Homeward bound

After leaving St Junien we headed to Paris for our last night in France, we stayed at the airport, made it easier to catch our flight the next day.

Once on board our flight to Hong Kong we tried to get some sleep, not very successfully, we arrived in Hong Kong at 7.00am on Tuesday we headed to our hotel to drop off our bags and then did the bus trip down to Stanley, for those of you who have never been to Hong Kong, this trip is an experience, narrow winding road in a double decker bus, just the thing after an 11 hour flight.

Four days in Hong Kong, to break that 24 hour flight home, and do to the "essential" last minute shopping and we once again headed to the airport to catch our last flight for this trip, we arrived in Melbourne on Saturday from a very pleasant 26 - 27 degrees, it was a bit of a shock to the system to return to 15 degrees and rain, the last time we saw any decent rain was in Amsterdam at the end of October.

So we are all now home, still trying to sort out our "stuff" and looking forward to our next trip to ..... somewhere.

Travels from Bordeaux

Having left Bordeaux we travelled by TGV to Angouleme then onto St Junien by a "regional express" train it was a diesel rail car, it was quite an interesting trip, but it was on time, something the Oz rail systems could learn.

Ross took us for a road trip on Friday to Sarlet, a medieval village, the Chateau de Casterlnaud, a real medieval castle (complete with real medievil weapons; pikes, sword, chain mail, suits of armour, clubs with big spikes for poking holes in peoples heads, hammers with a pointy end for making just one hole and a hammer at the other end to cave in skulls, knives, all sorts of crossbows and cannons etc), Le Roque-Gageac, prehistoric cave dwelling later used in medieval times, they just bricked in wall etc, then onto Domme, another medieval village.  The area is also know as the home of Foie Gras, so needles to say there are lots of shops selling Foie Gras, as well as all the associated paraphernalia.

Sarlat

Chateau de Casterlnaud

Some Weaponry

Prehistoric/Ancient Cave Dwellings

Saturday was spent doing "normal" thing, going to the market, looking around Limoges, picking up a couch that Cathy had bought, it seems they don't deliver in France, will try to add the video of Ross & Mark taking one section of the couch up to the 3rd floor of the house, it was challenging.

Why Did They Build the Great Wall of China?

To keep the rabbits out is it not. Not here. They have moles, they don't seem to be fussy about where they go . They are protected and even with all our encouragement we couldn't get them to pop up. I am pleased that we don't have them at home as they seem to make a right mess of your lawns and paddocks

Air Raid siren testing

A few photos of Bordeaux

Updated map of our travels

Click HERE for an update of where we have been the last few days. We are currently at location M, but have visited locations N through R.

You will need to drag the map around and zoom in/out for a better overall view.

We will put up some more photos and video today, probably when we get back to Paris tonight (current time is 10am).

Last Knight in the Castle

Our friend Samantha had a right royal hissy fit trying to find this place. There was a slight detour set up and no easy to read signs. Our french phrase book didn't quite give us the french/english translation. Some single lane roads,bridges and a few aussie words later we came upon our bed for the night .We still haven't found out where we actually stayed it will take some google mapping. Another French food lesson, this time it was wild pig casserole, it was very tasty. There are about 200 acres of land that surround the castle and we heard a few pops around. Maybe they were supplying our chief with the fresh meat.

The Chapel In The Sky

After some consideration or was that shear madness Geoff and I asendeded the 300 plus steps to the top of this volcanic out crop. Great idea wasn't it? Not. The steps go up in about a some times vertical rise. For those who have been lucky enough to climb the Great Wall of China in some spotsit is hands and knees stuff well that is what this was like.

If you suffer from the fear of hieghts its this is not the thing to do. Well Catherine and Pauline I got to the top. Freaked out a couple of times lost the ability to talk(Yes I know what some of you are saying)but my goodness it was well worth it. Mind you we had just walked up a 10 degree hill and 250 steps to see the Black Madona.

This is the clip that goes with our day out in Brussells wish we were as warm as the guy. We could have done with a few more layers this day it was brass monkey weather.

We have finally been able to post our little bits of video. We are at a working Windmill town and the day was perfect to drive the mills. One was cutting logs for the renovating of homes and the other crushing nuts for cooking oil.

Market Day in Orange

It wouldn't be France with out the guard dog.

Anyone for Cheese? What an awsome range this is only one of the cheese stalls.

Huge pots of fresh Paella the smell was amazing. The locals were lining up to try it .

All types of sausages to choose from, one for everyones taste.

Fresh mushrooms most of them I have never seen before but have had the pleasure of trying with our meals. The streets get closed of on a Wednesday evening. It is a bit hard going up a street the wrong way when the day before you could only come down it.

Dog Bombs

Mark was right when he said that you need to be very,very carefull when you put your foot down. It is a shame that the dogs can't read this sign or should that be the owners.

Yee Haa

We took a little drive down to see the Mediterranean Sea as anyone would when you are in France. So we head to a little place called Les Stes-Maries-De- La- Mer that was to have Flamingos. Saw the sea saw a bullfight arena. Missed the action by one day luckly but onlt saw 3 Flamingo's at a distance

Wish You Were Here.

This is the Pont du Gard it has 35 arches with along its 275 metre upper teir which is 50 metres above the river Gard. It was part of a Roman Aqueduct spaning some 50 kilometres built about 19B.C

Romans were good at building and in the area that we have been staying there has been some pretty impressive relics and structures that have stood up for us to see.

What Did The Romans Do For Us?

This is a small set of photos from a little town of Orange in the Department of The Vauluse this impressive Roman theatre held more than 10,000 people and was built in 27BC it is 103 metre wide and 37 metre high wall at the back of the stage. To reach the top of were the people sat was a test of my fear of hights but Geoff and i did get to the very back row. I have taken a set of 4 photos to get the seat in and will have to do some stiching together

Bordeaux

We were out last night to take some night photos of the city, we got some great reflection photos. We saw Police patrolling on rollerblades again, I managed to get a photo this time. Bordeaux is a fantastic location for roller blades and skateboarders, with many streets closed to traffic, with just the trams to watch out for. The skaters would take advantage of the tram lanes, although I doubt they are supposed to be dodging the trams.

Only problem in Bordeaux are the dog bombs, they are everywhere on the foot paths. We have been dodging one particular large pile the last couple of days, last night when we returned some un-fortunate had slipped right through it...maybe it was Pauline or Margaret?

The trams make Melbourne trains look a bit ordinary.

Need to catch a tram now, and there may not be an update for a couple of days.

Map

You can follow our path through France, Belgium & Holland.

Currently at location 'L', when we return to Paris to fly to Hong Kong we will have covered approximately 3600km's.

Note: Start point 'A' is covered by 'J'




View France, Belgium, Holland in a larger map

Back to the past again

Some months ago...it feels like, we visited Mont Saint Michell. Here at last is some video of the monastery.

Note the last few seconds is actually Sacre Cour in Paris...take to long to remove it.

B&B in Bordeaux

Back Tracking

One of the things we wanted to do on this trip was to visit the Little Pissing Boy in Brussells. It is to do with a cork scew that had been bought back for our father whenwe were young it was always a giggle when it was used.Wiki pedia has a great entry on him.The day we went he had been given a costume, we believe it had something to do with the start of a new term at Uni. The men that were toasting and singing to him all had the same outfits on.

Chateaus of the Loire Valley

Mark has decided that I need to do the commentary on the Château's, so here goes.

We started our tour of the Loire Valley at the Château of Villandry, which was finished around 1536 and was the last of the Renaissance period chateaus to be built on the banks of the Loire, it is best know for it's gardens. It is one of the few Château that is still privately owned.

The Vegie Garden from the top of the Keep, the Keep is the only original 12th century part of the building remaining

Looking back at the Château

Another view of the vegie garden

After only an hour a Villandry, which was not enough time at all, we headed of to Azay-le Rideau, according to the brochure it is "A Jewel of Renaissance architecture".  Construction started in 1510 with the original fortified castle being refurbished into a residence in the Italian style.  It was purchased by the State in 1905.

So leaving Asay-le Rideau we headed to Chenonceau or the "ladies castle", this is one of the most famous chateaus of the area but it is actually on the Cher River not the Loire, yet again it is constructed over an existing fortified castle, with the keep being one of the few remaining original features.

It was given to Diane de Poitiers by the then French King Henri II, she was his favourite mistress,she was responsible for the original bridge over the river, and the lager of the two gardens, upon the death of Henri II, Catherine de' Medici forced Diane to give the chateau to her, and she had the gallery built over the original bridge, as well as smaller garden.

During the First World War a hospital was set up using the entire Château and during the second World War the river Cher was the demarcation line, so the front of the Château was in the occupied zone while the door at the end of the gallery gave access to the left bank and made it possible for the Resistance to pass large numbers of people into the free zone.  Throughout the second world war there was a German artillary unit kept at the ready to destroy Chenonceau.

Our final stop for the day was Chambord, now this place is huge, it was the enterprise of Francis I when he was 25 it was designed as a "hunting lodge" and was only visitedby Francis I for 72 days, he ruled for 32 years.

One of the most outstanding features is the double spiral staircase that links the Château three floors.  The staircase comprises two concentric spiral flights of stairs that wind independently around a hollow central column, so if two people each take one flight of stairs they can see each other though the openings in the central column but they will never meet.  It is suggested that Leonardo da Vinci may have designed the staircase.

The park of the Château covers 5,440 hectares, and is surrounded by a wall 32km long with six gates.  It is the largest enclosed forest park in Europe.

From Chambond we headed back to Tours.  Here ends the history lesson.