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Published: July 30th 2009
The trip out of the Pyrenees was a real test for Brian. Some super steep hills and mountain passes took us on a mission of a drive over the French border into Spain, through Andorra and back into France again. Andorra wasn’t exactly a highlight - boiling hot and congested. We filled up with cheap petrol, looked at a few shops and ate lunch in a car park! Not the best scenic tour of the country but I’m sure it is much prettier in winter when everything is covered in a thick blanket of snow. The ski runs looked awesome!
Our overnight stop was a place called
Ax-les-Thermes. It was a bit of strange campsite. Quite expensive and FULL OF CHILDREN which didn’t please the girls too much! Even worse for the boys. They weren’t allowed to swim in the pool as their boardies were deemed ‘un-hygienic’. In some pools in France, the boys have to wear tight little speedos. The boys complained of sexism but it didn’t do them any good. No swim for boys today!
One of our rest stops was the well-known town of
Carcassonne. A bit too well known! It was absolutely heaving with tourists.
The busiest spot we have been so far. A potentially pretty old town set within a massive wall. We certainly couldn’t appreciate any of it in the crowds and we itching to move on within 30 minutes!
We were a bit worried about Brian overheating in the mad hot weather, so we had to travel up the steepest passes with the heater on! Apparently this cools the engine. Oh my god! It was revoltingly hot in the front seat. On some corners we were nearly falling out the window in an attempt to cool off. We must have looked bloody stupid. Four kiwis in a big blue van, hanging out the windows, cruising up the mountain side at about 10 mph.
Another afternoon stop was the bridge at
Millau. I think it is one of the highest road bridges in the world but I might have to consult google on that one! The reason for visiting it? It was the boys’ idea after seeing it in an episode of TopGear. Admittedly, it was very, very impressive. The view from the top was disappointing though. You can’t actually tell that you are on a high bridge. It was
better appreciated from a distance. The boys spouted lots of facts about this one. Apparently Auckland’s sky tower could fit underneath it?
Through the heat, we continued on in the Languedoc Region until we reached
Gorges du Tarn. Okay, you’ll never guess where we read about this one but it is one of the THOSE natural sights that you must see…
In the gorge, a beautiful river winds its way though steep limestone cliffs, creating some crazy rock formations. It is a perfect place to camp with campsites all along the riverbank. We got extremely lucky with our location. We chose a campsite and were lead down to the beach. We were given a prime spot overlooking the river. We couldn’t believe our luck - the river was so beautiful and cold to swim in, that we decided to make it our home for a few days.
We spent our time swimming, eating and relaxing. We even tackled a steep walk up the side of the gorge. It was so ridiculously hot and of course when we got to the top, what did we find? A café and a road leading to the view point of course!
It was certainly good exercise though!
The
Gorges du Tarn is definitely a place I would recommend for a bit of chilling out. The swimming in the river is great and the canoeing looked good too.
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