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This page tells the story of four who went out to discover the south of France.
Okay here is the list of things we saw, went to, through, above, and beyond.
- Friday October 5'th
Nancy and I wanted to go and meet Phil and Jody in Saint Remy de Provence but Nancy went out to pick grapes at a winery and did not make it back until late, so we went the next morning instead. - Saturday October 6'th
We left early in the morning. The alarm went off at 5:30 am and we were on the road at around 6:00 am. Provence, here we come.
We arrived at around 10:30am and had breakfast together with Phil, Jody and Phil's brother Marc. Afterwards we got a Hotel and left to to visit Tarascon, Arles, and Avignon where we dropped Marc off to catch his TGV (Train avec Grande Vitesse). - Sunday October 7'th
La Roque s. Pernes: We went to a still very destroyed city where we saw people living in cave-like destroyed antique buildings. From the church on top of the hill we had an amazing view of the surroundings. The castle beside it was closed, though. Afterwards we went to see Le Pont Du Garde. This is an immense roman aquaduct, still standing. We also had a short hike through the surrounding hills. From there on we returned to Toulouse and drove through Tarascon, Arles, Saint Gilles and back on the highway close to Montpellier. We got back in Toulouse around 0:15 am. We went to bed too late to not be tired the next morning at work :( - Monday October 8'th
I had to work, Phil and Jody spent the morning at our place relaxing, and Nancy went to school. The afternoon they went to see Carcasson, an ancient, medieval village not too far away from Toulouse. When I returned from work we went out and had a nice dinner at a chinese place in town. - Tuesday October 9'th
I went to work (again). Locked in Nancy and Phil and Jody went to see ... After I returned we made plans for the following days. We had then dinner at La Corde, the oldest restaurant in town (and one of the best). - Wednesday October 10'th
We left Toulouse after leaving late in the morning. First we drove for 35 minutes in the direction toward the Pyrenees. Then we had a sudden change of mind and we returned to Toulouse, and headed towards the Lot (a river in France). So all in all we needed 2 hours for about 100km, which is pretty sad.
The first stop for us was a unknown winery where we tasted some of their wine and bought two bottles of Cahors wine.
Once we arived in Cahors we took a stroll in town where we decided to get a hotel room. After finding the strange hotel 'La Chartreuse,' we payed a lot to stay the night in this three star 'place'. I had the feeling that Dracula himself designed this one in the sixties. The smell of a citron cleaning solution was stingent.
We then went up the hill to visit THE bridge in town called 'Pont Valentre'. This was not just any bridge but a fortified bridge which was unique and beautious. So the bridge was done. Check. We discovered a boat place and a very confusing sign, which we thought needed some clarification by asking the guy at a wine tasting facility. He confirmed that there was no one in the booth. After discussing a bit, we decided to crawl up a darn steep hill with lots of oportunities to trip and fall some 200 feet down to the street to get over run by a truck or car. The we got lost on the hill. It was fun.
Frightened to get back the same way we came from, we tried other tracks but failed badly and finally decided to take the way back we came from. Oh and somewhere in between we actually saw our boat leaving from below ... $#@#@$ ...
The wine tasting after this exhausting thrill was a good thing and we actually found some good wine in the third store we visited. We also got directions to a good restaurant in town, which we used to satisfy our craving for french food.
Cahors is a great town to hang out in. It is in the midst of a slope of the river Lot and the surrounding mountains give a great view of the city (if you can take the hike). - Thursday October 11'th
We went on on our search for the most amazing places in France. We first stopped by 'Pech Merle' a grotte which had some 15.000 year old paintings on the walls. Afterwards we tried again to get a boat trip on the Lot at Bouzies but this time we were told that the high season was over, together with the tourist boat trips but we should try it in Cahors. Oumpf ...
We were cruising along side of the Lot and discovered a really beatiful place called St Cirque Lapopie (I think). We drove then to Rocamadour through Figeac. In Gramat we stumbled by accident over a sign to a Chateau which was a four star hotel. This was the best place to stay and so we decided to pay the money and have a great place for the night. Chateau De Roumegouse had everything you could expect and a great location on top.
We then went on to visit Rocamadour. This city is located right at a hill side and has a unique pilgrimage church. We took lots of nice pictures there and went up the hill, down the hill, up the hill, down the hill ...
The night was sealed with lasgana and pizza before we drove back to our chateau and had a bottle of our own wine, watching the stars, the milky way and two F-16s chasing each other. And Nancy claims she saw a satellite, Jody confirmed, but the boys did not have the great vision like the girls did, so they missed out. - Friday October 12'th
After we woke up and had breakfast we left the chateau together with a chunk of our money(actually it was not all too expensive since we ate outside and drank our own wine).
We wanted to see a monkey park, where they claimed to have monkies running loose so you can feed them, but found our selves in front of locked doors (opening times in October was after Noon). So we decided to stay out of the monkey business and headed on towards Gouffre de Padirac. This is one of only a few grottes in the world where you have to use a boat to discover and explore. By the time we arrived it was close to a ghost town. By the time we left the tour buses kept on rolling in and there were lots and lots of people there. This is a great site to visit, but I felt that this wonder of nature was not being taken care of and on top of this we had a bad tour guide.
On to 'La Roque-Gageac' which was named one of France's most beatiful towns. We arrived and finally got our boat tour on the Dordogne river. Afterwards we wanted to visit the gorgeous garden of Marqueyssac but we were 20 minutes too late. Oh well.
So we went on towards Bordeaux where we desperately tried to find a place to stay for the night which was not too shabby and not too expensive. After we realized that the pretty surrounding towns were all booked because of the nice weekend we drove into Bordeaux and stayed in the affordable *** Tulip Inn close to Notre Dame.
After we had some Thai food, we had a stroll over an amusement park and went to bed way too late. - Saturday October 13'th
We left for the beach and hit it shortly after 10 am in Arcachen. There we walked through the town and headed towards Pyla sur Mer, which is a gigantique sand dune. We got our 11 year old red wine (we bought the day before) and some cheese and sausage and baguette and went up that Dune to enjoy a nice pique-nique lunch on top of that dune. It was a great experience and we enjoyed not only the view but the wine, cheese, etc...
Then we went back to Bordeaux to say good bye to Phil and Jody at the Gare St Jean where we made sure that they got on their TGV towards Paris okay.
And that was that. We drove back to Toulouse in the rain and they went back to Paris and left the next morning towards Washington DC. - That, in a nutshell, was our whirlwind trip visiting the villages around the Lot and Dardogne Rivers.
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