Back in France

Leaving Spain we headed to Perpignan to look at the Walled City. Unfortunately it was under renovation but it was still a lovely site and will look fabulous when finished. Enjoyed a beer in the sun and then headed for Carcassonne which is a place our friends Jeff and Jan have visited and told us about.  We also love France, especially Southern France.

Doing it in style

Carcassonne
A magnificant castle with examples of medieval defences and exemplary architecture. It really was quite stuning and is a good example of exemplary restoration. We enjoyed a tour with the help of an audio guide and because it was late in the day we were able to stroll around quite easily and stop to observe different points of interest.

Did a little retail shopping,  had a meal and cold beer overlooking one of the courtyards. We also enjoyed the company of a dear little dog who had an uncanny ability to sense when food arrived and when food was likely to be available. Not overly friendly but very cute all the same.

  

Avignon
Left Carcassonne and drove inland to Avignon staying a couple of nights at Pont du Gard which had a swimming pool, sites under trees and alongside the river. We hired a double kayake and enjoyed 2.5 hours floating down the river followed by a lazy afternoon at the pool, reading and enjoying the water which was quite lovely on a day with temp. approx. 34 degrees.

We enjoyed the company of a Kiwi couple Peter and Elaine who have travelled extensively through Europe for the past seven years and who live fairly close to my sister Trudi on the Coromandel Peninsular. What a small world this is? It was great to share stories and be familiar with the places we both know in the country we all love. It was nice and it will be good to see them when we next travel to NZ.

Vaucluse Provence
Places to see and things to do often come from the most unexpected sources. We try to take in information given to us by locals and others and then do research of our own to determine where each area is and if we will be able to visit. In this case, the beauty of the Vacluse area was given to us by the young lady who
rented us the Kayake at Pont du Gard. She lived in this region and knew how lovely it was.

First place we visited was Isle sur la Sorgue which was a quaint little village with a Sunday market. Vendors were selling leather goods, food, clothing and all sorts of things etc...

 Markets are always enjoyable but this one was rather special because it straddled a beautiful spring river which ran through the centre of the village. We could see people sitting on the river bank enjoying the sound of the water trickling over rocks and tumbling through the water mill as they had their lunch or watched children play.  We had a cold drink (again !!) because it was rather warm and then found a great camping place at Fontaine de Vaucluse. Our site overlooked the pool with the sound of the fresh spring river and under the cover of large trees. Quite lovely.

 










We stayed Camping La Couteliere for a couple of days, relaxing by the river, enjoying a canoe trip, swimming in the pool and walking arournd the village centre. Found the 'Fountain of Youth' as Grant called it which was the source of the spring water and we could see it seeping out of the ground. Just magic. It was a shame to leave.

The man, the conqueror ......

Enjoying lunch - again !

Gordes
Parking our van we got onto our bikes and rode 2 or so kilometers 'uphill' to Gordes which is a cute little village in Provence region. Arriving quite red faced we enjoyed an ale or two under a tree and then walked around the cobbled streets which are so 'French'. Avoided any more 'retail' shopping.

 
Signage is right and we're heading to the coast ...............................................