Here is the first in a series of posts about our 10 day trip to France. Catherine was attending the prestigious PREMUS conference which I’m told has something to do with injuries at work or some such, and I was there to travel and relax because I haven’t had enough travel or relaxation in the past year. The conference itself was in Angers which is a medium sized city in the Loire Valley located about 2 hours west of Paris by train. While officially in the Loire Valley the city itself is situated beside the River Maine which is France’s shortest river at only 12km long and it drains into the Loire a short distance south of the city.
While Catherine was schmoozing and learning I had the tough job of checking out the city under bright blue skies and temperatures in the mid 20s (leaving Sweden we were already in autumn mode so it was great to get some extra summer). I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking since I’m not feeling very ‘wordy’ at the moment.
The final day of the conference was only a half day so seven of us rented bikes and rode the trails along the Maine to the Loire and checked out some of the contryside and small towns. Even though Angers isn’t a metropolis, it was a lot of fun to get ‘away from it all’ and check out the real countryside. We talked about how it would be great to spend a couple weeks biking around the country – maybe one day!
3 Comments
That does look like it was a tough week for you, Graham!
I ♥ summer … I do hope we get a few last tastes of that warmth here before the snow sets in…
Great group of shots: the modern uses for moats are much friendlier than of old, and yes, that lunch looks rough. We’re feeling your pain. 😉 I saw the temps in Gavle and am glad you both had another dose of warm. I guess a donkey would be a reasonable substitute for local kitties. Did the Harley-biker helmets come with your bicycles?
I laughed at ‘feeling your pain’ as ‘pain’ is French for bread. Not sure if that was intentional or not but I thought is was funny.
Yes the bikes came with optional helmets and since most of the group (except me) are safety professionals it seemed like the right thing to do.
That does look like it was a tough week for you, Graham!
I ♥ summer … I do hope we get a few last tastes of that warmth here before the snow sets in…
Great group of shots: the modern uses for moats are much friendlier than of old, and yes, that lunch looks rough. We’re feeling your pain. 😉 I saw the temps in Gavle and am glad you both had another dose of warm. I guess a donkey would be a reasonable substitute for local kitties. Did the Harley-biker helmets come with your bicycles?
I laughed at ‘feeling your pain’ as ‘pain’ is French for bread. Not sure if that was intentional or not but I thought is was funny.
Yes the bikes came with optional helmets and since most of the group (except me) are safety professionals it seemed like the right thing to do.