Blogs from Millau, Midi-Pyrénées, France, Europe - page 2

Today we turned our little Peugot south and headed for Millau. Most of the big autoroutes in France are toll roads - and the tolls aren't cheap. The toll for the drive to Millau from Bourges would be €54, and that really only covers the first third of the journey because the rest is toll free. Needless to say, we looked for an alternative route! We found another highway that virtually paralleled the autoroute most of the way, but it meandered a bit through many small towns. It actually turned into a very nice drive and we spotted many chateaus along the way... Some in ruins and some that appeared to be still occupied. The road was quite a bit slower (90 in the fast sections and 30 or 50 through towns; the autoroute is a ... read more

It was a leisurely drive today, full of excitement and expectations of what we were going to see when we reached our destination of Millau. But first we had one final visit to the town of Carcassonne before we headed off. Adventurers before us had discovered the Otago Rugby Shop in the town and gave us no instructions on how to find it so we wandered the streets hoping to stumble across the shop. We suspect that after the 2010 New Zealand rugby season and Otago’s dismal performance the shop has probably closed down and that’s the reason it couldn’t be found. Leaving Carcassonne we headed northeast towards Millau. The green rolling countryside was similar to that in North Otago, New Zealand. There were vast fields of grain or sunflower plants and roads lined with plane ... read more

Bright and early today and off to the view the viaduct, the main reason for coming to this little town, well the National Geographic programme we watched some time ago did not do this massive structure any justice at all. The viaduct is simply stunning and rises from the Tarn river below to soar more then 300 meters high, way taller than the Eiffel Tower, Empire State Building and our own Sky Tower. Pam took some great shots of the Viaduct from so many vantage points that I lost count and then promptly told me that we had to come back at night for some night shots. Ok, so we then headed off to find the stone houses along the Tarn River that Pam had seen, The Gorges Du Tarn seemed like a good starting point ... read more

Waking rather shattered after a night disturbed by rowdy French people in the car park outside our camper we headed off to Millau some 350km away. Despite being a little noisy the free camp spot was just great and any other night would be perfect, highly recommended as a camp stop for free. Considering we were going by the back roads as usual the Tomtom told us it was 5 hours we decided to make haste. The first stop for the day was a little river village called Saint-Nazaire-en-Royans where some guys were fishing (without luck it should be added) amongst a stunning walled village rising 50m up above the river bank, the required pics were taken and we proceeded to make further haste south and west. The next stop was to service the camper as ... read more

Morning Campers! Just thought I would give you a cheeky rundown of my weekend antics! Well to start with the last week Ive been keeping myself busy going for long walks and working out with good old Davina Mccall (super body workout dvd) its cracking! Work is... well work, nothing special happening on that front, the teachers surprisingly, are being relatively communicative and telling me in advanced if there are any changes to my timetable which after all this time is abit of a bonus. So lets get to the point this was the BEST WEEKEND SO FAR!!! Dan the assistant who lives in St Affrique (a smaller town near to Millau) came Friday afternoon. It was gorgeous outside so we went for a drink in the sun on the mandarous (the main round about - ... read more