Hello everyone
Once again it is the monthly international bloggers writing challenge, Tell Us About It, based on themes we choose in turn. This month the subject is TRAVEL and oh dear, I thought, when I first heard that this was the theme. Because. I feel my travelling days are over. And yet as I began this piece, I realised I had so much to say that I have decided to break the writing into two parts! The first part is for Tell Us About It and the second will come another time.
You see, when I was younger, I was an intrepid traveller and I had many escapades and adventures, but on the other hand looking back I missed out on one key experience during the 60s when I could have travelled far further than I did.
But let’s start at the very beginning. I was born in India, in the Manor House Nursing Home in Naini Tal, in June 1946. Now does that mean my parents were avid travellers. Not really, although once upon a time when he was young my father did have that desire to travel to far distant lands, and he did that by joining the Indian Army.
For more information on his background and his life there click here for a website I built myself before things like WordPress existed! I’ll just say though that this wasn’t him joining the British army and being sent to India. No, he joined the Indian Army, which had Indian soldiers and British officers. Moreover, he joined years before the war and lived the life of a Raj officer – more about that on the website.
My taste for travel obviously started early, as in September ’46 I left Naini Tal and travelled with my parents to Delhi by dandy, lorry, small gauge railway, broad gauge railway and taxi where we were put into officers’ barracks.
And here I am with my father outside those very barracks.
Then in May 1947 we left Delhi for Deolali, a big transit camp near Bombay for British personnel leaving India. After two weeks 30 officers’ families were sent by train to Bombay and embarked on the Cunard line SS Scythia for Liverpool via the Suez Canal on June 1 1947. This must be why I like going on cruises – I was on a Cunard line ship at the age of 1 yrs-old! We arrived in Liverpool on 20 June 1947 and I have my immigration papers to prove that I am an immigrant!
Thereafter, my parents never travelled out of the British Isles again. It was a case of, we don’t want to go abroad, darling, because ‘we’ve done that and never again’. By the way, they also never ate anything other than very British food too, the idea of anything foreign, particularly European food, was anathema to them. Which is why, people, just to be a bit of a rebel, I professed a love for Europe and everything to do with it, and I shut my ears totally to my father always going on about India. Poor dad, he had no sons to send to the army and his bolshi teenage daughter refused to listen to those old stories of days gone by. Fortunately, I did listen to him much later on in my life, and, thankfully, I asked him to write his memories of India down, which he did. Hence, his memoir, which I later published – see website.
But the idea of working and travelling to and from Europe began to germinate in me very early on and indeed came to fruition, starting with me travelling across France by train on my own, when I was 17, to visit a pen-friend.
So my friends, imagine a time when we didn’t have the internet – no texting or emails, instead we wrote letters or used the phone. That would be one (bakelite) phone for the household in the hall, which was usually freezing. While people did phone each other you usually wrote letters, and that is how I got to know my pen-friend. And the significance of only communicating by letter will become acutely relevant very soon. Because wonders of wonders in 1965 I was invited to stay with this pen-friend while she was on holiday in Sainte Maxine, just across the bay from Saint Tropez, in the South of France. What an opportunity! Which surprisingly my parents agreed to if I paid for my train fare and spending money.
So, I got a holiday job (packing mushrooms) and duly paid for my ferry and ticket. And then the saga began as a letter came, and I misunderstood when I ought to arrive. My father, who had connections in the transport industry, managed to get the ticket changed to another date as it was only a couple of weeks before the departure date. I wrote a letter telling my French friend I’d changed the date. Several days later a frantic letter came, no, it was the original date, and please change my ticket immediately as I couldn’t come any other time. As this was less than a week before my departure my father was tearing his hair out by now. But he managed to change the ticket and I wrote a letter two days before my departure not knowing whether my pen-friend’s family would get the letter in time to say I had changed back to the correct date. I must say I wouldn’t have let my 17-yr-old daughter go off to France travelling on her own without knowing whether she’d be met at her destination.
Now you might think well, I’m still here, so nothing much happened on that journey. And indeed, nothing did happen, but you’ll see I had a narrow squeak! You have to understand I had never travelled further than Bournemouth, and for those of you who don’t know the UK, that isn’t far! And I was so green, so naïve, so unworldly in comparison to teenagers today.
But it was such an adventure. I know many of you have travelled to France from London by Eurostar. But how many of you have been a foot passenger catching the train in London, which btw, unlike today’s trains took you right up to the ship in Dover, crossed the channel by an old ferry that rolled like a milk bottle, and taken another train to Paris Nord that was also waiting right by the dock. Once the train reached that station, unlike today when you take the Metro to get to the other side of Paris, we didn’t leave the train, instead it puffed around the outskirts of Paris to the Gare de Lyon. What an insight into a city in a foreign country and totally different to flying or taking the Metro, I was mesmerised by the ancient French dwellings and architecture still ravished from the war. Once at the Gare de Lyon I changed trains to an overnight couchette train to the south of France.
You know what I love about train travel – you talk to people. Throughout the journey on the couchette (which at that time was 6 people in each compartment on two 3-tierd bunk-beds) people chatted and talked about their lives and times. So, there I was telling everyone my life history and dropping in the fact that I wasn’t sure I’d be met at my destination. A very nice old man took pity on me and said, well, I will certainly help you find your people if they are not there. How kind of him. But reader, I was met at my destination, and that old man, I think he was disappointed to see me go. When I got home and told my parents, they said, ‘oh my goodness, darling you must be more careful’. And when I replied, ‘oh no, he was really very old, probably around 40….’ the look on my father’s face! Yup, a narrow squeak, I think!
You have to know that having never left the country (since I came back from India when I was only 1-yrs-old) my first impression of France was of utter astonishment at the colours, the smell, the food, the people. Let’s start with the smell. France in 1964 had a very strong smell. It’s still there, but less than it was. Then I swear it was a very heady mixture of sewers mixed with the ubiquitous cigarette, Gauloise. It was intoxicating.
Then once I settled into the holiday routine there was the food. You have to realise that my mother was a very good home cook of meat stews, mashed potatoes and boiled vegetables. Look. I liked this food and still do! But the food wasn’t spicy nor was it any way European, as in, not one herb would touch her food, nor would we cook with olive oil (you’ll never believe this, but you got olive oil from the chemist, for your ears!) and garlic – forget it! I have a distinct memory of my pen-friend’s mother buying some fish at the harbour, grilling it, and serving it on a bed of roasted peppers and tomatoes, with a plate of salad that was so unlike a British salad I was used to, I barely knew what it was. Oh, my goodness, my taste buds were in heaven!
And then there was a trip across the bay to Saint Tropez, I mean can you imagine how I reacted to this iconic place, this 17-yr-old used to British summers and the British seaside where every year it seemed to rain, and yet still we went to the beach, us digging sandcastles no matter the weather, and my parents sitting on deckchairs in their plastic macs determined to enjoy themselves? Like everything else, I just soaked up the atmosphere of Saint Tropez and have never forgotten the gorgeous, stylishly dressed French sun-lovers. One couple in particular sticks out in my memory; they were both 6’ tall, bronzed, blond and beautiful and I can still see her sporting her voluminous wide-trousers (not worn in the UK) as she swished past me with her 6’ beau.
I spent that entire holiday in a trance of ecstatic wonder!
My love for France continued to grow a couple of years later with another trip, this time staying in Paris with the parents of a friend I’d made while I was training as a nurse. We flew, which was another first for me. The plane had props and I think it must have been a left-over from the war as you could see that the entire surface of the plane was nothing but squares of metal and rivets, and as we climbed in the sky the door of the loo fell off. Honestly, I think the plane was held together with string and brown paper!
My friend’s parents lived in a vast flat and everything was incredibly lovely: the mother cooked like a Parisian, the flat was beautiful and old and yet stylish with modern furniture juxtaposed with antiques and oil paintings. This was living I hadn’t encountered before. Two things: we went to the Folies Bergere, which as you know is cabaret music hall and I watched a song and dance review with all the young women dancing stark naked. If you think my previous experiences of France were jaw-dropping for me (you may be more sophisticated than I was!) I can tell you my jaw dropped the furthest it had ever been ever. However, I did think the whole thing was extraordinarily beautiful.
And second, the parents had good taste in music and one evening, after another lovely meal, they opened the gramophone lid and put on a record of Carmina Burana, which is, as you know, a cantata composed in 1935 by Carl Orff. The window was open, the smells of Paris wafted in, and the sounds of the music (which I thought divine) drifted across the rooftops of Paris. It was a moment. And this, I said to myself, is the way to live! As in, the European way of life, rather than what seemed to this impressionable young Brit, the grey British life. And forever more that has been the influence on my life.
Is it too crude a phrase to use, but those two experiences blew my mind! They say travel broadens the mind. That certainly was my experience all those years ago!
And that is the end of Part 1. Part 2 will look at working and living in another country rather than just travelling and I will end with the experience that I did miss out on.
But now it is time to introduce you to the lovely ladies who collaborate on this writing challenge.
Let’s start with Gail from Is This Mutton, who started Tell Us About….In theory Gail is well travelled but she hasn’t seen very much. Click here to find out why.
Then we have Suzy of the Grey Brunette who having moved from England to Portugal when she was a child, Suzy got the travel bug quite early on. Read about some of the wonderful places she’s visited.
Debbie from Debs World says Debbie’s family motto is ‘To Travel is to Live’ and her blog is all about Midlife- travel, fun and adventure, and yet she had a lot of trouble with this prompt. Click here to read how her family got the travel bug!
Then there’s Marsha of Marsha in the Middle. Marsha and her husband, AKA Nigel, rode the Empire Builder from Chicago to Seattle and loved each and every minute! But, they didn’t stop there! Head over to the blog to read all aboard…ahem…all about it!
MaryK says finally she gets to write about her favourite hobby and reflects on some of the fun times she’s had on trips over the years. Click here for her post.
And finally there is the lovely Leslie of Once Upon a Time Happily Ever After who says the only traveling I am going to be doing is among the blogs of my Tell Us About buddies reading about the traveling they are enjoying. Stop by my blog here for a power nap. I’ll join you!!
And that my friends is really all for now. But do tell me if you have done some adventurous travelling at some point in your life.
With love, Penny, the Frugalfashionshopper
What a marvellous post Penny, so interesting to read about your family history and your father joining the Indian army. I had several penfriends too and could have gone on an exchange visit to France with one of them via school, but unfortunately I was only around 15 and my parents couldn’t afford it. (Or so they said – I think it was probably my mum trying to “protect” me!).
You write so descriptively of France….I can imagine myself there among that unique smell, the music and the warm breezes.
Looking forward to part 2 and the experience you missed.
I think I might have got this pen-friend from school but there were no organised school trips abroad like there are today, or in my daughter’s time at school (not sure what happens currently with Brexit and so on). So everything was organised by me and then my dad! I’m so surprised they agreed – I think any caution on their part was about the cost which I why I paid for it myself! My safety? I think they were as green as I was!
Although I adore Norway, there’s nothing like France. Thanks for the kind words about the writing 🙂
Gosh, Penny…what a wonderful post! I thoroughly enjoying reading all about your childhood travels. I can only imagine the sights and smells you encountered when first arriving in France back then. I want to watch your history in a movie (if that makes sense!) because you write so beautifully, I felt like I was there with you.
Hugs
Suzy xx
Oh Suzy that’s so kind of you re: your words about my writing, and from a published writer too. How I did it was that when I was writing I was remembering and my fingers just obeyed my thoughts. Thanks so much Suzy 🙂
Your description of Paris has brought back lots of memories of my first trip abroad to Paris in 1963. I had been reading lots of Colette, Sagan in translation and was mesmerised by the sounds,smells and sights which lived up to expectation. I stayed in a flat with white painted walls, hessian and calico for curtains which was so different to the interiors I was used to. I reproduced it in my home years later. I came home with the most marvellous handbag and shoes which I cherished. It wasn’t without it’s dangers as I did have my purse stolen, but it was a magical time.
Yes, I think life in the early 60s was still looking back to the war and recovering from it, and life seemed very bland. My parents furnished the house in very traditional way with a 3-piece suite, patterned wallpaper and patterned carpets throughout. To see the way my friend’s parents furnished their flat in Paris was a revelation, never to be forgotten and although I’ve never reached those heights I have a thing for mid-century minimalism and absolutely hate those over stuffed sofas and any kind of brown furniture. Instead everything in our flat is light and white, any colour (in Primary colours) is added here and there with cushions and throws and paintings. Mind you Habitat influenced me a lot and now, I have to say, it’s Ikea!!!
Thanks Carole – yes those early encounters of different ways to live was magical!
Wow, Penny – the best blog post I’ve read in a LONG time! I loved hearing of your adventures – imagining it as a wonderful movie. I travelled a lot in Europe by train in the early ’80s, and I miss those 6-seat compartments and how they converted to bunk beds. No wonder this is a 2-parter, and I can’t wait for the next one!
Oh wow, Mary, what a nice thing to say about the blog – just wrote what I remembered! And train travel – how I love it although our British rail network and entire system is creaking a bit here and there and very expensive too, which is a shame. Could say more as to why that is, but that would be a blog for My Other Blog!!!
There is more to come 🙂
What a fabulous story. I can imagine the adventurious you in France. My first holidays, 3 years in a row, were in England. I fell immediately in love at 14 with your country.
Well, the thing is my adventurousness was all based on my naivety!! Oh my gawd was I green but my first encounter with another way of living and another country was life-changing and never forgotten.
Lovely to hear how you fell in love with England 🙂
I loved reading your reminisces Penny what exciting adventures you had and I can see why travel was so mind blowing! You’ve told the stories so well I was entranced as I read your post. I can’t wait to read Part 2 🙂
Thanks you so much, Debbie, as I wrote I was remembering and just wrote it down! There is more to come.
Also I do read every one of your blogs but still can’t comment. It’s a WordPress thing and I have to get to grips with it. This happens with some other WordPress blogs too so it’s not just you and I have to sort it.
But thanks, Debbie, for commenting here – much appreciated 🙂
So glad you shared your early travel experiences Penny. I do remember your blog post about your parents time in India and that you were born there. You took me back to my first visit to France in 1975 when I too fell in love with France, the history, the architecture, the scenery , the food and the fashion. Lucky you it is so close , not a marathon flight away.
Look forward to your Part Two.
Yes, you are so right that we are much nearer to France and yet I haven’t visited since before the pandemic. Next year we will definitely go. Mind you we as a country have made visiting EU countries a bit more challenging than it was before. Such a shame.
Anyway, I will be writing more – thanks Jill 🙂
Penny, I am completely and utterly in awe of your life, your writing, and your trips! I knew you’d been born in India, but, my goodness, to leave aboard a Cunard ship. It’s too bad you were so young and have no memories of it. I’m so glad you were able to record your father’s memories and memoir. I wish I’d thought to do that with my dad.
Your first trip to France sounded just absolutely wonderful, but your second experience was so magical. You write so lyrically about both. I felt like I was right there with you (doggone, but I wish I had been). I simply cannot wait for Part 2!
https://marshainthemiddle.com/
What I left out of that description of my early travels is that the Cunard ship had been converted to a troop ship and facilities were very basic indeed. Would you believe it, water was not available at all, apart from early in the morning and late afternoon. My mother had to queue for a basin to first bathe me and then wash the cotton nappies. When they washed I have no idea – can you imagine and in the heat. Apparently (wrote my dad) the cabin staff (all British) complained that these British officers and there families wanted to wash far more often than the usual passengers they had started taking on!!!!!!
Thanks you so much, Marsha, and I will write Part 2 but not immediately as it’s cruise frocks next and then I’m on the cruise!
Great post Penny! so many adventures. My family rarely traveled. As a child and adolescent we did go a few time to visit my father’s family in Boston and then perhaps a week on Cape Cod. When I got married my husband and I probably never took a vacation in the ten years we were married. This is ironic because when he remarried he and his wife became world travelers. And he now takes our son and daughter and their families on vacation as well. As I write this they are all on a cruise around Iceland. Just this morning I got a post from them from the Faroe islands. Just shows you how you never know how life will turn out. When my daughter was in high school her school sponsored a two week trio to Italy, which was wonderful. That was it for a while until 2007 when a friend and I did a two week tour of Ireland. She and I decided to do another tour a few years later to England and Scotland. In 2016 with a couple of family and friends we did a Viking cruise on the Seine. Of course with some time in Paris. Then another cruise on the Danube. I had no sooner come back from this trip when a friend proposed a Baltic cruise to me. I was hesitant at first but is so glad I decided to go. We went to Scandinavia and Finland, Germany, Estonia and Russia. It actually still amazes me that I got to see all these countries. This was in 2019 and then of course covid hit. Since then my travel has been only to Chincoteague island in Virginia. Actually, I plan to go there this coming week with my daughter and her husband after they come back from Iceland. I hope they are still up for it as I don’t drive there on my own any more as in the past. I really did enjoy the small ship cruises and was thinking of doing one in the south of France. What holds me back is that air travel still does not seem to have ironed out the kinks, the delays. cancelled flights and passengers getting bumped. But we will see. I have to admit my travel has been very interesting and enjoyable but not adventuresome. Tours and cruises with planned excursions. This is quite enough for me at this time in my life. So enjoy every moment of your next adventure, Darby
Actually I’m the same as cruises are the way I want to holiday in future, as amongst other things that are included in the cruise price our cruise line includes health insurance, which is incredibly important at our stage of life. They also pick you up from your door so it’s an all round win for me. I go on my first cruise since the pandemic in a week’s time!
We are alike in that when I was young my family never traveled further than Bournemouth, a coastal sea resort, which was about an hour’s train ride away from where we lived. Ah yes, and a Baltic cruise. I too have done one of those and am so glad to have gone to Russia and St. Petersburg as that won’t be open to tourists in my lifetime all things considered. That was an experience and a half.
People often ‘diss’ cruising but I never go on those blocks of flats type ships always choosing those ships that are under a 1000 passengers. And many people who criticise cruising have never been on one in the first place. The only thing I have against them is the pollution they are probably causing – that is why I stick to the smaller ships – they are far more pleasant anyway.
Enjoy your week away and see how you feel about a small cruise further afield – never say never 🙂
Thanks Darby 🙂
Very interesting as usual Penny. I went to France as a schoolgirl to stay with my penfriend but we were escorted for the journey. I was 15 and it had a great impression on me. I seem to remember that a couchette was just a reclining chair and it was a pretty rough crossing, I’ve never suffered with sea sickness since then. My penfriend lived in a small town in central France and their house had a basement where the car was parked and the washing machine situated. the had parquet flooring so you had to put on soft slippers on entering. The first night I woke up screaming because I was unused to the complete darkness afforded by shutters! Everything was so different ; milk came in plastic bags & was boiled before use & food served in separate courses not all together as we do at home. Coffee was served in bowls & I remember them dipping bread and conserve into the coffee. I was taken to visit Josyanne’s grandmother and could not understand why the walls of her home were black. I’ve since realised that she must have lived in cave home as I’ve now seen them in other places. We went to Paris and I particularly recall going to the Sacre Coeur where candles sparkled like stars in the dark interior and the view from the hilltop was spectacular. This was all in 1977 and I didn’t leave the country again until 1983 when I flew for the first time for a week’s holiday in Yugoslavia – as it was then – with my husband leaving our 3 children with my parents. Lucky us! I have always regretted not being more adventurous in my youth and I’m looking forward to reading about how you lived and worked abroad.
Sounds like a delightful experience overall, even with the misunderstandings and surprises! How brave of your parents to let you go on that adventure. I know I wouldn’t be happy about sending my daughter off abroad, and now we have cellphones and can remain in constant contact!