Beziers - 22nd July 2009

We did LOADS of things today and are quite proud of ourselves actually for being super ace!

Our first stop of the day was at the 9 Locks of Bezier on the Canal Du Midi.

The locks are a set of 'Staircase' locks on the canal and it consists of 8 chambers that raise and lower boats up and down through the set. Due to the limited size of the chambers, only small boats were able to pass through so a plan was divised!

A giant multi wheeled contraption that looked more at home emerging from the belly of Thunderbird 2 was created. The vehicle was set upon runners above a large slope from the high point of the lock to the bottom. The idea would be that the large boats were attached to the vehicle which was used to stabalise the boat and water would be allowed to flow down the slope. The vehicle would then tow the boat slowly to the bottom.  This was a French invention that has only ever been used twice since (1985?) due to insurance reasons - FAIL.

Beziers was next on the list. I quite like this town and was dragged round it a lot when younger. As usual for French towns there was a lot of dog poop on the ground but other than that, not too bad.

I would recommend staying away from the lower old town, It is very shabby and run down and there is not a great deal there apart from drunks and hobos. As you move up towards the theatre and the old town the streets become cleaner and more welcoming.

We popped into a church to have a look round and ended up having a tasty omelette outside the theatre in the main avenue.

After leaving the city we went to a feature known as the Oppidum d'Enserune, this is a hill top settlement, founded by the Romans in 6BC. The hilltop has views over the former Swamp of Montady. This circular swamp is now cut up like pieces of pie after it was drained for form farmland in the 13th C.

In a very cool coincidence we met a couple of Geocachers here from the Netherlands. We were both standing, looking out over the view, GPS in hand thinking to ourselves “Who are they? Are they geocacheing? Should I speak to them or will they thing I am mad…?” In the end, we spoke and climbed down a cliff face to find a cache. Awesome fun!

Andorra - 20th July 2009

It’s a bit like LA, but prettier, smaller and built in a valley, and with less Americans. It is a long strip, most of the way through the country with shopping malls, cheap petrol and garages.
It being a tax haven, if you want booze, fags or fuel, here is the local place to go.
The fuel really was the only interest for us out of that list so we went for an explore.

The trip over quite frankly took forever, driving along winding roads through gorges and up and down mountains. It was beautiful but very tiring, trying not to drop off a ravine or become crushed against the side of a cheese grater rock face. After what seemed like forever we stopped at a town called Livia, a town in Spain, but in France, but in Spain. It’s an enclave of Spain that is an island in a sea of France. Due to a legal oversight in 1659 within the Treaty of the Pyrenees between France and Spain, all villages were given to France, Livia unfortunately was classified as a city due to it being an ancient capital, so it was declared part of Spain.

There was a frog in the tree stump hole that should have held a cache, so it wasn’t a completely wasted journey.

Leaving here we continued to Andorra. We had a look in the shops and were completely uninterested really. A lot of the stuff was tacky, to be smoked or to be drank, so we left it. It is a shame really, if we were shopping for items for a new home etc then it would have been wonderful there was plenty to buy, we were just completely in the wrong mood.

Had a great pizza though in one of the department stores. Even if the ordering system was completely nonsensical. Make your choice, pay at the hidden and not signposted till, take your receipt to the bar staff, who then shout over to the pizza chef, who was the first person we’d spoken to in the restaurant. Ridiculous.

As we drove north, through Andorra, the roads widened a little and the traffic lightened. The houses thinned out and the Pyrenean countryside opened up, well, it was pretty mountainous still but hey, we could see green stuff. As Andorra is a tax haven, the customs control at the border is quite stringent. As Brits, the guy looked quite disappointed and a little disbelieving at the fact that we’d only bought a Toblerone. Ah well, maybe next time.

The drive home was a little lighter, there were a lot less cliffside roads and more driving through beautiful (alpine) meadows. We had a short rest stop at the top of a pass, the Col de Chioula, and there was a girl on a donkey. And some very pretty flowers that I’d seen a short report on Countryfile shortly before we came away. I felt very knowledgeable.

Arriving home absolutely shattered, I worked out we had driven about 175 miles in about 8 hours, crap really, but very pretty.

We went for an evening stroll in the town of Lagrasse and I managed to get some ace looking night time photos and then to bed, broken.

I suppose I should mention the thunder and lightning before I get a telling off. We had lots of them, laying awake with the windows open listening to the rain and having the occasional flash of lighting, awesome!

Carcassonne - 19th July 2009

Today we got up really quite early again. Anna swears we are turning into our parents.

Our trip today was to Carcassonne, a medieval walled city about 30 mins away from Lagrasse.

A beautiful Gothic fortified city in the region, it was not always so pretty. The settlement has been around as an important city for trade etc since around 6BC and reached it's height in medieval times. One thing led to another over the next several hundred years and sadly by about 1850 the city was in such a bad state it was condemmed to be demolished. It was saved by public outcry and rebuilt and repaired to a former glory over the next few years.

Now the city is a tourist hot spot. Excellent photographically and it is a lovely place just to walk around and take in the atmosphere.

We got there nice and early and had a look round before the hundreds of coach tourists arrived and spoiled everything, it is very much worth while getting into town early at about 8 or 9am, the air is much cooler and there are a lot less people about.

Giving up with the crowds we explored the town around the city and found a few more Caches.

I’m really starting to get into this Geocache lark, its actually really good fun and it takes you to places that you would never have usually found unless by accident or being guided by a local.

I was less than enthused with essentially trespassing across someone’s vineyard as it was a shortcut to the next cache, but apparently, our defence of “We’re English” would be sufficient to save us from pointy, hurty death. I’m glad that we’ve yet to test this theory, as I’m sure it might not be quite as effective as we think.

Anyway, lovely place, well worth the visit again!

Millau - Friday 17th - Saturday 18th July 2009

Right, I’m getting a bit sick of this Anna,… 4.30am,… this is a little bit ridiculous now, I mean 4.30!... oh, hang on, it was my idea….

A very fast drive to the Shuttle, and early tunnel crossing to Calais, in an effort to save time, we even went without our traditional trip to Auchan (a decision we would later come to regret).

Generally the trip went very well, we got to Calais at about 8.30 local time and drove, and drove. This time we went left out of the tunnel in stead of right, it felt quite odd actually. We drove south on the A16 – A28 to Rouen, south to Chartres, south some more to Bourges, further south to Clermont Ferrand.

It was a very long, grey and mainly rainy trip with a couple of driver changes with Anna so that I could get some kip and not kill us.

The end of the toll road at Clermont Ferrand brought us our first real challenge of the holiday, other than trying to stay awake while driving 800 miles on boring motorways; we got stopped by the Gendarmes, just after the toll booth, I had tanked it a little and saw the oh so familiar lights, little flashing blue ones on top of a Peugeot, “dammit, was it us?” the flicks pulled up behind us and moved to overtake, “phew!” I thought to myself, noooooo, pulling up alongside us I saw a haggard looking policeman pointing towards the side of the road. The car pulled in front of us and we followed him off the motorway at the next junction, finally coming to a rest at the side of the road.

Engine off, got out and watched as the aged policeman walked towards me with his (very impressive) moustache and a strange pair of binoculars. Coming towards me he said “Speed” and pointed to his binoculars. There was a small display on the back and it read “134”, immediately I thought “Well that’s fine! The limit is 130” (as it was dry). I gestured with four of my fingers (not in a rude way) at the chap “Quatre?” The policeman explained to me that after the tolls it was 110 and that I owed him €45 for the fun of it. The policeman didn’t like us not having cash with us (we had €10 and a UK £5) when we asked him if he took card he wasn’t so sure. I gave him my wallet and said “Suivre a l’ATM”. The policeman looked at my wallet, opened it and saw my drivers licence, then my work ID. He walked over to the police car and came back moments later saying to me “Il’ya un cadeux, a gift, where you go?” I told him we were going to Millau and he said “Follow me to main road”….

I got my wallet back and got back in the car before he had a chance to change his mind. I briefly explained what happened to Anna and we drove off, being VERY careful not to obliterate any more speed limits, at least for the next 200 miles.

Sometimes I hate my job, but its good being part of the club!

The journey was partially familiar as we headed down further to Millau. Exhausted, we arrived but decided to head on over the “Viaduct De Millau” and have a look, designed by Norman Foster and completed in December 2004. It’s bloody big too.

It was beautiful (so my Dad would say), all crisp and white and very, very long.

Dropping down the hills from the other side of the valley into town gave us outstanding views of the hills, city and viaduct.

We finally arrived at our hotel, the city centre Mercure. I have stayed here before but not for about 10 years. It had changed a lot since. Our room had an EPIC view and all was well with the world.

Hungry, we left the hotel in search of food. This is where our luck just plain gave out on us.

A short wander round town led us to the only place that sold pizza, and having a craving for said tasties, this seemed like a good plan. I’m sure I have eaten there before and I’m sure that it was good.

Well, we had to wait about 30 mins to be seated, fine we thought, it was a busy night. Then, having waited for over an hour and only receiving one of our pizzas we decided to cut our losses and leave, which was a shame as the pizza that we did get was actually very good! Just to elaborate, we’d worked out that Andrew’s coke (I’d had to make do with just water, as he’d run out of everything else) and the one pizza we did get came to about €12, so we threw down a €10 note on the table and left. As we made our way down the road, little Monsieur Panic McUseless called after us and gestured disapprovingly for us to come back. He said “Is not enough” to which we responded “No, it’s not is it” and told him just how angry we were with the distinct lack of service, having watched what we know to have been our pizzas served by the waiters wife to a table right next to the kitchen as they’d complained that their kids hadn’t eaten and they’d been waiting ages, and then looked rather surprised at what they’d been given as the

y weren’t what they’d ordered and the resulting panic this caused in the kitchen. The wife’s offer for us to take away the remaining pizza was responded too with “Well it’s a bit late now and we don’t want to pay you anymore. BYE” was met with rolled eyes and a look of resignation. Thoroughly disheartened and a bit hungry we went back to the hotel to feel sorry for ourselves.

We returned to the hotel and slept very well until the morning.

The following morning we woke fairly early and went for a walk in search of breakfast. Not wanting to spend about £7 on a croissant and a coffee in the hotel, we went back into the old town to the bakers. A Brioche and two Pain au Chocolats for under €3, bargain!

Before leaving Millau and continuing our trip to Lagrasse we found a couple of Geocaches. One of which was only a mile from the town centre (as the crow flies) but in reality is about 6 miles on switch back roads up to the top of one of the mountains that surround the town. The view from the top was awesome, it was very windy and cold but it took a while to prise ourselves away from the view and on to finishing our trip.

The second cache was at the viaduct visitor’s centre, at the top of the valley where we had begun our Millau experience the day before. Outside the centre is a Norman church that overlooks the valley. Kinda unused for worship today, the simple structure had been reconditioned and was manned for visitors.

Apart from a few traffic jams o the last stretch of motorway full of people visiting the beach, there is not a lot else to report for the rest of the trip to Lagrasse,… oh and it was really quite hot…. And there were roadside whores on the N9… nice. Oh yes! Actual real life, middle of the day ladies of the night! In negligee and everything! Dirty! Now where’s a smiley to indicate a dirty lecherous grin…

We arrived in Lagrasse at the end of a weekend music festival. We went into the town and there were lots of crusty hippy types and they were setting up for the all night party in the town square. A short walk about and then up to the house as the family had finally arrived.