Blogs from Languedoc-Roussillon, France, Europe - page 50

Three Days in Sete France We took three days to drive south to see our friends Ross and Maureen. They had rented an apartment in Sete. Sete is a fishing village of about 30,000 people on the Mediterranean. It is the second largest fishing village in France (Marseille is largest). Located in the Languedoc-Roussillon area, it is often referred to as the Venice of France. The area along the port has an old Atlantic City feel with side by side cafes, tourist stores, bars, restaurants, hotels. We were there during the second week of October and many of the seasonal places were closed and little or no evidence of tourists. The city gives off a no nonsense working town impression, almost industrial with few embellishments and frills. What would you do in Sete? A wonderful 11 ... read more

Bonjour Mon Ami and how are you all today? At last an addition to the blog! Sorry for delay-impossible finding anywhere! So now where was I? Florence was interesting as we stayed in the youth hostel and visitied the local rugby club to watch the Wales match and got lost on the way home! Met the local Italian IRB referee assessor and had a great afternoon with Kevin the only welsh man watching - and they were all routing for Fiji! anyway then we decided to give Venice a miss-too much travelling or a few hours in the place so we headed for Pisa. found a lovely family hotel near the station - saw the leaning tower but decided not to go up- 15 Euros and very hot there so decided the appeal is in seeing ... read more

Well we have left Vigo for our next planned date- Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany. It was sad to leave our good friends in Vigo but we were looking foward to what lied ahead. We travelled throuth Andorra, a small country built up and full of shops in its capital; but with beutiful scenery only 20 mins away from its central district. We indulged ourselves in Europes largest spar complex (30 Euros for 3 hours in a large pool, says Ben) and found a lovely camping spot smack bang in the middle of the Pyenees in a little village called Soldeu. We took a cable care to the top on one of the Mount Gallo which had gorgeous scenery. Sadly bens ankle meant he coudlnt hire a downhill mountain bike, but maybe thats for the best. We ... read more

Bonjour! Whew - well, let me start things by apologizing for not writting sooner. It has been well over a week now and you all deserve an update. what better way to fill you in then by a quick recap of our gallavanting around France (and belguim). After a long day of relatively peaceful traveling (no babies crying, no obnoxious seat mates, no bad turbulance, etc), we spent a few short hours in Dublin and thanked ourselves for deciding to move on. Bypassed Brussels for Bruge, a quaintm but small tourist village that on the surface looks as though it has been perfectly preserved from the 1600's or so, on furhter inspection thanks to Lonely Planet reveals that much of the architechture is from the 19th and 20th century built in the style of the 16th ... read more

After the Dordogne region we headed towards the French riviera, via Millau. Up until now Europe has been pretty much the same everywhere we have gone, flat or rolling, green and not too different to New Zealand. Once we hit Millau things changed. Finally some hills! We went to Millau for the bridge but found one of the best campsites we have had, complete with squirrel collecting nuts, some amazing limestone cliffs, hundreds of Vultures in the hills. Altogether a pretty nice place. Heading on we went through somepretty windy country roads, on which the locals were more than happy to pass you on blind corners and large trucks were more than happy to take up your lane on tight corners. We got through this, slowly with only one swerve onto the cerb, luckly there was ... read more