Blogs from Languedoc-Roussillon, France, Europe - page 3

Bonjour à tous, Avant de passer à la conclusion de ce périple, un petit mot sur la journée d’aujourd’hui. Toute la soirée, toute la nuit, et toute la journée de la pluie, de la pluie, et encore de la pluie. J’ai traversé la banlieue de Toulouse, dans un ruisseau, sur l’autoroute, très chargé comme je le prévoyais, la vitesse est parfois tombée à 40kmh, si la pluie est intense. Mais avant ça, j’avais décidé de faire un léger détour, par Lourdes. Après ma visite à Fatima au Portugal, et St Jacques de Compostelle, je me devais passer par Lourdes. Comme Pau, j’ai connu Lourdes il y a pas mal d’années. Mais jamais je ne m’étais rendu jusqu’à la grotte. La visite, avec parapluie impératif, à été de courte durée. Peu de monde sur le parvis de ... read more

Today we took a road trip. Our first port of call was Villesèquelande where stands the Ormeau de Sully - an Elm tree planted in the 16C - - the knights museum was closed ! Then headed into Truffle Country at Moussoulens, but no black diamonds found! Montolieu was a village with 20 plus book shops, art galleries and potters! Lunch was enjoyed in the main square at Cassquets et Chapeau - caeser salad with anchovies served by an Irish lady whose French husband was the chef. Then onto Saint-Martin-le-Veil stopping en route to view the Cistercian Abbey of Villelongue - the medieval gardens were worth the stop. Good day - saw lots you could so easily miss, thank you Google !!!... read more

We choose Carcassonne over other places in France that we haven’t been before, for one reason; potential place to retire. The cost of living here is very low a 900 square foot apartment with two bedrooms for $900 a month. That is less than half of what we pay in New York for 720 square feet and one bedroom. To fully get the feel for the town, our original plan was to rent a couple of bikes, stop at a couple of real estate offices then ride by apartments, houses, etc. Biking was not in our stars. First, I had originally booked some bikes on line, but they never confirmed or responded to my three e-mails, at least no money exchanged hands. The hotel did have bikes available, even though they did not advertise that, so ... read more

Montpellier is well situated for taking day trips to nearby (and sometimes not so nearby) towns. But, we have discovered there are lots of neat places to walk in Montpellier. The trips described in this blog entry were taken on random days over the period we were there. The pictures are grouped by location rather than chronologically as sometimes the destinations overlapped. Tram station to tram station The tram that runs by our apartment heads south towards the Mediterranean but splits before it gets there into Lattes Centre and Perols. You can walk from either to the sea or take a local bus. We decided to be daring and walk from Lattes to Palavas-Les-Flots, the resort town right on the beach, along the beach and back up to Perols. It’s only 12 or 13 kilometres and ... read more

When we were in Montpellier two years ago we traveled to Nîmes. We thought we could do the town and the Pont du Gard (the famous aqueduct that brought water to Nîmes) in one day. Then we discovered how far it was from Nîmes to the Pont. We did the town and regretted our inability to see the aqueduct. If you are interested in our previous experience in the town, click https://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Languedoc-Roussillon/N-mes/blog-974056.htmlhere. I did and it brought back some great memories. The Roman museum in Nîmes Nîmes was everything we remembered. As soon as you exit the train station you find yourself walking up this incredibly wide mall lined with trees and benches. A few blocks into town you come to the amazing amphitheatre which in many ways is more impressive than the Coliseum in ... read more