Bike ride by the Canal du Nivernais

Sunday 30th July

Not a lot of sunshine today, but a warm wind, so it was time to get on the bikes for a while.  We cycled south along the Canal du Nivernais - not very far, but found some of the geocaches along the way. 
 

 

 At a lock, the geo path took us away from the canal towards the village of Magny.  On my map it looked as if the last cache was on the far side of the River Yonne, but John couldn't see a bridge on the GPS.  We kept on following the path, though, and it crossed 3 sections of the river on narrow (extremely ancient) iron bridges until we reached the lavoir on the opposite bank - with the geo in its rafters!  Had to go the same way back - but we survived!  Sorry no photos - we'd left the bikes with our stuff further back on the path. 

Just past the 1st tree on the right is John on his bike!

 

Arrived Merry-sur-Yonne

Saturday 29th July

A really lovely journey today on N roads into Burgundy, stopping at St. Florentin for some shopping and then a short stroll by the canal,
 
then south of Auxerre to Merry-sur-Yonne where we'd stayed for a few days in April.  It's really good to be back here and greeted by Zak, the chef.  He and David had bought this site last August and have been working very hard to tidy up the campsite (it had been left empty for 8 years) and had renovated the building into a very tasteful restaurant and shop. 

 
 
We idled away the hot afternoon in the shade of the trees and with a stroll to the river for a paddle.  We'd emailed a booking for dinner - a grand way to end the day.

Starters

Assenay

Friday 28th July

Our night was very quiet, but woke up at 7am by a noise which sounded like we were about to be combine harvested!  It turned out to be several road-resurfacing vehicles, all working on the road the other side of the hedge and along as far as the village church.  They were certainly fast workers though, as it was all finished and gritted before we left just after 9! 

We'd not yet sampled our first baguette this holiday, so thought one of the villages we'd be passing through would have a boulangerie.  Sad to say, most of them didn't have a shop at all any more - some were closed and left to rot - but one did at least have a pharmacie and a post office.  Once on the motorway, we only stop at picnic aires, not the petrol station/restaurant/shop type, so the crumpets came out of the freezer for lunch.  A bit of a gripe we have is about motorists in cars who park in the long bays designated for caravans/motorhomes/lorries.  These were completely full at the first aire we tried - at the second, we were just enjoying our crumpets under a shady tree, when a huge transporter hooted and tooted - until John responded by moving our van forward almost beyond the bay - till he could fit in behind us. 

During the afternoon we reached another France Passion farm - Aux Poils d'Assenay. 
 
Herve welcomed us, showed us where to park on the grass behind the house and invited us to come and meet his animals at 5 o'clock.  Another couple and two ladies with a little girl were also on our 'tour' and we saw mohair goats, unusual sheep, chickens and birds and all enjoyed stroking the angora rabbits and feeding the alpacas. 





 
 
 We loved the different haircuts of the alpacas - Herve explained that when he sheered them, he left them each a designer haircut so he could recognise who was who - they all had names!  They were all very well behaved except the grey one - he was very aggressive to one of the baby white ones. 
 
 
 
Herve then went on to tell us how he processed the wool, showed us how he does the carding, spinning and winding into skeins ready for washing and then took us into a barn to see all his knitting machines.  We watched as one of them made a continuous length of socks, then Herve snipped one off where the red cotton marker line was and showed us how it is finished off with a toe-stitching machine. 


 
All very interesting and we came away with 2 pairs of alpaca/sheep socks which we expect will be great to wear in our walking boots in the winter.

Rounded off the evening with a stroll across the fields to the next village and back.

No money left to build the house ....?

Sancourt, near St. Quentin

Thursday 27th July

We are now enjoying a balmy evening in France - staying at a France Passion farm called Les Canards de la Germaine in the tiny village of Sancourt, west of St. Quentin. 

We've spent the last 2 nights at a Kentish gem of a CL site at Womenswold, south of Canterbury.  Although we'd not been before, Jackie, the owner, welcomed us like long lost friends into her huge garden on Tuesday afternoon. 

Womenswold Church

Cottage in Nonington

On Wednesday, the forecast rain only materialised as an occasional fine drizzle, so we enjoyed a lovely walk with Ann and Barry ('very old' friends from our Canterbury days) from the site to Nonington and back.  They then took us back to their home in Bridge for an evening meal.  Really great to catch up with them again.

Womenswold is very nicely placed for a quick run down to Dover to catch the ferry this morning.  The queue for French passport control was extremely slow, but we'd allowed plenty of time for the 8.25 and it left only 5 minutes late and by 3 o'clock (French time) we had arrived in Sancourt.  Our short walk along the local lanes took us past a beautiful house and garden where the owner wanted to make friends with us, despite our lack of understanding his accent! 

This 'Passion' is a duck and goat farm, but there are chickens and peacocks too.  There was quite a bit of quacking earlier, but they all seem to have settled down for the evening. 

 
 
Tomorrow we are moving on - probably to another FP.

France here we come!

Tuesday 25th July

All ready to go again - France here we come!  (For 4-5 weeks).  But our ferry isn't till Thursday morning - going to a small CL at Womenswold near Canterbury first, to spend a day with Ann and Barry tomorrow.  But before that, we are calling in to say goodbye to our lovely grandchildren.  They are off to Scotland next weekend. 

Will start posting towards the end of the week .....