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| Azay le Rideau village and Chateau |
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| Chenonceau Chateau |
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| Views of Cheverney |
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| Chambord Chateau |
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| Orleans city (Joan of Arc fame) |
Wednesday, 28 December 2011
The Loire by photo
Saturday, 17 December 2011
December 11th Mont-pres-Chambord to Chambord and Orleans
Sunday, but no sun. Oshy said he needed a day in bed, he was tired of trying to beat the elements, and he also wasn't feeling too flash after spending the evening and late into the night out at the pub with his mates. He must have had the day in bed because the weather didn't improve at all - at one stage mid-afternoon we saw a thermometer that read 5 degrees, that must have been the high and possibly the sensor was a bit too close to an open fire where chestnuts were being roasted or something because it was a generous five I would suggest!!!
Ze left Mont-pres-Chambord heading for the Chambord chateau, about 15kms distant. Chambord is a huge chateau, the biggest in the Loire Valley, surrounded by park/forest full of game (which was the draw-card for the royals when it came to choosing a place for a castle). The grounds have been walled off, the area inside being the biggest walled park in Europe and bigger than the area of Greater Paris. Much of the land was swamp land originally, it was drained by hand, with thousands of men digging channels over the years, hundreds of whom died from malaria due to the mosquito problem in summer. In the winter it was freezing cold and very bleak. Apparently it wasn't at all hospitable and over the centuries the owners, (kings, marquis and the likes) only spent a total of a few days each at the place at a time. I think it was Henry (which one??) who got the place built originally who ruled for dozens of years but only spent a total of thirteen weeks there, he used it to show off his wealth to important people, but apart from dropping in to see how the work was going, and kill a few deer, he hardly visited it). He died before his bit was finished, but over the centuries it changed hands regularly being gifted from one person to another with each owner adding their own touch (and expensive extension). It had a number of periods when it was abandoned and became quite derelict at times before being "rediscovered" by someone who could afford to do it up again. It was in 1930 that it was bought by the state and opened up to the public.
We had audio guides which were very interesting to begin with but were so detailed that after about my 20th explanation of a room or painting or statue it became a bit much and I reverted to discovering things on my own. It was 3 storeys high with the 4th being the roof which was interesting as you not only got great (but foggy) views over the estate and buildings, but also close up views of the chimneys, spires, and stone work of the roof line. There was a good video at the beginning of the visit which explained the design/architecture and the various stages of its development, the first part was centered around a double helix staircase, deliberately designed so that people ascending could get a glimpse of people on the other staircase but not meet (there is some conjecture it was designed by Leonardo da Vinci who certainly spent many of his final years in the area), but no one knows for sure. Around this core four wings were built (likened to the blades of a windmill), all very symmetrical around the pivot point.
The greatest feature for us though were the roaring fires in the vestibules near the staircase on each floor, this became our meeting point at every level where we read info, listened to excerpts from our audio-guides and thawed out. This was an essential part of the visit as the chateau away from the fireplaces was icy cold, in fact possibly colder inside than out!!!! not nice despite many layers of woollens.
We spent a couple of hours at Chambord - only inside really, it was too cold to explore the grounds, there are bike tracks through the forest, and walks, but this was not the right season for such activities, so instead we had an exhorbitantly priced, and not particularly good, coffee at the hotel within the grounds.
From Chambord we found our way to Orleans which we wanted to visit because of its history and connection with Joan of Arc. Hilary in particular was keen having read a lot about the area and Joan, and she was keen to find out more. Unfortunately by the time we got there, found a suitable parking area, and walked into the city center it was about 4.30 and we didn't have a chance to visit the Joan of Arc Museum which is only open on Sunday and Wednesday afternoons. However we did have the fortune of stumbling across the Christmas Markets which were set up in the centreville, and there were beautiful Christmas decorations in the trees and hanging in the streets too. We along with thousands of others, spent an hour or so looking around the town and markets (nothing too exciting) before we found ourselves at the Cathedral. Though we have seen many dozens on our travels, they are usually worth a quick look, even if just to ease your mind that you're not missing anything amazing!. It was actually very plain, Gothic, but with stunning stained glass windows, rich colours and nice scenes rather than some of the macabre ones you often get.
Ze walked back to the truck and struck out for what we thought was Chateuneuf-sur-Loire (another site with power). Well after 20 minutes of not seeing any street signs with names that seemed correct, we got off the highway and stopped in another scene from an American movie. This was one from "Misery" I think, dark, wet, eerily empty, ...... we pulled up by a shed, and looked at our map. A man in high viz gear came out and approached, bravely I opened the window and tried to explain that we were lost, and told him where we wanted to go. I passed the map book over to him, he looked at it for ages, making strange noises and tracing with his finger on the page. Eventually he looked at me and said "Ardon" not that clearly, but that's what I took him to mean (having seen where his finger was) I said "ici?" and he said, "ici" back again. I took that to mean we were in Ardon (though I'm not sure we were, judging by how short a time it took us to get to the village we ended up at. I'm not sure if he was deaf, (he certainly spoke like a non-hearing person) and I also don't think he could read, and I have no idea what the place was we were at. It resembled a psychiatric institution or "house of detention" and was certainly a "gated community". It really was the sort of place that sends shivers up your spine and I was very thankful to have it glowing in my rear vision mirror as we high-tailed it away from there headed, we hoped, to Orleans again. On our way we spotted a sign for a real campground, so we drove down dark and twisty lanes to the spot, only to find, despite the roadsign saying ouvret, that it was in fact ferme, and firmly ferme at that.
At that point we gave up and parked on the side of the road, at the first piece of gravel we could find, and that is where we spent the night, in the darkness, I'm not sure where we were, somewhere near a place called Olivet, on a country road beside a dirty creek.
Ze left Mont-pres-Chambord heading for the Chambord chateau, about 15kms distant. Chambord is a huge chateau, the biggest in the Loire Valley, surrounded by park/forest full of game (which was the draw-card for the royals when it came to choosing a place for a castle). The grounds have been walled off, the area inside being the biggest walled park in Europe and bigger than the area of Greater Paris. Much of the land was swamp land originally, it was drained by hand, with thousands of men digging channels over the years, hundreds of whom died from malaria due to the mosquito problem in summer. In the winter it was freezing cold and very bleak. Apparently it wasn't at all hospitable and over the centuries the owners, (kings, marquis and the likes) only spent a total of a few days each at the place at a time. I think it was Henry (which one??) who got the place built originally who ruled for dozens of years but only spent a total of thirteen weeks there, he used it to show off his wealth to important people, but apart from dropping in to see how the work was going, and kill a few deer, he hardly visited it). He died before his bit was finished, but over the centuries it changed hands regularly being gifted from one person to another with each owner adding their own touch (and expensive extension). It had a number of periods when it was abandoned and became quite derelict at times before being "rediscovered" by someone who could afford to do it up again. It was in 1930 that it was bought by the state and opened up to the public.
We had audio guides which were very interesting to begin with but were so detailed that after about my 20th explanation of a room or painting or statue it became a bit much and I reverted to discovering things on my own. It was 3 storeys high with the 4th being the roof which was interesting as you not only got great (but foggy) views over the estate and buildings, but also close up views of the chimneys, spires, and stone work of the roof line. There was a good video at the beginning of the visit which explained the design/architecture and the various stages of its development, the first part was centered around a double helix staircase, deliberately designed so that people ascending could get a glimpse of people on the other staircase but not meet (there is some conjecture it was designed by Leonardo da Vinci who certainly spent many of his final years in the area), but no one knows for sure. Around this core four wings were built (likened to the blades of a windmill), all very symmetrical around the pivot point.
The greatest feature for us though were the roaring fires in the vestibules near the staircase on each floor, this became our meeting point at every level where we read info, listened to excerpts from our audio-guides and thawed out. This was an essential part of the visit as the chateau away from the fireplaces was icy cold, in fact possibly colder inside than out!!!! not nice despite many layers of woollens.
We spent a couple of hours at Chambord - only inside really, it was too cold to explore the grounds, there are bike tracks through the forest, and walks, but this was not the right season for such activities, so instead we had an exhorbitantly priced, and not particularly good, coffee at the hotel within the grounds.
From Chambord we found our way to Orleans which we wanted to visit because of its history and connection with Joan of Arc. Hilary in particular was keen having read a lot about the area and Joan, and she was keen to find out more. Unfortunately by the time we got there, found a suitable parking area, and walked into the city center it was about 4.30 and we didn't have a chance to visit the Joan of Arc Museum which is only open on Sunday and Wednesday afternoons. However we did have the fortune of stumbling across the Christmas Markets which were set up in the centreville, and there were beautiful Christmas decorations in the trees and hanging in the streets too. We along with thousands of others, spent an hour or so looking around the town and markets (nothing too exciting) before we found ourselves at the Cathedral. Though we have seen many dozens on our travels, they are usually worth a quick look, even if just to ease your mind that you're not missing anything amazing!. It was actually very plain, Gothic, but with stunning stained glass windows, rich colours and nice scenes rather than some of the macabre ones you often get.
Ze walked back to the truck and struck out for what we thought was Chateuneuf-sur-Loire (another site with power). Well after 20 minutes of not seeing any street signs with names that seemed correct, we got off the highway and stopped in another scene from an American movie. This was one from "Misery" I think, dark, wet, eerily empty, ...... we pulled up by a shed, and looked at our map. A man in high viz gear came out and approached, bravely I opened the window and tried to explain that we were lost, and told him where we wanted to go. I passed the map book over to him, he looked at it for ages, making strange noises and tracing with his finger on the page. Eventually he looked at me and said "Ardon" not that clearly, but that's what I took him to mean (having seen where his finger was) I said "ici?" and he said, "ici" back again. I took that to mean we were in Ardon (though I'm not sure we were, judging by how short a time it took us to get to the village we ended up at. I'm not sure if he was deaf, (he certainly spoke like a non-hearing person) and I also don't think he could read, and I have no idea what the place was we were at. It resembled a psychiatric institution or "house of detention" and was certainly a "gated community". It really was the sort of place that sends shivers up your spine and I was very thankful to have it glowing in my rear vision mirror as we high-tailed it away from there headed, we hoped, to Orleans again. On our way we spotted a sign for a real campground, so we drove down dark and twisty lanes to the spot, only to find, despite the roadsign saying ouvret, that it was in fact ferme, and firmly ferme at that.
At that point we gave up and parked on the side of the road, at the first piece of gravel we could find, and that is where we spent the night, in the darkness, I'm not sure where we were, somewhere near a place called Olivet, on a country road beside a dirty creek.
Thursday, 15 December 2011
December 10th Mont-pres-Chambord
Another day in the Loire, started off sunny and then clouded over, then at the end of the day became one of those clear blue skied, almost frosty late afternoons, and now though only 5 pm it has a pink through violet hue. We weren't sure of our plan today last night, we decided the weather could chose our destiny- fine and we would stay around here exploring chateaux, bad and we would head north.
So after we had hot showers (a rare treat) and doing a little hand-washing and consuming a breakfast of hot porridge we headed off towards the first chateau. We actually decided to go to Amboise and see the town and chateau there but as the weather was deteriorating the further west we went we gave Amboise a miss and instead diverted to Cheverney a Chateau just 10 minutes down the road from our camp-site. It was a good choice, the weather now was grey and rather cool, but the grounds lovely. We started by looking at the 100 hounds they keep for hunting. They are French beagles, much bigger than the English variety, but otherwise they look the same. They were all housed together in a concrete pen with a large indoor area where they could shelter and sleep if they wanted. They seemed happy enough- though I imagine quite bored, they sometimes looked as if they might play together but instead just barked or put their front feet up on the wall so we could pat them through the wire fence. They stank, if I may be so bold. I guess that many hounds would, so we didn't linger! Next to the kennels was the pottager garden, not looking its most luxuriant due to the season, but quite delightfully displayed with strips of colour and large through small pumpkins left lying about as decoration but also I guess for composting. We went into the chateau itself next, only about half the house or less is open to the public as the current owners live in the rest of the building. I can't remember exactly how many rooms we visited, about a dozen I guess, with drawing rooms, bedrooms, a library, dining room and kitchens all on display. Really fully decorated, not a spot on the walls, ceiling, floor that didn't have paint, paper, carving or some other embellishment and then with strident (for want of a better word) furniture to add to the cacophony. If you like colours and action then this is the place for you, though I'm not sure how the man of the house ever slept as his room was a mismatch of gold, red and green of every pattern imaginable. Poor bugger must have had nightmares.
After the chateau we went to the Tin Tin exhibition which is a permanent display as the chateau was said to be the inspiration for the house Tin Tin lives in, certainly if you took the front left and right rounded wings off Cheverney it looks just like the one in Tin Tin. By the time we had looked at the exhibition and a bit more of an explore around the garden at the back of the chateau and of course a wee look in the shop, it was 4 o'clock and so too late for visits anywhere else. So we returned to our campground and had cups of tea and a French pastry in the truck as we watched the last rays of sunshine disappearing across the field behind us as the sun sank below the horizon (at 5 o'clock!!!).
So after we had hot showers (a rare treat) and doing a little hand-washing and consuming a breakfast of hot porridge we headed off towards the first chateau. We actually decided to go to Amboise and see the town and chateau there but as the weather was deteriorating the further west we went we gave Amboise a miss and instead diverted to Cheverney a Chateau just 10 minutes down the road from our camp-site. It was a good choice, the weather now was grey and rather cool, but the grounds lovely. We started by looking at the 100 hounds they keep for hunting. They are French beagles, much bigger than the English variety, but otherwise they look the same. They were all housed together in a concrete pen with a large indoor area where they could shelter and sleep if they wanted. They seemed happy enough- though I imagine quite bored, they sometimes looked as if they might play together but instead just barked or put their front feet up on the wall so we could pat them through the wire fence. They stank, if I may be so bold. I guess that many hounds would, so we didn't linger! Next to the kennels was the pottager garden, not looking its most luxuriant due to the season, but quite delightfully displayed with strips of colour and large through small pumpkins left lying about as decoration but also I guess for composting. We went into the chateau itself next, only about half the house or less is open to the public as the current owners live in the rest of the building. I can't remember exactly how many rooms we visited, about a dozen I guess, with drawing rooms, bedrooms, a library, dining room and kitchens all on display. Really fully decorated, not a spot on the walls, ceiling, floor that didn't have paint, paper, carving or some other embellishment and then with strident (for want of a better word) furniture to add to the cacophony. If you like colours and action then this is the place for you, though I'm not sure how the man of the house ever slept as his room was a mismatch of gold, red and green of every pattern imaginable. Poor bugger must have had nightmares.
After the chateau we went to the Tin Tin exhibition which is a permanent display as the chateau was said to be the inspiration for the house Tin Tin lives in, certainly if you took the front left and right rounded wings off Cheverney it looks just like the one in Tin Tin. By the time we had looked at the exhibition and a bit more of an explore around the garden at the back of the chateau and of course a wee look in the shop, it was 4 o'clock and so too late for visits anywhere else. So we returned to our campground and had cups of tea and a French pastry in the truck as we watched the last rays of sunshine disappearing across the field behind us as the sun sank below the horizon (at 5 o'clock!!!).
December 9th Ange
Today was another very cold and very wet day- the truck was dripping with condensation and our noses weren't fairing much better. We had wanted to stay put for a day or two somewhere instead of driving all the time but the weather was so gloomy, there was no power, and we were a reasonable distance form the village so we decided to move on in search of somewhere a little more conducive to having a quiet and warm rest.
We drove 15-20 kms to a small village where I spotted a McDonalds - we had been unable to find anywhere to check our emails for days and are worrying about getting the truck fixed before we can re-sell it. I went into McDs while the others set up warm activities in the truck, reading, doing the scrap-book, writing and maths. Well the first issue was that the power outlets all (except one broken one) had covers with hinges on them that prevented my NZ to French adapter to fit into the socket- so cursing away I decided to use the last few minutes of battery life on the computer to check my emails. Well lo and behold, the hard drive has crashed so the computer won't boot, now we can't check emails, blog, do internet banking, look at photos, save photos, contact anyone. GREAT!!!!!! I went back to the truck feeling pretty despondent to tell the truth. I think if we had been able to we may just have abandoned our plans and jumped on the next plane home at that point. It was cold and wet we felt isolated and it certainly wasn't a fun experience we were having. We decided to drive on to the only campsite we could find in the area which had power and see what happened with the weather. We had been going to visit Cheverney (a Chateau) on our way past but it was raining persistently and seemed foolish- so instead we headed straight to Mont-pres-Chambord. We drove through the village and eventually found the sign for the campsite so turned down the narrow road where the arrow was pointed. We found the place easily enough but the gates were firmly padlocked and apart from a solitary caravan with loose awning flapping in the wind and rain there was no sign of life. We didn't fancy our chances of finding anyone alive any time soon but chose to head back to a supermarket car-park on the outskirts of town we had noticed, and re-group while we had some lunch, hoping the campsite was just closed for lunch. The thought of hot food appealed so we purchased fresh bread and a hot chicken from the supermarket and feasted while the rain poured down around us. We made plans while we ate, we would go back to the campsite after lunch, if it was open, good, we;d give the weather a chance to clear and maybe explore the Loire over the next day or so if we couldn't stay at the campsite we would drive straight up to a campsite near where my cousin lives, an hour south of Paris and try to get the truck sorted out.
So, we drove back to the campsite, still resembling something from an American horror movie, with things blowing in the wind, and the area looking deserted, but then I remembered we had passed a handwritten sign with a drawing of a camper-van on it saying :accuiel campervans" so we tracked back to find the owner. Di risked life and limb to pass two large and ferocious marauding dogs and we got the key to the padlock on the gate in exchange for my passport. The owner was on her way to pick the children up from school, so we got the Readers Digest introduction to the site. We settled in, really pleased to have power to charge the camera and computer in case it decided to come back to life. The best part though is that we have lights so we can at least see what we are doing and do something more exciting than looking across the dimly lit table at each other.
We drove 15-20 kms to a small village where I spotted a McDonalds - we had been unable to find anywhere to check our emails for days and are worrying about getting the truck fixed before we can re-sell it. I went into McDs while the others set up warm activities in the truck, reading, doing the scrap-book, writing and maths. Well the first issue was that the power outlets all (except one broken one) had covers with hinges on them that prevented my NZ to French adapter to fit into the socket- so cursing away I decided to use the last few minutes of battery life on the computer to check my emails. Well lo and behold, the hard drive has crashed so the computer won't boot, now we can't check emails, blog, do internet banking, look at photos, save photos, contact anyone. GREAT!!!!!! I went back to the truck feeling pretty despondent to tell the truth. I think if we had been able to we may just have abandoned our plans and jumped on the next plane home at that point. It was cold and wet we felt isolated and it certainly wasn't a fun experience we were having. We decided to drive on to the only campsite we could find in the area which had power and see what happened with the weather. We had been going to visit Cheverney (a Chateau) on our way past but it was raining persistently and seemed foolish- so instead we headed straight to Mont-pres-Chambord. We drove through the village and eventually found the sign for the campsite so turned down the narrow road where the arrow was pointed. We found the place easily enough but the gates were firmly padlocked and apart from a solitary caravan with loose awning flapping in the wind and rain there was no sign of life. We didn't fancy our chances of finding anyone alive any time soon but chose to head back to a supermarket car-park on the outskirts of town we had noticed, and re-group while we had some lunch, hoping the campsite was just closed for lunch. The thought of hot food appealed so we purchased fresh bread and a hot chicken from the supermarket and feasted while the rain poured down around us. We made plans while we ate, we would go back to the campsite after lunch, if it was open, good, we;d give the weather a chance to clear and maybe explore the Loire over the next day or so if we couldn't stay at the campsite we would drive straight up to a campsite near where my cousin lives, an hour south of Paris and try to get the truck sorted out.
So, we drove back to the campsite, still resembling something from an American horror movie, with things blowing in the wind, and the area looking deserted, but then I remembered we had passed a handwritten sign with a drawing of a camper-van on it saying :accuiel campervans" so we tracked back to find the owner. Di risked life and limb to pass two large and ferocious marauding dogs and we got the key to the padlock on the gate in exchange for my passport. The owner was on her way to pick the children up from school, so we got the Readers Digest introduction to the site. We settled in, really pleased to have power to charge the camera and computer in case it decided to come back to life. The best part though is that we have lights so we can at least see what we are doing and do something more exciting than looking across the dimly lit table at each other.
Wednesday, 14 December 2011
December 8th Vouvray to Ange (Loire Valley)
We headed away from Vouvray along the Loire Valley some more, this time headed to Chenonceau another magnificent Chateau, on our way to Ange a campsite with power a rare commodity in this part of France especially at this time of year.
Chenonceau is built astride the Cher River (a tributary of the Loire) in fact during WWII one door opened onto or from (depending on whether you were coming or going) Occupied France and the other door opened into a Resistance stronghold. The Chateau itself was turned into a hosputal for the wounded during the war at the owner's behest and in fact the Resistance managed to get a lot of people out to safety through the chateau because of this. Apparently the German artillary had it in their sights the whole time but for some reason didn't ever attack it, whether there were German wounded being treated too I;m not sure, but it was unharmed.
The castle, like all of them, had an interesting past. It was given to Diane de Poitiers by her lover King Henry II who was married to Catherine de Medici at the time. Diane had quite good taste and sorted out the gardens and decorating etc. and lived there until a couple of years after Henry's death at which point Catherine succeeded in ousting her from the Chatequ (don't worry she didn't end up destitute and homeless begging outside churches in France, she had any chateau of her own and went and lived in one of them.)
The Chateau was fantastic enough as it was but it was even more memorable because it had been decorated for Christmas with wonderful trees, baubles, lights and superb, huge bouquets of fresh flowers - reddish brown hippiastrumsm red and green floral displays, purple and white and green, each more glorious than the last, The piece de resistance however was the huge fires raging in giant alcoves with logs as thick as Piri Weepu's thigh.
The grounds also held an interesting vegetable garden with peculiar if not a little rude displays of pumpkins and gourd type vegetables laid out, I'm not sure if for decoration or if they rot them for compost - but they were a sight.Also next to the vegetable garden was the donkey field with 4 contented looking donkeys munching grass, but not keen to come to see us. There was also a 17th century farm - much of it closed for winter but sitting in aan enclosure with lots of food and a clean pond were a selection of about 12 colourful and sometimes oddly shaped ducks - at least 2 of each type so they had a friend who spoke the same dialect.
We left Chenonceau headed towards Ange - it started raining (of course) and was quite dark when we pulled into the smallish village. Just as we were finding signs leading us to our camp-stop one of our windscreen wipers fell part. GREAT another pain to cause angst just when we didn't need it. However, thankfully it was the outside one on the passenger;s side so though it reduces vision a little, it isn't too bad as there are still two functioning wiper blades which cover most of the screen.
We pulled up to our spot, reversed in and put in chocks, wound down our stabilizing legs, hooked up to the power and sat down in fully illuminated surroundings, hot water cylinder turned on for warmth, and counting our blessings. We had dinner and did the dishes, I was just trying to make a cup of post-dinner tea when they electric jug wouldn't work. Oh........!!!! (Found that exclamation mark) What now? I checked the fuses in the box, often when you boil the jug at these places it flips the szitch on the fuses as it is too much of a load. But no it wasn't that. I moved the plug to another bollard hoping that would fix it. No. It wasn't that. I asked Di (because I'm too shy) to ask the English people one camper over if they had a problem just to make sure it wasn't isolated to us. She reluctantly agreed. It wasn't us thankfully, but it also couldn't be fixed that night so, bother it, we had to reduce our usage of electricity - not quite to the point of dimness, but not the nice bright light that allows for stitching and other occupations that old eyes need good lighting for. It really does feel as if things aren't meant to be smooth at the moment - things at home aren't great with our rental properties still not being able to be rented post-earthquake which places a huge financial burden on us, our mastercards aren't working, the truck needs fixing before we can sell it, we can;t communicate or find out what is happening because the computer has crashed. All our clothes stink because we can't find a laundromat, most of the places for campervans are closed or have their electricity and water turned off for winter, and it's just started raining again (heavily). I've got to the point where I just want to come back to NZ (earthquakes or not) and be playing in my warm garden and enjoying sunshine and good friends.
Chenonceau is built astride the Cher River (a tributary of the Loire) in fact during WWII one door opened onto or from (depending on whether you were coming or going) Occupied France and the other door opened into a Resistance stronghold. The Chateau itself was turned into a hosputal for the wounded during the war at the owner's behest and in fact the Resistance managed to get a lot of people out to safety through the chateau because of this. Apparently the German artillary had it in their sights the whole time but for some reason didn't ever attack it, whether there were German wounded being treated too I;m not sure, but it was unharmed.
The castle, like all of them, had an interesting past. It was given to Diane de Poitiers by her lover King Henry II who was married to Catherine de Medici at the time. Diane had quite good taste and sorted out the gardens and decorating etc. and lived there until a couple of years after Henry's death at which point Catherine succeeded in ousting her from the Chatequ (don't worry she didn't end up destitute and homeless begging outside churches in France, she had any chateau of her own and went and lived in one of them.)
The Chateau was fantastic enough as it was but it was even more memorable because it had been decorated for Christmas with wonderful trees, baubles, lights and superb, huge bouquets of fresh flowers - reddish brown hippiastrumsm red and green floral displays, purple and white and green, each more glorious than the last, The piece de resistance however was the huge fires raging in giant alcoves with logs as thick as Piri Weepu's thigh.
The grounds also held an interesting vegetable garden with peculiar if not a little rude displays of pumpkins and gourd type vegetables laid out, I'm not sure if for decoration or if they rot them for compost - but they were a sight.Also next to the vegetable garden was the donkey field with 4 contented looking donkeys munching grass, but not keen to come to see us. There was also a 17th century farm - much of it closed for winter but sitting in aan enclosure with lots of food and a clean pond were a selection of about 12 colourful and sometimes oddly shaped ducks - at least 2 of each type so they had a friend who spoke the same dialect.
We left Chenonceau headed towards Ange - it started raining (of course) and was quite dark when we pulled into the smallish village. Just as we were finding signs leading us to our camp-stop one of our windscreen wipers fell part. GREAT another pain to cause angst just when we didn't need it. However, thankfully it was the outside one on the passenger;s side so though it reduces vision a little, it isn't too bad as there are still two functioning wiper blades which cover most of the screen.
We pulled up to our spot, reversed in and put in chocks, wound down our stabilizing legs, hooked up to the power and sat down in fully illuminated surroundings, hot water cylinder turned on for warmth, and counting our blessings. We had dinner and did the dishes, I was just trying to make a cup of post-dinner tea when they electric jug wouldn't work. Oh........!!!! (Found that exclamation mark) What now? I checked the fuses in the box, often when you boil the jug at these places it flips the szitch on the fuses as it is too much of a load. But no it wasn't that. I moved the plug to another bollard hoping that would fix it. No. It wasn't that. I asked Di (because I'm too shy) to ask the English people one camper over if they had a problem just to make sure it wasn't isolated to us. She reluctantly agreed. It wasn't us thankfully, but it also couldn't be fixed that night so, bother it, we had to reduce our usage of electricity - not quite to the point of dimness, but not the nice bright light that allows for stitching and other occupations that old eyes need good lighting for. It really does feel as if things aren't meant to be smooth at the moment - things at home aren't great with our rental properties still not being able to be rented post-earthquake which places a huge financial burden on us, our mastercards aren't working, the truck needs fixing before we can sell it, we can;t communicate or find out what is happening because the computer has crashed. All our clothes stink because we can't find a laundromat, most of the places for campervans are closed or have their electricity and water turned off for winter, and it's just started raining again (heavily). I've got to the point where I just want to come back to NZ (earthquakes or not) and be playing in my warm garden and enjoying sunshine and good friends.
December 7th Angers to Vouvray
Repeat, cold and grey, foggy, not nice. Gloves scarves, wool in our socks, yes and that's all when we are in the truck. \condensation needs to be wiped down by the underpants rag full before we can start out and the truck engine run for a few minutes to get a head start on the windscreen clearing.
We left Bouchemaine headed further up the Loire valley towards Tours and just beyond, Vouvray an aire with a charger in the chateau region.
Drizzly and grey, but between the clumps of fog were very beautiful rural village scenes, no less pretty because of the greyness, in fact that lent an almost ethereal mood as spires and tours of dark grey contrasted against the pearly grey of the cloud cover. Of course there were grand chateaux and mansions along the way with square towers, orbs, rounded turrets, all manner of fairy-tale shapes perched on hill sides or towering above the denuded forest. Much of the journey was along the banks of the Loire, high up on a stock-bank on a narrow and windy road, but with clear views over the river and green freshly planted fields.
We headed to a chateau which was awarded three stars (not to be missed) in our Michelin guide to France, it was the Chateau Azay Le Rideau - not surprisingly in a village of the same name. When we arrived it was raining, we parked at a camper-stop without power for lunch and to allow the rain to stop, and use up some time as the Chateau closes from 1230-1400 each day. Despite our best efforts (and those of Oshkosh) the sky remained resolutely dark and the day cold, though the rain did stop sufficiently long for us to have a wee explore around the grounds and admire the exterior of the chateau. It is a pretty little chateau with a lake surrounding it allowing for good reflections, and woods all around providing scenes of near naked trees on bright green grass with a rug of red brown leaves at their feet. There were interesting fungi in the damp leaves under the trees. Large odd shaped almost sea-like growths of dark grey through purple, and I imagined truffles by the kilo under the oak trees. It is truffle hunting season at the moment, and I'm sure they are abundant in areas, I have visions of making my fortune with a truffle hunting dog, but am yet to find one handy who wants a job, and I'm not sure about the rules of possession when hunting on the lairds land.
Inside the chateau were a number of grandly furnished rooms including some wonderful tapestries- and of course some narcissistic paintings of giant proportions.
Once we had finished our tour of the house we had a scout around the village before returning to the truck. It was about 4.30 I guess and beginning to get dark especially as the rain had returned. We didn't have much further to drive to Vouvray, about 40kms. We found the campsite OK - there was another campervan there for the night, with a British couple in it, who had a daughter and son-in-law living in Cromwell so that was nice/ Unfortunately the power charger and water had been turned off for winter and so we had to make do with candles, wind-up lamp and battery operated lights, which isn't enough to do much close work by.
We left Bouchemaine headed further up the Loire valley towards Tours and just beyond, Vouvray an aire with a charger in the chateau region.
Drizzly and grey, but between the clumps of fog were very beautiful rural village scenes, no less pretty because of the greyness, in fact that lent an almost ethereal mood as spires and tours of dark grey contrasted against the pearly grey of the cloud cover. Of course there were grand chateaux and mansions along the way with square towers, orbs, rounded turrets, all manner of fairy-tale shapes perched on hill sides or towering above the denuded forest. Much of the journey was along the banks of the Loire, high up on a stock-bank on a narrow and windy road, but with clear views over the river and green freshly planted fields.
We headed to a chateau which was awarded three stars (not to be missed) in our Michelin guide to France, it was the Chateau Azay Le Rideau - not surprisingly in a village of the same name. When we arrived it was raining, we parked at a camper-stop without power for lunch and to allow the rain to stop, and use up some time as the Chateau closes from 1230-1400 each day. Despite our best efforts (and those of Oshkosh) the sky remained resolutely dark and the day cold, though the rain did stop sufficiently long for us to have a wee explore around the grounds and admire the exterior of the chateau. It is a pretty little chateau with a lake surrounding it allowing for good reflections, and woods all around providing scenes of near naked trees on bright green grass with a rug of red brown leaves at their feet. There were interesting fungi in the damp leaves under the trees. Large odd shaped almost sea-like growths of dark grey through purple, and I imagined truffles by the kilo under the oak trees. It is truffle hunting season at the moment, and I'm sure they are abundant in areas, I have visions of making my fortune with a truffle hunting dog, but am yet to find one handy who wants a job, and I'm not sure about the rules of possession when hunting on the lairds land.
Inside the chateau were a number of grandly furnished rooms including some wonderful tapestries- and of course some narcissistic paintings of giant proportions.
Once we had finished our tour of the house we had a scout around the village before returning to the truck. It was about 4.30 I guess and beginning to get dark especially as the rain had returned. We didn't have much further to drive to Vouvray, about 40kms. We found the campsite OK - there was another campervan there for the night, with a British couple in it, who had a daughter and son-in-law living in Cromwell so that was nice/ Unfortunately the power charger and water had been turned off for winter and so we had to make do with candles, wind-up lamp and battery operated lights, which isn't enough to do much close work by.
December 13th
We spent the day in Milly. it alternated freezing rain and watery sunshine. We mostly stayed in the truck, though Hilary had spent the night at Jacky and Nick's with Josie and Elena so I went around earlyish to pick her up. We found an aire to stay at, it doesn't have power but does have other facilities and it keeps us out of Jackie and Nick's hair, there is another one in the town with power but it was too wet to stay there (grassy underground) but maybe in a day or two there will be a spot we can use. Ze babysat Elena in the afternoon in the truck which was fun, she had a lovely time playing with Hilary's toys and enjoying our company. She seems to know we are relatives and doesn't mind spending time with us, though she is still a little anxious about creche.
I had a quick walk into Milly to post our insurance letter (which got to Le Mans very quickly I must say) but it being 3 o'clock a lot of the shops were closed. In the afternoon Hilary and I played soccer in the car park at the aire, and then we went to Nick and Jackie;s for dinner. We slept well in the truck despite the rain and howling wind; and are now here at Jacky's again looking after Josie while Jacky and Elena are at swilling lessons. Josie doesn't have school on Wednesday. she used to go on Saturday morning instead, but now they just do 4 long days instead. It is lovely to be able to help out with child care to give a bit back to Jacky and Nick who have been wonderful at accommodating us and making us welcome and helping with dealing with French businesses etc. Of course it is also wonderful that Hilary and Josie can spend time together too. They get on really well and it is nice for them both to have English speaking companions to play with. They are in the kitchen now creating a birthday cake for Nick who has his birthday today, they didn't want any help, so hopefully all will be good. Josie has done a 10 day courdon bleu course (she is only two days older than Hilary) but they have great opportunities over here (if parents can afford it). She is going on a 10 day camp in January to the Alps where she will ski (alpine and cross country), sled with teams of dogs, go our animal tracking in the snow, and raquetting (I think) walking on those snow shoes/tennis racquet things.
Anyway, I need to go, to let Di have a turn, and to get some bread, hopefully I'll be able to sort the computer out with Jacky's help and then it will be all go again.
I had a quick walk into Milly to post our insurance letter (which got to Le Mans very quickly I must say) but it being 3 o'clock a lot of the shops were closed. In the afternoon Hilary and I played soccer in the car park at the aire, and then we went to Nick and Jackie;s for dinner. We slept well in the truck despite the rain and howling wind; and are now here at Jacky's again looking after Josie while Jacky and Elena are at swilling lessons. Josie doesn't have school on Wednesday. she used to go on Saturday morning instead, but now they just do 4 long days instead. It is lovely to be able to help out with child care to give a bit back to Jacky and Nick who have been wonderful at accommodating us and making us welcome and helping with dealing with French businesses etc. Of course it is also wonderful that Hilary and Josie can spend time together too. They get on really well and it is nice for them both to have English speaking companions to play with. They are in the kitchen now creating a birthday cake for Nick who has his birthday today, they didn't want any help, so hopefully all will be good. Josie has done a 10 day courdon bleu course (she is only two days older than Hilary) but they have great opportunities over here (if parents can afford it). She is going on a 10 day camp in January to the Alps where she will ski (alpine and cross country), sled with teams of dogs, go our animal tracking in the snow, and raquetting (I think) walking on those snow shoes/tennis racquet things.
Anyway, I need to go, to let Di have a turn, and to get some bread, hopefully I'll be able to sort the computer out with Jacky's help and then it will be all go again.
It's the 14th of December today; I am sitting at my cousin's computer in Milly La Foret about an hour south of Paris. It is a bit of a challenge using this computer' the keyboard is configured differently than my one, or those from NZ. I guess it is to do with how common a letter is in usage of the native language. Also of course all the sites are in French and so negotiating my way around Google France is a challenge.
Why am I writing on my cousin's computer rather than mine (don't the French use a question mark) because I can't find one anywhere on this keyboard) anyway' the answer is my computer has crashed big time. Hard drive kaput. A real piss off as it means communication is even more difficult than before' and my blogging is now ne'er impossible. Also it means I have lost many documents and all the blogs I written but not yet posted and I can't back up my photos or view them. Thankfully I had the foresight to bring a portable extension of memory and therefore all my photos are saved on there or else still on the card in the camera. I had lost photos when a previous computer decided to die on me so I was prepared this time.
It does mean that my blogging will not contain photos for a while though' I may be able to get the machine fixed over here as it is still under warranty and has an international warranty so it is able to be fixed if I can find a certified Toshiba repairer' but of course language is the problem.
The truck fixing is hopefully moving on though. The insurance company has all the papers, including a declaration that I wasn't under the influence of alcohol or any stupefying agents, and they have passed the information on to the garage where we will drop the truck on Monday for an assessment. I imagine it will take a few days or maybe longer to get parts, if it is possible at all, on account of our girls age, but we at least can entertain ourselves in Paris and around in the meantime. What a hardship, having to visit the Louvre and other fine places to fill in time. Oh I just found the question mark but it was disguised as an exclamation mark so where is that?
It is cold here now, sometimes sunny, but often rain, the temperatures are consistently in the low single digits and that remains the forecast for the next few days. I can't imagine things will change radically. We are still unsure of our plans for the next couple of months, it is very dependent on getting the truck fixed, then we can either sell it straight away and do a little independent travelling by train or plane, or keep it a bit longer and maybe drive over to the snowy parts in the east. It is a bit cold to be doing too much camping overnight though in the truck as it doesn't have heating and can get a little chilly in the evenings. We will see though. what happens over the next week.
Why am I writing on my cousin's computer rather than mine (don't the French use a question mark) because I can't find one anywhere on this keyboard) anyway' the answer is my computer has crashed big time. Hard drive kaput. A real piss off as it means communication is even more difficult than before' and my blogging is now ne'er impossible. Also it means I have lost many documents and all the blogs I written but not yet posted and I can't back up my photos or view them. Thankfully I had the foresight to bring a portable extension of memory and therefore all my photos are saved on there or else still on the card in the camera. I had lost photos when a previous computer decided to die on me so I was prepared this time.
It does mean that my blogging will not contain photos for a while though' I may be able to get the machine fixed over here as it is still under warranty and has an international warranty so it is able to be fixed if I can find a certified Toshiba repairer' but of course language is the problem.
The truck fixing is hopefully moving on though. The insurance company has all the papers, including a declaration that I wasn't under the influence of alcohol or any stupefying agents, and they have passed the information on to the garage where we will drop the truck on Monday for an assessment. I imagine it will take a few days or maybe longer to get parts, if it is possible at all, on account of our girls age, but we at least can entertain ourselves in Paris and around in the meantime. What a hardship, having to visit the Louvre and other fine places to fill in time. Oh I just found the question mark but it was disguised as an exclamation mark so where is that?
It is cold here now, sometimes sunny, but often rain, the temperatures are consistently in the low single digits and that remains the forecast for the next few days. I can't imagine things will change radically. We are still unsure of our plans for the next couple of months, it is very dependent on getting the truck fixed, then we can either sell it straight away and do a little independent travelling by train or plane, or keep it a bit longer and maybe drive over to the snowy parts in the east. It is a bit cold to be doing too much camping overnight though in the truck as it doesn't have heating and can get a little chilly in the evenings. We will see though. what happens over the next week.
Sunday, 4 December 2011
December 3rd
December 3rd Oradour sur Glane to Angers (in the
Loire)
My brother’s birthday today, I’ve thought of him often in
the build-up to the day, especially yesterday when it was the day where he is
in New Zealand. Unfortunately we haven’t been able to have internet access for
quite a few days so, haven’t been able to send him a message.
The sunshine of late yesterday disappeared (obviously when
the sun went down, at 5ish) but what I meant was that the weather crapped out
in the night. The rain started pounding on the truck roof at about 3 this
morning, cleared briefly at 8.30 but was back by 9.15. We breakfasted, packed
up the truck and were on the road in a
north westerly direction towards Angers which was to be our first stop
in the Loire Valley/Chateaux region.
The weather remained drizzly all 248kms, driving wasn’t hard
though, and things went smoothly apart from a lack of coffee shops. At about half way we left the main road to
enter the city of Poitiers, had it been a nice day we would have stopped and
looked around, done a walk around the old town and checked it out, as it was we
were on the hunt for a McDonald’s which had been sign-posted just outside the
town, hoping to check emails and ensure everything was OK at home, and
insurance things moving here. Unfortunately the advertised golden arches never
appeared out of the gloom, and after nearly getting wedged in a narrow city
centre street, between high walls and badly parked cars on one lane narrow
streets, I decided to try another town and get back where we could move freely.
We stopped a further 50kms up the road at a small town
called Louden where we got a few groceries, our daily trip to the patisserie
(citrus tart, berry creation and mille fleurre (I can’t say it let alone spell
it, but boy can I eat them!!). We had
lunch in the car-park in the middle of the village, watching the rain come down
and the people passing by, before continuing our journey for the last 30 or so
kms. Again our route was well signposted and our map books easy to follow, so
after an uneventful drive we arrived here in Beaumonche where we came and parked in the aire beside
the river with about 8 or so other campervans. The book says there is power
here (which is why we chose this particular spot, 10kms from Angers, rather than
the one in the middle of Angers which doesn’t have power, but despite there
being power boxes which we hooked up to, no power was forthcoming. I had been a
bit suspicious when none of the other trucks were plugged in, and two at least
had generators going. Because it was raining and Di had come in after doing the
connection, before she realised the power wasn’t forthcoming, we just sat in the truck drinking
tea we had made by boiling water on the gas stove, and chatting by the light of
one electric bulb running off the reserve battery and a light which has its own
battery. We wondered why everyone kept looking at us, and one couple even did a
walking circuit of the van, but we are quite used to being stared at (I don’t
know if it’s the old truck, or just the fact we are interesting specimens), but
it was only when Hilary said one of the other trucks was plugging in to the
power boxes that we realised they thought we had managed to get an electricity
supply. We sat discussing what they might be thinking about how we could get it
when no-one else could, and various scenarios of making the most of their
consternation, but in the end, Di instead went out and unplugged our cord and
put it away.
The others are now bickering over a game of cards, Hilary
is, to quote Diana, “playing dirty” whereas Hilary says, she is playing within
the rules, using strategy to win. I’m with Hilary, what’s the point in not
trying to win, Diana says it should be
for pleasure too, bloody Hillary Commission has a lot to answer for!!!
The rain is still plopping down heavily on the roof, we’ve
told OshKosh he’s got until 6am to sort it out, as there is a chateaux we want
to visit tomorrow and also a walk around the city of Angers. Hopefully he’s not
too busy at the pub, it being a Saturday night!!
December 1st
1st December
St. Laurent sur Gorre through
Limoges to Oradour sur Glane
Hilary was on a mission this morning. I had told her in the
evening that if she was up, dressed and ready to leave with all her gear
secured by 9.15 we could go and look for the geese to feed, and take some sugar
lumps and lollies for the donkey. Hilary is not speedy at anything she does,
mornings are a constant battle and so is meal time, however today, with the
thought of hand feeding the donkey again, she was up like a greyhound and off,
ready before 9.15 and had to wait for me to finish brushing my teeth before we could go. We set off through
the ankle deep leaves and damp grass, me drinking the last of my cup of tea as
I walked, Hilary swinging a stick, and bread and lollies, over to the paddock
where the donkey, a sheep and the geese were. The donkey was a wee way off,
with its back turned to us, but when Hilary whistled it looked over and came
sauntering over to her hoping for a treat. The sheep, with bell on collar, but
clanger missing, also came over, at a much faster rate. Hilary hand fed the donkey
a few sweets and then a little hard bread squares, and then the sheep stood on
its hind legs, forelegs on the fence wires, begging for a taste too. It
wouldn’t take the food directly from her hand, so she tossed a lolly to it, but
it missed it. The geese weren’t remotely interested but I suspect they had
recently been fed with hot mash or something because the chickens and ducks
were all pecking around up there, and as we left the geese flew/waddled back up
to their accommodation and began scuffling around on the ground.
We headed back to the truck and were on the road north by
9.45. We took some narrowish “D” roads
before meeting up with the N21 which is the next step up on roads, still only
one lane in each direction, and in need of a bit of smoothing in places, but an
OK road. They don’t have very much shoulder on their roads here so what you
drive on is pretty much it and there aren’t white lines on the edge either, it
can be a little nerve wracking when you meet a large vehicle coming the other
way as you often pass with what seems like inches to spare at a combined speed
of 180kms/hr. The speed limit on the roads with 2 lanes in each direction is at
least 110km/hr and 130 on the motorways,
again, the lanes seem narrow compared to those at home, and the markings aren’t
as informative as those I am used to either, with no suggestion of safe speed
for corners, or severity of the bend. It all takes a bit of getting used to,
especially as the truck is significantly higher, wider and longer than anything
I have driven before.
We only had about 20kms to drive to Limoges which we wanted
to visit to see ceramics and enamel, the two major crafts the area is renowned
for. We parked opposite the tourist
information centre, pretty much on the main street, pleased to have found a
park which we could access. We went
across the street to see what information we could glean, not a lot really, a
few pamphlets and a map, I asked the woman if there was a walking tour marked
which we could follow and she said no, not really, just walk anywhere. (Later
after we were sitting back in the truck about to leave we had another look at
one of the brochures and found that there is in fact a walking tour (we had
seen markers on our ambles that we thought were indicators that there was a
historical walk), and that the pamphlet had information about each site.
Nevermind, we walked up the main street to look at some ceramic shops and a few
windows with enamel Cloissone type work. Unfortunately it was now 1230 and so
most places were closed or try to close until 2pm or later, so we went to the
truck, had lunch, and then drove around a few streets trying to find a park
nearer the old centre. We eventually found a spot down by the river by an old
bridge, and then climbed up into the walled part of the city.
The jardins, though it was definitely wintery, still had lovely structure, with topiaried little trees and ponds and a fountain. There was a large Cathedral in the background as well as a chapel which no longer served as a religious building but was "The Museum of Resistance” but was unfortunately closed as it is relocating to a hundred or so metres further away. I had that highlighted as a place I’d like to have seen, so that was a little bit of a bother, but that’s the breaks. Instead we went and had a coffee (we forgot the really important “grand” on the front so were served up with an egg-cup full of “stand the spoon up in it” coffee, and a small jug of cold milk. Not so good!!!! Felt my carotids pulsating as I swallowed it, and the legs started giggling before it had reached my stomach.
The jardins, though it was definitely wintery, still had lovely structure, with topiaried little trees and ponds and a fountain. There was a large Cathedral in the background as well as a chapel which no longer served as a religious building but was "The Museum of Resistance” but was unfortunately closed as it is relocating to a hundred or so metres further away. I had that highlighted as a place I’d like to have seen, so that was a little bit of a bother, but that’s the breaks. Instead we went and had a coffee (we forgot the really important “grand” on the front so were served up with an egg-cup full of “stand the spoon up in it” coffee, and a small jug of cold milk. Not so good!!!! Felt my carotids pulsating as I swallowed it, and the legs started giggling before it had reached my stomach.
We went and had a look around the cathedral, nice stained glass, and then to the Museum with great enamel work. Some incredible stuff there, hard to believe much of it was done in the 1500s.
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