Advertisement
Published: September 21st 2016
Woolly says – it was time to continue on our quest...what do you mean you didn’t know about the quest! Our quest for land and if your an avid reader then you will know that this is the reason we are now based in France, if your not an avid reader of my blogs then you have homework to do! We have several criteria that have to be met in our search, the land being the right sort of size, the area offering something for our campers and being near to good traffic routes. We also have quite a long list of desirable qualities, trees, water and a pistachio shop being a few of them. Having already seen several potential options and ruled them out for one reason or another, mainly that a pistachio shop was missing in my case, we climbed into the car full of hope for our latest foray into the unknown. Ignoring the pistachio reason so far we had found the land had not been quite big enough so having changed our search slightly on the net we knew that this one was well within our size range, with wellies packed as apparently there would be some brambles to walk through Tim Tom the sat nav was primed and ready.
Woolly says – My reaserch on the area hadn’t thrown up much, telling me that the town of Chaillic had ‘Château de Brosse, located on the old town of Brosse, was the possession of Viscount de Brosse, who were powerful in the Middle Ages, and even had their own mint in the eleventh century. However, the village was created around the castle, located in a cul-de-sac, Chaillac was never completed, especially after being destroyed by the Anglo-Poitou in 1370.’ Pulling into the town square with fifteen minutes to spare it seemed small but sweet with a couple of closed restaurants, a bar/tabac and a pharmacy, I couldn’t spot a nut shop so it was going down in my estimation. The lady who was going to show us the site greeted us warmly asking if we had our boots with us, we waved our feet in front of her, ‘you do know it’s nearly covered in brambles’ she said. Our email from her manager had said that there were ‘some brambles’ I told her, she looked slightly dismayed.
Woolly says – As I didn’t plan on walking I failed to see the problem and a ten minute car journey later led us to a quiet country lane. Parking the car the girls jumped out and looked around expectantly, the nice lady pointed at the dense vegetation covering one area of the verge, ‘that’s the road entrance to the site’, I looked and peered but could only see a tangle of trees, brambles and other large growing things. Jo and Zoe climbed though the verge and as Zoe fought her way through a beech tree we made it onto the edge of the land. I walked forward into what appeared to be a forgotten forest, maybe Sleeping Beauty was in there somewhere? There might be wild animals! I looked back to check that the women were safe but they had disappeared into the undergrowth. Creeping a further paw length forward I found myself caught in a large patch of black currents, I screamed for help! We managed to get through about three feet of the ground before giving up, I heard some small squeaks to my right.... Woolly says – I screamed and screamed, taking a deep breath I tried not to panic, I could set up camp, I looked around and spotted a small leaf covered area that would make a good shelter, if I could just get out of the brambles, I screamed again.
.... the squeaks continued and as we edged our way back to tothe road I couldn’t work out where they were coming from.... Woolly says – I’m sure I could feel eyes looking at me, and the licking of lips over sharp fangs, I tried to pull free from my thorny prison but as I ducked down I could feel my fur being ripped out from the roots, I screamed again, why couldn’t they hear me? Why hadn’t I bought a machete? Where had I left my snacks? Trying to stem the panic I nibbled on a blackcurrant to see if that would give me the strength to prise myself out, I pulled a little further away and screamed even more loudly. ...... the squeaks seemed to be getting louder and the only thing to do was to kneel down and see if a mouse was trapped somewhere.....
Woolly says – as the hours passed I wondered if I would escape the forbidden forest before dark and before my bestest friend Sion arrived for his visit! Maybe I could tame a bird and send a message with them to my bestest friend to save me, he would know what to do.....well he could eat his way to me and munch through the brambles to get me out which was better than my current situation. My tummy growled in hunger, there might not be enough of me to rescue at this rate, I summoned up all of my ebbing energy and roared at the top of my voice. ......the patch of brambles next to me suddenly gave out an even bigger squeak, as I parted them I saw my small companion trembling in fear and anxiety...... Woolly says – I was trembling in anger at the days it had taken to rescue me! Having demanded immediate removal from my chamber of horrors I allowed Jo to carry me the two feet to the car and having gathered my wits once more I demanded lunch! ......once he had calmed down and tucked into a snack, the estate agent drove us through a small hamlet to view the land from the other side..... Woolly says - I’m not going through anymore brambles and as we stood admiring a largish ruin in amongst all the trees it appeared that no one was going in, there was just no way through. ........Beautiful mature trees were everywhere and the women assured us that a farmer with a tractor would be able to clear the land in days, we weren’t convinced. Even the small barn that was accessible but a five minute walk away didn’t give us much hope. Woolly says – The car journey back gave us a chance to view the surrounding area in more detail while the nice lady told us that we could make a really low offer and it wold be accepted, I could see Jo considering this and gave her a hearty dig in the ribs, I was NOT going to be going back to the place where I had nearly been lost forever! Having said our goodbyes and we will be in touch, we drove the short distance to the medieval town of Saint-Benoît-du-Sault for a well deserved lunch. The small town was empty and as we walked through the tiny streets I was starting to feel a trifle worried at the lack of food places available, let alone open. Spying an umbrella I trotted round a corner and found what appeared to be the only restaurant there and for once my luck was in it was even open!
Our luck might have been in for the fact it was open but not for the food that was delivered to the table which was less than appetising and in some cases inedible, with promises of a further snack later we decided to check out the abbey. Woolly says - In 974 the Benedictine monks of Sacierges-Saint-Martin took refuge on the granite spur of the town where they founded a priory. The building was quite imposing and seemed vaguely Norman in design, but the large wooden front door was firmly shut, well I should really expect it by now! Having admired the views over the town and the river far below my paws, I saw Jo disappearing round a corner, I galloped after her as you never know what trouble she will get into if left unattended, to see her and Zoe vanishing through a small doorway, just as the door was closing I squeezed past and found myself inside the abbey itself. The cool area was large and unadorned expect for three beautiful stained glass windows above the alter. The high arched wooden ceiling gave a beautiful finish to the building and although nothing else was in evidence it would mean you could concentrate on the prayers and worship rather than the gilt and glitz.
It was rather lovely and having quietly left we wandered slowly through the quiet streets, passing turreted buildings and cute door ways and windows. A sweet place but not one that would take much time to visit, maybe our next viewing would be more successful! Woolly says – I’m not going if there are brambles!!!!!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.141s; Tpl: 0.018s; cc: 11; qc: 30; dbt: 0.0545s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.3mb
D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
France
In search of pistachios.