Changed Teams

Yep, I've changed teams - gone to the dark side. Sorry Bill (Gates), I found new Jobs (Steve).
I've gone Mac from PC - I'm in a new world and I'm lost in cyberspace. It's going to take some time but this is the first post on my new MacBookPro. Expect some mistakes!!

It's different but hey, change is as good as a holiday they say. Which reminds me, only less than eight weeks before we get on the plane for Paris.
My Mac is coming with me.

It's a cute thing. All our music, movies and whatever is now connected - I even downloaded a movie tonight that Sue and I can watch thru Apple TV. Now tell me, who's a groovy guy.

Have to go now - Sue wants to watch the movie I downloaded - its called "ONE DAY", very romantic.
OK Sue, let me finish the blog. What, you want another glass of wine?

Leaving Thenay and the Loire Valley

It was Saturday May 16, 2009 and the end of our week in the Loire. It's strange that after one week anywhere during our travels we call each place "Ours" but the cottage in Thenay was very much like that. Maybe it was the friendship we formed with its owners, Carole and Michael. It was also when we met fellow Bloggers Ken and Walt, oh yes, and Callie. Is she really five years old now?

The car was packed the night before and the cottage had been cleaned. We jumped out of bed at 7.30 am excited about our continued journey. Carole and Michael arrived at 8.30 am seemingly surprised to see that we we all organised and ready to depart. So after much chit chat, hugs and waves, we were off to our first stop along the way to our overnight stay. That first stop was Valencay because there was a car museum that I wanted to see and (not!!!) another chateau that Sue wanted to see.

Valencay complete with piped classical music as we strolled the gardens.

Look out any window - was that a Hollies song?

Love the house but who did the vacuuming?

Time for a little snooze!

I'm not sure that Valencay as a town has much more to offer than its Chateau and the car museum. "The Rough Guide to the Loire" book confirmed this and the DK travel guide didn't even include it. The Chateau like many in the Loire was developed over the centuries with the different owners. Valency Chateau was established by the d'Estampes family in 1540 but not completed until the 18th century. One of the owners was Napoleon's foreign minister, Charles Maurice de Talleyrand - Perigord. The Rough Guide says that Napoleon described this great Diplomat as "shit in a silk stocking". Napoleon suggested to Talleyrand that he should entertain King Ferdinand VII of Spain at Valency after his abdication. This little residency at Valencay lasted for six years until the Treaty Of Valencay was signed and Ferdinand returned to Spain and his throne.
It is well worth Googling Talleyrand's history - an amazing opportunist was he.

We quite enjoyed the wander around the grounds of the Chateau on a particularly pleasant spring morning, made all the more pleasant with piped classical music throughout the grounds. Again we seemed to be joined by only a few other visitors to the Chateau. Sue could have continued looking around the grounds and the interior of the chateau longer but I was getting edgy - I knew that the car museum would close at lunch time and I would miss the window of opportunity. The French do love their two hour lunch time, don't they?

Traditional French Blue - such a pretty colour on a French car.

I really have a soft spot for Reggie Renaults - my first car was the Dauphine.

The Renault Floride behind the vintage bike also spent time in our driveway at one time.

Citroens also graced our driveway and garages over the years - I always mist up with regret when I think of our past Citroen Tractions.

Bikes and cars - what a great museum. I would recommend it to any enthusiast.

I think I enjoyed the car museum as much as Sue enjoyed the Chateau, that's not to say that I didn't enjoy the Chateau but really there are so many in the Loire and very few car museums - plus this museum also had vintage and classic bicycles. All manner of enamelled signs hung from the ceiling and on the walls. Catalogues and other printed matter were on view of the many cars and bikes with accessories such as goggles, driving gloves, etc.
We'd been to a few car museums in our travels through France and I thought this to be just one step below the one at Chatellerault which to my mind was excellent. Valencay's museum though had a more casual and less commercial feel about it. Needless to say, the clock struck noon and we were unceremoniously ushered out the door.

We were starting to feel a little peckish anyway and we did have some further driving ahead of us. So back into the car and down the road we headed with no idea where lunch would be. Most times lunch will find us and on this occasion it was at the little village of Vatan which is bypassed by the L'Occitane highway.
During 2009, the Tour de France passed by and there were several indications of this that I'd missed until we were seated in a small cafe about to eat. There on the wall was painted some crude attempt to illustrate the town's pride of being part of Le Tour. We selected this eating establishment literally by following the locals to lunch. It was a real find. As usual I consulted our diary to see what we ate - Sue being a real foodie made a point of documenting what we eat during our travels. It seems that on occasions I get a little adventurous on holiday. I selected the Langue de Boef with frites or TONGUE with chips. My mother use to cook it when I was a child.
Sue had an assiete of potato galette and ham and egg pie. Boring and unadventurous was she with her choice.......

Vatan - so proud to be a starting point for Le Tour in 2009.



Every window seemed to have some sort of celebration.

 We moved on after lunch with the drive to our overnight stay just below Sancerre, a place called Saint Satur where our hotel sat by the river. Our hotel had a very African theme and from memory I think our room was decorated with all manner of Giraffes. After booking in we decided to drive up to Sancerre. It was Sue's wish to sit with a glass of Sancerre Blanc in Sancerre. The hilltop village has a charm of its own and several hours can be spent exploring the narrow streets and the many shops that cater for the tourists. After all why not, that's what keeps its economy going - along with its famous wines.

The river flowing by our overnight stay near Sancerre.

Looking down from Sancerre. In the very left lower corner can be seen a great aqueduct that you drive under to the village of Saint Satur on the river.

Sue fulfilled her wish to sip Sancerre Blanc in Sancerre - a few days later she would chuck down a Chablis in Chablis and a Burgundy in Burgundy. She's yet to have a Vouvray in Vouvray - maybe in May - a Vouvray in May, I like the sound of that. 

Tell me, do people hide when we enter villages - I think we might be getting a complex, but it is nice to not be surrounded by too many people.

It had been another long day and we had to find a place for dinner. A short walk from our hotel we found a pleasant restaurant - can't remember the food but naturally it was enjoyed with the local wine. Maybe we were just too tired after a long day.

We were now well and truly on our way out of the Loire and off to our next overnight stay in Auxerre.

A daily photograph of France at http://frenchtravelswithmywife.blogspot.com.au/

Melbourne - Home of Coffee and Cafes

Yes, that's right - we must have the most coffee cafes per capita than any other city, well other than maybe Rome, Milan or any other big Italian city.
Although I am told that we give them a run for their money.

We have coffee houses set up in trendy treed boulevards and bluestone back alleyways. Only last week I had the need for a coffee on my daily work travels when I called into a suburban coffee house in Thornbury. I have to say I didn't know what to expect based on the decore - or lack of it.
It had this distressed look about it - the terracotta coloured tiled floor had been painted blue and years of leather shuffling across it had worn the paint away. The tables and chairs were out of the sixties and also had this much weathered look about them. The people serving had a really weird fashion sense, but then I am in my (very) early 60s - what I know about fashion.

Let me tell you - I'll be back next time I travel down this street in Thornbury.

The Coffee was great.

Houses with Names

What do you call your house - we call ours a home.

Many people do give their home a name. Older homes in the inner Melbourne had names above on the facia of the house. I sometimes wonder who named the house. Was it the first owner or was it the builder of the day. Most apartment blocks have a name, something that supposedly adds a bit of prestige, that is until it becomes old and run down.

What was the influence for these names?
So many questions without answers!

So I said to Sue, "Let's take a drive along Beach Road and see what names we can see on the houses".

Venezia Court - I looked most of the buildings up on the Internet to see if I could find where their names may have come from. Venezia Court has a one bedroom apartment for lease currently at $450 per week. You can walk across from the apartment directly to the beach.
Sorry - no Gondoliers there.
Many of the apartment and home names along the beach roads of Port Phillip Bay tend to have an influence from Italy. Our Suburb of Mentone takes its name from the city of Menton on the French/Italian border. This influence seems to carry through from our suburb to Port Melbourne.

San Remo we all know is in Italy. This apartment was built after WWI in what I'm told is the Arts and Crafts style based on the Californian Bungalow theme.



Taranto apartments may have its origins from the Italian city on the Gulf of Taranto.
Not much more than I can add to that.



Although here in Bayside Melbourne, Woy Woy is on the NSW central coast. During the 1950s, Spike Milligan's parents moved from the UK to this quiet town established in the 1820's.
Spike would often visit his parents and Woy Woy to relax from the show biz world and even described it as the largest above ground cemetery.



L'Avenir I'm informed means something like "In the Future" and I believe there's a hotel in Paris and Brussels by the same name.



Again the Italian influence is evident with Capri - the island off the coast near Naples.

I had no idea where the origin Singara came from until I did a Google.
Singara was a fortified post in Mesopotamia which was captured by the Romans in 114.
So there - I guess another Italian influence albeit a little convoluted.
Not sure why David stands under the porch though!

Kiora is a grand old building on South Rd Brighton Beach area.
Built in the late 1800s it later became an exclusive girls school.
Today it is heritage listed and is an apartment house.

Just prior to starting the search for house names we decided on coffee and a snack at quite a nice Patisserie opposite this grand old building in Bridport Street, Albert Park.

So back to work tomorrow with the next post in our Wednesdays in France almost completed. We leave Thenay on our way to Sancerre.

So far - 64 photos of France and only 301 to go, or with Leap Year did I miscalculate?
http://frenchtravelswithmywife.blogspot.com.au/

The Must Do Chateaux of the Loire

Wednesday's in France has become Thursdays - Why? Well that thing that pays the bills intruded into my time this week. In these times of economic uncertainty, I'm happy to say we are very busy but let's not cloud travel with work - I promise to be back on time with Wednesdays in France next week.

Sue's spiritual home - Cheverny

Both Chambord and Cheverny were missed on our trip last year and so Sue decided they needed to be on our “must do” list. This was our last day in the Loire before moving off to Burgundy and so we made a day of it.

Chambord defies comprehension. It hurts the head to absorb its magnificence. Built by King Francois 1, the grounds including the hunting forest covering an area the size of Paris. A feature of the Chateau is the double helix staircase, supposedly designed by Leonardo da Vinci. People going up the staircase will not meet people descending. The Salamander appears all over the chateau as this was the chosen emblem of the King.

A very long entrance to the Chateau - some people don't drive this far for holiday!

And its a bloody long walk from the car park

The famous staircase where you don't meet people coming the other way.

And a photo looking across from the other side.

A quiet moment to contemplate the enormity of the Chateau.

Before nicking off to Cheverny, we decided lunch was in order and we found a restaurant in a neighbouring village rather than eating with all those other tourists. Smart move - lunch was superb!!!!
Poached eggs in a red wine sauce for an entree, followed by grilled Salmon, finishing off with cheeses and coffee. The meal was enjoyed with a local Cheverny rouge. Yes, I wonder what the common people are doing now…..No I don’t really!!!!

Off to Cheverny - A mere gatehouse compared to Chambord but special in that the descendants of the original owners (the Herault Family) still own the property and only vacated the chateau in 1985. It is now a magnificent museum showing how the ultra-wealthy lived their life.

Most people buying souvenirs were quite happy with key-rings, fridge magnets and assorted trinkets. Not Sue - a $350 leather and suede hand bag was more to her liking.
It was time to head of home to pack and clean the villa and say goodbye to the Loire



We took time to browse a Brocante in a neighbouring village after leaving Chambord for lunch.



With a covered market opposite our restaurant.

The Brocante had some interesting items - the bike was - the plastic chair wasn't!

Cheverny was captivating and after Chambord, restful.

Love these coat of arms.

Intricate carvings and sculptures all over.

It isn't hard to find interesting scenes to photograph at Cheverny.

Since visiting Cheverny I became aware of Tin Tin.

A rose covered wall at Cheverny is a wonderful greeting or farewell.
Don't you think?

Our next journey would take us to the far east of the Loire before entering Burgundy and a full week in the heart of Dijon BUT not before a few overnight stops in some very interesting villages along the way. Hope you can join us next week.