bonjour mon petit chou fleur...

firstly - apologies for the written french above - it is probably wrong, but I'm sure you all know what I mean.

Yesterday we went to Boulogne on a daytrip. It was last minute, and free (other people had dropped out...) so we would have been fools not to go.

Travelling was by ferry, which my stomach was not very happy about, but after munching a few select pieces of ginger, and staying cold by being out on deck, I was fine. I even walked about without any hitches.

The day was cracking - blue, cold, quiet. The best. So - we went to Boulogne, ate some lovely mussels for lunch, drank some lovely beer. Then we had a wander about the old walled section of the town, which appears to be receiving some well deserved attention in the form of preservation and landscape redeveloping.

I think the french are much better at us with regards public landscaping, as they pay attention to places that we would just overlook. Some of it is not to my taste, but at least plants are there instead of concrete.

Pleached trees, clipped box and yew - the typical french bits were there, but also spotted some fantastic railing designs, highly considered paving lines and copper topped street lights that I wanted to smuggle home.

A lovely section was a large clipped yew pyramid, slightly offset yet perfectly reflecting the form and mass of the monument in front. Nice...

Then went to a terrible hypermarket where we did not buy booze, but stocked up on frenchie foods we love - good mustard, a huge and stinky smoked garlic plait and a box of my favourite things in the world - jewel like mini macaroons.

ah - j'adore la france...