May holiday days 7 and 8: Bulles de Troyes

Yesterday morning, after breakfast, we went for a walk round the town, enjoying the sights and the half-timbered buildings.

Then we went back to the hotel to change into skating kit and have practice ice before a late lunch. After a short rest, it was time to get ready to go to the free champagne tasting, but the minibus was full so we got the address from the driver and went off with a carload of friends.  The satnav found the place very easily, but being France, it was a matter of "hurry up and wait".  However, we were let in at last and told all about how they make champagne, and finally we got to taste the delicious fluid.  However, after two samples, I had had enough, and the noise was getting to me, so I went and sat in the car and fell so sound asleep I was confused when I woke!  Meanwhile the draw was going on, and the SW drew us to skate last, which was great.

We went back to Troyes with our very tired friends, who had driven from Guildford that day, and ate a fairly quick meal with them in the local Hippopotamus, before a quiet evening.

This morning, after breakfast it was time to get ready for our competition, which went very well. I haven't been able to stress about it at all, and although we made a couple of silly mistakes, on the whole we skated well and were delighted with our Bronze medals. The rest of the day was spent watching our friends skate, and cheering on Team GB.

 

And then off to the gala dinner, which was delicious, but finished late!  And so to bed, with a whole day left before we head home.

May Holiday Day 6: And so to Troyes

We had to leave the hotel by 11:00, and the Ibis in Troyes wouldn't have wanted us before noon, so we didn't hurry, and, once we had packed, just read for a bit until it was time to go. A last trip to the supermarket, and a fill of petrol, and we were off, driving cross-country and avoiding the motorway.  The journey didn't take long, and the satnav delivered us to the hotel with no problems.

First order of the day was lunch, then I had a nap and the SW went out to see what he could see. Then he came back and we had a cup of tea, and then we discovered that neither of our laptops wanted to connect to the Internet here, although our tablets and phones didn't have a problem.  Oh well.  Quick email to my boss to explain, and then we went out; first to the rink - just round the corner - to register and pay, and the usual wondering why there were two skaters with the same name from the same club, and was this right?  It is right, and can be confusing although they shorten their names differently, so it's only a problem at comps.  Then a walk to look at some of the sights of the town, including the Seine, and a quick drop into Monoprix for some shower gel I wanted. The SW has seen a restaurant earlier that he thought looked nice and within our budget, so we went there and it was!

And then back to the hotel and we are watching "The Great Escape" on French TV before the election results (no, we are not going to sit up all night).

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!