Le Clos Joli Bagnoles-De-L'Orne

... different person to our host at Chablis. Invited to a 'degustation' I decided to mention at the outset that, as travellers, we bought only in small quantities. Undeterred, she kindly insisted that we sampled all five of her products. We left with a reasonably priced red and a half bottle of a special rose. The rose, proudly described as full of fruit was, in fact, rather too sweet to our taste but the red was delicious. 17.08.09 Sarlat-La--Caneda N4 53.747'E1 12.747'

Distance covered: 45 miles

After making a very clear plan to have lunch in Alencon we started what we thought would be a good days cycling. Myself and Alex arrived in this crazy town approximately a mile infront of Olly (because he is slow). You can imagine our concern when Olly did not meet us or try to contact us 2 or 3 hours. There was only one road leading into the town so I decided to go 7 miles back up it to try and find him. I didn't, 5 hours past ...

... In the meanwhile Andre hired some golf clubs and played 9 holes of golf, which he tells me was fun, as the setting was so beautiful but from what I gather, his golf wasn’t quite so great. He blamed the clubs of course!

In the evening we were the guests of the chef and had our dinner in the kitchen as we watched the comings and goings of the chefs and waiters etc. It was fascinating to watch how the kitchen worked in total silence. A waiter would come in and tell the ...

... those we had seen the day before. The chateau was quite small built and decorated in the French Style of 1630-1640. Outside as we strolled through the gardens we had a real treat. At the chateau are about 70 hounds used for hunting. Half of the hounds were being taken for a walk by their handlers. Being dog people, we just stood and watched as they came towards us and stopped to sniff at the trees next to us. Of course if one dog decides to leave their ...

... otherwise! In France > it is illegal to hitch on the actual motorway so we alternated > between the slip road and asking inside at the service station, but > sadly there were no takers. Finally around lunchtime the rain > stopped, but our luck didn't pick up. We read on the Internet that > someone managed to get a lift with Ewan McGreggor filming Black Hawk > Down, so if anyone knows of any film crews in the area, please send > them our way now!

... no. My first evening I walk past the Cathedral and it was wonderful to see at night. The way the stone has been carved it looks like lacework, so light and delicate, yet it's a massive building, the largest Gothic Cathedral in France (I find out later it is generally considered the Gothic church most beautiful and pure in form). Much of the city was destoyed in WW2 but fortunately the Cathedral and the area nearby escaped serious damage. The small central core of the city is ...

... check out pics of Sam and Leo acting like statues ... very cute little friends), I joke with the Huets that the next time they choose a day for a picnic they should really make sure the weather is nicer. : ) ... They all take turns teasing me for my horrible French. I am definitely the 'ignorant American' in our group. The French language absolutely eludes my comprehension. I just don't get it. My tongue doesn't get it. My brain doesn't get it ...

Wow what a day. My advice to Kristy before she left (and now to any other traveler) was "may you get lost and find something truly amazing" and it actually hapened to me today? As i stated in yesterdays post our goal today was Vimy Ridge. We got up at 730 to make sure we were able to find a bus to take us there.We ate, dressed and was out of the hostel by 915....very unusual for us; We went to the bus station and were told to go to another ...

... tomb, visited St. Sulpice (which gained fame from being in the Da Vinci Code) they had a sign refuting the stuff that Dan Brown said about the history of the church...it was kinda funny. The church itself was really nice. I ended up walking for around 6 hours so when i got back to the hostel I was ready for bed. The next day (Wednesday) Zoe and I went to the Paris catacombs Kirsty unfortunatly had to go camera ...

Staying with Aly in the beautiful and peaceful city of Caen. Leaving tomorrow for Spain, I cannot wait for sun any longer. I've decided to skip Madrid for now as Paris has worn me out for big cities for awhile. I will head directly for the very most southern parts.