Friday, October 30, 2009

On the way home!

We have concluded our fantastic holiday with 3 days in Paris which is always a delight. We arrived on Tuesday morning after a very comfortable 3+ hour journey from Montpellier on the TGV, to be met by beautiful fine weather (again), as it remained for the following two days. We left this morning (Friday) at 8.30am and are now on a TGV bound for Zurich where we will board our Emirates flight for home at 2145 tonight.

We spent most of the 3 days in Paris, just wandering, on foot for two days, and then on bicycle yesterday. The bike rental system here is brilliant. They have 20,000 bikes located in hundreds of locations (rental stations) around the city. Each bike is locked into a frame, and can only be removed using an approved ID and password. Providing the bike is returned (and locked in) to another station within 30 minutes there is no hire fee, and you can immediately take another one. Locals can register as approved users for a year at a time, while visitors can register as daily or weekly users. The registration fee is only 1 euro. So yesterday we covered a significant part of the city, both left and right bank for the grand sum of 2 euros.

After some initial reluctance to use a bike, Gaye ended the day by cycling down the Champs Elysees in (almost) peak hour traffic. For those readers who have been to this magnificent city you will understand what an achievement this is. We imagined what it must be like for Cadel Evans to ride down this stunning boulevard at the end of the Tour de France. My personal achievement was to ride the bike around the Arc de Triomphe so I did it. I had previously driven around it a few times, always challenging and exciting, and have wanted to cycle it since. This stunning Paris landmark is in the middle of a large roundabout with about 10-12 lanes of traffic, but none of the lanes are marked, so cars, scooters, buses and trucks (sometimes bicycles!) are all jostling for position so they can exit where planned. The impressive thing is it works and you hardly ever hear a car horn sounded in anger or frustration, very different from other parts of the city.

We did originally have plans to revisit the Musee D’Orsay which we haven’t seen since 1994, and to climb the Eiffel Tower which we have never done, despite always visiting it when here. Neither eventuated unfortunately, both because of the volumes of tourists wanting to do the same. At the Musee we reluctantly joined a fairly long queue and had negotiated about half of it when we heard an announcement of a technical problem requiring immediate evacuation of the building. That was it, we were off to the Eiffel Tower. Well that was much worse (people wise) with what we estimated as a couple of thousand people in various queues waiting to get in lifts or onto staircases. It will have to wait until next time. We were very surprised to see the number of tourists here as we expected it to be relatively quiet given the time of the year. We later found out that we were caught up in mid term school holidays so the place was busier than we have experienced before, but not to an unpleasant level as it must be in July-August.

As usual the whole Paris experience was memorable (especially for Gaye), just being there rubbing shoulders with the locals is enough. We had some good food experiences, and as usual no good coffee experiences . We also met some interesting people including an American couple who we shared a table with at dinner last night. He is a “yachty” from a long way back, and now they manage five huge houses in the Bahamas for several multi millionaires, some billionaires including one who is no. 65 of the Forbes Rich List, and their various yachts and launches. Interesting life for some! They were really good company. A significant part of the travelling experience for us has always been the many interesting people you meet along the way, some locals and some fellow travellers. We have met many Aussies this time, mostly from Melbourne it seems.

12 hours later……….We are now at Zurich airport waiting to check in. We arrived in Zurich about 1pm after a very fast and comfortable journey on the TGV, although the overcast and at times foggy weather spoilt the views out the window somewhat. We spent the afternoon having lunch and then wandering around the main parts of the city in cold and overcast conditions. Zurich is a very attractive and stylish city (I guess as to be expected of the Swiss), and would be quite stunning to look at if we had a day like yesterday in Paris.

So our journey is almost at an end. We have had a superb time, full of great experiences and very very few negative ones. We finally clocked up 9000 kms in our Peugeot (in 41 days) so we obviously covered a significant part of southern France.
Now we can look forward to our family, particularly Anika who has become 50% older since we left, and is apparently close to walking. We missed the start of the rolling and crawling stages so are determined not to miss seeing her walk for the first time. We will also be celebrating Nic and Tims announcement last week that they are getting married next May – very exciting for us.

We hope you may have gained some entertainment from our blog – we know that some have read it. If nothing else it will be a great memory jogger for us in years to come.

Au Revoir friends all!

Ron & Gaye

Monday, October 26, 2009

La House - our lifeline to the world

I think we have previously mentioned the cafe down the street owned and run by a Moroccan Swedish guy called Samir. This great little place quickly became our home away from home in Lodeve because of Samir's great personality, his generosity and hospitality and his delicious Tagine cooked food. He also provides free WiFi so La House was our contact point with the world outside of Lodeve.

Samir is a very interesting and likeable character. His family were political refugees from Morocco who settled in Stockholm, Sweden almost 30 years ago. He spent the first 15 years of his life in Morocco and the second 15 in Sweden. He is now just over 40 and identifies more as a Swede than a Moroccan. His parents and his 2 sisters have since moved back to Morocco, obviously no longer under threat. Samir is living in France to be nearer too his parents in case he is needed, but does not want to move back himself.

Samir playing with his much-loved "house" music
La House is very different than any other cafe or bar in Lodeve, which has added a much needed element to the hospitality scene in the town. We have got to know Samir well, and have tried to talk him into coming to Fremantle to open a bar/cafe with a Moroccan/Spanish theme. We reckon he would be a real hit in our town, and it is clear that he would like to come over. Let's see what happens. Interestingly he was all set to come to Perth a few years ago to study at Curtin but family matters intervened.

I had a great afternoon there yesterday, after dropping in on him as he was about to close the doors for the day. Of course he welcomed me in (as he always does). Gaye had decided to stay home and pack for our departure this morning, and she had foolishly said "stay as long as you like". Another new friend, Mimi Caruth- a young Irish woman who is in Lodeve studying French (language) and Buddhism. was there as well, hard at work on her laptop. I think I have mentioned previously that there is a major Buddhist Temple in the mountains just outside Lodeve, which attracts people from all over the planet. Anyway we opened beers all round, and I set up my laptop to do some email and blogging. Before I even got started Mimi and I got involved in a philosophical discussion, centred around Buddhism of course, that we continued for about 2 hours (and several beers). Samir tucked himself away in a corner with his house music to play with, until a couple of his local friends dropped in as well. Eventually, about 7pm (4 hours later) I managed to escape after only half completing my intended correspondence. A really pleasant end to our time in Lodeve.

This is Mimi


Au Revoir Lodeve (for now). We have had a wonderful holiday here, and have got to know the town so much better, and of course met a lot more people than on our last visit. It is starting to feel like a second home......and we WILL be back.
We are heading into Montpellier soon, where we will stay the night and then catch an early TVG train for Paris. Three nights in Paris, then a train to Zurich to board our Emirates flight home on Friday night. Back to work on Monday next week. Perhaps one more post to this blog from Paris.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Agde - on the Mediterranean port

On Tuesday this week we went down to the Mediterranean coast a bit, in dodgy weather, to Agde which is less than an hours drive from Lodeve. It had started to rain in Lodeve and the forecast for the whole area was for 2-3 days continual rain. But when we got to Agde we were surprised to find it fine – very windy and quite threatening but it did not rain at all in the several hours we were there. Another example of the amazing luck we always have with weather when travelling (pity the luck doesn’t extend to the things financial!). The wind referred to is well illustrated in the following images taken at Cap D’Agde which is the more recently settled seaside (and resort ) settlement.

Agde is now very much a holiday destination, and in some of the more recently developed parts is a bit too reminiscent of the Gold Coast (but without the extreme high-rise buildings). As a resort it is apparently very popular with people who like to take their clothes off – it hosts the largest nudist resort in Europe. It is a very ancient, dating back to 550BC (or thereabouts) when it was first settled by the Phoenicians, and later became a major trading port for the Romans. The two millenniums since have seen the whole area silt up so that the original town of Agde is now 15kms inland.

Albi

Since we dropped B+J off in Montpellier last Saturday, from where they were catching a TGV to Paris, we have had three really interesting, and not too taxing days, visiting places we had not previously seen. On Sunday, after a leisurely start to an again stunning day (weather-wise) we headed for Albi which I thought was an hour or so NW of Lodeve. It turned out to be closer to 2 hours but that did not matter one little bit, as the drive was beautiful; though the region famous for Roquefort cheese.

Before we reached Albi we took a detour to a place called Ambialet, because we saw a sign depicting the village that looked interesting. This is something we do a lot, and always have when driving in France. Many of our favourite destinations are not mentioned in the popular guidebooks, but have been discovered by us in this way. In our mind it is essential to have a car in southern France, otherwise so much that is special would be practically inaccessible.
Ambialet is a very pretty little village, situated on an oxbow of the Tarn river. The centre of the town is located on a narrow spit of land, 25 metres across, at the narrowest point of the oxbow . This can be seen in one of the images below.

After a picnic morning tea by the river in Ambialet, we set off again for Albi, driving mostly along the course of the river. We were pleasantly surprised by Albi. It is a medium sized city of nearly 50,000 people, and is built on the Tarn river. Unlike most other towns and villages in Southern France the dominant building material is red brick (see images below). The bricks are only about one third of the thickness of a common Australian house-brick. This gives the town a relatively unique appearance as far as France goes.

Apart from the general appearance of the town (and its superb bridges over the Tarn), the highlights of our brief visit were the quite amazing baroque Cathedral of Ste-Cecile in the middle of the old town, the museum in the Palace de la Berbie dedicated to Toulouse Lautrec (a famous son of Albi), and the Lapeyrouse museum. For those familiar with Sydney, and Botany Bay in particular, you would recognize the name La Perouse (as it is used in Sydney). Lapeyrouse, another famous son of Albi, was three quarters of the way through an amazing voyage of discovery that would have challenged anything Captain Cook did, when his two ships (and all on board) were lost in the New Hebrides in 1788 (date sound familiar?). His last landfall was at Botany Bay at the location that now bears his name. The square outside of the museum in Albi is named Botany Bay, and there is a significant amount of reference to “New Holland” in the museum.











Brian & Jans visit

Apologies for lack of photos on this post. My camera was (for a while) refusing to talk to my computer so I lost a couple of hundred images.

A week ago we said goodbye to my cousin Brian and his wife Jan, who had spent 5 fun days with us. Again we packed quite a lot in but did not move at quite the same pace as we had with our previous visitors. Brian & Jan were content to stop and smell the flowers a bit more, and both have done a lot of travelling in the past, so perhaps the excitement was not quite at the same level.

Again we took them to some of our favourite haunts, but also discovered one or two more. We were also a bit more physical during this time, probably because Brian & Jan are some years younger than us (in fact Jan celebrated her 50th birthday while here), and are also both quite fit. The highlights for us were an 8km paddle down the Tarn river (in 2 person canoes), and a challenging two hour trek over part of the (pilgrim trail) out of the beautiful village of St Guilhem l’Desert. The canoe trip was especially rewarding, through the “oh so stunning” Gorges du Tarn that I have mentioned repeatedly. I am sure we will always bring visitors here if nowhere else in the south of France. We would have liked to do a longer journey but were talked out of it by the “hirers” who said it would be very cold by the time we finished (around 4pm) - and weren’t they right! I was foolish enough to paddle in shorts and bare feet, and by the time we finished my feet were totally numb from the cold. Now I have some appreciation of how mountain climbers must feel. It took almost an hour to get full feeling back. The others all had joggers (and long pants) on so were spared the grief.

On the subject of Jan’s birthday celebrations – she did not know until 2 days before they left Canberra that Brian was bringing her to France (and primarily Paris) as a birthday gift. He had been planning and organizing it for 8 months and had somehow kept it a total secret. On the night we had dinner at a Michelin starred restaurant in a nearby town that had been strongly recommended to us. It is in fact the first Michelin recognised restaurant we have been to in five visits to this country. The young chef (26 yrs old) is the son of our friend Michel Canac’s medical associate (the partner in his practice), and has received his first M* less than 12 months after opening. It was superb, in classical French style, in every respect and not overly expensive (much to our surprise). We will have no hesitation in returning there next time we are in Lodeve (hopefully 2011).

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Goodbye to Garry and Jan

Today (Wed 7/10) we said goodbye to my brother Garry, and his wife Jan, in Montpellier where they were catching a TGV (the very fast train) up to Paris and then home. They have just spent 6 days with us at the end of their first trip to Europe. They have had a fantastic adventure and I am sure will have caught the “travel bug” that Gaye and I have had for so long.
We had an action-packed few days with them. As the official driver, and unofficial guide, I was determined to show them as much as practically possible in the time of this amazing region, that we have grown to love so much.

A number of the places we visited were on our list of favourites, but we did have a few new experiences like the “Train Jeune” (Yelllow Train) which is an old train that travels a spectacular 45 km route through the Pyranees, on the French-Spanish border. Although it is a 2.5 hour drive, mostly on motorways, to connect with the train, it is well worth it.

After our experiences in showing Denis & Kit, and Garry & Jan around, we have come up with the crazy notion of hosting small groups (8-10) from Oz, giving them a highly personalized 14 day tour of Languedoc (our region), Provence and the Perigord-Dordogne. We believe that with a small group like this, able to travel in a small bus, our now quite extensive local knowledge of these regions would allow us to provide a far better experience than a more traditional tour operator could. Food for thought….and we are thinking about it. Perhaps the first tour in April 2011, who knows?

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Lodeve - our town - our apartment



We thought we should publish this short video clip to give you an idea of what our apartment in Lodeve looks like. Deb (our friend from Bize) has just spent a couple of days with us, and took this on her faithful little Canon digital.

For those of you familiar with Lodeve I will also post a few images of our rivers in flood which you may not have seen before. Last week we had 3 days of almost constant (and at times very heavy) rain after 5 months without any. The impact on the 2 rivers that encircle Lodeve was immediate and dramatic.


And I will finish this off with an shot of Lodeve from one of the surrounding hills.



Just a reminder that our apartment is available for short term rentals if you are thinking about visiting this beautiful part of the world.















Friday, October 9, 2009

Provence

This post is well overdue but is worth the effort

It is about 9.20pm on Tuesday evening (22/9), we have just finished a delightful meal of poached salmon (etc) accompanied by a more than acceptable bottle of Brut Rose (a bubbly from Burgundy) from Leonce Bocquet (sounds like we should have paid much more than 5 euros at the supermarket but then this is France). We arrived home in Lodeve just 2 hours ago from a delightful couple of days full of unexpected surprises.

We set out very early yesterday (well early for us – 6.30am) with the objective of getting our travelling companions (Denis & Kit Cherry) to Nice by late afternoon where they will be catching a plane to Italy on Wednesday. We started well, getting away on time, but it quickly went pear-shaped when I missed a road-sign that I should never miss, which meant that we were well on the way to Barcelona (to the south when we should have been going east then north), before I realized my stuff-up. And then the “back-track option” I chose was also less than ideal meaning that by the time we had negotiated Montpellier (a challenge at any time) we or should I say I, had blown at least an hour of our valuable time, and we were well and truly involved in the early rush hour.

We had decided that we wanted to go via Moustiers-Sainte-Marie, quite a diversion from the fastest route to Nice, but we really wanted to share Moustiers with Den & Kit. It remains our favourite village in France after we stopped there in 2005, just for lunch, at the recommendation of the guide book Gaye was reading at the time, but as it eventuated stayed for 2 nights. Moustiers is very special – it is classified “Un des Plus Beaux Village de France” which means it’s special qualities are officially recognized, and which of course means it attracts a lot of tourists (oh well!).

A view of Moustiers

Anyway we arrived at Moustiers in time for lunch, even if a bit later than planned, after an interesting, and often very beautiful drive of about 5.5 hours duration. In this part of France an average of 50-60 kms per hour is normal for those who like to avoid the motorways as much as possible – which we definitely do. Gaye had her heart set on a special table at a special restaurant – “Les Trielles Muscate” which is where we had lunch back in 2005, and we managed to achieve her goal. The restaurant is superbly located in the middle of Moustiers, perched on the edge of the small gorge that bisects the village, and is highly rated by travel writers. We enjoyed a superb three-course lunch with a bottle of local rose (nicely chilled), and then after an hour of exploring the village we set off for Nice which should have been just 2 hours away. Some less than average navigation (won’t mention the navigator) meant that it was nearly 3 hours before we set our passengers down (and said goodbye to our travelling companions of the last 3 weeks), in the middle of Nice.

Gayes favourite restaurant

Over lunch I had suggested to Gaye that instead of driving all the way back to Lodeve as planned (3.5 – 4 hours) we should return to Moustiers and spend a night there in the same delightful Chambres d’Hote (B&B) that we had discovered in 2005. We managed to secure a room but not the one we had last time – this one, on the second floor was even nicer. The plan was that we would return to Moustiers via Castellane (another beautiful village where we had stayed in 2005) and the magnificent Grand Canyon du Verdon (which we had only partially explored in 2005), using the quickest route possible between Nice and Castellane. Gaye’s navigation however sent us on an entirely different, and much more circuitous route that threatened to really challenge our schedule. At first, after realizing the mistake, I was less than impressed, but that quickly changed as we were confronted by the truly magnificent spectacle of the Defile du Chaudan (the gorges of the River Var which empties into the Mediterranean near Nice), a drive that cannot be adequately described in words or in man-made photographs – simply STUNNING. The next 3.5 hours were as good a driving experience as we have ever had in France or anywhere else. The last section, through the Grand Canyon du Verdon, of 45 kilometres between Castellane and Moustiers, was done in fading and finally disappearing light. Rather than this be a disappointment, it presented the magnificent gorge in an entirely different light that was quite magical.

A few images from our drive back to Moustiers from Nice follow:

After a quiet and restful night in Moustiers, and a classic French breakfast brought to our room by the Madame de la Chambre d’Hote, we set off for Lodeve by mid morning having planned a route that was almost entirely new to us. We drove through the Luberon region of Provence (made famous by Peter Mayle in his books on an expatriate Pom’s life in Provence), full of contrasting but always delightful landscapes.
We stopped in several small villages along the way, the highlights being Saignon (where the Australian author Henrietta Taylor has made her home – we rang her and had a little chat while we sipped a coffee next to one of her houses), Rousillon and Gordes. All of these villages are rated as “Un des Plus Beaux Villages de France”, and as far as we are concerned thoroughly deserve the title.
Gordes in particular, where we stopped for lunch, is superb, and now rivals Moustiers in our personal ratings. We must go back there with more time to explore and experience. A few images taken of and in Gordes follow:
Once we left Gordes, the rest of the journey was less spectacular bit still contained many highlights including the longest avenue of trees we have yet seen in France, and that is saying something because France is full of superb avenues of plane trees. This one must have been 5 or 6 kilometres long, just before St Remy de Provence (where Vincent van Gogh spent time in an asylum while living in nearby Arles). Two days, 1050 kilometres and nearly 20 hours of driving after leaving, we arrived back in Lodeve at about 7.30pm. Whew!

A few facts + figures

For those who are numbers oriented, or who have asked questions about the price of things here in France, here are just a few answers.

We have had the car for 30 days as of today (Thursday 8th Oct)
We have driven more than 6800 kms in that time (an average of 230 kms per day).
On the motorways (“A” roads) where the speed limit is mostly 130 we average nearly 120 kms per hour of driving, however we mostly avoid these instead preferring the national (“N”) roads or Departmental (“D”) roads.
On the minor roads we struggle to average 55 kilometres per hour of driving, but we see and experience so much more.
Our car is a Peugeot 308SW diesel from which we get nearly 1000kms per tank of fuel (averaging nearly 20kms per litre.
We have paid between 0.91 and 1.15 euros per litre for diesel or “gazole”. Cheapest fuel is always at supermarkets while the most expensive is in the many roadside stops (“aires”) on the motorways.
Unleaded petrol ranges from 1.14 to about 1.30.

The all important wine purchases are very inexpensive. On average we are paying between 2.50 and 4.50 for a bottle of more than acceptable red or white from most supermarkets.
A decent bottle of champagne can be obtained for as little as 15 euros, while Moet is about 26. Cheap but quaffable Methode de Champenoise can cost as little as 4.50.
Alcohol generally is cheap in the supermarkets e.g. a bottle of gin from 6 euros, Baileys 10-11, Cointreau about 13 etc. A dozen small stubbies of beer (330ml) can cost less than 4 euros.

Most processed food items seem to be marked about the same as in Perth, but of course in euros rather than dollars so are therefore 50-70% dearer. Fruit & veges are cheaper and generally better. Soft drinks seem much more expensive than at home, but we never buy them so I am not sure. Really nice pastries of many kinds cost between about 0.60 and 2 euros.

Cheeses (Fromage) are probably cheaper than at home but it is difficult to do a direct comparison. The choice is mind-boggling. France is reputed to have more than 400 different styles of cheese, and our major supermarket seems to stock most of them.

The food staples are probably a bit cheaper e.g.
1 litre fresh milk 0.90
Bread A large baguette costs between 0.30 and 0.60
A dozen eggs From about 1.50

Accommodation is probably not that much different to Australia (with the notable exception of Paris). A room for two in a good Chambres d’Hote (B&B) will cost from 45-65 euros. Two or three star hotels are in the range 50-75 euros with breakfast extra (usually 7-10 euros each).

Entrance fees to museums and other places of interest are generally cheap by European standards (much cheaper than our previous experiences in the UK). We have paid between 3 and about 9 euros for various places.

Some things are ridiculously cheap but usually for a good (often environmental) reason e.g. as mentioned before we can park our car all day in a parking station at the end of a tram line in Montpellier (medium sized city), and get a return tram ticket for every person in the vehicle into the centre of the city (1/2 hour journey), for only 4 euros. And in Montpellier we can rent a good quality bike for just 1 euro per day.

Music CD's and Movie DVD's are more expensive than at home. CD's cost between 20 and 30 euros, while DVD's look to be in the 20-35 euro range.
Hardware (of the Bunnings kind) seems very expensive e.g. a small pair of pliers will cost 12-15 euros. The cheap Chinese imports do not seem to have made it here.

Hope this helps you appreciate the cost of living in France.

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Spain - San Sebastien

After a very pleasant day and a half in Bilbao we headed back to San Sebastien, a place we have long wanted to visit. The drive back was interesting to say the least. We decided to avoid the motorway on the return journey as time was not an issue, but I underestimated the need for a map. We had actually driven to Spain without a Spanish road map (or a GPS) – not a challenge if you use the motorways and can read the ample signage – but get on the N and D roads, amongst the frequent little villages, and you quickly reminded why maps were invented. We were also thrown of the scent by the names San Sebastien and Donostia being used interchangeably. What our limited reading had not told us is that the Basque name for San Sebastien is Donostia. Once we had worked that out, and circumnavigated many roundabouts multiple times while we assessed the correct exit, we finally made it into SS The next challenge was finding the pension we had booked, which we knew was in the Parte Vieja or “old town” and that it was highly unlikely we could get the car anywhere close. Somehow we did get close (without realizing it), decided to stop and ask directions at a little bookshop, after parking illegally. After a bit of fun with the shop owner, and his customer who both got involved, it turned out we were only 100m from our destination, so my homing instinct had worked again.
The pension, Lonely Planets “authors choice”, was in the oldest building in San Sebastien. It was quaint but certainly no more than 1 star. A tiny bedroom with a bed about 25cm too short for me, so my feet hung out over the end while sleeping, and a shared bathroom. However the mattress was OK, the sheets clean, no-one else was using the bathroom that we did, and it was superbly located, so for just a 2 night stay Lonely Planet did not really let us down.

San Sebastien is stunningly beautiful seaside city of just under 200,000 inhabitants, built around 2 large bays, one with a narrow entrance guarded by a small island, surrounded by mountains and divided roughly in half by a picturesque river, the Rio Urumea. Its 3 famous “playas” or beaches are reminiscent of several Sydney beaches including Bondi. Since the 19th century it has been a favourite summer destination for the Spanish elite, including the royal family we are told. Its character is enhanced by the existence of an active fishing fleet that ties up very close to the old town. Lots of similarities with Fremantle, just more geographically spectacular. In fact on one of our many walks I was waxing lyrical about SS and said to Gaye “I could easily live in a place like this” – she said “you do” - I said “you’re right”….and she was!

SS is also renowned as the culinary capital of Spain, if not Europe, with more Michelin stars per head of population than any other city in the world, and a concentration of tapas bars in the old town greater than any other in Spain, and that is saying something. Needless to say our time in SS was dominated by much walking, with frequent interruptions for pintxos, beer and txacoli (the traditional Basque wine). The tapas here are actually pintxos, the Basque version of tapas, with bread playing a dominant role. Every establishment displays its pintxos on uncovered plates set out along the bar, with typically 20-30 different choices. Usually the customer is given a plate and walks along selecting the pintxos they want, order a drink and then part with their money. The pintxos very in price from about 1.5 – 3.5 euros each, a small beer 2 and a large beer about 3.5. It is actually a very unhygienic process that our over-zealous public health authorities would never allow in Oz.

We believe this fabulous city would appeal to anybody and everybody we know, and have no hesitation in saying “add it to your European itinerary” (and don’t forget Bilbao while you are here).

Some images of San Sebastien for your enjoyment: