30 June 2012 - Bauduen

Yesterday we blobbed out around the hotel pool until 4pm, then headed in Avignon hoping that the tourist masses would have reduced and the temperature would be lower.  Both proved right and we emerged from an underground carpark in front of the Papal Palace - a massive complex in excellent condition.

A wander down towards the river took us down small streets lined with tourist shops (and a bookshop with second hand books in English), through the massive city wall to the famous bridge - the Pont St Benezet.  Originally built through the fundraising talents of a local peasant Benezet in the 1100s, it has been destroyed by kings, floods and other effects and rebuilt several times.  Only 4 of the original 22 spans remain, but it is still an amazing monument to what must have been an immense task when it was first built.  We walked out to the end in a strong wind, then retreated to the square in from of the Papal palace for an excellent dinner.  Apparently in the middle ages Avignon was second only to Paris in size in France and there are many signs of the affluence of the times.

 Pont St Benezet in rush hour traffic

 The Papal Palace from Pont St Benezet

Today was a day of colours.  We drove across Provence to my cousin's house on Lac Sainte Croix du Verdun at Bauduen.  We passed fields of lavender amid the rather arid vegetation in white stoney soil and drove through villages painted in pastel colours rather than the usual French stone grey.

Lavender fields

On first sight of the lake the colour of the water was a bright blue.  I can only imagine that it is a combination of the bright sun and the depth of the lake, but the photos really do not do it justice.

The exit point of Lac Sainte Croix du Verdun just above the dam.

The lake is behind a hydro dam with a retained depth of 95m feeding an underground power station.

We finally reached our destination - a delightful 4 storey house looking out across the lakefront,  very comfortable with several cafes and restaurants within 2 minutes walk.  The rest of the day again spent lolling around in the heat (around 35C).

29 June2012 - Uzes

A day of highs and lows.  We were sorry to leave our converted barn at Conques-sur-Orbiel, but tore ourselves away and headed down to the Mediterranean coast at Sete on the recommendation of our last hostess that the seafood was great and that we would see flamingoes.  All we saw was a traffic jam,  no parking spots and some very grotty housing apartments.  We turned tail and headed for Uzes where we were booked into a hotel.  Unfortunately the GPS didn't recognize the road, so we tried heading for the Office de Tourisme in Uzes.  First we were diverted through the very unsealed and dusty local church carpark due to roadworks and then had to jamb on the brakes and squeeze into an illegal carpark to get into the office to be told it was so simple to find....  After finding the first sign and following it down some unsavoury half sealed rural alleyways we found the hotel.  Very modern, comfortable, but lacking the atmosphere of our accommodation to date.  However the view from our balcony is certainly rural which helps.

 View from the hotel

After recovering from the trip we headed off to see Pont du Gard, a well known Roman aqueduct about 12 km away.  A very different style to the one we saw at Segovia in Spain 5 years ago - much more massive and in a very stark natural landscape compared to the urban background in Spain.

Pont du Gard

We ended the day with a meal at a recommended restaurant in Uzes.  I had the best Beef Tartare I have ever tasted - included parsley, capers and something we couldn't work out but which gave it a true zing.

One thing I have noticed as we've been driving through France is that from any slight elevarion you can see for miles - the contours are so flat. I'm sure that the Central Massif is high, but the scale of the country makes it seem flat.

28 June 2012 - Conques-sur-Orbiel Carcassonne

Yesterday we were on the road from the Dordogne down to Cathar country.  First we had to clean our apartment to the satisfaction of the owner - in the end we surpassed her expectations (surprise!).

4 hours later and $40 in tolls we arrived in Conques-sur-Orbiel (according to the GPS) and then read the fine print in the booking details.  A U-turn involving 20 blocks of a very small village afflicted with two-way streets 2.5m wide and a one-way system in parts, a dash down the local highway, brisk discussions between the navigator and the driver and 4km of roads 1 car wide with weeds/wild flowers growing up 2m high either side and large trucks heading in the other direction through vineyards and scrubby woodlands we eventually turned into a farmyard that had old wagon wheels scattered round, white washed buildings and 2 delightful apartments built into part of a ruined barn. Our hostess Jilly turned out to be an English high-flyer who had decided to head for France and the relaxed pace of life.  She, her husband and their young son run the accommodation (more units in preparation) plus a farm that includes a horse, 30 goats and a lone emu left over from the previous owner flock of ostriches.  Apparently an egg had been left and hatched independently, but why an emu egg happened to be on an ostrich farm has not been explained.

Not what you expect to see in France.

We crashed out in the afternoon and then headed into the ancient city of Carcasonne for dinner,  Unfortunately the recommended restaurant was closed on Tuesdays, so we were sucked into a VERY EXPENSIVE restaurant in the gardens below the castle.  Food sort of OK, but service slow and so-so.  We walked out without desert feeling hard done by.

 Walls of Carcassonne

Today we returned to the walled city of Carcassonne to visit the castle and learn a little more about it.  Originally fortified in Roman times, the fortifications were improved in the 12th century with the Cathcar community needing a safe refuge,  The Cathcars were religious zealots who rejected the corruption of Rome and were consequently labelled as heretics (an excuse for France to grab the lands on the Spanish border).  The Cathcars were ruthlessly dealt with and the French improved the defensive capabilities of the town. 

 Looking along the ramparts of Carcassonne

After wandering around the ramparts with a delightful guide we grabbed some food from the local supermarket and headed north into the hills to find a lake with swimming beaches.  Due to the signs to the lake facing the wrong direction and road works closing a section of road it was after 5pm before we reached the promised swimming hole.  This turned out to be a reservoir where sand had been imported to form a couple of beaches, but the lake itself had a distinctly muddy feel underfoot.  As this was at about 800m altitude it wasn't as oppressively hot as the Carcassonne area and we only stayed in the water for 10 minutes.

Reservoir in the hills

A quick dinner at the apartment and bed, ready for another road trip to Uzes, near Avignon.

25 June 2012 – Lembras

Yesterday was spent in the area of Les Eyzies-de-Tazac-Sireuil which is the centre of an area containing caves with drawings, paintings and engravings dated from 10,000 to 20,000 years ago. We visited 2 of the caves. Grotte de Rouffignac is a large series of caves running some 10 km. The tour is on a train which wanders slowly through about 1/2 km with stops to inspect points of interest. The artwork is amazingly detailed and accurate, done both by engraving and drawing in charcoal or some form of crayon. The best display is in a large cavern with a flat roof which is covered with bison, mammoths, ibyx and horses. To keep the light to a minimum the background lighting is kept dim and features are highlighted by the guide with a small torch – very frustrating when you are trying to see the whole picture, but adding to the atmosphere and sense of discovery. Our guide was a voluble frenchman who hardly drew a breath in the hour we were in the cave and we were accompanied by a group of around 30 school children on a class trip who were amazing well behaved.

The second cave was Grotte de Font de Gaume which is much smaller – never wider than 3 m. Here the paintings are in colour with shading and outlines. While the details are not as accurate as at Rouffignac the artist has used the contours of the cave wall well – stalactites for legs, bumps for eyes and ridges for the back. Most of paintings were of bison, but horses and reindeer also feature. It is noticeable that great effort is made to detail the tails of the animals. As you would expect some of the paint has faded and I walked past some without seeing then until they were pointed out. Again the lighting was dim and features were illuminated by the guide with a torch. This time the guide was soft spoken and almost reverent towards the paintings. The cave is limited to groups of 12 and a total of 200 a day to limit carbon dioxide levels.

We carried on to Domme, a hilltop village surrounded by walls perched high above the Dordogne river. Completely taken over by the tourist trade, but the views over the surrounding country are great. 

View from Domme

We had been recommended to a restaurant nearby with a terrace overlooking the river, but found it closed. Instead we dined at a hotel in Lalinde under a plaque in memory of a local woman who had involved with the resistance in WWII and had been killed by the Germans.

On the way back we passed Chateau Beynac perched impressively over a small town.

Chateau Beynac

Today we are having a quiet time at the apartment getting ready for the next leg down to Carcasson. The weather a little cooler today with a fine mist that hasn't lifted entirely at 12:00.

23 June 2012 – Lembras

Today we visited St Emilion, a village known for 2 features, a subterrainean church and wine. 60% of the the buildings in the town house wine merchants and 60% of the rest are restaurants. The village is surrounded by vineyards, many “grand crus”, growing merlot, cabernet savignon and cabernet franc grapes. However we passed the tempting tastings to tour the mediaeval heart of the village. St Emilion was a Benedictine monk who decided to become a hermit here in the 800s. Previously he had worked as a trusted worker in an estate in Brittany, but had been cought stealing bread to give to the poor. Fortunately his first miracle was to turn the bread into pieces of wood when he was apprehended, thus avoiding an unpleasant punishment, but decided to head for the hills after this. He ended up living in a cave above the Dordogne river and was credited with further miracles of healing. This became a place of pilgrimage and the village became a commercial centre, first for wheat and then for limestone. In the 1200s a wealthy local decided to build a church by hollowing out the hill and selling off the resulting limestone blocks so that the creation of the church was profitable. The resulting cave is huge considering the technology of the time. Height 11m, width 20 m and length 35m. Previous to this a series of catacombs had been dug in the area and these run for some 200m. Later a bell tower was built over the church. Since this weighs 4,500 tonnes it has caused structural problems in the columns in the church itself. All decoration from the church has been lost due to the deterioration after the French Revolution, but the church is still impressive. A fascinating example of mediaeval commerce and engineering.

Street in St Emilion

The entrance to the underground church

Nowadays the cave digging is for wine storage and we were told there are 200km of tunnels in the area.

22 June 2012 – Lembras

No internet access here so will post this when we get connected.

Yesterday was the long trek down from the Loire valley to the Dordogne. We were sorry to leave the Loire, both because we felt we had only touched the surface of the region and the accommodation was superb and we are unlikely to find as good again (Also the wines in the Loire are great).

On the way down we broke the trip twice, the first time at a WWII memorial. The village of Oradour-sur-Glace has been left in ruins as it was in 1945. On 10 June 1944 the Waffen SS rounded up the villagers, divided them into groups and massacred them. The men were killed in various shops around the village and the women in the church. The village was then systematically burned and the next day the remains were “cleansed”. Only 5 men and 1 woman survived the experience and over 400 died. The village has been left as it was with rusting cars and the old tram tracks running down the main street. As things fall apart they are not restored. The exhibition we went though before entering the village expressed a huge amount af frustration at the ineffective justice meted out as the village had been under the jurisdiction of the Vichy government, not directly under the Germans, and many French collaborators were pardoned and the German forces responsible were not effectively prosecuted. There were other massacres around the area at the same time, but this was the worst it seems.

The main street of Oradure-sur-Glane

The second stop was at Chalus, a small town where Richard the Lionheart was killed. He had been trying to take the castle which was only defended by 2 crossbowmen. The local inhabitants had withdrawn into the keep, a high circular tower. After 2 days one of the defenders shot Richard in the shoulder and he died sometime later from gangrene. He then had an interesting time – his entrails were buried in Chalus, his heart in Rouen and his body in Fontevraud Abbey.

As we went south the country became more heavily wooded and the quality of the houses improved. Around the Loire everything is fairly flat, but the Dordogne region appears much more uneven, but without any marked hills.

We are staying in a converted barn about 2 km out of the village of Lembras. This is middle of a wine region (surprise) and we are surrounded by vineyards. The view from our “terrace” (an area on gravel outside our apartment) is over the valley to a hillside of trees. The apartment is spacious and is set up for longstay self-catering. Coming up from village we pass very nice life-style properties that verge on palatial. Some of them have miniature horses and we stopped at one which had small horses, small goats and dozens of guinea pigs running around the field.

 Accommodation at Lembras

Local miniature horses

Today we spent relaxing. A visit to the supermarket in Bergerac, wine tasting, pate buying and lying by the pool. The weather is not yet warm enough to really enjoy swimming.

20 June 2012 - Varennes-sur-Loire

Last day in the Loire valley :-(

Today we went west and south of the river and found a more pleasant rolling countryside with pleasant villages, generally looking more prosperous.  Many of the villages we've been through until now have looked dirty and a bit down-at-heal.

First stop was Gennes after passing the town of Saumur and a quick look at the chateau from the road.  The chateaux is definitely in the fairy tale style.

Roofs of the Chateau at Saumur

Outside Gennes we walked around the remains of a Gallo-Roman amphitheatre that was said to be capable of seating 5000 - the largest in western France.  Little remains of the structures, but the site has been cleared and is impressive.

The Roman amphitheatre at Gennes

Just down the road was a prehistoric dolman.  Apparently this was used until fairly recently by the local farm as an implement shed and also contains the remains of a large bakers oven.

Dolman at Gennes

The rest of the day was spent at Brissac.  Dropped into a cafe for a great ommelette and then had a guided tour around the chateau.  This has been owned by the same family since 1598 and contains much of the original furniture.  The family still live there, but many of the main rooms are open for viewing.  The scale of the rooms is amazing and our group of around 25 seemed small.  It includes a theatre built around 1898 capable of seating over 150 with a height of around 10m and a reception hall nearly 40m in length.  The whole castle seemed very orginal and in excellent condition.

 Chateau Brissac

The Lounge at Brissac

Tonight is our last night and we are again eating with our hosts.  The accommodation has been superb and it has been helpful to have English speaking hosts.  I would thoroughly recommend Les Peupliers to anyone wanting to stay near Saumur.

Tomorrow we will spend most of the day on the road heading for the Dordogne.

19 June 2012 - Varennes-Sur-Loire

A very frustrating time last night as I managed to lose the entire blog entry which was a shame as the replacement was rushed and terse.

However today we had a relaxed day wandering around Chinon, a small town on the Vienne river with a castle overhanging the narrow streets.  The fashion here is to built with very steep slate roofs so that looking down on the town from above all you see are a jumble of black.  There are some medieval half timbered buildings here, but they are completed with brick rather than plaster as in the UK, which gives them a reddish colouring.  Chinon is known for the reign of Henry II and his sons and the advent of Joan of Arc.  Both histories illustrate the lack of gratitude in the royal families, particularly with Joan who seems to have been discarded to be burnt at the stake after saving the French kingdom.

 Entering Chinon

 Chinon street

Looking down on Chinon from the castle

All the streets in Chinon are open for cars, despite there being no room for a car and a person side by side.  We also have a long local bridge that requires all passengers to breathe in while passing a car going the other way.  This bridge was apparently built for tanks in the first world war.

One thing I didn't mention yesterday is that our GPS unit is determined that we should see ALL of France, including sending us through farmyards, down incredibly long and narrow country roads and through underground carparks.  It is good to get off the main roads and see the area thoroughly, but I am losing faith that the GPS knows the area any better than I do.

We called into 2 wine cellars today and ended up with a beautiful bubbly, a savignon blanc, a rose and a cabernet franc, all for a total of 25 Euro.  It is unfortunate (?) that we will have to drink all the wine we buy before we fly to Scotland as we are already exceeding our weight allowance. At least our cork collection will be  little more impressive.

18 June 2012 - Varennes-Sur-Loire

Yesterday we spent the morning and part of the afternoon at Fontevraud Abbey.  Gillian was really looking forward to this and it exceeded her expectations.  The abbey was founded by Robert de Arbrissel who was a hermit in the woods and was known for promoting the place of women.  It ran for 700 years until the French revolution when the nuns were kicked out.  In the meantime it became the favourite haunt of royalty.  Henry II of England, his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine, their son Richard the Lionheart and their daughter in law are all buried in the church.

Effigy of Richard the Lionheart and his sister in law.  His parents are behind them.

The abbey was turned in to a prison and some of the priories demolished, but a lot has now been restored and is amazing for the scale, considering it was mainly built in the 1200s.

We then headed for Chinon, but ended up deciding that we were too tired to do much, so ended up stopping at a wine cellar dug into the tuffa cliffs.  This was truly amazing with the tunnels extending for 100s of metres.  The smell was wonderful. (The wine was good as well.)

The Caves du Vin at Chinon

Dinner was back at our accommodation where the host is a chef who has had enough of the pressures of the restaurant trade, but loves cooking for the quests.

Today we started with Chateau de Usse which apparently is the inspiration for "Sleeping Beauty".  Many of the rooms are set up with wax tableaux of the story or historic scenes of castle life.

Sleeping Beauty's Castle

A few miles down the road we toured the gardens of Chateau du Villandry which are immense and beautifully tended.  These are a reconstruction of the mediaeval gardens for the castle.

Villandry Gardens

Dinner at a creperie on the bank of the Loire - absolutely beautiful gallettes (savoury pancakes).

16 June 2012 - Varennes-Sur-Loire

I have updated the last post with some photos if you are interested.

Yesterday we spent the morning helping Sue & Steve set up their stall in an arcade in Maidstone.  This time they were only selling their cold meats, sausages and cheeses as another stallholder stocks their range of preserves.

After lunch we headed out to a cottage buried half a mile down a rough track off a VERY narrow country lane to visit our old neighbours from Platts Heath, Peter & Margaret Culham.  They have a wonderful view across 20 miles of the Weald of Kent completely devoid of any sign of development apart from 2 distant houses and a TV mast 24 miles away.

We carried on to Wye to visit my 94 year old uncle who is in a rest home with dementia.  I was very impressed with the home - good staff and, for a change, it smelled really good.  My uncle is still in good health and quite rational, but cannot communicate easily.  We took him out for a brief walk up to the local windmill for a chance to see the countryside.

This morning we caught the Eurostar to Paris and picked up our lease car.  For half an hour we fought with the GPA which tried to get us to drive through non-existent roads trying to find a petrol station and even in a circuit of an underground carpark on the way to the motorway.

We finally found our way out of Paris and eventually, after navigating a series of VERY VERY narrow country roads, found our accommodation in an old farm near Varennes-Sur-Loire.  We then ventured out to Montsoreau, a town on the bank on the Loire, and had sparkling rose sitting on a terrace overlooking the river and the remains of the local château before dinner at a hotel (not a great experience).

Chateau at Montsoreau

Much warmer weather in France and looks good for the next few days.

Tomorrow we may head for Chinon.

14 June 2012 - Staplehurst

A continuation as I was called away to the local pub as I was writing the last episode.  Photos will be added when I get a chance.

As I was saying Runham Lane is a road you have to experience to believe.  At no point is it wider than 2.5m and quite a length of it is 5m below the fields on either side.  We often used to see dozens of rabbits here and occasionally a fox.

At Canterbury we wandered through the old town centre to the Cathedral.  I love the majestic size and scale of the building, but it is looking a bit tired and dirty I thought.  The cross over the altar at the site of the martyrdom of Thomas Becket again struck me as a powerful piece of art and I asked the docent who had created it - she didn't know, but found out for us that it was created by Bloomfield.  We couldn't stay for Evensong, but headed back to Staplehurst  for a great evening in a local Italian restaurant.

Martyr's Altar at Canterbury Cathedral

The next morning Sue was not feeling great so I helped setting up the market stall in the village hall at Rolvenden.  This is a small weekly market and is typical of the markets in the village which do not have much in the way of shops.  Sue and Steve sell preserves (jams, pickles, relishes, chutneys,...), fruit juices, liqueurs, cheeses (an amazing variety), salami and cold meats, bacon and sausages.  All stock is purchased locally and much of the preserves come from the local farms and hedgerows.

Sue & Steve with their preserves at Rolvenden

We headed into Maidstone to see friends and then spent the afternoon at Scotney Castle Estate.  This is a house built in 1833 in the manner of a grand country house.  Previously the family lived in a castle dating from the 1300's (but extensively changed over the years) surrounded by moat in the bottom of the valley.  What is left of the castle looks exceedingly unpleasant to live in.

The new house is immense with 7 bedrooms that we saw, a huge library, a dining room with a table seating 16 with enough room around it for another table and then some, a staircase 4m wide, ...  In an attached wing near the servants quarters is an apartment that was Margaret Thatcher's country hideaway for many years.

Scotney Castle (not my photo)

The estate has extensive gardens and includes a working farm and hop fields.  The scale of this type of property is immense when you look at the standard English houses that are tiny and inconvenient.

Driving around Kent it is truly beautiful countryside and visually unspoilt by modern development.  The villages are quaint and the hedgerows press into the sides of the roads with frequent overhanging trees.  There are extensive woodlands that make for a mellow feel. The downside of this is that the roads are incredibly narrow, there are few places to pull off, nowhere to park, poor visibility at intersections and walking on the roads is a scary experience.

14 June 2012 - Staplehurst

Yesterday we had a slow start and then wandered up to Canterbury via a few small villages.

First we called into Headcorn which has a single shopping street with irregular half timbered shops on one side and a couple of ancient looking houses on the other.

House in Headcorn

Next off we called into Platts Heath, a village we lived in for a year in 1997.  Again we marvelled at the local roads, particularly Runham Lane which runs for a mile past the local manor and is a nightmare when you meet a tractor heading in the other direction.

Runham Lane

13 June 2012 - Staplehurst

Weather yesterday was cold and wet so decided to have a quiet day.  Helped out with jam-making (10kg of strawberries).  Went to Cranbrook for shopping - a delightful town around 8 km from Staplehurst.

Once again I am impressed at how the countryside in Kent has been kept green and visually unspoilt by modern development.  It is a delight to drive down the country lanes (and squeeze into the hedge to avoid other traffic).

Today we will head up to Canterbury and the coast along the Thames estuary.

12 June 2012 - Staplehurst, Kent

We had a great flight over - business class is wonderful, but difficult to justify the extra cost.  On the first leg from Auckland the seats were so far apart that we had to get out of the seat and walk to get the menu out of the back of the seat in front.  Food was delicious and all spices were within Gillian's tolerance level.

Arrived in London, straight through immigration and picked up the rental car.  3 miles down the road realised that the fuel light was on and we were about to head on to the M25 with an empty tank!  Quick trip back to the depot for a refill.  Weather is a typical English summer - 15C and drizzly.

Tried to find our way to Runnymede and got totally lost, so headed straight to Staplehurst where we are staying with our friends Sue & Steve Baker.  After a day lazing around the house and helping set up for a market stall we fell into bed.

Staplehurst

Today has started out wet and cold.

Hi Everyone

We're in the last week of the countdown to lift off.  Once again we're abandoning the family to find out once again that the rest of the world is often not as good as home, but you can have a lot of fun finding that out.

The first trip in this series was to Greece in 2005...

Canada, UK & Spain in 2007...

and Italy in 2009.

Now the plan is:
  11-15 June      Stay with friends in Kent
  16 June to 5 July  Immerse ourselves in the French countryside
  6 - 19 July       Quick whip though Italy, Austria, Czech Republic and Germany
  20-31 July       Catching up with family roots in Scotland
  1 - 6 August    Back in England
  7 - 10 August  A few days in Paris

All that is left to do is decide what to pack.....