Trip to St Omer (and French towns reviews)

Living in East Sussex means that I am within an hour of the channel tunnel. This makes a petite weekend very possible for me. In the last year I have been to Le Touquet and Lille, Le Touquet being my favourite. It has a certain up market ambience, beautiful scenery, gorgeous high-end boutiques and shops, no wonder it is referred to as 'the rich peoples playing ground'. We stayed in The Westminster which is a hotel and a tres chic one at that.

Lille in comparison, has the boutique shops, in fact a lot of shops and cafes. It seems less exclusive but is worth a visit as the canal is a focal point.

So this last weekend I went to St Omer. St Omer was about 40 minutes away which is very accessible. This trip was incredibly historic. The airfield was a major one in both world wars and has both a first world war (English built) hanger and a second world war (Polish built) hanger next to each other. A couple of years ago a a monument was erected by Air Chief Marshal Sir Brian Buridge and Lieutenant General Jean Patrick Gaviard.

Air Commodore Peter Dye, Personnel and Training Command RAF said the idea is:

The Royal Air Force are here to commemorate the efforts and achievements of the men and women of the British Air Services. We are also here to recognise the debt that we owe them, to reflect on the values of courage and self sacrifice — values that continue to be important to the Royal Air Force.

St Omer itself also oozes history. The catedral and train station are worth a visit. 

We went to the main square and ate dinner. Restaurants, cafes and patisseries were open until late and this was on a sunday. Many people, like myself, sat outside watching the sun go down. A different experience from the other two places but certainly an enjoyable one. 

Park St Omer

Beautiful manicured gardens 

 

Me in the flowers

Alexander in Brown cords and a shirt

And our hotel 

The Memorial 

Thank you for reading. My next trip is to Amien and En Fleur in a couple of weeks and Arras at Christmas as I've heard about the excellent Christmas Markets

Holidays to Bandol (French Rivera)

I recently took a vacation to Bandol which is situated on the Southern French coast 1 hour and a half away from Nice.

Instantly, my thought was Monkeys wardrobe. So I got onto planning his looks.

The holiday started with a brief flight from London Gatwick to Nice.

Bandol and view from room

Flight over.

I wear- White Blazer, White Jeans and Black and white top

Alexander- Blue Blazer- m&co
Chinos- baby Gap
Top- Polo Ralph Lauren

First day

Beautiful rocky walk

Getting ready for

Nights out

 Tropical shirt over blue vest.

Summer Beach FUN plus hair

As always I spend a lot of September at Camber Beach, East Sussex. Being one of the only sand beaches during the summer it is heaving with tourists. By September kids are back at school and the water temp is at its hottest, ideal for me.

Here is my summer beach fashion for this year

Top- Primark

Baby wetsuit JOJO Maman Bebe

Bikini- Primark

Top- organic cotton @Zara. Jeans old hollister

To get the jeans..

I cut out two squares and then cut a line down one edge. This means I can wear them very rough like the last picture or fold then back like the previous picture.

To get the beach hair..

Go in the sea and let the ends get wet. Just the moisture of the sea will help. On your way out crinkle your hair. Then play or chill and let it dry. Then add some Charles Worthing Texturing and volume spray. You will end up with these perfect beach waves. 

To get children to like swimming..

Alexander hates the water. To get him to start liking it at all I would get him to play with his watering can and buckets. This time we went he couldn't wait to go in. Hold their hand and play games. Pretend to look for fish and crabs. Always make sure they are wearing suncream and a hat in the hot sun light. Also get them a UV suit to protect their skin.

All from Dansoutacontrol and Monkey Maximus for today.