Those of you who have spent any time in France will know what I mean by crumbly! For everyone else it's a beautiful old place but the general dilapidation of the buildings would give English Heritage a fit. I will remember this town as the place with the gates. Each house has the most majestic set of gates, with carved stone surrounds, behind some are mini chateaux (the wine estates) and behind others small tumbledown cottages and old troglodyte caves. They seem to have secured grants from the regional government for renovations, but just to the gates and there are lots of shiny new gate surrounds in old walls.
As it is a while since I last updated this (and its raining) I have a feeling this is going to be a long post, apologies in advance….As usual for anyone who is interested our route since we got to France has taken us first across from LeHarve to Le Mont St Michel, on to St Malo and Dinan, and then inland to Josselin. From Josselin we drove to Carnac, had a quick look at the menhirs (prehistoric stones which I find it very difficult to get excited about!), felt the need to flee as it was just too touristy, continued on to La Roche Bernard and Guerande and then finally out of Brittany to the vineyards around Saumur.
We stayed two nights at Le Mont St Michel and on the second evening walked out across the causeway from our site. It was fantastic seeing the Mont all lit up and was soo much quieter than during the day. We forgot to take our torches and had to walk back across the causeway by the light of the moon and it was a fantastic experience. During the day we had been for a long cycle across the surrounding countryside which seems to be more Dutch than French, miles of polders and lots of windmills.
My favourite town in Brittany has to be Josselin. It is an old medieval town full of half timbered buildings, however unlike in the UK they are painted lots of different colours, none of your black and white and it gives the town a really warm and jolly feel. It was great to revisit the area around Guerande where I spent so much time with Mum and Dad years ago, and nice to see that nothing has really changed in the last 15 years.
The weather has finally caught up with us after a fantastic month in England and first week here and this week has seen us plodding around with umbrellas and waterproofs for a couple of days. Last night our weather station, which I hasten to add we inherited with the van, was giving us a storm warning (it bleeps and flashes and may get thrown out of the window at some point) in complete opposition to the beautiful sunny 20 degrees outside. Today it has been proved right, as it seems to have been raining most of the day. I am yet to be convinced it's a storm as such, more just an English day!
As a result we ditched the idea of a cycle through the vines and contented ourselves with a morning stroll under umbrellas. We have spent the afternoon in the van catching up on running repairs and reading. We have yet more masticing to do in the shower as I was bit clumsy during the night, stepped too close to the edge of the tray and heard a really upsetting cracking. It seems the plastic is just old and fatigued, and may well be more mastic than plastic by the time we return!
I am really excited about all the countries we plan to visit this year but I have to admit that it is rather nice to be back in France. My French is doing dangerously well, in the sense that I have been getting along well and asking all the right things, but as they then assume I am better than I am I get a whole long diatribe back which is completely unintelligible! We have been indulging (possibly too much) on patisseries and croissants and (much to Chris's disgust) I have some very smelly camembert to!
Life on the road seems to be going well so far and France is really well set up for campervans. Campsites have special deals if you only stay overnight, most of the towns have service points where you can fill up with water and empty the waste and toilet and many have dedicated parking and camping areas attached.
We move on in the morning towards La Rochelle and the wine regions round Bordeaux before heading east across the Dordogne and Auvergne towards Switzerland. Well that is at least the plan, in the words of Lao Tzu (thanks Mel!!) "A good traveller has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving"
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