Cholet, Parc Oriental de Maulevrier, September 7th 2018

In the morning we set off for Mortagne sur Sevre which Christophe had said was a pretty town. We couldn't see much pretty about it so continued on to Cholet where we parked in Place Travot and set off to find the tourist office, We walked for ages. It was obviously the tourist route. Fortunately we had Notre Dame Church as our orientation place. I was even able to direct a passer by to it and me not local or even French!

Almost all the stones on the facade of the Notre Dame Church are marked in red or black. These are the initials of the stone cutters which enabled them to be paid. On the side facades are several gargoyles (see photo above). At that time gargoyles served to ward off evil spirits.

We visited the Church which has some interesting stained glass. It also has lots of confessionals. Considered a confession after 45 years – fortunately there was no priest so I left without forgiveness!

This is the Tour du Grenier de Sel - a 16th century tower for storing salt subject to tax. It has a corbelled turret.

This is the tree with weather vanes - L'Arbre a Girouettes. (Sorry it's not a great photo.) It pays tribute to Roland Garros, the famous French aviator who was the first one to cross the Mediterranean Sea. He obtained his pilot's licence in Cholet.

This building is called, locally, the typewriter. We could see it from the castle ramparts. It is the Town and Agglomeration Hall and was inaugurated in 1976.














There were lots of other things to see in Cholet but we wanted to spend lots of time in the Oriental Garden outside Cholet so off we went. This is a mature garden and the largest Japanese garden in Europe. It is lovely to walk around. The walk to it was nice too.

En route we had a great view of Chateau Colbert.

The Japanese Garden represents Japanese countryside with its rocks, seaside, islands, hills, waterfalls etc. It includes elements of shinto and buddhist mythology and elements of taoism. There is a lack of symmetry in order to present a natural appearance.

The red bridge signifies the importance and sacredness of the place.

These metal figures signify something but I can't remember exactly what.

This contraption made a drum-like sound every time it was activated when filled with water.

After a reviving cup of coffee we exited by a walk in the woods which had photos of other gardens in Japan as well as seasonal ones of this one. All 3 of really enjoyed the Japanese Garden.

 Then we went to Pouzauges to see the castle. It is a medieval fortress in the town of the same name.

Then we headed for home. A bit later we set out for Auberge de Poupet in Saint Malo de Bois. Christophe had told us it was a nice restaurant in a nice setting. When we finally found it it was in a lovely setting along the rive.We had a very nice meal. Then we set off for home to discover there was a diversion so a journey that should have taken 8 minutes took 45!

Airbnb in Treize Vents, Vendee. Arrival September 6th 2018

We arrived in Roscoff on the 6^th September 2018 after a rather cramped crossing. Brian had reserved a seat on board the Oscar Wilde but when we discovered that our cabin had 4 bunks we offered one to him. We had a frustrating time because our cabin keys did not always work and the loo didn't flush on demand requiring many trips to reception to report the fault. We lunched en route in Brittany – Galettes and Galiflette. 

After doing a supermarket shop, we arrived at Gite Eulalie at 6.30 pm and were met by Christophe who showed us around. It was a quirky place - a barn conversion with one big room that served as kitchen, dining room and bedroom and a mezzanine that was the sitting room with bed settees for extra guests. This became Brian's bedroom. The open plan room downstairs was dominated by the bed structure - a bit like a four poster bed with the mattress slotted in within the wooden framework. The front of the structure had shelves for books etc. The back was the dressing area - with hanging space and more shelving. Behind this was further storage for the kitchen, a bathroom and a utility room. The bathroom had a bath to the left, a wet area in the centre, the toilet to the right and a washing machine opposite the toilet. We soon discovered that this arrangement was not very practical as only the first person to shower had a completly dry passage to the toilet. After the first shower the passage to the toilet was wet. I would have completely rearranged the set up. In any case, we unpacked and settled in. We had a satisfying evening meal of charcuterie and wine/beer. Christophe had left very welcome craft beer, wine and a brioche. 

We soon discovered that the bed was very hard to get out of for people with short legs. It required a very special manoeuvre involving raising yourself from the now lower mattress (not an easy job if your are my weight!) and easing yourself on to the wooden lip where my short legs could not reach the floor. I then had to shuffle myself to the very edge to get my feet to the ground and then stand up. Jim had equal difficulty and indeed ended up with self-inflicted bruises due to the manoeuvres he adopted.

Christophe has presented the outside of his gites very attractively - we even had our own private garden space where we could eat outside if the weather suited.

Below, we closed this door and were totally enclosed at night.

The gite opposite - another barn conversion, a variation on the theme. In this one the kitchen was upstairs. Christophe had 2 more gites and, judging from the amount of changeovers, he seems to be doing well.