849-850  – Thursday 28th – Friday 29th September 2017:  E-Bikes Outing and Welshies

Wednesday saw us in a France Passion – eggs bought and then all day driving to Meung sur Loire aire for 2 nights  to sleep under autumn leaves falling…. the town beckoned – as did a glass of vin blanc…

A first e-bike ride with Os-car- a test? Mega thanks to Kay (and Stephen) for suggesting covering the Os-car with something to reduce his visibilty – and barking – hey, it worked !!! I didn’t bark at all ! Neither did Oscar…..Lunch and sedatecycling back to Jez. Some issues with the bikes were sorted by phone back to Brizzle. 

Matching orange towel to block his forward view to match the Os-car (and his lead and harness!) 

One of our new Kalkhoff bikes.

Set lunch was a beautifully cooked piece of tuna with lots of veggies including a stack of wafer thin fried courgettes – yum!

On evening number 1 a French chap approached us saying “Welsh!”.  Now James is Irish and I’m English.  He could only be talking about Oscar.  He was, and he had 2 Welshies – a mother and daughter.  He brought them over the next evening to be introduced.  Taking pix was not easy as they wouldn’t stay still and not even all at once for treats.  He told us that there are only 60 bred a year in France.  I later googled that UK numbers are dropping and a couple of years ago it was only 300.  Oscar – you’re a rare species!

He wouldn’t let us keep even one of them!

 

851-855 – Saturday 30th Sept – Wednesday 4th October:  With Aged P’s

Cosgne sur Loire campsite – and the “Aged Ps” arrival to their chalet on site… They are not aged – but like fine wine, they are pickled – whoops, young…..  some imbibing took place.  It works well with Diane and Grahame renting luxury “huts” on our selected campsites around Europe…

Sunday, we discombobulated into town and had coffee – and the boys had Sancerre wine with croissants!  A large market was in full swing with a lot of local produce including crottins of goat cheese … we did not buy as we had our own little cheese store at home already..

Bourges on Monday – lovely cathedral (St Etienne) – gorgeous stained glass windows – and ? Lunch…… SkodaJane SatNav went a bit AWOL but we declined her invitation to drive across ploughed fields…

Tuesday witnessed an outbreak of “degustation” – a rare condition normally treated with care and wallet locks – it didn’t work this time. Although we watched the Aged P’s make several purchases fr themselves and on behalf of K’s sister and husband … not sure Clare and Chris had provided a budget, but they seemed happy enough.   

Sancere on Tuesday – Diane and Grahame went at the wine tasting with gusto and why not? We kept our respective bottoms up too…  The annual Rothbury AGM/staff lunch was duly called to order – and order we did – wine and good grub. 

One degustation offered a small cinema with chairs that mimicked the movement of ground in the vineyards and squirted water at us!!!  Oscar was not impressed and I took him out – with more gusto… 

Pm – Diane died K’s hair – played crib (victory spoils to Diane) – Grahame and I read and looked intelligent. The evening brought more cheese and a robust quantity of vino en Francaise… 

 

Bourges was a really pretty town … nice to just wander and quiet being Monday, so all the shops were shut.

The cathedral’s front entrance has been partially cleaned, but it really shows off the intricate carvings …

… imagination running riot.

Unearthed late C18, the original clacker on the left was used during Maundy to call people to worship as the bells had to be silence.  A similar principal and sound to the football supporters make with a rattle.

The glass was varied in styles and truly stunning.

On the side of the gothic Palais Jacques Coeur … looks like the figures had had a row.

Just outside the only restaurant we found that was open.  It had only just opened when we went in and soon filled up with tourists and locals.  Surely it would be worth other restaurants opening on a Monday too?

Sancerre:  It is on a rise and is visible from quite a way.  At the Museum of wine we learnt that the Sancerre wine comes from quite a large area, and Sancerre town is right at the southern part of it.

Staff lunch.  J would keep calling it the Director’s lunch, but I had to put him right.  If the Aged P’s think they’ve been promoted to Directors they might start expecting voting rights!  The food was nothing special but the views and the service were….

… and the cheese board was rather special, especially as he loaded our plates  🙂  We got to taste a mature Crottin of Chavigny, a local DOC … nice but prefer others.

A wine tasting in the only natural underground cave in Sancerre and some more Aged P’s purchases.  Hardly room for Oscar in their car boot!

Looking up to Sancerrre.