It's 7 AM and the bread and wine were just delivered...

So we get fresh bread and wine delivered every morning. That cannot be a bad thing.

We had a fun day of travel yesterday from Brussels to La Giro. I'll start at the end; here is a view this morning from our bedroom:

Pas mal, eh?

–We arrived here a little past 7 pm and were greeted by Teresa and Reginald Dalle, our wonderful hosts; fellow visitors Ken and Jeff, who have been living in Cheltenham for the past two years but are returning to the States after this visit; and Mohammed, who keeps La Giro running and everyone fed. (We were also greeted by the news of the Supreme Court decision on the health care act, to which we all raised a glass!)

The front of La Giro is as you can see in the photo but much larger, as there is a large park that you drive through once you are in the property. Around the side is more of the estate, which includes a pool (although it is a bit cool yet to swim), and the back faces a large pasture belonging to the dairy farm next door. It is this pasture in which cows graze. Teresa said that she has been intrigued by the comings and goings of the cows each day... And it's true! You can quickly become quite curious about the almost magical appearance and disappearance of so many animals. One minute there are seven; almost the next, there are 30! (Okay, so the cow watching involved aperitifs and wine, but still...) We had an incredible four-course dinner, made by Mohammed from food fresh from the day's market, follower by Cointreu distilled just down the road. I don't think that any of us will ever be hungry again after that meal, which we finished around 10:30 pm.

A good time was had by all on the drive down for Brussels (except for the one time I almost caused Dan to have a heart attack with a close pass... Could I help it that the passing lane ended so quickly???). Our first unscheduled stop was at Cambrai, which was a medieval village complete with city gates, destroyed by the Germans in WWI. The Battle of Cambrai was noted for the first successful use of tanks. One of the buildings still standing was the town hall, upon which a bell tower hosts Martin and Martine, who have been ringing the bells since 1512.

So we strolled around, had our first pastries on the trip, and stopped for a quick drink before we set off down the road. Dan had a very strong coffee, and I had a biere cerise, which is a tart and tasty cherry beer. Before we left Cambrai, we sampled macarons, which are tasty little macaroon-like cookies with cream filling. I don't think that these have made it yet to Memphis, but they will no doubt help us keep our status as one of the most obese cities in America.

On to the many toll roads toward La Giro... Needless to say, we didn't need to stop for lunch but finally did in the little village across the river from Rouen, only to find that there are not many places serving at 3 in the afternoon. We finally found a spot where we could get a beer (of course) and a bite, so we enjoyed a lovely thunderstorm while sitting across from the town cathedral.

 
I'm sure that Dan will post photos of many things that we saw, but they included wind farms, both le Loire and la Loire (who knew that there were two???), and two really high bridges that took the highway down to one lane because of wind dangers. These were bridges not over water but over valleys, which I didn't really understand, but it's France so it must be good. :)

Location:La Giraudière,La Tourlandry,France