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 ....?