Time for some exercise after weeks of bread, wine and cheese (pain, vin and fromage) I needed to stretch my legs, around the district where we are staying they have turned a disused light railway system into walking and biking tracks that reach out between all the small towns. This is fantastic, it's a wide level pathway that goes for miles, you can branch off to different villages or just hike between towns.
Today was wet and cold with a blustering wind, the perfect day to get a jacket on and go for a brisk walk. I really enjoy this type of day, we tend to stay inside on cold days but I like the freshness of them. I left Chris in town nursing a hot chocolate and hit the trail, just me the wind and the cows, there's nothing like the smell of fresh cow manure to clear the head!!! I wish I had a bike with me these pathways are perfect for travelling on, much safer than riding the narrow country roads.
The weather was much nicer the next day so we drove a loop around several towns and visited Fler, Argentan and Falaise. We have done similar days to this, we just map out a circular route and head off to explore, coffee in one town, lunch in the next and beer in the last one before returning home for dinner. It's a great way to see lots of the smaller towns off the beaten track.
The memorable thing today was the French lunchbreak. In France every business and shop, except for cafes, cake and breadshops all close for lunch between 12 and 2 PM, yes a 2 hr lunchbreak. Don't ask me what they do for 2 hours, all the shops are closed!! Anyway we were in a large homewares/gift shop and Madame Christine was shopping, I was just hanging around waiting, trying to look interested and commenting appropiately when asked whether this colour was nicer than that colour etc, as you do when you've been married for nearly 30 yrs!!!! anyway suddenly the lights all went off, the piped music went silent and we were left wondering what was happening, we thought they'll fix it in a minute and continued on shopping. Oh no this was the lunchbreak, a shop assistant came and hunted us down and we understood she wanted us to leave now. we were herded towards the door which was promptly locked behind us. Come back in 2 hrs........
Chateau's....
We have seen lots of medieval buildings, castles churches and abbays but we have not yet visited a real 18th century French Chateau, so off to the Bellaroy Chateaux, we choose the Bellaroy chateau because it had a unique story attached to it. The Chateau was built in 1631 and stayed in the original family until 1970. Unfortunately after the French revolution it declined and by the 1900's was not in great condition. It was used by both the Germans and the Americans during WW2 until the family, who by now were broke, sold it to Malcolm Forbes the famous American journalist.
Malcolm Forbes was the editor and publisher of Forbes magazine, a big thing in the 60's and 70's, he was also a war correspondent in WW2 and fell in love with France. He bought the property in 1970 and over the years has restored most of the building. Some rooms are original from the 1700's and others have been redecorated in the same period with various artworks and furnishings from the period. The Chateau was designed and built by the same Frenchman who built the Palace of Versallies in Paris which is the most magnificent of all buildings from this era.
The other part to the unique story was Malcolm Forbes's love of ballooning, he was famous for it in his day and achieved a few world records. He has created a ballooning museum in the grounds of the Chateau with some great displays showing the history of ballooning from the Montgolfier brothers to the present day.
