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Published: December 25th 2009
Cathedrale St-Andre
Bordeaux, Aquitaine, FranceGood morrow to you readers, it's nice to see that you're back again.
We woke to our first frost the morning of the 12th at the Total truck stop near Peregreaux, and it was a beautiful blue sky overhead. The windscreen was covered in ice and it was quite chilly. If that wasn't cool enough, there were two white nondescript trucks being guarded in the opposite car park by about 30 Gendarmerie, who I think are like region police. They were heavily armed with H & K G36 machine guns and armadillo-like riot gear. We once again tried to look innocent (hard to do being a filthy backpacker in a van covered in pink and green graffiti), but they didn't even give us a strange look. As we were discussing what might be in the trucks, a whistle was blown, and about 20 of them who were standing around talking near the coffee machines put their visors down, their guns up, and went into full anti-terrorist mode. As I lept headfirst back into the van and under my sleeping bag and prayed, the carpark was completely staked out and the trucks began to move off amongst lots of yelling and
engine noise. Then slowly the 5 blue vans followed, blues and twos blaring in the morning...
Wait... Oh wow. You won't not believe this but I'll tell you anyway. As I write this at 8:30am in the morning, there are now not one but eleven Police Nationale Rosa Buses parked within 20m of me in the carpark outside. And a 64 seater bus. National Guard. Great. I am in my sleeping bag, it's barely light, and Aleks is in the shower. Pray for me, I'll be right back.
... Okay, crisis averted. I ditched the laptop, went and had a shower and came back, and Aleks has informed me that as the convoy of gun-wielding bloodthirsty coppers drove out, two of them slowed down next to van and gave Aleks an applause and thumbs up sign. She didn't have her boobs showing, so I THINK that might just put us in the clear for now in terms of staying at truck stops.. But you never know what might happen. I'll keep my guard up for now 😊
Where was I? Oh yes. At this stage we left slowly for Bordeaux, the drive there taking us about two
Fruits of the Vine (Sans Fruit)
Near Bordeaux, Aquitaine, France and a half hours, and parked the car in the Victor Hugo car park. Yep, there he is again. We basically wandered around the streets for a while and soaked up the vibe. Bordeaux has a GREAT feel to it, far more so than most places we've been so far. You really get the sense that this place is happening, it's clean and stylish, a perfect blend of nouveaux and old-school, and everyone has such great dress sense there! We found the obligatory marche noel (xmas markets) and had a vin chaud (hot spiced wine), and grabbed ourselves a croque chevre and a Mediterranean chicken roll to scoff as we walked. We're getting pretty damn good at eating on the fly. After that we strolled amongst the churches of the town (of course), then walked down to the River and checked out the cool new architecture and structures they've put in place to make the brown of the river look less confronting. It works, it's a great waterfront.
While we were in the main square of Bordeaux we came across what must be the fifteenth protest we've seen going on in France since we arrived. This time it was
Place de la Bourse
Bordeaux, Aquitaine, France the standard Greenpeace “No To Nuclear” crap, and involved lots of idiots dressed like bums and polar bears riding around on bikes or on rollerblades. Look, I like the idea of Greenpeace, and I've done a lot of eco-enforcing through my job before. But I think that Greenies who dress, and act and talk like Greenies need to get a life. They annoy the crap out of everyone involved and give a bad rep to the party. It's common knowledge that Greenpeace is a melting pot of people looking for a place to belong, angst ridden Uni students, and celebrities trying to play the caring rich person card by dressing down and appearing in a commercial. But the protesters, oh boy, go away! Stop filling my traveling days with loud call-and-response and bad smells! Millions of people are making a difference to the environment all around the world without listening to your self-righteous crap, so go pretend to fit in somewhere else.
I can't wait until Jeremy Clarkson comes into power.
The good thing about the protests was that we saw an amazing troupe of drummers all dressed in bright colours that were banging out some amazing percussive
Porte Cailhau
Bordeaux, Aquitaine, France beats that filled the whole square with sound. It was just incredible! Aleks, who is a closet drummer, loved it and I got some great video of it, complete with the idiot yelling over the megaphone in the background. Bordeaux was great, but didn't have much of a checklist to tick things off on. It more of a holistic, rounded experience, and we really liked it for it's wonderful old/new mix, food places, architecture and people. It's a great place to get lost in. It's a place I could live in.
That afternoon we set the GPS to Sarlat-la-Canadien, a place that was reportedly the perfect embodiment of a tiny medieval town surrounded by a valley of castles. By the time we were getting close, however, we found a little town called La Roque Gageac en route. And when we drove down the main street, our jaws nearly fell off. The town was one street, bordered on one side by a beautiful river, and on the other side were yellow ancient sandstone buildings snuggled underneath a huge sheer cliff face. If that wasn't cool enough, we could see little windows and doorways in the naked stone, with stairways leading
Inside Cathedrale St-Andre
Bordeaux, Aquitaine, France up to them! What? We had to investigate the next day we decided. All of this was illuminated by some very cleverly placed uplighting, and shone an eerie yellow amongst the dark like some great castle wall. We pulled over, got out of the car, and simply stared for a few minutes. I took photos but they didn't come out well and just weren't capturing it at all. We were going to keep moving to Sarlat, out of nowhere Aleks spotted a little carpark dedicated to campers and.. it was free! There were other camper vans there, and they said that the meter was shut down for the winter, so we'd saved ourselves €5 AND were in the best campsite in the world (pending). The river on one side, the cliffs and village on the other. What a view to wake up to! We shacked up for the night and fell asleep to the sounds of silence... and laughing ducks.
The 14th saw me woke up around 6:45 as I have been for quite some time now, but the lazy git beside me was impossible to rouse until somewhere in the vicinity of 9am. As we started our breakfast
The Organ
Cathedrale St-Andre, Bordeaux, Aquitaine, France under the gaze of the cliffs, we heard the unmistakable sound of an accordion playing, and thought someone must have cranked the stereo in one of the other campers. But lo and behold, out from between the huddled vans came a mustachioed lothario swaying in the throes of playing a French ballad on his accordion! He gave us a wink and a smile as he played. Absolutely classic! Aleks applauded and said bravo, I smiled around my muesli. After I finished breakfast I was treated to a toilet session next to a noisy elderly man. What is it with old people having to make so much bloody noise when they go to the toilet? They fart and groan and push and breathe like a woman in labour. Christ almighty, if it's prostate-based, I'm having mine removed.
Later that morning we went for a walk through the town, firstly to investigate the cliff. Sure enough, we weren't smoking crack - there WERE stairs, doors and windows. The place is ancient, and is called Fort Troglodite, but was closed for the winter. Apparently there is a network of caves up there made by some ancient culture but I haven't been able
to find info on it. So that's about all I can tell you for now. See photos. The rest of the town was beautiful, and so old! There were crumbling ruins and old tower houses everywhere, not to mention a chateau on the edge of town. There were other chateaux around the area, as the place was called “Le Vallee du Chateaux” - filled with golden coloured castles sitting on the peaks of almost every hill in view and surrounded by medieval townships that scale the walls of the cliffs. While driving to see a few, we saw two wild piggies run across the road in front of us and bolt under a hedge. Ahh wildlife, never ceases to amaze. Two of the chateaux were closed, one of which opened the next day, and one which was firmly closed until April, with a sign saying please feel free to come back then! Ummm... no. Nonetheless we got to wander around the outside of several of them, which was in itself spectacular. This was one of the most gorgeous areas we'd seen so far and totally on the ' recommended' list for anyone heading in that direction.
Finally that afternoon
Stargate?
Bordeaux, Aquitaine, France we got to Sarlat, and we spent the rest of the afternoon there. Aleks was a little more attracted to the little towns surrounding the place, and felt that Sarlat would be a tourist trap in summer. I was pretty keen on the place due to the close-knit streets, the little eateries, and the tight feel of the place. The architecture was once again predominantly yellow sandstone 16th century, but half the town was very very touristy, filled with the standard designer stores and expensive restaurants. We had to go to Macca's again for WiFi that afternoon, and got there by following a family of Australians that we had overhead saying was their destination. We did the blog, email thing, and then made our way back to the La Roque's campsite for the night. When you're onto a good thing...
The next day was a real turning point for us. Aleks was first out of the van for a pee (believe it or not) and the call came back, “Mr Fish.... It's snowing...” Without opening an eye I said, “No it's not,” as I tend to do. “It's just frost.” “Does frost fall from the sky in little flakes?”
My eyes snapped open and I sat up and looked out the window. Sure enough, I felt like an idiot for doubting my darling Aleks. It WAS snowing, by jeebers, if only very lightly. I got dressed in a flash and was out of bed, standing in the cold and ignoring it completely. I jumped around and woohooed and all that crap, while Aleks called home. After an hour it was really coming down, and I was just spellbound. It was like coral spawning on the reef, but way colder and less stinky, and FAR more beautiful I believe. I think half the Aussies up there have never seen snow anyway. We got on the road to Toulouse and my ma called, and I'm pretty sure half the conversation was sheer gibberish on my part, as I was so excited. Aleks was driving... SLOWLY... and the snow was just smashing off the windscreen. The countryside turned white within the space of half an hour! Great stuff.
That day the snow eased up as we got towards Toulouse, but it was still cold. I took over the driving from Aleks about 75k's into the trip, but she did well. I
Medieval Buildings
Near Bordeaux, Aquitaine, France have experience driving on frosty green grass in a paddock basher with bald tyres, so I'm guessing that it's about the same, but other than that I have no idea. But I'd much rather my black ass in the driver's seat than Aleks. We called it a day early after the three hour drive, as the sun was starting to wane in the sky. It took us two failed rest stops and some GPS-wrestling before we found a Maccas and did some MORE blogging/photo organising/uploading.
It's a long and slow process this blogging stuff, especially when the WiFi's about as useful as an ejection seat in a helicopter. Our free 3 month subscription to McAfee Antivirus that came with the Netbook also ran out, so I had to buy and download a whole new AV setup, which took a lot of time too. We did some shopping too, treating ourselves to a new frying pan and spatula, as the ones in the van sucked, and bedded down for the night near Pirbrac.
Toulouse, in the region of Languedoc-Rousillon, is known as “la ville rose”, which translates as “The Pink City”. It's really not all that pink, but it
is a little hard to find your way around, especially in the car parks. One false turn and that's it, Sonny Jim, yoooouuu're outta there! We actually managed to go through the multi-tiered Victor Hugo (!) carpark about three times before we turned the car off. It was opposite to The Entrance, which you can't escape... it was The Exit: we couldn't get in the bloody place. Eventually we made it out alive and walked down to the main square, known as Place du Capitole, with a beautiful 128m-long 18th century City Hall on one side, and a little arched arcade/walkway down the other. The arcade's ceilings are covered with contemporary paintings of the city. Those of you who know me well know that I like contemporary art about as much as I like interpretive dance, but this was actually really nicely done, to the artist's credit. See photos.
The first stop we made after this was the Information Desk in town. We've decided it's far better to ask the locals what's worth seeing than trusting The Bible completely. The Bible is to the point, but conveys very little in terms of feeling, which can lead you on a
bum steer at times. We received a free town map, and the lady circled the “must sees” for us within a 1km radius of the centre. Vin chaud in hand, we made a pact to come back and sample the Cassoulet (bean and sausage stew type thing) at the Marche Noel later, and made our way to the Basilique St-Sernin. Lonely Planet tells me this is Europe's largest Romanesque building. When we first went there it was closed for siesta, so we decided to definitely make the walk back later and see the interior, as the exterior was to put it lightly, incredible. A complete mix of eras in terms of architecture and structure. After we left there, we made our way through the back alleys and streets, dodging smoking students.
And hang on a minute...what the hell is with smoking over here? I've never seen a place that proliferates the nasty habit more than France! I hear it's worse in Greece, but every person over the age of 8 is lighting up. I'm a reformed smoker, sure, but they're doing a pack a day to fit in and that's ridiculous. People smoke in cars, on mopeds, when working
So We Stumbled Upon This...
Castelnaud-la-Chapelle, Dordogne, France behind bars pulling coffees and beers, and in toilets. Ahh the vicious cycle. Weak-willed gits 😊
We eventually ended up at a giant building that reminded me a lot of Malbork Castle in Poland, huge, imposing, and built entirely out of red brick. It was the old Jacbobin (-ite?) Cathedral, and inside was very different from all the other Cathedrals/Basiliques we had seen so far. Instead of having the alter at the front, huge and ornate, it was place in the mid-left side and was very simple: nothing more than a bench with a cross on it and a few chairs scattered around. Other than this and a few floodlights pointing up to the 35m vaulted ceilings, there wasn't much in the place. There was also a distinct lack of anything resembling Catholic-style iconography or representation; sure the crosses were there, but there were no crucifixes with Jesus on them. There were also a lot of old paintings of what looked like deans and archbishops. I'm not sure how the Jacobin thing works, but it was a little spooky and detached. There were cloisters there too, but they were €2 to go in and I wasn't all that interested.
And Then Drove On To Find This...
La-Roque-Gageac, Dordogne, France We went for a walk down by the river, which was lovely but certainly not a shade on Bordeaux's magnificent riverside stylings. The next stop was standard-issue St-Etienne's Cathedral. This place stumped as as soon as we walked inside. The outside was nice, sure, but the inside was unlike anything we'd seen yet. If you can imagine looking top down on the floor plan: two rectangles overlapping on only one corner, giving a strange disjointed, half-built feeling. But the effect is just marvellous. On one end you have an older, far more modest 12th century single nave vaulted church, attached to which is a 14th - 15th century Gothic cathedral with all the flamboyant trappings... oh forget it, just look at the photos. It was just beautiful. Oh, and I nearly forgot. The pipe organ is one of the oldest working in the world, and the one at the front is mounted 20 metres up the wall. Epic.
We were hungry by this stage, so we bolted for the Christmas Markets. Cassoulet here I come! I got it served with chopped white sausage in a big cup with crusty bread for €6.50, and it was absolutely O-U-T-S-T-A-N-D-I-N-G. Seriously,
The Local Chateau
La-Roque-Gageac, Dordogne, France one of the best things I've eaten on the entire trip, easily Top 5. It was so good I specifically walked halfway back across the square to tell the guys it was tres magnifique. Aleks had a little of mine but decided to have a nice healthy Grand Marnier crepe instead from the creperie across the way. That was nice to, in an intense, sugary orangey kind of way. We both then needed to pee at the same time, and had to buy a snack wrap at Macca's to be let upstairs by the security guard. The hide of them!
We walked North to the Cathedral again and the interior was certainly worth waiting for. Very similar in style to the cathedral in St Hubert, my favourite, but done in white and black marble rather than the polychromic I find incredible. What it lacked in grandeur it made up for in beautiful frescoes and paintings, and stunning carved marble altars and crypts. I've said it once and I'll say it again, those bloody Catholics sure know how to do architecture and pretty things.
A little more walking around, about an hour's worth, and we'd seen what we needed
And By Day
La-Roque-Gageac, Dordogne, France to see in Toulouse. Unfortunately the Couvert Marche under the carpark were closed by that stage, so we went and paid €7 for our parking (3 hours) and got to the car. Unfortunately in France people aren't allowed to get their licenses unless they are complete and utter idiots, and we found the car almost completely parked in by a giant Audi A6 and a shitty little Peugeot. Of course I couldn't be mad at the Audi driver: when you own a car like that, you can do whatever you want and the other snivelling serfs around you shall work around you. With a bit of guidance from Aleks and a distinct self-constraint to not ACCIDENTALLY scratch the crap out of the Audi, we got out and headed for Carcasonne. We arrived to a beautiful floodlit view of the most-well fortified city in Europe, did our laundry at a little laverie, and then bedded up for the night.
More on Carcassonne next blog, until then, back to you in the studio.
-- N
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