Saturday Travel day

Not a lot to show today as we travelled along the riviera on motorways just stopping at services. 

BUT we are now staying in a villa north of Genoa over night. It is very old and I took some pics to remind myself in the future what it was like! What a shame it is only an overnight stop on the way to Florence 

Friday 15 May

Nimes

We travelled to Nîmes along the minor road and then on motorways .

Our parking was at a market and it was fun looking at all the stalls. I don’t know why but we saw clowns walking up and down! 

To get to the amphitheatre was a 15 min walk. Today was colder and with rain showers.

It was steep climbs in the Arènes (amphitheatre) and I only made it up to the middle tier. Vince went up to the top. He got views over the city.

Next was a ten min walk to the Roman temple maison caree.

We had our usual salad lunch in a pub cafe then found the car again.

Next stop was to Uzes

This ancient medieval town had narrow streets and towers and the most interesting church. I hope my photos show you a bit of what we saw. 

By now it was 5pm and so we headed back to the camargue. What a lovely last day in France!

Aigues Mortes

St-Marie’s-de-la-Mer

We drove up the minor roads through the marshes today up past Arles to Aigues Mortes. Seeing many wading birds and birds of prey. 

I think all the tourists in Provence decided to go to Aigues Mortes today

We eventually parked along a small outer road by someone’s wall 🤪

The whole old town is within a walled city.

You can walk around the ramparts but there was such a queue of people waiting to pay we decided to stroll around the narrow streets and see all the many small shops. (It reminded us of concarneau but bigger)

There was such a smell of jasmine which was in flower and growing up many of the shops and apartments. Craft shops boutiques sweets cafes ….. very atmospheric. Well worth a visit very French.

Next we continued exploring the Camargue area. Towards st Marie’s de la Mer. The area is an huge conservation area. We did spot flamingoes, Stilts, egrets and wading birds. 

St Marie de la mer the town is very tourist commercialised and like a huge holiday camp But the natural areas of the surrounding camargue are wild but managed by farming

The wild horses are in enclosures and fed . There was a field full of the black horned bulls too. A bit disappointing but still lovely to see them. We saw rice fields and salt marshes. The whole area is “managed”

There are many wild flowers, poppies ,yellow flag irises ,purple thistles ,gorse 

etc

So we finally headed for our holiday retreat.

Tired grandads sit here!

Finding Vincent Van Gogh

Today did not go as planned! 

We just wanted to go to the pont du gard and then maybe to Avignon. (We never got to Avignon😉)

The motorway was full of lorries and standstills with congestion so we looked on the map and stopped following our sat nav. 

There was a scenic road through the alpilles cliffs to St Remy

We decided to try that way. It was so pretty. Vegetables fruit and nut trees and olives and vines growing all around. 

When we got to the Roman ruins at cloitre St Paul we missed the car park and so turned off the road only to find by chance we were at the mausole hospital where Vincent Van Gogh spent his last year of life.

There was an exhibition of all his paintings he did in this area of Provence .

We could pay to see the hospital and his reconstructed bedroom which he painted. The church was so lovely and the gardens. It is still a psychological hospital and patients still reside there.

We walked back to the Roman ruins across the road.

From there we travelled along the rhone river to pont du gard. 

Returning to our ground floor flat at Fos sur mer we realised we are very close to the flamingoes in the marshes! You can see them from a dual carriageway but no parking opps We will try to get close to them tomorrow as we hunt for wild horses. 

Such a busy day.

Tuesday June 12

We drove along the Rhone delta and up to Arles. The photos we got there are so special 

The amphitheatre Arles

We saw what looked like a castle in the distance and so travelled there . It is The abbey montmagour.

It was built in  10 th century . The views were magnificent all over the marshes. Benedictine monks lived there for hundreds of years. 

We saw some wild horses too! No bulls or flamingos yet!

Hope you like the photos I tried to get a feel of what I saw. These are only a few of many I took. 

Monday

Had a really lovely family time in Cognac for our granddaughter’s first communion. We also (amongst everything we did) visited and were shown round the Courvoisier Napoleon cognac at Jarnac. 

Here are a few photos of the barrels and cognac tasting.

the church where Alice was celebrated with the other children The Eglise Sacré Coeur cognac

Today was a five hour journey…. plus breaks to the coast near to Arles. We had a bit of traffic around Bordeaux but otherwise plain sailing

We are here for 5 days. 

Our apartment is right on the sea shore! Very nice but in a tiny town by an industrial complex. …..

No blog until Monday now as we are having family time in cognac 

I may post some photos of it on Facebook for friends and family

Day 3

Up early and showered in soft soft water. Last night we walked around the village of Ducey. It is very historic and has a magnificent chateau build in stone and brick in 17century replacing an existing wooden structure 

Our hotel bedroom is the centre one overlooking the river

We went to join the crowds of Asian Dutch German and loads of French school children queuing for the buses to take tourists along the causeway to Mont st michel. Can’t imagine what it is like in the height of summer! We got our photos and explored the outskirts of the mount. Too many people to venture up to the top and also last time we came we were in our thirties…. More stamina then. It is an amazing sight and a world unesco site.

Next stop st malo 

We managed to park near to the old town walls on the docks. And wander through the town. It is so like Quebec.

The cafes, architecture and narrow streets very pretty.

The sun came out and it got much warmer. Winter into summer in just a few hours.

We sat bathing in the sunshine along the battlements I hope you like my photos from my mobile phone. My cannon camera photos are much better but take too long to process reduce  and upload

Day 1

Mann tours Europe has started 🤗

We had an early start to Dover and made the earlier crossing with Irish ferries 

The hotel inn at Calais was so good again and so near to the port in a small village with a windmill and free range cockerel and hens in their car park!

Day2

Left Calais and headed towards Le Havre and the landing day beaches in normandy.  

On the motorway A28 we crossed over the 2 steep valleys on high viaduct bridges.

(Last time I did this on my own in a thunderstorm with lashing rain and lightning all around. I remember being terrorised  and scared! That was in about 2001)

As we crossed the River Seine we stopped at the viewing point to see the beautiful bridge and see the wetlands nature reserve

We heard lots of birds in the reef beds and saw a huge egret fly over, 

We headed for Arromanches,

At Juno beach we saw the Canadian museum and the beach and memorials. Reading the soldiers memories was so sad. I felt very emotional . It was so beautiful that stretch of dunes and turquoise sea, It was wild with strong waves but peaceful. Very hard to imagine the scene as thousands lost their lives…..

We then headed via bayeux to pick up the motorway.

Ironically for us the Bayeux tapestry is packed away ready to be shown in London!  (But we knew about this and plan to see it in Britain )

We are now near to mont st. Michel more tomorrow.

Leaving on a jet plane

I remember that song so much from my student days

Our best made plans were dashed today when we arrived at Harvard university arboretum only for it to pour with rain. 

It is a wonderful place to visit and all free to visit and park along the road.

We did make a little effort to walk around under umbrellas following a map but we were getting very wet and we have a long journey ahead. 

So we found a cafe Nero and sat inside watching the rain outside 😏and downloading films to watch on the flight. 

We have not had the best of weathers but have enjoyed each day doing something special.

So now we will plan the next trip! Always to have to have something to look forward to!

A few pics to prove we went to the arboretum!