 |
| With the Canal Lateral de la Marne completed, we head on to new waters. |
The next day, Tuesday 29th
August dawned bright, warm and sunny – perfect for our road trip to the south
west Gironde area to look at houses to buy.
We collected the hire car with no problem, loaded up and were soon on
our way on the most expensive bit of autoroute we’ve driven on! We took our ticket shortly after leaving
Vitry and two hours later parted with 44 euros for the pleasure!! I must say, it was a pleasure. Driving in France is nothing like driving in
the UK with lots of roads to accommodate what traffic there is and the
autoroutes rarely have traffic jams, (unless you’re going skiing with Fran and
Sally – see March’s entry……) and can often go for miles without seeing more
than a handful of other cars.
Five hours later we pulled in
at the first house we were going to look at, but not to buy, as it’s just been
bought in the last year or so by our friends Jill, Alan and son Ben (well, Ben
didn’t really buy it, but I thought he should have a mention along with his mum
and dad). As well as the chance to catch
up with them and other friends there, Kath and Byron, we were keen to see their
house and garden to get an idea of what we should be looking for over the next
few days, although they are a bit further north than us and the house prices
slightly lower on average. We timed it
well and arrived as they’d all just sat down to lunch, and clearly we didn’t
need a second invitation….. after lunch we got the guided tour and the house is
just lovely! They’ve done a lot of work
to it, some quite big stuff like knocking the boxy toilet and showerroom into a
lovely family bathroom, and other cosmetic works, painting, new kitchen
etc. It has a really good layout, lovely
rooms and seeing it set us up well for our viewings.
We were soon on our way again
for the last couple of hours drive to Chateau Courtebotte at Saint Jean de
Blaignac, where we had stayed last year for a night when on holiday in the
Caterham 7 (god rest Kitty Kate’s engine), and were excited about staying for
the next three nights. A restored
chateau, it is stunning, sitting on the river Dordogne in lovely gardens, with
bedrooms that ooze Parisien chic and are the size of our entire boat – in fact,
probably a bit bigger….
 |
| One of our favourite homes away from home |
We were a little too late
arriving to squeeze in a swim in the lovely pool unfortunately, but after a
quick shower and unpacking we had time for a glass of wine before sitting down for the table d’hotes that is served on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. It means that the host basically cooks dinner
for you and you sit and eat with the other guests, and at 48 euros for four
courses and wine, was a good deal and meant no one had to drive home! Our dining companions for the evening were a
couple on holiday from Luxembourg and as I had never met someone from Luxembourg
had lots of questions, as I realised I knew nothing about their country (except
that they usually don’t do that well in the Eurovision song contest). One of the smallest countries in the world it
has a population of 500,000 of which about half are Luxembourgish, the rest
coming into the country from Italy and Portugal mainly. Their native language is Luxembourgish, and
from the start of primary school they learn French and German, and then from
secondary school they also learn English.
So they spoke four languages fluently – I hung my head in shame.
The next morning we were up
and away early to meet Neil the estate agent at a village near St Emilion whose
name I can’t remember, at 9.15am to start our viewing. We had six houses lined up and decided just
to plough through them all without a stop for lunch so’s not to have too long a
day. We had selected six varied
properties as we were seeing this as a ‘What’s available in our price range?’
kind of visit, as well as looking to see what 200 square metres of house and
4000 square metres of garden look like in the flesh, as we had no idea really.
I won’t bore you with details
of all the properties but by the end of the day, there were two that we would
potentially buy. Not that we’re looking
for one each, you understand, it’s just that there were two that we liked, that
ticked our boxes and we now knew what the sizes and dimensions looked like for
real.
 |
| Yep! This could do nicely! |
 |
| Pool with a view |
 |
| This one has him thinking |
One of them we really, really
loved and would be able to move right in, the thought of which gave Mike a
sleepless night as buying a house right now was not part of his plan. He had tossed and turned all night, worrying
about not having the money transferred over yet, the declining euro, what would
we do with the boat, where would we keep the boat while at the house, we wanted
to do another season boating next year so what would we do with the house while
we were on the boat?? It was all too
soon and not part of the plan!!
 |
| The house of sleepless nights...... |
 |
| We'd be very happy cooking in here....... |
 |
| Crikey, he's doing that 'thinking' thing again.... |
Our morning of Thursday 31st
August was clear, so we drove to the nearby village of Sauveterre des Guyennes
to have a look around. Mike was in a
right state of stress and tiredness so rested in the car while I had a wander
around the little town, during which time, making polite conversation with one
of the local Monsieurs was asked if I would like to have a drink with him!! Thankfully my French extends to, “I’m waiting
for my husband, but thank you.” And I scurried back to the car blushing.
By this time Mike was saying
he wanted to cancel meeting up with Michelle and Kevin (from le bateau, Kendra
Erin) who’d recently got their keys for their new home in Gensac, which is in
the same area we’re looking. He didn’t
feel up to it, but I didn’t want to cancel as I thought it would be good to
talk things through with them, and it was still hours to go til we were meeting
up and we had the second estate agent Jerry to meet with this afternoon, so he
might feel differently after that. I
also decided that we needed to exorcise this house from yesterday from his
brain one way or the other, so suggested that we drive to the village near it,
have a look and suss out how far away it was from civilization, as I had a
niggle that it was too far and hadn’t been over-enamoured by what we’d seen of
the village yesterday.
We did so and straight away
we discounted this house. Right house,
wrong place. The village was not one of
the attractive little rural villages all over France, but more functional and
although there was a bar/restaurant, it was just in a row of houses, there was
no square or church (that we could see anyway after a couple of rounds through
it). However, we then drove to the town
of Duras, where we were meeting Jerry and realised that this beautiful little
town with all amenities was just a 12 minute drive away……. Hmmmmmm.
Our afternoon with Jerry was
fantastic. His first meeting with us he
spent the first hour in the office telling us about the climate, the area, the
comms (airports and trains) and answered our growing list of questions very
patiently. Then he took us for a three
hour drive of the area he covers from Duras up into what is known as Little
Italy as the rolling hills are reminiscent of Tuscany. Along the way he took us to two properties
they have on their books, just to let us see what sort of properties they deal
with, and then took us on a lovely drive pointing out various houses that they
have sold and some that he was dying to get his hands on as he knows he’d sell
them!
Well, the first house we saw
with him blew the previous day’s out of the ball park – there was no comparison
AND it was within walking distance to the local bar/restaurant……..
We felt great however, not
stressed by all this as it made us realise that we don’t have to hurry, there
will be plenty of properties that appeal to us and tick all our boxes,
hopefully at the right time. We left
Jerry with knowledge of what we want, likes/dislikes etc and we’re confident
that between our two agents we’ll find something at the right time.
So, glad that we hadn’t
cancelled Michelle and Kevin, we had a great evening with them in Gensac, with
a tour round their new home and village and then dinner in one of the local
restaurants. It wasn’t a late night as
we were shattered and had a half hour drive back to the chateau, but it was
good to debrief the last couple of days with them and find out how things have
gone for them so far (and what they’re doing with the boat now they’re
landlubbers!!).
We slept well and had a bit
of a lie-in on Friday but with the temperature outside taking a dive, were
quite disgusted that we had to have breakfast inside, rather than out on the
terrace! We packed up, paid our bill and
headed off for today’s little detour down to the Canal du Garonne and the port
at Castetes en Dorthe. We’d been
watching Chris and Liz’s movements on De Haelve Maen (our neighbours from
Auxerre) and realised we were just a half hour drive from them, so arranged to
meet up for a couple of hours. It was so
lovely to see them and of course, Cosette and Hugo the cats. They had some scary stories of feisty water
on their travels down south, but on waterways that we will not go on. All too soon we were back in the car and
heading to Sarlat le Caneda, a town we visited last year and where this year
our friends Pete and Jane were heading for a week’s holiday and we planned to
stay a night on the way back to Vitry.
 |
| Reunited....and it feels so gooooood :) |
 |
| Revisiting the pretty town of Sarlat le Caneda |
We found our way along the
lane to their rented house not long after they got there and after a cup of tea
(yes, it was still cold!!) cracked open the champers and then headed into town
for some dinner. We were very well
behaved and having returned from the restaurant, had a couple more glasses of
wine and were all in bed by midnight!
It’s an age thing I guess……..
The next morning had a cool
start, but as the sun warmed up, we enjoyed breakfast on the terrace before
Pete and Jane headed to the supermarket and Mike and I made the most of the
pool (having decided to stay another night), inventing a couple of games (Michael
Flattely Whackamole and The Creeping Wall of Death) for us to enjoy on their
return. Making the most of the sun, we
had a bar-b-que for tea although as soon as the sun went down the temperature
dropped, so although it was cooked outside, it was eaten inside, with all
except Mike dressing appropriately for dinner (mainly so Pete would get use of
another of the six pairs of shoes he’d brought with him…..). We weren’t quite so well behaved that night,
and with the boys quaffing vin rouge, at one point, it seemed a good idea to
open another bottle of white for Jane and I….. it was a good night, it was
worth it.
Having worked out how much
we’d drunk the previous evening we knew we couldn’t have an early start back on
the road north on Sunday 3rd.
It was our turn to go down to the boulangerie for breakfast and after
some pastries, bread and honey and coffee, we packed our things and headed
off. We were taking another detour on
the way home to stop in on Pam and Charles, who had now brought Xenia up the
Rhone and were making their way along the Canal du Centre. It was a long drive and only when we decided
we needed to stop to buy something to eat, we remembered it was Sunday and
everything was now shut – except the service stations, but we were now on rural
roads!! By the time we caught up with
them a few locks short of St Julian sur Dheune, we were starving, and having
quietly explained our predicament to Pam, she very kindly put together some
bread and cheese and ham. It was the
best ham sandwich I’ve ever had. It was
great to see them, and meet their daughter Lily, quite odd to see them on one
of the waterways that we have navigated this year, as since we met them,
they’ve always been down south.
All too soon we were back on
our way and it was a long last three hours back to Vitry and we were tired,
hungry and cranky by the time we pulled into the town centre to hunt for
something to eat. Being Sunday, as
expected, nothing was open, except for the kebab shops, which, because they
were the only things open, had queues out the door!! But we waited and were rewarded with tasty
kebabs and lovely crispy chips which we scoffed back at the boat, which was
where we’d left her, safe and sound, and went straight to bed.
We had an early start the
next day as the car was due back at 9.30am and we wanted to make use of it to
do a big shopping at L’Eclerc and fill our jerry cans with diesel for the
boat. We found our way to the store, got
everything we needed but when we came to return, couldn’t get back on to the
road we’d come in on as it was one way.
We continued in what we thought was the right direction, following a few
cars that I was convinced were heading back into town, but we soon found
ourselves in an area we didn’t recognise at all and I couldn’t get the sat nav
to work or google maps on our phones!
Getting more stressed as the time ticked by and we got more and more
lost – how could that happen, we’d only been five minutes away – I finally got
a map up and realised we were only two minutes from the boat. In a one-way system…………
Nooooooooooo!!!!!!. It was quiet so we
ignored the no entry sign (or, stupid tourists, didn’t see it – if we were
stopped), drove the 50metres or so up the wrong way, then turned into the one-way
street out of the port and drove the wrong way up that for about
100metres. A guy shouted after us but
then left it as we pulled into the port with our blood pressure somewhere up
where it should probably never go and we live…………. We threw everything on board, went back along
the correct way and back to the car hire, 20 minutes late, but the guy didn’t
bat an eye thankfully. Back at the boat,
we filled with water and set off for our next destination, Orconte, starting
off in jeans and shirts but changing into shorts and t-shirts as the day warmed
up. At the first lock we entered new waters, coming onto the Canal du Entre Champagne Bourgogne. Once at Orconte Mike got back to
painting and got a layer of green on the back deck, whilst I caught up on the
blog, sat outside on the deckchair to do so – very nice. The day was finished off with a Ninebot
practice where we again tried to work on turning.
No comments:
Post a Comment