Oldies On Tour

Well here we are, the last time I was here was 30 years ago in the caravan when we took the Children and we met up with Neil and Lesley (Children’s cousins) here in Le Moutchic, just inland from the Atlantic beaches in Lacanau Ocean.
After breakfast we started Pinky & Perky, fortunately there was sufficient power in the battery and off to Lacanau Ocean as it was Market day. Firstly the market had moved from the side street it was in last time and onto a large car park, (I don’t remember that!) and secondly it is a much smaller market. 30 years ago you could start at one end and of the market by the other end one could be 3 parts to the wind with all the wine tasting that was available, no such luck to-day, a sign of the times perhaps? There were a couple of wine stalls but no tasting, ugh!!!
Next we had a walk down to the beach but with a “pit stop” for coffee/tea. This beach is still as magnificent

Christine at Lacanau Beach

Lacanau Ocean Beach, looking North

as I remember but unfortunately it is very overcast this morning, however this has not put the surfers off; there were many out there enjoying

Surfing at Lacanau Ocean

the Atlantic rollers.
Walking back through the back streets of Lacanau we fell across a Wine Cave so we were not disappointed in the end as we had several wines to taste. Naturally this ended in more space being needed in “Rosie”!!!!!
Returning to the market we stopped at a fish mongers to buy supplies. Now we have sussed out our freezer part of the fridge we can buy more stock.
Pinky & Perky were waiting for us, still locked to a street light and after what seemed an age were dressed, helmeted gloved, checked our intercoms worked and we were off.

Are we going then?

We came back to the camp site via “Le Moutchic” where, we used to stop all those years ago. We drove up to the gate of the old campsite

Entrance to Camping L'Ermatage (Now all Closed down)

but it looked very desolate, run down and closed. When we were there 30 years ago the “Mother” who always sat in the entrance hut must have been in her Nineties and her “son” (who owned it) was in his late 50/60s: Probably no successor hence it is closed down.
The other main change is they have removed a complete row of houses/cafés/shops etc., to make a wide grassy promenade and large car park running along the lake front;

Le Moutchic beach looking West along the lake

different, but nice
Back to “Camp Tedey” disrobe, which takes a time!!!!, put our communicators on charge and lunch, very French Baguette Cheese and fancy cold meats, we did give the wine a miss to help our diets, ha ha!!!
Christine set about washing down Pinky; I wonder how long that will last! I watched, and then took Sooty and Bella for a swim with some walking in between, excellent dog walking area here.
Lovely sunny afternoon, about time to; just a shame we didn’t have the sun when we were on Lacanau Beach this morning.

Dinner, this was then followed by a cosy evening catching up on some TV programmes with I Player.

Tuesday has come around far too quick, Mike went off to work yesterday, and Geoff and I spent the day doing boring things, like cleaning, ironing and shopping, to prepare for the off, but Rosie looks really clean and tidy, with all washing clean including the dogs beds, thanks Catriona.

Lunch at a lovely French restaurant

As a thank you for putting us up, we all went for lunch on Saturday, Max and Tobyn were very well behaved, and we all had a lovely lunch, think three of us had a steak, and Mike had lamb. Tobyn had a pizza with a cat’s face on it, all very good. It is the first time we have stayed so long, and we both thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, thank you both so much.

Anyway we pulled out of the drive at 10.00am with three hour drive to Lac Lacanau, and we are at a proper campsite, (Le Teday)  with all the amenities, electric, showers, etc.

The site is in a 10 hectres pine forest, which is lovely, you can walk around the lake, or into the forest, Sooty and Bella love it here.

After tea, Geoff dismantled ‘Pinky and Perky’ from the trailer, with the thoughts of going for a ride, well everything was fine, both bikes started first time, so we got dressed up to go for a meander outside the camp.

When we were ready to go, ‘Perky’ would not start, now have you seen anything so funny as Geoff running down the road, trying to bump start it, even if he had he couldn’t have got on!!  We tried towing it with ‘Pinky’ that did not work either.

So with the language quite blue, we decided to see if our fellow English camper had jump leads, which he had, so they were trying that route, but apparently they couldn’t get the leads to stay on, so he offered to push, so both of us pushed, whilst Geoff sat on the bike (typical) well it started almost immediately, so Geoff went for a ride on it, hopefully it will start in the morning!!

Up early as usual, a quick breakfast, then we were off to Beauvais-Sur-Matha, it was about an hours drive, sadly it was raining, so we had to dress accordingly, but it did not stop us enjoying ourselves.

As we entered the village, there was a brass band playing,

The Brass band welcoming us to the "foire aux vins"

just to put us into the spirit of the day, there were lots and lots of different stalls, we thought it would start the day off right, if we had champagne, so we went to Bernard Clouet stand, where we had lots of samples, we then treated ourselves to 6 bottles of Demi-Sec,

Sampling the "Champers"

very good, and very expensive.  After this we went to the Chablis counter, which is one of my favourite white wines, we had several tasters there, and decided on two varieties ordinary Chablis, and a Vieilles Vignes, very good.

Most places, had bits to eat, so we were nibbling away as we drank, which was good, I tried some lovely Foie Gras, which we went back to later, and bought two small tins. Next door was a Pouilly Fume store, so after more samples, we bought some more bottles, Calcite, and Fut de Chene, not sure where we are going to put them in ‘Rosie’ as she is full up now.

Catriona gathered up all our cases, and went back to the car, with a trolley boy, while I

Tasting the Medoc

looked after Max and Tobyn, Mike and Geoff, were sampling the red, they bought twelve bottles between them, Frontis, and Venderge, not sure what they are, but think they were expensive.

Shall we try this one!

We tried Margoux, St.Emillion, and others, we were not fussed with.

Lunch consisted of paella, which was far superior to any that we have had in Spain, so much more fish and meat, very nice.

After lunch, we thought a cognac would be called for, we tried an XO, which we were disappointed with as it tasted more like VSOP, very nice, but not quite up to our standard!! so we quickly moved onto the Pink Champagne stall, which we liked, and bought, we tried white, and pink, plus some Muscadet, & Savignon.

What a brilliant day, free drink, good company, and we had a good sing song on way home to keep the children amused.

Back home we sorted drinks out, I loaded ‘Rosie’ then we played with dogs in the garden, and settled down to a bottle of Chablis, and Medoc with roast lamb.

After dinner we played with Mike’s scalectrixs, four cars on the track at the same time, two dogs looking on, good fun.

Before haircut

Up at the crack of dawn at Catrionia and Mike’s, well she does have two young boys to wake us up! Also Bella had an appointment with the local “Coiffeur”, Christine had decided

she looked a mess and needed sorting out, after all Christine did have a go and the result reminded me of that advert, “Should have gone to Specsavers”: Anyway, 1030hrs she was booked in for and as we had decided whilst here we would visit Oradour-sur-Glane and they were both in the same direction, so we went in Rosie. We were going to use Pinky & Perky but as we couldn’t get Bella on and as Oradour-sur-Glane was about ¾hr away and also along a very busy road full of big lorries, Rosie stepped up to the mark.
Bella safely deposited with the Coiffeur who didn’t have a word of English and our French didn’t run to the sort of conversation we are comfortable with, we left wondering what she would look like when we retrieved her at 1530hrs!!!!
We arrived at Oradour-sur-Glane, which I am sure you are all aware

The entrance to the memorial

is where a troop of the Der Führer Regiment of the 2nd Waffen-SS Panzer Division, Das Reich, murdered 642 Men, Women, and Children.  They circled the village then rounded everybody up and assembled them all in the village square outside the church until the

The square outside the Church

order was given to fill the church.  The rest were shot in small groups.

The Church where the majority of the 642 people were murdered

on the 10th June 1944 as reprisals for the abduction of two German SS Officers by the resistance movement. For more information try   www.oradour.info.com

A Scaled map of the memorial and village

The old village has been left completely as it was after the massacre with pre war cars

Wrecked pre war old cars in one of the village garages

littering the streets and garages that were in the village. They have now added an exhibition centre portraying the lead up to the tragedy from the rise of Hitler. It was a very moving and heart wrenching exhibition which portrayed vividly the outcome and the destruction that took place.

The high Street as it was the day after the massacre took place with the old tram lines still in place

Again, another example of the futility of war demonstrating that the real casualties are not the Politicians who start it or the soldiers paid to fight.
This place has now become the memorial and commemoration centre for all the various atrocities that the Germans perpetrated in various Villages and Towns around Europe.

Memorial in Cemetery to the 624 victims massacred

After this informative but harrowing visit we enjoyed a “cuppa” and a light lunch in Rosie whilst still in the car park then off to collect Bella.
Well, what a pretty girl came out of the Coiffeur, Christine tells me she now looks what a

Bella looking smart

Cocker Spaniel should look like, at last!
Back to Mike and Catrionia’s for the rest of the afternoon and carry out various chores. This was followed by a superb evening meal with a delightful glass or two of wine and then Mike and I settled down to taste the Single Malt Whiskies I had following my Whisky tasting when staying with Martin and Marion, and as we had been introduced to Whisky with chocolate by the “wee Dram”, we had the same here.

La Charente near where we parked

Thursday 17^th  Having talked Geoff into moving last night, we are now in Cellefrouin, I thought Cognac was lovely, and we were parked 50 yards away from the River Charente, where the dogs could walk very happily, but we were parked in a car park!  we were certainly restricted in what we could do.

Lovely walk in Cognac

We are in a little rural village only four miles from Catriona, but rather than turn up late at night, we stayed here, it is lovely you can open the doors, and the dogs can just wander, the river Charente still meanders at the end of

Cellefrouin Aries

the Aires, it is very pretty here.

We had lunch, took the dogs for a long walk, then made our way to Catriona and Mike’s, we arrived to a fantastic welcome, with Tobyn and Max, excited about seeing the dogs. First stop a lovely cuppa, we were talking like mad for the next few hours, we had a lovely dinner, with a few drinks.

Catriona was a star, we immediately started catching up with the washing, we did three loads before we went to bed, tomorrow is another day!! Ironing uck!!!

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