That's French for Bordeaux wine festival!
I spent the weekend in Bordeaux visiting a few wineries, drinking copious amounts of wine and eating a little bit of duck too...
Showing posts with label France. Show all posts
Showing posts with label France. Show all posts
Monday, 28 July 2008
Monday, 1 January 2007
White Christmas in the French Alps
We departed the flat at 4.30am with a heap of packs, presents, food, 4 sleepy people and a snowboard. With the fog creating chaos at Heathrow I was very pleased that we had decided long ago to go in the Wagen to France. We cruised through the early morning London fog and got to Dover with loads of time to spare.
A ferry trip and about 10 hours driving time later we arrived at Sainte Foy, a small ski resort in the same area as more famous resorts such as Val D'Isere, Tignes and Les Arcs. We stayed in nice 4BR Chalet about 5 mins walk to the bottom of the lift. We also did a day at Val D'Isere and Tigne, about 30 mins drive away and another day we went for a drive up to the Italian border. Unfortunately the road to Italy was closed because the ski run goes on to the road!!
Gabe, Adam, Gary and Tim
Gabe, Melinda and Adam at Les Arcs
A ferry trip and about 10 hours driving time later we arrived at Sainte Foy, a small ski resort in the same area as more famous resorts such as Val D'Isere, Tignes and Les Arcs. We stayed in nice 4BR Chalet about 5 mins walk to the bottom of the lift. We also did a day at Val D'Isere and Tigne, about 30 mins drive away and another day we went for a drive up to the Italian border. Unfortunately the road to Italy was closed because the ski run goes on to the road!!
Gabe, Adam, Gary and Tim
It was a nice white Christmas and all too soon the week was over and it was time to go home. We stayed a night in Reims (the Champagne town) on the way back (Melinda and I stayed there earlier in the year with other friends on our WW1 battlefield tour trip)
The last day threw up some problems at us when as I was pulling in to a petrol station, a component in the accelerator linkages broke!!! So after managing to whip out some old schoolboy French, I got it towed to a local garage and fixed. However, this meant we had missed our ferry. Not to worry, the next ferry had spots available! However due to very rough weather, Dover (UK side) was temporarily closed and the ferry departed 3 hours late!!
We ended up getting home at 2am, when we should have been home by 7.30pm!! Despite the breakdown and missed ferry, it was still a great trip and a fun Christmas!!
The last day threw up some problems at us when as I was pulling in to a petrol station, a component in the accelerator linkages broke!!! So after managing to whip out some old schoolboy French, I got it towed to a local garage and fixed. However, this meant we had missed our ferry. Not to worry, the next ferry had spots available! However due to very rough weather, Dover (UK side) was temporarily closed and the ferry departed 3 hours late!!
We ended up getting home at 2am, when we should have been home by 7.30pm!! Despite the breakdown and missed ferry, it was still a great trip and a fun Christmas!!
Intense dealings in Monopoly in the Chalet
Wednesday, 1 November 2006
The French Riviera, Nice and Monaco
As we were driving out of Andorra I commented to Melinda 'hey there's no border patrol here!'
Melinda: 'Oh no i wanted to get a stamp in my passport!'
Adam: 'Nah not that silly, we should have bought a heap of cheap cigarettes and then sold them!!!'
Melinda: 'you reckon? You hardly know anyone that smokes?!'
Adam: 'No but I reckon we could sell them somewhere?!! There must be a market for them!!'
40 mins later (still on the same road with no possibility to have turned off) we were pulled over by French customs police! Car briefly searched and we were on our way.
Adam: 'Gee luckily we didn't try and stock up on smokes'
Top criminal I would make...
Any way, it took quite a long time to get through the Pyrenees and to a small town on the French Mediterranean coast. When we got there we got a cheap room that happened to have a balcony with a sea view (uninterrupted) with the Pyrenees in the distance at sunset!! To top it off, in the morning we received our breakfast of croissants and coffee on the balcony!!
The next day we drove to Nice, which happens to be quite nice. The only thing I didn't like was the pebbly beach, but the water colour was almost unreal (very bright blue).
We also made a day trip to Monaco, where I declared that I should change my career path from Engineer to 'Rich Prick'. You see there are lots of rich pricks in Monaco, they drive rich prick cars, have massive rich prick boats and eat expensive rich prick food.
I had some trouble finding the local job centre, so I will have to try again later...
Melinda: 'Oh no i wanted to get a stamp in my passport!'
Adam: 'Nah not that silly, we should have bought a heap of cheap cigarettes and then sold them!!!'
Melinda: 'you reckon? You hardly know anyone that smokes?!'
Adam: 'No but I reckon we could sell them somewhere?!! There must be a market for them!!'
40 mins later (still on the same road with no possibility to have turned off) we were pulled over by French customs police! Car briefly searched and we were on our way.
Adam: 'Gee luckily we didn't try and stock up on smokes'
Top criminal I would make...
Any way, it took quite a long time to get through the Pyrenees and to a small town on the French Mediterranean coast. When we got there we got a cheap room that happened to have a balcony with a sea view (uninterrupted) with the Pyrenees in the distance at sunset!! To top it off, in the morning we received our breakfast of croissants and coffee on the balcony!!
The next day we drove to Nice, which happens to be quite nice. The only thing I didn't like was the pebbly beach, but the water colour was almost unreal (very bright blue).
We also made a day trip to Monaco, where I declared that I should change my career path from Engineer to 'Rich Prick'. You see there are lots of rich pricks in Monaco, they drive rich prick cars, have massive rich prick boats and eat expensive rich prick food.
Some rich pricks boats...
Some slightly less rich pricks boats parked next to the Grand Prix circuit
I had some trouble finding the local job centre, so I will have to try again later...
Future rich prick???
Sunday, 15 October 2006
3 nights across France
The theory for the first part of our trip was that the further south we went, the better the weather should be. However it seems that the further south we went, the cooler it got until finally as we drove in to Spain, it was raining!
The first night we spent in a little village not very far away from Calais where we got off the ferry. There was a small panic as we got to almost 9.30pm and thought that we couldn't find anywhere to eat! As a last thought before conceding defeat, I turned on my new GPS to see if it knew where there was any food. As it turned out we were walking around the wrong end of town!
Another days driving and we camped at a place called Tours a bit west of Paris. Third day on the road and we found ourselves on the coast west of Bordeaux camping at the base of Dune Du Pyla. At over 100m high, it is the highest sand dune in Europe. Much to Melinda's disgust, I made her walk up to the top. However once at the top there were superb views of the Atlantic, with storm clouds in the sunset making for a nice vista.
On the fourth day we spent some time stuck in traffic in Biarritz and we finally made it to a chilly and wet Spanish border. Like most of the borders we have been through in Europe so far, it was pretty lack lustre with a small sign telling you, you are in Espana. We finally set up camp a couple of hours later in a village called Zarutz about 40km west of the Border.
The first night we spent in a little village not very far away from Calais where we got off the ferry. There was a small panic as we got to almost 9.30pm and thought that we couldn't find anywhere to eat! As a last thought before conceding defeat, I turned on my new GPS to see if it knew where there was any food. As it turned out we were walking around the wrong end of town!
Another days driving and we camped at a place called Tours a bit west of Paris. Third day on the road and we found ourselves on the coast west of Bordeaux camping at the base of Dune Du Pyla. At over 100m high, it is the highest sand dune in Europe. Much to Melinda's disgust, I made her walk up to the top. However once at the top there were superb views of the Atlantic, with storm clouds in the sunset making for a nice vista.
On the fourth day we spent some time stuck in traffic in Biarritz and we finally made it to a chilly and wet Spanish border. Like most of the borders we have been through in Europe so far, it was pretty lack lustre with a small sign telling you, you are in Espana. We finally set up camp a couple of hours later in a village called Zarutz about 40km west of the Border.
Wednesday, 11 October 2006
And we're away!!!
Day 1 of trip to Europe in the Wagen:
Aim - get off the British Isles and get to France
Method - Ferry, train or otherwise which results in Adam, Melinda and car complete with surfboards arriving in France.
Results - Success! After deciding not to bother booking ahead for a ferry place, we turned up to Dover and bought a ticket on the next ferry which was leaving in 30 mins!! We got in to France and the next main point to concentrate on was remaining on the right hand side of the road in my right hand drive vehicle.
We plotted a course towards Biarritz in southern France on my new talking GPS (the old one really did infuriate me that much!) and drove until dusk where we found a campsite and pulled in for the night.
Conclusion - Objectives of day 1 have been completed.
Aim - get off the British Isles and get to France
Method - Ferry, train or otherwise which results in Adam, Melinda and car complete with surfboards arriving in France.
Results - Success! After deciding not to bother booking ahead for a ferry place, we turned up to Dover and bought a ticket on the next ferry which was leaving in 30 mins!! We got in to France and the next main point to concentrate on was remaining on the right hand side of the road in my right hand drive vehicle.
We plotted a course towards Biarritz in southern France on my new talking GPS (the old one really did infuriate me that much!) and drove until dusk where we found a campsite and pulled in for the night.
Conclusion - Objectives of day 1 have been completed.
Monday, 19 June 2006
WW1 battlefields, Belgian Chocolate and Champagne
On the last weekend in May, we did a 5 day trip to France and Belgium. We caught the Eurostar (train) from London to Calais where we hired a car. It was pouring with rain when we got there and continued to rain for nearly the whole day. So this made driving on the right hand side of the road all the more interesting!
We headed over to Dunkirk for a look around and then called in the French version of a Fish and Chip shop - a baguette and frites shop! While we were trying to order, there was a French woman who was trying to help us translating to the chip shop lady. Then would you believe it - she invited us (Melinda and Adam and our friends Damien and Sarah) back to her place to eat!
So after that we headed off to Ypres in Belgium where we crossed our first ever land border. However if we weren't paying attention to the signs on the freeway, we would have totally missed it!
Once in Ypres we checked in to the hotel and checked out the city. We saw a parade of British Army guys at the Menin Gate in the evening where they played the last post and have done every night since 11th of November 1929 'every night and in all weathers'. The only break was when the Germans invaded in the second world war and it was not allowed. However the day that they left, it started again and continues to this day.
British Army marching to the Menin Gate in Ypres
The next day we went on a tour of some battlefields and memorials as well as a few cemeteries. There are many cemeteries dotted all around the Ypres Salient, all neatly maintained. That afternoon we headed back in to France thinking that we would be able to find accommodation wherever we felt like it. Not so! Anyway a few hours later we finally checked in to a hotel in Amiens.
The next day we did some of our own touring around the Somme. It was good to see these areas that you have heard about for years like Villers-Bretonneux where Australian soldiers liberated the town from the Germans. The school there (called L'Ecole Victoria) has a memorial on the wall of the school and it is located in Rue de Melbourne which is just off Rue de Victoria.
The next day we took a drive down to Rheims - the main city in the Champagne region. Plenty of bottles of Veuve-Cliquot, Moet & Chandon and other normally really expensive bottles of champagne on the shelf at the bargain price of €28. We did a tour of the Mumm winery and had some tastings at the end. With neither of us being big champagne fans, it was hard to get excited by the tour guide saying that they had suitable bottle of champagne for all times of the day and for everyoccasionn.
Adam, Melinda, Sarah and Damien at the Mumm Winery
After that we headed back to Calais in the car and then on the train back to London!
We headed over to Dunkirk for a look around and then called in the French version of a Fish and Chip shop - a baguette and frites shop! While we were trying to order, there was a French woman who was trying to help us translating to the chip shop lady. Then would you believe it - she invited us (Melinda and Adam and our friends Damien and Sarah) back to her place to eat!
So after that we headed off to Ypres in Belgium where we crossed our first ever land border. However if we weren't paying attention to the signs on the freeway, we would have totally missed it!
Once in Ypres we checked in to the hotel and checked out the city. We saw a parade of British Army guys at the Menin Gate in the evening where they played the last post and have done every night since 11th of November 1929 'every night and in all weathers'. The only break was when the Germans invaded in the second world war and it was not allowed. However the day that they left, it started again and continues to this day.
British Army marching to the Menin Gate in Ypres
The next day we went on a tour of some battlefields and memorials as well as a few cemeteries. There are many cemeteries dotted all around the Ypres Salient, all neatly maintained. That afternoon we headed back in to France thinking that we would be able to find accommodation wherever we felt like it. Not so! Anyway a few hours later we finally checked in to a hotel in Amiens.
The next day we did some of our own touring around the Somme. It was good to see these areas that you have heard about for years like Villers-Bretonneux where Australian soldiers liberated the town from the Germans. The school there (called L'Ecole Victoria) has a memorial on the wall of the school and it is located in Rue de Melbourne which is just off Rue de Victoria.
The next day we took a drive down to Rheims - the main city in the Champagne region. Plenty of bottles of Veuve-Cliquot, Moet & Chandon and other normally really expensive bottles of champagne on the shelf at the bargain price of €28. We did a tour of the Mumm winery and had some tastings at the end. With neither of us being big champagne fans, it was hard to get excited by the tour guide saying that they had suitable bottle of champagne for all times of the day and for everyoccasionn.
Adam, Melinda, Sarah and Damien at the Mumm Winery
After that we headed back to Calais in the car and then on the train back to London!
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