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.
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