jeudi 20 janvier 2011

Thursday 20.01.11


I've been very remiss and havent written for a while and we've had such a busy time!!!
Last Friday we were in the supermarket when we bumped into a young man who is living on his barge near us.  It is called Caroline and is a 'Cave Vagabond'. heis goin to run it as a travelling off licence. well, he invited us round that evening and with some trepidation we went.... Spent a fab evening with Elio (who lives on the barge) his girlfriend Anne, Adrien and his girlfriend Gabrielle. Adrien has a vineyard in Chablis! We talked a mixture of French and English and the time went by so fast, it was soon 1am! We returned to the Puddle Stone very pleased that at last we had met some French people.  We were amazed to learn, however, that they were all younger than my youngest child, but hey you're only as old as you feel....!!!!
Saturday we found a fab museum 'Musee Leblanc-Duvernoy in Auxerre. It was free and had the most amazing tapestries a whole room of them floor to ceiling of the chinese emperor's visit to France. They took a very long time to complete but they are still there in all their glory.
The lady there was very kind and explained a great deal about the place, maybe because we were the only people visiting at the time!! There were some lovely clocks too:-
Well, couldnt resist a photo of us too!!
BUT
Sunday was the most amazing day! It was the wine festival of St Vincent in Auxerre. The whole of the town centre was closed, people were dressed up in their traditional costumes and there was FREE wine tasting all day. You buy a glass for 5euros and this gave you permission to sample the 60 or so different wines on offer (which they were not allowed to sell you - Sunday you see.....)  Needless to say we took advantage of their goodwill...And had to buy a portion of 'frites' to soak it up a bit. There was a fellow there who had a camera attatched to a helium balloon with which he took photos of the crowd from the air- we've never seen anything like it!!

The locals were pleased to pose for us too:-


And in the evening we rounded off the day by going to church.... No really, a classical concert in St Eusebe Eglise with the Auxerre Man's choir they finished off with Amazing Grace sung in English- just for us........

We went back to the boat and settled in to watch TV in a rather inebriated fashion!!

1 commentaire:

  1. Wonderful posting, loved the pic of the two of you in the mirror! Can't wait to see Auxerre! Deb & Randy, Alouette

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