Advertisement
My dear friend Lesley and I set off at 5.30 am for the Dover - Calais Ferry... at last we would get some sunshine we thought ...little did we know!! I should have left my woolly hat and gloves in the car. Every time we stopped at a picnique area we froze - 12-14 deg is not what we expect in a french summer. And everyone remind me not to drive round the east side of Paris ever again !! Even with the help of Sally Satnav and maps we managed to take the wrong ramp and god knows how we eventually found our way back onto a road which took us out and onwards south...and also there were the most terrific traffic jams. No never again.
So on we went to find a small chambre d'hote which I had booked south of Orleans - we came off the autoroute onto a country lane through a forest and lo and behold as Sally was saying we had arrived there was this amazing old chateau with a lake in front. That can't be it I said ... doesn't look like the photo ...true enough the real B+B was behind the trees
next to the chateau ..originally the gardener's house with the land which was the chateau's kitchen garden. What a very nice welcome we had ..the sun came out and we sat in the garden with the nice french lady bringing us cups of tea. ( Another good deal on Booking.com - this place was only £36 including brekki. ) We had a very sweet little room nicely decorated and next morning set off (now it was raining again) after eating our way through yummy baguettes and home made plum jam. Most of our trip we stayed on the autoroutes , the driving is so easy and it is worth paying the tolls I think. We stayed one more night on the way south in a little town called Cavalerie south of Millau - this was on the route of the knights Templar - a town with old ramparts and towers. It was so cold we tried to put the radiators on in the room but of course they are turned off - no-one expects this cold in France at the end of June....so it was hot baths to warm us up before bed. The bridge at Millau ( highest bridge
in the world?? /europe??) across the gorge was something I really wanted to see so that was an amazing sight crossing it.
Saturday morning arrived and we still could not believe we had come almost right to the south of France and it was cold...it was not until we descended from the mpuntains and were about 50 miles from the coast that we got sunny blue skies.
At last we got into Olonzac our little village and Sally helped us find our little town house. It's tucked away down a tiny street , it is on 3 levels with the living room on the top floor and a door out onto a tiny roof terrace. This place is owned by an Australian couple and is very well equipped and there was a welcome basket to start us off. Here we met up with Maureen from Port Maquarie , NSW - she befriended me when I was there house swapping with Susan and Geoff.
Well thats all for today folks - a few fotos for you of our trip, the house here and today's wonderful market.
Au revoir. Lynne and Lesley. xx
Advertisement
Tot: 0.09s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 14; qc: 33; dbt: 0.0592s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Jill
non-member comment
Hello from sunny England
All that food looks really yummy! We have had warmth here - most of the time - sun usually appearing in the evening! xx