Nantwich and Chester

Nantwich, a little gem.
One of three horses at the entrance to the Cocoa yard, no idea why!

 The aforementioned Cocoa Yard- with John!

One of the few buildings which escaped the fire of 1583,  the octagonal hall was added later.

Leaving Nantwich on the Shropshire Union towards our next stop, Chester.
A canal scene reminiscent of the narrow boat paintings!

 Chester! And yes, the sun IS shining!!

One of the upper galleries in Chester's two-storey shopping centre.

Really Scary Place/ Une endroit qui fait peur

Thank you Nick and Gabs for a lovely evening, sorry you couldn't make the boat trip! Hope all broken fences are now mended, here's what you missed!

After visiting friends, NOT in Market Drayton but not far away in Audlem, we set off for Hack Green near Nantwich to visit this quite sinister place.



Apres une visite tres sympa chez nos amis nous avons fait une visite de quelque chose vraiment different et un peu sinistre, un abri antiatomique....

 Hack Green was a radar station during WWII, then abandoned until 1976.
It was then purchased from the MOD by the Home Office Emergency Planning Division to be converted into a protected seat of government in the event of a nuclear attack.
Pendant la guerre mondial Hack Green etait une station de radar et puis abandonne jusqu'au 1976. Il'etait achete par Le Ministere de l'Interieur, dept pouvoirs speciaux.
                                                                                                                                                                                     

Il a coute £32 million et est devenue pleinement operationnel en 1984. il possede son propre centrale electrique,approvisionnment en eau et centre de communications, tous qu'il faut pour 135 personnel de governement et de militaire pendant un attaque nucleaire.

C'etait ouvert au public en 2002 et il vaut une visite.
Peut-etre.

It cost a reported £32 million pounds and became operational in 1984(Thank you George Orwell...). With its own generating system, life support, emergency water supply and communications centre, it had everything to enable 135 civil servants and military personnel to survive a nuclear attack and form a government.


It was de classified and opened to the public in 2002, and is worth a visit.
 I think.

Old Haunts Re-Visited

Au Revoir Birmingham, une ville merveilleuse mais il faut que notre voyage continue! Un francais est arrive chez nous et il avait nous assister aux ecluses ( apres il a arrive a comprendre comment ca marche....) et maintenant, aux annees passe!




 Ok, so it's goodbye to Birmingham, fantastic place but we're cruising so off we go again! Aided and abetted by some manic Frenchman who spent a week trying to work out how locks work, we were heading back in time....

And so here we are, forty years on just exactly where we started from , outside the Netherton Tunnel.This is where our first narrow boat was moored and travelled no further, sinking to a watery end after we had spent our first two married years together, aww!
Il y a 40ans depuis nous etions ici avec notre premiere peniche, notre petite maison pendant deux ans quand nous etions les jeunes maries! le bateau a reste sans voyager, et finalement elle a coule..... 

 At last we are cruising through the Netherton Tunnel!!

And it's very pretty the other side on  the Staffs and Worcester Canal. This is the Red Cone Kiln, used in the making of Stuart Crystal which originates in Stourbridge.

An interesting museum (free! ) and no escaping the old canal boat thing.

Made from glass, of course, the blowing curtains represent the family life  enjoyed by the workers in the glass factory.

Now a craft and education centre, this window was produced by local school children working with an artist in residence at the Red Cone Glass Kiln.

Birmingham Cityscape!

The Bull Ring!


Je ne sais pas le race de ce bete, mais ce n'est pas le couleur d'un charolais

LOVING the buildings here in Birmingham!





J'adore ces immeubles ici a Birmingham!

Part of the Floral Trail, wild flowers and statues to bring the countryside and the Olympics ( of course ) into the city. This is one of 11.
And look! BLUE sky, hurray!!




Pour les Jeux Olympics ( bien sur, c'est partout! )
Il y a onze statues et beaucoup de fleurs au tour de la ville.
Et regarde le ciel BLEU!

The new library. Fantastic.
La nouvelle mediatheque

Gas Street Basin. We're there somewhere!
On est la, Gas Street Basin avec du monde!

And the pub!!

We've Been Busy! (and wet!)

 Coventry,
Millenium Place Time Zone

Took us a while to work this out, but there are pathways laid out showing how the time zones around the world fit together. Clue is in the name, I know, but we didn't find the name til later! No idea what the great swoopy metal things signify, but they did look spectacular.

Ici en centre ville a Coventry on peu voir  les fuseau horaire du monde.C'etait fait pour l'an 2000 et  maintenant c'est difficile de les voir!




Water Window by Susanna Heron.
Actually, John is looking through the window on this one!


John est la aussi!                  

Coventry is definitely worth a visit, if only to see the Transport Museum, where they have this, Thrust SSC . Fastest car on the planet (763.035mph) and its a British World Record!

Le musee de Transport a Coventry et l'etoile, Trhust SSC, la plus vite voiture du monde.1227.98kph Et c'est anglais!

Through a very pretty tunnel and on to Stratford

Stratford Basin. Bit of a cheat this one as we were actually at Warwick and caught the bus into Stratford for a change!



Nous avons pris le car pour faire un trajet de Warwick a Stratford!

Shakespeare Memorial

Pretty streets

And this! Too much Shakespeare led us to the MAD Museum (Mechanical Art and Design)
All things weird and wonderful, noisy moving contraptions which were really beatiful to watch and listen to, like this one by Pascal Bettex " The Mechanics of Money"

Musee de Cinetique. Tout les choses merveilleuse qui bougent ou faisent le bruit ou les deux! Comme celle -ci par le suisse Pascal Bettex, Le Mecanismes de L'Argent

Moored near Kingsbury Junction on the Grand Union Canal

Baddesley Clinton, Squire's House owned by the same family, the Ferrers, for 500 years. Now acquired by the National Trust.A lovely place to visit on a sunny day!

Time for tea !

Gouter!