The Re-emerging River

On one of our little trips in the country (this time with Niall and Antoinette) we visited a little chapel at Plaincourault, south of Angles sur Anglin. On the way back we stopped near Merigny to look at a weird thing.

Part of the Anglin river disappears underground south of Merigny, and rejoins north of the village. I'm not sure where exactly it leaves the main body of the river (and I am not sure anybody else is, either).

It was always thought that the water entering the river was a spring, but coloured dye testing proves that at least part of the water  comes from the river upstream. The underground river was discovered by a caving group investigating the grotte de la Roche Noire (marked in red on the above map) in 1967. The full course of the river hasn't been mapped, because the cave has collapsed in places.

The spot where the water re-enters the river is far more obvious, and very picturesque. The water flows from under a small cliff into a pond, formed to stop the water eroding the far bank of the river.

Un Galopin

At the end of a very hot 10km walk the other day we all repaired to the bar in Barrou. Simon and I had Perrier Fines Bulles (small bubbles), Pauline had a demi-pêche (a beer with peach syrup), Jim had a panaché (shandy) and Dominique ordered a galopin.

I'd never heard of a galopin in this context before so I quizzed her as to what it was. She described it as a demi-demi ie half a half. Meaning it was 125 ml or an eighth of a litre. Beer from the tap normally comes in half litre glasses and are known as chopes. A demi is 250 ml. The closest Australian equivalent to a galopin would be a pony.

************************************************

For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. 

Camping at Mount Moffatt

One of the first holidays Susan and I took together was camping at Mount Moffatt Natioanl Park in Central Queensland. I can't remember why we decided on Mount Moffatt. Nor can I remember why camping. Although I guess once Mount Moffatt had been chosen, camping was the only option.

We drove there in my Datsun Ute (king cab version, no less) that I had wired to accept Susan's father's car fridge, filled with our new sleeping bags and my 20 (at least) year old tent that had done sterling service all through my 20's. We spent the first night in a mobile home on a campsite in Roma because of storms, and the next day drove to the National Park via Mitchell and the Womblebank Road, an eight hour drive on 300km of mainly very rutted and corrugated dirt roads.

 

 Camping in Longreach a week later.

Apart from the roughness of the roads the main thing I remember from the trip was seeing what can only be described as a flock of about 20 Wedgetail Eagles descending on a kangaroo carcass somewhere near Womblebank.

That's not a road, that's a river. The roads weren't that smooth

Mount Moffatt National Park is part of the 3,000 square km Canarvon Gorge National Park, and has a long history of Aboriginal occupation. We only staryed there 3 nights, and in that time we saw no-one, although we did see someone's caravan at a second campsite. I don't think we saw much wildlife, either, apart from lots of dead 'roos, and some fish in an almost dried up rock pool.

Two Familiar Orchids in the Alps

Going up in the funicular to the botanical gardens in Davos I was catching glimpses of wild orchids in the grass. They looked awfully familiar, and once we got to the top and were strolling around in the gardens, I could see they were two species that we get here in the Touraine.

Common Spotted Orchid Dactylorhiza fuchsii.

Common Spotted Orchid.

Fragrant Orchid Gymnadenia conopsea.

************************************************

For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. 

Walking Around Barrou

The weather for the first walking club outing of the new season was very warm, with low slung glaring sun for most of it. We walked from the village of Barrou on the Creuse River.

Uphill right from the start.

An old building in a tiny farming hamlet.

Charming house.

A very fit looking saddle horse interacting with Jean-Jacques. 

The horse is no doubt admiring Jean-Jacques handsome new facial hair arrangements.

By this stage of the walk I was really struggling. Thankfully, the horse lives opposite friends John and Maureen. I nipped in for a top up to my water bottle.

Two big barns in the countryside.

By the time I had reached the barns I needed to lie down in the shade for ten minutes. Fortunately that allowed me to recover sufficiently to finish the walk.

Walkers enjoying scrumped Chasselas grapes.

Harvesting sunflowers.

The hamlet of la Coue in the distance.

A duck weed covered garden pond.

Beatrice walking up yet another hill (but at least it's in the shade).

The back of a house in Barrou, with external staircase tower.

Jim, who was also on the walk, has published his account of the walk on his blog Loire Valley Experiences.

************************************************

For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. 

Le Garage, Saint Jean de Luz

The bar.

After dinner one night when we were on holiday in Saint Jean de Luz we were walking back to our appartment -- and discovered the really happening place in town, packed with locals and really buzzing.

Some of the food stands.

It's called le Garage and it seems it has become a bit of an institution in the relatively few years it's been open. The premises is an old Renault garage from the 1950s, centrally located, and the concept is a central bar, pop-up food stands, a makeshift stage for live performances and a decor referencing the building's former life.

The menu at the burger stand -- the burgers contain steak, cheese, pancetta made from local pork, ox heart tomatoes, rocket, red onions and a secret homemade tomato sauce.

It's only open for the summer months, every day from from 6.30pm to 2am, and to access the delicious local Basque food and drink available you buy a prepayment card or load an app called Fetakutx to your smart phone. You can load it with credit then use the card or phone to buy your drinks, snacks and meals. Neither the bar nor any of the food stands accept cash.

The decor reflects the building's past life.

When the previous mechanics workshop closed in 2005 the building was going to be demolished. But somehow it never happened and in 2015 it was transformed into what you see today. For the locals it has the feel of a much loved concept, la guinguette, an informal semi-outdoor space for conviviality, dancing, drinking and relaxing with friends.

Empties on a barrel 'table'.

The night we were there they were raffling a car. This is where we saw the Thai rolled ice cream being made too.

You pay a one euro deposit for a glass and keep it all night.

The entrance to the toilets.

************************************************

For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. 

Bayonne Looks Nice

Recently we caught the train from Saint-Jean-de-Luz to Bordeaux. It goes through Bayonne, the ninth largest port in France.

In the 15th century, when Ferdinand and Isabella expelled everyone who wasn't white and Christian from Spain the city received many Jewish refugees. One of the very good things they brought was chocolate.

Culturally Bayonne is a mix of Basque and Gascon. Several things are named after the city, for example, hunting knives attached to muskets by local peasants are the origin of 'bayonet'. The name of the city seems to have been corrupted to form the word 'mayonnaise' too.

They make very nice air dried ham in the vicinity and the paprika like spice espelette is grown here. It has the oldest tradition of bullfighting in France, and not far out of town we passed a field full of small black bulls with silver tips on their horns. 

************************************************

For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. 

World Aerobatics Championship

We've written about Chateauroux Airport before, so imagine our surprise when we discovered that it was to be the venue for this year's World Aerobatics Championship. We found out through a former client of ours whose husband is a member of the USA team. We were away working when the competition (and the final day airshow) was on, but we went along on an open day earlier in the week.

I was excited to see a Lockheed Shooting Star flying.

This is the Canadian CT-133 Silver Star version.

The plane is derived from the first American jet fighter, the  P-80 Shooting Star of 1944.

Are we sure that's the right way up?

Visualising the moves.

Antonov An-2 biplane - still in service in many parts of the world, built until 2001.

A Douglas DC-3 (Dakota) This plane took part in the Normandy invasion,

then saw service with Air France (more here).

Guided tours were being given of the DC-3 I was interested to see it had both a

perspex dome (for celestial navigation using a sextant) and modern GPS based navigation.

L’Alpha Electro - a fully electric light plane.

Because we went while it was all being set up we didn't get the full effect, but there was plenty to see (and do). Here's a full list of the historic aircraft that were on display on the final day.

Ice Cream Frenzy

While we were on holiday in Saint Jean de Luz we spent a fascinated ten minutes or so watching some ice cream makers perform.

They were equipped with frozen metal plates which they loaded up with fresh fruit at the customer's request. After frenetically chopping the fruit to a puree a swirl of sweetened cream was added. More mixing, scraping, chopping and spreading ensued. Finally the ice cream was spread out thin then scraped up into four or five curls. These were deposited in a cup, whipped cream squirted over the gaps and the customer's selection of lollies (candies, sweets, bonbons) sprinkled over.

I'm not quite sure how this sort of performance snack ever makes money. It takes a long time to hand over each completed ice cream creation so relatively few customers are served. The price reflects the fact that customers are paying for the performance and time taken more than the value of the ingredients and many people will be put off by how expensive they seem.

We probably would have tried one each, except that we only discovered the place while walking back to our apartment after dinner. Apparently it's called Thai rolled ice cream.

************************************************

For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. 

The Palm Beach Ferry

Until we visited Sydney in 2017, something I had never done (despite spending many weekends in the area in my 20s) was catch the Palm Beach Ferry. The ferry connects Palm Beach (unsurprisingly) in the very north of Sydney, and the area south of Newcastle. It's an attractive ferry ride, which crosses four water bodies: Pittswater, the Hawkesbury River, Broken Bay and Brisbane Water.

Taken from Google Maps

As my Father lives near Ettalong Beach and there is a bus which runs between Palm Beach and outside the apartment we stayed in, in Manly, it made sense to use the service for a direct (if slighly long winded) commute. Because, of course, the bus and ferry timetables don't co-ordinate. Most of the time we caught the train from Woy Woy to Sydney then the Manly Ferry, but Palm Beach made a nice change.

You can see how narrow the channel in Brisbane Water is - and how shallow

From left to right: the Pacific Ocean, Barrenjoey Heads, Pittswater, and Lion Island

There are some really pretty views when the sun is out, and when the weather is less than optimal (surprisingly not uncommon in Sydney in summer) it can feel like an adventure. We crossed under both conditions, the following video is of the second, less sunny crossing. I am amazed at how steady I managed to keep my camera.

************************************

We have redesigned the blog. We hope it wasn't too alarming a change.

A Busy Week in Various Places

We have been busy: we had 4 days working with a tour group from Australia, accompanying them on their bus from Paris to San Sebastian-Donostia in Spain. After that we returned to France, spending 4 days in and around Saint Jean de Luz.

Here's an overview - there will be blogs about some of the things we did coming along (in time).

We stayed on the  Île Saint-Louis in Paris. This was our near neighbour.

We would love to return to San Sebastian-Donostia.

Saint Jean de Luz is excellent as well - we will combine San Sebastian and St Jean in a holiday.

************************************************

For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. 

The Loire Valley Time Travel poster campaign

It has been ages since we mentioned it (9 years!!) but we would really appreciate it if anyone who enjoys this blog put up one of our posters at their place of work, social club or sports club.

This is our poster for Australia

Our poster for North American readers is here. (Same poster, different phone number)

Once the poster has opened in a new window right click on the image, "save image as" and download to your computer. You can then print the image using your computer's print program.

We would also really appreciate it if you could share the image or post this: https://tourtheloire.com on your social media.

************************************************

For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos.