Back in France - The Drive Part 2

As we were about to leave the ferry at Calais, we saw this Citroen 2CV going on holiday! We thought it was a great idea; taking off in a camper van, with your classic vehicle trailered behind, ready to tour around in. Not good for the camper van's fuel economy though!!

Bon voyage!

I wonder why it is, as we drive onto French soil, we simply relax and feel laid-back, regardless of the weather?  It has a lot to do with the sparsity of traffic,  no driving nose to tail, nor waiting to hear on the radio that the road in front is closed  because of an accident.  On a trip last year, I did come across an accident in France (my first ever in 7 years), by taking a busier route than normal. I sat for an hour while they cleared the debris, but I still made it to the ferry on time, as I always give myself an hour or so to spare.  Usually I arrive early at the port, but the ferry people are great and always try to put me on an earlier sailing if they can.

This time we arrived to a cloudy sky, but with some blue patches peeking through; normal traffic flow, not heavy and without too many trucks. Oh, how I love French main roads; that is, of course, if we do not drive via Paris.  One trip on the Peripherique (Paris ring road) was enough!! Although it does have overhead signs telling you how long you will be held up for!

Fields of yellow rape seed

Here are just some of the many regional road signs seen en route on the motorway through northern France. The road broadly runs south-west, parallel with the northern French coast. For a change, we had decided to take things easier and break our longish journey south with a night's stay at Bourgtherould, a small town just south of Rouen.  All of these photos were taken while we were driving at 130kph (80 mph) - the speed limit on toll roads, so they are not the best quality!  You can see from the grey sky that the weather was not ideal.

Neufchâtel-Hardelot is a farming and tourist town in the department of Pas de Calais, just to the south of Boulogne. The name “ Neufchatel” has its origins in a castle built on the 150 metre (330 feet) high coastal sand dunes in the 12^th century, but later engulfed by shifting sands.

In the early 20^th century, an English developer started  the creation of a new resort and sporting centre at Hardelot, by building 20 large and exclusive villas. Louis Bleriot, the famous French cross-channel avaitor also lived here. Despite suffering damage in WW2, much rebuilding has taken place, and the developer’s vision of a resort has come to pass, with golf, tennis and horse riding facilities now available. Land yachting is also a popular pastime on the windswept beaches. 

Cote Picarde or Picardy coast forms part of a region much fought over in WW1. It is known as the least urbanized coast of France, and its hinterland is an exceptional environment for bird life, as can also be seen on the following sign.

Previously featured without further description in a late 2010 blog, this sign illustrates  Marquenterre beach and bird sanctuary; its 20 kilometres of fine sand, together with the estuary of the river Somme, form an exceptional site for wildlife, and it is said that two thirds of the bird species in Europe can be observed in the bird park established around the river estuary.

The valley of the Eaulne river, although only 46km (29 miles) long and a tributary of a larger river, is ecologically rich in fish species, salmon, trout and its adjoining marshes and wetlands are home to many bird, mammal, reptile and amphibian species.

The château du Champ-de-Bataille, located in the Normandy  region is a baroque castle built in 17th century for the Maréchal de Créqui, who was exiled here. It took 12 years to build!! The French-style gardens were re-created starting in 1992 by the owner, a well-known interior designer, and the design was inspired by the original layout. The French Ministry of Culture list the gardens as one of the “Notable Gardens of France”, so must be worth a visit!!

This ruined castle was visible from the main road just before we turned off to Bourgtherould, our overnight destination. Unfortunately, the information sign is hidden by the trees, so its identity will have to remain a mystery!

The Drive will continue as and when I have time  in parts 3 and 4 but there are other posts that I would like to fit in between!!

St-Germain-de-Confolens

Earlier this week, we took advantage of a clear, sunny, calm but very cold day to visit St-Germain-de-Confolens; a very small medieval village, now accommodating only 98 souls, situated at the confluence of the Vienne  and Issoire rivers, not far from the Charente boundary; the village grew up below its chateau walls and the inhabitants occupied themselves in the industries of milling, tanning and granite extraction, all of which have now virtually ceased. Milling and tanning declined in the 19th century and granite extraction took place until the 1970's. Once again, I took too many photos, but I have tried to pick out the best for you.

The sort of view which an early attacker might have had of the imposing chateau, built on a promontory overlooking the river confluence. The castle was first mentioned in documents prepared in the year 1073 and was much rebuilt over the next 500 years. It has not fared so well in the last 500! It's a very steep walk up the narrow road to the top - cars not allowed!

Once up there, the panoramic views of the Vienne river are spectacular. A month ago, all was white with snow, and blocks of ice were floating in the water!

                     Again the Vienne river, upstream of the last shot

A view of the ancillary buildings, built within the chateau walls (as they were) and including the 12th century chapel of Saint Vincent on the left and what might be a house for the priest on the right.

Another aspect, showing part of the old cemetery, perched on a ledge overhanging the steep drop down to the wooded Issoire river valley, which runs on the rear side of the chateau.

Next, some more photos of the crumbling, but still very substantial structure. What an effort to have built all this, on top of a hill, 950 years ago, although the granite was close by!

Probably an embrasure from which the defenders could have fired down on those laying siege to the chateau.

One of the village streets; barely a small car width!

The Vienne bridge was originally built in the Middle Ages, but road widening works in 1901 regrettably destroyed much of this character. The bridge would have also had, at one time, a town gate or toll, to control access to the village as part of its defences.

Across the Vienne bridge and on the way out of the village, a faded example of a  tin advertising sign, once so common all over France fifty or more years ago. It's always good to see such reminders of past times!

Once again my thanks goes to Nigel for all his research.

P.S.

I am a verification free blog. The new system introduced by Google of two words, quite often almost impossible to read, I find infuriating and time consuming.  Your comments will be sent to me for approval only, no verification needed. I am hoping that more people will follow this lead.  I get very few spam comments but when I do I can remove them at will .

Go to Dashboard, then ‘settings’, ‘comments’ go down to ‘Show word verification for comments’ click on No and save settings. If you are using the new blogger you will need to revert back to the old interface and take the same route.

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!

Back Home!

I am sorry that it has taken me so long to get back to my blog, but it really has been non-stop since I arrived here, and things are not going to change much until the end of April! At least I have an internet connection!  After staying overnight with my friends near Montreuil, I drove down through France on Sunday 27 March. I did stop to take one photo of a sign that I took a fancy to, but the day was for driving and not photography!!!  Sorry! The French do have exceptionally lovely road signs though! Plenty of blog material there!

I arrived home to discover that the heating was not working! David, my neighbour, had had a repair job done on it a few weeks previously, only to find when he tried to turn it on, so that I would arrive to a warm house, there was a new electrical fault! He had kindly put electric heaters around the house to try to warm it up for me and as soon as I arrived, I also lit the woodburner. This is very effective and warms things up very quickly, despite the thick stone walls. When the heating guy arrived (after a few days!!), he managed to fix the boiler  temporarily with a bypass, but he is supposed to be getting me a quote on the new part that we need. This could be a shock (it's a Viessmann boiler), but I guess it has to be fixed!

I have managed to get all the weeds out of the vegetable garden, but it still needs digging over. On the only really dry day we have had since I arrived, I managed to cut the grass, but very high, so it will need cutting again soon. Needless to say, I have not managed to do the edges yet. 

;

After the first cut.

There are various flowers in bud around the garden, so I hope very soon there will be some colour. The cherry trees are already losing their blossom, but the apple trees are just coming out.

Apple blossom about to come out.

If any one can tell me what this, I will be very happy. It has large dark evergreen leaves and only flowers in February-March. This was the last flower left. I have had an email saying this is possibly a Bergenia, the photos look right to me, I wonder which species?

We moved this bay tree a couple of years ago and as you can see it is very happy and flowering this year.

The camelia is blooming well

I just caught the cherry tree before it lost its blossom.

Sunday 3 April was the local annual luncheon for the pensioners and a very good time was had by all. Perhaps a bit too much wine was drunk but……….

I am at the back left getting a cuddle!

Later this week,  my roofing man should arrive to help me put a ceiling and insulation into the upper part of the barn. The lounge is in the lower part of the barn and with the extra insulation, I hope this will help to keep the lounge warmer. We hope in time to put two offices upstairs, one for each of us, and another small spare room. I have also arranged for the artisan who made our entrance gates, to put a built-in wardrobe into our bedroom. He is a cabinetmaker who specialises in furniture, so I am sure we will get an excellent job. Although we have many cupboards in the kitchen, we have a serious shortage elsewhere in the house!

The sun is out again and I am off to cut the grass once more. I will be back soon, but bear with me awhile, until I catch up with the backlog of work :-)