Carcassonne to Provence

9-10 October 2009

Took the motorway today to try and pick up some extra time in Provence since our time here is so limited. Had a late lunch in Arles, arriving after most of the restaurants and cafes had finished serving lunch. Found a little hole-in-the-wall café that served us a great meal sitting at a tiny table so close to the cobblestoned lane that a truck driver trying to manoeuvre his way past had to bend his side mirror back so it didn’t collect our plates!

Vincent's cafe in Arles - http://www.vggallery.com/painting/p_0467.htm for a comparison :)

Pont du Gard outside Avignon - worth getting stuck in traffic for

Late afternoon peak hour delays in Avignon wouldn’t have mattered except we got completely lost finding our accommodation, zig-zagging the Provençal countryside in pitch blackness for about 3 hours. Our GPS was as bewildered as we were.

Finally had to call our hosts, Marielle and Jean-Claude, who kindly came out to rescue us, and comforted us with beer, a nice cup of tea and a fireside chat in a kind of pidgin Franglish that somehow worked for all of us. Lovely people, and definitely somewhere to come back to for a much longer stay … particularly now that we know how to get there.

Lourdes to Carcassonne

8-9 Oct 2009

Another day’s driving through the Pyrenees – to 2200 metres today, up among the ski lifts and again well above the tree line. You should see where the ski runs go, Dane (and Rob and Scott and Bronny!).

Ski run (without snow...)

Passed a number of cyclists on both days – this is part of the Tour de France route, and it’s hard to believe that it’s humanly possible to cycle up these mountains, much less race.

How depressing would this be?

Monument to the Tour cyclists at the top of a pass

Local residents

Ski training up the Pyrenees via the road!

Had a small altercation with the GPS on our way into Carcassonne late in the day, and ended up taking the long way via some tiny rural back roads that brought us to our beautiful B&B in the middle of a cracker of a thunderstorm – the only rain we’ve seen since we got here. Like Brisbane summer storms, it was dramatic but passed over quickly, so we were able to walk into the ‘Old City’ of Carcassonne within the medieval town walls, have coffee and dessert since we’d missed dinner, and make plans to come back another time for a longer stay :)

Sare to Lourdes

7 - 8 October 2009

The first day of driving through the Pyrenees and the first of three mountain passes. The photos can’t begin to match the scenery – great roads, but rarely anywhere to pull over so I took most of the photos through the car windows as we swept around bends in the road. Just magic.

Had an extraordinary night in Lourdes. We knew of course of its status as a pilgrimage site and had heard stories of how commercial it is, but were nothing like prepared for the reality. It was Las Vegas-style neon lights, flashing rosary beads and snow domes right up to the gates of the Sanctuary. But at 9pm every night there is a procession of the sick, their carers and others who want a blessing. The procession must have stretched over a kilometre, thousands of people walking or in wheelchairs, some being wheeled along in beds or little buggies, all near silent and bearing candles. Choir singing Ave Marias to welcome the procession into the Sanctuary area. It was an amazing experience of devotion, and almost an actual physical shock to leave the Sanctuary and be hit with the noise and glare of the flashing Madonnas.

The lights of the procession

The outdoor Sanctuary where the blessing ceremony is held

Blaye to Sare

4-6 October 2009

Detoured via Arcachon and the Dune of Pilat as we headed south, an impressive sand dune (107 metres high) to rival Moreton and Fraser (kids would have loved it, Melissa … and look, Lloyd, more steps!)

Short cut down

Got into Sare late (again), so weren’t able to appreciate the scenery until the next morning. Imagine Maleny at its greenest, and scatter it with crisp white Spanish-influenced houses with deep red shutters. The area is bilingual with street and road signs in both French and Basque (and sometimes Spanish as well, since we’re just a stone’s throw from the border). Basque seems to lean heavily on the letters x, y and k, and we can’t begin to imagine how to say the Basque version of most street and place names (although we did discover that ‘tx’ is said ‘sh’ when I ordered a pre-dinner drink called something like a ‘tximosa’).

The lovely village of Espelette, with buildings strung with chilis

Took ‘le petit train de la Rhune’ up to the top of ‘the Rhune’ the next morning. The mountain straddles the border so we had stunning views into Spain as well as France, right back up the coast as far as Biarritz.

Train track in the foreground and up the mountain in the background

Very windy at the top!

Drove into Saint-Jean-de-Luz and Biarritz in the afternoon. Particularly loved Saint-Jean-de-Luz , a picturesque fishing and beach town. Another warm sunny day without the crowds that apparently pack the town in season. Biarritz is very much a grande dame with some lovely stately buildings, but we could see the potential for her putting on the glitz in season.

Miscellaneous other images ...

Workplace health and safety

So thanks to our GPS we got to see all sorts of countryside... this was nearly wide enough for the car

Sarlat to Blaye

4 October 2009

Not far from Sarlat on our way to the west coast, we discovered the hilltop village of Domme, with its stunning views over the Dordogne River; and the village of La Roque Gageac, where we spent an hour on one of the region's traditional flat-bottomed boats (the river seems about a metre deep - very shallow, clear and fast-flowing).

Views from the river boat

This one's for sale - we were tempted!

More of the Dordogne

Views from Domme, and Domme church

Clambered up the steep steps against the cliff face to a troglodyte medieval fort looking out over the village and the bend of the river - built into the actual cliff face, quite amazing.

Stairs up the cliff on the left of the photos

Coming into Bordeaux area couldn’t resist the temptation to detour via St Emilion – an extraordinary medieval town in the midst of the vineyards, with an underground cathedral carved from the limestone … a huge, dim echoing space that was quite overwhelming in its scale and sense of timelessness.

Would love to spend longer in this region – very beautiful and so much to do.

Spent so long in the Dordogne that we really only touched the surface in Blaye and had just a few hours in Bordeaux for lunch – a lovely city that deserved much more time than we were able to give it. Bec, next time you’ll have to come and give us the guided tour :)

Photos and lots more posts to come in the next day or two now we have internet again. Have been writing up notes on the train, since we seem to be either in tunnels or industrial areas, so have just about caught up!