Day 80→82, Saturday→Monday 2→4/6 (Journey back home):

We awoke to our last day in France. We spent the morning organising our luggage for the trip back and cleaning out the car. I went with Evelyne to buy some goat cheese at a goat farm we had visited on my previous trip. After a very nice French style lunch, we set off for the airport. The navigating was easy with the GPS pointing us in the correct direction right up until the last bit. After doing what seemed like several loops of the airport, the GPS was turned off and I used a paper map to navigate us to the car rental dealership. Here we dropped off Alice and made our way to the airport. The first hurdle was when we were told that we were only allowed three pieces of baggage (we had four) despite encountering no problems on the journey over. Try as we might, the simplest solution was to pay the 100 euros and be done with it. We then passed through security, which seemed to be much stricter than usual. We found a reasonable place to sit by 7pm, with power points, where we sat catching up with our respective diaries and having something to eat before it was time to make our way to the departure gate at 11:30pm. During the trip to Singapore, we lost seven hours, meaning we arrived at 6pm. We slept most of the way and the meal was ok. We only had a couple of hours at Changi, Philip went off to have a shower and Patsy and I went to find a geocache at the butterfly garden. It became apparent that the cache was not there so we replaced it and logged the find. The flight back to Melbourne was on an Airbus A380, the sort we had seen being manufactured in Toulouse. It was nice and new and shiny, the most noticeable difference being the reduction in the engine noise compared with other planes. It is much easier to hold a conversation, as one voice does not have to be raised for the other to hear. However the Qantas staff still seemed to be getting used to serving the vast number of people on these planes. By the time we had dinner there was not much time for sleeping. It also took quite some time to exit the plane, as there seemed to be only one exit. We landed in Melbourne at 5:50am, collected our baggage and checked it in for the domestic flight back to Adelaide. We were seated for departure by 7am and the trip back to Adelaide was very quick, with good views of the Coorong along the way. From the airport Margaret picked us up and took us back to Patsy and Philip’s where I met back up with Jo.

The end, hope you enjoyed it! Stay tuned for the accompanying pictures!!

Day 79, Friday 1/6:

Today we started our activities a tad earlier, at 11am. We headed for the village of St Céneri-le-Gérei. En route we stopped for coffee in what turned out to be a very noisy location in Fresnay-sur-Sarthe before continuing into the very scenic Alpes Mancelles. Here we had our picnic lunch in a very picturesque valley, beside the River Sarthe near St Léonard-des Bois. We then reached St Céneri-le- Gérei, supposedly one of the prettiest villages in France, and the garden ‘Les Jardins de la Mansonière. This garden was quite different to the one we had visited yesterday, much more spread out. The plants were also at a different stage in their growth cycle. It was a very pretty garden and it was nice to stroll around it. Afterwards, we checked out the village and went for a short walk along the River Sarthe, with Patsy and me trying in vain to locate a geocache. We returned home via another scenic route. Serge and Annie again joined us for dinner along with Yyves and Evelyne’s son Dominique. The highlight of the meal was two thick pieces of steak cooked over the charcoal fire. After dinner, Yyves presented a slideshow of his work in Madagascar, which included the construction of several remote schools. Patsy and Philip also showed some of their photos of Australian rivers.

Day 78, Thursday 31/5:

Another, dare I say it, lazy morning at home. After a very nice lunch of leftovers the sun returned from the clouds and we set out, this time with Evelyne to another garden, entitled ‘Le jardin de Petit Bordeaux’. It is a very beautiful cottage style garden with a walkway set out to lead one through all of its hidden corners. It was quite fun to explore. They certainly managed to cram a lot of different areas in without spoiling the feel of the garden. Interestingly a number of the hedges were constructed grown from Yew, the rare tree we had seen in Estonia. Once our exploration was complete, we had a chat with the owner and had a look through a number of photo albums that, amongst other things, showed the gardens being constructed. Unfortunately our impression of the man was downcast somewhat when he started to rubbish the other gardens in the area. For dinner we dined with Serge and Annie and had another excellent, very rich, meal. The highlight of which was cod mixed with a delicious filling and wrapped in pastry.

Day 77, Wednesday 30/5:

We had a morning at home before heading into the old centre of Le Mans after lunch. This area was apparently once quite seedy, but in recent years the area has been transformed and is now very attractive. Yyves knows the area like the back of his hand and made an excellent guide. ‘Twas but a short visit but Patsy nevertheless managed to find a geocache that I had given up on. We had a quick peak inside the cathedral before heading back home so Yyves could go to an appointment. We spent the rest of the afternoon writing and watching the Roland Garros tennis tournament with Evelyne, as quite a serious but short lived storm set in. We had pasta – Yyve’s favourite – for dinner.    

Day 76, Tuesday 29/5:

Today’s major outing was to the Chateau at Villandry. We set out with Yyves and Annie, leaving Evelyne at home. Yyves drove, taking us along scenic back roads, including various stretches beside the river, La Loire. We had a very nice picnic just outside the gardens, which Evelyne had prepared earlier. The Chateau is of the 16^th century and was bought by the present owners in 1906. We followed a guided walk, which took us through the house and gardens. The house is full of history, with various rooms, set up to exemplify how people lived back in the day. However, the main attraction is the large garden. As you exit the chateau, you walk onto an elevated walkway that gives a panorama of the gardens below. The entire garden is split into nine different sections, each with a different theme. The two standouts of these for me were the sun garden and the kitchen garden. The sun garden was set out around a central fountain, with all sorts of colorful flowers abounding. The Renaissance style kitchen garden is set out in a symmetrical grid pattern and is undoubtedly the main focus of the greater garden. The beds are filled, depending on the time of year, with a range of lettuce, cabbage, leek, carrot and beets, to give different colour shadings. A very impressive sight, if one visits the garden at the appropriate time of year, they will give you a bag of produce as you leave. We stayed here for the bulk of the afternoon, taking motorways back home and exiting at Le Mans where we drove around the public sections of the Le Mans 24-hour race circuit. The race was recently held and I was indeed able to pick out the sections of track on which we were driving from the news bulletins. It was then back home. We were joined again by Serge and Annie for another nice dinner.