Blogs from Poitou-Charentes, France, Europe - page 15

Shopping: Brossac Village, Chalais and Barbezieux Brossac village is about a mile from La Giraudiere and offered basic amenities including two boulangeries and a butcher. There are two restaurants, Mamie Bulles and Saint Bernard that served traditional French cuisine and had bars. A third restaurant, Quaid Sud, is just outside of the village across from Brossac Lake. It is a Cuban-themed setting with a bar that served cucarachas, a flaming alcoholic drink. There was a small outdoor market on Saturday mornings with local products and fish brought in from the seacoast. Brossac also had tennis courts, a football pitch and the lake for recreation. It was a quiet village and we went there daily for fresh bread in the morning, and then usually to the Spar grocery and butcher in the evening for dinner items and ... read more

Arrival It was Monday, the 5th of May in late afternoon. I arrived in Angouleme, France, at the train station after traveling for 12 plus hours from Colorado. I had gone to France to take part in a work abroad program for three and a half weeks, and the program coordinator was supposed to pick me up. I was a little skeptical about if anyone would be meeting me because the program sounded great, and the old adage, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is kept running through my mind. The work program was in Charente on the property of an old French farmhouse called La Giraudiere being renovated to be a tourist complex. I would work three days and pay 90 Euros a week for my lodging and three meals a ... read more

Well it's been a few weeks since we last had internet access and Debbie and I are becoming very accustomed to Van life. Salad is the order of dinner mostly although recently in the Pyrenees we've been having one pot food which has been fantastic after long rides. Lunch is ham and cheese in bread somewhat religiously and surprisingly we are not sick of it yet! Sleeping arrangements are still somewhat cramped but we have suprisingly for debbie been getting good nights sleep, though that could be all the riding. It is somewhat annoying when we have to share the sleeping space with our winged friends though.. any useful suggestions welcome on this front. And thank god for in van electricity as the fan we have with us has been a life saver!.. Not sure how ... read more

Excellent weather made our 2 day stay in La Rochelle memorable. Friday the 13th was indeed a good day. We met at the train station in Tours for a 7.45 departure for La Rochelle--about a 3-hour trip on TGV. On arriving there we walked to the Youth Hostel (one of the best I've stayed in-very clean, new, and comfortable). It is about a 15 minute walk from the old town centre, on the ocean. There is a bus service and also a boat service. We dropped our bags and walked back towards town where I had the best mussels ever (including the ones we harvested ourselves on the West Coast of Vancouver Island!). These ones were very small, sweet, and full of flavour. Of course I had them with frites and a glass of vin blanc. ... read more

Brittany was just picture post card perfect. On the drive south the buildings are subtly changing from the dark stone with slate roof’s of Brittany (and most of Ireland and Wales) to a pale sandstone with terracotta roofing. The windows on the houses and buildings have shutters on them, (as they do in Brittany as well) shutters everywhere. The naturestrips have changed from bursting with flowers, to flowers scattered in the red pebble earth, though the fields are still very green. It looks like what I would have expected to see in Spain perhaps. Interesting because it’s different but a little shabby. We stopped by La Rochelle which is a fortified port which had so much character from its years as an upmarket holiday town but is now little shabby too. But then we went through ... read more