This had to be my last!

 Hi everyone, I am here with my final page for my 'Where In The World' theme at Art Journal Journey. It has to be Paris!

 It also had to be simple as there's a lot going on here, some things I just can't do anything about and some that hopefully I can! 

I found it calming to fussy cut the flowers that I added to some free paper from a magazine. The postcard was bought in Paris because I liked it and then thought I could see it better in my journal. I inked around the paper then added some random stamping. I decided to give the postcard a postmark and stamped around the page to use up the ink!

Right at the bottom of the card is Parc Montsouris, which many of you know is a place we like to walk to on our last day in Paris whenever we go. You may also spot Bercy and Arrondissement 13 where our hotel is situated.

Thanks so much to everyone who has joined me for my theme this month, I really enjoyed seeing lots of photos too.

I have tried to leave comments on all blogs but some are difficult to access and I apologise if you thought I was ignoring you, I certainly have seen all entries.

I'm ready for another holiday now!!!!

Thanks for looking, Chris

T Stands for the last few days in Normandy

 Hi everyone, we're here again for T Stands For Tuesday where we share drinks over at The Altered Book Lover with Bleubeard and Elizabeth.

My drink was one I had when we visited the area around Camembert. Everyone else had coffee but I wanted a cold drink so I had a lemonade. I hadn't intended buying cake but when I saw my favourite, Tarte Framboise I couldn't resist.

 This was in Vimoutiers another village that produces Camembert cheese

In the square with this beautiful church at the far end.

The cow and statue of Marie Harel who was born in Vimoutiers, she was the woman credited with bringing the recipe for Camembert from a monk she met fleeing from the revolution.

We had a little walk around.

From here we went on to Camembert to the museum which is by the factory

Included in the entry price was a tasting of three different aged Camembert cheeses - we had this at the end of the tour(we had already eaten the  youngest)

There were so many boards full of different Camembert cheese boxes - Isigny is one of my favourites.

It was  a really interesting museum

The next day we moved on to another gîte in Brittany while our friends went back to their home in Poitiers.

On our first day in Brittany we visited Carnac, a beautiful town by the sea.

There was a market in full swing, which we really enjoyed as we had missed out on the one in St Pierre!

There was a little church in the square 

It was beautiful but our real treat was to come after lunch.

That's all for now, we have had a very busy day and need an early night as tomorrow we have to get our car to the garage very early.

Thanks for looking, Chris

The Italian Job

Hi everyone, my latest page for my 'Where In The World' theme at Art Journal Journey is about somewhere we have visited.

Some of you may remember when hubby and I did a 7 Cities in 7 Days tour of Italy back in October 2013 The first of the posts I did is here, and I made several more if you click 'newer posts'

It was a fantastic opportunity to see so many places but exhausting too, with 3 hotel changes and lots of early mornings to take bus trips. We certainly won't be taking another trip like it

My page has images of Rome and Venice

I used some watercolour paint to give a smudgy spattered background then used some wrapping paper that I bought while in Italy - it has Leonardo da Vinci images and writing all over it. I added tape, some stamping and the two images that came from some designer paper.

Hubby and I have been reminiscing about our two trips(yes, we returned to Florence and Rome the following year) and have started to consider a trip to Southern Italy.

Thanks for looking, Chris

Hello

Hi everyone, I'm pleased to say my arm is slowly getting better, I can now comb my own hair.

The changes to my medication have given me a few ups and downs but the stomach cramps I had to start with are definitely not so often and my blood levels although not brilliant. are certainly not horrendously high either.  Things can only get better!

I have found it easier to sit and cut out and fortunately had just the images I wanted to use for my 'Where In the World' theme at Art Journal Journey

I stamped the white page, some scraps of brown tissue and cream paper with an 'Oriental' text stamp by Kaisercraft, stuck down the pieces of paper randomly and then added the images.

The images were all from a Stamperia image booklet, the word "Hello' in Japanese from the internet. 

I confess to being jealous of Erika who actually visited Japan a few years ago - the photos she showed on her blog were beautiful.

I hope to be catching fully some time soon. 

Thanks for looking,Chris

T Stands For The Castle and more

Hi everyone, I missed out last week. Just normal events taking up our time!

The next afternoon I injured myself - a pulled muscle I think but after resting for a few days (watching films in the afternoons!!!!) it is slowly recovering - I even managed(just) to comb my hair today. Hubby has been amazing!

We planned on visiting Failaise Castle so set out with a plan to eat first at one of the places we had tried to get into on the Sunday we went to the Brocante. One was closed and the other had a private event on so we wandered through the streets leading to the castle and found a gem!

Le Vauquelin restaurant had won awards for its food and we could tell why.

We had Confit of Pork with a side of frites. It was melt in the mouth delicious. We had a jug of water on the table and I also had a tonic water. You can just see the arm of one of our friends.

I am joining Bleubeard and Elizabeth for T Stands For Tuesday at The Altered Book Lover blog.

Our friend's recovering broken ankle was making her uncomfortable so they decided not to climb up to the castle but went instead to the Museum of Automata which they really enjoyed.

We walked on to the castle, stopping off at an old church, l'Église de la Trinité which was founded in 840, destroyed in 1204 and rebuilt then damaged in the 100 years war and patched up.

There was an exhibition about the Second World war bombing of Falaise.It must have been a frightening time.

Here are two of the reports that were on display

You can read more here. Wikipedia has a longer version. The story is very similar to that of Villers Bocage, see my post here 

We went on past the statue of William The Conqueror who was born at Falaise Castle

We also passed another museum and wished we had more time

There were excellent views of Falaise and the surrounding countryside.

The castle had lots of steep steps so it would have been difficult for friend to get around.

The wall displays were very informative and were in both French and English.

Of course I was delighted to see Eleanor of Aquitaine - there was a spoken commentary in French with words underneath to interpret

Eleanor and HenryII stayed at this castle and held a Christmas gathering here too.

They also had similar ones for William the Conqueror, Henry ll.  Richard1, and John Lackland

On our way out we passed the Trebuchet

As you can see it was a very sunny day and we all headed back to the shade of our gîte for a rest.

Thanks for looking, Chris

Just in case you would like to see my small journal kit is in this post here