Petworth Again

We had a Friday dinner date near Coventry with Dave and Marian, friends from our 2017 south African campaign. Driving across London was out of the question, of course, for any number of reasons, so we elected to bypass the Great City by way of the south and west. We also needed to stop at a National Trust property to buy our 2019-20 Royal Oak memberships. Petworth House was on our way, and a brief stop there to look at the Turners and other paintings (for the third time) would get us to the membership office. It would also give me a little respite on my first day of driving here.

A bit of the great house

Nice copy of a Bosch

Nice Claude, one of Turner's heroes

Too many boats, as Vicki always says

Courtyard between the house and the service building

Nearly everything in bloom, another beautiful day

I was going to walk around to the front to get a proper picture, but was defeated
by Culpability Brown's ha-ha; made me feel sheepish

The rhodos clearly bloomed on time (early) this year

Hopefully we'll see them next spring

Return To Canterbury

In past visits, after the boat, we have always tried to stop in Dover, but we always miss the exit and wind up in Canterbury, 20 miles or so up the road. About 2013, we learned that Canterbury is actually preferable, if you're in a camper and are of the camping savage bent like us: Canterbury has the only aire de camping-cars in the UK, at least that we know of. It's in the New Dover Road P&R, which I know now better than the back of my hand. 3.5L per night, plus all the facilities, spartan as they are, plus unlimited travel on the local bus system for up to six persons. Such a deal. Plus the P&R is little more than a mile from the city center. For this and other reasons, we always seem to spend a couple/three days in Canterbury before setting forth into the rest of the country. This time it was four days as 1) we needed to do the wash, 2) I needed time to re-activate that part of my brain that keeps left but looks right, 3) free wifi, and 4) charity shoppes (!) which we haven't seen (except Emmaus in Paris) in months, and 5) the days in Paris and after had been pretty intense, and we needed a rest, and time to plan, especially before setting forth in a new land and culture (seriously).

Such a deal

Canterbury street scene; I am sure I have blogged abundantly about Canterbury
in previous years

Part of the fun is watching other tourists getting fleeced

Canterbury's beginning to seem a bit too touristy now; and
we have pretty low standards in that regard

Anyhow, there are always the fun old bits

Sadly, it'll cost you 20L or so just to get inside the walls
and see the Cathedral; we've seen it enough, and like other
English cathedrals (Wells, Winchester, Worcester and
that's just the W's) better

Getting re-acquainted with British shopping

Marveling anew at what's becoming of the Queen's English

And then there's the Beaney, the coffee shoppe in the beautiful old  building that
houses the TI, the city library, art museum, etc.; and some nice people

And the opportunity to plan the next seven weeks' travel

France Out-Takes

Fresh bait at a Decathlon near Paris; French fish eat very
well before being snagged; we were told the terrine de
insecte is very popular

Interestingly, the French distinguish between adult and adolescent cereals;
childrens' is on another aisle

Parisian sensibilities have turned on Ratatouille & Friends

Extreme graffitization of a statue at St. Germain

What the backside of a great market (Bastille) looks like

High school on Rue Faidherbe

French scaffolding; art deco I think

"Paris is more beautiful in the rain"--some members of our party, namely,
Penelope, did not agree

Trying to remember when I smoked...was it very loud?

Interesting T-shirt shop near Marche d'Aligre (click to enlarge)

Something you'd never see at Safeway

High street art in the 11th

Art finds many places in France

'53 Caddy with Utah plates, in Provins

Yeah, sure

Stretch tuk-tuk

So Rebecca found this important cultural landmark...there is a scene in Ratatouille
where the dad shows Ratatouille the real relationship between rats and humans;
it is this exterminator store in Paris...

With real dead specimens in the windows

Salute to America!

Probably another salute to America; we ate at Amorino's
many times, but never saw anyone ordering this; maybe
we were not in the right part of town

Classical sex toy at the Louvre

Half-timbered with sun roof in Auxerre

"Oh shit, I forgot my deodorant!"

Painting of world's largest filter cigarette 

"Never mind that remnant of the ancient city wall there, the house is a great bargain"

La Manche

At Calais we shopped at the Auchon--much declined from previous years--and moved on to the Cite Europe humongous shopping center, which also provides an aire de camping-cars--and spent the night there. The Cite Europe and its Carrefours will be our new entry and departure point from the Continent. Anyhow, we made the crossing without incident, well, except for the unpleasant officer at the British Border "Force" demanding to see our tickets for leaving the UK. Fortunately, they were on our phones. Anyhow, we boarded, our 2019 visit to France and the Continent done, and sped off to Merry Little England.

Cite Europe was sufficiently impressive for me to want to
return...next May or June

Approaching British Border Force...with great apprehension

Adieu France, Europe...

Northward plies our ship, southward is fixed his gaze...

"White Cliffs of Dover?"

"You bring great Evil"

Friterie!

So we had driven the length of France, from Menton to Nice to Aix, through Provence and Burgundy, to Paris, Chartres and points further north, almost to Calais, and not once did we see a frites stand nor frites truck, something we used to see a lot, going back to '79. We had some decent frites at Bistro Paul Bert in Paris, but nothing along the way. Finally, just a few miles short of the coast, I spotted a friterie, we made a U-turn ("when possible") and headed for it. Having spent enough time in Flemland, we know our frites, and sauces. The best French frites are a distant third to Netherlands and Belgium, but a French friterie is well worth a stop, for the institution if not the food. (Maybe it's the proximity to Belgium that explains the appearance of friteries...we later saw quite a few near Calais).