Days 24-27: Darlington

We're on the train to London now, so time for an update of our few days in Darlington.

After spending a whole day doing nothing when we arrived, we also tok it easy sarting off the next morning, before walking into town with Gaynor or a spot of shopping and lunch. It was a lovely day, so we sat outside in a cafe in the town square. It was really weird hearing people around us talking English after hearing French for so long - but it still sounded quite foreign as this is the region of the strong Geordie accent.

In Darlington, the sales were in full swing, so after a long lunch, Gaynor gave us tips on what shops might be the ones for us and she headed back to pick Riley up from school and we made a few more local purchases. No shoes but. In fact, no shoes have been purchased since the ones I found in Bordeaux - how can that be?! in Darlington, there seems to be a fondness for stripper shoes - very high and either bondage buckles and straps or covered in more bling than Liberace's fingers.

We had booked a nice restaurant in town and Harry's brother to baby-sit on Friday eveing, but sadly there was a ftal accident on the motorway that Harry was returning from Birmingham on and he was stuck there, unable to move for 3 hours. By the time the traffic started to move slowly again, we all agreed it was a better idea for him to return to Birmingham for the night as he was really tired. So the 3 of us (dressed in our new gear) headed out anyways and had a great time. The food was fab, there was a piano-player right by our table who took requests (and was happy for me to sing along, although Gaynor wasn't quite so thrilled with that) and the Scottish waiter was very impressed that Brett went to school with Germaine from the Flight of the Concords - which he didn't of course, naughty...

Harry was back early the next morning and we all set out for a trip to a seaside town called Saltburn. Everyone here keeps telling us we have been so lucky with the weather and it was certainly another beautiful day. It makes you think about what you take for granted though, they are excited to have 3 days in a row of the weather we expect as normal in our summers.

Saltburn was lovely, the town at the top of cliffs and the beach below with a pier, donkey rides and striped deck chairs for hire. So very cliched and so very cute. We took the bush walk through the park down the hill to the beach, which was golden sand. Interestingly though, after being quite bemused by the clearing of seaweed from the beach in Les Sables d'Olonne, we saw here what the beach looks like when this isn't done and I definitely think the French way is better. Of course we had to have fish, chips, mushy peas and curry sauce for lunch, but jeepers! we were quite unprepared for the mountain of food that arrived as our order! After eating about half of it we headed to the beach where Riley had a donkey ride, but had to abandon the anticipated walk as the tide was coming in very fast. After a jaunt down the pier, we caught the wee cable-car to the top of the cliff and headed home.

Later on Harry fired up the barbeque and we sat outside in the English evening, gathering our strength for the scheduled evening's activity - Gaynor had a new Wii game called "Just Dance". It is kind of like Singstar, only you have to do dance moves rather than sing and it was a hoot! Really good exercise too - might be better value than a gym membership, it's certainly way more fun lol.

Brett here - unfortunately Barb has started getting a bit dizzy with the movement of the train so I'll finish off for the last day........After another slow morning, we all headed out to Harry's business where he keeps the motor home that he uses for his endurance motorcoss events and where Zach keeps the motorcycle he uses for trial biking. Actually, 'motorhome' is probably understating it a little - it was more like a five star hotel on wheels. Anyway, Zach showed us some of his riding skills in field close by (pretty impressive considering there's no seat on the motorcycle) and then it was Barb's turn. After getting a bit of instruction, she was charging around the paddock without any problem. After circling on the flat for a bit, Barb felt she was ready for something a little more challenging and steered toward what she thought was a gentle slope. Unfortunately, it turned out to be more of a sharp drop rather than a gentle decline. Rather than plummet down the bank, Barb decided to just exit the motorcycle which meant that she simply disappeared from view for the rest of us watching. Fortunately she wasn’t hurt but there is a rather large bruise now which looks like it may take a few days to fade.

After getting back home, we settled in to watch England play Germany in the football world cup. Before the game, we noticed that England flags had been put up all over the place (flying out of car windows, hanging from buildings, etc) but these seemed to mysteriously disappear after a convincing win by Germany. Today, all of the papers are running the loss as the front page story and the manager is likely to be dismissed. Oh well, worse things have happened……..

To finish the day, Barb and Gaynor decided that they should watch Sex & The City 2 together before it stops playing at the cinemas (they watched Sex & The City 1 together the last time we were here). Needless to say, Harry and I stayed at home and had a few glasses of wine – Sarah Jessica Parker isn’t my cup of tea really. Anyway, Barb and Gaynor were pleased they went and it means that I don’t have to join Barb watching it when we get back home.

We’re about to reach London so we should have some more adventures to share soon.

Day 23 - Darlington

It was so great to see everyone last night.  Gaynor and Zach made a second trip up the motorway to pick us up and to see them as we walked through the arrival doors was so worth the long journey to get there. As normal, it was a big noisy meet-up, but as we had to go through immigration, there were only a few people left in the airport to stare at us.
When we got back home Harry opened a bottle of vino or 2 and before we knew it, it was 1am!  We were lucky enough to be able to snore our way through the morning this morning, but poor Harry had to be off to work.
It has been great today to not have to get out of bed until we were properly ready, to have a shower without having a deadline to be at the next activity or check-out and to wander around in bare feet because we don't have to go anywhere. This morning was the first morning since we have been away that Brett has been able to make me a morning cup of tea too - it was just lovely.  We have had a wonderfully slow and lazy day, catching up with Gaynor, lunching in the garden and reading (finally, magazines and books in English!).  The boys arrived home from school and we watched NZ play Paraguay in the Football World Cup.  They did such a good job with 1 loss and 2 draws, it's a shame that there is no real reward for them except priase from commentators.
While it has been a fabulous holiday in France, stopping to take a breather is just what we needed.  There may not be much to write about over the next few days though,as I'm sure that details of us dossing around won't be much chop.  I'll let you know if we do anything that you might find interesting, but otherwise I'll kick back in on Monday when we meet C and A again (and Simon - yay!) in London.

I'll check the email site though, so if you need to get in touch send a message to stanandagnes@hotmail.com.
Love to everyone, we miss our families loads - especially now that we are staying in a home not a hotel, with people I have lived with, in a family doing normal things.  Gaynor has just taken Riley off to swimming class and Zach has challenged Brett to an X-box game.  Feels like home.

We will see you all again soon though, so don't get too used to life without us. We hope you are all well and doing fine. Lots of love from us both xx

Day 20 to Day 22 - Paris

Hi Everyone, we are now on the plane to Newcastle to stay with Gaynor, Harry and the boys, but we are stuck on the tarmac while they deal with a "computer issue" so I'm taking the opportunity to bring you back up to date on the Adventure. So lets see, where did I get up to? The first day in Paris I think. We have done so much in the last few days that everything seems so long ago.

Sadly, our second day dawned as cold as the first, although with a forecast to improve which made us hopeful for the rest of the stay. It seemed an ideal day to go shopping. We all had different places we wanted to go and had also all paid the extra 3 Euro for a second day on our Hop On Hop Off tickets, so we decided to make plans to hook up later in the day and all went off to do different things. C and A started off with us on the train to La Vallee (the designer outlet mall), but returned to town while we were still shopping to do a bit more sightseeing. They and T and T saw a bit more than they had expected to as well - when Portugal won their World Cup match the supporters went crazy, tying up the Champs Elysee and bringing out the mounted and then the riot police. Brettt and I were oblivious to this out in the burbs, but it played havoc with getting around town sightseeing. C and A were stuck on a bus that took a half hojur to move the kilometre of the Champs Elysee and T and T were on the metro when the line ahead had to be closed and they got sent back to where they came from!

Anyhoo, we all made it back to the hotel safe and sound and in time to have a shower and head off to the Moulin Rouge for their 9pm show. The building and interior are very interesting, they look just like you would imagine an old, sumptuous theatre to look (although it was dark, which hides a lot of the wrinkles). We were greeted by a doorman and then some very crusty French seaters. Man they pack em' in! We arrived just before show time and the room was jammed solid. They had already done an early show and there was a late show after us, so it must be a money making machine.

The show itself was a bit odd, although probably not really helped by the fact that all of the lyrics of the songs are in french, meaning that we couldn't follow the 'story' of the dancing. However, the acts between each of the big numbers were great! An amzing juggler, then a pair of incredibly strong acrobats and finally a ventiloquist that I especially found very funny and clever (not at all naff like it sounds!). The show girls and guys were not so impressive. They had great voices, but I think that they hoped you would be distracted enough by the costumes (or lack of) so that you didn't notice the limited choreography and poor timing. Still, it is a tick in the box - we can now say we have been to Moulin Rouge in Paris.

After the show (and our bottle of bubbly per couple) we weren't quite ready to go home, so we wandered down the street to the famous Chat Noir cafe. There was a bit of a glitch when we ordered frites and had a couple of bowls of rice put down in front of us lol (it sounds the same in a noisy bar huh) but Chris soon had that sorted. Monday was also the night of the Parisienne Festival of Music. There is literally a band playing on every street corner (sometimes more than one on a single corner) and there are free concerts to suit every taste in music. Sounds fab doesn't it? Actually it was, the streets were really alive and it was a wonderful atmosphere. The only trouble was that the corner beside our hotel room had the grunge band playing. Not so exciting and fun when all you get from within the room is white noise and the doorman has told you that the music goes until 5am! Thankfully they called it quits about 1am, but not early enough to stop it being very difficult to get up the next day - an early start at that.

DAY 21

After dragging ourselves out of bed to leave the hotel by 7:45 (I know!!) , it was off on the Metro to get to the Place de Concorde where we hopped on a bus tour to Versaille. The day was a glorious summer day and I was really looking forward to this as it was something we ran out of time to do last time we were here. Sadly, it turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. Not because of Versaille itself - which is gobsmacking! - but because the place was jam packed, noisy and shovey. Unlike the chateaus we visited, there was no way you could relax and imagine what it must have been like way back then, it was like sheep in a shute - albeit a very impressive one. It took so long to get through the King and Queens apartments that there wasn't enough time to get into the garden before we needed to leave. Note travellers: Don't go to Versaille on a Tuesday - the Louvre is shut so it gets all of those tourists and also Versaille isn't open on Mondays, so you get all of the people who wanted to go then but thought "we'll go tomorrow instead".

When we got back to town, T and T headed back to the hotel to pack as they had to be off at about 6:30 the next morning so needed to be prepared before our finale in the evening. The rest of us headed to Montmartre to visit the Basilica and the Artists Quarter - the other thing that I had really wanted to do last time but couldn't. Thankfully, this wasn't at all disappointing, just the opposite. The basilica itself is beautiful, but also the steps leading up the hill to get there and the surrounding streets are vibrant and interesting - buskers, artists and just people hanging out in the sunshine on a beautiful day. I loved it! There was one guy on the steps who was doing amazing tricks with a soccer ball - so good the crowd oohed regularly and I think he got well paid in the end too. Not just talented, but with the incredible panorama of Paris as his backdrop - it was wicked.

Brett thought I should get my portrait done, but I didn't l think that a verson of me with hat-hair, sweaty red face from climbing the gazillion steps and no makeup was the image I wanted immortalised - so no. Instead we bought an oil of the Eiffel Tower, just as cheesy, but something that I am sure I will be happier to live with.

C and A had left us to it earlier in the afternoon, so when Brett and I had finished wandering the galleries, we went down the hill and had dinner in a tiny bistrot with a charming old French waiter. Then it was off to the Eiffel Tower to meet everyone else for our delayed Fat Tyre Bike Tour. The evening couldn't have been more perfect and we were all so pleased that we had made the decision to delay it on Sunday. Aside from the weather, it seemed like the perfect grand finale to our holiday in France. And so it was.

Often the sequel is doen's seem to quite match the original does it and not only had we returned to something that was wonderful the first time we did it, but we had brought our friends too. I was really hoping we hadn't oversold it and that it would match up to our memory. Actually, I think it was better the second time. We knew what to expect and not to be nervous of the traffic and we had 4 really good friends enjoying it with us - creating a solid "kiwi" contingent which made its mark of course, particularly when it came to assisting to lighten the weight taken up by full bottles of wine on the boat-cruise.

Al was asked by the guide to take the role of "Ass-Man" - yes, that is the official term, and perfectly suited to our Al lol. He had to make sure that there was no bike behind him and to take the honks an beeps fom French taxis who objected to sharing their lane with a mass of cyclists. Clearly our guide had spotted him early as the perfect man for the job. The bonus for Al was that he got to check out all the butts and get a free t-shirt, the hassle bit was that he had to hang back with the huffer-puffers rather than whizz along with the frontrunners. One of us kept him company most of the time though, and he did a fine job.

The grand finale of the tour is the cruise on the river Seine. It was light when we started, but quickly passed through dusk and into night, so lovely. It was the perfect way to end our trip, cruising on the river, drinking wine. Just as we passed the Eiffel Tower, the light show started and all of the passengers gasped as one. It was the coolest thing ever! Almost like it was on a time switch for exactly the right moment. Afterward we biked back to base and then hopped on the metro to go back to the hotel. For T and T and C and A, that was it for France. They were all off in the morning, while we had a half-day to fill in before heading for the airport. However, it would seem that the price that we have to pay for the extra time is 2 hours (so far) sitting in a plane on the tarmac at the Charle de Gaulle airport. I'm itching to get over the channel now to see Gaynor, but we did manage to do something very special in our half day.

DAY 22

After packing this morning (we bought some dead cheap carry on bags to fit our French purchases in), we left our bags at the hotel and set off for the Rodin Museum. I had hoped that there would be timeto get to the Musee D'Orsay to see the impressionists, but that will have to wait for next time.

The Rodin Museum is a lovely old house in a beautiful garden. We had seen the back of "The Thinker" when we had been on the Hop On Hop Off and it was a small enough museum that we could see in a couple of hours. What a treat it was. Not just the sculptures that everyone has heard of - The Thinker, The Kiss, The Secret etc - amongst many other works, but the garden is the most beautiful setting for his bronzes. There was a shade garden, a sweep of lawn leading down to a pond, a rose garden, an ivy walk and lots of secluded areas where people were just lying on the grass reading or families with children playing - all created as essentially a gallery for sculpture. You can even see the Eiffel Tower and the dome of Invalides as extra garden 'decoration'. All you have to pay to spend as long as you like in this gorgeous place is 1 euro. Travellers, it is an absolute must-do. It was a lovely, peaceful way for us to spend our last few hours in France, before the stress of the airport and flying - or not as it has been now for 2 and a half hours. Fingers crossed we'll be off soon.

Love to everyone, we're on the downward leg now. See you soon xx

P.S.  four hours sitting at the gate - but Easyjet allowed us to have £3 each worth of snacks free to make up for it!  Sadly, by the time they got to us there were only pringles and cashews left, but we had our £3 each worth none-the-less lol.

Day 19 - Paris

Today the weather looked more promising, so we decided to set off for the Eiffel Tower and our Hop On Hop Off as planned.  We managed to beat a lot of the crowds but still had a bit of a wait at the tower.  this time I didn't go up, so that left Brett free to go all the way to the top.  He was fizzing when he came down!
After that we did a bit of Hop On Hop Off, but only managed an hour or so before it started to rain.  Fortunately, we were one stop away from the Louvre, so we headed there instead.  Gosh, even the second time around it is gobsmacking.  We wanted to recheck Napoleans apartments as in our head we thought that they couldn't possibly be as sumptuous as we remembered.  What we found was that our memory didn't do them justice, they were more over the top than seemed possible!

We then headed to the sculpture galleries, which I really wanted to visit last time but used all our time then seeing the famous paintings.  The sculptures are incredible and once we stopped with the oohing anmd aahing, we had a bit of fun with the camera. 

After 4 hours had flown by, we braced for the cold and did a bit more on the bus, but we decided to bail on the bike tour in the hope that Tuesday night will be a bit warmer.  It would be such a shame to ruin a really fab experience because we are too cold to relax into the true pleasure of it.  Instead it was dinner at a French bistrot (really yummy!) then back here to prepare for tomorrow.  Will keep you posted xx

Day 18 - To Paris

Well, we've arrived in Paris but in some ways it's a little sad - it means that we've finished the first two legs of the journey and we've had to give our trusty van back (with the GPS that managed to get us lost a few times). However, there's still more to see and do............We started yesterday looking through the Chambord chateau - a massive estate that King Francis I initiated in 1519. The estate is so huge that the boundry wall is 32 km long and the area of the grounds is larger than the inner area of Paris - rather extravagant!

A Medieval Games day was being hosted yesterday which meant that we arrived to the sounds of hounds barking and shots being fired in the woods which added to the drizzly weather to make a very authentic experience (aside from the standard hoardes of people of course).

Because we were on a deadline (and the chateau is so enormous) we made a very quick tour through (1.5 hours) and then drove on to Orly to drop the van back to Peugeot.

Our hotel is one street off the Place d'Italie so close to the metro and actually right next door to the police station, so we figure it must be a pretty safe neighbourhood lol. Because we got so lost trying to drop the van off, we decided to reorganise our schedule and just do the laundry and eat when we got settled in. There is no free wifi at the hotel, so the blog may be a bit erratic while we are here - we will upload when we are somewhere having coffee that has free wifi.  It may mean that I will be loading less photos too, but we'll see.
 
P.S. Unfortunately Kath, we're not going to have time to visit Giverny, but we are going to try to get to the Musee D'Orsay before we leave Paris - which is apparently where the impressionists are galleried.  Miss you loads tooxx

Day 17 - Loire Valley

Today we woke to no rain, although no sun either, and decided to make the most of our one full day in the Loire by making it visiting day.

We started off by trucking just down the road to Amboise to visit the chateau there. This was where King Charles VIII died when he was on his way to watch a game of tennis. He bumped his head on a door frame and died just a few hours later aged only 28 - pretty bad luck. It also has the tomb of Leonardo Da Vinci in a beautiful wee chapel on the grounds. The garden also has an amazing topiaried section and we watched some apprentice gardeners as they trimmed up some of the gazillion topiary balls in preparation for the summer crowd season.

After we had finished with our visit to Amboise, we moved on to our next stop. We were off to Leonardo's for lunch. I don't mean a restaurant called Leonardo's, I mean Mr Da Vinci's house. Wicked huh! The house where he spent the last 3 years of his life is within walking distance of the Amboise Chateau (in fact, rumour has it that there is a tunnel that runs between the two. It was really cool wandering through it - although a bit spooky in his bedroom, where he died. Unfortunately, no photos were allowed inside the house so I can't share any with you.

We then moved into his garden and had lunch at a cafe set up in the terrace garden. It was really lovely, the garden looks and smells lovely. Appparently Leonardo was fascinated by nature and his garden certainly reflects somebody with a real passion for it. There are also some full sized models of some of his inventions scattered through the park area of the garden, so we had a bit of fun with the treadmill lifting machine and the archimedes screw.

The final place on our visiting list was Chateau Chenonceau. Oh my, what a place. This was the actual home of Catherine Medici when we she reigned. You can certainly see the difference in a chateau built for a woman and then gifted to other women through the years. The chateau is actually built across the river, with the kitchens a couple of the bridge supports! Apparently kitchen supplies were brought in by boat and hoisted directly into the kitchen. Dad, you should have seen the butchery. It was about the same size as the regular kitchen, they were obvoiusly big meat eaters! The butchers blocks were pretty impressive and obviously well used.

During the war, the river that Chenonceau is built across was the demarcation line.  That meant that it's front door was on one side and the door at the end of the grand hall (which runs the full width of the river) was on the other.  This made it ideal for smuggling members of the resistance over the line.

Our feet were about done, but we had a quick wander in the garden and then had a wee play in the maze. It was hilarious because it was built to the scale it would have been originally which meant that everyone's heads stuck out the top - especially Brett's. It was great to let rip a bit after having to be so well behaved all day.

We are now back at our chateau for the last time, packing up to move off to Paris tomorrow. We will stop at Chambord tomorrow, a fairytale looking chateau, on our way up the valley. Then we will drop the van off and finish our french adventure with a few days in Paris. It is hard to leave the Loire, but with Paris calling I'm sure I can do it. I hope it's as wonderful as I remember.
 
P.S.  You're right mum, I think we will need a holiday to recover!  Just as well Gaynor has a comfy couch lol.
P.P.S.  The French lessons have been very  handy Michelle, but we would have been a bit rusty without your immersion stuff, so thanks heaps.

Day 16 - Loire Valley

Here I am, sitting in a period armchair by the window of T & T's room, overlooking the clearing sky (we hope) above the beautiful park grounds of our chateau, being served a digestif of kir, from a tray, a night-cap after a big day out in the Loire Valley. Sigh...


Unfortunately, I have again taken so many photos that I have run my camera flat, so won't be able to post photos until tomorrow, but take my word for it, this area is gorgeous.

After breakfast this morning, we went into Tours looking for a laundromat and Ikea. We found Ikea and spent a good couple of hours happily in homewares heaven. We took a lot of photos to provide inspiration for a few "honey I've had a great idea" moments when we get home, and bought a fab lampshade for our dining room that comes packed down in a wee box no bigger than a book end. I can't wait to get it up when we get it home.

We got a surprise to see that it was already the middle of the afternoon, so flagged the laundry and drove down the valley to Villandry. The brochures showed that this was not only a beautiful chateau, but that it also had beautiful gardens, so it seemed a good one to include on our visiting list.

Oh my goodness, it was incredible! The chateau itself was certainly lovely and interesting - particularly the furniture and decor - but the gardens were glorious. Mum and Lyn, you would have been in seventh heaven. There were at least a dozen distinct and different gardens, over at least 3 different levels - a herb garden, a kitchen garden, a labryinth, a lovers garden, a sun garden, a stream, a small lake with swans, it just went on and on. I will never complain about my keeping my standards or edges in trim again! The kitchen garden on its own was amazing, a fully fledged vege garden where everything planted also served an ornamental function.

Unfortunately, it was still raining on and off, but we had brought umbrellas from the chateau, so were able to wander happily without there being too much of a crowd along with us.  Apparently they change the gardens entirely every 4 years, but to keep you going until tomorrow, I found a couple of interweb photos of two of the gardens that look like they did when we were there today (blue sky excluded, of course).

After a couple of hours or so wandering about we headed back to Amboise, where we changed cuisine and went to an Italian restaurant that had been recommended by our hosts here. Another delicious meal - and really good sangria (although the waiter seemed really surprised when Toni and I ordered a second one each, I guess French girls limit themselves to one glass?!). We are winding down now and hope to have a good sleep as we have a bit planned tomorrow. We will go back to Amboise after breakfast to look through the chateau there, then to Leonardo Da Vinci's house (cool!) and then finish the day and into the evening at Chenonceau, where they have a night tour. I will try to remember to save some battery so that I can upload photos with tomorrow's blog.

Big smooches to everyone at home, we are having an amazing time, but it will be great to see you all again too. I will go down to the drawing room to send this off, then head up to our turret. Catch you tomorrow. xx

Day 15 - Rennes to Le Mans and the Loire Valley

Good morning everyone, I didn't blog last night as it was very late when we arrived back from dinner and there is no wifi in our room. As we are currently staying in our chateau (yes, our chateau) Brett wouldn't let me negotiate the tiny spiral staircase down the turret from our second floor suite, then the main staircase and through the entrance to the drawing room where the wifi is situated. C'est tres, tres chic!


But I am getting ahead of myself...

We started the day after a sleep in in Rennes and then headed off to Le Mans. To our disappointment, the track was closed for viewing as they held a race last week and then the track is closed to the public for a couple of weeks afterwards while the teams clear away their secret stuff. The museum was fab though, with almost an entire range of the history of cars that have succeeded or been notable in Le Mans history. Again, time flew by there - even for Christine, who isn't a "car person", but wandered through and then spent time chatting with an Irish couple and reading her book lol.

On we came then to Nazelles-Negron which is just across the river from Amboise. We drove through rain most of the way from Le Mans - although nothing at all like they are getting in the South of France. We passed through the towns badly affected when we were on the train - it stopped in Toulon and Draguignan which are both places where there has been terrible destruction.

After getting a little lost, we asked for directions in the village and were pointed to the Chateau des Ormeaux. After a couple of minutes we got our first glimpse of it through the park and it looked exactly as it does on the internet. Ooh la la! Our host Dominique showed us around and we oohed and aahed our way behind him - it is fab-u-lous! I haven't yet taken many photos as the camera needed charging when we got here, but I will do so today. Have a look on the internet - T and T are in the Lully room, C and A are in the Rameau room (both on the first floor) and Brett and I are in the Debussy room on the second floor. We tripped off to Amboise for a fab meal in an authenitic restaurant - eating Coq au Vin and French Onion Soup to underline the 'frenchness' of it all lol - before returning just before midnight.

This morning we have just finished breakfast in the most beautiful dining room I have ever eaten breakfast in. It is still raining lightly so we are off to Tours to do some laundry (and visit the legendary Ikea) before checking out a chateau on the other side of Tours and returning to Amboise for a wander around. I will report on what we have found later on. See ya!

Day 14 - Le Mont Saint Michel and Saint-Malo

The day dawned cold and rainy again and we debated about whether to go to Mont Saint Michel today or add it to tomorrow's adventures. However, the weather report was stated as cold but clearing and it would make a really long day tomorrow with tight schedules at each stop, so we decided to just go.
After about an hours drive, it just appeared on the horizon like something out of the Lord of the Rings.  From a distance it was attention grabbling, but up close it was gobsmacking.  A 1000 year old abbey towering above an ancient village, all built on a single rock rising high out of an estuary.  Absolutely awe inspiring.  I don't know how I can describe it to give it justice, even I was lost for words - yes it's true, me, lost for words!!

It wasn't raining, but the wind was bitter.  None-the-less, Brett and I decided to head straight for the top to see the abbey and the views from the top.  It is a decent climb as you can imagine, but well laid out and because it was a pretty cold day and reasonably early there wasn't too much of a crowd and it wasn't too tough a climb.  We got an audio-guide each and I thoroughly recommend these as a cheap way to undertake a self guided tour - you can go at your own pace and replay bits that really interest you.

The fortress and abbey took 60 years to build as all of the stone had to be brought in by boat.  The village grew underneath it over the years and so has a real mix of architecture such as medieval, gothic, tudor etc. The abbey has never been breached and because of it's impregnability - particularly against various English invasion attempts - the Mont has become something of a French icon of strength and national pride.

3 hours flew by in the blink of an eye and we could have easily stayed for much longer, but the weather had improved and people continued to pour in.  Definitely make sure you get here early if you come, it is bedlam in the narrow streets by early afternoon.  We set off for our next port of call - Saint Malo.

Saint-Malo is a walled town on the northern coast of Brittany.  It too has been built on a rock - although much larger than Mont Saint Michel.  We had a bit of difficulty that turned into something really cool on our arrival.  The town's streets inside the wall are closed off to vehicles that don't have a permit to be there.  Unfortunately, our GPS (nicknamed Coco) didn't seem to know this quite important fact and guided us straight through the main gate to be faced with the maze of cobbled streets within.  By the time we realised that we weren't supposed to be there, we had somebody on our tail and so couldn't do anything but go forward and wind our way through the pedestrian streets (following a delivery van, smiling and waving to the glaring pedestrians) until we found an exit sign.  We actually drove along a part of the medieval wall for a while -so cool!  How many people do you know who have driven in a mother-ship sized Peugeot van through narrow ancient streets and along the wall of a  fortified town huh?  I know at least 5!

Once we had managed to find our way back out to the gate (just in front of gendarmerie cruising around on their motorcycles probably looking for interlopers like us), we found some legal parking and headed back inside the wall for lunch.  We were lucky enough to find a grand old restaurant with proper table settings, chandeliers and suited waiters happy to seat us in our casual gear for a late lunch.  How wonderful!  We ate and imagined what gentry must have dined there before us.  The food was great and the service immaculate while still friendly and welcoming, it was a real treat.

We all wandered off after lunch to explore the town, the wall and the shops (Toni finally found some gorgeous shoes in her size, 2 pairs actually!). Then it was back on the road again, via Dinan back to Rennes.  We decided not to stop in Dinan as we had done a lot of exploring ancient towns already and didn't want to find that these amazing places became a bit diluted by overdosing on historic sites, but I would like to visit Dinan properly if I ever come back this way.
Last night's dinner at a local Creperie was so good we went back there again tonight, then tomorrow we have an easy start to the day before heading off through Le Mans to the Loire Valley.  The weather is supposed to be improving, fingers crossed!

Day 13 - Les Sables d'Olonne to Rennes

Of all of the many unique experiences we imagined having in France, the one we did this morning had never occurred to me. We decided that Brett needed to do something physical and fun after being tucked away working for most of the day yesterday, so we booked a segway excursion! The french way is to start the day late and finish late (perfect for you uh Dan :-) ), but the guide was happy to open early (10am) to fit into our schedule.
Chris and Al took the option of a bit of a lie in and the rest of us trucked off - with a bit of trepidation - to have a go. What we learned was that it is really easy as long as you relax and FUN!!! We took it easy along the promenade, dodging English pensioners walking their dogs and once our guide was happy that we had got the hang of it we left the safety of the footpath and ventured into a park area, a bit like a little Bottle Lake Forest. Woohoo!

To watch they must seem really bizarre and even to drive too, they look and feel like they must work on telepathy as they adjust to subtle changes in your weighting. You simply lean where you want to go and the more you lean, the greater degree of movement. Sounds simple? It is! I was even turning and taking photos behind me on the go, it was that natural. very funny to watch people looking at us as we stopped and then took off again, they couldn't figure out what we were doing to make it work lol. You should all give it a go if you get the chance.

After our morning adventure, we checked out and then went t a bakery to get some picninc supplies for lunch on the beach. It was lovely. We were all interested to see an old woman make her way down to the beach leaning heavily on her walking stick and then sit in a rock pool that had been left by the receding tide and rub seaweed all over her legs. She had fab skin tone for her age, so there must be something to it huh! It wasn't quite so enthralling when she then lay down on her towel or a bit of topless sunbathing though.

After lunch we headed off to our next stop, Rennes. We got here as a storm rolled in and have just been out to dinner at a local creperie where we had fabulous food and were sitting in the glass fronted area of the restaurant - a perfect spot to watch the lightning display. It went on for ages and we were all looking for the Delorean to zoom through the square in front of us - the view was only missing the clock on he building for a scene straight out of Back to the Future.

Everyone here is saying we are very unlucky that the weather is so bad, in fact, when they hear that we have come all the way from NZ, they apologise for it like it is their fault. It's stillwarmer that we hear you guys are having at home - so still not complaining really.

Hopefully the rain will stop overnight so that we have a clear day for our visit to Mont St Michel, but if not, I guess the silver lining will be fewer tourists.

Day 12 - Les Sables d'Olonne

Hi everyone, guest author Brett here, I thought I'd take a turn at updating you on van adventures a la Francais.

Les Sables d'Olonne is (as expected) a beach town - it has golden sand and a thriving tourist and fishing industry. We were very surprised to see them cleaning the beach of seaweed this morning - I guess they take the 'golden sands' thing pretty seriously. After a solid schedule of shopping and sight seeing, today has been a slow, relaxing break by the sea (so unfortunately there's not much to write home about). We did the laundry and wandered about the market this morning and then after lunch and a wee sangria, the rest of the group wandered about the town while I caught up on a bit of work. I've included a couple of photos taken from the sangria bar - the first is the view out over the water. The second, maybe a little more interesting, is of a dog being walked.........in a stroller. The funniest thing was that as we got our cameras out, the dog looked away as if hiding his face in shame!

There's also a previous day's event that should be reported........I guess it had to happen at some point when in a country where everyone drives on the right hand side of the road. When we were weaving our way through the countryside yesterday, we became a little more desperate to find a town than usual (the fuel guage was sitting near empty and the thought of sleeping in the van didn't appeal to many). With Tony riding shot-gun as point-man, he spotted a gas station as we were about to enter a round-about. Unfortunately, this didn't work out too well as when he pointed left and said 'over there', I turned left.......straight into the round-about off ramp! At the start of the journey I had jokingly said to everyone that it was more fun if you screamed and put your hands in the air - little did I know that I would do something to actually cause a bit of panic. Fortunately, there weren't any cars coming off the round-about at that particular moment so I floored it and we made it back into the correct lane unscathed. I've been forgiven apparently, as I've picked it up reasonably well so far and this was my only offence to date (but it was definitely a hairy few seconds).

Tomorrow we're off again, up to Rennes in Brittany - hopefully the journey will be uneventful.