Creme d'Anglais

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...

LFriday 27th October 2017 - Apremont, Vendée. I suppose by the fact that I am writing this blog you will know that the blog title is not 'Death by Mushrooms'.  Tim's giant mushroom must have been totally edible because we didn't even have a dicky tummy. I thought I would include this photo as a possible Christmas gift for young children.  You can use it as a 'Pin the tail on the donkey' game and in the interests of clarity, the donkey is the animal on the right! We drove to David and Wendy's house at Apremont.  It was lovely to see them.  We haven't visited for two years but we last saw them at our wedding in April.  We were very much welcomed and we quickly settled in.  We are staying in the house, so it will be the first time in over six weeks that we have slept in a proper bed!  Very different. The view across the back garden towards the Chateau. Can you tell we are brothers?  Is it time we grew up?  No, not for a few years yet!   Dav...

Thursday 26th October 2017 - Moutier-sur-la-Ley, near Lucon. We gave Tim lots of thanks for looking after us at his wonderful home and said goodbye to Matt and Sarah who were also flying back to the UK today.  Tim always makes us very welcome and we thoroughly enjoyed our stay. We wanted to travel half way towards my brother David and his wife Wendy's house which is near the Vendée coast (northwest France but below Brittany).  We had no specific destination but we wanted to visit the Decathlon superstore at Niort.  We have stopped there before and have been tempted to buy our sports gear.  We stopped for lunch in the store car park. I wanted to get some new running trainers today....and here they are.  I don't suppose they will make me go any faster.  I am obviously going through a blue period in my life!  We managed a few other purchases too, we always do. We drove through Niort without stopping and had a break at Fontenay le Comte.  The weather ...

Wednesday 25th October 2017 - Cussac. We woke to a beautiful morning.  I noticed that the morning dew is really heavy, the ground was wet and of course the grass was thoroughly soaked.  The sun got to work on it though and soon it dried out. We had a cycling day around a Route de Richard Coeur de Lion.  We had four chateaux to visit. There were two at Chalus... Chalus- Maulmont.  The second chateau is in the background. We couldn't get close to Chateau Chalus-Chabrol for a decent picture.  It was only open to the public in July and August but it seemed pretty much a ruin.  It was here that Richard the Lion Heart died from a fatal wound in his mother arms.  Very historic! The next two chateaux were more substantial but also closed to the public. Chateau Montbrun... Not bad ehhh! Chateau de Brie.   In a way it was Death by Chateaux for King Richard after all. Back to Tim's house for the rest of a very hot sunny afternoon.  Tim found a toadstool...

Tuesday 24th October 2017 - Cussac. We are on our northward route visiting friends and family as we go.  Today we were on the way to stay with an ex-colleague Tim Payne who has lived out in the French countryside in the Limosin area for nearly five years.  We have visited before, the last time was two years ago. I think of his house as the 'Little House on the Prairie'. The weather has picked up again.  Tim has a field, woodland and a lake.  It's a fabulous place. Tim spends most of the time in tranquility cutting his grass and chopping his wood but he currently has two friends of his daughter, Matt and Sarah visiting as well as us. We told him of our impending interview to be Assistant Wardens at the Caravan Club next year.  He was so impressed that he thought that Janice would benefit from some grass cutting experience..... Janice really enjoyed it, she can put it on her CV now.  I don't think the One Man went to Mow song doesn't quite work when 'woman' i...

Monday 23rd October 2017 - Thenon, near Perigueux. Moving on from Cahors we continued our travels northwards.  We had agreed to visit Rocamadour.  It is the place that most people have recommended to us as a beautiful site in the Dordogne area (but not actually on the Dordogne river).  The scenery has definately changed from vineyards and crop fields to pastures with cows.  It is a much more green and rolling countryside and the local stone is more of a pale yellow colour which is apparent in the colour of the buildings. We arrived and parked up before getting any view of the village.  We expected something of a UNESCO World Hertigae Site - but were shocked to find it isn't on the list!!  We can't believe it. It should be!  The chateau is at the top, the church and chapels on the middle section and the village on the bottom.  It is a place of pilgrimage and has a representation of Christ's tomb in a cave near the top of the cliff.  The church...