Travelog for: Elephonse

The main reason for travelling to Cornwall for the weekend was so that Steve & Helly could eat in Rick Stein's Bistro - He's a famous English TV chef. At this time of year you can have three courses for £15.99! What a bargain!

I stayed in the car while Steve & Helly had lunch, but I did help release Zachary Zebra into the wild - he was picked up within five minutes of being released, it was very exciting!

After they'd had lunch Steve & Helly showed me Padstow. It's a lovely little Cornish fishing village and even at this time of year there were masses of people visiting.

Helly visited the Bear Shop to buy a very special, limited edition bear. However she told me he won't be Toy Voyaging!

After lunch I went with Helly & Steve for a walk along the Camel Estuary. It was really beautiful, although I had to walk very fast as the sun was going down.

The photos show me looking across the River Camel, about three miles from Padstow.

As I walked towards the mouth of the river I followed the coastline around and there was the sea!

There is no access to the bay you can see in the photo, except by boat.

I made sure I was held very tightly so I could peer over the edge of the cliff.
(No elephants there!)

Finally, with the light fading fast, I walked back down the hill I'd climbed and had my photo taken looking at the beautiful Cornish scenery.

Christmas is coming and I'm off to France again next week, Hurrah!! This time Pierre Bear is coming with me.

In preparation for Christmas Helly went shopping, first thing, for presents and came home with some new shoes for her! She also HAD to buy an outfit to go with the shoes . . . how does that work?

Steve said the shoes were great. I thought men didn't think about that sort of thing so I decided to see for myself. I tried them on and walked around the house.

Do you think they suit me?

The Mystery of the Missing Christmas Tree

Although Steve & Helly are off to France next week they decided to put up a few decorations as they have visitors at the weekend.

Steve went up in to the loft to get down the decorations and the tree. (Three cats means a real tree gets spread around the house, with needles everywhere, so Steve & Helly have given up and have a pretend tree!)

Up went Steve . . .
Down came the box of decorations . . .
Down came the box of lights . . .
Down came the tr . . .

Where's the tree?

It was very spooky, the tree had disappeared!

Steve assured Helly he had looked all over the loft and it definately wasn't there. He also assured her the plumber would not have hidden it for a joke and that was a silly suggestion!

Down came Steve from the loft . . .
Up went Helly . . .
Down came Helly . . .

and off she went in her car to buy another tree!

When she came back I helped to put the decorations up. Red and gold this year. I had to climb high up to put them on. I tried pretending I was the angel but I was too heavy for the tree and Helly told me if I wanted to be the angel I'd have to dress up and stay at the top of the tree until after Christmas. I decided to climb down then, I'd done enough dressing up wearing Helly's shoes earlier in the day and I don't want to miss France.

Pierre Bear was very annoying on the trip to Dover, he tried singing all the way! With the help of Rosemary I eventually sat on him and he quietened down.

Here I am in Dover, waiting for the ferry to load. I was disappointed we didn't cross with the usual company as I'd told Pierre and Rosemary all about 'fighting the pirates', but the trip across to France was only a little bit longer.

'Bonjour France!'

I'm so excited to be back, I neally joined in with Pierre Bear and his 'I Love France' song, but I didn't want to encourage him.

Next stop Abbeville for the night.

The

BLUE ELEPHANT!

I got ever so excited to see him again. I wonder if I'll meet a real elephant this time?

Brrrr . . . Just as well I'm blue already, it was so cold this morning I'd have turned blue! I had my warm scarf on but it didn't help much until Steve had de-iced the car and we'd set off with the heaters on.

Perhaps that's why the 'Elephant bleu' is blue, although it wasn't this cold when I visited Abbeville before!

No Blue Elephants today, but I did spot a 2CV! I was so excited and helped Pierre Bear climb up so he could see it too.

I hope Monsieur Alphonse, my 2CV at home is OK without me.

It was so lovely to revisit Portbail. It's such a pretty place. No one about again today, except a few dog walkers. The tide was out and I sat and thought about how much I want to live here.

Still no blue elephants on the beach. In fact, no one but a few mussel pickers - do you 'pick' mussels?

I spotted the trotters from a distance but I let Pierre Bear look at them, while I hid, as I think horses are scared of elephants!

Well, it was all I could do to cheer Pierre Bear up. He was so sad at having to go back to England. His heart really is in France.

I encouraged him to look at Honfleur and then I stayed in the car and slept ready for the long trip home tomorrow.

Hurrah, back over the Pont De Normandie. Twice in one year, fantastic!