Brive-la-Gaillarde Tuesday

 

 

 

It’s very easy to get distracted.  Fortunately we had no particular plans today because, at one stage, we chose not to go the way “she” told us to. We saw a sign to a medieval village and followed that. On the way into St Leonard de Noblat we passed a very long viaduct. Had to make a few funny turns to get back to a good vantage point, upsetting one driver when we pulled over (to let him pass and to allow us the time and space to turn).

 

 

 

The French drivers seem to be getting worse and more impatient the further south we get. There have been a number of times when, while sitting on the 90kph speed limit, we haven’t even been able to see the grill of the car behind us.

 

 

 

Back to our detour, we wound our way ‘round to just near the centre of town and parked the car. We wandered over to a tent that was offering local produce tastings, meat, pate, almond biscuits, cake etc and felt that we should support the local cause and try some. The “man” was surprised and pleased that he could add Australian visitors to his list.

 

 

 

 

We explored the village and watched people go by while  having coffee at one of the cafes. Very worthwhile stop. St Leonard de Noblat is mentioned in a book we picked up, of the “100 most beautiful detours in France”.

1. We set off again, towards the village we were heading to originally, Meymac. Not sure if “she” cracked it, but she found some more very narrow, winding roads to send us along, even trying to send us up even narrower private roads. We were too smart to fall for that one. As we were not sure where we were heading for, or where to park in Meymac, we just followed our noses. We just managed to fit and get up one very narrow steep road, first gear. Any steeper and the car wouldn’t have made it. Found a good parking spot at the top and had a look around. Maymac happens to be in the book mentioned above. It was a village we saw on the internet that looked interesting, so we chose well.

We spent some exciting time at the “lavagerie” on the outskirts of Brive on our way to the B&B Hotel, but at least we have all clean clothes again.

Oradour-sur-Glane Monday

Today we had a 3 hour drive to Oradour-sur-Glane.By the time we missed a couple of “her” small road shortcuts and were redirected onto other small roads (still had her set to no motorways), it was well over 3 hours, not counting a coffee stop somewhere.

On 10 June 1944, the village of Oradour-sur-Glane in Nazi-occupied France was destroyed, when 642 of its inhabitants, including women and children, were massacred by a Nazi Waffen-SS company. The whole village was then burnt and all that remains are stone walls and steel beams, cars etc. A new village was built nearby after the war, but French president Charles de Gaulle ordered the original maintained as a permanent memorial and museum. Wikipedia seems to have a good account of the happenings. Click here. It was a horrible, cruel, vindictive incident and to see the extent of the destroyed village is quite disturbing. Again, photos don’t do the recording justice.

This is a photo from our new drone showing part of the destroyed village. Not really, but it would be fun to have one sometimes. It’s a photo from the internet.

It was good that we only had a half hour drive to get to the Inter-Hotel Arion. Our glass or so of wine when we get to our “home” each night is very relaxing, probably more psychologically rather than intoxicatingly. Is there such a word?

Vierzon Sunday

 

 

 

Montargis was first on the list today. Rick read that there were lots of bridges over canals (sound familiar?). We set the GPS to no motorways because we had the time and the small villages and countryside are very pleasant to drive through. This is one of the short cuts she guided us along.

 

 

 

Montargis is one of the many small, tidy towns we have been through and the areas around many of the canal bridges can be very attractive, made more attractive by canals and bridges. Who’d have thought.

 

After another good coffee, we drove on to Briare to have a look at an aqueduct, as you do. The aqueduct is 662 m long and is 2.2 m deep. Until the early 2000s, it was the longest steel aqueduct in the world. (Germany now has one over 900 m long). Wish we had a boat to cross in.

 

We found our way to another set of bridges and lock.

Tonight we’re staying in the basic but good value Campanile Hotel.

Nemours Saturday

We deliberately planned to do less today to make sure we didn’t arrive at our hotel too late. Good that we planned that way. We called in to Troyes to see if the descriptions we had read were accurate. What a sight. so many half timbered buildings, many of them a little wonky. Good coffee in the town square allowed us to watch people go by. Picures say much more than words. Pity photos don’t have the same perspective as the eye/brain combination. Should try stereo photography for the effect.

Having often eaten more than necessary (at least Rick has), we decided tonight to eat in. We bought a couple of fancy salads and some extra ham and cheese to add, then tried to find the hotel. The GPS threw a wobbly and said she couldn’t help and did we want to ignore part of the directions. She seemed to be directing us somewhere (onto the peage (toll road)which we didn’t want). Having worked out where we thought the hotel was, we followed signs until there were no more and turned on to an un named road that was heading in the right direction. Good choice. got to the hotel to be told that our room has 2 single beds, not the big double we had booked. Showed the receptionist the booking and were told that their booking system must have a fault. I wonder…! We’re now settled with our glasses (thin plastic) of French wine. Rick’s white (J P Chenet which we’ve had at home) was less than 3 Euros for the bottle and Gill was extravagant and her Cotes du Rhone was about 4 Euros.

Chalons en Champagne Friday

After breakfast we went into Cambrai town, having had our appetire whetted as we drove through last night. We spent a couple of unplanned hours looking around and having coffee. It was a comfortable place and not too big. Very attractive architecture, fascinating town hall clock that does things.

We eventually left well after 1pm, with about 3 hours driving to get to Chalons en Champagne for the night, perhaps with minor distractions on the way. After trying to get diesel at a couple of supermarket fuel outlets and having all 3 cards refused by the machine, we ended up in another town and another supermarket fuel station, with cards refused again. Gill marched into the supermarket to sort it out – no, we have to wait until the man in the payment booth was back from lunch. Then a very nice lady customer suggested that she could pay with her card and we could give her cash. We were so grateful as we didn’t think we had enough diesel to get us a lot further, and this saved us waiting for another hour. This all added to another unplanned delay. Then we were out of there.

 

 

 

 

 

On the way, we saw this nice, very tired old chateau.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then, just for a change, we stopped at a lock and a lock keeper’s cottage with character, and the need for a lot of work.

Well, there was this interesting shape on the skyline and as we got closer, we realised it was a big cathedral. Here comes another unplanned stop. We turned off the road we were on (suppose we couldn’t turn off a road we weren’t on), drove to the edge of town and then up and up and up, until we drove through the old town and reached the cathedral. We didn’t realise we were in the town of Laon. The present Laon Notre Dame Cathedral dates from the 12th and early 13th centuries. Gothic style. We were lucky that the organist was practising, and to hear the bass pipes was amazing. There goes another hour by the time we had a look at some of the old streets. By this time, it was around 4pm and we still had 2 hours driving to go. It was well worth it.

We were pleased when we finally got to the hotel and we could relax.