OUR FRENCH EXPERIENCE

Once Lizzy and Anthony caught the train from Nice to Paris, Jenny and I left Nice on the French Riviera and headed down to Aix en Provence. We stayed at an apartment for 5 nights and enjoyed being able to have a few home cooked meals.

During our time in Aix, we travelled everyday in a different direction exploring the countryside of Provence. Peter can be seen standing in the harbour of Cassis, a picturesque town about 30km east of Marseille.






Jenny is standing in the main street of Aix en Provence, at the main rotunde (fountain in a traffic island). There were many fountains along the street which was tree lined and pretty.









One day we visited a vineyard and garden called Chateaux Jan Joanis. The vegetable garden was spectacular and free to visit which was a bonus. We bought a bottle of white wine from the vineyard and enjoyed the fresh fruity taste, similar to our Sauvignon Blancs.










We then travelled north east 350km's up into the French Alps to a town called Aix les Bains. It was a lovely small town with a large lake. We had morning coffee at a cafe beside the lake as you can see in the photo and the cloud over the mountains in the background was just starting to clear, with a beautiful day to follow. Unfortunately we had a few days rain here, more sad for the 20,000 young people who had come from all over europe to a 3 day music festival.







We spent another day driving up to Annessy which had a lake that was very clean and clear as you can see from in the background of the photo of Peter. They hired out boats along the foreshore and many locals were taking them out for the day. Interestingly you had to have a Motorboat License for anything other than a small engined dingy. We travelled around the lake and went to Albertville, before completing the circuit back to Aix les Bains.




Continuing our journey, we drove another 250km's toward Dijon into the Burgundy wine country to a town called Beaune. Still with its small old town with walls, new Beaune has been very well laid out with wide roads and a circular motorway around it. Getting to the many small villages in the region was easy and we spent lovely days travelling along slowly, from one village to another.
Here is a photo of us enjoying dinner at Le Pommard Restaurant, in the small village of Pommard, 8km from Beaune.





Travelling through the countryside, there were vast acres of grapevines, wheat and sunflowers. Everytime we passed these sunflowers, Jenny would ooh and aah. One day I stopped the car and said I would take her photo. Before I could say anything further, Jenny was off heading to the sunflowers through the roadside scrub which was full of stinging nettles - never seen her make such a hasty retreat! However I must agree with her that the sunflowers were beautiful and there were acres of them.




From Beaune, we drove 360km north west to the Loire Valley, about 200km south west of Paris. More wine country, but better known for the majestic Chateaux of the region.
Here we are pictured on our first day in Amboise, in a lovely little lane with the old town gate in the background.
We checked out of the Novotel after our first night and checked into a wonderful B & B in the centre of town (with carparking) run by Madame Silvie Viard. The home looks a little tudor with the plaster and timber exterior, but it was built in the early 1700's. They have a large garden with swimming pool and we have found this a wonderful refuge after a days sightseeing in the heat. Here the temperature has been in the mid to late 20 oc, which is more bearable than the high 30's we have had.

The first day we visited Chenonceau, built over the Loire river, it is huge and the gardens of a very formal style. We visited this Chateaux 23 years ago and it was still how we remembered it.

Another day we visited Cheverny, a beautiful Chateaux which is fully furnished and the owners still live on the estate.

The interior was spectacular and the furnishing right down to dinner plates and cutlery on the tables, was breathtaking.

The third and last Chateaux we visited was Villandry. This chateaux is known for its spectacular gardens and we were certainly taken by them. They had teams of gardeners maintaining the formal gardens, vegetable gardens, water gardens and all the lawns and flower gardens. It was well worth the visit and we enjoyed wandering around the grounds.

Well its Saturday 26th July and our journey is nearly over, as we return the Peugeot to Paris on Monday 28th and after a few days exploring Paris, we will head back to the UK.

Jenny and I have had a fabulous time together travelling through the east side of France over these last 4-5 weeks. We have found the French motorists thus far to be very much more courteous than the 'mad italian drivers' and ambling through country lanes and villages has been a tonic. We will return!

We trust all our family and friends are well and enjoying a peek into our journey through this blog. Take care and we will see you at home in August.

FROM TODI TO PISA, ITALY AND GOODBYE TO LIZZY AND ANTHONY

We left our Villa in Todi, Umbria, and drove a few hundred km's north to the coast and stayed a few days in Pisa. It was very hot and the day we visited the Leaning Tower, the temperature was 44oC in the carpark. We were melting like the tarseal.

The leaning tower seemed smaller than how Jenny and I remember it in 1985! The Duomo was beautiful and the artwork incredible.

We decided to spend a day at the beach and drove 30km north of Pisa to Viareggio along with about 20,000 other people. There were traffic jambs caused by people like us trying to get off the motorway through the toll booths to the beaches along the coast. We finally found a carpark and the public beach, which as you can see was crowded.

We decided not to got swimming at the beach, but return to the pool at our accomodation, where there were only 6 other people!!

We drove north along the Italian Riviera towards France. The coast line was very rocky, but the beach settlements were beautiful. Eventually we arrived in Nice where we stayed for 5 nights. It was full of tourists like us and the weather was great but not as hot as Italy thank goodness.

Here we are standing on the headland at the eastern end of Promenade les Anglais, with kms of beach extending around the bay.

We visited Monte Carlo in Monaco. Amazing!

The Casino in the background of this photo was as beautiful as we remembered it and it was great to wander around the flash cars and sit at the cafe having a drink and watching the ' cool people' drive by in their Ferrari's. Anthony thought he was in heaven looking at all the cars.

While we were in Nice, we celebrated Lizzy's birthday at a swanky restaurant. Lizzy looked stunning and she and Anthony enjoyed a few cocktails.

We had two bottles of Bollinger Champagne- boy the French know how to make a good Champagne!

We had a fabulous night with Lizzy and Anthony, before they left for their own trip to Paris.

We say goodbye to Lizzy and Anthony at the Railway Station in Nice, as they catch the TGV fast train to Paris for a few nights and then on to London.

It was hard to say goodbye after so many months together, visiting great countries and having fabulous (and not so fabulous) experiences together.

TODI, UMBRIA, ITALY-OUR VILLA!

Hi Everyone
We have had a fantastic stay in Todi, in the Villa we leased. It has been a tonic to stop travelling and living out of a suitcase and enjoy the beautiful local town, the swimming pool and day trips to other towns in the Umbrian countryside. I must say that on some days it was hard to pull ourselves away from the pool and there we stayed! Anyway Some photos taken of Todi, our Villa and celebrations of my 50th birthday which we celebrated by attending a cooking class in the late afternoon then staying on and eating the food we had prepared for dinner. A fantastic day to remember.

This is the view from our Villa looking up to the old town of Todi.












This photo is of our villa and the swimming pool with Lizzy, Anthony and Jenny (the movie star with the wide brimmed hat) enjoying a cool off. In the last two weeks, the daytime temperature has ranged from 36 - 40 0 C. A couple of days were 340C in the shade. We couldn't have survived without the pool.






Jenny baked me a birhtday cake and we enjoyed it with coffee before heading off to the cooking class.

What a grin. Looks like the cat got the cream!







Anthony, Peter and Lizzy at the cooking class.









Rita our cooking teacher instruction Peter on how to roll the Gnocchi.













Who is this babe! Jenny having just returned from the hairdresser.











Our second to last night when Lizzy's friend Sarah Wilson and her parents Vicki and Ian came for dinner.

HI FROM TODI, ITALY

Hi family and friends,
Well here we are settled in the Villa in Todi, Italy.
As promised, here are the few photos that we have on disk that were not stolen. It covers our time from Montegrotto north of Venice and then our trip up through Austria, Germany and Switzerland.



Jenny Anthony and Lizzy standing in front of a beautiful water garden outside the Spa town of Montegrotto













The Hofberg Palace in Innsbruck, Austria.










A view from Oberperfus where we stayed down the mountain to the valley below and Innsbruck









Standing on top of the world! - well almost. We are above the city of Interlaken, Switzerland, looking across at Europe's highest peak, the Jungfrau.











In Gemany we stayed in a town called Bodman on the Briendersee Lake. We visited a wonderful castle and village called Schloss Salem.













We are pictured standing in front of Duomo in Florence. While in Florence, we visited Michaelangelo's David, which we found as amazing as the first time we saw this sculpture.










Travelling south, we stopped in Montepulciano, and in the village piazza we were caught having a cuddled!

And finally today, 12 June 2008 we celebrated Anthony's 19th birthday. Jenny baked him a cake and we had Anthony's choice of food- Bacon and eggs for breakfast, home made Italian style pizza for lunch and Steak for dinner, with lashings of Heineken and red wine!!!

Well as you can see, we are still alive and despite the theft in Milan of my main suitcase, all our four carrybags and a backpack with Jenny's sounvenir treasures, we are having a good holiday. It was an interesting experience being left so far from home with only the clothes on my back!

We are resting this first week from our travels and have taken the car to Perugia to be fixed finally. We intend to then travel around Umbria and Tuscany on day trips visiting the interesting small villages and countryside.

We will try and keep in touch and update the blog every week or so.

Our love and best wishes to you all.

FROM ITALY NORTH into AUSTRIA, GERMANY, SWITZERLAND and back to ITALY

Well here we are in Todi where our villa is, but two days earlier than expected as we have come to get our car repaired. Why you ask ? - well here we go ...

...we had a wonderful trip up into Austria, Germany and Switzerland enjoying the wonderful alps with magical little wooden houses perched on the hill sides with green green paddocks and cows with bells on. The weather was great, but we headed back down into Italy a few days earlier, to visit Milan which at this stage we had not intended to do. Just as well we did head south as we missed the terrible thunderstorms and rain which created havoc and many deaths particularly in Germany. You may have seen this on the news.

Back into Italy the weather has been great, but on our second day in Milan, our car was broken into and all but three of our cases stolen !!!! We had parked in a carpark and arranged with the attendant to keep an eye on it for us. That he didn't and we think his "friends" were the ones who broke into the car. The Police took him away for questioning, so who knows. Peter lost his main suitcase with all his belongings and only had the clothes he stood up in and the items in his manbag. We each lost our small carrycases and 1 small backpack with all our personal items, two cameras, our Camera SD cards some of which had all our photos on them, Lizzy's Ipod, all our trinkets bought in each country we have visited, tickets, itinerary, notes, diaries, spare cash cards, copies of documents, our peugeot wallet with contact information (luckily not our car registration, insurance, spare key or transponder, or the GPS which were on Peter in his Manbag). At least Jenny, Lizzy and Anthony had their main cases with clothing and some toiletries. Anyway it was very upsetting and we have wasted a day in Milan and the next 4 days in Florence trying to sort out the insurance and repair to the car drivers door and lock where they forced entry and get replacement spare visa cards. We are told the car will take 20 days to get a new door lock and handle and be repaired, so have been directed to the Peugeot dealer down here in Todi. Upon arrival today, we find he can not do the repair and we have to drive back up to another Peugeot dealer in Perugia - talk about be given the run around!

Anyway enough of our troubles, back to the trip.
From Montegrotto the spa town nearVenice where we stayed, we drove up to Innsbruck in Austria and stayed in a beautiful little village in the mountains called Oberperfuss. The scenery was breathtaking and the village out of a storybook. We had a great few days exploring and visiting the lovely city of Innsbruck. Everything was so clean green and orderly. No one speeds on the roads and everyone is very polite on and off the road; very different to the Italian motorists! We drove west then headed north through the alps to Germany and stayed in Brienz on the lake. At this point, Austria is between Germany and Switzerland on a spit of land 15 km wide, on one side of the lake its Germany and the other Switzerland. We then stayed in Germany at the northern point of the lake at Bodman and explored the area from there. The lake was picturesque and the weather very fine and hot with no wind. We then drove further west and south to Interlaken in Switzerland, a small town between two lakes with the Alps towering above. The Jungfrau, the highest mountain in Europe stands over the town and we managed to get good views of it and the Eiger as the clouds and mist rose. Back into the alps the senery was spectacular and the fresh, clean, green environment was recharging. With the weather deteriorating in central europe with thunderstorms on the way, we headed south back to Italy earlier than planned. We decided to visit Milan now, rather than in a months time when we leave Todi. That way we would be able to head straight up and around the French Riviera into France, thereby saving 2 - 3 days.

We have spend 4 days, 3 nights in Florence sorting insurance and car matters out and have not had the chance to sightsee there. We will have to spend time there in a few weeks on our way north to France. So much for saving a few days.

We are all well and count our blessing that we are safe and that it was only our luggage taken. We are looking forward to life in a small Italian town for the next three weeks and also to not moving on every few days.

I am sorry that there are no photos to post on the blog for your enjoyment, but someone in Milan has them !!! Lizzy has her portable hard-drive to which she had downloaded photos from her camera, but all the others are gone. At least we have hers. Anthony is upset that he has lost his photos on SD card and trinkets he had purchased on the way. We have bought one replacement camera in Florence so we can begin taking photos again, so hope to upload some for you of Todi and our villa in a week or two.

Thanks to those of you who have kept in touch through comments on this site or emails. We appreciate them and are sorry if we have not replied as often as we should. Its always great to receive news and photos from good old NZ.

FROM ITALY NORTH into AUSTRIA, GERMANY and SWITZERLAND

TOURING ITALY - ADRIATIC COAST AND NORTH TO VENICE

Another post from Italy, but no photos I am sorry as this computer won't read my memory card USB Adaptor.

Since our last post we have worked our way up the east coast of Italy, spending time on the Adriatic Coast and working our way inland and back to the coast again. This zig zagging has given us an opportunity to see highlights inland and on the coast.

This region of Italy has afforded us a choice of accomodations from Agriturismos to apartments and small hotels. As more tourists come to this area, everything is open year round, unlike the south coast (foot of the Italian map) where hotels and apartments are only open from 1st June to the end of September, and there were very few private homes or Agriturismos to stay in.

We have found the countryside from Fano on the coast to inland towns like Atri very beautiful, with fields of poppies, grapes, wheat etc. As it is spring, many crops are rising and the patchwork of the paddocks is beautiful. We have stayed in Tavuliia ( a small town towards the coast from the ancient town of Urbino) which is the home town of motorcycle racing champion Valentino Rossi. The day we arrived he was racing in Germany and won, well the cannons fired for hours, there was a band playing echoing out over the valley to our Agriturismo. That night we went into town for dinner at a little local Cucina and were presented by the proprietor with a Valentino Rossi flag with his number 46 emblazened on it, two caps and two calendars with the compliments of the official fan club! These Italians are so passionate about their sport and sporting heroes.

We have worked our way up north and in the last few days have stayed in Montegrotto a Spa town north west of Venice. It is a lovely wooded town with thermal waters. We visited Venice by train (easiest way to get there due to traffic congestion across the causeway) and had a wonderful time exploring the canals and little paved alleyways - a photographers jackpot. Due to the days of rain before and the day we arrived, combined with a high tide, the piazzas were flooding due to water coming up throught the stormwater vents. Some shops had their gumboots at the ready to get in or out! Venice was full of tourists but still an amazing city.

We are heading north tomorrow over the alps and into Austria, where we are going to stay with a family in an apartment above their restaurant, 800m up in a small mountain village. During the winter they run a ski school and the son is a chef who well known for his Austrian, French and Italian dishes.

In two weeks we are due at the Villa we have rented in Todi, Umbria, so in the meatime we are heading north up through Austria, Possibly southern Germany and across into Switzerland then down past the Jungfrau back into northern alpine Italy, down to Milan then Florence and Pisa to Todi.

We will update you when we can find computer cafes and are able to download our photos.

Now an update about us;
We are all well and getting along fine. Only had a couple of moments, when we have spent too long in the car and are hungry, but an hours silence fixes all!
Lizzy and Anthony have been great company for Jenny and I and kept us going when the trecking got tough in some countries. It gives us an extra dimension seeing the country through their eyes.
Anthony has sprung some sort of growth from his chin. Lizzy is looking healthier by the day with this wonderful Italian food. Jenny is loving the food and sporting a new hair style and colour (Oops that slipped out) and I'm expanding around the girth and looking thinner on top (roll on 50)
Our little blue Peugeot 307 sport wagon has been great, but it took me a little while to come to grips with the manual stick on the right. The Diesel with turbo has been economical and yet speedy enough to head down the autostradas at 130km per hour, slightly faster than the trucks but way slower than the mercs, BMWs and Porsches in the left lane
"Charlotte" our GPS makes sure we are on the right track, and I don't know how we could have done this trip without her and Anthony's techno and navigational skills.

Italy as a country is far more diverse culturally and geographically/topographically than we had thought. It is certainly a land of contrasts, from the steep/rocky Amalfi Coast, to the dry hot flat southern mediterranian coast, the flat barren land of the south coast covered in closed resorts, to the picturesque landscape of the north adriactic coastal area through towards the Tuscan/Umbrian inland, up to the north and the Venetian Islands. Can't wait to see the mountains of the north.

We hope all our friends and family are well and please keep in touch either through comments on the blog or emails to cohenfamily@xtra.co.nz . We like hearing about what you are up to. It gives us a connection to home