No hangover, phew…., but we did have a bit of a lie in to get our anniversary off to a good start. The cycle ride in to Les Eyzies-de-Tayac was fun. The cycle path/walkway on the bridge over the river was laid out like a roller coaster, three ups and three downs and a lovely […]
My wife is too drunk to write the blog tonight, so I have been delegated to fulfil the daily duty. We opened a bottle of the finest regional Rosé that one can buy for under €2 for dinner, and after only one glass, she is a mess!! The day started with what was an early departure
It’s now the last day of our fifth week and we’ve decided we need to spend it slowly. So the very short cycle ride in to Brantôme and a stroll around the few streets was just nice. We bought a lovely little dish painted with poppies to put oil and balsamic in for dipping
The Dordogne area of France is calling us, so we decided to get nearer to the area. We stopped off at a large hardware store and spent some more euro on a longer electric power cable and connector, so we can now stretch to 25 metres if the need arises. I also got a little
We picked the wrong day for our first breakfast outside; a sea mist rolled in gobbling up the sunshine, just as we sat down to eat. Then it was sadly time to say goodbye to Le Bois Plage En Ré. Eileen took us further on down the island to Ars En Ré for a stroll
Eggs for breakfast heralded a slightly earlier start to the day. We cycled through Bois again and crossed to the north side of the island. We cycled past endless grape vines and then found ourselves out on the salt marshes. There were lots of birds; herons, ducks, waders, etc. and there were endless lovely
Today was a beautiful day. The wind had dropped and the sun has shone all day long. After a slow start, we got on our bikes and cycled across the island to the village of St Martin de Ré. On the way there we chanced upon a market in full swing in the village of
Well, having spent so many days recharging our own inner batteries, we cleaned up Eileen and drove her down to Sion-su-la-Ocean for a short stroll and then back to St Gilles for a long stroll around the now deserted town. When the showers started up again, we ate a snail (no, the pastry version), dropped
Well we finally found where all of the people are hiding in France. They’re all in St Gilles Croix de Vie. The shops are all open, even on public holidays, Sundays and Mondays. As the weather has turned yucky again, we’ve chosen to stay on here for a couple more days. Plus we wasted a
On the 15th we checked out of, perhaps, the best campsite so far. The ‘best’ label may only be based on the fact that we could get wi-fi while sitting in Eileen; we didn’t have to go and sit in a tent, or a reception office, or a chilly room, or even the local McDonalds.
Yes it has been a lovely day. We drove over to Savonierres and then cycled along the River Cher to Villandry. There are now poppies flowering along the edge of the rape fields adding extra colour to the rural scenes. The Chateau de Villandry was completed in 1536 and is the last of the great
Sunday, another sunny day, brilliant !!!! After a slow start we went for a drive around the area, through Pont-de-Ruan and Saché to Azay-le-Rideau where we had a prix-fixe lunch, that’s main course and dessert for a bargain price. Our next stop was Ussé for a tour of the Chateau d’ Ussé on the
Je vais tres heureuse! Yes, very happy! More sunshine to spend a day strolling the streets of two major towns on the Loire riverbanks. First we drove to Amboise, parked Eileen, purchased some blood oranges and in a lovely little shop purchased an apron, in the hope of less clothes washing after cooking! At 11:30am
We heard today that the new Socialist government in France is making the stockmarket and World currencies nervous. Ah well, we’re still on our holiday….. The sun shone again so we got the bicycles off the back rack and cycled along to the Chateau de Chenonceau with sun tan lotion on our noses and bottles
On Thursday 10th May, out of nowhere, we woke up to a sunny 27˚c day! We dived down to the bottom of the storage to pull out our summer clothes and set off for Chaumont-sur-Loire further west, on the other side of the river. The chateau is really very pretty and is participating in the ‘Festival
We never got to watch a movie last night because, as I was posting the last blog, I met Caroline and Callum from 100 kms north of Bourke in Australia. They’ve taken time out from their cattle property and are travelling with their three children, Callum (10) and twins Grace and John (8). They’ve been to Dubai,
Well, the Chateau de Cheverny really was quite stunning inside and it wasn’t overly large. I think I could live in a chateau that size, but I’ll stick with Eileen for now. It is supposedly the chateau that is Captain Haddock’s humble abode in the ‘Adventures of Tintin’. He was looking out of the window
Having done a long drive in the rain on Sunday , we decided to slow up on Monday. After showers and breakfast we drove to the front gate of the campsite where we could get some Wi-Fi reception and sat there for a good 40 minutes sending the last blog and catching up a little
The village that Bill and Ang are staying in is so tiny that Gertie Garmin GPS couldn’t find it. But with our trusty Michelin Motoring Atlas we wiggled extensively across country to Mondornon which is near St Prive, which is near Le Creusot. They’re staying in a wonderful old cottage owned and being renovated by Ang’s cousin.
After another rainy night, we woke up to a sunny morning, ate, packed up and headed west to Sully-sur-Loire where we turned a corner and went wow! We really wanted to get some mileage under our belts and reach our friends, Bill and Ang on Wednesday, so we only stopped long enough to gaze upon
We decided to stay 2 more nights at the Loisirs des Groux campsite at Mousseaux sur Seine, that is, after we managed to find someone to pay. We then spent the morning wandering around Vernon admiring the mediaeval buildings of which the Tourist Information centre was the star. We bought veggies and some coquilles St