Trappist Beer written by Marvin

The main reason for visiting Belgium was for the beer, specifically Trappist Monk beer.  Essentially originating from the Cisterican Monks in Belgium although there are now 10 monasteries that can claim to be Trappist breweries.  (ie. brewed within the walls of the monastery, and a large portion of the profits going to charity)

 

From champagne in France we drive into Chimay, Belgium probably one of the best known Trappist beers around the world.  The Abbey is smaller than I expected with only the chapel and grounds accessible to the public. A few hundred metres down the road is visitor’s centre/museum/hotel “Espace Chimay”.  A good history of the abbey and the process of making beer.

We are staying near Rochefort and their Abbey is not open to the public, so can only drink the Rochefort ale bars (or buy at the supermarket).  An hours drive away we visited Abbeye de Orval, which has been occupied since the 1100s.  The old chapel is ruins now although the tour was worthwhile and the shop had a good selection souvenirs (let’s hope the glass makes it home in one piece!).

 

Most of the Abbey’s also produce cheese, so the beer is matched to the various flavours.  Didn’t get to Westmalle or Achel although easy enough to buy locally.  My favourite beer is the Rochefort 8, a “brune” or dark beer at 9.2%, richly intoxicating, cheers!

Euro Space Centre written by Connor

Today while driving to Orval Abbey where monks live and they make beer.

When we first got to the space station I saw spacefood that was freeze dried, we had an oreo ice cream sandwich then we watched a movie about the origins of water. I got a sore neck because the movie was shown in a planetarium, and we had to look up the whole time.  Then we went to a place that had nearly no gravity then we watched a 4d movie when the seats moved and water sprayed in our faces.

 

Neil Armstrong was the first on the moon and we also got to moonwalk with special 3d googles and you saw everything on the moon 3d while jumping on a bungee jump harness. It was fun!

 

Then we went for lunch there were space chairs that we sat on I had a hamburger and Katie had meatballs.

Sipping Champagne -written by Anne

We are now reaching unexplored territory for the whole family in the North West of France.  We have entered the world of Champagne, so now the tasting begins.

Coming from New Zealand, we thought that champagne was champagne!  But the French certainly got us sorted out as we entered some of the hundreds of champagne cellars in the region.  The make-up of champagne includes a combination of chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier grapes that must be from the region of Champagne.  We passed the well know Moet & Chardon, Tattinger and Mercier (where we went on an underground train to discover their underground 18km of cellar tunnels).  We had a very knowledgeable tasting at Champagne Jean Seleque and came away with a bottle (40% chardonnay, 40% pinot noir and 20% pinot meunier).  We also were given a lovely bottle from our French gite owner as compensation because his 18 year old daughter was having a party that night in our shared backyard, it was great to hear all our old 90s favourite songs getting bellowed out and was certainly no hardship to us!

Mercier fonder - holds 200,000 bottles of champagne.  Built for the 1900 Expo in Paris

Mercier underground cellars - 18km of them

 

We enjoyed exploring the countryside along the route de champagne and were surprised at the amount of small villages every couple of kilometres.

Pont du Gard written by Katie

The Pont du Gard is old, but still shines at night with brightly shining lights! It is 2,000 years old and has a nice flowing river under it. It supplied water for 500 years to a city called Nimes, as part of a 50km long water supply!  It is 48m high over three levels, and the top layer spans over 200m.  The large bottom arches (24m in diameter) are the biggest of any Roman aquaduct, and give the structure a light, airy feeling.

 

This is what happened the night we went. As we were walking over it, it started to rain a little, when we had got over we were walking down to the river for a nice swim, suddenly  thunder and lightning  started and heavy rain poured down, we ran for shelter and  where do you think we would go, it was under the bottom arches of the Pont du Gard! We were trapped under it for an hour. Rain and wind kept gushing in, but then it stopped and started, luckily we had some snacks and dinner. We were all on one side on a little rock, since the rain came in with wind we were covering ourselves with our towels that were supposed to be for our swim but I don’t think we are having a swim now! Finally the weather cleared up and we were free, it was just in time for the lights.

They shone brightly there was red, blue, yellow, pink, purple! After the plain lights there was a light show.

 

It showed you continents 5,000 years ago. It took you through time it showed you Roman, Egyptian and Inca temple times. It was amazing, but it was very late at night it was at 10:30pm so afterwards we were very tired. It was lots of fun going there because we could go to a Museum and see how it was made and there was even a children’s area where you could do hands on things that were back in the Roman times! I would definitely recommend it!!

Lake Annecy - written by Anne

We arrived at Lake Annecy for a week of relaxation, having opted for a campground in Bout du Lac (near Doussard) which was located on the lakeside.  We did exactly what we planned, not a lot, mainly relaxation and swimming in the lake.

We are located in the French Alps & enjoyed getting here via Chamonix (a Celebrity resort that Marvin & I knew about from the 90’s).  We took many zig-zag bends over the Swiss/France Alps to get there.

We did have 2 exploration days, firstly to investigate Annecy.  Its centre was picturesque, Katie & I explored the many shoe shops & I introduced her to some of my favourite French foods – Citron Tart, Jambon & Fromage Crepes and Croque Monsieur from my travelling days in the late 1990’s.  Marvin & I also enjoyed the crisp tasting Cidre they serve in France and an evening sip of Pastis.

 

One of Marvin’s requests was to visit the Queen (his favourite band of all time) recording studio located at Montreux in Switzerland (a mere 2 hours from where we are staying) where Queen recorded seven albums (from 1979 – 1994). Queen owned the studio for a number of years, and it is now a museum (Queen Studio Experience) with a wide selection of items on display.  Marvin even got to ‘mix’ their songs in the sound control room that was actually used on their albums.  It was great to see Freddie’s original costumes that he wore during some of their live shows.  We also revisited Chateau du Chillon which was a favourite medieval castle from our late 1990’s tour.

 

 

As the kids would say, all in all a very chill-laxing time at Lac Annecy.