Monday morning and time to move on again. A journey cross country to Foix and then down the valley to Ax-les-Thermes, a small spa town high in the Pyrenees. We wanted to stop here for two reasons, firstly it was about an hour and a half drive to Andorra which we thought we might visit for a day and also it is about half an hour from the Spanish border and one of the main roads to Barcelona, which will be our next stop. We had a straightforward journey and set up camp just outside the town next to a fast flowing river. We did some of the necessary jobs and then went into the town for something to eat. Went to a busy pizzeria and got some food and talked about how we were ready for a bit of luxury, missing my bathroom especially at home, so we started looking at hotels in Andorra, thinking that we could go one day and spend a night there in a hotel and have a nice meal as well as a little shopping, all tax free.

Tuesday

Happy 41years wedding anniversary.

Quite unbelievable that its been so long in some ways but still here together and living life to the full. We booked a hotel and packed a picnic bag and a rucksack which were the on!y bags we had and set off for Andorra. As we travelled up the valley, the scenery changed from heavily wooded steep mountain sides to bare rocky mountains, we were approaching the south side of the Pyrenees, the side that gets all the sun and is quite barren. We drove through a border crossing into Andorra past uninterested border guards and then into a beautiful Alpine looking valley with ski hotels and cable cars. There is one main road that goes through Andorra from the East border with France to the west of the country where the road comes out into Spain, with only these two border crossings. There were several small villages along this road before we reached Andorra La Vella, the main town, lying in a steep sided valley. There were numerous cranes around the valley with building going on everywhere it was possible to build and some places that it seemed impossible as well.

We arrived at Andorra Park Hotel and walked down into the town to do a little shopping which we did and find some lunch, which we also did, sitting outside in a square in the sun. Ellie was not too thrilled with the city life, we went to the park but there were signs everywhere saying no dogs, she is not used to being always on a lead and walking on pavements, she is a country girl. The hotel was great, just what we wanted and we made full use of the facilities. Ellie was sleeping in the car and they directed us to the underground car park, but it was very hot down there and so we asked if we could park outside near the restaurant. The man on reception was very obliging even though the hotel did not permit dogs on the premises.

Andorra main language is Catalan, with signs and information in four languages, Catalan, Spanish, French and English. We went via the confusing underground passages from the hotel into a department store, which was like a massive Selfridges. I went up an escalator to a food hall and then realised that both the escalators were only coming up to this floor but none going down or even up to the next level. I wandered here for a while looking for a way out, through many departments before I eventually found the lifts. This sounds like Grahams idea of shopping hell, where you cant find the way out.

The hotel was built on many levels, with balconies facing across the valley to get the sun and the view but it was a little confusing with its layout. When you went down in one lift you came out into the car park and then had to go through a plain service door to get back into the carpeted and decorated  hotel part. The restaurant only served dinner from 8pm so we went down about quarter past and were directed from reception to go through the underground part and the breakfast buffet area which was dark and deserted, only to be met by a woman sitting at a desk to welcome us at the back of the restaurant. We then walked through the restaurant to the main entrance and on into the bar. We could have walked out of the hotel reception across the car park and in the main entrance but there was no-one there to meet and greet and it took them a while to come and offer us a drink, even though there was only one female in the restaurant. We had a lovely meal, very high class but the service was also from an altered reality. The four waiters buzzed about looking very busy but not seeming to produce a lot. One of their important jobs was making some concoction at a trolley that involved a lot of whisking and adding things and mixing again in a large bowl before serving a tiny amount in a little glass. Fortunately, we had obviously not ordered this whatever it was. The main man spent hours carving and serving Jamon. We were not shown a wine list just asked if we wanted cava and they brought us a random bottle which actually was Spanish from Barcelona and very good. They then left it on the sideboard and we kept having to ask them to fill our glasses with cava or with water. The room began to fill up towards 10pm, which felt very Spanish and provided some interesting people watching.

Wednesday

Beautiful breakfast in the buffet restaurant overlooking the gardens and then back off for the drive back to Ax les Thermes to see if the caravan is still there.

A slow afternoon and evening to recover from our 24 hour mad excursion to Andorra. An evening walk into the town by the river and a dip of the feet into the hot thermal springs, eau chaude, and it was, too hot to leave your feet in for more than 10 seconds.

Friday

We set off mid morning back to the Bordeaux ring road and then south on toll roads towards the Pyrenees. The weather forecast has been unsettled all round the south west of France and we wanted to go to the mountains but would like some good weather to be able to walk and see the views. We found a lovely looking campsite called Chataigniers up one of the main valleys from the Biarritz to Toulouse road and headed off into the hills. As expected the weather was mixed, we stopped between showers for a picnic lunch with an amazing vista in the distance of high mountains. We turned off the main road at Tarbes, drove past Lourdes and the roads got progressively narrower and steeper. We drove through a paved main square in Arcizans-Avant village with a fountain in the middle, which didn’t look like there was a way out but at the end there was a sharp turn to the right, which we managed to get round with the caravan. We drove on again into a little village with two signposts to the campsite on two corners both facing each other. In between was a small alley so after some manouevering we squeezed through and onto the site which had beautiful views across the valley. We were met and greeted by a jovial Frenchman with little English who informed us that the site was closing tomorrow, even though the book said the 30th September. It was about 4.30pm  by this time and we had been ready to stop but the thought of staying here and then packing and moving on in the morning did not appeal. We manouevered our way back out and back down the little twisty road to Argeles- Gazost, a small pretty Alpine looking town back down the valley with a few campsites. We turned up at La Bergerie campsite and settled in, putting up the awning just before the cloud came down and the rain started. We drove back into the town and had a meal at Table L’Eyzes restaurant which had most of its food direct from their own farm. We had local trout to start and steaks which were excellent. We had a plate of three small desserts to share and a bottle of Buzet local red wine.

Saturday

It rained heavily all night and all morning, we couldn’t see the mountains and we were thinking had we come here at the wrong time as the forecast still looked unsettled for the next few days. We looked at some of the information about the area and also looked at the maps and where next, planning further ahead with our trip. Towards lunchtime we went back into the town and the rain stopped, we had a sandwich at a patisserie in the square and then drove up a side valley to Cauterets, which is a ski resort in winter and the start of many hiking trails. We had a look round the town, it was still cloud down and a bit drizzly. There was a mountain photography exhibition on, which was amazing.  Photos of animals such as chamois or brown bears; owls, eagles, vultures, flowers and also mountain pictures with sun on the high peaks.

Sunday

We woke up to high cloud with a hint of sun and decided to set off to Gavarnie, a village at the head of the valley. This is one of the sights of the area, with 3000 metre plus mountains all round. It is called the Cirque de Gavarnie and you can walk about an hour from the village to a viewpoint at the bottom of immense cliffs. There are three massive horizontal bands of rock and a waterfall coming down the rock face. The cloud was high but sat along the top of the mountain all the time we were there and the air was cold, with a hint of blue sky and sun occasionally. At the end of the walk is a “Hotel” where you can get a drink and a sandwich. I think this was a quiet day for them, it feels very much here end of the season as we experienced yesterday, although there were still plenty of people walking up and back. We made our way back and had a late lunch in the village at one of the few places still open, Graham had Tartiflette in honour of the Alpine walking and I had ” baby sheep with a bone in”, according to the waitress, which was good although not very hot and served with cold Dauphinois potatoes and a cold herb souffle. A good day in the mountains.

We travelled on to St Emilion in the middle of the Bordeaux vineyards, arriving mid afternoon in a heatwave. We set up camp and managed a swim in the pool before the thunderstorm struck. We ran to the on site restaurant which was really busy and then watched a terrific storm outside, while we ate.

Wednesday

We spent a while talking to our neighbours this morning who were a couple from Tamworth in a brand new VW camper. They had travelled all round southern Spain and Portugal last year and were heading for the south of France and north of Spain this time. Later in the morning we set off towards Bergerac and went to Jaubertie and Peroudier vineyards to do some tasting and buy some wine. A cloudy, drizzly day but fresher after the storm and heavy rain last night. We called in for some lunch on the road and then to the supermarket on the way back home.

We then spent ages trying to rescue my iPad which first of all decided to stop charging and has basically hibernated although its only the middle of September. We tried all ways to reboot but it didn’t even recognize my date of birth when trying to reset so eventually gave up. Hence I hadn’t written anything for the last couple of days.

Thursday

We went into St Emilion which is a very pretty hilltop village. We went to look at the famous Monolithic church  which was carved out of a limestone rock cliff and there was a sign on the door that said tickets to go in were available from the tourist office. We walked up the steep streets to the top of the town only to find the tourist office closed for lunch from 12-2pm. Nothing gets between the French and their lunch break. So we decided to join them and sat in the square in the sun and had a good lunch. We then visited Soutard chateaux on the way back, where you paid for wine tasting and their attitude left a bit to be desired so we didn’t buy any wine here.

Tuesday

We packed and set off this morning through La Rochelle and out across the 3 km bridge to Ile de Re, the island off the coast. It was hot and sunny and we had earmarked three potential campsites. We arrived at the first one, Camp Essi about half past eleven to be told they had just the one pitch left. We grabbed this and set up and then had lunch and had a lazy afternoon and evening with a barbeque later.

Wednesday was a very hot day we had a walk 200 yards down the road on to the beach where there was a welcome breeze. Beautiful wild beach that turns a corner and then heads up to the lighthouse at the top of the island. Much appreciated by Ellie as well as us. We had dreamed of walks on such a beach. At lunchtime we went into Ars which is about a kilometre away and sat under a canopy at Cafe Commerce and had a long slow lunch French style. I had langoustines to start which were massive and very spiky to pull apart but good to eat once through the defences. Then raie (skate) which seems to be on every menu here as well as the eponymous moules frites. I had gone for the menu which is so tempting and so had to then eat the profiteroles which were enormous and filled with ice cream with cream on the side. Graham went for the simple choice of onion rings as a starter, which was huge then a simple Californian salad which was huger although he did manage to help me out with my dessert. He had at least a pound of ham and cheese and sweet corn and eggs and somewhere buried under all that was some green salad. Lots about food here but one of the pleasures of holidays. We staggered back to the caravan to sleep it off.

Thursday we decided to set out for a walk to the above named lighthouse of phare de baleines at the end of the island which didn’t look too far away but was actually about 4 or 5 miles.  Most of this we walked on the beach until we reached orange netting and warning signs forbidding us to go any further. There were huge machines moving massive boulders and making a new sea wall along the front so we had to move inland onto the roads and between fields for the last mile. There were masses of bicycles along these lanes and they were all parked at the village at the end of the road where we had lunch before setting off back. One thing that I noted today and another thing the French do brilliantly is snails. They were clinging onto sticks of plants at the campsite and on metal fencing posts as we walked and I have seen lots of them on trees as we have travelled. They are also obviously appreciated as food by the French.

Friday

A visit to the market in Ars en Re this morning to buy salad, fruit and bread as well as very expensive olives and aubergine pate. Then a trip out to the east end of the island thinking to walk down the beach but after trying several beaches, they all said no dogs so we just stopped off at the woods in the centre of the island for a walk. Underneath large pine trees were fenced off plots of land, one with a post box at the entrance, several with cabins, but all probably privately owned and used as camping places. We went out for dinner this evening into the village and ate at Le Clocher in the main square. It was a disappointing meal especially as it cost nearly twice as much as other meals we have had so far. Graham had a steak that was very fatty and stringy and I had planchette de poisson which he told me was salmon and hake. The salmon was good but the “hake” was dark and a small fish, not at all like hake.

The only positive feature of the evening was when I payed a visit to the loos, there was a real toilet seat, haven’t seen one of them in a while, although this is always one of the times when I am glad to be short sighted.

Saturday

I went to ask about dog friendly beaches at reception only to discover that this is the only beach on the island that dogs are allowed on at any time. There are 3 other beaches that are OK for dogs but only before 10am or after 7 pm. It seems that the government are banning dogs from more and more places, including apparently some mountain areas, although many French people seem to wink at the rules.

We spent most of the morning doing some map searching and planning various routes, looking ahead. We then set off the other way down our beach, all of 500 metres to the beach bar for lunch. We managed to get a table inside and order just before two dozen bikers descended on the place. We walked on further after lunch finding a buoy that had washed up, it must have taken some massive storm to deposit that on the beach. There are three lighthouses along this coast, lots of shallow reefs off shore which must be a hazard to shipping.

Sunday

We drove up to the lighthouse and set off along the beach the other way. After a while a French woman stopped us and said we should not be on the beach with a dog after 9am. I was offended with her attitude when she said that there were other English people with dogs further along the beach and thought that was making a lot of assumptions on her part. I smiled politely and we carried on and those we spoke to with dogs were all French. Anyhow, she had her say, apparently this rule stops on 15th September, so we disobeyed the law. We also did clean up after our dog.

After about an hour and a half we turned back and came back to St Clement de Baleines where we had some late lunch and a very welcome drink. Back for a slow afternoon and went for a swim and made some dinner at the caravan later on.

Monday

Our last day here in Ile de Re and it has been a real slow down, wind down time, which was just what we were hoping for. Life back in the UK seems a long way distant although miss friends and family, especially Norcy (Graham or JG) at the moment whose brother David died just over a week ago.

Another hot day and headed for the beach and a bit of a paddle, walking round the corner or Pointe de Grignon as it is known here to catch a breeze but when we sat down the flies swarmed round. This became very uncomfortable after a while and so we headed back to the campsite. Ready to move on tomorrow and the weather is changing, storms coming in from the Atlantic, after all we are in the Bay of Biscay and looking at some of the sea defences they are building down this coast, I would imagine it can get pretty rough at times.

This has been a very french site but the last couple of days our neighbours changed and two British couples arrived with enormous motor homes, one couple next to us having a row about whether they would stay as they were squeezed into the space. Our french fitness neighbours on the other side were a young couple who were always out running or cycling and on the last morning, he plucked up courage and spoke to us in very poor English but was very friendly even though Ellie had barked at him. I had an interesting mime conversation with a French woman about the washing and drying and ironing(not on holiday!) There were two women in the cabin opposite who we also had a conversation with about painting, they were from near Poitiers.

Well it started off ok, packing up and getting ready to leave Saumur and head off to the coast. We had looked at a few sites near La Rochelle and decided on l’ocean campsite at chatelaillaine plage on the coast. We stopped to drop off our rubbish on the way out of the campsite and somehow, the caravan got stuck down a grid and got grounded. Oh no, disaster, as the towing mechanism got entangled with the bumper on the car and seemed well and truly stuck. After much manouvering and jacking the car up and back and forwards, we managed to get free and set off again, an hour and a lot of blood, sweat and tears later. Then once on our way, we discovered the lights on the caravan were not working properly and so stopped at a picnic site to make temporary repairs. Then we got to the toll station (peage) and I was shouting at the man in front who took about 10 minutes as he kept putting his ticket into the machine, then trying to pay, eventually he pressed the red button for some help and managed to pay. Then it was our turn, I put my ticket in the machine and it wouldn’t take my credit card, try again, and again. Pressed the red button and when the helpful man answered and spoke good English, he asked me for the number on my ticket under the blue arrow. My ticket had a purple arrow and the penny dropped, I was trying to pay the toll with a car parking ticket! Oh the shame of it, after all my muttering at the man in front.  Got the right ticket and on our way again. We had some problems finding the campsite in chatellion plage, back and forwards across the railway line, through the town and back again, so that we just checked in without really looking round. The campsite was pretty basic, and away from both the beach and the centre Ville, not what had been promised. We had intended staying here for a while but we decided that we needed a night to recover from our day and so set up camp for the evening. There was a small yappy dog on the corner site nearby and it was on a really long lead and had a rant at Ellie every time we walked past, its owner just shouting but not really pulling it back or able to restrain it. The final straw came when a huge motor home arrived next door to us, the doors opened and a cat appeared. The lady put it on a lead to have a roam outside. We put Ellie on a lead as a precaution. We had just settled down with a drink after dinner when Ellie spotted the cat and went for it, pulling the table over and spilling Graham’s tea all over him. We must move on in the morning!

Well after a slowish pack up this morning we set off for Saumur in the heart of Loire country. Navigating the motorways or E roads or D roads takes a bit of figuring out to say nothing of the tolls. In the end we paid €42 in tolls today after wandering along many little roads trying to find the motorway junction that we could enter, to then pay the price of a 3 course meal with wine for the pleasure. After a long journey, we crossed the Loire at Saumur only to miss the turn off that we needed, which sent us, complete with caravan, through narrow streets in the centre of the town and under low arches only to find ourselves past the turn off for the caravan site.  The directions were a little hazy, saying there are signs off the D 937 and various N roads which didn’t figure on any of the maps we had. After an amazing manoeuvre in a lay by we managed to find our way back and there was a tiny sign saying camping. We arrived on an island in the middle of the Loire about 4pm. Camp set up and all good now after a barbeque.

Friday morning and a slow day in prospect. We just had a longish trip to the supermarket which took us a while to find, E Leclerc, and then was massive so took us a while to find what we wanted. We went out later for dinner to Le Pol Lapin which was in the rough guide and it was really good, including the assiete surprize to share as dessert.

Saturday we decided to go to Chateau Villandry, famous for its gardens. It was about an hours drive away but we are getting more used to driving and reading road signs and gauging distances in France. The gardens were every bit as spectacular as promised, all due to a Spanish man who bought the chateau and grounds in 1906 and set about restoring it. There was a water garden with a lake in the shape of a Louis XV mirror with 2 swans gliding on it. The decorative kitchen gardens were 9 blocks of beautifully set out vegetables all colour and shape co-ordinated, with 10 gardeners supposedly responsible just for this part, although we never saw any evidence of gardeners, just immaculate grounds. There were avenues of lime trees joining all the areas, with 1100 trees in total. The French do avenues of trees brilliantly. A hornbeam maze, a children’s play garden, a sun and cloud garden and the formal gardens with a theme of love next to the chateau were some of the best gardens. We then went for a long slow French lunch at a troglodyte cave nearby. Although the waitress had little English, she did tell us that aoubliette was tripe, one to be avoided for me, although it brings back memories of my grandma who used to love it. We are remembering more words and trying to speak French as we go on.

Sunday and we went to Abbaye de Fontvraud, which was a massive abbey church built in the 1100s and surrounding village. When we arrived it seemed deserted, with a couple of bikes outside the entrance and a few cars in the car park and so we wondered if it was closed but no, so we had a leisurely walk round. The village was a massive monastery and nunnery, but Robert d’Brissilime who founded it had revolutionary ideas and put a woman abbess in charge of the whole place. There were effigies of Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry ll and their son Richard the Lionheart. Eleanor must have been a formidable woman. After the French Revolution, the place was emptied of all its religious people and effects and as so many French churches, became an empty shell. It was then used as a prison for a long time and restoration work on the abbey only began in 1985. We had lunch in the village, tried to go a bit easier than the three courses with wine that seem to be de rigeur.

Well here we are, we caught the 9.35 am ferry yesterday from Dover to Calais and then drove to Honfleur in Normandy which is a medieval port on the West Bank of the river Seine as it meets La Manche, commonly known as the English Channel. There is Harfleur on the East Bank and Le Havre (the port) between them further out to sea. It took us about 4 hours to get here with a picnic stop and a bit of a detour at the end when we missed the turn off on the motorway but with excellent driving and even better navigation, we made it. We have set up camp here for a couple of nights at La Briquerie campsite, Equemauville, as the weather is so sunny and warm. This morning we walked about half a kilometre down a very busy little road with no pavement which was scary but then onto quieter roads to the Bois de Breuil which was a beautiful old 12C wood and walked for a couple of hours. We learned many interesting facts from information boards such as Yew is called If in French and aspen is used for matches (allumetes) and paper.We drove into Honfleur, which is a busy, beautiful old port and had a slow lunch then back about 3 for a lazy afternoon and evening.

The last day here in this beautiful city.

We got a taxi into the city about 10am and got him to drop us at the Peter and Paul Fortress on the northern bank of the River Neva. This was the original settlement founded by Alexander Nevsky in the 1200s, but then made into a city by Peter1, more often known as Peter the Great in the early 1700s. He was the first of the Romanov dynasty and responsible for the main layout of the streets and canals. We walked into the fortress and along the Main Street until we came to the Peter and Paul Cathedral. This is where al the Tsars except 2 are buried and many of the nobility. It is a mausoleum and there is a chapel where the last Tsar, Nicholas 2nd and some of his family are buried. This has been closed as the other 2 members of the family, Alexi and Maria, were due to be buried on 18 th October but this has been delayed for further tests on the remains. We went into a side room and heard 4 men singing acapella including very deep bass. We came outside just in time for the 12 o’clock cannon being fired, which made me jump.

We walked on to the commandants house which was a museum of the history of Saint Petersburg from early archaeological finds up to the 19th century. We then walked over the bridge back into the main part of the city, along the river Neva,  through the hermitage square and went to the four seasons hotel for lunch. This was living like a tsar in a royal palace. We had a lovely lunch of Bortch served in a rye bread bowl, followed by lamb souvlaki.

After lunch we went into  Saint Isaac’s cathedral where there was a service going on in the left hand side chapel. The choir was singing behind the screen, presumably with the priest. In front there was a congregation who after every phrase, crossed themselves and bowed.

We walked back through the city to the Russian museum on the arts square to meet the coach at half past 5. Then a really slow journey back through the rush hour, only arriving back at 7.30 for our final dinner.

We went up to the sky bar for the last entertainment, Marinsky, which was a male tenor singer with a female accompanist on the piano. Very enjoyable.

Up and off early today for a trip out to Pushkin to see the Summer Palace. This was originally a small house where the Tzar and family went in summer but it was pulled down by Catherine 1sts daughter, Elizabeth and rebuilt in 4 years in a European baroque style in the mid 1700s.

The gardens in front of the palace were lovely, laid out in the French style with long avenues of trees. The gardens to the side were English style, with naturalised trees and grass areas. There were several buildings in the grounds. It sounded like whenever Elizabeth had an event on, she built another dining room often out in the grounds and there was a separate kitchen, where things were prepared and then had to be transported to whichever dining room was in use at the time

The palace itself was like nothing I’ve seen before, bling in the extreme, quite amazing but also quite gross.

Lunch back on the boat then a walking tour of the city in the afternoon.

Got a bus to the nearest Metro station which was proletariat station and caught the metro into the centre at Gorsky Dana. Walked along Nevsky Prospect which is the Main Street of St P and runs from the Admiralty building out to the Nevsky Monastery and thus was planned to join the Sea and Naval force with the church and Godly force in Peter the Greats day.

After dinner, we were treated to a Cossack song and dance show in a marquee on the pier. This was fun, a lot of raucous singing, a band with a couple of balalaikas, two accordions and a percussionist. The girls did a lot of twirling and stamping feet and the men did some very acrobatic dances, including sword play and kicking legs.

We arrived in Saint Petersburg in the early hours of the morning. Today we go to L’Hermitage museum, which is based in the old Winter Palace built by Catherine the Great.

What a palace, we went up the main marble staircase, I have never seen so much gilt and marble and ornamentation. Walked on through the palace rooms including the red throne room and endless large rooms with magnificent ceilings, marquetry floors and far too much to look at. Then we entered into the Hermitage, only went through some of the Italian rooms and some of the Dutch before we had to return.

We saw Leonardo’s 2 madonnas, both quite small but exquisite.

We saw Rembrandts parable of the prodigal son which was a massive canvas and his old man in red (self portrait?) His “Taking Christ down from the cross” had amazing light in it.

Other paintings that stuck with me were

the old lady by the fire

adam and eve