Blog post number 100!

A momentous occasion we think….did it ever cross our minds that we would write or catalogue so much information while travelling….I don’t think so!


Initially we had to learn how to use Blogger, and they have made it easier while we’ve been away. It used to take forever to upload photos, but now we’ve learned to do it quite quickly.

A lot of the sites we’ve stayed on haven’t had internet connection, so we’ve written it in draft to cut and paste when we’ve been able to.

Some experiences haven’t made it into the blog because we’ve left it too late to write about them before another new experience has taken precedence.

One thing is certain, what we have created is a very neat document of treasured memories.

Not that this will be our last….oh no, we still have 6 weeks left of this adventure with many more things to document, for instance………

Goose/Duck Stuffing

Now we’ve always been partial to a bit of Foie Gras, even though we’ve known that the feathered friends eat more corn than is good for them.

This trip we decided to visit a Foie Gras Ferme to decide once and for all how happy/unhappy the geese and ducks are.  Rest assured, it isn’t a horrific experience.

The birds are brought up in the open air with all the comfort they desire until the last 15 days of their 4 month lives. At this point they are brought inside the barn to live in a pen with their friends and are given 2 feeds a day via a funnel, of about 200—250 grams of sweetcorn. They have fresh water constantly on tap, and other seeds and corn to peck at as they wish.

Now the gullet of a duck or goose does not have the gagging reflex we have. They totally relax and I must admit look as though they enjoy the experience. It’s not brutal or distressing, and each bird is fed by hand so the farmer can make sure that there is no ‘forcing’ the food into the bird.

We decided that ‘force feeding’ is a poor translation of what actually happens. I know we’ve only visited one farm and not every farmer will be as proud to let the public see how or what he does, but as with all animal food products, we can vote by choosing to buy only the reputable products where animal welfare is a priority.

The Guinguette
If you look this up on the internet it will tell you that it is an open air meal with some sort of entertainment, which died out last century.

Nobody has told the villages in le Perigord Noir that it’s a thing of the past. Every Marche Nocturne (night market to you and me) has a Guinguette. Rows of tables and chairs are placed in the middle of the market for everyone to eat the food and drink the wine which can be bought at the stalls around the edge. There is also a stage erected close to the tables and chairs for the entertainers to perform while you eat, drink and make new friends.

We have been to several now. The food is usually of a very high standard and a little different to the bars, cafes and restaurants. But the best part is chatting to the locals and tourists alike, spending time drinking in the atmosphere in the warm summer evenings.

 Canoeing on the Dordogne

With Dave and Katie due to join us next week we thought we’d get some canoeing practice in before they arrive, so yesterday we booked a fairly short (10 Km) trip. We were told it should take about 2 hours if we canoed non-stop but we had a picnic lunch with us so arranged for the minibus to pick us up 3 hours later.

We are so pleased that we had this trial run as we learnt quite a lot! The river flows at about 5 Km an hour and of course all trips are downstream – you either get a lift upstream and end up back where you parked your car or you get a lift back to the car park at the end of your journey.

Lesson 1 – book a trip where you start upstream and end up back at the base – that way you don’t have to be anywhere at any particular time. We thought we would have plenty of time but of course their time estimates assume that you travel in a fairly straight line. Our constant series of ziz-zags, pirouettes and emergency stops (to avoid serious injury to other canoeists) meant that we probably covered nearly double the distance.

Lesson 2 – when given the option of single-ended or double-ended paddles choose the double-ended ones. We thought that with one of us rowing on one side and the other one rowing on the other we would travel serenely down the river in a straight line. Wrong – next time we’ll take it in turns using double-ended paddles – not sure if it will help but it couldn’t be any worse!

Lesson 3 – just because your dog is a good swimmer don’t assume he is a good sailor. For some reason Benji didn’t seem to enjoy sitting in a puddle in the middle of our canoe for three hours. He endured it but attempted to strike out for land whenever possible.

Lesson 4 – appoint a captain. One of you has to be in charge – it’s the only way it can work even if the other person isn’t that happy about doing what they’re told!

Lesson 5 – if you’re looking for a quiet day out choose another month or another river. The Dordogne in late July is as busy as the M25 on a Monday morning – canoes and swimmers as far as the eye can see with the odd 50-seater tour boat doing it’s best to pick it’s way through the throng without drowning anybody.

The World Cup

I’d known for quite a while that we would be in France during the World Cup. Like most England fans, my head told me that we had very little chance of doing well this time round but my heart told me that I had to watch, just in case things turned out better than expected.

We don’t have a TV in the caravan but we do have a USB tuner which enables us to watch local TV on our laptop. We’ve not used it much because our language skills are not good enough for us to enjoy Spanish/French/Portuguese TV programmes, but it was one of my options for watching the England games.

The site we were on for the first game against the USA was remarkable in that it was the only site we have stayed on that had no internet access, no mobile phone reception and not even a hint of a TV signal. Fortunately however they had Satellite TV in the bar. Unfortunately, the only other people on the site vaguely interested in watching the game were a Welsh couple. Now to give them their due they were not particularly anti-English, bit I think it’s fair to say that they were slightly amused by the ineptitude of England’s performance whereas I was just embarrassed and faintly annoyed.

By the time of the next game against Algeria we had moved to a site which had good TV reception and I decided to watch the game on my own at the caravan rather than seeking out a bar in town – a wise decision.

For the final group game against Slovenia I was heartened by the fact the England’s fate was in their own hands and although there was no way that I wanted to take the risk of watching it in a public place surrounded by French, Dutch, Germans etc. I was looking forward to watching it.

I duly tuned in to the same French TV channel that had shown the previous England game only to find that they were showing the other game from our group – USA v Algeria! I scanned through all the other channels but none of them were showing football. So I missed the only game that England won in their 2010 World Cup campaign.

I’m not going to say too much about the Germany game – like everyone else I was annoyed about the disallowed goal, frustrated at the ineptitude of the England team and faintly thankful at the end that it was all over. At least from now on I could just enjoy the football without worrying too much about who wins.

We decided that with England out we should support the teams of the countries we’d visited in our year of travelling. France were already out so that left us with Spain and Portugal who played each other in the next round leaving us just Spain to support.

On the evening of their semi-final game against Germany we had been invited for drinks with some other people on the new site we were on, so I only caught the second half but one of the other guys on site, hearing that I had the football on, came and joined me.

We decided we had to do something special for the final so Julie and I organised a World Cup Final barbecue with the option of watching the game on our not very big screen. We had a really good turnout and it was great to watch the game with other football fans.

And it was great to watch Spain win after the disappointment of the England games.

P.S. I do have to be careful though as there are lots of Dutch on holiday in this region and I have occasionally found myself inadvertently humming a few bars of “Viva Espana” while shopping in the supermarket.

Bastille Day…….14th July

We have been in France a couple of times before on Bastille Day and have enjoyed the festivities enormously.

This year was also very enjoyable.

Here in Perigord Noir it began on the evening before. The nearest town had organised an evening of entertainment to suit all tastes. It began at 5pm, but as the first few events were comedians and poets we decided that we wouldn’t venture in until the music started at 9pm ish.

We walked in with friends we’ve made on site, a couple from New Zealand, Gary and Rae.

The town was buzzing, there must have been about 1,000 people and the town is only small, a church, a ‘salle de fetes’, a Logis, with a few houses in between. It’s called St Amand de Coly, and is famous for its church which used to be an Abbey.

We arrived in time for what we were expecting to be a mime to the music of ‘Peter and the Wolf’.

I didn’t recognise the music, it certainly was a much more modern rendition of the old classics, but the mime and dance were spectacular.

There was just a man and a woman, but the props they used were extraordinary. The audience was spell bound, even the 50 or so little children who had sat in a semi-circle at the front of ‘La Place’. It lasted for about ½ an hour.

We wondered towards the Salle de Fetes after the mime, to find trestle tables set up with chairs for people to eat. There was also a music band playing here. Around the car park were several stalls selling walnuts and walnut products, foie gras, pancakes, sugar covered peanuts……the usual sorts of foods we’ve come to expect from this region, but between them all was a butchers van….how odd we all said!

At the back of this area there were 2/3 huge griddles and bbq’s. Talking to the ‘cooks’ we found out that you choose the meat you want to eat from the butchers and pay for it, then they will cook it for you at no extra cost to have with salad and chips which you could also buy if you wanted them. There were also stalls selling wine by the glass or bottle and a beer tent.

We sat and had a couple of drinks while listening to the music, waiting for the big finale to commence at 11pm.

We weren’t quite sure what to expect as the leaflet we had said it involved 56 comedians, a band and some acting, ending with fire works.

The field it was all happening in had had about 50 oil drums erected in a triangle, and there was stage lighting
set up aimed at the oil drums!

At 11pm we wandered over to the outskirts of the town along with everybody else.

It’s very difficult to describe what happened next, because it’s one of those times when you really have to be there, but we will try!

From the other side of the field we could see and hear the band start up. The music was in the style of Pink Floyd, and was very good. The band were set up on the back of a flat bed lorry which had blue and pink fluorescent lighting adorning it everywhere – the lighting making it look more like a train than a lorry.

It took a while for the lorry to come around to where we’d decided to stand, but as it did we were treated to a magnificent spectacle.

All the performers were covered with a blue die like woad. Many were pushing empty oil cans along the ground for effect and sound. They had fire crackers and flares which they let off to enhance the lighting of the lorry.

As they pushed their oil cans along the ground they began to roll over them creating an image of destruction, others came along eating lettuce and drinking blue liquid from glasses with straws, while all this was happening the band were playing and the oil drums were being used to add a percussion sound. The atmosphere was electric, no one quite sure where the next flare or fire cracker would be.

After a while they all regrouped and headed off to the erected oil drums in the middle of the field. Once everyone was in place, music playing all the while, the beat unified and there was an enormous bang. All went silent and black, and then the wall of oil drums came tumbling down.

The procession began again with the music and the actors/comedians/musicians all making their way toward the church which became the most magnificent back drop for a wonderful firework display which ended the night.

I got the feeling that it symbolised a modern version of the French Revolution. An almost nuclear experience, re-enacting the fall of Versailles, but who knows…….it was something well worth being a part of. The pictures only capture a fragment. A little like our whole experience really—there’s too much that can’t be explained, but has given us some incredible memories.

We walked back to the campsite along a track in the dark with head torches on, for another night’s sleep before going to St Genies the next evening (again with Gary and Rae),for another ‘Bastille Day’ celebration, which was a lot tamer, but we had a marvellous meal sitting along the trestle tables along with many other European nationalities, eating the food we watched cooked on the griddles and bbq’s, drinking good wine and enjoying good company!

One year on!

It’s been nearly a year since we moved into the caravan at the bottom of the garden for the ‘change over period’ of 60 Shelley Road, to Paul, Rach and Dave.

In fact only 5 days short of the year!

I can’t quite remember how I felt back then as we had Lighthouse and all that it entails, to look forward to, Explorer ‘B’ camp which we had also committed to, not to mention leaving everything we’d known to travel through France, Spain and Portugal.

I can remember being in a frenzy getting rid of a lot of our ‘stuff’ to make room for Paul and Rach moving back in.

Frenzy is not a word my brain or body is familiar with now! I hope I will never ever ‘get into a frenzy’ again, there’s absolutely no need.

Reflecting on where we are now to where we were then, there’s a vast difference. It has been helped by the lifestyle we’ve led over the past year, but this lifestyle has also taught us some very important lessons.

We left High Wycombe hoping to learn how to ‘be’ instead of just ‘doing’ or responding to situations which we found ourselves in the middle of. Also, to live without clutter, as a caravan doesn’t lend itself to useless articles or items!

Being—has not been that easy to learn, and we now wonder if many people actually accomplish it. We’ve realised that we enjoy having a purpose to our lives, and although neither of us see ourselves going back into paid employment, doing something which is fulfilling will be very important to us when we get home.

Living without clutter is much easier. I still have far too much ‘stuff’ in the caravan, and on setting up a new home when we arrive back in the UK I will certainly make sure only the items which are regularly used will accompany us!

We’ve also realised that being content with who and where we are is also a major part of living. It’s something that doesn’t always come naturally, you have to accept things which aren’t always easy to accept, and put up with niggles without moaning, but if you can accomplish that and be thankful for what you’ve got, life becomes a lot brighter.

The hardest part of this adventure for me (Julie), has been not being an everyday part of our children’s lives. Not that we were before we left, but being too far away to make an immediate difference in helping them has been particularly difficult. They, on the other hand, have probably been pleased we’ve not been around to interfere!!

Have we accomplished what we set out to achieve?

A 20 year dream was to travel through Portugal, and yes we’ve done that, although now we would like to do it again in a motorhome. (Access to the more remote parts would be easier.)

I’ve already talked about ‘being’ and ‘decluttering’.

We now have bags of experience to continue to go ahead with what we feel we’re called to do next, which is to find some land and make it an enjoyable venue which can be used for us to live on and host family, friends, friends to be, the local community, and whoever else wishes to use it to relax and ‘be’.

Where that land will be is yet to be determined, but we still have 2 months of this experience left to enjoy, and enjoy it we will!!

Have we any regrets?

None whatsoever. When we first set out I thought I was ‘doing’ this for Peter. ( He had always wanted to spend a long time travelling, I never had.) As time has gone on I have gained so much from this experience, lessons which I couldn’t have learnt in any other way, and I’m so thankful that I’ve had this opportunity.

Menu du jour!

Having spent many years travelling the length and breadth of France as our summer holiday destination, I must admit to not having enough confidence in my abilities to speak French, to pull into an Auberge for a meal. Even though that’s all I’ve wanted to do. Something has always prevented me from doing just that. I’ve been more than happy to settle for a café or a restaurant where a menu has either been on display or placed in front of me.

This trip, an ambition was to turn up unannounced at an Auberge to have a meal.

We have accomplished it more than once! What a fantastic experience it is--if you don’t mind that the china doesn’t match, or you use the same knife, fork and plate for nearly every course.

Mostly we have found these places filled with French labourers having a hearty meal before going to finish their day's work.

For us……we have been presented with a five course meal…….soup, in a terrine to serve yourselves as much as you wish, followed by a salad or pate course, or maybe a goats cheese tart, again eat as much as you like!

Then along comes the main meal which is usually meat/fish /egg based with a mixture of vegetables.

Then for us the ‘piece de resistance’, the cheese board! We have had various cheese boards placed in front of us, some just huge chunks of delicious cheese on a plate with a knife, others, presented with homemade jams which have complimented the cheese perfectly.

Before you can say ‘pas de desert’ a pudding is presented before you with a coffee to follow.

Usually the wine is included in the meal, it is either in a carafe or a bottle without a label, of half-decent red which has never disappointed our now trained palates.

I hasten to add that we have begun to eat just once a day as it takes us all afternoon and evening to feel hungry again!!!

(So much cheaper than going to the supermarket where you buy more than you need just to throw it away before you’ve used it as it’s gone bad in the heat! Environmentally friendly too as we don’t have to heat our water to do the washing up!)

Bon appétit!

91st Felibrejada dau Bornat dau Perigord Montignac Sur Vezere 2,3,4 de Juliet 2010

What’s all this about?.... we hear you ask!

We have arrived on the one site we booked before we left the UK. It is a small 8 van paradise, 4 miles from Montignac in the Perigord region, and we were lucky enough to get here in time for their annual celebration of all things Perigordian!

The town has been completely shut off to traffic to enable the towns folk and surrounding villagers to gather in national dress through the last 100 years to celebrate their culture and produce, and what a variety it is…..all mixed together with lots of walnuts in one form or another.

The decorations throughout the town are very colourful, and the warmth and friendliness of the people is everywhere.

We are staying on this site now until the French school children go back to school—in six weeks time, when we will start to move off again, though not before being visited by Dave and Katie for the first week in August.

We have actually booked our crossing back home too. We leave this lovely country to arrive back in the UK on 7th September, where we will be heading straight to Essex to spend some time with Peter’s mum for a few days.

But we’ve lots to see and do before then…below are a few photos of Montignac in all it’s finery. (We’re also lucky enough to still be here when they celebrate ‘Des Hommes Pareils’ in the last week of July, for want of a better translation, it means ‘equal men’ and it’s a festival celebrating music and dance from around the world. Peter and I will certainly be attending some of the festivities then.)

Truffle virgins

While walking around a small but vibrant market in a little town called Limogne, I spied an elderly lady with just a small table displaying 4 or 5 boxes of truffles.

Now when I say boxes I mean little cardboard cartons like the ones we used to buy strawberries in before everything was packaged in plastic.

I’ve only ever seen truffles for sale before at Isle sur La Sorgue in Provence, and they were on a stall laden with black and white truffles which cost an arm and a leg.

I was intrigued by the labels which were hand written on the boxes which said…….50g / 5 Euro, 100g/10 Euro……not really believing you could buy truffles that cheaply I asked her for 50g.

She then proceeded to ask me which truffles I wanted.

Having never knowingly eaten truffles or cooked with them I wasn’t sure how to go about choosing the best ones.

She carefully showed me how to feel and smell each truffle to decide which I wanted. I chose my 50gs worth and true enough it only cost me 5 Euros.

I then had to find an Internet café to download some information on how to use them.!!!!

We have just finished eating the last of my 50gms worth, and I must say it was 5 euros very well spent. I grated some into a casserole, Peter ate some raw, I fried some truffle shavings with some lardons for breakfast one morning and the last of them I placed in my box of eggs overnight before cooking them for brunch the next day….delicious.

We are now trying to train Benji to hunt for truffles, the trouble is he’s not interested unless they come with a squeaky toy!