Blogs from France, Europe - page 1561

So it is raining outside (not the nice cold rain i like, but the humid hurricane kind) and i am sick so i decided to stay inside sipping tea and emailing. I am trying to defeat a cold before it lays claim to my life. In Nice, i've met such a great group of people from my hostel room. there are 8 beds in the room and the first night 4 people actually paid to stay in the room, but i'm pretty sure about 10 people total were in with us. We cooked dinner, drank about a million bottles of whatnot, and went out dancing. the fun group consisted of some great bay area Cal Poly girls, a candian, some New Zealanders and two Philly boys whose accents make me miss my east coast friends, and ... read more

hello everybody this is josh. it has been awhile but we spent the last couple of days in cique terre and the compys werent cheap or in good supply so i havnet been around one. now we are in nice. we arrived this afternoon and will be here for the night and then to barcelona for three nights. the train ride is only 10.5 hours so it should be fun. i was surpsrised with nice. it is on the french riviera and right on the water. the train ride had some nice scenery. i think we are getting a little accustomed to the views of the mediterranean sea though cause we werent that excited. except when we saw two yachts in the harbor of monaco that were both about 200 feet each in length. huge. never ... read more

21/10/05 - Big rest day required today after too much driving. We strolled around Saint-Nectaire and its surroundings. The autumn colours are lovely, the trees are full of red, brown and orange leaves, the weather is also great, about 19 degrees. Autumn is also good from the point of view that the summer crowds have long gone and we virtually have the place to ourselves and the locals. This is a very interesting area, old volcanoes, lakes, beautiful farmland and old villages. We visited the 12th century church, plus the limestone Petrification Fountains (Fontaines Pétrifiantes des Saint-Nectaire, where artwork is created over a period of about 12 months by placing moulds on a ladder in a fountain of water which contains limestone deposits. 12 months later you have a limestone artwork or perhaps a limestone statue ... read more

I posted some more pictures on yesterdays blog. Marleen and I are figuring this out. The Cathare drive was beautiful yesterday: So many castles and history: Not many tourists, which made it nice: We enountered a few europeans wherever we went and Ivo always had a nice chat: Me also, as I tried to follow and listen: Ha! I bought grapes and apples. Also Marleen made us great sandwiches with cheese and baguettes: So we picniced in a couple of areas and just enjoyed the scenery: Ivo is a great travel guide: He has a head full of history and also just good stories: I felt the most touched at the old Roman church: So ancient. It was added onto in the 1100 century: The statues and art on the ceiling are not so clear in ... read more

19/10/05 - Lorenza’s plan “drive as far as we can from Menaigo toward France as possible”. Sounded like a good plan at 11pm last night. This morning we took our planned route, which according to the Michelin map was a major highway, but not an Autostrada. Yeah, right! It took us three hours to travel about fifty kms, through so many industrial towns I lost count. Trucks, trucks, trucks and more bloody trucks! We decided the minor highway was a total joke and consulted our map, deciding to head for the nearest Autostrada to cover as much distance as possible. Now, I thought the Italians, being the descendants of the Romans who invented roads and highways, would have their act in order when it came to roads and signage. No way! There were road works everywhere, ... read more