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Blogs from Centre, France, Europe
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May 2nd 2013
A lie in – well until 7.30am, the plan was to have a day off and a long lie in and were wide awake at silly o’clock. Needless to say Woolly slept and lazed the whole day away. Although a small site, Camping des Illettes is basic but has everything you need (well except Wifi), and at 24 Euro (approximately £20.10 GBP) for two nights it was good value for money, Motorhomes would only have to pay an extra 2.50 Euro a night for hook up so a good deal for all. Woolly says – I was conserving my energy, after Jo had cooked a big breakfast for all of us I found a nice comfy chair to sit in the sun and watch them do all the clothes washing, empty Oliver out and resort his ... read more
March 26th 2013
We feel terrible about falling behind on the blogs, it's been a rough couple of days (more on that in a sec). I forgot to mention on last night's blog that we did laundry before leaving the apartment in Paris! For the most part everyone still line dries their clothes, but this apartment features a washer and dryer in one (why don't we have these in the US?). They are very very tiny so not a lot of clothes at one time but it certainly did the job. The only downside is that the dryer is actually heated with water around the cylinder. I know this because in the morning when I pulled out the clothes, the jeans were wrinkled beyond recognition. I tried to "re-toss" on 'dry only' and heard water (slight panic attack) and ... read more
November 20th 2012
27/10/2012 As per usual for the Rotary trips organised here, I was up at 5am in order to be at Angular station by the 6:15am cut-off time for the bus trip to Paris, where I would be spending the next 3 days during my second-to-last rotary trip during my exchange. Somehow making the bus in time, with mark taking me there, I jumped in, and set off with around a third of the exchangers that’d be coming along to Paris. The bus trip there was loud and long, but finally around 2:30 we arrived in Paris at our first stop, the ‘Castle of Versailles’. This is one of the most famous Castles in France, and was the centre of political power in France from the late 1600’s. The royal family moved here after the start of ... read more
October 21st 2012
Our time in Paris has been very busy. When we originally booked our accommodation we had been unable to get the first night at the B&B we preferred so as a result the first night was spent in a very ordinary hotel in what resembled a cramped dusty attic. Fortunately it was only for the one night and we were gone first thing in the morning. Where we moved into our preferred B&B appartment which had plenty of space, was very homely and had everything we needed. After we had seen the Eifel Tower and Palace of Versailles. John, Hayley and Carolyn were really wearing Tanya and I down with the question "So what day are we going to Disneyland?" and John was no longer accepting the answer "Disneyland is closed today". So we thought we ... read more
Return to one of our favourite places on the Loire – Beaugency.
Published: September 24th 2012Europe » France » Centre » Beaugency
September 23rd 2012
We left the campsite bright and early as nothing to keep us there. Mme Campsite Owner, who after careful consideration, I have renamed Mme. Nasty Knickers, ignored me when I got out of the Tandy at the site entrance to put our rubbish in the bin so I reciprocated as couldn't think of anyhing I wanted to say to her. Customer first is what I was taught but she must have trained at a different company. Less than 5 miles into the trip and we hit, or nearly anyway, our first obstacle. A tree right across and blocking the road. In fact the tree was so neatly down it was almost wedged, top and bottom at either side. We were, and still are, puzzled as to how it came to fall and land so neatly. ... read more
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September 22nd 2012
Saturday, Sept 15 - This weekend most of the national monuments and treasures are open to the public free of charge, or almost free, so we decided to take advantage of this…I had a couple of biggies on my list, being Chinon, the home of Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine, and Fontevraud, the Abbey where they, Richard the Lionhearted and King John’s wife, Isabelle, were buried. But today we had saved for Chambord, which is one of the jewels of the Loire Valley. After the debacle with all the people at Chenonceau the other day, we decided to get there early, to avoid all the crowds. We were there when it opened and, although we had to pay a small fee, it was worth it. The rooms were beautifully decorated, with wonderful signage ... read more
September 15th 2012
After all that, a calm (!!!) taxi ride to the Parisien suburbs to take delivery of our brand new Peugeot 208. And then on a rainy morning, to get out of Paris and into thelovely Val de Loire. Which is renowned for .....? Well yes of course - Loire wines, beautiful monuments, and château after château! For us, the highlight was probably the boat trip along the river Cher to the Château de Chenonceax - a visual delight, especially as it is built across the river. We stayed in Blois, a wonderfully restored and maintained homage to the kings of France who used this area as their playground. Enjoy the photos.... read more
September 14th 2012
Monday, September 10 - We got up and packed to leave Paris, as we had to go pick up our little cube, and our friends at the airport. On the train to the airport, with our luggage, I was sad leaving Paris, but knew that the fun was about to begin. The Ipad was charged, I had the car connector cords and the GPS had been programmed with the new “home” address. We were ready! Wendy and Ed popped out of the Customs area looking for us, but couldn’t see us even with a sign! Mind you, they had been up about 36 hours from Auckland - they were forgiven. First things first - on the road to stop for a coffee and pain au chocolat. YUM! On the motorway, flying down it about 110Kmh with ... read more
Day in lovely medieval city of Loches.
Published: September 2nd 2012Europe » France » Centre » Loches
September 2nd 2012
This is a lovely campsite, very green, very peaceful and our quite privately located pitch has a view to the spires and towers of the medieval city as well as one step away access to the sanitaires. Add in a pool and electricity and the wifi mast just 5 metres away and all for £13.33 a night. Today is the first day we have not been driving anywhere so we got up gently, collected fresh baguette and croissant from reception, showered and then strolled along the river into town. Weather exactly as forecast, cloudy but no rain but 22° so quite pleasant for a walk round the city even if not for getting a tan. I am still waiting for my “summer of 2012” suntan, I still have my hopes for later in the week, ... read more
September 1st 2012
Great start to the day. As I walked across the campsite to get the baguette from reception I startled a green woodpecker. Always a treat to see. Another cross-country day, this time entirely all under my non-digital direction with the aid of the French road atlas. Have discovered to my horror that I need a magnifying glass to read road numbers on the atlas. Not as a result of my recent bleeding eye but just a change in my near sight through ‘age’. Will have to get some proper reading glasses in future I think when my bleeding eye has settled down anyway. For now I will manage and I did today. My ‘eye’ did not stop me spotting four young deer in a forest as we drove past, another magic moment. We drove down ... read more
