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May 11, 2026

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Back on French soil…. 11/5/26

It is lovely to be in France again with all their lovely markets and fresh seasonal products…. I don’t know why, but they just seem to do it so much better than we do in the UK.

As you can see we have done a reasonable amount of travelling – well, for us anyway – and time has flown by as always, and somehow, we have already been away for nearly three weeks. We really didn’t have a plan this time, apart from stocking up on wine and olive oil which meant heading anti-clockwise towards the Medoc/Bordeaux areas, so our first stop this time was St-Valery-Sur-Somme….always an absolute pleasure, the views out onto the Somme are spectacular, no matter what the weather or the time of day. There can be mist rising from the water, moody grey clouds, or bright blue skies – just the views of the estuary with the changing tide combined with the higgledy-piggledy abandoned fishing boats and the beautiful architecture make me smile every time we come here.

It was however just a two night stop to lick the windows of a few patisseries – these new gluten and dairy intolerances mean that these are definitely a thing of the past for me …. for now at least – and stock up on all those things that we ‘shouldn’t‘ bring into France, so try to minimalise. We then decided to head to Honfleur to take in our first French market of the trip as well as being honoured by seeing possibly the highest costing Insurance Rally in France….The largest French Porshe ‘get togetherwith approximately 500 Porshe of different styles and ages, all parked up under the wheel…quite a sight!

Having not been to Honfleur for quite a while – and only ever visited Deauville and Trouville once before – we decided to get on the bikes and cycle over there as well as we couldn’t remember too much about it, apart from it being quite a ‘wealthy’ town and having loads of fish stalls and restaurants.

It was a beautiful cycle ride along the coast and up over the hills and we were really pleasantly surprised by the feel of both the towns… and although we didn’t know before hand, we happened upon the local market day in Deauville which was great…..shopping wise, it is definately the ‘Bond Street’ of the North of France…. quite a unique place – in a nice way – and a lovely feel to the town overall. We won’t leave it quite so long before we come back next.

We decided to put in a quick call to Mary and Melvyn, friends who live in Bagnoles de l’Orne, where my parents used to have the house, and they were going to be home for the next few days so we did a little detour to meet them and check up on the sleepy town as it is so beautiful. It was lovely to see them, catch up on all the news as well as be introduced to their new favourite French Bistro before moving on again slightly further south, back to La Fleche.

La Fleche has both ‘good’ and ‘bad’ memories for me….The ‘good’ – are very good, as they are the restaurants and the market, the ‘bad’ being where my problems all started 18 months ago with a running injury which turned into a little more.

La Fleche is one of those little hidden gems that is still quite ‘local’ but appears to have a very high quantity of culinary delights, from local produce to excellent restaurants, serving everything from ‘proper home-cooked food’ through to ‘Gastronomique’ and ‘Gourmand’. We followed our noses and found a lovely artisanial chocolate shop, where we bought a couple of bars to see whether they, like many other chocolate at the moment, trigger any issues. We are starting to get to know alot more about chocolate and especially the taste profile of 100% cacao.

Naturally, we also headed back to one of our old favourites La Table de Lauren to eat delicious home cooked bistro food. Not quite the same for me as previously, but they were still pretty good considering. Keith, once again enjoyed the flavours to their full, including the delicious baked Alaska for desert.

After three nights of tranquility – as the Aire is out by the lake – we moved further south on the Friday to Nantes for the long weekend. France, as you would expect, takes full advantage of any time to take a day off work and May specifically, has a lot of ‘Bank Holidays’. Like every other country in the world apart from the UK, France takes the ‘date’ off, rather than shifting the holiday to the Monday… so in May we have 1st May (Labour Day), 8th May (Victory Day in Europe), 14th May (Ascension Day) and 25th May (Whit Monday)…any excuse, but they do lose the days holiday if it falls on a weekend.

For this reason though, we had decided to book into the campsite in Nantes as we were concerned about lack of space and fancied re-visiting the Elephant and seeing how much the city has changed since we came last, just under 12 years ago.

It was dryer that we expected on Friday and Saturday – but the heavens opened on Sunday, in proper ‘April Shower’ style. Really heavy downpours for about 10 minutes at a go, during which we were luckily enough each time to find somewhere to dive into so we managed to stay mostly dry. It was a good re-visit and we explored both on foot and bike, the campsite is great, and the Elephant and Jules Verne ‘Ile de Machines‘ is still as spectacular as ever!

It will probably be another 12 years until we come back again though, but if I had my time again at university studying French, I would be looking to come to Nantes.

With the weather still looking a little ‘changeable’, we decided to head to an area we hadn’t ever been to before on the coast and found a little town called ‘La Baule Escoublac’, which was developed for Parisians to explore the seaside when they selected it to put in a train line for easier access in the late 1800’s. It later was developed based on the ‘Deauville’ concept as a Victorian seaside resort, but although the architecture is very similar, and it definately shows alot of signs of being another ‘affluent’ area, it doesn’t quite reach the levels of Deauville. A nice balance of beauty, elegance and tranquility with what appeared to be a good selection of shops, cafes and restaurants as well as a long, long beach. A great little stop for a few days.

Another little short hop along the coast and we found ourselves in a place called La Pree, just outside Prefailles where the sun was shining, enabling us to catch up on some washing…boring stuff, but it still needs to be done!

The area was beautifully tranquil once again with just the bird song to keep us company. Although we are sure it would get busier as the season goes on as we left on the Friday of the bank holiday weekend and by Thursday night it was obvious that there were more people arriving at the coast.

The walking was just as we like it, dishing up miles and miles of rough and rugged coastline, although not as many hills as we are used to in the UK or even slightly further north in Brittany.

Wanting to take advantage of another French market to restock the fridge, we had found a little town called Challans where, although it wasn’t their weekly ‘outside’ market, they appeared to have a good sized ‘Les Halles’ which is the indoor market that has stalls every morning and Saturday was no exception. It was an excellent ‘Les Halles’ with a huge variety of producers from fishmongers and local vegetable producers, through to cheese stalls…. enough for us to restock for the next few days at least, and another location that we will add to our list to come back to if passing through the area. A great little town with an excellent variety on ‘normal’ shops and restaurants.

We have been cooking as always, but only really ‘tweaking’ existing recipes instead of searching out too many new ones at the moment. Except for an unusual sounding ‘Carrot Cake Flapjack’ that popped up on one of the wholefood suppliers we use which Keith tried, then adapted to use quinoa flakes instead of oats for me, and it is a lovely. The quinoa flake version is more dense as they are far finer than oats, but if you can eat oats the texture does give that additional flavour/texture combination boost.

…and of course the map, just so you can see where we are and where we have been these last three weeks.

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January 1, 2025

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Happy New Year… 1/1/2025

After a successful run on France Passion stop overs, an old faithful just outside Beune – Domaine Dury was our next and last vineyard for the trip with some lovely Bourgogne wine. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be as we arrived at lunchtime, parked up and the fridge was bare… cleared out for the winter. There is a sign to say that they clear everything down and turn off the services at the beginning of November through to the end of February but they didn’t say anything about not stocking any wine….. there was a number to call, just no reply.

It was a quiet night with three other motorhomes so we can’t complain really… but it’ll be next trip when we plug the last couple of holes in the wine cellar now (not that I think we need anymore for the time being anyway!!)

Leaving the vineyards and Bourgogne region behind us we headed north to Langres in search of some cheese. We haven’t been to the area before but the town sounded interesting and the cheese is everything we like about a good cheese – smelly and walking on its own.

The town is fortified and quite pretty, sitting on top of a hill looking out over the valley with an incredibly impressive cathedral amongst other buildings, just a shame that several of the shops are empty. It does look like the town is on the turn for change though, as we noted that there is a beauitiful looking new restaurant/boutique hotel that has just opened. The building has been bought and done up by a chef and his wife who have just moved back to his home town having run a 3 star Michelin restaurant in Annecy….so a place to come back to and try in the future….for now we sufficed with the cheese!

We woke to a beautiful sunrise, which was soon lost behind freezing fog that came from nowhere…..obviously snuck in along the bed of the valley without us noticing. It was, however time to move on though to Troyes, another town we found earlier this year and will always make a little detour to come back to if we are passing close by.

We had planned to stay 4 nights to ensure we could get a table at ‘Bistro Du Pont’ and make a visit to the Saturday market. However, we ended up staying 5 due to ‘Storm Darragh’… it just didn’t seem worthwhile travelling further than we needed to in high winds and torrential rain when we were comfortable where we were.

Unlike back in May, the Aire was pretty empty. Despite having a constant flow of motorhomes arriving, they majority were in transit and just stayed for a night so still fairly peaceful..

We had booked a table at the Bistro for Friday lunchtime and it was equally as busy as the last time we visited. This time we opted for the ‘Menu Bistro’ instead of the ‘Gourmand’ as there was a huge amount of food last time. After some salmon pate appetisers, Keith had a delicious plate of Boudin Noir (Black Pudding for the English), then we both had Sturgeon – a fish that neither of us had ever heard of people eating before as it is really only really know for its Caviar, but it was really tasty and firm. This was then followed by the ‘Cheese’ course which was a little ‘out there’ last time, and on this occassion, was a local cheese made from cows milk, mixed with nuts, honey and some dried fruits and made into a Nougat slab. It was a weird – but delicious mix of sweet and savoury – which is unusual coming from me at the best of times – and despite being a huge slice and being quite rich, it just kept making you come back for more. Having not had enough obviously, dessert was a perfectly formed, and rather feisty, ‘Champagne liquor’ tiramisu…. not too rich, but just perfectly balanced.

On Saturday morning we headed into the market, which was bustling as always and full of local, seasonal produce as well as some incredible looking patiserries and fishmongers…. one of which came with its own oyster bar. So after we finished our shopping we ended up joining in the festivities by partaking in a few Oysters and a glass of wine ….we could definetely get used to a post market Oyster or two at Christmas!

Moving on again, we headed North to Sedan which is on the river Meuse. We had planned to come to Sedan at the beginning of the trip after we visited Jurgen to have our habitation check done, but the weather and flooding was so bad we decided to change our plans and go anti clockwise to Normandy instead. A good choice I think we can now say, as the Aire is right on the Meuse river, and when we arrived – despite having been dry for a week or two, the Meuse was still precariously high, leading me to doubt whether we should be staying…..no-one wants water lapping at the tyres! All was good though, and we were joined by two other motorhomes and we had a peaceful, dry night.

We did another hop, skip and a jump the following day, arriving back with Jurgen in Rotselaar to get a warrantee part fitted that they had ordered for us when we were there a couple of months ago. The part probably only took an hour to fit, but as we like the area, we opted to stay 3 nights to pop into Leuven and see the Christmas market and catch up on washing and shopping before we headed home.

As it was so cold and we were on the bikes, we took the opportunity this time to eat lunch in quite an interesting little eatery and warm up. Food with Varinda has no menu, you are just served whatever they have on the day for a set price, but you can request more of any of the dishes should you wish to… their way to ensure minimising waste, which was good. All of the food was warming and full of flavour and on the day we went we had a beautiful aubergine lentil dhal, home made iranian bread, the most incredible crispy persian rice – something neither of us had ever tried before, orange and pomegranate salad and a refreshing yoghurt on the side… one to visit if you are close by.

We were soon back on the road again and after a quick stop back in Berguez, we caught the train to get back to the UK on the 15th December… just in time to do a little bit of a catch up with a few people before the Christmas festivities.

We had booked in to a tasting menu at the Beehive, where we have been before, albeit only for lunch, so were happy to see that the quality of the food was equally as good – full of interesting touches and flavours.

We also headed up to London to have a Chinese Dim Sum and get a glimpse of the Christmas lights before Christmas was upon us.

It has been a week of catching up with family, cooking up some deliciously warming food, and finished off quite perfectly by a night with friends to welcome in the New Year.

So bringing a year full of travels, great friendship, lots of laughs and good food to an end, we are now welcoming in 2025 with abundance.

We wish you a very Happy New Year, wherever you may be. Sending you all our love and wishing you health and hapiness for the year to come…. and many more after!

As always we have been doing lots of cooking and a few new tasty recipes over the last few weeks include the following:-
– Cashew and Chestnut Wellington – half cooked for Christmas day at Keiths mums and half cooking in the motorhome in the Remoska… no soggy bottoms !
– Mung Bean Dhal – great little breakfast combo if you like something savoury and lightly spiced
– Beetroot Dhal – making the most of those lovely red beets…. tangy and full of flavour

…and the map of course for this last little leg of the trip…

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November 11, 2024

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Working our way South… 11/11/24

Leaving La Fleche behind us and kean to expand our knowledge of the French wine, we stopped off at Domaine Drusse which is a new grape variety and area for us, mainly focussing on ‘Bourgeuil’. David and his wife have a biological vinyard with a huge range of wines – varying in depth and flavour profile. The Vinyard is also a site for the Troglodytic caves which you can explore, although we didn’t take advantage this time. We did however purchase some wine, and also pop back into the town on Saturday having realised it was market day… any excuse to stock up on local produce

It was then a short drive to get to Villandry, where we planned to stay for a few nights to explore the Chateaux on the Loire as we haven’t been this way for a while…. also a good place to get on the bikes as I am currently sporting an injury stopping me from walking, let alone running…. very frustrating!

Villandry is a small village based around Chateau which has beautiful gardens, so although a grey and misty day, we opted to have a hobble around the gardens which were full of shape, colour and texture – amazingly beautiful seasonal veg!

With the fog and mist still hanging low, although it was Sunday and we were conscious that most things would be closed, we jumped on the bikes again and headed along the river into Tours.

A good decision, if you aren’t too bothered about shopping, as the cycle route only had a handful of families on it, running, walking and cycling… obviously too cold and grey for most. It did however, look like a good place to shop, not only hosting some of the big names, but also lots of interesting looking boutiques, restaurants and cafes – somewhere to come back and explore further another time.

Although we were expecting to see a little more of the sun the following day, we woke once again to mist and despite taking the opportunity to do the washing – forever optimists – it just didn’t lift again…we were stuck in a big, slightly damp cloud!!

We left the washing out though – to get some air if nothing else – and jumped on the bikes to head the other direction along the Loire to try and find Sleeping Beauty… a mysteriously beautiful (and a little cold) ride.

The Chateau d’Ussy is nestled in the woodland about 1.5km from the Loire, and it is fair to say that it is quite impressive, so not too much of a surprise that it was apparently what inspired Charles Perrault to write the fairy tale in 1697….although, it was the Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany that inspried Disney for his films…

Having brough our picnic lunch with us… which we were quite grateful of – being a Monday in November… I think it was more the ‘November’, than a Monday on this occassion, the little that surrounded the Chateau was closed….so not even a coffee to warm us, before we headed back to our still very damp – but clean – washing.

Wanting to escape from beneath the cloud of fog and mist, we decided to do a long haul down to Bordeaux where we had booked into Camping Village du Lac for two nights as I quite fancied another look around, having last stopped off here ten years ago in the first motorhome.

The campsite was in a great location – just 7km outside the city by a lake…although innevitably being a little warmer and located by the water we also had some uninvited guests in the form of mosquitos…

The following day, we woke to thick fog again – it was obviously following us – but we were hopeful it would burn off, and to be fair, as we cycled into Bordeaux the sun managed to come out, providing us with beautiful blue skies to explore the city. Weirdly however, as we started to head back to the campsite later in the afternoon, we found that it had been foggy and damp all day. As we were able to take advantage of the sunshine in Bordeaux we weren’t too bothered, and the added bonus was that apparently mosquitoes aren’t too keen on fog either….

Big cities out of the system for a while now, we headed back into the land of beauty and wine – Chateau du Payne – another incredible France Passion stop over in the middle of beautiful rolling hills on the Bordeaux/St Emillion borders.

We arrived at lunchtime, parked up and after having some lunch we were just about to head out for a walk when ‘grandad’ popped over and asked us if we wanted to look around the fabrication area and production process of the vinyard. We felt guilty as he was heading off for a family reunion for the weekend as they were about to welcome their first great, great grandchild…. but he insisted on taking his time to show us everything – which of course, at this time of year had just been cleaned down after the harvest.

The set up they had was impressive and they have evolved and changed as they went biodynamic. They have also been trialing the traditional Roman clay pots for certain wines over the last 5 years to see how that effects the flavour palate. An inspirational guy who had a huge passion for what he does and wanted to share as much as possible which was lovely.

We did manage to try some of the wines before he hit the road and although we only tried four – one white and three reds – it is fair to say that they were corpulant and rich in flavour….. the wine store is filling up!

We set off with blue skies in the morning to do our last little hop to arrive in Moissac, where the Aire is wedged in between The Tarn river and the Canal du Garonne… a very pretty spot.

The Aire was already fairly busy, probably part due to the long weekend (today being a national holiday), part simply because its a lovely, tranquil place. The town is about 15 minutes walk, where there is an impressive Abbey and markets on Saturday and Sunday – the Saturday one at least, was full of local food producers selling their produce direct, although we didn’t go in on Sunday.

Walking along the canal just 1.5km from the Aire is a beautiful aquaduct… obviously made even more stunning by the autumnal colours. Then venturing out on the bikes in one direction on Sunday and today the other, we found peaceful, continous canal lined with trees.

Today’s cycle took us over to Montech – where we found the ‘Water Slope’, a boat lift that raises larger boats just under 13.5m – a truly impressive invention….

Once again, we have been cooking up a couple of new, interesting and tasty recipes that we’d like to share …

– Pot Barley and Mushroom Risotto
– Anchovy and Artichoke Pasta

And of course, the map….