We departed Berlin on a sleeper train bound for Paris, from the Hauptbahnhof, on the evening of Tuesday 8th at about 8pm arriving at Paris Est station at about 9.30am. This time on a German train with a larger couchette, but unfortunately much harder bunk beds. We had to find our way to Charles de Gaulle airport (by metro and regional trains) where our leased Peugeot 308SW was waiting for 
us to collect the keys. Without too much fuss we found the car and were on the road by about 12.30pm that day.
Getting away from CDG airport in any direction but north is quite challenging as all roads lead into Paris, but we managed quite well and took less than an hour to navigate our way out of the rather large tentacles of the city of Paris and point the car in the direction of Normandy, or more specifically Mont St Michel (the second most visited site in France).We ended up driving nearly 400kms this afternoon finally reaching a cute little village called Ducey, after a couple of stops along the way at other delightful villages – there are so many in France it boggles the mind. It is great to be back in France I must say – we feel very comfortable here. We had a choice of two hotels in Ducey, opted for the 2 star (and cheaper one) after inspecting the rooms, and to our delight found they had a 3-4 star restaurant in house. We were given the prime table, right in the middle of a fairly crowded dining room full of very quiet and seemingly boring couples having little if no interaction, so we four Aussies did our best to brighten the place up. This is not an unusual experience in France. If there could be only one word to describe French people it would be CONSERVATIVE. At least that is our impression after several visits to the country. While on the subject of the French, what they are NOT is arrogant, as is the popular perception of many people, particularly the English. In fact on the whole they are very charming while being reserved. For those thinking about visiting France in future we would like to share an important tip with you. Whenever you find yourself interacting with a French person make sure they know you are Australian, and NOT English or American. It makes a huge difference.
The next morning we drove the remaining 20kms to Mont St Michel, making sure we got there well before it opened as everything we have read, and been told, about the place is that it can be overwhelmed with tourists. Mont St Michel is a simply amazing sight to behold, being a medieval abbey perched on what was a small island in a very tidal estuary, but now joined to the mainland by a man-made causeway. The photos herein don’t really do justice to the magnificence of this abbey. We managed to be nearly first in the queue, just in front of a couple of busloads of Japanese tourists, every one of whom had a camera that was in continual use. We have always thought that many Japanese tourists must only see the sights through a camera lens. When we eventually came out of the abbey we counted nearly 20 tour coaches in the car-park, along with hundreds of cars that were not there when we arrived, so the early start was smart.
After leaving Mont St Michel we drove to a nearby resort city called St Malo where we dipped our toes in the Atlantic (for the very first time). Would have enjoyed a swim but didn’t have the gear, and there were too many “conservative” French people around to go skinny-dipping. We weren’t overwhelmed by St Malo, in many ways it reminded us of tacky English seaside towns that we have visited in the past, so we didn’t hang around for long.
We drove for most of the rest of the day having decided we now wanted to get to Lodeve as quickly as possible, preferably in time for the Saturday morning markets. As we headed further south the landscape was steadily changing, becoming more mountainous, greener and generally more spectacular. We stopped for a breather in Nantes, but didn’t really gain a strong impression of a city that the travel guides rate quite highly, and then drove on to an innocuous looking place on the main road, but once we turned off and negotiated the ever narrowing streets into the “Centre Ville” we discovered a pretty little village, like so many built around a small river and with a more than acceptable hotel where we ate, drank and slept the night away. The need to overlook the drab outskirts of French villages and towns, and find the often surprising centre, is so common in this country.
3rd Day in France
We got a reasonably early start today, with the aim of reaching Lodeve by late afternoon (which we duly did). We stayed on a major national (N) road for a couple of hours before diverting on to a minor (or D) road to the amazing sight of Rocamadour, a village spectacularly built on the side of a high rocky outcrop. The photo below tries to do justice to the majesty of this very old village.
After stopping for a while here, enjoying a beer while overlooking Rocamadour and buying our very French style lunch ingredients at a mini supermarket, we were back on the road heading for the valley of the Lot river, which we remembered from 2005 as a stunning landscape. After a slight (and unintended) detour which took us through the town of Cahors which is situated within a large loop of the Lot, we eventually found our way to the road we were looking for.
The drive along the course of the Lot was enjoyed by all, with many beautiful views of the river itself, pretty little villages along the way, and of course the ever present spectacular geological features so prevalent in this region.
Once we left the Lot behind we had a relatively uneventful 3 hour drive to Millau, punctuated from time to time of course by stunning scenery and many little villages and towns. Millau is a regional centre (pop. 22,000) spectacularly situated (no other words can be used) at the bottom of part of the Gorge du Tarn at the confluence of the Tarn and the Dourbie rivers, and overlooked by the now world famous Viaduc de Millau, designed by the much lauded English architect Sir Norman Foster (remember the dome of the Reichstag in Berlin), to allow the A75 motorway to cross the Gorge du Tarn. This magnificent structure spans 2.5kms and is up to 343m above the valley bottom. In its first year of operation (2005) it carried 4.43 million vehicles. It took more than 3 years to build at a cost of more than AU$750 million, and is a true icon of modern design and engineering. Once we had crossed this superb bridge we were only 60kms from Lodeve. This section of the A75 (i.e. Millau to Lodeve) is quite superb, as it wends its way down the southern edge of the Larzac plateau, falling 500 or 600m and negotiating a long tunnel.
We drove into Lodeve about 7pm that night. It was good to be “home”! As we all wearily extracted ourselves from the car right outside of the apartment, a dark haired and well dressed Frenchman walked past, that none of us paid much attention to. As he passed us and was walking away we heard a quiet “aussie aussie aussie oi oi oi” which of course we all reacted to. Amazingly it turned out to be Michel Canac, a local doctor and good long term friend of Ian’s who has become our local guardian in Lodeve, as well as our friend. He just happened to walking by on his way to the local supermarket. Of course we were very happy to see him, and made arrangements to catch up on Sunday night at his place for a welcoming aperitif. The apartment is looking great, particularly with several of Ian’s paintings now hanging on the walls. Ian de Souza (and his wife Ros), one of the four owners of the apartment, is a celebrated artist from Fremantle who recently had his first French exhibition here in Lodeve. We are very glad that he has left some of his works behind for us to enjoy.
After stopping for a while here, enjoying a beer while overlooking Rocamadour and buying our very French style lunch ingredients at a mini supermarket, we were back on the road heading for the valley of the Lot river, which we remembered from 2005 as a stunning landscape. After a slight (and unintended) detour which took us through the town of Cahors which is situated within a large loop of the Lot, we eventually found our way to the road we were looking for.
The drive along the course of the Lot was enjoyed by all, with many beautiful views of the river itself, pretty little villages along the way, and of course the ever present spectacular geological features so prevalent in this region.
Once we left the Lot behind we had a relatively uneventful 3 hour drive to Millau, punctuated from time to time of course by stunning scenery and many little villages and towns. Millau is a regional centre (pop. 22,000) spectacularly situated (no other words can be used) at the bottom of part of the Gorge du Tarn at the confluence of the Tarn and the Dourbie rivers, and overlooked by the now world famous Viaduc de Millau, designed by the much lauded English architect Sir Norman Foster (remember the dome of the Reichstag in Berlin), to allow the A75 motorway to cross the Gorge du Tarn. This magnificent structure spans 2.5kms and is up to 343m above the valley bottom. In its first year of operation (2005) it carried 4.43 million vehicles. It took more than 3 years to build at a cost of more than AU$750 million, and is a true icon of modern design and engineering. Once we had crossed this superb bridge we were only 60kms from Lodeve. This section of the A75 (i.e. Millau to Lodeve) is quite superb, as it wends its way down the southern edge of the Larzac plateau, falling 500 or 600m and negotiating a long tunnel.
We drove into Lodeve about 7pm that night. It was good to be “home”! As we all wearily extracted ourselves from the car right outside of the apartment, a dark haired and well dressed Frenchman walked past, that none of us paid much attention to. As he passed us and was walking away we heard a quiet “aussie aussie aussie oi oi oi” which of course we all reacted to. Amazingly it turned out to be Michel Canac, a local doctor and good long term friend of Ian’s who has become our local guardian in Lodeve, as well as our friend. He just happened to walking by on his way to the local supermarket. Of course we were very happy to see him, and made arrangements to catch up on Sunday night at his place for a welcoming aperitif. The apartment is looking great, particularly with several of Ian’s paintings now hanging on the walls. Ian de Souza (and his wife Ros), one of the four owners of the apartment, is a celebrated artist from Fremantle who recently had his first French exhibition here in Lodeve. We are very glad that he has left some of his works behind for us to enjoy.
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