Oldies On Tour

Today we did some more washing, and cleaning, then set off to find a place that we had been to a couple of years ago with Herbert and Liz.

Annecy

We set of for Aix Le Bain, thinking it was there, but we could not find it, and we

Annecy

followed the Annecy road, eventually after driving 26 miles, we ended up in the centre of Annecy, what a pretty place, a tiny village on a river, with lots of shops and lots of tourists.

Annecy

We strolled around, enjoying the ambience of it all, another vibrant place, with lots of little bridges, over the river, the pictures will give you a better idea.  We stopped and had a cup of cider, yes cup, very strange, Geoff had a lemonade, and an ice-cream, I resisted the temptation, but ate half of his instead.

It is the first time we have been on the bikes in such a busy area, we were stuck in traffic, drove on the cycle lanes, and today we became proper bikers, over-taking everyone and getting to the front of the queues.

Set of back, the round trip was over 52 miles,  we are really glad we bought the bikes, it has enabled us to see lots of places, that we would not be able to go to with Rosie, so another good investment.

Not sure where we had our picnic Liz and Herbert, but Annecy was well worth the visit.

Jobs all done, we are off again on our travels, the scenery is amazing, and although we have only done 80 miles, the landscape has changed again, the nearer we get to the

Journey to the Alps

Journey north

Alps the greener everywhere gets. We still have the traditional trees lining the roads, and the fields of sunflowers, but the backdrop of the mountains are lovely.

We arrived at about 11am, quickly sorted ourselves out, and then did the boring things, like changed the sheets, washing, and cleaning, whilst Geoff was doing the water and the looe.  We have most facilities here, it is an Aire, but next door to a campsite, so you can use their showers etc., we have no electric, and we do not think you can use the generator, so Geoff cannot have his coffee, but we are back on wifi, and our log is once again up to date.

Le Bourget Du Lac

We went for a walk with the dogs,past a sailing club, but the lake has been turned into a private beach, and dogs are not allowed, which is fair enough, so we headed to some woods, where we found an observation post (hide) with

Le Bourget Du Lac Reservation

views over a reservation, with loads of different birds enjoying the wetlands area.

Today has been catch up day, tomorrow we will start exploring again, we both had long awaited showers, and an early night.

The wind was howling most of the night, apparently it is the Mistral, and we thought it was only in the spring, but it can be all the year round. So I was awake early and walking the dogs, Geoff made the tea, and we set off on our journey.  Only 74 miles, but because we are not using the motorways, it will take a couple of hours.

Travelling north

France is so pretty, we went through many villages, and saw the traditional trees lining the roads, rows of sunflower fields, lots of different colours, I love it!

Sunflowers

We have decided to go to another Farm today, which is organic, they have a market, which happily happened to be today.  We are near Valance, in a tiny village called Chateauneaf Sur Isere, when we arrived it was very busy, with lots of cars and people around, and we thought we were in the wrong place.

Chateau-Sur-Isere Farm

A lady came over and helped us, and showed us to the owner, who then told us where to go, another lady walked with me to our parking place, another good result.  We walked the dogs, had a cuppa, and then went to see what the market had to offer.

Wine tasting was first, and we bought two bottles of Rosé, then we went to another stand where they had chutneys, Geoff had a taste from one that was made from Olives, and I liked the fruity one, another purchase was made, we then bought some bread, and some goat’s cheese.  I then bought some plums, figs and red peaches.

Back to Rosie for lunch, an organic spread fit for a king, no wonder we are getting like porkers, but it was very tasty, especially the bottle of organic wine!

Sweetcorn to left, apples, plums, and pears to the right

After lunch I strolled around the farm, it is amazing, they have sweet corn, apples, pears, plums, melons, cob nuts, almonds, quinces, blackberries, and kiwi’s, and that is only what I spotted, there is also a field of sunflowers, which were not out in bloom yet  which was a shame. I managed to pinch a couple of red peaches, they are amazing, so juicy with red flesh, apparently they are a very old fruit, which

Juicy Red Peaches

they are growing again, well recommend them. Geoff told me off when I got back for abusing the hospitality that we had been shown!! (He enjoyed the pickings though)

Geoff and I played crib, which I am at present loosing heavily, so I have put the board away, we will be onto dominoes later.

We have not worked out why the farmers allow Motor home families on their land, they do not charge, they do not expect you to buy, they just want you to say hello, you have to be completely self sufficient, but it is so peaceful, there is no one else around at present, long may it last, and the dogs get to run in open fields.

We must have tired the dogs out, they gave me a lie-in, we went for our normal walk, then Geoff went to get some croissants in the village, (we really are being naughty now), very enjoyable.

I have been trying to do the internet, to get the logs posted, very difficult around here, as no internet café, or Wi-Fi around, so decided to use dongle, which is expensive because of the roaming, so have almost caught up to-date, but need to get photos on, will have another go later.

It is very windy here at present, we cannot have our awning out, or some of the windows open, and we were a bit worried about travelling on the bikes, but we decided to go for it.

Bagnols-S-Ceze

Bagnols-S-Céze is only 7km away, and although at times we were being blown sideways, we made it ok. We walked around, and found this fantastic old fashioned butcher (Boucherie) they sold everything, we bought some steak, pork chops, kidneys, brawn, and pâté, as we are determined not to starve over the next few days.

We wondered all around, they had lots of side streets, with

Bagnols-S-Cezé

little shops and cafés, a couple of squares, with people just meandering around, another lovely town. We stopped for a couple of beers, and then headed back to camp, trying to avoid being blown off our bikes by the gusts of wind.

We had a quick lunch of the duck pâté and the brawn,( not quite like my Mum used to make) but similar, then we started the job of packing up again, I went and cleaned Pinky, before she was loaded on the trailer, Geoff had done his yesterday. Whilst Geoff was doing the bikes, a French man was talking to him, and they were getting on quite well together, speaking in French, so he must be improving.

Sooty diving for stones

All jobs done, back to the river for the last swim, lots of people around, and Sooty showed off his party piece, but this time he swam under water, but forgot to breathe, so looked very startled when he came up. Once again he started transferring

Sooty is down there somewhere!

all the stones, and kept the children on the riverbank amused.

We moved further down where the weir was overflowing, and Bella thought she would try and come down the river, suddenly she got swept away, fortunately Geoff was further down, and managed to drag her by her ear to safety, we thought at that point it was time to come away.

Back at home, we opened a bottle of special French wine, we had bought when we were with Catriona and Mike, and settled down to a the steaks we had bought earlier, not a patch on our restaurant in Spain (Gallego’s) but a good second, and an end to another lovely day.

The dogs were up early again, wanting a walk, so I took them down to the riverbank, they loved it down there, and had a good run around, we will go back later for a swim.

We had some breakfast, and have decided to go to Orange today, it is 13 miles away, the weather is not quite so warm today, which is good, yesterday it was in the high thirties.

We took the dogs for another walk, this time Bella and Sooty went in the water, Sooty chasing a stick, Bella just going around in circles! She is mad that dog. Back to Rosie, and we were off to Orange, it was a lovely quiet road we took, and we soon arrived parked our bikes, and now ready to explore.

Theatre

Went to get camera out, must have left it on the table, so we will have to go back again. Getting old is driving me mad!! We decided not to go to the theatre, but instead look for a new camera for me, as mine is broken, will send it back later.

We found a camera, and purchased a new Olympus one, nothing too posh, but it has everything on it, so it will do for me.  Then when the guy was looking for the battery he could not find it, so we said we would come back later, good excuse to have another meal out, which was lovely, the whole meal with pudding only came to 24 Euros, and that included drinks, cannot be bad.

It is market day here, which is a shame we did not have a camera, as the stalls were packed in, loads of people around, it was fascinating just watching whilst we ate our lunch, especially when they were packing up, and big vans were trying to get down

Orange

tiny streets to load up, and go home.

Back to the shop, they had found the battery, it was hiding in the box, so I now have a new camera, will be back taking photos tomorrow.

Home to find some really grumpy French man, having a go at us, for having the generator running, I wanted a cuppa, plus he complained we about us leaving the dogs, well they were so tired they didn’t want to go anywhere, Geoff and he were going at each other, and neither could understand what they were saying!!

Bella and Sooty

We took our two hard done by dogs to the river again, where Sooty has a new trick, he was diving down under the water to pick up stones, carry them to the shore, and go back for another one, it was really funny to watch him put his head under the water, and eventually surface with a stone in his mouth!  Bella just kept on going around in circles, they both loved it, Geoff and I paddled, but there were children playing on the weir, and using it as a slide,

River Cezé

what a lovely place this is.

On way back we called into the wine cellar, this time to try the white, but none were what I called really nice, and they were a lot dearer than the red had been.

I am still pinching myself, this is such a brilliant thing we are doing, and we have seen so many brilliant things, long may it last.

We think we have seen everything there is to see in this area, we have made good use of the bikes, now we are heading north. Our neighbours have rolled in there blind, and moved anything out of the way they could to allow us to leave early. We were up at 6ish, I walked the dogs, whilst Geoff did the toilet, topped up with water and moved the trailer, we were set to move, ticket in the first machine, and after a struggle the barrier went up, now the big gates, well my card would not work, it was bent, and the magnetic strip had been torn!, a nice man offered to help, went to get his card, meanwhile another French man offered his, so eventually at 8am we were released from the sardine can. Hopefully Italy will not be as crowded as this, we could not even roll our awning out fully, let alone, sit outside and eat, glad we have moved on, although I have enjoyed the sites we have seen.

Chusclan

A slow trip north, has taken us to Chusclan, it is a very old village in the middle of the countryside, dating back 2000 years. We are parked in an Aires, opposite a co-operative wine producer, so we will be visiting there later.

We sorted ourselves out, lovely site, and it is free, which makes it even better, very well laid out, with all the facilities that you could need, accept electric and showers, but we can have those anyway, as water is plentiful.

After lunch we went for a long walk into the village, it is lovely here, very narrow

Chusclan

streets, pretty houses, with a couple of squares, the village has a lot of history, but it now survives on the grapes, and most of the inhabitants work at the wine cellar. We sat in one of the squares which was deserted, and had a beer, it was lovely just to sit and ponder what life had been like years ago.

River Céze

On the way back we walked along the river, we were trying to find a safe place for the dogs to go in, as the water was running very fast, as there is a weir, we decided we would explore on the bikes later, as although Bella is a strong swimmer, we did not want to have to go in after her.

On the way back, we called into the wine cellar, (that didn’t take long did it) you could taste the wine, before you bought some, so we had tasters from four bottles, before Geoff decided on 9 bottles of

Co-operative wine cellar

one kind, and 12 of another, we are meeting up with Mark in a couple of weeks, so he can help to drink it.

Back to the site for a cup of tea, then on the bikes to find where we could swim, did not take long, only half a kilometer away, so we will take the dogs there tomorrow.

What a lovely day, the more time I spend in France, the more I love it, especially away from the commercial bits.