Epagny France

Just got back from Epagney, France and had a wonderful time again. We got the Gatwick train from Reading at 4.30 and Eleanor remembered to bring along a few beers for the ride, which was quite nice of her ;-). We got to the airport in plenty of time and decided to have a meal in the pizza express, the waiters there were some of the most efficient and happy waiters we have ever known, must be all the travellers in good spirits going off and holiday and the fact that they need to catch a plan in the next half an hour.(they probably tip well).

The first couple of day we had to our self’s and we lazed around the house and read books, then took it in turn to read the davinci code to one another. The first night Francis came home from work and we went down to the local super Mache, passed the burnt out firestation (I kid you not). Where we bought some food for the weekend, we got moules and pasta for the next few nights, before Celia’s friends arrived. I cooked the moules that night, which was a nice French meal to get into the flow of things, could have down with a bit of spice in the sauce but I was over ruled ;-).

The next few days flew past, Celia’s friends turned up and were a nice bunch, as nice as a ‘reflection’ of psychologists as you can have in a mad house. We went to Annecy, which is south of Geneva and is a lovely town, with a massive lake. The town is very twee but I think in a nice way. On Sunday we went for a walk in the forest at the bottom of the garden, we drove to the other end of the forest by car and then walked in from there. I finally saw Galadriel’s well, fantastic stone floor stream, which turns into a small waterfall with a pool at the bottom that would be big enough to swim in. We then went for a walk up Mont Saleve in the afternoon, but in the end only managed to make it to the bar at the top of the Mountain by driving.

Sunday night Eleanor and I went a bit mad on the beers, tequila’s and red wine and ended up very ill on Monday all day, which was a shame as it was a lovely day.

Tuesday we went for a meal at a local restaurant and said goodbye to Shaun and Celia and walked back to house via the country lanes, it took us about three hours to get back, via Elaenor's short cut! and was fantastic to see the views of the mountains from a few different hill sides.

Wednesday Francis took a day off to take us mountain walking, we drove down to chamonix and got two cable cars up to the highest point over looking Mont Blanc at nearly 2000 feet. We planned to walk down to a lake on the mountain and then back up to the cable cars to take us back down. Half way down the mountain I started to feel a little sick, I managed to get down to the lake which took about an hour and then had to go throw up. We tried to get up the mountain again as planned but I was finding it two hard and throw up again. Francis decided that it would be safer if we contained around the mountain and down as the effort to walk down is not as great as trying to get up. So after a four hour walk down the mountain we finally got back to the car park, I took a short video with the camera that says it all, ‘Thank god that is over’.

On Thursday we got a lift in with Francis and spent the day in Geneva, went to a art exhibition of lord of the ring paintings. The Legalas and Gimi picture was very good, I must look to see if I can get a copy of that one, we then got a boat from the town centre to the WMO (World Meteorological Organization) office to meet Francis for Lunch in the canteen at the top of the office, which has great views over lake Geneva.