Caen

Our hotel in Caen faced onto the marina, and the large car parks outside were closed on the Saturday night because of the market on the Sunday morning. I have never seen a market like it in my life, it was huge and sold everything from antique (and not so antique) furniture to hair ornaments and chips. We come to that ever more irritating question of car parks again because this was yet another hotel with a height limited underground car park we needed to find somewhere else to park. Not an easy task when the vast municipal car park is closed and everyone is fighting over the on-street parking spots. It took David quite some time to find a spot but when he did it was a good one. We were parked a little to the left of where Beth is standing in the photo above, just alongside the marina and about 25 metres from the hotel - perfect. It proved to be even better the next day as it was on the right road for getting out of town without too much difficulty.

Moving on

Sadly the idyll of our place in the country had to come to an end. We had to leave our lovely cottage and head northwards towards Caen which was going to be our stopping point for the night. On the way we were looking out for a picnic spot for lunch - just look at the place we found picnic tables. A real Norman Chateau of the sort we recognise as a Norman Castle in this country - not surprising really as this is the Chateau of Falaise; the birthplace of William the Conqueror. Some parts of the castle are undergoing restoration to show how they would have looked when it was newly built. Sometimes we forget that the people didn't live in buildings made of crumbling masonry but smooth stones placed neatly in place to produce a lovely and palatial building.

The next village - Frazé

The nearby village of Frazé was utterly lovely

The gardens and surroundings

These pictures show the garden and surroundings of the cottage. It was delightfully rural - soooo quiet and very pretty. The grass is a little brown and parched because there was so little rain but that didn't detract in any way from our enjoyment of the garden. We would go out onto the lane by the telegraph pole after dark to look at the stars which were so clear because there was no extraneous light and the skies were generally unhampered by clouds.

Chartres

After a relaxing day doing nothing much more than visiting the market on the Wednesday, which is always great fun in France, we decided to go a little further afield on Thursday and visit Chartres. What a beautiful city - and we nearly missed it all because of those flipping height limiters on car parks. We have a fairly high car and when a roof box is added it makes it far too tall for car parks with height limiters. Most of the car parks which we could find were underground and therefore out of the question for us, however we eventually found one down in the lower half of the city which didn't have any limitations on height. It turned out to be pretty well placed as it led to a small street which then led onto steps etc which came out at the back of the cathedral right in the heart of the old town. We sat at a pavement cafe to have some lunch looking up at the cathedral, listening to the organ music which was filtering out because we thought that the cathedral would still close for lunch as most places in France used to do. When we made our way round to the front we discovered that it was now open all day and we could have gone inside at any time. The area around the cathedral is very pretty with old houses/shops and beautiful flowerbeds. I have noticed that they seem to be going in for themed flower beds in France these days with a lot of colour grouping and they did look very pretty. I came home with lots of new ideas and more information on how to execute some older ideas.

A dream fulfilled

Since I was 16 years old I have wanted to visit the Chateaux of the Loire, especially Chenonceaux and now was the fulfillment of my dream. I took my courage in both hands and drove all the way. It was well worth the journey and I am so glad we went.


















Although lovely, this place was very hard on the feet and we were glad to take a seat in the Orangery to have a cold drink. The rooms were decorated with the most fabulous flower arrangements of enormous proportions which I just couldn't resist photographing much to the amusement of my family.

Lizards, bats and hens

The variety of wildlife was greatly entertaining. On our first afternoon as we were unpacking the car Christopher announced that he had "seen an animal with legs and a tail" (so eloquently descriptive) This "animal" turned out to be a lizard and I wasn't too impressed when it ran off into the sitting room and scuttled under the skirting board, I was looking for that blessed reptile for days, shaking my shoes before putting them on and lifting everything off the floor obsessively. The owners of the cottage lived next door and their garden ran behind ours with a little gate in the middle of the hedge where we used to stand and watch the chickens and ducks. The chickens came running up expectantly whenever they saw us - I guess previous visitors have been feeding them. The children saw a stag and a hind crossing the field in front of the house one evening and went off to try to get a photo of them - we didn't bother pointing out that they didn't have a hope of getting near. By far the most entertaining animals were the bats. Every evening as dusk fell there would be a faint noise which gradually got louder and then the acrobatics began as they swooped and whirled through the trees in the garden and around the house. I swear they knew we were watching them and put on a performance for us for about 20 minutes each evening, gradually the activity lessened and the noise increased as they hung high up in the trees and squeaked for want of a better description. Prior to being at La Linetiere I would have been decidedly underwhelmed at the idea of sitting watching bats in the twilight but it proved to be an absorbing pastime.

Le Mans

Apart from the market in the morning, Sunday was a day to remain at our gorgeous cottage and relax in its beautiful garden admiring the wildlife and the surroundings.

Monday dawned overcast and drizzly which didn't fill us with enthusiasm so we decided to visit a nearby town which was twinned with the town we used to live in. Yeah - great idea - remember Douai? This was another town which was closed for lunch. We just kept on driving to the next place of any size - which just happened to be Le Mans - what a surprise boys. David and Christopher were in their element - we drove around the 24 hour race track; or at least most of it - the part of it which is public roads for the rest of the year - not once but twice. Then we went into the museum but Elizabeth and I sat down with a cup of coffee whilst the boys went and drooled over every car which has ever won the Le Mans 24 hour Grand Prix. Christopher has a photo of every one of them and when I can prize them off him I will post a few.

Day 2 Hell then Heaven

Oh the joys of the Paris Peripherique! We were doing very well until we decided to divert from the route to find a Centre Commerciale with a supermarket (to buy some lunch) and most importantly - a loo. The loos we had found on the Aires en route had been so bad we had crossed our legs into granny knots - by the time we got to Chartres we were beyond caring. Whoever thought height limiters on car park entrances were a good idea? More on that later in the blog - much more! We eventually found a way into the car park and relief! Going off the route seemed like a good idea at the time, but we did eventually find our way to La Linetiere. When we got there any frustrations of the journey just fell away - it was idyllic, set in its own private garden at the end of a country lane, surrounded by fields.

Day 1 Tunnels, battles and food.

As we left home Elizabeth took a photo through the car window just to show what we were leaving behind, pouring rain - what else? After picking David up when he finished work in London we headed for a hotel not far from Dover in order to catch our ferry in the morning. We were astonished to get a place on the next sailing as it was about 15 minutes after we arrived at the docks.

Our first call in France was the lovely town of Arras, with its gorgeous squares, impressive hotel de ville and the tunnels which run underneath all of the above. Whilst standing in the Place des heros looking around at the fascinating architecture it is hard to realise that the cobbles are on top of the tunnels which over the years have been used to store wine, market traders' stock and provided safe refuge for citizens and soldiers during the two world wars. The guided tour of the tunnels was great but some of those tunnels were a bit on the low side which made it hard on the knees.








Later the boys wanted to go to the memorial at Vimy Ridge. This is a huge tall memorial to Canadian soldiers killed in WW1 which stands on the highest point in the region so it can be seen from miles around. There are preserved trenches along both the Allied and German front lines. They are so close you could have heard people whispering in the opposite trench. It it now a beautiful place with grass and trees and seems so peaceful that it is almost impossible to to imagine the carnage and horror that would have prevailed at the time. In some ways that is almost as dreadful as the horrors of the time itself.






We were spending the first night in the small town of Douai, chosen to give the boys some flexibility about where they went on that first day as it is fairly near the Belgian border so if they had wanted to go to the battlefields in Belgium they could do so. Did I mention that they are both historians with an interest in WW1 and WW2? No? I probably didn't mention then that they had been told that they were going to be severely limited in the number of battlefields etc which they got to visit on this trip!

What can I say about Douai? If you have ever heard John Denver sing Saturday Night in Toledo Ohio you will understand about Douai. Everything was CLOSED on this Friday evening - we couldn't find anywhere to eat. We walked all around the town and then eventually drove out of town through several villages where we finally found a MacDonalds - or McDos as it is known in France. Great French cuisine!