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Sunday 7 August 2011

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.

19 comments:

Sian said...

Oh, I do like the idea of a Part Two! I love the way that your memories of this happy time have come tumbling out with all the details still there. And I'm very impressed that at that age you were confident enough to cancel and get your money back - don't know if I would have had the nerve for that!

I'm looking forward to next month already now. Thanks Becky

Gem's Crafts said...

What a great story to tell - a shame about the fancy holiday that got cancelled, but it sounds like you had a lovely honeymoon anyway :) will look forward to Part 2 next month!

Ladkyis said...

I love the idea of a page for the story, so much so that I wonder why no one has thought of it - oh, but you did didn't you?
Anyway, I am going to use your idea for my blog next month, it is such a good idea.
Your story is lovely and I love the way you call Moon River your song!

debs14 said...

I can imagine that Moon River could become pretty tedious after a while, but I bet it makes you smile whenever you hear it nowadays! Looking forward to part two next month.

scrappyjacky said...

Love the page to match.

Sandra said...

What a lovely story, Im looking forward to part 2, a,tough for some reason I suddenly thought we'd hear moon river and you'd managed to download it on here lol. What a wonderful layout, I too did a 8.5 x 11 layout just the other day for the UkKS challenge, and I must say really liked that size

Wanda said...

It's interesting that a song that was so aggravating to you is now "your" song. It sounds as if the memories it prompts are all good ones!

Ifa said...

I love Moon River but I guess not permanently on a loop like that. This reminds me of my own hotel stay in Nairobi on New Year's eve when they sang "Jambo, jambo" non stop. Looking forward to you second installment.

Denise said...

What a lovely story, you've got me singing Moon River in my head now!
The song we heard a lot was Bill Withers Lovely Day ! I would have been very cross about the car hire and cancelled too !

JO SOWERBY said...

i loooooove ''moon river'' and ''breakfast at tiffany's'' so i never get bored of hearing that one. it sounds like an amazingly challenging honeymoon with gr8 fun, love and the ''sickness and in health'' added in for good measure. can't wait to hear part 2,
jo xxx

Susanne said...

Loved hearing your story with all those details recalled - nicely told. Can't wait for part 2. And good for you getting the layout done too.

Anonymous said...

Glad you were able to have a honeymoon after cancelling the original trip. Definitely looking forward to part 2 next month. Love the layout that you've made to go along with the story.

Ginger said...

It seems you still managed to have a wonderful honeymoon despite the incident with the travel agency! Great layout as well!

Alison said...

Loved reading your story...and great LO to go with it!
Alison xx

Melissa said...

I enjoyed your honeymoon story and I love that you pulled out the Moon River part for a layout & used the brochure on it.

Maria Ontiveros said...

Such a great memory! And I love the layout.
Rinda

Scattychick said...

Fantastic storytelling :) I love all the details as it is things like that that really make our memories real x

Deb @ PaperTurtle said...

I love the way you told this story, Becky. I'm smiling to myself here...

I bet you can never hear "Moon River" without remembering your honeymoon. And I love that you created a layout to go with your story. Great idea!!!

Winnie said...

Just catching up on all the stories! Sounds like you had a great honeymoon, and I can't wait to read the next installment! Can you listen to Moon River now without cringing? LOL