TechnomadicsVagabonding Europe

IMG 1354

We leave the farm and drive southwards towards our fallback site in Champagne-Ardenne, somewhere we can stay for a few weeks, figure out an itinerary and get some work done.

We arrive at the camp site in Neuville-Day and meet the owner, who shows us in. I wander around the site, laptop in one hand and wireless antenna in the other, feeling a bit silly as I hunt out wifi signals. I’m rewarded by a blip in the bottom corner of the site, and there we park Nettle and settle in with our new-found Internets.

MG 2078MG 2083

We end up staying here for a whole month, filling our days with Loopy HD development and painting. We get fresh baguettes every morning, delivered straight to the campsite — there’s really nothing like the fresh, crisp bread, that melts in your mouth, and we go through heaps of the stuff, eaten with big chunks of soft brie.

We stock up every now and then at the little supermarket in the next town — we cycle the 5km there, past cornfields, then along the canal bordered by fields and woodland, and studded every few hundred metres with locks. On the way there are lock keeper’s cottages, one with a beautiful cottage garden festooned with flowers that fills us with dreams of our own future cottage. We ride back slowly, a hiking pack full of groceries on my back.

MG 2136

MG 2105

IMG 1420 1 fused

MG 2108

MG 2152

IMG 1375 Our interactions with people in our broken French frustrate us a bit — while we can generally be understood, we both have a very hard time understanding anything said to us. Most of the meaning I can intuit, but when it’s anything but the simplest of interactions, I can’t even determine the word boundaries! We resolve to get back to our French lessons.

This entry was posted in Champagne-Ardenne, France and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

2 Responses to A Month in Champagne (Less Alcoholic Than It Sounds)

  1. Andrea says:

    I spent a few days in Champagne and also in Burgundy and found that only the very young kids spoke any english…this was years ago but sounds like it hasn’t changed much.

    • Michael says:

      Yeah, we’ve found that too, although we usually do our best to go French-only. When we did run into trouble, it was the youngens who helped us out =)