April 21st saw us at the airport early, heading to Honk Kong for a short stopover on our way to France! Imagine our surprise when our tickets were upgraded to Business Class!

We did the “touristy” things in HK. We traveled to The Peak , even though the weather was not the best, and we caught the Star Ferry to Hong Kong Island for dinner and checked out the Harbour lights.

 

 

We came across some technology in the city that has not come to Australia yet (we think). It is an automated coffee machine , where you pre order through an Ap. What next!

 

 

 

Imagine our surprise at Hong Kong Airport to get ANOTHER upgrade to Business Class heading to Paris! It must have been our charm at Check In!

 

AGAIN imagine our surprise when we picked up our car! In Greg’s words…….Shit , its bloody purple! For obvious reasons, we have named him Purple Pierre!

 

 

We drove straight to Amiens, and the weather has been unseasonably cold!

 

The French people still remember and respect what the Anzacs did for them. There are lots of  signs and Aussie flags everywhere! Loads of Aussies too.

 

Anzac Day began with a 2am wake up call, to get ourselves on the bus to Villers Bretonneux.It was extremely cold, 0 degrees , and although there was additional airport style security, the organisation was spot on!

Armed with a” Cafe et croissant”, we made our way to our seats. To be at the Service was extremely moving. Although we were freezing, it was nothing to what the Diggers had to endure! It would appear to us that the crowd was way down on last year, probably due to the threat of terrorists attacks.

Next we were back on the bus , heading to the village of Villers Bretonneux , to their much smaller service.

 

 

Peter Cosgrove , and his wife also attended the French service. It was something we had always wanted to do, so now it has been ticked off the bucket list! It was a very memorable morning.

 

 

We liked the town of Amiens, and very early on , in our tour, the “usual” has started! ABC……..another bloody church/cathedral/chateau……take your pick!

 

 

We left Amiens and headed to a little village in the Champagne region called Saint Imoges.

We are staying in a “petite maison”, which is very cute and luckily has great heating as the weather is still bloody cold.

We have driven around the “Touristique Route de Champagne”, and seen loads of Champagne Houses and of course bought and drunk a few bottles, as one does!

 

 

In Hautvillers, one of the very pretty villages, we came across the resting place of the legendary Dom Perignon, the wonderful man who first made champagne!

We spent a day in Epernay, and another in Riems (more ABCs). We are stuggling to find a decent coffee as we usually do in France, however the baguettes, cheese and food has been fantastic.

 

 

Tomorrow we are heading south , and hopefully to warmer weather , to spend some time with our French family.

So for the first time, and by no means the last time……

It is that time again!

Gros Bisous

Greg et Rhonda.

xxxooooo

 

We have just listened to the Cats smash the Suns on the radio on the I Pad…..certainly beats French TV!