The French Riviera

After visiting all those wonderful villages in the Cotes du Rhone we headed for the old sea port of Antibes. Rita had booked us a townhouse right in the old city and had been given the directions which seemed vague at best. Our Tom Tom did not have the exact address but we were able to program the street. Once again it was Rita’s turn to drive and as soon as we were in the Old Town of Antibes she again encountered very narrow streets just like Isle-sur-la-Sorgue. When Tom Tom told us we had reached our destination we were right in front of the covered market and the Picasso Museum. We had to keep going as it was a one way lane. We followed the road up onto the ramparts and miraculously ended up at the entrance to our Townhouse. It was about 6:00pm and we quickly unpacked, showered and headed into the old town to pick up some groceries and wine. The Townhouse is on four levels with the kitchen/living room on the third level and a lounge area and the outside deck on the fourth level. The deck is wonderful as it overlooks the town and the Med. Tomorrow we will take a tour of the old city.

Rita picking up some olives in the Antibes Covered Market

Rita enjoying the view and a glass of wine on the balcony

Rita relaxing in our Living Room after a long day of travel and sightseeing

Pont du Gard and Cotes du Rhone

Another reason we left Carcassonne early, other than the bad hotel, was the opportunity to experience more of Provence. Choosing Isle-sur-la-Sorgue as our base for 2 nights gave us the ability to check out two places Rita and I wanted to visit. One of the true ancient marvels, the Roman built Pont du Gard and taking a tour into the Cote du Rhone wine region. I am sure you can figure out which was Rita’s favorite tour.

Pont du Gard

Have seen pictures and Chris Jones also really talked about how great this place was. But until you see it for yourself, you cannot grasp the massive achievement it took to create this aqueduct. It is regarded as one of the most remarkable surviving Roman ruins anywhere. The structure is about 160 feet high and was originally 1,100 feet long. Today, 12 arches are missing reducing the length to 790 feet. The structure was part of a 30 mile long aqueduct that supplied 9 million gallons of water per day to Nimes, one of ancient Europe’s largest cities, for 150 years. To me, the most amazing part about this structure is that there is no mortar holding the stones together. Each stone weighs 4 – 6 tones and is held in place by gravity. You can walk across a bridge built by the French in 1743 that uses part of the Aqueduct for structural support to get different views of the structure. It was the 2nd tallest structure the Romans ever built just 6 feet shorter than Rome’s Coliseum. The setting is also very beautiful as it is surrounded by forests and the River Gard. If you are ever close to this place you have to take the effort to see it.

Pont du Gard

Pont du Gard and Rita sitting on rocks next to the Gard River

Cotes du Rhone Villages Tour

This is a totally different experience than the Pont du Gard and we truly enjoyed the day touring this beautiful area. It’s very green with lots of vineyards and forests. It starts in the valley and ends in the mountains with each village offering its own unique personality. The circular tour we followed is from the guide book we received from Chris Jones and it was excellent. Rita and I both liked the wines from Gigondas and Seguret. Not sure if they export to Canada but if you see them would recommend you give them a try.

Gigondas Village is a quaint village and its Church is from the 11th Century. It boasts the best wines from the Cote du Rhone and I agree.

Seguret Village is said to be one of the most beautiful in France. Its set on a hillside and overlooks its vineyards. Spectacular setting and a very beautiful place.

Romain la Romaine is a fortified villages on top of a hill. Its very quaint and the largest of the villages on this tour. This is a typical street in the village. The houses are beautifully kept with lots of plants and flowers.

Suzette is the smalest village with about 20 homes and one restaurant, but it has the best views as its situated at the top of the valley with increible views such as this of the cliffs of St. Amand and the vineyards below.

A River Runs Through It

It was Rita’s turn to drive and after visiting the walled medieval town of Carcassonne for the last time we headed for Isle-sur-la-Sorgue which was about a 2 hour drive. The warm, sunny weather stayed with us and we arrived a little after 5:00pm into this lovely little village with very, very narrow streets. The TomTom was directing us to the address of our hotel, but we did not believe the lane it was telling us to go down was big enough for cars. After circling a couple of times, Rita illegally parked in the big square and I went on foot to find the hotel. True enough it was exactly where our TomTom said it was. The person who greeted me said that we should bring the car to the hotel entrance and unload the luggage and she would show us where to park the car. This we did. This when you really appreciate a compact car as Rita had barely enough room to drive in without hitting the side mirrors. Cars behind us has to wait as we unloaded the luggage and I received directions for the public parking area.
The hotel is lovely, and very quiet. The name of this very quaint village means “Island on the Sorgue River”. The river and its streams are everywhere and even run under buildings. In fact one of the streams runs under the restaurant of our hotel. We explored the town and had a very nice dinner at one of the restaurants situated along the main river. We also planned our next 2 days, thanks to the written recommendations of Chris Jones, and we will go to see the Roman Aqueduct at Pont du Gard, explore a couple of wineries in the Cotes du Rhone and visit the protected village of Rousillon before heading to Antibes.

Alleyway for our check-in. The hotel entrance is on the left of the sign.


Rita looking along the Sorgue River with restaurants and cafe's in the background.

Sleepless in Carcassonne

The Medieval City of Carcassonne

Left our lovely country barn in Bordeaux and headed for Carcassonne. It was raining and 17 C when we left and it was not much better 4 hours later. However, the rain had stopped. Checked into our hotel for a 3 night stay and headed to La Cite, the original name of the town, which was a 20 minute walk away. The medieval walled town of Carcassonne was built in the 1300’s over a former Roman fortress. It has 52 towers and 2 rings of town walls giving it 3 km of battlements. It has a population of 120 permanent residents and has several hotels, many restaurants, cafes and shops within its walls. It makes Mont Saint Michel look very small.
We walked around until 7:30pm and stopped for dinner and a nice bottle of their local red wine. After dinner I wanted to take another look at the place all lit up after dark. The wind was blowing and it was definitely wet and cold. After about 5 minutes of walking, Rita wanted to know where her Cashmere sweater was as this was not the weather to be tramping around in summer gear. She was a trooper and managed to make it all the way around before we headed home and what we thought was going to be a good night’s sleep. How wrong we were. The hotel was on a major road junction and our room faced the traffic. After a sleepless night, Rita explained “Life is too short to stay in a bad hotel”. So we decided right then and there to check out and move on. But to where? We dug into our book on Provence that Chris Jones has lent us and found Isle-sur-la-Sorgue. Chris had stayed there for a week and wrote little notes saying how she liked the place. We read about the accommodation recommendations and contacted a place that had renovated a convent into a 5 room hotel and restaurant. They had a room for 2 nights, so we booked it, cancelled our room in Carcassone and rerouted our Tom Tom.
The cloudy, wet and cold weather from yesterday had gone and was replaced by a beautiful sunny day with 24C temperatures. We decided to go back to the old walled city for one last visit and spent about 3 hours rediscovering the place with sunshine. It was a totally different experience.
Tomorrow will talk about the “Venice of Provence”, Isle-sur-la-Sorgu

Rita smiling through the cold and wet inside the walls of old Carcassonne.

Walking between the outside and Inside walls of Carcassonne.

Carcassonne at night

Sarlat Squared

Place de la Liberte is the main square in Sarlat and the place they have there weekly market.

The day started of very promising. We got up relatively early, for us (08:45) and the weather was overcast but mild (18C). We were headed for Sarlat and the Dordogne River Valley, which is about a 2 hour drive. We put the coordinates into our Tom Tom and headed out. After 2 ½ hours we were in a wonderful place of forests and farms, but no villages and our Tom Tom said we would be reaching our destination in 300 meters. The sign came into sight, Sarlat and we passed about 4 buildings and it was back into the country. We pulled over and checked our Tom Tom. This time it showed us two Sarlat’s to choose from. Obviously, we had selected the wrong one. We reprogrammed the Tom Tom and it showed “our” Sarlet was a 90 minute drive away!! Turn the car around and backtrack to the Sarlet we wanted to see. It was well worth the wait.
Sarlet became an important village under Charlemagne in the 7th Century with the establishment of a Benedictine Monastery. However, the city really prospered in the 15th to 18th centuries and many of these building are still standing today. What’s unique about these old buildings are the Lauzes Roofs. They are made from flat limestone rocks and last about 200 years. Lichen grows on the black rocks, sealing the gaps between the stones and effectively waterproofing the roof.

It was a great day, but with the detour we did not get home until 8:30pm. We had planned to go out for dinner as it was our last night before leaving for Carcassonne. But we were too tired to make the effort to clean ourselves up to go out again. So Rita put on a great dinner from the leftovers of a delicious lamb dinner she had made the night before. It was the best way to end our stay in this lovely old barn.

The next time we come through France, we will definitely spend more time in Sarlat and the beautiful Dordogne River Valley.

Rita at Old Manor House door. The door still has the original wood door from the late 1500's.

Place de Oies is a small secluded square where they have held geese auctions for centuries and still do today.

15th Century houses in a lane that is now filled with quaint cafe's

French Desert

Woke up to another misty day and decided to head for the beach to see if the weather would be better there. It was a 2 hour drive but certainly worth it as the sun appeared and it was a lovely 24C. Arcachon is in a large Bay and the whole area is fronted by a beautiful sandy beach. This area has very different scenery from anything we have seen in France. The main difference is the trees, as they are mostly pine. There are amazing forests of Ponderosa pine surrounding Arcachon and they have a lovely Pine covered walkway all along the beach area.
After having lunch at one of the many beach café’s (mussels, frits and a carafe of house Rose) and dipping our tootsies into the Atlantic, we decided it was time for some exercise. Rita had visited this area when she was 15 with a church group and remembered the famous sand dunes. Eileen from our UK office, who used to work for the French Tourist Office, also suggested we should try and include this unique natural attraction. The Dunes of Pilat are about a 10 minute drive from Arcachon, just outside of the Bay and they are massive. The dunes come right down to the ocean and stretch as far as the eye can see. The sand is incredibly fine making walking quite difficult. It took about 20 minutes for Rita and I to walk to the top of the Dunes. On the other side is a massive Pine forest, it’s an amazing sight and certainly not something you would expect to see in France. It felt like you were somewhere on the Coast of Africa.

A great day for Rita as no history involved!!!

Rita dipping her toes into the Atlantic


Rita climbing the Dunes du Pilat

Geoff and Rita at the top

Split Personality of Perigueux

Our Rick Steves Guidebook has very little of the Bordeaux region and so we relied on our friendly hosts to give us a couple of suggestions on which places to visit in the area. They recommended the city of Perigueux as it has both Gallo Roman and Medieval Renaissance sections of the city. So, with that amount of history, I had to drag Rita off to see the place. The Romans called it Vesunna and parts of the Roman wall and temple still stand from the second century AD. The Medieval section of the city has buildings from the 11th to 16th centuries. We spent most of our time in the medieval section of town and explored the narrow streets and all the shops along the way. The place has several quaint squares where the locals and tourists alike hang out, drink coffee and watch each other. Where Saint Emilion has lots of wine shops, Perigueux has lots of Fois Gras shops as this region is where all the Goose farms are located.

Rita worshipping to the Shopping Gods at Vesuna Temple

Barriere Castle Ruins

High end Fois Gras Shop

Rita practicing her shopping skills in the narrow lanes of medieval Perigueux