Our Tour de France - Week Four - And Chillax

A time to chill

If you've been following the recent post you will know that we are trying to capture our 54 day journey around the western side of France in weekly installments. As a quick reminder we've already made our slow way down from our arrival port in Caen in our newly acquired VW campervan affectionately known as Elsie, through Normandy, touching Brittany to the stunning Loire valley enjoying the wines as we stopped at our overnight hosts who are part of the France Passion network, we then ventured west across to an AirBnB in La Rochelle, enjoyed the Cognac region above Bordeaux before spending a week in that famous wine growing region, taking in vineyards, castles, churches, cathedrals and French markets along the way.

This weeks post should be slightly shorter than those before but who knows as the words come flowing through the mind onto the fingers typing on the keyboard to bring you a flavour of what we did whilst spending time chillaxing at our daughter-in-laws family holiday home which is located between Cahors, Agen and Toulouse. 

As you may remember we arrived just in time to catch the British Grand Prix from Silverstone whilst being dive-bombed by several thousand wasps who had made their nests in the chateaux during the summer months.

Our stunning home for a week

The wasps were to play a major part of the week as we tried to enjoy time next to the pool with our books and podcasts. Prior to us arriving the 'wasp man' had been called in to sort the nests over the weekend and apparently found 30 up in the eaves. During those first few days they were fine, still flying around noisily but not to the extent that we had expected. However after a couple of they were back with a vengeance, drinking water from the pool but not really to interested in us or our food and drinks. More on those black and orange hooped jacket wearing blighters later.

Maz on a morning run before
the heat of the day

We had visited this beautiful home, that our daughter-in-laws family have worked on so much over the last few years in creating into a stunning place to enjoy a holiday, before. Its set in rolling fields of sunflowers with a densely wooded valley behind and a little copse capped with pines along the dirt road track that leads to the chateaux. All of our previous holidays had been with family and friends so to be there on our own felt a little strange and it was sad not to have anyone to share these special moments with.

Fresh veg at Valence market

On the Tuesday morning we awoke to another clear and sunny morning so we ventured into Valence where we knew the weekly market was taking place in and around the old church and market square. Once again we topped up with fresh fruit and veg, olives, tapenade and garlic and enjoyed the ambiance of a town abuzz with locals going about their daily lives with the exception of the masks to protect everyone from this ongoing Covid-19 virus which everyone was adhering to. 

Route d'Occitaine

On our way home we were surprised to see a large presence of police, they were blocking roads and roundabouts, we were wondering what was happening, was there a bigger issue with Covid-19?, had the government announced more stop and searches?, then all of a sudden I looked in my rear mirror and noticed a yellow sign with a bike on and the penny dropped, we were on the route of stage four of the international cycling event 'Route d'Occitanie' 2020 which involved some of the top riders using this as the last preparations for their next epic ride, the full Tour De France which would start before we left later in September. 

Once we knew what was happening we parked up in the local Lidl store car park and waited to see the cyclists speed past with their huge entourage of support vehicles left trailing in their wake as they made their way to the finish at Rocamadour around 195kms further down the road. 

A run for breakfast

It was nice not to be moving on from place to place each night, having a real bed to sleep in and a huge kitchen to cook in it really felt luxurious, each morning both of us got up to run around the fields, and one morning I (Tim) even took it upon myself to run the 5 mile route (10 miles there and back!) along some of the beautiful country lanes to Castelsagrat to fetch our breakfast from the boulingery. Thankfully I'm quite a quick runner so the pastries were still warm when I got back and we enjoyed them with some local jam and dairy free butter that we'd bought the day before in Valence and although the wasps were still around they were ignoring us and seemed happier to join the swallows who were using the pool as a local drinking hole. 

Morning coffee and ice cream

Before we set out on another morning adventure we noticed the wasps becoming even more numerous so we gave our neighbours a call and they in turn called 'the wasp man' who promised would make a visit to us the next afternoon. Our morning trip took us to the hill top town of Lauzerte, once again this stunning town was all but deserted but with its cobbled streets, picturesque market square, artisan studios ranging from metal work, beading and various styles of painting we could sense that this was the place to be. We stopped for a coffee with a side of homemade ice cream, we know that that's not truly plant based but unfortunately we are only human so succumbed to the temptation and thanked the cows and calves for their sacrifice and indulged.

Another wild water swim to
add to Maz' list!

That afternoon the pool was too densely populated by the wasps who had put on their black and orange bathing suits and were having a mini olympics or 'It's a knockout' taking turns to race back and forth to the nest with much water. With the pool out of bounds we took a lovely stroll through the woods to the neighbours property which is blessed to have a couple of large lakes so we positioned ourselves at one end and Maz donned her swimming kit, thankfully not hooped black and orange like the wasps and joined the large numbers of fish for a swim in the aqua marine blue waters which look so stunning against the green wooded backdrop.

Evenings watching the sunset 
and stargazing

Our evenings were mostly spent eating and enjoying a glass of alcoholic local grape juice whilst awaiting the sunset and arrival of the superb mass of stars who seem to shine so much brighter the further south we ventured. This nightscape was enhanced by the meteor showers which grace the northern skies at this time of year. By this time I (Tim) had started the Victor Hugo epic Les Miserables so one evening we sat out beneath the heavens listening to the stage show of the book following the story of Cossette, Jean Valjean, Javert and Fantaine adventure as mother nature put on her dazzling night show.

The wasp man cometh

'The Wasp Man' duly arrived the following day, the weather had been so hot and that day was no different and we really felt sorry for him as he put on his heavyweight clothing and started to tackle the huge problem with spray and as keen eye in that stifling heat. It looked like hard work and we tried to help him by ascending the towers which gave us a better view cross the roofline and where we could point to likely places where the nest were. Our hearts were in our mouths as we saw him stumbling around on top of the roof perhaps a hundred feet above the ground, and on a couple of occasions we really thought he would fall due to the clumpy suit and his ever growing weariness.

Don't fall from there!

Sadly our week drew to an end but we had one last hurrah as our daughter-in-laws mother arrived at around 11pm on our last evening. It was the first time we had met up with her since our sons wedding nearly two years before so we opened a bottle or two, or three of 'pinky fizz' and whiled away the early hours with stories of our travels and the shared admiration of our children as they set out on their life journey, with the tangible expectation of an added bonus of us all becoming grandparents in early September. 

It was a great way to end our stay and the next morning we took flight just like those pesky wasps that we needed to warn her of and that could still be lurking in the nooks and crannies of that huge stone home which we promise we'll visit again very very soon.

Our Tour De France week Three - Into the Dordogne

Morning run through the pines

We're now entering into the third week of our personal Tour de France in our newly acquired VW Campervan, affectionately known as Elsie, having arrived via ferry in Caen we have moved through Normandy into the the Loire and Cognac regions. We entered the new week with great expectations about the journey which was to take us through the beautiful dordogne region just east of Bordeaux. Grab yourself a coffee and come on the journey with us as we seek to bring you the highlights of the tour.

Wet Libourne market
but we did find some Kimchi!

We were due to leave our second AirBnB stopover early on the Tuesday morning however since it was such a beautiful morning as we woke to another cloudless sky I couldn't resist going out for an early morning run in the forests that surrounded the property. After receiving instructions, which were written on a small piece of paper by our hosts, I followed the road left and turned into a wooded area, I crossed a meadow and as per the instructions opened the simple barbed wire gate, which looked like a no entry, and entered into what I can only describe as a pine forest and a path which reminded me so much of those we had lived alongside in the Western Cape. It was a beautiful route but all too soon I was back Elsie who was ready all packed up and waiting to explore further into France and the noted wine growing region around St Emilion.

Parking in the vines again, who can complain!

As we left La Roche-Chalais and travelled further south west the weather became a little overcast and upon entering into the inland port town of Libourne, where we were keen to attend the local market to top up on essential items, it started to spit with rain. 

After finding a car park, clearly marked along the banks of the Dordogne river but literally miles from the center we donned our rain jackets for the first and last time of the trip and wondered into town.

Coffee in St Emilion

Much like Cognac before the town was deserted, and not just because of the rain, there were a few possible reasons for this, firstly it would seem that Covid-19 virus was keeping tourists at home and secondly the fact that much of France shuts down for the summer and the locals were sunning (not this morning due to the rain!) themselves on the nearby beaches which stretch down the west coast not too far away. 

St Emilion

We found the market held in a huge square in front of the impressive Hotel de ville and although we bought our fruit and veg the best find was a little stall run by a Korean man from Seoul and who was selling some wonderful home made Korean food, we had a good chat with him and showed him the area where we had stayed when we visited that fascinating country for three weeks this time last year. We duly stocked up on Kimchi, a staple in any Korean dish and one that we had grown to love with all of our meals, even breakfast!

After drying out with a wander down by the river and the long walk back to the car we made our way to our next France Passion stop a tiny vineyard just outside Pomerol at the Chateau Castel Viaud where we received an initial off hand welcome and were shown to a small spot in the corner of the backyard on some rough gravel next to another huge motor-home which was taking up most of the space. We both looked at each other then grabbed our Bible (our France Passion guidebook) to see where the next nearest vineyard might be. 

As we backed out of the space looking for a quick exit a young man on a tractor stopped and asked if we were OK, in our broken French we lied and said we were and then he looked over to the spot where we had just tried to park and raised his eyebrows and pointed to another spot which was currently taken up by a spray machine which he quickly got into and move to reveal a perfect little place for us to park Elsie overlooking the vineyards.

Overnight along the Dordogne

We lunched on our fresh bread and kimchi and then went to see if we could taste some of their wines, the young man said that his father was sleeping (siesta time in France after a lunch with wine!) but he would wake him in thirty minutes and we could taste with him, it turns out the father is the owner of the vineyard and the young man was his son. We had a great tasting of our first Bordeaux style blends, dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot grapes, bought a bottle of their quite expensive red and were pleasantly surprised to find that they offer a free glass of wine to any France Passion visitor so we took those glasses back to Elsie, enjoyed that with another hunk on bread and after a few minutes enjoyed our own little siesta too!

Maz swimming in the Lot

The night was peaceful, the rain had already stopped before we went to bed and we were up and out by around 9.30am keen to make our way for a day at the magnificent hill top town of St Emilion. Once again the town was quiet but much busier than other places we had stopped at but we could see why, with its ancient city walls, stunning churches, cobbled streets, cafes and bars with views over the lower town, caves and vineyards is a true tourist mecca and one that we really enjoyed. However we both agreed that we wouldn't really want to go there under normal non Covid-19 circumstances as we would imagine the place being so busy.

A walk along the Lot

After we had enjoyed a picnic lunch in a local park and then made our way to our next stop which was only a couple of miles down the road from St Emilion, this vineyard and stopover was recommended to us by our previous host as he knew the owner so we had great expectations. The location was lovely we found a tree with some shade to park Elsie, found the toilet and water filling point, we even spoke to the owner as he dashed out into Libourne to make a delivery of his wines to a restaurant there. We had an amazing view over the vines and up towards St Emilion and with the prospect of the sun setting over the vines to the west later we were really looking forward to our evening.

Another perfect pitch, or so we thought!

I went out for a quick run around the local vines and village at around six o'clock, as the sun was less hot then and just as I arrived back two huge motor-homes pulled up and asked if we were enjoying the sun, which we were, then to our utter disbelief proceeded to park up right in front of the view we had set up, blocked out the sun and then set up their little kraal in the shade as to avoid the sun and therefore miss the beautiful sunset that was just about to come. It wasn't as though it was a small field and had we not got everything set up with the shower/toilet tent, rear and side awnings out we would have moved but it was all too much of a faf so we sat there in strew with our new neighbours apparently oblivious to what they had done.

What the heck!

On top of that the owner of the vineyard was very hard to track down and after knocking on his door, ringing the bell and calling on his cell phone we eventuality got him to agree to a wine tasting, a rushed affair but with our plan to purchase at least one product at each stopover we bought what was to be our most expensive and perhaps least impressive wine of the whole trip, which added to our increasingly grumpy mood.

Green-way runs

As next day dawned we had already made our minds up to get packed up quickly and were keen to move on as we had a longish journey which took us along some delightful roads that hugged the banks of the Dordogne, our next stop was at a restaurant right next to the river, arriving just after lunch we spent the afternoon reading or swimming in the fast flowing river, Maz loves swimming and had such fun in the shallow water swimming against the current and literally going nowhere. Later in the afternoon we were joined by a motor-home, 'oh no not again' we thought but this couple couldn't have been more friendly, also from Belgium but with stories to share of places we'd stayed it was chalk and cheese from last nights stop. The worry of a busy and noisy restaurant was non existent as they closed at 9pm, way before sunset so we enjoyed a very peaceful evening and night with the sound of the river flowing and the ever present woodpeckers with their laughing call keeping us company as the hours rolled by.

Swans taking off

Once again we both woke early and ran out, Maz along a track near the banks of the river where she saw a pair of swans take off, which she captured on her phone camera, this gave a wonderfully peaceful feel to her run, I instead chose to tackle a big hill just behind the small village and was pleased with my times on a couple of the segments of which Strava, (the exercise app on my phone which is linked to my watch and which I and many millions of people use to record their activities), told me that I held the second fastest time up a 1.84km long, 138 meter elevation gain Category 4 Climb, I hope you are suitably impressed with that, I was!

St Emilion

As the morning progressed we had an unfortunate misunderstanding with the owner of the restaurant, I'd spoken to his wife the night before and as I collected water for our solar bag shower as she seemed to be in charge of the whole operation asking her if she minded if we stopped another night, she seemed happy for us to do that and we had planned to go and have drinks at the bar over lunchtime as a sort of thank you. However bang on 11am, the expected leaving time, the owner (her husband) sent over an English speaking waiter with a piece of paper explaining that the spot was only to be occupied for one night and that we were expected to pack up and leave but if we'd like to return after 7pm that evening and if there was space we could stop again.

Wine over the Lot

Not wishing to upset him further and not wishing to take the chance on missing out on an overnight spot we decided to move on and packed down in record time making our sad departure from this wonderful little spot. Our journey now turned south away from the Dordogne towards the Lot. By this time our google maps had understood that we didn't really like travelling on major roads, not motorways and defiantly not toll roads, therefore we made our way through country lanes, hardly seeing a soul or other vehicle and arrived at our next stay over with the misunderstanding out of our minds and ready to engage with our new vineyard owner.

Our friendly host

We arrived down an avenue of trees to a delightful little property with a large barn which was their chai (pronounced Shay and is an above ground storage area for vats and barrels, rather than a cave or cellar) and production area, as usual we were keen to taste their wares but also to explore the surrounding area where our host had told us that there was a green-way, an old disused railway line, that ran along side of the Lot river. The sun was beating down on us so after a leisurely tasting we let the sun burn off some of its heat and we then had a walk, which turned out to be around 10km down the river and back. Maz even had the opportunity to swim, I didn't go in this time, anther river ticked off of her list!

The evening was very peaceful, we had the place to ourselves, which was great and as we didn't have too far to travel the next day we both headed down the green-way again for a run. It was so peaceful at that time of the morning but we were glad we got out before it got too hot. Our journey continued east along the river spotting huge medieval castles on high promontories overlooking the river and out across the ever increasingly high hill tops.

Kiwis

Once again our France Passion site was a true blessing, the owner, a real typical Frenchman, very proud and quite short was a delight, he made us so welcome with a pitch nestled by the river, still the Lot, with a boat jetty, of which Maz was keen to use as access into the river again, and a huge field of Kiwi fruit. We'd never seen kiwis growing before and were taken by the complex method of support that these vine like plants require. 

In she goes again!

He was keen to show us his cave and winery called Domaine-Chantelle which he said he'd built with his grandfather around 15 years before, the new build looked much older than it was and they really managed to keep the traditional feel which was reflected in their lovely wines dominated by the Malbec grape which is why we ventured towards the Cahors region. We did buy a bottle but also a box of his 'local blend' which he sold directly to his neighbours from one of the huge tanks kept in the cellar apparently this is a common practice where people bring their old bottles and they are filled there and then, we bought five liters, very cheap and very good. 

We spent the evening by the river watching kingfishers skimming across the slow moving river with flashes of blues and orange capturing our attention and after another very peaceful night we left early as we were keen to have a quick look around Cahors before making our way to our son and daughter-in-laws place just outside Moissac where we were due to spend the week chilling by the pool, but that's another story for another blog post.

Cahors dome

Cahors was a delight, it was a Sunday morning so there was hardly anyone around, which made the ancient cobbled streets with their homes almost touching overhead even more atmospheric. We did venture into the cathedral which was becoming a bit of a habit, we were getting used to stopping in little towns just to walk around or inside their church. The service was just ending so although it was busy in their everyone had their masks on to protect everyone around them from the Covid-19 virus.

We made it down to Le Sap our daughter-in-laws family holiday home at about 2pm and were greeted by the gentle hum of a few bees, more stories of those little blighters in the next post, and after a brisk walk across the very hot and sunflower filled fields we arrived at their neighbours home to catch the start of the much delayed but very dramatic British Grand Prix live from Silverstone which was won by local hero Lewis Hamilton who managed to coax his Mercedes home on three inflated tyres as he suffered a puncture on the last lap with Max Verstappen closing quickly in his Red Bull, both cars and teams based near by in Brackley and Milton Keynes respectively, well done the Brits!

We've arrived

When we returned to Le Sap we made ourselves at home with the knowledge that we would be staying in a real bedroom with a real bed for just over a week, this thought both excited but saddened us as we really really enjoy spending time with Elsie and bedding down either in the pop up top or down with the rear seats. More adventures to come as we explore the surrounding countryside, take time to chillax by the pool and fend off the swarms of bees, but those stories can wait for another day.

Tour de France - Week Two from La Rochelle through Cognac to Bordeaux

Another night spent in the vineyards

You may remember that we at the start of a seven week tour of France using France Passion sites on mainly organic farms as our bases as we explore this huge nation in our VW Campervan affectionately known as Elsie. We'd arrived via ferry in the Normandy port of Caen just over a week ago and as we travelled further south the weather was getting warmer and the sights and sounds becoming less familiar as we entered into rural France, France Passion had enabled us to meet local people, passionate about their farms or businesses, which had also enabled us to find the 'real France' away from hotels, or overcrowded campsites full of tents, motor-homes and caravans.

After spending two nights at an AirBnB just outside of La Rochelle, where we had been able to do some laundry and upload our photos onto the web we were keen to get back to our more basic living conditions that being our faithful Elsie who had spent two night parked outside on her own and hadn't even enjoyed the stunning harbour of La Rochelle or even had a sight of the Atlantic ocean where we had swam to refresh ourselves.

Inside a cognac distillery 

We were heading further south and further east but our next stop was to be on the Ile (Island) D'Oleron accessed via a bridge stretching nearly three kilometres which was the longest in France at it's time of construction, this bridge gave us great views overlooking the passing trawlers and the huge oyster beds with the little fishermen s boats tending those most precious of commodities. On the way down we'd passed through Rochefort made famous by its cheese made from sheep's milk (eeek) and then over the marshy lands towards the bridge. The island was really busy, not to the extent of a Cornish village or beach during midsummer but busy enough that we commented on it and it seemed that all the motor-homes and people we'd seen on the beaches of Normandy had now descended onto this little piece of paradise.

Maz cooling off in the Atlantic

The France Passion vineyard we were staying on grew a variety of different grapes and alongside it's white and red wines produced an alcoholic called Pineau, an aperitif that we were to become accustomed to as we travelled further into the Cognac region just north of Bordeaux. This beverage is made by blending non alcoholic grape juice with the alcohol that was produced from the distilling of other grapes, this blend is then left in barrels for around two years and produces a sweet fortified wine at around 17 percent which is very nice served chilled.

Beautiful Sainte

Our pitch for the night was set in the heart of the very vines that produce the grapes to make the Pineau and once we'd had a tasting we walked down to the nearest village, La Cotiniere where we enjoyed another swim and a walk into and around the pretty village with it's harbour which reminded us of those we'd visited in Devon and Cornwall. The place was a buzz with holiday makers who were sitting in the bars and restaurants, we didn't have the budget to do the same so wandered back up the two kilometer cycle track, or green lane, to Elsie who was awaiting patiently for us to return.

Roman ruins (not Maz!)
on the banks of the Charente

I got up early for a run, back down the green-way to the harbour and back and after we'd breakfasted we broke camp, yup getting all the terms in here now! and left the island happy that we'd come and seen but wishing we had have visited out of season and had a little bit more space to ourselves. As we cross the bridge again we were glad of some familiar space we enjoyed lunch in Saintes with its roman ruins sitting along the banks of the river Charente as we made our way inland to a remote little vineyard in the Cognac region.

A night with a view

As we drove to and through the tiny village of Villars-Les-Bois we were delighted to find a wonderful spot with a 180 degree panorama over the vineyards in the valley below, we were greeted by an older gentleman who spoke no English and his wife who spoke a little. After parking up we asked if we might taste their wines which were OK but we were literally blown away by the powerful Cognac that they produced. It turned out that this elderly gent had lived on the farm for his whole life and taken over the production from his father, now he did look about 60 but we were somewhat surprised when he offered us a 50 year old, actually bottled in 1968, vintage of his best cognac which he told us he made when he was about 30, this put him well into his 80's so it would seem that a little tipple of this fiery nectar was keeping him very young at heart.

A simple tasting room and production area.

After another peaceful night and waking to the sound of a now all too familiar laughing cry of the Green woodpeckers, who we feel should be the national bird of France, however it is the cocky cockerels which strut around, especially along the sidelines when their rugby team is playing that takes that honor, and after a very leisurely morning, no run for either of us and filling up with water we made our long journey to our next stopover.

The land of the chateau

That long journey was no more than five miles and we could actually see the church spire of the next village from our lofty position the night before, however we were keen to visit this chateau which again produced cognac and which afforded us a lovely and peaceful spot next to their lake and a visit to a their museum which gave us a much better idea of the history of cognac which was really helpful.We learnt so much about this type of brandy that must be twice distilled in copper pot stills and aged at least two years in French oak barrels made in either Limousin or Tronçais, that there is only a certain period of the year in which the production can take place and the amazing fact that the cognac region of France has more vines than any other region, which is surprising as we so attribute vines and their grapes to be made into French wine when this region makes this spirit which isn't that popular with the local French population.

It would be rude not to purchase
 at least one bottle

We also loved the ratings of the different aged cognacs, harping back to when England was much more aligned to this region after the marriage of Henry II to Eleanor of Aquitaine and Bordeaux and it's region came under English rule between 1152 and 1453. Each bottle is marked with letters relating to English words rather than French, either V.S, V.S.O.P, X.O, or X.X.O each relating to the English words V.S. (Very Special) V.S.O.P. (Very Superior Old Pale) XO (Extra Old) XXO (Extra Extra Old) and finally the French Hors d'âge (Beyond Age) 

I ran into the local village in the morning for croissants and baguettes but arrived too early, again, so had to run around the lanes whilst I waited for it to open, these lanes were surrounded by fields and fields of bright and happy sunflowers all opened up and smiling as the dawn broke for another perfect day. 

I had a laugh with the local baker who spoke no English and who couldn't believe that I was running back to the chateau with his bread in my fold up shopping back which I was now strapping to my back to ensure the bread stayed as undamaged as possible. I met Maz returning from her shorter run, set up the shower, with warm water heated from the solar bag and settled down to a very white starchy breakfast accompanied by butter (vegan option) and jams, lekker (sorry Afrikaans for nice or great etc)!

Crepes in Cognac

We made our way towards the town of Cognac travelling along roads that literally cut through vineyards or fields of sunflowers which stretched out around us along the hill tops and down into the valleys, we felt blessed to be able to experience such beauty and we were also delighted to find a parking space with porta potti emptying facilities, I won't go into the details, for Elsie and wander around the stunning town. We even pushed the boat out and had a delicious lunch of crepes, savory to start with a shared sweet one to end. The town was empty and according to a few locals we were lucky as usually it was full of tourists from the United States or the far east who come to taste and visit this mecca of spirits.

Sunset reflect in the stainless steel tanks

After lunch we made our slow way down to Archiac and another vineyard that produced wines and cognac, we had a lovely tasting with the lady who owned the property, her husband was playing around on a new tractor which he had been given as a trial before purchase so we didn't chat with him. Although the wines were nice we weren't too impressed with the position that we had been shown on the gravel car park and it was to prove to be the noisiest of nights on our whole trip. It was a Friday night so obviously spirits were up in the local village but unbeknownst to us, and also the owners, was the fact that a young couple had just bought a nearly house and were having a house warming, which lasted all night!, hey ho you can't be as blessed as we had been all of the time can you?

No shade but a wonderful welcome

Our next night was to be the complete opposite. We'd stopped at the hill top town of Barbezieux-St-Hilaire, walked around its large square, complete with water fountains, set in front of its huge and imposing chateau for lunch and after a short drive arrive at the welcoming Domaine Conte & Filles and were greeted by a young lady who firstly apologised for the baking sun and lack of shade that she could provide for us but then showed us to a toilet, complete with shower and kitchen area which we made full use of the next morning after our run.

Tasting direct from the barrel

Nothing was too much trouble for her and we had a great tasting with her and around 20 other French people who had made their way from Bordeaux just to visit this tiny farm. It turned out that she and her sister made their cognac style spirit and she gave us a detailed tour of the distillery complete with traditionally shaped copper Charentais (the containers with all their pipes and gauges in which the liquid is heated and distilled), cellars full of french oak barrels and then a fabulous tasting. We really enjoyed our time with her and were sad to have to leave the next morning.

Chillaxing in the pool!

We had to leave as I'd booked us into an AirBnB where we could once again catch up with some washing and uploads to the internet. The stay was brilliant, we had a little room, lounge, come dinning, come kitchen, come bedroom, with a sofa bed which was far less comfortable than either of the three sleeping option in Elsie, but the Pièce de résistance (listen to me with my fancy French terms and correct spelling) was the outside area which was equipped with two outside dinning areas, a pool, which was much used to escape the heat, and a few running loops into the near by forests which reminded us so much of those around Elgin and Grabouw in South Africa. 

A French braai master

Our hosts were wonderful too and after a chillaxing Sunday they invited us over for an early evening meal, they had no qualms about us being plant based eaters and went well out of their way to create something we could put on the BBQ as well as the usual fresh salad,tomatoes with balsamic vinegar, humus dips, washed down with a few glasses of local wine and beer, it was a truly memorable evening where we made new friends overlooking their Arabian horses which stood majestically in the newly created paddocks.

New friends share a meal

After two nights we really didn't want to leave but week three was calling so after making use of the internet again to connect with family and friends, especially our dear Grandchildren of whom we had started reading a chapter of Winnie the Pooh for their bedtime story over the internet, we said our sad goodbyes and ventured into Bordeaux wine country!

Our Tour De France Part One - Week One Across the channel in Elise the VW Camper.

Birthday breakfasts (All plant based)

It was an early Monday morning in July 2020, we'd been staying down with our eldest son, daughter-in-law and their three children, out grandchildren, two boys and a girl for just over a week at their home just outside of Bradford upon Avon. It had been a good week, no it had been a great week, not only had the sun shone which meant that as we were based out of Elsie, Elsie we remind you is our newly purchased VW T5 campervan who you'll hear much more about during the next few blog posts, sleeping in her during the night but with the good weather able to interact with the family during the day. 

Family time

The week down there had also enabled us to meet up with our youngest son who was on leave from the super yacht where he works and after some sad goodbyes to him towards the end of the week we welcomed our middle son who was able to join us, with with his wife who was heavily pregnant with our fourth grandchild, as it turns out a beautiful baby girl called Winnie who was born a couple of days ago at the beginning of September 2020, for his birthday celebrations, a tad early, but we all made a fuss of him as he celebrated his 31st birthday.

Ready for the channel crossing to France

Back to this early Monday morning, we woke before the birds, which in England during the summer is pretty early, and made our way down to Portsmouth to catch the ferry which would cross the English Channel and deposit us in French soil in Caen around six hours later. Elsie made her way confidently onto the deck and enjoyed a smooth crossing with her friends, other campers, motor homes, lorries and cars, and due to the Covid-19 conditions we had to book a cabin so spent most of the time there catching up on some much needed beauty sleep with the expectation of a busy day ahead.

Covid-19 style channel crossing

As you know we drive on the left hand side of the road in England, the correct side, with our steering wheel on the right, in France they drive on the wrong side of the road and therefore seeing as we were driving a German made VW campervan built for English road conditions the first trick that myself and Elsie needed to learn, no ensure, was that I kept to that wrong side thus negating the opportunity of other road users either hitting us/me or me hitting them! Once I'd mastered this the next challenge was to find the right road out of the port and with google-maps open we made our way confidently yet tentatively out onto the tarmac and into another world, OK France.

D-Day landing memorial in Normandy

Before we go any further I neglected to say that in the planning of this trip I had studied many different websites seeking advice about many things, the best places in France to visit, what not to miss, best camping sites, free parking (both for day and overnight stays) beaches, restaurants (OK I didn't research those as this was to be a trip on a tight budget and French restaurants were going to be well out of our price range), within all this searching I stumbled over a web based community called France Passion, started some 28 years ago it has established a network of over 2000, mainly organic, farms who in return for hosting a few campervans/motorhomes, or camping cars as they are known in France, have a captive audience who are all too willing to come taste the delights that they have been busy creating and producing over the year. 

Elsie all set up for our first night at a France Passion site

More often than not these little farms seemed to be the ones that grow grapes and are commonly known as vineyards or vignes as we have subsequently found out the French call them after visiting quite a few during this trip, who produce some amazing local and internationally recognised wines. There is no obligation to purchase anything but more often than not who wouldn't want to buy some fresh produce from the very farmer who grew it around the fields where you would be spending the night?

We duly signed up and received our membership cards, log on details for the website and a handy book that was to become our bible for the next seven weeks. These France Passion sites were a godsend and it was towards one of these in northern Normandy that we were headed, headed that is after we had made a visit to the D-Day landing beaches, those beaches upon which my great uncles regiment had landed in June 1944 and on which we now found half of France as unbeknownst to us this middle of July Monday was a public holiday, well it actually wasn't but the next day, 14th July was Bastille day and those clever French families had cunningly booked off the Monday to add onto their weekend, also called weekend by the French by the way!, creating a perfect four day break just as we arrived. 

The beaches, long and flat as they are, were crowded, as were all the little coastal roads which was fun as we sought to gentle break ourselves into this driving on this wrong side of the road lark, however we managed to park, walk and view a couple of memorials and as we traveled further down the coast saw the very beach, Gold Beach, upon which my great uncles regiment had landed as they pushed through France he in his Tank, he was the driver, through Belgium, Holland and eventually across the Rhine as the Allies defeated Hitler and his Nazis in the second world war.

I hope you've got a nice cuppa to keep you company because as you can see this could be a long post as we seek to share the first week of our 'Tour De France', so if you are sitting comfortably I'll continue.

After heading west along the coast we cut inland, down country lanes towards Vaux-sur-Aure and a farm that grew apples and other fruits, mainly using those apples to make the local alcoholic beverage called Calvados, a cider brandy produced in a similar way to Cognac and Armagnac which we were to taste as we ventured further south into the grape growing regions of France. Unfortunately we didn't meet the owner but were shown to our 'parking spot' in the middle of these beautiful apple orchards that reminded us so much of those we knew in Grabouw, South Africa, where we'd spent seven years of our lives, but that's another story which many of you will already know about.

This was to be our first real night camping in Elsie, we'd slept in her at our friends field in Essex, our eldest sons home in Bradford on Avon and even outside of our middle sons home in London, right next to a skip which was interesting, however tonight we could test out all the essential items that we had bought to make our time in Elsie a little more comfortable. First item to come out was the porta potti, I won't go into too much detail but this was to be a true blessing when camping at places without access to a W/C, this was housed in a 'pop up' tent which literally popped up in less than 10 seconds, 'popping' it down proved to be a little more tricky but with the help of YouTube, accessed via 4g on our phones, we eventually worked out a quick way to do that and all was well (but we are racing ahead, we didn't need to worry about that until packing away in the morning!). The next niffy piece of kit was a rear awning, this 'tent' literally sat over the back of the open tail gate and with a few pegs to hold it down formed a great private space for us to dress and keep bits an pieces that we didn't need in the van at night. With the last accessory installed, this a simple side canopy which located in a track running along the side of the van we were set, gas on, kettle full and a welcome cup of Rooibos tea we were set.

The farm was huge, not only the land but the house too, we went to find out where the nearest toilets were, yes we had the porta potti all set up but why use/fill that when there is a free one to use, where we could fill up with water and also to see if we could taste the wares which we had read about in the hand book. A lovely young lady explained in broken English, us understanding her with our broken French, about the farm, Calvados and the ciders that they produce. The Calvados was lovely, quite hot and fiery, but was slightly out of our price range, we had you see set out to purchase at least one item, I mean who could buy just one tomato or potato if they were on offer, from each of the France Passion places we stayed at and being the first night opted for the slightly cheaper but no less tasty cider (we actually bought three bottles, one to enjoy with that evenings meal, one that we drank long the way and the last which we will open to wet dear our dear daughters head when she arrives).

We were joined by a few other motor homes during the evening but such was the space afforded to us we didn't even hear let alone see them once we had all settled down for the night. Elsie has three sleeping spaces, the rear awning, which we did use later in the trip, a bed towards the back of the van which is made up of the rear seats folding down into a double bed and our favorite a bed in the 'pop up roof' which is also a double and although a little challenging to climb into affords an open feel with canvas sides, windows and vents to three of the four sides and it was up there that we stopped for this first night and many others to come.

Shower time

Another accessory that we had purchased before the trip was a 12 volt shower, powered yes you've guessed it from the 12 volt cigarette lighter, of which Elsie has a few, either run off of the standard battery or the leisure battery which can be topped up by either running the engine, basically as you drive along, very handy, or via a solar panel which we had also bought prior to the trip which provides a trickle charge to keep that battery in tip top condition too! Anyway back to this shower, well I had also created a 'shower screen', made out of white tubing bought from Screw-fit and a shower curtain, plus we had bought a solar shower bag, this is basically a 20 liter black bag which you fill with cold water then position in the sun and with miracle that takes place where the direct sunlight warms the water which you can then add to the collapsible shower bucket, sink the shower pump into the bucket (which is now hopefully full of warmish water), press the button and stand under a warm(ish) shower for around 5 minutes, 2 and a half minutes each if sharing with another, I was, Maz, who you'd probably have guessed had also joined me and Elsie on this tour, or less time if you are sharing it with more people, dogs or other things that need to be showered down each day!

The weather was slightly overcast when we woke but we were keen to get out for our daily run, the evening before we had ventured out around the farm and found a little 'green way' (again something we would find again and again as we traveled further) that after checking on the map showed a circular route back to the farm, I ran twice round making a nice 10km run our first in France for a while and Maz completed one lap at as you've deduced 5kms, got back and although the water wasn't too warm from the solar bag we topped it up with hot water heated on the gas ring and had a lovely shower in the apple orchards of Normandy, a successful first day and first night.

After breakfast we packed, an exercise that we would repeat and become very adept at over the next few weeks but this first one took a little time before we made a 200km journey to our second and as it turns out third night stop at a friends holiday home just south of Saint Malo. 

Seeing as though we were so close to Bayeux we were keen to see if we could visit the famous tapestry depicting the last invasion of England, by anyone, in 1066 when William Duke of Normandy defeated King Harold at Hastings. Unfortunately the museum hosting the tapestry was only taking a very few visitors and waiting around for another three hours for the next batch of tickets to be released didn't agree with our days plan so after a quick coffee, black of course, we made our way to the place we had earmarked for lunch the mightily impressive Mont Saint-Michel which stood majestically out in the channel like a castle from a disney movie, except this was a real castle.

We arrived at our friends home in Plorec late in the afternoon, we'd been to their home on a number of occasions but they had completed quite a lot of work since we were last there and it was good to see how the house is being transformed. We had the run of the place, including the option to sleep in the house, our first 'real bed' since we stopped with my sister just after we'd returned from Zambia in March, it was too tempting so we said our good-nights to Elsie, reassuring her that we'd see her in the morning and went to sleep in a real bed in a real house.

Running the green-ways

Its been my desire to run 2020 kilometers in the year 2020 so my daily runs have not only become a habit but they have enabled me to get out in the fresh air in some beautiful places including those in South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe so I was keen to continue that in France so I went out for a run whilst Maz did a work out in the orchard of the house where we stayed. 

Another thing we wanted to do whilst we were in France was to visit as many local markets as possible, however we only just made it to the nearest one that was taking place in Marignon as with all markets we ended up visiting it finished at midday. We made it with around an hour to spare and we made sure we bought some fresh veg, olives, tapenade and pickled garlic which we enjoyed for lunch for the rest of the week and beyond.

French markets are so interesting, firstly it seems like the whole of the surrounding area descends on them, so much so that roads are closed, a good thing, and cars end up being parked all over the place making it hard for late comers, like us, to find a suitable place to park without blocking drives, doors or roads, a bad thing. The fayre is normally quite similar, fresh fruit and veg, a stalls selling local wines, beers or cider, dried meats, always a few stalls displaying a wide range of cheeses and fresh meats, huge pans full of paella (fish and or meat dishes) or other sizzling pots full of hot food, rarely a burger or kebab van, thankfully, often stalls peddling products produced in Africa, often West Africa but we have met up with some very nice Malagasy who have their traditional straw bags and hats and yes the clothing stalls, handmade jewelry, a hat seller, some guy demonstrating the next household cleaning product or kitchen saving device but most of all full of happy people out for a morning in their local town browsing, buying, chatting and basically enjoying themselves. 

We spent the afternoon in the orchard reading and planning our next days route and stopover, then after another lovely meal, this time prepared and cooked by Maz in a real kitchen with a real cooker, we made our way to bed with only the crazy church bells to keep us company, they seemed to ring at random picking their own tune, and or not a tune, without much thought of what it might sound like to those sleeping not 50 meters from the bell tower i.e us!

Elsie was ready, waiting and raring to go, we had another 200+ kilometer journey ahead of us, which seems like quite a way to go, missing out on some great towns, villages, sights and sounds but we were really keen to get down to the Loire valley and experience some of the places that we'd been looking forward to visiting via the France Passion book. That said we made sure not to miss the castle seated above the Loire in the city of Angers and after having lunch there overlooking the river in the hot sunshine we made our way to a small vineyard called Domaine de Tartifume. 

A night in the vineyards

I'm not sure what we were expecting from our first stop at a French vineyard, as you'll know we spent over seven years South Africa, many of the farms around Grabouw and Elgin were vineyards plus if they weren't right on our doorstep it was only a hop step and a jump to go to the more touristic regions around Stellenbosch and Franschhoek, still whilst many of these weren't the huge Spier, Boschendal or Beyerskloof estates most of them were all a lot bigger than this tiny little vineyard we'd just turned up on.

We made an effort to contact the owner but with no reply so left a message on his answering machine we decided to follow the 'France Passion' signs up through an old farmyard to a beautiful location set up above the wine cellar, under a tree and overlooking the valley below and vines behind. After a few minutes we saw the huge sliding doors to a big barn open and out walked an older man who we expected to be Benoit who we'd left and answerphone message with just a few minutes before, instead it turned out to be his father, it seemed that Benoit was away on holiday and dad was overseeing the operation, including directing the France Passion motor homes to their place, (he failed at that one and we were the only one there!) and completing the wine tasting that we had been looking forward to since the early stages of planning the trip.

Simple display of wines at the cellar

After setting up Elsie for the night and having a nice cuppa we were due down at the cellar to enjoy our first wine tasting in France, France the world renowned "home of wines", we couldn't wait. Well the wine tasting was, um how should we put this, interesting, we had agreed a time with Benoit's dad for a tasting, arriving bang on time, he wasn't anywhere to be seen, then after a few minutes he appeared from his home, next door to his sons home, opened up the 'tasting room' and at a tiny bar opened the fridge and asked us what we'd like to taste, Rouge (Red), Rose with an accent which my keyboard doesn't have (Rose) or Blanc (White), "everything we" said and he duly obliged. Now we must state that he didn't speak any English and our French is pretty much none existent so questions like, 'what type of grape?', or 'how many hectares of vines do you have?' (24 hectares actually, I just looked it up on the internet), and the normal exclamations of 'oh I detect slight floral tones on the nose' or 'this is definitely a heavily wooded red that must have been in French oak barrels for around 18-24 months' were irrelevant, but what was to be commended was the quality of the wine, the fact that we were joined by his friends, perhaps some other French visitors, the dog and the welcome we received.

A morning run towards the woods,
can you spot Maz?

After a very very peaceful night sleeping 'in the pop up' with the window sides down but mosquito screens up we were keen to get out to explore the surrounding vineyards on foot at around 4 minutes 45 seconds per kilometer pace, or at least I was, Maz was quite happy snuggled up in our four season sleeping bag, complete with reversible top and bottom for summer and winter, but after a minute or so she was jumping out of bed, OK maybe not jumping should we say slowly sliding from the top bed onto the head rest of my drivers seat then onto the seat before stumbling bleary eye'd onto the floor fumbling around in her bag for her running kit (mine was easily accessible in one of the handy cupboards ready to don at any time)......it was a beautiful morning and we couldn't waste a second it was at least 6.15am!

Another night in the vines

The run was stunning we ran through the vines onto a nearby road, up the hill turning right towards the woods, where we had actually walked the afternoon before reccying out this possible run, and then right back again to complete the loop, I was therefore surprised that I hadn't passed Maz on my third loop but had seen her go on further into the vines and therefore was wondering the whole way around the next lap where the heck she might turn up!....navigation isn't Maz' strong point and there's a story we won't go into here when we were in Bujumbura, the capital city of Burundi, where Maz got lost on a 600 meter loop around a square blocked neighborhood...what Maz is great at though is cooking, loving people and making sure everyone is OK, I'm great at navigation, lets leave it at that!

After filling up the collapsible bucket from the tap which was located by the wine cellar, remember down hill and through the old farmyard, I bought it back ready to add the water we had been warming on the Gas stove, Elsie is equipped with two separate gas rings. I'd just put it down and had setting up the shower but when I returned ready to pour in the warmish water the collapsible bucket had actually collapsed all by itself leaving the 20 liters of water all over the floor and me needed to make the return journey down hill and through the old farmyard yet again! Oh the joys of campervannning but no one else was around, the sun was shinning, we didn't have far to travel to our next stop and hey we were alive and kicking what more could one want.

Showered, fed and watered we were ready to make a short journey westwards along the Loire to our next stop, another vineyard, but such were the temptations along this pretty drive to pop into others along the way we couldn't resist and after passing through Juigne-sur-Loire we saw signs to Domaine de Gagnebert in a place called Moron, not the most enticing of town names!, and enjoyed a tasting again at this small vineyard. Onward and westwards we drove, glimpsing the wide and shallow Loire through the stunning countryside with pretty towns dotted along its banks.

Just returning from a morning run.

We arrived at our next stop, which was equally if not better located than the last, a lovely little vineyard called Les Vignes de I'Alma owned by the Chevalier (Knight in English) family, now we are closely related to a couple of Knight families, both mine and Maz' sisters marrying a Mr Knight, not the same one I'm glad to say, and not even related, only by us which is strange. 

The parking/camping area was wonderful, a beech hedge providing privacy with a few Plane trees providing some much needed shade, all set in the vineyards where they produce some very traditional white Loire wines of the Anjou region, thus dominated by Sauvignon and or Chenin Blanc grapes. 

After enjoying another tasting, find out where the toilets and water filling point were we had a gentle stroll around the vines only to return to be greeted with another motorhome parking up in our little secluded area, now we knew that this site/stop advertised four spaces for campervans but after last nights lonely stay up on the hill in Coutures we were surprised to see anyone. The couple in the van were lovely hailing from Brittany and who were returning home after spending time travelling around France much like we were doing, they were quiet and so were we and after another delicious meal prepared by Maz on our two ring burner, how does she do it?, we popped up the top and climbed into bed opened the side windows and were greeted by dark skies dotted with tiny twinkling lights, eventually we worked out that these were huge banks of wind turbines and throughout the night as I woke I was fascinated to see them flashing away on top of the far off hills around us.

When stopping on a vineyard in France, why not!

Again we woke early so I decided to run into the nearest village to see if I could pick up some fresh French baguette or croissants, either I was too early or they were very lazy but the store wasn't open so after running back we had to make do with our standard breakfast. Now you may be aware that we try to maintain a wholefoods plant based diet, where possible wherever we are in the world, easy in England, harder to do in Korea or Africa but not too bad here in France where we had found, abet with a little difficult the base of the meal (yes breakfast is a meal and possibly the most important one of the day as what you eat for breakfast will sustain you well on into the afternoon) oats, with those oats we add a great number of berries, including goji, blueberries, cranberry and sultanas (which I know aren't berries), lots of seeds including ground flax, hemp, sunflower (more about those stunning and beautiful plants later on in the trip), pumpkin and chia, nuts including walnuts and activated almonds, as well as prunes, banana and peanut butter all topped off with some dairy free milk and a shot of B12, yummy scummy, healthy, nutritional, wholesome and not a gluten filled wheat based stodgy baguette in sight, why did I run into the village again?

We loved the quietness of this site so much that we asked the manager of the place, he lived off site so we really were the only ones there (other than the other van), if we could stay another night, of course he replied, which was great so I popped into the tiny cellar to procure another bottle or two of their finest (but very reasonably priced) white wine to sustain us for that evening, which was even more peaceful than the night before as the French couple had moved on and left the whole place to us, paradise!

Beach day

Who would have imagined that by the next afternoon we'd be swimming in the Atlantic ocean, sitting on the beach, enjoying a beer at the beach bar, looking forward to a couple of days rest, oh this travelling around putting up and packing away lark is quite tiring you know, and spending time in the beach city of La Rochelle, OK well yes I did because I'd planned the trip but I bet you hadn't guessed that's where we were headed...not only that I had booked us into an AirBnB for us to catch up on some WiFi and laundry time.

Maz on a morning run near La Rochelle

Prior to the afternoon on the beach we'd travelled slightly south west for around three hours and arrived just south of La Rochelle in a tiny beach town called Aytre. After being greeted by our host in his house which was entered at street level but then had an outside terrace down to a lower floor and courtyard garden where we enjoyed breakfasts the following morning, this time we were opposite a stunning little boulangerie where I did pop over to pick up a vast array of goodies, we were on holiday don't you know! , we walked to the beach, through a slightly dodgy area surrounded by boarded up flats. Once at the beach we were greeted with a sight of people enjoying themselves in the sea or just sunning themselves on the rocks or sand. Sand isn't my favorite kind of beach, I mean I love sandy beaches they look stunning but should there be the tinniest gust of wind or wettest bit of skin (after getting out of the same said sea) then woe betide you if the dammed stuff doesn't want to stick to you skin, get into your hair and clothes and become best friends with you joining you as you travel home with and then follow you around for the next few days turning up in some unexpected places.

Three towers overseeing the port of La Rochelle

Maz had visited La Rochelle as a teenager and really enjoyed that French seaside town feel, this was my first time there so after we'd had a quick run, OK I ran for around 14kms down to the beach and along a prom, Maz did a respectable 8km, and after we'd stodged up on french pastries for breakfast, as mentioned before, we caught the local bus, conveniently positioned outside our AirBnB, and went into the port area which has been tastefully revamped, no doubt with EU money, with bars and restaurants all set out in a pedestrianised area around the huge old harbour (Vieux Port). A harbour that has to be said is dominated by the three medieval towers, (The Chain Tower, the Lantern Tower and Saint Nicolas Tower) we didn't take the time to go into the towers but did take a leisurely stroll to the new marina before enjoying a quick Belgium beer or two at one of the port side bars, spent an hour or so people watching and then wandered around the old town arriving back to a pizzeria that we'd spotted earlier for a lunch of you've guessed it, pizza, so traditionally French I know!

No Maz no!

What does one do on a hot and sunny afternoon after a couple of beers and a very white breakfast and lunch, yup you've guessed it again, we went to find the nearest beach, not an easy exercise but one that we achieved, and slept on the beach. After an hour or so Maz took to the water for a swim, which looked lovely and seeing as though the wind wasn't blowing but that we were sitting on a sandy beach I did venture in for a dip too with the knowledge that the hot sun would dry out my now browning skin before the sand could jump all over me and return home (to our AirBnB) on the bus with me.

We'd really really enjoyed our first full week in France, England seemed miles away and with still six or seven weeks left of our Tour De France we went to bed happy with the knowledge that we'd connected with our family back home or in Croatia and were looking forward to what the next seven days might bring.