And so the Loire Valley adventures continue...

While mum and Pete went into Saumur yesterday, James and I sat around the gite for most of the day with Jude while we waited for the local Renault garage to diagnose the issue with our Renault's gear box. With a little help from Mum's French and an online translator, we discovered from the garage owner that there is some kind of issue with the gear box pump and that we should just continue to drive it until we get back to the UK on the weekend and have time for it to be fixed properly.

While the garage had our car, they leant us an archaic manual beast with a choke, no air con and no power steering - hilarious to watch James driving it the 3kms back to the gite! Jude and I took advantage of the 'home' time and played outside on the grass and explored the caves (yes they are actually caves in the gite grounds!)

Jude has really developed while we have been in France...rolling around from back to front, pushing himself up in a semi crawling position and sporting a small ridge in the top right of his mouth - a tooth threatening to emerge! And we've had the moods to go with the teething. :-)

All in all though, he is becoming a real seasoned traveller and behaving very well. Considering he is regularly getting used to a new bedroom, he is proving a good adaptor.

I am gradually getting him used to eating more savoury food but it is clear that he has a very strong sweet tooth so we compromise daily at meal times.

James has been going out each morning to the next village for fresh bread and criossants - hunting and gathering while I feed Jude and put him down for his morning nap. And he is loving his rides along the local smooth roads, taking in the countryside in greater depth than we can in the car. He even set off a speed check sign doing 42km in a 30km zone. This is definitely a country that respects its cyclists on the road.

Today was my favourite day so far. We all headed into Angers, a town about 45 minutes away. It's a very pretty town with the river running through it, a magnificent cathedral, a plethora of bars, cafes and restaurants and good shops (which I explored for 45 minutes while James amused Jude in a cafe). I loved the amalgamation of old and new...ancient buildings with a modern tram running through the centre, the sound of an accordian playing in the old cobbled backstreets. In fact if it wasn't for the Louvre, Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triumph and Notre Dame, I would prefer Angers to Paris. Much more personable. We found a really cute and authentic French toy shop called Le P'tit Lutin (meaning 'little imp') and bought a clown cuddly toy and a wooden xylophone in the shape of a cow for Jude. Not cheap but Abbie and Barb - you would love it! Visit www.jeujouet.com which means 'games, toys.'

Departing Angers was an adventure...the sat nav wanted to send us the wrong way down streets and we ended up in a lane heading down into an underground car park...so rather than continuing and turning around in the carpark, James decided to reverse into a busy intersection with traffic lights and turn around. Lots of French locals looking strangely at us and probably thinking 'bloomin' foreigners!' Luckily there were no policemen around to see us.

Now a quiet night in the gite to drink even more Saumur red...(going to have to go on a detox when we get home) and some recoup time before we head out to the wineries tomorrow. Good times and lovely memories.

Notre bonjour les families et amies!

Bonjour!

Sorry that we haven't written for a while - other than a brief repose at McDonalds, we haven't had access to the internet since we touched down on French soil.

We are having such a lovely time and have been blessed with fantastic weather for the most part. Let me take you on our little sojourn thus far...

12 June: Ferry from Portsmouth to Caen and the first time we had tested out the Renault beast. James informed me that this was the first time he had been on such a large passenger ferry and immediately headed outside to take pictures. For anyone who doesn't know Pete, he's a little accident prone. We hadn't been in the bar for an hour (during the bar quiz) before he managed to spill his seize cent soixante quatre (Kronenburg 1664) all over himself. James Mum and Pete passed the 6 hour crossing in the bar whilst I battled getting Jude to sleep in the ferry cabin. :-)
Disembarking proved interesting - a process which usually takes minutes took almost an hour because a car had broken down and had to be towed before the rest of the cars could move. That was a fun-filled 45 minutes - Jude had been rudely woken from a deep slumber and was made to sit in the car. He doesn't like confined, dark spaces so the low ceilings and bumper to bumper, wing mirror to wing mirror cars proved popular)
We finally arrived at our Caen hotel at about 11pm - Mum and Pete went to the bar for a night cap and Jude, James and I crashed.

13 June: Woke to a sea view and a cranky Jude (who decided to spread blueberry cereal over the nice white hotel sheets). After some French coffee and croissants at the hotel, we drove from Caen to Fontenay sur Vegre (about 45 minutes outside of Le Mans) - I had forgotten how capturing the French countryside is. We drove through many little villages and towns, all sporting cream/grey stone buildings, a patisserie or two, old farm conversions and window flower boxes spilling vivid-coloured wild flowers. There were few locals walking the streets, particularly in their break time, occuring everyday from 12 to 1.30pm when they return home for lunch. We arrived at our gite at 4.30pm - Mum and Pete went grocery shopping and James and I took Jude for a tour of the grounds in the Bjorn - around a communal lake bordered by weeping willows and wild poppies (my favourite flowers)

Later in the eve, James and Pete headed to the Le Mans track to watch some of night qualifying while Mum and I babysat with a French red.

14 June: James visited his first authentic French restaurant to pick up his morning baguette and croissant. He tested out his pigeon French and was elated to emerge with the right baked goods. Late morning we all headed to Evron, a town about 40 minutes drive away, to visit the food markets and taste the local delicacies - galletes (a bit like wholemeal savoury crepes) - James enjoyed the saucisson galette after a pain au chocolat, a butter criossant and some baguette with strawberry jam. While we are at the markets he asked me how to order three nectarines and came back with four. Don't ask.

In the evening, Mum and Pete headed to the last day of qualifying while James and I cranked up the log fire, teased open a nice bottle of red and watched Superman Returns on his laptop as the sun went down.

15 June: Pits day - we all headed to the track to view the cars up close and whilst Mum was scrambling around for a 'Flying Lizzard' poster, James spotted Rowen Atkinson on the way in (aka Mr Bean)

Jude didn't know which way to look - a bit of sensory overload - and loved being amongst the action until he realised how tired he was and then proceded to wail outside the Porsche garage (though not even his cries could be heard over the hustle and bustle of avid fans.)

16 and 17 June: Race days! James was like a kid in a candy store, traversing the track with his sunglasses, headphones tuned into Radio Le Mans and camera. Jude and I hung out at the ACO (Automotive Club L'Ouest) welcome tent (the organisers of the event) most of the time as it was a bit quieter but we also managed to visit the grandstand donning Mum and baby ear protectors. When the first car passed Jude tried to follow it with his eyes and was confused to see it gone in such a flash. He had a fit of the giggles while we were in the grandstand...in fact he usually has a good laughter session for a few minutes everyday at the moment. If he's not bouncing up and down in his bouncer or in our arms, he's eating or sleeping. He's taken a liking to French baby Pear yoghurts and Prune and apple puree (which makes nappy changes interesting) while James introduced Frankfurter and Frite baguettes to Pete - a montrosity of a meal pictured below next to my apple.

Heads turned as Jude passed people in his Le Mans outfit and head gear - so cute! He hated the attention.

Sunday was Pete's birthday (53) and UK Father's Day which should have been marked with some nice cards...but Mum forgot to pack them. And Pete reckoned we packed the entire house! Ha.

18 June: With Le Mans ticked, (and a mechanical hiccup with the Renault - more on that later) we set off for Canault, about 13kms from the Saumur wine region. We'd done some wine tasting before booking our accomodation to ensure we stayed near wine varieties that we liked. Such a tough job. :-) We were welcomed by a beautiful cosy gite, set up on the hill and overlooking the Loire river. It is a great mix of old (original wooden beams inside and stairs and caves gathering moss outside) and new (recently renovated) with the only downside being that Pete, James and I have all hit our heads on the low beams. Pete of course the most.

James has enjoyed a few rides along the French countryside and swallowed a few bugs in the past week. Mostly flat touraine so he's getting a real workout.

Great times and adventures. To be continued...Bon nuit.