Blogs from Poitiers, Poitou-Charentes, France, Europe

You can't cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water. What a night - our first on French soil. A quiet one but the weather was as inclement as we left back in Blighty. It was cold overnight and we snuggled under the duvets to keep warm. Our bodyclocks still working on Blighty time woke us up to darkness at 6.15. Back home it would be 5.15 and we would still be in the land of Nod. We put Gabbys heating on. It works well and we feel grateful it is much more efficient than Suzys. We eat breakfast at the table. Much more civilised than Suzy. We set off after breakfast with the plan to pay for our nights stop before heading south for some sun. We should be somewhere round Poitiers ... read more

Despite the wine which usually dulls the senses last night was a cold one. It went dark at around 8.30 slightly later than back home but that was more due to the hour difference between France and Britain. We woke at 7 and it was nippy but this was hardly surprising as it was really only 6am back home. The bells rang from the town church. Hello France. The site was relatively quiet after the resident ducks and our noisy neighbours went to sleep. We had watched stars last night in the night sky through our skylight. They were clear to see in the inky black sky. Something we don’t see back home due to light pollution. Saint Clares was almost full which surprises you this time of year. It is almost on the verge of ... read more

We staan laat op en ik scheer in een opwelling mijn sik af, waarna ik direct spijt heb. We hebben uitgezocht dat er een trein naar Poitiers gaat via Chatellerault, maar we hangen eerst nog wat rond. Na het douchen word ik buiten aangesproken door de dierenarts, wiens zaak onder water staat. Als ik rood aangelopen vam schuldgevoel mijn excuses aanbied zegt hij simpelweg: 'It's water, not fire.', waarna we nog een vol uur praten over zijn tijd in Amsterdam, wietverslaving en rugby. 'I took weed home from Amsterdam and on the airport a dog walked up to me and wagged it's tail. 'He really likes you', the duanier said, to which I responded: 'Yes I'm a vet', and everything was ok.' evenlater kwam de loodgieter, die erachter kwam dat er iets mis was met de ... read more

Perigueux, Poitiers & Futuroscope in France 17 September 2013 After leaving Bergerac in the Dordogne Valley, we headed north towards Perigueux which was surrounded by undulating farmland with lots of mature sunflower and maize crops. Moving onto Angouleme and again this town was mixed with the old and the new. We loved these towns (see photos). We then arrived at Poitiers which has about 85,000 and therefore larger than the previous towns we had visited. Like the other towns, its character was centered on a river and its old town centre. This town had a city wall which was well preserved. We wanted to see the Futuroscope which was a massive multi building attraction for all ages. Every building was of a different shape. We found a camp site just north of Poitiers. The next morning ... read more

We've left Pamplona. It's hard to believe that it's only been a few days. In that time we had a 5 hour drive down to Mataro where we'll be setting up home in September. After a couple of days there and dropping off a lot of our possessions, we headed up into France. Another 5 hour drive saw us just to the north of Toulouse and a further 4 hours today brought us to Poitiers. Now Sunday evenings were never going to be very lively. Nevertheless we drove down into town and parked up near the Botanical Gardens. From there we walked into the centre which is really quite nice. It was beautiful walking around but everything was closed, except for some very expensive bars on the central square and a couple of North African restaurants. ... read more