Up early this morning for a 200 km round trip to Angers to take AJ to the station so they could catch the train to Nantes to board their flight back to Basel. The closest station they could have gone from is only 50 km away but the French Railways staff have been having rolling stoppages since April and no trains were leaving this station until 4.30 p.m. Ho hum! As we were in Angers we thought we would visit the Terra Botanica, a botanical gardens and themed park that has lots of really good reviews but we neglected to check the opening dates as it was closed today. Ho hum! We headed back home dying for a coffee to pep us up but in 100 kms of driving the only place approaching a coffee shop we found was closed. More ho hum! Just as we got home the rain started and continued for most of the day so no riding. All in all a ho hum sort of day.
A tour of inspection of our ancient establishment previously turned up some interesting finds. Along this passageway
In the opening to the right of this passageway
This section also contained doors to the outside, as seen below
and the gutter
Landlord Stephane told me he has carried out the renovations and modernisation of this house, and while most of it is very impressive, there is an air of things not quite being finished as the work on these walls show.
It is unlikely this work would pass local council inspection!
TUESDAY, 15 May 2018
A weather forecast of showers and an afternoon thunderstorm sent us scurrying for the maps and timetables to find a non-riding activity. In the end, though, the French forecasters proved as good as those in Perth with the day turning out fine with a few clouds and about 3 drops of rain. We had already decided, however, to catch a bus for the 50km trip to Tours to check out how the bus system worked.
Tours is an ancient town sited right on the Loire that has been inhabited since pre-Roman times so it has enormous history, an ancient town centre and lots of old churches. In 732 a.d. history tells us, at the Battle of Tours, the advancing Muslim army was defeated, otherwise we would probably have been visiting grand mosques instead of grand cathedrals like this one, Tours Cathedral, built in the 12th century but not finally completed till around 1550.
(nb: click on photos to enlarge)
A long way up to go to play the organ.
We walked across the Loire
and along the Loire, looking for the 'old town' with its buildings with colorful facades. Along the way we came across 'The Monster',
a sculpture commissioned by the local shopkeepers to attract people to the area. It seems, however, to have had the opposite effect.
We eventually found
the old town and the facades are, indeed, colorful.
I too, thought at first the camera must have
been a bit wonky but it seems either the building is leaning to the left
or you’ve had a bit too much to drink. Along the way we spotted numerous other gems:
a whole street full of them,
and one covered with slate.
Even old Leonardo was here in his early days and so the story goes, ran this restaurant, and very successfully too until he married one of his serving wenches called Lisa and carried her off to Italy where she moaned so much about the quality of the baguettes that to shut her up he painted her and sold the result to the Louvre for squillions of euros which enabled him to have fresh baguettes delivered from France every day by the then equivalent of UberEats called 'Baguettes R us'.
Walking back to the bus station to return home we chanced upon this bar
but it was closed so were unable to slip inside for a vegemite sandwich. We also passed the Town Hall
and wondered why we couldn't have one like this in Perth instead of boring old Council House, a very ugly example of modernist style.
There is a light rail throughout Tours, one section of which runs along the Rue Nationale
Electric buses were also visible, adding to the transport mix in the city.
Our bus ride was a relaxing way to view large sections of countryside. It took almost two hours and we were either going through tiny towns with impossibly narrow streets, farmland with fields of green, green crops,
BUT? But what??
We were delighted at a roundabout by this lovely display of poppies.
Travelling round France we have been constantly surprised by how well-trained the animals are. Dogs sitting quietly in cafes and restaurants, cats refusing to attack garbage bags left overnight in the streets, giraffes taking part in fun runs, so it came as no surprise to see a herd of cows grazing contentedly by the roadside along the busy highway as we drove past.
Maybe it's something they put in their feed to keep them
so docile.
WEDNESDAY, 16 May 2018
Back on the bikes today for the first time since last Wednesday. The program was to just ride round and do a little exploring in the town. First stop was the pond in Richelieu Park to check out the beautiful white swan we saw on our first visit there to see if it was still sitting on its eggs. And there she was....
still looking as clucky as ever and while we watched she stood up and poked the eggs around a bit before settling down again facing the opposite way.
Down one of the side streets we spotted a house flying the Aussie flag. No-one around though so we couldn't invite ourselves in for a beer. We called out 'Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oy, oy, oy' a few times but there was no answering chorus.
One of them had this intriguing note stuck on it (Garden and garage to sell or rent).
We couldn't imagine many people wanting to buy a garden and garage. How would you live there, for example? Maybe GG and Gary T could camp there? We made some enquiries about the garage on behalf of Neville as we know he is always on the lookout for additional storage space for his new bikes, especially space away from prying eyes. The owner promised to get back to us.
On a little housing estate hidden away in our village we came across a well-decorated garden. This was only half of it but before we could snap any more the lady of the house came trundling up the drive with her garbage jabbering away in a strange language so to hide our ignorance we nodded and smiled and took off in a hurry.
We rode to a little village with a pretty sounding name
THURSDAY, 17 MAY 2018
Park 'n' Ride day again as we headed for Rigny-Usse, a small town famous for its castle.
Not knowing if there would be signs to follow, an hour and a half was spent last night making notes of all the twists and turns to follow on our eventual 40km round trip. This was all thrown into complete disarray in the first 5 minutes with a police closure of a road we wanted. Directed down a side-street we ended up a long way from where we were supposed to be, but a combination of luck, Google Maps, which we were able use for the first time, (thanks, Jason), our notes and our French guide book eventually got us out of a spot of bother. Things improved even more when we came across the cycle route signs which took us the rest of the way to the castle and then back to our Partner. These signs are just brilliant and we're not sure how we would find our way without them. While we can plan and write down the road names from the maps, once out riding the little country roads often don't have any posted names. It can all be very challenging for people with a poor sense of direction.
Rigny-Usse is a neat and tidy little town dominated by its 11th century castle, supposedly the inspiration for the one in Sleeping Beauty. We resisted the urge to rush in and explore it. Instead, we sat in a peaceful little park close to the church
and ate our baguette and drank our thermosful of coffee.
Riding home we passed a communal vegetable garden where all the plots seemed to be thriving,
as you would expect, with each of them having a little toilette feeding the sewerage back into the soil through a sophisticated drip irrigation system.
Despite our navigational worries, it was another idyllic day's riding. Flat terrain, no wind, constantly changing landscape and cool conditions all contributed to the enjoyment. Even the Flowerpot Man gave us the thumbs up as we passed.
Well, he tried to until he discovered he had no thumbs.
FRIDAY, 18 May 2018
Doesn't take long for habits to form. So this morning, after a leisurely breakfast reading a digital copy of the West Australian and listening to 101.7 Capitol Radio on the net, it was off to the Friday Markets in the town square, 50 metres down the road. Here we can stock up on different types of cheeses and smoked sausage, so many varieties of both, get some more olives, this week I learnt how to ask for pitted olives (olives denoyautee) as we kept getting the unpitted ones, and buy fresh looking vegetables. Faye is especially keen on the peas in a pod and she loves shelling them as it brings back happy memories of childhood. We've also been buying some truly succulent and delicious tasting cooked pork spare ribs. Fatty and juicy with lots of meat. Mmmmmm. And after the shopping is done, over to one of the 3 bars on the square to bask in the sun and enjoy a coffee. A surprising thing here is to see people enjoying a big glass of wine at 10.30 in the morning, no meal, maybe just a 'ciggie'.
Going Loopy: A few days ago we discovered that the numbers on the brilliantly helpful bicycle signs
so we felt a bit hesitant about snapping away at them.
We were in exclusive company once again as a town in the loop, Crissay-sur-Manse, is one of 
There were other churches to admire in the other little towns we went through
SATURDAY, 19 May 2018
'Bestie' Tran was knocking on the window at 7.45 asking me if I was still going riding with his group and telling me I had to be at the old station building to start by 8.30. No problem as the station is only two minutes ride away. Today was the official opening of the Richelieu to Chinon Rail Trail and the ride comprised groups from three different clubs. About 30 of us set off on a 40 km ride at a moderate pace that was comfortable for me. There were a number of climbs and at the first one a pair shot off and sped up the hill and I thought "bloody hell, what are they on?" and when I got to the top and they were waiting for everyone I saw they were on electric bikes. At another stop to re-group there was a photo opportunity which I grabbed
(nb: Click on photos to enlarge)
with a shot of the back of the Richelieu club jersey. I must try to get my hands on one. I wore my O55 Club jersey and was a bit surprised no-one seemed to have ever heard of us.
I arrived home to find the place turned into a crime scene.
After all this excitement we went off to the magnificent undercover market hall
SUNDAY, 20 May 2018
So many little towns and villages around and it seems there is a fair or festival of some sort on somewhere nearly every week-end. Last week-end a small town near us had an 'Asparagus Festival' (???), the Antique Fair is on here this long week-end and today in a charming little town called Champigny-en-verde is the
(nb: click on photos to enlarge)
They had been part of the costume parade
of which we saw numerous other participants and which we had intended to arrive in time for, but, unfortunately, had to wait at home for the serviceman to turn up to fix our hot water system which has been delivering us steadily lukewarm, then cool then cold water over the last couple of days. We emailed our fabulous landlord, Stephane, and he was on to it immediately, sending out an electrician yesterday for a temporary fix and someone else today to replace the thermostat, I think.
One interesting display among many was these beautiful placemats,
just $140 for a set of 8.
There were stalls selling all sorts of potted plants and seedlings and we never realised how serious the French were about there tomatoes until we came across a table advertising these seedlings
while along the front of the stall were another SIXTY varieties of tomatoes on sale, every one of them different.
Time for lunch and the lady at the stall made us up these lovely little slices as we watched,
first rubbing olive oil on the bread then adding goat's cheese and diced tomato (though I'm damned if I know what variety) and some honey over the cheese, diced onion and s&p for good measure. She said if we didn't like how they looked we didn't have to buy them, but with a glass of rose from Chateau Cardboard to go with it and all for 8 euro for two, how could we go wrong? Bon appetit!
Still feeling a bit peckish, we thought we'd try a fouee
which seems to be a flat, round dough which is thrown in the oven where it puffs up, is then cut open with scissors and you have the filling of your choice added. Just watching the whole process was fascinating. ChefMan puts the flat shapes on the outside of the oven to warm up first before they are tossed on the coals. Taking my turn in the long queue eager to sample these, I asked for 'deux rillettes', the item at the top of the list of savoury ingredients. Unfortunately, the assistant then needed to know my name, age, nationality, which football team I supported and had I watched the Royal Wedding yesterday, and not knowing how to reply to any of these bizarre in questions in French, I could only shrug my shoulders so she only gave me one fouee for my insolence. I thought she may have been saying they had run out of the rillette mixture (a type of pork pate, apparently) and did I want something else and was almost going to point to the next item on the menu, something called boudin noir, but a sixth sense made me hold my tongue and just as well as when I got home I looked it up and found it was black pudding. I know starving Poms eat this sort of thing, but you'd have to be pretty starving and desperate, wouldn't you?
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