Blogs from Poitou-Charentes, France, Europe

Spring isn't just in Bordeaux; it seems the whole country has jumped on the bandwagon. I passed fields while on the train that a month ago were covered in snow but are now blooming and bursting with color: lavender flowers, green grasses, yellow blossoms, apple trees with their pink flowers; it's almost enough to make one feel optimistic. We've come to the point in my travels where I'm not doing much of anything and choose instead to pass my days on the beach and tanning. Ok, to be honest I am burning, but I find my new "rouge" coloring to be worth the price of lying by the water and reading a good book. So this is how I passed my time in La Rochelle, with sun and more sun. The old port is protected from ... read more

The trip down to La Rochelle (which means "Little Rock") lasted three hours. Patricia arrived at the train station at the appointed time and it was then we discovered that the there were two other passengers in the small hatchback. Patricia was enroute to visit her grand daughter in La Rochelle and had numerous belated Christmas gifts strewn throughout the car. Jean-Claude, a French/African graduate of transport logistics was another passenger and France, a retired English teacher of Madagascan heritage, was the last fellow traveller. Of course, their luggage was crammed in as well. We repacked the car, organising luggage to maximise space and in order of who would be dropped at their destination first. There wasn't much space left for people despite out best efforts. Patricia was a master of the autoroutes, the French motorways. ... read more

Thursday 15th – Cognac – France always seems a country of big skies. Everywhere you look whether it’s at night or during the day the sky seems to go on forever. Today we decided to spend the day at Cognac which was an interesting town with a big history of Cognac production. Sions tip free parking on the Hennessey Quai by the river. The river area felt much more interesting than the one at Saintes. We had made the decision to visit a cognac distillery and chose Hennessey. We picked the English tour in the afternoon and were taken across the river in a barge to the warehouses on the other side of the river. The visit included seeing the barrels being made, the distilling process and the ageing of the cognac. Not a drink either ... read more

Oh when the Saintes go marching in – Tuesday 13th September Well when I started to first read blogs I decided that I wouldn’t fall into the trap of writing song titles for headings but just look at me – nearly every one seems to ending up as some kind of pun or song title. It's strange how easy it is to fall into the trap although I am not as good at it as some of the bloggers. The weather is still pretty unseasonal for France and we cannot believe our bad luck. The lack of the good weather has made us think very much about televisions in motor homes, satellite dishes to get UK TV and solar panels. I have always said I think it expensive to put a satellite on the motorhome but ... read more

Monday 12th Roaming en Rey, the Three towers , kite surfers Cannot believe just how awful the weather has turned out to be. Have been to France before in September and it has always felt like Summer but this time it has the feel of Autumn with leaves falling off the trees and today drizzle and blustery rain. Unusual weather that did make us wonder if we getting the tail end of the hurricane which was hitting Britain. Felt lost without the internet to find out what was happening in the world. The plan for the day was to go to La Rochelle. This is a place I have always wanted to visit and Glenn and I had decided last year on our way back from the Catalunya MotoGP that we would have a few days ... read more

Fortunately the forecast heavy rain did not materialise, where we were anyway. A bit in the night but once we were out and about the weather was pretty fair and a couple of times the sun was quite hot. We left the lovely Ile de Re, over the impressive soaring bridge and bypassing La Rochelle we headed due south. We decided to check out Rochefort as not been there before but though there were lots of parking spaces, they were all already taken. After driving round rather aimlessly for a few minutes while we worked out where we should go we decided the best option was to leave. Back to our southbound road but this time heading across the scenic Marais where we saw herons every 100 yards, we crossed La Seudre, a mighty stretch of ... read more