Not A Lot To Blog About….

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 whole day yesterday trying to sort out wi-fi a bit more.  We had to go to McDonalds again and then 2 more visits to the Orange shop. But we finally found a gorgeous Frenchman who spoke ‘un peau d’ Anglais’ very well indeed and we discovered that although we had purchased a dongle and paid for one month’s internet access, it hadn’t actually been set up.  So today we are definitely up and running with wi-fi.

Julia and Hannah have already gone back to their home in the Netherlands and Kevin left early this morning to drive back to Hertfordshire with a car full of 1 ½ beds and probably some wine too.  So we’re now all alone in their lovely house hoping that the weather will improve again so that we can get out and about and see a bit more of this area before we head south.

So as there’s not a lot happening, here are some things that we haven’t included in the blog so far.

There are a lot of cuckoos in France, or the same one is following us to every campsite.

Approximately 30 million baguettes are baked every day in France;  no wonder that the few people we do encounter always seem to have a baguette tucked under their arm!!!

Campsite bathrooms are thoroughly inconsistent.  They’ve all included some of the following, but we haven’t yet found one that has all of them: toilet paper, hooks, hand soap, toilet seats (!!!!), hairdryer, soap dish, hand dryer, paper towels, toilet brush, doors (!!!!).  So you always take everything with you (perhaps not a toilet seat, or a door), just in case they’re not supplied; especially the first item on the list.  Almost all of the showers are button press operated and they really vary.  Some throw out water that lasts for a nice length of time, most need a fairly frequent press and there was one that you almost needed to lean one hand on permanently, while washing with the other as fast as possible.  Then there’s always the surprise of a large, half dressed, German man coming out of what I thought was the ladies,  but it turned out to be a mixed bathroom……!

We love the fact that we’re sitting up high in Eileen and can see over all the hedges and walls; you get to see so much more.

I thought we might have to deal with unpleasant toilet smells in Eileen, but it has been no trouble at all, it’s the fridge that smells!  I’ve cleaned it thoroughly and wiped it out with vanilla, but the smelly St Aubin cheese cannot be beaten, so we’re going to try and stick to less smelly cheeses from now on.

Rodney has turned a little French.  He’s treating Gertie Garmin GPS like a mistress and he likes listening to me arguing with her when she takes us on really stupid routes.  He seems to find it trés amusing……

Life seems to revolve around when, where, what, even how, to eat the next meal.  Food seems to have taken over our life!!!  But it’s all good.

Roundabouts in France are brilliant!!  As it’s always a carefully considered manoeuvre, me watching the left side and then both of us looking for the correct exit, there isn’t really the time for me to whip out the camera.  But it’s quite amazing how some roundabouts are a complete work of art.  We’ve seen some that have a small vineyard in the middle, complete with workers hut.  We’ve seen one that looked like a small garden centre, one had a whole house in the middle and one was covered in beautiful rock sculptures.  I can’t remember all the others but I will try and get a photo of at least one of them.

Toora loora toora loo rye ay, we are far too young and clever……..name that tune?