Great. I have a blog which is convenient for the IPhone.
Feel I ought to give some background information.
After travelling around France in April and May 2011 I had planned to go again in September to visit the Loire Valley in particular.
Unfortunately I had a bout of Supra ventricular tachycardia -SVT.
So 9 months on with 10 visits to A&E to stop the heart so that it can start again at its normal rhythm and 2 failed catheter ablations I am now waiting for another go in a different hospital. The wheels of the NHS clunk slower and slower.
So despite being A&E on the Tuesday I had had enough and arranged a ferry on the Friday to go to a reunion of ex Hong Kong hashers near Toulouse which is 600 miles from Roscoff.
That is the best thing I could have done. Although I still have occasional flutters I feel so much happier.
Had a wonderful time at Chateau Sardac, Tao and Colin's place near Toulouse.
The hash reunion was rightly named gastronomic. Tao is Vietnamese born, French bred and has spent time in England and Hong Kong where we met. She is a qualified chef so you can imagine what the food was like.
She told me that I introduced her to the hash where she met Colin, and the rest is history, as they say.
The first day she set a 16 kms hash in the rain. I walked with Denise and Ethan(are we there yet?) and shortcutted so only did 12 kms. Luckily it was flat. She is renowned for setting ball breakers.
The next day the hash run was shorter but up an awfully long and steep hill. She had intended it to be longer but the second hill was out of bounds thank goodness.
Colin being Australian cooked up a delicious BBQ with some mouth watering lamb. I can't begin to describe the food because there were so many exotic and complicated dishes like fresh stuffed salmon and homemade pates. There were also fresh picked grenolles mushrooms.
The second night after the various beer down downs, the wine and then sampling Colin's fig liqueur I was on love with everybody.
The weather improved and I think everyone managed a dip in the pool.
When I first arrived I had a little flutter but generally I felt better for the exercise and the drink. Maybe that is the answer.
I had planned to leave on Tuesday but Tao kept suggesting to stay another day so I left Toulouse on Thursday. This enabled me to spend a day in Toulouse while Sacha stayed at Sardac which loved as she could wander around the 7 acres happily. Although she wasn't popular when she chased the cats She also managed to find some hedgehogs and later a 5 foot whip snake which whipped into the swimming pool to escape.
When I left Tao made me a little light lunch. It lasted me three days.
After Toulouse I drove to the Quercy region and the Dordogne.
Saw the caves with prehistoric paintings but I prefer the natural formations.
Troglodyte dwellings abounded and I visited the Roque St Christophe.
Chateau des Milandes was interesting as Josepine Baker jazz finger/exotic dancer owned it and lived there with her rainbow family of 12 adopted from all over the world.
There were many of her fantastic costumes on show including the belt of bananas that she wore in her revue -with nothing else! This caused quite a stir.
Now I'm am near Orleans in a lovely campsite which is convenient to the town and next to the Loire with a bit of a beach which Sach enjoys.