The journey from Malaysia to France was extremely debilitating taking a total of 46 hours door to door but I guess that's the price you pay for a very cheap flight (£187) ... so for the first few days I did a lot of yawning but not much else ....however ... the new workaway project at my friend Edna's house in Angles sur l'anglin, Poitou Charentes, is extremely interesting (refurbishing the kitchen) and the bed is extremely comfortable (the bed on the last project had a broken base!) ... the food is good and we have managed to at least talk through and 'mock up' the basic design and when finished will enable her to offer Chambre's d'hotes (bed and breakfast) accommodation in this "Les plus beaux villages de France".
France I'm pleased to say is experiencing a mini heatwave which has made the culture shock more bearable but when I was flying back and staring at strangers (which is an alarming habit I have) I realised how much I'm going to miss the sight of the asiatic female physiognomy and although I am very admiring of french culture, manners, food, history, architecture (pre 1950 anyway) writers, film makers etc etc there is no getting away from the fact (imho) that the Asian female is generally a lot easier on the eye than the European with the exception of course of any that I happen to be writing to!
During the long and occasionally tedious journey back to Europe the subject of 'what next' was often in my mind and I concluded that i am not yet ready to 'settle down' and prepare for that final journey into oblivion. Although travelling is often physically and mentally extremely demanding the 'highs' are so exhilarating that they overshadow everything else so thoughts as to 'where next' are drifting around seeing friends and family in uk and then either Thailand ... Sri Lanka .... South America for the winter ... but .... there again ..... !
Chateau Brosse (2kms)
Chateau Touffou (10 kms)
Chateau Touffou (10 kms)
Local views of Angles sur l'anglin
