Ibis Agen

... confusion. We drove the half mile road up to the Chateau complex and arrived to an empty lot. After confirming the wine tasting area was indeed open we found ourselves the only visitors on the entire, beautiful Chateau. Luxurious, indeed. We tasted their wines and various olive oils (olive oil tasting, by the way, is nearly as interesting as wine tasting if you haven't done it) then bought a bottle of their red to drink later on the trip and a younger bottle to take back to the ...

Sidetip to Provence
From: http://www.roninrome.com/2009/07/03/sid e-trip-to-provence/

For the past few days my wife and I did our own bit of traveling. We headed, by plane, to Monaco and Provence. What a contrast these two areas ...

... 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 ...

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!

... 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.

... next 8 days we headed for Toulouse and stopped off at some lovely places on the way - Agen, Moissac, Castelsarassin. As we were going to be in Toulouse and not get out of dry dock until November we needed to find a winter mooring for the barge - normally you do this way ahead of time - we were very lucky to be able to get a lovely mooring on a pontoon at Port St Sauveur in the middle of Toulouse.

... beams for a roof, and stacked stone for walls, but still with all the comforts that are expected. They have a pool, two horses, and two beautiful white Pyrenees dogs that we have fallen in love with. The hosts themselves are also very friendly and spend time each morning helping you plan your itinerary for the day, giving a bit of local insight which we found invaluable. Exhausted after our adventurous day, we had a lovely dinner of baguettes and stinky camembert cheese before falling into bed.

... wines and would much prefer a nice brown beer, preferably a Pelforths. As far as I am concerned, wine is for girls and effeminate men. Observation: The bees here are really big. We noticed a large bumblebee buzzing around the garden this afternoon and remarked in wonderment on its size. The lizards are also different; large and green. After two large cans of 7% alcohol beer I am also impressed by the enormous pink elephants near the swimming pool. DAY 12 THU ...

... who owned a pott**y shop enthusiastically discussed France´s World Cup rugby campaign with me. He wore an Australian jump** because he admired their play. He didn´t like New Zealand though, claiming they w**e "dirty". That´s a laugh, I thought, coming from a Frenchman. I didn´t mention the Wales vs France game involving a Frenchman's bowling ball grip of a Welshman's eye. In the Estate Agent´s window two chateaux w**e for sale. One, the Chateau de Cazaux D ...