As Everly brothers say........The party's over my friend

Little by little as you are away from home base, the pressures build up. Apart from the major impacts of separation from family, friends and the things you do in your 'normal' living mode, the 'administrative' aspects of living come into play. Delayed appointments, the increasing amount of mail banking up and yet to be dealt with, a home to maintain.

Travel excitement drifts a little towards dealing with new places and people and a certain amount of 'normality' evolves. That is when it is best to fold the pack and head off home. And for us that point is now.

We have had a great and varied trip this time around and one which we will remember for a long time. A well planned and executed 10 day walk along the Chemin de St Jacques followed by a few rest days in Paris. A two week separation as Yvonne discovered the Scottish west coast and Randall did his Rhine walk part II. A week or so together exploring the Rhine and Moselle River areas followed by a sensational WWII POW re-union trip into southern Austria.  At this point Yvonne had moved from graduate travel planner to first degree, almost major.  She looked fantastic and happy as she drifted down the exit ramps at Frankfurt airport.

A short connecting few days in Parma Italy and then an August holiday with the French. Our love affair with France has grown again as we now sit high in the Haute-Savoie contemplating life here. La Clusaz has just seen the last of the high season and is relaxing before Autumn arrives. This is just the perfect time to be here and the whole place is picture card perfection.

But perhaps too soon we will take the one hour pre execution drive to Geneva. We will return our now 8,000 kms old Renault Megane and await our turn to be returned to where we came from just about 3 months ago. This is a time of very mixed emotions.

On Monday, Yvnone could not understand why Randall, for once, was behaving negatively. She suggested a morning walk through the once a week local market in La Clusaz. The village is extremely pretty and set out around a lovely little church. The market stalls wind along the narrow streets around the church and alongside the plentiful supply of small shops and cafes. Some really great looking stalls with cured meats - but not something you can eat in only a day and a half before taking the plane home. Some great looking cheese stands with fine slabs of gruyere, reblouchon, cantal and other local cheeses - not that we could buy much of that either. The biggest fruit and vegie man had slabs of raspberries, myrtilles, strawberries and blackberries and a few others, especially good for jam making - but we could not have any of that either. How can anyone be happy walking through a great little market with no capacity to buy and eat all the goodies there.

Here, as we found on a previous trip to Chamonix, there are plenty of fit looking and well tanned people getting around. These people obviously walk a lot more than we do. Almost everywhere and up and down mountains.
 

Suitably motivated and after a light lunch we took the telecabine to the mountain top where we looked across towards Mt Blanc and enjoyed a liesurely walk through the highland countryside, listening to sheep and cow bells clanging all along the way. The cows enjoying a late afternoon milking whilst Randall continued to count off the few hours remaining.

Today we enjoyed another summer day and a great walk up to the plateau overlooking La Clusaz.  Quiet in the forest then walking along with cow bells.  Not a bit like home!

So it is now time to close off the blog for now and head home. It has been terrific here, especially to be away from the nonsense of Australian politics and the endless 'entitlement' moans that reach us even here. We have learned a lot about other places, cultures and living. Even a bit more about ourselves, so that must be a good thing.
 

Slightly poo faced we stiffen our backs, stand up straight and face up the long trip down under.

Maybe time to start planning for the next gear change.

 

 

Our summer in France-summary

 

 

So what do we make of this summer life here as we try and mix tourist activities with day to day living in places we already like or find along the way? In reality this also in part brings up a bigger question for those of us who are reasonably fit, healthy and interested enough in what goes on around the world. And that is what to do with your 'free' post paid work time?

  

Do we take trips as tourists from time to time or just 'get away from it all' for days/weeks away from 'home', family and friends? So you go to somewhere you like and for us, the choice every so often is France. But could we live here for more time each year?

But for now let's stay with how we have enjoyed our summer time here.

Firstly, try as we might, it is a bit difficult to really do the lifestyle thing. Especially as the bulk of your hobbies/interests/stuff is not with you. Sure, you can rent a place, then self cater using local boulangeries/bouchers and the ever available markets. But however we shape our days, we always come back to really being tourists: we visit new sites, we do a fair bit of driving around taking a lunch here, a coffee there, a walk around this port/beach/town centre/tourist, doing in two weeks that which others would do in one? We are just lucky enough to be able to spread our tourist activities out a bit.

We have tried to minimise our time in the busiest tourist areas whilst enjoying the summer heat  We have been very lucky with weather with no rain and daily temperatures around 30 degrees for six weeks now and we have not missed having winter at all. We are lucky enough, or at least smart enough, to put ourselves in these places at this time of our lives. We are doing what we said we would do which is to travel broadly and independently whilst still relatively fit and healthy.

 

We have enjoyed seeing how people here holiday. It does seem that the French are very much focussed on staying in France for their holidays or perhaps seek the sun in nearby, also Latin, Spain. Overseas often means in French territorial places. There is not a night on TV going by without in depth portrail of holiday life for Francois and Francoise and their families enjoying beach resort/country living and camping/eating/playing somewhere in France.

 

And now the TV has turned to shopping for schoolbooks or searching for city accommodation, often including interviews with the youngsters as they wander along the hypermarket aisles or research Paris living. Not that I watch much TV back home but this does seem to be quite different to what occurs in Australia during and after major holidays.

 

 Everywhere has been very relaxing and on the beaches where we have visited and in the cafes and restaurants, people are taking their time and enjoying a lot of conversation.

 

And we are a bit too judgemental here at times. We are essentially city people, who live in an artificial city at that, whilst here we are experiencing mainly country life. So hardly a fair comparison. We continue to talk about living here. But as we drive through or walk around the seemingly empty villages around this area, we do wonder how some people cope with the huge old homes, the narrow roads and streets, the endless traffic wherever you go and the close living cheek by jowl as occurs here . It must be tough for some and we are yet to find that 'perfect' spot for a part life here. There is too much 'history' and 'life experience' within us that drives us ever 'just over there' to see if things are better there.

And in reality it is much the same comparison we make when back home when we look at rural/sea side living. ' How could one possibly live here permanently?' All right for a few days touring around, but then what?'

 

So it looks like we will stay with regular 'fixes' every few years in this fascinating, diverse but often perplexing country.

And the French Top 14 Rugby competition organisers have not helped us get to a game at all. We left Bordeaux for Montpellier leaving an interesting game behind us as we left, whilst at Montpellier they played before we arrived. We are less than 10 minutes from Montpellier home ground but they played away last weekend. The busy autoroutes deterred us from travelling to too far away cities and this weekend, when Montpellier play at home again we will be on our way North to the French Alps for our last few days in France. Not that Yvonne is complaining about that. And a game is a game is a game after all. And sport in general is not quite what it sometimes appears to be these days as the pressure of money gets to some precious people intent on ego over the pleasure of playing well, with honour. Go Pies!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Driving each other......for forty two years now

 

 The French have gone home after their holidays. There remains one week before schools start and students are moving to the cities and their university studies. And quite a few youngsters are on the roads to get their driving licences.

Down here Pignan way, the beaches are still active as there are still a few 'types' including people in early retirement and those not able/willing to afford a longer holiday have perhaps just a week of vacances. Accommodation prices are rapidly dropping.

 

 

For us, we have remained in quasi middle territory this last week. Driving Miss Daisy inland to the quite spectacular and remote village set into the cliffs of St Guilhem le Desert for an afternoon. This was a tight driving and a challenging parking opportunity. The nearby 'beach' along the Gorges of the Herault river was packed during the late afternoon we were there.
 

We also enjoyed our 42^nd wedding anniversity with a seafood lunch at one of our favourite places here, the bayside village and port of Meze. Complete with a cateraman sail on the bay of Thau.

 

A day in Montpellier city - is a city, is a city and we also took the short drive to the major fishing port of Sete which is celebrating for the 271^st time, the Festival of St Louis. The highlight of this festival is jousting from old fishing boats in much the same way as the medieval jousting on horseback as we anglos know it. We have also spent time around the pretty port of Marseillan (a spot on the canal de Midi) and some beach time as well. And earlier in the week we re-visited Pezenas, an artistic oriented and well preserved, if now a bit too touristy, old town. So we are still essentially tourists here.

So what do we make of this summer life here as we try and mix tourist activities with day to day living in places we already like or find along the way?

 

This could be Randall on his Med Cruise-but it is not

 

 

 

Driving Miss Daisy in holiday season

So were we quite masochistic when deciding to get a french 'fix' during August ? Answer at the half way point is; YES.

Two weeks ago we entered France from Italy onto the autoroute system along the French Riveria. We stopped a night just outside Arles on our way to St Andre de Cubzac just off the junction of the Gironde and Dordorgne Rivers and the Atlantic Ocean. After having to constantly find coins for each section of the autoroute along the way.

 

Our original reasoning/guess is that some French head off for their holidays from National day 14 July and the rest head off at the start of August. We had therefore anticipated a tough day on the autoroutes a fortnight ago with some leaving home and others returning. And we got that; officially declared BLACK by authorities and we had about one and half hours of start/stop along the system together with most of France. We declared that was a good cultural experience of M Hulot's holiday time and just part of 'being French'. Having had that experience once, that would be enough and things would be different later when we moved South to the Montpellier area. We would enjoy the South with maybe the last of the French on holidays, a few remaining Dutch and German tourists and the inevitable clans of English in some,selected villages.

So this last weekend French TV was on the job and Saturday was to be day Orange over most of France but RED along the very South (especially Riveria and Spanish borders) and around Lyons where major systems meet, leading back to Paris. We were comfortable with that. 

But both the French road planners and us were wrong. Saturday ended up BLACK Plus.   A record 877 kms of bouchons; enough to go from Paris to Perpignan at the Spanish border. And we were part of it!

 

Impressionable as we are, we have been very impressed with the car GPS. Constant live traffic updates have turned out to be very accurate and the sometimes more than slightly anal Yvonne has had a field day re-interpreting Tom Tom to advise me on traffic ahead, radars ahead, speed limit changes, roundabout entry/exit points, the pace of slower trucks/caravans and especially BMW and Mercedes fliers down the outside lanes. Not to forget 'Can you please slow down? My arms are aching from hanging on'.

Randall trying to retain a balance between these two, sometimes independent, sources of advice.

So we arrived at our residence at Pignan just outside Montpellier early evening Saturday having left the autoroute system just after Carcassone and before hitting Spanish border traffic, therefore avoiding Narbonne and Bezier areas.

Our 'normal' practice when changing gites is to have a relaxing Sunday just regrouping our ideas for the coming week in the new area. But one of us wanted to walk in the mid to late afternoon heat and the immediate surrounds of Pignan are not that picturesque so I thought we could head to somewhere along the coastal area around Montpellier for a better walk.

We grinned as we took the flyover over the autoroute as traffic was quite slow, almost stopped-thinking these people were those coming home after holidays late Sunday.

 

Traffic heading back towards us from coastal Sete was also very heavy but the penny had yet to drop. Then we turned past the local gaol heading for almost off the map and unheard of (for us) Palavas-les-flots. And there we found the rest of France!!!

It was total gridlock on this small reclaimed island. As it is in France, no one was looking after local traffic so it took us about ¾ of an hour just to follow the mob along an ever narrowing road, past a small city of beach cabins and into the paid car park where the design was such that few could get in or out. There was not the remotest chance of turning around and even those on bicycles were stuck as there was no space between us cars.

 

Eventually we parked in the disabled area, others were leaving their cars wherever and we started off to enjoy our walk. Now after 6pm so we decided that perhaps we would walk for a while along the beach areas then leave around 8pm as surely the day trippers would have gone home and the heaving masses on the beach and in the camping area would be at least thinking about evening meals etc. Some were enjoying a picnic on the beach and we felt that would be quite pleasant for them. However others, like us, were standing on the higher points watching the maze of traffic try to move. We staggered out of there and arrived home refreshed and invigorated at 9.30 pm and just in time for our planned magret de canard a la Yvonne dinner!

So we were wrong. France is still on holiday and sitting on the beaches down here. On the TV we have seen where the Paris purpose built beach was taken up on Monday as were the other 16 or so in the Paris area. The politicians are back at 'work'. But down here, we are moving with the masses.

 

 

We were about 800 at the local night market last night eating paella, sieche or sausage and ailligot or frites and quaffing the rose. So it is not all bad times. And we just missed the local 'run of the bulls' as we pulled into Pignan on Saturday evening. Yvonne has been there done that a few years ago at St Remy de Provence where the rogue bull came looking for her during their 'celebrations! So we don't need to experience that again.

So we are now wondering how many holiday people we are going to find around this area as we return to places we like including Pezenas, Sete and Meze.

 

We heard that from the start of July, 91 people had drowned during July and that 22 had drowned in France on the first weekend of August alone and 15 more this last weekend. Summer seems to be just one water accident after another. At La Roque Gageac on the Dordogne where a few of us have been visiting over the years, the canoes are so thick on the river over summer that the Gendarmes are out on the Dordorgne sorting out the traffic and sorting out those who are not wearing life vests.

Some say one in 5 people here cannot swim.

But it seems they can all drive, en masse.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Becoming more French-week 2

 

The weather continued to be with us for our second week in the Gironde area. And in some ways we had a more settled week with some travel/touring and a bit more relaxing at 'home'. From a lifestyle point of view I continue to get caught up in mixed messages on the French way of life. From the TV, the clearest emphasis is that holiday time is a lot about families spending time together but this also includes a lot of 'communal' action. And so we continue to see programs on camping/cabin life, mostly involving water based daytime activities and camp dining.

 

We also went to the coast for a day and together with most of France we enjoyed a few hold ups on the road system. Probably not much different to what happens around Christmas down under when it comes to any comparisons, but it seems years since our media covered holiday camping-or am I just out of those circles?

In the towns around here, business is quiet or non existent and we are never sure if the local boulangerie/boucher/restaurant etc is closed for the holiday season or the business is gone. No one is in a hurry to do anything, except perhaps places serving food when 2 pm is approaching and they prepare to close up until at least late in the afternoon. I do not think anyone not au fait with French life gets really comfortable with the succession of bar/boulangerie/cafe/lunch place/ice cream vendor/drinks and then back to dinner place as the day goes along. Even after many visits and holidays we feel the pressure to adapt over the day as the various places open and close. In the most touristy areas there are a few places who have moved with the times but most are still stuck and happily so with the old ways.

Remembering though that at least Italy also observes such a succession of times over each day.

And this week included Christian Assumption day which meant that even most supermarkets in this region at least were closed for a half day off.

 

And here in the vineyards, there is almost no work activity at all, not that we are experts on what needs to be done when, to get to harvest.

 

The current farmer worry seems to be egg producers. Each time we visit, there is a group get together in some time town or other to flood the streets with the produce of concern as part of demonstrations. This time it is mass destruction of eggs.

As we prepare to move to the South near Montpellier, the other factor that has emerged again is how to live. As we sat on the beach people watching, it seems that most of us are (externally at least) happy enough to get through each day with an established routine around family/friends, something to do, something to eat drink and somewhere to sleep. Perhaps a bit of leisure time around a TV or more often now a smart phone or a hobby or two.  And perhaps even some work.

 

As I walk through the back roads around St Andre and the seemingly endless hamlets and small farms, things are very quiet. And the towns are mostly quiet too.

Does anyone dream about changing a few things to make things better? Does anyone want to achieve more than they have to date? Where have the people with a bit of ambition or desire for more gone? Once installed in place over here, just how do I think I could live a useful life in a small rural community? There must be more to things than this?

 

Or can we all be itinerants like the man we came across the other day whilst having a picnic.  He asked for some water, which we did not have.  Made Yvonne just a bit guilty so as we were leaving town we dropped into the local supermarket and picked up a sandwich and a big bottle of water.   Drove back to where he was resting and as Yvonne went to give him our offering, he calmly nodded acknowledgment but was too tied up on his mobile phone to do anything else. 

 

I know. Let's move to another place to see if the grass is any greener.

Currently getting very restless or a bit bored as you can see.

 

 

Becoming French-week one

Now one week into M Hulot's French vacation and all performing to the script. Act one was a day's drive from the deep South near Nimes/Arles on the autoroute system to get to our residence set in the vineyards of Bordeaux. Timed perfectly so that we were in sync with French changeover day: they were either going home after holiday or leaving home to go on holiday. This is a cultural event of some magnitude and by keeping the peage system mostly manual then this ensured we had plenty of 'bouchons'. Avoided the numerous rest stops where they had special activities set up for the kids and places for adults to stretch out for a few minutes/hours rest.

 

 

Act two was to become rural French. We are well located, although our gite is not in an area of the Grandes Crus but we are surrounded by Bordeaux Superior. At first glance some of the nearby villages seem just a little down on their luck. We picked up a few more essentials at the local Bourg Sunday market and to complete this Act we lunched at home in the vines and them rested up and planned for the week ahead.

Our gite is possibly the best equipped we have ever had, the weather is mostly still with us and we are doing our fair share of local travelling most days. In some ways the biggest difference is that we are mostly self catering now. Yvonne was a bit tickled the other day in a hypermarche as 'advice staff' were on roller blades to cover the site which was a combination of Bunnings, Big W and Woolworths under the one roof. It took us over an hour to get our few staples: wine, cheese, fish, fruit and coffee.

 

As you do, we lift our expectations each time we visit France. This time we require the most interesting places to be just a bit closer, near to each other and in the same direction. But with the car, we are not that far from some interesting places; a day in Bordeaux (rain and a lousy restaurant), a day at the beach resort of Lacanau (sandhills, wind and some sun), a day at Arcachon plage (great spot, good beachside lunch and plenty of tanning), a day into the Perigord and Brantome (very pretty but been there done that), a day wandering along our side of the Dordorgne/Gironde river systems (must be the 'poorer' side), a day to St Emillion (packed with us tourists) and in between a few hours relaxing at home (Hmm, those mussels were good! And the cheese is not bad either).

 

So Randall is getting his 'fix' on things French and Yvonne is happy enough to go along for the opportunity. All well known sites are stretched to beyond full capacity but everyone seems relaxed enough. We might not be quite 'getting it' but it seems that for a lot of French people, a few weeks camping or in beach cabins is a good holiday and a welcome break from day to day living. At least that is what is projected on TV. There is a small camping spot close by which we pass during our morning or evening local walks. Quite a few vans and tents but not the smartest looking place and not great facilities I expect. I think they see quite differently than us, to say the least.

Meanwhile, the grapes are still coming on. There is an occasional worker tending and trimming but generally things are very quiet in the vines. And life goes on.

Episode France 1 is completed. Now for week two and more of the same.

 

 

PS. Randall has discovered that French Top 14 Rugby competition starts next weekend so how can we include a couple of matches in the itinerary? Hmmm. 

 

   

 

A lesson about bikes

If we did not get how bicycles can make a difference when we were visiting the Rhine areas or when we were in mountainous Karnten in Austria, then it became really clear whilst we were in Parma.

 

 

 

Sure Parma is an old town in a very flat environment but by reducing or eliminating private cars in the city area, then bicycles really come into their own. From professionals through to students, just about everyone was getting around on bikes. Not the latest Trek and no not dressed in lycra keen to go as fast as they could. Simply going about their day and using a bike to get from point to point.

 

Something we possibly had in the 1950s. I recall the purpose built bike parking areas in the main street of Grafton where I grew up. But then the car killed it off and we lost the plot in many ways.

Canberra and Melbourne especially are ideal places for bikes but we really do not get it yet. Meanwhile it was good to see how it can work whilst we were enjoying our break in Parma.

A speed date in Italy

Bellisimo! Ciao and all that from ham and cheese country. We decided to stay three nights at Parma as part of our trek from deepest Austria to our next destination La Belle France. Daughter Sarah and her husband Ben had passed through here last year on their honeymoon. Our Italian host had spent his own honeymoon in Australia so we took that as a good sign for us.

 

The objective of escaping winter down under has been achieved in spades now. Every day now for the last three weeks has been 30 degrees or over. More variable experiences and more interesting than Queensland, and cheaper too if it comes to that. Good choice Ben and Sarah.

It took a day to change our touring habits - Italy seems a bit different to the Germanic countries - but now we have adjusted. A slow start for the day over bread/croissant/muffin and proper cappuccino followed by a quick and regular bus trip into the centre of the city. Five or ten minutes strutting our stuff in town amongst the locals, avoiding the many bikes and scooters getting around. Then perhaps a museum or gallery before getting to the shops just as they close for lunch. Good timing Randall - and in any case we have no more space in our luggage for things like clothes.

So now for lunch a choice proscuitto, parma ham, salami with great fried bread or perhaps proscuitto and melon. Acqua frissante to compliment. Then back on the local bus to home and an afternoon nap (as the locals do) or a blog update.

 

 

Towards the end of the afternoon we head back into town for a spot of shopping, maybe a cool drink or ice cream before exploring the alleyways in town for dinner. Not a bad life for some and three days rest from driving.

White wine and rose are not the best here we find. No beer like in Austria and Germany but a good light red does the trick here. Lambussco here is refreshing and goes with the food so why not?

 

We are almost two months into the trip now and over the inevitable hump that does come for some travellers who lose touch with family and friends. With a wifi computer and two smart phones we can keep in touch easily. And although back home we have changed from one poor Prime Minister to another poor Prime Minister and a Government that is way behind the eight ball we are not missing anything in the way of events and news.

Perhaps we should try for longer trips in future?

But first we need to deal with autoroute travel in peak holiday season as we head for Bordeaux next.

 

 

Joseph showed us Carinthia

One of the many photo shoots in front of Hochosterwitz Borg

In between discovering and catching up with past connections our Austrian Professor friend tried to show us his region of Austria in one and a half days.

An artisan working on the Swiss Guards armour at Hochosterwitz Borg

 

Eating was not on his agenda until our mission was accomplished. We survived on cold drinks, picked up when we could as the weather has been and still is very hot. 40 degrees was predicted today and they already had 40 degrees last week!







New  viewing tower at Pyramidenkogel











Worthersee  lake in Carinthia from Pyramidenkogel

 

Towards the end of the afternoon and after we had toured the new viewing tower at Pyramidkogel, we finished the day with a visit to the chapel and church on Maria Worth Island on Lake Worthersee.

 

One of the absolutely amazing skies you see

 

These few pics come from our own photos and the 2000+ that we have been given and music to accompany these pictures. Overwhelming!

 




View from our balcony after a storm had cleared the heat haze.
 

We felt like we were living on top of the world as it was 7 kms up the mountain of zig zag roads to our accommodation, even though that was not at the top of the mountain. Pictures cannot do justice to the 180 degree view we had each day.