Spot the Crustacean!

,Friday 19th October 2018 - Apremont, Vendee, France.

We have fitted in quite a bit in the last two days.  We were crossing the channel on Thursday evening/night to arrive in St Malo this morning.  However, earlier on Thursday we fitted in another NT property to fill our day.  We had several choices but we picked Cliveden, on the basis that it was Benjamin Disraeli's home.  How wrong could I be!  It turned out to be originally built in the 1600's for the Duke of Buckingham but it's current appearance is largely due to the rich American family the Astors.  They became totally integrated with high British society and Nancy Astor became the first female MP to take her place at Westmister.

Not a bad country pile?

The house is actually leased to a posh hotel and the NT are allowed to do tours for 6 hours each week.  We managed to get on a tour.  If you don't manage to get on a tour you can book a suite for around £1,200+ per night.  Alternatively, call into the hotel and ask if you can have a coffee in the lounge and see what response you get!  The guide was very informative and we learned that the house was where the Profumo Scandal first started (John Profumo, a Government Minister who met Christine Keeler, 'an exotic dancer' who was also seeing a Russian diplomat).  More recently Meghan Markel spent the night before her wedding to Prince Harry at the hotel. 

We walked around the gardens and had a lovely day. 

We set off to Portsmouth to get the ferry.  Apart from driving on the M25 traffic jam for about 15 miles, qwe were still at the docks in plenty of time.

The sailing was good.  We enjoyed the Brittany Ferry restaurant and I was tempted to buy a duty free bottle of Black Bush whiskey which was good value and we had a dram before bedtime.

The morning arrival in France was on time and the sky was beautiful and blue.  We managed the driving on the right and stopped off at an old town called Dinan.  I have been previously but Janice hadn't been.  There is the old town centre and a steep hill down to the Rance River.  It was really beautiful.

I had visited with my brothers on a cycling trip and we had enjoyed trying (and failing) to cycle up the cobbled hill to the old town.

We bought some stuff for lunch and then set off towards David and Wendy's house.  We had an alfresco lunch enroute.

Then Janice took over the driving.

Here she is driving across the bridge over the Loire.

We arrived at David and Wendy's house and in the afternoon we visited St Gille Croix de Vie.

Usually David and I manhandle Wendy in a photo but this time it was the girls turn to manhandle David.  We had temperatures up to 20 degrees and gorgeous sunshine.

Here is David having a little problem with 'crabs'!  He is a fool.....it runs in the family!

We are staying at D & W's house tonight and will both set off in motorhomes for a few days.  We are aiming for the La Rochelle area.  Wifi may be scarce, so I don't know when the next blog will be.

I am still wondering where Disraeli lived?