Month: September 2019

Ok two major cities we have visited recently, Bordeaux & La Rochelle. Bordeaux was first, on Sunday. We first dropped Dad off at the airport for a business trip, and then went into the city. It took us a good hour to get into the city and then we went along the estuary front, and saw a large cruise ship along the the docks. We drove down until we saw parking, which was right next to a massive skatepark that was buzzing with BMX’s, scooters, skateboards, and roller-skates. There was one guy inperticular that was on a BMX that was really good, he would go up the hill, and get 5 feet of air, swirl his bike around, and landed going. Another scooterist went up the hill at speed and did a flip!! One other thing I noticed is that they had strong knee pads, one even crashed and slid down the hill and was no worse for wear. After watching the skaters for a while we moved on to the market and strolled through it several times. It was nice, but nothing special. I had to go to the toilet then so we headed to a toilet a few minutes away it was weird, it sang to me while I was in there and I stuck my hands in a slot and it squirted water, soap, water, and HOT air in that order. Next we headed away from the water, down a shopping street, but none of us enjoy shopping much, so we headed away and to a quiet triangle an got bio (Organic) ice-cream. I got cassis, (blackcurrant), Nate got Framboise,(Raspberry) Ben got gingembre,( ginger) and Mom got Citron et basilic.(Lemon and basil). They were all really good and rich. Then we headed back to the car after getting cold water at a small grocery store.

LA ROCHELLE

In La Rochelle we went to a aquarium first, for 3 1/2 hours.

First was a room that looked like a really old submarine, that shook, and then doors opened. A tunnel of jelly fish was first. (Why does it seem that aquariums always have a jellyfish tunnel) They were moon jellys.

Then the cuttlefish. Have I mentioned that cuttlefish are my favorite animal? I got a really good photo too.

It looks so good with two of its tentacles up and ready to strike! There were a bunch of other exhibits in that area that were also cool.

The next ‘room’ had an octopus and sturgeons and several other things. I loved the octopuses!

We continued our visit with going by a large tank of many fish.

Then shark tank Jr.

Then more fish, moving toward the Caribbean section.

Then the SHARK tank. It was BIG. 1 250 000 litres!!

Then bioluminescence.

And jellyfish.

Mangroves.

That covers it all I think.

A week and a half after we arrived at Chevanceaux, my mum and dad came to visit for a week. They flew into Bordeaux airport and I drove down with the kids to pick them up.

The first few days the weather was still really hot, so we didn’t do a lot. There was pool time, grocery shopping, chilled pineau and wine, barbecued dinners eaten outside.

On Saturday we decided to get out and see something, so we drove to Blaye, on the coast of the Gironde estuary. There’s a fort there, and on Saturday afternoon there was a market. We wandered around a bit, explored the fort, and ran across rehearsals for some sort of Three Musketeers production with full costumes, horses, and sword-fighting. It was fun to sit and watch for a while. I couldn’t understand much of what they were saying, but then I’m not sure I would’ve been able to make it out even if it was English!

Eric and I were able to go out for dinner on Saturday evening, to the local restaurant. It was interesting, the food and wine were good (and the company of course!), but I was surprised how very large the portions were and I was rather uncomfortably full on the walk home.

The weather really cooled down on Sunday. On Monday we visited Jonzac, one of the bigger local towns. It has a chateau, and was a nice place to walk around for a bit, but on a Monday lots of things were closed and it felt a bit deserted. We walked down a long medieval alley which seemed to go on and on and on, under buildings and around corners. Apparently it was one of the only ways into the city itself, apart from the gates, and it was useful because it was easy to defend, with so many twists and turns where it could be blocked off.

The last day of their visit was pretty rainy, and they encouraged me to go to the local coffee shop with them in an effort to interact more in French. I’ve been generally disappointed with how much speaking practice I’m getting, but part of that is not getting myself out there and into situations that require it. I really will have to try harder.

We visited another lake, further inland, colder and deeper and we all went swimming but much shorter dips! Eric rode there and we drove home together. Beautifully forested surroundings.

My mum and dad came to stay for a week and we sampled the local pineau (brandy/wine mixture), visited Blaye on the Gironde estuary and wandered around the citadel. We came across some Musketeer-era costumed actors, rehearsing something, complete with sword fights. That was fun!

We also visited the local town of Jonzac, with the longest meandering medieval alley I’ve ever walked down. It turns into tunnels under buildings several times. Interesting history – it was the only access to the town outside of the gate and all the curves made it easier to block in case of attack. 

After the first couple of weeks of intense heat, it cooled down and we had some crazy rain. Before that hit, the farmers were all out harvesting their dead sunflowers. They looked quite sad before they were gone, but it’s just a season. 

I’ve been out for a couple of runs (first time since January!) and finally got out for a bike ride too. The roads are tiny and beautiful and really quiet.  

And apart from that, we’re doing schoolwork and working and planning our next stops! One night in Paris in a couple of weeks and two weeks in Portugal from mid October. 

On the 27/9/19 we went to a apple farm and got I think like 25 apples? Anyhoo we all ate one. We all tried each others and they were all really good. (Between you and me I by far liked Tim’s the most.) We also got apple cider that is really good as well. Ohh I almost forgot (Thank you Tim for reminding me) we also got ARTICHOKES at an APPLE store we also saw grapes and plums and WINE and almonds still in shells and grapefruit and crystallized ginger. Over all it was really nice and I wish we were able to stay there longer because the smell was nice.

So recently my Grandparents came over for a visit for a week. For the first several days it was low 30s and then a nice comfy mid 20s. It was loads of fun having them here and got to see a called Jonzac with them. It was a ok town, but I thought it was drab and dead. I believe I phrased it on the day “It is like a old town that adapted badly to tech and then was abandoned.” It was mostly like that, except for one little medieval street that winded through town, called ‘Rue de Champanac’ It was a tiny little winding street that was sometimes nearly a tunnel that I really liked. And it was long to, maybe 1km long. Other than that we swum in the pool, went for walks and did (shudder) schoolwork! Today, the 27/9/19 we went again to Jonzac and got apples. There was a very large apple farm just outside Jonzac and we got, like, 3kg for 6.80 euro. They were really good to. We went to the town of Jonzac again afterward and went down Rue de Champanac again. Great last few weeks!
Tim

Recently we went to Blaye, a fortified city which gave me the idea to make a Minecraft fort. The citadell was AMAZING!!!!!!!!!  We also went to Guedelon a 13th century tech castle that they have been building for the last 22 YEARS and expect to be building it for another 6 years.

At the beginning of our third week, we drove southwest from Les Bordes to our first long stay in Chevanceaux, a small village about 45 minutes north of Bordeaux. This marked the end of vacation, and our first attempt at living “normal life” in a different place. That meant back to work for Eric, back to homeschool for the boys, and starting studying for me (even though my course doesn’t officially start until 5th Oct, I was determined to get an early start, build it into my routine, and try to stay ahead in case of issues later).

It was a cooler drive this time, but we still seem to take about 50% longer than Google maps suggests. This is partly due to stops for food and toilet breaks, and partly due to going slower than the speed limit because we’re towing a trailer. It was warm when we arrived and the kids got straight into the pool.

The house is a converted stone barn, with 3 bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs and another bedroom and bathroom downstairs, so we have plenty of space. We have a private garden area too, with a big patio table and a barbecue. The pool is shared with a couple of other houses. It was really hot the first couple of weeks, but the pool was having some issues and getting greener by the day, so we couldn’t use it for a while. Once it was fixed (thanks to the great efforts of the neighbour), the kids spent a lot of time in it while the weather remained in the 30s. And the temperature was never really an issue in the house — those thick stone walls keep it nice and cool!

Chevanceaux is a village right by a motorway, with a couple of bakeries, a small grocery store, a pub/coffee shop and other amenities. Ben has been quite determined to get up every morning and walk into town for bread and croissants or pain au chocolat. (Even on our holiday weeks, he’s been waking up early for this! No teen sleeping in on holidays here!) We have to drive about 15-20 minutes to get to a bigger grocery store though. There are several in different directions, so we get a bit of a tour of the countryside on our way. There are dead sunflowers (it’s the end of the season), cornfields, and vines everywhere you look, so it’s a pretty drive no matter which store we go to.

At the end of our road is a voie verte — a railway grade converted into a bike/walking path. On our first day here we all went on a bike ride up the voie verte, about 15km north to Reignac and back the same way. It was nice not to have to worry about traffic, but it was extremely bumpy in places, with tree roots growing under the path.

Hello friends old and new. Man so much has happened since we left cold, rainy Ireland. From swimming to eating, from eating to castle touring, from castle touring to electric scootering, from electric scootering to biking, from biking to eating pizza at a pizza vending machine that dispenses really good pizza. Ok I’ll start from the top down.

My Swimming Schedule

Week 1

Much swimming every day. All three pools lovely 1 pool for heat, 1 pool for swimming laps, 1 pool for all around fun. Rating 9/10

Week 2

No pool for a week. Rating 0/10 🙁

Week 3- 5

Small personal pool. At the start your average lake looked nicer. But it is better now, crystal clear. Lovely pool. Rating 8/10

As you can see lots of pools.

Castle no I’m sorry Chateau touring has also has been a large part of the month so far. We went and saw the Chateau of Rohan (Has Tolkien been there?) in our first week and spent a whole day at Guedelon in our second. Our second week was in a small town in the loire valley near Sully sur loire. you could not travel down a street for five minutes before seeing a Chateau. So many Chateaus!! Here in our long stay near Bordeaux we have only seen one Chateau ( jaw drops with horror)!!

At our stay in Carnac I noticed that the leaflet said that the campsite was a great place to hover board and electric scooter. I thought it was weird that they would say that if they did not rent them out. And I was half right. I asked at reception about it, and he said that they were rented out every night between 6-8 pm infront of the bar. I went down at 6 and there were loads of electric scooters, but no hover boards. 🙁 So I came back the next day and there was still only electric scooters. I kind of wanted one though so I shared the price with Nate. We got it for 24 hours and it was fun. it had a super big battery and we got to ride it all day I would estimate that it could go 30km/h I liked the speed, but I loved the acceleration! 🙂

Biking. There has not been as much biking as one would prefer. One would prefer four times more. But one must not be picky. One ride in Carnac. Two or three in Loire vally. Two here so far.

We were on our ride in Carnac when we realised we needed refuelling. We looked around an there was a pizza place. Alas it was closed. we turned the corner and there was a pizza vending machine!! Two pizzas later we all agreed that we were really surprised at how good it was. It was great!!

Tim

Met up with some Irish Home Ed friends yesterday for a beach day at a lake. The weather was glorious and the kids spent about 5 hours playing together in the water. Calm, clear and not too deep, so it was relaxing for the parents too. Ice cream and a quick stop at the Atlantic beach to see the waves (wild and not so relaxing!) and then home for a glass of chilled white wine with the sunset.

Evening. Sunset. Lovely light. Fun with silhouettes.