It wasn’t planned that way, but we certainly ended up touring our way through a handful of France’s well known wine regions (as well as a short detour into Switzerland). Here’s a scattering of photos from the trip. Related Images:
Archive for November, 2012
6 November 2012
Carrières de Lumières
This light show in the disused bauxite mines below the village of Les Baux was a delightful immersion into the art works of Van Gogh and Gauguin. Thoroughly recommended. Related Images:
Tags: art
5 November 2012
Full circle, full glass
2nd November 2012 Remember that bottle of special Vendanges Tardive wine that got broke back in the Switzerland episode? Well, I’ve got another one. Yes, Alsace was a bit of a detour on our way back to Calais but where’s the point of a completely unplanned holiday if you can’t change your itinerary on a » » »
5 November 2012
Rain again, again
1st November 2012 It’s raining again. Possibly France is trying to get rid of us. That’s okay, that just means more wine tasting. I’m not sure I’m entirely the best qualified wine taster right now, having a stinking cold with a blocked nose and a foul taste in the back of my throat that won’t » » »
5 November 2012
Rain again
31st October 2012 Arles is as far south as we go. It’s raining. It was raining first thing in the morning when we wandered the town to admire the Roman amphitheatre and find breakfast. We enjoyed pastries in a colourful patisserie with a cheeky and cheerful patissier. Then we squelched back to the car. We » » »
5 November 2012
Les Baux
30th October 2012 Miracle! The car is fixed, on time, and the bill only slightly higher than it would’ve been back home. This was good, as the museum we had earmarked for our amusement today happened to be closed on Tuesdays. Are we perennially unlucky, or does everything in France just close at the most » » »
5 November 2012
Enforced Avignon
29th October 2012 We are now having a short break in the city of Avignon, circumstances having forced a bit of Provencal laissez-faire on us. Yesterday after driving out of Aix towards the pretty villages of the Luberon I briefly wound down the driver’s side window and then found it wouldn’t wind up again. It » » »
5 November 2012
Provencal market
28th October 2012 This morning we went back into Aix-en-Provence for breakfast and a little stroll around. Still very blustery, but no longer likely to throw Citroëns at us. Aix is definitely a handsome city but I guess the towns and cities of France are beginning to blur somewhat together now: narrow streets, tall buildings » » »
5 November 2012
Winding and windy
27th October 2012 There’s a gale blowing outside and it’s icy cold on the streets of Aix-en-Provence. It was warmer in the Swiss Alps! Stupid cold front. But at least we’re back in our hotel room and nicely full of a very nose-to-tail dinner. By which I mean that Maureen had a delicious dish of » » »
5 November 2012
Soggy-en-Provence
26th October 2012 No, not the name of a charming little village, rather an adjective to describe the weather. It rained on us all day as we drove a winding route up through the Massif du Vercors (another lump of Alps) and down again into Provence. It rained on us while we looked for a » » »
Tags: weather
5 November 2012
In the mountains
25th October 2012 Bern was drizzly, the rest of Switzerland was covered in damp mist and low cloud, but as soon as we rounded the end of Lake Geneva and crossed into France the sun came out! I would also like to put our last Swiss stopover, Lausanne, into the same bucket as Fribourg; it’s » » »
5 November 2012
Castles and Aliens
24th October 2012 Budget hotel France: tiny room, basic bathroom, no frills, £35. Budget hotel Switzerland: huge room, nice shower, no frills, £102. Not to mention £10 to park the car overnight. That aside, I have much better feelings about Switzerland today. We walked around Bern in the morning. The centre of the Swiss capital » » »
5 November 2012
Two different days
23rd October 2012 Well, I love Alsace. This is how wine tasting is done. You start in Obernai, near Strasbourg, and you meander along a winding road through vineyards of autumn gold, in the lee of the misty, wooded Vosges, passing through a series of medieval villages and towns of ever-increasing picturesqueness until you reach » » »
5 November 2012
Vive la différence
22nd October 2012 Funny little differences between nations. Every guidebook and piece of travel health advice I’ve read says that after a bout of diarrhoea you should rehydrate yourself, and I always (well, except for this trip) pack a few sachets of rehydration salts just in case. Yet once I’d struggled to explain my need » » »
5 November 2012
Overdidit Sunday
21st October 2012 It has to be said, Épernay is essentially a crummy town. In England it would be Bracknell, or Basildon. It’s surprising really, you would think that the very heart of Champagne country would be an immense tourist draw with plenty of facilities for oodles of international visitors. Mais non. It’s a bland » » »
5 November 2012
The Marne valley
20th October 2012 Today we hopped in the car and toured around the vineyards of the Marne Valley, all turning yellow and amber in the late October sun. We stopped off for some tastings, our favourite being M. Alain Suisse at his tiny one-man independent champagne house in the village of Cumières. Although he spoke » » »
5 November 2012
A drop of Champagne
19th October 2012 This started as a weekend break, but sort of transmuted into a two week holiday. We’re in France, on a tight budget, touring a whole bunch of areas we’ve never been to but starting in a place we have: Champagne. Last time here we visited a trio of magnificent champagne cellars in » » »