Playing at being Lady Mary and James May's girlfriend

It's the lull. A time where countrywide people finish the food in their fridge, the booze in the porch, play with the kids' toys and sometimes venture out to shopping centres, coming home shell shocked and bargain-less.

Brilliantly, my Dad suggested we could go to the National Motor museum at Beaulieu, so off we toddled. As soon as we arrived my son shot into the World of Top Gear exhibition. Whatever your feelings about Clarkson the ideas on that show for how to thoroughly mess up a car are hilarious.







We met Geoff.





Then we went in the museum where we saw some truly beautiful vehicles. Highlights for me were the Model T Ford, the Rolls Royce Phantom and the one directly below which I must own: do you think they'll do a direct swap for a Peugeot 206?












The Bluebird - the car Donald Campbell achieved the landspeed record in.


And the quirkier vehicles









However, it's not just for petrol heads. The house is wonderful. We were welcomed in by a butler who gave us mulled fruit juice and then sang carols in the hall. This gave me the opportunity to pretend to be Lady Mary from Downton Abbey. Again.






And got to look at the remains of the Cistercian house from where Beaulieu gets its French name




It is an utterly fabulous day out. Best of all we had it virtually to ourselves as presumably everyone else was at sales or eating.

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