French Rules

May 14, 2024May 14, 2024 | Mairead

Not exactly French coffee on the road… (from McCafe)

Saturday, we got up early having learned from the previous day that the coolest time for driving is early morning (or in the dark). Let me rephrase that, we got up early – in our dreams. When we woke at 10 it was no longer early. We had learned to be less optimistic about the length of time we could spend driving in this heat – also in our dreams. And we drove for exactly the same amount of time as yesterday. I can’t help but feel disappointed in us, we could have done so much better.

But we weren’t punished for our lack of learning and within a half hour of our destination we noticed clouds. Would there be rain?

Indeed there would be rain. Not a lot but enough and the thunder we heard promised more. We were staying the night in an old French campsite with more rules than we are used to from the French. Having travelled for, the now regular, 7.5 hours to get there I was less than on top form for translation but Denis enjoys leaving the sign ins to me. Ce qui sera, sera.

The French receptionist didn’t speak English and as I alluded to yesterday I don’t perform well in the heat (also not in the rain or impending stormy weather). So I agreed to all the rules and paid up. I directed Denis to park in the manner I understood was necessary to be a good camper and made myself comfortable.

I woke up to find Denis and the husband of the receptionist discussing our parking… it seems we were on the wrong side of the tree and pointing the wrong way. There was a storm coming (yippee!) and our position was dire and would cause us storm damage. I could hear Denis’ incredulous, “Really?”and the husband repeating (in English) “Really!” We had to reposition.

The storm turned out to be a little lack luster but the rain did not come in our open door and we did not have storm damage. But the rain meant we would not be making the 10 minute walk to the town for another chance of a French meal. Probably just as well, our eating out budget was already over stretched. French restaurants charge the same as Irish restaurants, our budget is more Portuguese inspired. Fortunately, we had visited a supermarket before we left Fontenay Le Compt and dined on fried fish and salad leaves listening to the thunder.

That’s us on the wrong side of the tree, pointing in the wrong direction

Next morning we set off (no, not early) in fog and mist feeling a little chilly, thrilled with ourselves. Today we would be crossing the border into Spain, a journey of little over an hour. As we got closer I remembered something I really needed and googled a supermarket just kilometers inside the border. The French love crafts and a lot of their craft magazines are exquisite with lots of pictures, making the language barrier almost insignificant. Today, I would be the happy owner of one more. (Yes, I have a collection of them at home. Yes, I do need more.)

Yes the supermarket was closed but look at that beautiful overcast sky!

We arrived in the car park, me like a child at Christmas. Until I noticed the sign, Ouvert Dimanche Matin… Noooo, it’s Sunday! “What time is it?” It was precisely 12.30pm. Precisely. That is the time French supermarkets (the few that open on Sundays) close on Sundays. There would be no craft magazine today… my little heart was broken…

Oh no hang on I’m grand, maybe the Spanish like craft magazines?

To France and beyond

May 12, 2024May 12, 2024 | Mairead

We’re off again! To France and beyond.

We thought we were leaving on Bank Holiday Monday but the ferry was cancelled. The rebooking for Wednesday was then cancelled. The rebooking of that for Thursday went ahead and as we sat on the ferry on Thursday evening we made a decision to drive for 5 hours through France as soon as we docked.

How were we to know France (and Ireland too) would be going through a heat wave? There is a line in the book I’m reading, The mindful body by Ellen Langer, where she encourages us to “treat all of our choices as opportunities for growth and education.” In hindsight we had a choice… stay by the coast where cool breezes take the edge off the heat. Or, move further south, more intense heat, less breeze. We seem to have accidentally chosen the opportunity for growth and education… oh and the engine air conditioning broke! It’s far from air conditioning we were reared – we opened the windows. The wind noise made conversation difficult but to be honest as the thermometer rose past 36 degrees C the phrase from childhood, “if you have nothing kind to say, say nothing at all” came to mind and I said nothing at all.

The number on the right is outside temperature, it went up to 36 C

Seven and a half hours later we arrived at the town of Fontenay Le Compt. Parking ticket secured we headed off to eat. We had remembered a restaurant from years ago. It was in a cute little square near the river. There was a pretty bar across the square and trees dotted around. The setting was gorgeous, the people were friendly, there was air conditioning and the food was divine. What was it called?

Unfortunately, the restaurant remained as a lovely memory in my head – we could not find it or the square. To be honest we didn’t search as long as we might have in a different country. The window of opportunity for meal consumption in France is very precise and there was a dire possibility we would miss out. We googled, restaurants. It’s difficult to get a horrible meal in France and we did not get a horrible meal. We must remember this restaurant for next time, the setting and the food were just as picturesque and divine as the missing one.

Oh yes of course I took a picture of the food and the setting – I was hungry and tired and hot, there is no picture… sorry.

We’ll probably never find it again. My mind is a bundle of beautiful places with no directions.

This year’s map will be minimalistic … did I mention I don’t perform well in the heat?
The red dots – ferry journey from Rosslare. The yellow dots driving to Fontenay-le-Comte

The Lighthouse

June 5, 2023June 4, 2023 | Mairead

And now we’re back in Ireland… probably. As I write we’re still on the ferry so I suppose I don’t know for certain that we are back… but it’s probable. It’s the morning after the calmest crossing we’ve ever had. I slept through the night for the first time and am as bright as a button.

The sun is shining on the seas and we are floating towards the Irish Sea. I’ll go get a photo to show you…

By now you’ll have seen the photos! Hopefully they give some sense of what it was like out there. And the lighthouse! It’s the Tusksr Rock lighthouse. I thought we had three more hours on the ferry. We don’t, we’re in the Irish Sea, we’re nearly home!

Here again is another example of why I need to write to you… you make me go outside and look at what’s there! My friend Linda, yesterday when she realised the forecast was for lots of wind, gently suggested I take my coat and hat on board so I could go outside for a breath of fresh air (=to calm me down, she knows my anxiety.) Of course, what a good idea.

Do I need to tell you – I didn’t bring my coat and hat. There’s no way I’m going outside, I say to myself. But then when I started writing to you and I saw the sun shining on the waves, I thought I’ll just brave the freezing cold for a quick photo!

One photo later I realised it was not cold, it was positively, almost warm. And the breeze wasn’t bitter, it was very pleasant. I took another photo and another and that’s when I saw something in the distance. Another boat? A buoy? A lighthouse? The lighthouse!

And then it was back to driving on the other side of the road… (We have right hand drive, this picture was of a vintage American army jeep from the museum in Saint Mère Èglise)

A lighthouse to protect us from the rocks, from danger. A lighthouse to keep us safe and on the straight and narrow path home. I just met the Stena hostess who gave each of us muffins on our journey over. Do you remember her? She had to move Denis out of the dining room when it closed and she felt bad for moving him while he was working. She brought each of us a muffin to make it up to him at the time.

…where the roadsides are covered in daisies…

It struck me that she’s a kindness lighthouse, a kindness lighthouse reminds us of our naturally loving nature, our vibrant connection to others and our absolute necessity in the world. All of us are lighthouses when we do our own thing. Especially when we do it vulnerably, regardless of reward or shame.

…the coffees are ginormous and the skies are blue

I’ll be taking this home with me… Be you. Do you. Give up the shame. Notice the lighthouses. Sending love to you, lighthouse human xxx Mairéad

Calm Down

June 4, 2023June 1, 2023 | Mairead

On Tuesday we left La Flèche on the long drive to the department of Normandy and Saint Mère Èglise. The long drive was made longer by traffic diversions due to a new road or a bridge or something. Suffice to say our sat nav was at a loss to take us anywhere except narrow roads.

Very lovely narrow roads with lots of wheat and barley growing in the fields either side. With tractors working in those fields. And sometimes a line of grass growing in the middle of the narrow road.

A road with grass growing down the middle is my definition of a road that is too narrow for Ruby but it is also a road that doesn’t get much traffic. Just as well because by the time we realised we were on said grassy road there were no options for turning back.

We were very lucky, it was lunchtime and as we have found out the French are very strict regarding the time of meals and we met no one. Did not prevent my nervous system going on full alert as we approached every corner.

I do wonder if I’ll ever completely get rid of the anxiety. But do I want to get rid of it? In the moment it seems the most sane thing to be anxious about moving faster than walking speed down a – lets call it what it is – a farmers laneway when at any moment another vehicle could be travelling as fast or faster towards us. Surely, anxiety is the sanest response? Right?

Still too narrow but look at the three trees…

And yet, when I apply logic to my challenge, I do realise the danger from my habit of repeated self-dosing with adrenaline is probably more dangerous to me than the possibility of meeting a car on a country lane.

And now here I am packing a bag for our night on the ferry. The road to the ferry is wide. What could I possibility be anxious about? The forecast. The forecast says there will be wind, in fact it’s already been blowing all day yesterday and again today.

Perfectly straight road off into the distance…

This would be a good time for me to download a book that cures anxiety automatically and without having to read it as I won’t be able to read if the ship is pitching…

On the river

June 3, 2023June 4, 2023 | Mairead

As I write we are in the lovely little town of Saint Mere Eglise, Normandy. And would you believe they are having D-Day celebrations. The town is hopping with American soldiers (who will be dropping out of the sky in parachutes in the next few days.) We’ve never been here at this time of year and didn’t realise it was such a big occasion.

There’s a walkway around the campsite beside the river and it’s called Promenade Colette Cosnier. The sign says she wrote about women and the feminine condition

After our Friday night in the cave houses town of Turquant we left the Loire valley and drove to the Loir – no that’s not a typo – there really is a different river with almost the same name as the longest river in France with all the chateaux. We stayed in the campsite in the town of La Flèche where there’s a bridge over the smaller river, the Loir.

We found an Irish pub… with MURPHY’s but no food

The weather was hot with blue skies for two days and then hot with a lovely breeze for the third day. I was chasing shade around the motorhome but showering helped and the bugs were still not biting. Yaa! (By the way, thank you for all your suggestions re the mosquitoes, next time I will be well equipped. Also, that was a joke about not showering… just in case you were wondering)

Gorgeous Galette – duck, apple, walnuts and Camembert (Restaurant La Bisquine)

It was a holiday weekend in La Flèche (and the Uk and the USA) and that always makes it a little more tricky to line up nourishment options. This is due to the further tightening of the already tight time range of opening times for shops, restaurants and supermarkets.

The local cinema was showing the Irish language movie The Quiet Girl

But we have been adding to our Information about France basket and were able to supplement the enduring dried porridge with other possibilities. Plus there was a surprise – the baker had a spot at the campsite from 8am to 9am on Sunday morning! Again we have managed not to starve. Do I talk about food too much?

The Cardinal and the Caves

June 2, 2023June 1, 2023 | Mairead

On Friday we also visited Richelieu on our way north. You may have heard of Cardinal Richelieu? From the Three Musketeers? He was also a real Cardinal and at the same time a politician. It all seems to have been a bit more complicated back then or maybe it was simple economics. In a nutshell his mother needed one of her sons to become a bishop. There was money promised to her husband from the king but it was in the church budget so she needed a bishop in the family to get at it.

Richelieu’s older brother was already a priest but he was not keen on the plan and he became a monk instead. The younger Richelieu was keen and agreed to become a bishop for his mother. He studied what he needed to study and became a priest and then a bishop in 1607. The money was now safe.

…and a huge antiques shop opposite the church

Sometime in the 1630’s the Cardinal bought land (near his original home) where the town now stands and had the architect, who designed the Sorbonne, design a walled town on a grid.

You might remember the town of Monpazier was also on a grid? But while Monpazier is beautiful Richelieu is tidy and neat. Kinda like it’s pretending to be old. Of course it is old but not old-old. (Have I become an old snob now?) There’s also a park and there was a big chateau but it’s gone. Oh and the bishop built a smaller chateau a few kilometers outside the town, for his mistress… as you do.

It was a hot day and we went in search of ice creams but it was not to be. The ice cream signs outside the cafe were just for decoration, not to be taken too seriously.

The white/cream stone is called Tufa, at Turquant

We travelled on until we found motorhome parking for the night on the banks of the Loire in a village called Turquant. The village is built into caves of Tufa stone. There are miles of tunnels in the caves and it’s possible to take a tour of the homes. We were still in travel mode so left early the next morning.

One of the houses built into the stone, Turquant

Driving through France

June 1, 2023May 31, 2023 | Mairead

Through the arch in Saint Benoit du Sault

On Friday we left Saint Ybard. Our plan was to drive for hours and pick up a couple of beautiful villages on the way. We really lucked out in the Dordogne and Lot departments because there are lots of the beautiful villages there.

They’re a little more spread out in the rest of France. We checked the map and headed for Saint Benoit du Sault. Wandering around in the narrow streets is such an uplifting thing to do. Then it was lunch time so we found the boulangerie and bought some bread.

Something we always have in the fridge is the ingredients for a French bread sandwich so lunch is always sorted. And if dinner becomes problematic we can have second lunch instead.

One of the things we had to let go when we started travelling like this was that we wouldn’t always have everything we need at hand. I suppose need is the concept we had to let go. In truth we need very little. Although we don’t always feel or act that way.

After lunch we set off again. Unlike our trip through France back in April on this return journey we were staying off the motorways. This can make me quite anxious as I’m sitting on the drivers side so every wide truck or van comes quite close to me. Sometimes too close for comfort.

But I’ve been practicing my meditation and repeating my mantra and on Friday I was able to notice the countryside. And I noticed the sheaves of wheat waving in the breeze.

Half of France is agricultural land. Imagine, half! I looked it up. (Then I looked up Ireland and it’s 64%.) Food is one thing we do need.

Relationship Advice

May 31, 2023May 30, 2023 | Mairead

It was time to move on and travel for a bit in the general direction of Ireland. Yes it’s nearly time to go home. We left the village of Martel and drove for a couple of hours to Saint Ybard. This is a very small village with a very pretty fishing lake and free motorhome parking. We stayed one overnight .

Normally I wouldn’t be too happy staying near a still body of water due to the mosquitoes. You see they love me but their love is not reciprocated, in fact I would like to finish our painful relationship. So I’ve been taking mosquito relationship advice. Please wade in if you have an opinion, so far it’s just Denis and my mother in law, Eilish, who are counselling me.

Denis says if you keep moving they won’t get a chance to bite. I walked quickly around the lake all day. Eilish said don’t wear perfume or deodorant. I kept downwind of other humans. And success… I was not bitten. But was that because there were no mosquitos? Or because they couldn’t catch me? Or because they didn’t like how I smell?

My sister has promised to bring back some Canadian anti-mosquito thick white cream stuff that works a treat over there where the mosquito are bigger… seemingly. In the meantime I’m afraid to slow down or apply deodorant. I’ve also stopped showering. Now I’m wondering if this is why the flies are following me…

Villages 2

May 30, 2023May 29, 2023 | Mairead

Every village from the most beautiful list is different. Rocamadour makes you look up in awe and I suppose that was the intention. It’s a pilgrim site. On the door of one of the chapels in the cathedral it says, no visiting except for prayer.

Remembering that one of the reasons this list of villages was created was to allow the local population to stay locally by providing employment… I wonder are they happy with all the visitors? Do they ever want to close the gates?

A moment to notice what’s just over our heads

And do they get to enjoy just looking? When we arrive back in Ireland we see things we missed. The weather is very soft, so soft that sometimes it cries on your head. The fields are so green you want to photograph individual blades of grass. The castles are so raw you want to protect them from destruction.

This is the resting deer I could see way down in the valley

We found Martel when we were escaping the flies and didn’t realise it was on the list too. Unless you see the sign to announce this is one of the most beautiful villages you don’t know. It’s different because it’s not obvious. So every corner you turn, your eyes light up. There’s plenty of food for the eyes.

Not so much food for the belly though. We were too late for lunch, too early for dinner, not in high season and nothing in the fridge.

That’s Denis leaning against a wall searching his phone for somewhere to eat

But it was just this situation that brought us to the small French tapas restaurant for our evening meal and to the supermarket for our coffee next morning. The surprise of ordinary when you were expecting more.

You can almost imagine walking along this street in the middle ages… except for the parked cars

And ordinary is surprisingly good. Theses villages are not perfect, they are just beautiful. Isn’t that enough, though?