Lazing in the Loire

In the Tahitian sun & then back to OZ.

2007-04-18T15:10:00.000-07:00

After taking an incredible time to get through customs we were finally re-united with our dear friends Karen & Jean Chong after a period of some 9 years, it was so nice to see them after such a long break, unfortunately they had been waiting at the airport some nearly 2 hours & it was still only 7.30am when we finally gathered our luggage from the carousel.

While the girls obviously chatted about a miriad of things in Karen's car I went with Jean in his. Going into Papeete I noticed a big change in the overall landscape as many new buildings had been completed & the waterfront had undergone a real transformation.

The docking facilities for cruise ships had been upgraded quite extensively plus a much improved area on the seafront for " les roulettes " which are the mobile food vans that set up each night in this area & operate until about 1.00am in the morning.

I also noticed that the overall look of the city centre had been noticeably cleaned up compared to our last visit when the whole area looked decidedly run-down. It was nice to get to Karen & Jeans' & relax for the rest of the day & take a dip in their very inviting pool. Jean also prepared us a lovely lunch of " piosson cru " which is a meal of raw fish marinated in lime juice with chopped up tomato & onion, it is really moorish.

We spent the next couple of days re-discovering Papeete & went to the market in town to once again mingle with the locals selling their wares whether it be fruit & vege, jewellery, baskets, shell leis or meat & poultry, still a great market with plenty of choices. From there it was a quick trip to the Sheraton Hotel to see the Polynesian Jewellery Exhibition which was a stunning display of some superb creations, most of them out of our price range but the girls still managed to get a couple of nice items for the collection.

The next few days saw us relaxing in the pool as it was particularly hot & humid so the pool offered soothing relief from the heat. We did venture out to take a trip around the island just to see what changes had taken place & were sad to see that a lot of the lovely views of the ocean have now been blocked out by high fences that have been put up for security reasons, such a pity as some of the views out to Moorea were picture postcard stuff & now you only get fleeting glances of this beautiful creation.

We continued around the island stopping for a welcome beer at the golf club before driving down to the world renowned surf break at Teahupu where some of the world's best waves crash down onto the rocky reef during the Winter months in Tahiti, unfortunately we missed out this day as the waves were quite docile & not very rideable. We left a little disappointed & made it back to the house & relaxed for the remainder of the day.

Over the next couple of days we managed to catch up with some of our friends from my squash coaching days back in 1980 namely Franck Valgresy, Henri Yansaud, Ronnie Simon & his lovely wife Marie Therese we all enjoyed a lovely lunch at one of the many Chinese restaurants that operate around the town area of Papeete.

We were also lucky enough to be invited to a Tahitian ceremony at Jean's church which was really unique as there was no musical backing just the beautiful voices of the chior resonating throughout the church quite a treat.

The parishiners had also gone to a lot of trouble to decorate the interior with woven palm fronds, bougainvillea, hibiscus as well as the amazing bouquet of the tiare flower ( which is used in the flower caronne or crown of the dancing festivals ), & later during the mass people brought many different gifts such as coconuts, taro, yams, tomatoes, mangoes & other gifts to place in front of the altar as an offering to the " Almighty ".

To make it more special the Bishop said part of the mass in the Paumotu language which is the main language spoken in the Tuamotu Islands so I'm sure that they were impressed that he had learnt to communcate to them in their native tongue, I must say that the whole scene was great & it was a very special privelidge to be part of this particular ceremony.

We were also priveliged to share Chinese New Year with the whole Chong family with Jean doing all the preparation & cooking, there was so much to pick from I'm sure that he was expecting the rest of Papeete to turn up for this most fabulous feast.

A couple of days later Sara & I joined up with Ronnie for a quick 9 holes of golf ( Sara drove the golf cart ), it was a very enjoyable morning made even nicer by the surrounding views of the mountains & the lush fairways but thought that 9 holes were enough as Marie - Therese was preparing a Tahitian feast for us back at their house.

The view from the rear of their house was just superb with the back of their property lapping the water while in the distance one could see the waves breaking on the reef while in the background the the mountains on the smaller Tahiti Iti sloped their way down to the water's edge - all quite spectacular.

The lunch turned out to be a very " local " affair with many different Tahitian dishes set up around quite a large table including poisson cru, marinated mollusc from the pearl shell, fafaruu ( this is fish placed in a gourd for 4 to 6 weeks & left in the sun ) & then it is ready for consumption, if you can overcome the overwhelming smell it is a real delicacy, but it is not for everyone.
There was also a spicy chicken done with taro & yams, garlic prawns, mussels, large dish of bar-b-qued calamari, shredded chicken with Tahitian spinach, poi ( pawpaw ) suckling pork with an exotic vegetable dish done with coconut milk, absolutely fantastic, by the time we had finished lunch we were all lying around like beached whales.

Unfortunately our time had once again come to an end in paradise, we said our goodbyes to Karen that night as she was leaving early in the morning for Sydney on a 5.00am Air Tahiti Nui flight where she was seeing her son Moava before he headed off to Kapooka Army base to commence his basic training, we would catch up later on our way through Sydney on our way to Melbourne.

W e said our goodbyes to Jean & thanked him for his hospitality & for getting us to the airport, it was great to see Franck Valgresy there to see us off. We hoped that we could all catch up in the near future either here or back in OZ.

We were quickly through security & soon boarding our flight to Rarotonga in the Cook Islands, we left on time at 7.00am. As we took off we grabbed our last glimpse of the amazing island of Moorea with its craggy peaks & beautiful bays surrounded by various reefs with rolling surf breaking on to their lagoons with some of the most superb shades of blue & green that make up these island paradises.

Tahiti was soon a wonderful distant memory so we just sat back & enjoyed the flight to Rarotonga & Auckland, at least this time the crew were friendly so the time past very quickly.
We had a couple of hours in Auckland so we made sure that we bought our " duty free " allowances before boarding our flight to Brisbane.

Our flight touched down a little ahead of schedule at 4.30pm & we were soon exchanging hugs & kisses with Kim ( Sara's sister ) & her husband Keith, the talking continued unabated from the time we picked up our luggage until we arrived back at their house, once there we relaxed with a very welcome cool drink.

After nearly 8 months away we could finally sit down & reflect on what we had managed to see & do during that time, as well as having the opportunity to stay in the Loire Valley for 4 months at Mareuil-sur-Cher we used our time to see all of the immediate area around us which included visiting all the major Chateaux.

During our time there we travelled extensively throughout the valley visiting some of the most lovely villages one could ever imagine to see, we also enjoyed the feel of a small village while living in a genuine " longere " farmhouse complete with our own vegie garden & fruit trees all very civilised & certainly a once in a lifetime experience for which we thank Joe & Kerin McGirr
for giving us the opportunity to persue a long held dream.

We thoroughly recommend that if any of our friends have the same opportunity to spend some time in this beautiful part of the world they should grab it with both hands as we now have lasting memories that will be with us for many years to come.

A special thankyou from both of us to our special friends Roger & Christiane ( Paris ), Jerry & Carol ( Salt Lake City ), Dave & Geri ( Tucson ) & finally Karen & Jean in Tahiti for allowing us to stay in their houses it was certainly great to see you all again, we just hope that we can repay all of you in Australia in the near future.

We hope that the blogger has been informative & has given you a closer look at what we were experiencing as it was certainly a lot of fun compiling it for all our friends, until next time whenever that may be our love & best wishes go out to you all,

Au revoir a bientot, Harv & Sara.

Salt Lake City & back to Tucson.

2007-04-04T21:43:00.000-07:00

We were all still a buzz after the Cirque du Soleil performance of last night as we sat down for a nice breakfast in the MGM Restaurant. We sated our appetites, grabbed our bags & headed for Vegas Airport. Dave & Geri left us there to catch our flight to Salt Lake City before they headed for their long drive back to Tucson.

We were eagerly awaiting our arrival in SLC as it had been some 27 years since we had last seen Carol & Jerry Allen back in our Bougainville days. We landed at 3.15 pm & quickly had our luggage in hand. Carol & Jerry both looked fantastic & had hardly changed at all in those ensuing years- it was great seeing them after all this time it was just like we had never been apart.

After nice big hugs & kisses we took a drive into the city centre to re -orient ourselves since our last visit back in 1978, unfortunately the city is far bigger & busier since those days. We drove back through the outlying suburbs ( which had all developed since our last visit ) finally making to the Allens where we sat & reminicsed for the rest of the afternoon. We all went out for a nice meal at the local " Applebees " restaurant before settling down for some late night catch-up stories.

After a late start we took a drive around the surrounding lower slopes & discovered some really fantastic houses snuggled into the hillside with most of them having spectacular views back over Salt Lake. Later in the afternoon we watched our first Super Bowl final between the Indianapolis Colts & Chicago Bears. After leading 16-14 at half time the Colts through their dominant quarter-back Peyton Manning pulled away to win 29-17. Even though I didn't fully understand the rules of the game it was very entertaining to watch a full match, we certainly came away with a better understanding of the game. Half-time entertainment was from " Prince " but I'm afraid that some of the impact was lost because of an average sound coming from the arena.

We had another late start to Heber City before stopping at " Sundance " ski lodge owned by Robert Redford for a coffee ( we were a little disappointed as he wasn't there ) before heading off to Park City which is another very popular town for snow skiing. It is a lovely town with such a cute main street which is all heritage listed & maintains an 1880's facade on all the buildings. We decided that it was better to stay in Park City for dinner before heading back to SLC.

We spent the next afternoon driving past the Kennecott mine & part of the Great Salt Lake before returning home as we had Jerry's daughter Cathy & her husband Russell coming for dinner, we had another lovely meal prepared by Carol & the night & company turned out to be very nice indeed.

Unfortunately our time had come to an end and we said goodbye to our friends Carol & Jerry & hoped that we could catch up much sooner either in OZ or in the US. It was one of the special reunions of our travels around the world, it was just terrific to see them both looking so well.

Over the next couple of days we just lazed around the house in the nice temperate climate of Tucson, during this time we had a 2 hour walk into the neighboring Pima Canyon which was very good exercise for the legs.

We had a special last night in Tucson at the Westward Way Resort at the " Gold Room "
restaurant. We had a beautiful setting looking back over the Tucson city lights, backed up with a succulent & very imaginative meal, all very nice.

Our day of departure had finally come, Geri prepared yet another lovely lunch before our trip to the airport. This was an even harder goodbye as Dave & Geri had done so much for us during our stay there we look forward to repaying the favour back in OZ in the near future. We left nearly 90 minutes late out of Tucson but had time up our sleeve in Los Angeles so that was OK.

Another lengthy security check saw us finally through to get our Air NZ flight to Papeete. Like all longer legs on a plane it was quite boring & to make things worse the Air NZ staff were quite morose & very unfriendly. It is the only airline that we have travelled on that only provided dinner during this 9.5 hr leg, about 3.00 am a sandwich was offered with a glass of water- nothing else, very poor Air NZ. We arrived about 45 minutes late into Papeete at 6.15am.

At the Thomas' in Tucson & further North

2007-03-11T15:33:00.000-07:00

After having spent a nice relaxing time in Vancouver we then headed south to San Francisco arriving there by mid afternoon. It was a 2 hour stopover before catching our flight to Tucson finally touching down by 8.30pm.

It was great to see our mates Dave & Geri after a couple of years & as usual we were soon into a conversation that would continue into the night. After all these years of us talking about visiting them in Tucson we had finally made it to visit their beautiful home, & what a spectacular house it is very spacious & open plan with lovely views back into Tucson from their foothills location.

As well as having loads of space to prepare food & cook, the kitchen also had a view out to the rear of the house to the surrounding rugged mountains that stretch around the perimeter of greater Tucson & a view over the inground pool & front garden down to downtown Tucson a truelly sensational aspect.

We managed to fit in a couple of walks over the next few days so we saw at close range just how all the housing blends in with the surrounding countryside with most of the houses painted in a light chocolate brown or beige. Most houses are on an acre of land so no one is that close to their neighbour so plenty of privacy abounds.

We also visited the local shopping complex " La Encantada " where we discovered AJ's, a very laviously appointed super market with the most beautiful displays in their fruit & vege, deli, meat & liquor areas, much much better than back home, makes Coles & Safeway look really 2nd rate, but no doubt you pay for the priveledge. The most amazing setup was the Costco store which is like the size of Bunnings in Australia but with every conceivable thing available - you name it they have it.

Dave & Geri had planned a 3 day trip away so we headed to Sedona which is in the north of Arizona & turned out to be an area full of amazing mountains that surrounded the whole area.
Unfortunately by the late afternoon the weather had changed & a heavy mist blocked our view of these rock beauties.

We headed further north through Flagstaff but by then the scenery was completely covered by a thick white blanket of snow while the trees groaned under the weight of the white carpet. It continued to fall as we arrived at the south rim of the Grand Canyon & by now the temperature was at minus 3 deg C so it was time to rug up as the wind had also picked up in strength.

Geri said that this was the best that she had ever seen the Canyon from this side because normally there is a lot of dust that tends to give a hazy appearance to the Canyon. We took some really lovely pics of the area before heading onto Zions National Park.

As we arrived late in the afternoon we decided to return next morning to take full advantage of this sensational spectacle. In the morning the temperature was still hovering near the minus 3 deg C so we made sure that we were well rugged up. On arrival at the park we were totally over awed by the size of these truelly spectacular mountains surrounding you like sentinels guarding the park, some of them rising more than 400 metres straight up making one feel very insignificent, nature certainly is amazing.

We walked through this amazing wonderland for the best part of an hour taking in this breathtaking panorama before heading onto St.George near the Utah & Nevada border & then onto our ultimate destination LAS VEGAS.

We arrived by 2.00pm & while we waited for our room to be prepared we walked down the main strip of Vegas taking in all the glitz & glamour of this most amazing metropolis. Some of the buildings are exact replicas of the originals like the Eiffel Tower, Empire State, Chrysler Building, Venice plus the Temple of Luxor & the Pyramid to name just a few.

We finally got our room but not before an upgrade from a room to a suite of 1500 sq.ft for an extra US$50.00 each, so that meant that we paid US$300.00 each for our night in Vegas ( normally US$900.00 ) what the heck we decided to shout ourselves one night of total luxury.
The suite had 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a large lounge area that included a nice bar & chairs, all very opulent.

We had booked tickets to see the production of Cirque du Soleil " KA "which had been given rave reviews by the critics. The audatorium had taken more than 15 months to transform the old setup into this new sound stage which in itself was a remarkable piece of engineering.

The main stage was a revolving platform that could move from the horizontal to vertical attached to a huge hydraulic ram which in itself was supported by massive columns, the total weight of this was an impressive 46000 kgs which we were told was as heavy as a Boeing 767 fully laden so you can imagine what a sight this was. The show turned out to be the most spectacular live show that we had ever seen.

Dave & Geri were stunned by the overall immensity of the production, it was certainly the most daring choreography ever attempted on stage as all dancers were attached to cables operated by riggers so they had to be precise with the operation of the cables to land the dancers back on the rotating platform-simply brilliant.

After the show we all enjoyed a lovely Dinner over at the Mandalay Bay Resort in their " Raffles Restaurant " before returning to our suite to take in as much of the atmosphere as we could before our departure next morning. We had breakfast in the MGM before Dave & Geri dropped us off at the airport to catch our flight to Salt Lake City to visit Jerry & Carol Allen. We will catch up next from Salt Lake.

Our time in Europe

2007-01-25T16:14:00.000-08:00

Thought that I should bring you all up to date with our movements since leaving France on the 5th January.

Our 1st stop was Budapest in Hungary & while the city itself has some great architecture & lovely old buildings it was a very depressing place to visit. I remember working with a Hungarian lady in the 60's ( her family had fled Hungary to escape the Russian invasion of 1956 ) & she just hated them for what they had done to her country. I remember in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics during the water polo game between Hungary & USSR that there was no love lost between the teams with players on both sides emerging from the water with blood pouring down their faces, very dramatic.

From that time until their final departure in 1989 the Russians have obviously bled the economy dry as there seems to have been no major developments or economic growth that has taken place as the whole city seems to have been caught in a time warp & is certainly an ecomony well behind the majority of the rest of Europe, we also failed to see much enthusiasm in the people at all.

All the museums & other stately buildings are all in need of a good clean as everything is grey & rundown certainly in need of a good coat of paint. The city itself has loads of potential but until they do something positive like cleaning up all the graffiti & general rubbish in the streets they will suffer in their tourist industry. Even after all of that we were glad that we saw Budapest.

Our next stop was Vienna & what a complete change that was, everything was spotless with nice wide roads with lovely cafes & restaurants with plenty of bars dotted around the area. We took a couple of tours while we were there including a half day to Schonnbrun Castle which is absolutely stunning & is set in hundreds of acres of beautiful gardens, unfortunately being Winter there were no flowers out in bloom but one could imagine just how spectacukar it would be in Spring & Summer.

We also took a trip into the Vienna woods outside Vienna where we visited the old Hunting Lodge that was once owned by the " Hapsburgs " & then onto an underground lake which was originally a limestone mine before water from a spring broke through & flooded the mine, these days it is a tourist attraction. We loved the beautiful buildings that adorn the city centre & make this one of the reasons why so many people visit each year.

Our 3rd stop was Prague in the Czech Republic & was a real eye opener, not only from an architectural point of view but from a cultural one as well as it has a very strong Jewish history over the years even though that has changed as there are only a handfull living in Prague these days. It was probably the most interesting city to walk around as there was plenty to see & digest with many buildings & monuments reflecting their colourful history.

As Czechoslavakia back in 1968 they were also invaded by Russia under the guise of the Warsaw Pact & thankfully no one was killed during this period even though the Russians had captured Alexander Dupcech's children & would have killed them had he not agreed to their terms to enter the country. They finally got kicked out in 1989 when the USSR collapsed. The city is full of very nice & relatively cheap bars & restaurants so we would highly recommend to go there.

We then had 5 days in that amazing place New York, what can one say there is so much to do there & where we were was so central, our hotel was at 33rd Street & 8th Avenue at the Pennsylvania Hotel which is across the road from Madison Square Gardens & about 10 blocks from Times Square so we couldn't have had a better location.

We had 4 full days there so we tried to use our time as well as we could, we took a 48hr bus pass which allowed us to go around 4 different areas of N.Y. including one to the Nth of the island up around the Central Park & Harlem area, one to the Sth around " Ground Zero ", Chinatown, Little Italy, Greenwhich Village & Soho. The 3rd took us across the Manhattan Bridge to Brooklyn which in itself a very interesting part of N.Y. life. Included in the same ticket were entrance to the Empire State building & the Statue of Liberty all for $US 156.00 for the 2 of us really great value.

It was a quick stop in Toronto as we wanted to take the trip to Niagara Falls & we were so glad we did as it turned out to be awesome. I didn't mention earlier but in all our time in Europe it hadn't snowed as it has been one of the mildest Winters for 100's of years. We finally had some on arrival in Toronto & the temperature was hovering around -4 degrees C. Niagara was just spectacular all covered with snow with ice formed around all the trees quite bizarre but truelly magnificent & as I said before the power of the water going over the falls is just mind-boggling.

We also went down under the falls in their tunnel system just to view the falls down at the bottom & you could feel the vibration of the water as it passed overhead, what power. It must be even more spectacular in Summer because they reduce the volume of water going over the falls in Winter to 19 million gallons/ minute ( 85 million litres/ minute ) instead of 34 million gallons or 150 million litres/ minute during the Summer, evidently that is enough to fill 1 million bath tubs/ minute.

Seeing this amazing performance certainly makes it one of the wonders of the world & one should get to see it during their lifetime, we were completely blown away by its power & beauty.

We are currently in Vancouver & are loving just walking around this most beautiful city which is set in a lovely setting, the city is set around a series of bays with a mountain range situated directly behind Nth Vancouver, the view at night from our 38th floor Hotel room is quite spectacular with a number of ski slopes open, the closest being less than an hour from the centre of town. We have once again utilised the " Hop on- Hop off " bus to get ourselves around as we find them the best value when we have limited time here.

We leave here on Saturday 27th for Tucson where we will spend some time with our dear friends Dave & Geri Thomas (ex-Bougainville & Sydney ) showing us parts of their state of Arizona, while there we will also be visiting another couple from Bougainville, Carol & Jerry Allen who live in Salt Lake City so it will be nice to see them after nearly 30 years, for you that may have been in Bougainville you would have remembered Jerry as the Goodyear Tyre Manager & Carol was the B.C.L. company photographer so there will be lots to catch up on in Tucson & SLC.

Sorry for the delay in sending today's posting but getting an internet cafe is not always that easy so I hope this brings you up to date with our movements,best wishes to all.

Until our next posting, Harv & Sar.

Around London & Edinburgh

2006-12-27T02:39:00.000-08:00

We were finally on our way to see Tom in London but not by plane that had been mucked up by Air N.Z. so we were now going over by the TGV ( very fast train ) leaving from Gare du Nord & arriving at Waterloo in London.

It was a wet & early start on our day of departure getting up at 5.00am for a 7.00am exit from Paris, right on time I might add & as we discovered this is the best way to travel between Paris & London because the time you take to get to Charles de Gaulle just outside Paris, catch a flight to Heathrow & then take the connecting tube train into central London would take approximately the same time as the TGV.

It travels at close to 300kms/hour from Paris to the under channel tunnel, this then takes 20 minutes to traverse before it slows down once we were on the English side from there it is also non-stop into Waterloo, the whole trip completed in around 3 hrs.

One major thing was quite evident to us as we approached the outskirts of London just how dirty & drab London was compared to Paris qite a marked difference between the 2 cities.

We managed to get to Tom's office just near Farringdon underground station where we left our luggage & then headed to Madame Toussards to see all the famous wax figures of statesmen & movie ( check out the pics of Sara & Brad Pitt & me with Marilyn ) stars throughout the years. We had to queue for about an hour before finally getting inside, it turned out to be a most fascinating collection people from all around the world.

We then took the time to pay a visit to " Liz " at Buckingham Palace before walking back along Bond St to Oxford St. By this time it was starting to get dark & it was only 4.15pm quite unusual seeing it get dark this early.

Saturday 8th December saw us invited by Tom to have lunch at the " Reindeer Restaurant "which had been set up in a vacant warehouse & was only open for the festive season so it was hard to get a reservation, it turned out to be just fantastic, great atmosphere & great cuisine, something like that would do well in Melbourne around chrissy time.

From there it was a race against time as we had to get to the " London Eye " as Tom had booked a specific time over the phone, as it turned out so had everyone else so we still had to stand in a snake-like line for more than an hour. The " Eye " is the biggest ferris wheel in the world reaching a height of 135metres above the Thames ( see the pic ) & the view afforded from the top is absolutely brilliant & one revolution takes about 45 minutes, each capsule can hold more than 12 people at a time & are probably similar to the ones used on the ski slopes, a most awe inspiring ride.

Over the next couple of days we did the touristy thing & visited Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square, Harrods department store ( which is owned by Mahommed Al Fayed ) with a lot of the interior done in beautiful marble & granite depicting Pharoahs & their gods, it was as if you were visiting one of their palaces in Egypt, it must have cost millions.

We also managed to get to see 2 of the best Museums that we have visited on our trip namely the Victoria & Albert Museum in Sth Kensington & the British Museum up in Russell Square, it would take 2 or 3 full days at each to do them justice.

Our departure for Edinburgh was also an early one leaving at 7.00 am, & once again spot on time. The trip took us through a variety of countryside from the very industrial midlands to the soft rolling hills of northern England, as we approached Edinburgh the train skirted the cliffs just above the sea so it was quite open & spectacular with a number of links golf courses dotted along the coastline one could imagine just how hard it would be to play out there on a windy & rainy day, not pleasant.

After dropping off our luggage we walked down the main street Princes' street & up to Edinburgh Castle, it was bitterly cold walking around the exterior as it is perched high up on a volcanic outcrop & therefore quite exposed to the elements, never the less we enjoyed discovering the rich history of these tough Celts who have always stood very proud against the ever oppressive English.

The next day saw us visiting the Royal yacht " Britannia " which was de-commisioned back in 1997 & is now permanently moored at Leith harbour, it was a reminder of just how the royals lived away from their palaces, nothing was spared to make their time on board as comfortable as possible & one could just imagine how many famous people have graced the yacht with their presence. It was certainly worth the couple of hours looking over her.

With the temperature hovering around 3 or 4 degrees we went down to check out the German Xmas market which is set up each year in the gardens near Princes' street & has some 40 or 50 stalls set up selling all sorts of " goodies " including cakes, crockery, bratwurst & sauekraut rolls, beer & of course " gluewein " which we grabbed quickly to warm our insides.

On Sunday 17th December we went to see the Queens' official residence in Edinburgh at Holyroodhouse Palace. It turned out to be well done & gave one a good inside into the royals history over the past 500 years, each summer the Queen hosts a garden party for some 8000 invited guests. From there we just meandered through the streets back to the centre & took in some Scottish culture by visiting both the National Arts & the National Gallery both full of some exceptional pieces of work. That night the 3 of us enjoyed a very nice meal in beautiful surroundings at the George Hotel in their " Tempus Restaurant ".

We were sad to leave Edinburgh as it is a lovely city & still quite compact by world standards, the trip back was un-eventful & we arrived in London at 9.00 pm. The last couple of days in London saw us at Portobello Road, Notting Hill ( as in the film ) where we saw some absolute mansions, we looked in one of the local real estate windows only to see that to buy one of these gems you would need £ 2,500000.00 or $AUD 6,250000.00 just a little out of our league, we also got to Tower Bridge ( see pic ) but it was too late in the afternoon to go through the Tower of London so that will have to wait for our next visit to this bustling & vibrant city.

We said our goodbyes to Tom & thanked him for his generosity during our stay in London, we arrived back into Paris on time at 4.00 pm after a most enjoyable couple of weeks.
The following day I had some good news on my leg, the doppler scan revealed that the clot had now reduced in size significantly enough for me to travel in January but I still had to keep taking the anti-coagulant & wear the full length stocking each day until we return to OZ.

We enjoyed a very different Xmas this year being much colder than we normally experience
( but no snow up until now ) it is nice walking around nicely rugged up with your gloves, hat & scarf & we now look forward to visiting Budapest, Vienna, Prague & Zurich on our way home.

Sara & I wish all of you a very Happy & safe 2007, hopefully during our time on the way back we can squeeze in posting to keep you up to date. Until next time.

Our time in gay Paree

2006-12-26T04:48:00.000-08:00

Well people I thought that I should bring you up to date with our travels since my last posting back in November.

Our drive up from Mareuil was without incident except that we got a little lost driving through Fontainbleu but still managed to get to Orly Airport to drop off the car to Peugoet.

As usual our dear friends Roger & Christiane were there to meet us, we had travelled 9200kms in the 3 months & had seen some amazing countryside & the car had performed superbly over the entire period returning amazing economy of 19.4kms/litre.

We just relaxed over the next couple of days taking in the ultra mild French autumn with beautiful blue skies, it was a real treat to just walk around taking in all the magnificent sights of this spectacular city. We did receive some disturbing news from Alana that our dear friend Dottie had had a stroke during the week & was currently in the Alfred Hospital, we just hope that she makes a full recovery very soon.

We also caught up with Tim Lyons ( Hazel & Tony's nephew ) & had a nice meal at a local Italian restaurant just near our apartment.We also had the opportunity to go to Champagne with R & C to visit a small producer called Lete-Vautrain, great quality but only produces 75000 bottles per year so only for local consumption.

We decided to buy a weekly ticket for the train & bus as it works out to be very cheap & would recommend that anyone coming to visit Paris for an extended stay purchase one. This new freedom allowed us to discover places like the Jardin du Plante which houses the Musee Nationale d'Histoire Naturelle Grande Galerie de l'Evolution, what a mouthful but a wonderful display of animals & skeletons from all around the world.

From there it was to the Catacombes ( see pic ) a very interesting but macarbe assembly of skulls & bones from various cemeteries around Paris placed there after mining ceased in an underground mine back in the early 1800's to make way for land that was needed for an expanding Paris, quite incredible. The view from the Arc de Triomph is superb as it takes in the whole 360 degrees spectrum with each avenue splaying out like 12 spokes of a bicycle wheel, a magic sight to behold. The Champs Elysee ( thats us with Arc de Triomph in the background ) itself is a beautiful boulevard it's easy to see why millions of tourists pass down this street each year.

Another way of seeing another side of Paris is to take a ride on the Bateaux Mouche or river boat that passes by a lot of the great buildings & landmarks that line the Seine, from there we took the bus to Isle de Cite which is where the original city of Paris first started back in the 7th or 8th century but was then known as Lutece.If you want to go back much further in their history you can trace their beginnings to the Gallo-Roman times when the tribe called Parisii were here in 52BC, so you can see they have a long tradition to call on

In this same area is the Place de Vosges where the royals held court for many years, one of the most famous people to live in this very upper class sector was the famous writer Victor Hugo who lived here from 1826 to 1851 before he was exiled to Guernsey for his views against the then Emperor Napoleon 3. He returned to France when Napoleon was ousted in 1870.

One of the most interesting things we have done in Paris was to visit " les Egouts " or the underground sewers that service this vast metropolis.Until the middle ages, the drinking water in Paris was taken from the Seine, wastewater was poured on to fields or unpaved streets,& finally filtered back into the Seine.

Around 1200, Philippe Auguste had the Parisian streets paved, incorporating a drain for waste water in their middle. In 1370, Hugues Aubriot, a Parisian provost, had a vaulted, stone-walled sewer built in the " rue Montmarte ". This sewer collected the waste water & took it to the
" Menilmontant " brook, however the wastewater was still drained in the open air.

Under the reign of Louis 14th, a large ring sewer was built on the right bank & the Bievre river was used as a sewer for the left bank of the Seine. Under Napoleon 1st, the first Parisian vaulted sewer network was built ( 30km long ).

It was only in 1850 that baron Haussmann, the prefect for the Seine & the engineer Eugene Belgrand designed the present Parisian sewer & water supply networks. Thus was built more than a century ago a double water supply network ( one for drinking water & one for non drinking water ) & a sewer network the length of which was 600km in 1878.

Belgrand's successors went on extending the Parisian network from 1914 to 1977 with more than 1000km of new sewers being built. No other city in the world has a sewer network like the one found in Paris, it now has 2100km of tunnels. Every day 1.2 million cubic metres of waste water have to be collected. Every year 15000 cubic metres of solid waste are taken out & disposed of.

A general sewerage treatment programme designed to meet the needs for 50 years was drawn up & became state-approved in 1935, this was the beginning of industrial sewerage treatment.
Since then the Acheres plant has gone on growing, at the end of 1970 it was one of the biggest sewerage treatment plants in Europe with a capacity of more than 2 million cubic metres/day.

I know that was a longed winded explanation of a subject that is normally not referred to but I thought that it was such an interesting visit that you all should know about it.

We also took a day trip down to Chateau Fontainbleu & this turned out to be the most opulent of all the Chateaux ( see the 2 pics ) that we have visited during our time here, it would be too difficult to describe just how ornate the furniture, jewellery, paintings, tapestries are plus the magnificent gardens only surpassed by the gardens at Versailles. This was the Chateau that Napoleon signed his abdication & bid a final farewell to his generals before he entered exile on the island of Elba.
My next posting will be from our time in the U.K.

The Chateaux - some historical information for you.

2006-11-11T22:57:00.000-08:00

I decided to dig out some pertinent facts on 4 of the main Chateaux in the immediate area for any of you who have an historical bent. There are many more Chateaux that all have a story to tell but thought that I would concentrate on the following as I feel that they are the most popular.

CHAMBORD: ( The one with 4 large towers-top left )
The young King Francois 1st was 25 years old in 1519 when he initiated the huge enterprise of building the Chateau of Chambord. England at that time was being affected by major changes in continental Europe: conflicts engendered by the Reformation were troubling the kingdom & Renaissance tastes were being adapted through the Tudor style of architecture as seen in Somerset House.

As soon as he acceded to the throne in 1515, Francois 1st set out to reconquer the Italian province of Milan, which his predecessor, Louis 12th, had lost. On his return to France, this ambitious young king & very keen huntsman, stimulated by his victory at Marignano & influenced by Italy's Renaissance architecture, undertook to build the Chateau of Chambord.

Chambord was intended as a hunting lodge but its architecture makes it an extravagant chateau since it is 156m long & 56m tall with 77 staircases, 282 fireplaces & 426 rooms. Yet despite these vast dimensions, from the outside the chateau still appears delightfully graceful & well balanced. Of all the materials used in its construction, it is the " tufa " that really catches the eye; although employed at most Loire Valley sites, it is definately at Chambord that this calcareous stone, soft & friable, was worked with greatest virtuosity.

Francois 1st reigned for 32 yrs, during which he spent only 72 days at Chambord; he never saw his project completed for on his death in 1547 only the keep & the royal wing had been finished.During this time Francois 1st kept 1800 workers & artisans busy for 15 years. It was his son Henry 2nd, & Louis 14th, both likewise fond of hunting, who were responsible for making Chambord look the way we see it today.

Two other interesting facts about the chateau :
Tha chateau's famed double -helix staircase, attributed by some to Leonardo da Vinci who lived in Amboise ( 34 km S-W ) at the invitation of Francois 1st from 1516 until his death 3 yrs later, consists of 2 spiral staircases that wind around a central axis but never meet. The ornamentation is early French Renaissance.
The chateau is in the middle of the " Domaine National de Chambord ", a 54 sq-km hunting preserve reserved solely for the use of the president of France ( a right that Jacques Chirac has chosen not to exercise. A 32km stone wall built between 1542 & 1645 surrounds the estate.

CHENONCEAU: ( It straddles the Cher River )
Chenonceau's vast park, landscaped gardens & forests covering an area of 70 hectares either side of the River Cher, afford stunning views of the chateau exterior. Alongside the famed gardens of Diane de Poitiers & Catherine de Medicis there is also a beautifully restored 16th century farm to explore.

Nowhere is the power of the Renaissance woman more obvious than at Chenonceau, an architectural & horticultural feat that rose purely from the efforts of 5 strong-willed women. As royal mistress to Henry 2nd ( Francois 1st son ) the beautiful & brilliant Diane de Poitiers
( 1499-1566 ) was showered with fabulous gifts by the king - who made her a duchess & on the death of her cuckold husband in 1547 - gave her Chateau de Chenonceau. Thus the riverside chateau was transformed into a palace fit for a queen. A bridge was built across the river & 12000m of low lying land were raised to create a royal garden. Today 12 gardeners ensure that its vast lawn is cut 70 times a year & its beds potted out with 32000 plants twice yearly.

Ironically, Diane de Poitiers failed to realise her ambitious 5 yr landscaping project. In 1559 Henry 2nd died, prompting his royal mistress to cede the chateau to her archrival, the queen: Catherine de Medicis ( 1519-1589 ) & move to the less spectacular but still very impressive Chateau de Chaumont where she resided until she died in 1566.

Louise de Lorraine ( 1553-1601 ) cast a grey cloud over Chenonceau. Her husband, Henry 3rd, was assassinated the same year she inherited it from Catherine de Medicis, prompting the bereaved queen to drape its interior in black while donning nothing but white - the royal colour of mourning - herself. With the death of " la dame blanche " ( the white lady ) Chenonceau passed into the hands of Louise's neice, Francoise de Lorraine, & thus oput of royal hands.

The flamboyant Louise Dupin ( 1706-1799 ) , daughter of an actress, was the 4th femme fatale to leave her indelible mark on Chenonceau. She brought Jean-Jacques Rousseau to Chenonceau as a tutor for her son. During the French Revolution, the affection with which the peasantry regarded Madame Dupin saved the chateau from the violent fate of many of its neighbours. She finally died at the ripe old age of 93.

UNder Marguerite Pelouze from 1864, a rigorous renovation project aimed at restoring Chenonceau 16th century form was embarked upon. In1888 Pelouze was declared bankrupt, paving the way for the 1st male proprietor - industrialist & chocolatier Henri Menier - to adopt Chateau de Chenonceau as his queen.

VALENCAY ( the one with the beautiful garden above )
In 1540 on the ruins of a 12th century medieval castle, Jacques d'Etampes built a great chateau to rival the string of royal chateaux that were then being built along the Loire river Valley. Along with the Chateaux at Chambord & Chenonceau, its keep is one of the finest masterpieces of French Renaissance architecture.

In 1770, Louis 15th's farmer general Legendre de Villemorien extended the west wing by adding a roof " a la Mansart ", together with domes on the top of the corner towers, he also added a classical facade in the main courtyard.

In 1803, Napoleon's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, purchased Valencay so that he could entertain guests of honour. It was from there that from 1808-1814 the Princes of the Spanish Royal family took residence, following Napoleon's orders.

At the time, it was one of the 3 biggest estates in France, comprising 12000 hectares of land, 100 farms, as well as fields, vineyards & woodland together with a closed park covering 100 hect. After Talleyrand's death in 1838, the estate remained in the hands of his heirs until 1979.

CHEVERNY: ( The photo looking straight down the avenue to the chateau )
Cheverny, one of the best known Loire chateaux, belongs to the descendants of the Hurault family, well known in Blois from the 13th century. This family of financiers & officers has given distinguished service to 5 kings of France, including Jacques ( Treasurer to Louis 12th ), Philippe ( Chancellor to Henri 3rd & Henri 4th ) & his son Henri, Count of Cheverny, the builder of the chateau.

An officer of King Louis 13th, Count Henri & his Countess Marguerite decided to build a new chateau, inspired by the work of the best artists of the period. Cheverny's architect Boyer of Blois & its painter & decorator Jean Monier had worked for Queen Marie de Medici at the Chateau of Blois & the Luxembourg Palace in Paris. Cheverny was in the forefront of architectural development & can be said to have invented the French style in 1630-1640.

The Chateau, which is richly furnished, is still owned by the Hurault de Vibraye family, descendants of the original builders. Each suceeding generation has enhanced, maintained & preserved the beauty & character of the Chateau of Count Henri, guided by their own taste & that of the period. Hope this extra information has been helpful to you, until next time.

Up in Paris & Tom's visit from London.

2006-11-07T00:12:00.000-08:00

Life got back to normal after Kath's departure & we now looked forward to our nephew Tom Ledwidges' visit on Sunday 22nd October.

It was Monday 16thOctober & was just starting my walk down to get the baguette for our breakfast & had walked about 20m when I felt a sharp pain in my left leg right behind the knee, at first I thought that it was a cramp so I did some stretching & then continued on, by the time I had arrived back at the house the leg had become quite painful.

During the morning I elevated it & applied an ice pack & when Roger & Christiane arrived she gave me a stretch elastic knee support to put on, during the next couple of days it improved marginally & as we were going to Paris for the meeting for our Carte de Sejour Roger on Thursday 19th Oct. @ 9.30am.

D-day arrived & we were on our way to the prefecture for our appointment, we arrived with time to spare but like any government department until nearly 10.30am. We sat down as the staff member thumbed through our paperwork, after a minute or so she retorted & said " where are the originals ", Sara explained that they had to be sent back to Sydney with the other 5 copies & the original is still in Sydney. She said that wasn't her concern & anyway why hadn't we had all the in English translated to French, plus we should have set up a bank a/c in France.

By this time we were both quite agitated & in one of the few times that I've ever seen Sara " crack it " she demanded all our papers back as we weren't interested in persuing this matter any further, this took the girl by surprise as I guess no one had ever stood up to her. She then said that Australians normally only stay 3mths & then leave it was unusual to apply to stay longer. She went away to discuss it with her superior & then came back & begrudgingly gave us an extension of 3mths to the 18th January but then had to sign an attestation that we wouldn't return again to apply for our Carte de Sejour - what a joke. Sara then demanded that we take a copy of all the paperwork as we now had no record left, she virtually threw the papers back at Sara.

After that Sara just placed the papers back on her desk & we left, we were nearly out the front door when a young lady said that we had to go back, our friend accused Sara of taking the front page, Sara said that she hadn't given to us, she disagreed, Sara saw it sticking out from the side of her computer & let her know in Sara's own tactful way. After that we all needed a drink so we went to nice bar/restaurant & had beers ( see pic ) for us 3 & a coffee for Christiane. To give you an idea of the cost we had 2 x 500ml Leffe, 1 x 250ml Leffe & the coffee & it cost E27.00 ( $A 45.80 ) but it was worth it just to be out of that situation.

Roger made an appointment with his doctor on Friday & after his examination he put me onto an aspirin based tablet to be taken 3 times a day. The following day I had a doppler scan to get a more accurate assessment - bingo, it confirmed that I had suffered a " phlebitis " in the leg.
Roger's doctor then put me onto a course of 8 innohep ( blood thinning ) injections to assist in the recovery of the leg, I didn't look forward to sticking needles in myself but to alleviate the pain it was going to be worth it.

Our trip to Tours Airport was straight forward as we had previously driven there to check out its location, Tom arrived on time but it took time to get through the luggage pick-up. It was great to see him as we hadn't seen him since his trip to OZ late last year. We stopped for lunch on the way home ( see pic ) this gave me a chance to stretch my leg. The weather was just perfect during this week so we all enjoyed the warm sun as we walked around these amazing Chateaux.

On the Tuesday we went to Montrichard for lunch & then drove to the small village of Bourre where they use to mine the " toufa " stone ( a type of limestone ) used in the construction of the Chateaux in the Loire Valley, the mine eventually ceased production in the 1920's as it was getting too dangerous & could underpin the housing in the village if they continued. Since then an Italian sculture has made an amazing underground village carved into the rockface & it only took him 3 yrs to complete, & he did it all in his spare time. ( see pic )

Trips to Chateau Valencay, Loches market ( where we bought fresh mussels & unshucked oysters as well as some lovely cheeses ), Chenonceau & Chambord (see pic )hopefully made Tom's stay here a memorable one ( I rested while they looked at these monuments & read my book ).
We have also had a couple of nights out for dinner, one at Chez Constant in St. Aignan ( see pic )& the other at Auberge Ferme ( farmhouse restaurant ) just a couple of kms up the back road from Mareuil, both very relaxing.

We drove into Tours with plenty of time for Tom to look around the " old ville " before he left at 1.45pm, he really enjoyed the atmosphere of the area & spent time wandering through their
" bric-a brac " market before heading to the airport. It was lovely to have him stay & we looked forward to seeing him in London during December.

Since our return to Mareuil I have had another doppler scan, 2 blood tests, 2 doctor's visits which have resulted with me continuing the injections & buying a full length cosmetic stocking to help control the blood flow-what a bummer. I am scheduled to have another blood test in the morning ( Thur.9th Nov. ) & then the doctor on Friday so hopefully I will get the all-clear & wont need any more injections. We do have another scan on Monday 13th Nov at Selles-sur-Cher so we are also looking for a positive result, we will then take scan with us to Paris when we leave here on Tuesday 14th November.

It has certainly been a fantastic experience living in a small village in the French countryside but we have seen all that we need to see in this area & we now look forward to our next phase in Paris & London. During our time in Paris we will be catching up with Tim Lyons ( Hazel & Tony's ) nephew & Matthew Logan ( Sara's cousin Bev's son ) . There are still many museums, monuments, famous streets etc to visit so I'm sure that our time will be taken up adequately.

We are also looking forward to experiencing Xmas & New Year in Paris & the cold chill of their Winter, it has just started to get cold in Mareuil over the past week with the overnight temperature dropping to zero but with beautiful clear blue skies during the day with a max. of 12-15c.

Dont think that you have got rid of us this easy as we will still be sending postings from Paris or other destinations during our time away. Until next blogger.

A visit from herself - K.M.B.Sheedy ffcs-bls.

2006-11-05T23:32:00.000-08:00

With our trip now over we settled back into our normal pattern of " home " life with shopping & washing to be done, I caught up with reconciling all our expenses while we were away & answered ( or more correctly deleted ) most of the 80 or so emails that had accumulated over that period. After so many kms the car also needed a good wash & vacuum out, by the end it looked as good as new again.

The week passed rather quickly as we were looking forward to Kaths impending visit next Tuesday. Would you believe it, the weather had completely changed during this week as we now enjoyed beautiful warm days bathed in sunshine & not a cloud in the sky.

It was Monday 10th October just after b/fast & we were relaxing just getting ready for Kath's arrival tomorrow at Tours when the phone rang- guess who, it was Kath, & she had already arrived at Orly & was about to find out when her train would be leaving for Tours & would ring us back. Ten minutes later we knew, it was 1.00pm so we were stung into action.

Tours ( 270000 ) is about 55kms from here & took us a little over an hour, with time to spare we discovered the gem of Tours, the old part of the city. During this time we stopped for a coffee in a lovely square lined with large sun umbrellas ( parasols ) dotted around the area but still allowing people to bask in the warmth of France's " Indian Summer ", from where we were sitting we could see the old 14th century buildings ( see pic above ) that faced into the square giving the area a unique blend of old & new.

Kath rang back to say that her train would actually be arriving into St-Pierre-des-Corps ( the station before Tours ) & only 3kms to the east, we found our way there & waited for her arrival.
The train arrived right on time & we waited with excitement to see Kath, but after seeing people get off & no Kath we were concerned, so we then went to the next platform to look. Sara decided to go downstairs to the lounge area & sure enough she was there, it was great to see someone from home after nearly 3mths away. Unfortunately Kath had committed the cardinal sin that we all make & that was to pack too much luggage ( but that did include 4 books for Sara to read plus a litre bottle of Ballantines ) so all was forgiven. On our way back Kath said that she had had a great time on her walking tour in the Lakes District in the U.K. & after that in Budapest, Munich & Prague. We stopped for a welcome cuppa ( for Kath or " Ms Bushell ) & a bite to eat before wending our way back to Mareuil.

Over the next couple of days we took her to Chateau Chenonceau, Chateau Cheverny ( see pic of K & H ), Chambord as well as a nice dinner ( see pic ) at Chez Constant in St-Aignan & a lovely lunch in the Auberge Chateau Montpoupon where the decor, ambience & the food were just so well done unfortunately being 4 courses it was far too much for all of us so we just sat around & chatted that night. We left by 10.00am for the trip back to Tours arriving a little after 11.00am in plenty of time, we waited until she left at 12.10pm & thanked her for visiting us. We reflected later in the day that by the time that we had arrived back in Mareuil she would have already been at Montparnasse with the TGV train ( they travel at up to 300km/hr ). Our next visitore would be Roger & Christiane on Monday afternoon. See you soon.

Sancerre to Mareuil-sur-Cher.

2006-11-05T00:06:00.000-08:00

The morning was much better ( see pic to the left outside our B & B ) as the rain had cleared & in its place was quite a heavy fog but even that was a welcome change from the previous couple of days. After b/fast we decided to take a look around this fascinating village. ( see the pics of the town square & surrounding hills ).

The tourism office had come up with a unique way of discovering their town, they had painted a burgundy line on certain streets directing you to 28 points of interest around the town, each point giving you a piece of history, we thought a very clever idea for tourists to just walk around at their liesure uncovering some of the secrets.

One of the stops was at the Maison des Sancerre which is an old building ( come to think of if, what isn't old in these parts ) that was bought & restored by the local winemakers of Sancerre to present to the visitor the history of making wine in & around the Sancerre region.

For all you wine buffs reading this there is quite an amazing history concerning the growing of grapes in this area. Evidence of the existence of vines in Sancerre is given by Gregory of Tours in 582AD in his " Historiae Franconum " & later in the 12th century in vine was given added impetus throught the combined efforts of the Augustine monks at St-Satur & the ruling counts of Sancerre.At the time, Sancerre was famous for its red wine, produced predominantly from the Pinot Noir grape & was often mentioned in accounts of life at the royal court, in fact in the opinion of Duke Jean de Berry, indeed the finest wine to be found in the entire kingdom.

In more modern times, cultivation of the vine has undergone some major changes. The original vineyards which were mainly Pinot Noir were destroyed by phylloxera & the end of the 19th century. Sauvignon Blanc has been widely planted & is particularly suited to the local climate, so much so that through the " terroir " ( the land & soil type basically ) & the skill of the winemaker thet have now created one of the world's great white wine. For the technically minded, there are 3 types of soil that dominate the Sancerre region :-

( a ) Clay & limestone white soils, the " terres blanches ", found in the hills furthest west
( b ) Pebbly limestone soils, known locally as the " caillottes "
( c ) Siliceous-clay soils, underlying the hills further east.

After a great lunch at the local pub in Menetreol-sous-Sancerre located just below Sancerre we then drove to the next village of Thauvenay at Domaine Serge Laloue to try & buy some of the famous Sauvignon Blanc of Sancerre. After a pleasant interlude there we started on our last leg. After an hour or so we had reached the ring road around Bourges, from there to Vierzon & we knew that Mareuil was not far away. We finally drove into " our home " away from home at about 5.45pm after covering nearly 4200kms in a shade under 3 wks. We had seen some fabulous countryside & scenery during this time but were now quite happy to relax & wait for our friend Kath Sheedy to arrive next week. a la prochain ( until the next ).

From Avallon to Chablis & Sancerre.

2006-11-03T23:28:00.000-08:00

Breakfast in the old mill at Le Moulin des Templiers was lovely but unfortunately the weather was starting to change as it was still drizzling as we left for Avallon. By the time we arrived there it was heavy rain so we passed through there onto Nitry before arriving at Tonnere.
Thankfully the rain had subsided so we could get to see a most unusual piece of nature at work called " Fosse Dionne " where situated right behind some housing in the centre of town is this natural spring that gushes 100l/sec of water evidently its weird blue/green tint hints at its great depth. The pool is surrounded by an 18th century washing house & a semi-circle of ancient houses. Legend has it that a serpent lurks at the bottom of the spring.

As we drove further north through Chaource, Bar-sur-Seine ( yes its part of the same river that runs through Paris ), Brenne-sur-Chateau, Soulaines-Dhuys, Doulevant-le-Chateau to Joinville where we stopped to get some supplies for lunch & fill up the car. We decided to take the preferred scenic route to Ligny-en-Barrois it was such a pity that the rain was now spoiling this beautiful area.

We were going to stay at Bar-de-Duc o/night but once we saw the size of it & the traffic we pushed on through to Saint-Dizier with the same result. We drove a little further south to the small village of Chamouille where we found a very comfortable Farmhouse B & B on the southern end of town. As we didn't wish to go back out to find somewhere to eat we made a nice dinner from our lunchtime supplies & sat back with a bottle of red & watched some tele.

The rain was still persisting as we left so we weren't going to see a lot of the surrounding countryside during the day so we pushed on past Troyes & Sens before heading south to Villeneuve-sur-Yonne ( this is where the French actress Leslie Caron has a lovely Hotel/B & B, we had read about it in a newspaper clipping we had bought from home ). We stopped briefly for coffee & then headed further south. As we entered the outskirts of Chablis we past the large co-operative of la Chablisienne ( that's the label that Vintage Cellars import from Chablis as a private label which is quite good quality for the price ). With the rain still quite steady we found a local cave ( cellar ) to try some of his wines. The cave was Jean-Marc Brocard & we some of their Petite Chablis, Premier & Grand Cru all very nice.

After a very nice interlude tasting these very nice wines from one of the premier regions in France for white wines we headed off with our purchase S-W through Auxerre, Toucy, St-Sauveur-en-Puisaye, Cosne-Cours-sur-Loire then onto Sancerre arriving late in the afternoon, what a sight, perched high above the valley commanding a 360 degree view of the surrounding countryside. That night we walked through the narrow streets where we found a very cosy little restaurant where we both enjoyed Coq-au-vin done in the traditional way with a rich red wine sauce with shallots & mushrooms then enjoyed the walk back to our B & B in the crisp evening air. A beintot posting ( until a later posting ).

The Massif Central region.

2006-10-31T23:29:00.000-08:00

As we came down to b/fast we saw the remaining mountain bikers that had stayed overnight before they moved onto another location tonight, there were also a Swiss hiking couple walking part of a well known track in this part of France, it covers many kilometres through this rugged mountain area. They told us that many French do part of the walk one year & then the following year they start from where they finished the previous year so over a number of years they complete the whole trail.

It was so foggy when we left we were reduced to about 50km/hr for most of the trip north to Villefort, Langogne before reaching Le Puy-en-Velay ( 21000 ) right in the heart of the Massif Central at lunchtime & guess what, everyone was vacating the centre of town & going home for lunch, what a surprise. It is a ritual that we have seen repeated throughout France during our travels, every village or small town virtually become ghost for the times between 12.00-1.30pm, good luck to them I guess at least they are holding onto one of their old traditions & no one likes their food more than the French.

The city has 3 striking volcanic plugs ( called puys ) located around the area, on one of these @ 85m high is the Chapelle St-Michel d'Aiguilhe while on another we have the massive Rocher Corneille which was crowned in 1860 by a very vivid pink/red, 16m high statue of Notre Dame ( Our Lady ) de France ( see pic, sorry that was also in the last posting ) made from melted down cannons captured in the Crimean War - very impressive. The drive into Le Puy was made more spectacular when you saw both of these edifices protruding well above the surrounding city buildings. The climb up to the Cathedral & the giant statue was up very steep cobbled streets but once up there the view was worth it.

We had a bite to eat in the now nearly vacant town, the cars & shoppers were all gone only tourists like us were around. We headed further north to la Chaise Dieu where we filled the car before finding the Abbey Church of St-Robert. The original Abbey was built back in 1044 but was in a bad condition by the 14thentury. Early in the 14th century an 11 year old novice monk, Pierre Roger de Beaufort joined the Abbey & later as Pope Clement 6th he bequeathed funds for the fundamental reconstruction of the Abbey Church. Although sacked by Huguenots ( Protestants ) in 1562, ravaged by fire in 1695 & despoiled by revolutionary mobs in the late 18th century it's still very impressive.

The day was quite foul now as we finally found our lovely B & B which was more like a mini Chateau than a house ( see pics ). We went for a meal in the neighboring town of St Yorre at the Auberge Bourbonnaise which was very enjoyable in pleasant surroundings, the only thing that put us off was the 3 couples that bought their b----- dogs into the restaurant & even though they were well behaved it is just a little off-putting. Just as we were agout to leave the restaurant the rain came down in buckets absolutely torrential stuff, naturally we took our time getting back to our B & B.

I woke to the sound of the alarm & was soon shaved & showered. I looked at my watch & thought that it must have stopped as it was showing 1.30am, unfortunately so was the alarm clock-how stupid as I had obvoiusly dreamed that it rang & got up. Sara had stirred by now & she just said something like " you must be crazy " & went back to sleep, I changed & went back until the real alarm went off at 8.00am, what an experience.

The morning bought no improvement to the weather so we had a quick tour of Vichy before heading due north through Lapalisse, le Donjon, Dompierre, Decize, Moulins-Entilbert before reaching Vezelay ( see pic b/right ) another fortified medievil village high on a ridge overlooking a lovely green valley. We stopped to stretch our legs before finding our Hotel which is situated in the small village of Pontaubert about 8kms south of Avallon. The Hotel is actually an old mill ( see pic ) located right on the river, the mill has been converted into the restaurant for the Hotel so it gave a lot of ambience for the meal that night with its nice open fire & high lofty roof all very special, it was certainly a nice ending to a rather dreary day outside. Ciao for now.

Discovering Baux-de-Provence & further north.

2006-10-30T23:17:00.000-08:00

We caught up with Michael & Laurie at b/fast & had a good chat & exchanged our email & blogger addresses, thanked Mdme Alexandrian for the lovely stay & on our way by 10.00am.

It didn't take long to clear the outskirts of Aix-en-Provence on the motorway swinging S-W through Marignane before heading N-W to Salon-de-Provence & St-Martin-de-Crau. From here it was due north to Maussane-les-Alpilles before arriving at les Baux-de-Provence. What an eye opener this turned out to be because as you approach the site it just looks like a rocky outcrop surrounded by other mountains but once you have walked up from the carpark & into the village it is quite amazing.( see pic bottom right )

This breathtaking fortified medievil village, named after the 245m high " baou " ( rocky spur ) on which it is perched brings in some 2.5 million tourists per year ( thank God that it was after the rush ) .
Tha castle looms over beautiful vineyards & olive groves set beneath these dramatic limestone hills on one side & a picturesque valley on the other. As you enter this hilltop city you walk on narrow cobbled streets lined with old houses, some have now been transformed into shops & restaurants.

Once you reach the top you step out onto a rocky plateau where once a thriving community once stood. They had many crops growing up here & shaped a section of the rock into a flat surface that would collect the rain, from there it was channelled to run to a lower level into a large water reservoir for the cities water supply, very clever stuff.

Unfortunately they ran foul of the king at the time & because their position was so advantageous by being able to view the surrounding valley the king then resorted to starving them out. They managed to hold out for a considerable time before surrendering to hunger & illness, the king was so incensed by their stand that he ordered that the entire city be totally destroyed so what we were seeing today is only part of what once stood there, nevertheless it still gives you some idea of what it would have been like in these very serene surroundings.We found out that in the surrounding hills there was also a lot of bauxite ( for making aluminium ) so obviously the name for the rock came from here.

After nearly 3 hrs discovering this medievil village it was time to move on. Just a little further north was St-Remy de-Provence a lovely town snuggled down in the valley surrounded by vines & olive groves, we would have liked to have spent some time here but our time at Baux left us a bit behind our schedule. We pushed further N-W to Ales an old coal mining town where mining 1st started back in the 13th century when the local monks started digging in the surrounding hills near Ales. The mines finally closed in 1986.

Ales is also the gateway to the Cervennes mountains where back in the early 18th century they had the Camisard Revolt. A guerrila war raged through the Cervennes as Protestants took on Louis 14th's army. Poorly equipped but knowing the countryside intimately they resisted for 2 yrs but once the army got the upper hand the local population was either massacred or they fled. Their leader Roland was killed he was only 22years old. A bit of history for you !

It was starting to get foggy as we negociated the last leg along a windy road in Genolhac.
Once there it was another 6kms of very narrow road along a ridge to our B & B. As we broke out of the surrounding forresr we came across our stay for the night perched high on a ridge with the most spectacular view one could imagine. Once we had settled in we decided not to chance our luck at trying to go down into the village as by now it had become quite foggy & on that track - no way. We had a nice meal supplied by our hosts so it was perfect. It was a fitting ending to a nice day. Until the prochain fois ( next time ).

Down in the Provence.

2006-10-26T22:19:00.000-07:00

We were down to b/fast by 8.30am & saw Gary & Janice chatting to another couple so we sat down & joined them, they were Michael & Laurie Thomas from Detroit. We were soon joined by a French couple who didn't speak English & later an older French couple came for their petite dejeuner, it ended up being quite an International b/fast.

We said our goodbyes to Gary & Janice who were moving on today & exchanged our email addresses & blogger of course.Our hostess gave us directions to get to the parking station at Krypton which was just a little further on from where we had dinner the previous night, for E2.00 per day, from there we took the free bus into the centre of Aix-en-Provence.

What a great service this is, because it takes pressure off the city centre by having less cars entering into it & secondly you get dropped off right in the centre as well, can't beat that.
As it turned out, trying to negociate the myriad of one way streets, all the building construction taking place, plus the lack of parking in general we were glad that we took the bus.

We were in luck, it was market day in Aix & all down the main street of Cours Mirabelle ( see pic ) there were 100's of market stalls selling clothing, jewellery, shoes, handbags & lots of different appliances. We passed them in the bus before getting off to explore this lovely city. Not far from where we left the bus yet another market was in progress but this time it was more a fruit & vegies, spices ( see pics ), a great selection of cheeses & also chicken & meats, off course a you could also get your bread for lunch there. On the opposite side of the square it was set up for the jewellery, old books & clothing, CD's & DVD's, pottery & of course the middle-eastern man trying to sell his rugs & scarfs etc. We bought some cheese, saucisson & bread to have later & continued on our stroll through this very vibrant city.

We must have walked 4-5kms over the next 3 hrs just taking in the ambience of this very temperate region. Aix-en-Provence is one of France's most graceful & popular cities & its University caters for some 30000 students, many of them foreigners undertaking intensive language courses, certainly as we walked around we could recognise many different cultures represented.

By the time we walked back to Cours Mirabelle the market was nearly finished, right on 1.00pm they pack up their wares & are gone within 15 minutes then the street cleaners come in & clean up any rubbish & soon have the main street looking pristine clean, you would never know that there had been a market there - very well organised. We found a nice outdoor restaurant ( see pic ) situated in a large square adorned with tables from the various establishments & shaded with large plane trees. During lunch we sat back & just observed the passing crowd.

We left at 4.30pm after quite an absorbing day, picked up the car & grabbed a bottle of
" Chardy " to have in our B & B with the goodies we had bought earlier in the day. All the walking made us a little weary so we ended up having an early night. Until next posting.

In the French Alps near Italy

2006-10-24T22:29:00.000-07:00

We woke to a much clearer day as the mist had lifted & we could finally see the mountains that surround the perimeter of Briancon.
For a long time this town was a frontier post & overlooks the road to Col de Montgenevre ( 1850m ) an ancient Roman mountain pass which was made into a reliable road by Napoleon, the town's lofty ramparts & sheer walls are more akin to what you would see in northern Burgundy than its Alpine neighbours. Unfortunately there had been no progress with my " internal problem " during the night & it was starting to be a bit of a concern, we would see what today would bring.

Briancon's main claim to fame is at 1320m it is the highest town in Europe & boasts approximately 300 days of sunshine a year.After b/fast we headed up the very steep main street to reach the old village entering through the Porte de Pignerol adaunting gateway hewn from dark stone. The steep main street is known as the Grande Gargouille ( Great Gargoyle ) because of the drain that gushes down its middle while the brightly coloured buildings of earthy reds, pinks & ochre yellows give the town an almost Tuscan feel to it-remembering that the Italian border is only 20kms N-E.

We spend a good couple of hours exploring this most interesting town before heading back down to our B & B. Sara made up some baguette rolls for lunch & then we headed out over the border into Italy. On the way we were watched on both sides of the road by the huge granite edifices that are a little unnerving particularly when back home we have our little foothills in comparison. Sometimes we had the rock canterleaving above our head as we traversed this narrow mountain pass so I made sure to concentrate the whole time.

We were soon across the border into Italy where we stopped at Clavieres to have our lunch & even though it was drizzling rain it was pleasant sitting in the car opposite the ski run that in a couple of months would be subject to hordes of skiers. We drove onto Cessana before heading back to Briancon. Later we changed for dinner & had a meal in the old village ( vieille ville ) in an Algerian Restaurant where we had 2 traditional meals namely the Loup de Crevettes ( fish & prawns ) for Sara while I had the Agneaux Pruneaux ( lamb & prunes caserole) both served with polenta & both very flavoursome. We had a bottle of Cotes de Ventoux to help complete the meal.

I woke a much happier man as during the night " my problem " was finally over, the pills had worked so the rest of the night was very restful.

The morning was fresh & clear with sunshine bathing the whole skyline. We had another great b/fast chatting for a long time with our hostess as she & her husband had spent some time in Cairns back in 1984 & had really enjoyed their time there & hoped to return permanently at some stage in the future.

We left at 10.30am heading south to Gap & Sisteron before stopping for lunch at a nice little park at Village St Jean, from there we pushed & reached the outskirts of Aix-en-Provence @ Les Milles by 3.30pm. This village was so nice, a square surrounded by large plane trees that shaded the whole area making it very relaxing to sit back & enjoy a very welcome beer. Sara asked 2 of the local gentlemen sitting in the square if they knew the B & B but no luck, Sara then rang the lady who said that she would come & show us the way back. We are glad that she did as we wouldn't have found it otherwise.

The surroundings were lovely with nice rustic colours inside our bedroom & bathroom with the floor done in a rectangular terracotta coloured tile while outside there was a terrace with table & chairs where we caught up with some writing & reading before going out for dinner in the next town of Pont d L'Arc. During our time on the terrace we met up with a nice couple from Adelaide, Gary & Janice Chapman who had been on their tour for a month or more. We are sure that we will see them again at some stage in the future.Until next posting

Today we cross the Alps

2006-10-22T20:07:00.000-07:00

We woke to the sound of rain & after opening the volets ( window shutters ) we noticed it was also quite foggy outside but that wasn't the issue as during the night I had developed a serious problem of going to the toilet probably a direct reaction of having the " Baeckeoffe " in Alsace I spelt it Backoff & the " Racquelette " in Geneva I thought it was Rackling so sorry for the misleading reporting.

After a nice breakfast at the Hotel we headed across the road to have a look around Chateau & its surrounding parkland ( 2nd & 3rd pics on the
left ).

The overcast sky combined with the fog & mist created quite an eerie backdrop to this lovely parkland & it was just nice strolling through it looking at all the various types of ducks & swans preening & feeding themselves in a truelly serene surroundings. Unfortunately the local pharmacy wasn't open this Monday morning so we headed out & found one in the next village & promptly took 2 tablets to ease the pain.

We drove onto Le Bourg d'Oisans, from there the ski resort of Alpe d'Huez sits 13km above Bourg d'Oisans & is reached by a steep road ( La Montee de Alpe d'Huez ) which is best known as one of the " classic " ascents often included in the Tour de France cycle race ( it was included in 2006 ). It was a shame that thick fog was now covering the mountain as I'm sure that the surrounding scenery going up the mountain would have been spectacular, unfortunately that didn't stop a couple of " fools " overtaking us going uphill in the fog-some people.

A lot of the bends on this ascent are 1st gear so you can imagine how hard it must be for the cyclists, I have a new appreciation for their fitness & skill just to make it to the top of these gruelling ascents, I'm sure that at the end of each climb that their hearts must be pounding & their legs would be in absolute agony - I take my hat off to them. At 1860m while not being the highest of the mountain climbs it is one of the steepest at 7.9% gradient.

By the time we had reached the finish line of the tour stage we were passing through the ski resort village where, in a couple of months the slopes would be covered with snow with 1000's of ski enthusiasts plying their skills on some of the best sking slopes in France including " La Sarenne " which at 16km is the longest " black " run in the French Alps & experienced skiers can also ski in July & August on glaciers ranging from 2500m to 3330m.

We drove back down to Bourg d'Oisans for a coffee before heading further east to the Col du Lauteret some 40kms through the mountains. It was quite an eerie feeling driving in the fog & mist with these granite giants peering down at us from both sides of the road & made more dramatic by the narrowness in some parts as you just seemed to be clinging to the side of the mountain pass. As we reached the top of the ridge at Col du Lauteret ( 2058m ) it was again raining quite overcast & dark we had a flashing light on the dashboard warning us that it was 3 degrees outside & to be aware of ice at this temperature.

Now the conditions had completely changed because all the surrounding mountains had snow on their peaks & the thought of driving in these conditions just to reach the top of the highest peak in the Tour de France being the Col du Galibier @ 2645m was a little forboding in these conditions so we just took a photo ( see pic ) & headed onto Briancon some 30kms east.
It was spectacular arriving into Briancon with the old part of the town perched on a rocky outcrop like a sentinel guarding the pass between the French Alps & Italy which was only 20kms to the N-E. We found our little B & B in the pretty little vilage of Villard St. Pancrace just 2.5kms south of the town centre. We did some shopping before eating in tonight as I was still having major problems. See next posting,cheers.

Geneva to Lyon & the Rhone Valley

2006-10-14T23:14:00.000-07:00

After a rather late breakfast & a chat we were finally on our way by 10.30am, we said our goodbyes to Bob & Anthea & thanked them for their hospitality & hoped that we could return the favour back in OZ one day.

It took longer than expected to traverse across Geneva but eventually we found the road south & back into France & down to Annecy. We didn't stop at Annecy ( 50000 ) because we had struck the Saturday morning market so we pushed on through to Chambery ( 58000 ) with the same result & even though they were both charming towns we decided to push on towards Lyon.

By late afternoon we decided that it might be better to tackle Lyon in the morning so we stayed just south in Bron at a "Campanile Hotel" which is one of the larger motel type establishments in France. The room was quite comfortable but the meal was not up to the standard of what we had previously enjoyed-c'est la vie.

We were still some 1o kms from Lyon but being a Sunday we had a great run in & were soon on the outskirts of this very large city ( 420000 ) certainly the largest that we had encountered so far. Unfortunately during the approach to Lyon the local gendarmes were diverting traffic away from the centre of town as they were conducting the annual Lyon Marathon so we had to find another way into town. We stuck to our standard approach for all villages & towns by looking for the " centre ville" signs & it didn't let us down as we negociated the drive in & were soon mingling with the traffic on the main boulevard that runs beside the mighty Rhone river.

The layout of Lyon reminded us so much of Paris with the 2 main roads lining the river just like the Seine & a collection of grand buildings adorning both sides it is a very formidable city but a little daunting for a 1st time visitor. Our problems didn't end there however as it was also market day in Lyon, so with that as well & the blockades for the marathon there were no visible carparking spots around so unfortunately we decided to move on south as the whole scene was a getting a little stressful. See the 2 pics on the L-H side above.

On the motorway we had soon put Lyon behind us & were heading to the Rhone Valley. We turned off at Vienne onto a minor road which lead us to the top of the valley at the famous wine village of Ampuis ( see pic ) & then to Condreiu where we stopped for a look around & had some lunch.Once again being a Sunday nothing was open just a little local market but none of the vineyards which was a bit of a pity as it would have been nice to at least try some of these very popular French wines. We continued south onto Tain l'Hermitage where the area's most respected appellations St.Joseph & Hermitage are grown. At the end of our drive through this area we both remarked that it was probably the most uninteresting part of France that we have encountered so far - we turned off before Valence to Romans-sur-Isere & then onto Grenoble.

What an eye-opener this turned out to be we had never seen so many apartment blocks just everywhere you looked. We must have been coming in through a newer part of town as all the roads appeared to be recently surfaced & all the trees lining these streets were still quite small.
Trying to find an exit out was a nightmare but after several attempts we headed to Vizille.

Once in Vizille we managed to find a room in a cute little hotel ( see pic ) in the centre of the village & it was comfy & something a little different. The rain had set in now so it was quite wet & gloomy but we had a lovely meal in a cute restaurant just around the corner from the hotel.
We start our drive through the French Alps tomorrow.

Our time in Switzerland

2006-10-13T12:41:00.000-07:00

After a number of hours catching up with the passing years Bob prepared a traditional Swiss meal for us called " Rackling ", it is made from a particular cheese that is placed in a flat scoop & melted under a grill before you scrape it off with a wooden spatula onto boiled potatoes that have been cut into pieces add some pepper & eat. I have to say it was very different & quite nice but very high in calories & carbs & oh so filling.Unfortunately we didn't get to see Anthea until about 10.30pm as she had been out to her music committee meeting, she produces musical shows as a part-time interest in her spare time while during the day she holds down a very responsible position with the United Nations in Geneva a real vibrant lady.

We both slept very well after this meal & after a very light breakfast headed off with Bob towards Lausanne on the motorway.Nearing Lausanne Bob asked if we had a motorway card, & when I said we didn't he showed some concern because by not having one if we were stopped by the police we could be heavily fined evidently so we exited from there ASAP onto their smaller roads all the way to Gruyeres.

The Chateau at Gruyeres was yet another town surrounded by ramparts & heavy fortifications & was in remarkably good condition, these days it houses many restaurants & shops but also has an interesting tour tracing the history of this spectacular building which is perched on a mountain top high above the valley giving you a view to die for ( check out the pic above ).

After spending nearly 1.5hrs there we headed down to the main town to the cheese factory where they make - yes you guessed it Gruyere cheese. The ensuing tour with the audioguide was very informative we didn't realise that so much went into producing cheese I guess we take all these processes for granted. One fascinating part of the tour was the different types of grasses, flowers & plants that the cows eat during their time in the high mountain passes there must have been at least 20 vials full of different scents of these aromas, quite amazing.

We then watched the process of taking the treated milk from the large copper vat & transfering it into stainless steel circular mould & any excess ( the whey ) is drained off & then over a period of time the mould is compressed. After that it is transfered to a curing rack where it is continually turned until it matured & ready for sale.

We took the lake road back to Bob's which was a lot more interesting than the motorway because at least we got to see the lake & the houses around it, we were surprised to see a lot of grape vines growing so close to the water, in fact I didn't realise that the Swiss had any wine industry at all as we had never tried any before. When we arrived back at the house Bob made sure that we tried the local product, it turned out to be quite palatable.

The next day Bob, Sara & I took a beautifully kept paddle steamer across the lake from Nyon to the small medieval village of Yvoire which is situated on the French side of the lake. It turned out to be yet another picture postcard village with the cobbled streets lined with lovely stone houses & shops, a very tranquil existance. We had lunch at the local creperie before heading back on the afternoon boat to Nyon. Being retired Bob was doing most of the cooking & certainly all of the shopping & tohight he cooked up a mean pasta with a Bolognaise sauce -really good.
Anthea was home earlt today so after dinner we all just sat around & chatted on I think it was about 1.00am before we went off to bed. See next posting.

In the Alsace region near Colmar.

2006-10-13T06:27:00.000-07:00

We continued on the N74 to Langres before turning east towards Lamarche. We had made reasonable time through but would have been better without the number of heavy transports that use these smaller roads rather than pay the toll on the motorways & therefore congesting the road system throughout the whole country.

We finally cleared the congestion & by 1.00pm we had both Contrexville & Epinal behind us. By now the scenery around us was changing with more hills now quite evident & by the time we arrived at St-Die-des-Vosges we had arrived in the mountain area of the Alsace. As we weren't taking the direct road to Colmar we didn't get too phased by the notice that the mountain tunnel through to Colmar was closed & pushed on taking the minor roads along the more picturesque route.
Well, we don't know what we did but we ended up on the wrong road going in the wrong direction completely. Of course we turned back & eventually found our road through to Ribeauville & what a little gem of a place this is it is picture postcard perfect as it is covered with flowers all along the streets as you drive through-it is fantastic. We spent time just taking in this amazing scenery ( all the pics in this blog are from Ribeauville ) & after about an hour we headed about 5kms south to find our B & B in yet another equally as pretty village called Riquewihr. This was probably quainter than Ribeauville as it was mainly a walking only main street with the odd delivery van interupting the peace & quietness.
We booked into our very comfy surroundings & relaxed a while before we headed out for a meal in Riquewihr. We had been told about a local dish called " Bakhoff " that I should try as it was made with 3 meats pork,beef & lamb. When it came to the table I nearly fell off my chair, it was a medium sized casserole dish with the meats plus potatoes & sauekraut filled right to the top.
I tried valiantly to make a dint in this over the top sized meal but gave up after having my fill, it was very flavoursome certainly the type of meal one would have during winter in this part of the world.
After a nice light breakfast we walked around Riquewihr in the morning just to get a better appreciation of this beautiful area. We bought some wine for our friends in Geneva before heading into Colmar for a quick visit. Unfortunately, even though Colmar was a lovely town with an old district it didn't compare with what we had seen on the previous day.
We made very good time on the motorway down to Belfort then to Montbeliard before taking a more scenic route through to Pontarlier, just south of there we crossed into Switzerland & then it was a short drive to Morges which is just west of Lausanne. From there the major motorway took us to where we turned off 20kms east of Geneva to find Bob & Anthea's house in the very nice rural village of Chavannes de Bogis. We quickly located their house & were soon exchanging greetings with Bob. It was great for Bob & Sara to catch up again because it was back in 1972 that they last saw each other when they both worked for the Hotel Tahara'a in Papeete. They enjoyed reminiscing over the good old days at the Hotel. See you.

Around Dijon & then onto the Alsace region

2006-10-09T23:22:00.000-07:00

Once again our breakfast was fantastic, our hostess must be quite a cook as there were new delicacies to be had this morning but this time we made a quick exit, paid our bill & said our goodbyes. We met a lovely older couple from Toulon who said that if we were ever in the area just give them a call & come & stay for a couple of days-so nice of them to offer. Toulon is further around the coast from Marseille towards the Italian border so one never knows.
From Puligny it was a quick trip through Beaune & we were soon passing by more of those famous vineyards in the northern part of the Cote d'Or, first it was Nuits-St.Georges followed by the likes of Vosne-Romanee of Romanee Conti fame then Clos-de-Vougeot with its magnificent Chateau right in the heart of the vineyard, then came Chambolle-Musigny, Morey-St.Denis & Gevrey-Chambertin, I'm sure that Big John, Jeremy Stockman & others that know these wines would love to be let lose for a day or 2 in this part of the world.
As we approached Dijon it was obvious that it was a much larger city ( 240000 ) as traffic had increased significantly but we didn't need to panic as directions were very good & we were soon on the outskirts of Dijon, all we did then was to look for the " centre ville " sign which is the town centre & bingo we were soon in the centre found an underground parking area & ready to discover Dijon.
We walked around the city centre just taking in this very busy & bustling town, we headed to find the Palais de Ducs et des Etats de Bougogne ( Palace of the Dukes & States of Burgundy ). The building received its neoclassical facade in the 17th & 18th centuries when it was the seat of Burgundy's parliament. Today the west wing is occupied by Dijon's city hall while the east wing houses the Musee des Beaux-Arts which is one of the most renowned museums in France - considered by many to be 2nd only to the Louvre. After spending nearly 2.5hrs there we can certainly say it was well worth the visit- the audioguide certainly helps to explain all of the dispalys more clearly.
We sat down & had lunch in front of the Musee in a large plaza with plenty of restaurants with seats lining the semi-circular plaza, quite relaxing. We took a " Navette " or free city bus around through parts of the city we wouldn't have had time to see so that was worth it, then hopped off & spent some time walking around the older part ( see pic lower right ) before we headed back to our B & B for tonight at Morey-St.Denis.
We booked in & then went touring to have a closer look at the area, unfortunately Clos de Vougeot was closed so we continued onto Nuits-St.Georges. We found a nice little bottle shop where we could try some of this great wine ( see pic ). All the wines were very special & we ended up buying 6 bottles to have back in Mareuil, from there it was a quick drive back to get changed for dinner situated on the other side of Nuits.It turned out to be a lovely meal set in a restaurant shaped like a cave so plenty of atmosphere all enjoyed more with the bottle of Morey-St.Denis Pinot Noir that we had with dinner.
We got underway a little earlier today & had soon located the ring road around Dijon, once we were on this road we had soon cleared Dijon & on our way N-E to Alsace. To be continued.

Our time away around France

2006-10-09T08:23:00.000-07:00

Well we are back in Mareuil after 3 lovely weeks touring around this very beautiful country. Sorry about the break in transmission of the blog but it was too difficult to organise & we didn't see any of the many Internet Cafes they all talk about.
We decided to leave a day earlier than scheduled as the weather here had changed as it began raining just before we left our Dinner in Blere on Thursday night so we decided then to leave on Saturday 16th September.

We didn't leave until 10.00am but were soon onto the N76 heading to Vierzon, Bourges & onto Nevers where we had trouble finding a route through the town because up until now every town or village has been very well signposted, anyway we finally found the right road. The weather had also improved dramatically with plenty of sunshine streaming into the car, it was now a nice day for driving & the surrounding scenery was an absolute picture with rolling hills & a patchwork of ploughed fields intermingled with vineyards we have never seen such varied shades of green.
We made good time to Chateau Chinon, Auton before stopping at a quaint little village at Nolay where we stopped for a welcome beer & coffee. We weren't far from Burgundy ( Bourgogne ) we soon saw the vines covering the surrounding hillside as we drove into Chassagne-Montrachet & then it was only a couple of kms before we drove into our stay for the 1st 2 nights at Puligny-Montrachet.
We checked into our B & B ( Chambres d"hotes ) ( see lower pic ) & were given a lovely outside apartment away from the main house so we were out on our own. We had a nice walk around the village but didn't find a mini-supermarket, breadshop only a Hotel which looked a little up market for us.
We still had food left over from lunch so we stayed in had a nice knock up dinner with a bottle of red.

Breakfast had so many choices available one had to be careful not to get carried away eating everything & the view into the vineyard was a great vista ( see pic top left ). After chatting on with the hosts we took off to Beaune going through some of the names I had only read about in wine books. We passed through the likes of Meursault, Auxey-Duresses, Volnay & Pommard before getting to Beaune.

We luckily found a car space & then went exploring around this very popular town of some 22000 people & is the unofficial capital of the Cote d'Or. Probably the most famous site in Beaune is the Hotel-Dieu des Hospice de Beaune the celebrated charity hospital founded in 1443 by Nicholas Rolin who was chancellor to Philip the Good. Behind the Gothic frontage, the hospice opens into a stone courtyard, surrounded by ornate turrets & pitched rooftops in multicoloured tiles. In the Grand Salle where they housed & cared for the poor, something quite unique for the times which also housed a small chapel for those too sick to attend mass. It was a remarkable setup for the times & was helped by the Catholic Church through the then Pope Clement 1st.

We then spent a very interesting time going through the Musee de Vins which gave us a very informative look into the history of wine & its workers in one of France's great wine area of Burgundy. We headed back through the rolling hills behind Beaune to Puligny-Montrachet & changed clothes for a night out in the neighboring village of Meursault.

We found a table in the Hotel Les Arts luckily, as 10 minutes later they were turning people away. The atmosphere & food were great & would you believe it the majority of the people in the restaurant were either Aussies or Kiwis so it was nice to hear the familiar twang echoing around the room. The poor French patrons I'm sure they didn't have a clue what was going on , all these people " parler-ing-en-Anglais ", anyway it was a great night with great company.

We move onto Dijon tomorrow so we will update you from there, bon soir H & S.

Day to day in the Loire

2006-09-14T00:57:00.000-07:00

Since our return from La Rochelle ( pic below of couple also staying at B & B ) & the amazing labyrinth of the Marais poitevin ( inland waterways) we have resumed our laid back existence here in Mareuil.
We have been out making
smaller day trips on the lovely & picturesque country roads discovering even more quaint villages all with beautiful flower
arrangements adorning

the bridges & from hanging baskets along the main street, very impressive.

Since the initial hot spell in July, August went through quite a dip in temperature where we had much cooler days & nights with 3 or 4 days of continuous showers & drizzle so we thought that all the hot weather had gone, however, since the start of September the days have been in the high 20's with hardly a cloud in the sky making it much nicer for driving around.

Most days we get up, have a look outside & then head off in another direction. We always buy a baguette from our local bread shop ( boulangerie ) so we can make a nice sandwich to have by some little stream or park. Our little car ( pic. ) is going so well & being a diesel it is also very economical & we have already done close to 2800kms. I am quite confident with my driving now & have to admit that the traffic seems to flow better on this side of the road, but I cant explain why?

We did catch up last Saturday ( 9th ) with Sara's cousin Bev & her husband Mike from Rockhampton visiting their son Matthew ( & his 2.5 yo daughter Yves ) in Paris who works as a freelance photographer with the BBC. They had driven from Poitiers to catch up for lunch.
Lunch was at a nice restaurant in our neighboring village of St.Aignan which turned out to be a " bon repast " ( good meal ).
It was great to catch up with them during their time here & we also hope to see Matthew & his girlfriend Audrey down here one weekend once we were back from our trip away.

We needed to find out the locations of the train station & the airport in Tours as we have Kath Sheedy arriving by train, here for a few days during her European trip, then later in October our nephew Tom is visiting from London for a week arriving at Tours airport.
On the way to Tours we passed through Blere & as we are invited for dinner tonight ( Thurs. ) we thought we should find out where Daniel & Marilyn's house is. They are friends of Joe & Kerin ( the owners of Mareuil ) so it was very nice to get an invitation to dinner.

We plan to head off this Sunday 17th and will spend our 1st night in the famous wine area of Burgundy staying at a Chambres d'Hotes ( B & B ) in Puligny-Montrachet before going onto Dijon then to Colmar which is right in the middle of Alsace. We then move onto Geneva where we will be catching up with Bob & Anthea Roth whom we last saw during our trip to France in 1989 so it will be nice to see them after all these years.

Will update you on our return. Trust everyone is well.

Cheers
Harv and Sara

Local trips & West Coast @ La Rochelle

2006-09-04T22:34:00.000-07:00

Well once again time has moved on very quickly & I find myself lagging well behind with my publishing.
It was a breath of fresh air having Harry & Heather our "new"friends from Wagga. What a background he has had, firstly in the bank then as a auctioneer for cattle & sheep, he has had a stint in the US as a cowboy for 12mths in Wyoming & on a whim he flew to Alaska to work only to find out that the guy was lieing & that he was the only white man there & told that he wasn't welcome so he spent the night in a sleeping bag on the airport runway waiting for the plane out, what an experience.He has also driven cattle right up through to Darwin-what a life.

These days he is an electrician in Wagga running his own business & has done plenty of work for Kerin & Joe ( the owners of Mareuil ) so hence the trip to France. While H & H made the most of their time in their time in the Loire discovering the more fancied Chateaux like Cheverny, Chambord, Chenonceau,Chaumont & Valencay.

We opted to do some day trips around this general area discovering little gems like Montresor ( pic with little stream ) with its powerful fortress built about 1005AD by Foulques Nerra,
Duke of Anjou, while the Chateau we see today with its double ramparts surrounding it was built in 1483AD. In 1849 a Polish nobleman Count Xavier Branicki acquired the castle which he restores & endows with an impressive collection of works of art.

Descendants of the Count still own & live in the grounds of the Chateau today & use the revenue from visitors to maintain the Chateau, the village is also very pretty in fact voted one of the best in France. While in Montresor we were told to visit the Saturday market ( marche ) at Loches as it is the best in the area.

A little N-E of here to the small village of Ferte-Imbault we came across an impressive Chateau made from bricks instead of stone, evidently the 1st castle was built back in 980AD but was partly destroyed during the 100years war with England.

It was re-built the brick in the Renaisance period & is the only one that we have seen so far. It is currently owned by a French architect who is renovating it a project expected to take him 6-10yrs & plenty of euros I expect.

We were up early to go to Loches & weren't disappointed arriving just after 9.00am, there were literally dozens of stalls selling all sorts of merchandise from cheese, pottery,different types of sausages, patisseries, all types of seafood & plenty of nick-nack stores. It was certainly worth the drive to see it, we continued on wandering around the quaint streets taking in the old church & Chateau before heading back just before the rain came.

Harry & Heather headed off on Mon.28th Aug. bound for Leige in Belgium to see his son who is an exchange student for a year so it will be nice for them to catch up after 6 mths.

The next couple of days saw us house-bound as it rained steadily the whole time. When it cleared we decided to take a trip to the coast to La Rochelle. We left at 10.00am & once again passed through some lovely little villages on the way, we took our time, arriving at about 4.00pm to our Chambres d'Hotes ( B & B ) at Cramchaban where we met our host Mdme Joubert.

After that we went visiting this most unusual area called Le Marais poitevin, which was formed years ago when the original coastline receded & left a marshy swampy area. Evidently Napoleon called in the Dutch( because of their experience with dykes , etc ) to transform into what it is today, a most amazing labyrinth of canals & waterways really fabulous. We took a 40 minute boat ride through this very peaceful & serene area. We then spent the rest of the afternoon driving through the various villages that dot the perimeter of the canals.

We were off & down into La Rochelle arriving at 9.30am, what a lovely coastal town this is with beautiful promenades lining the foreshore, quaint narrow streets, a lot with pedestrians only plus the old Port area lined by bars & restaurants a real holiday feel about it. We walked for quite some time before heading onto the neighboring island of Isle-de-Re.

After negociating the 4.5kms long bridge( which cost us E16.50 = $AU 28.00 ) we were onto the island. Going through the first housing estate we could see that it was very modern totally different to what we had experienced previously. The housing all around this area including La Rochelle had roof tiling more like one would expect in Spain a terracotta material, all other areas use the slate as a tiling medium.

Just looking at these properties you knew that they would be very expensive, we found out later that they start at about E500000.00 = $AU 850000.00 so a bit out of our league.
We made it to St.Martin-de-Re the main town & the only old part on the whole island, it was well worth the visit, even more narrow streets, plenty of shops for the tourists, cute Hotels placed right onto the harbour getting some great views.
After spending some time exploring this lovely village we made our way back to our very comfy accomodation, on the way we bought some food for our evening meal which we had outside with another couple staying at the house.

We headed off by 10.15am stopping at Partenay ( an medeival town ) on the way, being Saturday as usual things were quiet around town & being close to lunchtime shops were closing so not much going on. We stopped later at Tournon-St-Martin by the river to have our our sandwhich & patisserie before heading back to Mareuil, arriving at 5.00pm after a most interesting couple of days away. Until our next posting.

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

2006-08-22T06:58:00.000-07:00

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

2006-08-20T23:27:00.000-07:00

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

2006-08-05T02:57:00.000-07:00

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.

The start of our travel in France.

2006-07-29T22:13:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delay in sending our next message but it has taken time to get set up with an email server.

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

2006-07-09T02:29:00.000-07:00

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.