Category: Uncategorized

Sat 9th June 2018

I’m aware that in blogs we send here from our French house the subject of mowing grass is a regular feature, any property owner here with land soon finds out that from March to August everything grows like crazy. We cut the grass and prune trees and bushes and when we return 8 weeks later you can’t tell we had ever done anything. Trying to keep the mowing equipment working is for me a permanent trial, as mentioned before the tractor was loathe to start, eventually I had to give in and visit the local town and purchase a new battery, I’m now 102 euros poorer. It would have been cheaper to buy in the UK but the grass wouldn’t have been cut.

One positive of the mowing is the wildlife, I’ve seen at least 5 species of butterfly, numerous different beetles scurrying away in the grass, crickets and grasshoppers making their escape and at one point today two black kites were circling above me, a sign perhaps that no chemicals have been used on the land for over 25 years.

Over the past 24 hours we have also watched the deer, a hare and hoopoes feeding in the field.

Today when I was mowing a neighbour came to the fence to chat, he suggested that I should do as he does and have goats and donkeys to keep the grass down as he said ” you can sit back and enjoy your wine while they do the work.”

Enjoying wine of course is an easy thing to do here, I’ve been buying from the same local co-operative for at least 25 years, originally they had 4 outlets, sadly one has closed and the third opens on only a few days a week, a sign of the times I’m afraid. We travel to one of their outlets between Ste Foy and Bergerac, buying wine for here and always taking enough back with us to last whilst we are in the UK. As we are such good customers we get a loyalty bonus and every so often are entitled to 6 bottles of wine. Michelle has the choice of these as her taste is for a medium sweet wine whereas I prefer a red, I buy in 5 litre boxes at 12 euros a box.

Our fruit trees are currently laden with fruit and hopefully when we return in 7 weeks time we will have a good harvest.

Why the cherry on the cake? Well about 20 years ago I planted a cherry tree and even though we’ve been told by neighbours how it is laden each year this is the first time we have been here and seen it for ourselves, this afternoon we picked just from the lower branches 3 kilos of cherries which are now bubbling away on the stove being turned into jam.

So although the upkeep of the land can be a pain, there is always the cherry on the cake to look forward to.

June 6th 2018

It rained a lot late yesterday evening and on into the night with thunder being heard quite plainly in the distance, stupidly I broke my own guidance learned from lessons last year ( see blog Things that go Bump in the Night) and parked under a tree, even when it stopped raining, there were loud drips on the roof for ages.

So after a disturbed sleep we left the aire at 7.45 am and drove 240 miles here to our house arriving at 12.30 with one short stop for coffee.

In total since leaving Schermbeck we have driven 910 miles in two and a half days, not bad for a 19 year old vehicle.

As often is the case the grass has grown tall since we cut it in April, over much of the field it is up to 60cm tall, it took three cuts on the sit on mower at steadily reducing cutting height to tame the grass at the front of the house.

Earlier in the year the manifold on the tractor cracked so I took it back to the UK to have it welded and I made a new gasket it for it, after using the sit on mower I turned my attention to the tractor and after 30 mins had refitted the manifold and exhaust. I then reconnected the battery turned the key and it wouldn’t start, there was power but nothing turned over, in desperation I got a length of thick electrical wire and connected the starter to the positive on the battery, there were a few sparks and puffs of smoke and the the tractor burst into life.

I then leapt on board and spent the next hour cutting the grass down to approx 20cm over an area approx half an acre in total, I was almost out of fuel so I parked the tractor and stopped the engine. I tried restarting it with the key and nothing, so it looks like it will be the wire again tomorrow.

Tuesday 5th June 2018

We travelled 317 miles today 90% of which was on the autoroutes, we kept up a steady 60 to 65mph and it was very easy driving on the very empty autoroutes. We took two short breaks before heading off onto normal roads which were were a little slower, we were heading for Bourges which looked an interesting town and had a free aire..

When we arrived there the Aire was no longer in existence as it was now the entrance to a building site and the facilities were sealed up.

Back out came the reference books and maps and we then headed further south to the small village of Saint Georges sur Arnon.

The Aire here is part of what was once a municipal campsite, now out of use, there is free water and waste disposal and best of all it doesn’t cost anything to stay. We had left our previous site at 7.40 am and it was 4pm when we pulled up here, Layla is brilliant when travelling lying quietly as we travel but she made us laugh when we came to a halt. She jumped out of Homer sprinted across the grassy area and jumped into the lake.

She stayed in ages refusing to get out she was having so much fun!

The aire may be lacking in certain facilities but it is a beautiful quiet spot, lovely views and lanes to walk around.

June 4th 2018

After refilling with diesel following the recent debacle we left Schermbeck at 9.20 am, we quickly joined the autobahn system where we blasted along(joke) well we reached the giddy heights of 60mph once or twice, there were lots of road works going on so progress was slow.Once over the border into Holland it was smooth going and traffic was light, always a joy driving there. Then we entered Belgium and again we flew along for a while, occasionally cruising at 70mph, then as we got further and further south the roads deteriorated it felt like top of Homer would leave the chassis, I had to put my arms back in my shoulder sockets twice, progress slowed considerably. We limped over the border into France and made our way to the campsite we are on tonight, we had hoped to stay in an Aire but it was full and it was only 15 euros to stay the night here on the Municipal site at Charleville Meziers including electricity and it is situated next to a large river and marina.

Altogether we covered approx 240 miles today and need to do at least that amount tomorrow so it will be an early start.

June 3rd 2018

Today’s activity was a canoeing trip on the River Lippe not far from Schermbeck. A picnic was packed as we were informed there were islands in the middle of the river where we could stop and spend time having a picnic.

We were driven by our friends to a spot by the river where we parked the car and then were taken by van to the start of our journey. The canoes were unloaded and instructions given in German as to how to paddle, how to get in the canoes etc, I wanted a double paddle as experience has taught me it is the best way to steer and paddle if you are in the rear of the canoe, it wasn’t happily accepted by the man in charge but eventually he grudgingly gave me a double paddle.

We had to drag the canoes ourselves about 50 m down to the river which wasn’t the easiest of tasks but we managed it and set off on our exploration. We hadn’t gone far when we came across an island in the middle of the river but it was too soon to stop. Not long afterwards Layla decided to see what happened when she leapt out of the canoe! She found out she needed to swim and thankfully she did, I had to manoeuvre the canoe so that the river swept her towards us and Michelle hauled her back aboard the canoe. She rewarded us by shaking water all over Michelle and then sitting on my lap so we were all soaking wet.

There was lots of wild life on the river, plenty of bird life and we saw what I think was a coypu. We went over some fast flowing water where the river went through shallows , it was necessary to paddle constantly to keep in a straight line.

After paddling for approx two hours we found ourselves back at the base we had departed from earlier, there had been no other islands and no other opportunities to stop so we had to picnic there.

June 2nd 2018

We spent most of today at leisure, some of it visiting the shops and market in Dorsten buying food for the Sunday meal.

Later in the day we readied ourselves for a trip to Bochum to visit a restaurant run by friends of Wolfgang and Arzu, it was in the centre of town and named Ratskeller, meaning a bar or restaurant located in the cellar of the city hall. Bochum is known historically as a centre for mining and steel production.

In the square outside the restaurant is a large bronze bell that was cast for the International Show in Paris in 1867. As you can see from the details on the photo it was a mighty big bell and showed the skills of the local industry.

June 1st 2018

Homer spent today in a garage in Schermbeck, as I thought, I’d stupidly put petrol in the diesel tank, I’ve no idea why I confused the pumps. As a result a new fuel filter has been fitted, the tank drained and some new diesel put in, I’m now 250 euros out of pocket but mighty pleased it has been sorted, an expensive mistake.

We spent the afternoon on a long walk in the countryside including a visit to a strawberry farm where we enjoyed their own made strawberry cake with cream, then during the evening we visited Dorsten which was holding a street festival with a live band, a good evening was had there with food and beer and Layla behaved perfectly.

May 31st/June 1st 2018

After a speedy boarding and a very quick journey through the tunnel the train coughed us up in Calais. We were soon on the busy road heading towards Dunkirk.

We headed to Dunkirk to visit the War Memorial, my mother who is 96 this year lost one of her brothers William Henry Davies during World War 2, whilst doing family tree research I discovered that he was captured during the retreat to Dunkirk and spent 4 years in a prisoner of war camp in an area that is now in Poland. No one knows exactly how he died, it is surmised that he died on the long march when the German army retreated from the Russian advance, there is no body so no grave, it is believed someone collected his i.d tags. His death is recorded as October 1944 aged 34 years on one of the columns at the War Memorial in Dunkirk cemetery, details of the memorial are available on Google.

It may seem bizarre to be visiting this memorial on the day we were going to stay with German friends, but the World has moved on. Our fathers were in the opposing armies during the war, my father in the medical corps and Wolfgang’s father was 15 years old and made to join up in the last few months of the war, neither firing a bullet in anger, I’m sure they would have made as good friends as Wolfgang and I do.

We continued our journey into Belgium and just before entering Holland topped up with fuel, afterwards Homer didn’t run well and we limped the final part of the journey through Holland and into Germany at a slow speed with Homer cutting out when I stopped, he is currently in a garage being inspected to find the problem. It’s possible I may have put the wrong fuel in!

We had a pleasant first evening here sitting in the garden working our way through several bottles of wine and catching up on news.

May 31st 2018

When we were last at our French house we had a problem with the tractor and didn’t manage to mow anywhere as much of our grounds as we needed to, we knew we would have to return before the Summer and do a proper job otherwise we would be faced with a jungle when we next arrived at the end of July.

Then we received an invitation from our good friends in Germany to visit them for a long weekend from today as they weren’t at work. Well what do you do, we needed to mow grass and we didn’t want to upset our good friends. We pored over maps, checked routes, costs of fuel etc and came up with the only satisfactory solution, we would do both!

That’s why 11pm last evening saw us leave home and head here to the eurotunnel where we arrived at 4am to board the first train at 5.45am.We are now 3mins from boarding and will soon be in France.

May 19th 2018

After tidying up and a long walk with Layla we left at 10.45 am and headed for Leominster where we intended to stay for a lunch break, however when I discovered it was £2.50 to park we decided to move on. A short way up the road is Berrington Hall a NT property and as we are members we knew we could park free.

Berrington Hall was built around 1775 and it’s owner Thomas Harley commissioned Lancelot ” Capability” Brown to landscape the grounds, we restricted ourselves to walking around the grounds close to the house and it’s walled gardens as there were new born lambs running free in the fields. After a very enjoyable ice cream each we had lunch in Homer and then drove the hour home, some how managing to miss the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.