Wednesday 16th April – The Journey to Carcassonne

We made our way to Carcassonne by way of Arles and Sete arriving in town around 3:30 in the afternoon.

Between Avignon and Arles we were stunned to see a considerable amount of Rice under cultivation. I had no idea France had any sort of rice industry. We were not certain it was rice but it looked very much like it – perhaps another topic for some further study.

At Arles the highlights were two - In the order – a French apple tart served with local ice cream and café de crème at a small but terribly expensive café at the foot ot the roman ruins and a Roman Amphitheatre that is now used as a bullfighting arena (apparently without any harm to the bulls).

While the theatre is in amazing condition and it was quite an experience to wander through the circular passage ways that make up the entries and egresses from the both the amphitheatre seating and the area surface itself, the apple tart was something that, had the café existed, the Christians would have chosen as their last meal before entering centre stage at the focal point of activity within the arena.

From Arles we wandered down toward Sete past canals that seemed ideal for Pam and Andrews bike riding activities and lakes that served as a refuges for hundreds (thousands?) of pink flamingos. The flocks that we saw were either quite young or they did not get as much access to carotene as their Mexican cousins as they were a much lighter colour than those we saw at Los Regos.

The motorway trip to Carcassonne was rapid and an experience. I did notice that at 130kph the fuel consumption of the little 1.4 litre Peugeot 207 started to approach 10litres per 100 kilometres - Having said that it is a great little car. We love it.

We have decided that having booked our accommodation ahead on the internet and having received what we thought were real bargains we should prepare ourselves for disappointment by simply rating each one in reverse order based on the number of bottles of red wine we needed to consume to make the accommodation feel adequate. We approached Carcassonne looking for places to buy at least three bottles. To our pleasure and surprise the wine was not required for the purposes of accommodation renovation. The Ibis overlooks Gambetta Square and is a neat and tidy and well priced at 45 euros.

Dinner was just on the other side of the square where we partook of a bean, duck, bacon and sausage stew – a local speciality known as Couiselet. It comes in a large bowl and is really delicious with subtle flavours and variety of textures. I doubt that there would be many people who could manage to e consume the entire bowl.

Tuesday 15th April – Our last day at Vaisons La Romaine.

Amazing … I swear that last night when I went to bed there was a square out the front of the hotel and there were miles of narrow streets with nothing but the odd car to restrict movement around the town. This morning there are literally hundreds (maybe four or five hundred) stalls spread across the square and along EVERY street surrounding the city centre. Car access is banned – the weekly market has come to town!. The produce is amazing and the variety is stunning. There is everything from fresh sea urchin to silk dresses. Everyone is there buying their weekly provisions. The fish vendors come equipped with refrigerated display cabinets and awnings that are the length of a semi trailer and that can be closed up and towed away behind a large van inside about fifteen minutes. The scene was just amazing. Equally amazing was the reality that we returned some six hours later and everything had gone and the streets and square were back to normal … I now know what is actually meant by market day!

We took the opportunity to purchase chicken, cheese, bread and avocados for our lunch and headed off through Avignon to the Pont Du Gard. We are doing everything at a slower pace now.

We dined on our cheese, bread and water at the Pont Du Gard. For me it is a mysterious structure that demands a little more study. There is something odd about the design that is inconsistent with the normal Roman approach. It is an impressive structure and the visitors small in number and very relaxed.

We again fought with the parking machines … when will we ever learn that “accepting a card” actually means accepting a “chipped” credit card rather than the Australian magnetic strip cards – beware approaching an automatic booth on a toll way without coins or a chipped card … the standard cards do not work and the note readers are a disaster unless you have a very effective note holder.

Upon return to Vaisons La Romaine we spend a quite evening drinking Kir de Maisson’s while watching the early evening bustle of the Square Du Montford.

Monday 14th April 2008 – The Palace of the Popes

If the French had no idea how to run the Palace at Versailles as a tourist icon, someone must have taught them something on our train trip down from Paris to Avignon. The Palace is situated inside the old walled city of Avignon, a site well worth visiting in its own right. The Palace was the home to four Popes in the middle ages and the Palace has been well if not ostentatiously preserved and the visit comes with a very well presented audio tour that provides a good description of the palace and its history in user selectable detail.

We found the little GPS system a “god-send’. It worked perfectly to steer us around through the maze of one way streets that is the walled city of Avignon.

We left Avignon and headed out to the Village of Gordes in the hills on the way to Aix Provence. The little village is spectacular in the extreme.

We also found our way to the wonderful little deserted Village of Bories before heading home through the mountains pass the Monastery of …… and the Popes summer residence at Seqret.

We returned once again to the same restaurant on the terrace overlooking the roman bridge. Bernadette has threatened divorce if I explain any of the details surrounding the photograph of her in the restaurant.

Sunday 13th April - Vaisons La Romaine

The TGV is indeed an impressive means of transportation. From the pure size and neatness of the TGV chamber at Gard Nord in Paris to the very nice conditions within the first class carriages make it indeed one of the better ways to get to the south of France in style and with speed.

We had a great instructor in the ways of the French rail system at Gard Nord in the form of an executive from the International Red Cross who was travelling from Paris back to his home base in Geneva. We met him when he overheard us trying to order a drink of hot chocolate intervening between us and waiter to ensure the successful delivery of the required beverage. He told how to interpret the signage and how to validate our tickets before escorting us to the correct platform. The trip to the Avignon TGV station was over in what seemed just an hour. In reality it was a three hour trip with the train leaving the vehicles speeding along the motorway in its wake. The ride was smooth and extremely comfortable.

On arriving at the Avignon Station we rang the Peugeot people and in no time at all we were fitting the Tom Tom and heading off on our way to Vaisons La Romaine some 40 kilometres from Avignon.

Vaisons La Romaine is lovely French town of around 6000 people situated in the Rhone Valley close to the mountains. The weather was beautiful although there was still snow clearly visible on the upper peaks. The hotel is on the central town square a short distance from a monastery that dates to the middle ages.

The monastery is located across a Roman bridge that dates from the Year 0 AD. Behind the hotel were the remains of the Roman occupation of the area.

We were to use Vaisons La Romaine as a base for three days in the Rhone Valley. Soon after we arrived we started our exploration of the town at the Monastery. The weather was just beautiful and the scenery magical. We completed the day with dinner on a terrace overlooking the bridge and river drinking copious quantities of local wine and chatting away in extremely broken French-English to the restaurant owner

The Hotel Burrhus we would recommend to anyone. It is a lovely two star hotel with nice polite service with receptionists who have quite adequate English skills. The rooms are freshly renovated. It is right on the main square in the middle of town. There are plenty of restaurants in the immediate area and there is car parking in the square immediately in front of the hotel.

Saturday 12th April - The Palace at Versailles

We again ventured out on the bikes for a tour of the Palace at Versailles. It involved a ride to the train station, a train trip to Versailles, an hour or so buying picnic supplies from the Versailles markets, a couple of hours riding around the Palace grounds, a picnic lunch in the grounds looing back along the lake to the palace followed by a tour of the palace itself. The tour group were mostly Australian couples with a few Americans thrown in.

The markets were great and it was an experience to jostle with the crowds to purchase baguettes, cheese and pastries for our lunch.

The ride around the palace grounds was very pleasant but again, we were I suspect, two or three weeks early. The gardens were only just starting to emerge from winter and the trees were yet to acquire their new leaves.

The Palace itself was a disappointment. Not so much for its beauty but for the quality of the site as a vehicle for presenting the history of the French people. Certainly it is opulent almost beyond belief but the way it is presented is poor in the extreme. Signage is terrible and the organisation is almost non existent. The crowds even in this semi off-season were over powering with numerous tour groups each with their own tour leaders fighting for position within each room of the enormous palace. The tour groups themselves were not only competing with each other but also with the hundreds (thousands?) of self guided individuals each equipped with their less than adequate audio guides.

Even the car park was a scene of chaos. Bernie and I sat and watched a queue of cars lined up for entry with the ticket dispense sometimes taking up to two or three minutes to admit just one car.

To cap it all off a tourist venue that sees thousands and thousands of visitors each year had only one café. It was inside the grounds and had impossible queues. Outside the grounds there was no sign of any form of convenience ranging from toilets to food stations and not place for the many waiting visitors to sit down.

Versailles is not something that the French should be proud of either now or in the days of Louis 16th

In the evening we tried dinner at an extremely well known French bistro known as the Brusserie Balzar. By reputation it is one of the finest restaurants in the Latin Quarter that specialises in local French food. That being the case then we assume that the French eat cold chicken and exceptional rare veal served with less than adequate white wine.

Off to Avignon tomorrow.

Friday 11th April 2008

Montmartre and a Stroll around Paris

We again met Bernie Minute and made our way to Montmartre in the north of the city this time we decided to use the iron horses underground rather than shanks’ pony as BernieR would have objected with a degree of violence had we suggested too much more walking.

The Montmartre area is quaint if considerably less polished than the rest of central Paris. The view from the cathedral steps over Paris is spectacular, the building itself is impressive overall it was one of less inspiring cathedrals that are spread throughout Paris.

I was fascinated by the crassness of some endeavours … witness the Le Sacre Resto – other wise known as the local Pizza and burger outlet located on a terrace immediately below the cathedral

We had our morning coffee in a small backstreet café before heading back into central Paris. Bernie and I were intrigued by the street side crepe makers and resolved to recommend to Phil Sefton that he forget his idea of a bagel shop and acquire himself a crepe franchise.

We again wandered our way around town in the vicinity o the Bastille. Again we found our way into numerous closed courtyards of the stately precincts that enabled the aristocracy to isolate themselves from the rest of society. It was difficult not to enjoy the peace and beauty of these gardens but at the same time it was difficult for the pigeon and I not to contemplate the enormous inequity that existed at the time.

Bernie Minuti continued to seek every opportunity to practice her French conversation skills. Here she is seen accosting a local women on the pretext wanting to know more about the history of this enclosed garden.

We strolled back along the Seine to Notre Dame all the time admiring the architecture and the newly bursting blossoms. Paris will look amazing in other two or three weeks.