Blogs from Valence, Rhône-Alpes, France, Europe

Today we chose to drive a more scenic route. One which took us through acres of vineyards of the Burgundy region. We avoided the motorways and instead used the N roads which go through the middle of towns, sometimes hitting mini traffic jams but these just give us chance to look around. We started from Langres, a fortified town on top of a hill and, according to the number of heavy trucks we saw, a major crossroads on routes between Paris and Switzerland. We bypassed Dijon and still can’t decide if we have ever visited there or not, through Nuits Saint George and through Beaune, which we have, on our first motorhome trip in 2003. We were, for a good part of the way, following a Route du Grand Cru, which basically means that there are ... read more

Well, today we went into Valence and (surprise!) it was market day. Actually, this one we were expecting. There is a market in Valence every day but the biggest one is on Saturday. We found cheese, pre-moldy cheese, extra-moldy cheese, and mold with essence of cheese. Plus bread, olives, skinned rabbits (eyeballs and buck teeth intact), plucked duck and chicken with head still on, and other local specialties. We were looking for used novels in English (Lori is fresh out) and t-shirts in French (Nigel is fresh out...just kidding, we need souvenirs). Well, there were almost no English books (just Lord of the Flies and a used dictionary), and all the t-shirts were in English (see photo below). The t-shirts were either British themed or American themed strangely. That the English words were either randomly chosen ... read more

Well, the journey was long as expected. The flights were good and we all managed to get a few hours sleep. Each seat had its own TV with a remote/controller and we could each choose to watch TV shows, movies, play games, etc. on our own screen. It was pretty cool! Needless to say, the flight went fast! Connected in Schipol and recognized the airport right away. Had a 3 hour stopover but got lucky and Nigel and I got bulkhead seats for that flight so were really able to stretch out our legs. Too bad we didn't get that for the long flight... Arrived in Lyon and found the car. Drove to St. Peray using the GPS. We must have done something wrong though near the house cuz we ended up driving up a small ... read more

We departed before 10am on an overcast and chilly morning after saying our goodbyes to Chris and Phil as we weren't sure we'd see them again. Phil told us with a big grin that he'd learnt more about drinking in the last 3 days than he had in 40 years at Whitbread. He had been introduced to Mike cocktails and Mike was pleased to hear this snippet! We were really pleased to have met them and had such good fun – we hoped we'd see them again. As we motored down river the sun made an appearance and we took the roof down, bundling up in jumpers to keep warm. Becky and I behaved like tourist geeks looking out for the 'sights' in the Rhone navicarte and photographing them as we passed. We saw the three ... read more

25 décembre 2007 Pour ceux qui ne sont pas au courant je me suis lancé dans une exploration de 3 mois du continent Nord-Americain. Tout a commencé le 25 decembre 2007 vers 22h.Aprés une journée de Noël assez intense je me resouds à faire mes bagages...2h30 avant le depart! L'histoire est reglée en moins d'une heure.Mon frére Xavier passe me récupérer avec sa copine Caroline et ils nous restent une bonne heure pour se faire payer un thé nocturne chez mon grand ami Fabien qui habite à deux pas de la gare de Valence. 26 décembre 2007 00h50 train de nuit pour Paris-Austerlitz 06h45 RER pour Roissy-Charles de Gaulle 10h00 décollage de Paris 11h20 atterissage et escale a Zurich 12h50 décollage pour Montreal 15h15 (heure locale) atterissage à Montreal aprés 8h d'avion et quelques 6000km parcourus ... read more