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| Passing over the Alps from Italy to France, and the first taste of French (non-Italian) food... the best onion soup in Lyon.
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| French pastries!
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| One of many dinners at the villa near Cognac, with the Hinde Street crowd.
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| Wherever you went in the villa you were likely to find someone reading the latest Harry Potter book!
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| Tasting Cognac, in Cognac.
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| Men with beer and a BBQ.
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| Camping near Le Mans. As soon as we got our tent out it decided it was time to rain. Thankfully it cleared for breakfast.
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| A Sunday market outside the spectacular cathedral in Le Mans.
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| The medieval streets of Le Mans.
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| An obbligatory visit to the motor racing museum and circuit at Le Mans.
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| More rain. This time at the Abbey of Solesmes, where we attended vespers, famous for the gregorian chanting of the monks.
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| No sooner were we back in England (Portsmouth to be precise) than we hunted down a greasy spoon and tucked into a wonderful English breakfast.
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| Afternoon tea in a National Trust tea shop - now we've indulged in all the things missing from Italian life.
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| Greenbelt Arts Festival at Cheltenham racecourse... the beer tent.
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| With Naomi, Andrea and Matthew at Greenbelt.
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| Sunset over the festival site.
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| A farewell to Nick before he goes to Indonesia for a year with VSO.
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| Crumble and custard with Emma and Tom in their new home in Hathersage.
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| Croquet in Cawthorne with the Bowes and Morris families... now we really have indulged in everything that you can't get in Italy.
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| A panama hat brought especially from Ecuador by John, who we saw for the first time in 6 months.
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| A first meeting with Connie Wilson.
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| With Rachel's godmother Helen, somewhere on the top of the Pennines.
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| The annual Bowes' boat holiday, this time on The Thames.
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| A summer's afternoon at an English pub.
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| BBQ by the river.
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| River life.
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| Lechlade.
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| Punting in Oxford at the end of the boat holiday.
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| A stop-over in Dijon on the way back through France.
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| Back on top of the alps a month later, this time passing from France to Italy.
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