Out and AboutThe gite is very seductive and as such we spent a lot of time in the courtyard / garden, and little time travelling. We had planned to pop down to Bordeaux and catch up with Skydriller and Susan, but that plan unravelled. However we did make some road outings, nothing more than about thirty miles from base.
Firstly there was a lovely dinner with two fellow pilots, one of them not unknown here. Stunning venue, fabulous food but I'm afraid service that even Basil and Manuel could better on a bad day. Chateau d'Artigny, hang your head in shame.
I'm sorry but painting it in the colours of the Union Jack doesn't make up for sitting down to eat at just before 8.00pm and getting the coffees not far short of midnight. (But the food was delicious)Then, of course, there was the Château de Chenonceau touched upon earlier. It wasn't a totally comfortable visit if you are trying to distance with its small corridors and crowd of visitors. But certainly a sight not to be missed, next time from a hot air balloon I think.
One thing about Covid-19. It makes selfies a total waste of time.
The rail service locally is very good and not hugely expensive. Our trip to Tours was strain-free.
Amazing station, lovely town that's well worth a visit.Yet another river, this time the Loire itself
And a humungous cathedral
Later in the week we headed off in the opposite direction under Peugeot power to the zoo.
The ZooParc de Beauval proudly proclaims itself to be the fourth most attractive zoo in the world. Quite who awarded it that status is unclear, but something we had earmarked for a long morning followed by a leisurely bistro lunch turned into a full day of 'firsts' for us.
We realised, talking about it later, that neither of us had ever actually seem a B+W Panda before. They are so familiar, but rareOn a personal note, I am a Red Panda fan. The monochrome versions just don't cut it for me.
And then there's the Koala cub (?). A double first, despite the fact Sandra lived in Australia all her childhood.The Park is enormous, with a cable car and giant tropical house. It's not cheap to buy a ticket, but it is great value. There are about a dozen possible eating venues on site, from on-the-hoof grazing to the full restaurant French-style.
Finally, a mention for the best little restaurant of the trip. Just a short swim from the airfield, or ten minutes by Bippee is the Two Caves.
Now @Iceman and myself have form for Caves, though that involved three of them in St Omer. This one is a family run restaurant that offers a warm welcome, good simple local food, well cooked and service that could be an object lesson to some nearby chateau
Just the one cave in use at this timeBut they have a spare for emergenciesSo to sum up, as far as I can see this is an ideal aviators' holiday. My co-owner who has many friends in France used it as a base for airborne outings, and has booked two weeks this year. We holidayed as above in the gite and local area
The weeks sensibly run Monday to Monday giving we VFR pilots a lot of travel flexibility, and the gite owners are very negotiable this year in terms of the duration of stay, but have reduced capacity as they are allowing space between bookings for more thorough cleaning.
The saga of the return trip will follow, but that's a totally different story for a totally different part of the forum.
Rob P
(c) all text and pictures are copyright Words And Actions Ltd 2020