Author: simon

A few general thoughts:

– we got the vaccine passport to work on the French app. Hurrah – and we’ve used it 5 times already

– mask wearing indoors (and markets) is almost universal. But we are in a very nice part of France with many mature tourists

– it’s quite hard to remember place names. They’re all gorgeous round here and not dissimilar

– our French is a bit rusty and it never was that great anyway.

But back to Chinon and the Fortress (dodging the showers):

And enjoying the view from our balcony – what’s not to like!

And we have had plenty of waves and a couple of photos from people visiting the Fortress. Unfortunately also quite a lot of questions in French that we don’t understand…..

It’s a wonderful little town in the Loire, and it being market day got us acclimatised pretty quickly.

But first the little house where we’re staying – right next to the Fortress.

With views.

And croissants for breakfast (of course).

As I said, Chinon is lovely.

But vegetarians may wish to look away ….,

So nice to hear the French speaking to the Germans in English! Apparently the British have only started coming back in the past couple of weeks but there seems to be plenty of us. And a family from Texas. But we do seem to be genuinely welcome which is nice. Apart from the market stallholder who really did not want to sell us a single (large) tomato for our picnic and made his feelings abundantly clear and made us buy 2…

Last minute. Lots of paperwork due to pandemic and Brexit. So a tiny bit of trepidation as we arrived at Eurotunnel at 8.00. But sailed straight through leaving plenty of time to get a grotty coffee at the (almost deserted) terminal.

It really was a long way. 460 miles, but pretty easy on fabulous French motorways. So much so that Eileen has offered to share the driving next time. Challenges at the very end when the motorway toll barrier didn’t work, diversions in the final few kilometres, and not being able to find the house. All pretty trivial except when you’re absolutely done in!

But well worth it. Chinon is amazing but more of that tomorrow.