2 September Blog

Since our last blog we have had the most wonderful wander through the French summer countryside.

Annie the Vannie-Second from the right, Merville-Fanceville Plage

Beach walk @ Merville-Fanceville Plage

 We are now back in Normandy as we will be catching the ferry from Dieppe back to the UK in a couple of days. We have a great campsite with views up and down the beach - just a short walk from a beautiful wee village Merville-Franceville-Plage. We've just seen a 'snake' of about 30 people in two lines walking about 4km along the beach in water up to their chests….army, karate, rugby, ballet training?? 

Merville-Franceville Plage, village.

Merville-Franceville Plage, village

'Beach walkers'

After our last blog we indulged in several medieval villages. Firstly in the Dordogne valley where we explored Sarlat-la Caneda with its large ancient centre. This is the centre of pate de frois gras making region and the town even has a statue of a bunch of geese. We drove on through the very beautiful valley with ancient chateau on the hilltops to a hilltop town called Belves. We stayed in an Aire de Service above the town and it unfortunately had no shade as the temps were up above 30 degrees. In the relative cool of the next morning we wandered around the narrow streets and admired the spectacular views. Found a great boulangerie where we could watch dough being kneaded and baked.

Saralat-le-Caneda et Frois Gras..Hmm?

Belvès, Aquitaine - Rue des Fillols

Belves-walk

Saint-Crépin-et-Carlucet - Aquitaine

Marmande, Aquitaine - Rue de la Filhole, overnight and a huge electrical storm @ 2am!

 The next day was even hotter so we cancelled the plan to walk around another village and searched for an Aire with shade.  That night the weather broke with a huge thunder-storm and we were taking the awning down at 2am.  We might have mentioned before but these European thunderstorms are really dramatic with both sheet and fork lightening.

Marmande, Aquitaine - Rue de la Filhole, before the storm 

We headed southeast to the Tarn region to more medieval villages spending the first night in Najac in the hills behind Albi. The Aire was right down by the river so we climbed the steep hill to see the chateau and cathedral. It was the day of a religious celebration and the town was full of people. 

Najac, Midi-Pyrénées - Place de la Pause,
in a typical Aire de service. Power, dump point
security, water, even surface!!
What more do you need??

Najac 40 mins straight up, high humidity, 29C at 8:30pm
Marvellous when we got there!! 

Finally-Le chateaux@ Najac,
closed!!! 

From ...... the other side, Le chateaux@Najac 

 The next day we drove to the neighbouring village of Cordes-sur-Ceil and again climbed up the steep roads to the cathedral at the top. The oil light on the van had come on and as the van had only done 6000 kms we had it checked out at a garage that was on one of the winding streets. The owner cleared parked cars to get us in. All OK with the van but we are concerned that this is the third thing we have had to have worked on.

Sharelle, Taikahi, Colin in Albi

We then drove to see friends near Albi.  Sharelle and Quinton are friends of Katie and Ed's and Sharelle was one of the students on the Aotea College classics trip to Italy and Greece in 2001. Their first baby Taikahi is almost one and it was wonderful being around a baby again, not to mention the delicious lunch and special time we all had together. 

Next we started the long drive to the Atlantic coast skirting around Toulouse and driving through field after field of sunflowers. They were no longer in bloom and seemed to be left in the fields so the heads would dry out. When we got to the coast south of Bordeaux the campsites in our book were either no longer operating or full (high session for French holiday makers) but we found a 'nature camp' (basic campsite) and stayed for a couple of nights to rest up. Dune de Pula is an interesting phenomenon just south of Bordeaux as the Sandhill is huge and moving all the time. It has already gobbled up an hotel.

On top of the dune

Grand site de La Dune du Pilat

Colin's cousin Sally lives inland from La Rochelle. We had stayed with her and her husband Brian on our last trip but sadly since then Brian has died. We had a really relaxing couple of days as Sally looked after us wonderfully. She and Brian retired to this small village, Champangne Le Sec, about 16 years ago so she is well settled in. We walked to the very ancient local church where we saw frescos from 11 Century. As we are learning every village has a treasure.

Sal,Col,Marg@ Champagne le Sec

Sal's beaut farm house conversion,
such marvellous home to be in! Thanks Sally 

11thC church @ Champang le sec

Humble 11thC interior paintings, impressive.
All voluntary work to keep this up and running.

Back to the Atlantic coast and this time the area north of La Rochelle. After a two plus km walk we were greeted with water that is warm due to a current (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Atlantic_Current)  that flows down this coast. We had one swim on a beach that had huge dumping waves. Our challenge was again the crowds and the camping grounds that were within walking distance of the beaches were all booked out. We did find a lovely camp inland a bit with a great pool. The village was near St Gilles Croix de Vie. It had a working windmill which milled flour to make bread and crepes for their restaurant. We had a delightful lunch.

Still used @ Saint-Révérend, Pays de la Loire - Rue du Moulin,
Various flours used by the boulangerie (50 metres away) and restaurant all milled in this great
wind powered mill! No dishes that night as we had a Great meal there. 

Because of the crowds and the heat we decided to go inland for a bit until it was closer to the end of the school holidays so we headed for the Loire Valley.

We visited the famous Abby de Fontevrault. This is where Richard the Lionheart and his mum and dad, Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry Plantagenet are buried except Richard's heart is in another cathedral and his guts in yet another. 

Abbey Fontevrault

Marg being a staunch nun!

You must have a multi-chimneyed kitchen

Classic abbey shot, left to the cloisters.

28. Wedding ..... not a nun!

 This Abby dates from 11 Century and is unusual as although it had both nuns and monks (living separately from each other) it has always been run by women. Apparently the monks rebelled against this at times but did not win. It was a huge complex in its day. Along with other monasteries and nunneries it was dissolved after the French Revolution and this one became a prison until 1980s.

Fontevraud-l'Abbaye, Pays de la Loire - Rue Saint-Jean de l'Habit,from back

By the river Idre is the small town of Azay Le Rideau and we found a wonderful campsite with loads of space and wonderful shade and where the municipal pool is adjacent. Had a great time exploring the village and the Chateau. Finishing the hot afternoon in the pool was just perfect. Camped next to us were a couple from Germany and when they learnt we were kiwis the number one fact they knew about us was that we were the least corrupt country in the world. We did not want to burst their bubble by telling them about our high rate of bullying and suicide. 

Fontevraud-l'Abbaye, Pays de la Loire - Rue Saint-Jean de l'Habit entrance.

Azay-le-Rideau, Centre Region - Le Château,

Touted as the most beautiful in France!Azay-le-Rideau, Centre Region - Le Château,

Great detailing everywhere. @ Azay-le-Rideau, Centre Region - Le Château,

After a walk in the woods on the estate!

Carved ceilings in the staircase.

Spiral staircase looking upwards....back stairs!!

Next we drove along the Loire Valley to the town of Samur. On the way we stopped in a car park next to the river to have lunch. We spotted a women washing her hair in the small fountain. We decided she must be a Kiwi or an Ozzie and when she turned around we noticed that she was wearing a pounamu. So Colin went to talk to her discovering that she was from Skipton in Yorkshire but she had cycled around Aotearoa twice. She free camps everywhere. Surprisingly we met up again at Mont de St Michel. In Saumur we came across an street market for antiques and had a good wander around the town.

Market - Cunault - Pays de la Loire,

Le Chateaux, Canault, Saumur

On our way to Brittany we stopped at Redon at their great little campsite by the river Vilaine. Next day we spent the morning looking for somewhere to fill the van's under slung LPG tank. Although you could get bottles filled at loads of places we eventually found a place where the tank could be filled. Our next medieval town was Vannes where we went on a self guided walk through the town then around the ramparts. Our plan was then to visit the Neolithic monoliths at Carnac but it was too hot so we decided to try again in the morning and headed to Quiberon at the end of the narrow peninsula . We finally found our campsite across from a beach and had a refreshing swim and a great walk around the headland in the evening.

Quiberon -Vannes, Brittany

Quiberon -Vannes, Brittany

Later that Day...
thought it was a bit warm! Vannes, Brittany
Carnac was fascinating and impressive because there are over 1000 of these stones (of the original 3000) in groups around the neighbouring villages. Most of them are set in long straight rows. They apparently predate Stonehenge. 

Les Alignements de Carnac-Megaliths

Originally there were about 3000 of them!

We drove north to our best medieval village yet at Dinan. The campground was a 10 minute walk from the ramparts so we wandered up to see some of the town just after we got there and ended up walking for hours.

Typical in Dinan

Dinan

Near Quiberon-Our campsite beach sunset

There were a large number of timber framed houses with cobbled streets. The ramparts provided really beautiful views.

The weather changed that night to cold, windy and wet. We drove to have a look at St Malo on the northern coast of Brittany but there was no suitable parking for the van close to town so drove around the ramparts and headed for Cancale to see if we could get a view of Mont St Michel but the mist was too low so we headed for the Mont itself. We could learn something  at home from how well organised this place is to cope with the huge number of visitors. There was extensive parking and a free shuttle bus that goes across the new bridge to the foot of the Mont. 

Le Mont St Michel

Us and Le Mont St Michel

How they were hauled things up @ Le Mont St Michel

The "2 prisoner powered mouse wheel" Le Mont St Michel bringing the food etc to the prison!

Sous le drapeau français, le tricolore

We spent several hours walking the streets, visiting the Abby and walking the ramparts. Again after the French Revolution the Abby was dissolved and became a prison. There was a treadmill which prisoners had to operate to haul provisions up the steep slope to the Abby. Despite the wind and rain the views from the terraces around the Abby were great. Unfortunately one of the most beautiful parts of the Abby, la Merville (cloisters) was being renovated and was covered in scaffolding. Along with the good planning was providing an Aire that took 100 campervans just 3 kms from the Mont. The next morning was supposed to be wet but as it was sunny we walked back to the Mont to see it in the sun.

The next day!!

On the way to this campsite we drove passed the American D Day landing beaches of Utah and Omaha and we visited Point du Hoc where the US Rangers scaled cliffs during the initial attack. Our brother-in-law's father was in the Brit paras who landed well behind enemy lines.....he survived.

Pont du Hoc, D-Day

La Resistance

Some of them who survived....

It is hard to say goodbye to France after such a wonderful few weeks. Our survival level of French has improved a little, Marg seems can understand far more spoken…especially when listening to children!. Colin has boulangerie and camping site French down pat. We will miss the wine, baguette, croissant and other pastries, cheeses, pate and wonderful seasonal fruit and veggies. We will also miss the laid back attitude of the French and how much they value their quality of life.