Le Grand Hotel 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 ...

... I love the smaller room with it's sloping roof and little window light, but nice to have a change).

It's been a week now and I'm trying to remember what we've done, um.... There was a lovely couple of days spent in the vegetable batch tying up and weeding the tomatoes. We had a Supervisor in the shape of a really funky looking yellow and black spider that sat on the leeks and kept us in line! Another day, I finished off filling ...

... 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.

... Amanda and it's really satisfying that we can see the progress now so I'll go away feeling like I helped and paid back their kindness in taking me in when I needed it. Jan and Amanda were talking about the current lack of organic farming in France (they garden the veg patch on broadly organic principles) but told me some really interesting things about the stringency of the inspection of farmers' crop rotation, that if a particular crop is planted in one field then ...

... way to Antogny le Tillac. I decide not to pursue that route. When studying old Eastern European History. I remember that when a person dies, they place the marker in the exact spot, because it is there his soul will rise to heaven. And that is where family and friends will come to pray and remember the person. I am not sure if it is the same here, but I said a prayer anyway. After paying my respect to the Cross marker on the side of the road, I find a way to turn around get back to ...

... it is what it is....." Being the Techno Geek I am, I have Map Point Euro on my laptop ! Yeah me ! So I pull out my laptop, reroute my original maps to include Poitiers and I am on my way ! I decide to take the back roads to see the country side, because I am on vacation and that's what I am going to do ! The great thing about Map Point ( Thank you Microsoft ! ) is that it also has all the hotels and restaurants in it just like a GPS. So I have no ...

... please my readers (yes, both of you!) and update this blog and give you some news. So, first and foremost, the French university system : hard to understand. Not only are some classes given by different profs at different time frames from one week to the next, but the content of the classes differs enormously from the American/Canadian academia. Let me explain to you what I mean. My first class, last Thursday, was that of "Body Image Psychopathology". I thought, "Great ...

... Nous sommes finalement parvenu à l'autre bout de ce labyrinthe cauchemardesque avec à peine 5 minutes qui restaient avant le départ du deuxième avion. Un p'tit peu plus, et on restait pris dans la Big Apple. Finalement, après un long vol inconfortable, comblé avec turbulences et enfants qui pleuraient et environ une heure de sommeil divisé en petits épisodes sporadiques de 10-15 minutes consécutives de somnolence, nous voici enfin en France, à Paris. Mais ça ne faisait que ...