course in Annecy the year before, she lived in the 7th arrondissement in Paris, and as such was only a ten minute walk from the Eiffel tower.

 After a quick shop for food supplies (and an all important stop at the Fromagerie for me, as I had been missing French cheese rather terribly) we decided to be tourists and go wander down the Champs-Elysees. 

It was busy as many other tourists had the same idea, but we persevered and enjoyed ourselves in the Autumn sunshine.

 Emily was working as an au-pair in Paris, so she was quite busy during my stay, meaning my own trip was rather relaxed and lazy as we only went out a few times. When we did go out though, we had great fun being tourists and seeing the main attractions of the city. One of the nights we walked along the Seine and then sat by the side of the river drinking wine, as many other people were doing.

 

We also sat under the Eiffel tower one night, drinking cheap bubbly from wine glasses we had bought with us, surrounded by many others doing the same thing, enjoying late night picnics, and the light show of the Eiffel tower every hour. The atmosphere was relaxed and friendly, and so busy that it felt very safe.


We had planned to go to Montmartre and sit on the steps in the evening and watch the sunset (something that is apparently very popular to do) but unfortunately Emily hurt her knee and wasn't up for the long walk, so we decided to save it for the next time I visited. We still managed to enjoy the sights around her house however, so I didn't mind.

It was awesome to just hang out in Paris and relax at Emily's apartment, and catch up with her after the six months we hadn't seen each other. 

All too soon it was my last day, and we decided to have a good send off by picnicking in the park. Emily knew of a bakery nearby which only made one type of cake, called Merveilleux (but more on that in my next trip to Paris).
Cakes in hand, we picked up fresh baguette from the Boulangerie, cheese from the fromagerie, and alcohol from the.. well the supermarket, sorry to disappoint. But I do love how to get the best of everything one must visit each specialty store, rather than getting subpar ingredients from the supermarket.
With our supplies in hand, we settled down in the park to enjoy our picnic (and did you know that picnics are an originally french concept? (Genius people).
 After many a 'bon appetit' from passing gardeners, we tucked into our food and bubbly, only for a passing police woman to tell us we weren't actually allowed to be drinking in the park. We politely told her we hadn't realised (as you are allowed to drink by the Seine and the Eiffel tower) and offered to pour it out. She shook her head at us and told us to just hide it better, giving us a plastic bag to do so and wandering off again. Oh France. 

Aldeburgh

September 2016

I first heard of housesitting through my brother and his partner, as an alternate way to spend time travelling and exploring places you might never think of going. They had had a wonderful experience with it, and soon recommended it to me as a cheap and effective means of travel.
Trusted Housesitters is the excellent website I use to find my house-sits,  and although somewhat costly, you quickly make up the membership fee by staying in places rent free!

My first experience housesitting was in the small sea town of Aldeburgh. I'd never heard of it before, and therefore would probably never have gone there if not for this opportunity, and I'm glad I did. The town itself was very cute, almost like a sea-side resort, but as I was there heading into Autumn, it was rather quiet - exactly how I like it. 

The land around the village was somewhat wild, and I often found myself startling rabbits out on my walks, or picking late blackberries off their thorny brambles while following meandering dirt tracks through the estuary. 

The owner of the house I was looking after was a lovely lady in her 70s who was going back and forth to London to visit friends and needed her cat taken care of. 

Her cat Saska was rather shy, but I kept bribing her with tuna until she liked me.

I soon realised I had been pronouncing the town name embarrassingly wrong (pronounced -old-burrow, not eldaberg as I had been attempting). It made more sense to me once I learned that the towns name originated from Alde Burgh, which once separated into two words actually means old fort, though it had long ago been lost to the sea along with much of the original town. 

One of the oldest buildings in town that still survives was the 'Moot Hall' (making me whimsically imagine Ents gathering for an ent-moot) which is still used for council meetings and has been for over 400 years! 

The last vestiges of summer were just fading and I managed to still get a few days in the sunshine, reading my books whilst lying on the beach and trying to ignore the stones digging into my back. I didn't end up swimming at all as the water was just too cold for me (though I did see one or two brave people do it!) but I did instead take up running, as I felt I really needed to get out of the house and do something! I quite enjoyed myself with the app 'couch to 5k' though I still haven't finished it and am eager to accomplish the elusive 5km without a break. 

There was something rather lovely about running on the footpath that ran alongside the beach, and in the early morning it was rather peaceful. I never did solve the mystery of the golden syrup smell that only ever occurred at 7:30 in the morning on one area of the beach though. I decided there must be secret tunnels beneath the sand where a sweet factory produced and smuggled lollies out to sea, because the smell was so strong (and only went on for ten minutes starting at 7:30AM!) that I couldn't think what else it could be! 

Carnival time in London

August 2016

It was with a heavy heart that I said my goodbyes to dad and Sophie, our trip finally over. I would never forget my time in the Greek islands with dad, something I had been wanting to do for many many years.
Soon we were travelling again, them to New Zealand, and me off to England, to spend a week with more family, this time Yannick and Necia! It was nice to just relax and stay in once place for a bit after all our constant travelling. Bbqing was now firmly part of our traditions, so we rather enjoyed having another one (with Prosecco of course!)

After doing some Googling on events in the area, I discovered the Notting Hill Carnival, London's biggest street party. Taking place on the last weekend of August, it's well worth wandering down to view at any time on the day. It's free, and street dancers and parade floats congregate on the streets creating a joyful chaos. 

Originally celebrating caribbean cultures and traditions, it's now one of the biggest street parties in Europe, and full of costumes and music from many different cultures. 

Feeling a nostalgic of our recent trip and with delicious Greek food still fresh in our minds, we replicated it at home. Not only did we make our own hummus, but also our own pita bread! We enjoyed this thoroughly, accompanied with feta, veggies and Necia's recipe for battered courgette like we had tried in Greece - it worked impressively well!

On the subject of food, a trip to London isn't complete without a meal at Pizza Pilgrim! As usual the pizza was delicious, but for me it was the drinks that were the highlight this time! First I discovered that at this glorious restaurant, they had soda water on tap! On tap! Out of the wall! Like magic! 

It was in this moment that I decided one day when I have a house, I am going to have a kitchen tap that only dispenses soda water. It will be amazing (I might have a slight addiction). 

I also split an Aperol Spritz with Yannick as he generously offered to get once since I had never tried it. The fashionable summer drink of Europe, this low-alcohol content drink is made with soda water (my favourite), aperol, prosecco and a slice of orange. It had a strange sort of taste, and wasn't all what I expected; sort of bitter, but also refreshing, I can see why it's popular, but don't really get why people rave about it. Still it was good to try! Now I'm up with the hip people and such, yo. 

My last culinary experience before exiting London was at a rather lovely market that only took place once a month and was well worth the trip (though if you want good market food, a trip to Camden Lock market is always worth it!) There was so much good looking food it was torturous to pick (how the donuts called to me!) I ended up trying pulled pork for the first time and realising I had been missing out all my life! Pulled pork is, as it turns out, disgustingly good.

With that foodie highlight to complete my whirlwind London trip, I headed off to see my best friend Joy and help her and her partner move house. It was stressful to say the least, trying to fit too much furniture into a smaller house was like tetris with armchairs and became a bit dire. However we managed in the end (even if it did take us three days to figure out how to turn on the oven!). Mission accomplished, I began to organise for my first house-sit; but more on that later.

Touring the north of France

I was excited that our next stop of note was Carnac, famous for its menhirs - or large neolithic standing stones (best known from the excellent comic Asterix and Obelix). With more than 10,000 of these standing stones, many of them are clustered very thickly within fields, making them an awesome sight to see. It was slightly disappointing that unless we paid for a tour, we couldn't actually get close to the stones themselves as the fields were cordoned off  - very different from dad's experiences with these ancient stones, where in his own childhood they were free to run amok and climb the stones at will. 

Josselin was our next stop, somewhere I had been before a few years before. A very pretty medieval village, with a river running past it and a fairy-tale castle, I highly recommend taking a day trip here and relaxing in one of the many restaurants for crepes and cider.

















After this brief foray inland, we followed the coast all the way up through Normandy and Brittany, enjoying the wild beaches and windswept vistas.

This coast is more harsh and rugged, less tame than the rest of France, and there is something very beautiful about it because of this. It reminded me in many ways of the shores of England, and I suppose they aren't seperated by all that much geographically.

















At times the beaches were desolate, at others, horrifically busy (we fled this one rather quickly).

















One of the highlights for me on this trip was our visit to Hardelot where my grandmother and grandfather had once had a house that I had visited on my first visit to France, before they sold it. As such, this seaside town already had fond memories for me, and it was with fond familiarity that I set eyes on that windy beach once more. The water was surprisingly warm, but the wind was such that we did little more than dip our feet in. Children were catching shrimps in rock pools, heedless of the wind, and we stopped to watch them for a bit.
 However hunger drove us on, and we wandered up to the town to try find some nosh. My aunt Caro had recommended us a restaurant for lunch and it was beyond my expectations; I had crevette croquettes and enjoyed them very much, followed by spectacular ice cream which was floating in alcohol. The raspberry sorbet in a bath of Eau de Vie was rather mind blowing, as was the ice cream floating in grand-marnier and brought to us on fire. Yum!

A tour of the Dordogne

After my disappointment in Spain, I returned to France early and therefore managed to tag back on to Dad's trip before it ended which was a saving grace for me. The highlights to this included a trip back to Carcassonne, and then on to the Dordogne, my favourite region of France!

A trip to the Dordogne wouldn't be complete without visiting Sarlat, so back we went and immersed ourselves in the market. We bought an excellent rosé here which came from Bergerac and was rather lovely. 

We stocked up on a number of fresh things from the market, including bread and fresh prawns which we would later cook on the barbecue and I would discover to my shock that I rather quite liked them!

Sarlat is a magnificent medieval town to walk through, and I never get bored wandering down cobblestone alleyways and past honey-coloured buildings. 

We had picked an airbnb in the Dordogne so we would have a few days to relax and explore the region from our base, and it was rather pretty too. Although quite dark and gloomy inside, it had a lovely outdoor area with a bbq - always a plus in my books!

The weather was rather stormy and rainy while we were there, luckily the bbq area was under shelter, and we passed a few evenings enjoying eating outside and cooking the fresh produce of the region (of which there is plenty!)

All too soon we were headed out of the region, making for the region of Brittany to slowly make our way back to Lille (with many stops on the way of course!) The Dordogne is such a beautiful region however that we made a few stops before leaving it behind. Passing through this gorgeous village was one such pause, though there was little to it aside from the ruined castle it was incredibly pretty.

To top it off as we exited the village we passed a gorgeous sunflower field! I decided I just had to get a photo in the field (although I unfortunately wasn't wearing the white dress I had always imagined wearing in a field of sunflowers - one can't plan for everything I suppose!)

Our next stop of note was Bergerac, a pretty town with a medieval centre and river flowing through it. The only thing I knew about Bergerac was the area produced good wines, so it was nice to learn more about it. 

The area began to produce wines in the 13th century which allowed for the growth and popularity of the town, however the wars of Religion led to a decline in population due to persecution and it wasn't until the 20th century that trade made Bergerac into a bustling town again. Nowadays a popular market town, cobblestone streets and half timbered houses mark its long history and make it pleasant to wander.

Our last stop before we headed for the coast was a town called Brantome, which was extremely pretty to wander, though not very big. It's main attraction (apart from getting lost in the little network of cobblestone streets) is the Abbey which is situated along the extremely pretty river running by the town. The Abbey was built in 769 by Charlemagne but was destroyed and rebuilt multiple times throughout history, most recently in 1480. 

A series of bridges across a small island allowed us to follow the river for a time across from the abbey, and made for very picturesque walking (the building below has been turned into a restaurant and must have stunning views).

It was here that we finished our whirlwind tour of some of the Dordognes prettiest towns, and headed for the coast. 

Popping into Paris and Digging in Spain

After picking Sophie up from the airport in Paris, we spent a day in the capital, and popped into the Louvre which is always worth a stop. Unfortunately it was unpleasantly hot within the museum, so after not as long as I would have otherwise liked, we ended up leaving (though not without a peek in this gloriously golden room).

After our sight-seeing in Paris, we headed for Lille to visit the family as we always do in France. Staying in a chambre d'hote meant we weren't able to cook our own meals, however our welcoming host Vincent was a rather spiffing cook, and we were fed extremely well for the duration of our stay. It was at this point that we parted ways as I had organised to go on an Archaeological dig in Spain, to try and get some experience in osteoarchaeology to see if it was perhaps a subject I would like to pursue for a career. 

Sanisera archaeology institute was the name of the organisation I went with on my archaeological field school, and I was unfortunately very disappointed. The list of reasons why is rather long, however I will keep it to my main points of contention.

 The location however, was one thing I couldn't complain about as it was set on the beautiful island of Menorca.

However pretty much everything else was a waste of time. Treated like unruly children, we had no cooking facilities, and no living room or area to hang out in, only dormitory style bedrooms (this in itself I have no problems with) meals were held in a separate building where the kitchen was padlocked and we weren't allowed in, and the food was to be honest, inedible. After the third day I stopped going to meal times and starting buying prepackaged sandwiches because they were slightly more tasty. I still cringe in horror at the prepacked lunches we were given out on the field (blended tomatoes mixed with water into a sort of sauce that was then put on bread rolls, turning them into total mush).  

Mornings were taken up by digging in the field before it got too hot - this part I have few complaints for (apart from how budget they were with tools, giving us extremely old brushes, bent knitting needles and teaspoons instead of proper equipment) the actual digging itself was as enjoyable as digging can be, and I was pleased that unlike my previous dig we weren't pulled away every time we found something slightly significant, instead allowed to carefully work on everything we excavated. However, we were given almost no explanation or teaching on methods or what we were actually looking at or how to excavate, instead simply being used as manual labour to dig out the bones from the graveyard. 

I was working in one of the complicated grave sites, which had a jumble of bodies within it, all mixed up. The thinking was that there was two adults and a child, though we couldn't be sure at that early stage. The most tiring thing about digging (except the heat which was an obvious factor) was the awkward position one had to lie in to get into the gravesite itself. Due to the depth of the gravesite, you had to lean half of your body into the pit causing you to constantly strain your muscles and blood rush into your head as it hung downwards, causing massive headaches and neck aches. However excavating the graves themselves was rather interesting, as working close-up with bones was something I had always wanted to do. 

I spent most of my mornings I was on the dig excavating the adult human skull which was near the surface, and I found this very interesting. The afternoons were meant to be taken up with lab-work, which was the main reason I signed up for this dig, as digging on--site was something I had done before and therefore in itself was not hugely useful to me beyond the first few days of excitement getting to work in a necropolis. The problem was even this became dull when we simply worked on getting bones out and weren't explained any context as we went. I was hoping for experience in the lab and learning about human osteoarchaeology, and in this, I was the most disappointed. 

Lab work turned out to me mainly washing pottery and bone, something I had done a lot of on my last dig, and required nothing more than using a toothbrush and some water, teaching me nothing at all. The tiny segments I did have of useful learning and not being used as free labour looked like it could be interesting, which made it worse that we only did this twice for about half an hour in the time I spent there - instead of every afternoon as promised. 

My first experience of doing something useful was learning to put a human skeleton together correctly and identify each bone and where they went. Having never taken biology at school, learning all the names for bones was quite a process for me. We were using real bones found on earlier digs at the necropolis, which was something I liked as it meant they weren't in perfect condition and were sometimes fragmentary. Additionally it added a sort of gravitas to the situation which I think is always important when dealing with human remains (though we do sometimes give them affectionate nicknames)

Unfortunately aside from this opportunity and a ten minute lecture on the basic differences in morphology on male and female skeletons (again very interesting and I would have loved more of this) we simply washed and dug. I understand the need for the boring work which needs manpower, but having paid for an informative field school, I was extremely disappointed. 

Woes aside, when we did have time off (which wasn't much as we finished in the evening and only had two days free for the entire dig, no weekends off) myself and a Canadian girl who I'd made friends with would go exploring when we could. Enjoying the sunshine and the small beach a ten minute walk from our dorms.

Menorca was a gorgeous island, and the small town of Ciutadella de Menorca where we were based was a pleasant port to explore. Although more touristy than I would have liked, it was a beautiful and historic town which made it fun to wander. Invaded by the Turks in the 1500s by a 150,000 strong army who enslaved the survivors of the siege, the town then flourished again in the 1700s, seeing many buildings built in an Italian style and giving the town a lovely feel.


My dorms were down a cute alleyway in the heart of the main city (and a pleasant two minute walk from all the bars serving cheap and ice cold beers! One must always look at the upside of the situation).


I ended up saying goodbye to this place rather earlier than expected after cutting the dig short upon realising I had learned the little I could from it - we were being taught nothing else useful, and treated simultaneously as basic manpower and untrustworthy children was something I had little patience for. I hope to one day to return to beautiful Menorca under better circumstances!