Gina and Pete

Our last week or so in France began with a real bang. We spent the first day checking out the upper Loire valley around Bourges and Pouilly, thinking about getting up to those pretty villages we’d seen around Auxerre, but ran out of time. In the middle of the night after our return to Argenton, I heard a bit of noise outside on the street after a car went past our house. The next morning we were alerted by neighbours who were gesticulating rather excitedly in the direction of our car. On inspection of the car I was greeted by a sad sight. The noise I heard during the night was a car getting a little too close to le petit pois, scraping down its side leaving a large red gash, smashing a rear window and ... read more

After being released from the gentle clutches of my relatives, Gina and I head north in le petit pois. As usual we haven't got a clear plan of exactly where we'd like to be but we thought we might head for the upper Soča valley. This is up against the Italian border and scene of a lot of carnage during the First World War but as my relatives tell me over and over, one of the most picturesque places in Slovenia. Heading up the autocesta from Novo Mesto, we call in one last time to visit some of my father’s relatives in Dolenja Vas. We are without Ellen who is staying in Novo Mesto for an undetermined time and we tell all that she’ll be around for a visit – particularly Mirjam (my cousin ... read more

On Friday 11 May we took le petit poir for a drive over to Dolenja Vas to meet up with rels from my father's side of the family. Lacking sufficient fluency I set up the day, time and place with my cousin's son through Facebook. To get there we decided to drive up the freeway (autocesta) and cut across the hills into the next valley from a northern approach. Despite what the map seemed to indicate it was not the easiest route due to the narrow winding through much of the hill crossing. It was at least picturesque, however we arrived half an hour late. No real matter though. There to greet us was cousin Irma, her mother Marija (my father's sister), and her children Matija, Diana (with husband and baby) and Tilen. We were later ... read more

Fittingly Gina and I arrive in Slovenia on my birthday, 2 May. Over about 3 days we’d taken Le Petit Pois down from Argenton into the south of France and then across Provence, past the riveria towns of Cannes and Nice, into Italy. We scooted past Genoa and, because it was raining, went straight across the northern expanse of Italy in one day, breaking the journey outside of Venice. The next day we made the short hop across to the Slovene border taking the coast road past Miramar castle into the Italian city of Trieste. The road provided us with beautiful vistas of the Mediterranean Sea. Passing through some villages on our approach to Trieste we got an idea of the passion of cycling in this part of the world, as we and other motorists were ... read more

We began our tour with the Pagetts by backtracking over some of the ground we'd covered in the previous trip north to the coast. Our goal on day one was to get ourselves some where close to Bayeux where we were due to meet our guide for next days tour of the American battlefield sites of World War 2. The day began grimly as we got lost getting out of Argenton. I think it was due to a rushed morning packing. Thats what I'm blaming anyway and certainly not my tardiness in studying maps for the route north. Anyway we finally straightened things out and headed in the right direction, the Pagetts with Ellen in a hired camper van and Gina and I in the citreon. As we travelled along the motorways, we christened our car ... read more