The essence of France!

La Grimolee is a beautiful restaurant on the banks of the Vienne near L'Isle Jourdain.
Penny and George had held their wedding reception here in July and Ruth had missed it, so we took them (and son Gregory) there for lunch on Easter Sunday.
Simply exquisite! ... Pheasant terrine, quail, local cheese in filo, caramelised apple mille feuilles... , petits fours.. 25 euros a head ...Haut Medoc, pineau....

Most of the rest of the time with them was in their house, though! Weather again! We couldn't even walk down to the fishing lakes as we refused to pack wellies in the nomadic Yvette, and it was up-to-the-ankles conditions. Loads to catch up on.. and exciting plans for the future! Our first engagement with Wii - (Bowling & Golf!) and an intro to two great Francophile (or not) sites: http://frogsmoke.com/ and http://timescorrespondents.typepad.com/charles_bremner/

.. not to mention the curry!

On Tuesday morning we left them to wrestle with the artisans, and we headed South again, with no particular place to go!

After the claret comes Cognac

We were ready to leave the Medoc gite! It's a beautiful and varied region, but the weather was pretty bad and unpredictable, leading to little cycling; and we wasted a lot of time looking for open restaurants that just weren't there at this time of year. We held our breath as we checked out and the electricity meter was checked - but we only had to pay an extra 12 euros!

We planned a route towards Penny & George that would follow the Charente from Saintes to Angouleme, taking us through Cognac itself. Clear but cold weather to start off with - and then rain! Ruth significantly drove for a couple of hours - during which there was hail - a lot of it! In Chateauneuf-sur-Charente we stopped and went into a striking fin-de-siecle bar where we saw our first contravention of the smoking ban (times 4 in this case) and no sign of a 68 euro fine! (converted from 500 Francs??) We watch this with interest!

Shortly before we got to Le Queroy we went to Chasseneuil where there is the National Monument to the Resistance. Very grand - it was built with funds held when the war ended and has 2,500 graves! The two sculpted facades show civil and military resistance. (A few days later P&G showed us the camp where deportees of the department were assembled before despatch.. thought-provoking!)

Going West

The West (Atlantic) coast of the Medoc has a very long cycle path, which we were determined to experience. The first attempt (based on Lacanau) failed when we got out of the car at the beach. Glacial! Also all car parking looked vulnerable to break-ins and everywhere had run out of bread for a sandwich!

For the second attempt we went to Andrenos - actually on the Bassin not the sea! Beautiful place, and the sun was shining to the extent that we had moules sitting outside! (Oysters would have been more appropriate - a big thing here - but Ruth's memory of "what happened after Whitstable" prevented that!)

Bob rode the coast afterwards - and - again - declared it worth another visit at another time of year!

Un petit gout de Bordeaux

On a day that was dry but still bitterly cold we took the train from Macau to Bordeaux.

The line is single-track in places and does a slow and ugly sweep round the city to enter the terminus past decaying and demolished buildings. All other lines including the TGV come in on the pretty side!

Bordeaux is twinned with Bristol and at this point it seems apt! Shades of Temple Meads, but the good burghers there have not set up a tram system like this! Gleaming, frequent, convenient and cheap - you can board immediately outside the station and go anywhere.!

As they say: "Virtute et Industria --l!"

The wind did however fair blast down the Garonne and we didn't linger over outdoor sights!

A real find (and warm!) was the Jean Moulin Centre - very poorly curated but with much of interest about the Resistance (and about the "Cockleshell Heroes" - British marines who canoed down the Gironde for sabotage). We even found a copy of the previous day's Guardian - which we were missing! We will go back - but not in March!

Bordeaux - a wine region of two halves!

We spent a week in (probably) the smallest Gite de France!

It was at Ludon - on the Medoc but not far North of Bordeaux. So small in fact that having been sent no name or address we couldn't find it in the village and two residents didn't know it existed!

Quite comfortable, but the charming bare stone walls inside crumbled and we had great trouble keeping it warm! Three days were quite pleasant but others were foul - including the Sunday, when in torrential rain we went to Pauillac! Ruth remembers walking there in Summer 81 for Sunday lunch with ex when the car was being repaired in St Laurent. The Gironde is so wide there that the town has the air of the seaside, and the prom is full of interesting restaurants! On this Sunday the interesting ones were closed and the open ones weren't interesting! Back to base past glorious chateaux and extensive vineyards - all drenched - for a take-away pizza and to start on watching Denis Potter's brilliant "Pennies From Heaven" (1978!).

Evertime it rains, it rains......

Vive La Difference & Le Bon Viveur

Friday 14th and our first full day in France!
We were staying in Carcassonne (betwen Narbonne and Toulouse and on the Canal du Midi). We took the bikes just outside to Trebes and cycled up and down the canal. It was very, very hot! Bridges, aquaducts and some beautiful locks! A large barge called Le Bon Viveur was navigating at the same time - populated by six representatives of the Grey Pound!
We went into bars and saw the first impact of the smoking law which came into force in January and seemed (we thought then) to be effective (Even Mr Le Patron was outside with his fag!) Later we ate a great value typical meal and decided the South of France in March was a great idea!

On Saturday morning we got up for our journey to the Medoc and it was pouring with rain!

Whoops!

Our last evening ! The plan - an early meal with Gary and an early night so we would arise refreshed at 6am. We even turned down an offered wake-up call;

The reality - a quick drop-in to Blue Rock turns into a long night of itinerant chums, Paddy's inpromptu music questions and a late, late bedtime during which the alarm is set correctly but the time is altered!!

At 7.05 Mike rings the doorbell and wakes us up!! We had ten minutes to get up and out! It can be done - just!! We caught the flight, but left bits in the fridge and forgot the mobile charger. Mike may not agree, but it was a wonderful evening!

Get the flavour on http://www.fuerteventura.com/bluerock/index.shtml

Beware of Autumn!

On our last day in Corralejo and we met Pablo again!
Like London buses... 4 months and not a murmour.. then twice in three days!

He gave us this pic of his carnaval costume.

Remember - he went round the supermarket like this!

Seems such a quiet lad!

Another sardine meets its end!

The Big Procession is officially the end of Carnaval, but on Sunday evening there is the funeral of the sardine! It is a model made from wire, paper and card - about 2 metres long (next year a decent picture!). It has beautiful scales and an exposed cavity for what happens on the beach!

Bang on time (which caught a good few people out!) it was borne down through the streets with a drum band playing a dirge. The little town beach had been cordoned off and prepared for the "funeral" and burning. Meanwhile the best firework display either of us has ever seen took place.

This included dozens of rockets fired into the sea, where they exploded. Spectacular! Beautifully planned and orchestrated! Our local taxes well spent!

... oh - another pirate ship float!

One of the floats, peopled by The Third Age - made not even a nodding gesture to the theme. Presumably it is the same every year - clowns, rabbits etc etc!

Hello Sailors and Bearded Men in Frocks!

Well, Carnaval is now over! Ruth's first (although Bob was here for it a couple of years ago and had all his valuables stolen!)
Ours (La Oliva) is one of the last carnivals of the season and takes place well into Lent. It is -thankfully - entirely secular!
The theme this year was "Under the Sea", but this seems to have been a bit of a creative challenge! Some noble efforts on the mermaid, squid, waves, Triton front - but also a predominance of above the sea stuff - especially pirates and the Navy. We were no better and whilst Bob went no further than his Red Sea Sharm-el-Sheikh T shirt, Ruth as you can see went down the Pugwash route. This was all in honour of the Big Procession on Saturday night - followed by a party at the Blue Rock.
Others cared nothing for the theme! Unfortunately we only heard later that dear Pablo had wandered round town (and into the Impescasa supermarket!) in his tights and a (large?) fig leaf dressed (bately) as Adam! Nuns were also big!



Earlier in the week (the whole is ten days) we had been out to watch the procession of the drum bands, but gave other events a miss. They take place on waste ground behind the bus station - where it is always a security problem, and this year was cold at night. (Not good for the convalescent!)
For the high spot of the Drag Show with the winners of competitions on all the islands you needed to be there three hours in advance for a good view!


The procession is huge!


We watched at the Shell Station corner, where many articulated floats got stuck - as usual

Most floats have a bar and a working barbecue on board - (Health & Safety issues again!)

Not great pics but here we have examples of floats for kids, floats for the serious party animal ....

E Numbers & the road to recovery!

The filthy colds continued, so little of consequence; but by Sunday we felt up to a comfort kids' sized roast at Rosie's, so that we could do an early mornong run to Puerto del Rosario to tie up loose ends!
At Rosie's we had bumped into Sally, Sean, Nigel & Brenda so we had a few new insights into residency, etc etc - these being the bugbears of the moment! They said the queue at the police station could be bad by 8.30, so it was the 8.00 bus for us!
Hence - at the port where we get the bus we saw an unusual sight:- both ferries docked at once!


At said police station the queue was already halfway round the block! The doors opened at 9.00 and we were confident that the simple process of showing the white sheets and passports would give us the green ones irrespective of the numbers waiting! As we got nearer the door we saw the officer handing out slips to angry people. The Swedish woman two ahead of us threw an impressive tantrum in Spanish worse than ours! We reached the door! He gave us a chit with an appointment for 25th! - Not a lot of use!!


Undaunted, we went to the Social Security office, got a ticket and waited 25 minutes. A very nice man said we could have SS numbers even tho' we aren't at state retirement age, said all would be well and wished us well! Two steps forward! Round to the others side of the building and another queue! No! we can't have health care without form E121 and we can't have that until we get UK state pensions. One step back!! - Later we found the E106 might help a bit - but that's another story!

It being a rather nice day we got off the bus at the beach, where the green flag was unusually flying and spent the afternoon there, returning to the port bus stop well before sunset for a few hours on the internet discovering just how many ex-pat early-retired Brits there are who are wrestling with the Es and the ludicrous non-reciprocal arrangements!!!! Grrr!