I’d rather eat pasta and drink red wine than be a size 0….Sophia Loren

Last night we fell in to bed completely exhausted.  The beds were rock hard but it didn’t matter.  The room is clean but very small, the twin beds almost a double they are so close together and again, there are no tea and coffee making facilities, but we were horizontal so we didn’t care.

We woke up after 8am, the latest we’ve slept so far.  We knew we had a day of doing nothing ahead of us and we were both relieved of the day’s reprieve from activity.  When I opened my suitcase it just simply exploded and my stuff is everywhere. I don’t care. It can wait. When we got here last night, we thought we had seen a servo down the road.  We were going to go and get some milk and a few paper cups and have some breakfast.  Alas, when we stepped out and got closer to said servo, it was actually another business of some sort, so we had to change our plans.  We walked past an Italian restaurant with signs out and table and charirs sitting outside but it was closed.  We stored that in our memory bank for later on. 

Then we saw Burger King (in Australia, Hungry Jack’s) and thought that would be good. Of course it was across the road, so we started looking for a pedestrian crossing.  We couldn’t see one, but there was a grassy verge across from us, which we could walk across then wait there to cross the busy main road. We are still getting used to cars going the opposite way to us, so were a lot more hesitant than we should have been.  We got part way across the grass when we realised there was a large ditch in front of us.  And there were blackberry bushes through it, though they weren’t overgrown. We contemplated walking down further but we were in lazy mode, so decided ‘we can do this’. 

Those words again.  I went first, then Cecile and yes, we managed it.  Then we had to face the cars whizzing past us in the wrong direction.  Regardless of our awkwardness, we made it across in one piece and headed into Burger King, where a bigger challenge awaited us.  The menu.  It made me think about how damn hard it must be to shift to a new country where the language is just gobbledygook to you.  It’s scary enough when you’re ordering food or catching a train for a day or two but imagine what it must be like to have to immerse yourself in it full time.  I have nothing but compassion and awe for those who do just that.  Even with the same language, the lifestyle is still so different.  Next time I get impatient at someone not understanding, I will remember this.

Anyway, back to the menu.  You would think I would have learned to look for the English flag on a menu wouldn’t you?  But no, my brain is in relaxation mode so I wasn’t looking for it.  I was trying to guess a lot of it with my very poor Year 8 French class but to no avail.  But at least there were pictures so I could guess a lot.  Then finally after I’d stood there for longer than a kid in a lolly shop, I found the flag and translated to English again.  We decided on a ham and cheese toasty and a chocolate shake for me and a latte for Cecile. 

The toasty was delicious.  They use a strong, bold flavoured cheese and amazing fresh ham and a lot of both.  We didn’t get the drinks though, so by the time we’d finished the toasty, we looked at the docket and used a translate app to see what it said.  I had clicked Yes to “would you like this later”.  So we had to take the slip to the counter and got our drinks.  Yes there was whipped cream again on the shake but boy this one was good.  Best I’ve had  here so far.  It went down a treat.

We sat there for ages, just doing our Wordle puzzles and generally just relaxing before we had to fight the ditch to head back to the hotel.  We walked a bit further down and realised there was no ditch there.  If only we had looked a bit closer.  Oh well.  It was a good balance challenge lol.  Again past all the whizzing cars and motor bikes and we were back at the hotel. On a side note, there are canola fields everywhere and their dandelions are the biggest, fattest and fluffiest I’ve ever seen.

Honestly, we sat and did nothing all day.  We did do a bit of repacking of our bags.  Up until now, with the extra bags we had to get, we have been toting 2 big wheelie suitcases, 2 smaller wheelie bags, 2 back packs and our 2 handbags.  Now that we were catching a train, weight distribution wasn’t an issue, so we stuffed our suitcases which freed up at least one of the smaller bags.  Then we were able to put the smaller one into the slightly bigger one.  We also offloaded some of the stuff from our backpacks making them lighter.  Then we sat and did nothing again. Ahhhh bliss!!!

As the afternoon progressed to evening, at fear of going to sleep, we got moving to have some dinner.  The Italian restaurant, La Fabbrica Del Gusto, which was closed earlier looked good, and Cecile had taken a photo of their menu which we ran a translate app over.  Yes, we understood that we should probably be eating French food in France rather than Italian, but it’s what we felt like.  Besides the Italian we had in Windermere Uk was the best food we had in the  UK.  We woke ourselves up a bit and though we were both a bit dubious about whether we would be understood or not, we headed there for dinner.  Walking in the open door, we asked for a table for two and the chef said they weren’t open yet.. Ooops..  Anyway,  a server came across who had some English and said it was okay, and found us a table. 

We apologised for our lack of French and he apologised for his poor English which was actually fantastic.  We ordered a drink to start.  A Campari spritz and boy was it strong.   There were bread sticks on the table.  Then we ordered pasta.  She ordered a lasagne and I ordered a prawn and chorizo cream linguini.  The waiter brought us out a bowl of fresh rolls and a huge jar of parmesan cheese.  Then the meals arrived.  OMG.  I make a version of prawn and chorizo past regularly at home and I have it out whenever I can, but this version was to die for. I was so full at the end of it, but I would have licked the plate if I was at home. It was delicious.  

This was the best meal we have  had so far and compared to what we’ve been paying in the UK and Ireland for meals that were nowhere near as good, it was much cheaper too.  We waddled back home, thankfully not having to cross the road again and pretty much crawled straight into bed when we got back.  There was a girl in reception who ordered a taxi for us for 7.30 in the morning so we can be on the train from Beauvais bright and early.  That saved us another language nightmare thankfully.  We were all set for our big trip in the morning to Paris, then Les Mans and off to the Chateau. 

Life is indeed a wonderful thing.

Happy travels… Livvy xxx