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Published: September 24th 2008
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We have had funny old week here in Argentat. We have definitely chilled out and become more accustomed to the French routine of life.
The sun has shone all week which always helps. We continue to meet new people camping alongside us. Dutch, German and even one Czech chap and his son. Swapping travel stories and sharing a drink has become an enjoyable part of our life.
It's getting cold at night now, although the afternoons are balmy and warm. The caravan is chilly in the morning and we will have to put the heating on overnight now I think.
We've explored around these parts over the last few days , in the car, on foot , on the water, in a canoe (for the first time.) and finally
( for me ) on the bike. Yes, I finally got the seat and handlebars into some form of comfortable(ish) arrangement although the saddle is still an instrument of torture for the female rear!
We had unsettling news at the start of our week here with a close friend - a certain Elvis impersonator- being horrifically attacked back at home. Thankfully he is starting his recovery and we
wish him all our love.
I'm glad to find that friends and relatives are making the effort to keep in touch with us and thank everyone for their emails, texts and comments on this blog.
Apparently the Dales' IT dept. are now reading this! Here is one for you chaps. 100001011111010101110111!
We are moving the caravan a few miles down the valley tomorrow, not far from the caves of Lascaux. These are the famous caves with the ancient cave paintings in them. Hope to visit them soon, although you now can't see the originals as people's breath have caused deterioration. (Must be the garlic). There are some replica caves apparently that you can see, which seems a bit of a let down, but they are still reported to be good and worth a visit.
Tomorrow we must decide how to get there.
Brenda the sat. nav. has been a treacherous bitch! Our trust is gone.
After taking us down a dead ends and one way streets on the outskirts of Niort with the 'van on we use her with extreme caution when towing. The maps she displays are pretty good but her route
finding can leave much to be desired.
She took us down some very rural ways (thankfully without the caravan) to Rocamadour yesterday. We did see some pretty little villages that we might never have seen though, so that's good. I'm beginning to hate her calm posh voice.
Martin reckons I just can't stand another woman telling me what to do. Might be some truth in there.
Rocamadour is weird. I'm glad I've seen it and thankful it was not too busy at this time of year. It's a one street town clinging to the side of a steep gorge which has a church and Chateau perched one above the other. It's all very religiously touristy in a way only the French can do but still worth seeing.
The architecture here in this rural area is very pretty and Argentat's old bit and nearby Beaulieu Sur Dordogne are quaint and unspoilt.
The river dominates however and is mightly impressive.
Our canoe trip was Martin's idea. Absolute and utter novices we rented a two man canoe for a couple of hours and paddled downstream from Argentat, past our site (see our friendly Dutch neighbour's photo).
Not quite mastering the steering at first, we dropped down straight onto some (probably baby) white water. We were on our own with no instructor, intrepid adventurers to the core. Not.
We nearly cr**ped ourselves.
We grounded eventually on a big rock mid stream and took a time out to calm down and get our technique sorted. Trouble was when we tried to get off the rock we couldn't . Composure swiftly dissolving again we swore at each other and accused each other of not trying hard enough...Why the hell are we doing this?!.. and so on.
Of course, we were just being wussy and we eventually got the boat moving. After that we steadily grew in confidence and quite enjoyed our trip, stopping off at our riverside campsite en- route for a beer with our Dutch friends/ neighbours. We felt proud of ourselves at the end for our little adventure as we waited on a deserted campsite downstream for the Adventure Company bus to pick us up.
We also mastered the launderette in Argentat. A feindish array of French machines but this time we got the better of them and showed 'em who
was boss. 3 loads -no problem!. Nevertheless our pockets were 15 Euros lighter after so I'm not quite sure who really won?
I'll be a bit sad to leave this pitch, It's a beautiful location . We have trout jumping in the river, green woodpeckers laughing at us , jays, kingfishers and a pet rat that ate our potatoes in the awning.
A bientot
Donna and Martin.
P.S. The photos will enlarge if you double click on them.
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Tom Bannister
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What has 8779127 got to do with anything? :P Some cracking photos Mum!