On the way Home after three weeks

 We were both pretty full from yesterdays dinner and so decided not to spend £ 25.00 per head for breakfast as right next door there was a boulangerie and so Jennifer went to collect some rolls and Noel organised retrieving our car from the valet service.

It was pouring with rain as we left Rouen and a little earlier than we had planned and so the Satnav was telling u approx. two hours and fifteen minutes to arrive at the Port of Calais Ferry terminal, We had already changed out ferry from the 16.20 to the 14.20 but now it looked likes that we could be a to early for this one and so on checking there was another at 12.50.

Once the rain stopped Noel put his foot down so as to get to Calais early and we arrived at just on 11.50 and without trouble they put us on this ferry. We retired to the DFDS premium lounge which on this ship was looking a bit sad but at least it was quiet. 

The ship arrived in Dover and where we parked on the ship their was a large truck just behind us from you know whom.

We arrived home at about 1530 and the Tom Tom Satnav has a good way of avoiding all the traffic so brought us the M25 early and thro Oxshot and so we arrived home without being too tired,

With the car unpacked a cup of tea and biscuit followed with a little zzz before a glass of wine and early dinner. 

Thats another trip, taking the extra time getting there and back is actually more expensive than you think as we tend to go for nice Hotels and they are not so cheap. 

Today en-route to Rouen

Yes, we could have used all the motorways and Toll roads from St Cirq le Popie to get back to Calais, but where is the fun in travel. Some years ago we left the Lot Valley in our comfortable V8 Jaguar car which goes quite fast and is very comfortable and drove pretty much all the way back to Calais and thinking perhaps to stay the night near the Port for an early morning ferry, but this was at about 6 pm and then again we could be home tonight in our own bed and so we did this and drove from St Cirq all the way home in one day so it can be done although tiring. However the negative outcome of doing this is that you miss all the best bits of France which are whizzing by you at 80 mph and so you don't see anything so this time we decided to drag it out and stay away from Motorways, Toll Roads and use country roads which is much nicer hence or route back via Limoges, Sable Sur Sarthe and Rouen, its more expensive as you have four nights Hotel and food etc but you only live once.

Anyway we left our Hotel this morning shortly after 10.00 and drifted thro the country side taking four hours to do a 2.5 hours route by Motorways and passed thro some lovely towns and villages. In Sees there is an amazing Cathedral but we could not stop due to all parking close by taken up but we said we must return some time. We stopped for petrol so that we would have a full tank when leaving Rouen tomorrow so we can get home without any further stops.  The Satnav

was set up for the shortest route which made the journey interesting as our arrival road in to Rouen was alongside the river and main port and not the most beautiful arrival in to this town.

We arrived at our Hotel de Bourgtheroulde , a very nice old Hotel in the  middle of the old part of town, we did stay here once before during the time that Christopher was born in January  2017 , about two weeks early , and so we celebrated his arrival at the time with two glasses of Champagne in the nice bar they have here.

For dinner we went to a local restaurant in the market square and it was a nice place with lots of good reviews from Trip Adviser and it certainly was nice. One comment about the Hotel, for only one night we took cheapest room but discovered that due bed and room layout there was no headrest at end of bed and in Noel's case the air con unit blew all night so needing some ducking and diving. The phone rang a few times for no reason and so needed to be unplugged. Apart from that its a nice Hotel but if we stay agin get a better room

 Anyway we are here for only one night and tomorrow head off to Calais to catch our ferry back home but will be using Motorways and Toll roads to get there on time.

A nice boat ride today

Breakfast finishes at 0945 so we rushed down before it was to late. We were both a bit tired as by eating late yesterday evening neither of us slept well and we think there was a mosquito buzzing around which never makes for comfortable sleeping.

On reviewing our travel over the next couple of day we realised that we could connect with an earlier ferry from Calais as its only about 2.5 hours from Rouen to the Calais port and it would mean we get home just before the main traffic starts, we hope. 

We went for a walk around the  Abbaye Saint-Pierre de Solesmes more info at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solesmes_Abbey  and is an amazing building right by the river Sarthe. We retuned to the Hotel and Noel spent some time using the online chat with DFDS to change our booking to the earlier boat which thankfully was achieved. We then took a short break and at 1300 got in the car to drive in to Sable sur Sarthe to await the sailing of the boat that goes up the river which we had booked a few days ago. It was a pleasant trip and the Captain and also acting as tour guide gave an almost non stop commentary which must have been a bit to much for the locals but thankfully for us we did not fully understand.

Ironically the trip consisted of going down stream past the Abbye , going thro one lock then turning around and returning to Sable at just after 1700 Hrs.

The Hotel restaurant was closed tonight and that was good for us as we did not want a late night and also only had a small snack for lunch but there was a burger and pizza joint in the old part of town and so we meandered up their and of course I had to explain about my allergies and so he suggested a fish burger and fries which would suit me fine. Jennifer ordered a pizza La Reine which was ginormous and so she had to leave about a third as their was just to much.

We returned to the Hotel for a quiet night in the room and watched some you tube stuff and Noel caught up with some work stuff. Tomorrow we leave for Rouen for a one night stay before returning to the UK on Tuesday 24th.

Now I have seen it all

We had a light breakfast at the Kyriad Hotel and left about 1000 en route to our next Hotel The Grand Hotel Solesmes which is close by Sable Sur Sarthe.

As before we have chosen to use the country route and avoid the motorways and Toll roads and we are so glad we did as went through some very nice towns and countryside en-route. But then we cam across a town called Chauvigny where there is a famous Chateau and on the outside of town there is a sign saying the they had been twinned with a number of towns around Europe but in Uk they are twinned with Billericay and one could not think of anything with such a difference, see photos.

However we carried on until about lunchtime and found a place to stop and finish up some cheese and biscuit's that we had left over before returning to the road.

The Sat Nav kept us out of the way of the main roads near Tours and took across fields on single track roads but it worked to our advantage. We arrived at our Hotel around 4pm and checked in and enjoyed a brief rest before heading down for dinner.

The Hotel is quite nice but not very full by the number of cars in the car park but the waiter assured me the restaurant was full and so it was pretty much. Noel explained his dietary requirements and enjoyed some prawns to start followed by a steak as suggested by the Maître de and Jennifer also started with the prawns an then a sea bream which they topped and tailed and removed the bones tableside which took a few minutes but the food was very good. For desert Jennifer enjoyed a Cointreau souffle which she said was the best she had every enjoyed. This Hotel room costs are relative for a four star hotel but the restaurant costs were very high. The restaurant did not open until 7.30 pm which is always bit late for us as by the time you get the food its 8.15 and much later by the time you have finished.

We returned to the room and Jennifer read whilst Noel checked out the football results and what with Chelsea beating West Ham on their pitch 3-0 was excellent

A nice drive to Limoges

During the previous few days we have planning the best route to take from our Hotel to the Kyriad Hotel in Limoges as we wished to avoid Motorways and Toll roads and some of the smaller roads are much nicer to travel on. We looked at the map and also Tom Tom and Google Maps and decided that the best way was to use the old A 20 which is now the N820 which is the old main route south to Cahors and beyond.

So after and early morning start we put the key in to reception and chatted to the owner about next year and please book direct, and the headed off in to town ? to have a croissant and tea at the Boulangerie and then on to Proxi Store to by some water to cover us for the next few days. We went thro lots of little villages going north away from the Lot Valley until we hit the N820 which was great road to travel on as it was not crowded, had great views and a good road surface. Unfortunately something, perhaps the tea water gave Noel a few challenges and trying to find a public loo in France is just as difficult as in UK. So loading up on all sorts of pill was able to work his thro the problem and the after having overcome same we cam across a brand newish loo , but that's life. For lunch we stopped at a wayside parking area which overlooked a Chateau whose name I cannot remember and then continued on to Limoges where we were stunned by to total lack of traffic and considering it was Friday afternoon could not believe how little amount of cars there were.

We arrived a the Kyriad Hotel in Ester , Limoges and checked in to this quite new hotel and the had a rest before heading off to the local restaurant serving pub food where we had a pint of Budweiser beer and fish and chips. Then back to the Hotel for some blogging and to watch the final part of the Prince Andrew three part’er.

En-route when passing thro the various little towns we had noticed that the name of the town signboard were  upside down and we could not understand why but looked it u and it appears the reason is that |French Farmers are saying they are having a tough time and protesting vi upside town name boards.

Tomorrow we go to the River Sarthe  for two nights and with a local boat trip booked for the Sunday afternoon, should be good.

Housekeeping day

We are leaving tomorrow morning and so we need to start preparing and begin to pack the car as we want an early start so that we can take the long route without touching Toll Roads or even Motorways.

Noel made some scrambled egg for breakfast which was very nice having to do the job using a frying pan as there were no non adhesive small pans available but the result was excellent. The eating of scrambled eggs for Noel can be difficult some times as the result may interfere with life for about an hour or so and so it did.

So we packed our bags in the morning and and partly loaded the car so we can just put two bags and go.  We have decided that tomorrow we will visit the Boulangerie about one mile from the Hotel and buy some croissants for breakfast and sit outside the shop on the little table provided and also some baguettes for out lunch. Once completed we stopped for lunch which was smoked salmon on French toast and ver nice indeed it was.

In the afternoon we visited reception and handed back the towels and dressing gowns used for the Spa and chatted to the owner about our stay and paid the bill. He said if we book direct its better for him rather than thro booking.com which I said I tried but for some reason the date section would not work and I did email but no reply so was forced to use the Booking.com as agent. he also mentioned that in April 2025 they will have a full restaurant opens and we had already seen the building that will be used, it will be nice as if you sit outside yo can see St Cirq le Popie across the other side of the river hanging off the cliff, and amazing view.So we paid the bill and wandered back to the apartment for a brief afternoon rest.

In the evening we had a ham salad which was quite tasty but there was something here that effected us both???

For the evening television we watched the Amazon Prime three par t series on Prince (Randy Andy) Andrew and his relations with Jeffrey Epstein and some rather young ladies. Most interesting and no doubt his mum will look down with consternations.

And so to bed..

Now what to do

Well after receiving the email from the Hilton Garden Hotel in Tours which puts us in a bit of a tizzy we then had t decide what we should do. There were a number of choices as follows.

1- Go to Tours early and hope we can get in the car park as with many thousands of people arriving to see the race this could be risky, whilst the town will be packed and restaurants full.

2- Forget Tours totally and go somewhere else instead – but where

3- Cut our losses and reorganise everything and go straight home with one overnight stop but that entails cancelling Hotels and ferry booking etc.

So after review the map for while and looking at other potential towns like Blois, Chateauroux  etc Noel in a rare mad moment remembered on the way down seeing signs for Beaville sur sarthe which reminded him of a visit we paid many years ago with the kids where we rented a boat on the river and Joanne brought here best friend Pippa. Also that was the time we had a dressing up fun night and the ‘The Parrott Club’ was born.

So after emailing Hilton as was concerned that by cancelling  I would lose my points and which were worth over £ 250.00 and the auto reply came back saying we always answer within 7-10 days, Oh Hell but there's not much we can do but hope and about one hour later after cancelling the Hilton I received a reply saying don't worry Hotel is cancelled and we have refunded your points, magic!!! So now to find nice Hotel where we can stay for two nights which would allow the Rouen and Ferry bookings to stay as they were. So after somewhile following the river up and down looking at Hotel we cam across one called Grand Hotel de Solesmes which seemed to fit the bill in Solesmes which is close to Sable sur Sarthe and so we booked their for two nights. We also noticed that there are boat trips on the river and so we have also booked a boat trip for Sunday afternoon although we expect it to be raining.

So with that finalised we spent an hour by the indoor pool as Noel seems finally to overcome some health issues and then for dinner we had a large packet of bacon (unsliced) which Jennifer sliced up an to meaty size slices and fried on a bed of rice, really excellent.

An evening of TV followed with a mixture of you tube stuff and Netflix documentary on the music producer Phil Spector who committed murder and then played the system for five years before finally being found guilty and sent to jail.

On the UP!!!

Well we had a slow start and then headed down to the local town to do some shopping for water and milk bread and croissants and its only  five minutes down the road and so most convenient.

We have decided after lengthy review that we would leave here on Friday morning and take a slow country drive to Limoges where we would stay the night at the fairly new Kyriad Hotel Este which is on the outskirts of Limoges. Most of the Hotel in the town require street parking which we do not like as we leave a lot of our stuff in the car when overnighting. From there we will go back to Tours which we really enjoyed last time when walking around the old part of town without a camera and so that would be a nice thing to do. We tried to book at the same Hampton by Hilton Hotel which we stayed in on the way down but it was full, which was a little bit surprising, and so we opted for its sister Hilton Garden Hotel  across the square. So we booked two night using our saved Hilton Points and then worked out where to stay next as its a longish drive to Calais from Tours and then either stay overnight locally and/or catch late ferry home but that makes for a very long day.

So we agreed that a night in Rouen which is a nice old city on the River Seine and we would stay a the same Hotel as per our last visit many years ago during the month that Christopher Denovan-Smith was born( boy do we remember that time when driving in the suburbs of Rouen with no mobile signal) anyway we have booked the Marriott Autograph Hotel called Hotel de Bourgtheroulde which is an old Hotel right in the middle of town, not cheap but a good way to polish of the trip. From there the next morning we will drive to Calais and we have changed our ferry booking to the 1635 DFDS and with plenty of time to get there and do some shopping if we are looking for a time filler.

For lunch we had baguette with the left over Salmon from the previous evening before settling down to a restful afternoon reading and looking at stuff on the PC. In the evening we finished off the two pork chops and cooked amongst tomatoes and served on a bed of pasta. Following dinner we watched a disaster movie on Tv and then off to bed, EXCEPT Noel was just checking his emails and noticed one form the Hilton Hotel in Tours advising that the whole place will be road closed due to the annual local marathon run which will cause havoc to the area and mess up all the car parking. Over 5000 competitors are expected plus all the people watching and family members and so the whole place will be packed including car parks, restaurants and this explained why we could not get a room in the Hampton Hotel, so in a word bugger!!!

Oh its to late to worry about this now so lets leave until the next morning and decide then what to do. Having spent a couple of hours on planning its a damn shame we sort to have to start over again.

As an aside noticed that the Governor Of Florida has made the decision that Florida will be the place where the guy who tried to shoot Trump whilst playing golf, will be charged and not sent to FBI HQ and charged by the same people who are currently trying to charge Trump with all sorts of ‘Trumped up charges’

A quiet day in St Cirq

The weather has started to improve over the last couple of days but its still quite cold at night. Its not terribly hot and the highest temperature we have had is about 22 Centigrade and so all the effort to make certain I had sufficient pars of shorts seems now to be a bit pointless.

Unfortunately the editor odd this Blog was still having some challenges and maybe it was the Yogurt or the change of Orange juice but is is messing up my opportunities to go for a swim. Noel has now missed four days of swimming ( perhaps three) all due to the white bread causing me issues which means no swimming.

So in the afternoon Jennifer went for a swim with Noel wrapping up the blog and then spending time listening to music. Noel came across a Roger Water’s Concert in Portland , Oregon  USA which was brilliant and nearly caused him to burn the salmon as he was also in change of cooking due to Jennifer having accidentally kicked some metal furniture and damaging her toe. I think she did it on purpose to avoid cooking and I can safely say that here as I know she never looks at the Blog.

In the evening as I mentioned I fried up some Salmon with green beans and baked potatoes which down quite well and then watched ‘Plank of the Week’ from Talk TV which is always fun to watch.

We had earlier in the week spoken to the Hotel Boss for say three extra days but they cud at the time only offer one, and he would let s know about cancelations etc however that put strain on the rest of our plans where we have pretty much decided to take a real country road to Limoges, about 5 hours over the hills and dales rather than 3 hours on the Autoroutes . We plan to stay at the new Kyriad Hotel North East of Limoges and then the next day on to Tours for two nights and then finally one night in Rouen before heading for the ferry on 24 th Sept. We just have to speak to the reception tomorrow morning to finalise the status and then can go ahead with the Hotels for the route home and also changing the Ferry Bookings, all of which will take a little time.

Being home on the Tuesday allows to catch up on a few things as Noel has a golfing with colleagues in Hampshire on 1st and 2nd of October although will have leave early on the 2nd to attend a funeral, yes another one bites the dust.

A little shopping perhaps

 

We needed to doe some shopping today and and as the supermarkets only open on a Sunday until 12.30 we left our Hotel around 1045 and drove alongside the Lot river on a bight ,very clear day, and the views are stunning. We have visited this area many times and it never ever fails to deliver. Over the many visits we have driven just about everywhere exploring, taking photos etc but now we really have no need as we have done it.

We dove past the caravan and camping site in Larnagol which we stayed in multiple times and arrived in Carjac around 11.15 and went to the Intermarche stores and bought all the essentials except for bread where the cupboard was bare, and so we drove around to the main road in the town and  found a boulangerie and a small baguette which would be great for cheese and biscuits for lunch.

Noel was still having some lower body issues and decided yet again not to visit the pool just in case, as they say, and so spent the afternoon looking at routes, Hotels for our journey home. We had originally booked to stay until the 19th but have been able to extend for one extra night with any more being doubtful but we dont want to leave it to the last minute to try and book Hotels particularly over the weekend when the good ones get busy. 

For dinner Noel prepared salad with pork chop and followed by some fruit and then we watched the last episode of the Grand Tour when they visit Zimbabwe, the program was as entertaining as usual.

Had a quick look at the news and heard about another attempt on Trump’s life by a gunman who lives in Florida. I once watched a US reporter say that the Democrats are so worried about Trump winning the next election that unless they strangle him with courts cases and fail the only other way would be to try and kill him. Appalling situation for a Country like to USA to be in.

And so to bed

Oh dear it was the bread

On Friday ( yesterday) Noel had some tummy issues, lets call it that, which he put down to having a beer on a slightly empty stomach, which would be most unusual. However this morning following out whole toast about an hour or so later the problem re-appeared and so after some grand translation using google lens Jennifer discovered that most of the ingredients of the bread would most likely cause me lots of harm which it certainly did.

Unfortunately this meant no swimming again for the second day as cannot afford to have an accident in their nice swimming pool and so Noel decided to stay in the apartment whilst Jennifer went over to the indoor pool for about 90 minutes and had a lovely time swimming and relaxing. On my part I was anxious to watch Chelsea play Bournemouth  match live on SKY SPORTS but my attempts to achieve this were not working whilst using a VPN. Bearing in mind its many months since I last attempted similar I was assuming that I would access the game the same way, only it turned out that I was wrong. Whilst fiddling around with the virgin app on computer and also mobile phone I was able to discover that Virgin Media to whom we are contracted had updated their app and so you had to go to their app listing all the programmes then select what you want and it will then send you directly to Sky Sports and so Noel was able to watch the game.

The speed of the Wi-Fi is not fast and so the quality of the picture on the large screen laptop compared to the much smaller mobile phone screen was poor and sometimes blurry and so the mobile phone it was. Bournemouth put on a good show and although Chelsea had most of the possession the best chances fell to Bournemouth but they failed to score either by missing the goal or Sancho the goalkeeper doing some great saves. At half time it was level after Bournemouth missed a penalty and in the second half on came Jadon Sancho recently arrived from Man United and played a blinder and finally in the 75th minute setting up Nkunku to score. The next part of the game Bournemouth tried very had but somehow Chelsea escaped.

The game had a massive amount of yellow cards mostly due to derision at the referee who was not making the right decisions.

Friday the 13th Sept a date to remember, but why?

I just started to write this daily blog and wanted to prepare what to say as not much happened but then just realised it was 13th September. So what's so special about this date ?

Well on 13th September 1975 at 13.00 hrs we left London for Hong Kong from gate 13. Yes a lot of 13 numbers here. It was a day we remember so well turning up at the airport with a four month old baby and flying to our new home in Hong Kong. As we tried to check in with Jens mum and Dad watching and worried about our departure we were informed that the flight was quite full and that we would be on standby and so please wait around for a while.  Eventually they closed the flight and there appeared to be lost of people waiting to be called forward as it was now only 45 minutes before scheduled departure and with about 20/30 or could be more travellers waiting to see if they can board and one by one they were called until we were the only people left and so I thought that's it we may have to leave and then suddenly came the call, Mr and Mrs Groves please come to the desk and we were given boarding passes and we could not believe our luck as  they were for seats 1A and 1B , ie First Class and at the front of the aircraft with space for a baby cot.  Wow and what a nice flight with the old BOAC 747 the upper deck was small and was a lounge with a bar, brilliant.

So today sitting here in St Cirq Le Popie we were having  quiet morning as no shopping required and anticipating a swim mid afternoon we went or a walk around the estate and looked at the various other accommodation and also a new Bistro they are building and then back to the apartment for a cheese and biscuits for lunch.

In the afternoon we spent some time looking at routes to get back to the Uk but unable to fix anything as we were waiting for a date of funeral we will attend in the Uk and so this would impact upon our travel plans but we have prepared several different routes depending on circumstances at the time

So at about 1600 as just considering moving the to pool Noel was suddenly affected by something he had eaten resulting in multiple trips to the loo instead of going for a nice swim, so Jennifer went alone and enjoyed her time and it was not busy at all, about six people only .

For evening dinner we had our favourite chicken splodge and demolished a nice bottle of chardonnay and then watched a film called Rebel Ridge on Netflix.

A slow day in St Cirq

It was a little chilly this morning but we understand the weather will be improving over the next week back to a comfortable level. During the day we both did a lot of reading and Noel some blogging and also dealing with some family matters back in Uk. The Cath event is improving and hoping tomorrow will be a lot better.

Well we have stayed in this Hotel several times in the past, both in the regular bedrooms and once before in the self catering apartments which are part of the complex. Mr Macron has apparently stayed here several times according to various photos around the reception area and standing next to the jovial owner.

So as mentioned we are in an apartment for three people which is one double bed and one single, I have not used my own photos as we have our stuff everywhere ant it looks just a little untidy and so I have used photos from there website.

I needed to book the car in for service which should be a simple phone call but no they have to ask you date of birth, full address and mail and telephone numbers and do you want to receive lots of info from Lexus on cars and services and how about some extras on the service, so NO thank you just a regular service under my plan. Lexus Guildford was previously owned by Inchcape Holdings but they have sold this to an American company and so I hope the service level do not deteriorate.

During a afternoon walk it was noticed that have built or added some new rooms to the complex and including a gite so will need to take a closer look. When we arrived we noticed that the sun umbrella base was broken and so we could not use it and today a new one arrived and so now we only need some sun. Today for lunch we had ham and tomato sandwiches and in the evening a pre cooked Carrefour chicken and salad, chicken was fine but perhaps not quite as juicy as a Costco one. Costco have two shops in France, both near Paris so if we get lost on the way home we know where we can get a cheap hot dog and coffee.

In the evening Jennifer w anted to read her book and so Noel watched a lot off different videos on you tube from ATC recordings to travelogues. We did not visit the pool today ad Noel was still a bit achy and Jen wanting to continue reading.