Hannah and the award

Jolly good news...

John (our Chief Exec) and Hannah (our Marketing Manager) trekked up to York last night for a swish dinner at York Railway Museum - now there is somewhere I've not been since a school trip decades ago - to find we came runner up in the Enjoy England Awards for Excellence Large Visitor Attraction of the Year.

Hannah and John are pictured above with the award.

Being a girl, she completely failed to spend the evening admiring the Flying Scotsman and all the other steam age relics lying around. Unforgivable!

John, on the other hand, is one of the steam age... oh never mind, it wasn't going anywhere anyway. Unlike my job, probably.

Some shower called Harewood beat us (just kidding Elaine, we love you really).

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Fishy tales

Well, I am back from my holidays. I had a fascinating time in France, wandering around the Loire Valley. We stayed at Chateau Vary, near Jarze - a lovely base with great facilities, big thanks to Paul and Benedicte who looked after us (and to Benedicte's dad for the Easter eggs!). Sadly, my complete lack of self control in the area of croissant consumption means my training schedule has had to be stepped up!

One of the weird things about working at Blenheim is that I find myself unable to visit any other attraction without looking to see what layouts, systems and staffing they use. The Loire is stuffed full of chateaux, ranging from the real heavyweights such as Chambord and Villandry to small family-run chateaux like Montgeoffroy.

Villandry is stunningly presented, with astonishing gardens (including formal vegetable gardens and beautiful love gardens). It really is on a par with anything I've seen in the UK and I'd recommend a visit to anyone. Do use the Audioguides, about 4euros per person, but they help a lot! Incidentally, has anyone tried our garden audioguides here? But the weird thing about Villandry is that we went in the Easter holidays (yes the French Schools were off) on a sunny day - yet the place was empty...

It does seem that there is less interest in France in their chateaux than we tend to see in the UK. Montgeoffroy on our last full day was another stunning venue but the exterior falling into heart-breakingly poor condition. I would like to think it would not be allowed in this country. Go see it soon, I'm not sure it will be upright in a few year's time.

At the other extreme was Futuroscope, a large cinema based theme park near Poitier. Revered within the industry as a brilliantly organised attraction, this place was busy but, my oh my, it soaks the crowds so easily. State-funded, money was clearly not in short supply and it is also wonderfully French! My favourite quirks were the closure of all food facilities at 2:30 dead on, food to die for (well, relative to UK theme parks anyway where you tend to get food to die from- I had an avocado and crayfish tails starter - that's my first fishy tail by the way- a pasta carbonara main course and tarte tatin for 15euros) and the wonderfully discreet shops - we really had to hunt to find one. Bliss! Oh, and great rides etc - put it this way, we spent 10 hours there! The condensed lunch period had certain advantages (everything was fresh cooked to a very high standard), the downside was that the queues were more than for any ride.

As we headed for Caen and the return ferry, we popped in to see the Bayeux tapestries. Of course, the French haven't actually heard of these, they take little interest in an obscure piece of embroidery on a trivial detail like THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. Again, beautifully presented but not on a par with the amazing Tapestry of the Apocalypse at Angers. Now that's a tapestry to compare with those at Blenheim. Both, again, well-explained with Audioguides.

Now I am back, I have been suckered into going deep sea fishing (an annual staff trip!) next week. They do have some adventures out there but I am not sure I have the stomach for it. It probably serves me right for not going trout fishing on the new trout lake here. Graham Peck (pictured above on the last deep sea trip with something that is definitely not a trout) has worked hard to put this new venture together. The lake is now teaming with trout - rainbow and brown, he tells me with much enthusiasm. "Where have all the pike gone?", I asked innocently. A slightly guilty look crossed his face. "we've moved them all up into the main lake" he told me. I walked away, impressed by his planning and attention to detail.

Then I stopped.

"You've done what?? I'm supposed to be swimming the first leg of my triathlon in seven weeks in the main lake!"

Graham assured me with a grin that they are very tame and shy and have no interest in my toes.

"When 200 men in wet suits jump in and start swimming, believe me they go to the other end of the lake" he pointed out.

Now there's an incentive for keeping up with the rest of your wave....

And in case you think I am making too much fuss, click on this to see what we are up against.

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