Blogs from Centre, France, Europe

Today was a clothes washing day and Tim decided to check out how the washing machine works. He worked it out alright. He set it going on a non reversible cycle with nothing inside ; just a test run. We left the machine to clean itself for an hour, and wandered out to the Tours Weekly Outdoor Food Market. It was a hot sunny day, perfect for getting your washing dry, if you had any to dry, but equally good for just soaking up some rays and buying fresh veges, a cooked chicken, and some melon for dessert; how decadent. A friendly café near the market had three cappuccinos with our names on them, so we found a corner table overlooking the street and placed an order, a little wary of how a cappuccino is interpreted ... read more

After morning heart starter number three at a Cafe in the Square, we set off for the village market in Poć-Sur-Cisse and arrived just in time to witness the butchers van make his last sale for the day before packing up and moving on. The car park he was located in wouldn’t have supported many stall holders anyway, so we don’t think we missed much. They must have packed up early due to low sales; this village is quiet. Chateaus are a common sight as you drive around the Loire Valley, but most aren’t considered important enough to rate a mention in the tourist guides, and the Chateau Poce Sur Cisse is one such chateau. We stumbled across this noble residence on a substantial estate, and bought some rolls at the local patisserie and ate our ... read more

Tim tells me today is probably the biggest day of our trip, so it’s 7.30am and I’m getting the jump on this blog. Last night I was still going when everyone else was asleep. I enjoy the peace but it does take some joy out of it. It reminds me of a motorbike trip I did with a club, who shall remain nameless , but not any rebel outfit. We rode Vespas. One member, a friend who writes for a living, did a daily journal for our website, and I certainly never fully appreciated the effort he went to; I do now. Thanks Ian. I’m certainly not complaining, but if it seems a bit lean some days, bear with me. I’ve decided facts about each attraction are less important than a bit of opinion, so we’ll ... read more

Chinon Wake up ready for my cup of char and Mike says I am not sure if your milk has gone off - so I say give it here, I smell it and it seems okay so then stupid or what, I decide to taste it and get a mouthful of gone off milk. You would think I would have some sense, but no, I still have no sense and now a mouthful of gone off milk. So first thing I say is let’s find some milk - this is an amazing fact though that it seems the french only have long life milk not fresh, this is weird. So Goose has gone back to the norm and started to use the Sat Nav again instead of the trusty map. We had to use toll roads ... read more

France Passion Now I bet that title made you read my blog quicker than normal. Well sorry to say it is not what you think, it is a camp site that we are staying on. France Passion is an organisation where you can stay at a site for nothing - however, it usually is a place that is attached to a local producer of food or wine. So sorry if I got your hopes up on some juicy news. Anyway the co-pilot did really well yesterday with his navigation skills and we only went wrong once, if honest that was a real tricky bit, but we got back on track by taking a couple of roundabouts. So we were driving along and then all we could hear was something wining - it appeared to be a ... read more