Back in France - The Drive Part I

Firstly I want to thank each and everyone of you who wished us well on our journey, and also for the condolences - we were very touched by the large number of messages we received and both appreciated your kind thoughts.  

We have now been back in France for a few days,  but due  firstly to the fact that the garden looked like a jungle on our return and required some urgent work  and secondly, the need to resolve some chronic computer problems, this post is a little delayed.  I will try to catch up with everyone's posts as soon as I have a little more time.

We had a foul drive across the UK to Dover.  It poured with rain most of the way, and the amount of spray from the trucks was, to use Jean's word, "beastly"! The shot below was taken on the M25 London ring road, south of the city - in mid morning!

For once, we were spared the major traffic hold-ups for which this road is notorious and we exited, still in heavy rain and spray, onto the M20, southbound towards Dover. Thankfully we were driving that way; a Mini had somehow managed to get itself squashed  in a collision with a lorry, and the M20 Northbound to London was barely moving. Had we encountered that going south, we would surely have missed the ferry.

It was a delight, finally to  see the white cliffs of Dover from the departing ferry, and a break in the weather.

Heading back to French soil with a happy sigh.  The roll-on roll off ferry port at Calais is pictured below, after a smooth 90 minute crossing of the Channel.

I might add that the weather here at home is also not particularly good and although the garden seems to be enjoying the weather, we are not!  

I am hoping to catch up with Leon and Sue in the next couple of days.  They are travelling around France at the present time and if you have not seen their blog, I recommend that you take a look, if you enjoy touring France. They are visiting many places we have yet to see.

For 'My Life before Charente' see HERE  updated 23 May 2012

The Drive south......

Many of my readers will know this drive so well, but I thought that I would put on a series of photos for readers from other parts of the world.  Sadly the sun always seemed to be in our eyes, whichever road were were on, and many photos were taken on the move with my £70 Samsung, so I ask your forebearance with the  quality!

Autumn colours by the side of the M20 heading out of London to the Channel Tunnel

Not sure, but this was probably a junction between the M25 and M20, but I thought it was an interesting photo of the four level intersection.

The Folkestone White Horse is a stylised figure carved into the chalk of Cheriton Hill near the Kent  coastal town; an echo of the more famous and much older similar figures in southern England.  It overlooks the English terminal of the Channel Tunnel and was completed in June 2003.

In the queue waiting to board the train that takes us through the tunnel

and on the train.  I may add here that I hate the tunnel; when on my own I always travel by ferry. I am not happy with the closed in feeling and being under the sea!

 

Environmentally friendly maybe, but I am still happier 'on top'.

In my view, the French have brilliant graphics on their motorway  signage and the signs often inspire me to dig a little into the history illustrated on them. This sign, and the one that follows, are in northern France  and depict events from the Second World War, fought bitterly in this area.

La Coupole is a bunker complex built by  Nazi Germany in 1943-1944 to serve as a launch base for V-2 rockets against London and southern England. Constructed in a chalk quarry, the complex comprised an immense concrete dome above a network of tunnels that were to house the rocket launch facilities.  However, due to heavy bombing by Allied forces, the Germans were unable to complete the work and it was captured by the Canadian Army in September 1944 The site was subsequently abandoned and it lay derelict until the mid-1990s when it was redeveloped by the French into a museum.

Eperlecques is the site of another part completed rocket launch base, built and captured in the same time scale as La Coupole. It was designed to launch up to 36 rockets daily and was constructed with the aid of 2000 slave workers. Today, the bunker is preserved as part of a privately owned museum that presents the history of the site and the German rocket programme. It has been protected by the French state as a Monument Historique since 1986.

A shorter route south was suggested to us, and mistakenly we thought Paris might be quieter on a Sunday, so we took a trip on the Paris "Peripherique" (ring road)....    Not a good idea!

Most of the views we had of the great city (above and below) were all underground!! I wouldn't like this in the daily rush hour!

Beauce  is a highly productive, very flat, agricultural region southwest of Paris planted mainly with wheat, sugar beet, maize (corn) and barley.. Production has been diversified to include rape seed, potatoes, vegetables (for the canning and frozen food industries), and pulses.

Wind turbines as far as the eye can see.....

Valencay is  in the Loire valley. Its 12^th century Castle was rebuilt in 1540, but an owner in 1747 knocked down a lot of the building; the much reduced castle is  what can be seen today. Its owners seem to have struggled with finance and taxes – nothing changes!

Le Dorat is an ancient town in the Limousin area, with fine examples of Romanesque architecture, especially the 11th Century Collegiate of Saint-Pierre, pictured here.

We took many pictures of road signs, but due to the adverse light conditions, the above were the only ones worth publishing!!

Finally we made it home!

and the boxes and furniture arrived the next day

to await unpacking!

This post has, with Nigel's help, taken several days to write.  I am still not well and I have a really bad cough which is causing major headaches.  What with lack of sleep I am not a very happy person at the moment. I see the Dr again this afternoon so fingers crossed......  I will get back to blogging eventually!

One Year Blog Anniversary

February 8 2011  I started this blog one year today; I can hardly believe it!  It has been an amazing year and I have 'met' so many new friends, some literally.  This blog was started originally so that friends and family could follow what I have been up to, where I have been and what I have been cooking.  Suddenly, like Topsy, it grew and grew and now I have almost 100 followers, well over 11,000 page views and climbing fast.  I have so enjoyed building new friendships from all over the world and your comments are a delight to receive and mean so much to me. Thank you one and all.

This is my 160th post and I thought I would take one of my favourite pictures from each month since I started the blog, and celebrate a little of the whole year in one place. 

February 2010 posts covered several months, as it was all about 'the beginning', from when we bought the house in France (Sep 2005) up until 18 July 2007; this photo, although in the February postings, was in fact taken in June 2006.  The old plaster had been removed from the outside of the house, to reveal the lovely stone work underneath. Repointing had not started at this stage.

 http://lifeincharente.blogspot.com/2010/02/june-2006-part-3.html

March 2010 also covered several posts from 2007 until 1 January 2010.  In April 2008 we finally succeeded in getting rid of the leaks in our barn thanks to some fine workmanship from our local roofer.  Not forgetting, of course, help from our neighbour in lifting the tiles, which made life considerably easier.  Note that the exterior walls had been finished and pointed in this photo.

http://lifeincharente.blogspot.com/2010/03/april-to-august-2008-part-21.html

April 2010 I returned to our house in France after the winter spell in the UK. Despite spring arriving with me and the garden being full of spring flowers and blossom on the trees, my favourite photo just had to be this cute little donkey which I saw one day on my way home from shopping, via the scenic route.

 http://lifeincharente.blogspot.com/2010/04/scenic-route-home-part-47.html

May 2010  This was a difficult month to choose a photo from, as I was torn between three, this lovely view, the Citroen 2CV's parading in Chasseneuil and the very first asparagus that I was able to cut from the garden.  This view, which I finally decided on, is taken from the Resistance Memorial, which is positioned to overlook the town of Chasseneuil and all the areas beyond, where the four principal members of the local resistance group were based.

http://lifeincharente.blogspot.com/2010/05/memorial-de-la-resistance-chasseneuil.html

June 2010  Another difficult month to choose from and I thought this was going to be easy!  There were some stunning sunsets this month, the garden was looking fantastic and there was the post on La Rochefoucauld Chateau.  I finally decided though that my favourite was farming country, with hay bales as far as the eye can see.

 http://lifeincharente.blogspot.com/2010/06/round-and-about-5-part-72.html

July 2010 France in July; not really a choice here, as I can only go for the photo taken on the 14th when the country celebrated Bastille Day. What a great night we had!

http://lifeincharente.blogspot.com/2010/07/bastille-day-celebrations-and-tdf-part.html

August 2010 This month I had to look no further than one photograph; this was probably my favourite of the whole year.  It was the most magical sunrise with storm clouds, nothing like I had ever seen before (or since!) and I just happened to look outside at exactly the right moment.

http://lifeincharente.blogspot.com/2010/08/magic-of-nature-fiery-sky.html

September 2010 I gave up trying to decide for September and finally thought that a collage was the only answer,  maybe not all my favourite photos, but to me, the interesting ones.

Top Left - Our gates, which I had finally managed to finish painting see HERE.
Top Right and Bottom Left - My September garden see HERE
Bottom right - My friends' beautiful Charentaise floor HERE

October 2010  Was my return to the UK for winter; although this may not be the best quality photo, as it was taken though salt encrusted windows from the ferry, I think it is was certainly a favourite of my followers, and most people remembered the words of the song "The White Cliffs of Dover".

http://lifeincharente.blogspot.com/2010/10/travelling-back-to-uk-part-3.html

November 2010 was the month I met up with fellow blogger Anne.  As I previously commented, it was  amazing that after following each other's blogs for several months, we discovered that our homes in the UK are in the same village.

http://lifeincharente.blogspot.com/2010/11/meeting-up-with-fellow-blogger-and.html

 December 2010  As it was a very cold December, I decided that this was one of my favourite photos of a 'cold seat'!!  I have to say it was once again a very difficult choice, as I did love the photos that I took of the small town of Wantage.

http://lifeincharente.blogspot.com/2010/12/im-dreaming-of-white-christmas.html

January 2011   Certainly my favourite photo that I posted in January is the one of St Nicolas Church in Newbury, taken across the Kennet and Avon Canal.

http://lifeincharente.blogspot.com/2011/01/st-nicolas-church-newbury-uk.html

February 2011   As I am only just into the month of February, and this was the month I started last year, I feel as if the 12 photos above show only a very small proportion of what I have seen, lived and cooked during the last 12 months.  It has been an interesting and educational time for me while I looked up the history of the places I have visited.   Most of all though, I have loved 'meeting' each and everyone of you who have joined me in my travels around the Charente, and latterly around the UK, working in the garden and cooking in the kitchen.  Some of you have become very special friends, but I feel very honoured to call all of you, world wide, that have visited and commented on my site, my friends. As I said earlier, thank you one and all for an amazing 12 months. 

I will be back in the Charente the end of next month and I will of course then be posting about our home and local villages in France.  That is once I get a broadband connection back, which is not likely to happen overnight!!!!  If I disappear for a few weeks you know where I am!

Meanwhile, I will cover a few of the places I have visited here in the UK and some odd posts with some of the photos I still have not posted from France.

I have just received the news that I have won a cookery book written by Linda Burgett who runs a blog called My Kind of Cooking.  You will love her blog and she posts some incredible recipes, all of which are so easy, and using very few ingredients.  Please go and visit her at My Kind of Cooking   What a wonderful way to celebrate my first anniversary.  Thank you Linda.

Travelling Back to the UK - Part 3

On the ferry, leaving Calais harbour.

Our first view of the UK; the "White Cliffs of Dover". This photo was taken from the ferry, through salt covered windows!

The White Cliffs of Dover are cliffs which form part of the British coastline, facing the Strait of Dover and looking across the  English Channel to France, about 20 miles away. The cliff face, which reaches up to 107 metres (351 ft) above sea level, owes its striking façade to its composition of chalk (pure white calcium carbonate) accentuated by streaks of black flint. The cliffs spread east and west from the town of Dover in the county of Kent, an ancient and still important English port. The cliffs have great symbolic value for Britain because they face towards Continental Europe across the narrowest part of the English Channel, where invasions have historically threatened, and against which the cliffs form a symbolic guard. Because crossing at Dover was the primary route to the continent before air travel, the white line of cliffs also formed the first or last sight of the UK for travellers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_cliffs_of_Dover
For the song click HERE

Leaving the ferry at Dover.

Driving through the ferry terminal at Dover, with the White Cliffs in the background.

This is on the M25 four lane ring road all around London. The sign reads "Congestion, stay in lane, 50mph". We think this sign was inaccurate,as there was no congestion, but these gantry signs are notoriously unreliable. If you dare drive faster than 50mph while the signs are up, however, the cameras will zap you and you get a fine in the post!!

The planes were flying over at very regular intervals as we neared Heathrow Airport, west of central London. London Heathrow,  in the London Borough of Hillingdon is the largest airport in the UK. It is the fourth busiest airport in the world, in terms of total passenger traffic and it handles more international passengers than any other airport in the world. It is also the busiest airport in the European Union in terms of passenger traffic and the second busiest in terms of traffic movements, second to Paris CDG airport in Paris, France.

^{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heathrow}

I gave up with the camera after this; there is little of the countryside to be seen from the road on this route. Everything is built-up area, concrete and tarmac and the drive loses all viewing interest!!

Travelling back to the UK - Part 2

The second part of our journey back to the UK. See part 1 HERE   All photos can be enlarged with a simple click.

I loved this tree lined stretch of road just after Montreuil-sur-Mer. The road is numbered N1 and was the old main road southwards from Calais, before all the motorways were built.

We stopped overnight with friends, also not too far from Montreuil.  It was good to see them again and catch up with all their news.  It was also lucky for us that there was just enough space to squeeze our frozen food from the freezer box into their deep freeze overnight.

After a substantial cooked breakfast the following morning, we rescued the food from the freezer, packed it back into the car, and we were on our way to Calais and the ferry.  We made an early start, as  the day before there had been a few problems with fuel shortages, due to the strikes in France. Our friend had checked the website for us and there appeared to be no problems on this day, but you never know.......

Another one of the beautiful French regional road signs. The Opal coast was, and is, very popular with tourists. The resort of Le Touquet has many (expensive) holiday homes and was a favourite with the English royal family early in the 20th century. It had what I think was one of the first airports in France and one could make day trips from England in the nineteen thirties! The Christmas light display is absolutely spectacular; no words can describe it, see a few of these photos HERE

I nearly missed this jumping horse on the bridge, but luckily the camera switches on very quickly!

I was ready for this guy, who I think is an archer, but on second thoughts maybe he is going fishing or playing tennis!

The sunrise was stunning, but only seconds later, the sun was directly in our eyes and Nigel had a real problem driving, especially so, as we were unable to read the road signs!

Phew, we made it.  As we were early, I asked if there was any chance of catching an earlier ferry, but we were told "no", as it was just leaving.  We went off to park in line ready for the next one, but as we arrived there, the last two trucks were being loaded onto the earlier ferry and we were waved forward.   Our lucky day; they let us aboard as the very last vehicle to load, the gangplank was raised and we were on our way. Two hours saved!

I will upload the final part of the journey in the next few days; this will be on the ferry (very dirty, salty windows so it was difficult to take photos) and the final drive through the UK.