Hotel Du Sablar Mont-de-Marsan

... nothing much new awaits. Meanwhile, the prospect of your own bed begins to appeal...
So, there we are: mission accomplished. Above all, I have to say that I for one am mighty relieved that we have managed without any mishaps. Always a worry, whenever you leave home. There were moments - say, in the hills of deepest Albania - where I did wonder what the hell we would do if we broke down. Fortunately, this wasn't a problem.
Overall highs: without a ...

So, nearly ready for the off! Thankfully, false alarm about arrival of guests to take over house in absence means we have one more day in which to prepare... much needed!
We will just about get there - I think.
Round about now it occurs to us we really ought to have assembled scooter on trailer and gone for little spin to test strapping arrangement, etc... just to make sure it all holds up. Oh well, the road will be a good test of all that... I guess.

South of France, who knew it would be this good?

Recently stayed at a B&B called Château du Bascou (www.chateaudubascou.com) they have their own vineyards and we took a cooking course there which was great fun...learning every which we took cook a duck...Gascon style. Even duck scratchings. Be warned in fact as all they eat down there is duck (and foie gras for that matter). No worries if you're a veggie as they’ll give you chicken.

Saint-Mont, Midi-Pyrénées, France winolou

... on my toes by increasingly heavy traffic through many kilometres of road improvement works. As relief from this I turned off through a town only to discover that it sat on top of a high 'mont' via a VERY steep hill. As I neared to top and entered the town a man shouted encouragingly: "C'est trés dur (it's very ********* courage!" I thought that was very nice of him and tried to change my grimace into a smile. Eventually I arrived in Hagetmau only to discover ...

... he brought her dried snake of some sort. It looked and smelled nasty. Apparently you boil it and make a tea and with that the rural folk can cure themselves of chronic malaria, yellow eyes. He dumped it out on a baking sheet and all these little woms went with it. they were eating the meat. so gross. they did send me off with the freshest of african peanuts an some weird peanut butter/rice food that is delicous. it sure cured the runs.

Ok!! les corridas...quel spectacle! on avait des super bon billets qui coutait 80€ heureusement quil ne mont rien couter mais jen ai profiter a fond. Jen avait deja vu au mexique avec mon pere mais je me rapelais pas a quel point il y avait du sang et aussi a quel point que cest cruel, pauvre betes, mais la je comprend ...

... les gens ferment leur volet a chaque fois quil sorte cest fou tout le monde a des volet qui prend 20 mins a fermer a chaque fous....si qqun sait cest quoi envoyer moi un email que je comprenne...ensuite le reste de la semaine je suis arriver a mont de marsan vendredi soir pour les fetes dici. un peu comme les fete de pamplune mais en plus petit, meme ambiance qui regne mais cette fois ci je suis avec pleins damis donc je suis capable den ...

... of the house. We eat mainly vegetarian meals with a small amount of meat thrown in here and there. I have been fortunate enough to try some wonderful French cheeses and have discovered a favorite (Tartiflette). Over the past week I have spent 4-5 hours per day working in their gardens, yard and home in exchange for room and board. It is very peaceful here. They live about 1km outside of the small village of Estang. Their home ...

... full day in Bordeaux we booked a half a day tour that covered two vineyards. It was pretty neat to walk around the vineyards and see how wine is produced. At the end of each tour we got to try a few types of red wine. That was basically the high light of Bordeaux and once again we were happy to leave, this time from France all together. Spain, here we come!

... life of me think of any reason to dislike a city such as Bordeaux. Sure, it's not exactly packed with monuments or museums or excited and interesting activities but it does have plenty of outdoor cafes, cobblestone alleyways with little shops and bakeries everywhere and tons of great architecture. If you don't like this place, you might as well get a flight back to where ever you came from because Europe is not for you. Today in ...