If we hadn’t taken a roundabout scenic tour, we would never have stopped at a little “aire” (parking area accessed from the autoroute) to obtain these photos.
Leaving the aire
I love the way the signs in France have a big red line across them to indicate you are leaving an area.
La cite de Carcassonne at night
This post features photos taken by my husband, with my Olympus DSLR that he gave me for my birthday a few years ago. Although it takes brilliant photos, I tend to stick with my little Canon, due to its more portable size and ease of use.
A medieval mecca for tourists
Sometimes tourist areas are not the best places to dine, but this was delightful. The goat’s cheese salad seemed to comprise the cheese fried in a crepe triangle atop a lovely green salad, a wonderful starter. Cassoulet is a specialty of the region, with slow-cooked pork, duck and sausage and haricot beans. Think French-style baked beans!
Avoiding tourists appearing in our photos is a game we play. As we had arrived in the afternoon, the place was brimming with visitors, but the crowd had died down somewhat after dinner. Then the lights shone on the battlements to create an awe-inspiring atmosphere.
Bright and early the next morning we were back again, but by missing the tourists, we hadn’t thought about delivery trucks and people on their way to work at the many shops in the old city. As you can see, we managed to achieve the goal of the game.
Carcassonne early in the morning
And finally, the street that had been bursting with tourists had a greater sense of history in the morning in its stillness.
Our main plan had been to head down to Carcassonne, but we were glad to have seen Sarlat as well.
The old walled city of Carcassonne, covering an area of eleven hectares, is reminiscent of Le Mont St Michel up north. Popular amongst tourists, it presents a challenge to take photos containing only the architecture.
These photos were taken with a Canon IXUS 135 camera by yours truly.
The subject matter certainly helps take a good shot 🙂
On the continuation of the road trip towards southern France, we decided to check out Toulouse, but really, if you are going to try to discover a city, a couple of hours is not nearly enough time.
Parking was an absolute nightmare. We drove into a multi-level parking area which indicated a large number of available spaces, only to find cars taking up more than one space each. Unless you drove one of those tiny smart cars, there was no hope. I was annoyed because we had already taken a ticket and thought we would be stung for parking, but perhaps the authorities realise the difficulties and since we exited within five or so minutes, we were not charged.
crazy parking in Toulouse
a better choice of parking
Try this parking area rather than Victor Hugo in Toulouse
We had much better luck at a newer carpark, from where we went to find something to eat. I was in major need of a toilet stop by this stage, after driving around Toulouse for so long and not really seeing anything, so we ate at Quick, one of a chain of hamburger stores. Oh well, it was food, but not highly recommended by moi. Fast food may be fast, but it never seems to satisfy. C’est la vie.
Quick lunch in Toulouse
In retrospect, we hadn’t done any homework or research on the area. For example, what is Toulouse famous for? Probably a cathedral or two; perhaps being one of the larger cities in France. We were unprepared, and if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.
Unfortunately when it has taken so long to get into a place, and so long to park, for such a little time, it puts you off somewhat, but as I said in the title, we had nothing Toulouse except time.
Last time we were in Argenton-sur-Creuse, in 2010, we took a road trip up to Le Mont St Michel in Normandy, a medieval town virtually atop a little island. Google it to have a look. Is this a case of history repeating itself? Perhaps, but you have to expect medieval architecture scattered across France, which is part of the charm of travelling all the way to Europe. Australia’s architecture is less than 250 years old, so even our old buildings are relatively new.
It all started off innocently enough. “Let’s drive up to Chateauroux.”
in Chateauroux
Great idea, but it became fraught with a triple whammy of complications:
1. Driving a different car for the first time (minor adjustment)
2. Driving on the wrong side of the road (major adjustment – as Australians use the left side, since we are one of England’s colonies)
3. Using our brand-new Tom Tom navigational system, which we had barely tried out in Melbourne, and suddenly we are supposed to know how to use it here. Fortunately the lady in the machine giving us directions kept her calm. At least that made one of us.
We can laugh now, but a couple of days ago it wasn’t nearly as funny. Dutchy has mastered the art of reversing. Taking wrong turns here is fairly easy, until you become accustomed to the way the signage operates. The arrows seem to point in a vaguely different direction to what you expect.
Before we even got onto the A20 to head up to Chateauroux the mood in the car became quite stony: his because he was not happy about turning the wrong way and having to reverse, and me, because of course I felt like I was unfairly getting all the blame. There and then I decided perhaps we shouldn’t be going on road trips together, when we had been having such a lovely time taking walks around Argenton, with no arguments. Trust a trip in the car to fuel a fight, or at least a stony silence.
However, we managed to get to Chateauroux safely, and even managed to find some free parking, due to the seasonal holiday of many businesses in France.
Dutchy with the car
free parking this month
parking pay area
Coffee and cake, some retail therapy for me, with him tagging along helped alleviate the tension, and then a nice lunch at Patapain made the day improve further. I know which segment he preferred! We even broke our one-cake-per-day rule since it was our Big Day Out in Chateauroux, which is actually less than a half-hour drive from Argenton. It served as a good trial run to get to the station to pick up our Canadian friends in a couple of weeks.
Sandi at Patapain
tartelette aux fraises
Because the TomTom’s battery was running low, we had to find an auto shop to get a cigarette lighter connection, which he admits he didn’t bring to France. This was just outside Chateauroux near Brico Depot, a large hardware place similar to Bunnings, a home improvement DIY business. It took us a while to figure out they don’t seem to have actual driveways moulded into the kerb and channels. Rather, you just drive up over the shallow kerb, making it easy to miss the entrance to the place you want to go because there isn’t one. We managed to buy a cigarette lighter adapter, only to find that the cigarette socket in the car didn’t work when we plugged it in. Ah the joys of travel.
The old and the new in Chateauroux
restaurant du theatre
the boots I nearly bought
Around Argenton-sur-Creuse there are lots of lovely pots of flowers, whether they are lining the bridges that span the River Creuse, or decorating the footpaths outside the houses along the narrow streets.
Being a medieval town, most houses are constructed from stone, and the house we are in is over 150 years old. Renovated by my sister and brother-in-law, it provides all the comforts of home, and having no garden means less maintenance. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t appreciate the flowers elsewhere.
Flowers along the Creuse
pretty potted garden
a mass of flowers
As part of our relaxation process during the three weeks prior to our planned Paris apartment expedition with two other couples, we decided to enjoy a few home-cooked meals since we have a lovely kitchen to work in. When I say work, the meals aren’t exactly labour-intensive, when you consider preparing some salad and cooking a couple of pieces of Atlantic Salmon or pork chops!
And yet how delicious these relatively simple meals proved to be. Was it the wine we enjoyed with them, the fact that we are on holidays? Either way, the flavours seemed to leap out at us with their freshness. Perhaps the long, long flight we endured with its less-than-appealing aeroplane food, added to this.
Our first dinner consisted of salmon and a simple salad, accompanied by an inexpensive vin petillant (sparkling wine).
Frequenting the local patisseries is a pleasant pastime, although we are limiting ourselves to one each per day, which we divide in half so that we can actually taste two.
The St. Honoré, similar to the Réligieuse, but larger, consisting of choux pastry filled with your choice of chocolate or coffee mousse, was delicious, as was the Milles Feuilles, literally meaning a thousand leaves, which describes the layers of light flaky pastry interwoven with magnificent thick and creamy custard, a far cry from the Australian Vanilla Slice, sometimes irreverently referred to as a snot block.
Why would we waste time actually cooking dessert when you can buy these pieces of heaven?
Although our last port of call was officially Port Chalmers, there was still a little more to come, or a lot if you’re talking about scenery, with scenic cruising through the Fiordlands, the main attraction being Milford Sound.
Below are photos from both last year, 2013, and this year.
Dutchy enjoys the sunrise from our balcony.
This was one day it really made the balcony worthwhile.
Ordering a little room service made the view even more enjoyable.
The sky was a beautiful blue this year, unlike last year’s overcast weather. Last year we were on deck because we had an interior stateroom.
The five and six metre swells later that day created a wave effect in the swimming pool.
All too soon it meant we were on our way home, but there was still more fun to be had.
Gateway to Dunedin, which is situated 12 kilometres away, lies Port Chalmers. On both visits here we have opted not to go further afield to visit the Scottish-influenced town.
You can often get some good photos from the deck of the cruise ship. In 2013 the Dawn Princess was berthed next to the Diamond Princess, while this year we seemed to be stalked by a Silverseas smaller ship named Silver Whisper.
Some good views were found on our initial walk last year up to Lady Thorn Dell.
This year Dutchy stayed onboard, except to go to the free Wi-fi tent provided by Port Otago. Many ports, especially the smaller ones, seem to offer this service, perhaps to encourage you to go onshore, and then maybe support the local economy?
It left me free to explore the shops by myself. I met Dawn, who runs Aurora, a shop that sells cloches designed and made by Dawn herself, plus restored furniture, another skill she has. I had a lot of fun trying on her hats, and was sorely tempted to purchase one. They are not cheap, at $85, but when you consider they are original works of art and certainly not mass-produced, the figure is not unreasonable.
I was lucky enough to find a book of sheet music with 120 Superhits from the 50’s 60’s and 70’s from a second-hand bookshop. Then I went into a vintage clothes shop, and the lady there took a shine to my sheet music book and we ended up singing Stormy Weather together, much to the amusement and entertainment of the other customers. My other souvenir from Port Chalmers is a vintage skirt that reminds me a little of a couple of teatowels stylishly held together.
When I returned to the ship a lot of people had finished utilising the free Wi-fi, so I was able to get a seat and do some serious blogging before the Dunedin shoppers arrived back on their shuttle, all wanting to use the internet. Good timing on my part!
Travels with Princess&Quiquinou 