“Unsettled” seems to be the most appropriate word to summarize our 2008 French trip. As we approached Calais on the outbound ferry, we learned that the French were unsettled about the price of diesel/petrol (aren’t we all?) and that a…

I had booked a 2:10 PM return ferry from Calais which is just over two hours from Neufchatel-en-Bray so we had no rush. After a leisurely packing (in the dry) we joined the exodus from the campsite, sailed along on…

(Well, through it, actually, but then the pun wouldn’t work, would it?) The rain held off for us to finish packing in the morning (we had begun yesterday evening because rain had been forecast) and we managed to get Billy…

We thought we’d seen the château at Azay-le-Rideau more years ago than we care to remember. I suppose I should have said more years ago than we could remember since, when we actually got to Azay-le-Rideau this morning, the château…

We came here to Savonnières mainly to see the supposedly spectacular formal gardens at the château de Villandry. We set off in the morning to cycle the two or three miles to Villandry hoping to beat the crowds that might…

Terrific, we awoke to rain which soon got quite heavy. I detest packing up in the rain, especially the awning which, owing the late evening disturbances, was still up and saturated. However, pack we did, wet we got and the…

Having been invaded by a swarm of Irish itinerants yesterday, I went down into St. Gervais to check out the local camping municipal site. As is often the case, it was somewhat basic but we don’t mind that. There was…

We’ve been here near St. Gervais for three nights now and today seemed to be giving us a stunning blue sky. Neither of us is in any way a sailor but, given a daily shift of an hour or so…

One of our neighbours on the campsite told us where there is a stork nest in the vicinity. It could just be seen through binoculars from our pitch but there is a track passing close by it so, after breakfast…

This place had everything today: sun, countryside and in Challans about 10 miles away, a Leclerc supermarket and a McDonalds with McWiFi. First we went to McDonalds to publish a couple of blog postings (two espressos but no McTasteless McChicken…