Feeling at home

Wednesday 2nd May

Today started our touring holiday through France. A trip out to the airport to pick up the car and then hit the road. We have a nice little very dark blue 208 manual peugeot. Only 2k on the clock - our last one had 4k. It has that nice new car smell.

Today was really just about settling into the swing of things again - getting to know the car, reacquainting ourselves with Dora and getting familiar with the roads and road signage.

We took a trip up the motorway to the town of Beauvais with plans to visit the tapestry museum and the cathedral. Sadly we found the tapestry museum is no more so it was just the cathedral, though we had a lovely chat with the girl in the tourism office who had been to Australia for a 12 month working holiday. She didn't say how long ago but she still expressed some great memories.

The cathedral in Beauvais - apparently still unfinished.

Light from the stained glass.

The astronomical clock in the cathedral.
We didn't wait for it to do it's thing - there was no one
there giving information on what would happen when.

 We stayed in the town of l'isle Adam which is only about 30k out of Paris. We were parked next to what we thought was a supermarket but as we sat eating dinner there was a constant stream of cars pulling in and picking up groceries or whatever - obviously shop online and pick it up on the way home. Do we have that in Australia? What else did we see? Four or five beautiful girls hanging out at an intersection in the middle of nowhere. No prizes for guessing what they were selling. No facts to back this up of course.

Thursday 3rd May

A text message from Claire at 12.14am saw the start of my birthday. I woke up, read the message and promptly went back to sleep.

First visit today was to the town of Auvers sur Oise which was where Van Gogh spent the last 2 months of his life - and very productive months they were; 80 paintings in 70 days. We timed it well - arriving at 10 when it opened and having the tour to ourselves before the bus loads arrived. We had a tour of his home and then did a walking tour through the town. Visited him and his brother in the cemetery and then walked through the wheatfields (that had been the subject of some of his paintings) and back through the town. It was a beautiful day and lovely to walk in the quiet.

These discs marked the walking trail around the town.

The walking trail around the town had plaques
with Van Goghs paintings alongside the subjects.
This was the town hall.

Statue of the artist himself.

Van Gogh and his brother.
Neither of them lived to a ripe old age.

The chateau Auvers. 

From there we headed to the town of Dreux, looking for lunch on the way. We'd almost given up on finding a relais, when there it was, a car park full of trucks and tradie vans. Think I was the only female there apart from the staff.

Crossing the river Seine.

This church had a lovely coloured tile roof.
Unfortunately this photo was not the best angle.

Tonight we are in the town of Dreux. From the tourist information we picked up information on the town and wandered through the old centre village (where we picked up cakes) and plan to visit the Chappelle Royale - yes you're right another church - in the morning. All these lovely old villages with their historic town centres (the 1600s here) intrigue us.

Town hall in Dreux.

We've just come back from pizza and pasta for dinner. Rob got the instructions from the concierge but must have had a man listen because we found ourselves totally a about t and had to go back and start again to find the restaurant. Once found we had a lovely meal.

Tonight we are staying in our old favourite, Premiere Classe. Easy to find, near the motorways, parking and wifi, and a good price. We know exactly what we are getting.