Sainte Suzanne

Well, who would have thought - my own town!! And ... we love it. What a gorgeous place to come for our last days in our little home on wheels.

We spent three nights here, at the Aire: perfect spot, close to town with power and water and discharging. It was a bit breezy from one direction so we positioned ourselves sideways: it was not as though the place was crowded, there were 3 camping cars with space for 21. (You normally can’t do that).

We did our usual wander into and around town: found the Boulangerie, a jewellery artist - guess what, a pair of earrings- lovely buildings, and then the town square. And ... we found that there is a Sainte Suzanne biere (beer in Oz).

We are talking 1,000 people living here, with a swelling during the summer months with tourists daily. The town square has the Mairie, church, restaurant, cafe and the front doors of a couple of houses. We called in at the Tourist office for maps and details as Sainte Suzanne has a castle and other interesting buildings and sights.

The cafe was opened, so we tasted the beer - which came in a dark beer ?? and an amber, and we tried them both: excellent! We chatted to the woman running the shop, very friendly and lovely. And then we wandered some more, deciding that we would leave most of it to the walking tour we would do tomorrow.

The man from La Plancha had a rest and I cooked pasta for something different and we passed a pleasant but windy evening.

Oh it’s chilly overnight now, and we awoke to a dense fog which took a while to disperse. Breakfast (none of this happens early or fast!) and then on our way. The photos can tell the story.

We walked and climbed, certainly kept up our step count. 11th Century, Guillaume Le Conquerant. They are working on it. We found the castle garden, some veggies and herbs still growing... and ‘stole’ 2 quinces to have with our duck that evening. There is a working mill.

What a great day. We finished it off with some chores: the packing needed to be done and some cleaning, so we got most of that out of the way.

We had our beautiful bottle of Rockford Black Shiraz - yes, brought from Australia and absolutely luscious and perfect for the duck (and quince) dinner cooked by the man from La Plancha.

Well, sometimes the chores need doing so off to Evron to do the washing. Lucked on to it, started the process and walked into town with the market in full swing. Back to the laundry, back to the market ... back home to Sainte Suzanne.

Tonight we had another biere at the cafe and our chats with Annie established she is an actor, just looking after the cafe for a friend. She is having a one woman show on 5th Octobre... and we will pull out stops to go.

We ate at the only Hotel and had a beautiful meal, by a very accomplished chef, and good wine.

We love “my town” and have taken ownership.

Our last night in The Roving Ravioli, our little home of 73 days.

The time has gone and we have both and each enjoyed it thoroughly. James has been an amazing driver, I have been a good itinerarie, a‘reasonable’ navigator (at times dreadful) and an excellent procurer of campground and other places to stay.

In the morning we will head back to Versailles, hand back our Càmping Car to Lukas and be picked up and taken to the next stage of our adventure: Paris.