Balladins Express Hotel Castelculier Agen

... small pre-meal appetizer) of a celery and broccoli thick, creamy soup with a shittake mushroom in the middle of the tiny pot it came in. It's sort of the chef saying "hello" to your taste buds. Marisa's meal started with a fish soup "cappuccino" in a stylized bowl and beautiful presentation. In the middle of her cappuccino colored soup was a mix of crab, lobster and dark meat tuna on a spongy bread. It was topped with whipped goat cheese sprinkled with caviar, almond ...

... After trying different entry points we finally gave up, parked the car, set the GPS to “pedestrian” mode, and walked to our hotel – which was only three blocks away. Modern technology loses out to the street sign!
Provence, France rinr

... cars and lorrys. Although we stopped for many water breaks we finally made it to Agen where we drank a beer on a park bench, like a homeless, which we were.

Just outside of the city we set up camp off a foot pass next to a huge river. We cooked our food on the rocks next to the river and as the sun set we listened to some wierd animal sounds which for some reason we assumed to be aligators.

7 days in the small village of Miradoux in Gascony ... living in a surprisingly large 4 bedroom house overlooking a patchwork valley and touring through beautiful ...

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!

Through Biarritz and Bayonne, then long cross-country slog which eventually become pretty after Casteljaloux.

Funny little campsite miles from anywhere with odd but nice owner (looked like Roy Hudd in long shorts). We were the only campers ...

... through - so we looked like being stuck on the Lot and having to come back next year after the winter rains. A number of boats had been stuck on the Lot (one for 8 weeks) and the River Lot authority were hoping to let some additional water into the Baise for one day so all the trapped boats could get through. So we headed down from St Sylvestre and stopped at the last lock at Buzet and ...

... while Van Gogh was living here in 1888. Arles is also famous for its Roman amphitheatre and baths. We wandered the streets of the old town, and eventually rounded a corner to see the impressive arches of the Roman amphitheatre in front of us. Being a Sunday, and after having found Avignon so empty of tourists, we were surprised to find a huge crowd of people sitting on the steps in front of the entrance to the amphitheatre. It soon became obvious that we had stumbled onto another ...

... car was able to see everything within a 180o radius while the passenger, his eyes fixed firmly on the road and his foot pumping an imaginary brake, saw very little. Sarlat was quite large and we counted ourselves very fortunate in finding the last parking spot in town. The market was as big as Trevor had promised but no more interesting than the others we had seen. We checked our e-mail at La Taverne du Web then walked up and down the ancient streets ...

... helps keep the church from ruins. Near the end of the 16th century the cl**gy moved to Cassaigne, taking the int**nal timb**s and fittings from the church and castle with them. The whole village was falling apart until rescued by French authorities. In contrast to the small church in Larressingle the huge 14th century collegiate church seems out of place in La Romieu, to the west of Condom. It looms out of the village looking like a grain silo. The village was ...