A holiday away from the Charente - Part One.

We have never been to the United States before and at the invitation of a number of friends who have moved there over the years, we decided to do some visiting!  We have long time friends from both South Africa and Rhodesia scattered around, so there was much to catch up on and see.  One of the very top opportunities was to spend a few days at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and meet up with Gaelyn from  http://geogypsytraveler.com/; we have been following each other's blogs almost since the day I started blogging.

This post only covers day one and two of a 4 week trip, so I hope you have the stamina for all there is to see and follow!! I still have many photos to look through, edit and check, so this is all going to take sometime!

9 June 2016

One of our friendly French neighbours took us and our luggage to the railway station in Angouleme to catch the TGV (high speed train) to Paris. There he is, wheeling a case!  However, the trip was in doubt until the last minute due to French union strike action. When we had booked all the travel 6 months previously, that wasn't on the radar!!  To cut a long story short, Nigel went to our local station 3 times to check if our train to Paris would run!  Each time he were told yes, and then the day before we travelled, we had an email to say it had been cancelled!!  After another trip to the station,we finally managed to rebook, but all trains were almost full due to cancellations and our seats were upstairs, up which we had to drag 3 cases, plus hand luggage and cameras!

Leaving Angouleme, I could not fail to remind you that it is the city of the  comic strip and a haven for graphic artists; these are a few of the paintings around the railway station.

There appeared to be a Bar - Brasserie behind these doors, but it all looked pretty quiet while we were there - well, it was half past seven in the morning!

10 June 2016

By the time we had arrived in Paris, with arms full of luggage and located and caught the shuttle bus to our hotel, the time flew, so the only photos I managed was this one from the hotel window, looking out at the sunrise the following day, and those below.

There were signs everywhere that the UEFA Euro 2016 Football (soccer) Championship was on in France and  hotels everywhere were packed with soccer fans!

Waiting at the hotel the next morning for the shuttle bus to take us just up the road to........

 Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport.

These are Air France 'planes, but their aircrews had been on strike intermittently for many weeks, creating enormous disruption. Strikes are still going on as I type this! Luckily we were flying with American Airlines!

Our first morning, with a sunrise, in Delaware, after landing at the nearby Philadelphia airport  the evening before.  We were very tired, as it had been a long two days travel from home, especially with the 5 hour time change!

Also see my daily diary HERE

and My Life Before Charente (updated 09 April 2016) 

A Visit to Cellefrouin, Part 1

Seeming at first glance to be” just another” lovely French historic and rural village, Cellefrouin, set in the steep sided Font river valley, seems to have more than its fair share of interesting features, some of which I will show you in this pictorial ramble and some in part 2, as there is too much for one post!

This is the local  map for walkers, a common feature of Charente villages and erected for the benefit of the many French and foreign visitors who enjoy rambling through the totally unspoilt scenery!

Using this information, we took this small untarred back road, parallel to the river, to see if we could find the watermill reputed to exist in a nearby hamlet. No luck with that, but then another delight appeared around a corner!

This charming but neglected little building next to the river is, I believe, the last remnant of the railway halt which served the village. That must have been a long time ago, as there is no indication of where the track used to run, save for the nearby river bridge (below), across which the railway must have passed.

The river Font, flowing westwards.

The village's old weighbridge. As you will have seen from earlier blogs, the  authorities like to preserve the old ways of life and these little features are generally well-kept, some even boasting flower baskets  in the summer!

The hotel and restaurant on the main road through the village. This forms quite a busy route for lorries, as the road takes non-motorway traffic, following the river's course, west to east across the area. On the chilly but dry November day we visited, all downstairs shutters were closed up, as you can see! Many such businesses shut down for holidays before Christmas and this could be the reason for the lack of activity.

Almost next door is the Mairie, presumably closed for lunch! A grand building for a relatively small village of 500 or so inhabitants.

Just across the road, we saw this lovely fountain and water trough. Below and to the left in the picture, a little stream runs  downhill in a deep channel, away to the main river.

With my liking for mysterious windows and doors, I just couldn't resist this example, set in a huge stone block for some forgotten reason!!

Iron gates in unmistakable French style, but these need some TLC!

and last but certainly not least in  Cellefrouin part 1, the War Memorial. 

Part two to follow next week with more places of interest in the village.

P.S. I also have a daily photo dairy, sometimes interesting sometimes very boring!  http://photodiarydps.blogspot.fr/ 

 

See also - My Life Before Charente Updated 27/11/12

Staying over at Bourgtheroulde-Infreville

I discovered the small town of Bourgtheroulde-Infreville (bit of a mouthful - see later!) in Normandy in the summer of last year, when I was driving home alone from the UK. To break the long journey, I had thought that I would be able to find an overnight hotel stop en route  at a mid-way point in northern France, near Rouen,  but the only room available was at an astronomical price and so I kept driving! What I had not realised was that it was a long weekend, and all the French were taking advantage of the break.  I scouted around the hotels and B and B places off-route, but none had vacant rooms.  I was just getting back on to my route south, when I fell upon the said Bourgtheroulde-Infreville, and its hotel.  I thought of this as being a last opportunity, so, nothing ventured nothing gained, I went in to ask if there was a room available.  Great news, the family room was free and I had a bed for the night at reasonable cost.  In fact, when I saw the room, it really was a "family" room and I had a choice of beds!!  The owners were very friendly and hospitable, spoke good English and made me feel very much at home. 

All this was reason enough, when Nigel and I drove back from the UK last month to book a bed there overnight.  It is a modest country establishment with 3 stars, the beds are comfy and the restaurant is superb, but not terribly expensive.  For more information on the hotel see La Corne d'Abondance.

From the Mairie across the square, a view of La Corne d'Abondance with its red shutters; there is private parking at the back.

The restaurant.

We picked the evening menu that included an entrée, main course and dessert or cheese for €25.  I chose the terrine de canard de la houssaye while Nigel had the terrine de haddock au gingembre for the entrée.

We both followed this up with dos d' églefin (we asked what fish it was and we were told cabillaud) poché à la hollandaise, as below. Very good presentation and very tasty!!

As there was a good selection of local cheeses in the fromage course, we chose that instead of dessert, and overall we were both impressed with the meal.

The town is named after Theroulde, who is believed to have been a tutor to William the Conqueror. He cast the foundations to a castle at the spot in 1025. Bourg in French means, amongst other related things, “market town”. Theroulde was assassinated in 1040. In the turbulent times of  France through the Middle Ages, the castle and town were developed and expanded. The present castle dates from about 1600, when the existing castle and town buildings were damaged and burnt during the Religious Wars (1562-98) between Catholics and Protestants. The town was a Protestant stronghold at the time and there are several Huguenot (Protestant) cemeteries in the area.

The village of Infreville  is mentioned in the early 17th century as being associated with senior members of the armed forces, who lived and were buried there. It was amalgamated with Bourgtheroulde in 1973.

With its location a day’s march from the large neighbouring town of Rouen, Bourgtheroulde enjoyed mixed fortunes in the 17^th century.  It lay on the edge of the dangerous forest of La Londe, which harboured gangs of bandits, but the town itself was a place of active markets, an important trading centre and a stopping place for travellers and soldiers.

The 19th  century  saw the development of  many public facilities, including the Town Hall Square, the construction in 1858 of a primary school and the town hall in 1866.

Taking a walk around the town after breakfast the following day, we first came across the striking and well-kept Église Saint-Laurent de Bourgtheroulde.

The elaborate City Hall was opened in 1866

Lodge built in 1902 and now offices - no prizes for the architecture here!!

Memorial to the Canadian soldiers killed in the liberation of Bourgtheroulde on 26 August 1944. On the reverse side are transcribed the names of French soldiers of the town who fell in WW 1.

 Above and below, some of the shops in the main street.

Lastly, I loved the colours in this display outside the vegetable and fruit shop. It was good to see a traditional  shop like this still surviving the onslaught of supermarkets.

You might also like My Life Before the Charente  updated 18 June 2012.