Oldies On Tour

Waking up and a little surprised with clear heads! Christine went off for a ½hr walk along the river

Christine with dogs resting after long walk!

whilst I made the tea. Oh yes I only have one day off a year from making the early morning cuppa which we always enjoy in bed.   After a good night’s sleep it was time to do what we had come here to do, and that was visit one of the Cognac factories..

Decision made we were “up and at ‘em”, had breakfast gave the dogs another run, fed them, settled them in Rosie and then we were off back over the bridge,

The Bridge we walked over, several times

having decided which factory to visit we wanted to see what time the tour takes place.  We had chosen to visit the “Chateau Royal de Cognac” museum and the “Baron Otard”

The Baron Otard Logo

Cognac vaults. 1430hours was the English tour so noted that and walked on into the centre of town.

We were, (well I was) now on a mission to find and buy a bottle of the Cognac we enjoyed the previous night but en-route we visited the indoor market to buy a few provisions then back to “our” quest.  We went to the Wine store we had found the previous afternoon, assuming this was where the waiter had pointed us to and asked if they had what we wanted but unfortunately we couldn’t remember what it was called, we could only describe the shape of the bottle!!!!!  The fellow in the shop was very helpful.

A Typical building in the old town

We explained we had visited a restaurant called “Bistro Claude”.   The previous evening and that is where we had had the Cognac we were looking to buy and without a second thought, he telephoned them to find out; what service eh?

“Serénite” by “Baché Gabrielsen” XO was what we had had but unfortunately he did not stock it.  He did say it was an excellent choice and that is what he would have expected from “Bistro Claude” as apparently that was the best restaurant in Cognac, wow, didn’t we do well!!  He then pointed us on our way to where we may buy some.

Up to the top of the top of the town and after inquiring in a cafe (only to find it was just round the corner from where we were) we arrived at “La Cognatheque”

La Cognatheque (Cognac Shop)

A shop that only appeared to stock Cognac ranging in price from €3,200 down to something more acceptable!! Anyway they had what we wanted and after swallowing hard bought one.  We then had a Coffee before winding our way back to Rosie for lunch.

We had a quick lunch, walked the dogs then off to the Chateau

in time for the 1430hrs tour to learn about the grapes and distillation processing and naturally have a tasting, “heck”,

What we all came for

that’s why we are here of course!!!.

The magnificent entrance into "Baron Otard" - Cognac

Apparently the “Baron” Otard bought this ex royal Chateau, (King Francis 1 # was born here {1494 – 1547}) just for its cellars, he knew they were perfect for the ageing process.  This was a very interesting tour both historical and more to the point learning more about the Cognac making process.  In the UK we tend to think if we buy a VSOP we had the best of the best, well apparently that is not so as it is all in the grapes they use and where they are in relation to Cognac itself and the time they mature for in Oak barrels, anyway the bottom line is our XO is from the Grand Champagne grapes adjacent to the town whilst VSOP usually comes from grapes outside the immediate area.  XO is also matured many years longer than VSOP, amazing how ones perceptions can be shot down at times.

This Chateau was also a prisoner of war camp during the 7 years war (England V France over Canada) and there are many inscriptions on the walls written by the British prisoners, all well preserved. These prisoners were kept in the great hall.

The Great Hall (POW's Home!

After a super visit to the Chateau and museum and naturally the purchase of another bottle!!!!, we were off back to Rosie for dinner

#  For those interested in History, this was the French King Henry VIII met in Calais on the famous “Field of Cloth of Gold” 7^th June 1520

My Birthday arrived and I was foolishly mistaken in thinking we would have a lie in, Ha!! dogs don’t seem to understand that on certain days of the year they must lay quietly!!!  Anyway had the usual cup of tea in bed but on this occasion I was let off the “hook”,

Walking by the river

Christine was kind enough to make it.

After a cooked breakfast (a real treat in “Rosie”) we were off to Cognac; arriving exactly where we had planned  thanks to “tom Tom” and good navigation by Christine, we parked in the car park overlooking the River Charente with the Hennessy Factory directly opposite.

After parking walked into Cognac for a look round, have some lunch and find a nice suitable restaurant for my Birthday treat, dinner on Christine

Le Bistro du Claude, where we booked a table

Walking back down to the river through the “back” streets in the old part of the town we came across this un-assuming restaurant called “Bistro Claude” that looked very suitable so we booked a table for later.

Following a nice long walk along the River

to wear Sooty and Bella out, we showered, put on our best bib and tuckers and locked the guard dogs in “Rosie” then walked back across the river to find our restaurant.  Arriving a little before 1930hrs we were shown to our table but a little hesitant as we were the only clients; oh dear what have we done we thought but within several minutes other diners arrived and all French so our fears were put to rest.

Walking in for Dinner

The menu as you will have guessed was mainly fish in its various guises.  To start we had huge Langoustines, but as I chose a mixed dish I also enjoyed oysters and large prawns as well, excellent.  To follow I had scallops and Christine had the chunkiest and tender veal steak I think I have ever seen.  We washed this all down with an excellent bottle of white Burgundy.

Desert followed, Christine had a fresh fruit salad with a difference!  And I had the customary cheese board with a glass of local red win.  Coffee followed for me, and then what we had come all this way for, several glasses of Cognac.  The Cognac we had was an XO and completely unknown to us but we both thought it was very smooth and extremely nice so asked the waiter where we could buy a bottle.  He pointed up the street towards the centre and as we had passed a rather up-market wine and Cognac shop thought that was where it could be purchased.

Back to our car park for the night after a excellent day ending with a magnificent dinner, thank you Christine.

Outside 'Rosie' dogs relaxing

Friday 11th 2012 Up quite early, walked the dogs, then had a lazy breakfast before we set off on our travels again, as we are now under no time constraints, we will not be using the toll roads, we are heading for Vouvant, which is near Fontenay-Le-Comte, or Niort.
We stopped for coffee on route, which is brilliant, cos we can make it ourselves, so we don’t have to pay Motorway prices, plus I get a decent cup of tea! We arrived at our site, having caused a stir in the village, we nearly went down the wrong road, which would have been a disaster, as the streets are very narrow here, a couple were shaking their heads and saying ‘NO’ so Geoff reversed up, which is no mean task, with the Motorbikes on the back, but he made it look simple, and we carried on up the hill, to where we should have been.
Another lovely Aries, with free water, but a charge of 5 Euros, lovely and quiet, with lovely

Church at Vouvant

views of the countryside, but we do overlook a cemetery, which makes it peaceful.

Walled City at Vouvant

We walked down to the walled village, where there are the remains of a castle, legend has it apparently that it was built by a fairy in 1242, in one night! (No I have not been drinking) it is pretty here. We found a tea shop, and went in, Geoff was trying his French out, when the owner replied in English; we had a lovely cuppa, and a piece of home-made cake.

River Vendee at Vouvant

The next day the weather has definitely changed for the better, we both put our shorts on, and this time strolled down by the river, the dogs love it here, the river meanders around, as we followed the ramparts around the village, and went through the only original existing gate taking us back to the tea rooms, for another cuppa and cake, this time using their internet.

Only existing gate

We are now not alone on the site, we have been surrounded by French vans, must be the week-end, still not noisy though, accept for Bella, who thinks she owns the whole area.

Castle in Vouvant

Sunday morning, and the bells were ringing, and Geoff shot off to the village to buy fresh Croissants, and baguettes for breakfast, it is Grand Prix today, so we are staying put to watch that, and so glad we did, shame about Hamilton, but he did well to get into the points at the end. As there is another site very close, we decided to move to go and see that, well we travelled the six miles, to find it was horrible, so we travelled the six miles back to stay here, as we both really like it.

Vouvant Tea Shop

Everyone has left again, I guess they have to go to work, and we are now back on our own, we decided to walk down to the village, via the river, as we needed some shops, well the village was dead, everything was closed down, including the tea shop, we did manage to get some bread though and a cake, no wonder we cannot lose weight. The sun is shining and we have had another relaxing day.

The bus arrived at the bus stop just outside our “Airies” to take us into Saint-Nazaire but refused to allow us on because we had Sooty and Bella with us. Up ‘till now we had always marvelled at the French as they were so dog friendly, what happened? So back to “Rosie” and Plan “B”, we had a cuppa and I went back to the bus stop alone and left Christine to go for a long walk along the cliff tops.
Three quarters of an hour later (at the end of the line, I didn’t get off in time!) I was walking back to the U Boat pens.

Inside an individual U Boat pen

The waterfront side of the U boat pens

individual U Boat pen entrances

These pens are still as large and complete as they were after the Germans surrendered. Apparently, after the war the French tried to blow them up but they were so well constructed they couldn’t’ do it,

The Thick internal walls

German efficiency for you, even then!!!

One of the defense fortifications on the top of the U Boat pens

Anyway I had a good “poke about” and then walked around the large basin, enjoying a savoury crepe along the way, and then visited the Museum, very interesting. Apart from the British raid in 1942 when we sailed an old ex US destroyer into the Lock Gates to prevent the German battleships from having dry dock facility on the west coast of France,

Lock gate with bridge over

and the U boat pens, I thought that was it, but no, there have been folk living in this area since the Neolithic (10,000 – 3,000 BC) age with the creation of the artificial harbour facilities in the 1830’s when it became the centre of the French Slave Trade. Saint-Nazaire also became a ship building centre, which still carries on today; in fact there were 2 enormous Cruise Liners being built,

Two Cruiseliners under construction

and they say there is no money about!!!
Another thing I didn’t know was that Saint Nazaire was the port used by the Americans when they arrived in 1917 to “win” the First World War. It was also their port of embarkation when it was all over. According to the Museum records they were welcomed with open arms when they arrived but were hated by the locals at the end of their stay: We’ve heard of this before in another place haven’t we!!
It doesn’t end there, aircraft building has gone on here since the dawn of flying and today they construct parts of the fuselage for airbuses, including new 555 seater 380 versions.
Lastly there was a Submarine in one of the pens, bringing it to life. Unfortunately it wasn’t a U Boat, it was a 1960’s French Sub,

A French Sub looking forward

French Sub looking towards the stern

never mind I went aboard, interesting, and it had much more space than the WW2 Subs I had been over before.
A very enjoyable day, unfortunately on my own but I am not too sure Christine would have enjoyed it.
Back on the bus which stopped literally next to “Rosie”, feet up as they are worn out, and Christine cooked a “Chicken in Basil” with fresh vegetables, very good.

St. Nazaire

We left Sandy and Wendy’s about 11a.m, I am feeling very rough, and sorry for myself, no more drink for me for a few days, need to dry out!! (Self inflicted) See Sandy’s comments after our visit.
The rain has come back, after a lovely few days, typical, but the further we go south it is getting brighter, we are heading for St.Nazaire.
We arrived for lunch, another good free Aries, where you have a view of the sea from the cliff top over the road, we later explored the beach area, Bella and Sooty loved it.

St. Nazaire

Thursday 10th . Geoff went to explore St.Nazaire, whilst I did the coastal walk, very rugged as we are on the Atlantic, I had only gone for ten minutes, when I came across a nudist beach, and to my surprise, it had a number of brave people showing everything, bit too cold for me to wear shorts, let alone nothing!! Must be getting old! Didn’t go down onto the beach, stayed on coastal path, I didn’t know what the dogs might do.

Coastal Path at St. Nazaire

I was walking for over an hour an half, then I came back to ‘Rosie’ for lunch, and a rest. I then planned our next few days.
Geoff got back about 5pm, and we compared notes, glad I did my walk, not into all this history.

Sandy and Wendy's home

We soon settled into our new surroundings, and took the dogs for a lovely 3mile walk in the woods, it is so pretty here, with hardly any traffic on the roads, very peaceful and picturesque.

We had a lovely dinner, then a few drinks, I went to bed at

Sandy and Wendy walking in the woods

midnight, leaving Sandy and Geoff determined to finish a bottle of single malt whisky from Speyside. I think they eventually got to bed after 1am.

Next day we went for a Chinese Wok with some friends of Sandy and Wendy’s they also had friends over who are Motor homing, accept they are going back to England after six months away, so we picked their brains with as much information as we could, I have since ordered a book to help find more sites.

Cows minding their own business

Up late, and we had a lazy day with catching up with Banks and paperwork, we took the dogs on the long walk again, where Bella decided to annoy some cows, when she got to them she

Cows trying to get Bella!

barked, and they all turned on her, she ran towards the edge of the field, with about twenty cows chasing her, will she ever learn!!!

We started our evening with cocktails in the garden outside Rosie we then went to a tiny village and had crepes with all different fillings,you could have had salmon, bacon, cheese, some even had walnuts on. Pudding was the same with ice cream,chocolate etc., with alcohol poured over. Just as we were leaving we played a game of table football, unfortunately Wendy and I were beaten 5-0, we think they were cheating though!! a lovely evening was had by all. Back at the house, the whisky came out again, a peaty single malt from the Isle of Islay, I was on water, because I had drunk too much over the meal.

Geoff, Sandy and Wendy

Thank you so much for making our stay so much fun, we will be back when our liver has returned to normal xx