Sleeping in a 19th century church and exploring Poitiers on an Ausom L1

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The scooter

Ausom L1 Electric Scooter

Good morning. Well, we’re going out for the day and the night because because I got an email yesterday. So, yesterday was Black Friday and that means absolutely zero to me. I don’t really go in for the whole wait till Black Friday to buy stuff because I don’t really need a lot of stuff. But I did get an email from the app that I use to look for hotels when we’re all out and about all over France. And it’s kind of like a price comparison app, I suppose you could say. I think the way it works is loads of different hotel chains subscribe to it and then you put in where you’re going, when you’re going and it spits out like this one has a room for this rate, this one has a room for this rate. This vlog is not sponsored by this app, but it’ be really cool if it was. Anyway, yesterday they sent me an email and they said we’re having a Black Friday sale and they’re going to give you examples of the types of rooms and places you could go on the cheap. and they sent me this really cool picture of a hotel room in Poatier, which is a few hours away from here. And the room looks really cool. Now, I kind of half been thinking of going up that way anyway because in Poatier today, Saturday, they’re launching their Christmas market and turning on their Christmas lights. So, that sort of ticks a box with feeling a bit Christmy, want to do something Christmy. Had a bit of a squint around and then his email popped in and said, well, maybe it was listen to my phone. I could stay in this cool hotel room for a hundred quid for tonight Saturday. So, we’re heading up there now. Now, in addition to the Christmas market, which I kind of was the main reason we’re going, I haven’t really been in Poier. I think I stayed there once ages ago on the way to the ferry in Pascal, I think. And um I stayed sort of on the outskirts of town, but I was having a look on the map and the inskirts inskirts the interior of the town, the old part looks really cool. This hotel we’re staying in is right in the middle of the old part of town. So I want to go explore around Poatier. Now, this is where the chronology of this vlog might need to be explained because this vlog started about three weeks ago. And it started with the arrival of a box, [Music] kickstand, wheels, brakes. Figure it out. Right. So, what you’ve done there, Brian, is put them on upside down. Cool. Whoa. Cool, huh? So, this is the jobby. We’re going to be taking him around Poier today, tomorrow maybe, um, to sort of see what it’s like. Now, the reason I agreed to to this this sponsorship, and this is a sponsored video, is because I used to have a scooter many years ago. I’ll explain the whole scooter London story in a minute on the way up the road. Just a quick update about Pascal. He’s going in on the 12th of December to a local garage who are going to give him a once over, hopefully fix the little things that the test flagged and then we can get them retested before Christmas. I would like to do the work myself, but I could do a bit of it, but then the bit where you have to align the wheels properly and do the camber and all that sort of jazz, I don’t have the equipment to do it, and I think you need to lift them into the air to do it properly, which is a no-go here at the moment. So hopefully he’ll get squared away around the 12th, retested before Christmas and we’re good to go again. I think that’s everything. Right, get in the car. [Music] So the London scooter story. So many years ago I worked for a organization that had their headquart head headquarters head office in London and I would have to go to that place about once a month and this went on for about a year. So about once a month or twice a month I’d have to go into central London and go to their head office which was kind of in central London but just not in the center of central London and sort of check in and say hello to everyone and all this sort of jazz. So what I do is I get the train into London and then I get on a bicycle, a road bike and I’d shoot across London to the head head office, no problem. But I would get to the head office which was in an old church. It was really cool. And in that church I had an office and there was no showers in that church. Well, there was it there was like one little cubicle that they sort of stuck in but it was always cold and it never really worked properly. So, I kind of got sick of cold showers to get rid of the pong off me after I blasted across central London on me bike. So, I decided in my wisdom, I’d buy an electric scooter. And I kind of used it for about two months, two or three months maybe, get into London, hop on me scooter, shoot out to the head office, do me bits and bobs, and shoot back. But when I moved to France, took the scooter with me, and it was less than useless. It was sat in my barn for years. I think I used it once in France. I think I might have brought it to Paris, but rural France on a scooter designed to go on like tarmac wasn’t really useful. So, it sort of sat there for ages. And then last year when my nephew Ed was over, I gave it to him because he can use it to get the school on and he loves it. So, when Awesome rang me, well, they didn’t ring me, they messaged me on Instagram and said, “Would you like to try out our electric scooter?” Initially, I said no. cuz it was pointless. And then they sold me a picture of it and it was like an allterrain one. It’s in the footwell of the car now. But it has like full suspension like you’ve just seen and a fancy pants motor that you can sort of shoot along the road on. Knobbybly tires that you can go on tracks off lanes and sort of up hills and things on and a really big battery. And I thought that’ll do me. So the plan is we’re going to go to Poatier. Well, we’re on the way to Poatier. We’re gonna park the car in the car park that’s not quite at the hotel. We’re going to go on the scooter to the hotel, leave the scooter there somewhere, have a squint at this Christmas market and um turning on the Christmas lights and then tomorrow when the weather’s supposed to be a lot better, I’m going to go have an explore around on the awesome L1 and see if it’s any good. Anyway, that’s the um story about how I used to ride an electric scooter to an old church in central London. Lovely. Okay, cards on the table time. This is not the room I booked. This is apparently their fanciest room. Now, I didn’t pull any YouTube trickery to try and get this. What happened was this is sort of at the end of the church thing on the upper floor, and they’ve have the church in half. bit of synchronicity to my old head office here. But anyway, the room I booked had vaults like this, but it was along the side of the church like this, you see? Yeah. And I arrived in to the room, but they’d given me the room below the one that had the vaults. And I went back and said, “I’m really sorry, but the room I booked in the picture had the vault one on the fourth floor. Had the vaults in the ceiling.” And they were like, “Oh, no way. There’s been a mistake. We’re really sorry. That room’s gone, but the fancy pants room is free and we’ll upgrade you for free. So, we landed in here. Pretty cool. Bit weird, but you know, nice. Look, the ceiling. Isn’t that cool? Just goes to show you if you ask, you never know what you’ll get. Now, I don’t know where the toilet is, but that’s yet to be determined. Hopefully, you don’t have to, you know, pee in the bath or whatever. That’s quite funky. That is. Yeah, we like that. Okay, so my plan was on the way over here, the weather got a lot better because it was rubbish back at the cruise. So, I thought, well, maybe I’ll get out today and see some of the town because um you know, it looks like it’s clearing up. Well, I got closer to town and it just started peeing rain again. So, I think that’s off the cards for tonight. So, my plan is chill out here for a little bit, maybe get some food, and then go and see the Christmas market after dark and uh wherever they’re turning the lights on. I think it’s like in the center of the city, the center of the old town, which is just around the corner as far as I as far as I know. But I think I’ll just maybe maybe grab a cup of tea or a cup of coffee and just sort of chill out for half an hour cuz the traffic coming into Poier around the ring road was nuts. And then we’ll go and do a bit of exploring and see if we can find some Christmy stuff. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] mold wine. Welcome to Platier Christmas Market. Oh, that’s good. So, the Christmas lights are due to be turned on at 6:00 p.m. and I was here at 10 to 6. Now, either I’ve missed them or we’re being a bit French and they haven’t turned on yet, but it’s bloody cold here, so hopefully they come on soon. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] So, I’m really glad I came here this evening instead of tomorrow because I would have missed all the Christmas lights and, you know, stuff. [Music] Good morning. Well, I slept like a stone. And then today, well, before I go back home, cuz I’m working at the chatau tomorrow, I want to have a look around Poatier. Now, Poatier is one of those cities in France that has a personal transport network going. And when I say personal transport, I mean stuff like these. These are all scooters and bikes that you download an app and you can rent and just sort of squirt about the city at your leisure. And a lot of French cities have them. I think they’re banned in England. I’m not too sure. And I don’t know about Ireland, but France is kind of on top of it when it comes to helping people get around their cities. And they’re a great idea. You do have to be careful on them, especially today since I forgot my helmet. We’re not going to be using one of these. We’re going to be using that thing. And that’s an awesome L1. That’s what they sent me to have a squirt around the cities. Now the reason I agreed to doing the the video and you know taking the scooter is because very often with the bigger cities like Poe and especially Paris all the places you want to go and see are fairly spread out and it can be a long day walking if you want to get about the place. In Paris it’s not too bad cuz you got the metro but then well I don’t know if you ever been on the metro in the summer not particularly nice. So today what we’re going to do is just go and see the sights of Poier but sort of quickly well quicker than we would walking cuz I can’t spend all day here. I do have to get back to work or back home so I can get ready for work in the morning. So, the first place I’m going to go and have a look at a big botanical gardens that way. I think [Music] Great thing about Poatier and a lot of other French towns is that there’s a one-way system around the town. A lot of roads are one way for cars, but you can go both ways if you’re on a bike or a little scooter. So, it’s quite handy for traversing the town. Right, it’s a bit nippy. So, we might squirt off somewhere and see if we can get a hot chocolate into ourselves. And now I want to go to a big hall. There’s a cool big old Well, it’s just a massive old hall and on the other side of town. So, we’re going to head that way and um see if we can find a cup of hot chocolate along the way. I think that looks like a good idea to me. Quite happy with that little scooter for boopping about the place. Anyway, behind me is the palace of Aquitane and it’s in the center of Guateier and was built around the 9th century originally for the Romans and then in the 12th century, Elder of Aquitane uh redid the hall which is just there and we’re going to have go in and have a look at this now in a minute. I’m just waiting on my hot chocolates. All in all, I’m having a very lovely morning. [Music] This place is massive. It’s 50 m long and up until 2019 it was used as a courthouse. I don’t know if this particular room was used as a courthouse, but it’s huge. Imagine sitting there in a chair being told by a load of judges up the top of the steps there that you hadn’t paid your parking ticket. It’s called the Hall of the Lost Steps. And I don’t really want to speak too loudly cuz there’s a big echo in here. Well, it was a lovely morning pottering around Poier. had a really nice time. Lovely town. And thank you very much to Awesome for sending me the scooter to get about the place. I think I’ll use it a bit more actually. I’ll stick a link in the description in case anyone’s interested. But I got to get home now, get ready for work. And yeah, it’s back to the chateau in the morning, which will hopefully involve clear weather and not icy roofs because I don’t want to go sliding about the place again. So, thank you very much for watching today’s vlog, this weekend’s vlog. I do hope you enjoyed it and had a good weekend.