The Bon Vivant

Category: Uncategorized

• King of the castle

  Posted at 2:04 pm by mondeuseandmountains, on January 22, 2018

  

  It was a rather significant birthday for my husband in January. Being the selfless wife that I am, I thought perhaps a stay in a castle might take his mind off the fact that he is now officially middle aged. Plus it is 800 years old, so waaay older than him!

  We set off early and stopped enroute in a charming spa town called Aix-Les-Bains. No time to check out the thermal spas this time but I put it on my extensive ‘research’ list for next time. We were wandering around in search of a café au lait (yes we sometimes rebel against French culture and have a milky coffee after breakfast!), then I spotted something out the corner of my eye.

  Aix-Les-Bains has a cat cafe! Cat cafe’s don’t work so well in Australia because of all our rules and regulations, but here they can pretty much sit in your lap whilst you sip on your coffee like these handsome chaps did. I like to think it was because they could sense I was a cat lover, but I think it could have had something to do with my muffin.

  

  Alas we had to leave our furry friends and carry onto our castle.

  Wow. What a castle! It took our breath away as soon as we arrived.

  

  Château de Bagnols, originally built in 1217, is perfectly placed amongst the Beaujolais vineyards and is a sight to behold. As you can imagine over 800 years it has gone through several periods of disrepair and then revitalisation, in 1970 some of the ceilings fell in due to an airplane’s supersonic boom! The recent loving and meticulous restoration also subtly included all the modern conveniences of a five star hotel so it really ticks all boxes.

  

  This is library where we had our aperitifs (my kind of library).

  

  Our beautiful room overlooking the vineyards really made us feel special. The walls are covered in frescos or magnificent original tapestries.

  

  Fabulous tub for a soak! Almost as big as our entire apartment in Sydney.

  

  Throne room

  

  Of course this opulent castle comes with a Michelin starred restaurant. The stunning dining room has the largest gothic fireplace in Europe (possibly the world, according to our waiter).

  The food was exceptional.

  Each of our outstanding five courses was delivered to us under silver cloches with a theatrical flourish. Even the bread and butter was next level!

  Overall I couldn’t have found a more perfect place to celebrate a special occasion.

  

  Happy Birthday darling husband!

  

  45.916626 4.608311
  Posted in Uncategorized | 8 Comments | Tagged Beaujolais, castle, ChâteaudeBagnols

• The North

  Posted at 8:28 am by mondeuseandmountains, on December 6, 2017

  The motorway signs just say to ‘The North’, my mind conjured up images of us driving our rental car to a big white wall, but 3 hours later we were in York.

  Arriving in York Sunday afternoon, I foolishly thought we could just drop into one of the pubs that I had researched for Sunday lunch, but what I didn’t know about York is that it is busy. Even though we are in the middle of November, there are tourists everywhere. Why would anyone voluntarily go to the north of England in 2 degrees and not even close to Christmas? Who are these people? Well me I guess!

  You will be relieved to hear that I did get my Sunday lunch complete with Yorkshire pudding the size of a small child.

  York is busy with good reason, it is a fascinating and beautiful town whose history goes back to 71AD. It was such a big deal when my primary school in Perth reached 100 years, going to York certainly put me in my place.

  It seemed like everyone had a go, the Romans, Vikings, Normans, and that’s only up to 1200AD. The centre is still full of incredible medieval buildings that look like they are about to topple over yet somehow house ye olde Zara and The Body Shop.

  Jorvik Viking centre had recreated a Viking village with lifelike figurines that moved (with the odd real human to throw us off), you go around it in a motorised chair which was pretty funny. I wonder what those Vikings would say!

  Andrew was fairly keen to try another UK culinary favourite; curry. The young Indian man serving us was obviously at least first generation English, as when we said we enjoy Indian food in Australia, he replied ‘why would anyone want to eat a curry in a hot climate?’ Clearly hasn’t been to India.

  The Yorkshire Dales are breathtaking. We drove through the gently undulating hills of many colours that I don’t really see in Australia, purple, rust, olive, it must have been the inspiration for tweed.

  We were driving along a small road and I suddenly see ruins. Always keen to check out a pile of rocks, we stopped . It turned out to be Pendragon Castle, rumoured to be built by Uther Pendragon, father of King Arthur. Where else can you go for a drive and stumble across a 12th century ruined castle in the middle of nowhere with hardly any signage?

  

  Even though the distance between the Yorkshire Dales and the Lake District is only an hour or so, the scenery is very different. We moved from the rolling hills to bigger, cragier mountains although still keeping the Derwent pastel colour pencil scheme. Actually as I write this I realise the lake we are staying on is the Derwentwater – coincidence?

  Keen to test out our hiking boots, we naively asked our B&B host to recommend an easy-ish walk. Turns out an easy-ish walk is a 4 hour hike up to 1234 feet but it really was incredible and was definitely a wow moment. It was around zero degrees but this meant the path was frozen mud not slushy mud and was crisp with icicles

  

  

  View from the top!

  

  I really loved the Lakes District, we only had two nights there but could have easily spent a week.

  Next stop Wales.

  Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments

• Go West

  Posted at 4:27 pm by mondeuseandmountains, on November 25, 2017

  ‘I’d like a relaxing beach holiday’ was a frequent request over my years as a travel agent.

  ‘What about Western Australia?’ I often replied.

  ‘No, I’d like to go overseas’. So Bali or Fiji it was.

  Not to detract from these destinations, there is definitely a time and a place for reasonably priced cocktails and a fantastic kids club but, if you are after a pristine white sand beach with spectacular sunsets that melt into the water, you really can’t beat my lovely home town of Perth. Sunshine is pretty much guaranteed from November to March and you don’t even have to pay for parking (I hear audible gasps from the Sydneysiders).

  These pictures were taken on my daily dips and I’m sure you would agree Denarau and Kuta don’t even come close.

  

  

  Sure, Great White Sharks are also fond of Perth beaches, but pick a spot where there are at least another 4 people and you should be fine!

  It was my nephew’s 7th birthday and he was allowed to watch Star Wars for the first time. My sister put my hair in Princess Leia buns and I got creative in the kitchen (ok, I bought biscuits and drew Chewbacca faces on them). Check out my ‘Wookie Cookies’ below – except for the top left one, just ignore that one.

  

  The last time I spent a significant amount of time here (more than the usual 4 days) was in 2008 when the mining boom was on. Everything seemed so expensive for average quality but this time I’ve had many fabulous meals and coffees and the prices are roughly the same as Sydney, so when I’m back at work I’ll be flying the flag for W.A. Tourism.

  Go West

  Life is peaceful there

  Go West.. in the open air

  Go West..where the skies are blue

  Go West..this is what we’re gonna do

  Did the Village People write this song about Perth?

  After Perth we flew to Singapore for a night to break up the trip. We stayed at the Park Royal on Pickering, which I can highly recommend (apart from the $8 coffees – I had flash backs of Perth 2008). It is refreshing to see a hotel embracing environmental principles more than just changing the sheets every other day. Normally Singapore is just a few days of work craziness and I never get to see anything touristy, but this time I made it through half of the Gardens on the Bay which were lovely.

  Next stop London on British Airways, Toodle-oo!

  Posted in Uncategorized | 8 Comments

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