Blogs from Poitou-Charentes, France, Europe - page 12

A França parece ser cortada ao meio por uma linha imaginária que divide o país em duas realidades completamente diferentes: o sul, mais latino, com clima mais ameno e dias mais ensolarados; e o norte, mais britânico, com seus dias frios e chuvosos. Essa minha teoria podia ser confirmada, quase que diariamente, pelas previsões do tempo (sim, sou um fiel usuário do www.meteo.fr), sendo frequentes diferenças superiores a 5°C entre Bordeaux e Paris, por exemplo, com chuva por lá e um solão forte por aqui. No entanto, obviamente exceções aconteciam. E, naquele começo de novembro extremamente chuvoso, qualquer exceção era mais do que bem-vinda. Foi assim que, após mais de dois meses da minha chegada a Bordeaux, pela primeira vez embarquei em um trem rumo ao norte. Destino: a cidade portuária de La Rochelle, capital da ... read more

The wedding was phenomenal ... Before we came to Europe I would dream about the wedding and what it would be like to be in the French countryside attending the wedding, enjoying wine, champagne, & food and meeting new people. The reality was so much more than I had dreamed. Max's mom and dad have a chambres d'hote on the upper level of the medieval village of Parthenay. It has a great side yard and garden and a view over the whole lower village. On Thursday evening we all went out to a wonderful 4 hour French dinner at a very small restaurant in the village. All the courses and all the wine options and dessert and cheese and appetizers -- WOW! We left the restaurant at about 12:30am and walked through town. Each pub, tavern, ... read more

So here we are in the Marais Poitiven which is a little hidden treasure only known to the locals. In fact, when I mentioned that France's 'Green Venice' was our next destination even alot of french people did not know of it. It was really hard to follow signs on the way to the canals. One would appear and then we wouldn't see another for 20 minutes. I think that mum was getting a bit concerned about taking so long to find the Hotel but my instincts got us there again. We ended up in a sleepy town with three or four buildings and a church all around a square. We took a short rest and then headed to find this 'Green Venice'. Again no signs, but following a dirt track took us to the head ... read more

Spent the week in a gite in a small village called Brives sur Charante, outside Cognac. The weather was bitterly cold with an icy wind. The gite was owned by a lovely couple and we had many cups of tea in their converted farm house. So cold that we didn't manage to play golf or cycle so we resorted to the next best thing, eating and drinking. We visited the Henessey distillery and explored Cognac and Saintes. Next stop Valencia for the Fallas Festival. Yipee ... read more

Hello all, I can barely write this as I am so full it hurts all my extremities to move even one finger! We left cognac this morning to a horrible rainy day, so we drove straight to beynac (had the weather been better could have been one of the greatest drives, twists and turns, ups and downs, all through beautiful forest) except a quick who's who in anglueme, where we picked up a cheap pre paid phone, a lovely French man helped us with translation(people outside Paris seem too be more friendly, but much the same as Toronto, everyone is nicer in rural areas). We arrived in beynac about 5 pm, with a lovely reception from the Dutch owners who upgraded our room because it is slow right now,and the village is gorgeous, like something out ... read more