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Published: April 11th 2007
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From La Tania to the French Riviera (11th April - 7th May, 2007)
Mum and I left London to start a road trip through the middle of France to the French Alps to spend a week in La Tania where I had worked and to then travel back to London with Bern and Elizabeth via the South of France.
London to Dover to Calais to Reims
A very long day of travelling after catching the train to Dover, the ferry to Calais and then driving a few hours south of Calais to Reims.
Reims to Dijon
Although we were passing through the champagne area of France there didn’t seem to be a grape vine in sight! We then came across fields and fields of yellow flowers. It started off being some sought of wildflower then it was a weed and then we found out it was mustard! France is home of Dijon Mustard. As we walked along the edge of a field the mustard flowers left a yellow residue on our clothes.
Dijon to Annecy
A really lovely drive through some tiny French villages to Lake Annecy where we camped on the lake and enjoyed delightful
weather in the mid 20’s.
A Week in La Tania
I’d been away from La Tania for about 3 weeks and in that time the snow had melted considerably. Mum and I spent the week relaxing, doing lots of walking including snowshoeing and I did a bit of skiing before the lifts closed at the end of the week for the season. It was incredibly warm all week. I even skied in shorts and t-shirt and the guys I’d been working with finally went bikini skiing. They’d been talking about it all season. Mum and I walked and walked and walked on one particular day mum was convinced that we were lost not understanding that I’d been skiing this area all season. No police required this time though! At the end of the day mum was not having a bar of any more steep descents and slid down on her bottom with me towing her! Her fingers were somewhat frozen at the bottom of the hill.
Bern, Elizabeth and I also tried parapenting (paragliding but with skis). Good fun and sensational views of the Alps. However 15 minutes gliding around at over 3000 metres was enough for my head.
I started to feel a little dizzy. Bern didn’t quite land where she was supposed to which was where we’d taken off from. Instead she landed in the valley as her pilot couldn’t find any more thermals.
La Tania to Chamonix
Mum and I spent a couple of nights camping in Chamonix at the base of Mont Blanc. We were able to catch a telecabine to a height of 3842 metres, very close to the summit with amazing views of the surrounding Alps and lots of Europeans glacial skiing and climbing to the summit of Mont Blanc. The effects of being at altitude were felt by mum very soon after we reached the highest point. We had the most amazing dinner at the campsite. I roasted a piece of lamb wrapped in foil in the fire and did the same with some vegies.
Chamonix to Zermatt
We headed up to Zermatt in Switzerland and visited the Matterhorn, a spectacular mountain with loads of stories about those who have climbed to the summit or made the attempt to.
Zermatt to La Tania to Vizille
On my 30th birthday mum and I picked up Bern and Elizabeth from LaTania.
They had finished closing down their chalet and it was time to leave. Before we left the deserted ski village we devoured a good part of a chocolate birthday cake baked by Bern and Elizabeth (their Dad’s trusty recipe). We had a few minor hiccups trying to go south as some of the passes in the Alps were closed. It just meant we saw a bit more scenery including lots of marmots.
Vizille to Nice
Finally hit the coast and spent 3 nights camping in Antigues (20 mins out of Nice). From Nice we explored Monaco and the beautiful coastline dotted with multimillion dollar houses and boats. The water looked very appealing but when we did go for a swim it was quite a painful experience trying to get across all the stones on the beach to the water.
In Nice on the Sunday there was a half marathon event and as you can imagine it took a lot of arm twisting to persuade Bern and Elizabeth to enter!!! I ended up entering the 3km run and mum the 3km walk. Bern and Elizabeth had the nerve to blame me for their aches and pains at the end
of the run! I had my own pain - I sprained my ankle half way through the run.
After the run we visited the quaint little medieval village of St. Paul de Vence surrounded by its 16th century town walls. In Cannes we wandered around the old part of town and along the Croisette but didn’t see any film stars. It was in Cannes that we started our collection of ‘handbag dog’ photos. They were everywhere. A classic sight that we didn’t get a picture of was of a man carrying a handbag dog strapped to his front in a baby type harness. There was also many a dog being carried in a very undignified manner through the streets by their owners when they just wouldn’t walk anymore.
Nice to Montpellier
On route to Montpellier we stopped very close to St. Tropez for lunch and had a picnic on the beach, discovering very quickly that we were all a bit overdressed in comparison to the other women on the beach!
Montpellier to Bordeaux
This morning we wandered around the town of Montpellier where there were a number of political demonstrations happening for May Day. On leaving Montpellier
it started to rain and didn’t stop for the next 2 days!
In Tours we stopped in the old town square long enough to have crepes and hot chocolate but then continued on to Bordeaux, stopping in a hostel for two nights.
Unfortunately we weren’t able to get on to a winery tour the following day so we did our own tour visiting Chateau La Louviere and Chateau Yon Figeac. With close to 1000 wineries in the Bordeaux region you could keep going for months!
Bordeaux to Blois (Loire Valley)
Leaving Bordeaux we hit the lovely Loire Valley where there are almost as many chateaus as wineries in Bordeaux. We visited just one chateau which was just like a fairytale castle overlooking the Loire River.
We watched a magic show at Robert Hudini’s museum whom Harry Hudini had named himself after.
That evening we ended up camping in a park (for free!) on the river next to the campsite which was closed. There was a few boule matches played and one or 2 bottles of wine consumed! Boule is the national sport of France after all and when in France…
Blois to London
Back to London via the
One Piece Mania!
La Tania Crew in their E-bay one pieces! town of Rouen with its old Normandy style buildings and the site where Joan of Arc was burnt at the stake. In Calais we caught the ferry back to Dover and the train to London.
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