Sunday, September 7, 2014


Back with a bit of a travelogue ~


and a preview of what to “look out for!”  


As I mention in the latest blog post from “Roger’s Creative Urge,” my other blog; I seem to have been away for ages, and the reasons in that post – Little Green Men – were, how shall we say, somewhat creative.  In reality, the reason at least in part, has been that now much of the renovation of our French house has been completed, although in recent weeks we seem to have found plenty of “brico” (DIY) to do as my back will confirm, we decided that this year we will make up for lost time and do some long awaited travelling. 

Before we were half way through the year, we had managed two weeks in the caravan in Spain, taking a further week to get there and back. (Look out for ~ Unfinished business and Fly drive and the caravan came too!)  A further week in the caravan in Bordeaux, when we also visited Europe’s highest sand dune (Look out for [ Lof! ] ~ View across La Manche), then two weeks in England during which, Daniel, my son got married to Lisa in a lovely ceremony at The Rococo Gardens in Painswick and to get over this we had a week in Marrakech.

As our guide book for Marrakech says, P. J. Barnum has always claimed that his circus was the “Greatest Show on Earth”, but in fact as we can now confirm categorically, the actual greatest show on earth takes place each night on the square in the middle of Marrakech, Djemma El – Fna, and the surrounding rabbit – warren like multitude of souqs or markets.  (Lof  ~ Ali Baba’s tales!) 
 
We then took the caravan to Brittany in July, for ten days, for a week long post wedding party for some a couple of Victoria’s college friends, and then went on to visit French friends at Pougastel Daoulas, near Brest, for a few days. (Lof at the very least ~ Transported by the mist)  
 
And ... still to come, with who knows what Lof’s may come from these: A surprise invite to a large gîte in the Dordogne, for a “Stroudie” gathering in deepest France, a caravan trip for a few day to Fouras, between La Rochelle and Rochefort (not Roquefort where the cheese comes from!) to catch up again with our friends from Pougastel Daoulas and try to practise our French, if they are not busy practising their English!   Then, a trip to England in October (when we hope to catch up with some of you!) and who knows what the rest of the year will bring? 

We have also had numerous summer visitors who tell us that they are coming to see us, but I can’t help feeling that the wine and the sun might also be something of a pulling point!! (Lof ~ Snore de France and maybe others!)
 
In addition to all this, we have despite me undertaking a fair amount of structured procrastination (Lof ~ The benefits of Procrastinating Positively ~ I’m still “thinking” about whether this should be on the other blog or not!), as I said above, we have fitted in a fair amount of home and garden improvements, perhaps here Lof some before and after photographs.  There’s also our own Clochemerle type controversy, in our case “guerre de parking,” updates on the various skirmishes to follow in due course!
 
Well hopefully, this has wetted the appetite and if nothing else, will spur me on to put fingers to keyboard and bring you the promised Lof’s, and all in all so far not a bad year considering I started the year quite literally singing to the wrong tune!  (Lof ~ I started the year singing to the wrong tune!)

But, I’m forgetting something, or should I say someone, who has just right on cue come and lay down on my foot, no not Linda – as if!!!, but our faithful furry Fergus, or Fergoose as the French call him, as if I would or could forget him.  He’s recently turned one and thinking back has taken a fair amount of our time and energy, which could also explain some of the lack of blog posts.  Suffice to say we wouldn’t now be without him and despite a few quirks, as people keep telling us “You’ve got a goodun there” and although he’ll feature in many of the above Lof’s, look out also for: Van du pain, Still chasing shadows and A tale of two dogs!

So Look out for or Watch this space:

 Bye for now or Á bientot, I’m definitely back amongst you and will probably also find some time to get creative!

 

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