Vouvant – Travel stories

(Nice calming water picture… Vouvant)

Soooo there I was driving down to the supermarket. (By the way the Eat the Fridge thing is going great! – go to shop only once a week even if it seems there’s nothing left in the fridge… find creative ways to feed yourself from the nothing!) The lights were green on the t-junction so I proceeded behind the traffic, while wondering if maybe there should be a yellow box (road safety education: “don’t drive onto a yellow box unless the way ahead is clear.”) The traffic in front stopped because the lights ahead of them were red…. and I was in the space between one set of lights and the next.

1010b

(…. ommmmm… Green Venice)

Hasn’t everyone been there? The space where all seems fine, all us cars are having a fine time driving along and then it goes a bit quiet and it turns out you are the only one in the space where the traffic from the side road will need to be and you are in the way. It’s a lonely space.

1010a

(sigh… Green Venice)

So now I was… stuck and mortified. And the cars in front were also stuck or I might have inched forward to hide out-of-the-way. Slowly, very slowly the lights changed for the side road. And you know the bit in the Incredible Hulk, where something bad happens and you just know the Hulk is going to start loosing his clothes and turning green? Well, unfortunately for me something bad must have happened to the man in the car coming from the side road because he drove his car in a very Incredible Hulk way while gesticulating wildly… a lot.. at me.

1010e

(… just little ripples… Vouvant)

You know how, You know it’s gonna be fine and you know he’s not going to get out of his car and you know he’s probably not that much bigger than you and you know he’s definitely not green? And yet… and yet I was afraid. You know how horrible that is? No? It’s horrible.

1010f

(…peaceful… Vouvant)

So I just wanted to say if I do something really silly and it blocks your way for a few moments anytime in the future, could you please not lose your temper? Or if you do could you please not gesticulate wildly in my direction… a lot… like the Incredible Hulk? I’ll be driving any car and look exactly like the person driving any car that slows you down 🙂

Thanks from a slightly disturbed, Mairead.

It’s Sunday as I write and this morning we went off for a drive, as you do. We were getting a feel for the surrounding area, checking out the nearest mini market, the restaurants, forest walks, pretty towns and villages. We found the nearest shop five minutes away and there was a restaurant right next door, so we’ll back to sample that. We found lots of forest walks about ten minutes away, we’ll be back to them also. And we found a really pretty town about fifteen minutes away. Its real name is Vouvant but it’s also called Village de Peintres, which I believe means village of the painters.

08 09a

(My coffee and croissant this morning)

While I think of it I need to tell you something about how my French fluency is progressing… or not. There’s been a bit of a problem. Now I want you all to know I was not previously aware of a particular situation that pertains to this area of France. I had no idea until yesterday… the problem is, everyone speaks English here! Well, they also speak French but they don’t seem to recognise my particular version of French and move very quickly to a very fine version of English.

08 09b

(Aren’t they cute little acorns?)

I became aware that this was serious when I tried to order “Moules et Frites” (Mussels and Fries) for lunch yesterday and the lady behind the counter told me in a lovely English accent that the chips were all gone. It’s possible I may return home without the expected increase in my French literacy. Also, with all my talk of getting fluent in a week I received a comment from my friend Ann who gives French classes, unfortunately the comment is in French… I will continue to search out French speakers and keep you posted on my progress and yes Ann you may be my last hope.

08 09c

(The Mélusine Tower, there’s a story about a fairy called Mélusine, who’s half-woman, half-snake, don’t know the full story yet)

Anyway, Vouvant is very pretty. The brochure says it’s the only fortified town in the Vendee, we saw some of the fortification and it looked great. We didn’t stay long so we’ll be back here too. On the way home we decided to stop off in Decathlon, it’s a big sports shop. I needed runners (well, walkers….) and Denis wanted a small rucksack. We found the shop and we also learned something we had forgotten….. shops generally don’t open on Sundays in France… oh yea.

08 09d

(A bit of the great looking fortification (or wall) of Vouvant)

We were the only car driving around the huge shopping complex, enormous car parks empty. Where was everyone? Could it be possible that they relax at home on Sundays? As we drove to our home pondering this we passed a full car park and saw one of the things the French do do on a Sunday afternoon – they go to football matches! Wasn’t that what we used to do too? Is this why we love France?

Right so I’m off to relax, Mairead.