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The French Italian Job Sunday

So today we started our journey home. We spent a few hours tidying up and washing stuff then packed up and began our long journey back to Beaune. As is the way, a long very uneventful, unconed, uncontrolled drive. No stupid “smart” motorways, no cameras, drivers who for the most part know how to drive. You need to have driven in France or even Italy, to appreciate how bad driving and in the UK…

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The French Italian Job Saturday

It was a sweltering night and we both slept badly. A storm was forecast for late afternoon but it didn’t wait that long and we sitting on the loggia munching pizza when it arrived, dropping the temperature by a good 10C, but although it looked angry there was not much rain.

More wine for lunch, Exception this time for old times sake,

another sleep, waking just in time to greet the real storm ⛈…

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The French Italian Job Friday

We were starting to get weary of constant 30-34C heat, more especially as it didn’t seem to cool below 28 at night and we were now in the apartment with no air conditioning. We treated ourselves to croissants for breakfast, had a slow morning, a sit by the pool and a swim. Some wine with our lunch gave us the incentive for an afternoon sleep 😴. Then it was time to get ready for our meal in the…

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The French Italian Job Thursday

Well, today was the day I was beginning to think would never happen. The “raison d’etre” for coming at this time of year.

I SIGNED THE PAPERWORK and the apartment is now mine.

So a little trip to Frejus to find the Notaire who was really quite pleasant considering how inept she appears to have been. Wearing disco shoes, a leather skirt and a Rolex, I could see where my money had gone, but she…

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The French Italian Job Wednesday

Wednesday

We woke up quite sprightly this morning so Craig went off for a run at 7 while I laid in bed and had tea. We took it easy as it was so hot and went down to the pool for a swim and a snooze. We took Frosty into St Tropez late afternoon (he screamed like girl going down the ramp 😂- Craig, not Frosty)

and chose a restaurant for a meal (for all round deliciousness and value for money went…

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The French Italian Job. Monday

We were leaving Venice today heading for one night in Como. All very smoothly done except the bloke in the car park couldn’t seem to find the keys for a worrying while😳. 300 km of driving, this time very like M6 – middle lane hoggers, numpties doing 100km in outside lane. We learnt a few things about Frosty. First he can stop well in a crisis – the car in front wasn’t just slowing down, it had…

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The French Italian Job. Sunday

A lot of pictures today to cover everything we did. First we took the chance to pop into St Marks because there was no queue(😳) and got a view from the roof.

We also heard a bit of Sunday Service while we were up there which was amazing and saw these beautifully restored horses who now live inside.

Then time for an Aperol Spritz.

Walked over the Grand Canal

Walked across the pontoon bridge to the…

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The French Italian Job. Saturday

We treated ourselves to another lazy start this morning with a late Secret Tour of the Doges Palace first, a brief break then finishing the tour.

So we were there for about 2-3 hours altogether and the rest of the afternoon we mostly got lost looking for a particular tea shop that I remembered.

There were going to be fireworks in the evening not until much later, but we had been warned that there…

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The French Italian Job. Friday

It’s Friday so it must be Venice. A short journey this morning and we were in Venice by 11.30, where it wasn’t as busy as I thought it would be. Craig was not too happy about leaving the keys on the dash and walking away from the car park until he saw a Porsche GT2 parked up and decided he was being silly. (Look them up…£200,000..3…4?😮). The boat ride was easy, finding the hotel tricky, but we…

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The French Italian Job. Thursday

Our first stop today was Villa Maser – we thought we ought to see a real Palladian villa as by now we knew so much about them.

There was a storm on its way so we sheltered in the carriage museum while it passed. Our next stop was Bassano Del Grappa where we had some lunch and stroll round.

The last destination, Padua, was clearly where everyone went as it was a busy place with very poor parking…

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The French Italian Job. Wednesday

I seemed to survive the night; someone thought I might just be a pile of ashes after spending a night in a convent. The plan today was to walk to town, get in a bit of culture, do a little shopping (maybe a dress, maybe a trinket), have taglieri for lunch, eat ice cream (a sad omission yesterday), stay in the shade and walk home again.

We did it all. We didn’t achieve our 21,000 step record that…

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The French Italian Job. Tuesday

Another drive to our next stop, Vicenza, but we were there by 1.30. We were greeted by a wall of heat and a cacophony of crickets in the trees in a beautiful location near this church. The little hotel was lovely in itself but seemed a little sparse and basic. It wasn’t until I delved deeper online I discovered that it was or at least had been a convent. This would explain why there was only one…

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The French Italian Job July 2019. Monday

It was raining this morning so it gave us chance to sample the lovely buffet breakfast in our hotel. It was forecast to clear up at lunchtime, which it did, so we moseyed down to the town and had a spectacular lunch of a (very) large limoncello with tonic and a tray of nibbles.

By the time we had walked back the weather was bright enough to take a boat ride out to two of the closest islands on…

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The French Italian Job. July 2019

Another long driving day through Mont Blanc

to end up at Stresa, our stop for tonight. It didn’t actually seem so much driving today as the roads were very clear and apart from an unfortunate stop in Aosta services (don’t go there) and a few hairpin bends into Stress a very easy drive but finding the hotel wasn’t so easy due to a combination of sat nav and stupidity (I’m not taking all the blame…

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The French Italian Job July 2019

This day was always going to be a driving day and started as they often do, on the Tunnel early. Frosty briefly met a Ferrari 458 who ended up further back on the train. This overtook is twice at great speed on the journey but its destination was Belgium so we lost him. There was a moment in Beaune when someone thought it would be a good idea to have a book of “things we (I) did wrong” caused by…

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The Folly Revived. Spring 2019

Another catch up of some of our adventures. We are soon to begin an epic driving trip which will need to be updated daily in the proper fashion, so this is a chance to get up to date.

First a lovely day out at Madresfield Court for their Daffodil Sunday. It’s a beautiful looking house and although I’ve still never been inside, I am trying to get that fixed. This day though we were looking at…

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The Folly Revived - Moving on. Gothenburg 15-18th March

The Folly Revived – Moving on. Gothenburg 15-18th March

Firstly, my apologies for a very overdue catch up on my life. I am very happy and content in Beastie Folly, travelling quite a lot, eating cake wherever we can and generally enjoying life, because that’s what it’s there for. At the moment I am invigilating exams most days so I only really get up to mischief at weekends. Today it is a cold, wet day in June and the perfect chance to write up some…

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