Day 9 Carcassone

After two days in Provence we packed our bags and continued west to Carcassone.  Our first stop was Aigues-Mortes a medieval city.  Aigues-Mortes is surrounded by a salt marsh where today salt continues to be extracted and processed.

Back on the motor coach we headed to Carcassonne and made a lunch stop at a road side cafeteria.   Today I tried cassoulet, a duck and  bean stew popular in this region. It was very good and tasty.  Must be the sea salts from this area!











Onward to Carcassone where we spent the afternoon in Medival Carcassonne a 13th century city of towers, turrets, and lots of narrow cobblestone streets.  The fortress was incredible and looking out over the city it was mind blowing to think that over 700 years ago battles occured with men fighting with arrows and swords as troops tried to storm the fortress.  We had free time to walk the inner city of Carcassonne.  Some of the kids walked through a haunted house.  No specific sightings of ghosts but a cold chilly feeling could be felt.

Group dinner after the Medieval city.

After checking into the hotel some of us went to do some laundry at a local laundrymat.  While we walked a distance to get there, the prize was the evening walk back when the fortress was lit up and the sun was setting.

Friday we are off to Bordeaux!

Day 8 Provence Partie Deux - St. Remy, Les Baux, Nimes

Today we started our second day in the Provence region in St. Remy. First stop was the Glanum an ancient Roman structure of an arch and tower about 1900 years old.  The structures are pretty much intact still standing strong all these centuries.

A short walk from the Glanum lead us to the St. Paul Monastery and aslyum.  It is here were Vincent Van Gough spent a year in 1889 seeking treatment for his madness. During this time Van Gough produced more than a 100 paintings,  many of them famous today.  We walked the path were Van Gough sat in the fields to paint olive groves, fields of flowers, peasants and field workers, and that ever famous Starry Night.

We timed our visit perfectly as the lavender in the monastery garden was in full bloom as was other flowers in the beautiful garden.

Next stop was Les Beaux to visit the 14th century castle ruin carved into and on top of a rock 650 feet above the valley floor.  Much of the ancient walls of the castle remain.  The views from the castle were spectactular!  After walking around the castle ruins, we walked around the town for lunch and shopping.



Our last stop of the day was Nimes where we saw more Roman structures.  The first structure was the La Maison Curree built in the first century.

We continued our walk to the Roman Arena where nesrly 2000 years ago, gladiators fought wild animals many imported from Africa, to entertain spectators. Today the arena is used for bull fights and concerts.  In the upper deck of the arena rows of stone bleachers extend up to the top.

After our visit to the Arena we had free time before dinner.  Many of us went to seek shelter from from the late afternoon thunder shower.


Tomorrow we pack up and move on to Carcassonne. We are now at the half-way point of our adventure.

Day 7 Provence - Pont du Gard and Avingnon

Today we traveled west to the Provence region about a three hour bus ride.  Here we will stay for two nights in Orange. Lots of vineysrds along the way. Our first stop was a quick refueling and bathroom stop. Noteable event is refueling the motor coach.  See
picture below.  The motor coach has a capicity of 790 liters.  Our driver fueled up... you can do the math.  Yesterdays conversion rate was about  140 € and total liters purchased was 600.

We drove the route of the Romans where our next stop was Pont du Gard a famous aqueduct built by the Romans in the first century.  Pont du Gard is the second largest standing Roman structure 6 feet shorter than the Colosseum in Rome.  The structure is an engineering marvel over 2000 years old.  The aquaduct was built to transport water from the alps to Nemes and over the Rhône river.

Brookfield with Pont du Gard in the background

After lunch at the Pont du Gard we got back on the bus continuing west to Avingnon which is known for their medievil bridge of Avingnon and the Palais des Papes.

Palais des Papes was the headquarters of the Catholic church in the 1300s.

Parent meeting in the evening...

Day 6 Cote d'Azur French Riviera: Èze, Monaco, Nice

Our second day in Cote d'Azur began with a 1.5 hour drive to Èze (between Monaco and Nice) to visit the Fragonard Perfumeur overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. We took a guided tour of the perfume factory to learn how perfume is made and the native flowers used from France.  The tour concluded in their showroom where our guide captured our attention by giving us sample scents to smell and turned us loose to buy perfumes, soaps, and lotions at their store.  Let's just say the bus ride to our next destination was smelling pretty sweet!

We continued east to the Principality of Monaco, the second smallest country and most densly populated in the world (on approximately 2.5 square miles). Here we stopped for lunch and some sightseeing.  The views of the bay were spectacular with yachts (very large yachts) lined up one after another in the harbor.  On our free time we shopped, some of us walked to the St. Nicholas Cathedral were Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier were married, took photos of the Prince's Palalce of Monaco and others went to the Oceanographic Museum.

Pictured on left are stained glass windows inside the Saint Nicholas Cathederal.














Back on the motor coach we headed west along the Cort d'Azur to Nice.  We started with a walking tour of Vieux (old) Nice where we stopped for ice cream at the famous (says our guide) Finnochio.  We enjoyed a couple of hours of free time to explore Nice.  Some of us went to the beach to dip our toes into the Mediterranean Sea. Instead of a soft, white sandy beach this beach was rock hard-- literally!  It was like a rock bed all the way from the beach to the sea.

After a little shopping we met up for group dinner. In case you are wondering, we eat dinner as one group with the meal pre-arranged by our tour director.  This allows us to keep the dinners within an hour with minimum fuss.

On Tuesday we continue west to Provence.

Day 5 Sisteron and Cannes

Our day started st 8:30 am where we left Lyon and headed south to Cannes in the Cote d'Azur (the French Riviera).  We followed the Route Napoleon through the Alps Maritime. Route Napoleon is the route taken by Napoleon in 1815 on his return from Elba which ended at the Battle of Waterloo.  The route begins in Grasse, where Napolean began his Hundred Days, and ends in Grenoble. Heading south from Lyon we took the reverse route starting from Grenoble to Grasse then on our way to Cannes.

We spent close to 8 hours on the motor coach with stops along the way. From Lyon our first rest stop break was just south of Grenoble. Pictured below is our motor coach.

Between short naps during our Route Napoleon, pictures were taken through the bus window of the scenic countryside and alps.  Today was cloudy and rainy so clouds are hanging over the Alps.

We stopped for lunch at Sisteron, a small town along the way to Cannes. Sisteron is a Medieval town which has one of the few remaining fortress which was first erected in the 11th century. While we did not tour the Citadel of Sisteron, we did enjoy a lunch stop here.

Sisterton lunch stop

Buildings in Sisteron are old and rustic

The road through the Alps was narrow and winding but the views were spectacular.  Our bus driver was very skilled at maneuvering through the tight turns not only in
the mountains but through all the tiny towns we passed through.

While it is difficult to see there is an archway in the mountain our bus driver carefully maneuvered through.  see lower right panel.





About 5:30 we made it to Cannes just in time for dinner.

Day 4 Lyon

Morning started with packing up and boardng the motor coach to Lyon, approximately  a 6 hour drive down A6 south east to Lyon.  The countryside was beautiful with km and km of farm land and cattle along the way.

Countryside photos from the motor coach between Paris and Lyon

We took a couple of rest stops to break up our 6 hour journey and had lunch at a fairly decent cafeteria (traveller stop).  Only in France can one get pate at a roadside eatery!

Lunch at the roadside cafeteria.  Note that the boys on the trip do not want to sit with the girls.

First stop in Lyon was Vieux (old) Lyon where buildings dating as far back to the 15th century remain.

 15th century building in Vieux Lyon

A walk down a narrow street led us to the St. Jean Cathederal with beautiful 13th and 14th century stained glass.

Inside the St. Jean Cathedral

We had a bit of free time strolling through Lyon before dinner. I searched for windows on old and rustic buildings in Lyon, seeking character and charm!

After dnner we headed to the hotel -- an American based Quality Inn.  To our pleasant surprise the rooms were all updated and spacious by European standards.  The kids were ecstatic with their large rooms with a kitchenette, partioned bedrooms and fancy bathroom with a towel warmer.  Decor.... think Ikea.  Quite the contrast to 15th century Vieux Lyon.  Too bad we are only staying one night.

Sunday morning we board our motor coach and continue south east to the French Riviera.

Happy Father's Day to all the Dads.

Day 3: Deuxième Jour à Paris

June 13 Friday

Second day in Paris started off with a bus tour around Paris to view all major monuments and museums from the motor coach.  We stopped to take pictures of the Eiffel Tower.

Next stop was the Arc de Triomphe and Champs-Elysees.  Some of us took the 284 stairs up to the top of the Arc de Triomphe to get a panoramic view of Paris and see from atop the 12 streets that intersect at a huge round about at the base of the Arc. After lunch on the Champ-Elysees we all hopped on the Metro to visit the Sacre Coeur on Montemarte and passed time at the souvenir shops.

Back on the metro to meet up with our tour guide for early dinner.  After group dinner we hopped on an open air boat and took a scenic boat ride on the Seine river to see the sights of Paris from the water.  Weather was warm today and the day long.. after all the sun doesn't set unitl close to 10pm!!

Tomorrow we take a bus to Lyon.  Plans for the TGV high speed rail to Lyon has been  cancelled due to rail strike.  C'est la vie...  we will have a scenic view instead of a blurred view from a traini topping 200 mph.

Pictures to come