Our months holiday in Montargis

Montargis is a very pretty town, and we had decided to end our run North and turnaround here. The Port is very nicely placed  and a few minutes walk has us in the middle of the town.We decided to stay for a while and do some exploring in the surrounding countryside and visit Paris which is not too far away.

As the monthly port fees were half those of the daily rate we handed over our Euros and paid for the month.


 Randy and Debbie joined us on Allouette and we drove back to pick up their car.   We are now all set up for our months holiday!

We had lots of outings planned and one of our first was to the pretty town of Sens.

Sens

Sens and our lunch spot

On the weekends of course it was off to Vide Greniers - I had been looking for a suitable barometer for quite a while. I found a nice one and then the next weekend found a nicer one, and then at the next one found one mounted in an anchor! We are now the proud owners of 3 Barometers!

Our next big outing with Randy and Debbie was to Moret sur Loing, where our friends Mark and Mary were berthed. We joined them for lunch and arranged to meet later for a tour of Fountainbleau. However we are not called the 'Ferme Exceptionalle Hewitts" without due cause.

Moret sur Loing

Moret sur Loing

We also caught up with Andrew and Jenny who were having some work done on their boat Jef in Moret.
Over lunch Mark and Mary introduced us to the wonderful Mr Teddy who charmed us all - it has turned out he is quite an emailer, and we have been chatting to him since we left!

Mr Teddy

All eight of us arrived at Fontainbleau - to discover it is closed on Tuesdays (as are most french museums and Chateaus). The gardens were open so we had a lovely walk around and took a coach trip through the park.It gave us a real sense of the pace of life back then as the horses and wagon slowly trundled along the many wide avenues of the garden,

After ice creams and coffee and a stroll through the town we headed for home...we had hopes of meeting with the delightful Mr Teddie in the near future.
Somehow the days in Montargis just drifted by...a favourite pastime was watching all the many dogs doing their daily walk around the Port....all with owners in tow.

Feeling rather Chateau deprived we set off for another adventue.  This timelunch and retail therapy in Orleans, and then on to one of the most spectacular chateaus in France - Chambord. Whilst very elaborate and massive, it has a rather unusual history, in that it has never really been lived in - each owner extended it, but only visited for a couple of weeks....apparently it was so cold that no one could settle there. Although it has massive rooms only a few are furnished.

Cordelia visited us for a week arriving by Eurostar in Paris about 10pm.  As there was no train to Montargis that she could catch we decided to drive up and spend the day in Paris.  You may think that parking in Paris is expensive - usually yes - but in August it is free as all the parking meter people go on holiday - where else but France!

We had a lovely day wandering around Paris seeing the sights. Laurel also indulged in some retail therapy and found some very interesting things

'Books" that look as if they have been around forever...actually cardboards cutouts.

Ditto Dogs....the pet that keeps life simple!

comfy seats

So much for 'always white sheets' mantra...so many colours.

Part of an amazing range of modern lighting.....many really rather bizarre.

Awesome shirts! Ditto the 'plain white' mantra

We dined in style having the most delicious Asian for lunch and finished the day with a wonderful curry with crisp light Nans! Ah it is nice to be back in a big city!

We picked up Cordelia and headed home - next morning Randy and Debbie brought us a lovely breakfast tray with Croissants, and Pain au Raisin - lovely!

We had decided to do a few outings with Cordelia, and visited Pithiviers, (home of the famous Pithiviers Almond tart, and a producer of Saffron).  We had a lovely lunch at a small bistro and returned home for dinner and drinks. On the weekend we introduced Cordelia to the wonders of French vide Greniers, where she managed to find some very cheap Sephora cosmetics.

Every 7 years Montargis has an Agicultural show - the comice agricole.  It is a lovely little event, with a show with animals and tractors, and local produce in the park and a big parade on the sunday. All very local and cute.A part of the procession includes mature aged ladies throwing hanfuls ofconfetti at the crowds...we were vacuuming confetti out of the barge for over a week. The whole town turns out to watch the Parade...it reminds me of the Royal melbourne Show of the 1960's...charming.

The Winner is "Miss Montargis"

 All to soon it was time for Cordelia to head back to London. We decided to drop her off at the Fontainbleau train station and to [finally]visit the chateau (after the excitement of the Agricutural show) we thought we should add some culture.  The interiors are magnificent, and very ornate.We were very taken with the ceilings...see Cordelia's Facebook pics. And they had an excellent Napolean Museum.

So after a lovely day we had a simple dinner, stopped at a supermarket for Cordelia to buy a 4 litre cask of red for a princely 4 euros, we bade her adieu! Of course she was stopped at the Gare du Nord to explain just why her bag held a 4 litre cask..."Je suis Australian" ..was enough for them to quickly usher her through.

Les filles

Now for todays flower arrangement...bring a ladder!

M for Miranda

These were minature formal chairs for children...stunning!

The library...not a paperback or Kindle in sight!

The Queens Bed...the bench seats are for the ladies in waiting..who sit and wait for Her Highness to wake...simples!

So in a flurry of Vide Greniers, drinks on deck, walks through the many pretty streets of Montargis, it was  with regret our month in lovely Montargis came to an end. It somehow seemed like the end of a holiday. And we set off to head south and for Roanne.