The next morning we tried, but failed, to rise early. Travelling and sight seeing is hard work and we have found ourselves getting more and more tired each morning. There was a fantastic boulangerie next door so Michael popped down and brought back croissants, pain au chocolat and a really crunchy baguette for our breakfast. We were sorry to leave our hotel room in the middle of the old town but we knew they wanted us gone by 11.00. We put all our stuff into the car in a nearby car park and walked around Avignon exploring. What a fabulous town! It is so beautiful. I can understand why so many Popes elected to live here instead of Rome (and I adore Rome!). With a bit of effort, we finally found our way past the walls of the town and out to the river and the Pont du Bezenet. Chris sang a song about the bridge of Avignon and did a little dance and then we headed back into the town for lunch beside the Pope’s Palace.

The journey between Avignon and the Pont du Gard was very short and soon we found ourselves in the car-park in the blazing sun. We had thought that we might stay for a few minutes and take some pictures and head off but to our surprise, the river was teaming with families and we did not want to leave. The kids stripped off, jumped in the river and swam to the other side while Chris and I (who had sadly not packed our bathing suits) watched enviously from the rocks.

A little information about this fascinating bridge! It was built by the Romans 2000 years ago and acts as a viaduct and well as an aqueduct. The engineering was so good that the bridge is still in working order today (as a viaduct anyway). When they were bringing in water into the nearby town of Nimes they had to ship the water nearly 30 kilometres and the aqueduct went downhill at a rate of 30 centimetres every mile! How on earth did they figure out how to do that?

By late afternoon, it was time to leave, and as we drove to Nimes I searched online for a hotel. We always look for a cheap hotel and I quickly selected one in the old town that had air conditioning. To our delight our hotel ended up being right across the road from the Collosseum and once we had got past the psycho receptionist, we discovered we had a fantastic room with the most amazing view….check it out!!

The square across the road had a children’s festival happening with lots of live music and so we spent a couple of hours enjoying that before heading “home”.

The next morning we had just enough time to visit a 2000 year old Roman temple and the Colosseum. Within the temple they were showing a movie (Hollywood blockbuster style) explaining the history of Nimes and how the local Gaul Celts came to prosper from their alliance with the conquering Romans to build the successful city that it did.

There was a two hour drive break to St Felix and and mercifully we hadn’t hit weekend traffic yet. It felt good to be back! The night finished with a marathon movie – Gladiator of course – to give Nick a taste of our upcoming trip to Rome.

Chris and I hardly sleep at Chamonix between the heat of the room and the noise of the rain. At one stage in the night I had opened a window to cool us down and when Chris got up at 3.00am or so to close it, he announced “There’s a guys sitting right under our window in the rain”. Well that made us feel a bit paranoid but we had to laugh in the morning in the light of day when we realised Chris’s “man” was a rubbish bin!

It was still pouring when we left but we decided to take the scenic route to Annecy because we had heard it was gorgeous. And it was. A beautiful mountain road, through the middle of stunning green forests and beautiful Swiss style villages. At lunchtime we arrived in Annecy with high expectations – it is called the most beautiful town in France or the Venice of France. And it certainly is beautiful with the canals running through the old streets.

We had a lovely lunch by the canal but hit the road soon after, keen to lessen the distance between us and St Felix. We spent the night in a highly unremarkable hotel near Valance and hit the road again early the next morning bound for Orange.

Orange was a pleasant delight. In the middle of the town is a fantastically preserved, 2000 year old Roman colosseum. We drank coffee across the road while Chris researched it and then we went inside for a thorough investigation! What an interesting history Orange has! The town was created by Julius Caesar’s retired troops (the Romans rewarded retiring soldiers with land from conquered countries) around 55BC and within 20 years they had created this magnificent colosseum. The town grew and soon the Roman Empire was keeping conquered townships around the “world”, including Orange, happy and complacent by holding “public games” and theatre events every second day, (sometimes all day long) and letting everyone attend whenever they liked, for free. So the colosseum was the heart of the city and public life and a powerful political tool. Sadly after the Romans left the colosseum feel into disrepair, the beautiful statues and frescoes were stolen, the roof was burned to the ground by Barbarians and it was used for various things, including as a jail in the 1700s. However by the mid 1800s it as recognised for its historical significance and preserved and repaired and here it stands today in magnificent glory. We got such a great sense of what life in a Coloseum would be like 2000 years ago.

After that we enjoyed menu du jour in a restaurant attached to the Coloseum. The ambiance inside was amazing and the food was surprisingly nice.

Back on the road, and within 30 minutes we hit Chateau Nerf du Pape which has become one of our favourite wine regions in France. We found the old Chateau which used to be the residence of the Pope, but again, feel into disrepair after he left, with locals using the stones of the castle to build their own homes and Nazi bombers blowing half of it to smithereens. The region has a real Tuscan look and feel.

Down the hill from the castle was a little doorway advertising “degustation” and Chris and I just couldn’t resist. And I’m so glad we didn’t! In this little cave, we found a 2000 year old wine cellar created by the Romans and adopted by the Pope’s household (it used to be under the castle!) Recent excavations in the cellar revealed some old stone vats used by the Romans to store their wine. We hung out in the cool space for an hour or so tasting some different wines from the region and learning a lot about French wines in general and local wines in particular.

The children had been very good while Chris and I were playing, so we drove from there to a local chocolate factory and bought them some lovely chocolate. And the joy of the day was not over! Within 15 minutes we had arrived at our final destination of the day, Avignon, settled into our seedy hotel in the heart if the medieval town, and Chris and I took off on foot to explore before dinner. Soon we arrived at the old Pope’s Palace and we spend a good hour exploring. Because it was so late in the day we nearly had the amazing space all to ourselves. It was an interesting place – full of secret rooms, money and land deeds hidden in stone crypts beneath the floor (not discovered until the 1980s) and many of the original frescoes and terracotta floor tiles from the 1300s still in great condition (I can’t believe they let us walk on it).

By then, as you can imagine, we were really tired and so a quick stop by the supermarket and a lovely picnic dinner (more cheese and baguette) before bed!

Early the next morning we arose and headed straight off. The boys were desperate for Swiss Army knives and I was desperate for coffee so we had a quick stop off in the old township of Geneva before hitting the road for Chamonix. We quickly drove through the border (not stopped thank goodness) and hit the open road….the huge hills around us have way to snow capped mountains. Less than an hour late we had reached the gorgeous town of Chamonix. Nestled in the valley directly below Mont Blanc, this charming town completely seduced us.

Instead of spending just a couple of hours here we decided to stay the night! After brunch we walked around the town checking out all of the sports and mountaineering stores (heaven for Chris) before making our way to the chair lift headed up Mont Blanc.

Have I mentioned that when we originally left the Hanson’s house last week, we had originally intended to stay away one night? As a consequence we have under packed substantially for this journey – a fact I became very aware of as we proceeded to ascend a mountain into freezing conditions wearing a pair of thongs!!! But what the hell – you only get to ascend Mont Blanc once in a lifetime, right?

The ride up was stunning and exciting. We shot up the mountain in a cable car very quickly and ended at a half way point looking down directly at the town of Chamonix and looking out across the gorgeous mountains of Switzerland.

From here we entered another cable car and his took us the summit of Mont Blanc. From here travellers can take another cable car and descend into Italy! When we disembarked however, we were among thick snow and ice and it was actually snowing. I was still wearing thongs and Chris was in shorts and t-shirt with only a rain jacket for warmth. The wind was howling and so our excursion around the top of the look out point was quite short lived! We took refuge in the summit restaurant with a couple of “chocolat chauds” and here I did something I thought I would never in a life time do – I gratefully received the five toed socks that Chris so kindly offered me so that my little frozen toes would not fall off! All around us were adventurers who had climbed the mountains in full snow gear, you couldn’t see more than 10 feet beyond because of the thick cloud – it did not feel like the middle of a European summer at all!

Not long after we descended back to the middle point of the mountain in the cable car and walked for a few hundred meters down the side of the mountain (me still in thongs, now made even more treacherous down the mountainside with socks as well!) to a small “refuge” overlooking Chamonix, for a delicious raspberry tart and kir. The view was gorgeous.

The climb back up to the cable car station reminded me that I really need to work on my fitness! Before long our adventure was over, and we found our rustic hotel in the middle of Chamomix (that smells exactly like a sauna) and enjoyed a delicious steak sitting outdoors watching the sun descend behind this magnificent mountain!

We left Lyon early and headed for Geneva in the car. It is only a two hour drive between the two cities so we were glad that it was going to be a much easier day on the road than the day before. As I mentioned in a previous post, we have left our passports at St Felix and I had asked Naomi to email me a picture of the the photocopies I had left with her before leaving Australia. Then we headed for Geneva with our fingers crossed.

Soon the country side around us changed from rolling green hills, to massive mountains and steep valleys covered in pine trees. We shot over bridges 1km above the valleys and villages below and sped through tunnels driving through massive mountains. The scenery was so magnificent and we felt so small beside it. The excitement of seeing a new country began to build.

As we approached the border Chris and I started to feel a bit nervous about our lack of passports. To our dismay, (and some apprehension), we were not waved through by the security guards as we had hoped, but pulled over and asked to stop. There was some nail biting as we wondered how to explain that we had forgotten the passports in French. But then, to our surprise, they just wanted us to pay a toll for entering Switzerland…and there began a very expensive day!

Geneva is a beautiful city that shares similar architecture to Paris and has a gorgeous lake on its door step. The city is obviously a prosperous one full of lovely boutiques, Ferraris, expensive watches and lovely cafés. The little brasserie we stopped at for lunch gave us our first indication that we were about to blow the budget, massively. As we read through the menu we struggled to find any dishes costing less than 30 Swiss francs (around $40) – we ended up buying the cheapest things we could find on the menu and a bowl of chips for Michael. Surely, we thought, that was just a remarkably expensive cafe? Apparently not! As we hunted through the city for a cafe with wifi so that we could organise accommodation for the night, we became aware that we weren’t in France, paying ridiculously cheap French prices any more!

After securing some accommodation online, we wandered around the city until the kids found a floating pontoon swimming pool in the middle of the river in the city. They spent a wonderful hour in the sun swimming with the other children while Chris and I relaxed in the sun watching.

Afterwards we retired to our hotel, where they did ask for passports(!!!!) but luckily were happy to accept the electronic copies we had instead. Being a Sunday, nearly everything was closed so we walked across the road to a shopping centre for dinner. In the friendly Mexican restaurant next to the cinemas, we read the menu with dismay – around $45 for a hamburger and $35 for a burrito. We left and decided to dine at McDonalds instead. We paid $88 for our meal and considered it a (relative) bargain!!

Since visiting the Niaux cave, all of the boys have wanted to stay at “home”. It’s always lovely being around St Felix but by the end of the week I was beginning to get very itchy feet and planning to make a break out on my own if I had to. I had looked up the route to Rocamadour and saw it was a three hour trip, and I didn’t particularly fancy driving there and back in one day on my own with the boys in the back seat. As I was having a late breakfast and contemplating my options, Chris returned from a trip to the supermarket and said “Do you want to head to to Rocamadour today? We can stay the night if you like.” Within an hour we had packed toothbrushes and one change of clothes, booked accommodation in Le Rouget, locked up the house and we were off! By 5.00pm we had arrived in Le Rouget and were absolutely delighted with this pretty, tidy and very well kept little French village. The people were delightful and we had a lovely dinner there.

While our original intention had been to stay for one night and head back, we felt, looking at the map, that Lyon, and therefore Geneva were not too far away and that we could carry on through to Switzerland and then back through Provence. Apart from not having packed enough clothes, the other potential hitch is that we haven’t packed passports either…..

The next morning, after breakfast, we hit the road for Rocamadour and arrived an hour later. It was breathtaking! Perched on the side of a huge cliff in a picturesque valley, this old city is divinely beautiful and defies gravity.

With the small amount of reading I had done before hand I learned the interesting legend of its origins and while historians say is not true, I like the story and so I will recount it here. Rocamadour is named after it’s founder, St Amadour who was married to St Veronica, the woman described in the bible who wiped Jesus’ face as he walked up to Calvary. Because they were both persecuted in Palestine, they took a skiff in wild seas, guided by an angel, and end up in Aquitaine. Here they lived happily for years, until for some reason that it am not sure of, Amadour returned to Rome, where he witnessed the martyrdom of St Peter and St. Paul. He returned to France and build a small chapel dedicated to Mary at the site of Rocamadour, and from here the town grew.

It has now become an important site for pilgrims. In fact, millions of pilgrims have visited this site over the centuries. There are hundred of stairs leading from the village at the bottom, to the chapel of the Virgin Mary some way up the hill, and many pilgrims make their way up the stairs on their knees!!!

For us, Rocamadour was the most beautiful, fairytale town we had ever seen. At the top is a chateau in which people still live. From there a path winds down a hill – there are several shrines along the way, lots if trees and bridges – it looks a lot like Rivendell from The Lord of the Rings movie. Half way down the hill, there are several chapels, but the tiny chapel of Virgin Mary was the prettiest chapel ever – built into the rock wall on one side it us surrounded by stained glass windows on three sides. On the altar is a wooden madonna and child which was reportedly carved by St Armadour himself.

Outside the chapel is the tomb of St Armadour and a sign above proudly announces that his body has not decomposed. High above the tomb is a sword buried in the rock face of the wall, no doubt awaiting someone to pull it out and be declared king!

We had only planned to stay a couple of hours here before heading off to Lyon, but we ended up staying much longer. The trip to Lyon was fairly gruelling as we hit summer holiday traffic on the motorway, sometimes sitting stationery in the car for long periods of time. By the time we arrived at Lyon it was 9.30pm and we were all exhausted.

Ever since I studied anthropology at university, I have wanted to see prehistoric cave drawings. Today I finally had the chance! The drive to the Pyrenees was beautiful and as we drove up the mountains, the countryside became greener and wilder. Half way up a mountainside lay the Grotte de Niaux wherein lie cave drawings from Magdelanian people, made 14,000 years ago.

We had taken warm jumpers and sports shoes with us and our guide gave us flash lights. 20 of us descended into deep caves which had been created thousands of years before by an old river. Inside the cave it was very dark (obviously), with rocks as smooth and slippery as glass, stalactites growing from the ceilings and a floor of sand and puddles.

Around 600m into the cave we discovered “graffiti” from the 1600s to the 1800s. Apparently locals have known about the caves for hundred of years and have visited periodically, leaving their name and the year of their visit drawn in rocks in the cave. So funny to think that they had tourists and sight-seers in those days – and hilarious to think that they were “taggers”.

Once we had descended 800m into the cave, our guide led us up an old sand dune that has since become solid rock, into the “black cavern”. After we had relinquished our flash lights, she led us to a side of the cavern and then lit up one wall, which was full of paintings made by Magdelanian people 14,000 years ago.

Then she led us further along the cave and highlighted another wall. These drawings were 1000 years more recent and seemed to be more “sophisticated” with details of the animals’ markings. There was even one bison with an eye that followed you around the room. Chris pointed out that the drawings would have been even more dramatic in the cave in firelight!

The roof of the cavern is very tall and the acoustics within the cave are extraordinary – each sound echoes around 7-8 times. The choice of cavern for the drawings along with the subject (animals of the region) lead anthropologists to think that the drawings were definitely a communication to other people of the time and possibly had some spiritual significance.

We were aware that this was a very special experience – to see art work from the earliest Homo sapiens in Europe first hand, instead of through a book or online, was amazing. We knew, and felt, extraordinarily lucky and blessed to have had that experience. The organisers are so conscious of the impact that tourists have on this cave, that I feel sure it will not be open to the public anymore in a few more years.

On the way home we detoured via Foix which is a gorgeous old medieval village in the Pyranees which has witnessed some extraordinary encounters between Catholic and Cathar, Franks and Visigoths, as well as the more recent war of religions in the 15th century. A couple of hours wasn’t long enough to visit this lovely town so we hope to a be able to return and see it in more detail soon.

My nephew John was returning to London from his holiday in Spain so we arranged to meet for breakfast on his way through France. His route was taking him through the east so we drove for an hour an a half to a small town called Bizanet near Narbonne. When we arrived the only thing open was the Boulangerie so we bought up loads of croissants, pan au chocolate and baguettes and sat in the town square to catch up as street vendors set up for their market. It was really great seeing John and Phoebe and James again and they seemed to have had a fantastic holiday. An hour later they had to hit the road to carry through to Dijon, so we decided to explore Narbonne.

In terms if Cathar history, Narbonne is an interesting place because after the slaughter at neighbouring Beziers, the leaders at Narbonne surrender to the Crusaders immediately and the town was used as a seat of power for the Crusaders for the rest of their campaign. In fact, I read that Aummery became Bishop of Narbonne and excommunicated his old ally Simon de Montford shortly thereafter. In addition, Narbonne is nearly 3000 years old having been an important trading post in Gaul well before Christ. Unfortunately there was little evidence of any of this interesting history as we drove through, and while the Cathedral and archeological museum would have been well worth a look, the children are suffering badly from sight seeing fatigue, so we drove through.

Chris was particularly excited about being this close to the Mediterranean Sea so we drove further along until we struck Peyriac de Mer. This is a really beautiful little seaside town, around 2200 years old. The landscape and the architecture was quite different here – dry and rocky with grape vines growing in limestone soil next to the coast.

We had a lovely lunch and explored for a while before heading home.

On the way home we struck traffic!! We later learnt that this is the worst weekend of the year to be on the French roads because so many people go on holidays on this weekend. There were campervans everywhere. We decided to take a detour up a side road. Tarmac quickly gave way to dirt…..and dirt soon became a goat track. Still we persisted even as the road became so narrow that as we drove past a property the side mirrors were practically scraping the wall!

We continued as the track got rockier and steeper, somewhat confident that we would soon see civilisation because the GPS was indicating that the track eventually hit a main road. Finally our track ended at a farm house (with the GPS indicating that the road continued through the middle of the house). A very surprised woman who was tending her bee hives (obviously not a lot of people keep driving up this track until they end up at her house) indicated that we would have have to turn around and go back the way we came as “our car wouldn’t be able to cope with the rest of the track.” We did as she suggested and eventually ended up back on a sealed road and very grateful to be sitting behind an army of campervans travelling in second gear!

In the evening we went to Caroline’s house for drinks. She had some interesting guests staying with her who are wine experts from England. They actually own a winery in Dorset (I didn’t even know that England has wineries) and Steven has worked with Mike Smith from Smith and Shaw winery in South Australia for years as the wine consultant for Singapore airlines. We had a lovely couple of hours learning more about French wines and later Caroline showed us her art studio where she has some incredible sculptures.

Today we went to Lourdes. I had visited it 25 years ago but I thought the family might be curious about it. I told the kids the story of St Bernadette in the car as we drove there and they weren’t sure what to make of it. When we arrived, shortly before lunch, I saw that Lourdes has changed beyond recognition. The streets are now dominated by souvenir stores and the vibe is more Phuket than Southern France.

Once we had cleared the bridge over the river however, the scene was completely different. The cathedral that has been built over the grotto is a gorgeous blend of Gothic and Romanesque style and with the beautiful Pyrenees behind it, it looks like something out of a fairy tale.

All around us were people from all over the world – many of them obviously sick or in wheel chairs. The statue of the Virgin Mary was surrounded by fresh flowers left by pilgrims. The show of faith from these people showed me another side of the Catholic religion that I had forgotten to consider. In fact Lourdes welcomes 5 million pilgrims and tourists per year, many of them seeking a miracle, and some of them are lucky enough to walk away with one. While the Cathedral was completely gorgeous, utterly splendid and one of the prettiest churches I have ever seen, I was quite surprised to feel something when we visited the grotto below, where the Virgin Mary allegedly appeared to Bernadette. Before visiting the grotto I must confess that I rather suspected Bernadette of being a religious zealot with a great imagination and with a lot of people (including the church) profiting along the side. As we walked through the grotto however, it really felt like a very special place and I had the feeling that perhaps something wonderful really did happen there 100 years ago. It’s hard to describe the vibe of the place – peaceful, sacred, special.

Who knows? Learning about what had happened to the Cathars in this region 800 years ago really tainted my already negative view of the Catholic Church. But it was great to be reminded that this is a country that is strongly Catholic and that the people here can have great faith and I really respect and even admire that faith.

We got up very early and hit the road before 8am to make the most of the day. We knew there was a lot we wanted to see so we wanted to get a good start on the day. By around 10.30am we had reached the town of Albi, north of St Felix.

There are two big attractions in this town – a huge and amazing Cathedral built around 1240 and art museum with many works by Toulouse- Lautrec who was born in this town. I really wanted to see the art gallery but I knew the children would not be up for it, so we skipped through to the Cathedral. The Cathedral is a huge building in the centre of town and was built by the Catholic Church shortly after achieving victory over the “heretics” in the town. To me it doesn’t present itself so much as a house of God, as a political statement. And what a statement! The outside of the church is set up like a fortress but inside is like a palace. It really took my breath away with its sumptuous paintings, amazing sculptures and optical illusions ( see the wall on the right). Check out the front of the church. There is a huge picture of judgement day on the left and right and in centre, in front of the altar, is a huge gate or door which comes down depicting Jesus in heaven. The message is clear!

Chris, Michael and I did a tour of the “treasures” of the Cathedral upstairs. In amongst the gold chalices, the wonderful paintings and beautifully decorated boxes are holy relics. It took me a while to decipher these relics because the explanation of everything was in French. I was staring for quite a while at a bronze statue of an arm and and hand that had a “window” in the sleeve – as I looked closer I noticed that the window was giving a view the skeleton of a forearm. Next to the arm was a skull with a round hole in the side of it – apparently the victim of a spear or a sword. I wish I could read French better so I knew who these relics belonged to – perhaps a local saint.

Chris and I agreed that it was a most impressive and intriguing Cathedral but a tiny bit creepy. We couldn’t resist a menu du jour lunch in a small town square (always such great value) before heading off to Cordes sur Ciel (Cordes in the sky).

This beautiful town was actually built by the Cathars as a defence (albeit ultimately an unsuccessful one) against the Crusaders. After the Cathars were captured and burnt, the town enjoyed material success because they were one of the few towns in Europe who could use a local plant to make blue dye (wode) and thus make beautiful cloth. The prosperity of the town is evident as you wander around. Unfortunately a couple of plagues nearly toppled the town, but having attracted mainly artists and artisans, the residents we able to restore the town in the early 1900s to some of its former glory. Today the town sits on top of a hill, full of shops of local artists. It is really beautiful and we could have happily have spent hours and hours there.

We had intended to continue to Rocamadour which is spectacular, but we had truly run out of energy. The drive home felt really long, but what a great day!

Ok – it’s official. Chris has found his spiritual home and it’s right here in the South of France. If there was any doubt about this, it was cast aside yesterday as we drove through the French country side on our way to the Gaillac wine festival, with Chris asking every few minutes “What about that house? Wouldn’t you love to live in that house?” For me, the answer is negative – I love holidaying in this part of the world but in no way does it feel like home. Perhaps because of this conversation, I have a big bout of homesickness today. I woke up feeling a bit blue and then I received a picture of Pepper looking particularly adorable – ears back, big black eyes shining with love – and sank into a full blown slump. The sun is shining, the sunflowers are smiling happily at me and the local baguette is more delicious than ever, but I feel droopy today. Don’t get me wrong – I am not ready to go home yet – I just miss my dog and my friends.

Anyway, yesterday we went to the Gaillac Fete de Vins. In the local park of this lovely town, were dozens of identical mini chalets, each with a local wine maker promoting their wares. We bought some tasting glasses for 3 euros each and then off we went! Nearly every chalet had a wine maker who spoke English, much to Chris’ delight – he took notes, asked many questions and went into raptures over many of the wines. The kids had plenty of room to run around and there were French carnival acts and games set up throughout the park. Because we had to drive, we had to be somewhat circumspect about the number of wineries we trialled. But in the course of our exploration we discovered unwooded Chardonnays, wooded Savignon Blancs, dessert wine made from Cabernet Sauvignon, a sweet Rose, sparking wine that tasted like green apples and the smoothest Syrah I have ever tasted. At the end of the afternoon we strolled happily out of the park clutching several bottles of truly unique wine (most well under 10 euros). We decided to have an early dinner at Gaillac and and sober up a bit before we drove home. We sat outside and enjoyed some lovely pizza – I had a pizza called Alsacienne which had a white sauce, sweet onions and melted white cheese. Delicious!