May holiday day 5: Sens in the sunshine

Dinner last night was appallingly mediocre, hopelessly under-seasoned. I don't think the cook had ever heard of salt and pepper, never mind anything else! The puds were nice, though.

It was cold but clear, this morning, so we went into Sens to visit the market hall, which was faintly disappointing, as there were very few merchants there. I expect it is fuller at weekends.  Nevertheless, we bought a very nice melon, some Tomme de Savoie cheese and two quiches, which were delicious when we had them for lunch a bit later!

We then went for another walk around the town, enjoying the quiet streets, but saddened by the number of empty shops - it looks as if France hasn't recovered from the recession the way the UK has.  One of the things we saw was the house of Jean Cousin, a sculptor and painter who had been responsible for much of the Cathedral.

 There is a statue of him in the park which looks at first glance as if he is doing something Very Rude Indeed, but on closer inspection, he is just holding a paintbrush.

 We headed back to the hotel via the supermarket for a delicious lunch of quiche and salad, melon and the end of the strawberries.  Followed by a nap, at least for me - I don't know about the Swan Whisperer! Then I did some work, and after a cup of tea we set out again.

We drove up to Bray-sur-Seine, and then the SW said he fancied seeing Provins, so we started off in that direction, but ended up going to Coulommiers, in the hope of finding a factory making the eponymous cheese, which we love. Far from it - we didn't even see a cow! We thought the latter might be abundant in Brie, where we were, but not a bit of it. We did see some Charolais, but they are mostly beef. And for the most part it was arable, with oil wells!  And rainbows! So what do they make the cheese from?

We discussed heading into Paris for the evening, but decided it would be an expensive drive and an even more expensive dinner, so we didn't, but drove back to Provins, and then to Montereau-Faute-Yonne, where we had dinner. We wished we'd eaten in Provins, where there was a plethora of restaurants, and in Montereau there seemed not to be many, but we found a Chinese, which was lovely. And so back to the hotel for a final night.

May Holiday day 4: Fontainebleau in mixed weather!

The weather today has been very varied; the one constant is that it has been windy!  We decided to go to Fontainebleau, although we learnt that it would not be open for visiting today, being Tuesday, but we thought we might be able to look round the grounds and so on.  So we drove there, stopping at a random E Leclerc to get rid of breakfast coffee and to buy some strawberries, fresh milk and cherry tomatoes, and then again at Pont-sur-Yonne to look at the eponymous bridge.  Unfortunately the SW braked rather hard and I hit my finger against the door handle, which hurt and hurt!  It's okay now, but it was very stiff and sore for some hours, and I badly wanted an ice-pack for it.

The satnav, for once, let us down and stranded us in the middle of nowhere, but we finally found our way to Fontainebleau, and parked to see what we could see.  Unfortunately, I hadn't taken a cardigan with me, and although I had my coat, I got really chilled.  Plus two long walks in as many days meant I really didn't want another one, so I sadly went back to the car after taking a few photos, and let the Swan Whisperer get on with it. 

We drove around the town, seeing the Chateau from several different angles, and then moved on.  Google had recommended we visit the Loing valley, so we decided to do just that, and went to the town of Moret-sur-Loing, which was very pretty indeed.  And we saw where the Loing joined the Seine - the two rivers were different colours, which was interesting.

After which we drove down beside the river to Montigny-sur-Loing, stopping en route at a nature reserve where we had some lunch and where the Swan Whisperer went for a walk (again).  I read for a bit, and when he came back, so did he.  We then decided to drive down to Nemours and Montargis before heading home, and I'm sure it was a lovely drive, only I fell asleep and didn't wake up until it was time to reset the satnav at Montargis to take us back to the hotel.  But what I saw of it was lovely - a very pretty town.  Most French towns are pretty; it's such a shame they tend to have the hideous commercial centres on their outskirts (although very useful for a cheap meal or the loo, to say nothing of shopping). 

We are now back at the hotel, and plan to eat here later.  I had some work to do, although we decided not to hold our regular Tuesday meeting as two of us with slow Internets makes Skyping impossible!  So the SW has gone out for another walk.  We are not far from a TGV line, and it is rather fun to watch the trains.  One of the towns we went through had a huge goods yard, of the kind you simply don't see it in the UK any more, and we thought how much our Boy would have liked it!  Maybe when he is older, if he still loves trains....

May holiday day 3: Villeneuve-sur-Yonne in the sun

I suppose because most of the French had gone back to work today, the weather was absolutely glorious, a complete change from yesterday!  Bright sunshine and warm enough just to wear a t-shirt with no other layers.

We set off about 9:30, and our first stop was Carrefour again, this time to buy tissues (I have really bad hay fever this year, or maybe it's a cold, but I think hay fever), some plastic bags to nick food from breakfast in, and a 3-way adapter so we can have more than one thing at a time.  That done, we set off for a little village called Véron, just outside Sens, and home to FranceMotorhomeHire, a company which does exactly what it says on the tin, run by English people.  Who couldn't have been more friendly and helpful.  We explained that the Swan Whisperer had just retired and that we were looking to buy a motor home sooner or later, and they were very helpful as we discussed the pros and cons of having one registered in France and keeping it there, or in the UK and keeping it there.....  and what sort of vehicle we might want.  I like their basic vehicle, but would feel very daunted driving one.  We might hire one of theirs sometime to see what it is like.

Anyway, after that we drove down to Villeneuve-sur-Yonne, which was absolutely lovely - an old walled town by the (rather flooded) Yonne.  We stopped at the tourist office to ask about parking, and they kindly gave us a brochure about the town which described the best route to go and see the sights.  But I do wish we'd taken one in French - the English version had obviously been done by Google translate, and was, in parts,  utterly incomprehensible!  Which, I suppose, in some ways added to the enjoyment! 

We had a lovely walk round the town, and by the time we'd finished it was nearly lunchtime, so I suggested we drove up into the hills above the town, on the very minor roads shown on the atlas, where it looked as though there might be some nice places to stop.  And, indeed, there were.  The only snag was, when we found a nice parking space,  at the entrance to one of the forests the French are so good at, we also found we'd forgotten the bread!  So Plan B was put into action and we drove sadly back down into the town of Joigny to an Intermarché we had passed en route to buy bread, but as there was a bistro there, we decided to have lunch there, and to have a picnic meal this evening.  So we ate - I had an omelette, and stupidly ordered chips with it when I could have had salad or green beans, as the omelette itself had potato in it, and I couldn't finish the chips.  But it was very nice!  Potato and bacon, I think.  Anyway, we bought some bread, and some  yoghurt for supper pudding, and then had a very pleasant drive around the minor roads in the area, which is very hilly.  The main crops appear to be oilseed rape, barley and wheat, but there were vines on the hills above Joigny and Villeneuve-sur-Yonne.  And so back to the hotel, where I did some work, but the Internet connection is a bit flaky.  The Swan Whisperer has gone out for a walk, and I am catching up!

I have uploaded pictures to Facebook (having got a WiFi code for my phone to do so), but Google is being slow about knowing they are there, so I'm not posting any on here today.  

May holiday day 2: Sens in the rain.

Yesterday was a very wet day. It rained. All day. Until bedtime, when the skies cleared and there was a beautiful full moon.

However, we are not made of sugar, so after a late breakfast, we set out to see what we could see.  First of all, we went to the local Carrefour, which is open on Sunday mornings, to stock up on bread, cheese and sausage for lunch, and then we went off into the town. It was quite difficult to find a parking space, as most of the usual ones are taken up by the Fair, which I shall come to in a minute, but we finally found one just outside the Cathedral gardens, which were lovely (my phone isn't connected to WiFi just now, so I can't show you the photos; they will upload when next it is), and we wandered round them and round the Cathedral, and then went to explore the Fair, which was being held over the Bank Holiday weekend. If you look at a map of Sens, you will see that it had a ring road on the line of the old city walls, much of which appears to be a car park normally.  This was all covered with the Fair, which reminded me of the Ideal Home Show, but not so well organised into areas. Everything was on offer, from sweets to bathroom suites, via quad bikes, cranes and beauty creams!  Great fun, and a funfair round the north side.

We finally found the car again, and then came back to the hotel for a late lunch and, I regret to say, slept and read our way through the afternoon. We found a creperie in town to have supper at (very nice!), And then back for a relatively early night. With, as I said, clear skies and a full moon.

May holiday, day 1

As you will know if you are friends with me on Facebook or LiveJournal, the Swan Whisperer retired on Thursday, after over 37 years with the same company.  We had been going to go away next Thursday anyway, so I thought we had better go at once, and we are spending a few days in Sens before moving on to Troyes on Thursday. We set off at 11:00 am, and had a really quite easy journey, although it took a long time.  A picnic lunch on the train, and one stop for a leg-stretch, and we arrived at the hotel at about 19:25 local time, after a run that took us to the outskirts of Paris and round "Le Francilien" outer ring. The hotel restaurant isn't open at weekends, so we got back in the car and drove into Sens, and found a Buffalo Grill for dinner. And now back and full of steak and wine! Yum!

Up the A24

I had some shopping to do, including a trip to Lakeland, so decided to head to Wimbledon and shop my way back up the A24.  As Lakeland is in the Centre Court shopping centre, it ought to have made sense to go by train, but they were running slow due to an earlier incident, so it took me half an hour longer than it should have done to get there.  However, I arrived in the end, and my errand was swiftly done.

It's a long time since I have caught a bus from Wimbledon station to Merton Abbey Sainsbury's, but it hasn't changed!  Again, my shopping there was swiftly done, and I caught another bus up the road to Tooting Broadway to finish my shopping in Primark there.  When I'd done that, I found I had just missed both a 355 and a 155, so decided to have some lunch.  A random Indian restaurants (they are legion in that part of London) yielded a delicious mixed vegetable curry, a naan bread (I could only manage half) and a side salad for just over £5.00, well worth it (the curry tasted as good as it looked, and it looked delicious). 

Then I arrived at the bus stop just in time for a 155, which took me as far as Clapham Common.  I was very amused to notice that as we passed Tooting Bec and Balham, the shops got progressively posher and posher as we moved towards Clapham!  Even the chains, from Primark and Wilco in Tooting Broadway, to the huge Waitrose in Balham.....it was so noticeable as to be funny.  Clapham itself is full of restaurants, of course, and not many shops except Sainsbury's and the usual chains, but Clapham South is definitely Nappy Valley!

Scooters and buses and trains, oh my!

Today was nearly the last day of the Easter Holidays, so I said I would take the Boy out and we would have some fun together. 

I picked him up at 8:30 am from Brixton Station - well, as Brixton is rather impossible in the mornings these days, from across the road.  Our first port of call was Lidl, to pick up croissants, a pain au chocolat for Granda (aka the Swan Whisperer) and orange juice for a second breakfast.  Well, it was my first breakfast, but the Boy's second.  He then played here for awhile, and we set out about 10:30, just in time to see the Scissor Lift on its progression round the building to wherever it was wanted today - a very splendid machine.  "But it doesn't move very fast!"

Then we got a bus to Herne Hill Station and just caught a Thameslink train by the skin of our teeth, which took us to City Thameslink, where we got out.  We walked down Ludgate Hill and Fleet Street, until we got to the entrance to the Temple Inns of Court, which we explored a bit.  We couldn't look into the Church, because it was closed due to the Globe Theatre's production of King John there, but we enjoyed the Fountain:

We explored a little further and then ended up in the Gardens, by the eponymous Tube station, where I was intrigued by this plaque, and wondered whether Lady Henry Somerset was any kind of relation (only vaguely):

There is an exhibition about hospital troopships in World War I on HMS Wellington, moored opposite, but further exploration showed us it was only open on Sundays and Mondays so we came away and decided to look for Shaun the Sheep instead.  But we missed him, somehow, and as we were getting hungry, we went into the Prets by Waterloo Bridge to have lunch.  Then we used the facilities in Somerset House, and on the way out, we saw a no 1 bus at the stop, and decided to go wherever it took us.  This proved to be to Canada Water. 

The Boy nearly gave me a heart-attack by insisting on walking along a wall that got higher and higher, and I said he couldn't possibly get down on his own.  "Well, I'll try my easiest!" he said, but I lifted him down anyway, and have adopted that expression for my own use.  We were intrigued by an exhibition of tents, which led us into Decathlon, and I bought myself some T-shirts, and - er - accidentally bought The Boy a new scooter.  Well, it was only £13.99, it would have been rude not to!  And he has outgrown his mini-micro, and now he can ride a bike ("I'm nearly five!" he says, although his birthday isn't until the very end of the summer term) he was having no trouble at all with even the adult-sized scooters in the shop! 

We then got on a 188 to go back to his mother's offices at Senate House, but because of the disruption at Kingsway it terminated at Aldwych, and although we got on a 59, it took aaaaaages and aaaaaages to go round the diversion, and even the Boy's notorious love of buses was tried to the limit!  So when we got to Senate House, I needed a cup of tea with the Daughter before getting back on a 59 to get home.  I'd planned on getting off at Waterloo and going to IKnit, but it was getting late, and I was tired.  So it was fish and chips for supper.....