Blogs from Centre, France, Europe - page 8

Arriver à Chartres le jour du 422e anniversaire du couronnement du roi Henri lV (le seul qui l'eût été ici, d'ailleurs) est somme toute un événement en soi! Les rues piétonnes du centre-ville grouillent de monde malgré le froid et le grand vent. Ça fait la file devant les cafés pour se réchauffer en après-midi et attention, la presque totalité des centaines de petits restos servant le commémoratif menu royal affichent complet! L'exception pour moi sera l'invitante et jolie table de La Picoterie qui acceptera avec plaisir une femme seule voulant absolument manger cette fameuse poule au pot royale! Mais en ce dimanche ensoleillé mais toujours frisquet, pour la grand-messe d'occasion, les rues se sont vidées et la foule s'est engouffrée dans l'immense et majestueuse cathédrale Notre-Dame. L'heure est à l'ouverture d'esprit pour le chant grégorien, ... read more

Well here we are back in Briare for the winter; we had to get here fairly early to carry on with all the medical stuff for Peters prostrate (quite nice alliteration) more health stuff later. . We arrived late September after our cruise along the Nivernais Canal and the Canal lateral la Loire. Our blog seems to have turned into a New Year letter this year as we seem to have been very busy and not really felt like writing. Apart from a few very cold days in November early December the weather has been fabulous, daytime temperature up around 15 degrees and plenty of sunshine, Xmas day we were in tee-shirts. So the title is a bit misleading really. Cruising Our cruise along the beautiful Nivernais was fairly uneventful, just magic scenery, friendly charter boats ... read more

Our time on holiday is coming to an end sadly. The weather is still holding out but the mornings are feeling a slight more chillier. The evenings are getting darker by the day. Neither of us is looking forward to going home as all of a sudden we seem to be finding a good deal of things to do. Having said that we have already rung the Chunnel to rebook our return journey. We have paid a further £16 to move the booking from Wednesday next week to the same time but on the Tuesday. The choice is trying to find things to do and pay another nights fee on a campsite and we feel that the £16 is well worth spent. We had planned to stop on a camperstop we had identified in the Camperstop ... read more

After our night on the ranch we picked up our morning supply of croissants and baguettes before hitting the road for Saint Satur a tiny sleepy village sandwiched between the Loire and a canal. On our way we passed the test track for Michelin Tyres at Clermont Ferrand. Over the hedge we could see a ribbon of tarmac covered with water and a van tearing round at breakneck speed. Now that looked like fun. I think Suzy would have enjoyed that careering round a speed track. We arrived at our campspot a Flower camp in the tiny sleepy Loire town of Saint Satur. It was sleepy o'clock time and the camp staff were just shutting the doors of reception. Park up anywhere and come back at 3pm to pay. They let us in and we drove ... read more

Sunday 7 June 2015 Both the Château of Chenonceau and the nearby town of Amboise are places we really want to see and on this sunny early summer day we did. Our intention was to get to Chenonceau early and avoid the crowds, as we well remember an uncomfortably crowded Versailles on our visit there four years ago. Despite our good intentions, the reality of driving even short distances over beautiful back roads meant our arrival at the glorious place that is Chenonceau was a little delayed, but there was no problem finding a park in the shade (both free), then strolling leisurely up the drive with the Château showing through the trees. We seemed to have beaten the tour groups and were able to enjoy the experience without jostling for position. Chenonceau is simply stunning. ... read more