Blogs from Pays-de-la-Loire, France, Europe - page 4

On the way just after 9am as had an early night last night, quite tired after very early start and long drive. The plan was to get through the dreaded city of Rouen, home of several incidents and a place to be avoided, and then take the country roads pretty well due south to Tuffe. We’ve done this journey once before and I had noted that it was a lovely drive. Things didn’t work out quite so well today as something went a bit amiss with the route as we left Rouen, which we had chosen to cross by motorway today. Instead of heading South West as I had expected we ended up South East and the Tomtom refused to direct us away from the busy and boring main roads to the pretty country routes. So ... read more

Well, it's been a while, hasn't it! We have been quite busy over the last few days, After leaving Metz we headed into Belgium to visit Musee Herge (the Tintin Museum) and had a great time looking around and learning more about his creator and his other works. We then visited the Tintin shop before we left and I found I was treated like royalty by the staff. Funny that - probably something to do with my ability to increase their profit margins this month!. Anyway, I fulfilled another dream, which was great. We then stayed in Lille for the night before continuing for a relatively short drive to Calais, visiting Dunkerque on the way. We stayed in Calais at a hotel complex at the entrance to the "Chunnel" and visited a huge shopping complex so ... read more

Brittany, here we are....and for now, it's fun with friends. Christophe, you'll have to wait my next entry! Huge smile! Today we are meeting Flora, who is just living few kilometers away in Nantes. It's a small world, Flora is a great friend of mine, from Congo! We left Tours early and stopped by Chinon on the way. We have a meeting for lunch right on the beach. Today for lunch, is mussels time again and way too much rose wine...and truly fun time seeing Flora again! No driving after such a lunch, so we hit the seaside town with a game of mini-golf! We are kids, we can be fun and share it with people around. La Baule hosts the longest beach in Europe, running all the way from Pornichet. So trust me, we walk, ... read more

Woken with a start at 8.30 by sound of loud speakers at the campsite entrance. Looked out and there was a crowd of men just outside. Thought for a moment it might be one of the current strikes but pleased when we realised it was a boules tournament. Never seen so many men throwing to many little silver balls about. Obviously a major event in the region and it was all being taken very seriously. Today we were headed for the coast, in fact off the coast at Ile Noirmoutier. We've been to the island before but must be 10 years ago. We took the autoroute part of the way as needed to avoid both Angers and Nantes, neither of which are ideal cities for navigating through the centre in a 3.5 ton motorhome. At least ... read more

We arose this morning just at the right time to see the rather hauntingly rise of the sun from a low angle through the bare trees on the paddock across the road. It gave another aspect to the sight we see from our home in Tauranga where the sun rises over the sea. With another fine day ahead and over 300km of driving ahead of us we readied ourselves with a hearty breakfast. As yet though we haven’t been able to find the type of toasted muesli that we enjoy at home but we are still getting our fibre so that is good. The cottage has been a lovely home for us for 3 days with plenty of space and all the amenities we could want for and it would be a great location to come ... read more