Touring in the Loire & further North ( Rev # 1. )

Sorry about these photos they were supposed to be attached to yesterdays blog but somehow that didn't happen so my apoligies.In my original blog I numbered the photos but it seems like they dont follow suit when it publishes what has been sent, so photo #1 is Bourges Cathedral & garden, # 2 is taken at Mennetou-sur-Cher, # 3 is of Chateau Valencay with its magnificent garden, while # 4 is at Chateau Cheverny. The people we were expecting from OZ Harry & Heather arrived about 8.00pm last night & are a very nice couple. They were very brave as they had driven from Charles de Gaulle airport through the outskirts of Paris before finding their way onto the motorway & finally at Mareuil-sur-Cher.

We have spent some of today ( Tues 21st ) showing them around St.Aignan & they are currently walking into the village here to have a look around. They will have 8 days in this area before they then head back & into Belgium to visit Harry's son living in Liege for a year as an exchange student so they have quite a deal of driving to do in the next couple of weeks.
I think that I have worked out how to enter pics so hopefully in future we wont have any more problems. Until our next update

Touring in the Loire & further North

Sorry it's been 2 weeks since our last news but with our car it has enabled us to get around to see some beautiful villages,Chateaux & of course Cathedrals.Our 1st Chateau was at Cheverny (photo #1) which is superbly maintained set in magnificent gardens, the Royals & the landed gentry certainly had a life of luxury back then. During the same week we visited Montrichard to see one of the local markets & then onto Blois to get used to driving in a bigger town ( 50000) as it turned out we handled it OK.
Sat 12th saw our friends Roger & Christiane coming in from Paris & then on Sunday we stopped at Mennetou-sur-Cher ( photo #2 ) ( another old village in the area that saw Jean of Arc pass through in 1429 on her way to Paris). Like so many of these villages Mennetou was having its regular antique market ( brocante ) & there were dozens of stores with simply amazing bric-a-brac.
Bourges was our next stop but as it was a long weekend the town was virtually a ghost town.
It was still nice walking around & the Cathedral & gardens ( photo #3 )were impressive.

On our way back we passed through the town of Valencay & noticed a nice Chateau which we would visit the following day. The Chateau ( photo #4 ) turned out to be spectacular with beautifully manicured gardens, all the original furniture still intact & all this going back to the 15th cent.
At one stage it was the 3rd largest Chateaux in France covering a staggering 19000 hectares.

Tue 15th saw us driving with R & C to pick up our lease car in Nantes, we were pleasantly surprised when we were given the totally new model Peugoet 207 instead of the 206, a great little car.From there we drove to Granville to stay at a new B & B called the " Logis du Roc " which is operated by Nadera ( John & Margaret Buckley's daughter in law ) along with her partner Eric.
Between them they have put together an absolutely lovely little B & B or Chambres d'Hotes as they are called in France & even though it took 6 mths of hard work it get it ready it is a credit to them. They are the ideal people to run this set up as they are both very outgoing & friendly & make you welcome right from the start of your stay.During the afternoon we discovered what a nice place Granville was before a nice meal at the local Creperie.
There was a mix-up with our booking so the 2nd saw us in different digs but they were fine as well & the couple also very friendly.

Thur 17th saw us driving to Mont St. Michel some 60kms around the bay from Granville. About 5kms from the Mont the traffic stopped to a standstill & it took us more than 30 minutes to get to the parking area. Then the real fun started we then stood in line for over an hour waiting to get our tickets, once inside it was certainlt worthwhile spending some 2hrs looking over this remarkable structure which dates back to 1000AD. The biggest problem was getting back out of the Abbey as there was no organised lines with literally hundreds of people just trying to get up & down the narrow streets it took over an hour to get back to the car.
The drive back to Mareuil took about 5hrs.

On the Saturday we followed R & C to stay with friends near Montargis, a really lovely couple who have invited us back anytime to stay as they have a cute little farm with cats, ducks, doves, quail, chickens & would you believe ostriches. The farm is original & was built back in the 1750's before OZ was discovered, fabulous place & would love to return.

Its Mon 21st & we are waiting for people coming from Wagga ( friends of Joe & Kerin ) so that will be nice. Better go I'm rambling a bit will need to keep the blogger shorter from now on.

Starting our time at Mareuil-sur-Cher

Our little Chateau Tour de France 2007 ? Our next investment !

Since our arrival here on Saturday 22nd July we have been on the move. We went to the local " flea Market in the village on Sunday & bought 2 bikes to get around before we pick up our car on the 15th August. Already we have cycled into the next village & have been on shorts little tours near the village.
As you can see from the photo ( horray I've finally been able to attach them ) we have a great setup here & have a vegie garden with tomatoes, lettuce, beans, eggplant & 2 trees loaded with plums. We have already made 2 big pots of stewed plums that are nice to have with muesli & yoghurt each morning.
Sebastien the gardener has kindly lent us a Peugoet 306 until he goes on holidays on the 10th August so on Wednesday we took a trial run to Montrichard & Amboise stopping in both towns to have a look in awe at the age of them with Amboise at the heighth of its glory in the 15th century.
With the car we go to the next town of St Aignan to do our main shopping as there is a very good supermaket ( supermarche ) called SuperU. Still trying to get used to driving L/H drive but each day I get better.
Yesterday was the best day for weather since our arrival as it was too hot on arrival to do much looking around & since then we have had 3 or 4 days where it was much cooler & raining. Yesterday was mid twenties so we decided to venture further east through St Aignan to Selles-sur-Cher.

What a magnificent little place this was so cute with narrow little streets, as clean as a whistle but as usual being near lunchtime no one was around only the occasional tourist. We were feeling a little peckish so stopped for nice baguette sandwich & a cleansing Heineken ( certainly better than we get at home ) & then moved on to Villefranche-sur-Cher, turning off at Thenioux & returning back to St Aignan where we did some much needed shopping before returning to Mareuil. It had been a good drive covering about 120kms, so we are progressing.

Just to make it easy for price comparisons I've worked on $A1.00 being E.50 so a litre of petrol here is E1.30 making it $A2.60, I filled up the car yesterday & it cost me E61.00 ( $A132.00) ( glad it wasn't the Statesman), beer in a bar E2.50 ( $A5.00 ) for 250ml so not cheap while you can pick up quite drinkable wine from E2.80 ( $A5.60 ) & whisky like Grants for E13.00 ( $A26.00). Hair Shampoo, Sun Lotion & skin creams are expensive ( according to Sara ) we paid E9.00 ( $A18.00 ) for a normal size tube. Other items which are expensive are stamps, whether it is a postcard or letter to OZ it costs E.90 ( $A1.80 ) .

I had better sign off as I need to do some vegie picking & other gardening duties, will be in touch soon from Mareuil.