Lost in Sweden

On Monday night we are arriving very late at the Low cost airport Paris Bauvais, which is why we look for a hotel in the surrounding area and plan on starting our real vacation first the next day. That said and done we pick up our rental car at the airport and head North into the Normandy on Tuesday morning. I instantly fall in love with the hilly landscape and the cute half-timbered houses! We arrive at our first stop Dieppe around lunchtime and head into the harbour area to grab a bite to eat.

 

Dieppe itself is not one of THE places you just have to see while in Normandy, but we had to squeeze in a stop when Fly me airline had rescheduled our flight. We walk a bit around town, but after a while the heat just gets unbearable, which is why we head to the beach and ly in the shadow of the big chalk rock. The thing that impresses me the most in northern France is the height of the tides: 12 m make an amazing height-difference! In the late afternoon we walk around a bit more, check into our hotel and return to the harbour area to have dinner. This is how the harbour basin looks at low tide:

We are finding this really cute breton creperie and have the most heavenly crepes with some cidre as it is tradition. After dinner we have another walk along the beach and then return to our hotel. On Wednesday we continue our trip to Etretat which is a little town mostly known for Les falaises de Etretat:

We start the day directly with a hike along the coast before the heat would become too much again. Well, for J it already is too much, which is why we make it a shorter walk and return to the town for lunch.  

The town itself is quite cute, but it is definitely the rocky shore that draws the tourists to this place. We spend some hours at the beach and plan on returning in the evening at low tide to walk out to the rock, but unfortunately a thunderstorm rolls in and we decide to spend the evening in our cute little Bed and Breakfast.
On Thursday it is already time to leave Etretat and we continue to the first real Highlight of our trip: Le Mont Saint Michel. We stop for lunch in Honfleur, have a little walk around town where we check out a really beautiful wooden church and allow ourselves a 6 € Cappuchino in the harbour area.

We continue our trip westwards and arrive in Avranche just in time to have dinner. Afterwards we check into our hotel an hit the road again in search for the perfect spot to take pictures of Mont Saint Michel in  the sunset. It is quite some work and we have to walk across huge fields with sheep dung, but in the end it is all worth it, because this is what we get to see:

Suddenly we also discover that we are not alone amongst the sheep anymore, there are two photographers that are working on a book called “Unforgettable islands”for the BBC . We have a little chat with them and are also a bit proud to have picked the same spot. After the professionals leave to have some Calvados after a hard days work we keep on shooting some more night pics of the island before we are heading back to our hotel.

The next day we are checking out the monastery together with a gazillion other tourists, which is why we flee the crowds pretty early and hit the road towards Bretagne. On the way we have fresh oysters directly from the oyster-farm! But to be honest, I can stay without them in the future;-) We go for a little walk along the coast of Pointe du Groin; a beautiful stretch of coastline where we also get to have the best ice-cream of our trip at the lookoutpoint.

In the late afternoon we continue our drive to St Malo, a city which has a fortified center facing the sea at 3 sides. We walk on top of the old city walls for a while and then get some baguette, cheese and red wine to install ourselves at the beach for a romantic sunset picnic.

For the next day we have planned a pretty long drive all the way to the Loire valley. Our first stop is Rochemenier, where we check out the underground village in the sandstone. It’s really interesting, they even have an underground church. We keep on driving to our next destination Saumur where we check out a winecellar and have a nice dinner in the cute little town.

The next morning sees us already leaving the Loirevalley but of course not without having checked out one of the castles that make the region famous. We are picking Chenonceau , a beautiful castle built on the river Cher.

 

 After the castle visit we continue our southward journey and just make a sleepoverstop in a horrible town of which I even have forgotten the name. We forget the horrible place pretty fast though when we are back on the road towards the Auvergne the next day. On our way to todays destination we make a stop in the vulcanic region of the Auvergne. Evian, Volvic…sound familiar? Right its the vulcanic mountains of the Auvergne our bottled water comes from. We are climbing up the Puy de Dome and enjoy the view over the beautiful landscape.

As that much hiking is making us pretty hungry we are having a wonderful 4 course dinner of regional specialities at a little village restaurant that the lady we were staying at had recommended. It was wonderful food and not even that expensive, I think it was 15 Euros for the whole kit. Compare that with good old McD in France where you pay 7-8 Euros…
The next morning saw us exploring the little village and hitting the road again towards the Cevennes. On our way we are stopping in a little fairytale village where we admire a beautiful Roman church.

The road to our next Bed and Breakfast makes us feel like on top of the world! The views are just breathtaking!

 

We are arriving pretty late at our destination but not too late to have a lovely dinner and a chat with the owner of the place. I just love those small personal Bed and Breakfasts! If you are in the area, check out this place, the host is amazing! The plan for the next day is a paddle trip through the Tarnes canyon, which is nice but not as great as the one we had 2002 in the Canyon de Verdun.

 

So we are a little disappointed, but just a little. We continue driving a bit around the area and enjoy the wonderful views until it’s time to return to the lovely Bed and Breakfast for another simple but awesome dinner. The next morning it’s already time to leave again und we hit the road westwardbound. The first stop of the day are the peculiar stone formations at Chaos de Montpellier le vieux which are nice, but not the most amazing sight compared with the size and beauty of Bryce Canyon.

 

But just a few hours later we are able to convince ourselves that there are HUGE sights also in France when we saw the viaduct the Millau in the valley in front of us. The sheer size of that bridge is really overwhelming!!!

We are really tired when we finally check into our hotel -the most luxury one of the whole trip- for the night! After a great breakfast the next morning we are checking out the town of Albi outside Toulouse and discover an awesome cathedral!

We continue our trip to Spain where we get welcomed by wild horses when we are crossing the mountain pass. We arrive just in time for dinner in the little Mountain village from which we start our Excursion into the Pyrenees the next morning. It’s a wonderful hike!

 

The next morning it’s time to say goodbye again, since we continue our trip to Barcelona where we are going to spend the next 3 days. Casa Mila, Sagrada Familia, the Maritime museum and lot’s of good food and drinks are just some of the highlights of our visit.

 

On our way back to France we stop at the Dali museum where we have to queue fo several hours in the burning heat to get in. I’m not sure if it really was worth it but it sure is a very special place. We also take a little detour to windy Cap de Creus at the Costa Brava.

 

After some more hours of driving we arrive back in France and get welcomed of this pretty sunset in Perpignan.

On the next morning we spontaniously follow the signs towards Les Orgues without really knowing what to expect. I love this kind of freedom on a roadtrip. Les Orgues is a beautiful place that shares the same geology as the Bryce Canyon in the Southwester USA just that everything is a little smaller.

We continue our trip in the same spontanious way and drive to the gorge du galamus, hike down into the canyon and discover this wonderful little chapel in the rock .

In the evening we vistit the Queribus fortress, one of the old Cathar fortresses in the area. On the next morning we are off to the beautiful little town of Carcassonne that I just know as a board game with the same name. We walk along the walls, check out the center and have a wonderful meal.

In the evening we are driving down to the coast and enjoy this beautiful sunset.

On the next morning it is already time to say good bye to pays de cathar. We are now heading eastward to the Carmargue, passing through the cirque de navacelles and visit the awesome grottes des demoiselles.

They are huge and very beautiful. The next morning we are already spending at one of the beaches in our beloved Carmargue, an area that we had fallen in love with during our trip to the Proivence and Cote d’Azur in 2002 and that we absolutely wanted to return to.

In the late afternoon when we want to find our B&B, I realize that I had booked the wrong month, duuuuhhh! I had e-mailed back and forth with the host and at some point we must have gotten the month wrong. Typically Antje! I phone the host and luckily our room is free and when we arrive we get the most wonderful welcome and a well needed cold drink after all the excitement. If you are in the area, pass by this B&B, it’s run by two wonderful people! In the evening we drive to the lagoones to watch the flamingos and enjoy this wonderful sunset!

On the next morning we have a wonderful breakfast on the terrace and then rent some bicycles to explore this wonderful special area a bit more.

It’s a great day that we finish of with a wonderful dinner in Les Saintes Maries de la Mer. Our last day we spend in Montpellier, a town that didn’t measure up to our expactations. It was horrible to find parking, the cafes and restaurants are super expensive and all places seem to shut down very early at night.