France 1986

By shendyNo Comments
1985 turned out to be the last full family holiday - in 1986 The Brother was 20 and presumably didn't fancy the coach trip all the way down through France to Port Grimaud in Provence, just across the bay from St Tropez. I really don't recommend doing it by coach from London - a mere 818 miles according to Google Maps - many, many hours for a bored teenager with just a Sony Walkman and a limited supply of tapes and batteries (the only album I can recall is Suzanne Vega's first one, but given that most of the photos from the holiday show me wearing Marillion t-shirts, I suspect Script for a Jester's Tear was in there as well). The parents went on a day trip to Monte Carlo (which I skipped - no idea why!), with vast plumes of smoke from forest fires filling the sky. I remember them describing the central reservation of the autoroute smouldering from where...
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France 1985

By shendyNo Comments
There are surprisingly few photos from this holiday, probably the first one with no black and white. In 1985 we spent the whole two weeks at St Jean de Monts in the Vendee again. The holiday was later than usual - I am sure the fact that I turned 17 while we were away and you could bring back a duty-free allowance of alcohol for 17 year olds played absolutely no part in the scheduling. None at all......
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France 1984

By shendyNo Comments
For the 1984 summer holiday, we spent a week in Carnac in Brittany and then ventured a bit further south well, we drove down to the Vendee and St Jean de Monts. A lovely place as I recall, with a vast sandy beach being reached through a pine wood. As for Carnac, you can probably imagine how interested a 16 year old boy was in standing stones. It took a long time for me to be able to utter the word "Carnac" without the word "sodding" in front of it....
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France 1983

By shendyNo Comments
I'd previously posted pics of the family holiday to France in 1983, but I'm re-doing it now as there are more photos. We went back to Benodet for a week, and had a week at an inland site at Belle Isle en terre (somewhere in Brittany). We have a couple of good entries for the Fat Frenchman collection, as well as a particularly good Englishman on holiday (chinstrap beard, budgie smugglers, and there may even have been sandals) The final shot, of "La Guitoune" in Roscoff, is in commemoration of what has gone down in family lore as the worst meal ever. We had hardly any money left and it was cheap - and wasn't worth the money. I seem to recall it being badly cooked (semi-raw fried eggs, that sort of thing). I believe we may not even have left a tip!...
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Le Touquet

By shendyNo Comments
In the autumn of 1982, we took a trip over to Le Touquet in France (about half an hour from Boulogne) to see the French family we know - Georges and Marie-Claire Lazard-Peillon's eldest, Bertrand, had been over to stay with us in 1978 and his brother Benjamin came over a couple of years or so later. We kept in touch and when we discovered that they had moved to the north of France, we went over....
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France 1982

By shendyNo Comments
A few pics from the family holiday in August 1982 - a Eurocamp trip to Benodet and Telgruc in Brittany. Telgruc was most memorable for being on the side of quite a steep hill, with the "facilities" at the bottom. A night-time trip to the loo was swiftly christened "the long walk". It features an early example of my father's Fat Frenchman collection, by way of contrast to the numerous bikini-clad young ladies that my father took photos of......
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More updates

By shendyNo Comments
I've had a reasonably productive week, and have put a lot of new photos up on the main website: A whole new section containing loads of photos from in and around Northampton, including Borough Shows and Raft Races as well as things like the redevelopment of the Town Centre in the 70s and shots from Abington Park. More photos from my dad's life - very early photos from the 30s, 40s and 50s and some from his working life. Enjoy....
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New Content – National Service

By shendyNo Comments
I've added a new series of photos to the main site - all of my dad's National Service-related photos. As well as photos of basic training and life around the camp, we also have a production of Bonaventure and quite a bit of socialising with some Wrens. I have two clear favourite images from this collection. This one just makes me laugh every time I see it. And this one isn't just my dad with a gun, it's my dad with two guns! With a bit of luck, I'll be posting some more sets to the site over the holiday period....
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