Blogs from Pays-de-la-Loire, France, Europe - page 8

Although we had been assured that the car was safe to drive the fact that every time we started her up she flashed the series of warning lights was still a concern. And we were soon to have an even greater concern about the car but more about that shortly. We had overcome the problem of waking up cold as we did the previous morning by making sure we had all the blankets on the bed at nightime which was a relief. There is nothing worse than waking up early because of a lack of warmth and then having trouble getting back to sleep for the regulation hours. Even though it was another beautiful, cloudless morning the sun took its time to penetrate the tall trees and it wasn’t warm enough to have breakfast on the ... read more

Day Two – We all woke up to a rather dull French morning. For me the night had been a quiet one but then when you have a bit of a hearing problem all nights are quiet. Glenn on the other hand who has the hearing of Superman said that it had been a touch noisy but nothing to keep you awake all night. That is one of the problems of having the hearing of Superman. You hear every little squeak and noise in the night. We breakfasted overlooking the sea. England lost in the mist. And it was cold too. Far colder than we expected for late August. Have we been spoiled by the lovely unusually hot summer we have experienced this year at home? Reception opened at 8 so we packed up very quickly ... read more

The Loire Valley is a stretch of land that runs along the Loire river. It has cute towns and villages,but whats really special about it is the chateaus. A château is a castle, and these chateaus were originally built for french kings, even though some of them never ended residing there, and instead used them for hunting cottages. Yes, just the summer home they visit once in a while. Some not at all. in the 1500, Britain was trying to conquer France which led the french to start setting up shop in the middle of the country as Britain was taking its boarders. Interesting fact I learned, it was Joan of arc who was 17 that led the french army to conquer and chase the Brittish army out. A while later, French royalty went to take ... read more

We arrived in Saumur, in the Loire Valley, on Saturday 27th April, having booked 6 nights on a campsite situated on the tiny island of Offard, in the middle of the Loire River. From our pitch we had an amazing view of the waterfront opposite, the Saumur chateau (although unfortunately the chateau was obscured by a really large tree… but, still…) and the steady peaceful flow of the river. We explored the town the following day, most of the shops were closed it being a Sunday but there bars, cafes and a patisserie or two open (what more could you need?) and an antiques market being held in the main street. Wandering through the market, we marvelled at the array of items for sale: furniture, ancient record players, swords (?!), clothing, rusting farming paraphernalia… you name ... read more

Having a very good nights sleep (we managed to sleep in until 8.45am), tea, coffee, showers and pack up Bertha and we were on the road by 9.45am, not bad for us. Woolly however wasn’t so pleased with our lie in as he wanted to get going so he could try his skateboard out on the Le Mans track. Woolly says – Jo and Ian are so lazy! I was ready and waiting at half seven and not a movement from either of them, but finally we set off. One hundred and forty kilometres and we arrived in the centre of Le Mans, but I couldn’t see a race track anywhere. We did see a beautiful Cathedral and finding our way inside we craned our necks to look at the beautiful stained glass that graced every ... read more