Well done JB and LH

This morning had one eye on the Chinese Grand Prix, well done lads on the one two.  Other eye keenly interested in the volcano situation, wondering whether Bob and Phoebe have got home from Morocco?  A number of the ex-pats down here are unable to return to UK for the new term.  Kind of glad we've missed some of that chaos.

Anyway, important stuff - meet Scruffy and Tallow at chez Akhurst.  Took them for a walk which is clearly why they are now exhausted!  Beautiful day sans cloud and we've had a lovely time being driven around by the locals.  Partly sticking stakes in the ground advertising a commune ramble for May Day.  And some sightseeing.

So we've seen Chateau, cloisters of a renovated church building  and the cemetary commemorating the French Resistence in WWII.  And the afternoon at Angouleme taking in a chilled bierre in the town square.

Back to base camp and I took a little 5k jog, in 24°C sunshine, very invigorating if a bit much apres lager. 

I'm thinking we might take the Massif Centrale to Spain rather than the coastal route, but need to run this past da guvnor.  More Cognac and Vin before bed ;-)

Le weekend

We drove down the coast south of St Nazaire yesterday and I tried to re-live my last family holiday (with parents and all brothers and sister...) from 20 years ago, .  I remember that because I had a driving test, but couldn't drive over here since I was still 17 (driving age 18). 

It was somewhere near St Gilles Croix de Vie, so we went there and carried on down the coast.  My dad would be proud, I think, since we found the playground that us kids entertained ourselves at for most of the time (yes, at 17!).  20 years on and we thought it would be dead and buried, but it's now 4 times the size and clearly still a good attraction.  This reminiscence (spelling?) took a while, so we only made it to just north of La Rochelle last night, and stayed in one of those large static van sites that spread over massive areas of this coast - perfectly pleasant but a bit impersonal.

Saturday in France is a quiet affair which seems to involve either not doing anything, or taking your trailer out for a drive!  We've found our way to Alan and Trish's house, or significant homestead.  It's lovely and we've just spent a good 3+ hours sat on the veranda drinking beer, wine, cider and cognac over apperitifs.  It's a good life.  Paella for dinner tonight. 
Plans are to stay here till Monday avoiding the French day off.  So may well have time to sort out pictures and write a bit more before moving on south.

Watford to America!

Welcome to my first ever blog. I am sitting in a gloriously sunny French campsite having had a great day exploring Mont Saint Michel. So far our adventure is going very smoothly, we had a great crossing and then spent a night in a small but pleasant campsite where we have stayed before.

Wednesday was spent at the Bayeux tapestry and marvelling at it's incredible story and great needle work. I do have to confess that without the audio guide I think I would have missed most of the finer details. There still seems to be much debate over who made it, England or France!!!! We then spent the night in a carpark in Bayeux. We paid nothing for the privilege and had a nice quiet evening. It also meant that we could enjoy a take away pizza.

Today we have been up Mont Saint Michel and had a guided tour of Abbey church at the top. It truly is one of the maddest pieces of architecture and construction I have ever seen. Apparently Arch Angel Michael choose the rock and then the Abbey was built on top of the point of the mound. The day brought back some very happy memories of a trip many years ago with Anne. The last trip involved me driving!!!

We had our first glimpse of the Atlantic tonight - looks like most other big bits of water to me - but who am I to say. Oh, yes and it was a clear day so we could see America.

Camping avec crap wifi

Not so much celebration!  The wifi at the campsite was rubbish so just about managed one post and an email, then it failed terminally.  Anyway, a new day and our old friend Ronald to the rescue.  Munched a big mac and managed to update things properly, so we're all happy again.  See you soon.

Camping avec wifi

Tres bien.  Le campingsite avec le wifi gratuit.  A proper french one with hedges and everything.  The rest of the residents appeared to play a mass boule game a short while ago, kids'n'all.

So first blogging of the adventure, wahey.  So far we've covered about 900km's and are near St Nazaire on the Atlantic coast - the air is a luverly temperature (van said 31.5degrees, which we believe!), but the water is cold (foot says so).  It's still school holidays so things are a bit busier this week than we think they will be going forwards for a turn - although "busy" is not really causing any problems.  It probably means that we'll be sharing camping areas with a more mature clientele than now in the next weeks though, which I'm sure will bring its own entertainments.

General scenery is a bit dull at the moment, but I think it will improve / change dramatically as we get a bit further south.  Although we have been discussing how we are going to see spring blossoming as we travel, which should be pretty cool.  They like their churches, most small towns have a cathedral of sorts, and we visited an island today that seemed to be wholly made of an abbey!
Loving the freedom, but conscious that we are going at quick a rate, in terms of distance per day.  I quite like it and when Fran stays awake she likes the scenery too.  We have to be sure to stop when we see something interesting.
Rufus is fully behaving herself, and for a brief while I was convinced we were getting 31mpg.  My wife has since corrected my maths and it's only 19mpg (I'd worked out kmpg!). 
Should be off to La Rochelle tomorrow via some coastal roads, and then dropping in on Alan and Trish at the weekend (at the time of posting they don't know this!).

Ready, Steady, Go.... tomorrow

I sit here in the bosom of my outlaws having just enjoyed a farewell takeaway curry.  Including a surprise appearance of Chris and Sarah.  It's finished off a busy weekend containing 2 birthday parties and a pub lunch - we haven't cooked for ourselves since Friday, which is nice.  We're pretty much packed and ready to hit the road at shortly after 9 tomorrow morning.

Here's a selection of leaving cards (for Fran, not me!), and a picture of Horace who's coming with us.

Cup of Tea before we go?

Dog sitting

This week we are enjoying the company of Dilbert / Dibley the vicars dog. She's a great old girl.
Yesterday we took a walk with 5 dog's, 4 of which were borrowed for the excursion. A bank holiday monday walk with 5 dogs is an interesting undertaking. Then to top the day off Fran and I helped my dad barbeque for about 100!