Famille Summerbelle News

Sorry for not posting anything since we left Fiji. It took us a couple of days to recover from our long journey to the States (more than 25h trip between Fiji-New-Zealand and San Francisco!). It was so cold and rainy when we got here, the sort of weather we would expect to get back in London! After few days trying...

Thank you so much to all our blogger friends for supporting us in 2008 and for your lovely comments on our site. Famille Summerbelle will be a year old early 2009 and so far it's been an amazing experience that we have been so pleased to share with you. We're flying back to the UK this weekend. This is the...

We've just spent 6 days on a beautiful small island in Fiji. We did have internet access, but not much happened so we decided to give the computer a well earned rest for the trip. Not much happened but it was wonderful. We sat on the beach, snorkeled in the sea, played with Ophelia by the pool and then relaxed...

A huge THANK YOU to the talented Emma Cassi who has been stlyling our "Learn For Fun' prints with lots of yummy Petit Lu in this month's Milk Magazine.

I bought some origami paper in Japan which has the perfect thickness for cutting into. Here are some examples of paper cuts I created during our stay in New Zealand. Tomorrow is our last day here... we are sad to leave this amazing country. We had such a wonderful time traveling in the campervan and spending some quality time with...

Julie takes a lot of photos (she can take credit for almost all of the photos on this blog). Ophelia likes copying her maman (sizing herself in the mirror, dressing up, lipstick, make-up etc etc), and this is the best yet....we have ourselves an amateur photographer! For the last week or so, the main source of our daily entertainment is...

We departed the South Island on Wednesday, and said goodbye to our family (which is never much fun). For the campervan, the scenery, the wildlife, the family, the wine - thanks. Easily the most beautiful place we've every been. These letterboxes were one of the last things we saw just outside of Blenheim - a long row of beachfront houses....

Apologies to anyone that is in the throws of late Autumn grey, but if you could see our photo library from New Zealand you would see just how many amazing variations of blue (and green) you can see every day. Beautiful vibrant turquoise through to rich dark blues. If it helps, it's a little grey today.....

We love wine. Not just for the obvious reason...it's nice to drink something that has such a nuanced development. Everything about it's creation - from grape, soil and weather to treatment, ageing and barrel. It's real artisan stuff. Wine tours in Marlborough are pretty easy and great fun. New Zealand doesn't have a long viticultural past - but my god,...

A few days since our last post - for reasons I'll explain in a sec. We arrived in Kaikoura last Saturday for the final leg of our campervan trip. You'd have thought we might have scenery exhaustion - never! Kaikoura I think was my favourite, with stunning turquoise ocean surrounded by snow-topped mountains. Seals, dolphins and migrating whales are all...

Today was very exciting. We came back from few days in the Sounds (region in the top of the South Island that looks like fjords). I was invited to Abbie's (my 7 year old niece from NZ) school to talk about what I do as a job! I tried to explain to the whole class that I draw, cut paper...

...looking for pebbles on the beach on the East Coast.

It was like driving through a one road town in a spaghetti Western.

I know everyone bangs on about Apple, and that some day soon they'll probably turn into the bad guys, but this trip owes a big thank you to Apple... We're both big unashamed fans of pretty much everything that they make, but on this occasion the real star is our little faithful MacBook which has taken a fair bruising on...

It is isn't it? We haven't been everywhere yet, and perhaps we haven't even been to enough places to be so bold, but I replace it difficult to believe that there may be a more beautiful place than New Zealand. Don't get me wrong, everywhere you go you'll replace something or some place beautiful - and many places perhaps benefit...

When we sat down for dinner this evening, we talked about how lucky we have been with our journey. It seems as though each country offers us a new perspective, something very different and it seems always at the right moment. Truth is we scarcely planned this trip. What with house moving, making sure all was fine with Famille Summerbelle...

We had a ball. Everyone so friendly, the scenery was stunning and life by the beach suited us just fine. And we saw those Kangaroos. Thanks especially to Simon and Bernie who gave us the finest barbecue steak we've ever had.

Well, it is my brother - and the artwork is the talent of the younger members of the family, Abbie and Morghan. Thanks girls! Not just that but we were given some lovely cookies and some warm clothes (!) for our journey around the fresher parts of the South Island. Occasionally, we get to use our blog for a shameless...