Pain Adour et Fantaisie Grenade-sur-l'Adour

... the ruins at Delphi - for a sense of the sheer reach of human history; the museum at Athens, with the see-through floor revealing something of those times.
Lows: all of Albania really - the sheer poverty of our near-neighbours. And, not to be too trivial, but the weather in Greece: hard to take the grey skies... especially when so sunny in UK! Having had it as a target since way back, it did tarnish the dream somewhat!!
And so life goes....on.

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.

... of the famous musketeer D'Artagnan (there’s a statue in his honour in a town called Auch.)

If you do drive through these areas of Gascony you will most definitely be stunned by the sheer beauty of the rugged terrain. It's basically miles of vineyards, dotted with ancient, forgotten châteaux. One of the most untouched areas of France and truly picturesque.

All is local here and if there are tourists, they're French.

Happy travels

... 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 ...

... sense du dictons fort comme un tauraux cest fou quel point il sont fort. ils saingnent comme des malades et il sont capable de se battre contre tout les picadors et leur bande.il y avait 6 tauraux donc on a eu un spectacle de 2h30... jai bien aimer mais je trouve pas ca correct mentalement. a vous de juger avec les photos!!!

... train je peux vous le dire lol. donc apres un petit 25hr de train je suis arriver a mon auberge de jeunesse, ou jai pu rencontrer mon amis de lisbonne antoine!! il ma donc proposer de venir chez lui pour faire les fetes de mont de marsan mais quil devait demenager sa soeur qui habite a bordeau! why not, je suis aller laider a demenager, on a visiter bordeau rapidement et le soir on est aller prendre une beer dans un bar qui avait 250 beer et ...

I am finishing up my time spent as a "helpxer" with my wonderful host family here in southern France. The Lewer family have been incredibly kind, generous and welcoming. The family consists of Simon, Frauke and their two daughters, Becky (13) and Annie Rose (11). They describe themselves as "artsy and musical". The family home is very large and is divided into two halves. Frauke's parents, Fritz and Hildegard, live in the other ...

... 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!

I made it out of Paris with Al and Kate but not before seeing an African albino in a Monoprix shopping centre. He looked a bit like Harpo but with a bigger nose. Weird but cool. The three of us took a speedy train to Bordeaux which only took 3 hours. We downed a few bottles of low-alcohol cider and munched on lollies, arriving on a sugar high. The rush was required in order for me to carry my 3 tonne bag from the station to Al's share house without ...

We left paris on the 27 are caught the train to Bordeaux. the hostel was nice, we had a 2 bed dorm! the next day in the afternoon we caught the train to St Emilion (well tried to). when the train started to slow down we got ready to leave. When the train stoped a lady standing near the door opened it and told Jaydine to leave - but there were tracks and no platform. She poked her head out and a train came speeding past!!! So they tried opening the other door for us. But then the ...