Tour de 1st few days

How spoilt, shouted ourselves a car to Versailles. Really, struggle on the train with bags ... and extra bags ... you know, shopping ... shoes ... OR hop in a beamer and be driven. Well here we are in our very large home named “The Roving Ravioli”. How good is that. It has everything... beds (yes we could have guests stay in a double that retracts into the roof!), shower, toilet, kitchen etc. Our handover from David was good and we settled and started ... oops the Google maps didn’t do so well so it took us 15 minutes to go around the town ... and on our way to Sainte Suzanne (found by James) for our first stop. I had a feeling it didn’t look right on the map ... and ... yes it was the wrong Sainte Suzanna: there are 4 of them! Reprogramming: Alencon. We found the municipal camp ground and checked in, all good but a little frazzled by then.

Wheat and corn (is as high as an elephant’s eye) abound. Wind turbines, a Suzanna fav. Houses are made of stone - over many centuries.

A walk up to town was what we needed - uphill of course! Found a bar on the way and stopped for a beer, with the locals having a laugh. On into “town”. Not a lot in this part, but a couple of French soixante ans chaps were having what looked like a nice pizza, offered me some when I asked was it good, so we stopped .. it was great!

We saw lots of people heading past down a street, all in blue white and red and realised it must be a football event. Yes, the Mayor (definitely good for votes) had a very large screen in a park so that everyone could watch the match against Belgium. Viva La France “we” won! It was fun. Home to bed.

In the morning we tried to find a market ... oh dear, roadworks/closures and any navigation system don’t work together! Gave up that idea, no breakfast, thank heavens for the nuts and figs we had bought ... let’s go to Dinan. Oh well, suffice it to say it took a bit longer than we planned but with a bit of distraction along the way.

As we went through a small village, Asse Le Boise, James spied a Boucherie and Charcuterie and in we went. Oh my, he had the trophies and he had the wonderful food. We bought sausage, salami, rabbit terrine, rillettes, and a piece of steak. 24.50 Euro for amazing. Nothing else around, no Boulangerie, Cafe ... just him.

After much toing and froing we made it and again found the municipal park. Thank heavens for Councils (Maire they are called, the name of James’ mum, so we say g’day to her often along the way).

Dinan is quite lovely. We got settled, met a French woman in a van travelling alone, and said we’d have a drink later. She has a van and travels around where she wants. I do hope we meet again, a special woman. We walked into town - again up a hill - to the supermarket: James said he’d cook the wonderful steak we had bought. We heard Australian voices, found out they were ... from Brisbane and cycling and ... staying at the same place.

Long night, long story, big hangover later ... us, Camille, Cindy and her friend without benefits whose name I’m sorry I just don’t have in my brain .. six bottles of wine and some Armagnac later ... great mixes of food with everyone contributing... the problem is, it doesn’t get dark until about 10 pm ... Lots of laughs, lots of chat, food, great fun. Thank you!

James and I had a quiet second day in Dinan, I went for a walk and then early evening we walked to town for dinner. 3 courses for 14 Euros - toooo much food! Yum but... we left there on the morning of 13th.

We’ve settled in to the motor home life more now, muesli breakfast, tea. We explored a bit of Dinan first, just beautiful.

Had a good drive, stopping for coffee in a small town, we tell everyone we are Australian and they want a chat - great practice and laughs. in another town to buy a baguette, along the way to make a lunch with the lovely charcuterie, overlooking pastures and watching a hawk riding the thermals and hunting - he gave merry chase to a bird.

Lots of wheat, in various stages, and the tractors and machines are often on the roads going from one farm to another. We are driving “avoid tolls, avoid motorways” and some roads are narrow, some really good. James doing a wonderful job with the driving.

I am taking a lot of photographs - the light is amazing and the colours; I can see the joy of the French artists. I am developing ideas, if not paintings.

One town where we stopped for a break and coffee had a park with stone sculptures- amazing: the one shown is a bow tie. We had an ice cream too at another town.

Honfleur, wow, amazing, pretty. We easily found the ‘Càmping car’ site, about 300 of them, and found a spot. This is cheek by jowl stuff: no awnings out and not room for table and chairs. It’s free, no power or dumping/filling places. But, a short walk to town. With Bastille Day the following day we were lucky to find anything.

A tourist town, historic, the start of the Seine. Of course lots of people from just about everywhere. We wandered, and wandered, shopped (found a great shop and 2 dresses (20 each), a Campari Soda and listened to a great guitarist/singer. Had dinner - ordered a steak, oh just huge! We are not yet in the ‘eat late’ mode but it still seems to be 11 pm by the time we tuck up. An Armagnac helps the sleep.

We got up relatively early and were downtown by 8 am, intending to go for a longer walk along the river. Coffee and then ... a market. Well, I only bought 3 linen tops and a couple of bracelets. Such bargains. James bought another knife, a couple of CDs. Then the walk, distracted talking to a chap who looks after a 2nd World War German bunker. Very interesting. We did go for a walk, just a lot later than planned! We are doing our 10,000 steps each day.

People are interested in us, as Australians; some have been and want to relive their experiences. My French improves and I love practising (probably badly but it’s fun). If someone wants to talk in English I talk in French (poor them).

We went to the Lidl store - like Aldi. Did the laundry. Great lunch of (for James) oysters and me a goats cheese salad followed by langoustines. We had decided to stay “home” in the evening and eat some of our beautiful fare, with some bubbles of course, and be out of the rat race. Fireworks are not until 11 pm ... not sure we’ll make it! It is now 10.20 pm and still light, sort of dusk. All day there has been firecrackers- must drive the gendarmes crazy.

The fireworks were great, with other random crackers going off until about 3 am. I spent half an hour with a couple from Rouen who spoke no English. I managed to tell them about Australia - they knew about the desert and that we had kangaroos. Thank heavens I had written a piece for our French teacher on ‘all things Australian’ - I just had to remember it all! A lot of laughs.

James is writing prolifically which is wonderful. I am not painting... but taking lots of photos and have lots of ideas - and writing them down.

We can buy pretty good wine for 3-6 euros, the champagne we had was 3.90. Càmping grounds are about 24 euros. We are living fairly cheaply but oh so well. We are both relaxed and happy, and our home is comfortable. James is doing the driving happily at present, and doing it well.

A big trip Sunday from Honfleur to Ypres, and this will form part of the next Chapter, which will cover WW1.