Mid March Update 2009

Photo 1. Mark - Place de le Bourse palace in backround, Bordeaux
Photo 2. Briar & the rock cave houses of Les Eyzies De Tayac, Vezere Valley, France
Photo 3. Mark n Briar at the Millau Viaduct, Dordogne Valley, France
Photo 4. Briar in downtown Bordeaux, Aquitane region, France




Mid March Update 2009


Bonjour from Francais, Sunday the 15th.
The weather has not done as we would have liked , rather grey and gloomy, but it did clear up later on and we various patches of blue sky and soleil during the afternoon. We caught the autobous 142 from camp beausoleil to Perrioux Gare Estacion (train station in French) and caught an electric tram into Centro Bordeaux. Being a Sunday it was a lot quieter than normal, one would presume although the tram was pretty full by the time we reached our stop.
Well what a welcome relief to arrive into a city with some different architecture and typically French as well. Also most noticeable are the clean streets and lanes etc. etc ‘
Still have the usual dog shit everywhere but certainly no litter like Spain and Portugal.
The city is very well set out and orderly, not like the mishmash cities of Spain, generally most inner buildings are of 4 to 5 storeys high with the dormer windows in the roof at the top, parisienne style. There are also lotsa pedestrian accessways, alleys and streets weaving through the old town part of Bordeaux.
We firstly wandered along the Promenade of the La Gironne river which is basically the heart and soul of Bordeaux city and many houses/apartment buildings line the promenade with the odd palace and municipal buildings, museo. We hit the promenade at the right time as they were setting up their local Sunday morning food market, unfortunately we had eaten brekkie earlier and were not in the market for food but we sauntered through it just the same, there were many fresh seafood stalls, boucheries(butcher), the usual veggie, fromage – cheese, spectialist meat products, and fruit stalls also creperies , patisseries, various other stalls selling allsorts of interesting foods, as it was around 10.00am I think we were a little earlier compared to the locals, but got a great picture of their life choices…here or church...
We continued to wander through the old part of Bordeaux as we do checkin out the narrow streets and alleyways, past another church but service was happening so couldn’t peek in and have a look, but saw many women cycling and running to the service…late ..oops!
We hit the Jardin public (public garden in inglese) a quick pee beats MC’s usual bush trick) and set our sites on the Cathedral St. Andre , this particular cathedral is a Unesco world heritage site and one can see why when you come across it, whilst again we have seen many Cathedrals in our tour already they all never seem cease to amaze you, because they are all different and unique in their own way, this one was built in the 11th century, it is renowned for its elaborate masonry carvings (which are amazing) and certainly the most impressive window leadlights yet. There also seems to be more windows or light sources into the inside of the Cathedrals than what we saw in Spain and Portugal.
We then headed for the Musee Des Beaux Atrs which was libre (free) entrée and whilst no paintings of significant artists, well worth a looksie. By now the worms needed feeding so found a cute little corner French café and had quiche and salata for dejerner (lunch) a coffee ( not as good as Spain or Portugal) . We then visited the Place De La Bourse , a spectacular semi-round palace built in the opulent 17th century with its fountain in the centre. The usual pics and on we trudged again through more narrow streets and alleyways, we finally ended up at the Bordeaux jardin where they had a travelling carnival/fair with the usual Auckland Easter show attractions/rides…some scary stuuf there… etc.etc. There we also took a couple pics of a magnifique bronze statue neither of us can remember what it was called. We can’t find our Bordeaux map to know it but it was about freedom through revolution and unity.
We had both had enough of walkin so back on the tram and back out to camp Beausoleil. Anti-pasto / some dinner and tucked ourselves in bed for tomorrows travels.
We woke to a sunny and still day – yeaayy, perfect for travelling, the usual 3 x S’s (For him) some brekkie and hit the autovias. We had planned a pit stop in St. Emillion a landmark town in the centre of the premier Bordeaux wine growing region – of course. This town is also a Unesco world heritage site, you know when you see a picture in a glossy travel magazine or in a National geographic mag of how pretty a village can look, this was most certainly one of those pictures or villages, was absolutely quaint and both us have kicked ourselves for not getting a pic, but as we are on limited battery for the camera until end of the month before we get our new charger. Hey we walked around the quaint little town –visited the cathedral very impressive for such a small village, visited the local Maison du Vin (house of wine)
Which housed all the wines from the chateau’s/vineyard’s of the local St. Emillion Gru region, we splashed out on a bottle with a 2000 vintage - $ 11.80 euros our most expensive wine we have purchased yet. We then drove past vineyard after vineyard and grapevines after grapevines , with the odd Chateau thrown in for good measure, mostly small to medium chateaus by French standards.
We were heading for the Dordogne valley virtually tracking the Dordogne river, crossing it several times, we even stopped and had lunch lookin at it near Bergerac. Onwards we drove into the heart of the Vezere valley in the Perignord Noir region, the area is well known for its caves and remnants/drawings, artefacts some which date back over 50,000 years. (the region has been inhabited by man for 400,000 years…wha out) We stopped in a wee village called Les Eyzies de Tayac, which had a prehistoric museo and also several of the houses here are built into the rock, bloody amazing. Some are still inhabited today, bloody amazing. We camped at the local Aire de stationment for the night, no electicity at this one, had water/dump station and toilets , hey it was libre.
We had a quick reconnoitre of the town before headin back to Hugo for chena and a vino. Another quaint little village and once again very different from Spanish villages,
but they all still have a cathedral or church in the centre or most prominent position in the village or town. (and the bell tolls all through the night) These houses or maisons (in france) are without a doubt the most ornate and lavish buildings in the towns and certainly the interiors are dripping with ornamental artefacts and decoration, and we all thought that Churches were places of humility, a very different perspective on what I thought Christianity was about.
Some of the Cathedrals and churches I have visited have been dripping with gold artefacts and treasures. Ya get my point of view perhaps.
We were off to the Natioanl Prehistoric Musee inda morning so a few games of computer hearts and off ta lala land. Woke to a semi alright morning , certainly a few degrees cooler then yesterday. The usual routine 3x S’s, (MC of course again), brekkie, pack up Hugo for travel and on the road again. We parked in the middle of town for safety reasons ( amazing how cautious one becomes when one has been broken into ) and trekked up the hill or rockface to the museo. Got to the entrée … BUGGER musee closed on Tuesday’s – oh no not one of these day’s. We had even checked the hours out the previous arvo but failed to look at another notice. Ah well…laughed at ourselves…and onto our next gig – a 20k drive to the Laucraux Caves where there were cave drawings 18,000 years old and some of the best preserved drawings in the region. We parked Hugo and managed to tag onto a guided tour with a bunch of school kids around 8/9 years old obviously doing a field trip. While the guide and tour was good it was however all in French, hey we don,t speak French on guided tours in NZ do we ?? it was disappointing in that we thought there were many more caves and crevasses to explore, there was only three, at $8.50 euros each …not what I would call value for money. Hey we can at least say we have both stood in caves nearly 20,000 years old. (and Briar had never stood in one before anyway so way to start huh) Can’t do that in NZ.
The plan for the rest of the day was to drive around and visit several of the villages in the local area, several have been voted the prettiest villages in France. So from Montignac (Laucraux caves) we headed south towards Sarlat , then onto Domme, which was a hillside or more like clifftop town which had commanding views over Perignord valleys, quaint town maybe, pretty - yeah right. Stopped by the Dordogne river for lunch again. Then onto La Roque Gageac a village literally built into the rock face, still had a bloody church to. Quaint maybe, pretty – yeah right. Then onto Belves also another quaint maybe, pretty – yeah right village. Perhaps they would look pretty with the sun shining on them in the middle of summer. Each to their own as the saying goes.
Still the region and the villages are a vast and certainly welcoming contrast to what we saw in both Spain and Portugal. Briar was even making suggesttions that Sarlat would be a nice place to live. Bugger that girlfriend…huh??
We tracked back to another quaint little village St. Cyprien to stop for the night at another Aire de stationment, which had power(220v/water/dump station etc. all for a $3 euro token purchased from the local Tourismo Office. Bargain
There was room for ten campers and we were the second and awoke to find only 2 spaces left, a few arrivals during the night, most aire de stationments are relatively empty until around 6/7 pm and then everyone arrives after the days travels.
Still we managed to get some shut eye with the sound of the bloody church bell ringin on the hour throughout most of the bloody night, this particular stationment happened to be right in the middle of town near the church of course. We had some wild geese honking in flocks flying north for the summer overhead as the sun was setting and thrown in for good measure the odd jet fighter plane skoot across, I could tell this was gonna be a sleepless nuit. Managed a wee bit of shut eye, bloody Briar slept like a log,
must be a women thing. ( Yeah, nah, …I can sleep anywhere at anytime)
Another morning, usual routine, Briar volunteering to drive today after a refreshing night’s sleep and bein one not to argue or complain , hey girl no problemo, hit the trail early after refuelling Hugo with water/dumping some greywater and emptying the Thetford Casette toilet, nifty little contraption or device and makes us reasonably self dependant for several days. Left the grey dull skies of St. Cyprien and the Dordogne Valley for quite a travel stint today towards the Langedouc-Rousillion region where the tallest viaduct in the world known as the Millau viaduct is, around 200 k’s on the tarseal today. Because we had made such an early start for a change we made a beeline straight for Millau town with some interesting roads and diversions via (ma cherie- TOM TOM) still it gives ya a real look at the French countryside through this particular region , hhmmm the smell of sileage and cows , kinda reminds ya of home. Except of course it is still to cold for the cows to be in the fields , the sods are still inside in their winter sheds. Just the hay and their own excrement is spread out over the fields permeating wondrous odours as one navigates through the fields. We arrived at Millau around 1pm in sunshine and blue skies with a wee bit of cloud around and drove into the centre of town to the tourismo office to find where the local aire de stationment was (through narrow streets and under skinny arches I might add) and a map and info. on the town and local area. We were also here for the Roquefort cheese. Info in hand we headed out to sit under the viaduct for lunch and we found a great spot directly underneath next to a Visitors centre. A few pics , a ham and salad baguette a cuppa and a bit of a look around the visitors centre and then we headed of to a spot right next to the viaduct at the top this time to look over it. Once again parked up the obligatory pics, another big tick for both of us. Briar was the lucky one to drive over it , I just got to hand over $9.60 euros to the lady at the peage (toll) booth.
After driving over it we headed to a camp ground for a change in another quaint little village called Saint Rome De Tarn which of course would have to be next to the Tarn river. This campground was right down in a valley and happened to be the only one open in the area close to where we wanted to visit the next day. The Caves of the Roquefort cheese.
Once again we bunkered down for the night – anti-pasto and local lamb for chena. We awoke to the fog but alas brilliant blue skies above. The usual routine , with one change – bacon and eggs for brekkie – yummy ( amazing the small things in life one appreciates when one has them occasionally) . On the trail again, my turn to drive today after I had dormido bene (good nights sleep) off to Roquefort. We stopped by the Info. centre where they also had a Aire-de staionment we could have stopped for the night. We parked Hugo up where he stood and walked up the hill to the caves , around 2 k’s later (uphill) we found the Entrée to the Societe caves. Once again a token $3 euro guided tour fee , we were in. Joined another pommie couple for a very personal tour with a very pregnant but eloquent mademoiselle guide, who spoke reasonable English for us all, even though this was the French speaking tour. But hey she was the only one used to speaking French most of the time so she made a valiant effort on our behalf which made it a lot more enjoyable for us, because we understood it all. The caves in essence were formed during an earthquake/movement many thousands of years ago, since the discovery of these caves which have natural fissures allowing ventilation throughout, which is paramount in the process of making Roquefort cheese. (There is a special legend about the shepherd and Briar got her photo with him on the way in) The pioneers of the Roquefort cheese built labrinthys and levels of storage areas ( 11 storeys deep in some parts) bloody amazing, and for both of us were far more fascinating than the drawings of the Laucraux caves. The guided tour included a talk/film/light show/tour through the caves and degustation (cheese tasting at the end) there are three predominate flavours of Roquefort, all with there own undeniable flavour. Also the milk used in processing Roquefort is from ewes not cows, it is also a blue vein cheese and is injected with pencillin made on site with the fungus formed in the bread specially made and injected into the cheese before it is stored in the caves.
We had previously bought a wedge of Roquefort from a supermarket earlier in the week in France, of course, it had been consumed by now, so after a tres bien tour we bought another bigger wedge and good value for money wedge. After our tour we hit the autovia …a proper autovia – and headed south towards the Mediterrano second time round. We headed through Beziers and Perpignan and stopped for chena at a seaside town called Valras Plage , lunch by the Mediterrano/ warm sun shining – brilliant. (ahhh yes…the sun and warmth again)
Very much like El Campello – long long promenade on a sandy beach. After a leisurely lunch of jamon and fromage toasted sandes we headed for a small French coastal town called Collioure, its around 10-15 k’s from the Esphana border.
We punched in the co-ordinates in our trusty mon cherie(tom tom) and headed through some precarious swampy backroads and then through some dirt backroads and unchartered towns (that didn’t even appear on our map…and certainly didn’t concur with Briar’s navigation plans!) and roads before we finally arrived onto a main road outside Narbonne. (thanks to some human intervention)
Back on the main drag it was plain sailing all the way to the turn off to Collioure, once again into the middle of town to the tourismo officina , parked up at a recognised campervan stop and headed for the tourist office. Picked up some info. and directions on the local aire de stationment. If the other villages were quaint, then this little town was divinely quaint and pretty ta boot. Had a quick scoot around the small port area , complete with churches, fort, restaurant and café’s up back to Hugo and of ta search for some supplies for chena and check out the aire de stationment. The aire de stationment was a wee bit out of town on a hill but no vistas of the mediterrane but vistas of the surrounding hills covered in grapevines and castle to boot. There were about 4 campers there parked up so we headed off to get some supplies and head back there unless we found somewhere more suitable down near the sandy plages. Drove around the plages for half an hour without Mon cherie guiding us, so blind leading the blind ended up god knows where but couldn’t find a supermercado, picked up some pan (baguette) at least and headed rather frustratingly back to the aire de stationment, we passed several shopping centres on the autovia on the way to Collioure earlier. (Broke our rule of shopping early and being good little prepared boyscouts) Still a good chance to try some canned goodies and pasta we had in reserve for occasions such as this. The aire de stationment had electricity so that was a bonus , it was a $7.50 token for 24 horas, cheaper than a campground. Parked up and plugged Hugo in and settled for the nite.
Tonight I don’t think we are gonna need the heater, it was nice to get back to a warmer climate. After some dinner and a DVD it was bedtime. Once again awoke to a crystal clear blue mediterrano sky – buenisimo you know the routine by now, filled Hugo up with some water , dumped the grey water as the greywater tank was full from showers, on the road into Espana. Once again Briar offered to drive and once again I said OK, no problemo. We decided to go the coast road as opposed to the main Autovia, took a bit longer but we had no plane to catch and the vistas are magnifique. The pyrenness were spectacular once again and we have now circumnavigated them – fantastique!
Had to head inland a bit before we hit Barcelona, no problemo back out to the coast to check out campgrounds near the playa and also on either a bus route or train estacio within walking distance from a campground. This former single lane former main highway is probably busier than when it was in its heyday, made it difficult to stop and check out campgrounds. There are only a few open anyways and they were all close to this busy highway. We stopped along the oceanfront somewhere for our second feed of mackas – twice in the same month- unheard of for me. Unfortunately for Briar they put tomato sauce on her favoured fillet-o-fish burger, so not impressed.
Still we ate in the sunshine outside looking at mediterrano, had a real haze like the doldrums we experienced in Baiona in late February. Still the worms feed back into Hugo and lets check out some more campgrounds south of Barcelona. Hit the main C-32 autovia into Barcelona, which also head south towards the playas of Castedefrells and Sitges , but somewhere along the way we took you guessed it a wrong turn/route and ended up smack in the middle of downtown Barcelona, not that it phased a very composed Briar behind the wheel, I was the one panicking not Briar. (six lanes of cars headed along streets all wanting my driving space…haven’t they heard of Kiwi women drivers!!) Still with some kiwi ingenuity and intuition we lucked our way outta there and found ourselves on the autovia south of Barcelona . We took the exit before the peage tolls to our destination thinking we won’t have ta pay, now I know why, after a very precipitous drive around a very narrow coastal road 100metres or so above the sea (and MC didn’t even panic…my record at the end… I let 18 cars go ahead as I pulled over…thank god because of the corners I could only ever see the first two and thought it was a quiet road!! Don’t ya love BLONDE!), shades of things to come for our drive around the Almafi coast in Italy we are told …we arrived in Sitges, found a supermarket store, a very well equipped campground with Wifi , where the bus to Barcelona stops at the Gate, tres bien. Very good washroom facilities, has its own café/cervecia, we checked in and set up Hugo for a weeks stay.
Being a Friday nite we had the obligatory anti-pasto and vino starter before dinner. Whilst the odd train (electric thank goodness) comes past around 700/800meters away I cannot hear a bloody church bell ringin . ah… bliss. (heeey…dogs barking…no problemo…they are everywhere…and cats in the camp…well Briar can deal with them…)
We awoke to another splendid mediteranno morning – not a cloud in the sky. Camp day today – washing … give Hugo’s floor a mop - air out the mattress and sheets and catch up with some storytelling of the past weeks travels.
We will head into Barcelona on Monday/Tuesday and do the touristy thing and cross off another couple of ticks with visiting Sagrida Familia (Church of the Sacred Family- started in 1882 and due for completion ion 2020) and walk down Las Ramblas and check out the famed tapas bars. Tomorrow we will get the bicyclettas of the back of Hugo and check out the local town of Stiges. Will add some pics and more stories at the end of next week before we hit the trail and I post this update on the blogsite.