After many days of walking and seeing museums and chateaus and ruins and caves it was time for something different. The Vezere river winds it’s way through the valley until it meets the Dordogne, through a canopy of very green trees and limestone cliffs and fields of corn and sunflowers. It moves slowly, and isn’t very deep, so I thought…
August 16: Les Eyzies-de-Tayac
I didn’t realize when I selected Les Eyzies as a place to stop that it would offer so very much to see and do. I simply wanted a place in Dordogne since I had heard it was a wonderful region for walks. So imagine my surprise when I arrived yesterday afternoon to find the street full of people, the confluence…
August 15: Musings from the Road
Today I drove about 200 miles southeast from the Loire Valley to the Dordogne region, which is just east of Bordeaux. Since it rained most of the day and I didn’t stop along the way I don’t have photos to share, but do have some descriptions of what I saw along the way, as well as some thoughts on my…
August 14: Some more Saumur
A sunny morning and a run along the Loire started off the day right. It was the first day that I actually was warm enough to just wear a t-shirt, after a month in England and France. At last, new things to wear in my suitcase! “Stopped into a church I found along the way….” of course. The Royal Chapel…
August 13: Saumur and Surroundings
The Loire Valley is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site as a cultural landscape of great beauty, containing historic towns and villages, great architectural monuments (the châteaux), and cultivated lands. My short travels today took me south to visit a few of the Grand Saumur sights well advertised in the brochures. Along the way I passed vineyards, heavy with grapes…
August 12: A long drive on a rainy day
It was only 160 miles, and should’ve taken 2 1/2 hours, but I inadvertently, or stupidly, planned several of my change of location days on Saturdays, which apparently are not days to be in a car in France in August. Summer vacations are taken very seriously in this country and the road was chock-a-block with cars full of families and…
August 11: A visit to Le Croisic
Guerande is a very small town, and I felt like I’d seen most of what there was to see yesterday. And since I jogged around the city walls this morning several times, the limited size was even more apparent! So I decided to see more of the area. A short drive away are the salt marshes that have provided Guerande…
August 10: The Loire Atlantique
The clouds and rain persisted in Rennes, but I set off mid morning heading southwest, into what had been the Loire Atlantique region of Brittany, but is now technically part of the Pays de la Loire region. Like other parts of Brittany, it has a strong sense of history, and there have been campaigns to reunite it with the Bretagne.…
August 9: Rennes
I have focussed most of this trip on smaller towns and villages and staying in B&B’s off the beaten track. But I must say that a break in a city (the 10th largest in France, population 700,000) has been a nice change. I took advantage of the fitness room at my hotel, and then pretended to be French by heading…
August 8: Bonjour Rennes
Having checked the weather, because let’s face it, I am that geek, I knew that the next two days were meant to be rainy and cool, and even more so by the coast. So I changed up my itinerary a bit to head south and inland to a city that would provide museums and other city-type activities since it wasn’t…