Blogs from Midi-Pyrénées, France, Europe - page 11

We have been traveling around to many medieval villages, often "bastides," which are villages set in a grid plan with a central square. The square is surrounded by a walkway with arcades that offer shops and usually a few cafes. On our way to Peyrusse-le-Roc, we stopped to shop at a small open air market in Concot. One gentleman was selling chickens, uncooked as well as rotisserie cooked. As you can see in the picture, he nicely tucked the head along side of the chicken so nothing was wasted. Sandra selected a rotisserie chicken for us for dinner but he said he would remove the head. He did but tucked it in with the rest of the chicken! That was our little surprise when we arrived home and unwrapped it.?We also visited twin towers in the ... read more

Hi all, I haven't been doing well on this blog. We explore - and eat - all day and then get home and just crash. Sandra arrived a week ago Saturday and before we knew it, the day had come for her departure. But we enjoyed a wonderful time with her, exploring each day. You will see her in some pictures here and the next blogs. I am going to randomly add some pictures, just because I have so many and don't have time to explain each, but you get the picture. First, I want you to see what types of roads we are driving on. We have now driven 2,500 km on various roads but mostly yellow and white roads (on the map). The red roads are the best. The yellow are narrow with no ... read more

I need to write these blogs before I jumble all these beautiful villages together! Thursday we drove (among many maniacal French drivers) to Saint Cirq Lapopie. What a treat. This is my favorite village so far. It is an exquisite medieval town built into the rock on a sheer cliff. How they accomplished this architectural feat is beyond me. We parked way down below and walked up into the town and as we strolled through the winding paths (aka roads ?) there were intrigging shops at every turn. We then found a lovely small cafe with a table on the patio and enjoyed a three course meal, including luscious desserts. Duck is a local favorite and we have had some version of that several places. And the food presentation is always exquisite. Check out the pictures. ... read more

Hi all, Well we made it! The flights went well with short layovers in Salt Lake City and Amsterdam. For whatever reason, however, I could not sleep on the planes so was up for 30+ hours before I lay my head on a pillow. We arrived about 1:30 France time in Toulouse and then went to the rental car office to get our "Fifi," our little Fiat. Drove without incident - amazingly - to Cremps, to our digs. Cameron navigated superbly however the roads became smaller and smaller... Something out of Alice In Wonderland. The road was so narrow that little Fifi could barely fit through, often with buildings on either side. Now throw in that these narrow trails for roads are two way! Then add in that they are very windy with a lot of ... read more

Woken early from my sleep by rain on the roof. Not much but enough when the swimming things were on the line and the chairs out. Put them away and was glad later when rain woke me again, really falling in earnest this time. That made decision as to what to do next easy. Travelling day. So we packed up and set off towards the mountains. Couldn't see them very well as they were under low cloud and mist but that soon started to clear and we had a rather good drive in ever increasing sunshine. Tina Tomtom was behaving very well and found some beautiful roads and only once tried to persuade us onto a dual carriageway from Foix when there was a perfectly good yellow, scenic road to follow along the river to Tarascon-sur-Ariege. ... read more