At last I've managed to get onto the blog - internet access has been a major problem - anyway with patience -have eventually managed it through the French dongle - borrowed from Liz.
It feels like I'm in a different world not just over the channel - we set off about three weeks ago 'ish' stopping off in Boulogne sur Mer to meet up with my sister and mum. Stayed on the 'Aire de camping car' which was free! The next day travelled down to Broglie and camped for the night - another 'Aire' which cost 5 euros for four of us and then continuing down to Dixme- a joint home we have in the south of the Loire Valley, just below Thouars. The birds here are amazing - there are goldfinch, blackbirds, sparrows, cuckoos and woodpigeons just twittering all the time and breaking up the silence as there are no main roads around for miles (or kilometres).
We've been here a couple of weeks but spent a few days earlier this week touring the Loire Valley between Tours and Blois, staying on campsites (mainy for the facilities as there was four of us) in blissful peace and tranquility except for the birds and the frogs of an evening. We visited a few chateaux's and seem to have eaten and drunk far too much - but has been a fabulous few days.
We arrived back on Friday and gathered cherries from the garden - for lunch we had a little pate or cheese as a starter with a bit of baguette followed by crepes with home made cherry compote and icecream - it was 'heaven on earth'. We later made pots of cherry jam - the remainder we've left on the trees for the birds - they usually have them anyway as we're not usually here at this time of the  year.

Attached photos of Azay le Rideau chateau and cherries have put other photos on facebook