We left the beautiful Maison Borgeat at 9am sharp. Estelle came to check the rooms and see us off, but most of us feel so poorly we said a quick goodbye and didn’t really thank her properly for the week we’ve had. Luckily Jarrod is over the flu he had earlier in the trip so he could talk to her on our behalf.

Ross and Luke dropped us at the train station, Saint Jean, and left us all there with all the luggage while they returned the cars we had hired to the airport.

We purchased coffee and snacks and sat around waiting for an hour. We then encouraged the kids to buy lunch for the 11.58am train and headed to the platform. We went to the wrong end of the platform to board (not that there is any way to know that until you are ON the platform), and then had to make a mad dash at 11.50am down the long platform to find our carriage and seats and get the 14 people and suitcases on the train.

Meanwhile, Ross and Luke had been waiting at the correct end accidentally but couldn’t get up to the platform because Jarrod had all the tickets, so had to make a mad dash to the other end to enter the platform, and then a mad dash with Jarrod to meet the rest of us at the other end where our carriage was! We all collapsed in our seats for the three hour ride after all that excitement.

Once in Paris, Jarrod led us to the metro line to get to the Nation stop, close to which our hotel is located. We arrived right at check in time and dumped our bags and were able to sit down for a whole hour! Then it was back on the metro to then swap to the N Line to get to Versailles.

In our planning for this trip, we had realised we didn’t have a whole day to visit the Palace of Versailles but found a night tour that took us through some of the main rooms with a finale of fireworks and meeting Baroque Santa. We thought this was a good option to still see the Palace, and booked a 7.15pm session. We ate a quick dinner at the KFC around the corner to make sure we were there in time for our tour.

The tour was interesting but did not provide much historical information like an audio guide would during the day – it employed actors, dancers and musicians to give us an idea of what life was like in the palace, but everyone spoke only in French which made it difficult to understand.

The palace was beautiful, and the kids decided to do their own research on Marie Antoinette, the Treaty of Versailles, Napoleon and other other historical moments related to the palace.

We then returned to our hotel rooms, making tentative plans for tomorrow with the rider of we need to see if the unwell are well enough to join in or not…….we have seven double rooms here which means plans have to be made in the group chat rather than in person.

Ever since our first big trip to the US in 2013, I have carried a letter from my doctor and several medicines made up ready to administer. When 6 year old Sam wouldn’t stop vomiting in the Grand Canyon, I had to beg a pharmacist to give me Zofran without a prescription – he gave me 10 for US$110! (And Sam promptly vomited one up as I gave it to him – which I haven’t let him forget since!)

Since then I have taken supplies from home on every holiday and not needed much of them. I think last year in Japan I might have handed bandaids to Tom and Jess, and our kids never needed anything. Bordeaux has produced a different story! As of tonight, I think Beck and Ollie are the only ones who are still healthy. Several of us woke with a temperature and chesty cough (I didn’t bring any suppressant, just antibiotics).

Belle is also still unwell but we convinced her to take the short drive with us to the citadel in Blaye City Centre down the road. She didn’t feel well enough to climb it, so stayed in the car while we explored.

Built in the 16th century, it is an amazing structure that has accompanying citadels in Medoc and a man-made island in between; the three citadels meant to protect the French from Vikings, the Spanish and the British over time. Most surprisingly, once we entered the arch in the wall, we found a small village operating – a hotel, camping ground, restaurants and shops!

We explored it for about an hour and then returned to the boulangerie outside the citadel where we had lunch on the first day here to get today’s lunch. Ross looked worse than Belle by then, so we returned to the chateau and I put them both to bed with more Panadol (which I may run out of by the time our holiday is over!).

The chateau is excellent, but the only bathrooms are in each bedroom, and there are so many other rooms it is easy not to know where everyone is. Cooper and Sam had talked about having a quick dip in the pool, but I did not encourage that today as Sam is another one that has fallen sick. He was well enough to walk home with Jarrod from the city centre though – they wanted to explore along the way, and walked through some vineyards and a graveyard on their walk back.

(Update: Sam did jump in the pool after all…..at 8.30pm 🙄)

I think the kids this afternoon have been resting, sleeping, scrolling and playing games together, but as I now have a high temp and have slept the afternoon away, I haven’t checked 😬

Ross and Luke were not as keen to cook up a storm in the kitchen after all their efforts over the last few nights, so took the kids to McDonalds 2km away to supplement the bacon and eggs they haven’t used yet.

We are very sad we have to check out tomorrow! The Bordeaux region, Blaye, and our chateau Maison Borgeat, have all exceeded our expectations. Despite the fact we now seem to be dropping like flies, we have had a beautiful few days here and have made some beautiful memories.

1am: I finished yesterday’s blog post.

2.15am: a phone call woke me. It was a neighbour in Oyster Bay who found our dog wandering down to the oval. I explained to her how to get into the house and she returned Millie inside for us. (Our dog sitter was at church and then at family Christmas lunch, and thought Millie had been so good for the last few days, she gave her access to the backyard while she was gone….clearly the weak point has not been strengthened well enough!)

4am: Belle appeared in our room to tell us she had vomited in her bed (to her right and her left 😩).

…..Joyeux Noel to us! After that interrupted night, we slept in and were all eating breakfast around 10am. Poor Belle spent the day drugging up on Panadol, sleeping and waking only to drink some water to avoid dehydration and then sleep again.

After breakfast, Ross and Luke started cooking our Christmas lunch. While they were cooking, we all rang our families and friends at home to wish them a merry Christmas. Our Christmas lunch was delicious!

On our way back to the car yesterday after visiting Bordeaux Christmas markets, we walked past a shop where the lines were out the door and down the street. The store was selling Christmas cakes, but Ross couldn’t bring himself to pay for one. So Beck and I did some girl maths and bought two!!!!! We rationalised that the boys have not been turning down beers or wine on offer for themselves, so we should not have to give up an expensive, local dessert we want to try!

We watched the cake being made through the street window while waiting in line – it was layers of meringue and cream, covered in chocolate flakes. We bought one white chocolate and one dark chocolate dessert, and as we divvied it up between everyone for our Christmas lunch dessert, each person’s serve was a cost of 4 euro…..surely less than a beer!

After lunch we had some rest time – the kids played games and the adults rested and took walks around the property. It is an impressive place, but the amount of maintenance required looks expensive!

Estelle had left the chapel open for us to use, and we had hoped to have our own little Christmas service in there, but the piano was in the main house and the day as it unfolded unfortunately didn’t lend itself to it. Jarrod played carols on the piano inside instead.

Belle woke about 3pm after a very deep sleep, and felt well enough to sit up long enough for us to open presents. We had bought everyone a “tour shirt”and card game wrapped up from home so they had one present to open on Christmas Day. As Belle had designed the shirt and planned the secret Santa, we all waited until she was ready to open those presents and the Secret Santa presents.

Ross cooked a pasta dish for dinner, which he felt was missing ingredients (they didn’t sell cream in Aldi here, so we couldn’t have carbonara for example), but Ollie said it was the best pasta he’d ever had! After dinner the kids watched a movie on the projector downstairs while the adults and Jarrod and Tim tried more of the Maison Borgeat wines.

Poor Belle has not eaten all day and was only up for long enough to participate in the present opening, so hopefully she will sleep this off and be ready to go again tomorrow. This has not been a normal Christmas for us, but with less materiality about it and more rest time and family time – and in such an amazing location! – it has been a lovely and memorable Christmas.

Yesterday’s blog post was deliberately delayed to give Abi and Tom time to ring grandparents and message other family and friends about their exciting news. It means this post is being recorded after midnight (Merry Christmas!), so I apologise in advance for any typos as I am in bed in the dark and sans spectacles!

I have enjoyed revisiting my high school French today. We had a relaxed start to the day and headed in to the Bordeaux Christmas markets just after 11am. I could communicate with stall holders to some extent. I can also announce where the exit is/say please and thankyou etc/tell everyone that some shops are closed on Saturday and only open by appointment, but I suspect they are not as impressed as my parents would be!

Belle had the excellent idea to do Secret Santa and provided us with a website that randomly generated a gift recipient for each of us. We arrived at the market and decided everyone had 1.5 hours to explore and get their lunch, and buy a gift to the value of 25 euros.

By the regrouping time of 2.30pm, everyone had achieved their goal. We then explored the city centre before heading back. Bordeaux is such a pretty place, and very photogenic. We wandered through beautiful streets set up with Christmas lights that will look wonderful lit up, and we also visited the Bordeaux Cathedral before leaving.

Once back at the chateau we returned to our stations of Beck and I in the laundry, Ross and Luke organising dinner, and the kids spending time together. They did enjoy wrapping their Secret Santa gifts, which are now under the tree ready for tomorrow.

Poor Belle, after all her efforts, started to not feel the best as we explored the town. I got her to eat a small dinner when we got home but soon after she was shaking with cold even though her head was very warm. I sent her to bed with Panadol, and am hoping after all her efforts today she will be ok to celebrate tomorrow. Unbeknownst to most of the others, she has carried in her suitcase all the way from Australia a small present from us to them to be handed out tomorrow as well, a present she designed and is looking forward to finally revealing.

At 4am our alarm went off to get ready, pack our suitcases and meet in the hotel foyer at 5am. We then rolled our luggage up the dark streets to Victoria Station, a 10 minute walk, to ensure we were there in time for our 5.29am Gatwick Express train. Picture 14 people rolling noisy suitcases down the street outside your window at 5am on a Monday morning and chatting (some more quietly than others)…..the neighbours were probably glad we were leaving!

The queues at check in, as well as Jess not being able to get the self check-in to work, meant while we made it in plenty of time to board, we didn’t have time for breakfast or coffee. We were shuttled out to our British Airways plane and takeoff was delayed by over half an hour, but we still landed in Bordeaux an hour later at the original scheduled time.

Our cars were waiting ready for us at Bordeaux Airport. We picked out which ones were for us straight away!

We drove the hour trip to Blaye from there. We were so hungry and it was 12.30pm by then, so we stopped at a boulangerie for some lunch. Everyone selected a range of pastries, croissants, baguettes, and pizzas, and we ate them in a gazebo next to the Blaye Citadel. We might explore that later, but we were keen to get to our castle once we had eaten!

Not far from the centre of Blaye, we turned through the iron gates to this…..

Our host was waiting for us, and took us on a tour of the chateau, giving us a history lesson along the way. The house dates back to the 19th century, and there is a fountain in the backyard that dates back to the 18th century.

There is also a chapel next door that Estelle said she would leave open for us to use for Christmas. She had also offered to set up a large pine Christmas tree for us, but we turned that down at 400 Euro, so she set up a small tree and some lights and a nativity scene anyway.

Estelle has a degree in wine, and she and her brother run the vineyard attached to the chateau, producing and selling wines under their name Maison Borgeat. She offered to do a wine tasting class after we unpacked, and put out a sample of wines for us to try and a selection in the wine cellar to help ourselves if we wished to purchase them.

Belle and Ollie sat in on the wine class as well, and because of her interest in art and colours, Belle could answer more of the questions Estelle asked us than the rest of us! (Questions like whether the wine colour was a ruby red or purple; and whether the smell was woody, fruity etc.).

The only one who couldn’t relax and enjoy the wine tasting was Tom. After Estelle left us, Tim corralled the kids to take a stroll around the backyard to explore our surrounds, and Jarrod and Zac grabbed cameras to record the following events. Luke, Beck, Ross and I watched them from the balcony, knowing what was coming next, and giggling to ourselves as we saw Abi stop to explore things in a different direction to the others.

She finally caught up with them and got quite a surprise when Tom got on one knee and proposed!! (She did say later she was suspicious when he couldn’t sit still and enjoy the wine tasting, but thought she must have been mistaken during their stroll as she didn’t believe he would get on one knee on the wet grass and dirty his pants!).

So Tom proposed and Abi said yes. After all the excitement and some happy tears (even Uncle Luke who does not get too emotional had “something in his eye”), I did take them aside and said while an engagement there was beautiful, please don’t plan a wedding there – we can’t afford it! 😂

We then returned to the necessary mundane tasks – Ross and Luke went in search of a supermarket, Beck and I caught up on our washing, and the kids explored further and played games.

Ross and Luke went to both Aldi and its German competitor Lidl, but didn’t find a range as extensive as we have in Australia. Dinner was an antipasto platter and pizzas, at the end of a very memorable day!

We had a family meeting in the foyer last night before going our separate ways (we are in four different rooms – three along the fourth floor and Ross, Zac, Sam and I on the lower ground floor). We gave the kids (and young adults) two options for today: the Imperial War Museum or Madame Tussaud’s and shopping.

By the time we met at breakfast, the options had doubled! Abi and Tom decided to do a tour of Wimbledon; Jarrod went to meet his school friends for brunch and then met up with Ross’ group; Beck and I took Jess, Belle and Ollie to Madame Tussaud’s; Ross and Luke took Tim and Zac to the Imperial War Museum; and Sam and Cooper decided they were old enough and independent enough to choose their own adventure 😬 so went to Shoreditch to play mini golf.

Beck navigated us easily on the tube system to Baker St and we spent two hours in Madame Tussaud’s.

I had carried three Oyster cards all the way from Sydney for the kids to use on the underground from our trip nine years ago, and topped up two cards for Belle and Ollie for today. Belle discovered not long into our tour of the wax museum that as she had pulled her phone out of her pocket to take photos, she must have dropped the plastic sleeve holding her Oyster card and room keycard. We did check with security before we left, but it was not handed in.

Our next stop was Covent Garden for lunch, and chocolate covered strawberries, which had been on Belle’s bucket list since a school friend was here earlier this year and posted them on Instagram. Covent Garden was PACKED with people! We found it difficult to find somewhere for lunch, even though it was 2pm, so waited in line for Shake Shack as that allowed us to sit at their tables undercover and protected from the chilling wind whipping up outside.

Over lunch, Belle showed us the Instagram posts of the rows of strawberries – and the location said Borough Markets! But they are everywhere, so she was able to buy some to share while I checked out the souvenirs and Beck bought some chocolate-dipped churros to share. The melted chocolate was delicious and well advertised…..what was not mentioned was how quickly the chocolate hardens in this cold weather – we broke two of the wooden forks provided trying to pry the strawberries from the hardened chocolate!

As Knightsbridge was on the same line, I had considered going home via Harrod’s, but Beck advised me the queues there were even more than at our current location, so we decided to give it a miss and head back to our hotel.

Meanwhile Jarrod had met the rest of the boys over at Brick Lane for lunch, famous for its Indian food. The boys then continued on to a pub near London Bridge to watch the EPL. They watched Liverpool v Tottenham as they ate and drank.

Ross rang me to assure me they were full and wouldn’t need dinner, so Beck, Ollie, Belle and Abi (who had rejoined us when Tom went to meet the boys to watch the game) went to a focaccia bar around the corner from our hotel to get dinner for us. On Sam’s bucket list had been to see a game live and also to watch a game in a pub with locals, so he has now achieved both goals!

The focaccia bar had a generous variety of focaccias, laid out on display in slabs. When choosing one, you say what size you would like and then it is weighed and charged for according to the weight. We ate delicious slices in the girls’ room (Abi, Belle and Jess are sharing a room here and they have the most spacious room and the best view out their window!), and then returned to our rooms to pack, as we are leaving at 5am tomorrow.

Some of the boys were hungry again (!) so went to Nando’s up the road for another meal, and Ross had to call them to come home, reminding them about our early start! At 5am we need to check out and walk all our suitcases 10 minutes up the road to Victoria Station to get the Gatwick Express. From there we fly to Bordeaux. I do love London and never have enough time here, but am already planning my next visit.

As the cousins had a few days in London before we met up, they have achieved more sightseeing than the rest of us, so this morning we split up to see different sites.

Isaac is better than yesterday after sleeping from about 4.30pm right through the night, but we left him at the hotel for the morning to sleep in. We weren’t aware when we booked this hotel that they provided a complimentary breakfast, but today we made the most of it. Zac didn’t feel like eating any more than a few bites of an apple, so I encouraged him to go back to bed and Uber to Westminster to meet us at 12.45pm.

The cousins spent the morning touring the Natural History Museum (which Ollie now says is his favourite thing he has done on holidays – even more than the Harry Potter experience they did last week), while the rest of us toured Westminster Abbey. This was on Jarrod’s list to do because he has been to London several times and not been able to get in (I know, I know, it’s a first world problem he has there….).

The Abbey provided an audio guide and headphones, which was helpful but not comprehensive. There were many people there at the same time as us, which meant sections took a while to see due to the queues, such as the tombs of Mary, Queen of Scots and Elizabeth 1. It struck me that the sisters, one a staunch Catholic and the other the head of the Church of England, were interred next to each other, to show that at their core they had a common cause and similar goals.

It was also interesting to see how many famous people are buried there or have monuments/plaques erected to them, and the coronation chair (now that we have been alive for a coronation!).

We finished our individual tours at exactly 12.45pm and found Zac looking brighter and waiting for us at the exit.

We caught a tube out to Stratford then to have some lunch and meet the cousins, ready to attend an EPL (English Premier League) game. Sam tells me there are five EPL teams in London, and West Ham has the largest stadium (it seats more than 60,000). We chose this game to watch, not for any scientific reason or because of their standing on the table but because we could get 14 seats together!

There is a Westfields near the entrance, so we stopped for some lunch there and met the others at the stadium, where Uncle Luke had already had a beer and they were patiently waiting for us in our seats.

West Ham v Brighton seemed to be a slightly friendlier game than the one we watched last week, perhaps because both teams are close to relegation or because it wasn’t a local derby? The excitement was too much for the fan sitting next to Jarrod – he couldn’t stay awake! It ended in a 1 – 1 draw, which was great because we got to see how the fans behaved when each team scored.

After the game we walked back through the Westfields to the tube station and caught the underground back to Pimlico where we are staying. There are quite a few restaurants near our hotel, and we found a little Thai restaurant willing to take 14 of us to eat in with no prior booking. After a delicious meal, we walked back down the street to our hotel, making plans for tomorrow as we walked.

Ross woke at 3.30am because he heard a mouse rustling through our pantry supplies in the kitchen near our bedroom. Jess woke at 4am because a different mouse was rustling through the food she had in her room upstairs. Our plan was to be at the bus with bags packed by 7.20am, which was quite achievable given our lack of sleep and keenness to not share our accommodation and food with rodents any longer!

Luke had to return the 17 seater bus by 12pm, but wanted to drop us and our luggage to the hotel in Victoria, London first. We had chosen the bus based on pictures showing a decent-sized boot, but the reality was a little different. The people had to be packed into the bus first so the luggage could be placed around us, and we had to stop it rolling around for the three hour trip from West Ashton to London.

Traffic, roads and Google maps worked in our favour for a change, and we made it to the new location in plenty of time for Ross and Luke to return the bus as required.

Once we had checked in, we walked up to Buckingham Palace and Green Park. Zac didn’t feel well so Ross took him back to the hotel by taxi so he could lie down. The rest of us wandered down to Trafalgar Square and the Westminster area, before trekking it back to the hotel once our rooms were ready and we could unpack.

Zac is quite crook, so I spent the afternoon in our room with him while Ross and Sam took all our washing to a laundromat. It took poor Ross hours to do! He needed change for the machines so bought Sam fish and chips for dinner to get some change, and once they checked on Zac recovering in our room, they went and joined the rest of the boys at a local pub near our hotel for dinner, so Sam had two dinners!

Meanwhile, Jarrod went to meet Liam and another friend from school, Ben, at Covent Garden for dinner, while the girls had a night out at dinner and the theatre! I booked tickets before we left Sydney to The Devil Wears Prada, a new musical premiering on the West End at the Dominion Theatre with music by Elton John.

Beck meanwhile booked us a table for dinner at a restaurant in Leicester Square, Steak and Co, which had a two course set theatre menu. She also worked out which bus to catch at the hotel front door to get us there in time for our 5.30pm dinner, to ensure we were in our seats for the 7.30pm show. It was a lovely night out for us, and the show was great.

By the time we got home everyone was in bed. It is the latest night we’ve had here! Because the sun goes down by 4.30pm each day, we have found it easy to go to sleep much earlier than we do at home. Ross is hoping I keep that up when we return home!

After agreeing to meet at our bus to leave at 8.30am, we drove out at 8.44am and were in Bath 40 minutes later. After grabbing a coffee and souvenirs, we toured the Roman Baths, which date back to AD and sit in the middle of the shopping centre in the Abbey churchyard. The tour included individual audio devices to listen to as you moved through the Baths on a self-guided tour.

After finishing our tours, we roamed the shops and found Cornish pastries (first one we’ve tried – except Luke who now regrets not getting one) and sausage rolls for lunch. Jarrod was hoping to explore the Bath Cathedral, because it’s the third time he has been to Bath and has never had time to, but at 7.5 pounds per adult to enter, we weren’t keen to pay for everyone.

We drove around to the Circus and The Royal Crescent, and Jarrod was able to recreate some of the photos we took nine years ago when last here. We then filled up the bus and headed for the Cotswolds, all agreeing that Bath is one of our favourite places we’ve seen.

The Cotswolds being such a large area, and not having time to explore it in detail, we headed for the most famous part: Arlington Row in Bibury. They have rubber duck races there on Boxing Day each year. It is one of the most photographed streets in England, and dates back to the 14th century. Here is one more photo given its claim to fame!

We grabbed coffees at the trout farm cafe opposite the street, and Ross and Luke decided to hightail it back to Stonehenge, hoping to get there before darkness fell. It was an hour and twenty minutes away, but they knew of a side street where you can park and walk a track through rolling hills to reach Stonehenge without paying the entry fee.

Well the sun was setting as we arrived at the track entrance, so they RAN it to reach Stonehenge before it became dark. Even Ross ran 🤦‍♀️. Beck and I being the sensible ones walked to the halfway mark, zoomed our phones in to get some photos of Stonehenge in the distance, and walked back to the car in darkness, where we waited for the others to return.

The last two photos were not mine and show the runners did make it there in time for some memorable pictures.

On the way back to the castle, we stopped at Trowbridge again for dinner. A restaurant called Toby Carvery was willing to take 14 of us for dinner with no notice, and it was a buffet style all-you-can-eat of meat and vegetables. The baked dinner was delicious, and we returned to our accommodation feeling quite full.

Indulge me while I detour to record the origin story of our trip……

During the lockdowns of 2020, we had quite a few family movie nights. We watched an action film that was SO bad we have blocked almost all of the details from memory, and we also watched The Old Guard starring Charlize Theron.

Jarrod and Ross’ memories verge at this point, but The Old Guard’s final scene was in a pub on the River Thames called the Prospect of Whitby. Either we googled that and came across other historic English pubs, or our lunch venue for today was featured in the bad movie, but either way, our research after family movie night found a pub in Exeter called the Samuel Jones.

In 2020 with flights grounded and us all being told to stay at home, we started to hatch a plan to one day post-pandemic travel to the UK to visit the Samuel Jones pub, and thought it would be cute to be there for Sam’s 18th birthday in 2024 to celebrate with his first beer.

Well the timing didn’t work to the day, but we came close! We talked about it for long enough that everyone was keen to join a family holiday to Europe, with even extended family tagging along. It was a two hour drive from our castle to Exeter, but we made it in time for the 12.30pm lunch booking I made months ago.

After celebrating Sam’s birthday lunch there (he turned 18 as he got on the flight to Prague so there were no birthday celebrations until today), we wandered around the foreshore and up the hill to explore Exeter Cathedral.

We then returned home via Trowbridge to pick up dinner supplies. A shopping area with a Marks & Spencer Food Hall as well as several takeaway options (Greggs, Subway etc) meant everyone could choose their own adventure, which we then took home to eat together.

We did find a mouse getting into our supplies, meaning Aunty Beck would like to burn the place down and sleep in the bus or the nearest Premier Inn motel, but we will be brave and soldier on!