First day - Blois

Friday 15th March 2024

Up first thing and round the back of the hotel to sort out the torches and burning things for Sunday! This means unloading everything from the van and dipping several hundred torches in paraffin! It takes some time but eventually we run out of paraffin and have to stop for the day! Then we get on the coach and go for a vineyard visit and wine tasting. It was Plou and fils - and the wine was really good. The wine tasting was a bit early for us - so we tasted a few but most went into the bucket. At the end we bought three bottles between the two of us - this we realised quite quickly was a mistake. The allowance is much more than that and some people were buying 10s of bottles - next time we will know better! France has had as much rain as we have had - the Loire is so high that we cant tell where the banks are - all the paths by the river have disappeared and it is flowing really fast. We have a boat trip booked for tomorrow but sadly it has been cancelled (and just as well it looks really dangerous - noone is on the river).

In the evening we are invited to the town hall for a Twinning dinner - speeches are made, the food is great and plentiful as is the wine. It has been a lovely day but we have had enough of talking to people and sneak off early to find a great bar on our own!! We found out that the twinning originated in the 50s when one of the schools in Lewes started and exchange scheme. It went so well that sports teams followed and eventually it turned into twinning. Dave (who is the head of the Lewes twinning society) and the man who is the same in Blois have been friends since then - and their children have also been part of the exchanges as well. Most of the French twinning association seem to be part of Cliffe bonfire society - and they love it!!