Making Friends and Stocking Up

Our hostess at the Chambres d'hotes "Florence" in Riberac, is a delightful, petite middle aged lady with a distinct artistic flair in the decorating department, and excellent manners. She is also an extravert who loves to practice her English language skills given the opportunity. Marie Florence invited us to return for coffee any time we are in town, and we will be very happy to take up her offer and do so. We have agreed that I will speak French to her, and she will speak English to me. We are free to correct each other, in the best way possible, which we both welcome. How lovely to find such a friendly and engaging hostess.

The house is 3 stories tall, but we dragged our heavy bags only to the 2nd floor, which was sufficient, let me tell you.
The room was huge, and the heating was on, fortunately. Gorgeous bed and table linens and a round, single pillow that we were dubious of to begin with, but which turned out to be an inspiration for those of us who have 'trouble with pillows'. I think we might invest in one to take home with us! Yes, that good!
I thought you might like to see the room we inhabited last night. The bed was comfy and the sheets were a fine cotton with embroidered turn-down. Soft! There was a duvet under the white matelasse cover, and a microfiber blanket under that. We eventually took the white cover off because we were toasty without it.

 The wall that joins the neighboring house. This is typical of the age of the house, which dates back to the late 1800's. It has been nicely re-pointed/renovated.

 Heavy drapes on the single paned windows, also typical of it's era. Many people who renovate these lovely old homes will install double or triple paned windows.
Marie Florence has lived in this home for 30+ years, she told us. She lives here with her 22 yr old son who has trouble finding work in the small town. With a Commerce Baccalaureate  perhaps he needs to go to the city to find work? She rather hopes he will!:) He was the one who answered our ringing bell, last night and let us in, helped us upstairs and tried to find the words to tell us everything, before his mother arrived home around 9pm. MF tells us that he doesn't really make an effort to speak English, despite the fact that his current girlfriend is American. She speaks excellent French we are told, lol. He has no need to speak English then!

 Gorgeous original flooring.

 Heavy wooden doors leading into the bathroom, which had another use at some time.

 A modern electric macerator toilet, not unlike some of the loos on boats.

 An original styled hand basin and faucets, and a cake of Provence soap.

 We love the modern convenience of heated towel rails, which are common in NZ too.

 The hugely deep claw-footed bath tub with curtain surround. I had to have Waz help me out of it, lol. One could easily disappear in there, never to be seen again!

 Once, when I was working in France in 1981, I went for a short sojourn to a Chateau just outside of Lyon. In the Chateau was a bath tub twice as long as this one, and probably just as deep. It took forever to fill enough hot water to bath in, but I remember having a wonderful time sliding from one end to the other, as you do when you are kids...dont you remember doing that?...as the water drained down the plug hole. One of those delightful abiding memories. I have rather longed for that bathtub since:)

 A typical hand-held shower inside the tub.

 Lots of older buildings have their fireplaces plugged up. They are often not operable anymore, and they take so much wood to heat. With no servants to cart the wood and clean up the mess afterwards, I would do the same. Many open fires have been replaced with either closed fire boxes or Pellet wood stoves, which are ever so efficient.
Because electricity is so expensive in France, most people dont have heat pumps, which we would much prefer. I think we would opt for solar if we lived here and find another source of heat for top-up. Geothermal is reasonably common in some parts.

 Yes, the bathroom was almost large enough for a 'gathering'.

 Beside the bed and the room key. Pretty linen embroidered cloths everywhere.

 This pillow was magic! No fighting over the pillow, and we both slept exceptionally well with it.

 Fridays are market day in Riberac, and we watched out the window as the stall holders put up their tents along the road opposite. It was raining off and on. When we left the building to drive to Lidl, we had to take a circuitous route around the market, and saw people coming from everywhere with their baskets, trolleys and bags, going to the market.

We love the hardware on the doors and windows.

We left the lovely Maison Bourgois (according to MF it was built and owned by a Lawyer, back in the 1800's) - what we would call (from the outside, anyway) shabby chic - in the middle of town around 9.30am, and headed to Lidl first, just because it was the closest market. We did most of our food shopping here, leaving with three large bags full of fresh veg, dairy and dry goods. Spending only 75 euros (what a steal!), we headed then to the Super Intermarche on the other side of this medium-sized town. We spent another 50 euros there for not a lot, it seemed, but buying fresh Norwegian Salmon, Pork chops, 8 boneless skinless chicken thighs (to make the soup stock with and salad thereafter), mousse de Canard pate (Waz's favorite), chipolatas vin blanc (skinny white wine flavored pork sausages),  and a few other things which quickly added up. Meat will do that, no matter where you are. We buy so little fresh fish in the USA because most of it is farmed, and what isn't is seasonal and very expensive. Our two tail pieces of Salmon (wild caught) were 7 euros. An excellent price we consider. We ate one halved and kept the other for our lunch tomorrow.

We do so love combing the aisles for special things that take our fancy, but not necessarily to purchase. These ones were a surprise, but wow...did they look yummy! At first glance they looked like desserts, but they are savory. Not inexpensive, but we might be tempted another time.
Fois Gras and fig puree. 2 pieces only. I remember they were about 3.49 euros each box.

 Avocado, and shrimp

 Smoked Salmon!

I want to show you where we are living for the duration of our stay, this time. We feel most fortunate to be trusted with our host's lovely Hamlet property. Homes are much better when lived in, and we will certainly enjoy living in this one. Typical of it's type, it is a farmhouse style property that has two floors above the ground/entry floor. Steps and stairs everywhere, and low ceilings. Waz has already made a dent (several, actually!) in his forehead, forgetting to duck!
It is Pierre, or stone, with two foot thick walls, on average. The owners have fitted new double pane windows everywhere for efficiency, and the renovations have been well done for the most part. There are always projects to do be done on any house, but some of these old buildings require more maintenance than others, we find.
So, here are some photos of our location.
We are 20 mins north of the town of Riberac, in gorgeous undulating countryside. We smiled all the way here!:)
Coming into the small Hamlet of about a dozen homes, we saw this animal feed. Maize. We were fascinated by the system they might have of releasing the food. Planks of wood at the bottom might let them all out, but that looked clumsy. We will have to ask someone, obviously!

 This is our little Hamlet, as we turned the corner to enter. It is actually the back side of the Hamlet.

 Looking out the living room window. That is a Chateau in the far distance, right of middle, in the far trees. You can just see it.

Now, I have to tell you about our efforts to explain to Marie Florence what an Hameau is in English.
An Hameau is a Hamlet. We joke about the word Hamlet, meaning 'little ham'. Anything with a 'let' or 'lette' at the end is usually a diminutive form.
Marie F asked us what hameau is in English (as I said) and we tried, in Frenglish, to tell her. Pigs (conchon) and Jambon (ham) came into the conversation and it took a while, but I think we got the message, if not the joke, across.:) We had more fun with this exchange than most of our others, this morning.
I forgot to tell you about our delightful breakfast (petit dejeuner) in a parlor painted deep coral pink/orange, that was the perfect color to display MF's many modern artworks. Next to the parlor was a sunroom, or conservatory, to be more exact. The conservatory looked out over a glorious walled garden complete with a rectangular pool. I bet it is divine in summer. Lots of greenery outside the windows would keep the room cool, I imagine. Rather a romantic setting for our early morning repast. It was still dark at 8am, so we ate in a slightly dim lit room (romantic, as I said!) until it got light outside.
Fresh large croissants and petite baguettes from the boulangerie around the corner (literally), with confiture (jam/jelly) and butter. Strong coffee (stand your spoon up, kind), orange juice and fruit/nuts (crack your own). All this served on nice china with a gold charger plate underneath (for drama) on a gold embroidered fabric tablecloth, covering a classical round French metal table. Comfy chairs with embroidered fabric coverings and Chinoiserie cushions (Chinese embroidered) completed the décor.
I forgot my camera! oops! and then we were talking so much as we paid the bill and walked out the front door....well, you get the picture! ha!


Back to the Maison we now occupy.
See that long black beam running the length of the kitchen? Waz's nemesis! He stood up after eating (sitting at this end of the table) and hit his head yet again. At 5ft 11 he is just about 3 inches too tall for walking underneath. I duck, but (so far) my head reaches the beam without any problem...at 5ft 9. Hopefully we dont get permanently bent backs out of all these low places...including doorways. Such are old French ) houses. The door to the right of the photo leads into the laundry room and then out back to the pool deck, which from here is up a short flight of stairs. There is a dining table in here, with a bench seat (like a pew) to the left, and another chair at the far end, and an old school bench type seat on the kitchen side. Not very stable, but I sat on it to eat my dinner safely enough.
Next door behind me is another dining room, but it is the room you walk into at the entry.

 One of three living rooms. This one is the only one with a fireplace, and next to the master bedroom to the right of the blue jacket. We have a space heater on in the bedroom and left the door to the bathroom open to warm that up somewhat. The heated towel rail is on for our showers and to dry the towels afterwards. Timers are great things when there is expensive electricity burning.

 A nice reading nook behind the sofa in our living room. I will call it 'ours' because it is going to be the only one we use. This is a large house, and we want to keep the heat in the smaller spaces, obviously. Plenty of reading material if we ever get bored.

 Master bedroom with the door to the bathroom. We will have to remember that there are two steps up, in the middle of the night:)

 After opening all the shutters to let the light in, we made the rounds of the house to check everything out. This is the Master en-suite. It also is a large room.

 On the right side of the windows is the shower over the bath tub. That stainless thing at the top of the photo is where the handheld shower will fit for a shower shower, if you know what I mean.

 Looking out the en-suite windows you see the swimming pool. It isn't a large yard, so the pool takes up most of it, but what more would you need? Those are the steps up from the Laundry room and out the back door.

 With so many levels in this old house and steps and stairs everywhere, it is a little challenging to remember what comes off which room. The deck to the right there is a lovely covered space off of the 2nd living room. About 5 steps above that is a TV room/salon with a large screen TV and a full bathroom with shower unit instead of a bath. There is a bar-b-q which we might be lucky enough to enjoy once Spring is sprung, towards the end of our tenure in April.

Looking from the en-suite into the master bedroom. Yes, the tiles are cold with no underfloor heating.

 We didn't go outside for a walk because every time we thought of doing so, it was raining again. I took these through the windows around the house.

 Most Hamlets are created around farms. The farmland fans out around the homes/barns for the most part, and people then share the road that winds through the hamlet. Many hamlets are now home to foreign people who have holiday homes there.

 This is very typical of a roof that is about to cave in. The wooden substructure will have just rotted through. We see so many that need new roofs, and there are plenty of old homes for sale that need new roofs. These can be had for a song, as they say, with some as low in price as 16,000 euros. yes, Sixteen thousand euros. That includes the land. You would obviously end up spending a lot of money on the refurbishment.

 The fire was roaring, and did it ever need to. Getting rid of the damp is a bit of a mission, but I think we have somewhat conquered that today. It is now nice and toasty up here in the salon.

 The stream runs at the bottom of the hill, which is about 10-15ft down below the house. With so much rain recently, there is much flooding, but this obviously isn't over it's banks. Good drainage somewhere.

 The skinny road we wound our way along to get to the house. It passes in front of and behind most of the other homes in this hamlet.

 One of the neighbors must own riparian rights to this part of the river, because they have bothered to place a lovely seat on the banks. What a lovely tranquil place this is.

You will have to forgive me for not taking photos of our delicious dinner, but my camera was upstairs, and I was downstairs in the kitchen, and Waz couldn't hear me from there, to ask for him to bring it down.
That Norwegian Salmon I mentioned earlier was pan fried - no salt or pepper (I forgot...merde! It was so cold in the kitchen my brain wasn't working well!) and served with steamed fresh and sweet carrots, leeks and baby green beans and topped off with a Hollandaise sauce which can be found everywhere here, ready made. I am forever grateful! It was delicious!
Easy and nutritious food, and finished with a cup of coffee and a Yoghurt for dessert.
You may not believe this, but we did not enter the aisles in the supermarket with the chocolate or cookies in them. We are determined not to even start with those things, so we will challenge ourselves to stay away from them. Instead we bought some California (yep) pistachios which we buy for less here than in Florida! We also have some lovely fresh walnuts to eat, so we are feeling very virtuous.

It is our intention to walk plenty, drink plenty of water...oh, did I not mention the wine?? Yes, we did go down the wine aisle at Lidl, and purchased a Vin blanc and a Rose, both from the Bordeaux region...well, that's where we are, so why not!...so yes, we will drink wine as well, but water is good too:)...trying to convince Waz of this!

Waz has plonked himself on the sofa for a pre-bed nap (yes, there is such a thing...really!), and the fire is now burning low in the hearth. I guess that says it is time to put this computer away and read a book before turning in.
I need to finish the Nora Roberts steamy novel before I start another book. Somehow I find it hard, even when the novel is NOT good literature, to start a new book without finishing the first. Must be my obsessive streak, lol.
We look forward to exploring more of our region tomorrow. One of the small towns nearby is supposed to have a good Boulangerie, and we only have enough croissants for breakfast tomorrow. We need to keep enough provisions in the house to see us through until Tuesday. Sunday and Monday, most stores are closed.
We are in happy, food heaven, per usual.
What a joy to be back!!!!

A bientot.

Idiot Rules

Because Waz woke at 1am, and I woke at 3am, and we lay in bed chatting until 4am,  we decided to get up . Breakfast starts at the Hotel at 4.30am. We were not surprised to find that we weren't the only ones in the restaurant.
This particular hotel, the Ibis Styles, CDG/Roisseypol, is a medium priced hotel with breakfast included, which suits us well.
Breakfast there is comprehensive but nothing cooked....well, that isn't strictly true....there are hard boiled/ready-peeled eggs, which I'm sure come in a bag or container of some kind. Cold cuts, cheeses, pain cereal, baguette, crepes, fruit salad (also out of a bag) fresh squeezed orange juice, dried apricots and Figs (thank goodness for the figs! if you know what I mean, lol), cereal x 3 varieties, milk, yoghurt etc...and best of all coffee machines that make REALLY hot drinks. I am totally enamored of their double espresso...to which I add a container of hot milk. perfect!
We aren't so enamored of the chipped china plates and cups, however, but our standards have to slip a tad when we are here.

Well fortified, we went for our daily walk in the airport train station. It was still only 6am. We investigated the Novotel Hotel which is IN the train station, so that you dont have to get wet when you want an Hotel. This looked a little more upscale than our hotel, and we turned around and resumed our walk for another half hour, when we found that a key card was needed to get anywhere inside the hotel. Good thinking 99!

Waz returned to the room to finish packing and to take another nap, while I decided to get another cup of coffee and read the Nora Roberts romance novel (light reading it is!!) that I had stolen from the 'swap it' book shelf at the Novotel...well, I will be sure to return it when we go back there in 81 days!

My dear mother in NZ has not been well, and we left Florida knowing she had returned home from the hospital, but was still dealing with dizziness due to something to do with her blood pressure meds. My brother is taking wonderful care of her, but she insists on returning to her apartment where she maintains her independence, though more help is needed now. She turns 90 this year, and we are grateful that her good health has continued this far. She is still in good health in every other way, and I'm sure the Docs will sort this BP thing out. Being so far away at such times is never fun, but there really is nothing more that we could do for her, if we were closer geographically. We keep our fingers crossed that the family will all get together for her 90th celebration in September, in NZ.

Our train to Bordeaux didn't leave until 11.40am. We gave ourselves an hour to get to the TGV station and sort out the platform the train would leave from, which is usually only announced 10-15 mins (at the most) ahead of the train's arrival. There is a mass exodus from the waiting lounge area when the platform is added to the departure screen there. We joined them and found our spot to hang out, for boarding.
We decided to sit outside in the cool when we first arrived at the station...ha! cool soon turned to COLD to FREEZING, as the cold air rushed up and into the large vacant space around us, from trains whizzing in and out. Someone definitely needs to clean all those windows! Just my opinion!

 We both put our hoods on at the same time, and larfed out loud. Waz is giving me the middle finger, here:) We decided to go back inside, after this.

The trip from CDG airport to Bordeaux was a long one, having about 4 stops along the way. It took about 3hrs, vs the direct train which takes only 2 hrs and 5 mins. We dont mind the longer one, as it gives us more time to sleep.
We had brought a couple of hard boiled eggs and 2 mini croissants each for our lunch onboard, before settling in...Waz to nap, and me to read steamy scenes....I have decided that I will write soft porn for a living...it appears to be lucrative. For the life of me I cannot decide whether Nora Roberts has watched too many movies with the scenes she describes or she is a very experienced woman. I tend to speed read those anyway! Cant get too hot and bothered on a public train:)

Arriving at Gare Bordeaux St Jean  just after 3pm, we immediately made our way to the car rental area, deep in the bowels of the station. We rented our car from here last trip, and had no problems whatsoever.
I desperately needed to go to the bathroom, so trotted up the stairs to the 'paid' loos. Being in a hurry and not able to find the correct change, the attendant took pity on my state and directed me through the 'out' gate and into the available toilet stall. Relieved, I exited and paid my .80eu for the privilege of using the very clean facilities. He even turned the water on for me to wash my hands! Such service! I think he just wanted his money!

Back to Waz outside the rental car office.
And now to get to the title of this blog: I presented the confirmation notice to the Thrifty employee and she went about signing us up and then the problems began.
We rent from Thrifty because their long term rentals, which we favor, are less expensive than the competition. We usually rent for more than 2 months and have no problems doing so. Why there should be today, we dont know. Here's what they said....
1. You cannot rent a vehicle without getting a new contract every thirty days
2. You must return to the depot to renew the contract and for us to check that the car is not damaged (eh?)
3. The price will be 1600+ Euros, not the 912+ euros quoted you, even though it was confirmed on our website...oops!

Having had not so much sleep in recent days, and anxious to arrive at our destination before dark, as it was raining, I was not too happy with the delay due to all these 'rules' and the new euro quote.

I asked if they were going to give me two free days in exchange for my bother to return the car each 30 day period, and to sign a new contract where there was no guarantee of the same price?
I also asked if there was somewhere else I could sign a new contract, other than making the 4 hr round trip to Bordeaux to do so? Yes, they said, you can go to any Thrifty depot, but you will have to phone us to fax the contract to the new place. I asked again if they would compensate me for my trouble? NO!
I asked why they had to inspect the car for damage when they would do that at the end of the 81 days anyway, and if I had an accident, I would call them anyway...esp. as the deductible is 22,000 euros!!! yes, 22 grand!

They could not give me sufficient reason to do this, and I explained that this is totally idiotic, I had never had to do this before for long term rentals, and I would complain to Thrifty.
We have just written to thrifty to explain the situation, and we hope for a satisfactory outcome. This would have to be that we have the same euro value for the entire contracted 81 days, that I dont have to sign a new contract each 30 day period and return for vehicle inspections at the same time.
I have no tolerance for such poorly thought out rules, and if someone wants to enlighten me as to why they do this, please feel free. The Supervisor got a bit crazy at me, even though I kept my cool, but I was not going to roll over and play dead for them
I insisted that they charge me the rate I was quoted, and 45 mins later and much tapping of keys, they did give me what I insisted upon.  A contract is a contract!

I will phone Thrifty tomorrow to be sure that I am not being charged different rates for the entirety of the rental!

Nerves were a bit frayed by the time we stowed our baggage in the Renault (same kind we had last visit) and joined the after work crazies on the road out of Bordeaux. I dont like driving in Bordeaux at the best of times, but calm must prevail and we negotiated the one way streets and changing lanes out of the city and onto the country roads in fine style. Stick shift cars are such a pleasure to drive.

Needing another bathroom stop, we found a McDonalds....yes, sometimes one just must do these things. I hate to say that it was THE ONLY place we found to stop, on our journey. Not a bar/tabac was along our route that we saw an OPEN sign in the window.  Being 5.30pm, it made good sense to have some dinner while there. We find French McD's expensive, though generally the quality is superior to the USA McD's.
Looking outside in the rain, the play structure is smaller than it's US counterparts, but the covered outdoor eating area looked wonderful.

 Inside was super clean, and I was impressed at how clean the bathroom was too. Much cleaner than ANY I have been into in the USA.

 Waz ordered one of these Ciabatta rolls with large beef patty (real meat! yay!), tomato, cheese, onions and mayo/ketchup...more like a good Kiwi Burger, he said. The meat had good flavor.
I ordered a wrap, which was larger and fuller than any I have had stateside.

 Bacon, large tomato slice and plenty of lettuce. The chicken filled out the wrap nicely and was plenty of meat.

By the time we finished the meal....and we were in no hurry now that the light was waning...more people were arriving, so we returned to the wheels and GPS and on our way. The rain didn't cease, so our speed was 10kph less than the posted speed (by law) which was fine by me, driving on slick roads in the twilight and then dark on unfamiliar roads, even though we have travelled this way before.
We noted with pleasure the lines of plain trees, as we headed north east, remembering the story of how Napoleon supposedly had them planted to give shade to his marching troops, through this Bordeaux area. Waz refused to take another photo...should I say YET another photo of the lines of trees, correctly stating that I already had a gazillion of them, lol. So, sorry about that, but you wont be seeing wet trees through a wet windshield.

We have actually driven this route before, and we kept seeing places that we had noted previously...especially houses for sale.
I meant to tell you that the rivers are all swollen right now. On the journey from Paris to Bordeaux, the low farm land was very wet but the rivers hadn't actually topped their banks. Plenty of rain and crazy weather recently. We are hopeful of some sunshine in the coming week.

Our neighbors from Jacksonville tell us that the temperature was just 26F there yesterday morning. Ouch! Glad we are a bit warmer than that here!

I will take some photos of our Chambre d'hote in this big old Maison Maitre in the middle of Riberac, in the morning. The room is huge and the bathroom has a huge, deep and very old claw foot tub with shower..hand held kind... which is common here. Marie Florence, our hostess, has seen to our every need, and is a delightful person. We managed a friendly Frenglish conversation, and she apologized that her son, who saw us to our room, didn't speak much English. No problem...we are here in their country, so the onus is on us to speak their language. We do our best! I have to declare that I feel a little more comfy with that, this time around. I am hopeful that my language skills improve a WHOLE lot while we are here for this duration. Apparently our neighbors at the house sit are locals, and will be delighted to help us with that!
Waz has turned in for the night, and I need to get myself to bed also. We have ordered an 8am breakfast in the Salle a Manger (dining room), and we look forward to that prior to our 'shopping for food' trip in this larger town. We will visit both Lidl and Super Intermarche tomorrow for our supplies. This town will be our major shopping base for the duration, and we look forward to exploring it further.
Nighty night.

A timely warning and a weeny bit of excitement.

Sitting in our favorite airport bar/restaurant in Terminal 2 at CDG/Roissey, we had a timely reminder that we should NEVER leave our personal property, no matter what, unattended in an airport.

The young woman sitting close by (from China as we later found out) was drinking a soft drink with her purse on her body, but no luggage. That in itself wasn't anything out of the ordinary. What was out of the ordinary, was that she had left her 3 suitcases on a trolley outside beside some seats, but unattended.
A good looking, tall young man arrived beside her and asked her if she knew where her luggage was. She pointed outside. The man told her that her luggage could have been stolen and she would never know and would not be able to find it again. He also told her that it was illegal to leave baggage unattended in ANY airport worldwide. He identified himself with a dayglow orange thing that said POLICE. He didn't flash a badge or any other form of ID, which we thought was strange. He asked the young woman to accompany him outside to identify her bags, which she did. She was almost in tears, by this time. We dont know what he told her, but he was joined by 2 other similar young men, whom we assume were also security/police. She was then joined by the waiter because she hadn't paid for her drink, and he was sure he wanted to be paid. He found her a place to put her luggage inside the restaurant, and she resumed her seat and drink.
We asked her where she was from...China. We advised her (along with the head waiter, Bruno) to wear her designer handbag across her body...Bruno actually helped her do this, as we gave her instructions to never leave ANYTHING personal ANYWHERE.
It appears she is part of a tour group meeting in a downtown Paris hotel this evening. She didn't know how to find the hotel, and I asked if she had the itinerary. She had all the details on her phone, and we suggested that she follow the Ground Transportation signs to a Taxi stand and get a Taxi to take her into that location in the city. She hoped that the Taxi driver could read the address. I assured her he would find her hotel.
When she was paying for her drink, she brought out a large wad of Euros and was immediately reprimanded by Bruno, and told to only keep a small amount handy. Never show how much money you have!
The young woman appeared disoriented to a degree and very naïve. We were reluctant to let her go on her own, but she left the restaurant with her bags once more on a trolley, to find that Taxi.
We had watched the undercover Police  disappear into the crowd, and indeed they were no different to look at, from any other young men travelling.

We discovered Frenchy's restaurant the evening before we left Paris on our last journey here. Waz had the NZ Lamb Shanks then, and he had them again tonight. I had the special of the day...Roast Turkey, mashed potatoes and julien of carrot and courgette, with a Jus that tasted slightly of anise. Nice.

 My Roast Turkey!

 I Think Waz enjoyed his Lamb Shank!

We try to keep 'normal' hours, but today that is not the case. We are tired! A week of taking everything off the boat, plenty of wonderful socializing and visiting with friends, and then changing our plans 24 hrs ahead, followed by only about 4 hrs sleep our last night in Jax.

We finally got into our room around 10am, and immediate went to sleep, both of us. We woke around 2pm, and after showers we left the Hotel around 3pm for a long walk. There is a building opposite the hotel which intrigues us. It has a wonderful Atrium the whole length of the building. It is new, so there are few people working there, and it feels empty.

 As lovers of interesting architecture, wherever we are, we again walked the Airport. Lots of curves in this place.

 This is the ceiling inside of one of the main halls. This is all wood! We wondered how many trees were sacrificed in the national cause.  The hall is huge, and longer than the eye can see. Incredible!

 The ceiling also curves.

One of the large international Banks has lots of adverts along the concourses. This was my favorite. 'The love of your Life'. Cats do this, dont they!:)

We had quite a lively Frenglish discourse with the fellow who replaced the young Chinese woman, at the end of our row of cheek -by -jowl tables. He is off to India and then Thailand, for a month. Retired! We watched the news on TV, as we ate, and discussed some of what we saw on the screen. Much good humor and bonhomie.

After our delicious dinner and quite relaxed after a glass of Sauvignon Blanc, we hopped on the rail shuttle back to terminal 2, where we got off and walked the hundred yards to the hotel.
We thought that these types of seats would only happen in Europe...or France. The train is made by the German company Siemans. The metal is COLD. The only upholstered part is where your butt actually sits, but your legs and thighs are now frozen, against the metal. Aiee!

 Sitting at the very front of the carriage, I had to have some fun with photos and the light inside the tunnel, to our terminal stop.

Waz is snoring beside me, and I can hardly keep my eyes open.
We will just sleep in tomorrow, and catch our Train after a leisurely breakfast...included in our room rate. I like these hotels!

Night night.

In Our Happy Place

Bonjour!

It is indeed a Good Day! We are in our Happy Place - Paris, France. Well, not just Paris, but France in general. 

Sitting in the hotel lounge waiting for our room to be readied, we are surrounded by French speaking business people. I find myself listening in, but not eves-dropping per se...well, not really. I am understanding snippets of conversation, and happy to be doing so. 

Just six weeks after we left France,  December 2017, we are back. We couldn't wait to get here, frankly. With our departure one day ahead of our plans, we are spending the day at an airport hotel before catching the TGV south west to Bordeaux on Thursday. 

The sun has come out and people are shedding their rain gear and warmer clothes...well, some are. The temperature has obviously risen.

The view from the hotel lounge where we sit. I think that is a bird's nest in the tree in the middle...or it may be a mass of Mistletoe. I will go and find out, later.

 Waiting for our room to be ready. The hotel was full last night, and check in is about 12 noon.
Having arrived at just after 8am, we have a bit of a wait, but the staff are very obliging and have put us on their priority list for a room. We like this Star Wars themed Hotel...quirky! Waz had a nasty headache on the plane, but managed a couple of hours sleep, as did I. He saved breakfast for me, which was a croissant and fruit yoghurt. I ate it 20 minutes before touchdown, but was still ready for some more at the hotel. We were invited to help ourselves to the Petit Dejeuner (breakfast).

I managed to eat an apple too, though it tasted nasty Good roughage in a place where it is sometimes difficult to find such a thing. The fruit salad is out of a bag, we think...not very tasty, but we eat it. I added dried figs and apricots. The muesli is full of brown sugar, which we found last time we stayed here. I wasn't going for a repeat of that. The double espresso was most welcome however, and I followed that with a Café au Lait. Nice!

 A Storm Trooper is keeping an eye on us.

It is always a bit of a crap shoot, getting through Customs, but we chose (again) the far right line through the 'Other' passport (other than EU passports, that is) lines, and it moved much faster than the others. We were through there, and chose the Nothing To Declare route through customs where we walked straight to Baggage Claim.

We are arriving on our New Zealand Passports this time. This allows us to stay 90 days. We have already used 3 1/2 weeks of our allotted 90 days on our US Passports, and are staying 86 days, so we had to come in on the kiwi one. Nice to have the option, frankly.

Our arrival into Charles de Gaulle was early by half an hour and it made all the difference, even though we appeared to be late leaving Newark, just after 7pm. Our departure was supposed to be 6.15pm, but I guess that is the Leaving the Gate time. We joined the queue on the tarmac, for take-off.

So, here we are waiting yet again. Waz has put his computer away and his feet up. I will check with the staff to see how the room cleaning is progressing.

We have just been told to go! Collected our bags out of storage and now in the room. This room is larger than our previous rooms, which is a plus. Waz has headed for the shower prior to taking a nap. One of the reasons for staying the day/night in the hotel instead of just heading straight for our other destination, one day early, is so that we get the chance to head off some of the jetlag due to the six hour time difference. It is currently 4am in Jacksonville.

Speaking of which...The cold weather set in earlier in the week, and while it may not have been too cold when we headed for bed around 11pm most nights, the ice on the deck, dock and windshield told us the early hours were the deadliest in terms of cold. We really did need to take care walking on the cold concrete. You could see the ice crystals shining in the early morning sun.

This truck shows the conditions pretty well. That there is ICE!

 I never quiet get used to seeing photos of my older self. Even though I look in the mirror every day, I dont see this person that appears in the photos...what's with that? lol.

Waiting in Newark.
I have to ask Waz to take my photo, otherwise all you would see is HIS mug on this blog.

 These photos are rather out of order...hmm...

The water in the swimming pool and spa (goes without saying, really!) is warmer than the air temp...the rising steam reminded me of the steam rising from the geothermal fumeroles, in Rotorua, NZ.

Our early morning start in Jax, yesterday (5.30am) saw us take all the remaining 'things' out of the boat and drive down to the storage locker, leave them there, drive to McDonalds for breakfast, and back to the boat. Last minute packing, last minute final vacuum and our bags are waiting for the Uber driver to pick us and them up. He was none too gentle shoving them into his car trunk. He also wasn't too careful a driver...which made me nervous...and talked the whole way there. I'm the one that carries on the conversations, with Waz just sitting there wishing he would shut the heck up, lol.

 Newark is in the process of changing it's food and reception areas. Plenty of choices in food, but they are expensive, of course. Captive audiences allow for that somehow, which doesn't please most of us. 2 sushi rolls of (small) 6 pieces each, cost me three arms and two legs.
I was rather taken with this Tomatillo, (tomma tee yo) while I waited for my food.

 Yes, that is New York in the distance, and across the Hudson River, which you cant see due to the cloudy skies.
We left Jax on a gorgeous morning, and flew into the cloud. It was forecast to snow about 10pm. Glad we left just after 6pm.

Well, Im running out of steam here, and that is all the photos I have to share for now.

A Bientot.

Seredipity at Work.

I've always been a firm believer in Serendipity.
At about 8.30pm last night I received a text from United Airlines to say that there is a severe weather event due to hit the East Coast of the USA, and I might like to review my travel plans for the 16/17/18th January. Well aware of the snow approaching our coastline, which has been of some concern to us, we immediately called to bring our travel plans forward 24 hrs.
This created it's own set of 'issues' but not insurmountable. We were 99% packed up, on the boat, and just had to do those last minute things we were leaving for Tuesday in Jacksonville, followed by a leisurely day doing not much. Our intended travel was for Wednesday 17th, but we felt the need to push our agenda forward as we read that Texas has almost come to a standstill with snow all over the place, and we were in the line of fire also, with New York not looking good either.

Waz changed the oil in the engines yesterday, ahead of a number of other essential chores and a couple of drop-offs at the storage locker. Our entire lives are there encapsulated.
We ate lunch at Panera...we like their soups and sour dough rolls, and because the fridge was literally bare, ate dinner at Longhorn Steak House. Bad idea! Waz sent his ribs back twice, with the third time a charm ribs (as indicated by the manager, who was now involved) being packaged and taken home. Our neighbors at the marina were the happy recipients, as we didn't fancy ribs for breakfast at 6am this morning.
Just as well we enjoyed the fried Calamari first, which was enough to feed us for dinner anyway. My salad was forgettable, with too much dressing. I dont know why I didn't order it with dressing on the side, per normal? Adding THAT restaurant to our list of NO-GO places to eat. Bummer!

Our quiet evening was disturbed by the text from United, so the rest of the evening was a frantic rush to finish all the unfinished chores and figure out which ones could wait.
I had laundered the bedding and towels yesterday afternoon (see...serendipity!) so we stripped the bed this morning, laid the towels out on the car seats to dry at some stage, after our late showers, and finished the vacuuming as we dropped into bed. Our last load was delivered to the storage locker at 6.30am this morning!

The boat is dressed (staged) for sale. We have contracted with a Broker to sell her while we are away, and he is enthusiastic about her (and his) prospects of a sale. We hope we become homeless people while we are away, and Waz returns from France to direct the purchase survey and Sea Trials . Nothing like optimism! and lets hope serendipity is at work there also.

No photos to show yet, sorry...sitting at one of the gazillion wifi stations in the newly redeveloped Newark Airport (its a work in progress still) and enjoying increased food options. I rather fancy sushi for dinner...early dinner that is. We will be fed on the plane, but I dont like United's dinner menu going to France, or the breakfast.
We purchased salads at one of the kiosks in Jacksonville airport for our lunch, which we ate on the 1.45min flight. Premium prices paid by captives!

Our destination is one hour north east of Bordeaux, this time. We have been engaged by an English/American couple who work in China as school principals, who purchased their Hamlet home there three years ago, ahead of their retirement. Because they only enjoy it for 6 weeks each year, they like to have it occupied in their stead, by people like us. We have no animals to take care of this time which is rather sad, because we so enjoy them, but it will give us a greater freedom to look around the region, take some longer trips of discovery and to pursue some of the hobbies we have packed into our luggage.

It looks like our departure gate has changed, so Waz has gone off to discover the new one and see what the food court offers. This is an open WIFI, so I dont like to stay too long.

We will be in touch when we are safely at our destination...well, the first one...Paris.
A demain!