Category: France

Angouleme is only about half an hour away, so definitely worth a revisit. We were both absolutely convinced we had been there before, but we are now certain we haven’t. And it’s much nicer than the pics, but here you go.

Had a really nice couple of hours chatting to Ruth and Alan over a glass or three in the evening. Including Alan complaining about the delays at supermarket checkouts because people still pay by cheque!!!!

Wednesday was a bit odd. The weather forecast was terrible – 96% chance of heavy rain and thunderstorms all day, so we had visions of making quite deep inroads into our reading. But not a single drop fell all day, even though we were waiting for it.

So headed out to Piegut market which was typically French market – lovely.

Note all the masks even in an outdoor market.

Then to the nearby lakes for a walk. Normally when we encounter a cute creature, the photo is accompanied by “found a friend” or something like that. Not this time – made it’s feelings very clear!

(Crayfish if you’re interested.)

Dinner in La Rochefoucauld with a lovely view.

It’s lovely to be able to sit outside at 10.00pm writing this – it’s about 20 degrees, very dark and totally silent. As I said the other day – it’s just like being on holiday and we could get to like it.

In fact it’s just like being on holiday. Hot and sunny, with a pool and lovely food – what’s not to like.

Local lakes about 20 minutes away.

La Rochefoucauld is our nearest little town (with an enormous castle).

It’s a bit naff to show pictures of food so I haven’t but the creperie is a little reminder of a fabulous lunch – tomato sorbet anyone?

But most of the time has been hanging around the house.

And it’s also great to be able to include the warning for those of a nervous disposition 😀

Finally I mentioned vaccine passports – clearly not universally liked.

Any complaints please contact Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee – ex banker, ex minister, youtuber and perhaps switchboard operator. Our job is to run a restaurant!!!!!

A touring holiday, so plenty of moving on. Sad to leave our wonderfully quirky little house in Chinon, but heading south now. Not far from Angouleme.

Broke the journey in Poitiers, which we’re pretty sure is new to us. Outskirts a bit of a pain to drive through, but the centre was lovely. And great to hear the hum of lots of people out enjoying themselves.

And an anti-vaccine demonstration which happened all over France, but very gentile here. You can’t see it in the photo, but someone brandishing a large Welsh flag as well.

And yet in the supermarket compliance was completely 100%.

Made it to the house.

Here goes. Being on holiday in France certainly helps.

Some decent views on the morning walk.

And a decent breakfast. This is the healthy part – the croissant was demolished earlier.

A bit of (quite a lot of) cultural distraction at Fontevraud Abbey – run by Abbesses rather than Abbots for centuries which is a novelty in itself.

Sitting by the river for a bit of R&R (and dodging the showers).

And a read and siesta…

Decent dinner. What’s not to like? It’s just like being on holiday.

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.