Sunday 17 July 2011

Visitors from Australia: part 1

I mentioned a couple of times over the past weeks that my parents were visiting from Australia. On Thursday (the 30th June) I went up to Paris to meet them off the Eurostar from London and bring them back to Preuilly. We arrived in Preuilly on the Thursday evening bus having public transported all the way. This took less than 3 hours, a saving of a couple of hours and a couple of euros over driving.

The train from London was delayed by 40 minutes
Luckily I had allowed 150 minutes for the
connection to Gare Montparnasse
We did many things over the week and a bit:

On Friday we had a little drive in Célestine, visiting la Gargantua, the Musée at le Grand Pressigny, and stopping at one of Susan's most reliable orchid sites. On Saturday we had a walk in the Forêt de Preuilly (where we saw some frogs) after doing the Saturday morning market shop.

Sunday, Preuilly held the second (as far as we are aware) fête de chasse, so we walked down to the plan d'eau to take in the hunting horn competition, look at the dogs, and have a splendid meal provided by the comité des fêtes (4 courses, 15euros)

Dad watching the hunting horn competition.
I bet you can't see him in that camoflaged hat.
On Monday we went to Tours and visited the Prieuré de Saint-Cosme, the remains of a monastry on the edge of Tours, where Ronsard wrote poetry. Susan will no doubt be writing about this garden at a later date.

The remains of the Prieuré de Saint-Cosme
On the Tuesday we left them to their own devices whilst I went for my health check up (I think I mentioned that I am really healthy...) and then ate dinner at l'Image (thanks Dad).

Simon

ps - this has taken ages to appear: we have been incredibly busy - my parents for 10 days, working for 5 days, and then friends visiting from London. I haven't had time to think, let alone time to write my thoughts down.

8 comments:

Matt du buerre de cacahuète said...

Hello S&S,

I've had fun this morning trying to guess/work out how you managed that journey time - it's amazing.

I'm guessing you took the Eurostar London to Paris Nord, Metro to Montparnasse, then a TGV to either Tours or Loches followed by the Ligne Vert bus to Preuilly. Would love to know your route, though, as I may well don that route on a regular basis at some point.

Thanks :-)

Simon said...

Matt

The three hours was from Gare du Montparnasse to Preuilly:

Ligne 4 from Gare du Nord to Montparnasse, and a no mucking about trip along the walkway to the main station.

From there it was the 16.15 TGV to Tours Central, which gives you 9 minutes to catch the 17.25 bus to Preuilly.

It only works on some days, because on the other days the 17.35 bus misses Preuilly altogether and you have to wait for the 18.35.

All this gets you in to Preuilly at just gone 19.00.

Leon Sims said...

Simon - where are your folks from Down Under?
Leon

GaynorB said...

I'm sure a good time was had by all, even if it left you suffering from exhaustion!

Isn't there a saying which goes something like 'if you want something doing, ask a busy person and they are likely to find the time to do it'?

Perhaps it was written with you and Susan in mind!

Bryan said...

Speaking as one of the two friends from London (though we're really from near Sheffield), can I thank you for your hospitality. And request a post about that tremendous cheese we (well, I), demolished on Saturday afternoon...

Susan said...

Bryan - already done here! :¬)

Jan and Chris Springall said...

Hi Susan and Simon

I dont know how else to get in touch, not much of a computer expert. Anyway, we are rebuilding a house at St Michel, Charnizay, (therefore know the Gargantua pretty well!) and read your blog when we are back in the UK to keep up to date with things in the region. Would love to figure out how to get in touch via email if you dont mind

Jan and Chris Springall

Susan said...

J&C: You can contact us by clicking on our profiles. This gives you an email link to click. We are always delighted to make contact with readers.

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