Hotel de l'Europe Poitiers

... but after that I started getting a bit stir-crazy. Getting lost on a bike ride to the nearby village (I wouldn't even count it as a town) and finding my way back five minutes before a thunderstorm didn't help.
Anyway, I'm glad I came out here and got an opportunity to paint and try new wines and cheeses. If you ever need time to relax, there's nothing like going out to the middle of a beautiful French nowhere.

... around the pool in the sunshine for a week, until the weather changed and became more autumnal. Helene left us after a fez days, and we stayed on our own in coussay whilst papa, maman and granny went back to Thouars. It's nearly the end now, only one more stage until we come back home!

Moby is running well. We stopped slightly further south than originally intended as we decided to spend Wednesday at Futuroscope. I might be doing (and most probably am) the French a complete disservice by suggesting that some years back, some brainstorming went on as to how to attract tourists to this part of France as this is just the middle of France with not much going on in the way of wine or river setting. Futuroscope was the result.
As you approach on the A10 you catch a ...

... relief. We celebrated with more biscuits and more water and Sooty declared option A the right choice after all. Following this we could enjoy the walk, with frequent breaks for water, biscuits and, in my case, blackberries and my concerns about exactly what state she'd be in when I got her home were eased. So, it was a lovely walk in the end.

Tomorrow we have another day off (2 a week here, woohoo) and Douglas is going to drop us ...

... and found another free camping spot. However, this place wasn't so luxurious. In fact as we were going to bed some french kids started drinking on a bench a few yards away. Olly had a go at some manly stuff and tried his hand at fishing. Need I say he failed. Fish don't like pain au chocolat. But on the plus side we saw a frog the size of a puppy.

... lost in the city centre. Then it started raining so much you could barely see.

30 miles down the road it was still raining and we pulled into a shopping complex for some food. Then the sun came out, our hangovers were gone, and we started cooking. . . . just sitting outside the shop on the ground on the edge of the car park. Every other car beeped at us in confusion. Can't a man just cook himself a meal! I ...

... of Chasseneuil-du-Poitou and Jaunay-Clan." So I am off again to my next adventure! Pull out Map Point Euro and reroute again. I decided to visit Amboise Castle first. From what I remember on the internet, it is quite large and a major attraction. It seems fairly easy to find. On my way...... Once again, I decide to take the country side roads, so instead of getting on the A10, I opt for the N10 (also known as the Route de Paris ). Looks like a major road, it is just not as major ...

... So if I wanted to go to France I had to purchase another ticket ! Which I did, because France was a big part of my vacation and I had prepaid the hotel in Paris and had Hertz Rental Car reservations with a GPS ! The issue here was that that did not have any more flights to Tours, France, which was my original destination. The closest they could get me was Poitiers, France, which was about 60 miles south of my original destination. So I said OK, because I ...

... et c'est incroyablement difficile de le suivre. Et bien sûr, étant donné que les Français aiment bien Freud (à l'instar des université canadiennes, où on fait bien sûr de nous expliquer en fonds et combles pourquoi ses théories, quoique "cute", ne sont pas valides), l'image de notre corps n'est qu'à la base un sac, et on réussit jamais à s'approprier le sac d'autrui, sauf lors de la jouissance sexuelle... assez dit! Je vous épargnerai le reste! C'est tellement Freudien de ...

... pourquoi l'autre jour un vieux monsieur avait passé une heure à arracher des morceaux de terre pour rien. Tania a remarqué ce matin qu'il y avait une petite statuette de la Sainte Vierge au dessus de la porte d'entrée de ma résidence avec "Hôpital des pauvres incurables 1748" gravé au dessous. Hier soir, les anglais et l'américain m'ont invité à aller à un bar de karaoké avec eux. C'est tellement mignon quand les français chantent en anglais. "She iz ze girl of ...