Tonight we are parked on a municipal Aire in Bellac, a little north of Limoges. It was dark when we arrived so we don't know much about where we are. But it looks like a pretty town and apparently it has a Roman bridge over the river. We shall explore tomorrow. Our initial plan was to stop in a town called Nieul, again a munjcipal Aire and just outside Limoges. When we arrived however the water had been turned off. It's winter and many places turn off their water to avoid the pipes freezing and bursting. We're nearly out of water so we set off to where we are now and...... no water, tap turned off. We have enough to last the night and we'll find some tomorrow.
Last night we had a delicious meal here: http://www.aubergesaintjean.com. It really was fabulous. We stayed here last night: http://www.chateaudecourtebotte.com/?lang=en. It was our wedding anniversary treat and very self indulgent but you're only married for 44 years once right? Before we left for the meal the owner of the Chateau, Isobel, offered to pick us up in her car when we had finished as it was a cold and damp night. We didn't like to trouble her but as we were leaving the restaurant Manuela, who runs the front of house whilst her husband is the chef, also then offered to give us a lift back to save us walking! I can't imagine that happening in England.
This morning at breakfast Isobel asked if we had been to the village of St Emilion, a few kilometres down the road. We said that we hadn't and she insisted that we must go. So, off we went for a bit of sightseeing. We didn't regret her suggestion. She said we must visit the underground church. We had to call at the Tourist info centre first to arrange a guided tour and the next tour was at 11.30. No English guides on a Saturday but we understood the gist of the commentary. The church is 38m long, 20m wide and 11m high and was not built, as such, but carved out of the limestone rock in the twelfth century. Later a gigantic bell tower weighing 4500 tons was added. It's truly amazing and we had seen nothing like it. Some of the original bas relief carvings remain but little of the original decoration. The church was abandoned during the French Revolution but reconsecrated in 1838. Attached is a chapel, built in the thirteenth century and catacombs dating back to the eighth century.
Isobel advised us also not to buy wine, should we be tempted, from the many, many shops throughout the village. It seemed that every second shop was selling St Emilion wine and we wouldn't have known where to start. Go to Maison Du Vin she advised where all the wines were sold at the prices you would pay if you bought directly from the Chateaux and the staff would be only to pleased to offer advice and recommendations. We had a quick look around before we embarked on the tour of the monolithic church and then got back just before they closed for lunch. Inevitably we bought some wine after accepting the advice of the staff so that's the wine for Christmas lunch sorted!!
Even without the guided tour and the wine, St Emilion was a great place to visit. Narrow streets of cobblestones, some of them so steep we were nearly on our hands and knees! The steep streets are called Tertres and and the word is specific to St Emilion , there are 4 of them and I think we climbed them all !! Fabulous Chateaux and the whole village surrounded by hectares and hectares of vineyards.
Tomorrow we're going to head off toward Tours and the Loire valley seeking out some wifi and no doubt some wine on the way.
Sunday 15th December.
Tonight we are parked up in the middle of a vineyard in Chancey, between Vouvray and Amboise. We didn't arrive until the sun was setting after failing to find another one of the places we wanted to stop at tonight. Actually we found the place we wanted to stop at after searching for 45 minutes all around Amboise with not very good directions only to discover that there was no one about. We could have just parked up until the morning but we were running low on water and needed to find some before tomorrow. France is great if you're driving around in a Motorhome as I think I've said before. There are plenty of places to park up for the night and very often even the smallest villages will have a couple of places reserved for Motorhomes with varying levels of facilities offered. The problem at this time of year is that although there are places to park, the water supply has been turned off to prevent the pipes freezing. As we have passed through towns and villages over the last couple of days we have stopped at the local facilities but there has been no water. We could have stopped at campsites but we are trying to save pennies at the moment so this is where the France Passion stopovers come into their own.
We arrived this evening and the guy here immediately offered us water although he had to turn on several taps to get a supply to the van and then showed us to a great spot to park on the top of a hill where we are surrounded by vines in every direction. Ok, so tomorrow he has invited us to taste his wine before we leave and inevitably we'll buy a bottle or two but I'm sure we're both happy with this arrangement.
We have three days left in France now before we scoot under Le Chunnel early on the 19th. Although we'll be happy to be home for Christmas and to see our family again, at the same time we'll miss wandering about doing whatever we wanted to do with nobody to please but ourselves. We've discovered that two people can live in a small metal box smaller than the average kitchen and not attempt to kill one another and apart from the odd navigational dispute we haven't had too many crossed words either! We'll have travelled over 4,000 miles by the time we get back to Bingley and we'll have been away 42 days. We've met some lovely people during this journey and everybody we've met has been readily forthcoming with help, advice and many tips which have been more than useful on many occasions.
I just hope I can remember how to drive on the right side when we get back to the UK. Although I've driven in Europe loads of times before I thought it would be a problem dragging a six and a half metre Motorhome around on the "wrong" side of the road with r/h drive. Previously the biggest problem always was overtaking on single carriageway roads but with the Motorhome you're sat up nice and high and can see over other cars so that's no longer a problem. Not that I do a lot of overtaking, of course. Never did.
So we'll be home by tea time on Thursday the 19th and I'll be looking forward to a pint of decent beer by then (hello Mo & Bill).
Still looking for wifi!!
Monday 16th December
We are parked at a campsite at Marcilly-Sur-Eure near Dreux.
We had a quick degustation this morning, Vouvray before breakfast and very nice it was too. The vigneron (I think that's the right word) only had a sip with us as he explained that he was trimming his vines with some dodgy electric secateurs and he valued his fingers. Anyway, we bought a bottle or two and we now have a nice selection of wines for Christmas and New Year all bought directly from the vineyards.
The Campsite we are on is very pretty, or would be in spring or summer. At the moment although we have had a couple of bright sunny days by late afternoon it becomes cold and damp. We arrived in daylight and after being ripped of to the tune of €9.00 for 24 hours wifi found that there was no water on our pitch. Taps, but no water. After explaining to the management that I could have parked anywhere with no water and saved myself the €16.00 campsite fee the maintenance guy reluctantly came and turned on the water for us.
We were going to take another two days to drive to Calais but have decided now that we'll push on tomorrow and stop just outside Calais for a couple of days at Wissant where folk have mentioned there is a pretty Aire and we can relax for a day before the tunnel. Thanks for the comments, by the way, keep them coming.
Pat
Last night we had a delicious meal here: http://www.aubergesaintjean.com. It really was fabulous. We stayed here last night: http://www.chateaudecourtebotte.com/?lang=en. It was our wedding anniversary treat and very self indulgent but you're only married for 44 years once right? Before we left for the meal the owner of the Chateau, Isobel, offered to pick us up in her car when we had finished as it was a cold and damp night. We didn't like to trouble her but as we were leaving the restaurant Manuela, who runs the front of house whilst her husband is the chef, also then offered to give us a lift back to save us walking! I can't imagine that happening in England.
This morning at breakfast Isobel asked if we had been to the village of St Emilion, a few kilometres down the road. We said that we hadn't and she insisted that we must go. So, off we went for a bit of sightseeing. We didn't regret her suggestion. She said we must visit the underground church. We had to call at the Tourist info centre first to arrange a guided tour and the next tour was at 11.30. No English guides on a Saturday but we understood the gist of the commentary. The church is 38m long, 20m wide and 11m high and was not built, as such, but carved out of the limestone rock in the twelfth century. Later a gigantic bell tower weighing 4500 tons was added. It's truly amazing and we had seen nothing like it. Some of the original bas relief carvings remain but little of the original decoration. The church was abandoned during the French Revolution but reconsecrated in 1838. Attached is a chapel, built in the thirteenth century and catacombs dating back to the eighth century.
Isobel advised us also not to buy wine, should we be tempted, from the many, many shops throughout the village. It seemed that every second shop was selling St Emilion wine and we wouldn't have known where to start. Go to Maison Du Vin she advised where all the wines were sold at the prices you would pay if you bought directly from the Chateaux and the staff would be only to pleased to offer advice and recommendations. We had a quick look around before we embarked on the tour of the monolithic church and then got back just before they closed for lunch. Inevitably we bought some wine after accepting the advice of the staff so that's the wine for Christmas lunch sorted!!
Even without the guided tour and the wine, St Emilion was a great place to visit. Narrow streets of cobblestones, some of them so steep we were nearly on our hands and knees! The steep streets are called Tertres and and the word is specific to St Emilion , there are 4 of them and I think we climbed them all !! Fabulous Chateaux and the whole village surrounded by hectares and hectares of vineyards.
Tomorrow we're going to head off toward Tours and the Loire valley seeking out some wifi and no doubt some wine on the way.
Sunday 15th December.
Tonight we are parked up in the middle of a vineyard in Chancey, between Vouvray and Amboise. We didn't arrive until the sun was setting after failing to find another one of the places we wanted to stop at tonight. Actually we found the place we wanted to stop at after searching for 45 minutes all around Amboise with not very good directions only to discover that there was no one about. We could have just parked up until the morning but we were running low on water and needed to find some before tomorrow. France is great if you're driving around in a Motorhome as I think I've said before. There are plenty of places to park up for the night and very often even the smallest villages will have a couple of places reserved for Motorhomes with varying levels of facilities offered. The problem at this time of year is that although there are places to park, the water supply has been turned off to prevent the pipes freezing. As we have passed through towns and villages over the last couple of days we have stopped at the local facilities but there has been no water. We could have stopped at campsites but we are trying to save pennies at the moment so this is where the France Passion stopovers come into their own.
We arrived this evening and the guy here immediately offered us water although he had to turn on several taps to get a supply to the van and then showed us to a great spot to park on the top of a hill where we are surrounded by vines in every direction. Ok, so tomorrow he has invited us to taste his wine before we leave and inevitably we'll buy a bottle or two but I'm sure we're both happy with this arrangement.
We have three days left in France now before we scoot under Le Chunnel early on the 19th. Although we'll be happy to be home for Christmas and to see our family again, at the same time we'll miss wandering about doing whatever we wanted to do with nobody to please but ourselves. We've discovered that two people can live in a small metal box smaller than the average kitchen and not attempt to kill one another and apart from the odd navigational dispute we haven't had too many crossed words either! We'll have travelled over 4,000 miles by the time we get back to Bingley and we'll have been away 42 days. We've met some lovely people during this journey and everybody we've met has been readily forthcoming with help, advice and many tips which have been more than useful on many occasions.
I just hope I can remember how to drive on the right side when we get back to the UK. Although I've driven in Europe loads of times before I thought it would be a problem dragging a six and a half metre Motorhome around on the "wrong" side of the road with r/h drive. Previously the biggest problem always was overtaking on single carriageway roads but with the Motorhome you're sat up nice and high and can see over other cars so that's no longer a problem. Not that I do a lot of overtaking, of course. Never did.
So we'll be home by tea time on Thursday the 19th and I'll be looking forward to a pint of decent beer by then (hello Mo & Bill).
Still looking for wifi!!
Monday 16th December
We are parked at a campsite at Marcilly-Sur-Eure near Dreux.
We had a quick degustation this morning, Vouvray before breakfast and very nice it was too. The vigneron (I think that's the right word) only had a sip with us as he explained that he was trimming his vines with some dodgy electric secateurs and he valued his fingers. Anyway, we bought a bottle or two and we now have a nice selection of wines for Christmas and New Year all bought directly from the vineyards.
The Campsite we are on is very pretty, or would be in spring or summer. At the moment although we have had a couple of bright sunny days by late afternoon it becomes cold and damp. We arrived in daylight and after being ripped of to the tune of €9.00 for 24 hours wifi found that there was no water on our pitch. Taps, but no water. After explaining to the management that I could have parked anywhere with no water and saved myself the €16.00 campsite fee the maintenance guy reluctantly came and turned on the water for us.
We were going to take another two days to drive to Calais but have decided now that we'll push on tomorrow and stop just outside Calais for a couple of days at Wissant where folk have mentioned there is a pretty Aire and we can relax for a day before the tunnel. Thanks for the comments, by the way, keep them coming.
Pat
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