3 August – Set off in gloomy conditions to Le Mont St Michel about 50kms away. This is an abbey and town built on a large rock separated from the mainland by a causeway which can go under water on extremely high tides. The queue of cars for the carpark was very long so we stopped on the side of the road and off loaded the bikes for the last 3kms. The sight of the abbey perched on top of the rock is impressive. We joined the queue to go into the abbey. We hired a great audio guide, the best yet, and wandered around the beautiful buildings. There was a mass in progress in the church and so we sat and enjoyed the nuns singing. The rest of the tiny village was extremely busy so we struggled thru the crowd and, as the tide was low, had a great walk around the whole rock. On the way home we found a McDonald’s in the next village and, as we were having problems with the internet at the camp, stopped off and cleared our emails and published the blog.

4 August – Before breakfast we rode back to McDonald’s to skype Claire. Unfortunately it was still closed so we sat in the gutter outside and had a chat. We hoped the day would be fine as we wanted to explore St Malo and hopefully have a swim at the lovely beaches. The morning was overcast so we hung around the camp hoping it would clear. After lunch we rode the bikes the 5kms into St Malo in ever increasing drizzle. We arrived at the old town drenched! The day was warm so we soon dried out. The old town has a wall round it and the seaward side has some nice beaches – but it was too cold to swim. On the ride back the skies opened again and we got drenched for the second time!

5 August – We drove from St Malo to Patrice’s chalet on the farm near Laval where we stayed in the beginning of May. It was great to see the chalet in better weather. We had completed the circle down the Loire Valley, into the Riviera in southern France, around into Spain, up thru Portugal, back into northern Spain, up into the Pyrenees, back into France, up thru Bordeaux and Brittany. The distance was about 10,500kms! What a trip. Sue arrived from Lassey and we had been invited out to their friend’s home for a barbeque. It turned out to be a beautiful French meal in a lovely home. A great night!

6 August – A beautiful day. We drove the 70kms to Sue’s beautiful old home in the square at Lassey Les Chateaux where we parked in the “Aires” 200m away. Very convenient. We had lunch in her lovely courtyard and Val and Sue caught up on the family news. Sue’s three children arrived home; Emma (25) from a holiday in Greece, Jamie (23) from a holiday in Brazil, and Sophie (21) from the chicken factory where she has a holiday job. In the evening we joined about 200 locals for a theatrical tour of the village. This consisted of various small plays, depicting important periods in history, performed around this beautiful village and chateaux.

7 August – Awoke to drizzle which continued most of the day. We had a lazy day at Sue’s and prepared for a family dinner planned for the evening. Patrice arrived from the farm with Sahra (the horse) and gig ready for their trotting holiday. His children, Emiliene, and Sylviere and his girlfriend Celine. 10 of us sat down for another long French meal. After much wine we wandered back to the “Aires” at about 2:25am.

8 August – Back to sunny weather. Sue and Patrice set off for their holiday to le Mont St Michel in the gig with much waving, laughter and tears. Sue’s children with three friends joined Val and I to form two 4 man teams to compete in a treasure hunt to find “L’epee de Lancelot” (Lancelot’s sword). We were given instructions which lead us to 3 chateaux around the area. We rode bikes between locations. At each location we were set medieval tasks of courage, skill, and memory. These were run by locals (70) all in medieval costume. There were about 20 tasks ranging from jousting, archery, horse shoe throwing, a rabbit game and even poetry writing (Val and I were useless at that!!) all set on the theme of Sir Lancelot who had spent time in Lassey. The whole competition lasted 4 hours and was a lot of fun. While they sorted out the winners (not our teams!) we watch a display of horsemanship and ate a barbeque tea. It was great to experience these village festivities. It is hard to imagine any town of 2000 in NZ turning on such an event.

9 August – We drove the 270kms to Paris. Well, not quite Paris but a camp 45kms out near Chantilly. We are booked for 6 nights here so that we have time to see Paris, have our dinner up the Eiffel Tower and river cruise, and visit Versailles. This camp is set in an old sandstone quarry and is much like an NZ camp.

10 August – Set off to drive to a park we had been told about where we could catch the Metro. Decided (foolishly) to avoid the toll road and take a more direct route. We ended up taking about 2 hours to drive the 50 odd kms thru some horrendous road works and intersections. I got honked at more times on this trip than the rest of the holiday so far. Anything I may have said about patient French drivers DOES NOT apply in Paris. There are intersections which are just a huge paved wasteland with roads in every direction. You drive directly to the road you want to exit to with everyone dogging around you as fast as they can. Very scary. Eventually we found the park (underground) and bought a day pass for the Metro. We got off at the Arc de Triumphe in the Champs-Elysees. What a site! We had visited Paris in 2005 for the All Blacks tour but revisiting all the great buildings and monuments was just as good. This time the place is jam packed with tourists. We arrived back to our park, exhausted and drove home via the toll road with less stress. (1 hour).

11 August – A lazy day. We walked back to the village for some supplies. There is a great abbey which we will try and visit. The sun broke out in the afternoon so we spent some time in the camp pool. The internet is really good here so we will skype the kids and publish is blog.

12 August – Set off for our dinner and cruise that Sky TV gave me on my retirement. We drove thru to a fairy-like chateaux at Pierrefonds. We paid for a visit which was OK but all the furniture and fittings had been removed. A bit of a disappointment. Drove into Paris and found the same park easily. We caught the Metro to the Eifffel Tower (3 trains). There were huge crowd waiting for lifts. We found our restaurant office and were quickly up the lift to level 1 and the 58 Restaurant (named because it is 58m from the ground). We had a beautiful meal and wine with a great view over Paris. Down the tower again and back into the crowd for our cruise on the Seine. The cruise boats are huge but, because it was slightly chilly (20 degrees), we found a great seat outside and watched the beautiful buildings of Paris slip by. The lighting was great. The Notre Dame and the Tour Eiffel were the highlights. We walked back to the Metro (11:00pm) and back to our park for the 70km drive back to our camp (1:00am).

13 August – After skyping the kids we set out for a 70km drive around the edge of Paris to the Chateau de Versailles. This is where the Louis’s all lived and where the French Parliament was. Also where they signed the treaty of Versailles at the end of WW1. We found a park and cycled to the Chateau. Again huge queues so get inside the buildings so, as we had seen inside a great Chateau in the Loire (Valencay), we chose just to wander around the gardens and grounds. They were vast and beautiful.