France Day 4: Drive to Sarlat

So much for posting everyday!  At this rate it will take me a month to get through our whole trip. O’well, it’s worth reliving for a month!

Wednesday morning we had breakfast with the british couple at our B&B in Carcassonne again, and had another great long conversation with them. They were really great peeps. They even helped me figure out how to ask our host in French about the post card our friends Michelle and Aaron had left for us when they stayed there a few months before us.  Turns out, the host found the postcard and, not being able to understand English, figured it must have been for her. I guess she threw it away or just doesn’t remember where she put it because she didn’t offer to get it or try to find it or anything, hahaha, I guess she isn’t very sentimental about things the guests leave for her. =)

We finally hit the road for our next destination, the medieval town of Sarlat! We drove through beautiful countryside and winding roads… this day and drive is another one of the reasons we fell in love with southern France.

We were taking pictures of all the churches we came across in an attempt to get a picture of a Church that our friend Michelle missed getting a picture of while she was there but wished she had! These are the three we managed to get below, and we thought for sure the last one was it, but we most likely did not get the right one, we’re not even totally sure we took the same roads! hahaha.

This last church was so awesome we drove closer and took more pictures! It was in ruins and is now dedicated to fallen soldiers of World War II if I remember correctly.

The entire trip to Sarlat was on tiny roads like the one below through gorgeous countryside and small villages that made you want to stop and explore…

We took a recommendation from one of the guidebooks and stopped in Domme on the way.  A hilltop village with gorgeous views. We showed up during their “siesta” time.  Apparently this Spanish tradition spills over into southern France, we couldn’t find anything open between 1 and 3 or 4 in the afternoon.  The town was sooo empty which actually made it kind of fun to run around this village feeling like we were the only people there.

After Domme, we headed back out and finally arrived in Sarlat.  We had to find some parking on a major road that runs sort of “behind” the city and then search out La Lantern with our bags in tow.  We found it down a narrow alleyway and it was work dragging our bags all that way.  It was amazing…right in the heart of the “old city” and our room felt a little bit like heaven.

We settled in that evening and went for dinner at l’Octroi which was recommend by our host and apparently means the “tax collector”.

I guess the building used to be where taxes were collected and paid.  The food was awesome and our first Foie gras. Although now that we’ve educated ourselves on how it’s made (force-feeding ducks and geese) we won’t be having it ever again, which is fine with us because it just wasn’t really our thing.  On average, Europe’s standards for raising animals for food are much better than in the United States, so I think foie gras is an unfortunate exception because it is considered part of their heritage. Anyway, the dinner was really great and we hit the sack after that!

Much more Sarlat to come…

France Day 3: The Pyrenees and Cathar Castles

Tuesday morning we slept in a bit, had a late breakfast alone and then headed south into the Pyrenees.  The drive was amazing… inspiring beauty mile after mile. We stopped for an espresso in a Brasserie in some tiny little village and it was just awesome to be among and listen to the locals (not that we could understand a word they were saying).  As we drove, we couldn’t get over or stop talking about how wonderful of a drive it was… then… things got crazy.  =)  We were letting the GPS direct us and after a few hours of driving the road just got more and more narrow, then became one narrow lane barely wide enough for our small car, then we found ourselves in the Gorges of Galamus, a “terrifyingly sinuous” single-lane road, overhung with rock, cut into the cliff wall of a 500m gorge.  Harrowing is probably a good word to describe what this stretch of road felt like.  I was driving and we were both praying to not meet oncoming traffic, which we did twice.  We were not taking pictures at this point as we were scared for our lives, but this I found on the internet…

…see that cut out in the cliff wall where the people are standing on the left side of the picture, ya, THAT IS THE ROAD!

Once we made it through this area, I put my hand over my heart and started breathing again. Hahaha, I may be making it sound more dramatic than it was, but seriously, it was TENSE and GORGEOUS! And it left quite an impression on me! The nice side effect was that after that, the one-lane roads we had been driving seemed safe, seriously, for the rest of the trip I wasn’t the least bothered by the narrow oncoming traffic/brush with death roads of southern France.

We continued down into the Pyrenees through the sunshine and trees. We finally found the Cathar castles and amazing mountaintop views! The first castle we found was Puilaurens, but it was closed due to the late season, and we got really worried that all the castles may be closed because of the season.  We still got some great pics of the outside of Puilaurens.

That possibility that all the castles were closed was a real bummer, but we continued on and found Peyrepetuse open and almost devoid of people, which made touring it a great experience!  There were stretches of time we were completely alone in the ruins of this castle. I could say a lot about how amazing this place was and it’s mountain top vistas, but the pictures speak for themselves…

As you can see from the moon out in that last picture, it was almost nightfall by the time we were done with Peyrepertuse so we only got to tour one Cathar castle, but I would find it hard not to believe it was the BEST!  We headed home and had to spend a LOT of time programming the GPS to take as an alternate route… we were not trying to navigate the Gorges de Galamus at night! On the drive back we stopped in one of the small mountain villages at a bakery and got some treats to hold us over until dinner. YUM, French pastries are heaven in your mouth. We made it back to downtown Carcasonne and had dinner at Hotel Terminus.  The food was very French and very good.  It was our first traditional French dinner!  And we called it a day!

France Days 1&2: Carcassonne

We left the states on Saturday and after three VERY long flights we arrived in Toulouse on Sunday and still had an hour drive to our first B&B in Carcassonne,  Ecuries de Saint-Croix.  It was immediately clear what an awesome find this place is (shoutout to Michelle!). It was down a one lane road that runs right up to the walled city, but far enough down that road to be in the country.  We pulled up to a horse and two country dogs that didn’t mind us at all.  As excited as we were to be there, we hadn’t really slept in more than 24 hous.  We were so tired we went to bed around 5pm, woke up at about 2am and almost immediately went back to bed to sleep through the night.  So we kind of missed our first evening in France but man that sleep felt gooood.

Monday morning we woke up for our first french breakfast, aaahhh and yum.  This is one of the best parts of B&Bs in Europe, they know how to do breakfast.  The bread, the cheese, the croissants, the preserves, the fresh juice, the strong coffee… I could go on!  Our host spoke almost no English… but she made sure we were taken care of.  Shortly into breakfast we were joined by another couple.  Don asked “Do u speak English?” to which the guy replied “We are English”. Haha, nice.  We had such great conversation with them, we must have sat there close to two hours.  Near the end of our conversation we found out they film documentaries. A lot of them in the US.  We are searching for several of them now to watch but the only one we could find so far is Monster Quest which looks like it will be very entertaining. It’s more of a for fun type of documentary. We will be watching soon!

We finally got out and about that day to visit the old walled city, trying to get used to the one lane two way road that we had to take in and out of the B&B. The walled city was very cool but it was actually much smaller than I expected. We took a guided tour that actually started with a self guided walk along the rampart walls.  This offered some great views! Then on the guided tour we learned the history of the city and how it got its name, which means Carcas rings/sings out!  Carcas refers to a woman (who is most likely fictional) who saved the city, in a very unconventional way, and then rang the church bells in celebration.

We had lunch inside the walled city at a cool little pub like place.  Ham and cheese crepes… and they were delicious.  Dinner however, was another matter.  We went to downtown, outside the walled city, so we could find a power converter and have dinner.  We couldn’t figure out though when places opened for dinner since they were all closed! Tired from walking ALL over the place we finally sat down in a pub and had a beer.  After I painstakingly used all the French I know to pull together a sentence to ask what time the restaurants open for dinner, the bartender answered in perfect English, “eight”, haha. We were so hungry, by the time restaurants opened, we just picked the first place we came across, an italian place, and it was quite good.  Not very French, but good.  And then it was good night Carcassonne!

FRANCE!

I finally got to spend two weeks in Europe with my hubby!! I’ve wanted to go back to Europe for almost 8 years now – since I back packed through Europe after undergrad – and especially since I’ve met the love of my life. Anyone who has been there should understand why!  So, some time around the end of summer I finally said to hell with timing and just started planning! Don was really interested in France, so much so that he had talked to me about the dream of retiring there before he had ever been.  Well, I guess the best way to found out is to go!  As good luck would have it, we had two friends, Michelle and Aaron, that had been planning a trip to France and were going VERY soon, sooo I promptly stole some research and recommendations from Michelle, a natural born planner, and started from there!  We ended up visiting four of the same cities and staying in three of the same B&B’s and now as a bonus to our trips we get to swap stories!

After all the planning was said and done, we ended up spending the last week of November and first week of December in France!  This is normally a gloomy gray time in France but we were really fortunate.  The first week, when we were  in southern France, we had beautiful blue sunny skies and sweater weather! The second week it did get more gray and rainy but we just bundled up tight and headed out every day anyway and it wasn’t too bad.  We even got a few more sunny days in Paris. Plus as a nice bonus, all of France was decorated for Christmas and it was sooo beautiful. I love Christmas time and getting to experience this in another country was really fun!  We brought back ornaments as souvenirs for friends and family.

So our overall feelings about France are WOW!  We had no idea what beauty and history this country holds.  The south of France was absolutely our favorite part of the trip. The villages, medieval cities, and mountains were amazing… seriously… awe-inspiring!  Best trip of both our lives hands down (and I’ve traveled through 11 countries in Europe)! If I had to try to sum up what is so amazing about Southern France I would say enchanting… in ways we only hoped for but did not expect.

We did however, visit three other areas of France and they were wonderful too, they just didn’t quite make the impression on our spirits that southern France did.  I’m going to post the trip details with our favorite memories and pics day by day. Hopefully, if wordpress cooperates and doesn’t suck too much, I’ll post once a day.

A preview of a few favorites…

More to come!