Well it has been a while since the last update and the reason is that we have been really busy and also tecnically challenged! As there was a small hitch with our laptop, in that it no longer worked after our last journey from northern to southern Spain. However the summary is as follows:
One month in France
Christmas and New Year back in the UK
From mid January until now Spain.
So where were we back in November? Ah yes, we had left Nice for Bourdeux and spent a couple of nights there in a really smart revamped townhouse. Although the set up was part of the owners house and I don't think they really wanted to have guests, but basically needed them to pay off the renovations. Bourdeux could be pretty if you removed the graffiti and doggie do's (maybe a gap in the market to promote best practice when you have a dog i.e. buy some bags) and improved the parking, apart from that it was ok but not top of Patrick's list as you may have gathered.
After Bordeaux we moved on to Saintes, pronounced ' Sontes' and here we stayed in a hotel which ....with an extra half a million, could have been fantastic. It had all of the original features and staircases etc but unfortunately hadn't been updated and was on the market for EUR 850k. ...Over our budget!! This is where the fun started and we began our search to see if there were any properties we liked enough to setup home and create a business. We travelled to Royan, La Rochelle and Cognac and numerous towns and villages in between and unfortunately came to the same conclusion, that every where needed an injection of life to make it appealing, it was so quiet and everything was too far apart. From Saintes to La Rochelle was 90kms and the scenery in between not the most inspiring. However, we did see a little townhouse in Cognac that had potential but unfortunately nothing else did.
After Saintes, we were a little stuck on where to stay or go so in the end stayed in La Rochelle for a couple of nights and then found a villa on Il de Re which is reached via a 3 km bridge, similar to Wales and the Severn bridge and you have to pay €8 to get onto the island......but they let you off for free! It was known as the exclusive area of the region like Sandbanks in Poole, but I think it was really a marketing ploy. It was nice and we had a good villa and were able to cycle for miles and miles but again it just lacked any real life, so didn't do it for us.
Eventually, it was time to leave France and head back home for Christmas and New Year but with a feeling of ...not quite despair, but really wondering what we should do next as it had not turned out as we had hoped, but c'est la vie!
Back home and we were off with a bang and up to London for Williams christening and first birthday. Nina is a Great Aunt! This was a great day and he is a lovely little chap who is very laid back and relaxed with people. This is probably a a reflection of his mum and dad. It is hard trying to think of all the things we did but mainly it was catching up with Hannah and James and the rest of our family and friends.
Christmas was a nice time as we had 2 Christmas days. One with Patrick s family, where both his sisters were able to be there which was the first time all 3 had been together at Christmas for about 20 years and the second one was on Christmas day itself where we were back up in London with Nina's family. We were delayed by about 3 hours due to a puncture on our hire car and they had not supplied the locking wheel nut so Patrick could not change it, much to his annoyance. However a very very nice man from the RAC was able to come out and get us going!
The rest of the time was spent seeing friends and catching up with all of the events and happenings since we had been away. As well as dealing with the mundane items of sorting out rent renewals etc.
However, as we were of no fixed abode at home we had to decide on where we went to next.
This came down to 2 options......Italy or Spain.
For preparation, Patrick ordered 2 maps from Amazon and the Italian one did not arrive so the gods were telling us to go to Spain. Not very scientific but some things are meant to be!
Spain
We had booked a villa for a month at Miami Playa which is south of Barcelona, but unfortunately the accommodation left a lot to be desired and neither of us were willing to spend a night there! This did cause us a bit of a headache as we had no internet or phone connection at the time, so needed to get that sorted before we could find somewhere we could stay for the night. Fortunately,after much driving around, we stopped in Cambrils, sorted out the phones, Nina disappeared for ages seeing a couple of apartments and Patrick started searching for a hotel.......and finally found one in Vilaseca.
Now we had a base for the night but our plans were in disarray. We had thought about going south to the Costa del Sol whilst we were in Spain, so now brought that plan forward and over the next few days stopped in Valencia, Marbella and Alicante and visited many places in between e.g. Torremolinos, Benidorm and Puerto Banus! Also we were fortunate to be able to meet up with Patrick's cousin who lived just outside Marbella and see the local side of the Costa del Sol.
Although our experience of Miami Playa was not what we had hoped, the positive side was that when we stopped in Cambrils we did really like it, so during our last leg of going down south, we managed to book a one bedroom apartment for a month in Cambrils, so now gave us a base. It is a great apartment and in a good location near the beach and port.......and also the train station which is a bit annoying when the Barcelona express chugs through and the driver is tooting his mate on the platform, but all considered we have made a good choice and can now explore this area more.
The downside of travelling is that we have unfortunately lost our laptop as the hard drive packed up between Alicante and Cambrils which has limited our online ability. It is quite interesting in how dependent we now are on it and how behind both France and Spain are in their technological capabilities. Every apartment we have looked at in Spain is without or 'sin' (local lingo) wifi connection, so we are limited to the mobile phone networks and they are slow and expensive, which is surprising when compared with Thailand where the infrastructure does not appear to be as mature but they have greater phone and Internet connection with top ups available everywhere. Here it can take half hour just to top up your phone (with France Orange shop having the record in taking over an hour to get a top up!).
But hey we are at least able to get our blog up and running again and have joined the local library so we can get some books and dvds. ....and are beginning to learn a few words of Spanish.
So adios until the next update.......
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