6 July 2015
Madrid To Nice
Up early for breakfast and we caught the1st shuttle from the hotel to the airport to catch our plane to Nice. Checked in and boarded the plane along with about a 100 14- to 15-year-old school kids also heading to Nice. It was the loudest flight we have ever had.
Touched down in Nice and caught a taxi to the hotel which is in the old part of town and not far from the beach. We took a walk along the beach front and went up the hill to the old chateau which was originally build by the Romans.
We did not feel like much dinner as we had a surprisingly big lunch (blackboard special) at one of the many sidewalk cafés, so we went to McDonald’s for a burger (how long has it been since we went to one of those joints!!!). Very upmarket here, you have to order electronically and not over the counter - this makes it hard when you can’t speak French.
Had an early night as we are off to pick up our car tomorrow.
Nice To Hyeres
After having a little bit of driving practice yesterday we headed of for the medieval village of Saint-Paul’s (yes another old place). This town has a lot of art displays/studios so I’m glad we got there early before they opened. We walked around the town and had a look in the windows of some of the studios which displayed many and varied pieces. We went for a bite of breakfast and as we were sitting eating the first of the tourist buses rolled in (suckers).
From here we headed for Antibes hoping to travel on the secondary roads, but the stupid GPS was determined for us to travel on the motorways. We tricked it a couple of times, but the traffic was so bad we jumped back on the motorway. Parking is at a premium in these places, and we were lucky to score one on the beach - not the main one. Nice if you like pebbles to sit on.
Next stop was Cannes - no parking here, but at least there is some sort of sand on the beach. The traffic was horrendous, so we kept crawling to St Tropez but didn’t quite make it. There was a broken-down truck which blocked an entire lane of traffic, so we stopped at St Maxine and had a coffee at a beachside café and watched the rich and famous frolic on the beach. Day beds and waiter service - we should look at introducing this back in Australia.
From here we headed to our B&B in Hyeres and are settling in for the night. One mistake we made is that we didn’t ask for air conditioning - lesson learnt. We have made arrangements for tomorrow night's stay at Jonquieres-Saint-Vincent.
More tomorrow.
9 July 2015
Hyeres To Jonquieres-Saint-Vincent
We left fairly early and headed for the resort town of La Londe Les Mauled which appears to cater for campers and unit renters. The main activities are sailing, swimming and lounging around. This place is for the not so rich and famous but is very nice.
Next stop was Cuers which is a little inland and is a very old village. The only place we could park was in the crematorium as very other spot was full. Once again, an old village but quaint. Guess what, next stop was Rocbaron then Brignoles and they are both old villages. We had coffee in Brignoles and the café we were outside of overlooked the markets. It seems that every village has a market on Wednesdays.
Back on the road we headed for Aix En Province which is a reasonably large town. We just drove through and then stopped by the side of the road to have some lunch with the intention of going to Avignon, by the Rhône River and have a good look around. Avignon is currently having a massive festival plus school holidays which meant that we would have to park way outside of town and catch public transport - no time.
We drove around the old town which is still completely walled. This is unusual because most other towns removed most of the walls. The place was huge. From here we struck out for our nights B&B which was a beautiful place on a large plot of land (approx. 1 acre) and is run by a retired couple. Mrs could speak some English - Mr none but we got by. They pointed out some nice little places for dinner and a few places of interest which we would have missed.
Next morning we were supplied with a French breakfast that we couldn’t jump over and off we went.
Jonquieres-Saint-Vincent To Colombiers
We set off early again and went to a town called Nimes which we did not like the look of and took a diversion to the village of Sommieres. This village is situated beside a small river and, of course, it is an old village. This one had a lot of charm and more cafés in the square and shops in the alleys than people that live there. We had coffee at one of the cafés and were taken aback by the way we were treated when people found out that we were from Australia and not English. They seem to go out of their way to help and try and have a chat.
Next stop on the journey was Montpellier which is a big city. Our policy now is to drive through the big cities and stop at the small villages. Having said “small villages” most of them are fairly expansive and seem to have one or two hotels from one of the well known brands.
I was side-tracked. We drove through Montpellier and headed for Sete which is a seaside town. When we got there the place was packed (school holidays) so we found somewhere to have lunch and took off for Colombiers where we are staying for the night.
There are two parts to this place, a very old part of town - stone buildings, narrow streets etc. and then there is the new part - new builds and modern. We are staying in the new part of town, but it is OK.
More tomorrow.
Colombiers To Bordeaux
We set off early heading for our next B&B at Tauriac De Nauelle. On the way we passed through lots of villages but called in at Carcassonne to have a look at the medieval city - another old place. From the outside it looked very interesting but when we entered, we found it to be full of boutiques, souvenir shops, restaurants, cafes and about 6 hotels.
After a quick look around we headed off to Tauriac De Nauelle and got lost a couple of times along the way due to the GPS not recognising some of the roads we were on. Our hosts told us the a lot of the roads have only been open a couple of weeks which explains a lot.
The place we stayed at is a small working farm and the old barn has been converted into a beautiful house with heaps of rooms. Hence the B&B. Our French has not improved but our sign language certainly has come a long way. We joined the family for drinks before dinner on the terrace and were treated to a couple of homemade brews. One of the wines was made out of walnuts - yes walnuts - and it was fantastic, the other was what they called a Porto which was made from citrus fruits and some other stuff that I could not translate. This was nice also.
We then went into dinner which was a 3-course job followed by homemade schnapps. I was glad to go to bed.
Next morning we decide that we have had enough of driving and that we would head straight to Bordeaux to drop off the car and have extra days here. The place we were supposed to drop the car was closed when we got there so we had to find an alternative center. We did eventually but it took a few hours and then we went to our hotel which is in the center of the old part of town.
Off to explore today.
Our B&B for the night
13 July 2015
Bordeaux Day 2
Not a lot to report today. We spent most of the day just wandering around having a look at central parts of Bordeaux and stopped for coffee ever now and then to have a rest.
We found a cinema that shows films in English with French subtitles so we bought some tickets to the movie “Spy”. It was really good to hear the English language spoken continuously for 2 hours.
The hotel where we are staying offers aperitifs from 4:00 to 6:00 and usually showcases local wine and cheese. Tried a bit of this and will be backing up again tomorrow night.
More tomorrow.
Front of our hotel
No comments:
Post a Comment