IN FRANCE

Dover was just what I imagined…. a becalmed sea, dramatic clouds and a feeling of the last of England. A real sense of adventure and perhaps the first time I had chance to let it sink in that I was there and doing it. The phone-book-of-a-volume of Aires de Services that I forked out for has already come in handy, with my first night in France parked up alongside a dozen other travellers at Catillon shambre. I must say it’s what I need after the stress of the motorway.To feel a little secure in this circle of wagons and not just on the edge of a wood somewhere with a wierd-looking kid playing the banjo on a porch.

I’m now in Sedan and planning to follow the river Meuse South to Dijon, which is where I sort of imagined the trip officially starting.
I’m an internet virgin no more!

My first bit of culture.
I say this because it’s been a matter of surviving ( lorry drivers ) and making sure the bits in the van work/I cook meals/know enough French to actually buy some food and the like.
I travelled alongside the river Meuse today and the weather has been kind(er) so I stopped at Verdun and went to the cathedral. It was a Notre Dame variety and not very inspiring to tell the truth.
The bits of France I’ve covered so far have been full of childhood battle-names ( I bought the Valiant every week ) and so Ypres and Flanders evoke the memories of every WW2 war story I’d grown up with. I passed a few war cemeteries with their formal white crosses, and every village seemed to have a prominent war memorial.
Hence the photo of a group (they were BIG) from the first world war.

I’m hoping to get to Flavigny-sur-Ozerain tomorrow.
Why? Because it’s the place where they shot Chocolat – and that made me decide to start my France trek at Dijon.
Because France, I realised, is a big country.

10thSept.

Splendid weather for a change and I made it to Flavigny!
In fact it was nearer than I thought and I had my lunch under a cherry tree
while I watched the other tourists head off for the town. I don’t know where they all went because I seemed to have the place to myself. It was magical and not a let-down after all. The choc-shop, church and square were all pretty much the same and the whole place is so beautiful, with that yellow stone ( cotswoldesque ) that you see in places like Broadway. They don’t have a tailleur de pierre resident……….so I might have found the place to set up after all.
I just have to find some stone now.
Actually it’s so pretty it could be like living in wonderland and end up feeling lethal towards the tourists.

Dijon tomorrow.
I should celebrate with something fizzy and local. Can’t say mustard really fits the bill, particularly as I’m not keen on the stuff anyway – but they do a mean mayo around here that has mustard in it, which is yummy.
I bought it at ALDI’s, which I keep stumbling upon. I swear I don’t go looking for them!

Well, I’M THERE!
And it does feel pretty good. The weather is brilliant again today and I see it as a big whoopee start to the venture proper!
As a kind of levelling gesture I should add that I am drinking a weak earl grey infusion at the central McDonalds – the shame of it. In fact it’s the only internet access I could find. They were more tuned in at Sedan.

Sat 11th sept

Like Flavigny Dijon has turned out to be as interesting and inspiring as I wanted it to be. Again, the weather helped and I take it as sign that heading southwards is a great idea and those extra pairs of shorts were justified.
It’s a really pretty city, with the narrow streets around the cathedral (how many Notre Dame’s can you have for goodness sake……….it’s like Boy/girl names. If it’s not after a saint then forget it ! ).
Some spiffy architecture though, up in the skyline and worth looking for.
I’ve included a shot of the rows of gargoyles on the front of the Cathedral and also the tympanum above the door as you enter. It’s a classic example of what a bad idea it is to put yoghurt on your stonework to encourage greening.

Like – what happened to it? And why haven’t they had a go at restoring it in some way?!

Here’s a shot of me in Dijon as way of a celebration that the journey has truly started ( thank you my japanese ladies) and to prove that I’m really in France. My mate Richard reckons I’m in a warehouse in Croydon writing this journal.

Monday 13th Sept

I find that sitting in the carpark at a McD’s gives me internet access……so no more naff teabags hopefully. The weekend was mixed. Stayed around Beaune – which again is very pretty and I’d been there before. This is the Burgundy wine growing capital and it’s very apparent everywhere you look. There are more “caves” than you can hide a pirate in and suddenly there are masses of vinyards taking over from the normal argicultural carrot/cabbage field usage.

Now you know what a vinyard looks like, eh?

Here’s a photo of the inside of the van, post breakfast.

I actually visited my first stone-related business this morning. There are a few stone merchants just north of Beaune and they gave me some useful advice. It’s mainly Limestone in this area…..light coloured and apparently good to carve. The one quarry, Saint Marc, is 100 kilometres north so I’m not going to double-back that far this time. I have a sample though!

I’d wanted to visit Autun to see a carving of the three wise men, asleep….called, logically enough “ le soleil des magi “. They’re being visited by an angel and I think it’s a wonderful example of medieval art at it’s best: ie. No perspective or any of that renaissance crap that ruined sculpture…….sorry, that’s me going off on one!
I was overjoyed to realise that, once I got there, that it’s famous for a really splendid typmanum and so, double whammee I was in stone-chipper’s heaven!
As well as the Magi ( during the nineties I made a card design using this image, by the way ) there were other goodies in the same style and I’ve included a photo of one entitled “ pygmy fighting a crane “. And I was beginning to think that the French were lacking in humour.

This ……..I mean THIS IS a tympanum !!
Dijon, eat your heart out…..

Another beautiful, sunny day to soak up this amazing stonework, and here is a little detail I found on a wall near a place called La Rochepot, on the way to Autun.
An man after my own heart.
Chuck in a few apples and it could be Hereford.

Wednesday 15th September

Not much in the way of drooling over carved stone the last two days. It’s been more a case of viewing the stuff in the raw. I’ve been to four carrieres now……two within three kilometres of each other and all of them Limestone. It seems only to be that ( calcaire ) in this huge region, but it’s very fine and varies a lot. Polishes well too.
I struck lucky in Hauteville-Lompnes. I had stopped in a sidestreet to look at my map and a guy nodded to me and asked if I was lost.
He ended up escorting me to his friend’s workshop. His friend was, TA DAH a stonemason and I spent a happy hour talking carborundum to a fellow carver. His work was mainly architectural, but it was useful to see the raw material brought for the quarry, some hundred yards away and worked so professionally. Our chat was punctuated by a massive POOM from the quarry.
“ Must be dinner time !” said his friend.

The scenery in this part of France is just incredible and none of my photos do it justice. The vistas. The panoramas. I keep getting views of what I assume to be the Alps, over the top of these mountains and there’s a lot of forest. The whole area is lush. The weather, again, has been perfect……..but from the lushness I geuss they must see a fair bit of rain.

The last quarry I visited today was near Aix-les-Baines, which is on the side of a lake.What a lake it is. As I crossed the Rhone to take the road down to Aix it opened up in front of me and I just burst out laughing……….it was so……insert your own expletive here.
The trouble is there are so few places to stop and take pictures on the steep, windey roads, and French drivers ( bless em’ ) hate drivers that dawdle. But I took this on the road to La Feclaz, which is where I am tonight.

Sunset over the Alps just outside my veranda………I think I’ll shut up now.

Thursday 16th Sept

I think I’ve sorted the can’t-stop-and-take-a-picture-of-the-great-view dilemma.
I cleaned the front window of the van, slung the camera around my neck, set the thing on auto and when a view I liked came along CHOINK……Voila !

I’ve included some here because they made me sing Steely Dan (always a good sign), but I promise this won’t turn into a postcard catalogue of every inch of the trip.

This is a chair lift and a reminder that I really was that high up last night.
The house styling is early Hansel and Gretel and all the restaurants/ski-bars have names like La Caribou. I saw a sports shop called Nordic Attitude. Images of Vikings striking a pose with a pipe came to mind.

This sculpture was dominating a square in Chambery. I dedicate it to one of my hero’s, and a chap who has dictated the bulk of my reading material while I’m away….Terry Pratchett.

I was heading south towards Tournan-sur-Rhone and I had to go through Voiron.
It was only when I glanced at the twinning sign that they usher you in with that I realised it was Hereford’s twin town. Skid……swear…..slap the thigh!!….I almost whizzed through it without a second thought. My chums Dan and Jen are doing a sponsored bike ride for Meningitis next year and so I stopped and had a quick nose around. Did I say that they’re getting there by tandem….?!
Just found out that they’re going to Vierzon…..which is 300miles NW !
How many towns are we twinned with ?

Friday 17th Sept

This is the Ardeche.

There doesn’t seem to be many signs like in England where they tell you as soon as you’ve crossed the border, but that’s where I am now and the house roof tiles have changed. They are more curvey and terracotta….perhaps it’s a going south thing!
A day of travelling again. I started at Tournon, but was told that the only quarry was umpteen miles north and there were two further south, so that decided it.

The road took me through Lamestre which wasn’t too interesting and Le Chaylard, which was very unusual and I spent a good hour weaving through the alleyways and backstreets. It has a few bridges over gorges, with the houses hugging the rocky outcrops and made of very old stone with a distinct style. Liked this place a lot.

I ended up today in Privas….mainly because of the camping. I’m in need of a good lathering and the water tank wants filling.

Gorge is the word………..a lot of kilometres of gorges, with houses tucked away between the trees and rocky rivers below. I had the old camera trick going but ended up with far less than yesterday that is worth showing. They really do go on for ages and the winding road and steep climbs make it a tiring job because you need to concentrate all the time.

Saturday 18th Sept

There are two quarries West of Privas so I’ve decided to spend the weekend in an area close by so that I can check them out on Monday.

The road to Aubenas has more gorges, but this time the weather is finer and there’s more detail in the distance.

I’ve stopped for the night at a place called Meyras. I say night……I got here in the afternoon so could afford a relaxed amble about the place before an evening meal. I even had a nap and started to learn two new tunes on my mandolin. Did I say I’d brought a mandolin with me ?
It’s another pretty village in the hills. Mmmm..perhaps too neat and freshly renovated……I’m so used to seeing the tatty shutters with duvets slung out of the windows.
It’s well looked after, as is the Aire de service (municipal campervan site), hereafter referred to as AdeS.

Sunday 19th

I had to take at least one photo of a road lined with Plane (?) trees.

This has most definately been a better weekend than last.
Staying local to the quarries was a good move in that I got to have a leisurely day seeing what was on my doorstep and ended up going for a huge climb at Thueyts, which has a gorge plus lava cliffs plus a devil’s bridge!

Beautiful day again so I got some decent pictures, but guzzled a lot of water on the climbs.
The water below was crystal clear and the local council had put ( nay welded ) steel footholds into the rocks so if you felt like it you could just go down the cliffs the quickest route……..a few words of warning alongside these features and off you go!
It makes a nonsense of wheelchair ramps I’ll tell you.

There were wires secured across the gorges in places so you could shimmy over like Tom Cruise if you fancied. I kid you not.
I did venture out onto an Indiana Jones style bridge, made of one plank and slender steel cable. It wobbled big time.

I went to look at Chateau de Ventadour later.

A castle being “done up” and a good job made of it too. The scaffolding kind of added to it, I thought, and I’ve included a photo of the workperson’s shelter where they’re obviously shaping the stones they use to renovate.

A dramatic prospect …….. I love the wooden thingies on the battlements.

Monday 20th Sept

A frustrating day as far as looking for the quarries was concerned. I had three to find potentially but ended up with zero. Fair enough one didn’t exist ( it was volcanic lava and very dangerous ) and the one was unsuitable for carving. The third one proved hard to locate and when I eventually found the right road it was closed for re-surfacing with a huge detour…………..which, suffering from windey-road syndrome, I gave up on and went to see the Pont d’Arc instead.

This is a massive natural arch of stone over the river Ardeche ( I’m still there ) and I spent a blissful hour with my feet in it, gazing up at the nesting birds under the arch do their thing.

Tonight I’m at a quaint little town called St-Remeze ( there’s a lot of quaint towns….you don’t expect me to stop a dull one do you ?! ).

For it’s size it really is a warren of stone streets, with little tree-shaded squares.

Tuesday 21st Sept

The AdS at St-Remerez is in the carpark of a” cave co-operative”…..which means that at 6am We were woken by a non-stop flow of tractors and trailers delivering grapes. It would, I geuss, be like camping in Aldi’s carpark during September in Hereford.
Anyway, Ihad another look round the quaint town and headed off to Orange, then to Charpentras and ended up at Fontaine-de-Vaucluse……………..which was heaving with tourists and campervans but had an Aire by the river. It is also the home of the famous Fountain that bubbles up from subterranean depths at the base of a mighty cliff to gush down the gorge.

This is the gentle, green bit by the Aire.

A take on the St Michael theme, outside the church in the center of town.

It was a bit lower than normal and not so gushy but still impressive. There are high cliffs above and a chateau perched above the town.
Even though the site is full with about sixty vans ( unusual on my travels so far) it’s all quiet at 9pm.

Wednesday 22nd Sept

What started out as a potter-about-the-Luberon turned into a fun-packed day in Provence proper.
I took a detour from the Apt road( as in rather ) to Roussillon, mainly to see what the “Ochre Quarries” were like. What a treat……….a beautiful village on a hill with these cliffs of multi-coloured stone/sand that have been processed over the years to produce the pigment Ochre, one of my favorite colours!

I was hard to narrow the pics down for this part of the blog so I’ve only included two.

I then found a quarry at a place called Oppede.

This was a monster…….and very cubist in the grids on the floor to the regular blocks the faces had been cut into.
Along the road was a huge figure of a workman at the gates of a series of entrances into the rock face where, presumably, work went on underground.
A very useable white Limestone.

I’m at an AdS further East called St Michel-l’Observatoire. It’s the home of an Astronomical complex in the hills. The village, though, is another lovely mixture of red-roofed buildings and a church/square/fountain on a hill.

Friday 24th Sept

Senas isn’t a place I’ll be returning to in a hurry.
I realised, at 7.30am that the AdS was also the drop-off carpark for the local kindergarten.
Anyway, I found a quarry by accident and spent the rest of the day sightseeing, which was what it was intended to be, as my next stone-based detour was going to be Montpellier.
I called in and forked out the dosh to wander around the hospital at St-Remy-le-Provence………which was where Van Gogh checked in back in the 1880’s.
It really did have the atmosphere I was hoping it would have.

I’ve been called back to Van’s work regularly over the years and he never fails to fill me with joy.
I always look at his work and think that this is what painting should be like…….the guy was a channel for a vision that has never been surpassed, and a need to work that makes the majority of modern painters just dabblers.
Even with the crowd of Americans and the tourist-biased plantings in the garden ( sunflowers, Irises and yellow corn…) It still took you back to the era.

Here is a view from the window, looking over part of the garden.

I’ve included this text from a board on display of some of Van’s writing.
I think this sums up how I feel about impressionism. I think it applies to sculpture too.

I’m at Arles.

Before the weekend on the Camargue I wanted to visit a bigger town and Arles is a gem.As well as the windey streets it has a lot of Roman stuff around and in the centre is a fantastic amphitheatre like a mini Coliseum.

It’s even more impressive at night and here you go, my first night-shot!
I actually got to walk around the place at night, which is un usual and mainly because the Aire is right on an island in the middle of town.

Sunday 26th Sept. The weekend in the Camargue.
Mmmmm, well you know when you’re expecting panavision with surround sound in dolby 5.1 and it turns out to be 16mm and black and white?
It’s a wide, flat area of grassland and lakes….a bit like Norfolk but with black bulls ( saw a few of those) and white horses, but the only town at the end of the headland is Ste-Marie-de-la-Mer…..which turned out to be a cross between a mexican village and Las Vegas.

There were so many tourists ( not that I’m one you understand ) and the AdS was pretty grim so I had a walk along the seafront ( I’m at the seaside…..whoopee! ) and the harbour, had my lunch and headed back towards Aigues-Mortes instead.

I think, to be honest, I much prefer the hills and gorges and red roofs….inland.
Having lived by the sea for a few years I geuss I resent the invasion during the warm weather and I actually find being by the sea unnerving. Discuss.

This is a view of the big skies you get down here. It’s noticeable when there’s a great sunset of course but the land being so flat helps.
I DID see some pelicans !…..from a distance and wish I’d had my monocular with me.
They were distinctly pink in the setting sun and wading in the shallow lakes to feed.

Decided to go to Montpellier today and spent a few hours wandering the streets, which were full for a Sunday. I almost went down not one but two underground carparks which were too low for the van……….had to do some twenty-point turns.

I’ve include two shots of the Cathedral, one inside and one outside.
I have to say I think this is the ugliest entrance to any Cathedral I’ve seen.

The canopy of the “porch” is so high over the doorway it makes you wonder what they were thinking.

Inside there was a mass (?) Going on and I was amazed to see two video screens, presumably for the people at the back who might be missing the action.

Wednesday 29th Sept

I’ve ended up at Ceret, on a gravel drive at the back of the Intermarche.
My feet and knees ache with the thousands of steps I’ve climbed and I’m at a loss as how to describe, with my feeble Brummie vocabulary, the splendors my eyes have feasted on today.

All three of these treats were just north of St Paul-de-Fenouillet, which is on the Quillan to Perpignan road ( for those of you who have Google maps…).

It started with the gorge of Galamus……..which had drops you couldn’t see the bottom of and a height and width restriction of 2.7 and 2 metres. It was a scary drive.

Then two castles…….Cathar country as they say in England.
It wasn’t so much the shape or condition of these places but the sheer height and inaccessibility of them. I think if I was the general of an advancing army I’d take one look at where they were and skirt around the foothills.
Mind you the views……..it was the roof of the world.

The first was called Peyrepertuse and the second Queribus….great names eh?!
The Cathar stronghold of Querbirus.

Tuesday 28th Sept…..the end of my third week away.

Have traveled a bit further South/West…..ish and am now at a place called Quillan.

The landscape is getting more hilly and rugged as the Pyrenees come closer and I’m glad to be away from the flatlands to tell you the truth.

I found a good place to have lunch yesterday….Beziers, which offered an amazing view from the Church terrace in the direction I was heading.

Today I spent four hours in Carcassonne.
I took a fair few photos of the Cite ( medieval walled town ) which was in superb condition but full of restaurants and gift shops. Bits of it reminded me of Glastonbury….anything that had a knight in armour or wizard on it was there to buy.

But it was a thrilling experience all the same. There really is nothing like a whole town of tiny streets in stone, with alleys and pokey windows……it’s the child in all of us walking about in a fairy tale.

I’m trying to formulate a plan: ie, where to go next on my travels…

I think it may be, after today, the Cathars route !!

Thursday 30th sept

A surreal day in every sense of the word.
I was woken in the early hours by a huge truck inching past my bedroom window, lights flashing, in reverse to deposit a JCB in the patch of scrub next to where I was Aire-ing,
I then got up at 6am and drove down to Figueras, over the border into Spain to see the Salvador Dali museum.
It was still dark when I got there !

To save time I asked a passer-by where the museum was:
“It’s big, and red – and has huge eggs on the top of it!” he said.

I’ve been a closet-fan of Sally’s since my teens and the museum was worth the trip, because as well as the silly stuff ( women with bread on their head…) There were some truly wonderful early paintings with brushwork that took my breath away.

Here’s one I hadn’t seen before. Can you tell what it is yet ?
It helps if you squint at it….

I was back in France for lunch and am heading back North West now.

Saturday 2nd October

The last two days have been spent working my way North-West towards Bordeaux.
I fancy going to see the Church at St Emilion and then perhaps following the Dordoigne for a while.

The countryside I’ve driven through has been beautiful lately and less harsh than the Southern area of the Pyrenees. Lots of farms and quiet villages,with a yellow soil and lines of trees along the side of the road.

Sunday 3rd October

I thought I’d include a few more green photos.

This the bark on one of the trees I keep seeing everywhere. Someone told me they were Plane (?) trees, but if anyone knows better please let me know.

Less stonework today and a taste of the river/canal life that I’ve been zig-zagging through on my way to Bordeaux.

I’m on the side of the Garonne tonight and one of the best Aires so far…..and the temperature ( sorry, but it’s true ) is 26% tonight as I sup a glass of red and play my mandolin as the boats chug past.

Monday 4th October

I know I have no reason at all to complain but today is the first day that’s it’s rained during the hours of daylight since I crossed the channel.
I’ll not mention it again…..I know it causes gnashing of teeth with some people.

To be fair it didn’t really start until after lunch and so I had chance to walk around
St Emilion, just East of Bordeaux.

It’s beautiful. The stone reminded me of the Cotswolds ( again ) and the Chapel/original church that was carved out of the rock itself adds real age to the village that sets it apart from merely the Medieval.

Emilion is famous for it’s wine and so it’s kind of like Hay, only with wine shops rather than the books……and I did feel an ignoramus realizing that all this history of excellence in wine making was completely lost on me.

Tuesday 5th October

A day mainly spent following the Dordoigne river and visiting two of the rocky villages that the area is famous for.
The first was Limeuil, which was a bit off the track but well worth it. I had the place pretty much to myself. It had some interesting details, which I decided to photograph and include here.

The second was the much bigger Beynac. There are a lot of ac’s around here…..but again the stonework was very Cotswold. Perhaps even more yellow.

There is a huge castle overlooking the river and easily the best place to view the Dordoigne in all it’s glory.

Wednesday 6th October

I’ve travelled North today, mainly to see the “village de Martyrs” at Oradour-de-Glane.
As the 2nd world war was ending ( 10th June 1944 ) the Waffen SS decided to massacre the entire village.
They assembled the villagers in the square, took the men away and shot them and locked the women and children in the church and then set fire to it.
Some 640 people were killed.
President De Gaulle decided that the village should be left, untouched, for all time as a living museum/reminder of this event, along with others that were less documented at the time.
I visited Dachau last year and that too had a profound effect on me. I took my camera to both places but, like Dachau, could only take one photograph.

This sign was still attached to an electricity pole that held the cables above the streets.

It’s been fine weather today and I ended up at the most beautiful Aire on the side of a little lake by a sports centre.

Friday 8th October

A day of dizzying heights.

This was quite unexpected really……….I woke to a thick mist covering the town ( I was at a place called Bort-les-Orgues, on the Dordoigne river ) but once I’d started climbing the road above, to see the Orgues ( a chain of volcanic rocks that resemble organ pipes ) the mist cleared and I was treated to the most amazing views.

Back through the town towards Claremont Ferrand is the Chateau de Val. It has to rank as possibly the most picture-book castle I’ve ever seen…..on the side of a lake, the whole disney varnish, and so well preserved.

I do like those turrets though.
I ended up at a Mont Dore………just along from La Bourboule, which is in the heart of the volcano department of France.
That’s department as in region.
Even though the site should have been closed by now I was allowed to stay
( tres utile!) And walked up the hills behind Mont Dore to see the view from La Capucin.

Sunday 10th October

A rainy day for most part, but managed to get a view from A town called Nonette, just south of Issoire. It’s a good example of the format really and there are quite a lot of them scattered over this area.

This is what it’s like from a distance and then there’s a view back down to the square…..with my van parked by the church!

The village of Vieille Brioune.

Saturday 9th October

A town called Champiex.

Tuesday 12th October

Heading South again to visit Le Puy.
The rain held off enough for me to walk around and climb up to the Cathedral but then kept up for most of the day.
Puy is very unusual in that they seem to have erected monuments on anything resembling a hill in the City. Very impressive but I thought the big red jobbies were just not exiting enough.

For example look at the Christ statue in Rio or even Liberty in New York.
The Cathedral has some very monochromatic stonework……which was a nice change, but the things that floated my boat were the details…………..here included, a lovely figure of a pilgrim ( you know this by the shell…..) and a lion in a section of low-relief carving……..pretty old I should think.

It was also hard to get any decent shots of the City with the monuments all in one frame………..Gad, they make it hell for a traveller.

Wednesday 13th October

Get up early and head south again.
I want to see the Millau bridge ( don’t know why I didn’t go while I was in the Montpellier area, but there you go ) and it’s sunny again.

A day of wonderful contrasts. The bridge is worth seeing and a credit to to the technical age…………a very good presentation at the Aire du viaduct , in English, of the staggering staistics involved.
Afterwards I decided to follow some of the Tarn gorge….as if I hadn’t had enough gorges.

I have to say that this was the best yet……….the only bum note being my photos were mostly rubbish, which only goes to teach one that being there is the thing.
There’s no substitute for the real spectacle.

Thursday 14th October

After a strange night on a huge Farmer’s market cum landing strip I toddle up the road to Rodez, a city on a hill this time with a Cathedral half clad in scaffolding but surrounded by quaint little streets and a local produce market going on in the main square.

The thing that still amazes me about churches, of any size, in France is that they really are in the middle of everything!

Second stop of the day was a place that looked interesting in the leaflets and was even more wonderful when I got there……Conques.

Truly magical and in the most remote valley, shrouded in forest and featuring the local style in roofing….which is different from roofing I’ve seen so far and, believe me, I’ve been looking. As opposed to yesterday I’m happier with my pics and have to restrain myself from including about twenty shots here.

Saturday 16th October

It was time well spent wandering around St Privat when I arrived there early on Friday because the Info centre gave me a little tour of three towns on my way North West.
To be honest I spent a lot of Friday traveling but there was a treat on route when I turned a bend in the road and found Tours de Merle.

The same kind of remote spot in the gorge that reminded me of Conques but less well preserved.
I have to tell you that last night there was ice on the inside windows of the van and a frost on the grass outside!
My talking clock informed me it was 7.30 am and 1.4% C…..
Where did all that come from…..?!

I started off driving over the Dordoigne into Argentat….a hazy day, all day.
It may sound like today was rushed but it wasn’t……….even though it was a Saturday I had the interesting bits to myself and each town had a lot of charm and detail.

Beaulieu-sur Dordoigne has an amazing Romanesque church and the whole town runs alongside the river. Super carvings and I think I’ve found a French Green Man ! I’ve had an ongoing quiz with bods at the bookshops in these churches and they all look at me as though I’m crazy: but today……

There were two in the same place.

Curamonte is tucked away up a by-road due West but was lovely in the haze of the day and deserted………..so I had my lunch there.

The last call was Collonges-la-Rouge.

The name says it all really cos the whole place was built of red sandstone. I must admit it’s not my favourite colour stone but here it just looked wonderful.
All the buildings seemed to have vines growing off them and there were bunches of dark grapes hanging over doorways and verandas.

I had to include this picture of a woman preparing corn cobbs…..I did ask permission by the way.

Sunday 17th October

It was only when I went into the Information centre in Poitiers yesterday that I realised I was a day ahead of myself…….which accounts for the amount of people around on what I thought was a Sunday ! If I had brains I’d be dangerous…

Poitiers has some outstanding churches, the best of which I’d say was St Hilaire’s. It’s bold and chunky Romanesque ( the in-word for this area ) with details that would be at home on Kilpeck church.

There’s a lot of carving in Poitiers…….most of it high up unfortunately.
I’ve enlarged a few examples ……and notice I seem to have found another Green Man……..a bit like buses at the moment I’m thinking.

Monday 18th October

I was spoilt rotten yesterday, by someone who didn’t know me from Adam till I arrived and made me welcome……..cooking a meal with produce from his garden and sending me on my way with walnuts, apples and garlick……..thank you Phil.

In the morning I had visited Chauvigny, a medieval city that boasts five castles and a church.

I think they were a bit over the top about the number of castles but the church of St Pierre was unexpectedly amazing. It’s painted inside, with terracotta lining for the brickwork, and has the most outlandish carving at the top of the columns around the altar.

This one is straight from Terry Gilliam I think…

There’s a bit of Steiner influence in the paintwork on those pillars too.

I saw this collection of locks on a door in the village.

I left Phil’s at noon and went north to Fontevraud l’Abbaye, which is where Eleanor of Aquitaine her husband Henry II Plantagenet and son Richard the Lionheart ) were buried. There’s a tombfull and no mistake.
It is exquisite……..in the local pale cream stone ( Tuffe ) and all very simply decorated. None of the manic fretworking Baroque adornment…..just clean lines and beautiful arches.

It was turned into a prison by Napoleon and only stopped being one in 1963!

There’s a fantastic kitchen with all these chimneys serving useful functions….which makes for a truly splendid roof…don’t you think?!

Wednesday 20th October

This could very well be the last of the blog from France……
I’m now North of Amiens and aiming to get to Dunkirk with the fuel I have left…….so no major detours I’m afraid.
I’ve passed stations with no petrol at all and the gazole/deisel seems to be non-existent. The ones that have it are so few that the queues stretch hundreds of yards.
It could have been worse……….this could have happened a month ago!
It’s also widespread…….not as if you can nip down the road and find some there, apparently it’s all over France.
There are gendarmes at major roundabouts on the edge of towns and there’s a war-zone atmosphere most places you go.
So it’s Blighty ASAP. What with the cold nights now I geuss my time is done.

Anyway……
I vistied two unexpected treats today, what with the weather being fine.
The first was Mantes.

A Cathedral undergoing structural whatnots but still beautiful to look around.
It has one of those brightly patterned roofs and strange, tall towers….very delicate.

The second was Amiens Cathedral.

What an impressive work of art it is……even with all the adornments.
They had lots of huge coloured banners hanging up and the windows were beautiful, with those deep reds and blues.

NEWSFLASH – there’s a petroleum shortage/dispute of some kind all over France at the moment!
Am now learning how to wish everyone a merry christmas in French.

Well, If I make it to Dunkirk this will be it – Otherwise I may be hanging around until the dispute is over.

I’ll take my leave and hope you enjoyed some of the pictures.

Thanks…..to those of you who stayed with it and e-mailed me encouraging thoughts.

It helped.