We did almost nothing in Saumur, and enjoyed it so much that we decided to stay another night here.>>

we liked Saumur a lot too. for us it seemed just the right size - large enough to have a good choice of decent restaurants and cafes, but small enough that it doesn't take forever to drive in and out on day trips. and so close to many things that we wanted to see, like Fontavraud.

Some things I don't like in France:
- noisy motos, where would-be hard men have damaged the baffles;
- cars being driven around, windows down, sound system at maximum volume playing music most people don't like;
- fistfuls of lettuce;
- most television;
- cruelty to plants - pollarding, coppicing, and (yes, Ann!) topiary;
- bloody tourists!

Fistfuls of lettuce?

'You're lucky you even got online. We had to go to the local campground to get wifi, which was eminently unpredictable, and spend lots of euros for demi-pressions while there. '

Well, it's getting better. Our village now has a hot-spot by the Mairie. Everything's up to date in Carlux!

Yes, it's definitely getting better. But you live in an actual village. Our mairie isn't even open more than a few hours a week, and more often than not the posted hours mean nothing. We went by three times on a Tuesday to talk to the mayor's sécrétaire, during posted hours, and there was no one there. When she finally reappeared a few days later there was no apology whatsoever. Which is fine...you learn to live with those types of inconveniences, but they're not so much fun when your time is short and you have a long list of things to accomplish. The gossip among the neighbors, BTW, is that things are disorganized at the mairie because the mayor is booting out his old sécrétaire and hiring the new one (who's never there) because he's having an affair with her. But there's always talk like that in the commune, so who knows.

Even here in Paris at the apartment we're staying in, where wifi was advertised as an amenity, it goes off typically after about 20 minutes, and the signal strength is dismal. Our host has given us the IDs and passwords for three different services, so one of them is usually working, but it eats up a lot of time just dealing with it.

NOT complaining...just saying you can't expect things to work the way they do "at home." At all.

Maybe we should move to Carlux

And I'm curious about fistfuls of lettuce too. I always see enormous lettuces and wonder how two of us will finish one before it goes bad...and we eat a LOT of lettuce!

I love fistfuls of lettuce if we are talking about meals. Even better if someone has dumped a bucket of gizzards or chicken livers on top.

I simply don't like lettuce very much, and the amount that has been put before me these past ten days or so is enormous: when I push it to one side to see what real food has been put on the plate, there is often relatively little.

Adding to the list of don't-likes in France (mainly on behalf of Herself):
- the failure to appreciate that tea is best made with water at boiling point rather than with water that was boiled a couple of minutes previously;
- the failure to understand that "au lait froid" means "with cold milk" and not with hot milk, or warm milk, or no milk at all.

On zebra crossings: today I was attacked once more by a woman driver (total 4); later the score was evened up at one crossing when four men refused to let us cross before the fifth driver (a woman) stopped for us.

Today we moved from Saumur to Villedieu-les-Poeles, stopping en route at two towns we like: La Fleche and Fougeres. We are now installed in Hotel Le Fruitier, a place we often use because it is pleasant, value for money, and has a good restaurant.

Villedieu is a very attractive town, with an unusually high survival rate of medieval bits in a part of France that was ravaged in the 1939-45 war. It has, as the name suggests, a tradition of producing pots and pans, especially copper ware. Over the past twenty years, we brought home three pans which get used regularly. Whatever took hold of us, we doubled our stock of Villedieu cookware today. I set out to negotiate a good deal, and had a most enjoyable contest with the shopkeeper - in which, I must admit, she outscored me. I was quite taken with her suggestion that I seemed to expect her to fill them with fish for me.

Tomorrow a relatively short run to Cherbourg, some shopping (especially for wine), and take the ferry back to Ireland.

I feel for your frustration with the French drivers not yielding for pedestrians at marked crossings. Having lived in California where those laws are strictly enforced, I have become quite comfortable with the convention that if one put a single foot into the roadway, all traffic should halt.

Some years ago, when I was working for the U.N. in Mexico City, It really pissed me off to find crossing a street was flirting with grievous bodily harm. I walked to work each morning, and would often arrive at the office shaking with both fear and anger.

One morning some cretin almost hit me as I timorously started across a major street. I blew up, and slammed my briefcase down on his hood, and walked around to his window to give him my opinions in my best gutter Spanish. That was so much fun I did the same several times before I went back to Vienna. The Mexican driver may be a lion behind the wheel, but when confronted with a guy dressed in suit and tie, wielding a heavy briefcase, he is a pussy cat.

I wonder how that would go down in Paris?

I wouldn't count on the same reaction Nukesafe but good on you !

<<On zebra crossings: today I was attacked once more by a woman driver (total 4); later the score was evened up at one crossing when four men refused to let us cross before the fifth driver (a woman) stopped for us.>>

Try France on crutches. The very sweetest, kindest instincts of every French man and woman come out when they see someone using them. Do you want a chair, Madame, while your husband shops? Can I get you a glass of water? Wine? Drivers screech to a halt when they see me entering a crosswalk. SNCF attendants appear out of the mist with wheelchairs and haul me on and off trains and deposit me in cafés to wait for the next connection. Seriously, go handicapped.

Do canes work, too?

Can you buy canes/crutches in the shops at CDG?

Perhaps a white cane would be even better ---

Belatedly returning to wrap up my report -

We have an odd relationship with Cherbourg. It might be the French city that we have been in most often, as it is our most usual port of entry to, and exit from, France. Yet the only time I actually stayed overnight there was on an occasion when the ferry arrived late in the day and I wasn't sure I could get to anywhere else before dinner time. Generally, Cherbourg is where we disembark and head down the road, or where we arrive well before embarkation time to do our shopping (mostly for wine and pipe tobacco, but also for a few nice comestibles - this time cheese and foie gras). We never seem to have the time to do tourist stuff: the Cité de la Mer is on our list of things we must do sometime, but time always seems to work against us.

The overnight crossing to Rosslare was uneventful. We broke our journey home to have a light lunch at the very charming Woodenbridge Hotel in the Vale of Avoca (a place not known to Rick Steeves or his adherents) and Herself got fistfuls of lettuce with her smoked salmon.

We are now wondering where to go for our next trip. Toulouse is under consideration, as we can get direct flights at a good price.

Well, here's what you missed, then. (You even missed the snow that I had that day -- extremely rare in Cherbourg!)

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-de-la-mer.cfm

That report of yours is the main reason why it is on my list of things we must get around to doing! It somehow seems apposite that one of your pictures shows our ferry.

We have made a decision, and are going to Toulouse in mid-October; Herself wants to take a day for Carcassonne.

<<Perhaps a white cane would be even better --->>

Exactly what my SO said!

Padraig - how lucky you were to choose Cherbourg. Brittany Ferries have had to suspend ferries to Roscoff due to "wild cat" strikes, so we learnt yesterday.

ref Carcassonne, don't get your hopes up. Friends [1/2 french] who came back recently said that it was just like a medieval theme park; they, like us, loved Perpignan, and Toulouse too.

Carcassonne out of season is quite nice. When it is not crawling with tourists, it seems more authentic for some reason.

good point, kerouac - they were there in August. it could be quite different in October.