Le Tour du Passé
      - A nostalgic return to central France, and my youth

In 1970, as a 20 year-old student of languages and trainee teacher, I had the pleasure of working in France for a year in the town of Roanne (Loire).

I spent a superbly enjoyable and formative year as an English Assistant at the Lyceé Jean Puy and left the following summer, fluent in French and full of happy memories (and some regrets at having to leave a place I had come to love) to return to my books and studies in England.

Many things happened over the years that followed. I graduated, bought a house, built a career, married, raised a family and did all the things that fill our waking days.  Throughout it all however, I always promised myself that one day I would return to Roanne and the region around it, on a pilgrimage to find again the places and the experiences that still filled my memories.

Eventually, more than 30 years later in 2003, I found the necessary time and enerygy.  I booked a return flight to Lyon and hired a car for two weeks.  Apart from this I made no plans or bookings, I would just go each day where my whims took me and stay wherever I found a bed for the night. My wife, Sammy and son, Peter were holidaying elsewhere, so I could just please myself - Bliss!

As a life-long lover of “warm and sunny” I got more than I bargained for. While I was there, they experienced the famous “canicule” (heat wave) of 2003, where temperatures soared above 40°C in the shade (105°F) and reportedly nearly 15,000 French people died from the unusual temperatures. I’ll admit, it was HOT!!  I also had to contend with the French “fermeture annuelle”, where virtually the entire country shuts up shop for the whole of the month of August and descends on the coastal towns, leaving behind a semi-deserted country, populated by the halt and the lame and the few people who are too mean to shut their doors if there’s a Euro still to be made.  You will discover that finding places shut will be a recurring theme in this web account of my holiday.

I took a camera and a laptop with me and spent the days taking photographs and in the evenings, (after lingering over a “dîner bien soigné” and some good local red wine of course) I wrote up a diary so that I would have a record of what I did and saw.  Now I have finally got round to posting the whole experience on the web - mostly for myself, but if you wish to stop by, and if you find any pleasure here, then you are more than welcome to stay and share in my enjoyment of this region.

I make no excuses for my opinions or for the continual references to the food I ate.  My opinions are my own and so is this website, (so there!) and as for the food in this region, it is without a doubt among the best to be found anywhere in the world. (I warned you about my opinions, didn’t I!)  My memories of the restaurants I discovered and the meals I ordered are some of the highlights of the holiday and I can taste them even now as I think of them.

If you can be bothered to read my holiday diary, I am sure you will find lots to interest and amuse you, but if you just want to flick through and look at the pictures, that’s fine too, as long as you’re happy.

If you do stumble across this site and enjoy it, please let me know by e-mailing me HERE

Enjoy! - Keith.

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