| Museums and Walking....Out ? |  | 26 January ’06, Thursday. Yes, I know who suggested it, and yes I am the one who wants to go because I’m wiped out… This all started when I suggested that we walk from the bus stop, on up the Avenue des Champs Elysees to the internet café we’ve been using. From there we continued under the Arc de Triumph, down to The Grand Palais.
Now we had heard that the Palais was open to the public after going through a 12 year refurbishing. Well, if it was open, we couldn’t find the way in, but across the street was the Petite Palais and it looked like it had just re-opened (and the lines were coming out of the door and down the exterior and cold as hell stairway.)
At this point, we quickly made a decision that we were going to pass and continue our walk towards the Place de La Concorde and the Tuileries, across the Seine and into the Musee D’Orsay. Not that this was a long walk for us, and not that a frigid wind was blowing into our faces, it came down to the fact that we were going to walk the many halls and staircases of the museum on top of all that…that was why I was crying… I know Louise suggested that we catch the metro to the D’Orsay, but I just hadn’t thought it through. We joined a small group tour going through the museum and then we went out on our own. I guess with lunch and all the viewing of the art at the D’Orsay, we were there about 4 hours. It’s amazing but, you could spend 4 or 5 times that to see it properly. When I heard that there was a large display of “period” furniture, I put that into my “don’t bother with that” category, but fortunately we walked into it… Now I would put this as a “don’t miss” collection…it was wonderful. At this point, I was sitting down, crying, and trying to get some attention…it worked. I was just about grabbed by the scruff of the neck and led out of the building. Fortune was on my side, as we found that down the stairs of the museum was the way to the train. I paid for the tickets with a smile and we were on our way back to “Bumble Bee”. Yes, it was a great museum, and yes, I had to promise to save my walking for the next museum…Tomorrow…Delft, Netherlands (Holland). | |
| January 28, 2006 09:25 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: France
|
| We Love Paris... |  | 25 January ’06, Wednesday. Cooolllllddddd !!!! Paris in the winter can be, and is, COLD. I really don’t know just how low it got last night, but the report said it was -10 C. Fortunately we are somewhat ready for this, with layering of clothing, and extra blankets and leaving the heater on all night, we stay pretty comfortable. It’s just the same ole thing, it’s when you have to go out in the morning and head for the shower or just go potty is when it really hit’s you. I start thinking about how “Bumble Bee” is taking all of this…you know, the hidden stuff that doesn’t show up until later…like when you are half way in between no-where. Today was “Eiffel Tower Day”.
One last chance on this trip to go to the tower and one last chance to go up into it. Unfortunately, the top of the tower was closed for “construction”, so as far as we could go was to the second platform. It definitely wasn’t the top, but it was a ways up there.The views over Paris were spectacular,
but very cool. The pollution was very evident, as the winds have been fortunately slight. Paris is a “Special” city, and we both feel the same way about being here. It is big, it is noisy, it is French, but it is Paris… We caught the bus to the metro and the metro to the Eiffel Tower. The transportation systems here in Paris, work, and are pretty reasonable as well. On top of that, just about everything is reachable by a little walking, which is what we did after our visit to the tower. We wanted to take in a movie this afternoon, so we walked to the theatre. This movie theatre was located just a block from the Arc de Triumph. On our last visit here, we saw Aviator when it first came out, and this time we saw “Madame Henderson Presents” with Dame Judith Dench. Because of a few scenes, and a couple of words that were used, it probably won’t be for the kids, but being “senior citizens”, we really enjoyed it. Oh yes, prior to reaching the theatre, we walked past a shoe store…”They Are On SALE”…Yes we went in and Yes, I bought a pair of shoes…in Paris, I bought a pair of shoes, who’d have thunk it??? Back with “Bumble Bee”, we sit with the heat on and looking forward to one more day in the big city. The campground posted a sign that the electricity will be off from 8am until noon tomorrow, so we have a new challenge to look forward to in this coming COOOOLLLLDDD morning. Tomorrow…”Musée national d’ Orsey”, and “The Grand Palais” | |
| January 26, 2006 03:27 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: France
|
| Back in France... |  | 24 January ’06, Tuesday. Yesterday morning we woke to find that we had a heavy frost. As I stepped out of “Bumble Bee”, I stepped right onto a very cold and slippery step. Our first night with our rear window being broken out, and the temperature dropping below freezing was enough to make sure we made some repairs now !!! Our drive to Limoges would take about 3 hours, so taking a little more time this morning to get things in line was worth the effort. Unfortunately when we went to the local “handyman” store, we couldn’t find a thing to help with our problem. On to Limoges, with hopes of finding everything we need there.
Our drive was wonderful, new territory to see, rolling hills and mountains, a number of stunning chateau’s, sunshine, and a fairly short trip…what more could you ask? Just as we pulled into Limoges, we found a new “Home Depot” type of store, so we jumped at the chance we might find something to help cover our broken window, and make it waterproof as well. We couldn’t find what we wanted, but we did find a second option that we were sure will help…a carpet remnant. Now onto our campground in Limoges. Down the highway about 2 miles, we swung into this area next to a lake were the campsite was to be. As we pulled up to the open gate, we saw a note that told us something that we didn’t want to hear….WE ARE CLOSED!!! I yelled at thin air (because there was no one to hear me…) “YOU CAN’T BE CLOSED, OUR NEW CAMPGROUND GUIDE BOOK SAY’S YOUR “OPEN”…” When there isn’t anyone there to listen to reason, you just have to reason yourself…their closed… Now what? That’s traveling in the winter for you because there are so many campgrounds that are closed. We can’t go back, and to go forward is to go all the way to Paris, and that is another 4 to 5 hours away, and it will be late and dark if we go all that way… Well, tucking our tailpipe between the rear tires, we head off for Paris, and just knowing that when we get there that we will be two tired little puppies. We arrived in Paris just after 8pm, found our “Circle Route” around the city, made the right exit and the turn off of the round-about, and then on to the campground without a hitch. We were a little concerned that we might be so late that they had the gates closed, but fortunately that wasn’t the case. We were in Paris, tired, cold, and ready for an early night to bed…that is, not until after I made the small repairs on the window. Last night we put another blanket on the bed and left the heater on so that we might sleep with out shivering too much though the night. It was cold outside this morning, but inside we were comfortable. Louise made a wonderful breakfast of sausage, toast and eggs while I made coffee. A short walk over the bridge next to the campground (over the Seine River), to a grocery store, then back, another short walk to the bus and we were on our way to another day in the city of Paris… First we went looking for the internet café that we used last time we were here, after a couple of false starts, we finally found it. We had 42 emails, of which 35 were “junk”…it’s disgusting, it’s annoying, it’s... Just around the corner from the internet, is the Arc d’ Triomphe and the metro station that was to take us to the Hotel de Ville.
As we walked to the street level in front of the hotel, we were greeted by a beautiful ice rink. It was filled with skaters of different levels of proficiency and all having a great time in the sun and cool of a beautiful winter’s day. After watching them for a while, we searched out a good place to have our “first day back in Paris” lunch. We found “Paul” (a restaurant), and settled in. First off, you have to decipher the menu (any idea of what that is???”), and then do a little better than just point and say “this please”… As it was, we both received a wonderful treat. Louise had a quiche and salad, and I had hash brown potatoes covered with a seasoned cream cheese and a very thinly sliced piece of slightly broiled salmon that sat on top of all that, plus a salad. Splitting a half liter of Rose and we had a great meal for under $25. I know, that’s not Spain’s prices, but after all, “this is Paris”. Now to walk all of this off… Across the street is the bridge that takes us over to the island that the historic cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris sits on. From there, we walked up the boardwalk over looking the Seine until we walked past the Louvre. We have always enjoyed the Gardens of the Tuileries, so we walked into see them once more.
From this point we could see the Arc de Triomphe sitting way off in the distance in a perfect line with the Louvre, so off we went to enjoy this famous and beautiful walk. About ¾ of a mile on the other side of the Arc, is our bus stop, so we made that our final destination…I think we did justice in walking off our lunch today…tomorrow, well that could be another story… | |
| January 26, 2006 03:26 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: France
|
| "Hey, Get The Hell Out Of There !!!" |  | 2 November ’05, Wednesday.
Like it or not, because of the closing of so many campgrounds at this time of the year, it only leaves us with some of the campgrounds we have stayed at before. We have just left Nimes, and the campground there is one that is open all year. We have been there in February, September, and now in November. I think this may be the last time, but I can’t count it out yet. We traveled the autostrade for about the first 2 ½ hours, and then drove off to find a grocery store. We found what we were looking for, and we also found what we weren’t looking for… We found food and all the other goodies, but we also had someone that thought they would be funny and put a knife into one of our new tires. We didn’t really notice the tire was flat until we had gone about a short block, and then it went flat enough to let me know. We were really lucky, because we were able to pull into an area that was set up for handicap parking. There were 3 places, so I took one. I opened up the side door and the back door, took out all the materials that we have placed in the “traveling mode”, and placed them on the ground. I took out the jack, and dropped the tire from the bottom of the van. While I was working on the drivers side (away from the side door), a young man thought it would be the right time to explore what we had in the van for himself. Fortunately, Louise was watchful, and caught him half in and half out of the door….”WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING !!!”. He pulled himself out and said something in French, and beat it across the street. I wasn’t aware of what was going on until Louise came around on the other side of the van and told me. About that time, the van started to roll and rolled off the jack…not good timing… I was getting a little hot. I’m probably lucky I didn’t have the opportunity to meet this young man !!! Anyway, we continued our way to Spain, our new campground, and will start looking for a new tire. Tomorrow…I’ll probably crash right here for a second day.
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| November 03, 2005 06:18 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: France
|
| Goodbye Antibes... |  | 1 November ’05, Tuesday.
We said our goodbyes to Theo and Mairead, and then headed up to the office to pay our little tab for the stay at the campground. When we checked in, we were met at the desk by Rebecca, who is the young lady that has been checking us in at Antibes for the other times we had been there. Now I guarantee you, she has seen a lot of people check in, but when we walk into the office we were met by “Why Hello Mr and Mrs Goodman”… Well anyway, we had to go say good-bye to her as well, but unfortunately it was her day off, so…if you happen to read this Rebecca, “Thanks again for the hospitality you provided us”… As we passed through Boit going to the Autostrade, we found the cemeteries still filled with people paying their respect. The ride onto Nimes was easy, with little traffic on the roads and the sun shinning. The colors have really started to change on the grape vines and the trees. The Mountains along this route are interesting as well. The first group, the rocks are a deep red, and the second group the rocks are an off white. The air was crisp and clear as we had a thunderstorm come through early this morning for about 45 minutes, but when it was time to get up, the sun was out and looking good. After arriving in the Nimes campground, I pulled out the barbeque and barbequed a beautiful pork filet. In the morning we have one thing that we must do…get to an internet café…it has been too long since I’ve up-loaded the journal and checked our emails. After that, we head into Spain and look for our next campground in Figueres.
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| November 02, 2005 09:27 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: France
|
| Halloween Wasn't The Only Thing To Scare Us... |  | Halloween Wasn’t The Only Thing To Scare Us…
31 October ’05, Monday.
Halloween 2005…they do a little celebrating here in Europe as well as we do in the states, but in some of the countries it is more of a celebration of “The Dead”, “All Souls Day”, or “All Saint’s Day”. For instance in France and Italy, it is a day to visit the cemeteries and drape the graves of their loved ones with flowers, particularly chrysanthemums and candles. This is what we observed yesterday and this morning. This morning we drove to Midas Muffler here in Boit (next door to Antibes), to see if they could fix our exhaust problem. As always, going into a garage to have anything done is like going into a government office. They want every possible paper you have on the vehicle and then some. Then after all that, they find that what they are looking for just isn’t on any of the papers we have. Anyway, we wanted an estimate before any work was to be done, so after going through 4 different parts books and searching a little on the computer we got our estimate…$866.30 Euro or about $1000 US dollars. For this we were going to get a couple little pipes that would measure about 3 feet each and a little over 2 inches in diameter, new screws and bolts, 2 small gaskets, and $320 Euro labor….NO THANK YOU !!! Apparently they really didn’t want our little job. We’ll put up with the little additional noise for the next 21/2 months without a problem. Halloween is also a “Bankers Holiday”, so most of Europe is on a 4 day holiday. So far most of the roads are pretty free of traffic, so apparently most are staying home. Tonight we are planning a lazy night at the van, with popcorn and a movie. Tomorrow…we head for Spain, with our first overnight stop in Nimes, France, which we have stayed at twice before, and is about a 3 to4 hour ride away.
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| November 02, 2005 09:25 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: France
|
| The Rich and Famous...Monaco |  | 30 October ’05, Sunday.
Well we have started day-light savings time, and I found it hard to get out of bed this morning. For me, it is like a mild case of “jet lag”. We went to catch the train to Monaco about 11:30, not thinking that it was a Sunday schedule, so we had about an hours wait. The station is right across the street from one of the many beaches, so we decided to go across, get our feet wet and sit in the sun for the remaining time. We knew that we wanted to go to Monaco, but the beach sure felt good to us. Hopefully we will have lots of beach time left as we head into Spain and Portugal. After 45 minutes on the train, we pulled into a very nice station in Monaco. As we walked down the walkway towards the marina, we found a carnival in full action. What fun walking through the carnival, people watching, smelling the great carnival foods, enjoying the kids laughing and screaming on the different rides, and hearing the “barkers” of the different game contests calling out. It was also amazing at how many winners that were carrying around the huge stuffed teddy bears. Changing course a little, we went across the street and walked the slip area of the big yachts of Monaco. They are amazing…some so big you would think they were a commercial cruise ship. Enough day dreaming of yachts…we found the walkway to the Palais du Prince, so up the hill we went. The Monaco Palace is nice, but more like a chateau to me. We walked around and looked at the usual tourist areas on the exterior, and then headed over to see the Cathedrale de Monaco.
The grave of Princess Grace, Prince Rainier, and other members of the royal family since 1885 are here in the cathedrals crypt. Further down the street we found the Musee Oceanographique. This is a large museum of oceanographic items and a wonderful aquarium. We spent about 2 ½ hours in the aquarium watching all the amazing fish. There were many in the tanks that we have never seen before. Oh yes, we did find time in there somewhere to have lunch along the boardwalk. I had a real good plate of veal in a gravy sauce and wild rice, while Louise had a gorgonzola cheese pizza (yes Ann, she could eat another pizza..). With the daylight fading, we headed up the hill to the place du Casino. Between the yachts, the very expensive high-rise condos, the high powered cars, the “beautiful” people, and now the finest of the finest casinos…it’s almost too much, but it is something to see. We were able to walk into the first entry of “The” Casino, but that was as far as they would let us go. Angled across the street, is another smaller casino that was open for us to enter. Of course Louise had to try out a couple of games there, but it was very short lived. Speaking of short lived, the day flew by and we had a train to catch. As it was, we had a long walk back in the dark once we got off the train…like Halloween…”Spooky”…
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| November 02, 2005 09:24 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: France
|
| Finally Some Clean Clothes... |  | 29 October ’05, Saturday.
I was ready for bed by 8:30 last night, but Louise got me to buck it up for another hour…I was really tired. I don’t have any idea as to the reason, but it was really hard to make it past 9. Then, after falling immediately to sleep, I had to wake twice during the night and hobble to the toilet…I’m falling to pieces… I refused to get out of bed this morning until 8:45, and then it was tough. The big thing hanging over our heads is getting the laundry done. It really got behind. One of the reasons we stopped here in Antibes, is the wash machines. They are good and they are large. We had 3 washers going all at once. I don’t think we had any clothes left to wear except those we had on, and I wore them yesterday as well. Tomorrow I will be “sparkling clean”. The sun is to stay with us a couple more days at least, so we are going to take the train in Monaco for the day. We will be thinking of all of you. Today we met Mâirçad (more-aid) and Theo. They are taking time out of their lives to travel Europe for an extended time. They have a new ATV and caravan, two black labs, and are excited about their new adventure. Having owned their own business (a restaurant) in England, they decided to take this adventure while having the opportunity. Tonight is barbeque night, and I’ve been given the chore to put together the great “American” hamburger…let’s hope that I can hold up to my responsibilities.
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| November 02, 2005 09:22 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: France
|
| Orange Alert !!! |  | 8 September '05, Thursday.
Here we go again...It's raining, it's pouring, the "ole man" has been snoring... Well what else is there to do when the rain has set in with so much intensity? Louise just raised her head from reading her book, and speaking to the rain, "come on now... give it up"... We have had a few days like this overall, but it never has been an exciting event for us. Looking for the good of the moment...well, it is getting closer to bed time...4:30 in the afternoon. I guess when I look back on the earlier part of the day, we did get a load of clothes washed and dried, and Bob and Mary joined us for a walk to the grocery store. OK, I forgot to tell you about Bob and Mary... Last night Louise and I were sitting in the van. I was doing my journal and Louise was playing a game on her computer, when Bob came up to the door and made a statement like "so are you from the states ??? All I had to do was hear his voice and we knew that they were. Boy, talk about a couple of travelers...they make us look like beginners. Now for our first time, there are 3 couples from the states camping in the same campground...OB and Kris, Bob and Mary, and us...as strange as it sounds, it was great to have some Americans around us that are living the same dream...camping and enjoying themselves through Europe. We knew it was going to rain, so it was a quick walk. We have been listening to the radio (fortunately we have a good english speaking station in Monaco) and they have been telling us that we are going into another "ORANGE" alert...we're happy to hear that... As I look out the window now, the roadway around us is completely submerged and getting deeper by the second. Unfortunately there was a landslide on the major freeway just outside of Nice. It came down yesterday afternoon and has had the only road along the Riviera from France to Italy completely blocked. Even if we wanted to, we couldn't continue onward to Italy anyway. As I look out, I see a lot of empty camp spaces...it seems that those who wanted to head north got in their rigs and took off...I hope they have found sun. Oh yes, I do have some good news....I GOT MY BATTERY !!! It was stupid that I hadn't noticed it missing, but I'm not going into that now.. If you happen to come across a couple of oars, please send them this way. Tomorrow...hope for better weather so we can move on.
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| September 13, 2005 06:52 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: France
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| Meatballs... | | 6 August '05, Tuesday.
With no plans for the day, we ended up having a full schedule... This morning we decided to take "Bumble Bee" into Antebes to see what we could find at the "Farmers Market". As we were getting ready to pull out, OB and Kris (the couple from Colorado) were just getting ready to headout themselves. I'm not sure just where they had planned to go, but they opted to ride into Antibes with us. As it was, we spent the day together. After finding a parking place we headed right for one of the internet cafe. We both had some work to accomplish there so it worked out great. After a little walk through the alleyways and doing some "window shopping", we ended up at the market. I think I was the only one who actually bought something. I'm a nut for the olive vendors and I found what I was looking for...the big green and black with a special brine...mmm-good. I did find a stall that was selling socca, which I found last time we were in Nice. Socca is that pancake made of chickpea and oilve oil. Apparently this is the only place that it is readily found in the world. It was close to the time that I had to take "Bumble Bee" in to see the mechanic, so we went looking for the parking spot we had left her in...not as easily as I had thought it might have been. I know we had come as close as 1/2 block to walking directly to her, but as it turned out, it took us at least 20 minutes in a small town to finally put the key in her lock. Luckly we still had plenty of time left. OB wanted to go with me to the mechanic. Upon arriving, the mechanic told us he could only spend 30 minutes on her and hoped that would be enough...yaaaa.... Well 30 Euros and 20 minutes and we were out of the lot and finally idling just fine. Pray for us that we have left all the problems behind now. The OB wanted to go to the grocery store, so when we got back, we all piled in and went shopping. We found some very interesting and tasty meatballs at the deli that we decided to bring back for a dinner we could enjoy together. Enjoy we did. Everything was very tasty and especially the "meatballs" (which I usually don't care for) were something I would buy again. We headed off to bed about 10 and by 10:30 we were asleep. THEN, about 3 in the morning we (the whole world !!!) were woke up by one of the biggest thunder and lighting storms any of us had ever seen...the thunder and lightning was intense and constant for at least 30 to 45 minutes without a pause....the rain was steady and at sometimes very heavy, but the thunder and lightning...WOW !!! They called it an "Orange" alert...orange hell, it was "Bright Red in my mind...
anyway, we all survived (at least here in this campground). The forcast is for more to the west of us for the next 2 days..."stay west".... I did make contact with the manager at the store I bought my computer from, and he is sending my battery out sometime today. Keep your fingers crossed that it arrives soon. Tomorrow...it depends on the battery delivery...
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| September 13, 2005 06:51 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: France
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| "But Officer..." | | 5 September '05, Monday.
Still in Antibes and I'm sure it will be at least Thursday before we will have a chance to move on. Yesterday we hungout around the pool and "Bumble Bee, did a little swimming and reading. I finally finished reading Hillary Clinton's book "Living History". Louise read it first, and seeing as how I had just finished reading "King Henry VIII", I decided I needed another big book to read. Both of these were good reading. Today being Monday, we jumped into "Bumble Bee" and went down to see the mechanic whom we used the last time we were here and had our carburator problem. One busy man...we wont be able to see him until Wednesday, and then he can only just do a little "adjusting"...better than the others we saw offered. While in town, we also got a little internet time accomplished. Louise picked up this newsletter at the internet cafe. In it we found this article that kind of fits together with one of my recent journals...
An American tourist in London decides to skip his tour group and explore the city on his own. He wonders around, seeing the sights, and occasionally stops at a quaint pub to soak up the local culture, chat with the lads, and have a pint of Guinness. After a while, he finds himself in a very high-class area. Big, stately residences...no pubs, no shops, no restaurants, and worst of all...NO PUBLIC TOILETS. He really, really has to go, after all those pints of Guinness. he finds a narrow side street, with high walls surrounding the adjacent buildings and decides to use the wall to solve his problem. As he is unzipping, he is tapped on the shoulder by a London Bobbie, who says, "I say, sir, you simply con not do that here, you know". "I'm very sorry, officer", replies the American, "but I really, really, have to go, and I just can't find a public toilet". "Oh, yes," said the Bobbie, "Just follow me". He leads him to a back delivery alley, then along a wall to a gate, which he opens. "In there", points the Bobbie. "Whiz a
away sir, anywhere you want." The fellow enters and finds himself in the most beautiful garden he has ever seen. Manicured grass lawns, statuary, fountains, sculptured hedges, and huge beds of gorgeous flowers, all in perfect bloom. Since he has the cop's blessing, he unburdens himself and is greatly relieved. As he goes back through the gate, he says to the Bobbie "that was really decent of you...is that what you call "British Hospitality?" "No sir", replied the Bobbie, "that is what we call the French Embassy !!!".
Well it looks like we may have a night like lastnight...a thunderstorm with just a little rain to freshen things up a little....Tomorrow...No big plans yet..
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| September 13, 2005 06:48 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: France
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| Where Is The Battery??? | | 3 September '05, Saturday.
Ok, so I didn't check... The only reason that I am putting this into the "journal", is that someday as I go back and read this I will remember just how absent minded I am sometimes... Yesterday when I went into the internet cafe and asked for help, the first thing he asked me was, "where is the battery pack for your computer?"....Well, suddenly I felt silly...I hadn't noticed that it was missing. Not only missing, but it was in Nimes and now we are just 35 kim outside of Cannes (about 4-5 hours away). Not only that, what is the guarantee that they will take my word for the missing battery pack not being recieved by me in the first place? Monday morning I will call and see just what we can do and what they will do for me. Until then, the weather is still hot and showing no signs of changing. This afternoon we checked into the Antibes campground that we stayed at in February. In a funny way it is kind of like "coming home"... Our second stop was at Geant (the grocery store) and then back to get a little pool time. Louise happened to hear a couple that is parked across from us speaking, and as she came back to the van she said "I think they are from the US". Well, I just had to go right over and find out...yep, they are from Colorado and have rented a camper in Germany for 4 months. Tonight they have gone into Monaco by train to do a little gambling...I had to hold your mother back... instead we enjoyed a great crayfish salad, and a bottle of the sparkley for dinner. I can guarantee you that this great dinner didn't cost near as much as going to the casino... "Bumble Bee ran just great this morning and afternoon, except when we came up to a stop...she is still stalling damn it... Oh well, I just can't let it bother me now... Tomorrow...Sunday...
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| September 13, 2005 06:46 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: France
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| Help a Couple of Times... | | 2 September '05, Friday.
Just a little catch up. We have moved onto Frejus, which is 35 km west of Cannes. Unfortunately we had a couple of unscheduled stops because of "Bumble Bee" getting caught up in a vapor lock. It wouldn't be too bad except that we have to completely unload the back, get into the HOT engine compartment, let her cool down a little and then try pouring water onto the fuel pump. All that
accomplished, we arrived at our campground. Our spot is located at the very top of the hill and right
next to the restaurant. Our walk to the potty is long, and with the heat of the days here now...we had
better have to go... We did "treat" ourselves lastnight and went out to the restaurant for dinner. I had a
Chefs Salad and Louise had a Frog Legs Salad. Yes, real legs... and it was really good... A real good
dark beer for me and a glass of vino blanc for her...a banana split for me, and a dish of icecream for her.
This morning we were told about this internet cafe just a couple of miles from the campground, so off we went. I was hoping that someone there might be able to help me set up this new computer. Well, let me tell you, he really has been a life-saver and has helped me a lot. Now all I have to do is remember just what he taught me. Tomorrow...on to Antibes
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| September 02, 2005 03:20 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: France
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| Trying It In French... | | 31 August '05, Wednesday.
This is the first time we have been able to communicate with you since my computer gave up. We have had to go out and purchase a new one. We debated for quite awhile before finally making up our mind wheather we really wanted to make a major purchase like this or not. It really is amazing to see just how the price of the computers have come down and with that the more power and accessories that you get. Unfortunately, the big problem with this whole thing is we have had to buy this in France. Not that buying anything in France is a bad thing, it's just that with a laptop computer EVERYTHING is in French... The keyboard is the first noticable thing, as just about all of the keys are different or have a different meaning. Then comes the basic usage areas of the computer, such as the "START" button..it says "démarrer" instead. Then it is all the rest of the catagories that sit above the start button, from programs on. Another interesting thing that I hadn't thought about was the "Spell Check". As you might assume, I can't write a word with out it underlined in red (for a misspelled word). And then, you will just have to put up with all the misspelled words I will be writing because I'm not going to the dictonary everytime I feel I might have misspelled a word...sorry. After all the conversations that Louise and I had prior to finalizing on this purchase, like do we go back to England or maybe The Netherlands to get an "English" keyboard and etc... We are going to continue as best as we can, and ask for your understanding.
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| September 02, 2005 03:01 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: France
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| Surfs Up.. | | 24-27 August '05
The sun is out bright, the wind is slight, a gentle surf, perfect sand... Yes, we have been putting this off too long. We are located right on the beach and within an easy walk to some beach type restaurants, stores, etc. At the campground we have a beautiful swimming pool, restaurant, bakery, wine shop, and a whole lot more. In the evening we even have a different entertainer that comes in and produces a good show for everyone. Right now, we are geting spoiled and loving it... | |
| August 26, 2005 06:10 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: France
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| Villa Franche de Confluent | | | Yesterday as we were passing through the southern side of the Pyrenees, the weather cleared up and openedf the skies to a beautiful blue. The whole terrain has changed as well. It is kind of like going through a mix of Az and Mexico. Thre are things that wake us up to the fct we are still in Europe, and the Villa Franch de Confluent is one. We were traveling a little road that as I had mentioned may times before, was testing my ability to handle curves, and all this was inside of a long passageway between one mountain and another. I thought we would be doing this all the way to the Med. All of a sudden,we were comiong around a corner and sitting i front of us was this huge medieval fortress...Villa Franche de Confluent. It was a walled town that was even today as it was centuries ago. Yes, the products sold there and the people buying and visiting we much different, but there wasn't much other change. We walked the narrow streets and walkways for about 2 hours and enjoyed this opportunity very much. Back on the road again, we finally pulled into Perpignan and then turned and headed up the coast to find that perfect campground right on the water of the Mediteranean. Finding our spot, we have settled in for a few days...Saint Maries del Mer | |
| August 26, 2005 06:05 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: France
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| Andorra or bust... | | 22 August '05, Monday
Can it be true that everyone in France and Spain head for Andorra on Mondays??? It has to be true. When we left our campground this morning the weather looked a little overcast, but that didn't disturb us one iota. We were in to seeing one more "Principality" and Andorra we were going to see. The roads didn't disappoint us, as they were one switchback after another just as we had anticipated. one thing we did't anticipate was that Andorra was the destination for half of France and Spain. We hadn't but made it halfway up the mountain and the traffic got so bogged down it came to a total stop. From that point on we would go a car length or two and then stop again and again. The handwriting was on the wall...if we continued doing this, we would be over heating very soon and overheating was something we diffently didn't want. So, on the narrow road, on a curve, traffic stopped (going up hill annyway), we made a decision...we go back down and go all the way around the mountain and come in fromn the other side. So down the mountain we went, found the road to Barcelona, went through a very long tunnel, paid the toll of $10.20, and made it around to the otherside. All this took us about another hour and a half, but we thought it would be worth it. Now we headed off to find the road from the otherside. Finding the right road was no trouble. This time up it wasn't near as twisting or as steep. But on the other hand, there were many more heavy trucks and just about as much other traffic. We stayed with it though and finally made it at Saint Julia, Andorra, which was about 6 km away from our determined distination. In finally getting there and seeing what we had in front of us, we looked at each other and said "we've been and we've seen, let's get the heck out of here"...
Back down to Pugcerda and from there onto Perpignan and the Mediterranean. | |
| August 26, 2005 05:52 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: France
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| Leaving A Little Bit Of Us In Lourdes... | | 21 August '05, Sunday.
After some early morning "last minute" shopping in Lourdes, we headed out. We had tried to get some gas (petrol), but all we could find in Loiurdes was those stations that use credit cards only...ours doesn't work for gas only. It could have been a problem, but fortuntely we still had half a tank and that will get us as far as we need. We have decided to visit a "Principality"...Andorra. Hell, I had no idea where it was until this morning. I think it is Andora that follows the host nation on the opening parade of the Olympic Games. Our route takes us east to Foix, France from Lourdes and then turns south for about 50 miles to Andorra la Vella. About 3 this afternoon, we decided that we had traveled enough, so we found ourselves a campground for the night. We are located in a very remote area of the Pyrenees with a small river at our door. The mountains go straight up from here and there is a small village hanging onto the hill above us. Tonight we are going to barbecue a felet magnon of pork, and compliment that with a 4 cheese ravioli and wine fof choise...man do we eat good, and I'm beginning to show it. The further we get away from Paris and deeper into France, we see more and more vehicles pulled to the side of the road for the "French Potty Break". Now some are very discreet, and then there are most of the others. Louise told me this afternoon that "apparently that man knows us because he is "waving" at us"...It wasn't too much further and we had the pleasure of 2 ladies who just hd to stop...bare butt and all... Don't they know they have roadside stops that provide potties? It is amusing, and it makes uis even more curious about what we may find once we get bck to the states and travel the roads there. Tommorrow's drive will be interesting. Normally when Louise is reading a map, the map shows the road to be straight with maybe a curve here and there, even when we are winding all over the place. Well, for the trip to morrow we may be in for a winding and twisting road trip from what we have never seen before...the map shows nothing but hairpin curves and almost straight up to the 7100 foot elevation to get into Andorra. My job driving will be tested and I can just hear Louise being "very silent" as we negociate the narrow roads with all the curves. | |
| August 26, 2005 05:35 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: France
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| August 20...Our Anniversary... | | 20 August '05, Saturday.
i am very proud to say that today is our 45th Wedding Anniversary, and we will be spending it together in the back of a 1985 VW Van. All this and we are in the French Pyreness...it can't get any better!!! To test out our new ride (new tires), we drove up into the Pyrenees to see what was at the end of route N27. The day started out partly cloudy with the possibility of rain, but it was perfect for what we wanted to do. Our destination was a little village at the end of a valley deep in the mountains called Cauterets. Louise had heard and read somne interesting things about this village. As a lot of our drives, it was a winding and twisting roadway all heading up and up. There were timnes where the road was very narrow...so marrow that I would have had to stop if another car had been coming at us. The outside curb was a rock wall about a foot tall that you wouldn't want to bump. As you made your way up the mountainside, you did so very carefully. As you might imagine it was a little white knuckle and absolutely beautiful. Cauterets is a "quaint" French village that is nestled at the convergence of 3 mountains. All th area around is a natural hiking, climbing, skiing,and biking habitat. It is also known for the hot springs that abound in the area. unfortunately, we didn't take the opportunity to enjoy them this trip. All the buildings of the village were beautifully old and of course, up hill...our walks never seemed to go downhill.. Seeing as how we were in the mountains and it was cool, we decided to find a restaurant that served the best Onion Soup...we found it...wonderful soup, baguette, and a carafe of wine... Oh yes, we found it !!! | |
| August 25, 2005 05:34 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: France
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| Lourdes..Day 2 | | 19 August '05, Friday.
We've stayed in Lourdes but found a new campground. This one is much smaller and further outside of town. Unfortunately, it is a long walk into town and the grotto. I am still fighting the stalling problem with "Bumble Bee", so I took the carburetor apart again just to see if I had missed something. i did find a "jet' that I hadn't found befoe and that has helped a little ...still isn't perfect, but close... WE tried to find a garage again, but they are still telling us they don't have time to look for us... They would however change our oil and filter and sell us $380.00 in tires... Oh well, it will all work out. I don't know if I mentioned it or not, but Lourdes is located right in the foot hills of the Pyrenees Mountains. The Pyrenees seem to be a little smaller than the Cascades, but I know that they are much deeper and divide France from Spain. Lourdes is a year around area for the pilgrimage and they have about 5 million visitors a year to this area. I did't mention earlier that at the base of the Basilica is a spring that was found just after the first vision of the Virgin. This spring is still running forth and has had many ""healings" of the "faithful" and the ill. Inside the Basilica of the Rosary, we saw some of the most incredible mosaics of the Virgin and other saints. There is no doubt, this Basilica made a stunning impression on me, and others around me. Candles...they are sold at vending machines all around the grotto, sold in every store, campground, and...amazing.. I must say, this was an amazing experience | |
| August 25, 2005 05:17 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: France
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| Heading to Lourdes, France | | 18 August '05, Thursday.
W left _Pau first thing Thurday morning and headed for Lourdes. I know I should have stopped many times when we saw a service garage, buy "I" didn't, and now I'm in deep trouble with Louise... We are still fighting the stalling problem and now we can't find a cechanic that will take the time to even look at our problem. One thing I did do before we left Pau, was to take a look at the carburetor myself. I unloaded al the "stuff" we have in the back end and got my screwdrivers out. I was expecting to find a ton of "junk" in the bowl of the carburetor, but that wasn't the case. I did a little cleaning and blowing out of the jets, and then put it back together. It started up ok, but after it warmed up it just wouldn;t idle. Pissed, I put everything back into the back and said "let's go". I was hoping to find a mechanic here in Lourdes. When we pulled in here, we were overwhelmed with what we saw. On the road we saw a fw cars, caravans, and camper, but when we pulled into town...Geesss...You could hardly move towards town, and when we looked down into this huge field, we saw approximately 5-600 caravans and campers parked in this one open field. our first guess (and it proved to be right), was they must be "Gypsies". Actually, I think there was a mix of "campers" like us, and the "travelers" that filled this field. As we had the opportunity to see the rest of the town later, we saw that every little area where there could be a caravan or 12, there were "Travelers" living there, at least for a while... Electrical cords were strung to the telephone poles to just about every corner you could imagine. Cars and the "Gypsie" vans were goingin and out like it was a major highway. The young people were dressed to the hilt and were wondering the groiunds, the streets and the town throughout the day and late night. We found a campground right next door to this field and decided to stay at least one night. After setting up, we walked into the area of the La Grotte de Massabielle (The Grotto of the Virgin Mary, where the Virgin appeared to Bernadette in 1856. We were camped only about 300 yards away, so it was a short walk. This was the first of 2 walks to this area today/night. It's an amazing site... There were many church groups and individuals by themselves, that were on a pilgrimage to the Grotto. They had set up lines to go into the Grotto of the Virgin Mary and let me tell you, they weren't short... It was also humbling to see all those in wheelchairs and hospital beds making their visit. We tood this opportunity to go into the Basilica of the Rosary and the Highter Basilica. Mass was being said throughout the entire complex including the basilicas most of the day and night. For some reason I wasn't expecting too much out of the town of Lourdes, but what a surprise ...The commercial areas right around the grotto was as you night expect. These stores were offering all the metals, books, p[ictures, and all else religious. As you walked further into the town, it changed to a more modern commercial outlet. After our usual visit to the TI and a few of the "shops", we wondered on back to "Bumble Bee". Our plans were to take in the candle lit procession of those on the pilgrimage at 9:30 tonight. In getting back to the campground, we met a fellow from Seattle that was backpacking for 3 months. He has had quite a story to tell... interesting... At 9:30 we excused ourselves and went to the procession. As we walked around the corner of the basilica, we were taken back by the sight of all the pilgrims coming down the "Boulevard de la Grotte" with candles in hands. We wandered around and I took pictures for a while and then we just had to find a curb to sit on for things to see and things to hear. | |
| August 25, 2005 05:03 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: France
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| Through the Bordeaux Fields | | 17 August '05
Today was a travel day...Cognac to Pau. We try to stay off the main highways and "Toll" roads, but in doing this our time on the road is extended (otherwise, we don't make any time...). We left Cognac about 10 this morning and didn't arrive in Pau until afte 5 this evening. As in the last few days traveling, we were still in the fields of wheat and corn for the first half of the day and then as the terrain changed to rolling hills, we were into the grape fields again. This time we were traveling through the "Burgundy" area. When we were in the "white" district, it was hard to see the grapes unless you were right there with them, but now that we are in the "red" you can see them quite easily. We did find a store to stop at to pick up our lunch just before one, but as we drove on we couldn't find an appropriate place to stop. Finally we passed a restaurant that was out in the "middle of no-where" and because it had a lot of trucks and cars out in front, we opted to stop there instead. Big mistake, it wasn't that theis was a bad restaurant, but it was that we both ordered salads and the lettuce wasn't washed well enough...sand... Back in "Bumble Bee" and on our way again. Oh yes, we are having a fuel problem again. "Bumble Bee" just will not idle. When we come to a stop...she quits...I start her and drive a little, comt to a stop light...she quits..We were told that it would happen again when we had her fixed last February and sure as heck... As we approached Pau this afternoon, we entered into a thunder and lighting storm, but now...just rain. Finding our capsite was a little challenging, but her we are for the night. We are hoping for sun in the morning. | |
| August 25, 2005 04:31 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: France
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| Cognac | | 16 August '05, Tuesday
We were a little lazy this morning wo we didn't get the ealier start we had hoped for. For some reason, neither one of us have spept all that well for a few days so we didn't get all-over ourselves for not getting up. Turning "Bumble Bee" back around we headed up to Montreuil-Bellay and then from there we were to head due south to Niort and then Cognac. In Montreuil-Bellay, we planned to make a stop to see our last chateaux in the Loir Valley. The Village of Montreuil-Bellay is very small, and the chateaux that sits above the river, is quite large. The Du Chateau de Montreuil-Bellay is privately owned. The owners use tha castle at least once a month for their personal use, but other times they have most of it open to the public. We enjoyed the tour, although it was only in French (we had our own cheet sheet). It was in the decor of its time and even though, there were personal pictures arouhd that made it more personal (even for us). We saw things like the "sweating room" (kind of like an early version of a sauna) a huge kitchen, drawing room, "Her" bedroom, music room, the fortified "ramparts" and fth formal gardens. The furniture was from the 17th centure and looked like new. After a bit to eat, we headed off to Cognac. We decided to make our first stop in Cognac at Hennessy, "le Coeur du Cognac". Did we make the right decision??? Oh Ya... I'l just let you know that we had a sample...and then...we as we arrived at the campground...they were there having a "Tasting"...Life is Good !!!! | |
| August 24, 2005 06:31 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: France
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| Follow the River Loire | | | We think the French hide some of the roads that they call "Tourist Route's"... Leaving Angers was a good example. We were looking for the intersection that would take us from Angers and allow us to follow the Loire to Saumur. We lookie high and low and finally Louise just said, "lets just head that was and we will (should) find the river and then we can contunue even if we make up our own way... After running around in circles for about 45 minutes, we did just that. As luck would have it, we did find our road. It wasn't about just finding a rouad, it was about finding some of those great "chateaus" that are found i the Loire Valley. Once on the correct road, we did find our chateaus. Fact is, we put together another "French" picnic and ate on the grounds of Le Chateau d' Amour (Chateau de Saumer). It sits high on the hill overlooking the town of Saumur, the valley and the River Loire. It is amazing as in this area alone, there must be 10 "chateaus. We've opted not to visit the interior of each and everyone and we probable wqill only see i 1 in 15 totally anyway. Most of these chateau are in need of some of total remodel and that takes more money thatn the illages, towns, or private owners can afford. Down the river, our next stop was at "Fontevraud Abbeye Royale". This was a huge Abbey that consisted of the mister church, the "Grand-Moutire Cloister", the refectory and dormitories, the "Romanesque kitchen, and the Saint Benoit Infirmaries. Everything here dates bvack to the 13 and 14th centuries. This cloisdter followed the Benedictine rules, which were very strict. We were able to jump into a guided tour that was about half through, but we did learn a lot even in that short a time. This hole area is built on chalk, just as we found in England around Dover. The stone that they use for building isd pretty soft, so it doesn't last as long as those built with granite or marble. As we continued our drive along the river, we passed a very small village that wasd carved into the side of the chalk hill. There must have been 15 to 20 individual homes. Then jsut a littlew further up river, we came upon a winery that was carved into the same hillside. Of coarse being a winery, we just had to stop, see and sample...What it was initially, was a large manor. We were abl to take a self-guided tour through all the rooms, and found it to be very interesting. In some respects it was kind of like BGon and Doug's home in CDA (underground) and another was like the B&B we stayed at in Cappadocia Turkey. This turned out to be the "stop of the day". Everything that we "tasted" we loved... it could have been disastrous, but we held it together by only buying 2 sparkling (Saumer Champigney "Lena") and a great red....belive me, when I tell you they are wondrful !!! Now we are off to find a place to stay. We finally ended up just outside of a small village called Loudun. The campsite is surrounded by wheat fields, a small lake, and a village park nexct door. As we checked in, we couldn't help but notice th people from Loudun coming in force to the park. They were having a great time with lots of booths for food, games, drinks, and a stage where they hadf a group of older men and women dancing "folk" dances. We even joined in in a couple of other games... Tomorrow...Cognac | |
| August 24, 2005 06:18 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: France
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| "Apolcalypse Tapestries" | | 13 -14 August '05, Saturday and Sunday.
Saturday was a travel day. leaving Dinan, we headed towqard Reenes, and then on to Angers. The weather is still holding, with sunny days and cool evenings, so driving was a delight and absolutely beautiful. Arriving in Angers, we found the traffic really light and hardly anyone in sight. This Monday is "Feast of the Assumption" and the whole weekend is a "bankers holiday". It also is one of the most important holidays in France. It seems that everyone has left. our new campground is about a 5 km walk into Angers, has a nice swimming pool, is next to a lake and river, and has more walkng/biking trainl than you can count. I'm sure wwe can find something to do....besides, it has a computer with 'FREE' internet access. Sunday we put on our "hiking" swhoes and headed into town. Angers was heavily damaged during WWII, buy has come back with a lot of charm. It straddles the Maine River, and has a lot to see on both sides. The big draw that we really came for is the "Apolcalypse Tapestries". They are kept at the Chateau d Angers (Castle). The Castle comes from as far back as the 9th century and like most other castles, has had to put up with a lot of different invasions. A point of interest, is that this castle has 17 towers. This is in addition to all of the other towers hat were on the city walls. it was and still is quite a structure. Inside, we found the tapestry, and what a masterpiece of medieval art. It consists of 77 pieces and stretches out for 335 feet over-all. Most of the pieces are about 3 1/2 feet high as well. It is huge... Opposed to the tapestry in Bayeus, this is a true "tapestry" and that in Bayeux was an "embroidery". The story here illustrates the book of Revelations written by St John with scenes like "Le Grande Prostitute, and Babylon invaded by7 demons. It was very impressive to say the least...I hate to say it, but as we were walking toward another part of the castle, I was drwn into having a "coffee with cream"...which, turned out that we just had to have lunch as well. A chicken breast salad, quiche, 1/2 liter rose, and a baguette...we're really getting into this French stuff.. Crossing the plaza, we decided to take another "tourtist sightseeing train" ride. It was amazing, but the city was absolutely barren of people...a very few restaurants and bars, the TI, and the castle...I think that was it...no cars, no people except a very few tourists,... someone opened the doors of the city and let all the locals out I guess... Then our walk back to the campground was like walking around Green Lake on a sunny day...except no one on the beaches Tomorrow...catching a few "Loir Valley Chateau
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| August 24, 2005 05:46 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: France
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| Latte anyone ??? | | 12 August '05 Friday
This is the first entry since my computer crashed...I am now having to re-type each journal as I get to an internet cafe...imagine, no spell check !!!
After a devasting evening last night with my computer giving me fits, we started out this morning for a day trip out a little closer to the coast. We drove to Dinard from Dinan (about 15 miles). Leaving Dinard, we headed west to a little village of Saint Jacu-de-lamer. As we approached the main street, it was very apparent that they were having a street market. I think the whole of France was invited, as it was full and getting fuller the closer we got into the village. With everyone parking on the side of the main street, it was almost impossible to meet another vehicle coming towards you. Fortune was looking our wqay, as I was able to slip right into one of those little sp[ots so we could walk up the remaining 3 blocks to the market. We were4 looking for something to make a picnic lunch. As we walked all throught the streets and checked out all the wares of the vendors, we finally found a small grocery store that filled our needs. Now to get to "Bumble Bee". Making a "U" Turn we headed out for a castle/fortress called Fort la Latte. We thought we were going to be the only people there as there just wasn't any traffic going our way on this tiny road. What a surprise we had waiting for us when we pulled up to the parking lot. It was jammed... WE did fina a spot we could slip into. Putting everything into the backpack, we started our trek of about 1/2 mile to the castle. Fort la Latte is located out on the very end of a pointe, over-looking the Atlantic Ocean. It is sitting on a solid rock base with the waves coming at all sides. The wind wasd blowing pretty good, but we found a spot out of the wind and overlooking the castle to enjoy our very "French" lunch of baguette, cheese, ham, and half bottle of rose. Getting back to the campgrond, we had a couple from Great Britain over for a glass of wine. A very nice couple and we look forward to seeing them again... Tomorrow...moving on southbound | |
| August 24, 2005 05:18 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: France
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| To Climb A Cliff... |  | 10 August ’05, Wednesday. le Mont St. Michel Abbey
First thing this morning (about 10:30), we headed onto Bayaux and found the internet café. We were so far behind in touching base with the email, we were afraid that we would never catch up. First, I want to say thanks for all the letters (emails). We really appreciate you taking the time to write. Second, sorry we didn’t answer them right away. Unfortunately, the key board at this internet café wasn’t one that we could change over from the French board to the “English” board. The key locations aren’t too much different, but those that are make it tough to write a return. We will catch up soon, I promise. Third, seeing as how this internet café was the only one around for miles, they were charging a ton…$6 Euros ($7.80) per hour… Completing that, we headed back up to the coast. Our first stop was at La Pointe Du Hoc and Grandcamp-Maisy. This was a vital position for the Nazis, as they could fire across to Omaha and Utah beaches from there. Besides, they thought that this position high at the top of the cliffs overlooking the sea was just about impossible to attack from the sea by the Allied troops. Fortunately, two battalions of Rangers using hook and rope ladders climbed these cliffs and completely caught the Germans off guard. It also helped the Rangers that the Air Force bombers had almost totally destroyed the heavy artillery before they arrived. It wasn’t a piece of cake for the Rangers, as it did take over 2 days and with them starting with 225 men, they only had 90 remaining and many of these were wounded. The history of D-Day really is something to read and of course to remember. From there we headed on down toward Saint Lo and then to Coutances, Avranches, and then to La Mont St Michel. We were about 15km (about 9 miles) from La Mont St Michel, and we could see it in the distance. What an amazing site. It is a “rocky, cone-shaped islet”, in the Gulf of Saint Malo and is connected by a causeway with the mainland. It is a Benedictine abbey and has some small houses and shops that are after every penny you may have in your pocket. The abbey and the other “monastic” buildings date some as far back as the 13 century. There was a small abbey that began in 966 on the same spot. It has been a long time since we have been to a “site” that was totally crowed with tourists. Every parking location was taken and even those that weren’t parking locations had cars, campers, caravans, and buses in them. The traffic was bumper to bumper and barely moving, and the foot traffic was amazing. We pulled off to the side of the road, I jumped out and ran across the street, quickly took 2 pictures, ran back, made a “U-Turn” (I’m still thanking the guy who let us in line going back), and headed the heck out of town… What a mess… Seeing as how we were going to camp there, we had to review our plans… We headed on down the coast and have finally settled into Dinan. We understand they have a wonderful “Walled” town on a river, so tomorrow….Dinan and hopefully an internet to up-load at…
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| August 11, 2005 06:42 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: France
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| A Day Just To Kick Back... |  | 9 August ’05, Tuesday. Omaha Beach
If you can imagine this, we are taking a day of rest… I know, everyday could be called a day of rest for us, but having to go and see all of these sites, eat all the different foods, travel all the different roads, etc etc. We have just finished our second day here over looking Omaha Beach. The weather has been just about perfect, and we both had a chance to sit in the sun for a couple of hours (with a ton of #35 on us). Louise has just previewed again Bruce and Peg’s journal for this area. As always, it is fun to follow their trip. Some things we agree on and others we differ, but that’s what life is all about. The campground is pretty full, even though it isn’t a weekend. Right in front of us is a small play ground and it is fun to see the different kids inter-acting with each other. When we woke this morning, the sun was up and shining in the windows. Apparently, we are facing east, as the sunrise this morning came right out of the sea. Last night as we looked out at the sea, we noticed a glow on the horizon, and determined that it was one of the larger coast towns in Great Britain. As I looked on the map, it must have been Portsmouth or Brighton. There is no doubt, when they decided to hit the coast from Great Britain on D-Day, they didn’t have far to go. Well tomorrow we will head back to Bayaux again. We have just got to find an internet café, we’ve been out of contact too long. Then, we will head back out to the coast and head for the Utah Beach area. There is so much to see and do in this area.
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| August 11, 2005 06:37 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: France
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| Normandy... |  | 8 August ’05, Monday.
Today we checked out of our campground and headed out to the Normandy Coast. Our first stop wasn’t at the coast, but at a grocery store. If we are going to eat tonight, we are going to have to stop and pick up something. We stopped at a large store called
E’lecleric. It is a store that supplies more like a very large Fred Meyers. It has everything, so it seems. Anyway, we did our shopping and then headed out for the coast…we thought. As it was, we found we were heading off in the wrong direction after traveling about 6 or 7 miles, so finding a very small and narrow “back road”, we wound and wove our way back to the road we should have been on…we kept cool and enjoyed the back country for a while. Getting back on track, we found our way to Arromanches. Arromanches sits right between the D-Day landing sites of Omaha and Gold Beach. There is no doubt that this village and all the others along the beach got the hell kicked out of them during the Allied invasion. Today, you would never have guessed the damage they sustained as they have turned this village into a well run “tourist” town and doing it well. Arromanches is a “hot” tourist town, and I mean hot. People, cars, and buses were everywhere, and parking was at a premium. We were one of the fortunate ones, as we found ours right away. Walking through town and seeing a few sites that the area has to offer, and we were back on the road to our next little village along the coast. As we drove along, we noticed a lot of the Nazi bunkers and of course some of the jeeps, tanks, and other war machines that were left behind. Then, we found the “Normandy American Cemetery”. This cemetery is the largest I have been to, with 9,387 service men and women interred, and covering over 172 acres, is one of 14 permanent cemeteries that are on foreign soil. We were very impressed with the overall beauty and serenity of the cemetery, and felt very humble to have had a chance to see it. Continuing our drive down the coast and leaving the first part of Omaha Beach, we found a campground that sits directly above the center of the landing site, so we have stopped here for a couple of days. Already, we have walked down to the beach and into the small village and back, had a barbecued hamburger here at the van. Tomorrow….more beach time
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| August 11, 2005 06:34 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: France
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| The Bayaeu Tapestry |  | 7 August ’05, Sunday.
Tapisserie de la Reine Mathilde as known to the French…or, “The Bayeux Tapestry”. Over 9 centuries ago this tapestry was embroidered (a seventy meter long strip of linen) to record the scenes of medieval life, popular fables and mythical beasts, along with the story of “The Norman Conquest of England”. Technically it’s not really a tapestry, but an embroidery. We were stunned at the stunning detail and the skill that it took to complete this “story”. The work was supposedly done by Monks in England, and completed in time for the inauguration of Bayeux Cathedral in 1077. It was commissioned by Bishop Oddo, who was William’s (King of England) half-brother. As we entered the room with our headsets on, the tapestry was rolled out on a wall in front of us. It looks and reads like a modern classic comic book…only 70 meters long… They say that it is “generally accurate”. The clash of William (the bastard son) and his cousin Harold on the battle field of Hastings over who would be King of England, (which we visited last May, at Battle where we were looking for more information on Thomas Goodman). The battle fields of Hastings near Battle, and that is where the Abby is located that we visited as well. The location where Harold fell dead from the arrow to the eye is found there. We had another incredible day... What a piece of “art history”. It is hard to imagine that the quality of this medieval work and linen of the time, it is almost perfect after all this time. You would have expected to have at least a few holes in the linen or possibly some of the wool thread of the embroidery faded out or eaten by moths…it was amazing. Oh yes, it even depicted Halley’s comet which appeared in 1066. Well on to lunch… we went into this little outdoor restaurant in the middle of town. In looking at the menu prior to entering the garden area, Louise pointed out that they were serving mussels…I’ve been wanting to have them for quite awhile, so today was the day. I had Mussels ala Normandie (in a cream sauce)…they were outstanding. Louise had a half a chicken and freits (fries) and we shared a carafe of rose wine to finish the meal off. MMMM… GOOD !!! Then back to “Bumble Bee”, and west to Saint Lô. Saint Lô is where some of the US forces came through to liberate the town after the landings at Utah Beach Normandy. In walking through Saint Lo, it was kind of like picturing in your mind just what it might have been like being one of the troops coming into the town to liberate those people from the Nazi’s. In looking at the pictures of the destruction from the invasion, that are in all the museums and some of the churches, it is not too hard feel the impact and despair that was happening at that time. I’m sure in the next few days we will see and feel a lot more.
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| August 11, 2005 06:30 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: France
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| Arriving At Normandy |  | 6 August ’05, Saturday.
Caen didn’t have a campground, so we had to head out to the coast to Ouistreham. There we found 2 to chose from. The first one they were trying to put everyone on top of the other, so we opted for the 2nd. This one turned out to be overly expensive, but we bit the bullet and stayed one night anyway. In the morning we headed back into Caen to see the “Caen Memorial – A Museum for Peace”. This is a war museum that proclaims itself to be a “Museum for Peace”. I think they succeeded in their intention. As we approached the front of the building, it seemed like we were walking up to a “Fortress type of Wall” in more of a modern way. Once you are inside, you find yourself walking down a spiral walkway that is taking you from WWI and the Treaty of Versailles towards WWII. From the very start, you hear the voice of Hitler booming from all around you. On the walls are pictures taking you back to the time of WWI and on. Along with the pictures you can read about what was happening at that time…it is a great history lesson. A little later as we continued down, we started to see short movies, and articles of war, from clothes, armaments, vehicles, and planes from the time. The museum was set up so that you could learn more about how the two major wars started and why. It also showed you how the countries were rebuilt and how the people survived. Also, it showed how the USA landed onto the beaches of Omaha and Utah on D-Day. The finality of the tour was with 2 films with the accounts of D-Day and the course of the rest of the war. After 3 hours, we left feeling drained and rather insignificant in the big picture. The walk back to “Bumble Bee” was rather sullen. I guess this is one of the reasons we decided we had to come here. We saw a little bit of what WWII was about in Great Britain and the D-Day invasion, and now we are here in Normandy to see some more. We are heading west to Bayaux to find a campground, but upon getting there, we found that the door was closed..(they were filled up), so we headed on towards St Lo. Tomorrow…The Bayaux Tapestry
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| August 11, 2005 06:27 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: France
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| Talk About A Lecture !!! |  | 4 August ’05, Thursday The Blue Virgin Window
“The Church of Our Lady”, Cathedral of Notre Dame, Chartres, France. It has been a long time since I’ve gone to a class lecture, but that is just about what Louise and I did this afternoon. We had heard about a guide at the cathedral in Chartres, a man named Malcolm Miller. He is supposed to be able to give you the tour that was really worthwhile, although it could be a little costly compared to others that we have attended. It seems that Malcolm Miller has been around this cathedral for a few years (since 1958 from Great Britain) and also has had some “in-depth” studies on the histories of the church and the Christian religion. Our tour cost us $10 Euro each for the hour, and I must admit, I would have paid more. It would do an injustice to Mr. Miller and the Cathedral if I were to go into detail on our web-page, so I won’t, except to tell you that the first church was built on this site some time prior to 743, as at that time, they were “rebuilding” the church after it was destroyed by Hunald, Duke of Aquitaine…are you following me??? Really, Mr. Miller was superb in his direction as we toured the cathedral for the hour. One big negative, it went way too quick. Also, we aren’t into purchasing much for ourselves on this “journey”, but we made an exception in this case…we bought a book that Mr. Miller wrote on the Cathedral. The church is best known for its 13th century stained glass windows that depict various bible stories of the old and new testament. Since in medieval times, there weren’t many written words, thus the windows were used to tell the stories of the bible. Pilgrims come from all over the world each year to view a piece of cloak, that was given to the cathedral by Charles the Bald and it is thought to have been worn by Mary when she gave birth to Christ. This cathedral is reported to be the 3rd largest cathedral in the world behind St Peters in Rome and the Salisbury Cathedral in England. Now we’ve seen 2 and 3 and we look forward to seeing number 1 soon in Rome. We had just about run out of time to get lunch before they close for the afternoon, so we ran across the street to a street side café. ST. Joel had French onion soup and Louise had a great blue cheese salad and a carafe of wine. We kind of like the French café’s. Our walk into and back from town took us along the bank of the river with having to cross it twice on a couple of unique bridges. Just prior to getting to the campground, I spotted another café with a patio right on the edge of the river. This gave me an excuse to have a café espresso and a small treat. Tomorrow…Northwest to Caen and the beaches of Normandy
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| August 11, 2005 06:20 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: France
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| The Fontainbleau Palace |  | 3 August ’05, Wednesday.
The weather has been very nice the last few days and the outlook is for the same. Louise mentioned this morning that the mornings are more like early Fall than those we think of in August. The sun is shining, and the temp is rising, but there is something cool and refreshing in the morn. One thing for sure, it makes for a great driving day. We left Troyes and headed west, passing just under Paris. Our first stop today was the Palace of Fontainebleau. This was one of the favorite palaces of the kings of the 16th through the 19th centuries. Now after having a chance to visit Versailles and now Fontainebleau, (2 palaces that are close to each other and to Paris), I don’t understand the favoritism of those kings to Fontainebleau. I didn’t think it held a candle to Versailles. It may have been much bigger, but the architecture and the gardens at Versailles were much superior (even if it poured the afternoon we were there). My thinking of Fontainebleau may have been influenced by the extravagance of the palace…the overall size being what is was. Even being a king, with all the extravagance that would be expected, still makes this excessive and in my opinion “over-done” (I’m sure your happy to hear my opinion, aren’t you ?). Continuing our westward route, we arrived in Chartres just before 4. We are again camping in a “municipal” campground. The grounds are nice and reasonable, as before, and are within a 20 minute walk into the town. As we were about 3 miles outside of Chartres and traveling through the rolling farmlands, were the wheat is being harvested, we could see in the distance the tall steeples from the cathedral. For over the centuries, those making a pilgrimage to the Cathedral of Notre Dame, Chartres, have had this same site to enjoy and lead the way. Tomorrow….Cathedral of Notre Dame and the town of Chartres
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| August 11, 2005 06:13 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: France
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| What Has Happened To The Bells ??? |  | 2 August ’05, Tuesday.
Our walk into Troyes continued… I’ve just got to get used to the businesses closing from noon to 2 or 3. And the other closing that I’ve got to really get used to, is the early closing of the restaurants. They are usually open from 11am until 2, but then too close. They will re-open about 5 or 6 and go until at least 9pm. Anyway, after we finished lunch we made a casual tour of Troyes. It’s an amazing town architecturally. You are really transported back to the “Medieval and Renaissance” times with the “half-timbered” houses. Quite a few of them have already been brought back through rehab. Even today, they are seems like they are taking the whole town on. Plaster, wood, bricks, and slate are all being taken off and new put on. The thing is, they are doing it right, as you would have a tough time telling new from old when they are through. Also, the original pastel colors that were once found here are now being used again. The streets are cobbled stones, narrow, and winding. When you look down one of the narrow side streets, what you see is very unique. The buildings seem to bend and twist and then, almost touch at the roofs. It is almost like they are swaying in the breeze. Now Troyes is not a large town, but there must have been a reason for the people to have needed 8 churches, one synagogue, and a huge cathedral on top of all that. You will only walk a block, turn your head to the right or left, and there is another church. The Jewish Synagogue Rachi, is very simple and dates back to 1040. The Cathedral of St. Pierre St. Paul on the other hand, is known as having the largest collection of stained glass in the world. I have never seen so many beautifully crafted windows. It has over 1500 square meters of stained glass, and most of them have come from the craftsman of the 13th through the 16th centuries. We even came across an archeological site right in the middle of Troyes. It seems that they have found another very important church. Well, speaking of churches, one thing that we have found being back in Europe, is that we can enjoy the ringing of the church bells. As we awake in the morning and as we make it through the day and night, we hear the bells…what the heck happened to the bells at home ??? Speaking of home…we needed a wash day and we got a great day to wash, so that’s what we did today…washed clothes. Tomorrow…Fountainebleau and then onto Chartres
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| August 11, 2005 06:11 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: France
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| France is France.... |  | 1 August ’05, Monday.
August 1st, it is hard to believe…the 1st of August…where the heck has it all gone, …the SUMMER…it’s true, we have had a few really hot days, and a couple of really nice days, but it’s also true, we have had a lot of “Seattle weather”…clouds and rain…we’ve even had a lot of thunderstorms to help us remember it’s SUMMER… Ok, it really got to me today. Between the weather and the “Service” that you get at the stores and restaurants, I finally hit the bottom, or should I say, I finally blew my top off… Sorry Lou for you having to put up with my “downer day”. I’m sure France is a great country, and I know that it has a lot to offer, but there are areas that we as tourists just have to put up with. We can sit at a restaurant table waiting for someone to recognize that we have come in, or even that we might want a menu…now when we have ordered and been served, we might even want something additional…or maybe the bill…or…I won’t even get into the rest of this, but France is France (so they tell me). Ok, what did we do yesterday? We took a ride. Fact is we drove to Reims, which is about a 30 minute drive from Epernay. Our drive took us over the mountain and then dropped down into the valley in which Reims sits. The books tell us that for the tourists, Reims doesn’t have a lot to keep a tourist doing what a tourist does. It does have a number of wineries, but Epernay has the better to chose from, and it does have a beautiful cathedral. “Our Lady of Rheims” is one of the most beautiful gothic structures of the 13th century. It was destroyed twice, and rebuilt the last time in the 15th century. This is also the cathedral were all the kings since King St Louis 1226, have had their coronation. In 1429, the Coronation of King Charles VII had a special guest, Joan of Arc. In 1996, Pope John Paul II visited and held the service celebrating the 1500th anniversary of the baptism of King Clovis by Archbishop St Remi.
Back in “Bumble Bee”, we headed back over the hill. This time, we took to the back roads. They took us through the hills and hills of all the champagne grapes. Vine after vine, grape after grape, and winery after winery, all serving up their own champagne. It was a beautiful drive, and we did enjoy some wonderful sites. We did top it off by stopping by the most incredible villa. I probably don’t have the taste-buds to tell the “finest Champagne” from the OK champagnes, but I will tell you this, if the villas have anything to do with it, we found the cream of the crop. “Chateau de Boursault”…wow… The history behind this “Chateau” is, it was built for a wedding gift, and then passed on to the grand daughter as a gift a little later. It is still privately owned, although, not lived in as it is just too expensive to maintain as a living quarters. Now getting back to the champagne, we bought a bottle…our first, and we will save it for the 20th for our special occasion. By the way, the website for Chateau de Boursault is www.champagnechateaudeboursault.fr
Today was a travel day, so we packed up and headed south. Our destination was Troyes, and we finally pulled in here just after 2. After setting up, we put on our walking boots and headed into town. Now I must admit, Louise asked if I wanted to fix a sandwich before we left, but thinking that we would have lunch somewhere in town, I passed…big mistake !!! I wont go into that all over again, and I’ll fill you in on what we saw in town in the next journal…. Tomorrow…Troyes and more…
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| August 11, 2005 05:50 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: France
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| Who Are These Netherlanders ??? |  | 26 July ’05, Tuesday.
What do you know about Verdun, France ? I would have been only to say that it is somewhere in the northern part of France… Well, I would have been right on that regard, (although if you had asked me that question a few months ago I would not have even had that right), but now that we had taken this morning to go on a tour of the “Lower Citadel”, I can tell you a little more. Can you imagine a conflict, no, a war, where over 700,000 men lose their lives in just 4 months, and to top that all off, neither the aggressor or the defender gained any strategic advantage over the other. Verdun is where that part of WWI took place. Our tour took place inside the Citadel. This Citadel, built by the Vauban’s in the 17th century as a logistical center for the military, was “honeycombed” with tunnels that seemed to go forever. It could house over 2,000 men and supply them with all their needs from cooking, medical, armament, and command posts. It also gave them their access to the trenches that they fought from. Our tour took us 6 at a time, through the tunnels on a small tram. It was really done well, with videos portrayed as if we were there at the time, and fixed displays of the mess and living areas to mention a couple. If it had a negative, it was that it was COLD as hell in there…about 7 degrees Celsius, but that also gave me a little “close time” with Louise. We continued our walk of Verdun by going into the town its self. Verdun sits on both sides of the Meuse River. It isn’t very large so we were able to walk it in no time at all. Fact is, this is the first time that we have seen physical evidence of fighting from WWI and WWII. There are a number of buildings that still have areas where bullets have hit the building and left the marks to show it. Seeing as how most of the shoppes close down from noon to 2, we went looking for lunch. I must say, Louise seems to always order the right foods…she ordered this chicken and corn salad, and it was fantastic. After lunch, we found the internet, so I was able to up-load and Louise was able to answer some emails that were over do. As we walked through town, we came upon a long water feature that came down from a tall monument at the top of the hill. The first look, it reminded me of a Aztec pyramid, but it was one more additional WWI monument to those who fought for Verdun. You might say, that I was a little taken with all that we saw. We also saw a wonderful cathedral. Most of the stained glass windows were from the 13th century. It is amazing to see the work that they could do then, spectacular. You know, it’s always good to get back to “Bumble Bee” after a day like this, because we have that little time where we sit outside, around the table and enjoy a well deserved glass of wine and a taste of cheese. Then of course, comes out the barbeque to complete the enjoyment with a great meal. You know, I’ve been going to mention this for quite awhile…(now that I think about it, I’ve already done it a time or two, but..), in this campground we have a mixture of travelers from all over Europe, but a group that stands out in numbers are those from The Netherlands… If we were to take a count tonight, I would lay you odds that about 80% are Dutch…THEY ARE THE TRAVELERS and we have seen them in every country we have been in!!! Tomorrow, we pull up again and this time we are heading up to Luxemburg for a day or two | |
| July 28, 2005 02:22 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: France
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| 2nd Day in Paris... |  | 25 February ’05, Friday Grande Arche la Defense Paris, France
Day 2 in Paris…A short walk to the bus, and on to the metro station…today, we are going to try the metro, and take it to the Musée du Louvre. This museum is probably the world’s most complete and impressive art museum. We would have enjoyed it all, but it is just too large and has so much to take in for a days visit. I guess the real star in the museum, if there is a “star”, is the painting of the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci. Some of the other works of art we saw included, Rubens, Raphael, Titian, and Rembrandt to name a few. Well, we did see it, and it was impressive, but the negative, is the crowd that it draws around it…you have to give back what you are given, in getting to the front…push, punch, kick, in that order… just kidding, but it was a tussle. I guess I should step back a little and tell you about the museum itself. In overall area covered (ground), it’s not as big as “Hotel National des Invalides”, but it makes up for that by having more square footage of rooms to fill with all the “art” and artifacts. The building architecture is a mix of “very” old and new. The metro delivers you directly into the lower floors and, as you exit, you find yourself walking a shopping mall. Most of the items for sale are related to what you will find in the floors above (the museum). As you walk the long corridor to the end, you find a large glass inverted triangle. Just around the corner from that, you enter the museum itself. Once you have your ticket you are ready to walk the beautifully ornate rooms that hold all the museum pieces. The structure, since 1682, was once the palaces of the kings of France, and is one of the largest palaces in the world. In 1793 it was officially opened to the public as a museum.
It was a full day in the Louvre, but we had one more stop. We boarded the metro again and headed out to see “La Défense” of Paris. This is a largest modern architectural development of tall buildings in Europe. All stand on a large, circular, raised concrete pedestrian slab, with roads, parking and subway below. This “community” of ultra-modern towers was established to take the development pressures off of Paris and it’s historic preservation. The one structure that I wanted to see for myself, was the “Grande Arche”. This is an office tower in the shape of an open cube. It is enormous !!! It just happens to be the same width as the Arc de Triomphe and completes the long series of monuments extending from the Louvre through the Arc de Triomphe and on through to the Grande Arche La Defense….all, in one long line following Champs Elysées Boulevard.
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| February 27, 2005 06:35 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: France
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| Hoofing It... |  | 24 February ’05, Thursday.
I’ve got to tell you, we enjoyed both, the Blanc and the Rouge…. We didn’t make it to the Louvre as per previous plans, but we did see a ton of Paris. This is a great place to visit !!! Yesterday (Thursday) we decided to “hoof it” around Paris and take in as many of the sites as we “physically could”, and we took in a lot of the great city. We did catch a bus to Porte Malliot, which is just up the road from the campground about a 2 miles. From there we walked up the avenue des Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe. This trip to Paris, brings back some wonderful memories that we had with you girls (Mikleane, Leslee, and Joelle), seven years ago. That time, as well as this one, we walked our legs off. From the Arc we continued onto the Eiffel Tower.
The crowds were much smaller for the lift to the top this time…it must have been because of the cold and snow. I tried many different pictures, with as many different angles, and it still came back to the traditional long shot that looks the best.
We walked to the Trocadero, the Grand Palace,
walked the banks of the Seine, and had lunch at a typical non-descript restaurant that served a good meal at a fair price. We visited the “Hotel National des Invalides”, which included Napoleon’s Tomb,
the Museum of the Order of the Liberation of France, and displays of history from WWI and WWII. The Army Museum included items of history (1650-1945) from Louis XIV, Napoleon, and De Gaulle. There was also a graphic exhibit on the massacre of the Jews by the Nazi’s. The overall size of the Hotel National des Invalides, is amazing…I have never seen anything like it, the buildings and the exhibits were all maintained and done well. About 5pm we started walking back towards the Arc de Triomphe and our bus connection, but before we got there, we were pulled into a movie theatre by the smell of popcorn… We saw “Aviator” and really enjoyed it. This brings to mind one more thing…we have heard so many stories of how “rude” the people of France may be, and how “no one” will acknowledge speaking or understanding English…well, I would like everyone to know that we haven’t found that to be the case, as a mater of fact, it has been just the opposite. We have been treated with respect and courtesy, and just about everyone at least tries or succeeds in speaking to us in English. On the bus and the trains, we have encountered a few who have found it necessary to take more than one seat and give no inclination that they will give one up to you, but that has been the only negative thing. Well, after the show, as we were heading for the bus, we continued looking for an internet café that we had been unsuccessful finding in the morning, so on the way back we continued. Just prior to getting to the bus stop, we stopped and asked someone in a store once again, and he was able to direct us to one, so we changed directions a little and took care of a little business. Having accomplished that, we headed for home, a snack, and a quick to bed (by 9:45). Another big day for tomorrow. | |
| February 27, 2005 06:31 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: France
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| Day In Lyons France |  | 23 February ’05, Wednesday.
Basilica of Notre Dame de Fourviere, Lyons France
Yesterday we enjoyed a full day just wondering the streets of Lyons.
The Basilica Notra Dame de Fourviere, in all it’s striking majesty, sits high on a hill overlooking the old city…as you look up to it, it will knock you over because of it’s size and it’s beauty. Now, that’s before you find all the stairs that you have to climb to get there.
It is a huge complex of church and chapel of the Virgin. We opted for the steep streets going up, and the stairs coming down, and my muscles still cramp thinking of all that torture. This Basilica has some of the most beautiful mosaic tile art work in the world. I wanted to take a picture of it, but because of the brilliance of some of the tiles, it made it impossible. Now, a surprise to me, Lyons is the culinary capital of the world. We didn’t hit the “High-roller” spots for lunch, but the restaurant we did go to, served a wonderful lunch and at a reasonable price as well. Next on our list, was the Cathedral of St. Jean.
A beautiful gothic church that houses a fourteenth century astronomical clock. A real treasure. Today, our drive from Lyons to Paris was about 450 km and we took the toll road to make the best time we could. Unfortunately, we didn’t have any campgrounds prior to Paris that we could stay at, seeing as this is the winter time and most are still closed. We were on the road by 9am and we pulled into the campground about 3pm, or 6 hours to cover 290 miles. We didn’t get a chance to really enjoy the scenery, as we had snow falling off and on the whole way. The clouds were right down on top of us. We did see a few fantastic chateaus and some rustic villages. When we found our turn off from the toll way, the snow was coming down pretty good. As we came to the first corner, it turned out to be a giant round-about, and it led off to at least 5 different directions….”what one do we take ????” “I can’t find our sign”…”Go right”…”What is that???, O God, it’s the Arc de Triomphe,
and we’re going the wrong way…” “OK, hold on, I’ll make a U-Turn and we’ll go back..” “Right in front of the Arc de Triomphe ???”..”Oh God”…”OK, now, go around the round-about a couple of times so I can read the signs…” Well, we found our sign and were able to make our way to the campground without any additional hitch. We are camped on the bank of the Seine River and on the opposite side of the road is a huge park called Bois de Boulogne. Our bus stop is just up the street a little bit. We will grab the bus and the metro tomorrow and go to the Louvre and hope to see the painting of the Mona Lisa, along with many other fine works of art. Now for that glass of vin de France!!! Rouge or Blanc ??? | |
| February 24, 2005 10:08 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: France
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| Nimes |  | 21 February ’05, Monday. Roman Viaduct Pond du Gard
9am the sun is shining, a little toward the COLD side and we push off towards Lyons.
Our first stop will be about 40km (25 miles) up the road to Pont du Gard. Pont du Gard is a beautifully preserved Roman aqua-duct. It sits in a remote and very peaceful country setting, with the Gard River running under it. This structure is more than just a viaduct for carrying water. The water “trough” is at the highest point of the structure, and then they built a bridge beside it that is about 1/3 the height of the whole. This was the highest bridge ever constructed by the Romans and was used to carry water from Uzes to Nimes, which is over 50 km away (30 miles). The water channel isn’t in use now, but we could walk across the bridge portion. Again, it turned out to be just the right time to visit, as the sun was out and starting to warm things up a (very) little, and there was very few visitors there. We enjoyed about an hour there and then got back into “Bumble Bee” and continued on to Lyons. Again, our plan was to take the secondary roads and enjoy the scenery and get up and personal with the little villages along the route. We had a much straighter route today, which was nice, but the “round-a bout’s” will drive you crazy after awhile. About noon we found ourselves getting into some weird weather for this time of year. Snow…coming at us sideways, the wind blowing so hard that it pushed us all over the road, and then everything would stop, begin again with the largest flakes just floating, and then the wind and snow again…hell, it was quite a show. By the time we arrived in Lyons and found our new campground, there was enough snow in the ground that all I had to do, was dip my bucket down once to fill it with enough snow to cover our champagne bottle that complimented tonight’s dinner. Our plans are to spend 2 days here and then continue heading north with our next stop in Paris.
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| February 22, 2005 03:09 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: France
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| Heading North Again.... |  | 20 February ’05, Sunday. A French Village on The French Riviera
This morning we found ourselves up, showered, breakfast finished, finished our packing and we were heading out for the gate by 9:15am…I believe it is in record time for us.
Yesterday late afternoon I went up to see Rebecca Kaufmann at the front desk of “La Vieille Ferme Campground, to pay our bill so we could possibly get this early start, and what do you know, it worked. Speaking about working…Rebecca was really one of the best host or hostess that we have had in camping this last year, and I just wanted to say “Thank You” one more time for making our stay just that much better…
Last night as I was walking back to “Bumble Bee”, I was called over to the “Morgan” caravan. We had met Jackie and Don Morgan earlier, and had enjoyed their invitation for a glass of wine then. Well, Don thought it might make a good excuse to have another one seeing as how we were leaving in the morning, so we joined them again and had a great time…”Thanks Morgans”, we hope to see you again in England later this year…
Today we hit the coast road heading West as far as la Ciotat (just before Marseille), and then turned north-west, with our destination being the campground at Nimes. Taking the coast road was just as we had expected…winding and twisting. Traveling on a Sunday, we had a lot of bicyclist and sport car enthusiastic (we must have had every Porsche in France go by us) on the roadway…it has to be the twisting road with the outstanding views…WOW !!! It wasn’t long after we got past Cannes that we started to see some real changes in the soil and rock formations. Deep rust colors were the first, and they went right on down to and entered the blue-green waters of the Med…Really spectacular, and then, we started hitting the beaches with the dark gold sand. This continued with changes just about every 20 minutes or so…quite a day. Our plan for the day was to stay off the “Pay” roads, but as it was we still had a couple that we just had to pay out on…France is the worst for this…pay, and then pay again… The truth is, even if you stay off the pay roads, you pay for the extra gas and time. If we were to have taken the pay road all the way to Nimes, we would have most likely made it about 3 hours earlier and with less than half the gas that we had to use on the slower windy roads…pay them now or pay later.
Tomorrow we pull up camp and head to Lyon. We will pay the “troll” of the road…
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| February 22, 2005 03:04 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: France
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| A Map ???? |  | 18 February ’05, Friday. Antibes Old Town
Yes Drew, WE DO HAVE A MAP IN OUR POCKET !!!, and that still didn’t keep us from entering a “restricted height” tunnel. Yes Drew, we do have a map in our pocket, but that still didn’t help us when we came to a split in the road, with a very small sign, indicating that if we stayed straight ahead in our destination, WE WERE GOING THE WRONG WAY !!!, or if we were to get over to the far left, which was a very narrow single lane (which didn’t have any instructions, directions, or destination), we would have continued onto our destination (home). You know Drew, I am wondering about your quotation…Let me ask you, “have you ever left your home with “a map in your pocket so you wouldn’t get lost” ???? One more thing Drew, you never told me how much all these maps were going to cost !!! They could break the (our) bank !!! Drew, I hope you know, we are just having fun with you and I want you to know that your grandma and I really do follow your instructions (although sometimes the instructions on the maps leave a little bit of confusion in our minds..) and will continue to “Keep a Map In ‘Our’ Pocket”, and in that way, we will find our way back to you and the rest of the family after our journey is over.
It’s starting to really kick in, the fact that we will be heading up to Amsterdam to board our plane for the trip back to the Seattle area. Almost exactly a year ago we were boarding the plane for our trip to Amsterdam…boy, has this year gone by fast. It will be good to see the family and our friends, but we are already getting excited for our return and our start to the second year. As I sit here tonight and start thinking of how many of these “journals” I have written and how many pictures I have taken just blows me away. I, for one, never really thought that I would seriously take the time to complete the task I had set before myself. And, the funny thing about all of this, I have really enjoyed doing it…surprise, surprise, surprise.
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| February 22, 2005 02:58 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: France
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| The Medieval City of Eze, France or More Pop-Corn ??? |  | 16 February ’05, Wednesday. Cité Médiévale de Eze Monday was a lazy day, with us forcing our way out of the door for a long walk later in the afternoon, and then celebrating “Valentines Day” with a dinner. It was a tough decision to decide what we both wanted for this special days dinner. As it turned out, we popped the cork on a bottle of the bubbly, put a romantic movie in the computer, and popped pop-corn…. What a fantastic Valentines Day (night)… Tuesday, we were going to go back into Nice for the night parade. It was going to be the “Flower Parade” under lights. It all sounded good, until the weather made up it’s mind and turned COLD !!! Fact is, too cold for us to go out for a night parade. After waiting up to the last minute, we made the hard decision to stay home. The days have been sunny and warm, and the nights…well, they have turned cold. Today we decided to un-hitch “Bumble Bee” again and this time head down the coast road toward Nice, Eze,
Monte Carlo, Menton, and then into Italy and visit San Remo. We drove to San Remo with a couple of stops for “photo ops” and when we got there we had a wonderful “Italian” pasta lunch. One of the reasons for going back to Italy, was to try in find one of the grocery stores that we have found some great values in…”Lidl”. Unfortunately, we didn’t find Lidl, but we did find a good substitute, so we loaded our shelves and refrigerator up with all kinds of goodies. The ride along the coast road, which followed the shoreline of the Mediterranean, was breath taking. Not only because of the winding and twisting of the road above the water, but also because of the unbelievable villages that sit on the slopes of the hills, the beaches, outstanding homes, castles, fortresses, and everything else that the French Riviera offers. It was very difficult not to stop beside the road every 50 yards or so because of the “Oh, Did You See That??? Besides the stops we made for pictures, we stopped in San Remo and Eze. San Remo was nice, and the lunch was great, but Eze…even better.
It has a long history dating back to the 13th century. It is more than another fortified village, although that is exactly what it is. I guess that what I saw in it was the completeness of the past. This village, sitting high above the Mediterranean, surrounded with it’s defensive walls, passageways winding up and around the interior and reaching out with little entryways into the living quarters , lots of restaurants, little shoppes, and a magnificent church.
The highest point of the village is the “look-out point”, and boy does it ever have a wonderful out-look from there. Each and every stone that has been used to restore (and I’m sure that there has been some restoring), was done with such talent, that it is hard to believe that the village had been “sacked” a number of times in it’s long history. A little note, the son of King Gustav, Prince William of Sweden, had a villa here and spent their family holidays from 1923 to 1953. You would say that they knew how to enjoy their “holidays”…it is beautiful. Another note, they didn’t have running water in the village until 1952. This village is living up to it’s motto: “Moriendo Renascor” (In Death, I am Reborn). | |
| February 18, 2005 05:20 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: France
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| Carnival Time !!!! |  | 13 February ’05, Sunday. Carnival day !!! , Nice France Just after breakfast, we donned our warmer clothes and walked to the train station…our time table told us the train was to leave our station for Nice at 11:15am and we had to hurry it up in order to catch it. It was kind of funny though, as we arrived, there was only a mother and her daughter there on the platform, and they were on the other side. I looked up to the board and there it was…the next train was not going to leave until 12:05pm. Well, that wasn’t too bad…we could just go across the street and wait on the beach. A little bit of soaking up the rays and throwing some rocks into the water and the time would go by very quickly. Well, as it turned out, the young lady and her daughter (who just happen to be camped kitty-corner from us, and we don’t speak French), were going into Nice for the parade as well. There we were, all four of us sitting on the beach tossing rocks and not really recognizing and knowing each other. Getting back to the station, I went to the ticket kiosk to buy our tickets. Now after the last experience, I wanted it to be perfect. First off, the kiosk on “our side” wasn’t working and the girl wasn’t in again selling tickets. So, I had to run around to the other side and try the kiosk over there. The kids had gotten to the screen on that one and scratched it up so bad you really couldn’t see anything through it. Well, I did determine that I could get tickets, so then it was just a matter of getting the right tickets. I twisted and pushed the buttons, put in the amount that it asked for and out they came…2 adult 1st class…FIRST CLASS??? For a 20 minute commuter train??? “Let’s just get on the train and enjoy the day”… Arriving in Nice, we went looking for a place to pickup a sandwich and something to drink. We thought we would have a nice “curb-side” lunch while waiting for the parade to start. Finding a sandwich was easy, but then we decided to find a small bottle of wine for “our picnic”. All accomplished, and now the parade. The crowd was growing and we hadn’t found our “choice” of curb yet. Then, looking across the park, we saw what we thought was just the right spot. Believe it or not, our “neighbors” had found the same spot, and we all waited for the parade to start.
One thing that was kind of fun, was the use of confetti and “silly-string”. It was shot and tossed by the people on the floats and just about everyone on the streets watching the parade. It turned out to be a game of “who shot who” and “I’ve got to get them back” !!! In the beginning, I tried to be discreet and shoot from behind cover, or at someone’s back-side. Then, I was found out and all “Hell” broke out…I think very kid on the block was after me then, including our little “neighbor”..
We had a good time, and I hope that it all comes off the clothes OK. The parade ???, it was really good. The theme was “Carnival” and it was a Carnival. Floats, bands, very large balloons, lot’s of people in costumes, and all having a great time.
Unfortunately, the wind started to blow really hard about half way through, and it became a challenge for some of the people in the larger costumes to make it with out being blown over. | |
| February 18, 2005 05:16 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: France
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| Cannes France... |  | 12 February ’05, Friday. The French Riviera at Cannes We went to a party today, fact is, it was a block, no, a CITY PARTY….CANNES. Without a doubt, just as soon as you come into Cannes, you feel like you have been welcomed into a special party. We have been into a ton of villages, towns, and cities and not one of them has given us the total feeling of a party going on all around you as it was today. We liked it !!! This morning we walked to the train depot and purchased our tickets through the kiosk beside the tracks. It took a little time trying to figure out just how to make it work, but with a little patience, we got our tickets. The last time we were there, a lady behind the glass helped us with our tickets to Nice, but today we were on our own. Those tickets cost us just under 12 Euros, and today, our trip to Cannes cost us just over 5 . I liked the kiosk better… Moving forward, at the end of the day and on our way home, Louise took a look at her ticket and found that I had bought “le enfant” tickets for us…no wonder they were so reasonable… Heck, we even had to go through a person checking tickets on the way home, and he didn’t catch the two “senior citizens” traveling with le enfant tickets… Then, another problem came up. The train going to Nice, with “locale” stops, came up to the loading platform just 2 minutes prior to what the board said our train was to leave, so we jumped aboard. When we went flying through the first two stops, WITHOUT STOPPING, I told Louise we might have a problem… The first stop that the train made was Antibes, so we jumped up and got off the train. Looking for the conductor and finding him, we found that “our train” is the train following in 5 minutes, so we stepped off and waited for the right train…nothing lost, thank you, especially us… Ok, back to Cannes… Again, it seemed like this town was in high gear and ready to make things happen for those that came through the front door. We immediately found the “tourist information” shoppe and got our map and a list of things to see and do while there. So far, France has really been good about having the information offices just as you walk off the trains, and they have been ready to give you all the information you might need. Today, there was a farmers market, a flea market, the Musée de la Castre (The Castle at Cannes), the promenade de la Crosisette, and the oldest street of Cannes, St Antoine.
Then of course, we walked the famous boardwalk and beaches of Cannes. This is the place with the perfect sand beaches and crystal clear blue-green waters with the “Beautiful People” of Cannes… We joined those who were walking the boardwalk with their perfectly trimmed doggies and wearing their fur coats and watching those who dared go into the water for a swim. Now, when they came out of the water, they took their shower and then found the most inventive ways of getting out of their suits and into their “other” suits.
Then of course, there were the others on the beach with their coats and hats to those who were shirt-less. A good variety of people to observe, on a slightly overcast day, with the temperature hovering about 60 degrees. Oh yes, a little useless information… Coco Chanel was in Cannes and got a suntan. Returning to Paris bronzed, she startled the “milk-white society ladies. Being as to who she was, they quickly began copying her. Today, the bronzed bodies – clad in nearly nonexistent swimsuits, line the beaches and continue the late fashion designer’s example….Thank you Lord… | |
| February 14, 2005 02:00 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: France
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| Fort Carre |  | 11 February ’05, Friday. Fort Carré, Antibes It’s amazing how fast the weeks go by… We have kind of slowed down our “journey” since arriving in Antibes, so there isn’t the constant “new” ancient sites that I can cover in the journal. Now that I’ve said that, we did take in Fort Carré in Antibes. We have walked by it a number of times since we arrived, and finally on Wednesday, we decided it was time. We walked almost completely around it before we found the entrance and when we did, we found that we had to have a guided tour. It would be another 15 minutes before the next one. It was a fast 15 minutes before the young lady came out and directed us through the gate. As it was, Louise and I were the only people on the tour… another good reason to travel in the winter… Our tour was nice, but short…(I think she had a date waiting for her in the office that she wanted to get back too). The “Fort” was really an interesting piece of architecture. It was built on a small peninsula just across a small inlet from Antibes. In the center of the structure was a chapel, living quarters for the officers and non-officers, and the tower for the church, clock, and pigeon quarters.
This was a circular building of 3 floors. The rest of the fort was built into a 4 star “bastion” spreading out from the center. Long before Christianity, this was a place of a Roman cult with a temple dedicated to the god Mercury. As Christianity spread, this became the site for one of the first churches of the area. In 1550, King Henry II had the fort built for the defenses of the area and was completed in 1588 under Henry III. It was never fired upon, but did have some interesting “defensive” architectural designs. One was to keep the rats from coming off the waterfront and infesting the interior, and the other was the slope and the angles of the exterior walls. As far as the rats, there was a small rounded protrusion that came out from the walls about ¾’s of the way up that the rats couldn’t climb over. The other, being the slope and angles of the walls, were built so that when a cannon ball was to hit the wall, it would glance off the wall with no damage to the structure. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) it never got tested… Other than that, we have stayed close to home, with long walks through the local parks and around the village. | |
| February 14, 2005 01:55 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: France
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| Things Of Interest or Not... |  | 8 February ’05, Tuesday. Yesterday we kind of stuck around the van. Most of the time we spent with a good book, and then we both felt we needed to get out for awhile. We decided to walk down to the corner and walk through the park and then up the road a little farther to the grocery store, I was looking for some peanut butter. Louise wanted to feed the ducks at the pond, but when we got there, they had a sign that said “Do Not Feed The Ducks”, so we just watched them beg…what a sorrowful sight, even if these were the fattest ducks you have ever seen…hell, someone was feeding them… Our walk to the store for my peanut butter proved to be fruitless. We’ve searched quite a number of stores without results. Getting back to things “of interest” here and there: Sidewalks…they are often non-existent, or when we do have them, they are very narrow with broken concrete, trees growing right out of the middle and haven’t been trimmed to keep the branches above waist height, cars parked on or across them, bicycle lanes take up 90%, and they come to an end right in the middle of the block….crosswalks…France is the first country since Germany, that traffic will stop if you make a motion to cross at a crosswalk, but in the other countries such as Turkey and Greece, you have no rights as a pedestrian, except if you get in the way of a car, you get hit…
Well anyway, today we unhitched Bumble Bee from the tent again and headed off for Grasse. It was about a 40 minute ride out into the hills overlooking the Mediterranean. Grasse is one of the many hilltop towns that are so plentiful in this part of France. Not only does it have a medieval history behind it, it is famous world wide as the city of perfume. Some of the hilltop towns / villages are just “charmingly” small, but Grasse was a town of good size. Fact is, we got turned around by road construction a number of times, and had the distinct “pleasure”??? of going up and down it’s hills many more times than I would want again… Yes, it is a picturesque town, charming in many ways I’m sure, but…
We opted not to stop by one of the many perfume companies, as we had already been introduced to the manufacture of perfume in Egypt, and we still smell like it. We were also looking for The Route de Napolêon, that retraces history, and as they put it; “They did it on foot, so, do it by car”…we took the challenge and did it…by car. It was a very pretty drive into the mountains high above the villages, cities, and the Med far below. Fact is, we even got into the snow again. But the view, beautiful. The unfortunate part of the trip was the weather was heavy overcast and the haze over the valleys just didn’t give us a good photo opportunity. | |
| February 10, 2005 03:52 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: France
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| Making Magic... |  | 6 February ’05, Sunday. If I hadn’t asked her if she wanted to go out for a walk, I would have called it a “Forced March”… I was thinking of a nice (little) walk, but no, she wanted to take on a full fledged, all out, hike…it took over an hour, just one way, and we’d been there before !!! Being Sunday, there weren’t a lot of stores open, so at least we saved a little money for another day. Our destination was to find a couple of large “towers” we had seen from a distance on a return trip from Antibes, but because of the wind and cold of the day, we dispensed of that destination. All we did do, was find the internet café and check in with the latest news from family and friends, and then a little walk through “Old Town”.
I have to also tell you about the fact that anything that is a “left-over” from a previous meal is sacred…it gets made into a soup. May it be said though, Louise makes the best soups that could pass beyond your lips. She makes “magic” with all those left-over pieces. Today it was left-over sauerkraut, which she put together with mushroom soup base and sausage….it was wonderful !!! I must say, I am fed quite well, this is only a small sample of what she puts together. I wanted to start a new paragraph for this…
We had heard and read, that in France, you’ve got to watch the sidewalks very closely…they don’t “Poopy Scoop” and there is dog shit everywhere…”WATCH OUT !!! Another thing of interest ???…When a man has to go, he has to go…and I mean he will just stop his car right on the sidewalk, walk down a hill of grass a little bit (still very much in sight), and go…or when he is out walking with his wife, he may find a fence just off the sidewalk and …well… Just a couple of interesting points… Oh yes, if you want to stop by a coffee house or restaurant and have a “cappuccino” (they don’t have “Lattes”), you had better have it standing (there are very few that will have it to “take away”), because if you sit down to drink it, the cost of that cup of coffee goes up about 30%… in all the countries that we have traveled through in the last year (19), France has the fewest that speak English…now don’t miss-understand me, I have and still do feel, that if you are visiting or living in a country different from the one you carry a drivers license from, you should at least have a few words to convey to the host…it’s just…well, you know…
Bread…the French bread, and especially the baguette, deserve the prize for taste…the Greek bread…well, we now know how they got so good with the “Discus” throw…the bread is sooo dense and taste-less that it was all we could do but toss it ourselves. Getting back to the French and their baguette, I can remember once seeing an older man with his arms full of groceries and tied onto his dogs back was 2 loaves of baguettes… Ok, one more tid-bit…we are “Hooked” on “Sour Worms”… | |
| February 10, 2005 03:49 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: France
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| Hill Top or Perched ???? | | 5 February ’05, Saturday. Hill Top Village of Biot, France It’s always a little stressful when you walk onto the train platform in a new city/town/village. First off, where do you get your ticket, what are the spellings or how do you pronounce the word “round trip”, where does the train leave from, where do you validate the ticket, and what stop do you get off at ??? I don’t know where the stress comes from, cause it always works out just fine… We caught the train into Nice yesterday morning (actually after a 20 minute train ride, it turned out to be just about noon by the time we got into Nice). Our plan was to visit the “Old Town” of Nice, so when we arrived at the station, we found the Information booth just outside of the station door. They were able to give us all the maps and information we thought we would need while here. With the map in my navigators hands, we were off for a great day on the Cote d’ Azur. It turned out that “Old Town” was about a 30 minute walk from the station, so we did some window shopping along the way. Fact is, I bought a new sweatshirt. I am learning that I’ve just got to keep myself covered with black while we are camping…guess what color shirt I got??? That was a no brain-er… Seeing as how it was lunch time, we split a baguette sandwich and took it to the boardwalk to eat with all the other locals and tourists. We enjoyed our walk through the narrow streets of the “Old Town” and then found the walkway to where the castle used to sit overlooking the city of Nice. It was good exercise walking up the stairs to the site. On the top, we found a wonderful church with a cemetery that we spent sometime wandering through, and then onto the top of the hill and the spectacular “Overlook” of Nice and the Cote d’ Azur.
We had hoped to spend a full day and into the early evening in town, but that just didn’t work out…we were pooped… Must be the “new” age I’ve found myself in… On the other hand, it could have been that we saw just about everything we were looking for and wanted to save ourselves for tomorrow. Nice was nice, but we enjoyed our time in Antibes Old Town more…it’s just what your looking for I guess. On the way back to the station we saw a crowd around a small food kiosk. We had to see what was going on. They had just put out this large pizza like pan of something. The locals were buying the heck out of it, so we had to get some too. They scraped what ever it was off the bottom of the pan and put it in a paper cone. We could not figure out what it was. It was hot, looked a lot like polenta...and tasted better than good! It was grilled "mashed" chickpeas. Yum! We will buy some more of that if we see it again!! Today we pulled “Bumble Bee” out and went off to see a couple of the Hill Top Villages (Perched Villages) up close and personal. The first one, Biot, is just a short distance away. We are really enjoying the road signs that we have found here in France so far. If you know were you want to go, they will make sure that you are going to find it…very nice. Well we weren’t disappointed with our first visit to a Hill Village. After doing a little up hill driving, and a few switch backs, we found ourselves in a very beautiful village. The “village people” were all out in force putting the final touches on getting ready for their “Mimosa Day” celebration.
I mean it, everyone including the children, were out tying Mimosa branches onto anything that wouldn’t move and something’s that did. The Mimosa tree is from Australia and really grows well here. The flowers from the Mimosa tree are the yellowiest of yellow, and make a striking contrast when tied to the evergreen swags that were hung throughout the village from one building to the other. We even saw a dog carrying a Mimosa branch. After an hours walk, we got back in “Bumble Bee” (it was colder than hell out today) to warm up and move on to our next “Perched Village” and then back home for a great dinner (boy, have I got a great chef / navigator with me…). Tomorrow…no plans yet…depends on the weather. | |
| February 10, 2005 03:44 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: France
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| Antibes, France |  | 3 February ’05, Thursday. We are just about settled into our new campground and our extended stay after 3 days. The first location they put us in wasn’t available for us to stay the 3 weeks, so we went looking through the campgrounds for that special one that spoke to us…we found D43, and this is going to be it. It offers good sun, a flat location, 2 trees to tie our clothesline on,
and most important…it’s close to the potty. We have been so used to getting a campground and site that is right on the water, that this one feels like there is something missing. The Mediterranean is about ¼ mile from the entrance, so that isn’t too bad. We have already started walking into the village (Antibes), which is about 2 miles or more down the road. The bus and the train stops are both within a short walk, so when we want to go into Nice, Monaco, or any of the other cities and villages of the French Riviera, we won’t have to exert a lot of energy getting to the transportation. For a trip into the mountain top villages, we will most likely take “Bumble Bee”. Yesterday, after finding our new location, we pulled out the tent and put it up. This will give us a little more room to move around in, whether we just use it for extra storage, or additional living quarters. The weather forecast up to the weekend, calls for mostly sunny days and continued cool in the evenings….it is cool in the evenings, fact is, it is down right freezing… Thank God we have a good electric heater we use when we have to. Well, last night, Louise fixed me a wonderful birthday dinner complete with champagne, shrimp, pasta, and of course desert fit for a king. Am I spoiled or what ??? We had a great party and the celebration continues…for how long ???, I’m not asking, just enjoying !!!… Today, following breakfast, we walked into Antibes to use the internet and look around a little. We walked the beach the whole way, and as we came to Antibes, we entered one of the marinas. This IS a boating area, and they DO have the expensive toys…holy cow !!! I can only imagine the boats we will see in Monaco… As we were just walking into the internet café, we saw that there was a street market going on, so our plan was to take that in just after we finished with the internet. Well, just like all the other markets and bazaars that we have come across, they have a quitting time…1:30 sharp…I think there were 2 or 3 that hadn’t quite finished loading their trailers or trucks when we walked out of the internet, but they were done for the week here…we were really disappointed. On top of that, I did what I told myself I would never do again, I left my camera at the van. I deserve a kick in the butt. As we walked around the streets of Antibes,
we found that there is an “Old Town” of Antibes as well. Boy, what a photogenic village this is. I’m just thankful that we will be back and I can take all the pictures my little heart wishes… | |
| February 10, 2005 03:41 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: France
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| From Italy to Antibes, France |  | 2 February ’05, Tuesday. Life has it’s up’s and down’s, and we have followed that roller coaster... Right now, we’re on a high, and all I have to say about that, is HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME !!! Our travels from Naples (Pompeii) was really quite interesting. The whole time we traveled the major toll road, which stayed close to the Mediterranean coastline. We will be back to see Italy later next year, but for now, we will be moving through it as fast as we can. The scenery it really spectacular, with all the little hill-top villages and the wonderful mountains that seem to come all the way down to meet us at the next corner. Just prior to getting to Genova we started to travel through a long series of tunnels, which continued all the way to Nice, France. I would guess that we went through at least 100 tunnels that were from 25 yards long to over a mile in length. Fact is, we went through so many that we missed a tremendous amount of the best scenery in Italy and the French coast. Next year, we definitely will not be taking the toll road… Prior to hitting the tunnels, we did see some hill top communities. Some were made up of a small amount of buildings including a church, and others were at least a hundred or more structures all hanging onto the top and sides of the hill. It was hard to guess the age of these villages from the toll road, but they have been there for some time, that is for sure. Again, next year we will take the time to visit some of these, as they are really beautiful and offer a lot of history for Italy, which we look forward to learning. Prior to arriving in Nice and then going down to Pompeii, we were in snow, but then thank God, we traveled out of it. The weather turned warmer (at least a little…) as we headed to France and as we crossing the border, we were back to having the snow alongside the road. We are supposed to be in the sun belt of France…The Cote D’Azur…the Gold Coast…where everyone wears a bathing suit…to work and the beaches…some topless…all with dark tans… (Ok, I’m getting carried away…)… well, it has turned out to be just about all true… Fact is, we have decided to stay here instead of continuing on to Spain. This campground is in Antibes,
just west of Nice, and it seems central to just about everything we might want to do. Besides, it has a covered indoor swimming pool and hot tub..I just hope we find time to use them. About 30 miles prior to France, we stopped for lunch at a roadside park. After starting back onto the road, “Bumble Bee” started bucking, spitting and had a complete loss of power. “Not Now Bumble Bee” !!! Well, we nursed her all the way into Nice and finally had to find a garage to see just what has happened to our little “Bumble Bee”. Now, you have to understand, we had no idea as to were we where and were we might find a garage, and IF, they would stop everything they were doing to help us out…. As luck would seem to have it, we did find a VW garage, and we did find a young man that would take a minute to come out to the van. He got in, started the van up, stepped on the gas, and said to me to take it around the corner to the garage. He jumped into the passenger seat, and gave me directions. Now this is in a area were the streets are narrow…I mean VERY narrow. I made the first corner, squeezed between cars parked at the curb, and then he told me to park just to the right around the next corner…BUMP..GRIND…TINKLE… OH SHUCKS…!!! Yep, I hit a parked car...damn near tore off the bumper, and did put a long dent in both of our cars…SH__UCKS !!! Well, what do you do ??? A young man came out of the VW garage and you could tell it was his car even if he couldn’t speak English. He didn’t seem too upset, but… To make a long story shorter, he asked for 100 Euro to cover the damage…and yep, I TOOK IT !!! Now, what about my problem??? “We can’t fit your van into the shop, so we can’t help you…sorry…”SORRY” ??? I got in and got the heck out of there and followed Louise’s directions to the nearest campground. Just prior to arriving at the campgrounds, I did find another garage, and he told me to come back in the morning, and they would see what they could do for us. It turned out to be “WATER IN THE GAS”, and it has made a mess of the carburetor. Well, a new gas filter and a clean up of the carburetor and we are now back on the mend for a while longer. I will have to get a gas tank cleaning and a new carb, but that will have to wait I guess, as this mechanic can’t do it, and he doesn’t know anyone who will or can….well, we’ve gotten this far, and I think we can continue for a little longer…I’ll find out anyway… As it is, we have decided to stay here in Antibes until the 21th of Febr., and then head to Utrecht for our APK inspection. | |
| February 03, 2005 04:03 AM
By Joel and Louise
Location: France
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