12th July – 15th
Side of Road, Tour de France somewhere near Menetou-Salon.
For the last few days we have been actively following the Tour, we have had a good couple of races, setting up on the side of the roads and joining in with the locals. Meeting some new people and enjoying the festivities.We have either arrived the night before or in the early morning and it is a part of the entertainment to watch the other people coming along the road and setting up their picnics for the day, writing on the road and generally socialising. Yesterday Ewout met several young families who spoke a little English and they were very friendly, offering home made wine and asking us about our trip and about ourselves. One called Manu was particularly friendly and later came along to where we were and played his French horn for us. We were even given a bottle of fruit wine from one of the group that he made himself. So nice.Ewout is doing his bit for Australian-French goodwill and gave all the kids a small Koala each. When he got his chalk out to write on the road there were many onlookers and when he had finished got a round of applause. The Koala also was a bit entertainment for everyone, although when the caravan comes along he does get most of the attention and the goodies they throw to him he has to be quick to pick up otherwise it gets snaffled up by the surrounding crowd. We are finding that the caravan now recognises him and he gets “welcome back Koala”, “Hello Australia” and lots of tooting, thumbs up and waving. He even got a lovely response from one guy making a bit of fun and blowing him kisses. It can be a long day as some the races have not arrived until about 4.00 – 5.00 but with the camper we are pretty comfortable, always a drink or snack at hand, a spot to lie or sit and read and very conveniently a toilet on board.
We haven’t done much sightseeing although we did visit Orador s- Glanea town that has been left as a memorial to the plunder, firing of the village and massacre of 642 people including 193 children by the Germans in WW2. It’s been left as a sobering reminder of the atrocities that happened during the war. A very moving and surreal place which although interesting was not really enjoyable.
The countryside we have been driving around in has been very beautiful, lots of paddocks newly mown, fields of sunflowers, forests and quaint small villages. It’s not hard to enjoy the scenery and it sometimes reminds us of the Adelaide Hills and at these times it doesn’t seem like we all that far from home.
If you want to see the Koala in action I have loaded it on to U-tube; Koala Tour de France. So if you want a bit of a laugh check it out.
