Almost there!

The last few weeks have been again quite busy with us working to bring the house back to a home.
The changes following the Councils approval have been made and the decorators here and should finish by the end of the week and that will be it.
The new cinema room, dubbed the 'Colluseam' has been a great success. To set it up looked easy only in practise it was not and so we called in outside help and now it all runs very well indeed. What a difference good equipment makes to a film, now in High Definition as well as surround 5.1 sound. The gunfire sounds almost real.
We can now start entertaining again having been unable for the past year. Having said that we are off the New Zealand at the end of October and will return early March. We will be staying in DoubtlessBay in the North Island about 5 hours from Auckland at a friend's house whilst they are touring South America.. We shall use part of February to tour some places in South island and will try to return to some of the most beautiful locations on earth.
Its perhaps a shame to leave the house but the weather in winter is not great and if the summer this year is anything to go by then winter will be a disaster. And so we planned the NZ trip. We will again go via Hong Kong but only stop off for one night to give us a break in this long journey. We have booked seats on Air New Zealand and so hope to have a comfortable flight.
We had a BBQ for some of the builders who helped on the house about one week ago and that was good and so know we come to the end of this house development and the outcome was great and we are more than satisfied. The costs however was more than we planned but I suppose this happens in building.
We may try a short weekend somewhere in the caravan before the end of October but lets see how the next couple of weeks go

Getting there

Well we think that the Building Inspector has now approved the development and we have this verbally and await the written word.

This is good news after the delays and means that we can start to finish of all those things that could not be completed before.
So the last few days we have spent time sorting out the space and dumping the rubbish that has accumulated. We have spent some money on new TV 's and the new cinema room should hopefully be complete by the end of this week providing the audio/visual amplifier arrives together with the new speakers. The 52 inch LCD is in place and just needs wall hanging
We have also ordered a new 42 inch for the lounge and also some new furniture to go in the new rooms. So now we close the purse.
The weather has been poor for those unfortunate to be on holiday in UK but we hope that it will improve soon.
Michael is still in Johannesburg and really enjoying the work mans holiday.
Once we are complete with the house we can continue our life again and also take some photos showing old and new.
That's it for the moment

Its still raining

Since we back it seems to have rained almost every day.
The Building Inspector came and as our usual man was on holiday we have to wait for a while for them to get together and make a decision. We hope for this about 14/15th August.
In the meantime we have spent time clearing and cleaning the house and doing some shopping and generally spending some money. Adrian our English friend from Florida arrived for a couple of days and that was good. We also cleaned up the caravan and took it back to its storage in Walton-on-Thames until our next trip. Michael has gone to Johannesburg for three weeks holiday and spending most of the time with the medical services . We spoke to him yesterday and he is having a great time and has been to some exiting accidents. A busmans holiday really.
Once we get the Building Approval certificate we can get down to finishing the house as we would like to visit my sister in Salcombe and then possibly go to Normandy for a few days in the caravan and explore the war graves.

Sunday 3rd August- We go home today

It started to rain overnight and when we awoke it was a really grey morning. To take photos in this light would be rather pointless and so I will leave that till next time we visit.

We needed to buy some diesel for the car and as we wished to avoid the motorway to Le Havre which meant using local petrol stations which cab be difficult when the car and caravan combine to about 13 metres.

So we headed off in to Moyaux and found the place was jam packed with a fairground and people and cars and general chaos. If we had taken the car and caravan we would be caught in or created a huge jam and so we were pleased to have taken this trip.

We left the site and used the back roads to escape and headed to Le Havre Port where we arrived in goodly time for our ferry at 17.00 hrs. We have not been on LD lines before and generally they were quite good although we missed a good sit down type restaurant as they on had a tray service and the food was iffy.

We arrived at Portsmouth Harbour in the rain and as two ferries arrived at virtually the same time their was total and utter chaos in the immigration area.

We finally arrived home at about 11.30 pm and put the caravan on the drive and went inside for a cup of tea and bed

We have enjoyed this first caravan holiday immensely and we have considered to go back to France in September and visit the Normandy beaches and graveyards. But first we must get the house straight and that depends on a Building officer approval on the house.

Well that’s the end of the French BLOG for the moment as we will be engaged in housework etc for next couple of weeks.

Tuesday 2nd August- A long and winding road

We needed to be up early as we had a great distance to cover today and also because it was the first weekend in August when all the French hit the road for their holidays we expected some traffic jams.

The road lead us back to North Limoges and then we took to N road to Potiers and then went the motorway to Tours and then on to Le Mans and then Alencon. We had decided to go via Le Havre and completely avoid any motorway that goes near Paris. The N road from Potiers down to Limoge was extremely busy and we only had a couple of minor jams. It then started to rain.

The motorway service stations were packed to the gunnels with cars and caravans and although we stopped at a couple to look for an ATM machine it was almost a nightmare getting in and out with people just parking anywhere they could which is not not great for us in a back van. So now we use the Lorry parking.

It was pretty much quite grey when we finally arrived at the camp site near Moyaux called Chateau Le Colombier. We had to go down some pretty small roads and then we missed the sign and ended up on the small roads we had tried to avoid, anyway the site is lovely with a beautiful Chataeu and the ornamental gardens have been converted in to a large swimming pool. There is a bar in the pigeonaire and also a small casual restarant and also a very smart one in the Chatea. We opted for the casual one and enjoyed a large plate of Poulet Chasseur with pomme de terre and haricovere. It was a very nice dinner.

We walked around the site some more and it is quite crowded with Dutch and Brits and it is well laid out and has plenty of games areas for children. We don’t enjoy busy sites but this would be great in the off season and so we will try to return.

Noel is hoping the weather will improve tomorrow so that he can take some nice photos as it was a bit grey today.

It was quite a long day as we left our previous site at 0830 and only arrived here about 1700 with only a few brief pit stops and so it will be early to bed tonight.

There is an English couple across the road from us with looks like and adopted foreign daughter who seems to cry for attention all the time. I am glad we are moving on tomorrow.

Friday 1st August-Its Jennifer birthday and off to Chateau Leychoisier

It was nice and cool this morning as we packed up and this was great considering the heat of yesterday.

Today is Jennifer birthday and she has made the grand old age of 21 yet again.

The journey to the Motorway via Cajarc and Fijeac was much better than the way we came down through Cahors. The motorway was extremely busy particularly southbound and we pulled in to one motorway service station and it was jam packed solid with people and so we drove in one side and out the other.

We have booked at a Caravan Club site called Le Chataeu Leychoisier with is just above Limoges

By the name you can tell the site is in the grounds of an old Chateau and the site is quite well organised and they gave us a large space so that we could park easily. It started to rain for a brief 20 minutes but later the sky turned brighter but I am sure it will rain again.

The site was quite full by late afternoon with mostly Brits and Dutch, as usual.

Tonight we will have dinner in the site restaurant to celebrate Jennifer’s birthday. The menu is something to behold and the English translations for the food are quite unusual.

In the evening we went to the restaurant to celebrate Jennifers birthday and we both had Gambas flamed in pastis and then the veal and a very nice bottle of wine.

Thursday 31st July- A visit to Dave & Lorraine

We spent a little while in the morning sorting out the various bits and bobs that we need to pack prior to leaving the site in preparation for tomorrow.

Late morning we headed to Villefranche to buy some wine, cakes and flowers to take to Dave & Lorraine.

There house, an ex barn, has been turned quite beautifully in to to a delightful house in the country with a large garden and swimming pool. They had some good friends staying with them and so we spent the afternoon and evening swimming, eating and drinking. Not much to beat that really. The sun was really hot today, about 35 degrees and it was still a little humid from the last few days of rain. Their house has approx four bedrooms and they are also repairing another barn on the site up to a small two room apartment. I think David could stay here permanently if he could.

Anyway after a delightful day we headed home and arrived about 1045 but our valley was much cooler than where we had been which made it easier for sleeping.

Tomorrow we pack up and leave here for Weybridge. Sites are now getting very busy and so our first day will not be travelling to far but our second day will be much longer and we hope to get an early start.

Wednesday 30th July- Gosh it hot today

At first there was a mist in the trees around the valley but by 09.30 it had mostly gone.

We started on taking down the awning around eleven o’clock to give it time for the morning dew to dry off. As we worked it got warmer and warmer and by one o’clock it was decidedly bloody hot and both of us were sweating freely. So we hit the swimming pool for a while and then finally succumbed to the heat and took it easy for the rest of the day.

Tuesday 29th July- After the storm

This was quite a storm which affected a lot of places around Larnogol. In Caussad it looked like a typhoon had hit apparently. Our campsite had a tree fall over and many branched fell off trees. At least three campers were seriously affected by water and about 7 families left the following morning. The home made caravan across the road obviously leaked water like a sieve as they family were seen with lots of cloths, going in to the van and then wringing oiut the cloths for at least half an hour-shame.

The weather started to improve during the day and in the evening it was quite warm again but no further sign of rain or storms. We had a pleasant and quiet evening reading and watching the world go by and also spent some time looking at the route we need to take over the next couple of days.

We are going to see our friends David and Lorraine in a small village about 40 minutes from here and will spend the afternoon and have a BBQ in the evening which we are very much looking forward to.

Michael is of to South Africa on 1^st of August and will spend most of his holiday? working with the South African medical organisations either in the hospital or on the road and perhaps even in a helicopter.

This promises to be a great trip for him and we hope that he really enjoys it but at the same time we are also aware that Johannesburg is not the safest place in the world today

Tomorrow we will start packing up the awning, this should take a couple of hours if we take it slowly. The rest of the caravan packing can wait till Thursday morning

Monday 28th July – This is strange weather

We left for Villefranche on our looking at campsite’s day and started in Villefranche at a site which is quite nice for an overnight stay or perhaps two nights if you want to be almost in the town. The site was well equipped and it was getting hotter by the minute as we walked around. We got in the car and it showed 32 degrees centigrade and slowly crept up to 34 degrees. We stopped in Limogne for a beer and croque monsieur (ham and cheese melted sandwich). This was the little café that we used a lot when staying on the farm just up the road for several years and it was nice to have a return visit.

We then headed for the camp sites near St Cirq –Lapopie another small town which clings to the side of a cliff. It is great but not as great as the town of Rocamadour. St Cirq was very busy with all the car parks full and therefore it’s almost time for us to leave this fair land. There are two sites here and neither of them we would stay at as they seem very crowded. It was now about 36 degrees as we got back to the site. We read for a while and then headed down to the pool for a quick swim and in the meantime the sky was changing from a clear blue into very dark and cloudy with thunder rumbling time to get out of the water. Then suddenly the sky almost exploded. The wind came roaring down the valley at about 30 to 40 miles per hour combined with extremely heavy rain which then turned into hailstones with thunder and lightning and it looked like the site would get blown away. The storm lasted for about an hour and then started to ease up. The site roads were beginning to get flooded and some tents began to give way under the wind and rain. The rain stopped for a while and then about 8.20 pm it started with large hailstones and heavy rain again. They do say in this part of the world that if the temperature rises too quickly it brings the storms and it was certainly true here. A couple of trees gave way and one blocked the site entrance. Our Dutch neighbour’s tents got almost flattened and their outdoor kitchen was awash. An English couple down the road blamed it on the fact that they had just washed their car that day for the first time in weeks.

As we said earlier, it’s strange weather!

Later Noel went up to use the internet and found the Gazebo had been blown away and everything else was saturated and so no internet. Perhaps tomorrow when the weather is better-we hope.

UPDATE- Well the storm came back again at around 10.30pm and again with heavy rain, thunder and lighting. The sky was almost awash at times with lightning as far as the eye could see. It seemed to finally pack it in around 12.20 and then the Dutch groups in their tents surfaced and compared notes for quite a while and you could tell by the nervous laughter they were also very glad the storm was over.

The French family across the site from us in their home made caravan (for want of a better word) must have got saturated as when it went up I watched this home made contraption and wondered where the water seals might be. Tomorrow we should no doubt be finding out. Please watch this exciting story of camping in storms for an update on events.

Sunday 27th July-A day in camp

After a busy day yesterday we decided to spend the day at ‘home’.

The sun was radiating down and Jen did some washing and hung it up to protect us from the Dutch next door. They are a noisy couple with four loud children if we could understand what they were saying it would be even worse as you here every single word, especially dad who shouts at them.

We spent the rest of the day reading and generally sorting out caravan type things. The book reading is going well and Noel is reading a Wilbur Smith novel which, unlike previous Wilbur Smith novels, has a lot of sexy bits in it. Jen is reading Michael Palin’s Diaries (him of Monty Python fame) and seems to be enjoying it.

We understand that the weather over the next day or two should be great.

Saturday 26th July –Let’s look at other camp sites

It was a bit grey this morning as we awoke and it looked like it would rain and so no reason to stay on the site. Our plan was to look at other sites in the area and compare them to where we are as preparation for next year.

At the Birmingham Caravan show a couple of years ago there was a stand from a site called Chateau Le Comte at a place called Carlucet.

Two years ago we tried to find this place on our way down to the Lot and did not succeed. This time we checked on the map and off we headed to near Soulliac on the Auto route and went to Carlucet and nowhere could we find the subject camp site. We found many other sites including one for the Dutch only, that’s what it looked like, and it was brimming with Edam and cars and people and Dutch signs everywhere. There were municipal sites and also the Castel Chain sites but no Chateau Le Comte.

This cannot be right we thought and then re investigated the map and found that there are actually two Carlucets and the other one was near a place called Rocamadour. This was about 40 miles away and so we went through Soulliac in the rain in the new direction. Both Jennifer and I thought we had been to Rocamadour on a previous visit but when we got there we realised that we had not. This place is absolutely amazing and was jammed packed with tourists and nowhere to park or even stop and take photographs.

This is a place we WILL return to as it’s a whole town built on the side of a mountain gorge. It Really is quite incredible to see. See web link as follows.

http://www.rocamadour.com/anglais/accueilanglais.htm

So off we went to Carlucet through some beautiful countryside and we briefly stopped in a village called Cales which is right on the top of a mountain with great views. Also worth a visit and there are two very nice Hotels there.

We finally found the Chateau Le Comte on the top of the hill. It is a larger site than the one we are on but it was very, very quiet. We met the English owner Stuart and took a long walk around. The site is a Four Star with each plot having it’s own water, drainage and electricity. It would be a very quiet site to stay at and also the services, showers and loos etc were very modern and very clean.

We have added this one to our future site list.

We arrived back in Larnagol and the sun had been out most of the day and it was quite warm.

A couple from across the site, who also work to pay their camp site fees, came across for an evening drink. We talked about the sites we had visited and they will visit the Chateau on Sunday.

The restaurant at the Chateau was well laid out with a nice bar and you could tell they made quite some money from this. Where we are staying the restaurant??? food is all frozen from the fridge and cooked to order by the owners who clearly cannot cope when there are too many people and also it is expensive for what it is. 3.5 Euros for a portion of chips for example. They had to turn seventeen people away the other evening as they could not cope but they don’t seem to recognise that they could do so much more if they were organised and had a full time chef and a proper restaurant.

We demolished a couple of bottles of wine with them and then went to bed. A very pleasant and interesting day out.

Friday 25th July- A country drive to Cahors

We took a different route today to Cahors for a change and went via Cenevieres, Cregols, Tregoux and finally arrived in Concots. There are a number of new houses and also some older ones are being converted. There were a number of English cars around by the new houses and so either they are rented or owned.

Noel needed to buy a large spanner to enable him to tighten the nut and bolt on the famous tow ball and the first shop we went had every size spanner except the size we thought we needed a 22mm.

Soon afterwards we found a much better auto supply shop with an amazing range of tools and the shop looked very new indeed. We duly purchased the 22mm spanner which took only a few moments to run it through their new super duper check out machine. Anyway pleased with our purchase we went outside to check it was correct and then found that we should have bought the 24mm size spanner instead. Damn!

So we went back in to the shop and found the correct size and then went back to the counter to apologise and request the change. This totally confused the shop assistant as he could not make the new super duper system work to provide a change process. So he apologised and said he had to see the ‘chef’ by which I presumed he meant the boss as we weren’t ready for lunch yet. So backwards and forwards to the Chef’s office he went looking even more perplexed, by which time there was a queue of people waiting to be served. Finally they sorted it all out after about 20 minutes and we paid the 89 cents difference and left. Whew.

Carrefour do a great range of fish and so with some salmon and half a kilo of beautiful king prawns and a nice bottle of Chablis to go with it we headed home and then realised we needed dome diesel. The Sat Nav shows petrol stations and also the owner ie Shell, Total, Esso etc but it is not up to date and the first Total station we came to it was some brand of fuel which we had never heard of. Having once bought diesel in a ATAC supermarket and found the effect was appalling on the car (It became very noisy and lost power) so no more French Supermarket fuel for us.

Anyway we found a Total station and invested our life savings into filling the tank.

The afternoon was spent relaxing and preparing for our fishy dinner and chilling down the Chablis. You know it’s very hard work over here sometimes.