All in a dogs day and week!

Weeks 1 and 2

I am not used to putting paw to keyboard so the following is assisted more ably by T for the story so far……

Whisky and I are not used to keeping a diary or needing to know the days of the week. Time is governed by eating, sleeping and walks.

Both of us love Zygie, our travelling home. T has had us both up at the farm, where Z is kept, lots of times over the last month or so doing his “thing. Z has now got new rearranged shelves and wardrobes, a router for the wifi has been fitted, well loads of little techie things that are far too much for me to get my brain cell around. Anyway every time we went up there we both had a long walk so that was really what we wanted.

By now it will not be new news for you all to know that the shape of Zygie’s rear was changed c/o of a Polish transit and a French artic. I was merrily dozing under the table in our bed as the motion of Z always sends me that way. Their was a terrific bang and Z shot forward, as we had stopped. K swore, well I think she did. W was not pleased at all and barked and then I joined in, well I had to as he had maps falling down on him.

Well to be honest the next thing I knew I was running around a lovely field next to an even lovelier field in Ashford where we were hold up for the night c/o BritStops – the pub stopover places that we tend to use. The restaurant was free of other four legged things so we stuck ourselves in a corner and had another snooze whilst T and K ate and drank the afternoons experience away.

The Tunnel thing was a piece of cake for us but we both enjoyed telling the ticket inspector off when he tried to put his head through the side window to see if we had any dogs on board – as if.

That first night in France saw us all parked up by the side of farm in Croix Blanche. It was great for us as we had some lovely runabouts down the lane and in a field. Although we were joined by a French van we were pretty good about it all and did not bark too much. We were not able to free run from the van down the lane into the valley as there was some sort of electric wires across the road. Now we have seen these on Salisbury Plain to keep the cows in check but never laid down before. T carried us bravely over avoiding the buzzing wires.

You know we don’t see much from the van. Both of us are tucked up under the table usually dozing listening to T and K discussing the route that we had taken or should have taken. Gosh it can be tiring but bless them they have learned from last year and we often stop to let us boys have a comfort break. Now sometimes these can be really nice aires but sadly some are just a bit of a lay-by. One of these we stopped today and to be honest smelt awful. Neither of us wanted to sniff or smooch about. T however wanted to and did speak to a truck driver who was behind us. Actually it was quite, only quite interesting, as he came from Luxembourg and being an owner driver, travelled miles and miles or kilometres and kilometres a week. Anyway thankfully we jumped back into Z and we were off.

Late that afternoonwe pulled into our first winery, ever, we thought this was going to be good. Now somethings can put a real downer on a stay and another dog is one of them. This mutt coupled with its English owner had appaling manners. Both wandered about loose, him bald and blank faced and it scraggy and ugly. We both put it in its place when it came too close to Z and us. “Oh your dogs don’t like other dogs then. I barked back – “Only yours, so far!” He did not get it but that mutt did.

In the morning T was up fairly early and we were looking forward to a smooch around but no he was off on his own. He came back about a couple of hours later having been helping the owners rack the full bottles in wooden crates. That night he took us to see where he had been working and then into the next field to chase the deer. French deer seem to run the same way as their counterparts on Salisbury Plain so it was a little boring for us really.

Wow we were in for another treat on D5, Friday as we stayed in a vineyard. Now don’t get me wrong but these are great places to run around in free and easy like. I think this was the best one so far for me. Plenty of rabbity smells mixed in with some field mice for W. After settling into a place in the vineyard we all went off for a wine tasting. We both just loved the cool inside and their cold floor was to die for. That night we all watched the sun set between the vins and a field of sunflowers. Must add they are so much fun to run around in chasing interesting smells. Never did get to find out who they belonged to but it was some fun and had us both worn out. I was quite taken with the owners French Lab, lovely cream coat that smelt gorgeous – eau du vin I think.

Next we moved onto St Crispin, yes another vineyard. We knew the layout and smells of this lakeside place as we had stayed there last year. W sat by the side of the lake and watched the fish jumping, stupid thing. He made several attempts to get into the water and I’m sure he thought he could catch them. Don’t know why as neither of us are good swimmers.

We stayed here over the weekend keeping away from the busy French roads. Thats a laugh really as I heard it said that there are only 16 cars per km compared to 60 at home!

Ok thats all for now. Will post more soon with photos of us both, maybe the four of us.

Brandy

We are not having much luck with internet, photos downloading from phone so this is all a bit of a mess at the moment I think. However there will be more coming soon. But hey the sun is shinning and the French wine is flowing!