Last Hurrah.

Friday.     Chateaudun.     Saturday.    Buchy.      Sunday.     Calais.  

The last three days have been a steady progression northwards.  Chateaudun is a lovely town between Blois and Chartres...we have stayed here twice before at the aire de camping car, in a great location.

The aire is looking up at the chateau and next to La Loir river.  The town centre is up some old steps.  We had a look around to see if anywhere might be open on the Saturday morning and showing the Rugby World Cup semi finals when England played the All Blacks.  We weren’t very successful.  On the Saturday itself I had a walk around the bars again but to no avail.  I ended up listening on the radio by internet.  Great result though 19-7 win.  I must try and find some highlights when I get home.

Janice bought me a pain aux raisen as a celebration treat.

We moved on to north of Rouen and a village called Buchy that seems to claim some connection to Madame Bovary by Flaubert but we can’t actually find one other than Flaubert came from Rouen.  It did have two very old covered markets.

We stayed on a large car park next to the college which was designated for camping cars but we were disturbed in the night by a ‘white van man’ who parked next to us with his engine running and making phone calls on handsfree so we could hear him constantly for nearly an hour 3-4am!!  We did remember to put our clocks back.

This morning we drove to Calais via a hypermarket stop for some essentials to bring home.  Normally we don’t stay at Calais as we would be concerned about illegal immigrants trying to get into vehicles but we have been brave and having read a review of an aire in Calais itself which gets good comments we have plumped for it.

I thought it would be nice to see Calais itself rather than driving away from it.  It has a nice beach and probably the best Hotel de Ville I have seen for a long time.

The Hotel de Ville is in the Flemish Renaissance style with touches of Tudor style.....as if you hadn’t guessed.  It was open and we had a walk around the interior....very nice too.  Charles de Gaulle got married here.

As long as we don’t pick up an unwanted passenger we should be back in the UK tomorrow morning, so this will be the last blog of this trip.  I have already reviewed the cycle trip. 

Since our bike ride we have generally been chasing what little good weather Western Europe has had to offer and whilst we have done pretty well it probably hasn’t been the best Autumn in the South of France.  We have seen some lovely new places.  We definitely want to revisit the Alsace region again and the Ardeche was super, as was the Gorge de Tarn.  Other than that we saw old favourites......Carcassonne area, Brantôme and Chateaudun.  We saw plenty of David and Wendy and beat them again at boule.  Also, seeing Graham and Denise, friends we had first met in Spain last winter and of course our regular visit to Tim in the Limosin area.  We haven’t done as much cycling in France as we would have liked but we can’t have it all.  Another  action packed trip.....what can we think up for the next blog!

Autumn Breeze!

Wednesday and Thursday.      Cussac.  Visiting Tim.

For the first time ever we didn’t get glorious sunshine when we visited Tim.  Tim told us that he was integrating with the locals at the club for senior citizens called......Autumn Breeze!  It seemed an apt name for people in the Autumn of their lives, I think he is definitely the youngest to attend.

It is always great to see Tim.  We compensated for no sunshine by staying in and eating!  We had a lovely meal in the house with neighbours Karen and Kev.  We know them from previous visits and we have good ‘crack’ whenever we meet up.

Thursday was drizzly.  We stayed in and pottered...we even played Maponimoes before going out to Piegut for a meal......and what a meal it was.....fantastic.

Here’s a selection of what we had.  Top - Panna Cotta with cep mushrooms on sliced beetroot.  Middle - Asiatic salmon, prawn crackers and sliced carrot.  Bottom - Saffron risotto, with cheese flowers, figs in port wine sauce with rocket purée......wow!

We need to thank Tim for once again providing such a warm welcome and good hospitality.  We really think we are travelling home.  I hope we can get home before the Autumn Breeze becomes a storm force wind!  We actually might get a bit more sunshine in Northern France.

Regular movements....northwards.

Monday.     Ribagnac.       Tuesday.     Brantôme.  

Our Sunday night was as quiet as (St Nicholas de) la Grave.  We drove away across La Garonne river on a narrow bridge that Janice had to get out in front of me and guide me through.  It’s strange that you can look at a gap and think, ‘there’s no chance of getting through there’, and then actually manage to get through it. There were no prior signage or measurements of the max width!  Anyway, we made it through.

We decided to have a brief stop over in Agen and parked outside of the town to cycle in along the river.  Agen is the prune capital of France.  It’s another strange thing that prunes are something I disliked as a child but love now.  They remind me of school dinners where most people didn’t like them but someone (not me this time) would eat all the prunes as a bit of a dare from everyone else’s plate and count up all the stones as measure of courage.  I don’t know what the effects were later, maybe it had a serious consequence?

Guess what I had with my breakfast today!  We looked up the method of making plums into prunes.  It involves drying them in a warm oven for 8 hours or using a specific dehumidifier for about 14 hours.  We think we will just continue to buy them in the packets.

Agen wasn’t the greatest of our visits......it was rather shabby chic with the emphasis on the shabby.

They do have some pleasant buildings.....the Art Museum has a few Goya paintings and the Cathedral had a lovely interior, better than the outside.  It did satisfy our curiosity so we moved on.

In contrast our next visit was a medieval village on a hill called Pujols.  It is another possible starting point for people walking the Santiago de Compostela pilgrims walking route but as far as I can ascertain everywhere is on the route!

Looking at the photo leads me to my next question.  Where are all the French people.  Either there are loads of people or there are none.  I understand about the French having long lunches and about shops closing at lunchtime but it seems to me that they only move around on public for an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon....it gets busy then it’s deadly quiet.  Pujols was voted one of the most beautiful villages in France but nobody was there!  In mid afternoon sunshine the shops and cafes were shut.....I don’t blame them for shutting because there were no people to serve but maybe if they stayed open the people might think about coming.  It’s a chicken and egg problem.  I also know that the French all go on holiday in August but in the UK we have all year round tourism and certainly our tourist locations are well frequented throughout the year, especially if it is dry and there is a glimmer of sunshine.  I don’t mind having a beautiful medieval village for our own use but it’s also nice to be able to buy an ice cream when the urge arises.

Our overnight location was even quieter......it was so quiet it actually was a graveyard!

The very small village of Ribagnac is south of Bergerac and was totally deserted.  We cycled around and I later walked around and never saw anyone except a lady who was tending one of the graves at the church.  She can’t have been local because she asked if I was local.  The car park next to the church was a great place to stay overnight.  We did get out and cycle the area and found the Chateau Bridoire that actually seemed to have some people visiting.  This area seems to be the north end of the plum and walnut growing area and the southern part of the Bergerac wine area, so if you are a nutty person who speaks with a ‘plum’ in their mouth and enjoys a drop of the red grape juice this is the place for you!.....and if you are then I suppose your movements will certainly be ‘regular’.

Tuesday. We moved up to Brantôme, a place we have visited once before.  Well worth a second visit.

You can tell that the weather is cooler.....I have my long trousers on.  We recommend the town, nice size, pretty river and church, with a bit of everything...and some of the shops and cafes were open.....shock!  Of the few people that walked around we head more English voices than French (it’s half term in the UK this week).  We bimbled around and browsed some shops.

Lights out.....off with socks!

Thursday.     Laure-Minervois.      Friday.      Colombiers    Saturday.    Durfort.       Sunday.     St Nicholas de la Grave.

Thursday was designated (by me) as a cycling day to bag as many Minervois villages as possible.  I’m not sure it is possible to see more vines than we saw that day.  Our route included Caunes-Minervois, Peyriac-Minervois, Reiux-Minervois, Azille, Homps and Aigues-Vives.  We covered a good section of the Canal du Midi too.  Unfortunately the authorities haven’t done any work to make a proper cycle path along the canal, it’s rough in most areas and in some it’s non existent and longer routes along nearby roads need to be found.  In the last 5km Janice developed a puncture.....so I had to pump her up (the rear tyre I mean!).  It had been a pleasant day of warm sunshine and light cloud and it concluded our three night stay at Laure-Minervois.  However, because we had stayed for three nights our motorhome battery ran out at 8pm, so it was an early bedtime as we had no lights and even the stuff that can work off gas, like the fridge and water heater needed the thermostat and pump to work on electricity.

Here I am at Homps, on the Canal du Midi.  All the other pictures we took that day were photos of the churches of each village.....I didn’t want to subject you to so much religion!  Death by Church?

Friday.  We knew that my brother David and Wendy were still nearby at a place called Colombiers because David had a dental problem (a filling 

had fallen out) that he needed to get a local emergency appointment that day.  We thought we might be able to sneak up on them at the aire....but they had actually moved off near to the dental surgery.  We parked up on the aire and cycled to where they had parked (no surprise now because we had to ask where they were).  We left them to wait for an appointment and we continued towards Bezier along the bumpy Canal du Midi track......although we had to leave the canal at one point and cross a super busy road, taking our lives in our hands as we pushed our bikes across.

The views at the Nine Locks of the Canal (Neuf Écluses) were very beautiful....

That is Bezier in the distance.  We washed down the view with a chilled rosè wine at a small cafe.

Back to the van and David and Wendy joined us.  We enjoyed the evening....the battery had recharged during our journey.....and we played our ‘new found’ game of choice, Maponimoes.

It involves all European countries and you can only play cards that are adjacent to the neighbouring countries or seas.  We are removing the UK card from the pack on the 31st October!!  Don’t mention the B word, I think I mentioned it once but got away with it!

Saturday.  Our plans are constantly changing!  David and Wendy said goodbye for the last time on our trip and we set off to meet up with some other friends (whom we first met last year in Granada, Spain).  Graham and Denise were travelling down in their camping car on the way to Spain...we arranged to meet them at a little place called Durfort, north of Castelnaudry.  We met up on the aire around lunchtime.  After our greetings we all cycled around the village and neighbour of Soreźe.  Lovely little places of character.  Durfort used to have a copper industry and Soreźe had a grand Abbey-Ecole.

We then cycled up a long hill to a reservoir......tried and failed to get an ice cream(the man in the cafe had only one speed and repeatedly told us he was busy serving other people, a snail would have been quicker, so I walked out before I taught him some new English words he hadn’t heard before!).....and cycled back again.  There wasn’t much water left in the reservoir.

More goodbyes this morning, this time for Denise and Graham.  It had been lovely to see them again.....nice, normal, funny and interesting people, there’s not many around nowadays.  We drove north, starting to head home.  Our Eurotunnel return trip is booked for a week on Monday.  We intend to make our northbound journey in stages.  We passed Toulouse and kept a little to the left towards Agen but stopped before there at St Nicholas.  The town had a plant sale in the main square.

I managed to get an ice cream today without too much problem!  The town seems to be famous for that fact that Antoine Laumet de la Mothe sur Cadillac (what a name) was born here, and lived in this house.  He helped to Colonise Canada, Louisiana and founded the city of Detroit.  He didn’t invent the car or the Cadillac, but it does explain where the name of the car came from.  

We had a quiet night on a little aire with electricity and wifi, that makes a change.  We are trying to boost the battery and it helps me publish the blog.....I must be getting a bit lazy with it.

Dejà Vu.

Monday.        Lac de Raviège, east of Castres.     Tuesday & Wednesday.       Laure-Minervois, near Carcassonne. 

We left David and Wendy at Roquefort on a grey and blustery day.  The important jobs were to buy a new gas cylinder, which is not always as simple a job as you would expect but on this occasion I had it sussed.  We drove to a Total filling station and swapped my empty bottle for a correct brand of gas in a new bottle.  Then we did some supermarket shopping.....always a pleasure as we walk around and salivate at all the nice food (but can’t buy it all).

We drove through a particularly nice little place called Belmont-sur-Rance with a very large church tower for such a small town.

All nice red roof tops around here.  The church was surrounded by, what we thought was, a music school in nice old buildings.  We spotted a lake on the map and headed for it.  Our overnight stay at the Lac de Raviège was a quiet one.  No other people nearby and no camping cars which was surprising because the lake must be a very popular place in the season as there is loads of parking, boat storage and a beach.  We enjoyed skimming stones on the lake which brought back memories of childhood holidays in the UK.  You can get a lot of fun out of selecting stones and skimming them!

Maybe no one was there because they had seen the weather forecast......it peed down all night.....very noisy on the van roof.  It was still a bit damp and drizzly in the morning and we didn’t waste time moving on south again.  We are starting to run out of South France!  The weather started to improve as we got away from the hills.  We still needed to indulge our desire to shop at a Decathlon store outside Carcassonne and add to our collection of its branded clothing.

We didn’t go into Carcassonne but found a place to stay in the Minervois wine area at Laure-Minervois, down by the pique-nique area next to a small lake.

Yes...the weather is perking up.

This morning (Wednesday) we left the van by the lake and cycled through Minervois villages to Carcassonne.....beautiful cycling through vineyards then joining up with the Canal du Midi to enter the city and its walled Citadel.

We have visited here before.  We checked our records and realised that we came here two years ago to the day and we had lunch which was onion soup, cassoulet and ille flotant (meringue floating on creme anglais).  I had exactly the same today, maybe we should come on the same date every two years and eat the same meal.........real dejà vu.  Cassoulet is the local speciality with duck leg and Toulouse sausage in a haricot bean stew.

Of course it was washed down with Minervois wine.  All consumed in warm sunshine......couldn’t be better.  Carcassonne is a fantastic place.  It’s probably the most complete walled Citadel in France, maybe in Europe.  It was a bit of a cheat in the sense that the walls had all been ruined for centuries and was rebuilt around 1900.  It wasn’t rebuilt for defensive reasons, it was done for the spectacle and it is spectacular...

Despite being rather full we managed to retrace our cycling route to our village.  We called at the nearby wine producer and had a little tasting.

A couple more bottles for the cellar in the van!  We are trying to make our travel plans now and thinking of making an escape route back to the UK before 31st October.  I think we are probably in the best place to avoid all the Brexit drama at home....no news and no radio....I do read the BBC website but limit myself to half a Brexit page a day....it doesn’t improve whatever your preferences are!

Gorge...eous and Smelly!

Friday.   Florac.             Saturday.     Peyre, near Millau.     Sunday.     Roquefort sur Solezon.   

We agreed to meet up with David and Wendy again...they must be daft!  We left L’Ardeche and moved to Florac on Le Tarn River in the National Park Cevannes.  A pleasant forested area with a very wiggly road leading to it.  The weather was lovely and we had a walk around the town.

We over indulged a little that evening playing our new game of maponimoes which is like dominoes but with cards of European Counties that link together with neighbours.  We are trying to get good value out of it before 31st October when we will have to remove the UK card from the pack (or not, depending on whatever dodgy deal can be done by the politicians before then)!

Saturday was a bit cloudy and dull.  David and I had planned to cycle down the Gorge du Tarn and back but the weather persuaded us to drive it instead on the way to Millau to see the Bridge.  We got as far as Ste Enimie and parked up for early lunch and we changed plans again because it had warmed up.  David and I had a ride down to La Malène and back.  What a fantastic place this is.  Gorge..oeous.

We considered staying overnight but a ‘friendly’ Gendarme’ told us that we couldn’t stay.   The roads were pretty tricky with overhanging rocks and tunnels but it was unbelievably quiet on the road.

We carried on to see the Millau Bridge....designed by Norman Foster.  It is a famous modern motorway bridge that spans the Tarn River near Millau.  We had never seen it before.

It is quite a stunning structure.  We drove back into Millau and under the bridge to find our wild camping car park at the small troglodyte village of Peyre.  It is still in sight of the bridge and that is where we saw the dinosaurs on a wall for the photo above.

We had another night with David and Wendy and broke the rules by prattling on about Brexit.  We did have a laugh by remembering a moment when my Mum made a slip of the tongue when talking about an ejector seat and mistakenly saying ‘ejaculation’ seat!  If you knew her you would realise that it was seriously funny....she didn’t realise she had made the mistake.

Sunday morning we walked around Peyre....

Then travelled to Roquefort sur Solezon.  There are a few places in France that are called Roquefort and we have previously visited towns of that name hoping they made the famous smelly blue cheese, only to be disappointed.  However, on this occasion we were richly rewarded....

We had a free tour of the Papillon Fromagerie and tasting.  We had to buy a half cheese to share.  We didn’t mention that the English make lovely cheese in a little valley called Wensleydale, I don’t think they would be impressed!  Next on the agenda was the annual Inter Vernon match of boule.

Janice and I won 2-1 which means that’s three wins in a row.  Up yours Froggies!  David deserved to loose for fiddling with his balls!

A Tale of Two Chins OR Happy to be in Vernon.

Rosières, L’Ardeche.

Having left Vallon we travelled to the beautiful village of Labeaume.  It is acclaimed as one of the three most beautiful villages in the region and we thought it was probably the best.  It was super quiet too......and sunny....couldn’t be better.

Lots of narrow alleys, a narrow bridge and houses on the hillside.  We had a walk around and then moved on to stay on a site (we needed to get some washing done).  The site was at Rosières.....about 3km down the valley.  Nice site by the river. We had some other business to do at the site......shaving my beard off.

I said bye-bye to the beard experiment.  I don’t think that I suit a beard, it isn’t very distinctive and there’s too much white in it!  I’ve also discovered that they take a bit more looking after than I am prepared to do.  So, I will continue with shaving......every now and then.  

After lunch, shearing and clothes washing we got on the bikes and set off to Vernon.  It’s only a small spot on the road atlas but we had to go and conquer it!

Look.....no beard!  Vernon was a nice hillside village with no amenities at all.  The church is at the very top of the hill with what might be a very basic old chateau....it had 1299 over the doorway.  There are three Vernon towns in France and we have now been to two.  The third is near Poitiers.....maybe get there on the way home?  The second one is the largest and is close to the Seine River near Giverny and is the ancestral home of the Vernons who came over to England with William the Conquerer.  I’ve explained all this in previous blogs!  

We were so ‘happy’ with the experience of cycling to Vernon that we cycled to the town of Joyeuse (I’m not making it up)!

Just a brief visit but it did our spirits wonders.  Talking of keeping our spirits up we cycled back to the site and drank a bottle of Chatus wine from the vineyards around Vernon.  Tasting notes say it’s robust but unpretentious, cheeky with accents of East Lancashire....and (of course) very fruity!

We had a lovely evening sunbathing until the sun disappeared behind the cliffs.

This is the river at the site.  How delightful.