I was really looking forward to Leo’s arrival on Wednesday 24th April. Having visited them twice in Paris in 2001 it was their first visit to me. Leo is from Costa Rica and plays charango with a band of French musicians playing Andean music called ‘Los Quirquinchos’. He brought his family - Chrystele who is French, the two older children Charlotte and Camille aged 14 and 11 and the latest addition - Claire - born in January and just three months old.
The day of their arrival in the UK was really hot and sunny so once they arrived at Folkstone they decided to drive to a nearby beach for a couple of hours before motoring on down to Bath. This gave me enough time to get to Colin’s house before them and take over the cooking of the traditional English roast dinner we had decided on for their first evening. All of us including me would be staying at Colin’s house for the duration of their visit.
They arrived about 8 pm just as I was laying the table in readiness for their arrival. It was fantastic to see them all again and they gave lovely gifts to us - from Leo and Crystele we received 6 bottles of wine, several different saucissons and chorizos, 16 more CDs from Leo and a pack of 40 empty CD cases (as I never have enough of them) and from the children a gaily painted jug and glasses set and a useful gadget with nail clippers, bottle opener, can opener etc with a picture of Paris on the front.
We spent a really leisurely evening at the table enjoying the meal and had a couple of bottles of Argentinian rose wine with it, listening to music and chatting. I felt so happy that they were there with us. Colin was meeting them then for the very first time and he liked them as much as I do. I knew it was going to be a fantastic few days spent with them.
The next morning I had to wake up at 4.45 to phone Tristan and wake him up for work. It took half an hour before he finally answered, then I went back to sleep and awoke at 6.45 to take a shower and at 8 o clock Colin drove me to the supermarket to get the rest of the items needed for the weekend. He had to take me because all three cars were parked on his drive and mine was the first one in. At the supermarket Adam was annoyed with me because I woke him up with the phone. I had even tried his mobile phone which he promptly switched off! Both of them were annoyed that the phone kept ringing for half an hour but were both too lazy to get out of bed and answer it!
Back home, Leo and family were just getting up so I got busy and cooked them a traditional English breakfast, supplemented with fresh croissants, baguettes and buttered hot cross buns. It was the first time Leo had eaten traditional English breakfast and he liked it very much. Afterwards we got ourselves ready, drove to the nearby park and ride, left the cars there and took the double-decker bus into town, all of them opting to sit upstairs so that they could enjoy a good view, Leo busy with his camcorder recording what he was seeing on the way.
We spent a pleasant few hours in town, walking and seeing the most interesting sights, taking photos etc until about three hours later we decided to get the bus back, returned to the house for about 10 minutes and then set off again this time for the ancient city of Wells where we spent another couple of hours visiting the main sights. We also went to mystical Glastonbury, but by this time the shops were closed unfortunately. We drove to the tor, but unfortunately could not park, which is a pity because Leo was all set to climb to the top which is a pretty steep climb.
We drove home - all day had been nice and sunny and they loved the English countryside. We stopped briefly at my house so that I could pick up my charango but didn’t go in (because I knew it would be horrendously untidy and it was!). Back home I got busy and made Adobo de Chancho (Peruvian spicy pork stew) with rice for tea which we enjoyed with more Argentinian rose wine and music, with accompaniment on the charango by Leo, and made our plans for the next day. Whilst cooking tea that night I also prepared the Thai soup for the following day so that upon our return from Dorset we would have that plus an Italian spicy pasta dish which was quick and easy to prepare.
The next day I had to phone to wake up Tristan again and when I had no joy with the phone I got in the car and drove home to wake them up - which was a wasted effort because Tristan had made arrangements to go to Bristol for the day with his girlfriend and had not thought to let me know this!!! However, it gave me time to gather up more CDs and other things I needed and I had my shower there as well before taking Adam to work - and I bought more freshly baked croissants and baguettes in the supermarket, arriving back at Colin's even before anyone had got up, but they started to get up about then and I had time to make breakfast before everyone made an appearance. Having woken up to grey skies and rain we did not hurry ourselves getting ready to go out but still decided to go to the seaside as planned because the forecast for Saturday was even worse. I was so enjoying having them with us and so was Colin. Their baby is beautiful and I enjoyed having a cuddle and it was great to see all of them. They really are a special family.
We all enjoyed another enormous breakfast to keep us going all day and finally set off about 10.30 towards Weymouth but stopping at other places on the way. Our first stop was Stourhead House and Gardens. We parked and walked down the road because we had noticed a lovely old church with the door open.
Leo is particularly interested in churches so we decided to visit that one (the first of three that we would visit that day). As we walked into the churchyard we were greeted by the custodians - two very tame ducks and two peacocks, all looking for 'payment' in food! They were adorable and came up really close so that you could touch them. I wished beyond anything that I had a loaf of bread with me!
Then we walked around the church which was beautiful and contained fantastic monuments to the forebears of the main family in the village. We took photos and would have visited the lake as well but it cost five pounds each to visit the gardens and lake and we did not think it worth it as we had so much else to do. We then drove on to Sherbourne, parked there and went to visit Sherbourne Abbey which is really beautiful and very old - it goes back to the thirteenth century when it was a monastery. After that we walked around the town a little bit, looking at the shops and ended up in a nice coffee shop where we all enjoyed drinks and chocolate brownie cakes.
We then went back to the cars and we drove the last 20 miles to Weymouth, parked up for 3 hours and went straight to the sea-front so that they could see it. By this time the weather had improved tremendously and was full of continuous sunshine but very windy as well. They loved the beach and the children went to buy a kite to play on the beach with later. Leo said he loves flying kites, which was always a favourite pastime with his children, even when they were much younger.
We walked down to the harbour-side and had fish and chips there (a typical English take-away meal), and then walked through to the complex where the Peruvian shop is but it had closed early at 4 pm and we didn't get there until 5, so we just looked in the window, admiring a beautiful charango which was a bargain at 100 pounds - Leo said the same would cost 200 or 300 pounds in France.
We then walked back via the harbour taking photos until we got to the dock area where the Condor was moored - this is the enormous catamaran on which Colin and I went to Jersey for Easter 2001. Then we went onto the beach where Leo and his children had a lot of fun with the kite for about half an hour and we would have stayed longer had we not been concerned about getting home before it got dark. At this time it was still very sunny and it was lovely enjoying the beach despite the windy weather. I had to hold tight to my skirt so that it would not blow over my head!
Our last stop was to Colin's daughter's house for a visit. Elizabeth was still in the church doing choir practice but her husband, the vicar, was trying to rock the baby to sleep (6 months old Lucy), and I took over that duty whilst he made tea and coffee for us all.
When Liz returned, her husband took us around the beautiful church so that Leo and Chrystele could see it and they enjoyed that very much. Finally it was time to go home and we started our homeward journey at 7.30 pm, and got home at 9 pm, just as the sun was finally disappearing on the horizon.
Back home it did not take long to prepare our meal as I only had to reheat the Thai chicken and chilli soup prepared the night before whilst waiting for the Peruvian stew to cook, and I quickly made a spicy pasta dish with smoked sausage to accompany the soup. When I called everyone to the table, the children were joyful to be having that soup again - I had made it for them on my last visit to Paris and they loved it! We had another couple of bottles of Argentinian wine with it and a lovely few hours with music and chatting. To complete the meal I made Turkish coffees for us - Chrystele enjoyed hers and I enjoyed mine so much that I had two cups but it was too much for Leo! Maybe I made it too strong for him! For about an hour he was entertaining us on the charango which was lovely - accompanying whatever was playing on CD. He is a brilliant charanguista. We finally all went to bed about midnight.
It was great on Saturday morning because I did not have to get up to wake the boys. I didn't get up until 8.30 which was pretty late for me. I prepared breakfast which was keeping warm in the oven, and prepared everything for that night's evening meal as well and it was still silent upstairs! So I spent some time on the computer, catching up on email replies, until I could hear them getting ready. Although the forecast for that day was bad, at 10.30 am it was sunny and warm outside so after another leisurely breakfast we decided to visit Cheddar and Weston Super Mare.
We had a very enjoyable day. Although we knew that rain was forecast for later, we drove first to Chew Valley Lake so that they could see it, but on the way I decided to do a quick detour up to the university college where I work. I had to check it was okay with the security guards and we drove down and parked near the Castle and lake and took one or two pictures. They were amazed at what a beautiful setting our campus is in.
We then continued to Weston-Super-Mare, via Chew Valley lake, visiting the large indoor market first and then onto the pier where we all enjoyed enormous ice-creams. Then we decided to drive to Cheddar, coming in at the village end, parking and visiting all the little gift shops throughout the village. I bought a glass and diamante guitar ornament in one shop and gave it to Leo to put somewhere on top of his computer, and for Chrystele I found a lovely fridge magnet ornament featuring Cheddar Cheese and a cute little mouse. They bought some of the cheeses to take home as well.
By the time we reached Cheddar the sunshine had disappeared and it was raining quite heavily and we were all wrapped up well in waterproofs as we explored throughout the village and then ended up in a cafe and all had hot chocolate drinks and two huge scones with jam and cream each. The spectacular part of Cheddar was leaving it behind us at the other end because it was very like being in the Andes for a couple of miles with a very high gorge either side, nimble goats grazing on the slopes, full of huge rocks etc, the heights petering out as we reached the Mendip Hills, and then continued on our way home.
We finally got home about 7 pm, where I got busy cooking a Brazilian dish with chicken and prawns called XinXim, and we had another lovely evening at table enjoying the meal and a couple of bottles of wine, one of which was a bottle from the vineyards of Chrystele's grandfather - a Muscadet wine which was excellent. We had the Andean music playing continuously and after eating, Leo accompanied the music on the charango. We didn't go to bed until well past midnight. All throughout the weekend Leo was filming here and there, and there was about half an hour of video footage from the weekend which Leo copied onto a video tape and sent to me within days of his return home.
We were all awake early on the Sunday morning and I did another huge breakfast to keep them going for ages and there was time for them to see Colin's birds before packing up the car for the journey home. There was a bit of a panic before they left because they couldn't find the car papers and Chrystele's identity card, but luckily they were found in the end. Colin led them up to the road leading to the motorway and they had about 4 hours until their crossing on Le Shuttle at 2 o clock that afternoon. Colin was as sad as I was to be saying our goodbyes. He told them they could come any time for as long as they wished that he really enjoyed having them here. They made him promise to come to Paris as well next time, and we have made tentative plans to go around the last week of October/beginning of November - they will confirm to us which week it is the school holidays - so that we can book our flights early at a good price. That way we can all be together, the children included and go sightseeing in France - Versailles being first on our agenda as well as to my favourite places around Sacre Coeur and Montmartre etc.
