Creme d'Anglais

Sunday 5th November 2017 - Boulogne-sur-Mer. We said our fond farewells to Ger and Sian.  They are extremely kind and considerate hosts.  We enjoyed our stay very much. We moved north to stay at Boulogne so we would be close to the tunnel for tomorrow morning.  It felt very cold today despite some bright spells.  We felt so cold it was like a cold Bonfire Night in England.  We will not be celebrating Guy Fawkes here in France...they don't do that here. We arrived in Boulogne and had a little walk around.  It was a little dreary on a Sunday but the old fortified town area was nice with a grand cathedral. I came here about 3 years ago with my friend Bruce, so had some memories. We found an Aire de Camping Car and couldn't immediately park because of parked spectators cars at the entrance blocking the way.  The town football ground is next door and a game was in progress.  We waited for the end of the game to allow cars to leave before we could drive...

Saturday 4th November 2017 - Vironvay. We had a rainy day forecast so we had a quiet day.  We had a drive to Louvier market and more importantly we made an important visit..... We also bought some brioche for a second attempt at a bread and butter pudding French style. I will have to check with Wendy to see what she thinks.  It was certainly tasty and disappeared quickly. Our day was nice and relaxing followed by a lovely meal. We watched Strickly Come Dancing for the first time, Sian and Janice are big fans and I sneekingly enjoy it too.  Ger puts up with it too. There was break in cloud for a while and although the photo isn't too good we saw a nice moon reflection on the Seine.

Friday 3rd November 2017 - Vironvay. A nice easy day in prospect.  We didn't have far to travel to Sian and Ger's house and we had all day to do it. We had a little walk around Le Roche Guyon to have a coffee in the morning.  We then drove into the town of Vernon. Janice having her inaugural photo with the Vernon sign. We spent a good couple of hours walking around the town.  It has lots of old timbered buildings and a big church.  It is on the Seine and has some old towers.  I presume my ancestors came from here around the time of William the Conqueror.  The more recent history is that it was a strategic river crossing during the Second World War.  The Germans damaged and rebuilt the bridge when they took over and the Allies bombed the bridge when they relieved France.  The British bombed the town square by mistake and most of the church's stained glass windows were shattered, hence the modern windows that are now to be seen.  During the two...

Thursday 2nd November 2017 - Le Roche Guyon. Today was our visit to Versailles and our expectations were high.  I have previously seen the gardens but had not been into the Palais. We found the Palais and eventually found a parking space for the camper van.  We weren't allowed into any of the official car parks and had to park in the town centre.  Then we joined the queuing system. We queued for the initial security check to get into the courtyard, then queued for tickets, queued for entry and queued for second security check and finally for the audio guide.  It took over an hour.  I know it is a busy place but the systems didn't seem user friendly and the security checks were woefully poor especially for a nation that has had such a terrorist problem.   However, it goes without saying that the Palais itself is a fantastic place.....too much to take in. Louis XIV, the Sun King, came out to greet us. Fantastic rooms.  It reminded me of the Sistine Chape...

Wednesday 1st November 2017 - Nogent-le-Roi. We had changed our plans a little by deciding that tomorrow we would visit Versailles. As we drove past Tours and northwards we realised that the roads were pretty quiet and when we stopped at a Lidl supermarket and found it closed we twigged that it must be a public holiday.  It is now November and it is All Saints Day.  The day that the French remember the dead.  It seems a great idea but I thought it might be a bit morbid thinking of the dead all day?  Whatever people were doing they were not in public places, they were not eating out, exercising or shopping. We called at one of our favourite places from two years ago, Chateaudun.  It's a small town south of Chartres. The chateau is very imposing.  We stayed at an Aire de Camping two years ago on a car park just below the chateau walls.  I am wearing long trousers for the first time in a long time.  I managed to avoid wearing them through October but...

Tuesday 31st October 2017 - Turquant, near Saumur. We woke fresh from a deep sleep, sound in the knowledge that Burnley had beaten Newcastle 1-0 last night and now holding 7th place in the Premiership.  We packed up the van after breakfast and departed from Chez Vernon!  We gave David and Wendy big thanks for their kind hospitality and waved goodbye. It's not often that we retrace our steps because we like to go to new places and see new things but we made a snap decision to retrace the steps we took two years ago when we visited David and Wendy.  Therefore we headed back towards Saumur on the Loire River.   On the way we stopped for provisions at the Netto store at Aizenay.  It's a long time since we shopped at a Netto, I'm not sure they still operate in the UK (not near us anyway).  It was OK, not fancy but it seemed well stocked and it looked to be decent quality.  The most important thing we bought was a new propane gas bottle. We stopped further d...

Monday 30th October 2017 - Apremont. Thought I would include a picture of Apremont Chateau, seeing as we had blue sky. We had a nice sunny but cool day and went to Pornic for the day.  I thought we were going to watch dodgy videos but it turned out to be a seaside resort.  We had a picnic overlooking the sea and then walked along the coast into the town. We tried to throw Wendy into the dock!  You should have heard her squeal. We had a lovely time.  You could say it was 'out of this world'. It was a pleasant place but it 'had no atmosphere'! Back at the Vernon's home we had our last fantastic meal from Wendy.  Foie Gras for aperros, chicken and roast vegetables for mains and a chocolate ice cream, fruits of the forest, cream and white chocolate and raspberry bun for pud. I think Wendy must have had a bumper crop of raspberries this year.  It's no surprise that she is renowned for blowing raspberries!  Well that's what David says anyway! We finished the...

Sunday 29th October 2017 - Apremont. Nice walk around St Gilles Croix de Vie in the morning.  We did a little bit of shopping in the excellent market where we bought 2 dozen oysters and the smelliest cheese we could find..called epoisses.  David and Wendy call it a spoon cheese because it is so runny!  It is a cheese that the cheese seller will ask when you want to eat it so that he can choose the cheese based on how runny it is. Very proud of the size of my baguette! In the afternoon David and I went out for a bike ride.....all the way to Paris? This was in someone's garden! On the way back we stopped to look at a Cemetry.  The French have a tradition on All Saints' Day of putting chrysanthemums on the graves of relatives. It is very bad manners to buy the flowers at this time of year for any other purpose.  We had a lovely ride around the Vendée, which we have now verified is pronounced 'Venday'. Our evening meal was a veritable feast once more - we are eating...

Saturday 28th October 2017 - Apremont. We woke to a lovely clear blue sky.  We thought the weather might have turned but we are still being lucky with the sunshine. Today was a big decision day.  I had to decide who was the top blog reader of 2017.  It was a difficult decision as there were some close contenders for the title.  I would like to thank all the regular readers for their loyal support.  This years award goes to Josette from France and here is the award ceremony.... The prize was a homemade scone, jam and cream. Josette is a friend of David and Wendy who lives at St Gilles Croix de Vie.  She attends the English Conversation classes with David and Wendy and she is a regular reader of my blogs over several years, she deserves a medal rather than a scone.  I met her for the first time as we visited her at her lovely home.  I felt she knew too much about me already....probably not a good thing!  She has excellent English language and c...