France 2010, Boulogne Sur Mer

We were all relieved to find that it wasn’t raining and it looked as though Camille’s welcome forecast was completely accurate because the weather this morning was in complete contrast to yesterday, the sun was already shining and the sky was a blank blue canvas.

We followed the early morning routine that we had already established, went to see the ducks and the hens, visited Camille and saw the rabbit and walked a while through the village before returning to the cottage for our usual farm house breakfast, part English, part continental but every day a perfect combination. On account of the good weather we did some washing and hung it on the line before we finally left the cottage and set off for Boulogne about twenty-five kilometres away.

Being mean and naturally reluctant to pay the motorway toll we took the cross country route again and much to the girl’s annoyance made a small detour to visit the wind turbines high on a hill and with good views all around and then we carried on and made good progress until we reached the southern outskirts of the town. We were aiming for the north so it would have been much more convenient to use the motorway because the route through the town was congested and confusing and when we reached the car park we were aiming for there was no room anyway so we had to drive a kilometre or so out of town to find somewhere to park.

Actually, we were so far out of town that we were within sight of the La Colonne de la Grande Armée, which is a column that was erected in the 1840s and is a fifty-three metre-high monument topped with a statue of Napoleon Bonaparte. (Higher than Nelson’s column in Trafalgar Square which is slightly shorter at forty-six metres high). It marks the base camp where Napoleon massed France’s biggest ever army of eighty thousand men ready to invade England. It was initially intended to commemorate a successful invasion of England, but this proved to be a bit premature and as he didn’t quite manage that it now commemorates instead the first distribution of the Imperial Légion d’honneur. Originally, when it was first completed, the statue had looked out over the Channel towards England, the land Napoleon had confidently expected to conquer but after the Second World War, the French government turned the statue of Napoleon round to face inland, as a mark of respect to the British allies in the war.

We strolled casually down the hill into the town past the Nausicaa Aquarium, one of the largest in France, on the sea front and walked along the port and this was a surprise because Boulogne, it turns out, is the biggest fishing port in France and there is a large fishing fleet including deep-sea trawlers and factory ships, as well as smaller sea-going and inshore fishing boats. A third of France’s fresh fish catch is landed here, and a huge quay-side fish processing factory makes 20% of the nation’s tinned fish, and half of the frozen fish, fish fingers and other fish based ready meals.

The girls wanted to shop but this wasn’t in our plans so we left them to it and continued on up a steep hill to visit the historic centre. Boulogne old town is built within the original Roman walls and has recently been well restored and it was in complete contrast to the concrete and glass of the sea front and the shopping streets. Here was the beating heart of a medieval city with a castle, a cathedral and narrow streets lined with charming properties, little shops, cafés and bars. In the middle was a public space with imaginative public art based on giant vegetable sculptures called ‘Le Jardin de Gulliver’ which was probably something only the French could do so well.

We hadn’t allowed a lot of time for this and we could have done with longer but it was very hot now so after a beer and a baguette at a pavement café (where I had to discreetly tackle an especially obnoxious nappy) we walked along the main street full of interesting shops and busy restaurants and under the walls of the huge cathedral which was rebuilt in the nineteenth century as a symbol of the revival of the French Catholic Church after the Revolution in which the old cathedral and so many other churches were closed and destroyed. We didn’t go inside but even from the street we could appreciate the size of the massive dome which is one of the biggest in Europe.

We left the old town by a gate next to the Castle Museum and I am forever amazed at the bits of trivia that I pick up on my travels because who would have guessed that inside is the most important exhibition of masks from Alaska in the whole world? Why isn’t the most important exhibition of masks from Alaska in Alaska? We didn’t go inside because we weren’t sure that Molly would appreciate it so we left and walked through the gardens beneath the walls and back to the agreed rendezvous point with the girls where they were waiting for us after completing their shopping.

We had enjoyed the old town and Sally and Rachel their shopping but now it was time to leave. Richard and I walked back up the hill to the cars while the others stayed on the white sandy beach in front of the aquarium. It is a nice beach but is only temporary because every winter storms strip the sand away and then every summer the city council imports several hundred tonnes from further up the coast to make sure that Boulogne has a beach to enjoy at least for a few months.

There was a confusing route out of the town but by a combination of judgment and good luck we managed to find the correct road out and once we had cleared the scruffy outskirts we were soon back in the open countryside and motoring south back towards the rural tranquility of our holiday village.

Back in the garden Molly played in her paddling pool and I had a couple of beers while Richard and the girls went to the supermarket for a few supplies that we were running short of (especially tomatoes). This had been another excellent day and I had enjoyed the return trip to Boulogne which had so surprised me last year as a town well worth a visit but one so very easily missed. Best of all, our weather forecasting neighbour promised us another sunny day tomorrow.

We didn’t do anything different in the evening of course, Molly stayed up for as long as she possibly could before finally giving in and then Richard prepared the barbeque and cooked a similar meal to every other night. It would have been nice to go out for a meal but we all remembered last years expensive disaster when Molly wouldn’t sit still and it cost us nearly €100 for a meal we didn’t really enjoy so it was much easier to stay at the cottage, cook for ourselves and enjoy a few beers.

As the evening drew to an end I had the inevitable accident with the log fire. Poking around in the embers a piece of red hot charcoal fell onto the ground and as I took evasive action I lost control of the red hot poker and struck Richard in the back of the leg and in the process leaving him with a brand that he was stuck with for the rest of the holiday. I went to bed soon after that before I could do any more damage.

France - Day 7, Boulogne Revisited

The morning started just like all the others. Molly woke early and I entertained her until the others joined us for breakfast. This morning we had a choking incident because of her habit of putting everything in her mouth and then a messy nappy incident which I swear she found amusing because she waited me to change her once before immediately filling the replacement. I noticed this on holiday that she is beginning to play games with us now and finding amusement in being a tease. At the beginning of the week she would put gravel in her mouth just because she didn’t know better but by the end of the week she was doing it to torment us because she knew that she shouldn’t.

Richard was the first up after me and we needed some bread and croissants so we drove to Boulonge stopping on the way to visit La Colonne de la Grande Armée, which is conveniently situated next door to Carrefour. The column was erected in the 1840s and is a fifty-three metre-high monument topped with a statue of Napoleon Bonaparte. (Nelson’s column in Trafalgar Square is shorter at forty-six metres high). It marks the base camp where Napoleon massed France's biggest ever army of eighty thousand men ready to invade England. It was initially intended to commemorate a successful invasion of England, but this proved to be a bit premature and as he didn’t quite manage that it now commemorates instead the first distribution of the Imperial Légion d'honneur. Originally, when it was first completed, the statue had looked out over the Channel towards England, the land Napoleon had confidently expected to conquer but after the Second World War, the French government turned the statue of Napoleon round to face inland, as a mark of respect to the British allies in the war.

After a very slow start to the day we sat in the garden and watched the weather improving gradually as the grey cloud gave way to white and then eventually to blue sky but it was still windy and Richard was still complaining when we packed the car to make a return visit to Boulogne.

The girls wanted to visit the Nausicaa Aquarium on the sea front but Richard and I wanted to return to the old town to see the bits that we had missed on the earlier first visit. After we had left them at the entrance we walked along the port and this was another surprise because Boulogne, it turns out, is the biggest fishing port in France and there is a large fishing fleet including deep-sea trawlers and factory ships, as well as smaller sea-going and inshore fishing boats. A third of France's fresh fish catch is landed here, and a huge quay-side fish processing factory makes 20% of the nation's tinned fish, and half of the frozen fish, fish fingers and other fish-based ready meals.

The sun was shining and down at the coast the wind had curiously dropped so it was warm as we walked past the main shopping street and back up the hill towards the medieval castle. This time we walked for a while outside of the walls and then we went inside and with more time available today explored some of the back streets and alleyways. This was our last day and my last opportunity for my favourite moules et frites because although I had had them the previous evening this had been a bit of a rushed affair. Today we found a pavement café on the Rue de Lille where a Frenchman was playing accordion to entertain the diners and I finally achieved my objective of enjoying a pot of steaming molluscs.

After lunch we strolled around a while longer, outside the huge Cathedral, which was rebuilt in the nineteenth century as a symbol of the revival of the French Catholic Church after the Revolution in which the old cathedral and so many other churches were closed and destroyed. We didn’t go inside but even from the street we could appreciate the size of the massive dome, which is one of the biggest in Europe. At the other end of the old town was the town hall where there was free entry to the Belfry Tower that included a guided tour and history of the building, which was helpfully given in English as well as French. There was a long climb with a couple of stops for informative narrative and there were good views from the top of the tower and we were lucky to be part of quite a small group of visitors because we had time and space to enjoy the rooftop vista.

The girls had enjoyed the aquarium and were waiting for us on the white sandy beach when we returned slightly late to meet them. Every winter storms strip the sand away and then every summer the city council imports several hundred tonnes from further up the coast to make sure that Boulogne has a beach to enjoy at least for a few months.

On the way home we showed the girls La Colonne de la Grande Armée but they didn’t seem impressed and certainly not excited enough to get out of the car so we returned directly to Maninghen-Henne and sat in the garden and braved the gusty winds which were much stronger here inland. Later Molly used the paddling pool in the shower and we had our final evening meal in France before we started to think about and organise ourselves for the journey back to the United Kingdom the next day. At nine o’clock we did the bottle bank and village walk routine and we were getting much better at this now because Molly was asleep within ten minutes and straight to bed when we got back to the cottage.

As it was the last night there were bottles to finish off and we stayed up later than usual and sat and chatted and reminisced about a thoroughly enjoyable holiday in France with our daughters. No golf of course but we had had a good time all the same!

Up early in the morning I was able to reflect on the holiday and it occurred to me that this had been a week for some relearning points when it comes to looking after a baby and being with Molly especially at these times in the morning when we were alone together gave me the opportunity to think about these. Here are my top three: Firstly when going on holiday with baby take plenty of changes of clothes – for yourself! several of my shirts were destroyed by the end of the week; secondly remember that baby will always take a dump at the most inconvenient time such as just getting on the ferry, at lunch time in a restaurant or most frustratingly thirty seconds after a previous change; thirdly, there is a world of difference between putting baby to sleep and getting baby to sleep – I had completely forgotten that one!

During the night a crawly insect had disturbed Rachel but Richard had dismissed this as imagination and told her to back to sleep. He was forced to reassess his judgment and apologise next morning when he came across a spider that was al least four inches from the end of one of its legs to another. I wouldn’t have wanted to sleep with it that’s for sure and Richard wouldn’t tackle it this morning without back-up!

We had a final breakfast of bread and croissants and used up as much of the food as we could and then we packed and tidied and then settled our account with the young man who had greeted us a week ago and suddenly at eleven o’clock it was time to leave so we said goodbye to the cottage that had been our home for the past week.

We drove to the Cite d’Europe via a service station for fuel where there was a curious incident when both our cars failed to register that fuel had been put into the tank and Richard suspected a scam and it took some unexplainable time to put itself right and I can think of no logical reason why. At the hypermarket we did some last minute cheap booze shopping and then drove to Calais to wait for our ferry which was slightly delayed but crossed the channel in completely calm conditions that allowed us to enjoy a outside top deck crossing and watch as France slipped away and the white cliffs of Dover welcomed us back to England.