The nights at the pigeonnaire are completely silent, apart from the occasional night creature. They are also very, very black given there’s no lights anywhere. This is, of course, wonderful, except when Boy decides he’s a bit lonely and wants someone to come and play with him. Like he did last night.
His bark was amplified in the silence to ear shattering decibels. I have no idea what time it was because it was too dark to see my watch. Eventually it all became too much and Mirinda yelled at him to shut up, in French. Oddly, it worked and we all drifted back to sleep.
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Sadly we packed up, cleared up and had a final cup of tea/coffee on the loggia and bade a fond farewell to our short term home, vowing to return in 12 months.
We were driving to Saumur and the day couldn’t have been more conducive: Sunny but not too hot. And Mirinda discovered cruise control.
It took a while to work out how to use it (the manual is, of course, all in French) but eventually she had it conquered and was soon commanding it to take over at various speeds. She told me a story about an American who was driving along in one of those horrid Hummer things and put it into cruise control then climbed into the back to make a cup of coffee. Nuff said.
Cruise control, according to Mirinda, makes driving long distances a breeze and has almost convinced her that we need to send poor Sidney to the knackers yard and find a new heifer for our personal transportation.
Of course Linda has made things a lot easier though she had a few problems today which turned into holiday squabbles. Still, all in all, she performed wonderfully well and delivered us to Angouleme, in the comic museum parking lot, ready for lunchtime, perfectly.
We were going to check out the old walled part of Angouleme but Mirinda quite fancied revisiting the restaurant we ate at last week so we decided this was a must. After all it was a Wednesday we went last week and it was open until 3pm. Given our lack of success with restaurants being open when we want them to be, we figured this was a good option.
And we were right! It was open (though nowhere near as crowded as last week and with different staff) and I had the Captain Biceps burger again. This week we were lucky enough to get a table by the window. This was our lunchtime view.
The odd thing about the restaurant was how last week, at the same time, the place was almost full, mostly with business types clearly enjoying a lunch out. This week, by complete contrast, there were no business types and by the time we’d finished there was only one other occupied table and the staff were having their own lunch. Not that the food was any different…actually that’s not entirely true. The food was different but still as nice.
From Angouleme we set off for Saumur with the idea of stopping off on the way for a short break and maybe a coffee. As things turned out, we found ourselves once more in Mirebeau. But what a difference in the afternoon!
The market clearly only runs in the morning and by the afternoon the town square has returned to being a car park and the town has gone back to sleep. No longer the strange incantations over the loudspeakers, instead the lovely dozing French country town.
Of course, we visited our favourite Bar/Tabac and had a coffee served by an entirely different (though more diffident) waitress without the gender issues. I note that the coffee has increased in price by 20 cents.
But it was only a short stop over (which included a wander around the square) before we were back in the car and onto our final leg into Saumur.
The hotel was quite easy to find but the car park not so. We have been so used to travelling in the country, stopping in small country towns and villages with little traffic and lots of parking that to suddenly be stuck in peak hour traffic in a very big town is a bit of a culture shock.
Still, we only drove by once then I jumped out of the car and went and found it on foot. I then went back and showed Mirinda in the car. It all worked out fine. We settled into the room and, while Mirinda had a rest, watching some Jane Austen adaptation on her netbook, I went exploring.
Saumur seems to have quite a few very old bits intermingled with modern and grotty bits. However, the river is gorgeous and the chateau just shines in the afternoon light. It looks like being an excellent day tomorrow, sampling the delights of Saumur.
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Just a quick note on dinner tonight. We went to a Chinese restaurant which served very odd Chinese food. Not that there was anything wrong with the food (it was actually delicious and I couldn’t fault the fantastic wine) but the menu items were a sort of Chinese/Vietnamese/French fusion of the most confusing kind.
I was a bit sad we were the only ones there but the waiter was very happy and served us well. It was an…interesting meal.
