Tag: travel

Surfeit of Seafood

The weather pattern broke today. After further overnight rain, the morning rain forgot to stop and allow the afternoon sun to shine. Drat! The solution to the meteorological depression that seem sto be with us was to spend much of

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Monsoon Season

We appear to be in the French monsoon. The last two days have exhibited the same pattern: rain overnight and during much of the morning but with a pleasant and largely sunny afternoon. This morning’s heavy rain was accompanied by

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Games We Play

Here’s a quaint little game that Francine and I quite often play upon arrival at a new campsite. First, we wander round and select a likely pitch. Second, we drag Guillaume (our caravan) to the chosen pitch and set him

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Unnatural Habitat

Those who are aware of Franco and Francine’s preferences might consider them to be somewhat out of their normal habitat – and they’d be right. Though we now are in an area known as La Côte Sauvage (the Wild Coast),

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Kite Flying

In returning to this site near La Palmyre, we were hoping to repeat our experience of two years ago. On that occasion, about the same week of the year, we had heard the haunting, night time call of recently fledged

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Adieu to the Marais

This weekend turned out to be a very busy one in Arçais. The sun, which had been shining for the last few days, continued unabated and our campsite all but filled up. It began to feel as though we were

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Lunch Emergency

Mike seemed keen on getting a little exercise having another week working back in Blighty so we went and dragged him out for a bike ride. Like us, Mike is also fascinated by wildlife so our trip turned into more

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Action Stations

What a difference a day of sunshine makes, not just to we humans but to the whole of nature, it seems. The Marais Poitevin is something of a wildlife haven. With its intricate network of canals, one might reasonably assume

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The Chain Gang

At last, after four days of irritating rain, a settled day – not sunny but settled nonetheless. A slightly stir-crazy Franco and Francine made good their escape from camp à bicyclettes. We were off in search of coypus or ragondins

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Drought Protection

It’s supposed to be dry tomorrow. Meanwhile, today, the rain continued in an irritatingly sporadic kind of way. What better time to be given an insight into French water engineering for allotments? The Marais Poitevin has what appears to be

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