travelling with tom

i am writing this through the haze of hungoveredness having been at a weddding last night

rohan and i went to france last week. rohan had wanted to do a coastal route (suprise, suprise) but i (not so) gently reminded him about Bognor and the itinerary shifted inland a bit to travelling through the loire valley (to the coast). however, it turned out that i won that battle but rohan won the war.

rohan for some time has been keen to get a sat nav thingy. it would be fair to say that i have been more than a bit reluctant to go down that route as it were.

1. i like navigating and it gives me something to do when rohan is driving

2. i think gadgets like this are going to dumb down humans so we're incapable of doing simple tasks and not aware when the machines take over (okay, so maybe shouldnt take AI so literally, but still!)

this of course was all ignored and the day before we set off, rohan came home from work with tom...tom (the brand name). i remained suspicious and refused to get introduced before we set off.

anyway, driving with tom is like having a third person in the car ...rohan and i will be having a conversation and then tom will interrupt with 'in 300 yards take the exit' etc. tom seems to become particuarly agitated when i start singing :

the first stand off occured when it seemed we were making too good time on the motorway to Orleans and decided to take the back roads. i couldnt figure out how to add in extra small towns to the route and so i turned tom down (ok, off) and freestyled (with a fairly large scale map).

a few hours (minutes?) later we were hopelessly lost (large scale map, confusing french road signs, 1 way routes, me being nervous with tom in the car) and yes, i turned to tom for help. but would he? no, tom insisted that we were still where he had been turned off - it was as if he wanted to make a fool of me. anyway, the trip took us maybe 5 hours longer that it should have and led to a near relationship meltdown, me apologising to tom and promising not to use and abuse him as i had done previously and my role is now reduced to pointing out obstructions etc (generally, watch out for deer). still, i am going to maintain a healthy suspicion.

there were a few other funny moments, like when rohan had tom switched on in his backpack when we went into a patisserie and it kept instructing from the backpack 'turn left!' , 'when you can, turn around and then turn left!'. ahhh dear.

the loire valley was pretty gorgeous. lots of chateux, a nice river and all the towns we stayed in were full of character, good food, interesting shops etc. and i think our french is improving! we do a very convicing 'bon jour', but we are stuffed when they reply in french.

had a few menu suprises. i ordered a vegetarian 'robe des champs' (or something like that - the only thing vegetarian on the menu) which, according to our phrase book, translated as 'dress from the field'. so i was quite interested to see what it could be - it was a baked potato. i couldnt believe i had ordered a baked potato (an english staple) in france. also managed to order a mince pizza and we had kebabs one night. but we did have a meal on par with rick steins on our last night in a gorgeous limestone cavern of a restaraunt (highlights were the asparagus pannacotta and rhubarb tiramisu for you foodies).

so, we like france. well, what we have seen of it so far and the beemer makes for a quite comfy road tripping vehicle so we will probably take it on our grande tour. although everytime we pass a camper we stare longingly at it.

also, a friend from work got married yesterday. it was a lovely ceremony in the main church in east grinstead and a reception at a manor house nearby. good food, good speeches, plenty of bad dancing.

so today is dedicated to relaxing. it is average weather so thats ok. seems i jinxed the weather with my last post.

Me at the extravagant looking Chambord Chateau

at the heart of the chateau is a double spiral staircases allegedly designed by Leonardo di Vinci.

the alleys of blois (pronounced blwah!)

eating bread and cheese on the banks of the loire

lighting a candle for the heath and happiness of friends and family (thats YOU)

no trip to the loire is complete without a trip to cave that houses the mushroom museum! yum!

and of course, no trip of ours is complete without going to something war-related. this museum was a memorial to the D-day landings and actually alot of the museum is dedicated to peace, but we didnt have time to ge to that bit - just saw the war bits before we had to dash back to calais through fog for our ferry (got it with about 2 minutes to spare).

although you might want to use some if you run into this guy

happy wedding gueststhe church, bride, etc
to the manor born? i wish.


cutting loose on the dance floor