Le Grand Tour de la Belle France

Cours Mirabeau - Aix en Provence

La Grand Tour de la Belle France 

Me and Phil - On the Road

We've (that's me, partner Dave and son, Phil) just returned from a super road trip to France, touring from Calais to Besançon via Lac d'Orient; onward and down to Annemasse via the Source de Lison, Pont du Diable and Geneva; then down to Aix en Provence via Evian les Bains and along to the Côte d’Azùr - to Port Grimaud and Les Prairies de la Mer. There, at the Prairies, we spent seven glorious days in a luxury caravan soaking up the sun, the sand, the blue, blue seas and the white, white waves of the bay of St Tropez.
Travelling back to Calais, we stayed at La Grand Croix, St Etiènne to visit Les Gorges de la Loire, visited picturesque Sens and Pont Sur Yonne.

Me 'n' Dave - Shores of Lac d'Orient

Evian les Bains on Lake Geneva

Quaint Buildings in Sens

Annemasse avec du Pain!

                        Source du Lison                             

       

     

  Pont du Diable(Top Left) Doubs, Besançon(Bottom Left) St Tropez Bay (Right)                       
                                                    

Lac de Grangent, Gorges de la Loire

Our Caravan at Les Prairies

Beautiful Pont Sur Yonne

When we weren't staying at Les Prairies in the caravan, we stayed at Formule 1 hotels - cheap as chips but bijou, clean and cosy.
 

Outside the Formule 1 Hotel, Aix en Provence

Port Grimaud

We had only one rainy, windy day in the whole fifteen days.  The rest were just a whole host of glorious warm sunshiny days. Mmm...lovely.

Write on:

France

I wrote a poem dedicated to my France travel and published it online at Wikinut - here it is (it's no great poetry feat, but lots of fun, I hope you'll find!) 

Calais à Provence – en La Belle France

http://www.wikinut.com/calais-%C3%A0-provence-%E2%80%93-en-la-belle-france/1k79e_2k/nd7g5n59/

 

I'll be posting articles and a travel blog all about my French road trip soon.  So watch this space constant readers!

Lightning Flashes:

Invited to co-author a blog of Flash Fiction with my very good friend and writing colleague, Vidya, entitled Lightning Flashes, we'll be up and running as soon as I get my head around the damned technology!

Corfu:

My travel blog, Red Hot in Cool Corfu, is out there now.  So is the first of a six part series about my Corfu travels.

Visit my travel blog:

Red Hot in Cool Corfu

at: http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sheilaswheels/1/1311810746/tpod.html

and the first of my six part series,
 

Tales From an Ionian Island – Day One (ημέρα ένας)

- at:

http://trifter.com/europe/greece/tales-from-an-ionian-island-day-one-%CE%AD-%CE%AD/

 

Creative Writing Course:

After quite a long break from my creative writing workshops, I joined a new ten-week one last Friday, run by North Tyneside Adult Learning Alliance, held at the Shiremoor Centre every Friday morning (morning??!!  I don't DO mornings, constant readers!).
The first session, with Julie as our tutor and seven of us students, went off with a big bang.  It was great.  I'm expecting to get a lot of inspiration from this.  I'll keep you posted on this too,
My first piece of writing was about a pear (!!!!) and I've already had it published on the Wikinut OnlinePublishing Site.  Here it is:

Pear Prose

http://writing.wikinut.com/Pear-Prose/36_seq24/

Boneshakers Interviewed on Bishop FM

Go to my website and link to this blog page at: 

Boneshakers Take Bishop FM by Storm – Shaken and Stirred

http://writeangleswithsheila.wordpress.com/2011/10/01/rockin-with-the-boneshakers-boneshakers-take-radio-cleveland-by-storm-shaken-and-stirred/

...and you'll find a link to the radio interview.   
**I’m proud to note that if you go to 40 minutes into the interview, yours truly gets a fanfare mention for her ‘Rockin’ with the Boneshakers’ Blog!  Thank you Boneshakers - and what an IMMENSE interview it was.

That's it for now, constant readers .  I'm getting back in the swing of writing again after France.  So keep reading my blog.  It's great to have your company.  Talk to you SOON.

A Tale of Two Sisters - An' The Adverb's a Cissy!

A TALE OF TWO SISTERS:

I haven't blogged here for such a long time and I apologise, dear readers.  But there's a reason - a good reason, honest!
My sister Barbara came to visit from the hot deserty salty air of Karratha in the North West of Australia for six weeks, armed with a Brit Rail pass for two - and we travelled the length and breadth of England, trekked hither and thither, investigated every bit of woodland, moorland and craggy landscape we could find. We saw wildlife galore in the strangest places, doing the strangest things!

Seagull eating chips in St Ives

Squirrel in Sefton Park, Liverpool

Red Robin, Red Lion, Dittisham, Devon

Hareshaw Linn, Northumberland

Bunny on Northumbria University Campus, Newcastle

St Bees nr. Whitehaven, Cumbria

Preening Swan at Windermere

Digitalis Overdose in Durham!

  

Heron up a Weeping Willow, St James's Park, London

Moorhen makes a nest in Dover

Family of Ducks in Calais

We flew to Corfu for a week of wonderful wild scenery awash with birds, butterflies and beautiful critters.

Beautiful Butterfly settles on Ground

Stunning Bird in Treetops

Tortoise Crossing the Road

 

Yellow Butterfly in the Pink (Orange?)

Cheekiest Parrot EVER!

Window-Box Wild Cat?

We rediscovered our roots in LOVERLY LIVERPOOL.

Back to my street in Liverpool 1

My Nanna's house in Liverpool 15

In short, we had a BALL and I'll blog each trip in GLORIOUS DETAIL - so - WATCH THIS SPACE!

WRITE ON:

On 16th June, I was published FOR THE SECOND TIME by the fabulous FLASH FICTION CHRONICLES with a tongue-in-cheek, 'about writing', piece about the ADVERB.

 Here's the link:

Flash Fiction Chronicles: Adverb: Amigo or Adversary

http://www.everydayfiction.com/flashfictionblog/adverb-amigo-or-adversary-2/#comments

...and if you go to the 'Little Leaf Guesthouse' Facebook page at:

https://www.facebook.com/littleleafguesthouse

you'll find 'Adverb' posted there too!!  Thank you Little Leaf - the best B and B not only in St Ives, Cornwall, but in the whole country too!!

 My commissioned article about GORGEOUS LA GREZE and the stunning countryside and hilltop villages of the MIDI-PYRENEES in Southern France has been published online by TRIFTER.  Here's the link:

Gorgeous La Greze of the Tarn

http://trifter.com/practical-travel/gorgeous-la-greze-of-the-tarn/

John and Judi of La Greze

So...thank you for your patience constant readers...

...And I'll talk to you soon