Month: October 2017

The blogging thing isn’t going so well, is it?  No proper update since our first week in France, in fact. I hope that the Instagram updates are giving a flavour of where we have been and what we have been up to.

We are currently nine weeks and 2,000 miles from home, in our seventh week in France and are  in Anjou, Loire-Maine , pitched on a caravan site on the banks of the Louet river outside Rochelle-sur-Loire. A plan to catch up on the blog had to be set aside in order to spend time fixing Mr Snail’s computer, which had a corrupted boot sector. 

It still remains that we do not often have a Wi-fi signal at the same time as a power hook-up and when we do, somebody keeps commenting on how much bandwidth we appear to be using. This inhibits me from uploading photos and writing blog posts!

The weather has continued in the main to be astounding, with many days of hot sunshine to enjoy. I had to get my legs out and have been seen in public in my shorts!

When last heard of we were in Brittany, at Sables d’or Le Pins. That was 17 days ago. It was hot and sunny and we had lunch out at a restaurant the name of which I cannot currently recall.

Sorbet

Les Salines

Hot and sunny

Pink Granite

Passiflora

Local Colour in B&W

Citroen!

Lunch

Fungi

A seaside Aire followed at Tournamine. There was a good beach and some hilltop walking and lots of sun.

After that there was a deal more sunshine and further seaside, at a caravan site at Port l’Epine where we heard that our house sale had fallen through.

Palm trees

wildlife

picnics and walks

local colour

Evening sun

Refuelled by sea and sand we felt a longing for the hills and the forest, so we turned Vincent towards Finisterre and visited a lovely little town called Huelgoat.

The weather was slightly less kind in Huelgoat and we suffered a soaking but enjoyed our hike nevertheless. We also enjoyed a good meal at l’Aristide.

Atmosphere

Big rocks

Rivers

Moulins

Canal walks

And then my camera broke.

We called at a photo shop in Redon to see if we could buy a replacement. Not liking the hubbub of a larger town, we elected not to stay there overnight but we did stay long enough to sample a simple Breton lunch of Galette, Crêpe and Cider. It was wonderful! The best food that we have eaten to date on this trip, in fact.

We ended up that night (9th Oct)  in Josselin, which is the most perfectly sleepy little town with many medieval buildings remaining. The kind of place that I should like to live.

Detail from the church

After dark in Josselin

Josselin

Impending rain in Josselin

Dans le Bois d’Amour

After Josselin it was time to head for the sea again and we spent a few nights on a site at La Turballe, where it was very hot and very sunny and the van slowly filled with sand. I think this was where Mr Snail’s computer gave up the ghost but I am kind of losing track a bit now… the sequence of events may not be wholly accurate.

Many varieties of shellfish populate the rocks in abundance

A man and his dog

Sundown over the Atlantique (no green flash)

The beach at La Turballe

On the prom at La Turballe

On the prom at La Turballe

On leaving La Turballe we bid farewell to Brittany and turned Vincent’s head towards the Loire, where he instantly conked out on us!

Chateau Coing

Chateau Coing

Chateau Coing

Chateau Coing

The booty from Chateau Coing

Chateau Coing

We had driven to Chateau Coing, our first France Passion vineyard, in searing heat and had the aircon going full tilt. This may have contributed to our battery drain, we don’t know for sure but it certainly would not start the van just minutes after we arrived. Nor would the battery take a charge from our generator. We were stuck.

What a delightful spot to be stuck in, though.

The AA sent us a rescue man on Sunday morning, who gave us a jump start and we moved Vincent to a location closer to the source of a new battery but as it was Sunday we couldn’t actually obtain one.

We found ourselves in La Chappelle sur Erdre, where we managed to fit in a lovely long walk by the river.

La Gasherie

Autumn colour

Thataway to the river Erdre

Messing about on the river

Rescue Man number 2 got us going again on Monday morning and we went to a branch of Norauto (a bit like Halford’s) where we were able to get one supplied and fitted by late afternoon. We just spent our day on the retail park. It was the day of The Plume and frankly we did not care much about being pinned down for the day, there was going to be nowhere pleasant to go to.

It was quite horrible, hot and muggy with the grit in the air palpable. The sun was all but obscured.

We were quickly sorted and back on the road again. We decided to head for the hills. Unfortunately the dust plume obscured the fabled view and the highly rated restaurant was closed. Ah, well.

We were in serous need of some down time but we also needed a power hookup so that we could work on Mr Snail’s broken computer, so after one night we rejoined our journey and moved on to Rochefort  sur Loire, to spend there nights on the caravan site there by the banks of the Louet (no spinning wheels in sight!) This is where you find us now.

Rochefort-sur-Loire

the Louet

Goat on the ruined 12thC chateau fortress of Saint-Offange

Just another hot and sunny day

Goats on the ruined 12thC chateau fortress of Saint-Offange

La Loire near Rochefort

Rochefort-sur-Loire

Tomorrow we leave to travel further up the Loire, though at the time of writing we have not settled on a destination

That’s us, briefly, up to date. For more pictures and words see daily Blipfoto, Instagram and Facebook accounts. It is often easier to squirt a picture and a few words to those places than it is to post in the blog.