A honeymoon story - part one

As a 20 year old about to get married I hadn’t been to many places around the world and so was very excited to be planning our honeymoon. The only times I had left the UK had been to go to the South of France, Germany and Majorca. Hugh and I collected many brochures from the travel agents and after much discussion and poring over the brochures we chose a hotel in Tenerife. So, off to the travel agents we went. We spent a long time with the travel agent going through all the details and getting our names spelt correctly – my new surname was going to be ‘de St.Paer-Gotch’ which has caused problems ever since! However, when asked if we would like the free car hire we eagerly said yes, paid our deposit and off we went home.

About a week later all the paperwork came through the post with the reservation details on. Oops! They had charged for the car hire. So, on the phone to the travel agent, who then informed me that in fact it wasn’t free car hire! I was so cross I cancelled the holiday and asked for my deposit back as I said I had been mis-sold the holiday! I got my deposit back, but this left us without a honeymoon.

So, now where did we go? My parents’ good friends had a static caravan on a site in the South of France, which my family and I had visited on a number of occasions. They offered it to us for a week, so we took them up on that offer and decided to spend our second week in Paris.

So, after the wedding we set off for our first night of married bliss – in the Dover Motel! Not very salubrious, but we were so exhausted it didn’t really matter!

Hugh pretending to eat the grapes in our 'suite' - a large room with settee and a bowl of fruit!

Me in my going away outfit sitting on the bed in the Dover Motel's 'Honeymoon Suite' 

We got the ferry early the next morning and started our journey to the South of France. Before long, the skies went dark, the temperature rose and it got really humid. There was then a tremendous thunderstorm – which wasn’t very nice whilst driving on a French motorway. What then made it worse was that I suddenly got a really bad nose bleed! Hugh had to pull over onto the hard shoulder and soaked paper tissues with rainwater by holding them on the car roof and then using them to stop the nose bleed!

We knew that it would take two days and so we stopped at Tain l'Hermitage on our way down. The hotel we chose was lovely and our room had a view over the courtyard at the back which had a swimming pool.

 I found that I still had this leaflet from the hotel in my Honeymoon photo album

We went down for a meal in the restaurant and they were playing ‘mood’ music , quite loudly, and on a short loop. If we heard ‘Moon River’ once, we must have heard it ten times during our meal. We retired to our room and as it was hot, had the windows open. The ‘mood’ music was being piped out to the courtyard – argh! Moon River over and over again until 11pm!

 Hugh standing on our balcony overlooking the pool (Moon River was not playing!)

The rest of the journey was without incident and we arrived at the caravan to find that our friends had left a bottle of champagne and some fruit for us, which was really nice. We had a very pleasant 5 days in and around the St Tropez area, sightseeing and lazing on the beach.

Hugh and me sitting outside the caravan

Hugh and me in St Tropez

The only hiccup was when Hugh burnt the top of his feet in the sun and so couldn’t bear even a sheet on his feet at night! We were lucky to meet up with my Godfather, Uncle Bob, who hadn't been able to make the wedding as he was on holiday only 5 miles away from where we were. He had a copy of the Daily Telegraph for us with the wedding announcement in it!

Me, Hugh, Uncle Bob and Dorothy

When our week was up we packed up and drove up towards Paris. Although we had been driven mad by ‘Moon River’ we decided to stop at the same hotel on the way back. We were given a room overlooking the front of the hotel this time. And yes, they were still playing ‘Moon River’! However, we could not hear it until 11pm as we were at the front of the hotel, so it was only during our meal. We now call it ‘our’ song!

The story to be continued next month!

But before I go, I have just got time to share something else with you ...

Yes, this month I managed to get a layout done based on my story! I am really pleased with myself lol. I also did an 8.5x11, which is unusual for me. I have got an album with this size of layout in, most of them are done using older photos. I had fun doing this and will definitely try to do one each month now to go with the story.

This story is brought to you courtesy of Sian's Storytelling Sunday. Please pop here to see more stories.