🙂 Champagne! Seafood!
🙁 Car sick (=morning sickness as pregnant with Caitlyn!) 🙂
Itinerary:
Reims – St Malo – La Rochelle & Il de Re – Loire Valley – St Emilion – Grande Dune du Pilat – Donostia San Sebastian – Pamplona – Home
It was the summer holidays so we decided to set off on a roadtrip to France to explore and camp! Our first stop was the Champagne Region: Epernay and Reims. The champagne tasting was fun! Fascinating to see live penicillin in the historic chalk cellars. A really interesting tour.
We camped nearby.
We travelled onwards to St Malo and Mont Saint Michel. We enjoyed delicious seafood.
The next day we had some sun and sea time to relax as well as playing boulle on the beach.
La Rochelle and Il De Ray are simply stunning. La Rochelle is a coastal city in southwestern France and capital of the Charente-Maritime department. It’s been a center for fishing and trade since the 12th century, a maritime tradition that’s reflected in its Vieux Port (old harbor) and huge, modern Les Minimes marina. The old town has half-timbered medieval houses and Renaissance architecture, including passageways covered by 17th-century arches. We enjoyed many more seafood feasts!
Ile de Re was magical… cute fishing village and an array of fresh sea food. It got a bit chilly and the rain came in, so camping with a toddler ceased to be fun, so we opted for a night in lovely accommodation.
After champagne tasting it was time to sample the flavours of the Loire Valley … The Royal fortress of Chinnon is quite an imposing medieval landmark! Joan of Arc met Charles the VII here in 1429 before liberating Orleans.
Next stop was yet more wine tasting in the scenic St Emilion.
Next stop was camping at Grande Dune du Pliat… The dune is so steep that there is actually a ladder to climb it! The surrounding wildflowers were so beautiful.
We then travelled on to Donostia San Sebastian with its magnificent cathedral.
An on to Pamplona where I had travelled to in 1992 for the annual Running of the Bulls! We stayed overnight in rather gloomy and imposing Spanish lodgings with dark heavy wooden doors and furniture. The moustached Spanish Proprietor spoke no English and served us bowls of fish stew complete with eye balls… !! I had an interesting experience … we had been talking about my Granny and I popped into a small Spanish bank – I had the overwhelming smell of Charlie Perfume (worn by my Gran) and ‘Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree’ was playing – her favourite song in a completely Spanish small town!
While we were travelling we received a call to say that we had a cash buyer for our house who wanted to exchange in the next few days … so we unfortunately had to cut our roadtrip short and head home….
