Blogs from France, Europe - page 8

First stop was Castillones. We chose this village as it had a market . Up a little hill, a handy parking spot (we don’t need a big spot, Smart Arse is tiny) and we came to a lovely market square. Cannot get over just how superb the medieval buildings in villages like these are. I know they have been much restored and that a hundred years ago the places undoubtedly looked like pretty filthy slums but now they are a delight to see. The main buildings have a religious background, built for the abbots, the ones with the money. Such interesting structures and the camera can’t get enough of their nooks and crannies and ancient doorways and steps with big dents made by thousands of feet over the centuries. The market was in the main square ... read more

By the time we got into Paris and our motel, it was really quite late, like after 1 am but, the boys revived after seeing the room. The motel was like 1 big Pac-Man game, and in our room, we had a large bed, plus 2 sets of bunk beds, each bunk with its own sliding doors. So, boys were bouncing back and forth between beds and opening and closing the sliding doors. Morning came too soon. The train for London was leaving at 4pm and we needed to be at the train station 2 hours in advance. This left little time for the city. When we were in Paris 2 years ago, we had a wonderful picnic at the Eiffel Tower. We knew we had little time to tour but figured we could at least ... read more

Our wedding anniversary today. 28 years. I think we have been on holiday for at least 25 of the anniversaries 😊 which makes celebrating easy. Today we were heading for a campsite with a restaurant so Bob suggested we would eat there for dinner but I had been checking the reviews which reported the campsite restaurant was only open July and August so that snookered that idea. Another hot day and a little alarmingly when I was reading about the campsite the pool appeared to be closed on Saturday. Not 100% sure about that as the campsite in French said Samedi but the English version said Sunday which is tomorrow. Inexplicable that it could be closed any day at the weekend but it seemed likely that it would be one day or the other. We had ... read more

Headed down to Stes Maries de la Mer where we have stayed a couple of times before but not recently. Heaving with people and the main access road was closed off for some ‘happening’. Decided not to even attempt to park in the centre and went along to the beach road instead. Far too hot to walk about for any distance, think it is an age thing but we are both struggling a little with the heat. It was exactly this time last year that we were melting in La Rochelle at 40°C++, though that was hotter than here now at only 34 °C. I really fancied going in the sea but it was so hot that the thought of that open sunny sandy beach was too hot really so we went into a beach edge ... read more

Our 77-day odyssey is rapidly coming to a close, as we begin to prepare for our return to the states in a couple days. We'll probably maintain a low profile in our little garden cottage until then, while packing our suitcases for the last time on this trip, and attending to other sundry tasks in preparation for our departure on Thursday. Our taxi driver will meet us here at 6:00 AM for the ride to the Charles de Gaulle airport outside Paris. We'll fly via Aer Lingus to Dublin; then connect with a transatlantic Aer Lingus flight to Orlando, where we're scheduled to arrive around 6:30 PM local time. Yesterday we enjoyed a visit from our charming French friend, Sophie Lamarre, who lives in Tours, a city in the châteaux region of the Loire River valley. ... read more