Thursday, July 07, 2005
Laura & Jane’s visit…
It’s been a pretty hectic few days with Laura and Jane visiting us: we started off with a local mussels festival on Sunday afternoon, at which we saw a famous accordion player – I hasten to add we only knew she is famous because the compere mentioned it, plus she played a piece which she explained she had composed herself and said we might recognise from the radio!! Jane and Gerwyn were both introduced to the delights of mussels, and I’m pleased to say, both actually agreed that mussels are rather tasty!! And on Sunday evening we took a stroll round the chateau at Chenonceaux.
Overnight we had a terrific thunderstorm – from about 3-6am, with spectacular lightening, constant rumblings of thunder, and pouring rain – Jane and Laura managed to sleep through it!! But Monday brightened up, and we packed them off to the Zoo for the afternoon.
On Tuesday they negotiated the local supermarket before we headed into Amboise to watch the Tour de France. Having arrived in Tours on the Monday, it was a team time-trial day from Tours to Blois, going through Amboise. So we got to see all the publicity cars going through first, throwing freebees as they went, and then over 2 hours a team came through every 5 minutes. I got a few photos, and I’m sure one includes Lance Armstrong, but it was a bit of a blur and they all look the same in their team colours!! It was a really nice friendly atmosphere, without being too crowded.
On Wednesday we started with some early morning (!!) wine tasting then came back to ours for lunch, and watched the live coverage from Singapore of the Olympics bid – we were all so shocked to hear London win. It has been a bit bizarre for Gerwyn and I, as having been out of the UK for such a long time, we have not really been aware of the UK’s bid, support, publicity etc. Since arriving in France we have seen lots of coverage about the Paris bid, frequent TV adds etc, and the whole population seemed really enthusiastic and positive. It was therefore a huge blow for them not to get it, and you genuinely have to feel sorry for them – there were interviews with various people involved in the bid who were literally on the verge of tears. So another strike against the entente cordiale!! After we recovered from this surprise, we headed off to Blois. We went round the chateau, but I was a bit disappointed as the English leaflet was useless, there was no guided tour in English, and there is a lot of restoration work going on, so it was difficult to work out where you were meant to go!! We then wandered round the town, but decided to go elsewhere for dinner, as we were coming back for the Son et Lumiere show at 10.30, but had several hours to kill. We decided to try to get to Orleans – which turned out to be a bit ambitious: we took the main, non-motorway road, but this took over an hour, with lots of traffic lights etc on the way. We then of course had no idea where we were going once we got to Orleans, so found a random car park and then headed in the vague direction of the central shopping streets. Orleans has a modern tram system and some really nice architecture. We quickly found a nice pizzeria and settled down for dinner. We also found a pudding called Tarte Caroline: apple tarte with vanilla ice-cream and hot chocolate sauce – I had to try it of course! Yum Yum!! Unfortunately we didn’t have time to look around the town, but Gerwyn and I definitely will come back. We got back in the car and took the motorway back to Blois – you have to pay of course, but it took us half the time to get back!! We were slightly late for the Son et Lumiere, but it was in English and worth going to… so it was gone midnight by the time we got home – definitely packed in a full day!!
And Thursday morning we just had enough time after getting new walkers and cyclists started on their routes, to get Laura and Jane to the airport. And then we returned home to the news of the bombings in London – a rollercoaster of emotions after yesterday’s Olympics success…
0 comments
It’s been a pretty hectic few days with Laura and Jane visiting us: we started off with a local mussels festival on Sunday afternoon, at which we saw a famous accordion player – I hasten to add we only knew she is famous because the compere mentioned it, plus she played a piece which she explained she had composed herself and said we might recognise from the radio!! Jane and Gerwyn were both introduced to the delights of mussels, and I’m pleased to say, both actually agreed that mussels are rather tasty!! And on Sunday evening we took a stroll round the chateau at Chenonceaux.
Overnight we had a terrific thunderstorm – from about 3-6am, with spectacular lightening, constant rumblings of thunder, and pouring rain – Jane and Laura managed to sleep through it!! But Monday brightened up, and we packed them off to the Zoo for the afternoon.
On Tuesday they negotiated the local supermarket before we headed into Amboise to watch the Tour de France. Having arrived in Tours on the Monday, it was a team time-trial day from Tours to Blois, going through Amboise. So we got to see all the publicity cars going through first, throwing freebees as they went, and then over 2 hours a team came through every 5 minutes. I got a few photos, and I’m sure one includes Lance Armstrong, but it was a bit of a blur and they all look the same in their team colours!! It was a really nice friendly atmosphere, without being too crowded.
On Wednesday we started with some early morning (!!) wine tasting then came back to ours for lunch, and watched the live coverage from Singapore of the Olympics bid – we were all so shocked to hear London win. It has been a bit bizarre for Gerwyn and I, as having been out of the UK for such a long time, we have not really been aware of the UK’s bid, support, publicity etc. Since arriving in France we have seen lots of coverage about the Paris bid, frequent TV adds etc, and the whole population seemed really enthusiastic and positive. It was therefore a huge blow for them not to get it, and you genuinely have to feel sorry for them – there were interviews with various people involved in the bid who were literally on the verge of tears. So another strike against the entente cordiale!! After we recovered from this surprise, we headed off to Blois. We went round the chateau, but I was a bit disappointed as the English leaflet was useless, there was no guided tour in English, and there is a lot of restoration work going on, so it was difficult to work out where you were meant to go!! We then wandered round the town, but decided to go elsewhere for dinner, as we were coming back for the Son et Lumiere show at 10.30, but had several hours to kill. We decided to try to get to Orleans – which turned out to be a bit ambitious: we took the main, non-motorway road, but this took over an hour, with lots of traffic lights etc on the way. We then of course had no idea where we were going once we got to Orleans, so found a random car park and then headed in the vague direction of the central shopping streets. Orleans has a modern tram system and some really nice architecture. We quickly found a nice pizzeria and settled down for dinner. We also found a pudding called Tarte Caroline: apple tarte with vanilla ice-cream and hot chocolate sauce – I had to try it of course! Yum Yum!! Unfortunately we didn’t have time to look around the town, but Gerwyn and I definitely will come back. We got back in the car and took the motorway back to Blois – you have to pay of course, but it took us half the time to get back!! We were slightly late for the Son et Lumiere, but it was in English and worth going to… so it was gone midnight by the time we got home – definitely packed in a full day!!
And Thursday morning we just had enough time after getting new walkers and cyclists started on their routes, to get Laura and Jane to the airport. And then we returned home to the news of the bombings in London – a rollercoaster of emotions after yesterday’s Olympics success…
0 Comments:
