Moving on.......

So, it's New Years Eve tomorrow and we're moving on from the Pyrenees. We're saying good bye to Helen and Phil and Ronnie the dog. We've had a good 10 days here.

 

I'm flying home to England, visiting my parents in Ringwood, so I may see some of you around, and Dave's staying in France around the Dordogne area.

We're starting our next house sit in the Dordogne near Perigueux  on 10th January.

Happy New Year to  you all.

xxx

Christmas in the Pyrenees.

We've stayed quite local this week and have done some really long dog walks. The foothills here are picturesque, miles of rolling hills with the more rugged, snowy peaks in the back ground. It's very rural and we never see anyone while out walking, but we haven't seen any wild boar, eagles or any Pyrenean Brown bears either!  Boring!!
On Christmas Eve we went into Aurignac, the local village, a pretty, medieval hilltop village, to stock up on goodies.

 

Christmas Day was quiet but cosy in front of the wood burner. We ate too much and Skyped family and friends.

Yesterday we went right into the heart of the mountains, past some stunning scenery. We went up into the nearest ski resort, St. Lary Soulan. It was a beautiful sunny day with a fresh dump of snow. Everywhere looked like a Christmas card scene and it would have been great to ski, but I didn't have any kit with me, so had to make do with a nice walk in the snow.

 

 

 

 

 

It was all very scenic and we found a lovely track through the trees. Worth coming back to for a ski holiday one day.

 

Heading for the snowy mountains!

Having had two and a half great weeks in Marseillan we finally moved out on Thursday to start heading for the Pyrenees. Our first stop was at the fortified town of Carcassonne, somewhere I'd always wanted to visit. It was very, very quiet, mostly closed for the winter, but good to walk around and admire the buildings.

 

Quite how I managed to chop the turrets off the castle, I'll never know!! Much smaller than either of us expected, but impressive.

 

From there we drove on to Mirepoix where we stopped overnight. I walked into the town the next morning in search of a boulangerie and found a beautiful market square.

 

 

Then we drove on past some lovely towns all with babbling rivers pouring down from the mountains, and around every corner we were treated to superb snow-topped, rugged mountain views. We arrived at Bouzin and met Helen & Phil and their dog Ronnie, where we'll be house sitting for the next 10 days over Christmas while they're back in the UK.

This morning we woke up to a crisp white frost, which turned into a beautiful sunny day with blue skies. Had a long dog walk enjoying the mountain scenery.

 

 

 

 

 

Beziers and the Millau viaduct.

On Thursday we put the bikes on the van and drove to Beziers. It's about half an hour away and it's the closest airport to fly into for this area. Avoided the town but admired the church from afar.

 

It was a warm and sunny day so we cycled along the tow-path of the Canal du Midi for a while, past a flight of nine locks. The canal was really quiet so we couldn't watch any barges going through but we had a look at the disused water slope, which , in its day could have lifted boats past the locks if they didn't have the time to go through them.

 

 

A bit of a boys' toy but quite interesting!! Then we had our picnic ....... then I got a puncture!

 

Next day, another walk in the sunshine along the very long, very sandy beach at Marseillan Plage.

 

Today, Monday, we've been to Millau to look at the viaduct, the tallest bridge in the world. There are lots of vantage points, and it looks impressive from every angle. It's on the A75 motorway between Paris and Montpellier and spans the Tarn valley, but its strangely quiet. It'll take a long time to pay for itself.

 

 

We were very impressed with the Tarn valley area. Sheer rock faces with the river Tarn winding along the bottom. Would love to come back in the summer with a canoe.

The village of Peyre is one of the 'Plus Beaux Villages de France', and was easy to see why. Beautiful honey coloured stone houses built into the cliffs overlooking the river and the Millau Viaduct.

 

 

 

 

Beautiful Marseillan!

We've been here in Marseillan for a week now and we love it. Every day has been cold but sunny  with blue sky. It's on the south coast where the Canal du Midi reaches the Med. Everywhere you look there is water, either canal, lake, sea or river. There is so much going on and is still quite lively despite being winter. We've explored on our bikes in the town and been along the tow path to the beach.

 

We've also cycled along to Agde which is another lovely town on the canal......

 

 

...... and to Sete in the other direction. Always on the water's edge, seeing flamingos, a kingfisher, and lots more long- legged, long- billed fish catching birds.

 

The old town of Marseillan itself has a maze of narrow winding lanes, and this is where we're staying. It's very quaint, almost medieval. They're putting up the Christmas lights at the moment so it will be looking very festive soon.

 

 

A very big thank you to David and Jackie for making this part of our trip become possible.

THANK YOU!

 

 

 

Leaving Italy

Wednesday 27th Nov started off quite bright and sunny so we decided to try to explore the Amalfi Coast. It's breathtakingly beautiful, very steep, very spectacular and very Italian, but the roads were so narrow and twisty and a bit stressful in a campervan (can't imagine what it'd be like in the summer?), so  we abandoned it halfway round and headed north towards Rome.

 

This photo doesn't do it justice, but there weren't many parking opportunities. The villages are quite literally clinging to the hillsides.

The Italian driving is something else!! There don't appear to be any rules, and if there are, nobody obeys them. The only exception seems to be that using your mobile phone whilst driving IS compulsory! With that in mind we thought it best to avoid the Rome ringroad at rushhour! Instead we took a detour and covered about 100 miles of very potholed roads in the wet & dark. Horrendous!

On Friday it was still cold so we decided to save Rome for another visit and headed off north towards the French border.

The A12 was a very scenic drive mainly following the coast to the west, past the islands of Giglio ( where the cruise ship is being salvaged after hitting the rocks last year) and Elba, with snow topped mountains to the east.

 We also went past Pisa, and could just about see from the motorway the Leaning Tower. From La Spetzia to Genoa was especially picturesque. We stayed overnight west of Genoa on a weird site, somewhere between shanty town and refugee camp, but safe and friendly at least.

On Saturday we drove all the way to Marseillan in France where we will be spending the next three weeks.

Sunday was cold but sunny with bright blue skies. Great to be back in  'la belle France' !!