Sins of La Flèche.

Having decided to move north and catch the ferry at Caen on Thursday morning we needed to cover some distance today.  We were on the road by 8am and headed toward a town north of the Loire called La Flèche.  We knew the weather was going to turn today and we had some brief showers but it was mainly mild and grey.  Not bad for travelling.

This first stop on our route was at Montreuil Bellay.  It is a place I have been before and liked.  There was a little food market with just one stall for each of the things you might want.  One for vegetables, one for fruit, one for meat, cheese etc.  We managed to have a church fix whilst we were there and the beauty of the camper van is that we could park up and make lunch, which today comprised of ham  sandwich with lettuce, tomato and celeri remoulade on ciabatta....lovely.

In the afternoon we stopped at a place called Bauge and utilised the wifi at the tourist office.  The chateau looked very nice too.

Janice's sunglasses have now been 'officially' put away, it could be the last time you see them this year.  I think that means that the weather is going to be dodgy from now on and winter is nigh!

Here is Janice's knight in shining armour.

Our overnight stay is at La Flèche and it involves an element of risk.  The market is on a Wednesday morning and is on the camping car parking area, so we risk being rudely awoken tomorrow morning.

We had a chat about our French language skills whilst we were travelling and lamented that they were still pretty poor.  We have been listening to a CD by someone called Michel Thomas and consulting our small English/French and French/English dictionary.

What we have learned from Michel Thomas is that our pronunciation needs to be better.  He teaches a very aggressive  sounding 'g' which has a very growly sound, so when a shopkeeper asks if they can help, we say 'je regarde simplement' which means 'I'm just looking' but we end up saying it very loud with a growly g and it sounds really frightening.  Anyway I am sure the pronunciation is good.  We are also looking for an opportunity to ask about the political and economic situation 'en France' because we have learned how to say it but we are too frightened  about what the response may be!  We have managed to master the international body language of the teenage moped rider...it seems to be the 'middle finger' salute!

Whilst on this subject I am amazed by some of the phrases given in our French/English dictionary and particularly the suggested phonetic way the French should say them.  I thought a little test would be in order to see if anyone could actually recognise the English phrase from the French phonetics, so here goes.....

Exkiouz mi

Slo-eur pliiz 

Tchiirz 

Ou-enn doz the trenn tou braitten liiv?

Answers on a postcard please.