Inter Hotel Grand Hotel Saint Pierre Aurillac

We spent the entire afternoon canoeing down the Dordogne. We packed a lunch and found a nice spot along the river to enjoy some wine and cheese. It was so peaceful and beautiful. Every couple of Kilometers was anothe castle overlooking the river. The river was so flat that we could just float along and enjoy the view.

From the cousins house we moved further west to Neils parents house. They have a place in a beautiful old town. It is an old walled vilage on the hilltop overlooking the valley. The village is full of cobblestone streets, windy narrow alleys and cute little homes. We ate great meals, enjoyed excellent wine and spent time with Neils parents. thank you again for hosting us!

We left the west coast and headed inland to look for work. We stopped at Angouleme for lunch which had a spectacular view from the old city. We carried on into the Dordogne, and looking for a campsite came across a municipal site in a little town called Argentat-sur-Dordogne. The weather was stifling hot, which that night brought on 24 hours of massive thunderstorms and then 3 days of rain! The Dordogne was flooding and even Argentat lost electricity one night!

... the shuttle bus back into town for the same euro, and find some other bathroom! Avignon was also, to our amazement, the first place in France we were able to find good coffee. It was at a little hole in the wall on Rue Fourbrisseurs, and was a total locals hangout. On the 19th, we took a cab back to the train station (12 euros - jeez!) and rode the TGV back to Paris. Which I'll write about next time! Happy Trails, everybody!

alright, our first rest day. I apologize to anyone who finds a typo in my writing first of all. the french use a different keyboard layout and i'm not very adjustable apparently. So where to start? so far our trip has been wonderful, and having a day of rest only amplifies our feeling. today, while resting, we've managed to meet with a friar of the local cathedral and monastery dedicated to saint ...

... the cafe au lāit, and the mysterious black eyed cow. So in eight days we have marched almost, or just about 80 miles, or maybe 150 km. its really hard to know for sure though as our English guide book differs from the french guide books most people have, and the trail markers which occasionally tell us how far to Santiago can jump around in their distances. i think we've averaged about 19,5 km a day, and we've walked as far as 27 km on the ...

... Probably more fun to write. Jules offered us a ride. And dispatched one of his rabbit-toothed dogsbodies to take us down the road. He drove us two minutes, then stumbled through a long and awkward farewell-see-you-soon-youve-been-gr**** ****-what-was-your-name-again-sorry? Freedom! Ride with an English teacher (a French one). Quite creepy. Never become a Language teacher. Serious "autostop ...

Misery. Weīre so WET. Chris didnīt sleep. And I barely did. Found a cheap super market and bouhgt a cheap roast chicken to dry our sorrows. A bad move. This over-preserved chickenīs soul will come back to haunt us. Catch about six rides from village to village til we get to ...

... possible lunch, right here on our very first day and from here it would be hard to find better. But we will try. On Wednesday we drove north to Tuscany to meet our old friend Robyn Vulinovich in the little village of Greve in Chianti. Of course you know Tuscany will be beautiful, but even so,it takes your breath away. And arriving into the village of Greve and following Robyn up the winding hills to the wine estate of Villa Branca, we were stunned by it all ...

... a whole bottle of wine just sitting there. Strange. The water was shimmering like a glass mirror. The peaceful silence did help my mood a bit. The trees and architecture here are relaxing and the unbusy-ness was a good slowdown. It was really nice to visit a small town in France but one night was enough for me as there is not a whole lot to do here except eat, drink and avoid the doggie doo doo. Off to Spain tomorrow.