Clesse 2nd to 8th September

Monday, 2nd September 2019
 Today the school children go back to school, as this is the start of their school year, We decided to take a drive to Poitiers, a journey of about an hour, and 65kms. After I make some facetime calls to my children and Friend, we hit the road. The weather is once again perfect, and the trip to our destination is hassle free. Deciding to have lunch at Subway, we make this our first stop, and find over the road is a Hyper market, which we duly note, as we do have some shopping to get before we leave the town. After we have eaten, we head for the centre of town, and find it, but do go up a streets that we couldn't go to far on, as it had a bollard in the middle of it, unknown to our gps Karen. So after backing back a small distance, we try again for the car park, and manage to nail it with out to much issues. We find ourselves in the middle of the old part of Poitiers, where there are lots of restaurants and Cafes, some are open, and some are closed due to the time of the day. We pass by the Eglise Notre-Dame La Grande and take a look inside this building. Inside the church the walls and columns are brightly painted and there are great stained glass windows. Once again, the mighty statues and ornately carved wooden furniture is always present.
We move onward to explore the maze of streets, and open areas, and find the Salle des Pas Perdus - Palace of Poitiers. This was not open due to refurbishment work that was going on, but it is a large hall, that Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine's palace, and up until recently housed the Palace of Justice, and dates back to the 9th century. We continue our walk about the streets, and find the most wonderful city square, that has the most beautiful building all about it. One of which is the Hotel De Ville, dating back to 1875. Such a grand building, I guess it would have to be the Place to be way back then and even now.

We walk on further, now looking for the local Orange phone place, and head off, in what I think is the right direction, following my gps on the phone. Alas we seem to be getting further away from our destination, so I hand the phone to Bob and let him sort it out, and next minute, a man steps up to us and asks if we are lost. Hmmm did it look that obvious,lol. We tell him where we were aiming to be and he tells us to follow him, he will show us as it is not far, and he says this in very good english.  Very nice of him to do this, and we try to engage in small conversation, of which we learn he is a nurse, and has lived here all his life. So after a short walk, we are pointed into the right direction, and off we go. Turns out, we were closer to it, before we started on our walk about the centre. So all ends well, and we head back to the car, and stop to do our shopping and head back to our accommodation to do battle with the flies.
I know we have flies  back in Australia, but they have them here too, and with no screens on the houses, it is very annoying, but Bob has sharpened his fly swatting skills, and is now very good at getting them, and the evidence is on the floor, but first on the shopping list is fly spray, as we used the last of what was here, a few days ago.

Tuesday, 3rd September 2019
A quiet day today, lots of resting, and chilling.  We decided to have a picnic tea, at the local park just out of Clesse. It is a lovely spot, and we where the only ones there for a good while. We walked around the pond there, that is used for fishing at the right times of the week. I saw a couple of fish jump clean out of the water, which was really good. It was a very peaceful place, and was good to have a meal with out having to battle with flies. A couple of people came later to walk their dogs around the area, and that was all we saw.

Wednesday, 4th September 2019
Today we went for a drive to Thouras, which is 42kms, 38 mins trip.This is another old city, with buildings dating back  to the 13th century. The most notable building was the Chateau des Ducs de La Tremoille. An amazing building built on the river Thouars, in the 17th century and was one of the most important castles in France, with a facade of 110 meters long. You can still see most of the walls that were built around it.  We took a walk about the streets, and took in the other sites of the area. We took a walk about the centre of Thouras, and found again many little streets to wonder about. We  found a building that must have been a church at some point in time but now it was being converted to a something to do with wine barrels and music. The lady who we approached about it, was ever so helpful, and even though we both spoke different languages, and didn't understand each other, with the help of drawings and a hand gestures, we got the general idea.

Thursday, 5th September 2019
Today was a day of washing, as we are leaving our abode on Saturday, and taking advantage of having a washing machine, seemed a sensible thing to do. We have found that some places we stop at don't always have a washing machine. In the afternoon, we take a drive into Bressuireto hand back the airbox that has been on loan to us. We also try to find a special cable for the external drive, because we have come across very old tvs that don't have usb ports. Remember the big old square ones, probably a early nineties model, thats what i am talking about. Anyhow no luck finding the cable, except online.

Friday, 6th September 2019
Day of sorting things out, and getting stuff repacked again. After being in one place for 3 weeks, we have to gather our belongings and place back into suitcases. I do the last load of washing. After lunch, we decide to drive into Clesse for the last time and have a beer at the local bar/general store.
Our time here is drawing to a close, we have explored most of the local area, and other villages, it has been good, and relaxing.

Saturday, 7th September 2019
We leave Cleese after doing a bit of cleaning and the usual stuff that needs to be done. We are on the road by 9.30 and have a 2hr and 30 min drive and thats without a couple of waypoints that we have tailored into our trip. This first one is to a place called Rocheford. We grabbed a bite to eat, then did a bit of a drive aroud. Found a huge bridge, which is still under renovation. It is a  platform between two uprights and itis the visitor tourist center.  It is called the Transporter Bridge, and virtual trips can be taken there.
Next scheduled stop is Cognac. We figured as we were passing the area, we might aswell check it out. After some research, we find the Remy Martin boutique, and are given directions to the chateau, and we got there in time to catch up with a tour that had just started. It was very interesting, and lots of great aromas as we entered each building. Some of the barrels that they use are well over 100 years old. This place had 150 000 barrels in strorage, and an interesting fact, is that they lose 5000 barrels to Angels tears. Meaning that evaropation is takes those 5000 barrels. We got to the end of the tour and then to the taste testing. I guess it was a good thing for the bank balance that I didn't really take to the taste of Cognac. Some of the more high end products were over $5000. But when you understand that ageing process and the quality of the decanter that it is sold in, it makes it a little more understandable. The decanter of one of these items is made from Baccarat crystal, and has gold on the lable. Not to shabby.
Our next destination is a little place just outside Bordeaux, called Yvrac. Our host was here to meet us and what a great little place we have secured. Our host, Kristoff, was a very frendly man, who made us feel very welcome, going though everything that we needed to know, and showing us how the coffee maker works. His thoughtfull touches made it very easy to relax after our day of travelling.

Sunday, 8th September 2019
A day of exploring the local, and ended up being not so local area. Our plans were to head to Bergerac and check it out, but unbeknown to me, Bob had another destination in mind, only we had to find it on the gps. Anyhow, Domme was found  and we twisted and turned our way  down some narrow roads and found Domme. But on the way, there was some awesome views of dwellings built into the side of cliffs and villages on the River banks. All thriving and bustling with tourists and locals having a day out, as the weather was perfect. After we make our way up the side of a mountain, we come to Domme. Wow, what an amazing place nestled up on the mountain side, and overlooking some serious cliffs. This is a village that is bustling inside a stone wall, dating back to  1281. Interesting fact, in 1307 the Knight Templars were imprisoned in Domme during a trail against them.
There are many and endless streets filled with shops with  all discriptions of wares to sell. From art work, jewellery, ice creams, wind chimes, clothing and bags,  foods stuffs  and all manors of gourmet delights, all in French, of which I have no idea what some of them were. After a light lunch, we decided to go into the caves and see the world of stalagmites and stalactites. It was interesting, even though the tour was done in french.  Our guide was able to speak english, but diidn't have the time to translate everything for us, he did however, answer any  questions we had, and also warned us of low clearance areas, which was a bonus for Bob, although there were some areas where everybody had to duck.  A worth while tour. Back above ground, we head back to our abode, with a detour to a grill for dinner. We missed a turn and had to travel about 3  kms to get back to the resturant, when it was just virtually over the road from us, but it was worth the added kms.