An 'English' day!

We arrived at our newest abode - what a treat!  This one was recommended to me by a client and is more of a B&B.  We are in a restored bake-house on a former manor farm (that's my description).  It is delightful - we are upstairs with oodles of room and all mod-cons in spite of the age of the place.  We even have shutters to close at night, instead of curtains.  Our hosts are lovely and speak perfect English.

And have chickens!

We've been to Cognac today (Friday), home of...Cognac.  We did a tour of the Martell Cognac distillery.  It was really interesting and we had a an English guide too, so we actually understood everything.  Of course there was a tasting at the end, perhaps not my favorite tipple (except for in my Christmas cake!), but we had to try it, didn't we?

Driving on [Allan: 'cross-country'!], we stumbled upon 'Paleosite' - an archaeological site, with an interactive museum.  Apparently they had discovered the remains of a 35,000 year old Neanderthal there.  We were the only visitors there and so watched films and displays - again with an English commentary.  At the end there was a 'Morph room' where we were photographed and compared with a Neanderthal - apparently I would have been shorter and stouter, that doesn't bear thinking about!  We had the opportunity to buy a head shot of our morphed image - you will understand why I declined!!

The carpark had space to hold all the visitors!

Our only French speaking adventure today was at a 'Pharmacie' trying to buy more medication for our persistent colds.  The lady whipped out a 'common phrases' book for chemists, but none of its scenarios quite fitted.  Allan had a brainwave and said 'Jour et Nuit' et voila! We had some day and night tablets.  Still wanted something to deal with the coughs so after some play acting we were able to walk away with an expectorant. It is quite fun trying to communicate with people who don't speak any English but who want to help.