A few conclusions

The Fox has finally got around to putting the photos of our holidays on the computer. In some ways it already seems a long time ago, another lifetime, as we’ve tried to pick up the threads once more of being home.

As I said the other day, it was in many ways a good holiday. However, I think we did overdo it. We went by train from Lancaster down to London, then train through to Paris where we had an overnight stop. The following day we caught the train again & went on to Dijon for four nights. Then we rented a gîte at Viserny, a small village to the north-west of Dijon, for a week. After that we had three nights at Beaune, to the south-east of Dijon, before returning the hire car to Dijon & getting the train back to Paris for a further two nights. Then home. All the packing & unpacking, moving from one place to another, was a bit much.

Part of the idea was to decide which we preferred, self-catering or a hotel stay. In many ways the self-catering does appeal. However, the Fox did end up doing a lot of catering for us. (Without the aids & equipment I have at home, I can’t do much.) Despite our best intentions to eat out every day, we in fact got bored by the hunt for a restaurant every day & ended up eating out only twice in that week. And then of course, there is the inevitable need to clean up to leave the place as nice as we found it. At least in a hotel someone else does the housework.

However, we did also conclude, exciting as a city or large town can be, we find the countryside more relaxing. As we grow older & less physically active, it is good to be able to sit in a pleasant garden, having a drink & a chat, playing dominoes, watching the wildlife around you with only the twitter of the birds & an occasional vehicle passing by.

We suspect these days our ideal holiday solution is a rural hotel that expects people to be staying several days so has lounge, bar facilities etc., & to stay on a half-board basis. The nightly hunt for a restaurant when we were staying in the hotels got to us. The hotels in Dijon & Beaune both had restaurants but the menu remained the same for the season. As a result you tended to choose what really appealed on the first night, maybe enjoyed it, but ended up with very much an also-ran meal a second night or had to find a restaurant nearby. We seemed to end up walking miles, going from one place to another, trying to find somewhere that appealed & discovering the same things kept appearing wherever you looked.

It will be interesting to see what happens when we go off to Austria later this year. Then we will be having a few days in Vienna but most of our time will be in the countryside in a hotel overlooking Lake Fuschl, on half-board basis. The later hotel is clearly the sort of place that anticipates guest staying for a while so hopefully the menu will vary a bit.

Anyhow next time I write I will maybe get on to telling you of some of experiences while in France.