Christmas is coming...

Saturday 22 and Sunday 23 December

A few quiet days again.  On Saturday we had to wait for the bread delivery as usual and after that we have done our weekly shopping, although this week, of course, we had to get some extras for the festive days.

On Sunday we've slept in again, not much else to do when you're not going out, and I took me probably all day to get all the Christmas wishes out.  It surprised me that via e-mail it still took so much time, but then, my address book needed fixing badly... :-)  This is one of the few times that I haven't sent anything in the mail, also because I hadn't made enough cards to send away.  As most of you know I normally make all the Christmas and birthday cards myself, but this year, while having been away so often and for so long, I just haven't had the time to finish enough of them.

Monday 24 December

The last day before Christmas to do some shopping and we have run out of bread, so we take the car and drive to Le Grand Serre where the bakery is. It's not far from here and surprisingly it is one of those interesting old townships again.  We buy the bread and decide to walk around town.  It's another of those old townships or bourgs of which there are so many around here.  A bourg is a medieval village, generally situated near a castle, so Montfalcon is probably also a bourg.  We discover a plaque with the town plan of Le Grand Serre explaining what we want to know:

While walking around we discover more plaques, but since it is very cold and extremely windy we don't try and find all of them.

An exceptional building: The Medieval Hall

Which is this one, built against the houses on one side,
or were the houses later built against the hall?

The water pump behind the hall

and houses at the end of the square

The fire station with the sign: sapeurs pompiers  in the window
and the request not to obstruct the entrances (if I remember well)

According to the next plaque there is also a mill where oil is pressed from the local walnuts.  Closed, but one could ask to be allowed entry at the town hall.  It was no use taking a picture, since there was a huge van in front of the facade.

Le moulin a huile de noix

There seem to have been several plaques about the "forgotten trades", like this one: the blacksmith.

Travail de Marechal Ferrant

And this is the old blacksmith's workshop

As Le Grand Serre as well as Viriville are both north of Montfalcon and we haven't explored that area much yet, we are planning to go and find a few geocaches that are hidden at two villages nearby. Geocaching still is an interesting way of exploring, because you tend to visit places that you normally wouldn't.

The first one is a scream!  Well, I would scream if I would live across the road of it.  Have look yourself:

This part is across the street from the house

This is the house itself

A little poem:
Si tu vien en ami je t'ouvre ma porte,
Si tu viens en ennemi que le diable t'emporte!
Meaning:
If you come as a friend I open my door for you,
If you come as the enemy the devil will take you.

The name of the house (and incidentally that of the cache):
L'Arc en Ciel de Christian
Christian's Rainbow

The driveway decorated for Christmas, or so it seems...

Can you just imagine living across the street or next to a place like this?  Honestly, I would have nightmares every night. :-)  Anyway, we discovered the cache, logged our find and were on our way again to the next one.  This one was at Lens Lestang, the next one is at Morras en Valloire a short drive further down the road.

We can't find the street that we are looking for, but using the compass we seem to be able to get quite close to the hiding place.  We park the car and notice a cemetery at the end of the street.  We know we need to find a statue of a Madonna, so a cemetery makes sense (and it wouldn't be the first cache at a cemetery either!). However, walking through it we are still not getting closer. There is a very steep hill southwards and guessing the distance it could very well be on top of the hill, so we start climbing, and climbing, and climbing...  And yes, on top of the hill is a huge statue.  Next thing is hoping that the compass isn't too far out in this kind of weather (we're using satellites), but voila!  Frank finds this one (I'd found the other one).  We also log this find and then we have time enjoying the beautiful view:

Panoramic view taken with Frank's new camera

Proof of our find :-)
(It's a relative big container, this one)

Some geographical information

Statue of the Madonna de Valloire
Erected in the mid 1800s to give thanks because the Madonna saved the population
 of the dreaded plague that went around during those times

Another interesting fact is that in this area very old pottery has been found.  I don't know the ins and outs of this, but that's why we generally photograph plaques like this one: to read it again at ease at home...

And just for fun, the sign below with the picture of a hare and the name P. de Haas on it, because we know several people by that name:

That's just about the account of the past few days.  Next it will be Christmas, so Merry Christmas to all of you and we hope you will have a lovely few days with your loved ones or your best friends.

Back in Montfalcon

Thursday 20 December

The next morning is a difficult one again.  The four of us have an early breakfast, get packed and then it is saying goodbye.  Goodbyes are always hard, in particular when it is your only brother you say goodbye to, and you know that again it will be a while before you see each other again.

We pick up the car from the parking area and start our trip home.  Wim and Gerrie take it easy, they catch the train home later in the afternoon.  It's raining.  An hour down the road it is still raining.  It rains all day long and it's not the most pleasant of drives.  It is very tiring driving in the wet, but luckily our hire care behaves quite well.  Halfway the trip we pull over at a road restaurant to have something to eat.  It's horribly expensive and I choose the wrong food: a huge sausage that looks like it has been put together from offal. Suffices to say that neither I nor Frank feel like eating it, so we stay with what food looks safe enough to eat.

What can I say? Rain, rain and more rain and plenty of warnings...

Nearly home

Eventually we make it just in time to get petrol and drop off the car at the hire place at the TGV station in Valence.  It is still raining and very windy.  We feel like a cup of coffee, so drop into the station and have a cuppa with a nice piece of some type of custard cake.  Feeling somewhat refreshed we pick up our car and start on the last bit.  Unfortunately it's peak hour, dark and wet and we get lost twice, even with the GPS on board.  Frank is very tired.  Finally we get home and walk over to the neighbours to pick up the house key.

Mireille is home with her old mother.  They invite us in and we accept the invitation.  Even though they don't speak English we have a pleasant hour with them.  The farm house is as old as the one we are staying in, but so much more cosy.  They also live in the kitchen, but they have one of those old wood fired stoves which gives off so much heat, you feel quit pleasant instantly.  The doors and walls are painted in bright colours, like René's rooms upstairs.  The room is full of cabinets and nick-nacks and Christmas cards everywhere.  In the corner there is even room for a small Christmas tree, brightly decorated.  It's a room you feel instantly at home in.  We have an aperitif (Martini Fiero, a red martini), but go home at a reasonable time, because we are both tired from the trip.  Unfortunately we have to walk in the pitch dark on a gravel driveway and I trip over something or I step in a hole.  I don't know, but before I know it I am flat on my face, since I was walking with my hands in my pockets because of the cold and couldn't buffer my fall with my hands.  No, don't say it: there was no alcohol involved in my fall.  I was still pretty level headed! :-)  Anyway, a lightly sprained left ankle and a huge carpet burn on my right knee and a sore head were the result, so back at home I went to bed early.

Friday 21 December

The next day we are pretty naggered and keep quite for most of the day.  Frank has to go to the garage with the car to have the mechanic have a look at the brakes, but returns with the message that even the mechanic isn't sure what the problem is.  He has taken off one of the front tyres, has done a short test drive and  reckons it would probably be best to replace the brake pads (although they should still be good for a couple of thousand kilometres), but for that we need to get in touch with René.  Frank has had a look as well and thinks that also the discs need machining, because they are full of grooves which produce lots of wear and tear on the brake pads.  Well, let's just wait and see what René decides.

Disneyland Paris

Wednesday 19 December

For today there are probably more pictures than anything else. What else is there to tell anyway?  We get up, have another enjoyable breakfast together, and catch the train to Disneyland.  The day is cold, very cold, but dry at the start, so that's something.

This year is Disney Paris' 20th anniversary

Get the maps out.  Where do we start?

Even Disneyland needs a police force???

And juice for the cars???

In style.  Just a magic Christmas tree

Everyone takes a picture here.  Why not we?

A lttile bit more magic...

Haven't got a clue who he is, but he's harmless enough ;-)

Recognise the castle?

Inside Sleeping Beauty's castle

Ornaments outside

A view from the castle

The inner workings of a popcorn machine ;-)

Scaaaryyyy...

I think this was It's a Small World

Lunchtime parade

It's even snowing on and off today! Surely that's magic?

One guess who this is...

To be honest, I am still guessing on those.
Haven't kept up with the times (sigh)

However, I am old enough to know who these are ;-)

Walt himself is even present in the park

The Tower of Terror, which we gave a big berth

Frank's favourite: Ratatouille

One more then?

Getting ready for the big parade

Plenty of folks, and it's not even school holidays yet

Start of the big parade

It's getting dark

While waiting for the light show...

...we all have a ride...

...in the carousel

The atmosphere at night...

This is part of the light show, but of course something like that needs to filmed...

and this is goodbye

It doesn't show in the pictures, but the last part of the day was not the most pleasant one where the weather was concerned.  On the whole I must say that I wasn't impressed with the fact that many attractions were closed in both parks, Disneyland and Disney Studios, as well as restaurants and such.  It made for very long waiting times and there wasn't enough seating inside in most places where you could eat.  On a cold and windy day you want to be inside for most of the time and not waiting outside.  There is enough of that when waiting for the parades to start and at the end of the day for the light show to begin.  We tried to keep ourselves occupied by having a round in the carousel, but all in all we had to wait for more than an hour between the parade and the light show.  It started to rain and by the time the light show had finished we were quite frozen.  However, the light show was everything it promised to be.  Fan-tas-tic!  It was all laser, fire, water organs and fire works.  Quite spectacular and worth waiting for.  When that had finished we went to the Village which is open after the parks close and where you find many restaurants and souvenir shops.  Clever!  Anyway, we discovered a beautifully appointed classic pub-like restaurant where we had dinner, too tired to go to the hotel to eat in their restaurant.  The food was fabulous, albeit expensive of course, but with a glass of wine it was a complete feast.  After our train ride home we finished the day as usual in the hotel lounge with a few drinks and lots of talking.  Our last night together!