Saturday, 10 January 2015

10 Jan 2015. <FR> Saintes, Charente-Maritime; Bordeaux, Gironde —
Today we went into Saintes, a rather large town. It was drizzling on and off, but fortunately mainly off!

Found a shop that had the French newspapers, and a couple of English language ones as well. Bought Le Monde and The Times. This let us catch up with what was happening following the Charlie Hebdo attack — Le Monde consisted of about 30 pages, of which the first 22 were devoted to this atrocity and its aftermath.

We wandered down the pedestrian precinct, just enjoying the shops. At the bottom of the this street we found a busy market and the town's cathedral. Wandered through both. The market was fun — we took advantage of it to stock up on fresh fruit and vegetables. The cathedral is old and, from the outside, somewhat unprepossessing. But inside it was delightful. Must point out that the French aren't into piped music — even the McDonald's restaurants allow for quiet conversation, which is a major French pastime. But, in the cathedral, quietly playing and creating an ethereal ambience, was the Fauré Requiem. Delightful.

From here we drove on southward, ending up at an aire just outside Bordeaux. The last part of our drive, after we had spent some time recharging the computer at Macca's, was after dark — looks like this is going to be fairly common while the days are so short! But they are getting longer, both as we get further from the winter solstice, and as we get further south!

Distance driven — today, 100 miles ( 161 km ); to date, 10,662 miles ( 17,159 km )

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Location: Saintes, France

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