A Soggy Return

It wasn’t the welcome home we expected - torrential rain, flooding, and giant potholes in pretty much every road we drove on today. Ugh! The drive was pretty awful but it’s good to be home.

We actually arrived back yesterday after spending a couple of days in Montreuil Sur Mer but didn’t want to drive too far so stayed at a pub in Sussex.

Collapsed ramparts

Closed to the public

Montreuil has had its fair share of flooding over the past couple of months and it’s lost 18 metres of its famous ramparts due to the downpours. The fields in the area were also flooded and there has been much on the French news about the situation. Here is a Link if anyone is interested in learning more about it. It will cost a fortune to repair according to the friendly Tourist Office chap.

A touch of local colour - beige

We like to go to this town as the vet is excellent and sorts our return animal health certificate out (thanks Brexit) each time we travel. Hugo only tried to bite her once. The restaurants are pretty good too. At lunch we got talking to an English woman whose father is a singer. He sang on the winning Katrina and the Waves song, Love Shine a Light, at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1997. Very exciting.

Now we’re back the fun begins. Unpacking, cleaning, and washing. I must say it’s rather fabulous to sit in front of the fire while sprawling out on the sofas. Hugo is loving his beanbag as well. 

I think I’ll order takeaway tonight. Until next time…

Trotting Along the Normandy Coast

The last few days in Normandy before we head back have been filled with beaches, bars and a birthday. Villers-sur-Mer was a lovely spot to enjoy a fabulous birthday lunch and a stroll along a sandy beach admiring the stunning houses along the coast. The town is not far from Deauville which is well known for its horse racing so that explained the horses being ridden through the water along the beach in the morning - a most idyllic scene that we weren’t quick enough to get a photo of.

Not a bad pad

Hugo was loving the sand

Yesterday we went on to another ‘Sur Mer’, this time Veulettes, which was a beach but this time a rocky one - Hugo was not so impressed and made a show of the stones causing much discomfort to his little paws. The sheer cliffs at either end made it a dramatic site and it seemed very popular with tourists. We found the last restaurant to be open and scoffed on moules mariniere before heading to the van to await the rain.

A few gannets nested in the cliff face

Quite a lot of wartime history here too

Rocks ahoy

It’s raining once again as we sit in the van at Le Crotoy before we make our way to Calais over the next three days. This is a regular stop as we love the seafood restaurants here so much. On our walk around the town today we discovered that Jules Verne was a regular visitor and started writing Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea here, and Joan of Arc was imprisoned somewhere in the town before she was taken to Rouen for trial. Guerlain also had a house here. An interesting place that is more than just good seafood.

A fairytale house in Le Crotoy 

I need prawns!!

The fog is now coming in across the water making the atmosphere quite spooky. Tomorrow we head to Montreuil Sur Mer for Hugo’s vet visit to have his paperwork signed before we take Wednesday’s Shuttle back to England.

A Miserable Meal and some Magnificent Misericords

I think we’ve just had the worst meal of our whole trip away. My hamburger bun was soft and sweet, the tomato was just skin and my pommes frites were just barely to the left of charcoal (unlike my burger which was pretty rare). Graham’s escalope could have fitted into a matchbox and the creamy sauce … well, I’m not going to go there. This Aire at Courville sur Eure, on the other hand, is very pleasant. The river is close to overflowing but the grass is green, the sun is out, and the sky is blue.

Our neighbour today - before the sun came out


We made it to Vendôme yesterday and what a stunning little town it is. It has a rich history, some of it relating to Henry IV, the revolution, and Rochambeau who fought alongside George Washington in a battle in the American War of Independence. Sitting right on the Loire River, it’s had many floods over the years and was also bombed extensively in WW2 but it seems to have been restored very well and remains rather charming.

Yesterday’s meal was much better than today’s - a crepe (well, it was Pancake Tuesday)

The Trinity Church is rightly proud of its misericords. There’s a fun selection of chaps warming their hands over fires, dragons, bearded men, bagpipers, and a green man. The facade is rather special as well.

Oooh, chilly 

A handsome green man

Ouch

Impressive facade

Beardy Mc’Beardface 

We walked up to the castle this morning to discover a pretty little array of spring flowers and a major reconstruction of the building going on. It will be fabulous when it’s finished.

The colours of spring

Massive reconstruction

Heading more towards the coast tomorrow.

Watery Memories

Whenever we hear helicopters overhead we are taken straight back to the flood in Boscastle which happened 20 years ago in 2004 when many people were rescued over several hours by the very skilful pilots flying that day. Last night we were casually chomping on our galettes and salad when we heard the throb of a very low chopper above the van. It turned out to be a SAMU rescue helicopter and it landed extremely close to us in the field across the road. EEEK! The pilot did a fabulous job not hitting any of the pylons surrounding the field. I managed to get a few shots as it took off into the night. We hope the person transported to hospital is ok.

Skilful flying

Off we go

Strangely enough, where we have parked this evening also has a flooding vibe despite being tranquil and relaxing - for now. We drove along the Loire today after a change of plan. Vendôme was our original target but we thought we’d check out the Chateau du Clos Lucé in Amboise instead. It was the home of Leonardo Da Vinci until he died (I had no idea he lived in this area) and sounded really interesting. Unfortunately, the Aire in town was closed due to roadworks so we had to quickly reorganise our target overnight spot. We’ll have to save Leonardo for another day.

Worrying water height marker

We spotted Chouzy sur Cisse so headed there. It’s a lovely lakeside area with a river running through it but we have since learned that it is prone to flooding, particularly in winter. As we walked around the lake we (well, especially me) were horrified to see the flood marker that showed a 2 metre mark from 1961 and just under a metre from 2001. I’ve checked the weather report and there shouldn’t be any rain tonight - fingers crossed. I hope we don’t find any more flood prone areas on our trip. Let’s see where we end up tomorrow.

Let’s hope the water stays in the lake

Town of Writing and Town of Prehistory

Love the look of this bookshop

As book lovers, when we saw we were close to ‘The City of Writing’, Montmorillon, we couldn’t resist a stopover. Our parking place was by the fast flowing river, Gartempe, and just a five minute walk into its famous medieval centre where all its bookshops and writing museums are located. Annoyingly, as we arrived on a winter’s Saturday afternoon, everything was shut but we enjoyed strolling around, soaking up the ambience and dreaming of when we could return to experience the place when the bookshop’s doors were flung open and life returned to the quiet streets.

Vieux Pont 

Loving their window displays

On a positive note, the macaron boutique and museum was open so I made a selection of coffee and hazelnut along with rose and lychee flavours to keep us going through the evening. Apparently they’ll last in the fridge for 8 to 10 days. I don’t think so! They’ll all be gone by this evening.

For sale in an antique shop

The sun came out this morning and we drove on to Le Grand Pressigny, famous for its prehistory museum which is located in a massive chateau above the town. For a change, the place was open but Hugo wasn’t allowed in so we were happy to walk around the gardens and enjoy the replica ancient animals that have been placed in the courtyard. 

Walking to the chateau

Hugo wasn’t keen

He quite liked the mammoth though


We found a recently opened restaurant/bar called La Cabane with extremely friendly owners. We got chatting and discovered the owner is a keen walker and plans to do the Compostela. Needless to say he and Graham bonded and shared observations about the lightness of different brands of walking gear. A knowing eye roll was shared between his wife and I. Tomorrow they head to Spain en vacance and we head to Vendǒme.

It’s All in the Stones - But Not the Mud

Graham was a little worried about the amount of mud at the Aire we stopped at in the village of Sers earlier today and he turned out to be correct. We wanted to see the site of Roc de Sers which has a replica of some ancient rock carvings found in the area so thought we’d stop in the village. Bad idea!

Small but perfectly formed

Everything was closed as usual and there was nowhere to eat. The Aire had hardstanding for the parking but the exit was very muddy and very uphill. We decided to leave after getting some water and managed to get bogged on the way out. There is something quite stressful about wheels spinning, mud flying and not being able to move. Thankfully a friendly Frenchman came to our rescue, guiding us through the various reversals, turns, and accelerations to get out. Thank you, that man.

Perfectly carved

Two stags

We drove on to Roc and were rewarded with some fabulous replicas of the carved stones. There are depictions of bison, stags, horses and even humans. It was worth going despite the stress at the Aire.

Displayed quite well

A bit soggy

We’re now nearby at a much less muddy spot in Dirac. It seems an affluent town with a posh farm shop next to us and a lovely church with animal carvings above the door. Not quite as old as the prehistoric ones but around 11th century I think. It’s been a day of carved animals.

Church entrance carvings

Big Rocks Come in ‘Handy’

Troglodyte Lunch

It was a real ‘wow’ moment as we turned the corner to the market square of St Emilion and saw the magnificent troglodyte church. It was carved into the rock in the 11th Century and has been added to over the centuries. I read that it is the largest rock-carved church in Europe and has always attracted pilgrims on the way to Santiago de Compostela (of course). Unfortunately, it’s not open today so we can’t explore the interior but the outside is impressive enough.

Lower part carved from rock

Market Square - used to be a graveyard

We didn’t think the 11th Century was far enough back in history for us to go today so we searched for and found a 4,500 year old megalith, the Menhir de Pierrefitte, which is about 4 km outside St Emilion. This is apparently the largest menhir in south west France and is unusually shaped like a hand - if you look at it from the right angle. 

Hugo posing well for a change

Hand in the hand