bill and cathy travels: FRANCE

Bonjour mes amis. Nous sommes arrive en France.

We arrived in France early on June 6th and picked up our Renault “Twingo” in the midst of a thunderstorm. Whether it was because it was a Sunday, the weather overcast, it was the anniversary of the D–day landings, the mens final of the French open tennis, the fact that trucks are not allowed on French roads on the weekend, or whatever, we had a dream run to Guemene with very little traffic once clear of Paris. What a pleasure to set the “cruise control” to 130Kph for much of the way and go, after the restriction to 110Kph in the USA and Canada.

Before I continue Cathy and I must offer our thanks to everyone over there who made our trip so memorable. In particular Mike and Sue Barker, Wayne and Chris Robinson, Steve and Pat Yorke, Neil and Priscilla Marr, Barry and Sue Laplume, Roger and Judy Barker all of whom provided us with beds and went out of their way to make sure we had a great time, which we did. Also thanks to Colin who organised a game of golf in Stouffville (Stoo-ville), the only game I managed to get in North America. I really enjoyed that. Also a special thanks to Rick and Vicky who were good humoured despite being kept up late because we got lost in the back blocks of Ontario trying to find them and, of course, I was referring to the parrot when I made the “strange” comment. The bird performed a party trick for us and climbed all the way up the stairs without flying using just its beak and feet.

Apart from feeling a bit stretched by the end having covered 5000Km in the Toyota over the three weeks it has been a terrific experience.

It has taken till now to get the Internet up and running. I could have gone looking for a Freebee like “Erica”, in Springfield, however it would have needed a power supply also and there has been much to do so I preferred to wait patiently to be connected.

It transpired that we had been put on an annual contract. How? I don’t know since we always made it clear that we would only be in France for three months. The bottom line was that we were greeted on arrival at the house with letters from a collection agency as the bank had refused to pay an automatic debit. This was a relic from the previous year when we were being milked by Telecom (for the same reason) and put a stop to it then. Anyway, we understand each other now and they have taken back the equipment supplied last year and issued us with a new box and we now have to wait for our password to be mailed to us!

The French house smelt a bit musty after being locked up for 9 months. They have had months of fog, rain and snow so it was no wonder.

Back garden in need of a bit of clearing.

The grass needs cutting on the river block!

The house across the road is getting its roof fixed and a facelift. Rear of Twingo outside our front door.

They’re pulling down the “Rose and Crown” – Boooooo!

And building a bigger one – Hooraaay!

One of our favourite hardware stores (in Lorient) is being tripled in size. The recession is OK for some.

They are also putting up a huge extension to the local supermarket.

Existing supermarket. Note fuel prices on right. ($A1 = 0.60 euro cents)

PRIORITY 1. To put a ceiling over bedroom 2 for privacy and as a basis to lining the roof. It will also help to keep the room clean as a fair bit of refuse fell from the unplastered wall at the end during our time away.

and by the magic of time-lapse photography here is the end result!

It took five trips with the car stacked like this from Lorient 60km away. It only needed two for the ceiling but the wood was second grade pine at a price too good to miss so a decision was made to get enough for the back house.