The start of our travel in France.

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It was nice to touch down in Paris after the 13 hr flight from Singapore, of course our friends Roger & Christiane were there to meet us even though we were an hour earlier than originally expected (Roger is always on the internet & would have been aware of the new arrival time).
We spent the rest of the day recovering & had a great nights sleep.

The next day saw us heading towards Reims to view one of the oldest Cathedrals in France which is a Gothic edifice begun in 1211 AD with the most famous event being the coronation of Charles 7th with Joan of Arc at his side on 17th July 1429.

From there we headed north to the walled city of Laon & then on to the Australian War Memorial at Villers-Brettoneux where in WW1 the Aussies & Brits repulsed the Germans on 24th April 1918 to give birth to the Anzac tradition.

It was very poignant standing there trying to imagine the battle scene as the conditions were absolutely disgusting.We stayed overnight at Vecquemont a little village not far away.
The next day drove to Amiens for a quick look before going to the Atlantic coast at le Crotoy,Fort Mahon,Berck before finally finding a place to park at le Touquet-Paris-Plage,honestly we had never seen so many people pack into beaches like we had seen along this stretch of coast.
We stayed for an hour or so before returning to our B & B in Vecquemont.
Sat 15th July was a long one as we had to get from Amiens in the north down to the Mareuil-sur-Cher to meet up with Kerin to get some last minute instructions before she went back to OZ.We made it by 4.15pm,did our business & were on our way back to Paris by 5.15pm as we had to meet up with Wayne,Sandra & Allie ( Sara's brother ) that night.

We found the street so parked the car & went looking for Tim's apartment. What great timing, as we walked down the street we saw Wayne,Sandra & Allie on the kerb just about to enter the apartment.We said our hellos & then headed to the nearest bar as the temperature was still in the 30's at 9.00pm,it was great to catch up with them.

Over the next week we saw them most days but with the temperature hovering in the mid to high 30's it wasn't pleasant to be getting around.We managed to get to see Notre Dame,Sacre Coeur,The Louvre was too crowded so we decided we could do it later when there were less tourists around ( look who's talking what posers ).

We thought that all the dramas with our long stay visa had finished & that all we had to do was to go & apply & that would be it, forget it after that we then went to another part of Paris 2 days later only to be told that we need to come back on Thursday 19th October to see if we will be granted a long stay visa-what a load of rubbish.

As you can imagine I nearly cracked it, but the lady just said to me " everything takes time in France ".

We said our goodbyes to Wayne & Sandra on the Friday before making our trip down to the quaint little village of Mareuil-sur-Cher to take up our residency for the next 3-6mths.

On arrival we grabbed some supplies from the next town at St Aignan which has a very good supermarket the "Super U", excellent selection of all products while back in Mareuil the local little Proxi store while quite good has limited selection in some areas.

On Sunday 23rd we went to the local "flea market"where we bought ourselves a couple of bikes to give us mobility.Monday saw us going to a magnificent smaller Chateau at Rigny-Usse.

The 1st known owner was a fierce Viking GELDUIN 1 who erected a wooden fortress in 1004. In the 15th century a fortified castle was built which makes up part of the present building. The legend tells that while staying in Usse, the writer Charles Perrault ( 17th century ) was inspired by the romantic feature of the place & wrote here the tale of " Sleeping Beauty ".Roger & Christiane stayed until Tuesday & then headed back to Paris.

What a shock we were finally on our own what would we do without our security net. As it has turned so far we have been doing some walking & have already been out a couple of times on the bikes discovering the local countryside, its a very peaceful existence here & it is nice just relaxing & not having to get up & go to work.

We feel like real farmers down here as the house itself is almost 170 years old set on almost half an acre with plenty of vegies planted like tomatoes,beans,lettuce,eggplant & zucchini so we have a good basis of vegies,in fact it is hard for the 2 of us to keep up with the ripening of the toms.We also have 2 plum trees that are overloaded with friut so we have already stewed up a large pot & will attempt to make jam at a later date.

We were originally going to go to London on the 8th August but have decided it was too difficult to organise as it would have meant that R & C would have had to drive down to pick us up & then do the same on our return.We do feel a little cut off here without a car as there is no taxi service in the area & the nearest train station is over the Cher river at Noyers-sur-Cher some 8kms away.

If there was a service we could then take the train from Noyers to Tours with a connection to the centre of Paris.R & C will come down again on the 12th August & drive us to Nantes to pick up our lease car a Peugeot 206 which we will have for 3 months so once we get that we can start getting to see some of the fabulous Chataeux that the Loire is famous for.Until next time.

The drive North to Brisbane

We left on Monday 3rd of July on our 1st leg of our "Big Adventure " to France & the Loire Valley.After a long day driving through eastern Victoria we finally arrived at Moruya on the southern coast of NSW to stay with our dear friends Col & Bette Endall.
After picking up some refreshments from the local Woolworths store we were at the Endalls at about 6.00pm.

We settled in for a lovely meal & wine before heading off to bed at 10.00pm.Bette & Col were disappointed that we were leaving the next day so we decided that we would stay on for an extra night,they were more than happy with that decision.

We were both obviously quite tired after the drive up as we didn't surface until about 8.30am.We enjoyed a pleasant breakfast & a very relaxing day just reading & enjoying copious cups of tea & coffee.
Col's brother Reg lives some 13kms south back down the coast at Tuross & they had arranged for us to join them at the local Chinese/Vietnamese restaurant for Dinner.
After a nice easy day we headed down at 5.00pm to Tuross where we met Reg & Phillis,their son Trevor & his wife & their 2 girls,we had a quick pre-dinner drink before heading down for a most enjoyable evening with nice food & good company.

We said a fond farewell to Col & Bette before leaving at 9.00am heading towards Sydney.After filling up in Sydney we negociated our way through to the Freeway north to Newcastle.
We made good time on this leg & we were soon on our way to Bulahdelah.We stopped at Bulahdelah for a quick lunch break & a stretch before calling in to see if Ray Newton (Big John's) dad but unfortunately he was still up at Hope Island & wouldn't be in Bulah for another couple of weeks.

We pushed on to Kempsey where we decided to stay for the night as it had been another day of 9 hour driving so we thought that it would be better to have a shorter day the next day.We opted to have our meal in our room & it turned out to be very nice,I had a great eye fillet while Sar had a very nice piece of fish & all washed down with a good red,it's so hard when you are on holidays but someone has to do it.

We were on the road by 8.30am & had quite an uneventful day through to Kim & Keith Taylor(Sara's sister) who lives at Wishart just south of Brisbane arriving at about 4.00pm.The car had performed well & had used 10litres/100kms so I was quite happy with that.

Friday 7th July was an extremely lazy day & it was only in the afternoon that we went to Carindale shopping centre to do some browsing & get some food for the night's Dinner.

Our dear friends Alana & Marshall Miller had organised to get some of our Brisbane mates together at 3.00pm on Saturday afternoon for some drinks & nibbles. It was great to catch up with Marg & John Buckley,Jill & Ed Boast,Louise & George Tinos,Gloria Edgar & Denise O'Brien,Kim & Keith also came along to join in the party so it was really nice.

After vast amounts of food ( Alana is the best at this ) drink & plenty of laughter with people like Louise,Alana & Sara we finally called it a day at about 10.30pm,we had enjoyed the day as it was great seeing them all again.

It was a slow start to our Sunday but after a hearty breakfast we were refreshed & ready to push on.We said a sad farewell to Alana & Marshall before dropping Denise's car back to her at Lota( she wisely left it at Alana's the night before ) we bid her farewell & hoped that we would see her over in France in 2007 it just depends on when she intends to come,we'll keep in touch during the course of our stay.

It was a quick shower & new clothes before we settled down to a sumptuous lunch of roast pork & vegies followed by chocolate cake,strawberries,profitiroles & cream.Kim had invited her Dad's friend Joan around for the lunch along with our nephew Reid so it was very nice to catch up with both of them.

We were all very full at the end of it all so we just lazed around in the late afternoon doing nothing.Kim drove Joan home & we said that we would see here on Tuesday morning to drop off the car as she has offered to garage it while we are away overseas a very generous offer.

We have a few loose ends to tie up tomorrow ( Monday 10th July ) before we head off on the "Big Adventure " on Tuesday.

We are starting to relax now that work is no longer an issue & are looking forward to the challenge ahead,we will send our next report once we are settled in France.