I hadn’t expected to write another blog post so soon after my last. I thought that maybe the next would be on Friday from Paris airport waiting for our plane home. But I find myself in a place that needs capturing, so here I am, ‘nesting’.
After Sarlat we did a speedy visit to Bordeaux, which was a specific request from Rod as a destination for this holiday. I thought that Sarlat was close enough to Bordeaux to be ‘ the Bordeaux portion of our trip’, but apparently not... I didn’t do enough research when booking and we found ourselves too far away from the wineries (not that we were disappointed with Sarlat!). So, we RACED to the city of Bordeaux (and CITY it was), found the tourist information (after getting lost, etc) for wine trails and Rod drove off into the sunset, leaving us at the Novatel. Now, before you think we were 5 starring it, let me tell you that it was VERY ORDINARY ACCOMMODATION (not like where we are now, but I’ll get to that). Rod toured some wineries, which he THOROUGHLY enjoyed, and I entertained the kids in some of the most expensive and THE MOST HORRIBLE BY FAR accommodation of this trip.
My conundrum, my mystery wrapped in a riddle (while paying for internet access at the Novatel!!) was where my family would lay their heads the following night. Where? What town? What area? What region? We had already decided that the last night of our holiday would be spent at the Disneyland resort, that’s a given. The threat of ‘We can easily cancel Disneyland, you know!’ has worked a treat, so we left it to the last night. It’s also really close to the airport so it made sense. That left Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of our last week to fill... Thursday at Disney, then that plane ride home... NO PRESSURE! Where could we go to have wonderful last week memories in a classic French environment, space for the kids to play, interesting things to see, relaxing, country outlook...etc. I couldn’t find anywhere. Then when everyone was asleep last night I had another look at the map in the front of the Lonely Planet guide, closed my eyes, twirled my finger and STABBED!! Ah, Chartres, you say? I Googled. And at midnight I found this...
We heard back from the owner as we travelled towards it with fingers crossed.
It’s perfect.
And how’s that roof line?
We have no idea of its age or history, but speculate its age as old and history as long.
They really had an eye for detail back then, even in functional, normal houses. This is one of the windows in this wonderful place...
...the wind was blowing the timber shutter closed so I sent Rod out to see if there was a way to latch it back. I stayed inside at the window. He had a look and said, ‘Oh, yes, there’s a metal... awww... it’s a little man!’
So, the shutter pushes back and you flip up the metal keeper and it’s a little man. Are you kidding me? Beautiful!
And in the back yard? A shed, of course! Complete with ancient building materials, wood oven, mysterious underground room...
...and a wild daisy patch (obviously left unmown simply for the beauty of it).
Just what we needed before we see this...
May our memories stay strong and vivid!
Pretty soon we’ll be home and our regular routine will return, not that I can remember what our regular routine is... what time does school start again? And will I remember how to drive...?
