Le Puy-en-Velay and Annemasse. October 13-14, 2014

Monday, October 13th

We said goodbye to Luc and headed off in search of the Millau Viaduct, which happens to be the tallest bridge in the World. We stayed on the smaller backroads which was a good choice. After a few hours we made it to the Millau Viaduct rest area and viewing point. Quite an impressive bridge really.

In the afternoon we continued along the slower backroads to Le Puy-en-Velay. During the drive we experienced some hail, heavy driving rains and quite a spectacular lightning show. All of which cleared up by the time we pulled up to our hotel for the night. Dinner was at a nearby and nondescript restaurant.

Tuesday, October 14th

Another longish driving day, although lovely as were back in the mountains.

Gindou. October 9-12, 2014.

Thursday, October 12

After breakfast we said goodbye to Kim and Vaughan and headed to Gindou, about 160km north of Toulouse. We arrived at our good friend Luc's just after noon. Gindou is a small hamlet away from just about everything and turned out to be the perfect place to relax for a few days.

Le Mély, Luc's place in Gindou.

Friday, October 10th

The weather was not so good with some rain outside which was the main reason we spent the day inside relaxing. It had been a while since we'd taken a pure relaxing day... no visits or touristy things or anything. Also used the time to arrange for Sterlin to be shipped back to the United States. Turned out that there was a lot of paperwork involved even though Sterlin is from the US. There was a form for the EPA to confirm the emissions and a form for DOT to confirm road safety. Of course there were also the regular customs forms. Ok, so some work was done.

Dinner was at Restaurant la Casserole in the nearby town of Salviac. We had a mighty fine 4 course fixed price menu.

Dinner with Luc at La Casserole.

Saturday, October 11th

After a relaxing breakfast we drove 40kms north to Sarlat-la-Canéda for lunch and some sight-seeing of the 14th century medieval town. It was indeed quite beautiful and very well preserved. The south of France is quiet at this time of year, but there are little gems like Sarlat with markets and little coffee shops.

For dinner Luc prepared the most amazing dish with duck. Luc is quite the accomplished cook.

Lunch at Sarlat-la-Canéda

Caroline in Sarlat-la-Canéda

Dinner with Luc (again)

Sunday, October 12th

After breakfast the engine bay of Sterlin was cleaned and inspected for issues. No issues were found. After lunch we walked to Les Arques to visit the church, cemetery and La Musée Zadkine. It was a lovely walk in the sunshine and great to get out of the house for a few hours.

Dinner was prepared by Luc and was the most amazing rabbit and homemade apple sauce. In fact the apples were from Luc's garden. Two of Luc's old friends popped around and they helped us enjoy a few drinks.

Stephen cleaned and checked Sterlin (prior to shipping)

Inside the Musée Zadkine

Mushrooms everywhere after the rain.

Last dinner at Le Mély - we'll be back one day!

Toulouse and Carcassone. October 7-9, 2014.

Tuesday, October 9th

We arrived in Toulouse and had parked Sterlin at Kim and Vaughn's place, just as Vaughn came home from work. We spent 2 nice evenings reminiscing about our trip - Kim and Vaughan are 2 of our convoy partners through China.

Hard to believe we have been on the road for exactly 500 days. But it is true and we celebrated with a fine meal in a nearby restaurant and a few drinks.

Wednesday, October 8th

On the second evening we went for a late night stroll in the city center, under a full moon.

Wednesday, October 8th.

We went for a day trip to the Historic Fortified City of Carcassonne, another UNESCO World Heritage Site, and, another place on my list of wanna-see-places-in-France. And another splendid visit it was.

Fortified City Wall.

Inside the walls.

Inside the walls.

Detail.

Nantes, Bordeaux, Dune du Pilat. October 5-7, 2014.

Sunday, October 5th.

On the way to Nantes we made a flying visit to St Malo. We planned to stop for a quick coffee and a look around, but all of the parking was height restricted so we made a u-turn at a round-about and continued South. Oddly enough that round-about was the most westerly point that Sterlin made on the trip at 2.023959°W.

We arrived in Nantes in the evening, checked into a hotel and went for an evening walk in search for dinner.

Nantes Cathedral.

Nantes by night.

Monday, October 6th.

Drove to Bordeaux, got there in the evening, by which time the rain had stopped. We went for an evening stroll and meal in the city's UNESCO World Heritage City Center.

Tour Pey-Berland.

Bordeaux Cathedral.

Tuesday, October 7th.

Before heading to Toulouse we made a detour to La Dune du Pilat, which, with a height of 109-110 meter, is Europe's highest dune.

Windy at the top of the dune.

Mont St Michel. October 4-5, 2014.

Saturday, October 4th.

We approached Mont- Saint-Michel late afternoon under overcast skies. But nothing could diminish the excitement of finally seeing this tiny island commune in Normandy. I (Caroline) had been wanting to see this for the longest time.

First stop was the information center where we found out about hotels nearby and how to get into the restricted car park without a reservation. The friendly lady at the info desk validated our parking ticket for 1 hour to give us time to check it out. We were back before the hour was up with a reservation at the funky Hôtel Gabriel and a code for the car park.

By then the weather had improved dramatically and we went for a walk towards the foot of the Mont-Saint-Michel, and back again.

We enjoyed a lovely dinner at one of the restaurants close by.

Sunday, October 5th.

That morning we took the free shuttle bus from our hotel to the foot of the Mont and went through the old gates to wander around the islet town and up towards the Gothic style Benedictine Abbey.
Mont-Saint-Michel was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979.

Wandering through the narrow streets.

The cloister and abbey.

The Knight's Hall.

Through the looking glass.

We walked back to our car around 2pm, and, after coffee and a patisserie we left this incredibly beautiful place to head towards Nantes.

Normandy Beaches. October 3-4, 2014

Friday, October 3rd.

We visited the very helpful Tourist Information Center in Caen and got all the information we needed to visit the Normandy Beaches. The first piece of advice was to visit the Museum/Memorial of Caen. Although it was 3pm by the time we got to the museum, this turned out to be perfect timing. Our visit took 4 hours and the museum closed at 7pm and consequentially the place was pretty void of screaming kids, babies and tourists generally. The statue 'Unconditional Surrender' by J. Seward Johnson, located outside the museum at the time of our visit, was causing quite a controversy between art lovers and feminists. Caroline felt very lucky to be able to see the photographic exhibition 'Shots of War' by Tony Vaccaro.

'Unconditional Surrender'

During the drive we crossed from the Eastern hemisphere into the Western hemisphere. Not since Sterlin left Los Ageles has he been in the Western hemisphere. We stayed at a Budget Ibis a little outside Bayeux for the night and had a relaxing night in.


Saturday, October 4th.

Normandy Landings / Beaches Day.

First stop was Arromanches-les-Bains to see remains of the artificial bridge built by the British prior to D-Day and used after successfully obtaining a beachhead. Next up was the Batteries of Longues-sur-Mer where the Germans had built 4 impressive 152-mm fortified guns as part of the Atlantic Wall. We continued along the coast to the beach codenamed "Omaha", the scene of the highest casualties during D-Day. This beach was in the American sector and approximately 10,000 American soldiers lost their lives during the assault. Located on a bluff overlooking the beach is the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial and we had a very good visit. Unfortunately the rain drove us away before exploring all the grounds.

We then drove south to Mont Saint Michel.

Beach at Arromanches-les-bains.

One of four german batteries at Longues-sur-mer.

Omaha Beach. Scene of the most fierce fighting.

American War Memorial at Omaha Beach.

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American War Cemetry.

American War Memorial.

Amiens, Paris and Versailles. September 28 - October 2, 2014.

Monday, September 29th

After lunch we said goodbye to Marijke and Coen and drove from Wageningen to Tourcoing; the latter picked solely as stopover en route to Versailles to avoid a long day's driving. There is not much to Tourcoing. A nice little church in the center of town, but that is about it. The city center was a little dead at night, even some of the pubs closed at 7pm. Fortunately the Subway was open and we were able to get some dinner. I don't think we will be be coming back.

Tuesday, September 30th

Continuing towards Versailles we stopped in Amiens for a visit to Amiens Cathedral, a UNESCO World Heritage site and lunch. The cathedral was very nice and well kept. It claims to have the head/skull of John the Baptist. At least they have someone's skull on display.

Continuing on from Amiens our trusty Garmin directed us perfectly to Odile and Eric's mini mansion on the outskirts of Versailles town. We got a comprehensive tour of the house and grounds and let Odile get back to work while we went for a stroll around the estate. The house and grounds are lovely and contain a very modern yet eclectic art collection. A lot of love and passion has gone into their home.

We had dinner with Odile and it was nice to get to know her a little better. We ended up staying up quite late just chatting away.

Wednesday, October 1st

Up early for the commute into Paris. We planned to make our journey in after the bulk of the rush-hour, and this sort of worked. However, once we hit Paris things started to fall apart. We could not find anywhere to park Sterlin for more than 2 hours. All of the inner-city long term parking was height restricted and not suitable for our over-height car. And the high clearance car parks were either private or restricted to delivery vans. So after 3 hours of driving around we changed tactics. We decided to park in one of the many 2 hour spots and to just keep returning to feed the meter. This plan actually worked out very well.

We had a lovely coffee, lunch, glass of wine and afternoon with Marie, a fellow traveller whom we had met in the tunnels of Vieng Xai in Laos. We again re-told stories and compared notes.

With Marie.

Dinner was spent with Tim, Nathalie, Emily and Elliot. It had been 15 years since we had seen Tim and Nathalie and we had quite some catching up to do. Truly a wonderful evening. We promised each other not to go another 15 years before the next reunion.

With Tim and Nathalie.

Thursday, October 2nd

Up early again. This time for the short ride to the Palace of Versailles, which was inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979. No problem finding a place to park. We visited the Apa artments, the Gardens and the Grand Trianon. We spent the entire day wandering around Versailles Palace and the grounds taking it all in, stopping only for a baguette, some french patisseries and coffee.

The evening was spent relaxing and catching up with email and the blog. Dinner was with Odile and some of her staff who were working late.

Friday, October 3rd

We said goodbye to Odile - for now, we'll meet again in Hong Kong - and set off towards Normandy.

With Odile.