Thursday 14 June Loire Valley (Loches)

We are in the Loire Valley. What else is there to do but look at chateaux?

We started with Chambord, the biggest and most ostentatious of them all. Chambord was built by Francoise I as a hunting lodge, but it remained uncompleted by his death, and in total he spent about six weeks here. The place is massive - 440 rooms - and was never furnished. Every time the king came to stay, the entire furnishings, kitchen equipment, horses, wall hangings etc etc were bought here for him, by his entourage of around 2000 people. Chambord today remains a palatial structure of huge, cold, empty rooms; echoing hallways; myriad fireplaces; and a roofline that was built on the king’s orders to resemble the skyline of Constantinople.

While we were here, we decided to go to the show ‘The Chevaliers du Roi’ (The King’s Horsemen), which was a great fun mix of dressage, history, horsemanship and comedy. I got roped in as part of the comedy section, as a token English person, to assist a broken down old knight revive his ‘dead’ horse. It came down to a choice of kiss the horse or kiss the knight - guess which one I chose!! It certainly revived the horse in a hurry!

Next up Chenonceau, the ‘ladies chateau’. This one was spectacular in its location, as it is built in the form of a bridge across the river Cher. It was occupied by two royal ladies, firstly Diane de Poitiers, Henri II’s mistress, and then, on Henri’s death, his wife Catherine de Medici evicted Diane and took over Chenonceau. It is a real contrast to Chambord, with its smaller rooms, and much more lived in feel. The kitchens are open to the public, and the whole place is beautifully furnished with period pieces, including a well-stocked kitchen, and massive floral arrangements in every room. Very beautiful.

Finally, Villandry, famous for its gardens. We arrived here about 15 minutes before the chateau closed, so just got tickets for the gardens, which remained open as long as you wanted to be there, and spent a couple of hours wandering amongst them. Very refreshing after a hard days sightseeing. 

Chambord

Chambord courtyard

Francois I, owner of Chambord

Chambord rooftop terrace

Chambord horse show

Me reviving the horse

Chenonceau

Flower arrangements at Chenonceau

Chenonceau on the river

Villandry

Carp in the moat at Villandry - we spent a fair while feeding our leftover bread to them

Gardens at Villandry

The vege garden - almost as good as George's!!

Painted window at Villandry

Wednesday 13 June Chatenay to Loches

Today mostly a driving day. We got out for a walk around Chatenay in the morning, and then drove drove drove across and up through the middle of France, covered about 500km I think, mostly on the peage so flying along.

In the late afternoon, around 6pm we reached our next B and B. This one is in the centre of a small town called Loches, right in the heart of the Loire Valley. If Chatenay was beautiful, this place is AMAZING. 16th century houses beside the medieval (13th century) heart of the village. A chateau about 300m from our front door, along with its dongon (dungeon), church, and 2km stone wall, complete with one huge stone gate, about 200m up the road from our place. Our rooms were accessed by a 600 year old wooden staircase, and gave a definite feel of what it must have been like to live back in those days (except with plumbing, thank goodness!) Our host, Claude, is a lovely man, very French but with perfect English, and an extremely expressive tipped eyebrow, which he used at just about everything we said - ‘You have four daughters?” “You are going to see three chateaux in one day?” “You have come all the way from from New Zealand and are going to spend just one day in the Loire Valley?” etc etc. 

Breakfast at Chatenay

Family portrait

Chicken house, Chatenay

Jessa feeding sheep

Front door of our house, Loches

Street outside our house, Loches

Loches street

View from our window, Loches

The dungeon at Loches

Tuesday 12 June Avignon to Chatenay

This morning was devoted to the Pont du Gard, a Roman aqueduct spanning the river Gard, built to transport water 52 km from the small village of Uzes to Nimes, the centre of Roman civilisation in southern France back in the early early ADs (this aqueduct was built around 50-60 AD). We had a good look around, including the excellent museum showing how the aqueduct was built, and what they used the water for once they got it to Nimes. 

We then got onto the good old peage once more, and hammered north for four or five hours, until we tracked down our nights B and B in the hamlet of Bassets (population = approx. 8 people, 70 cows, 8 dogs, 6 sheep and several chickens). This place is BEAUTIFUL. Old, old stone buildings, beautifully redone, totally rural, green rolling hills. We arrived around 7pm, had some tea, and then went out for a walk in the gentle rain, enjoying the quiet country ambience, something we have not seen for a while. Bernadette, the owner, was lovely, although she spoke no English at all. We were lucky enough to encounter another couple who were guests in the other room for the night, a French couple from Champagne, she spoke great English, he didn’t at all, so we chatted about NZ, France, Rugby and the European Union for an hour or so before bedtime. Fantastic place to stay.

Our hotel in Rognonas, just south of Avignon

Pont du Gard

Pont du Gard - it really is huge!

1000 year old olive tree, near the P du G

Our B and B near Chatenay - this place was something special

Rainbow over the hills

The town Charolles is just down the road form here - this is the home of the Charolais breed of cattle

A lane between the paddocks in the Burgundy countryside

Monday 11 June Grasse to Avignon

Driving day today. We headed north from Grasse, and into the heart of Provence Haute Alpes - the high mountains that lie between the main part of Provence and the sea. The road wound up and up, and then through a series of high valleys, dotted with beautifully picturesque stone houses and villages. We stopped briefly at the town of Castellane, which holds a commanding position across a pass in the mountains, and has many plaques commemorating local boys who died “Les mortes glorieuses” in WW2, defending their town. 

We stopped again about 20km down the road, over an old stone bridge and down to picnic beside a lovely river. A classic Provencal picnic - fresh baguettes, cheese, salami, dark chocolate and a robust red wine. Divine!

We then spent the next hour or so meandering through the most amazing landscape of steep limestone hills, with sheer cliffs down to the river flowing at the bottom of the gorge. The road was carved out of the rock, and featured rocky overhangs, tunnels, and many hairpin bends. The numerous motorcyclists that zipped past looked like they were having a ball!

About now we realised that we had only covered about a quarter of our travel for the day, we were meant to check into tonight’s hotel by 6pm, and it was now 4pm. We scooted to the closest peage, jumped onto it, and chewed up the miles to Rognonas, a small village just south of Avignon. We were only an hour late for checkin, but no worries, kids into the pool by 7.15 and all done and inside for dinner by the time the rain started bucketing down around 9pm.

View from our hotel window - looking over Grasse, and out to Cannes on the coast.

Small town of Castellane

Picturesque road in Castellane

Geology in action - just look at that uplifted sedimentary strata!!!

Our picnic sport, in the Gorge of the river Verdon

The road through the Verdon gorge

Looking out over the lake at the end of the gorge

Sunday 10 June Cote d’Azur

Got on the “Peage” (toll road) first thing this morning, and zoomed over to Grasse, about 200 km away, in about 1.5 hours (averaging 110km/h. The speed limit on the Peage is 130km, and that is pretty much what the middle lane does. The fast lane zips by at about 20km/h faster than that. Fantastic roads, make getting from place to place quickly a breeze. Toll costs are around 4-5 euros per hour.

So, we arrived in Grasse late morning. Grasse is the historical centre of the perfume industry in France (if you have not read the book ‘Perfume’, by Patrick Suskind, you should do so immediately, or at least watch the (very good) film version of it). Jeremy’s cousin Jenny is a perfumier here, employed to construct new scents for clients. Grasse itself is an ancient town, clinging to the edge of a steep steep hill, with little tiny narrow streets (like so many of the other towns we have come across in our travels). Kind of scary when you are piloting a bus like this Mercedes we have rented. We found our way to our hotel, a converted nunnery with truly spectacular views over Grasse and out to Cannes on the coast, and we eventually managed to catch up with Jenny, and collect her for a guided tour of the area. 

First stop was Monaco. Well, it was meant to be, but we missed the turnoff and had a brief foray over the border into Italy - didn’t think I would be back in Italy this quickly! - but managed to do a U-turn just before the toll station that wanted to collect an arrival tax or something. Back along the coast, and then we dropped down, down, down the hill into Monaco. Another little country-within-a-country, like the Vatican, but slightly bigger, and here they worship the great god money, rather than just the great God. It is not really what I was expecting - well, I didn’t know what to expect really, but what I saw was a tiny concrete jungle of high rises, most with lovely gardens on their roofs, a couple of big marinas full of fabulously expensive looking superyachts, and more Ferraris, Porsches and Maseratis than you can shake a stick at. We walked up to the palace, a very unassuming big house on the top of a hill overlooking the whole place, and took in the view. While we were there, the guards got all excited, whistles blew, and then a sleek black car swept out of the palace. We caught a brief glimpse of the back seat occupants, and Jenny and I looked at each other and said “Was that really ...?”, “Yes, I think it was” - it was Prince Albert (I think he is actually King now), and Queen (princess?) Charlene. I’m sorry, but I simply cannot say Princess Charlene with a straight face. I mean really!! Anyway - royalty spotting ticked off the list of things to do!

Next stop was Cannes, and a quick drive along the waterfront to spot the theatre where the festival takes place, the pavement where all the stars plant their handprints, and the hotel that Madonna usually stays at until she got banned this year for trashing her room and causing 30 000 euros worth of damage. 

OK, enough celebrity spotting. Back to Grasse for a delicious Indian dinner, and a tour of Jenny’s apartment, and that was another day done.

Monaco - this is the view as you walk out of the parking building

Jenny and Danae in Monaco

Monaco

The mian marina at Monaco

Looking from the palace into the other bay of Monaco - we thought this was
 probably the more exclusive part of the town

The Grimaldi's place, Monaco

The Casino - how many songs can you think of that feature this place? We could think of two - Abba's Money Money Money (I'd have to go, to Las Vegas or Monaco), and whoever sings The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo.

The red carpet, at Cannes

View out over Grasse, from the main square (where Jean-Baptiste Grenouille met his grisly end in Perfume)

Saturday 9 June Figueres to Eyguieres

Caught the TGV (high speed train) across the border to the French town of Perpignan, where we were booked to collect our rental car. Much drama with the collection of the damn thing, as they had to put a 1000 euro ‘hold’ against my VISA, which gave a tired sigh, and refused to play the game. No wireless in the train station, so I headed into town to find a wireless cafe so I could transfer some funds. Found a cyber cafe alright, but these French keyboards are all completely differently set out to ours, so I managed to put in the wrong username and/or password at least three times. Unbeknownst to me, that then locks your online access for 24 hours. I hit the streets again, and finally found a nice hotel that let me use their wireless for an only moderately exorbitant price, only to find that I could not get into my account using my own laptop either. Quelle horreur!!

After much wailing and gnashing of teeth, we finally noticed an international help number at the bottom of the screen, and, using the last few cents on Jeremy’s mobile phone, we got hold of a real NZ person at the National Bank. I have never been so pleased to hear someone speaking English, especially with a kiwi accent. Must have been about midnight on Saturday night in NZ. She unlocked my account, I transferred the money and all was sunshine and happiness again. We got the car, drove to Carcassone for a late lunch and a look around the castle, and then off to the small village of Eyguieres for the night. Slept well, pleased not to be in Perpignan for the night!

Carcassonne - a real fairytale castle

Walking up the pathway to Carcassonne

Romy and the castle

Carcassonne cathedral

Jessa and the drawbridge in to the last bastion of defence at Carcassonne

Danae hunting moles, Eyguieres B and B - some real genuine countryside!!