Our First Week in the South of France
Trip Start
Jul 27, 2007
1
14
31
Trip End
Oct 22, 2007
Montagnac,
France
Friday, September 7, 2007
Due to Kris and Darryl getting in late and having little sleep under their belts our first day (Monday) in the apartment was a pretty quiet one but did include a trip to the local supermarket to gather supplies. The rest of the day was used to check out our new surroundings. Around dinner time we made our first trip in search for the coast and a beach to swim at. We found a nice stretch of beach starting just south of the coastal town of Sete. Two things that I noticed about the water when I dived in was firstly how cold it was for summer and also how salty the water was, neither of these deterred me from swimming for a while. We finished the day by a quiet meal at home.
Tuesday we used to organise a tour of one of the local vineyards and then headed off looking for another beach. Now the day before I assumed it was cold due to being after 6pm when we dived in but today even at noon it was quite refreshing when dived in. After we dried off we decided to hit the mini golf circuit. Now for those who don't know all actual golf logic and the basic laws of physics are worth nothing when it comes to mini golf. This rubbed both Ken and Eileen out of the competion. After some absolutely woeful putting Darryl ended up beating yours truly by a single stroke (but Ken had had a few to drink before adding the scores) and my prize for second was a half a stubby of beer (the other half was lost on the kitchen floor when it fell out of the fridge).
The next day (Wednesday) we had been planned for a week as the day we went canoeing down the river Tarn. The canoeing was done in the gorges d'Tarn which was a 2 hour drive north of our base. On our way there we went through the town of Millau which had a massive bridge just out town so the tollway could span right across the valley. I believe it to be the piece of road I saw an article about a highway above the clouds and some of the postcards we saw confirmed this. Once we climbed into the mountains towards the gorges we were heading towards a small town called St. Enimie where we would start from. We ended up pulling up a town and found a canoe company there. Seeing we were an odd number the 3 couples got 2 person canoes and yours truly got a single person kayak. We also got large barrels that strapped to the kayak that were air tight so anything we wanted to keep dry went in them. Where the barrel sat on the kayak made a good backrest for me. Once were all kitted out we pulled the crafts on the water and headed on our way. The trip was 8km long and we had 4 hours to do it so not record pace had to set. There were also a few spots were the water was running in mini rapids which gave us a little fun. One of these mini rapids got the better of Ken and Eileen and they ended up wedged across the water flow. There positions wasn't helped by Kris and Daryl slamming into them a wedging against the rocks and branches in the water more. All in all everyone fully enjoyed the day and has to go down as one of the highlights of the trip so far. Many good pictures (and occasional video) were taken with many over them showing how clear the water was. After our late lunch we decided to take a "road less travelled" route back home. Simon and I picked series of roads off the map that would get us back to Montagnac. What the map didn't show was all the hills and valleys we would have to cross. So our hour long detour ended up taking 3 hours but we got to see a lot more of the countryside (whether we liked it or not). As we got close to Montagnac we decided tocheck our the next town ove Pezenas for dinner. It is set up much better for the tourists with a wide range of places to both eat and shop. We eventually got home fairly late and everyone was in bed quickly.
After our big day in the canoes and kayak we decided to have a quiet rest day around Montagnac for Thursday.
After his big win in the mini golf earlier in the week Darryl decided to try his luck on the proper course on Friday so Darryl, Simon, Ken and I decided to drive to the nearby city of Beziers to get a game on their only course in town. After hiring clubs (that were too short for me), buying the cheapest balls and paying our course fees we right to play (for 70 euros each). We battled our way through 18 holes (we stopped for a pint a half way) of a course that wasn't really anything special but got home without losing too many balls. The play of the day went to Simon on the 15th getting confused and hitting a perfect second shot on to the green of the wrong hole.
On Saturday we decided to leave our base behind in Montagnac for the weekend and head south into the pyreneses mountains and the spanish border. We trekked south until Perpignan and the turned west in to the mountains. The destination we decided upon was the tiny principality of Andorra which sits right between France and Spain. The road to Andorra was quite scenic and in a few spots pretty dicey (I`d hate to drive it in winter or in high winds). We travelled past several ski resorts as we crossed the border and plenty of hotel and ski chalets built in impossible positions on the sides of mountains. We decided to stay in the main city of Andorra de Villa for the night which turned out to be a bustling little city squashed into valley (much to our surprise). We didn't know but it was a public holiday so nothing was open except for few a resturants. We found a busy place that did Tapas and pizza and we had quite the feast. After dinner we went for a walk around town as the place was very well lit up and then back to the bar at our hotel for a beer whilst watching france and italy in the soccer.
The following morning we had a nice breakfast and then headed for a walk around town till noon. We decided instead of driving back the way we came to push on through to Spain before looping around back into France. We stopped along the coast for another swim in the Mediterran this time the water was abit warm. For dinner we stopped at a ship that is parked on foreshore with lower levels converted into a casino and a resturant on the upper level where we ate. We felt a little underdressed as there was big party going on across the room where most of the people were formally dressed and then we are dressed like we had come straight off the beach (which we had). After dinner we continued back to Montagnac where everyone headed off to bed quickly after such a long day.
