Blogs from Lorraine, France, Europe - page 2

Saturdays are a good day to go food shopping. Whether it’s at the local supermarket at home or the mobile fresh food markets in France, the mission is the same; stocking up for the week ahead. In my limited experience, Europeans, particularly those in small towns and rural areas, rely heavily on their weekly fix of market day. Today we visited the French towns of Thionville and Metz for a healthy dose of local culture. The outdoor market in Thionville sells all the ‘food groups’, and as you walk through grey, nondescript streets shaded by multi-storey appartments, you turn the corner and your senses are assaulted by an overdose of colour, noise, and the fragrant flower stall through which we entered the market. The vivid colours of the fruit and vegetable stalls compete with the pungent ... read more

After the windy night in Montpellier, we headed off on the longest journey of the holiday, broken up by a stop to meet a friend on her holiday. This journey went on for seven days. Or more possibly. We stopped in the Ardeche for pizza served by a decidedly miserable French woman, caught up with our friends and her little boy for an hour or so which was lovely and got back on the road. We stopped at possibly the worst French service station there is, it felt like we were in some kind of b movie about a motorway murder. The only upside was the free balloon. Then we drove. And drove. And kept driving. The weeks turned into months, months into years. The baby got restless so his parents sang. The wheels on the ... read more

Leaving Toul you enter a lock right away. As we were leaving the dock another boat that was docked closer to the lock dropped their lines and as a result we thought we would have to wait for them to lock through. At this lock there was a lockmaster and he signaled us to come in as well. We had never gone through a small lock before with another boat and didn’t think we would fit, but trusted that the lockmaster knew the size of his lock much better than us. It worked just fine so the next couple of small locks we did together. Our first very large commercial lock was next. When we were able to see the lock we saw that the doors were already open for us and 2 other boats that ... read more

Good bye Burgundy, we have had a fabulous time. Could we have stayed longer? Probably. But how long is long enough or too long? Our week here was long enough. We leave wanting more but very satisfied having seen and done what we had hoped plus more. We drive north to Nancy, a city we have not visited. Nancy is on our way to Calais and the Eurotunnel and the UK. We are not sure what to expect in Nancy but we’ll enjoy our visit anyway. Leaving Beaune we pass through acres of vineyards. Along the road we pass the weirdest of farm machines. These machines are specialized tractors designed to straddle the rows of vines. Some trim the vines, others are used for spraying. Those that spray have appendages that give the appearance of some ... read more

We slept well in our little corner of France. Woke up early to the sound of rain pattering on the windows and birdsong outside of Suzy. It is Day 2 of the holiday and we are heading for St Menoud or to be more precise a tiny hamlet called Les Islettes just outside of St Menhoud. We started off by going the wrong way. The new Sally Sat Nag told us where to go but she was very imprecise and we found ourselves driving 15 minutes in the wrong direction. It seemed a little as if yesterday was being repeated today. However the words from my thoughts for the day told me that failure is just a step to success. So that is how we looked at it - just a small failure . Soon we ... read more