Apart from visits to Paris and a trip with the lads in my misspent youth France is a bit of an unknown country to me. This was a celebration of my niece’s husband, Kevin’s, 70th birthday and included all his family, 9 adults, and 2 children.
Our first adventure was taking the car-carrying train under the English Channel, a much quicker and fairly painless way compared to the ferry. The system is quite slick, there’s a holding area with toilets, shops, etc, before proceeding through passport control and then driving on to the train. And then, hey presto, 30 minutes later one is in France.
The roads in France are good and much less crowded than UK; however one should be aware of tolls, one of which cost us €40.
After a long 5-hour drive, we arrived at our Airbnb near a small village, St Calais, in the area of Le Mans and the entrance to the Loire Valley. This was beautifully set in a farming area with sunflower fields, forests; the fields are much larger than UK, in fact everything is larger. Tourists are few and far between in the area which is refreshing after the hectic scene in many European cities and resorts.
Our accommodation was a typical converted farmhouse with a pool, lots of space, and was perfect for the children and nine adults, except the bedrooms and bathrooms, which left something to be desired. It was hot, so we weren’t too energetic. Lazing by the pool was perfect.
We visited Chateau de Montmirail and then drove on to La Ferte Bernard , a typical small French town.
One assumption that I don’t agree with is that French people are unfriendly towards the English. We didn’t find that, and were only greeted with smiles, particularly when trying to speak schoolboy French. The architecture is stylish, the atmosphere sleepy. The bread is divine, the Boulangerie’s stock beautiful pastries and local wine is plentiful. We had braais, homemade pizzas, ate crepes at the creperie, and generally lived well.
For me, living alone, it was a welcome to share life with such a big crowd and the dynamics of a large family.
A week is probably not long enough for such a long drive; two would have been better.
I’m already thinking about a longer trip next year to areas of France that I’ve not visited before.
