Au Revoir Paree

Au Revoir Paree,

Friday 15th May
We are writing this on the laptop (the keyboards are different in France – too hard) sitting overlooking vineyards at Chateau Gerbaud at Saint Emilion’s about 30km from Bordeaux in the Southwest of France before we can find an internet café to download this.

We had a fantastic last day in Paris visiting the Louvre, one of the world’s largest museums and made more famous after the best seller ‘Da Vinci Code’. The Louvre itself is of the most magnificent construction, the ceilings are hard to describe, the murals and plasterwork were just breathtaking. Inside the Louvre the arts and artifacts were very old and to touch a piece of Egyptian carved stone work that was over 5000 years old was an opportunity not to be missed – see Brent in the photo. (You can’t see the sign that says ‘don’t touch’).
Of course you can’t go to the Louvre without getting the compulsory photo of the famous “Mona Lisa” as Rae did among the throngs of tourists doing the same.
That night we went on the Paris by Night tour and as we got to the Eiffel Tower about 10.00pm the lights came on and there was a light show – just fabulous and very romantic!! We then went to the Moulin Rouge show and enjoyed the costumes – just stunning! The show itself was a montage of different historical eras which at times was difficult to follow – Brent did really enjoy the lack of costumes on the girls though!

We left Paris on the Sunday morning, the drive leaving there was much easier than the one getting in, and drove towards the southwest with the first stop being Le Mans where Brent got a glimpse of the famous car racing track. However the museum was closed.
Stayed not far from Le Mans and then moved out west next day looking for some sun and sand – got as far as La Rochelle, one night there where it is has one of the biggest marinas in France, it was just oozing with money and then we went to Port Barques on the coast. We arrived there about 4.00pm and Brent had to have a beer and nibbles before we headed off for a walk over to an island fort, you walked along which looked like a sand track between two estuaries – we hadn’t been walking for long when we were stopped by two official looking guys, like DOC we think, in a car asking us if we realised that where we were walking would be under water in about 10mins??? Of course there were signs everywhere but they were all in French – I am sure they drove away saying ‘tourists’. We spent the night overlooking the estuaries and watching some people and a camper van trying to get through the tides at about 9.00pm that night – cheap entertainment and we were pleased that we weren’t the entertainment!!! See picture of bus going over at 5pm then of a car at 5.15pm, scary stuff.

We then decided to continue looking for the sun and headed to Ile d’Oleron, an island to the southwest of La Rochelle – on the way there we found a small village called Brouage which is totally surrounded by a fortress wall – the streets inside were all cobbled and you could imagine people, horses and carts going up the streets hundreds of years ago – it was very unique and quaint.
We stayed in Ile d’Oleron for two nights – the first day we explored the island and really liked an old fishing village called La Cotinere, had a good wander around the village and enjoyed looking in a couple of nautical shops. The second day we just spent catching up with ourselves, after three weeks basically on the go it was great to sit in the sun for a couple of hours with our books.
We are really pleased with the camper, very comfortable and economical – Rae’s only complaint is that it doesn’t have a shelf by the bed for her early morning cuppa and Brent’s only complaint is when Rae leaves the top cupboard door open – I am sure you will see why in a photo later!
The roads that we are mainly travelling on are not the main highways but are the older national roads - it is incredible that we are on a four lane small highway one minute and then crawling through the most narrow village road the next – we love going through the villages and seeing the cream coloured houses with blue shutters on the windows right on the street – I mean right on the street. Rae is often saying to Brent ‘watch the mirrors’, that really is how narrow these streets are. The houses just about all have geraniums in planter boxes and if there is a wrought iron balcony there will be wisteria growing – all very pretty.
We are looking forward to exploring Saint Emilion tomorrow…….but that will be another story.

Disparu vous tout (missing you all)

Brent and Rae