One Chateau after another .....

We awoke this morning to a sharp frost and a neighbour that had moved in overnight. A German van but we were long gone before they were up. I love a good frost - it sharpens the mind, and the shape of everything around you. We made our way toward Le Mans with the hope of making it to Tours before the day had ended. The drive was wonderful and the warmth through the glass of the van as we drove saw us peeling layer after layer off to accommodate the increasing heat - mind you as soon as you stepped out the van it was a different story - bbbbbbbbrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. We stopped in a lay-by for a spot of lunch but it was on a very busy road - the van lurched from side to side as each huge lorry sped by. It’s not until you are stopped that the speed of the rest of the world hurtling by hits home. We had planned to do some map planning but instead got cracking as soon as we could to try and preserve life and limb.

As we drove I spotted a post on Facebook by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission commemorating the life of Violette Szabo - an SOE agent who was executed at Ravensbrook concentration camp. Violette had been tortured but had never given up any information of any value to the authorities and remains to this day a very special heroine. She saved countless lives across the period of her operations. A young man named Leo Marks wrote a poem and gave it to Violette prior to her departure across enemy lines and this poem was used to encrypt messages during the war. My husband and I discovered the poem and the story behind it nearly 40 years ago and it means a great deal to us - also after our visit to the Normandy beaches and our Anniversary this week, it somehow seems apt to share it here with you now.

“The life that I have, is all that I have, and the life that I have is yours. The love that I have, of the life that I have, is yours, and yours, and yours. A sleep I shall have, a rest I shall have, yet death will be but a pause. For the peace of my years, in the long green grass, will be yours and yours and yours”.

If you have never seen the film ‘Carve her name with Pride’, please do. Virginia McKenna plays the role of Violette. Anyway, we arrived at our next Aire 14€ which considering all the free stays seems a little excessive; however, electricity is provided and it is in an exceptionally idyllic spot - and the last two were hard to beat. We rocked up at our site and could not get the machine/barrier to work at all - the machine that should take your money wasn’t having any of it. Luckily a dear fella on his tractor drove into the field and came over to try and help. Well he knew not one jot of English and I think that struck us totally unable to remember any French. I could see my beloved was getting frustrated and we had decided to look for another spot to move on to - next thing we knew a little tap on the van door from a very nicely turned out Frenchman who was our knight in shining armour (the farmer must have phoned the ‘man in charge’ in the village) - he gets his phone out, rings the number on the machine notice, has a nice little chat to someone on the other end. Miraculously, he hands the phone to Al and a lady speaking perfect English tells him what to do and, hey presto, the barrier arises and we are in. Sorted in a few moments and off to the local village for an explore. We popped in

to the local tabac to wet our whistle and walked a fair way out the village with the dog - then we discovered the most exquisite Chateau. So stunning in the afternoon sun - the sun was low and strong so made taking photographs a little difficult - on the subject of photos, I am still struggling with some elements of this blog and publishing more than one photograph is quite difficult. I therefore post all photos on my Facebook page, so between reading this blog and my FB page it should all make a lot more sense. It is, as they say, a work in progress. Anyway, back to the Chateau - it was a turreted beauty but very private - in fact we translated some notices as we walked and, among others, one said, danger of drowning - it was at that point we legged it back to the main road - not without taking a few snaps in the face of the sun though. So back to the van, made a nice chicken casserole and watched Supervet before bed. Night all and catch you tomorrow...