Today was the reason for our trip to Northern Ireland: to celebrate St. Paddy's Day in Irish style. We wanted to come to Derry for this occasion primarily because flights were cheaper than going to Dublin (we thought some of Mike's friends from school would join us, but they bailed), but also because we thought there would be less tourists and more of an authentic St Patrick's Day experience. Apparently the celebration of St Patrick's Day has been suppressed in the north more recently because of The Troubles, but the last few years it has been getting popular again. How could they pass up the opportunity to have a huge party? Before the festivities got underway, we wanted to explore the city of Derry (also known as Londonderry). The reason behind Londonderry is because of the ... read more

Not much news from yesterday, as we left Andorra and tried to boot it back up north as far as we could so we could catch our flight today. We drove from Andorra to Nantes, France which took us 9 hours of driving and 1 hour of waiting (in severe traffic because of an unknown incident). Today we were in a much better position. Being only an hour and a half away from the airport, we had ample time to explore the city we first came into on this trip: St. Malo. We figured that we had too much time on our hands, and didn't know what to expect in st malo (after all, it was Sunday and that's a quiet day). However, we were very pleasantly surprised. Our first order of business when we got ... read more

Today we awoke in the beautiful city of Carcassone, and excitedly ventured out to explore the castle, which was closed the night before. Before leaving the hotel though, we ate our free breakfast - the first proper breakfast we have had since getting off the ferry a week ago. Although French baguettes are delicious, they do get a bit old when you eat them for at least two, and sometimes three meals in a day! The Carcassone castle was as expected: spectacular. The city has a huge history - dating back to a rich family that ruled the region in the 11th or so century. (Actually the history goes back even further, as the original city walls were Roman.) The patriarch of the family was eventually ousted during the crusades for aiding heretics, but this was ... read more

Today we left Millau for Nîmes via the Gorge de Tarn (the gorge cut by the river Tarn). This is definitely the long way round, but we had heard great things about the gorge so we thought it was worth checking out. As it turns out, we were right. The drive itself was incredibly fun and really made Mike wish he still owned his roadster. The road was full of hairpin turns, tunnels, cliffs and curves. Oh, and it was narrow- very narrow. There were sections that were definitely no wider than a single lane ... And these would go on for miles! Then, you would see a 'road narrows' sign, then another, and another. The funny thing was that the whole time there was a line marking the centre of the road - for dividing ... read more

We learned that Sunday is an extremely quiet day in France. We knew that going in, but we couldn't fathom just how quiet it is. Everything was closed (except a few boulangerie in the morning), and there were few people to be seen anywhere. Makes us wonder, where do these people go? If they're spending the day with family, how come no one was out for a walk? It wasn't always raining so you'd think at least they were out visiting people... We started off the morning just outside of Chartres, staying in a hotel just off the autoroute. This was the day to explore and hunt the castles of the Loire valley. Well what I mean by explore is drive, see from the outside, click, click, click and move on. If we spent ten euros ... read more