Spot the difference

Géoportail is the French equivalent of Google Maps/Earth. I think it licences its images to Google for use on Google Earth, but they are certainly sharper and more detailed on Géoportail than on Google Earth over France.

Géoportail has been on line since at least 2005. I captured a view of our house which we think would have been taken in about 2003, because of some new houses nearby are missing.

Here's the 2003 view:
The arrow points at our house.

And now the latest view which would be sometime this year or last:
Now apart from it being a clearer image, not a lot looks as if it has changed in this view. But you might be able to notice how much 'crisper' our hedge looks. It was chopped down to the regulation height in Feb 2006 so it is somewhat reduced height and depth.

Zooming out shows the new houses that have been built in our time of ownership, although not a lot else has changed.

Summer Holiday

We are here for nearly 4 weeks and already we are having really hot weather, so it will be a good time to finish off the office to be able to use is as a summer bedroom.. Pics to follow...

Movers

Well we are here for a week and today a lot of our stuff from UK arrived from our storage. It was good to see our things in their intended home.

Our sofa bed has at last been put in to the office downstairs and Andrew will now put the door on and finish off the wall.

I've managed to get the cupboards up on the wall in the office and Alison has spent the day unpacking books.

Restaurants

I came across an updated list of restaurants in the Thouars area on the town site it's here: http://www.ville-thouars.fr/

We need to start visiting a few more local restaurants and publish brief reviews of each one.

Watch this space as they say...

It Never Snows Here.....

Well that's what we have been told. Well we experienced it first hand ourselves yesterday morning, just before we were about to leave to return to UK.

The main problem was extracting the fully loaded car from the garage, which is at the bottom of a slope in the lower left on this photo. The driveway isn't steep, but it has concrete walls either side of it just waiting for you to nudge with an out of control car!

I ended up having three attempts to get out! The second attempt nearly got to the top, but then ended up in a four wheel slide going back down towards the garage, I had to let the brakes off and hope that I got steering back again and I rolled back in to the garage, horrible.

I then cleared two tracks up the drive way and then lined the car up and gunned it up the hill without any hesitation!

Christmas 2008

Well we are here for Christmas and New Year. Philip and Fran will also be here as well, both of them flying in to different local airports, luckily on different days!

Whilst here will hope to get the new office down stairs carpeted, we have brought over some carpet tiles. (photos later)

Best wishes of the season

Steve

Open All Hours

Magasin de Thouars - Horaires d' ouverture:

Super U (Super Market)

Lundi - Jeudi	08:30 - 19:30
Vendredi	08:30 - 20:00
Samedi	08:30 - 19:30

E. LeClerc (Super Market)

Lundi - Jeudi	09:00 - 19:30
Vendredi	09:00 - 20:00
Samedi	09:00 - 19:30

GiFi (Household goods..Eurostretcher!)

Lundi - Vendredi	09:30 - 12:00 14:00 - 19:00
Samedi	09:30 - 19:00

Office de Tourisme

Lundi - Vendredi	10:00 - 12:30 14:00 - 18:00
Samedi	10:00 - 12:00
Broadband Internet Access €1.00 per 10 minutes Mr Bricolage (DiY) Lundi - Samedi 09:00 - 12:30 14:00 - 19:00 Weldom (DiY) Lundi - Vendredi 08:45 - 12:15 14:00 - 19:00 Samedi 09:00 - 12:15 14:00 - 19:00 Gamm Vert (Garden Centre) Lundi 14:00 - 19:00 Mardi - Samedi 09:00 - 12:00 14:00 - 19:00 Tip Lundi - Samedi 08:45 - 12:15 13:45 - 18:30 La Poste Lundi - Vendredi excepte Mardi 08:15 - 17:45 Mardi 08:45 - 17:45 Sat 09:00 - 12:00