Legs – let’s hear it
Had a moment of mindfulness, or put more simply, I thought gratefully about my legs today, as they carried me back along Mont St Michel causeway to my trusty steed; decided to go with silliness in the sunshine – particularly given that my youngest sister demanded more than just pictures of.. →
Emotional Ups & Downs
A couple of weeks ago, I was asked how I had been in terms of general ‘up or down’ over the 3 – 4 months of being mostly on my own. The answer was that over all, I have been very happy to be doing this exploring, and despite doing it solo, but I have enjoyed other travellers’.. →
EU Citizenship Achieved
I am very proud to announce that I have now met the quintessential pre-requisite for joining my continental cousins; perhaps doesn’t satisfy the british cycling ‘cool’, but already gave up on that long ago and more recently with a pannier rack, and non-mountain bike tyres on my.. →
Bounty Hunters – along to Benodet
I love a good beach and go out of my way to see them, even if I don’t lie on one, or go in the water. Reminds me of the advert for the Bounty chocolate bar from my youth, where “they went in search of paradise”.
My journey to Benodet went via the Bay of La Baule, on the Loire-Atlantique.. →
Music & Dance
Wanted to record that one of the things I’ve really missed now into the 4th month of being in the van, is the ability to blast out music and do some bopping to it. The first can obviously be, and is done whilst driving, although I feel this can then compromise somewhat my wanting to take in.. →
Tyres
In my conversation with Holgier and Sabine at Amboise, they had posed the question about what happens if the van breaks down. Sure enough 2 days later, I was literally having one of my many moments of mindfulness re how well Monte2 was running, and giving the dashboard a thankful pat with verbal.. →
Escaping the heatwave
As my outline plan had already been to visit southern Brittany, the forecasts of a major heatwave to hit most of France except there, was very convenient. But as France is vast, and given my preference for all the advantages of driving on non-toll motorways, the Loire area offered itself as an attractive.. →
Volcanoes – Should I stay or should I go now – followed by the Limousin
For this western odyssey, I had roughly planned to see alot of Spain, then Portugal, then back through France before returning to the UK for the high season period – ie to avoid the much more expensive, booking-needing weeks of mid July to late August particularly given that I’m targeting.. →
It’s All Too Beautiful …
What did we do there – well , there’s the Ceze river at St Denis, our closest favourite place
there’s the Chassezac river and Mazet Plage
Looking downstream…upstreamJust round corner from downstreamDive-bombing kayakers
there’s the Cascades de Sautadet.. →
French ‘Durrells’ house via brief stop at Montpellier
Time gallops on as I realise it’s almost a week now since I drove to Courry, a small village on the edge of the Cevennes and Ardeche areas, to spend time at my Mum’s house with 2 of my offspring, their other halves, and a couple of friends. I spent about 45 mins driving round the uni.. →