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Monday, January 29. 2007Knee: Jerk
Those who've known me for a while probably are aware of the generally crappyness of my knees. On the weekend, after an intensive gardening session (yes, we're getting old...), I didn't quite step properly on a raised concrete section of our backyard and ended up with nasty sounds and much pain in my right knee.
I've pretty much learned in every day life what not to do to minimise the occurrances of this problem, resulting in this being the first time this has happened since Paris. I attempted to walk up to the shops yesterday but only made it about four houses before giving up, and as such yesterday and today I'm working from home. It's nice to have that option, but it doesn't take long to miss being out and about cycling. Monday, March 27. 2006Driving Further Across France
(written 11/4/06 14:51 Greek time, in Náfplio, Greece)
Waking after a good night's sleep, we ate the buffet breakfast downstairs, during which a pair of young backpackers approached us wearing "Morocco Hitch" shirts. After working out we didn't speak French but were infact English speakers like themselves, they asked where we were going. Saying that we were headed the other way from Morocco, we bid them farewell and wondered what that sort of travelling would be like. From their accents we guessed perhaps they had made it all the way from Ireland, and their shirts suggested perhaps an organised event. Anyway, we had our sights on Italia, and specifically Torino, so we set off north-east. There was no direct motorway so we combined a large number of different smaller roads to get where we wanted to go. We stopped by a random road-side patisserie for some supplies for morning-tea and lunch. All manner of scenery flew by us on this day, from the plains surrounded by mountains, to the lake Lac de Serre-Ponçon which we had a snack and some photos by the side of, plenty of snow-capped peaks and finally we pushed towards and then up the French Alps. Past Briançon we went over the very windy snowy border into Italia. Sunday, March 26. 2006Blitz across France, fast food and fast sleeping
(written 11/4/06 14:35 Greek time, in Náfplio, Greece)
We might have driven out of snowy Andorra, but we still had quite a bit more of the Pyrénées to get through before we could drive with any speed. Lots of snowy windy driving followed until we reached the plain, where at one point our road actually passed briefly back into España before re-emerging in France. Crazy tightly-packed Europe! We decided to cover some serious distance across southern France, as we had spent a reasonable amount of time here last time around. Being a Sunday pretty much everything was closed, so after a while we gave in and went with the "fill the stomach" option of McDonalds by the side of a road. Neither of us was very happy with the concept, but it did the job and we pushed on covering a huge, uneventful distance mostly on motorways around Perpignan and then towards Nîmes. We had actually come through this city changing trains last trip, and to be honest didn't give it much more of a chance this time than we did then. I spotted a sign to a Hotel Formule 1, the fast food option of hotels, on the eastern outskirts, which fitted the bill perfectly. They only have one type of room, one price for 1, 2 or 3 people and set the bar very low and hit it perfectly. Pretty much the McDonalds of hotels, actually. The place was cheap, clean and quiet, and exactly what we needed after such a driving day. They even offer wireless for a price, but we didn't have enough blog ready to upload to make it worthwhile. We drove into Nîmes looking for dinner, finding a local pizza joint as the simplest option. We brought a pizza and a couple of cokes back to our room, which we mixed with the ridiculously cheap Scotch we had purchased in Andorra for a cheap night in. Tuesday, March 7. 2006End of France (for now)
(written 15/3/2006 07:50 CET in Luso, Portugal)
Breakfast at the little woman's farm house proved interesting as she again unleashed large quantaties of babbly French at us, but we ended up with some hard dry bread and hot drinks. Driving for a while towards Bayonne, we stopped by the side of a motorway in a services place to make the first use of our little camping stove - making two cups of very much enjoyed tea! We had forgotten to buy a lighter until the day before but now we were literally cooking with gas. Plenty of vineyards lined the remaining roads as we continuted towards Bayonne, capital of Basque country, where we located the i, got a map and wandered off for a look around the place. First thing was first, we found a little lively looking café/restaurant and sat down for a while to our second Italian meal in two days. Soon we braved the rain for a wander around the old town with standard trimmings - cathedral, walls, and cobbled streets. Not all of them have lots of rain, but this one did, so when our parking meter ran out we were back in the car to push on towards España. Monday, March 6. 2006Gardens, History and a wacky hostess
(written 11/3/2006 09:55 CET in Cambados, España)
We set off that morning to wave our cute little Sarlat goodbye, and I had picked us a few sights to see out of town around the Dordonge region. Many of the hotels on the outskirts of town had written in the hotel book that they had wifi which we attempted to "borrow" to upload some more blogs, but to no avail. We also took a very wrong but very pretty road out of town due to the most annoying of French signs "Déviation". This is a detour to the rest of us but when you're driving anything can happen. We eventually found the right road and headed off towards Jardins de Marqueyssac. Pretty much the only people there, we had a great hour or so wandering along essentially a small mountain top lined with impressive gardens and offering amazing panoramic views around the surrounding countryside. It was very well sign-posted and we had been given a book with English translations of all the signs so it was a great learning experience as well. Next, we drove through plenty more tiny villages along precariously small laneways and ended up at La Roque St Christophe. This is a 900m long series of caves in the rock-face where human and pre-human history has been found, documented and re-created for the tourist to enjoy. Which we did, making it our token piece of learning about the history of the region. Stomachs rumbling, we pulled into a random little road-side pizzareia called Mentalo in Les Eyzies-De-Tayac where we were pretty much the only customers. This is typically not a good sign, but this time the place was great. Two huge pizzas arrived, and filled us pretty much completely for the rest of the day with yummy meaty goodness. Moving on from this region to St-Emillion, famous as one of the wine regions surround Bordeaux (which we have chosen to avoid) along a mix of small and big roads (our preferred method actually), we entered the town itself and parked. The tourist office guy may have been having his first day working there as he was way overdressed and kept asking others questions but he had all the answers we needed in a language we understood. As is typical we were given a huge book with all the region's accommodation, and as is also typical, we picked pretty much the cheapest option - a farm house about 4km out of town. We had a quick look around the town itself, inside the Abbey and into a wine exhibition but in general wanted a place to rest for the night. Supermarket first along a big road towards Libourne, but then back to Saint-Sulpice de Faleyrens to attempt to locate our night's accommodation. After driving up and back the main road of the region with no sign of what we were after, we pulled into the local Tabac (think newsagent and you're pretty close) to ask for directions. The woman there was very helpful and through a combination of miming and pointing at the map she has on the wall presumably for the constant flow of people not being able to find their way around this area, we found where we needed to go. The farm stay itself (on ferme Baillarge) was nice enough, in a converted loft area in the house of a crazy old French woman who kept babbling at us long after she had established that we didn't have more than the most trivial understanding of her language. We guessed that her five or six children must have all flown the coop and that she just wanted to mother us in any way possible! We had a small night in in our little room, playing cards and having a few supermarket drinks. Sunday, March 5. 2006Light Dinner
(written 11/3/2006 09:52 CET in Cambados, España)
Liz slept most of the afternoon as she hadn't been feeling the best, leaving us not wanting to do anything flash for dinner. Even the idea of one main course was a bit much for her so we wandered until we found a little local place serving straight-forward hamburgers and chips. We ate these and headed back to the room for more sleep. Lazing in Sarlat
Sarlat, France
Waking this morning to the sound of bells, we decided that we liked this place enough that we could easily laze here for the day as a change from our recent hectic pace. A couple of hot drinks downstairs later, we set off up to the car to grab some breakfasty things. Still, we needed more and some washing powder so after a bit of random wandering through the Jardin Public and some more of the walking tour we found the town's main street and an open supermarket. Now back in our room, we're lazing around, snacking for lunch and aiming to do not much before dinner tonight and heading out of town tomorrow. Saturday, March 4. 2006Into Périgord - Sarlat
Chatellerault, France
(written 5/3/2006 12:01 CET in Sarlat, France) After waiting for the tourist office to open to ask them about the location of a laundromat, we trudged off in the rain to where they had pointed us. We found it, but it was closed. An old man across the road babbled and pointed which could have either been directions to another laundromat or telling us that his son once road his tricycle down that street over there, we'll never know. Assuming the former, we wandered a bit that way but to no avail. The rain was annoying so in the car for a good morning of driving through plenty of pouring rain. Since that wasn't snow, you may have guessed it was getting warmer - you'd be right. The digital thermometer in the car actually reached 14deg at one point - amazing. The next rough goal was the Périgord aka Dordogne region. The first and capital town of this area is Sarlat, which we headed towards. Liz piloted us across some beautiful windy back roads that were a great short cut after the morning's motorways (somehow managed to dodge the expensive toll though). Out came the sun and out we popped wearing short sleeved shirts at a rest stop not far from the day's goal (pic). Into the gorgeous Cité Médiévale we drove, parking just outside the town walls. We wandered towards the all-knowing "i" and found a book on hotels. Picking the first one that sounded interesting, Hôtel de la Mairie turned out to be above a Bar-Brasserie on the main town square Place de la Liberté (pic). I write from there now, and out the window behind me we are on eye level with the town bell which strikes on the hour, starting at 7am this morning. It's a great room and rather cheap out of season. There's low exposed beams everywhere, even in the tiny shower. We had also grabbed a brochure on a walk around town at the i and used it to wander through the church, old abbey grounds and surrounds until the rain got the better of us. Just across the square from our hotel we sat at a different little café and drank a local cider and some rosé until the place closed. Plenty of locals and tourists alike seemed to be thinking a restaurant just off the square which we have forgotten the name of was a good place for dinner, so we didn't argue. Apertifs, six odd courses and a bottle of wine later we saw their point. Not quite as amazing as Blois but still amazing value. Friday, March 3. 2006An Attempt at a Wine Tour
Blois, France
(written 5/3/2006 08:47 CET in Sarlat, France) We were off for bit of a wander around town after our amazing dinner the night before, looking at another stock pile of old buildings and of course Liz found the patisserie! Soon though we pushed on to take in some of the Loire's famous attractions - the crazy châteaus that were build by various insanely rich people quite a while back. The main one we visited was Château de Chambord, not far from Blois. This was build by François I as a hunting lodge for the nearby forest we drove through to get there. Some hunting lodge. Again we found wandering the grounds to be more satisfying than a long expensive room by room tour, so just entertained ourselves with thoughts of owning such a place and asking people around for a beer and a barbie. Most of the rest of the afternoon we spent attempting to follow a map through the wine growing region, but finding it horribly inaccurate, poorly signposted and when we did find places they were closed anyway. We called it quits after a while and headed south to Chatellerault for the night - a nothing town with a very helpful tourist office who pointed us to an adequate hotel just off the main square. Thursday, March 2. 2006Mont Saint Michel, Blois
St Lo, France
(written 08:31 5/3/2006 CET in Sarlat, France) A frosty morning greeted us in the boring nothing town of St Lo, so we slid off over the ice to grab some breakfast and be on our way. First stop was the truly striking Mont Saint Michel. Sitting on a rocky outcrop in the sea (pic), it totally dominates the landscape for miles around. We drove up to it, parked in the strange parking lots that only exist if the tide is right, carefully checked what time our car was scheduled to be washed away and then wandered into the town for a look. As you might expect, it is mostly dominated by tourist shops at the lower levels (which Liz still manages to be consistently excited about!), but as you walk up the gorgeous steep streets, down tiny alley ways (one I almost pulled the plumbing off trying to get into), the beauty of the place takes over. The more you climb, the more you get to look back over the roof tops where you have been (pic) and see the old buildings which have pretty much evolved to ramble over all available space. There's Abbaye du Mont Saint Michel on the top which we chose not to go into (still don't agree with paying entry fees for such places) but the view and architecture (pic Liz in archway) from there are still pretty amazing. We managed to exit via a locals-only not for tourists way accidentally, which was much quieter but still as pretty, before getting back in the car which was pretty much where we left it. Next general target was the Loire Valley, so we headed to the furthest inland part of that called Blois. Almost back at Paris, actually. Somehow fluking our way to a great little hotel called Côté Loire with a car parking spot right out the front (getting used to parking French-style, which means roughly "in any way possible"), we got a room overlooking the river and which also had free wireless internet! Didn't take us long to upload some more blog and pictures - hope you're appreciating it at home! We had a bit of a wander around looking at the château, Cathédrale Saint Louis and the town in general but it was cold, windy and getting dark so headed off looking for food instead. The magic little place we ended up at called Les Banquettes Rouges gave us what we both can say with no hesitation was our Best Meal Ever. The presentation (pic of dessert), flavours, atmosphere and service we all second to none, and it didn't even cost us much! Most Highly Recommended. People were being turned away not long after us so the locals seem to think so too. That was all our stomachs could take so it was back to our cosy room for the night. Wednesday, March 1. 2006D-Day Beaches
Rouen, France
(written 08:02 CET 5/3/2006 in Sarlat, France) We awoke to a snow-lightly-covered town which we wandered around taking a few pictures of. We sat in a café on a square facing yet another amazing old building and wrote a few postcards while drinking coffee. The church Église Jeanne d'Arc in the central square where Joan of Arc was burned alive is especially strange - huge curvy slopes not dissimilar to the Sydney Opera House, one of which becomes a long covered walkway. Under the other side a market was running where we grabbed some fruit and snacks for the day. A few more ancient buildings walked around and photographed and we were ready to get on our way. Pulling off one of the motorways for smaller back roads, Liz took her first turn at the wheel of our little car, at a stop where huge dumps of snow had fallen in the middle of a forest. She expertly piloted us off the (crushed, melted) ice and along the back roads. Many snow-lined kilometres later in Pont Audemer, I spotted a huge Decathlon store, which someone on the Lonely Planet forums had told me was a French camping/outdoor store. We pulled in and wandered around inside, picking up a little camp stove and gas bottle, some cutlery, etc., and a huge warm jacket for Liz. Just as well, as wandering back outside (as the shop closed for lunch - very common everywhere here) we discovered a blizzard was dumping snow everywhere! (pic) Fearless Liz had no qualms driving us off carefully further onwards. The snow stopped for a while a little later, and we had a nice break at a gorgeous little river (pic). Our rough goal for the day was to take in some of the D-Day Beaches along the Normandy coastline, and we stopped at the eastern end of these at a little town where there was blue skies, sea birds, a lighthouse and yet it was snowing! This was against everything our brains could cope with, so a coffee later we got on our way. A quick stop at a random beach (all lined with seaside second houses people no doubt flock to in summer) and a bit further on at a Canadian memorial (at least they had an Aussie flag out front with the rest), before we pushed on to the main goal along this coast line. The American Military Cemetery features countless crosses in gorgeous peaceful surroundings, and was quite a moving place. We arrived right on closing time so had to hurry our visit more than we would have liked, but we are glad we made it to have a look. A while later we picked a random place called St Lo to stop in for the night, which turned out to have no French beer or any food whatsoever at the pub, all the cafés and restaurants were closed, with the exception of a lonely kebab/pizza place. The helpful staff packed us up two cheap dinners which we ate in our room. Tuesday, February 28. 2006Versailles, Rouen
(written 2006-03-03 09:11 CET)
Pulling onto the main drag of Versailles, we managed to fluke a rather good parking spot and pay very little for it (photo!). We were undecided as to whether to wander around Château de Versailles due to the cost, but as we approached discovered that there was a cheaper ticket that was going to suit us fine. The state apartments, half-restored hall of mirrors and various lavishly decorated rooms were all gorgeous, but we liked wandering in the gardens despite the cold. Next quite a drive to the historic town of Rouen in Normandy through pretty countryside. Getting into the city was pretty crazy due to its size, and we ended up parking up on the kerb a few streets away from a potential hotel (everyone else was doing it!). We locked it up tight and wandered down to the hotel where the owner spoke no English at all, leaving us to resort to a piece of paper to negotiate costs for the room. It worked out fine so we parked under the town square, brought our bags down, and wandered looking for food. An Irish pub served us a couple of drinks while we watched the heavy snow falling outside, but then across the town square for a shared pizza overlooking place de Vieux Marché (the town square) and its crazy church Église Jeanne d'Arc. A New Blue Car
Paris, France
(written 3/3/2006 08:51 CET in Blois, France) We fronted up for our final hotel breakfast and said a heartfelt thanks to the owner - we can certainly recommend Hôtel de Nevers as a great place to stay with helpful owners if you are in Paris. He told us about plenty of interesting places to see as far away as Greece, including plenty of places we have already been. Shouldering our rather heavy packs we trudged down to the Metro and caught a train to Europe Metro (it's tiny, no idea why it gets such a big name), and walked about ten minutes up Boulevard Constantinople to the Citroën dealer. The girl there was very helpful and there was some minor half-hour delay while they changed the battery on the car, which she compensated is with by giving us a meal voucher for! Didn't expect that kind of service. After plenty of paperwork she led us around the corner to our shiny blue Citroën C3, with 5 kilometres on the clock! The mechanic half-told half-mimed to us about how all sorts of gadgets inside the car worked, and then when we felt brave enough we drove off. Or, I should say when I felt brave enough - Liz had given up on her idea of driving the car first after seeing what the Parisian traffic was like. Since we were on the outskirts it wasn't that bad, although learning the deep-end way how the big roundabouts work was a highlight for me. We found our way to the ring road, and then we were moving onwards towards Versailles. Monday, February 27. 2006Pain and Bookworming
Paris, France
Another day, another attempt not to walk all that far failed. Late last night on the home stretch my knee finally gave out on me, plus Liz's feet are killing her (she's wearing boots she hasn't really warn since last Europe trip) so we didn't make it all that far actually. After another great hotel breakfast, we set out on the Lonely Planet Paris "Left Bank Bookworming" walking tour. This started at Cardinal Lemoine Metro and wound its way past the huge Panthéon, via Jardin du Luxembourg (where we detoured for a rest in the nice sunny weather), then north back to the Seine where we looked into Shakespeare and Company English language bookstore for things to buy. Rather expensive unfortunately, but we did spend an hour or so most enjoyably wandering through the impressive and sometimes ancient collection. Back to a little heavily touristed but actually very cheap and impressive bistro for lunch, where I had Terrine (paté) and Liz a rather chunky onion soup as starters. Along with the chicken mains and cremé caramel / cheese desserts, we washed the lot down with a half-bottle of red. Eventually convincing ourselves to start wandering again, we detoured north to Notre Dame and place Dauphine (where our hotel we stayed in last time was), before rejoining the tour heading south once again. Despite passing some interesting old churches and literary highlights (places where famous authors slept, ate, wrote about, etc.), we didn't really have the heart or the bodies for it so we jumped off the tour at St Sulpice and caught the Metro back to the hotel, stopping briefly to stock up for a cheap in-room dinner at the supermarket. Sunday, February 26. 2006Arrondisment 15e
Paris, France
(written 27/2/2006 5:30pm CET by Liz) Yesterday was very cold. A message from my Mum said it was -2 degrees C in Paris, and it certainly felt like our coldest day here so far. It snowed lightly for most of the morning. After breakfast at our hotel, we caught the Metro to Trocadéro near the Eiffel Tower, and spent a while looking around. We decided not climb up part of the tower, and instead headed into the backstreets of 15e to wander around. We stopped in a little bar for coffee and hot chocolate to warm up, wandered some more, bought baguette and cheeses for our lunch, and then caught the metro from La Motte-Picquet Grenelle back to République where our hotel is. Lunch was in our nice warm room, and we devoured baguette, cheese, olives and red wine - very French. We lazed around in our room for the afternoon feeling a bit worn out and footsore. In the evening, we went to a nearby Belgian restaurant and had beer, frites and moules (chips and mussels), another very tasty meal, and then end of another great day.
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