The story begins – here.
Wednesday 6th June 2018
Roanne
Fuelled by my fear of having too much I did a drastic detox of what was on the boat and even of some things I brought with me. My other half felt my panic and did the same. Although he had a fraction of what I had to discard. English books and magazines are hard to come by in France and we had a South African friend in the port who was happy to take them, even though they were well thumbed.
My husband was doing mini fix-it jobs like touching up paint or sanding and treating small rust spots. He tried to replace the impellor in the toilet but gave up, as it was well and truly wedged in a casing. He feared he might cause harm to it. Shangri La had held up pretty well the year we were away. She is a beautiful boat.
It’s a lovely time of year to be in the middle of France. The weather is warm but not hot. Can get a bit humid but not unbearably so. They have cool mornings warming up nicely by lunch time. The afternoons were punctuated with showers. I ventured out and did a bit of shopping at the local Auchan. Gosh the world is fast becoming a fabulous place for vegans like us. Of course, the food in France has always been exceptional. I can happily wander around and do nothing more than gaze at food.
Gorgeous juicy peaches, thick fat asparagus, myriad coloured tomatoes, crusty breads, apple sorbet, cassis sorbet, delicious mustards, Champagne vinegar, herbes de Provence, I could go on and on. The French, being French, make vegan food like Provencal galettes and Lyonnaise Lentil salad. My daily staple is their carottes rappee (grated carrot salad). It’s dead cheap and it is without doubt the best salad I have ever eaten! I love that the French love food so much.
We found a fabulous organic wine for €4.20 so bought the last three bottles of that. Didn’t take long and our wheeler was full, we walked back to our boat to have a nice hot shower and sit on the back deck watching the world go by.
Thursday 7th June 2018
Roanne
I had allowed myself two laid back days in a row of late starts and not too much action. By now I had to get my wiggle on and actually do something. The first thing we had to do was a decent shop-up at the local health shop or bio shop as they call them in France. That’s where we find tofu, cashew nuts, nutritional yeast, tapioca flour and other vegan staples. It wasn’t hard to spend €140.00.
My other half had a last few paint jobs he wanted to do but you need good weather. This was another typical day of cool morning, warm midday and intermittent showers in the afternoon. Not the best weather for paint to dry. So he decided to join me shopping.
Floating restaurant.
We went looking for a fresh produce store we had seen the previous year. It was a fair way away but still walking distance. No way could we find it. Gave up on that idea and headed to the town centre (centre ville). We really tried hard to find somewhere nice to eat. By nice, I mean a bit healthy with veggie options. There is a creperie place that was closed the previous year. We put that down to being in Roanne in the holiday season. But even in shoulder season a year later – it was closed. Have to hand it to them, they defo take life easy.
Back at the boat we unpacked and tried to get on top of comms. Internet at the Port de Plaisance in Roanne is a lot better than many places. The Internet drops and you struggle to get in a fair amount of the time but (with persistence) a person can actually get WiFi. Then we headed to the local meet-up group organised 18 years ago by an English couple at the local bar. Brilliant idea. We met people from Roanne as well as boaters from all over. Was so impressed by how well many expats speak French. I do think that it’s only right to try and speak a bit of French in France. I mean, it is France after all. No matter how many French lessons and CDs we’ve done, we’re no match for the ordinary French people who may well understand us, but parlay at break-neck speed. We have no idea what they are saying. Eish! We still have a long way to go.
The journey continues . . . . . . right here
