Bordeaux to Bais France
Just over a 6 hour trip from Bordeaux to Bais, France. Parked our caravan at Ventillo, just north of Barcellona. Our problem is that our car is now 5 years old and UK registered. All UK vehicle’s over 3 years have to get an MOT certificate each year, a manditory safety requirement. So its back to the UK every year. Rather than tow the caravan all they way back to the UK it’s better to just park it until our return.
Our caravan also needed some TLC so we agreed to have it serviced and cleaned while in storage. It was also a good time to get some overdue repairs done. We paid for three months starage (148 euros), and planned to come back in March 2020 to pick it up and continue our travels.
Trusted House Sitters
This was another great Trusted Housesitters assignment for us and as always lovely people to meet and lovely hairy pets to look after. If you are interested in house-sitting so the owners can travel click the pic to learn more.
House Sitting @ Bais France
We arrived in Bais 02 December and found our house sitter close to the centre of the village. After introductions and a getting-to-know-you cup of tea, we headed out for a walk with our new buddy Saffy. And guess what type of doggy we were guardians of for the next 7 weeks, yes that’s right, you guessed it, A female Safford terrier, Saffy never looked back to her parents, it was love and acceptance at first sight.
Below we hope you will fall in love with these sunset pictures of our first walk around the lake in bais with our bueatifull little Stafford Terrier, Saffy. It was a truly beautifull evening, cold yes, but refreshing after driving all day from Bordeaux. Bais is a delightful village in Brittany in northwestern France. It’s major landmark would be the 16th-century church. Bais has an average population of 2000. The surrounding area includes many roman ruins.
Historical Township of Sainte Suzanna
Sainte Suzanne is famous for a 4-year siege from 1083 to 1086. The forces of William the Conqueror tried to take the fortress over that 4 year period but were unsuccessful. This was the only castle in Normandy that William did not succeed in taking. The ruins of the fortress are in pretty good condition and well worth a visit if you find yourself in this region of France.
Bais du Tay (Le Forrest)
A beautiful forest walk thanks to Mister Bernard who bought this forest in 1932. He spent his life devoted to developing the forrest. He traced twenty kms of paths, planted conifiers by the thousands to cover the forrest grounds in winter and built a church at it highest point between 1946 and 1950. When he died in 1956 he bequests the forrest to the local community. We walk for mile through this forrest, Thanks, Bernard.
Mayenne Township
From what i can gather Mayenne was established as a settlement by a Juhel II of Mayenne in the 9-10th century. Mayenne was besieged twice during the French Wars of Religion, in 1574 and 1590, and suffered substantial damage. It was rebuilt and re-embellished in the following century thanks to the help of Cardinal Mazarin. It however suffered from plague in 1707. Not a great history. The main historical builds in town would be the Mus’ee du chateau de Mayenne and the Baslique Notre Dame. We enjoyed walking through the town and along the river Mayenne towpath, also named after the town. Some lovely french homes in this town.
Mount Montague Parklands
Mount Montague is only a short drive outside Bais. It is know as a resting place for pilgrams on the way to Mount St Micheals. There is a small pilgrams chaple on top of the hill and the ruins of small buildings adjacent. The morning we were there it was bitterly cold but bright and sunny. These pictures i just love, they bring the out the warmth and beauty of the surrounding countryside, it just felt good to be there that day.
Town Centre – Jubiains
This village was built on or around an ancient gallic and roman settlement. What is still visable is the roman theatre (amphitheatres) and still used for summer spectacles, the temple, a substantial fortress and the thermal baths which can still be seen under the village chruch. I think i was more impressed by the re-constructed roadways which was impressive as the first type of town planning i have seen at such an early period. To find out more information on this site click this link.
Re-constructed Roman Ruins – Jubiains
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My Books = Author = Fabian Foley
How to Write a Novel, How to Write a Bestseller, How to Write Romance, How to Write a… I read tons of these how-to-write-books books, and even though I’m pretty good at reading and actioning what I’ve read, the writing a novel instructions simply wouldn’t stick. I’d finished the first 50 pages of my current work in progress and put it away (or throw it away) or mostly hit ‘delete’.
And what do you think I put my inability down to? Yes… of course. My hopelessness as a writer, my lack of motivation, my substandard intelligence. Basically I blamed my personal inadequacies, as most of us tend to do. I think my constant failure was also demoralizing and the thought of putting myself through that again became a huge barrier to actually writing anything in the end.
Except thankfully that didn’t end up being the end. One day someone asked me why I didn’t start from the end and write back to the beginning if I was having so much trouble doing it the ‘usual’ way.
Starting at the end, didn’t end up being the right process for me, but swirling that idea around, did reveal that a major setback to my progress was boredom. I’d get bored with the story. You see, I loved reading. I’d become engrossed, obsessively turning the page because I’d be so caught up in the characters and their lives that I wouldn’t be able to sleep. And when I wrote, according to a plan or an outline, where I’d mapped everything out as I’d been taught, I already knew what was going on and how it was going to happen. No wonder I’d be bored. (And not saying this isn’t a good process… it just hadn’t worked for me).
So I started with the character, in this case Bimba, and let her tell me her story. Almost every day I’d walk with her in my head and ask her what happened next. And finally after years of DNF I finished a novel. Not a very good one mind you. It was a first draft, but I was over the moon and luckily even though I knew the story, I never got bored with the re-writes and editing. Finding the right way, the right word, rearranging and editing was an interesting challenge. I wanted it to be a great reading experience. For me, all of that is fun.
I don’t know if that will stay as my method, but I’m already looking forward to finding someone else to tell me their story.
What happens when the only living soul who knows you are missing is your dog?
If you’ve ever wondered what a dog is thinking and feeling, then Bimba draws you into a charming and believable first-hand experience of her world.
Bimba’s happiness isn’t the only thing that’s in jeopardy when her owner disappears. And when she finds herself in the care of others, her gratitude is overshadowed. Even if she could make them understand, they are all preoccupied with their own sadness and struggles.
But, as seemingly unrelated events and unexpected kindness propel Bimba’s new friends into an orbit with her at its center, the universe gets to work. And as their lives overlap and converge, it’s clear that even when what we get isn’t what we thought we wanted, happiness is still there, waiting for us to catch on or catch up.
A story of loss and grieving and overcoming adversity. Quirky, with humour and emotion. As uplifting as it is captivating.
“As the mother of a gay son I wasn’t only aware of homophobia, I was frightened. I still am. The overt attacks are easily recognised, if not dealt with, but the covert ones – the insidious secretive attacks – aren’t.”
Homophobia – The irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against homosexuality or gay people.
For a long time our leaders, our society, and our culture not only encouraged discrimination and abuse, it rewarded it. In some places, it still does, despite the legislated freedom and equality we hear so much about. Stories like The Outing are thought-provoking and hopeful reminders of where we’ve come from, where we want to go, and why we don’t want to go back. In times where outbreaks of regressive backlash are becoming more common, it is a timely read.
Quote for this post
The psychological condition of fear is divorced from any concrete and true immediate danger. It comes in many forms: unease, worry, anxiety, nervousness, tension, dread, phobia, and so on. This kind of psychological fear is always of something that might happen, not of something that is happening now. You are in the here and now, while your mind is in the future. This creates an anxiety gap. And if you are identified with your mind and have lost touch with the power and simplicity of the Now, that anxiety gap will be your constant companion. You can always cope with the present moment, but you cannot cope with something that is only a mind projection — you cannot cope with the future.” Eckhart Tolle “The Power of Now”
