A Weekend in France // TRAVEL

A Weekend In France - 14/15th June 2014

So over the past weekend my parents and I tumbled into our car at 5am and drove down to Kent where we would take the Eurotunnel, and it was here our adventure started!  

After an uncomfortable sleep in the back of the car and a short drive once we had arrived in Calais, we reached our home for the weekend - Le Touquet! Now you can go to markets all over the world, but France really knows how to do a market, although it's quite common to see spare parts for dolls and barbies in boxes, which is just a little bit terrifying. Saturday is market day in Le Touquet, so after having scones and lattes for breakfast (yes I did have scones have breakfast and yes it's as good as it sounds) we wandered over to the market. You could buy pretty much anything there - shoes, fruit, books, antiques, home ware, fish and that's just a little selection of the stuff on offer! My favourite purchase at the market was the radishes we bought; not because I really love radishes or anything, but because we bought them off a French farmer who had real life green fingers! And he looked really pleased that we'd chosen him to get our radishes from - bless! 

After lunch and a little browse around the few shops Le Touquet has to offer, we headed back to our hotel. Now the hotel we always stay at when we're there is right on the beach. Like when you step out of the door you're on the beach, pretty great right? However that does mean that rooms with a sea view are a little pricey! So we'd settled for a room with a view of the sand dunes (which is just a nicer way of them saying that your view will be of the car park and if you really stretch your head out the window you can catch a glimpse of the sand dunes). But to our surprise we had been upgraded to a room with a sea view, woooo! Also they'd left a bottle of Le Touquet brewed beer and biscuits in the room, extra woooo! 

We had our dinner in the best fish restaurant I've ever been to, the food there is amazing! And then we finished off the day in the hotel bar, where we were joined by the most beautiful sunset. It was all oranges and reds and pinks and the reflections of it on the sea were breathtaking. I could have taken thousands of photos, but due to the fear that it looked like I was taking photos of the couple sitting outside, I didn't... hahaha.

Now hotel breakfasts are one of my favourite things ever. There's just so much amazing food to choose from, and also an endless supply of coffee and orange juice which is great. And as I said, this hotel is right on the beach, so I enjoyed my platefuls of pastries and scrambled egg and bowls of cereal with a lovely morning view of the beach... Perfect!

Sunday’s in France are very relaxed, most shops close or are only open until midday, but when you’re right by the beach, shopping isn’t really on the top of my list of things to do. Therefore, we walked along the beach instead. The beach at Le Touquet stretches for miles, so even though I’ve been here loads of times, there were still parts of the beach unexplored. So we walked along those parts, discovering a lovely little café that was placed right on the sand and loads of little beach huts that were all brightly coloured and adorable. After some cold drinks we emptied the sand out of our shoes and headed into the main part of town. We took a quick look around some of the shops before they closed their doors for the day and then settled into the local Irish pub for a coffee. 

So cute.

People watching in the Irish pub.

Before leaving the beautiful beach and starting our journey home we got lunch in the hotel bar. A club sandwich and chips for me, accompanied with a pineapple flavoured mocktail, yummmm! And then it was just about time to go home.

The mocktails, delicious!

It was a short but sweet trip, and I can’t wait to have more Le Touquet adventures! 

Eleanor and Park Review

Eleanor and Park. More like Adorable and Cute. YOU'VE BEEN HAZED. (i'msorry)

Eleanor and Park is a story about a girl and boy. The girl stands out like crazy, with her not so slim figure and her odd choice of clothes. The boy blends in, headphones on to block out the noise and his head burrowed into a comic, nobody really bothers him. Except Eleanor. She suddenly appears in his life, unwelcome at first, but eventually he can't get enough of her in his life. And Eleanor feels just the same about Park. This book is essentially an adorable little romance. 

So firstly, lets talk about the plot. It's funny. It's cute. And it's sad. Like all at once. There'll be a moment where you're laughing at something ridiculous that Park has just said (this line will be ridiculously cute too by the way).Then all of sudden you'll be overwhelmed with sadness by Eleanor's heart-wrenching reply. I think the phrase "a roller coaster of emotions" fits quite well here. 

The great thing about the romance in this book is that it's realistic. Eleanor and Park don't fall in love instantly, never looking back as they stroll into the horizon.In fact they don't even like each other when they first meet. It takes time for them to fall in love. Plus the things they say to each other and do with each other are really realistic and relatable too. It's not just movie love, it's the love that happens in real life. 

Furthermore the set up of this book is great. The chapters are split into various short chunks, written from either Eleanor or Park's point of view. This means we get both characters opinion on things and how they personally saw and felt in each situation. I really liked this idea as it means you get to know Eleanor and Park equally, rather than just getting to know one protagonist best. 

Now I'm not going to ruin the ending for anyone that hasn't read Eleanor and Park, but I'll give you a warning: wrap yourself in a blanket to use for comfort after you've finished. Have some tissues ready, your eyes will be leaking slightly. And finally, have some chocolate to hand, the ending is going to hit you like a Dementer. But seriously, the ending broke my heart. But it was incredible. I think it's one of the cleverest endings to a book I've read for a while. 

So, in conclusion, I love this book. Five stars for sure. It's cute and romantic and made me laugh and broke my heart. And if that doesn't add up to create a good book then I don't know what does. 

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell. Read it now! 

☆☆☆☆☆

Giddy Reviews

Giddy Reviews:

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Jesus this book is good! Good doesn't even begin to describe it, actually! Just wow.
Firstly, I spent the entirety of my reading adventure wondering what would happen at the end. I was still trying to figure it out with just thirty pages left, and I loved that. It kept me guessing the whole way, which meant I wanted to keep reading in order to find out some more!
Furthermore, the writing was so perfect that every time I read it, I got completely lost in the circus world. I could picture the tents and the shows and the towns and the people in such detail that it was like they were real. I could almost smell the wood mixed with caramel that lingered in the circus air. I could almost taste the unusual, wonderful flavours of the chocolate mice and the banquets served at the midnight dinners. I could almost hear the gasps as the lights announcing the "Cirque De Rêves" popped for the very first time.
Whilst reading The Night Circus I came to the realisation that the story is like a fiction jigsaw. A character would be introduced and then a few chapters later I would exclaim "Oh! That's them from before!" Or I would realise that this is what was being subtly hinted at right at the beginning. And for me, that was great. I loved piecing things together and realising certain things about characters and plot lines.
I would definitely recommend The Night Circus to you! It's a story world you will get lost in and once your circus adventure is finished, you'll probably want to crawl right back into the paper circus again!

The beautiful cover for The Night Circus