A little jaunt through England and into France.

We have had to cancel two trips to France because C was hospitalised twice but as we had a Eurotunnel ticket we decided to use it and go to northern france for a few days.
We set off on Sunday morning and called in Cambridge early afternoon to spend a couple of hours with our son and his family.As it is a 5/6 hour journey from here to Folkstone and Eurotunnel we sometimes do a hotel overnight.I picked a Travelodge near Whitstable(£15!!).Unfortunately the sat nav pitched us up on the opposite side of a busy dual carriageway to the hotel.Eventually we managed to get into Whitstable but the sun was setting(see photo above).

You could rent these huts for holidays,right by the harbour and beach.Wouldn't that be great.

Some more quirky huts.Whitstable looked a lovely place full of lots of independent shops.it is famous for oysters.It's a pity we couldn't spend longer here.The main reason for breaking our journey here was to go to Canterbury.We have never been before.We reluctantly paid £8 each to go into the cathedral but it was well worth it.An amazing place.

From Canterbury it was down to Folkstone and Eurotunnel(free with our Tesco vouchers).It is a very slick operation and so quick and no rough crossings to worry about!

I have posted lots of photos before of the area that we have been to so I have just picked a couple of different things we came across

We were staying in Abbeville and came across this bar cum art gallery.They change the pictures every month.The artists this month are Brigitte Sellier and Michele Bouvin.But what a great idea.Enjoy a drink and view the art.Very pleasant

On our way back up to Boulogne we stopped in Le Touquet.very Swish!We arrived at the Art Gallery five minutes after it had closed for a two and a half our lunch break!We hadn't time to wait but enjoyed the sculpture in the grounds

Our last call was at Hardelot Plage.It was so windy we could hardly stand up.I had read that there was a chateau here that an Englishman had bought in the twenties and made it look like Windsor Castle.

We were surprised when we got there to find this was on.

Next year is the bi-centennial of Charles Dicken's birth.He holidayed near here lots of times and the area was special to him.It was only 2 euros to go in and it was brilliant.Nearly 300 documents,manuscripts,items etc had been gathered together.They had reconstructed his dining room.His writing desk and lectern were there and so many original letters and manuscripts.it was a truly wonderful collection.it comes to England next year and i bet it is a lot more than £2 to go in!!

Back home last night but we had really enjoyed our little jaunt and found different things to do in an area we thought we knew well.Lots of good eating done and lots of wine bought.