Eleanor, day 8

Today we visited both Fontévraud Abbey and the Forteresse de Chinon. It is both possible and easy to do them both in one day, but I'd strongly suggest, if you do, doing then the other way round, as Fontévraud is marvellous and Chinon rather disappointing.

Instead of playing up the really fabulous architecture and telling us about the buildings and so on, they have a series of very dull films inside, about the various royals who lived there and only a very little about the building, and outside they have decided that King Arthur had links with the place so it is all about the Knights of the Round Table. As if! Everybody knows that was Winchester, where Alfred still waits to drop his sword in shock when a virgin walks by! And the Round Table is there and visible to all! Chinon, forsooth!

So we came away and went to the supermarket before coming to this camp site. We really didn't feel we had learnt anything from our visit, except perhaps that Joan of Arc came here, but that was all.

But Fontévraud, by contrast, was totally magical. The huge church, with the effigies of three of my many-times-great grandparents and Richard the Lionheart. 

The cloisters, the refectory, the dormitories... Many of the areas are used for concerts and so on, it's very well used. One cloister is used for conferences, and I think there was one going on.

What we hadn't known was that it had been, until 1963, a maximum security prison, and there was a lot about that, too.  One exhibition compared and contrasted the lives of the nuns and the prisoners. It was brilliant. And some pictures showed you what the area had been like when it was a prison, and how it had been restored. Fascinating. Definitively "worth the journey", as the guidebooks say, whereas Chinon, despite having been the seat of English government for the best part of a century, simply isn't.  One star - " interesting " at most.

Eleanor, Day 7

Gosh, is it really nearly a week since we set off - and in two weeks we will be home! But for now we are thoroughly enjoying ourselves, even if the gas igniter on the fridge has stopped. Oh well.

We were on electricity this morning, and had out showers on site - lovely and powerful. Then we went to the other side of the village to see our friends Josiane and Claude, whom we hadn't seen for far too long. After a lovely time with them, we headed on, firstly to the little supermarket in the village and then down the Loire to Saumur.

Of course, typical, most of the road that actually went beside the Loire was closed for road works, and we had to go inland a bit, but it was still a nice drive. We discovered, as we came into Saumur, that we needed diesel, and decided to buy more gas at the same time. The woman in the caisse couldn't have been more helpful, I don't know why people think the French aren't! So we have another big bottle of gas - now if only we could get the fridge to light....

We parked up by the Château de Saumur and had lunch, and then paid to go into the château.

There was a guide who told us all about its history and how Philippe Auguste stole it for France..... And then we went in and it was mostly a museum with furniture and so on. There was also a horse museum on site, and we looked at that - Saumur appears to be a major equestrian centre.

After a drink in the café, we came away and drove to Brézé to have a quick look at the château there, and so on to Fontévraud where we will spend the night and visit the Abbey tomorrow.

Eleanor, Day 6

Everything was working fine this morning! Mind you, we did wake up rather late - we had had a disturbed night with thunderstorms and so on. But once we had had breakfast, we set out to explore the Cathedral of Le Mans, and I'm so glad we did. We drove up, and the town is really lovely, even with traffic.

 The Cathedral itself is where Geoffrey of Anjou married the Empress Matilda all those years ago, and we think he is buried there, although we weren't sure whether we actually found his tomb.

Eleanor and Henry were frequent visitors, of course, and are mentioned in the panels talking of the history of the place.  I wish I had enough data to upload photos, but they'll go on Facebook as soon as I find some WiFi.

Then it was time to move on, and we stopped at a place called La Flèche to shop and have lunch, and then to Angers. We looked round the Cathedral there, but it was not as nice as the one at Le Mans, and then walked to the Castle but, disappointingly, although the town is definitely associated with Eleanor, the Castle is 100 years later.

So we came away and drove to Juigné-sur-Loire, where we are seeing friends tomorrow, and we are parked up in a vineyard, with electricity, showers and loos, and have had a wine-tasting and bought some wonderful white and rosé.

Eleanor, Day 5

It is not a plan to park up where a lighthouse is sending its beams every few seconds! I slept badly because of that, but fell asleep eventually to wake to a very wet morning and no hot water.   Turns out it needs more battery than we had available. So we ran the engine for a bit before we could have our showers. I think we will have to replace the leisure battery sooner, rather than later, as it simply isn't holding its charge.

So we left Barfleur in the rain and drove down to Caen, where we stopped to do some shopping and to have lunch in McDonald's and use their WiFi to upload photos, etc. Then a long motorway journey to Le Mans, where we now are. I fell asleep.

The rain was away when we got here, so after using the service point, we went out for a walk. Heartened by meeting another British couple who are moving to Portugal in their van, which seems every bit as temperamental as ours - we thought the fridge wouldn't turn on to run on gas, but it had!

One always thinks of Le Mans in terms of the eponymous motor race, but of course it is an essential stop on any Eleanor tour. We were too late to go into the Cathedral, but we explored the old town, known as the Cité Plantagenet, and had a wonderful walk.   All dating back to Plantagenet times. There is even a street named for Queen Berengaria, and a museum about her,

but sadly not open until tomorrow afternoon, when we shall have moved on if we want to see anything of Angers.

And so back to the van and fresh ravioli and a cherry tomato, basil, garlic and parmesan sauce, very delicious. 

Eleanor, Day 4

By dint of conservative management, our batteries lasted until this morning, and then charged up quickly.

Today we managed to set off in reasonable time from Falaise,  and arrived in Cherbourg in time for lunch. There was supposed to be a guided walk from the Tourist Office at 14:30, but when we got there, no sign of anything, so I suppose we should have booked. And although there were services on the car park, the hose wouldn't fit on their tap. So we headed off, stopping at St-Père-l'Eglise to use their services, only to find they were out of use. Oh well, we think we've enough water to do us.

We arrived at Barfleur, and found the motor home park at the second try. Very nice, in front of the sea wall, with a view of the lighthouse.

After a cup of tea, the SW went for a walk, and I tried to read, but fell asleep instead!  We then walked into town along the sea wall, and found a restaurant was open that would give us supper. I had cod in a lovely sauce, followed by nougat glacé, my favourite, and he had a galette au tartiflette, followed by an ice. And we shared a pichet of very nice white wine.

What I had forgotten was that Barfleur was where the White Ship had embarked from, and it must have been wrecked about opposite where we are parked!

Then back to the van just as the rain started!

Eleanor, Day 3

We had a nasty shock last night - I was already in bed, having retired there shortly after dinner, but the Swan Whisperer was reading in the main section, when all the lights went out. For some reason, although we were on mains electricity, the batteries were not charging!  And when we set off this morning they did not appear to be charging either from the solar panel or from the engine. We stopped and the SW fiddled about a bit and that seems to have done the trick, but very annoying at the start of a holiday. I shan't be impressed if we have to drive 30 miles before I can have my shower - I had it in the camp site this morning, but not very enjoyable!

Anyway, I firmly told the Satnav that we did not want to go on motorways today, and it sent us on such a pretty route through some beautiful Norman villages ("Why, " asked the SW, "is there never any parking where one would like to stop, and plenty when one doesn't?") and across arable land, and orchards heavy with apples...

We arrived in Falaise and have parked up in what is technically a supermarket car park, but in fact is away from the actual supermarket, and in a little park, very pleasant. After lunch I did a quick shop and then had a nap while the SW went for a walk, then we both walked into the town to see the famous castle where William the Bastard was born and it all began.

We didn't pay to go in, but pottered about the outside, taking lots of photos of the keep and the walls and the gardens. Then we bought a postcard for the Boys (I must buy a stamp on Monday), and headed back, stopping to look at Holy Trinity Church, the oldest in the town, and to buy some clementines en route back to the van.

I have peeled potatoes before it got to dark to see, and soon we will have the end of yesterday's chicken with mash and courgettes.

Hope to find some WiFi soon to upload masses of photos from the last two days.

Eleanor, Day 2

Things that don't go as planned. I quite thought that we would be spending tonight in Rouen, in a car park by the banks of the Seine. But the Swan Whisperer said, could we visit the Château Gaillard, about 30 miles SW of Rouen. So I asked the Satnav to take us there.

But it was the first day of the holidays, and even though the SW has retired, he always gets sleepy, so after a long break for lunch at Baie de Somme (not very far, but we set off quite late and the van isn't the fastest vehicle on the road),

we had to have another an hour later, and by the time we got to Rouen it was nearly 4:30, and we got caught in rush hour traffic, and then the satnav and I had a misunderstanding about tolls, so what with one thing and another, we didn't get to the Château Gaillard until about 6:30.  But it was worth the journey.

Really spectacular.  And there was a camp site at the foot of the cliff, just by the river, so this is where we are spending the night. We may or may not go through Rouen on our way to Falaise, which is on tomorrow's agenda.

Meanwhile I have cooked chicken and rice for dinner, which was very nice, and there is wine. All good!