Every time we stop somewhere for the evening, once we’ve eaten, our table turns into “command central”, maps, pens, books, glasses of wine at the ready …. Where are we going tomorrow? What do we want to see? What is there to see in the area? How do we get there? and most importantly – Where do we sleep?

Yesterday, like every other day, we made our plans. Why? Who knows? … because today – nothing went to plan! First of all, I think we broke Charlie yesterday at Montresor, it was a long walk and although he enjoyed it, it took toll on his old legs (not to mention my hips!). We decided that today we would drive instead of sightseeing, and as we are leaving the Chateaux area and there does appear to be an awful lot of fields, we don’t feel as though we’ve missed out and Charlie has been able to recover.

We woke this morning in the lovely little aire at Marizay, and we chatted to some neighbours before leaving, they filled us in with so much information on where to go in Portugal. I have lists everywhere, on every scrap of paper. Tomorrow we’re going to buy some more books and a diary, it’s good to blog but it’d be good to have everything written down to hand.

This morning we woke to another fog and it was chilly, although it was really beautiful with the sun burning through. I caught this spider’s web on our walk to the bakery this morning. We stopped in a lovely town called Chauvigny where we had our morning coffee and cake! This is becoming a bit of a habit!  The waist line can take it but I’m afraid my vanity is taking a bit of a bashing!! I know I’ve put on weight because my glasses are now nestling on my cheeks!! Not a good look

We travelled to this lovely little town (Nieul), which has – guess what? Yep, a chateau, albeit a little one. We’re in a lovely aire with friendly neighbours from Brittany who have already given us so much info, my head hurts! The sun is shining and I have a glass of rose in one hand and keyboard in the other!!

As we were driving along today, we discussed what we thought of the trip so far. Had it lived up to expectations? For me a resounding yes, in fact it’s been so much more pleasant and stress free than I had imagined. I can admit now that I thought we’d have ‘words’ over directions but so far even though we’ve had our fair share of taking the wrong road and having to turn around again. Today is a special day, we celebrate our first day without having to do a three point turn And what does the Hubster think? He agrees, he’s loving it. He looks so relaxed, although his eyesight is being tested from looking at too many maps with such small writing!

Tomorrow we have something planned that I have longed to see for such a long time, I just hope that I’ll be able to get internet connection tomorrow night to blog. I’ll leave you guessing ….. take care.