Oct 06

Limoges to Paris

Limoges

The weather turned rainy overnight and the morning was grey and foggy. We decided that Limoges can be visited another time, with allowance for visit to the porcelain museum. After a quick breakfast we headed back to the autoroute and  proceeded with our drive to Paris.  Along the way the skies cleared and the afternoon was a nice if somewhat cool day.

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Autoroute to Paris
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Here there be brigands?

Along the way stopped for lunch, at a little town called Vierzon.

Paris

Navigating the Boulevard Peripherique is an experience best done in light Sunday afternoon traffic, and even then (due to roadworks and only partially viable signs) it was a bit of a work of art. However we have arrived at the Paris Charles De Gaulle airport without much incident.

Oct 05

Carcassonne to Limoges

The Plan

We need to get from Carcassonne to Paris by evening of 6 October. Its a dive of about 800 km, but the road is littered with things we might wish to see, so we will do it in tow stages:

  • Carcassonne to Limoges on te 5th, and
  • Limoges to Paris on the 6th

Carcassonne

As we were departing Carcassonne, the rain cleared up and we managed to get a  bit of opportunity to take more photos:

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Panorama of La Cite from the Aude rive valley

 

Countryside

Having left Carcassonne we drove on secondary roads towards Castlenaundry and Tuluse. The road wound itself through countryside littered with small villages and a lot of it is covered in sunflower fields.

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Sunflower Field

The Drive

After a stop for lunch in a small village called Bram, which also happens to be one of the 50 or so “circulade” villages we go into the autoroute towards Limoges and Paris

Limoges

Limoges greeted us with drizzle and cold wind.  Here we stop for the night and consider what we will do next.

Oct 05

Carcassonne : The Cathar Country

Carcassonne

The site of the current medieval city has been inhabited and fortified since at least 100BC or so. Since that time it was occupied by Romans, Visigoths, (most famously) the Cathars, and after a crusade,  since 1247 – the kings of France.

Unfortunately it was raining so we are unable to give you pretty pictures of La Cite. Here is what we have

Some sights of Carcassonne

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Potre de Narbonne – la Cite – Carcassonne

St Nazaire Basilica

St Nazaire Basilica looming in the mists

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St Nazaire Basilica – Stained Glass Window

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Gargoyle of St Nazaire

 

And last but no least (with apologies for the cropping and distortions) the main gates of the Chateau Comtal:

 

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Gates of Chateau Comtal in Carcassonne

 

Revisit: Required.

This place and the surrounding Cathar country definitely need a return visit.

Oct 03

Avignion – A brief visit

Avigion

Avignon if the city of the Popes and of the Anti-popes. Need more time to explore this and do the palace of the popes full justice.

In the meantime here are some sights from the city of Avignon:

Some sights of Avignon:

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Vines at back of the Jardines de Doms.

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Garogyle at Eglise de St Agricole

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Petit Palais as seen from the banks of the Rhone

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Section of the old city walls, at Potre du Rocher

Le Chien du Avigion

A very well behaved and polite dog in the restaurant where we had lunch:

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le chein de Avignon

Oct 02

Vienne – A nice little surprise

Vienne

Hotel – B&B Au Bois de Massier

Today we woke up in a lovely B&B called Au Bois de Massier, in the hills above the little town of Vienne.  The  hotel deserves a separate write-up, so stay tuned for that.

Ville de Vienne

Our hosts tols us that city of Vienne has the 3rd largest concentration of monuments in Europe: Rome and Wien (Austria)  take the first and second place. It truns out that Vienne was a major Roman town (with a temple of Augustus and Livia) – a capital of a colony – and a was a a bishopric since later part of the 4th centrury. Consequently there is a number of monuments in the city, some more obvious:Our hosts claim that Vienne has the 3rd largest concentration of monuments in Europe: Rome and Wien (Austria)  take the first and second place.

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Temple of Augustus and Livia

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Mosaic of Orpheus – Gallo-Roman Museum in Vienne

and some like the Cathedral of St Maurice, a place where the Pope Clement V (at instigation of King Phillip the Fair of France) presided over the  council and a tribunal of that ultimately ordered the suppression of the Templars in May of 1312:

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Cathedral of St Maurice

Sep 30

Chateau de Chillion on Lake Geneva

Gex

Weather has been threatening to close in for a few days now. It rained the day before and today looked like it might do it again. Despite that we asked out hosts to show us around, and they suggested that we go for a drive along the northern shore of Lac Leman (Lake Geneva), from Gex to Montreux, with a stop for a nice lunch and a visit Chateau de Chillion.

Ouchy (Ouchy-Lousanne)

After a good breakfast we set off on our excursion. After a bit of a drive and we stopped in Ouchy,  a former fishing village and sicne mid 1800’s a suburb of Lausanne, and a port on the lake. One of the hotels on the lake front has a claim to fame: Lord Byron lived there for a time in summer of 1816.

We explored the foreshore a bit, and then had lunch, while we watched a  Lake Geneva paddle steamer set off on its rounds.

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Paddle Steamer

Along the lake

We stopped at a few lookout points along the lakeside road, which parallels the lake and the railway line. Some of the views were spectacular:

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Lake Geneva -Lac Leman
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Lake Geneva -Lac Leman

Chateau De Chillion

Built on a rocky outcrop in the lake this castle was first mentioned in the chronicles between 1005 and 1160. From the mid 13th century, the castle was for a time the home of the Counts of Savoy and was extensively expanded in those days. The form of the catsle as it is today is from that period. We ave many photos of the details, but the time and the geography of the area did not permit us to wander around and take many decent outside shots…

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Chateau de Chillion

Sep 26

Transit Day: Thira – Athens – Geneva – Gex

Transit Day

Today, we will be in transit – flying from Thira to Geneva via Athens, and then driving to stay with some friends of ours in Gex.

More details coming soon.

Sep 22

Thira – Fira: the caldera

Thira

We have not dropped off the face of the planet.  But this is where we had lunch.

Thira - The caldrea

Thira – The caldrea

Sep 03

River Cruise – Beer tasting in Bamberg

Bamberg

Today we visited Bamberg, a lovely little city on the Main river.

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Bamberg – Streets

Beer

Today was the day of beer and sausages, a visit to the Kolsterbau, one of the oldest (set up in 1533) brew houses in Bamberg. The speciality of the Bamberg master brewers is the so called “smoked beer” aka Rauchbier, which is made by inclusion of malt that is dried and partly caramelised over the open flame in the brewing process. This very dark beer is best consumed when served with a white sausage and sauerkraut.

In all the lovely people at the brewery have given us 3 beers to taste:

In all, it was a very interesting afternoon. I am not a beer drinker so the finer subtleties of German beers are lost on me.

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Klosterbrau Weizen
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Klosterbrau Rauchbier

Sep 02

River Cruise – Wurzburg

Wurzburg on Main welcomed us with cloudy skies and a cold wind.

Unfortunately I do not have any good photos of the main attraction for the day, the Residenz Palace, because of the mass of cars parked in the front, and the fact that there was no photography permitted inside.

However as a consolation prize I offer you the panorama of the Festung Marienberg, as seen from the old city side of the Main.

 

Festung Marienberg - wurtzburg

Festung Marienberg in Wurtzburg