2CV Road trip (part II)

So where were we?  Oh yes, I had decided that the very thing our 10 year anniversary needed was a weekend away in my 2CV.

So bright and early Saturday morning we arose, waved off the children, packed the picnic hamper and startled a traquil neighbourhood with the cough, splutter and rattle that so defines a 2CV engine.  We were off.

In front of Evaux abbey.

Our first stop was a short hop from home.  We went to the spa town of Evaux les Bains, it has an amazing abbey that we like wandering round.  As we drove up we discovered that we weren't the only road trippers there that day as a rally of jaguars, porsches, and other expensive old cars we following us.  Proudly we discovered that my little car made more noise than any of them.

After a coffee in the appropriatly named 'Ralley" bistro we began thinking about lunch.  The plan had been to stop by some waterfalls but when we neared the (very narrow and winding) track that led to them we saw that someone had put up a warning sign that they were shooting with live rounds.  I was all for going on anyway as it is a public right of way and they had no right to stop us and so on, but husband pointed out that it would be awfully difficult to convince anybody that after they shot us.  So we left. Now we were off the plan we needed to find a picnic spot without google.  Or Satnav.  Or any kind of mobile phone network.   We decided to go old school and follow signs.  We had seen a sign telling us that there was a chapel to visit.  But we ignored it.  At another cross roads another sign insisted that the chapel could be visited by taking that road too.  We wanted our picnic not a chapel.  We perisited in ignoring the sign.  At the third turn off the road looked a little wider and once more there was a sign informing us that the chapel would be reached from this turn also.  It was obviously fate telling us that we must visit this chapel and that there we would find a heavenly picnic spot.  We wound round tiny corners.  Drove through farm yards and avoided dogs.  And there was the chapel.

The sun fell through the stained glass windows like a beam from heaven and the silence was broken by a host of angels.  Is what I would have liked to write.  It didn't happen.  The chapel was shut.
Luckily Chérérailles just down the road was more capable of offering us a beautiful picnic spot with lake, forest and not another soul in the world.

After dinner in need of culture to go with nature we stopped at Moutier d'Ahun.  A tiny village but with the most amazing wooden sculptures.  These statues were scultped between 1673 and 1681 and they are truly breathtaking.  It's a tiny village and only a small portion of the monastry is left BUT the wood carvings have survived and in such a small place they are incredible.

We spent the night at Peyrat le Chateau overlooking the lake and awoke to this view from our bedroom window.  It was a Sunday and we were in the Creuse so we were not going to be shopping today.  It was time to see the best that Creuse has to offer, prettyness, wateralls, nature, stone bridges and all that jazz.  We drove and walked and climbed and admired, and picniced.  Obviously.  Here are a few of the pictures but they don't do it justice.  

Our last stop was the village of Masgot where the local stonemason went crazy in the 19th century and decorated all the village (and his vegetable garden) with stone stautes.  It was dinner time when we arrived and the place was deserted.  We had the village to ourselves.  It is more of a hamlet and surrounded by a forest  - but not a dark dense forest, more like fields of trees and pathways leading into it from all over the village.  It was very peaceful and easy to slip back a few centuries.

So there you go.  We made it. And enjoyed it!  I am looking forward to the next one and in the meantime I have my other "deux chevaux" to keep me busy.

Road Trip part one. Are we going?

How long is it since I last updated the blog?  Oh? That long?  Well, how long is it that we have been married?  WHAT?  10 years?! No?!  Yes actually I worked it out on my fingers and everything.  So ten years of marriage, house renovated, offspring produced and growing and animals happily installed but we had never actually been away without the children.  It was time for a weekend just for us.

A famous earlier outing was when she was my wedding car.

The first problem was what to do with a weekend, I mean we are pretty childish in our tastes (give us theme parks, caves and seaside castles and we're happy) but it seemed a bit pointless (and unfair) to do kiddy things without the kiddies.  Not being ones for golf and spa holidays or swanky hotels with pools, adult holidays seemed a boring option too.  Romantic rural retreat? We live in one.  Paris? meh, been there and not really fussed. Then, to my husband's horror, inspiration struck.  My pride and joy, my impractical, my lovingly decorated 2CV is the one thing I can't do with the children.   Love my car as I do, I have to admit that it is far from being the safest vehicle on the road and that, added to a lack of decent rear seatbelts and the impossibility of using child seats,  has led me to ban my children from travelling in "ma belle".  So to celebrate the newly roadworthyness of my car we (I) thought that a road trip would be an ideal way to celebrate our anniversary - we would return either loved up and ready to embark on another ten years, or divorced.

Problem two, where to go.  Many criteria now had to be met for this trip.  Firstly - a maximum distance of no more than two hours drive (in a normal car), this was in case of break downs, father-in-law would be able to fetch us back easily - she has never been known to let us down BUT we hadn't been far in her for quite a few years.  Seondly, no mountains - weight in a 2CV is all important and two of us in her could have proven too taxing. Thirdly, no motorways.  Finally a few wateralls for us to park and walk to, and picnic spots, many picnic spots would most definitely be required.   This left us with the choice of one destination, the Creuse.

The Creuse is the next door "departement" to us and I adore it.  It is full of things like this and roads like these  (photos from the Creuse tourist office)

but to many french people it is imagined as something more like this. 

 So there you have it.; destination chosen and car prepared.  Children posted off to Grandma and Grandad and the adventure to begin.Tune in for road trip part II to find out if our marriage survived when I have finished selecting the photos......  Oh and do have a look at the Creuse - it gets an undeserved bad press.