A weekend in London and a side trip to France
Sunday, February 21st, 2010The beauty of Europe is being able to travel around the continent easily and cheaply, something which is lost on most Europeans but never fails to impress back home.
So to finish up my time in the northern hemisphere I headed over to London for the weekend to catch up with some friends and get very little sleep.
Then it was on a cheap and nasty Ryan Air flight down to Bergerac which is close to where my cousin is living. Out in the french countryside with his French girl friend. In a cave.
(My cousins house)
So from Bergerac I taxied into town to get a train to another town where Sam and Francesca picked me up and drove me further out to a little village (hardly a village, more like a collection of about 20 houses) to their house in a cave. Yes really. The area around the Dordogne is all important due to people living there 20, 000 years ago who lived in caves and evidently drew things in them as well. This is all very important obviously so Sam and Francesca live in a house built around one of these caves and in the summertime give tours to the hundreds of french tourists that turn up to see them. Sam can now even speak fluent french!
The next day we drove to Bordeaux to pick my Aunty Linda who had just flown in from NZ and my cousin Joe who was finishing a year in Edinburgh and on his way home. We spent 4 days hanging out in the french country side eating an amazing amount of cheese and drinking a lot of red wine. The weather was getting colder, now winter was arriving and while Sam and Francesca worked me, Joe and Linda took the car (left hand drive, so confusing) and cruised around the villages checking out some more ancient caves, giant chateaux (castles) and occasionally getting lost. It was all very French and to catch up with the family before I was back on a plane.
(Sam with the cheese and Linda and Joe keeping warm)
Back into London where I of course got caught in some tube breakdown meaning I was stuck on buses in rush hour trying to meet someone one the other side of town who would give me a ride back to Oxford.Eventually I made it to the car, headed to Oxford and partied all night, most of the next day at our end of year crew party which a huge crew had built over the week. Very impressive.
Dazed and a bit confused I managed to stumble onto the plane in Gatwick to spend the next 40 hours making my way home. Christchurch. Home again from another wee adventure
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