End of Trip but a New Journey

26/5/12 – 30/5/12

Finally in Paris and we were pleasantly surprised to find our hotel called Esmeralda just around the corner from the front of the Notre Dame. The hotel was as quirky as we were led to believe. The Esmeralda is famous and has been used in fictional stories for children for nearly a century and still decorated from this period. Everything is old and uneven and we were upgraded into a larger room on the third floor with its own bath and small lounge area overlooking the Notre Dame. It was great except for the constant around the clock noise from the street buskers!  We did manage to sleep because by the end of each day we were tired from climbing the spiral wooden staircase a couple times a day as well as walking all over Paris to visit all the treasured sites.

Well Paris was full of surprises, as for me it has been 32 years since I visited and I was really shocked by the number of tourists at all the major attractions even though it was only Spring, I can’t imagine visiting in summer. The Eifel Tower was the worst as there was no chance of even getting to the top due to the whole area being chocked by tourists waiting for the one lift working at the time so we spent most of our time walking around it trying to capture it in its glory with all sorts of artistic shots from many different angles.

Our first day was spent on a double-decker open roof bus and we managed to get shots of all the attractions and also get a running commentary about the sites. We were the real tourists this day.  We saw them all, the Louvre, National Museum, the Opera House, Pantheon, Palace De La De Couvertre, La Fayette department store and all the designer stores for clothes, bags and perfumes, pity my suitcase was hand luggage size but I did save money with this excuse!

The next day Gary managed to get two tickets to the French Open Tennis.  We were lucky enough to get online tickets for the afternoon and evening courts. This was my first ever visit to any international Tennis Tournament.  We managed to see parts of four matches including an Australian called Mat Ebden v P Kohlschrieber from Germany, unfortunately he didn’t win but it was so exciting to be so close to the players and hearing to power of the ball whizzing past a high speed. 

We also went to Mont Martre to see the famous Moulin Rouge Building and the Sacre Coeur. The main reason for going there was because Katie said she wanted to audition as a dancer there next year!  Once seeing the place I realized it is 10 times worse than Kings Cross in Sydney and is just a red-light area so we will have to see about this even though it is world famous and might be good for her resume.  The back streets were covered with Graffiti, broken glass and smelt of urine so not the sort of place one would want their daughter to live. She would say “Don’t be negative mum!”

In the evenings we just walked around the many small cobble stone streets of Paris full of buskers, clubs, bars and restaurants with cuisine from many countries and picked a new restaurant each night. After eating we would go for a drink or a coffee and just people watch with all the others as the seats are all facing the streets so this is a popular past-time in Paris! 

Well, with one adventure over the next is about to start. Before we left Gary asked me to be his life time partner whilst standing on the viewing platform on the roof of the Dome of La Fayette. It was very romantic with Paris in the backdrop and the Eifel Tower featuring in the background. It is a moment I will always treasure and picture that won’t leave my memory. It is hard to finish this story but like all fairy-tales we will live happily ever after!  Till our next adventure Love Chel and Gary xx

 The Louvre before the crowds

 The Seine River and the tourist boats

Arc De Triomphe

 The queues for the Eifel Tower

Gaz's name plate - look under the number

 View of the Notre Dame from our hotel

Esmeralda's foyer where we stayed






 The La Fayette Store - Great shopping in the Gourmet Deli

 Gary happy to get into the French Open

 My first experience at the Tennis

Inside the tennis with the
Australian player Mat Ebden

 Gary, all smiles!

Moulin Rouge Building looking very clean under the blue skies!

 My name plate not as flash
as Gaz's

Eifel Tower featuring in the background and the end of our holiday and the start of our new Journey !

Paris - Here we are!

Hi everyone, well we have finally reached Paris with so many memories on the way. We had a good flight to Paris after a slight flight delay and also getting lost in Cahor, some how we ended up on a country road and lost about an hour but it all worked out in the end.

Paris is so busy and we are sitting right in the middle of it in Esmeralda (our small hotel) overlooking the Notre Dame. So we have three more nights and then we will be home so now I have got the lazies and don't want to blog any more so you will have to wait until we get home!    We just wanted to let you know we arrived safely and we will be seeing you all soon love Chel and Gary xxxx

Our LAST DAY IN LOT !

Friday 25^th Day in Lot – 28 degrees in the shade!

Today is our last touring day in the Lot District and the weather has behaved itself and is glorious. Tomorrow we have to pack and drive back to Toulouse, return our hire car and fly to Paris!  We spent our last day in the Correze region just a few kilometres north of the Lot to take in just a few more ancient villages which are also on the list of France’s most beautiful some more touristy than others.

We started off visiting Curemonte which has three churches and three chateaus with a fortified manor house and an old covered market hall. We have visited so many villages now that one is just as beautiful as the other and it is getting hard to remember them so lucky I have been diligent and doing a daily blog so when we get home we can revisit them again!

After a short stop in Curemonet we drove onto a town called Meyssac which has a market twice a week and is more of a working town.  We bought so much nice fresh fruit including apricots cherries, nectarines, mandarins and they were all so juicy, Gary didn’t know which ones to eat first! For a bit of a laugh we decided to look at a cottage that was in period style and empty so the real estate agent didn’t mind showing us through it!  It was a renovator’s delight if you had a lot of spare cash but it was walking distance from town and right next door another one of France’s prettiest villages. It was called Collenges La-Rouge and all the bricks are red sandstone like the cottage we looked at. The cottage for sale was originally a mill in the 17 century and it looked like a mini-museum in itself with its own tower and another small dwelling on it for the caretakers! One can only dream……………… It was advertised for 175,000 Euros and add another 100,000 to make it livable.

Our last stop for the day was a town called Turenne and it is perched high on a hill overlooking all the Lot, Correze, Dordogne and Cantal regions. It had a fantastic fortified castle called Chateau de Turenne and it was built in the 13 - 14^th Century. It was so well manicured with great exhibits including “la Salle des Gardens” and it had two clock towers, the higher one only 64 uneven steps to reach the top where you could see a panoramic view. We are so used to climbing uneven steps by now! We had a soft drink after climbing back down from the tower to the village level before driving home to think about packing for tomorrow.  Before we left we bought some nice mustard from this region. They add wallnuts, truffles, herbs and all sorts of flavours and I can’t wait to try it with some beautiful cheese, a baguette and a glass of red wine! Gary has his rice crackers and white wine so he is not missing out too much!

I hope we can get internet today as yesterday it was not available. So until Paris, I hope you are all as well and happy as we are, love Chel and Gary xx

The photos will have to wait as it is taking too long and the mosquitoes have come to get me! xx

 Finally the photos.

Curemonte and towers that people live in today

My knight in shining armour - The real one not the statue!

The views over Curemonte

 The castle in Turenne - life13-14th Century

 This was the small house on the real estate market - our fantasy of living in our own Castle

Collenges La -Rouge 

 Turenne

More stunning views!

More and More Pretty Villages in Southern France!

Thursday 23^rd May, 2012

Today was fantastic because the sun was finally shining and we hired bikes for the day. Once again we pulled on the cycle pants and cranked our legs 35 kilometres. The region we went to was further north and it too is followed by the La Dordogne River called Correze We drove to a small town called Argentat and were hired the mountain bikes for the whole day and it only cost ten Euros each. This company also facilitates many other adventure activities including canoeing but due to the amount of rain they confirmed that this would not be an option as the river is more like a rapid.

We got exactly what we wanted, small lanes were meandering along the La Dordogne River Valley with towering mountains on either side and with all the little farms dotted along the way. We took a picnic lunch and enjoyed every minute of the trip. The wildflowers were out in all colours and the fat cows, sheep, horses and donkeys all looked very content just as we were!

In the afternoon we sat on the banks of the La Dordogne in a cute café with two young guitarist playing all the Auzzie song so we were able to sing along.  We picked up a real estate brochure and were astounded at how much house and land you get for so little money. We saw a red sandstone period (150 year old) three bedroom home with its own small castle tower complete with an underground cellar, large open fire place on one-third of an acre right in the middle of France’s three prettiest villages for only $200,000 – Gary is there already! (We’ll keep dreaming!)

Tomorrow is our last day in Lot so we want to visit the other prettiest villages in the Correze region. We leave Saturday but still excited about Paris. So until next blog, hope you are all well, love Chel ad Gary.

Me in our cottage in Lot

 My bike with some more comfort added!

 Argentat on the Dordogne

I am now responsible for all map reading!

 Gary on one of our Dordogne crossings on the bike ride

Beaurtiful country-side and no cars!! or very few

 This way home not lost yet!

 Gary and the wild-flowers

 At the end of a day a nice cappucino Australian style.

Our entertainment at the Cafe including the resident dog. Dogs are welcome everywhere in France.

This is the top of the Lot!

Wednesday, 22^nd May

Well today we woke up to warmer weather although it was still overcast all day and now we are back home at 5pm and the sun has finally shown itself and it is 22 degrees. We had another big day of driving, walking many steps and taking in magnificent views. The plan was to go to a market this morning but it wasn’t on so we ended up at a place called Rocamadour.

We are so pleased that we fell upon this place as it was so fantastic to see. It is well over one thousand years old and it clings to the mountains on sheer limestone cliffs. It goes back to the Palaeolithic ages and was a destination for pilgrims in the middle ages which enabled the town to grow to such prosperity known today.

We followed in the steps of the pilgrims and climbed the steps to the highest places and wandered through the magnificent church and even took it one step further and caught a mini train and went into all the tourist shops.

From the bottom of the village we noticed people waving to us from a rampart of a Chateau high up on the top of the cliff so we decided this was our next destination. We wound our way up the steep incline and I lost count of the number of steps we took to get there, the last part of the climb required a two Euros so after paying for this we realised it was well worth it! At the end of the rampant Gary looked over the edge and nearly sunk to his knees and said “He felt ill!”  He was also a little grey at the time, some Dutch people mentioned it was like a place in Holland called “Madura dam” (probably spelt wrong) miniature village replica in Holland.  The bottom of the cliff was so far away that it looked like we were in a low flying aircraft, you will see from the pictures. I felt like a princess kept high up in her castle standing on the edge calling for Rupunzel!  I don’t think anyone would have hair this long.

We are back at our cabin now and we are enjoying sitting our on our deck for the first time as it is sunny. I am sipping beer which is only about 47c here and Gary is once again on the good stuff, Cream Liqueur.

Well cheers to the end of another lovely day in France from the beautiful Dordogne.    A bientot – (see you soon) only a week or so to go…..

Love Chel

PS We just got the confirmation that we can go on an all day bike ride tomorrow in a region above the Lot not far from here following the Dordogne River  so we are really excited. I will let you know how it went tomorrow xx

As Gary couldn't eat cakes he said you can't visit France without going to a Boulangerie so it was up to  me!

 At  Martel Markets, small local produce

The start of the climb.

At Rocamadour - the Castle is on the top where we climbed to the best lookout.

From the top!

Another view from the top!

Gary in the tourist streets down below.

Finally it's not raining!!

Tuesday 22^nd May

Well today we woke up to another grey day but it wasn’t raining so we decided to visit the last two of the most beautiful towns recommended to see in the Lot region as well as famous castle called Chateau de Castelnau which were all very close to where we were staying.

When we got to the first town called Loubressac it was 10 degrees but about 5 degrees with the wind chill factor. We had four layers of clothing on at this stage. It was foggy so the photos are not as good as we had hoped. Loubressac is perched in limestone plateaus overlooking the Dordogne River and two of its tributaries. It was a fortified village in the Middle Ages and also has a small castle not open to the public. From here we drove a few short kilometres to a beautiful village called Autoire. From all of the 5 most famous villages within the Dordogne region we both felt this was the most fascinating village.

Autoire is nestled in a deep gorge surrounded by limestone cliffs and surrounded by what should be a little stream called the Autoire as well  but due to all the rain we have had it was a raging river! We have had about seven inches of rain. Back in the 15^th and 16^th Centuries this region was where the rich bourgeoisie chose to live and there is also a lovely old Romanesque church in the village.

We drove to the highest point above the gorge to view the waterfall and then we realised there was also a track that took you to the bottom of the gorge as well. We investigated them both. The top had steps that usually allowed you to walk up but because of the rain the steps became a waterfall in themselves. From the bottom track we had to do a lot of rock hopping and hanging on to tree roots and branches to enable ourselves to get to the main waterhole where the water fell from the top. Gary managed to get to a point to take a photo over the edge where there was a strong wind caused by the force of the water hitting the bottom of the waterfall and noise of the waterfall was incredible, I stood back a little as I didn’t want to get sucked into the bottom of the rock pool but it was really invigorating to walk there to experience this which is probably quite rare due to the fact that we have had so much rain.

We wanted to go kayaking but I don’t think this will be an option for a few days as the creeks are running torrents at the moment. We might look into hiring some bikes tomorrow.  From here we drove to the beautiful Castle.

It was around lunch time so we ate cheese, salami and salad crackers waiting for the Castle to open because everything closes for a couple of hours around lunch time in this district.  We paid an entry fee of 7.50 Euros each which included a great guided tour but unfortunately we were only given an A4 sheet to explain everything in English. 

The Castle known as Castlenau-Bretenoux was build in the 13^th century and eventually became a home of a lord in the 18^th century. In 1896 it was purchased by Jean Moulierat who donated it to the State shortly before his death. He was a famous opera singer and he decorated it with art and furniture collected from all over Europe from those times.

The Castle wall is 250 metres long and included six semi-circular towers with a deep dry moat and it like all Castles was build on the highest hill overlooking the village called Prudomat.

So all in all we have had a very interesting day from freezing cold to climbing up waterfalls to being guided through medieval castles. Our biggest job now is to plan tomorrow and send this blog to you so you can once again share in our adventures.  Hope you are all well, love Chel and Gary xx

The cold street of Loubressac

Leaving Loubressac

 Autoir the next village

Typical streets of Autoir

 Now we have seen all of the 5 most recommended villages!

Leaving Autoir

The waterfall from the top of Autoir

 The Castle

Having lunch waiting for the Castle gates to open!

A school group on an excursion re-enacting medieval times with the Castle's Resident Court Jester