30 December 2008

Driving to Preuilly-sur-Claise

It's raining this morning and the temperature is +2ºC, or about 35ºF. Yesterday morning it was -3ºC, and the morning before -4ºC. At least it's not freezing here today. They are having freezing rain in a big part of France right now, from Normandy across Paris into the Franche-Comté and Burgundy, down to Lyon. They call it des pluies verglaçantes on the weather reports.

Today's icy weather in France — click the image to enlarge it.

We are lucky to be just on the southern edge of the real rain and freezing temperatures. Lucky because in an hour or so we'll be leaving to drive down to Preuilly-sur-Claise to see Susan and Simon of the Days on the Claise blog. We're taking Callie, so if the weather takes a turn for the worse we won't have to worry about driving home this evening. In France, you can nearly always take you dog to a hotel with you. And Callie will go to a restaurant with us for lunch.

We've met Susan and Simon before. Last June they came to Saint-Aignan with Susan's parents from Australia and we had brunch. They were on their way north to Paris and on to England. Then we and CHM went down to Preuilly to see Simon when he came back from seeing Susan and her parents off.

Holiday plants and flowers on an inside window ledge

Today we are planning to go have lunch in a restaurant in Preuilly called L'Image. Susan has blogged about it, and I am happy to be able to try it. Any place that serves traditional French food is my kind of place. I'll take my camera and do a report on what we eat and how we enjoy the place.

Saint-Aignan to Preuilly along the
southeast edge of La Touraine


Preuilly is about an hour's drive south of Saint-Aignan. It's in the area called Sud-Touraine, and it's about as far from Loches as Saint-Aignan is, on the opposite side. We are on the far eastern border of the Touraine ourselves. To get to Preuilly, we drive through Nouans-les-Fontaines, Châtillon-sur-Indre, and Azay-le-Ferron.

6 comments:

  1. Ah, a road trip sounds like good fun! I hope you don't run into bad weather. The restaurant looks welcoming and good.

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  2. Ooooh, I'm hoping to see photos of all of you on both your blog(s) and Susan and Simon's! Can't WAIT to see the food photos from the restaurant!

    I just finished snacking on a little Chèvre aux Herbes that comes from a Goat Dairy and Cheesemaking farm in Vermont, run by relatives of some friends of ours. It's called Blue Ledge Farm. A dear friend of mine ordered us four kinds of cheese from them for Christmas... I hope it keeps if unopened, because I don't know how much goat cheese I can eat on a daily basis :)))

    Hope you all had fun!
    Judy
    (word verification: color... and I'm wearing a VERY colorful scarf!)

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  3. Oh Judy, I'm sorry to have to report that we didn't take any pictures of each other and we didn't take any pictures in the retaurant. We were so busy talking that we all forgot to get our cameras out! Hope you will enjoy the Vermont goat cheese.

    And Evelyn, no, we didn't have any bad weather. In fact, the sun came out after lunch and we took a nice walk around Preuilly with Susan and Simon.

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  4. Our paths almost crossed! After dropping our son Chris at Poitiers airport, we came through Preuilly on the way back to our place in Palluau the other day.

    Compared to the sleepy towns of the Indre department, we also couldn't miss a post-Christmas shopping opportunity in Poitiers (!), so it was dark and the temperature was sub-zero when we got home. Did you notice the crystal-clear sky at night over the last few days? Fantastic!

    Ian & Sue

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  5. Hello Ian and Sue, nice for you to live in Palluau. It's one of my favorite places.

    We left Preuilly about 4:30 pm to drive back to Saint-Aignan. We spent a nice day, and I posted about it this morning.

    Do you live full-time in Palluau, or seasonally? Maybe we can get together some time.

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  6. Hi Ken
    We were over for Christmas, now just back in UK - unfortunately, still working to pay off the mortgage, but looking forward to the day when we can spend long periods in France. Your blog keeps us in touch - it's the next best thing to actually being there.
    We'll let you know when we're over next and maybe we'll meet up.
    Bonne Année!
    Ian & Sue

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