The French Connection

Off very early yesterday to Manchester Airport to collect two journalists from France, Marion Liautaud and Gregory Rohart, who both work for www.i-trekkings.net

Airport rendezvous are always tricky, the parking daylight robbery and it is always a scrum in the Arrivals Hall. All that endured, we were soon off across the border into Wales. First visit was to Rhos on Sea and to St Trillo’s Chapel, the smallest church in the British Isles- seating just 6 people. But it was out at sea that the real interest lay.....

Neither Gregory nor Marion had seen offshore wind turbines before, something that we have grown used to in North Wales in recent years.

Then it was off over the Little Orme to Llandudno and its famous pier, something which is a rarity in France. The amusements intrigued them but the Police Box tardis left them cold and I had to try to explain to them in broken French the meaning of a Tardis, a Timelord and a Dalek. They had never heard of Dr Who!

Lunch was taken in Conwy town and I was determined to find something Welsh. Surely somewhere would have Bara brith or Lobscaws or Conwy muscles? No, it was all paninis, baguettes and all day breakfasts. So, we settled on a British dish - Fish and Chips, bread and butter and hot tea.

Gregory and Marion are journalists and there are few places more unusual than Plas Mawr, a Cadw owned Elizabethan house of a wealthy merchant from the 1580s. They were intrigued by the interior decorations, the game hung in the kitchen and by the bedrooms laid out in the loft just as they might have been in the 17th Century.

Right at the top of Plas Mawr there is a tower built as a viewpoint. The views of the castle and of the walled town are exceptional.

We walked around the walls that surround this medieval town, see my blog of the 27th of April, and then it was off to the castle itself where we climbed the high towers and looked out over what remains of the castle walls from our lofty perch in the King's apartments.