Tuesday 9th July

Rob and I left the UK today after 9.5 weeks travelling through England, Scotland and a short trip to Ireland all of which was amazing.

With a few stays of 4-5 days we were moving around a lot, cramming in as much as possible each day. Due to this and poor or no internet in the remoter regions my blog has suffered so my apologies and I will catch up on all the missing posts! Promise!

Today we flew to Framce, after a small delay, landing at Charles de Gaulle airport around 3:30pm which with the hour difference became 4:30pm.

Shortly thereafter we collected our Renoit Darcia Duster to be known as “dusty”.

Dusty will be our car for the next six months and is brand new.

I’m so proud of Rob for tackling the driving, new car, steering wheel on the left, gear stick on the right and driving on the other side of the road today and what a great job he did too. That is the right side, not to be confused with the wrong side… 🙂

We are driving to Croatia,so this visit to France is fleeting as we drive through over the next few days.

Nevertheless the French countryside is enchanting with fields of wheat and corn in this area heading West from Paris. Some harvested, some fully grown and about to be. Some parts remind me of home; the colours and the blue skies on this warm sunny day of 23 degrees are like country NSW in Summer.

No photos though as I’m busy navigating with the Sat Nav so Rob can fully concentrate on driving.

We arrive at Chateau Thierry about 7:30 in the evening and what a pretty French Village it is.

We find our BnB for the night Studio Royale L’abbe, drop our bags and head into town for dinner. Rob has found a “beer hall” that does Tapas and we find a fairly traditional French evening ripaste which was amazing!

Immediately I am overwhelmed by the French language but smile and nod, say Bounsour and Tres Bon Merci at the conclusion of our meal and I feel I have gotten away with it. I must admit I miss the friendly banter and enquiry we received during our UK time a little though but hey, that’s what travel is all about isn’t it, new experiences.

The host is very keen to start teaching us French at the til, which was very kind and rather hilarious too.

After dinner we visit the marchet and I marvel at all the French groceries.

On the way home we visit the banquette vending machine!!! Grant, you never mentioned those!!! Two Euro later I am two baguettes to the wind, one for breakfast, one for lunch tomorrow.

I couldn’t resist though and had to have a small piece when we got home, with French butter of course. OMG! So good!!!

The walk home includes a peak at Chateau Thierry and a walk through the streets…

Our plan for tomorrow is to catch the start of the Tour de France at Saint Die Des-Vosges and then again at Ribeauville.

Let’s see how we go with that.

Bonsoir xx