Several of us started the holiday staying in The Travelodge the night before. We met Duncan at the Port. Once safely on board the Ferry we all had breakfast. Some of us chose to watch The Avengers film in the cinema onboard, while the rest sat out on the deck. When we arrived we drove to Percy where we were staying in a beautiful Gite with a lovely garden. We had a good time cooking our evening meal of 'corned beef hash'.
We made breakfast in our Gite and then drove to Bayeaux. We had lunch in a local cafe and then went to see 'The Bayeaux Tapestry', it was very interesting. The commentary was in English which told us all about the exhibits. We then went shopping and bought food for our BBQ, unfortunately we were about to start this when the heavens opened and it poured with rain! Oh dear, we had our meal inside instead.
After breakfast we drove to Juno beach, Gold beach and Sword beach. These were the beaches used in World War II for the D-Day landings. There were lots of people there to join in with the D-Day Celebrations. We saw marching bands from Canada and all sorts of service men and women in jeeps and other armoured vehicles. We had a nice picnic on Juno beach. Later we had a lovely evening meal before returning to our Gite.
Today we moved from our Gite in Percy to Tours, St Eloi and visited Mont St. Michel, Normandy along the way. It was fascinating there were little streets with shops and wonderful views. We had the chance to take a horse and carriage. We climbed lots of steps and some even made it to the top, the views were even better from there. Once we arrived in Tours we settled in and went for our evening meal.
We went to visit the town of Tours and look around. We did a lot of walking and found the Cathedral, to give it it's proper name it is Cathedrale Saint- Gatien. We had lunch in the centre of town, in a Vietnamese restaurant. By chance there was a wedding at the Cathedral when we got there and we saw the bride in her beautiful gown.
Today we checked out of Tours and set off for our next stop which was Nantes. On the way we stopped off for lunch. When we arrived at Nantes we had a little trouble finding our next hotel, it was in a pedestrian area and we had to take a taxi to get to it. Once in the town we headed to the restaurant area and found a nice place to eat.
After breakfast we went for a walk and also took a tram ride to book our boat trip. We had lunch in a lovely cafe by the river. Later we went back to our hotel to freshen up and get ready for our evening, where we went for our boat trip and ate onboard. It was a lovely meal.
Today we checked out of our hotel and headed to our final destination, Grue Demoiselle Gite. We stopped along the way for a picnic lunch, unfortunately it was raining today. We were met by Jim the owner and his 2 dogs. Wendy cooked us a lovely meal of Ravioli and Jim joined us. We unpacked our siutcases for our 4th and final stop.
We visited Bellac for a food shop and we bought some craft items. We were having a craft afternoon and evening at the Gite. Wendy also did a cookery lesson to 'Team Duncan' which was sausage cassolet and strawberry gateaux.
Today we drove to Limoges where we had a two course meal for lunch in a really nice restaurant. Then we visited a pottery museum which was very interesting. We then drove to Bellac for more food shopping and Wendy gave the next team (Team Duncan) a cooking lesson. They made a starter of crab with Marie Rose sauce, coq au vin and a tart for dessert, yummy!
We visited a village today called Oradour-sur-Glane, the village was left empty and destroyed after the war in 1944 and has become a museum. We looked around the museum before having a picnic on the grass. Afterwards we walked around the village. In the evening we had a BBQ at the Gite and Jim the owner joined us.
Today after our food shop we did some craft activities in the barn. Some painted the rocks they had gathered from Juno beach during our D-Day visit there. 'Team Duncan' cooked the evening meal which was soup , Chicken wrapped in Serano ham followed by a cream pudding.
Our carriage ride during the holiday
We went to the Medieval Festival at Rancon today. We saw so many different things such as dancers on stilts, dressed from head to toe in white and grey costumes with their faces painted to match. The music band were brilliant and we bought a CD each of their music. We also played medieval games and bought items from the stalls. We had a hog roast roll and chips for lunch. After going shopping Wendy and 'Team Andrew' cooked a mince and pasta meal for dinner.
Today we went for a lovely lunch by the river in Bellac. We packed our bags and loaded the van. Tomorrow we would be travelling back home by Ferry and some had booked cabins in order to sleep on the Ferry back to England.
Stone circle at the Gite
