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.