An ancient tomb, Irish seafood and more donkeys!

The village of Doolin is in an area called 'The Burren' (meaning 'rocky land' in gaelic). Basically, this massive limestone plateau covers most of what you can see and creates these dramatic kind of lunar type landscapes.



Our first day on The Burren was really busy as the weather was still great. We visited Poulnabrone Dolmen, a portal tomb dating back to 2500-2000bc - before the Pyramids!








The weather changes in minutes over here - one minute the sun is shining, the next minute it's raining. It makes everything look very dramatic as you can see in these pics. The one below is of two Hawthorn trees (one of the few trees that grow in the Burren) which local farmers don't cut down as they are 'fairy trees'.


After visiting the tomb, we were well up for some hot seafood chowder and tasty crab claws at the Monks Seafood restaurant in nearby fishing village of Ballyvaughan.





I cannot tell you how delicious this meal was. Obviously, calorie counting has gone out the window on this trip. I will have to 'step back into life' the moment I get off the plane!





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Foolin in Doolin

Just when we thought Ireland couldn't get more beautiful, we stopped off at Lough Dan on the way to our cottage in Doolin in County Clare...amazing!





This is us with the lovely 'Ella' (Katy and Ronnie's dog), practicing to be a dog family! On we drove in the gorgeous sunshine to arrive just on sunset with time for a quick beer in McDermitt's before finding our new home for the next week - Fuschia Cottage.





Looking like something suspiciously out of an Irish postcard, the inside of the house is as lovely as the outside. Pics below were taken from our doorstep - this is a cottage with serious 'sea views'!





Oh, and did I mention the view overlooking the Aran Islands? We're just hoping the weather holds so we can get out to these islands one day while we're here - watch this space!

Glendalough in the sun

We left Dublin and headed down to Arklow, a seaside village where our lovely friends Katy and Ronnie live. After a bit of a grey day in Dublin yesterday, the sun came out for us and we headed of to visit nearby Glendalough - an historic site and national park rolled into one.





We wandered through an ancient graveyard, so full of old headstones the ground had buckled and was riddled with suspicious bumps. The tower in the pic used to be a refuge for local villagers from pillaging Vikings (?) - they would use rope ladders to climb into the tower, hide their treasure at the top of the tower and pull up the ropes so the invaders couldn't get in. We then walked through Glendalough national park - what can I say?









Please notice the blue sky! The gorgeous weather has been following us for the entire trip and luckily for us, the clouds lifted and this beautiful landscape just lit up.








Its kind of hard to imagine, but all these pics were taken within a half hour walk of each other. I think Ireland could be the most beautiful country we've been to so far. During this walk we saw a wild deer and a red squirrel in the wild. Tomorrow we're off to Doolin in County Claire to stay in a cottage overlooking the Aran Islands.
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The Emerald Isle at last

We arrived just on dusk at Number 31(our guesthouse in Dublin) tired, disheveled and not quite sure whether we were even at the right place. But in the space of 5 minutes, our incredibly tall and gregarious host Noel had our car parked, bags unpacked and our family oohing and aaaahing at our funkiest accommodation to date.








Apparently this amazing guesthouse, just 2 minutes walk to Saint Stephens Green, was created in the 60s and was considered 'the' party house of Dublin at this time. We shared a few bottles of wine with friends after dinner in this classic sunken lounge - I want one of these in our place!


Walking through Saint Stephens Green, on to groovy Grafton Street shopping strip on our way to see the Book of Kells at Trinity College.








Unfortunately, no photos were allowed to be taken in the rooms where the Book of Kells were on display. All I can say is that the books are amazing - colourful and intricate. Hard to believe they were produced in the 8th century! Absolute highlight for me was a leisurely walk through the Long Room of Trinity College - floor to ceiling books, old wooden ladders on each bookcase to reach the 1000s of dusty leather-bound books lining the walls. Marble busts of famous playwrights and writers - I think I was in heaven.

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Frogs legs at Au Pied Du Sacre Coeur

It was our last night in Paris and we decided it was time to tick the last box - frogs legs. In true 21st century traveller style, Earl googled 'best frog legs in Paris' and voilà, several posts about a great little restaurant next to Sacre Coeur popped up.

So I pulled on my new gorgeous long brown suede boots (see earlier Rome post) and we proceeded to walk about 4km up and down steps, cobblestones all the way until we found ourselves in the little Sacre Couer village just behind the Basilica.





Yes, my feet were in extreme pain by this stage but don't my new boots look great? We sat around this cute little brasserie sipping wine and tried to ignore the sound of our children bickering. Next stop - restaurant.


This little restaurant was amazing. We had the best French food of our entire trip at this place. The service was great - friendly and helpful. I had a gorgeous French Onion soup which was delicious and we all shared a serve of frog legs served with lettuce, tomato, bacon and garlic croutons...mmmmmmm.





Go Tori! The kids loved the frog legs and our mains were all amazingly tasty as well. Unbelievably (but maybe not if you know our kids!), Tori and Hen both managed to find room for dessert - the BEST ever creme brulee and a chocolate pudding with custard. Dessert for Earl and I was a bottle of 2008 Chateauxnuef Du Pape - yum yum too!


And so ended our incredible stay in Paris. We dragged ourselves back to our home away from home Paris Oasis. The divine Helene and Jean Louis were still up and we had a chat with them both, before heading up to our 'Lucie Loft'.

And then the perfect end to a perfect day - we find 2 champagne glasses, a bottle of chilled champagne in our little fridge with a note from Helene and Jean Louis wishing us well for the rest of our holiday. Viva le France!

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Paris at night

After our monster morning at the Louvre, we decided to go the whole hog and do the Paris by night extravaganza. In keeping with our Paris experience, we've been taking the Metro to most of the tourist hot spots. See how well we blend in to the Parisien commuter scene..


So off we headed, excited and enthusiastic on the Metro. First stop, Shakespeare and Company bookstore at St Michel. Earl insisted we make the effort to find it after seeing it in Julie and Julia - I was so glad he did..





And then, after tearing myself away from this gorgeous bookstore (English books), we headed to our big ticket tourist activity - the Eiffel Tower at sunset.








What can I say? We went to the summit of the tower, watched the sun go down and the lights of Paris go on. Earl and I drank ridiculously overpriced but SO delicious champagne from the gorgeous champagne bar at the top of the Eiffel Tower. It was windy and cold at the top but a beautifully clear night too - well worth doing.


The kids were starving after the hour up and hour down queues at the Eiffel Tower. Nothing like a hot, sugar-laden nutella and coconut crepe made in front of you. Filled the kids up with snacks and then jumped onto my last Paris holiday dream - a night cruise of the Seine.


I truly think Paris is the most beautiful city in the world. While I'm looking forward to visiting Ireland for the first time, I could easily spend another month just in Paris. Bon nuit!


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Louvre in the morning....

Today we were on a tourist mission - our first real 'visit the sites of Paris or bust' day. We left Paris Oasis at 7.30am, braved the Metro (absolutely brilliant, easy and fast) to find ourselves the first people at the Louvre - amazing!





Earl has taken so many beautiful photos with his new camera that I can't put them all here but here are just a few more from this morning - beautiful.








Just love this pic of Tori on the run - keeping warm while we waited for the Louvre to open! Once we were snug and warm inside, we took the mandatory 'Mona and kids' pic before wandering around in a leisurely fashion looking at the incredible art and sculptures.


A distinct animal theme emerged from this mornings's trip - some fave pics below...





Our day was so huge, have to make this afternoon/evening a separate post!
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