Appart' Valley Astoria Agen

... were good enough to know what we might like best, so I ordered for both of us – Marisa showed some serious trust in me considering she was really hungry by this time and REALLY wanted a top notch Provence experience.

We ended up with the single best meal we had on the trip. The type of meal in which the details will be deeply remembered and used as a measuring stick for all others henceforth. It started out with an amuse bouche (literally "mouth amuser" - an ...

... Next stop, Arles. Okay, this was a challenge. Driving there was easy but my Garmin GPS almost overheated as we tried to find our hotel which as located inside the city walls. The mantra, “Recalculating” is still playing in my ...

... would have cried in a similar situation, I think its important, as a friend, to continously take the **** out of him from now on. Next time you see Alex ask him to do an impression of a stick insect. Its hilarious.

We cycled on in the blazing heat of 35 degrees. As the miles went by we started to get a little bored and amused ourselves by standing up on the bikes and thrusting at ...

... stone villages and towns, and trying not to run over the pilgrims walking to Santiago de Campostella! A selection of Miradoux photos

It was a long day on the bus, but we finally made it to Provence. On the way we stopped in Avignon to see the Pope's Palace and then made our way to the Roman Aqueduct. After dinner in Provence, we stumbled upon a crazy street party with a DJ. It was fun experience to dance with the locals and get a feel for the flavor of the town. We are off to Barcelona tomorrow!

... br>
20 minutes grumbling thunder preceeded a violent storm, force 8+, rain and big hailstones. Dave went out in pants only to save the awning from being blown off!

Nightingales (rossinol?) sang after the storm, and again in the morning.

... the nearest dry dock was in Toulouse about 10 days solid cruising away. The barge was on the River Lot - this is not part of the main canal system and is a new area being opened up for Tourism. The river Lot feeds into the River Baise and you need to traverse a 4 km stretch before you enter the main canal system. Unfortunately there had been a drought and there was not enough water for us to ...

... take the motorway. Which would have been great if the motorway wasn't still actually being constructed at the time. Thanks again Tom. We eventually made it to Arles, to find every tourist in the South of France had already beaten us there. There was not a carpark in sight in the whole town. We eventually got lucky, and wandered along the banks of the Rhone into Arles. You may remember I mentioned my favourite painting by Van Gogh, Starry Night over the Rhone. Well this is where it was ...

... Declaration recounting my misadventure. Wednesday was market day in Sarlat and Trevor had told us that it was the biggest and best market in the area. It was quite a long drive along the D703, taking us yet again through St Cyprien, Beynac and Le Roque Gageac. The road was rather narrow and full of bends but Margaret was still able to direct my attention to points of interest on either side of the road. I found it ironic, even distressing, that the driver of ...

... Even the medieval museum with its suspect wax figures was full, though the rain may have been the deciding factor for its visitors. In the aust**e church we found a novel way of collecting money. Visitors pay ten francs to hamm** a nail into a beam of "medieval" wood. The log looks like it had been blasted with shotgun pellets. It was difficult to sit and contemplate our surroundings while children hamm**ed enthusiastically in the background, but at least the ...