Bruges, Belgium - a short two night and one full day stay

 Bruges, Belgium

Originally we planned to make a day trip to Bruges from Brussels but at the last moment changed to going to Bruges for two days in advance of visiting our Brussels friends.  Bruges is a very beautiful old port city - best NOT to arrive on a weekend which we did since all the tour buses and day cruisers from Great Britain especially along with other Europeans arrive en masse for tours of the city.  Bruges is a truly beautiful medieval city known as the "Venice of the North" - we learned from our Brussels friend Gabriele when we finally arrived there that Venice is rampant with mosquitoes - he had just returned from vacation there - and Bruges had none thankfully!

Hurdy gurdy man out on the cobbled street playing for and dancing with tourists (not us)!
Alas - no monkey...

Horses and carriages passed through the streets many times per hour.
The endless clip clopping of hooves was quite pleasant to hear - this spot is the
front entrance of our hotel.  Not a great place to bring a vehicle other than
these as you can imagine!

                               Canal over which the main street near our hotel crossed.

The horse and carriage statue commemorates this huge tourist attraction.   

We managed to find a nice place to exercise - alongside this canal a path went for a couple of miles

Better view from a bridge passing over the canal

Dragon head benches  (above and below) typical in all the parks

Day Trips around Blanzay

Janet instructing on some unique aspect of her neighbourhood.  This
walk was about a mile down the road (same road with the donkeys).

Among the sunflowers under a pale sky - budding when we arrived, blooming when we left.

Detail on a doorway on the way to the Botanical Garden 

Photographing the photographer at the botanical garden
we visited in a small medieval town of Nanteuil en Vallee - so many 
of these walled towns constructed of stones.   

In the garden...

Tiny stream adjacent to the stone wall of the garden

Janet enjoying the garden too

Musical Day Trip - On the day after we learned about the death of Tommy,
the last of the Ramones, we drove and met some neighbours
(John, Moira and Rolley) at nearby
 Civray and listened to a British punk band (not a youth group but
neither was most of the audience!).   

Epernay - Champagne Country in Northern France

Our trip to Epernay was quick, just a one night stopover at an Ibis hotel (endemic in France, small, comfortable, inexpensive and centrally located) on the way to Bruges, Belgium.  We left Blanzay early and after a quick stop for an amazingly indescribable chocolate croissant (no photo could do it justice, it was more like a croissant pancake with layers of flaky crust and slivered almond topping, only found at bakeries in this region), drove mostly on back roads to Epernay.  

Nostalgic moment here - we visited Epernay on our epic road trip in the summer of 1985 as well - 3500 kilometres from Paris down through France, Germany and around the mountains of Switzerland, Austria and northern Italy.  Anyway, our goal this time was to find a small champagne vineyard and pick up a nice bottle or two for our friends in Brussels.  

This town is the self-proclaimed "Capitale du champagne" and home to many of the world’s most celebrated Champagne houses like Moet and Chandon.  It’s a destination of many visitors as the best place for touring cellars and sampling bubbly. The town also makes an excellent base for exploring the Champagne Routes.  

Approaching Epernay are vineyards of grapes grown for champagne and
the regional wine as far as the eye can see.   

Former church/cathedral on the road to Epernay - now used for public events 

Detail of the rock walls of the church above

These street signs were right on the corner of the church above
but we didn't go to any wineries until the day we left Epernay.

The vines were never ending on the way to town

Detail of a doorway by daylight in Epernay - the downtown was quite
busy and commercial, not like we remembered it.  Of course a lot
can happen in 29 years! 

Another doorway in town quite close to the carnival, by night

This permanent arcade of games and rides was certainly not here in 1985!!!

Town Square, very pretty and empty at 0800 the day we left on our search for champagne 

Lovely mural on the "Rue de Champagne" road which left the
center of Epernay and led into the countryside to wineries
north of town. 

Vines and more grapes - just beginning to mature outside the little
winery where we purchased our champagne - coincidentally,
we met a wine dealer there who lived in Brussels our destination or
I should say the destination of the champagne!  He just started doing business with
this winery and of course recommended what we should purchase
- all very convenient since the proprietor spoke NO
English.  The whole process worked out well.

Voila! From Bochet-Lemoine Vineyard

Last night in Blanzay

Tiny Blanzay even has a really nice watering hole.  

Celebrated the reopening of Auberge(after the owners' return from vacation),
a British Pub (go figure) the night before we bid Janet adieu and departed
Blanzay for points north. 

And a nice sunset to send us on our way...(DW photo credit)

French Countryside and more of Janet's house

Here are some photos of outside of Janet's house where we stayed as well as some of the surrounding area.  It couldn't have been any more peaceful than it looked in these photos.  Basically all we did for a wonderful week in perfect weather was exercise every morning, take walks around the neighbourhood with and without the dogs, and we took a couple of day trips here and there.  Spent one afternoon in nearby Poitiers which is a lovely small city about an hour north.  

Front of the house.

Back of the house - complete with patio, pooch, and to the right
out of frame a clothesline!  

And here it is!! 

This was Danny's dream oven - huge old bread oven on the back of
 the house.   It probably works but needs to be inspected so we 
did not fire it up although we talked about it endlessly!  
Pizza anyone - the pizza stone is included!

Under the spreading chestnut tree by one of two entry gates,
a few mushrooms will grow - they came up overnight
after we pulled down the English Ivy! 

Grape arbor over the front of the house looking toward the garage.

As far as the eye can see.....(DW photo credit)

Grapes with a sunflower backdrop

Friends among the flowers

Janet's back yard and part of several lavender borders

Side of the house from the road (inside this was the "music room")

Music room viewed from the front - DW's favourite place to play guitar (DW photo credit)

Music room - a room, a chair, a guy and a guitar - used to house
animals - see the hay rack - it was actually two rooms, one
closed off and would have made a great chicken and turkey coop!
Stone walls three feet thick just like the house.
Very cool in the heat of the day (DW photo credit).

This house is hard to photograph as it is one long L-shaped structure.
Too long for a wide angle lens let alone a cell phone camera!
View of side gates and corner of main house.

While race walking one morning, we found the railroad station!  

There was a small shelter, no station, up a dirt path.  A
passenger disembarking would have to ask the train to stop.
While we were in this area, three trains went by in about
half an hour - 2 were small locals, 2 express trains.

Found two friends on another walk in the neighbourhood.  

And more sunflowers (DW photo credit)!

The wheat fields of Blanzay and the surrounding area

Alternative title:  Gluten free hell - gluten avoiders stop reading now

I meant to add yesterday (no time, in too much of a hurry to head out to the local watering hole Auberge for a glass of beer) that of course, this is the land of the baguette - DW's beef with the bread is that the bags don't completely cover the long loaf.  However friend Janet explained that this is to make it easier to break off a chunk to munch on the way home from the bakery - also short bags improve air flow keeping the crust crunchy.  Her explanation definitely has merit.  And by the morning traffic at the bakeries, the only gluten issues in this country are excesses of bread availability.

Little known fact  --  I like to chew wheat kernels when they are ripe (wheat berries?) 

Wheat field almost ready for harvest when we arrived - it was cut down a few days later

Different field - the yellow strip in the background is 

one of many huge fields of sunflowers 

Wheaty closeup!!