The north of France

Last week was the annual trip away with the Bize club – a coach trip to the North of France. All new ground to me – as is most of France, so I was really pleased to see this very different region. 

The recent French comedy film “Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis” (“Welcome to the Sticks” or “Welcome to the Land of Shtis”) is set in this region. It’s a very funny movie, and was a huge hit here in France. The main character in the story was dreading his relocation from Provence in the south to a small village in this northern region. He learned to love it and in fact was loathe to finally leave.

And I can see why – it’s a lovely part of the country. It’s a real contrast to the south – and not only the weather. The inevitable very pretty villages, flat or gently rolling countryside with many different crops – different grains, linseed, canola and sugar beets, to name a few. It made for an interesting patch worked landscape.

And cows! Not something we see down south. Maroilles is a cheese of the region – rather smelly but delicious.

But back to our early departure – we left from the boules ground in Bize at 4.30 on a Sunday morning – travelled all day and arrived in the seaside town of Berck-su-Mer at 8.30 in the evening.

We certainly covered some ground – a day trip to London via the Tunnel (that was interesting with all the French people – most who have never been to the UK), and another day trip to Bruges in Belgium. 

Our not-so-trusty bus, on the train, going through The Tunnel

First stop in England at 11.00am - obligatory for the driver to take a break.
Coffee or tea? No. red wine, baguettes and pâté…

We did have a breakdown with the bus, fortunately it was back on French soil. Though it meant we missed out on seeing the beautiful town of Arras. 

There’s always an upside - we managed to pull into a huge supermarket parking lot, and I found a cheap source of sunflower and sesame seeds that I use to make muesli with – I can get them in Narbonne but for reasons I don’t understand, they’re really expensive here. So I could hardly stagger when I left the store but have enough to last me for quite some time.

So as not to turn this post into a tiresome blow-by-blow, day-by-day travel diary, I’m going to turn it into a tiresome photo gallery instead! Well, actually - I’m going to put up a selection of the things we saw and places we visited.

I’ll just say that it was a lovely week away with the same group of good people. There was discussion of where to go next year – the majority seem to be leaning towards Greece. Sounds good to me.

The famous boardwalk on the beach at Cayeux-sur-Mer –
one of the the longest in Europe, with about 400 cabins.

The road-side view

Cayeux-sur-Mer - looking out over the Channel

The beach at Berck-su-Mer

We came across this man heading back across the sands -
he'd been digging for worms to use as fish bait. They're huge!

BELGIUM:
Beautiful Bruges, known as the 'Venice of the North'.
We took a boat trip on the canals - it certainly lives up
to its reputation, it's a lovely city.

Lunch at the Half Moon Brewery ("De Halve Maan") in Bruges.
We had a choice of red wine or beer with lunch......

Above-table lighting at the Half Moon Brewery

LONDON: We were lucky enough to pull up right outside Buckingham Palace
just as the lights turned red and the traffic was stopped - for the
changing of the guards. So got a high view from within the bus.
Pure luck with the timing.

And of course, a stop and wander near
the statue of Charles de Gaulle

BACK IN FRANCE:
The Bunker of Eperlecques -
built by Nazi Germany during WWII
to be a V-2 rocket launching site.

Battery Todt at Wissant near Cap-Gris-Nez which housed four 38 cm guns

Cap Blanc Nez

White cliffs at Le Treport

The easy way to the top - funicular railway

The view from the top

The beachfront - and more beach cabins

Frog be gone . . . . .

The nights of this little guy keeping me awake are over!

It’s one of the two that the kids caught in the river over two years ago and released into the pond. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but one of them survived – hibernating each winter – and has reappeared the last two summers in fine voice. 

The noise that comes out of him is something else. In the warm weather I have the upstairs doors open, but recently have had to sleep with earplugs because of his incessant loud croaking.

So last night as I came home from a late evening out, I nearly stepped on him. I saw him at the last minute on the pathway in the light from the veranda – grabbed the net that I had handy next to the pond and put it over him as he made a dash for it into the dichondra. 

I’ve had the net by the pond over the last couple of days and have had some fairly spectacular failures when trying to catch him – only managing to stir things up, disturb the fish and mangle the plants.

Anyway, his days of wine and roses in my little garden are up – and he’s now been released into the river to compete with all the rest of the wildlife there. Perhaps he’ll end up as a fine meal for one of those little river snakes?

But I’m sure he’s delighted to be there, especially after spending an uncomfortable night in a glass jar in my kitchen ……

 

.... and here's his big moment - back into the river ……

Further afield in France

About 3 weeks ago, I had friends Alan and Nicky (from Perth) staying with me for a week. 

They’re regular visitors to France and over the last five or so years have rented the same place in the little village of Francescas in the Lot-et-Garonne (very roughly about half way between Bordeaux and Toulouse). 

So on their arrival in France, they headed straight to Bize for the first week of their break to have a look around my little patch. It was – and no surprises here – a very social and convivial time, with a bit of sight-seeing thrown in.

And why have I included a photo of the BBQ? Well because it's probably the best one I've had going since I got here. 

Before France, I'd only ever done wood-fired barbies and have had a few hits and misses with different types of fuel here -  not getting it started, not enough charcoal, etc. 

Probably the worst one was the when I fired up with compressed coal (damned difficult to get going, I might add) that I'd found in a bag in the barn - left here by previous owners. It was only when a guest turned up and asked what the strange smell was that I realised something was amiss. 

Last weekend, I headed up the motorway to spend a few days in a different part of the country - with Nicky and Alan at their gite.

And it’s quite different than this region and very pretty - the home of Armagnac. Rolling hills, more trees, many different types of crops and a few vineyards - and not surprisingly, some gorgeous villages.

Francescas is a pretty bastide village – and located in the heart of the village is the Musée de la Boite Ancienne en Fer Blanc or Museum of Old Tins. 

France certainly has some quirky little museums (we have our own Museum of the Hat near Bize), and they’re usually great fun to visit. Nicky said they’d never been lucky with the opening times, so have yet to visit it. 

And given it was early evening when we passed by, we only got to look through the windows. It is housed in a rather beautiful half-timbered building.

In fact, many villages in the region feature timbered buildings.

The Village of Fources

Larressingle, the smallest fortified medieval village in France

The moat around Larressingle

The church in Mezin

Sunday was market day in Nerac:

More  half-timbered houses in Nerac

The River Baïse, Nerac

And for lunch, we visited friends of Nicky and Alan (Australians, also from Perth) who bought this amazing building - dated back to the early 1600s - on the edge of the River Baise.

In this photo - it's not the whole building - just the smaller tower to the left

Brian said when they bought it 13 years ago, it was just a pile of stones and pigeon droppings. In fact the tower at the top is an old pigeonniere (dovecote) and it’s still intact. 

When I got the grand tour of the building, I didn’t take my camera …… it was a bit of a hair-raising experience going up the restored but rail-less staircases and looking down into a void, 4 storeys deep. 

There was a rope pulley hanging from the top storey which you held onto for safety, but you had to hang on to both ropes, otherwise a swift descent was a sure thing. So sadly, no photos of any of the amazing work in progress of the top three floors, nor the pigeonniere in its original state with all the nesting holes on all sides. 

They’re going to leave it as it is – but of course cleaned out of all the evidence of many years of pigeons and of being open to the elements.

I did however take a photo of the grand fireplace on the ground floor which – like all the interior stonework – has been taken back to the original. 

A grand project – 3 months of work every year for the last 10 years or so (the family still live in Perth) – and still a way to go. It’s on the edge of the river, overlooking old Nerac. What a magical place.

We’d called into a supermarket before our visit and bought a few bits and pieces for lunch. And very nice it was too, to sit outside and have a lunch of prawns and salad, with cherries and cheese provided by Brian. 

It was here I discover my now absolute favourite cheese – Cambozola.