Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Happy Birthday Laura!
Yes, it’s 30th August already, which means my not so little sister is now officially in her late 20’s!! Happy Birthday Laura!!
Yet again it’s been ages since I wrote, so here’s what I’ve been up to:
I got prickly heat in the middle of August – and pity anyone who gets it – as it drives you mad! You get a nettle like rash appearing randomly, and insanely itchy. This latter effect really tests your patience, as you must not itch, otherwise after the 5 seconds relief and pleasure of itching an itch, it then gets a billion times worse!!! You learn that very quickly!! Luckily the weather has changed, and the prickly heat has gone…
We’ve done quite a bit of cycling since I last wrote, and are venturing out a bit further as we’ve had a bit more time. On Tuesday 23rd we took the van to the garage for a service, and headed off on our bikes – and ended up cycling 70km that day! However the garage hadn’t been able to do the service as the lease company said the lease had expired and they needed to get authorisation! So we had to leave the van for a second day – we did a much shorter ride (about 30km) but treated ourselves to a superb lunch in Blere. The restaurant has 3 “chimneys” – hotels get star ratings, and restaurants that are part of the “Logis de France” chain, get chimney ratings, 3 being the best!! And it really was one of the best meals I have ever eaten!
We finally got the van back at 6pm and set off on the first part of our “holiday”. Now, I know many of you think that we’re on permanent holiday here, but that isn’t entirely true, and we have been needing a break. We still had a couple of guests in region, so we stayed close, and headed north east towards Orleans. We spent the night in a pretty little riverside village called Beaugency in a charming little guest house, then the next morning headed into Orleans. At this point it was chucking it down – the worst rain we’ve seen all summer! Luckily Orleans is a good place to window shop! We stayed in a basic but cheap hotel, which was essentially a room above a bar! The weather brightened and we ambled round the streets just soaking up the atmosphere. Friday morning we headed back to work to deal with our guests and their luggage.
On Saturday, our proper holiday began. We dropped our guests at the station to make their way home, and headed off on a road trip: west along the Loire, via Azay le Rideau, Chinon and Saumur, taking in the scenery from the van, then stopping in at a Neolithic monument (the best in France) in a pub garden (!!), some 16th century cave sculptures, and a troglodyte village. We then headed for the motorway, and the beach: St Gilles Croix de Vie. We found this place by pure chance, doing a search on the “Logis de France” website for hotels with last minute availability, as we couldn’t book til Friday. Only 1 hotel located by the sea had any rooms, so it was here or nothing!! As it turned out, St Gilles is a pleasant little fishing and pleasure port, so a smaller version of Brighton, or Scarborough. There are a few high rise apartment blocks, but it hasn’t been totally ruined, although the English have found out about it – there were lots of families, presumably staying in a campsite just outside town. The weather finally brightened up on Sunday evening, and we dipped our toes in the very cold Atlantic, and had dinner in a restaurant overlooking the beach and the sea, watching the sun set…
Then Monday morning dawned with the clearest of skies, and after a final look at the harbour and beach, we headed back, stopping in Angers for lunch and a quick look at the 11th century 100m long tapestry depicting the Apocalypse…then back to pick up new guests from the station by 4pm.
And so that brings me up to date. Almost into September, which is lining up to be a very busy month, and then back to blighty…
Yes, it’s 30th August already, which means my not so little sister is now officially in her late 20’s!! Happy Birthday Laura!!
Yet again it’s been ages since I wrote, so here’s what I’ve been up to:
I got prickly heat in the middle of August – and pity anyone who gets it – as it drives you mad! You get a nettle like rash appearing randomly, and insanely itchy. This latter effect really tests your patience, as you must not itch, otherwise after the 5 seconds relief and pleasure of itching an itch, it then gets a billion times worse!!! You learn that very quickly!! Luckily the weather has changed, and the prickly heat has gone…
We’ve done quite a bit of cycling since I last wrote, and are venturing out a bit further as we’ve had a bit more time. On Tuesday 23rd we took the van to the garage for a service, and headed off on our bikes – and ended up cycling 70km that day! However the garage hadn’t been able to do the service as the lease company said the lease had expired and they needed to get authorisation! So we had to leave the van for a second day – we did a much shorter ride (about 30km) but treated ourselves to a superb lunch in Blere. The restaurant has 3 “chimneys” – hotels get star ratings, and restaurants that are part of the “Logis de France” chain, get chimney ratings, 3 being the best!! And it really was one of the best meals I have ever eaten!
We finally got the van back at 6pm and set off on the first part of our “holiday”. Now, I know many of you think that we’re on permanent holiday here, but that isn’t entirely true, and we have been needing a break. We still had a couple of guests in region, so we stayed close, and headed north east towards Orleans. We spent the night in a pretty little riverside village called Beaugency in a charming little guest house, then the next morning headed into Orleans. At this point it was chucking it down – the worst rain we’ve seen all summer! Luckily Orleans is a good place to window shop! We stayed in a basic but cheap hotel, which was essentially a room above a bar! The weather brightened and we ambled round the streets just soaking up the atmosphere. Friday morning we headed back to work to deal with our guests and their luggage.
On Saturday, our proper holiday began. We dropped our guests at the station to make their way home, and headed off on a road trip: west along the Loire, via Azay le Rideau, Chinon and Saumur, taking in the scenery from the van, then stopping in at a Neolithic monument (the best in France) in a pub garden (!!), some 16th century cave sculptures, and a troglodyte village. We then headed for the motorway, and the beach: St Gilles Croix de Vie. We found this place by pure chance, doing a search on the “Logis de France” website for hotels with last minute availability, as we couldn’t book til Friday. Only 1 hotel located by the sea had any rooms, so it was here or nothing!! As it turned out, St Gilles is a pleasant little fishing and pleasure port, so a smaller version of Brighton, or Scarborough. There are a few high rise apartment blocks, but it hasn’t been totally ruined, although the English have found out about it – there were lots of families, presumably staying in a campsite just outside town. The weather finally brightened up on Sunday evening, and we dipped our toes in the very cold Atlantic, and had dinner in a restaurant overlooking the beach and the sea, watching the sun set…
Then Monday morning dawned with the clearest of skies, and after a final look at the harbour and beach, we headed back, stopping in Angers for lunch and a quick look at the 11th century 100m long tapestry depicting the Apocalypse…then back to pick up new guests from the station by 4pm.
And so that brings me up to date. Almost into September, which is lining up to be a very busy month, and then back to blighty…
Monday, August 15, 2005
A neglected blog!
Yet again it’s been ages since I wrote – no valid excuse, so I won’t bore you with pathetic little ones!! So what have I been up to?
Well, my email problems got sorted: it was just G’s firewall on his laptop being over protective! Was glad about this as I was getting panicky about losing everyone’s addresses!!
Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France for the 7th time – and now will retire. Hopefully that will give someone else a chance to take the limelight! He actually only won 1 stage over the 2 weeks, but how anyone manages to cycle nearly 200km every day, up vicious hills, with only a couple of rest days is beyond me!
G and I have been checking out some cycling and walking routes for next year, which has given us something to do. We drive the cycle routes and cycle the walking routes, as it’s quicker, but one day we had enough time and actually managed to walk the walking route. Our boss had been out and done it a few weeks earlier, but we needed to check her notes and her pedometer readings, which she was sure were inaccurate – and indeed they were… her estimate of 20km turned out to only be 13km!
We continue to play lots of scrabble – I scored over 300 points on one evening…. Sad that I have to mention this!!
We have been quite busy with guests too, and this also means lots of bike cleaning, eg the other day G cleaned 3 in the morning and then I cleaned 8 that same afternoon!!
G’s dad (Tim) came to visit us 6-13th. He came out and helped move bags between hotels, and then on alternate days we tried to find more interesting things to do!! One day we went to Le Mans – I agreed and encouraged this as G is quite a racing fan, but wasn't really expecting to enjoy it myself, so we drove for 2 hours (longer than we thought!) and had a wander through the town – the old part is lovely, with medieval walls and buildings which are really lovely to just wander around. We found a restaurant called 1930’s and had a delicious lunch – that was a real good find! We then had a wander round the cathedral which was pretty impressive, before heading south of the town to the museum. On the way you can actually drive part of the circuit, as they use public roads…. I managed to get quite a good photo of us just as we were going round one of the few bends that looks like a proper race track bend (Indiannapolis, I think!) So a surprisingly good day out!
We spent some time in St Aignan on another day – one of the towns where guests stay, that we’ve not really explored yet. G and his dad also tested one of the other walking routes on one day, and on another we visited this quaint little chateau which the present owner bought in 1981 and has been attempting to restore, but seems to have started various different projects and not completed any of them!!
The drought is getting so bad that at last hose pipe bans have come into effect, as has stopping the use of car washes. Farmers are still watering away – can’t blame them though! We did have a spot of rain the other morning, but the sun soon came out again…
This weekend is St Mary’s / Ascension festival, and it’s the main weekend for the French to take holiday. G and I went to visit a chateau yesterday which has the “Earth from the sky” photographic exhibition (www.yannarthusbertrand.org) , which does have some amazing photos. And on today, as we had a real quiet day, we took to our bikes and cycled a round trip of over 60km to Montresor and back – one of the prettiest towns in france.
Yet again it’s been ages since I wrote – no valid excuse, so I won’t bore you with pathetic little ones!! So what have I been up to?
Well, my email problems got sorted: it was just G’s firewall on his laptop being over protective! Was glad about this as I was getting panicky about losing everyone’s addresses!!
Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France for the 7th time – and now will retire. Hopefully that will give someone else a chance to take the limelight! He actually only won 1 stage over the 2 weeks, but how anyone manages to cycle nearly 200km every day, up vicious hills, with only a couple of rest days is beyond me!
G and I have been checking out some cycling and walking routes for next year, which has given us something to do. We drive the cycle routes and cycle the walking routes, as it’s quicker, but one day we had enough time and actually managed to walk the walking route. Our boss had been out and done it a few weeks earlier, but we needed to check her notes and her pedometer readings, which she was sure were inaccurate – and indeed they were… her estimate of 20km turned out to only be 13km!
We continue to play lots of scrabble – I scored over 300 points on one evening…. Sad that I have to mention this!!
We have been quite busy with guests too, and this also means lots of bike cleaning, eg the other day G cleaned 3 in the morning and then I cleaned 8 that same afternoon!!
G’s dad (Tim) came to visit us 6-13th. He came out and helped move bags between hotels, and then on alternate days we tried to find more interesting things to do!! One day we went to Le Mans – I agreed and encouraged this as G is quite a racing fan, but wasn't really expecting to enjoy it myself, so we drove for 2 hours (longer than we thought!) and had a wander through the town – the old part is lovely, with medieval walls and buildings which are really lovely to just wander around. We found a restaurant called 1930’s and had a delicious lunch – that was a real good find! We then had a wander round the cathedral which was pretty impressive, before heading south of the town to the museum. On the way you can actually drive part of the circuit, as they use public roads…. I managed to get quite a good photo of us just as we were going round one of the few bends that looks like a proper race track bend (Indiannapolis, I think!) So a surprisingly good day out!
We spent some time in St Aignan on another day – one of the towns where guests stay, that we’ve not really explored yet. G and his dad also tested one of the other walking routes on one day, and on another we visited this quaint little chateau which the present owner bought in 1981 and has been attempting to restore, but seems to have started various different projects and not completed any of them!!
The drought is getting so bad that at last hose pipe bans have come into effect, as has stopping the use of car washes. Farmers are still watering away – can’t blame them though! We did have a spot of rain the other morning, but the sun soon came out again…
This weekend is St Mary’s / Ascension festival, and it’s the main weekend for the French to take holiday. G and I went to visit a chateau yesterday which has the “Earth from the sky” photographic exhibition (www.yannarthusbertrand.org) , which does have some amazing photos. And on today, as we had a real quiet day, we took to our bikes and cycled a round trip of over 60km to Montresor and back – one of the prettiest towns in france.
