promenadingpeacocks

well, visitors and a bbq spillage leading to the old man getting a burnt foot have meant that camping jaunts have been on hold BUT the car is packed up and the plan is to head to puy mary tomorrow…watch this space

a campsite somewhere in that valley….

stop press!!!
we have bought a tent…and succeeded in putting it up!

watch this space!

well, there was wifi at the subsequent hotels but life was ‘charge’ as per so no time to write up this blog. but it was great. lots of family chat and cuddles plus the bonus that meeting with the other half’s long lost family went swimmingly. lots of promises to meet up again

the trip home via newhaven was blissfully calm after a lovely lunch in lewes. rough sea was announced but it was steady and sunny all the way. gav saw us leaving harbour from his homeward commute and texted to tell us…so we waved in his direction!

a bientot, blighty

It was still nearly the witching hour before i got to bed and then i couldn’t sleep. Wheels in brain turning, what have i forgotten????? Himself leapt up at the first warble of the alarm but later reported he hadn’t slept too well either. We both go into auto now as we have done this trip so often exceot for the time that we forgot the passports…oops. anyway, a lovely drive up, sunshine and mostly blue sky. Not much traffic in our direction but lots of campers and caravans going south. coffee stop at limoges, lunch stop when we left the a10 and tea stop at baie de somme, an aire that was full of brit tourists and shreiking french schoolgirls! Onwards to boulogne where the gasole was cheap at leclerc and then the hotel. Bit nippy but we had packed for all eventualities. Big surprise when we went out for dinner. Sea mist had rolled in so we collected our warm coats from the car. Hope it has gone by the morrow!

bags packed, cat trays out, cat looker-afterer up to speed……trying to get an early night so i can be bright eyed and bushy tailed on the morrow. huh, fat chance! i’ll be on automatic pilot until about the first pee stop! 🙂

wednesday dawned and we couldn’t see the hillsides but there had been no more snow overnight on the town.  after breakfast we walked down to get the sarnies, buy a paper and some postcards.  no struggle with chains so after a few words with a couple from normandy in the garage we headed for the snowy heights. lou had decided to try the capucin centre and, happily, there was lots of room to park. a weak sun was glowing in the direction of the moutain top the centre was called after. all the boucles here were fairly short but in view of the weather and windchill that wasn’t a problem! the signposting was a bit confusing until we realised that all three boucles followed the same route to start with. lou headed off, comme d’hab, leaving me to take selfies and shots of his disappearing figure! it was another forested area and the route wandered up and down and round and round. the loop that formed boucle 2 must have lovely views on a clear day but we just saw mist beyond the trees. back at base i took off my raquettes and the sole promptly fell off my left boot! so many years of tramping in them at an end. i blame the snow!   the capucin cafe was more of a restaurant and no soup was available so we munched our sarnies in the car and watched the snow settle on the windscreen. after that there wasn’t much to do but head for ‘home’ and some warmth. a bit of a snooze and then a walk around town after coffee and crepes, looking at menus and deciding where to eat later.  it was sad to see families traipsing up and down in the wet.  not a lot of do under cover, i’m guessing.  lou found something, a haircut.  we found a small salon who didn’t seem fazed by brit tourists stopping by for a short back and sides!                  the town and the surrounding area looks as if it would be lovely to visit in the summer which we certainly intend to do.  only two hours from home makes it possible. we ate in the ‘table du trappeur’ which was decorated in true french mountain style and very cosy. we arrived around 7.30 which turned out to be a good choice as the place quickly filled up.  we ate well, my entrecote being cooked perfectly to my taste and bathed in ‘sauce bleu’, which was on many menus in la bourboule.  cheese featured again for pud, fromage blanc and myrtilles, mmmmmm back at the hotel we were able to watch most of a documentary on the lot on french tv, ‘les racines et des ailes’. a very interesting programme even if the french subtitles were taxing at times! 🙂 a final brekkie in the still sober dining room and then it was off home…through the rain and mist! au revoir, l’aviation, we hope to be back…with sunshine.

comme d’hab the hotel wifi was available and free but not strong enough to upload posts and photos. so frustrating to be able to read stuff but not always reply.  if the weather had been better we wouldn’t have spent so much time trying to get online but there was a limit to how many coffees we could drink and how much time we wanted to spend getting wet! 🙂

la bourboule was snowy when we got there (good!) and seemed a pleasant town with lots of restaurants and bars (good again!). the hotel aviation was handy for the town centre and the room was small but adequate with a separate loo from the bathroom which we prefer. on the third floor we had a good view of the town and its surrounding hills ….and the prevailing weather!

we spent our first few hours there finding the tourist office and a shop that sold maps. we were advised by the TO lady that chains would be advisable for going up to la stele, the espace nordique i had identified before booking, as having a clutch of boucles of variable length within our capabilities!

heading out for our first evening meal we went into the bistrot cyrano which, according to my online research, looked a lively place to eat. it was and we were met by a welcoming young chap who said we should think about booking in holiday season but still found us a table for two tucked into a corner. lou opted for potee d’auvergne and i chose truffade. the portions were huge and despite our good intentions we went for a cafe gourmand to finish on…

i loved the smoky 30s decor and was amused to read on trip advisor that a french reviewer said it reminded him of an english pub….must have been the gloom! 🙂

tuesday, lou’s 72nd birthday (how did we get this old?) we had breakfast in the rather sober dining room, filling our faces with fresh crusty bread, butter and jam, and then went off to find a sandwich at the baker i had spotted the night before. f reshly made to order we had a few minutes to waste around town so i bought a paper and cards.  so the following fight with the snow chains made us even later for the slopes. needless to say we weren’t wasting any good weather as the sun was hiding behind the clouds all the way up to la stele.

we passed someone struggling with his chains where the road became snowier. lou was very glad he had had a garage floor, albiet grubby, rather than wet snow to kneel on for the job!

at la stele the parking was already busy but some cars were leaving so we found a place and clambered into our gear. a light snow was falling but a weak sun was trying to break through. a good sign we felt. wrong!  after paying our dues at the guichet we followed the signs for the raquettes. as it was our first foray since last february in the jura we chose a short boucle.  it was very pleasant to be walking again and the sun splashed across our path now and again.

we hesitated where a longer boucle forked off to the left. but looking at the plan it was clear that despite being a reasonable length it was going to climb uphill a fair bit so we carried on as we were. a wise move as it turned out.  the forest was lovely and the snow frozen to the branches very picturesque…but the snow began to fall in earnest and we got wetter and wetter.

the going was slightly uphill and we both began to puff. i had read that it takes a while for your body to adjust to being higher and, maybe, that’s what was happening or it was an age thing. how demoralising! anyway, we were glad to be on a shorter walk and headed straight for the bar/restaurant when we got back to base. a huge wood burner in the middle of the room and hot soup on the menu which came with croutons and cheese, i has assumed some cheese ‘rape’ on top of the soup but it was three slices of a good st nectaire fermier.

after warming up we made room for other wet and cold walkers and returned to the car to strip off the wet togs and try our sandwiches. more cars were arriving but the weather wasn’t getting any better so we decided to go off and do a bit of exploring while we still had the chains on.

we found la tour d’auvergne, a very forlorn village whose claim to fame seemed to be a virgin on a tall tower on a nearby hilltop. then chastriex, equally sad but made for a good photo! (see left)

after looping back round to la stele and catching odd moments of sunlit views we came to the fork for la bourboule but chose to carry on to la mont dore out of curiosity.  when we finally came to it the town looked pretty grim from above and we wound down a narrow road into town with cars squeezing past us due to nose to tail parking on each side of the road. we wondered why until, later, i discovered from the map there is a funicular at that side of town which went to another espace nordique, le capucin. turning round as we had no desire to join the parking scrum, we drove back the way we had come and went to see what le capucin ski place was like.  no space in the car park so we turned for ‘home’.

once more, a perusal of the map helped me identify la banne d’ordache which we saw bathed in sunshine as we drove back. this turned out to be a clue to the origin of the name of our hotel. back in the 30s there had been a glider centre on la banne and the hotel had welcomed the aviators who came ‘from all over the world’ to fly there. it closed in the late 30s but is still a centre for remote control model ‘planes.

back at the hotel the weather really closed in and the hills disappeared from view. we lazed around in our room, reading the papers and playing online. i was even too idle to go and have a swim in the hotel pool! wrapping up well, we took ourselves off into town and, after a false start or, rather, snub, at the logis le charlet, we went into the hotel de la poste et europe where we had a simple but well cooked meal and good bottle of local rose wine to celebrate the old boy’s birthday! 🙂

As soon as lou gets out his case ginge decides it is exclusively for his use and comfort…even when it is almost closed and the lid resembling a gentle ski slope!

a week from today we are off to the auvergne to do some raquette walking, hopefully on snow. first time we’ve tried a holiday there. only other auvergne experience was a boring and viewless walk at laguiole some years ago. hope this will be better and we find some blue skies. had a few down here in the valley this week….

Up and away early we arrived at dover well in advance and were put on the next boat to leave…so too soon for a fish and chips lunch! The boat was crowded and most seemed not to be english speakers. I chatted to some french troisieme boys who were very sweet and very excited to be visiting the uk for the first time. the sea was calm and the sky promisingly sunny over the white cliffs. We found out later that boats had been stopped on friday and lorries stacked on the motorway due to the storms, one would never have guessed from our clement crossing!

Too early for the hotel and a mal functioning phone stopping all communication we went shopping in folkestone’s sainsburys for essentials such as tick tock tea and branston pickle. Lou hit b and q for a new weed sprayer. Coo, we know how to live! 🙂 feeling peckish by now as our tummies were still on french time we had lunch in a services we hadn’t tried before. Then to maidstone to charm the hotel reception into booking us in early. A bit of a snooze, we are oldies, and then down to the venue of the ‘do’.

A noisy and jolly afternoon with 41 assorted relatives of all ages followed by some hectic clearing up and present swapping. Hugs and kisses and ‘happy christmas’ssss and back to the hotel. The evening was spent tucked into what is quickly becoming ‘our’ corner of the bar to catch up with the south western and north western branches of my sibling band. A l

ater night than we’d promised ourselves but who would have missed gavin being ‘stickered’ by isla and the chance to be given fashion advice by a niece?! C

ommunal breakfast on sunday morning when we all got a lesson from jon in how to badger the hotel chef if you want something not on obvious offer. Now was it poached or coddled eggs? Google! After more swapping of glittery carrier bags and a photo in front of the epic chrimbo tree we went our different ways. Us to see mum en famille with her presents before saying goodbye to the boys who were too full to want to share lunch with us. In fact we weren’t hungry either so went to a pub for my obligatory half of cider and then headed for dover. W

e were going to be way too early but hoped it wouldn’t be too dear to change the crossing. In the event the girl’s card reader froze and when i eventually arrived at the driver’s reception the suoervisor waived the  charge for ‘having inconvienced’ us! ‘What a nice man’ a colleague said and i had to agree. The boat turned out to the pride of canterbury again but the weather was very different! Grey, gloomy and windy with waves breaking over the bow of the spirit of france as she approached….and she is a much bigger boat! The captain warned of an impending gale but hoped the stabilisers would give us a comfy crossing and they did. A

t calais i rang the b and b at boulogne to book before contacting calais b and b to cancel. Such a good idea that you can cancel up until 7 o’clock in the evening. At boulogne we quickly settled in and went off to the ‘gruffalo bill’ as lou now calls it for supper.

Ye

sterday was wet and grey until we got to chateauroux where we found a carrefour for gasoil and pizzas for supper. At crouzillou ginge was howling on the doorstep while marmalade dashed out as soon as the door opened. The lovely sian hsd been on cat minding duties.  We quickly unpacked the car and lou lit the woodburner…..ah, home again