Look out for oxymoron troglodytes!

It has been very cool today despite bright sunshine.  We can almost see the leaves turning brown before our eyes.  Never mind because the scenery is stunning.

We are staying put at Turquant so we don't need to get moving early.  Turquant is quite an interesting place.  It was originally a village of troglodyte dwelling (that's cave dwellers if you didn't know).  The local stone is called 'tufa' and its a pale white colour.  Many of the houses are built partially into the rock.  There is only one general store, which is currently closed till Friday, one restaurant, that is closed on a Wednesday and about twelve 'vignerons' or wine producers.  The town is also known for its Pommes Tapees, a local dryed apple speciality made by apple tappers.  It made me think that there may be an 'Apple Tappers and Shunters Social Club nearby.  This is a reference to a TV comedy programme of many years ago that was done in a working men's club called the Wheeltappers and Shunters is seems an age ago with a compere with a flat cap who chain smoked and the jokes were very non PC!

We are about 5 miles from Saumur as the crow flies but we followed a country road through the vineyards.  I'm not sure how long ago they harvested the grapes but in places we could see the splash of grape juice on the road and occasionally could smell the grape juice.....quite nice!

It was gorgeous cycling through the fields on dirt tracks and small roads to Saumur.

Our descent into Saumur was stunning too.

It must be chateau scaffolding season but still worth the effort.

We arrived into the town at lunchtime and as you would expect it was quiet.  We did find a boulangerie and patisserie that had some tables for eating inside and managed a slice of pizza and a scrummy pastry.

We cycled back a different way and found another nice church with an Italian feel...

...and found some caves open to the public.  We actually cycled through the caves.

Janice has provided today's quote, it is "procrastinate now".  It was a phrase that was used by a school teacher of hers, called Mr Boumphrey (he must have had lots of problems but I'm not going there)! According to Janice the quote is an oxymoron! because procrastination can't be done now.  It was something that Mr Boumphrey chuckled at but the pupils didn't have a clue why.  At least Janice remembered it and seems to understand the silliness of it, so her education wasnt wasted on her.  Maybe tomorrow we need to consider the meaning of 'oxymoron' and whether it is acceptable to shout it at people you dislike?

Tomorrow we travel to visit my brother, David and his wife, Wendy at Apremont in the Vendee region.  I have spoken to Wendy on the phone and the good news is that they have stocked up with food and drink so that sounds good to me!  They are currently having a broadband issue but hoping that it is all back online tomorrow.

Laurel and Hardy.

Yesterday I mentioned that I had bought a three way connection for the hose so we could fill up with water.  This morning we tried it out because we needed water before setting off to our next destination (wherever that may be).

I connected the connector to the dispenser and connected my long hose to one end of the connector and I was ready to put my finger over the remaining end to stop the water coming out.  I then popped in my 2 euro coin and immediately the water came out with a ferocity that I wasn't ready for.  The water spurted out from my finger and then it blew the hose pipe off the connector.  Janice came to my aid with our second, shorter, hose pipe but it had the wrong end on it.  Eventually we attached both hoses with a great deal of spray and panick.  It would have made a fantastic scene for a Laurel and Hardy comedy.  I would probably be the pompous Oliver Hardy giving instructions to the hapless Janice as Stan Laurel!  I'm not sure that she will like this comparison?

With a full water tank, we set off.  I thought we would stay near Saumur on the proper La Loire river with a lunchtime stop at Azay-le-Rideau where there is a nice chateau.  On route we saw a road sign saying, 'Deviation Orgie', we followed for some time but didn't get so much as a bit of slap and tickle!  Oh, I forgot to mention that we did our first bit of French supermarket shopping and stocked up with salads, fruits, cheeses and other nice things you don't see back home.  It's always a treat to shop en France.

I have been to Azay-le-Rideau before when Rebekah was small.  Some Japanese tourists accosted us and wanted a photo with Rebekah because she was cute with striking red hair.  The town is lovely but the chateau was being renovated and had some scaffolding up.  I suppose they need to do it sometime.

Here's Janice at the chateau gate.

This is the new look for Autumn.  Sunglasses and flat cap, everyone is wearing them in France, it is 'de rigeur'!

We found an aire de camping-car site that has gone high tech.  You can pay on entry, about 10 euros and you get a mini site that has electric, water, waste disposal and wifi.  I was very impressed but didn't stay, as we had decided to stay nearer Saumur.  We need some of these places in the UK.

We stopped at Chinon in the afternoon and then stopped overnight at an 'aire' at Turquant, about 5 miles from Saumur but about 200 yards from the Loire.  This area is on my Eurovelo 6 cycle route.  My brother, David, was with me at this point 3 years ago.  We had stopped at Turquant because of a torrential downpour and stood under a shelter till it eased off.  Whilst under the shelter we were joined by a group of French school kids on a school trip.  David spoke to the teacher and was asked to explain the cycle adventure we were on.  We had a group photo for my blog of the time.  Our camper van is parked next to the very same shelter.

Look at those bright trainers, aren't they bobby dazzlers!

Janice is singing 'Little Ole Wine Drinker Me' by Dean Martin.  I should mention that Janice pinched a bunch of grapes from a vine near the road to accompany our cheese later.  In her mitigation they were small grapes and they had pips in.  They probably had missed their optimum picking time, so she was doing everyone a favour.

First photo of the Loire as the sun goes down.  What a great spot.  Hope you aren't jealous!

Not sure about the bread!

We popped into the town this morning to get a couple of necessities.  I saw a boulangerie called L'Instant Pain!  I'm still not sure the owners understood the marketing blunder, he may be puzzled why he doesn't get any British tourist trade?  We tried somewhere else just in case.  We also got some stamps for 'carte postales'.  We have delayed our first proper French shopping trip till tomorrow when we move on.

Today we are staying put.  It is such a nice place and although the wind is cool is continues to be nice weather and manages to get warm later in the afternoon.  We wanted a bike ride along a cycle route near La Loir.  It turns out that the cycle route is also on the pilgrimage route to Santiago De Compostela in north west Spain.  A couple of years ago Janice and I were in Northern Spain and we were adamant that every road led to Santiago etc etc.  We didn't see any pilgrims today.

Our first stop on our ride was at Montigny-le-Gannelon where we saw a nice chateau overlooking the river.

We armed our bikes up and went to have a closer look.  There was a nice information board at the gate and another on the veranda at the view point.  We took some photos...

Then a 'nice' lady appeared and promptly told us in good English to get off the property!  Well, if she had closed the gate and if there were no information notices we might have been a bit more cautious about entering in the first place.  Miserable old ......!

Sorry, but we didn't take any more photos but we cycled on to Cloyes-sur-le-Loir and had our packed lunch in the park by the river and then had a coffee in a cafe.  We carried on to the small town of Moree. You will be pleased to know that we got three more churches under our belt but you will also be pleased that none were worthy of any photos.  We retraced our steps and got back to Chateaudun.

I have been trying to buy a double hose attachment, one that had a 'male' attachment on both sides!  I need it for filling up at the water dispenser at the aire de camping-car location.  I think the system is that you put 2 euros in the slot and you get up to 10 minutes worth of water to fill up our tank.  I cycled to an out of town retail park and saw a Mr Bricolage store that was having a closing down sale.  There was a massive array of different hose attachment except for the one I wanted.  Instead I found a three way 'male' connector ( no rudeness please!) that I thought would do if I either put my finger over one end or connected two hose pipes instead of one!  You will have to wait for the next blog to find out how we went on refilling or water tank.

We had new neighbours in the camping car park when we got back.  Moving again tomorrow.

Lost in France?

Would you believe it....we are here travelling around France and we didn't have a road atlas.  We do have a sat nav so we aren't completely clueless.  Today we said our goodbyes to Ger and Sian and started travelling south.  We had looked at Ger's road atlas the previous night and decided to head to Chartres.  I have driven through the city about three years ago when I was touring France on my own and I knew it had a majestic Cathedral but I couldn't find anywhere to park the van, so I didn't stop.

This time we parked on the outskirts on a supermarket car park.  We called into the supermarket and I purchased a fairly compact road atlas.  The sat nav is good at getting us to places but we need the overview of the route and also an idea of the locality when we get somewhere.  We didn't need to consult the map to cycle into the city, we had been able to see the Cathedral from about 10 miles away and now we just looked for the twin steeples to find the centre.

It was another bright and sunny day.  Fairly cool out of the sun but who's complaining.  There seemed to be some sort of Scout and Guide Jambouree taking place outside the Cathedral as they all were gathering with their heavy rucksacks.

The Cathedral was seriously ornately carved inside and out.  Definitely in the top ten French Cathedrals but I was also wowed by St Aignan's church in the Historique Quartier.

It was older and was definitely 'faded glory' but it was totally empty (unlike the packed Cathedral) and it had real character.

We did walk around the city centre too, not just visiting the churches.  You will be thinking that I am a Churchaholic!  I admit I have got a problem because I can't pass one without going in but I am getting therapy and I am cutting back to an average of four per day!

As expected France began to close down for Sunday afternoon and rather than staying at Chartres we travelled on to Chateaudun.  We found an 'aire de camping-car'.  It was in perfect position in the shadow of the Chateau and next to La Loir river, which is a tributary of the Loire.  It couldn't be a better position and it's free!  

Not bad hey!

The town itself was lovely too.  We managed another two church visits too!

We found a load of conkers on the floor under a tree and we improvised our own version of boule by having a competition to see who could throw the conkers into a litter bin about 10 yards away.  Janice won, so I'm in a sulk!  French kids can't play conkers like we do in the UK otherwise there wouldn't have been so many lying around.

Chateaudun seems to be famous for the defence of the town by an assortment of 1,000 locals against the attack of 12,000 Prussian soldiers in October 1870.  As normal the French were valiant but ultimately defeated and then they later celebrated their courage and turned their defeat into some kind of delusional victory!  Sorry France, I didn't mean to cause any offence, honest!

Our evening meal was rather more simple than we have had the last couple of nights.  We were overindulged by our hosts and need to slim down before we are overindulged again by my brother David and his wife Wendy later this week.  So, no booze tonight either!

Skip to my Louvier.

A good day in prospect.  We had a late start with a two stage breakfast.  Cereal and muesli for first breakfast, then I went to the Boulanger for a baguette feulliette and a pain au raisin for second breakfast. 

We went into the nearby town of Louvier and walked around the market.  We bought paella for our evening meal.  The church was spectacularly old.  

Afte lunch we had a nice walk down by the Seine before settling down to a near perfect evening of TV viewing.  Rugby, Strictly and more rugby.  Interspersed with eating paella and other goodies.

Overall not too much to report today but it was nice to be relaxed.

You can take the man out of Vernon but you can't take Vernon out of the man!

Had a nice start.  I ran around the pond and Janice did some weights and mat exercise.  We did this watched by local school children who were doing PE on the football field next door.  The kids were well behaved and respectful to the teacher.  I thought that British school kids may not be quite so well behaved.  

Our plan was to go to Monet's house and gardens at Giverny.  On our way we enjoyed the different towns we passed nearby.  We went to Rack and Rouen, Janice had me by Le Goulays and the worst place in France must be Pissy-Poville!  

It's a place that I have been to before but as a confirmed philistine I particularly like Monet's paintings, and the gardens are lovely.  I had some doubts about what the garden might look like at this time of year.  I needn't have worried!

I took so many pictures it was so lovely.

As you can see the weather was lovely.  Inside the house was good too...

We went to a larger town near Giverny called Vernon, and no we couldn't resist having a look around.

I need the book to remind me of who I am.

Vernon was an unlucky town in the war.  It was bombed by the Luftwaffe in 1940 and then the Allies in 1944 prior to the Normandy landings.  Of course I would say that it is possibly the best town in France but  might be showing some bias!

We drove to stay at my long time friends, Sian and Geralt at a village called Vironvay and they overlook the River Seine.  It was lovely to see them for the first time in a couple of years.

We had a great welcome with lots of lovely food and drink French style.  Lovely salad, home made quiche, nice cheese course and fresh pineapple.  Super hosts.

Avez-vous une cuppa!

I suppose the title makes us sound like a couple of tea drinking chimpanzees, which is not far from the truth in some respects.  My French language skills are similar to that of a chimpanzee although I think Janice is rather better.  We have actually listened to early parts of a language CD and have been reciting our version of French phrases but not much is sinking in.  I have told some people before about my French prowess at school.  In the third year my French report said '15% - This subject is a mystery to him'.

This morning we had an early, bright and crisp start at 6.30am to try and avoid any congestion on the M25.  Our ferry from Dover was scheduled at midday and we had to be at least an hour early.  

This was the Dartford Crossing of the Thames.  I had been prepared enough to pay my 'toll' online before we set off.  Cameras check your registration number and if you don't pay in advance you have to pay online by midnight the next day otherwise you are issued with a fine!!

We arrived at the ferry early enough to be put on the 10.15am ship so that was really good.  The crossing was quiet and quite quick (that's a lot of 'q' words).  At Calais we saw the migrant camp and it looked grotty to say the least.

We drove down to Abbeville in the Somme region.  We had a coffee in the van and had a little walk around the town including the church and market.

We used our new fangled sat nav to direct us to an 'aire de camping' park at a town called Montville north of Rouen.  Whilst travelling I committed the cardinal sin of driving in Europe.  I came off a motorway and turned left onto a quiet road and I stayed on the left side!!!  Then as a car came in the opposite direction I realised and quickly got onto the right side but it gave us both a shock. Whoops!

Montville is a nice small town with good facilities.  The car park is fantastic for motorhomes.  It has a place for fresh and waste water and toilet waste etc and we parked next to the football pitches and swimming pool.  To my relief I managed to get the fridge working on gas and also the vans central heating system....all ticketty boo!

Only a training session tonight!

We had a little walk and someone said 'Bonjour', I replied 'Bonjour', I'm sure they were convinced that I was really French by the quality of my accent and vocabulary!  If I wear clothes bought at Decathlon, the French sports supermarket, I'm sure everyone will think I am a native.

Just to finish here is today's quote:-  "there are four questions you should ask yoursef to lead you to success. Why?  Why now?  Why me?  Why not, me, now?"  I'm sure you could go a long way with this advice.