Moving North

We've started our slow move North on our way back, but we're keeping the sun as  you can see.

Coffee on a windy Aire on our way to 

Lamotte Beuvron, near Orleans, having been recommended a delightful Aire by

the river. It wasn't! It was crowded hot and dusty, so we moved on to this...

A beautiful Aire by the lake, and the village of La Ferte Beauharnais nearby, which was equally charming, with wonderful architecture.

Too good to miss the opportunity to sketch outdoors in the cool of the evening.

Our next stop was the highlight if this trip for me as we visited Alencon, the home of French needle lace. I had the most wonderful morning immersing myself in glorious samples and pieces. 

No pics I'm afraid as it was not allowed.

So here's just a few of the sketches I made before being very politely asked to leave as it was 12.15 and they shut for lunch at 12.0, I had been there since 10.0 and completely lost track of time.

Walking round the town we found this amazing cathedral ....

With these wonderful flying buttresses.

And to top the day off there was a lace and needlework festival in the town and I got to see this lady's work.

Her name is Veronique Zimmerman, I will link to her website when I get home.

She makes amazing work using bobbin lace and needle lace.

This is a photo of her work in progress taken from her flyer.

And before we stopped at our current stop we visited another cathedral at Sees, what a day, for inspiration, research, sketching and history.

Unfortunately the sun has left us now to make room for the rain.

Sunshine at last

The sun decided to come out properly so we decided to stay put in Broquies for a few days more. 

We went for more walks in the surrounding hills.

Had a look round at night 

  

Love these shadows 

Fell in love with the Dutchman's house, which I've sketched so many times and is for sale for 180,000 euros with all the land you can see!

Did lots if sketching outdoors.

Wonderful practice....

But all good things have to end and we had to start moving back up North.

The weather is still hot and sunny and we're back in Martel breakfasting outside.....

With cake for coffee 

It doesn't get much better than this.

Chasing the sun

The sun is still alluding us, so we're slowly moving South.

We spent the day/night at a charming village called Martel on the edge of the Dordogne.

We were lucky to catch a festival weekend and had a look at some lovely work by local artisans.

We were also treated to a very talented drumming group.

Unfortunately we woke up to yet more rain, so have moved a bit further south towards the Mediterranean coast.

We're in a lovely village called Broquies, it's a favourite of ours as it has a very large Aire with free electric hook up.

This is where we walked in the morning,

down the hill...

And up the other side in the evening, it's about 8.30pm in this shot and still light.

You can't see it here but we have had a little bit of sun this morning.

Onto the Loire

The weather's still wet so we've pushed onto the Loire.

We've ended the day at a lovely little village, Ange on the river Cher.

Saw this and thought of all my sewing friends.

And how about this for traffic calming, the flowers, not the husband.

And lastly saw this giant bee in the field.

We've ended the day at a campingcar aire where there's a rally on with 100 French vans and 1 UK...... Interesting !

Moved a bit further South to a town called Uzerch, which has lots of lovely medieval style architecture.

We had a lovely walk along an old railway line by the river, just what we needed after a day on the road.

Lots of things to see

A converted mill I think.

And then back for tea over this amazing bridge.

France again

We're of on a French adventure again, but first we dropped off at Dungeness for a wind down. 

And then onto Dover for a night stop and an early start.

The crossing was fair, not too choppy.

And we're now in a lovely village about on a level with Paris.

This lovely old mansion is for sale!

Sorry about the quality of the pics, I'm having to do a workaround just using the phone to blog.

Girls glamping

I've just had a wonderful few days with my girls, and grandchildren, camping on the edge of the New Forest in Hampshire at Merley Court

I haven't camped in years so it was a bit of a different experience to just pulling up in the Nomad wagon and putting the kettle on. You have to first find your kettle and then find and assemble the cooker, hmm..... and then you have to light it with a cigarette lighter, not an ignition button, hmm..... bit of a challenge that one :-)

We had a wonderful time, chilling on the the beach......flying the kite

Digging holes and making sand castles all day......

Where did that sun go?

and then a bit of putting.......I just know I can get that ball in the hole.....

And there was just time for a bit of driving practice before tea, did someone mention food again??

........and something a bit more scary for one of our older members, a proper champion, he managed to run for 26 steps, no mean achievement inside this ball.

I hope he never gets as ambitious as this amazing young man that we saw at the Dorset Steam Fair.

It wasn't all thrills and spills, three of us girls went for a pamper at the spa with treatments too, so I was glammed up for a bit with a lovely manicure, thank you Pru, it was a fabulous day.

And of course there had to be time for technology at the end of a very busy day 

Thank you vey much to all of you for a very special trip.