We left Perth at 6 am in the morning and arrived in Charles de Gaulle airport at 8.30pm on Emirates after a good flight with plenty of leg room and good service and food and good movies to while the time away. We picked up the hire car, a little Twingo, checked it for dents and scratches and found a big ding in the boot had not been marked on the sheet. Kevin sorted that out, I turned on our GPS and we set off for the hotel. We struck a problem as we drove out, we had no sound on the GPS. I forgot to load the voices when I put the Western Europe map on. I know some men reading this are probably thinking I wish someone I know would lose their voice, but when you are tired and relying on a voice to get you to the hotel it is a disaster! We only had to drive 3 k and were soon there and settled in bed ready for a good nights sleep before we started our 2009 Adventure. It is a good time to leave from home as we left and arrived in one day, went to sleep and woke up ready for the next morning.
Driving around France in a Twingo
North East
May 6 and off we drove around France to visit our French and English friends we have met over the years we have travelled the canals. We shared their homes, wonderful cuisine and visits to the countryside.
First we went to St Pere sur Loire to visit Chantal and Claude, we enjoyed our time with you and thanks for the visits we made to the Chateaus. We look forward to hearing how your English lessons are going.
Kevin is fascinated by the draw bridge mechanisms
We drove up north to Normandy to see the Bayeaux tapestry which was fantastic and much bigger than I thought it would be and very colourful. We had headphones to tell the story as we walked the viewing platform. How exciting to see something we learnt about at school though heaven knows why we studied the English- French battle of 1066. I particularly liked seeing Halley’s comet on the tapestry.
Next we visited Mont St Michel. What a fabulous view as we drove towards it.
We stayed overnight in a small town and next morning we visited St Malo. It is interesting to see the difference between high and low tide in this part of France.
We left St Malo and travelled to Segre to stay with Monique and Jean Claude we had a lovely time with them and visited an Auberge Ferme for a great meal. The food served in this restaurant has to be at least 50% produced on the farm. We had delicious chicken cooked in cider a speciality of the area.
We also visited their little farm with its 16 century farmhouse and the orchard with the espaliered fruit trees.
To the South of France
From here we enjoyed the privilege of paying the Peage to travel the Autoroute down through Bordeaux to a little town near Agen to stay with Nicky and Alan who were renting a holiday home. Over the next few days we had a lovely time with Alan driving and Nicky navigating, taking us to visit Brian and Noelene in the lovely town of Nerac.
Had lunch in a delightful village with a town circle instead of a square
visited the Roman Villa of Seviac with beautifully preserved mosaic floors
In Montreal we joined walked some of the route taken by hikers travelling the pilgrim route through France to St Jacques De Compostelle in Spain and found out why scallops are called Coquille St Jacques in France.
After a few days of being chauffered around Kevin was back in the driving seat and we headed off across the mountains to see the Millau Bridge. The weather had turned cold and rainy and sunny South of France disappeared behind huge thunder clouds.
The design of the bridge is quite awe inspiring as well as a beautiful piece of engineering.
We payed the peage and crossed the bridge in the rain and drove down the mountain
Our next stop was Apt near Avignon to visit Josy and Jean Pierre the rain kept falling and the fog closed in and Josy was really upset that we were not seeing sunny France at its best. But the rain didn’t stop us from having a great visit and we saw the wonderful view they will have from their new house with the Luberons on one side and Apt in the valley on the other.
Centre France
From here we got on the autoroute again and travelled to the Canal de Centre to visit Annie and Paul whom we met them on our first trip out in Courlis. They were just starting to restore an old barge as a Charter business. Their barge Bonheur is just fabulous with 2 guest rooms with Kingsize beds and ensuites and really comfortable lounge and dining areas. We can really recommend the bed, what luxury we had and a great time reminiscing.
We left here to visit Marion and Roger who live in our favourite French town of Fontenoy Le Chateau. We also met them in our first trip.
We also caught up with Sue and Max from Perth in their boat Tres Jolie as they headed down to St Jean de Losne before leaving for home to welcome their new grandchild into the family.
Belgium
Soon it was time to drive through Belgium to Veurne to visit John who also has a charter barge called Johanna.
We had time to visit the Saturday market before leaving for Holland.
HollandIt was no mistaking we were back in Holland a land of wind turbines ( we have been told the wind turbines give 6% of the power for the Netherlands) and rising bridges. It is amazing how patient the drivers are while waiting for the boats to pass and the bridge to go down. It is no point in leaving it to the last minute to travel here.
Our last visit was to Ellen and Jan in Harderwijk who we met last year. Ellen was born in Australia and went back to Holland with her family when she was 10. We had a lovely time together in their home which is on the historic Vischemarkt Square in Harderwijk. It is always exciting to sleep in a house which was built a few hundred years before Perth was settled.
We called into to see Geertje and Max in Joure on our way to the boat.
Back to the water and ready to cruise the canals
We arrived in Kuikhorne to find Courlis nice and dry and smelling sweet even though she had been on hardstand for 8 months. A few days were spent provisioning the boat while we had the car. We were fortunate in being able to drop it off in Leeuwarden about 20k from Kuikhorne.
What a wonderful time we had catching up with our friends again and seeing many parts of France we had missed while travelling by boat. It was great to see both sides of France. Kevin was relieved when we handed the car back without a scratch and as we drove in to the hire office we wondered what they would think of the Aussies who hired a Twingo for 3 weeks and did 4200km.
Kevin gave Courlis a coat of antifoul and we put Courlis back in the water ready for our 2009 adventure on the canals.
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