Thursday 16 January 2014

Renovation Project - It's Sunday France is closed!

Renovation Project - It's Sunday France is closed!

It’s time to head home, we have a four hour drive and we suddenly realise that we have arrived in France on a Sunday; we have been here for 18 months and still make this mistake.

A big tip is never to go to rural France on a Sunday unless you have a bag full of shopping with you! Rural 
France still closes on Sundays, this means everything closes, there are no supermarkets open! We drive and survive on our Christmas sweets (well I do, John doesn’t like them).

As we are driving we do pass a bakers which is open, we pull up and I go in, there is a board outside advertising sandwiches, this must be our lucky day, the place is in the middle of nowhere and sells food, as I enter the shop, all I see is some Christmas cakes and 2 croissants, I buy both, but don’t bother with the Christmas cakes, why was the place open??????

We arrive home, unload the car and realise we have no food in the house, thank goodness for the little milk cartons I put in my bag from the ferry, at least we can have a brew.

We go to the Hotel Du Lac, but I feel so rough I can’t face sitting in there, luckily they sell pizza’s to take away and we have 2 minutes to order before they close.

I really think that no food may have been just a little bit too much today, it’s been a long day and we vow we will never travel on a Sunday again (actually vow this every time we do it!)

The next couple of days are spent unpacking and sorting out the barn, the weather was bad whilst we were away and part of the barn roof has come down.

I take the laundry to the launderette and have a look at the lake, I have never seen it so full, the noise and the level of water are amazing even though it is obviously lower than it has been.




I have taken a video and I apologise for the quality but it does give you an idea of how full it was, another clue is that the footpath into the chaos has actually been closed, this does not happen often as luckily in France there is still the ethos that you are responsible for your own safety.


Living here really is like living in the UK 20 or 30 years ago, it’s safe, laid back, has a day of rest and doesn’t live in a culture of can I sue you, because I’m a fool

6 comments:

  1. I don't have a problem with Sundays being closed - it's the 3 break in the middle of the day in the French provinces that I keep forgetting about!

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    1. Ha ha ha we have almost got used to the long lunch breaks, but have still driven somewhere and arrived at 11.55 and then cursed ;)

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  2. The lake looks awesome!! As for food... a freezer is your friend! Well.. together with a microwave that is :)

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    1. The lake was amazing!!!!
      we have the freezer and luckily this time left the electric switched on (yes we have turned the electric off before without thinking!!!) We just have to make sure we never get the saturday night / sunday morning ferry without stopping at the Tesco first :)

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  3. I think that you had a lucky escape with the weather. We heard that it was very rough in the North. You haven't mentioned it, so I presume your electricity was on.

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    1. apparently the weather was really bad, a few friends were without electricity and another had their telephone line hit by lightning!!!
      So glad we were on holiday :)

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