Wednesday 30th September 2015 – Niaux, France

A day off from travelling today with lots of reading, washing and blog writing with Beouf Bourguignonne cooking gently in the oven.

Photos: Looking north from Niaux over the river Ariege with the mouth of the Niaux cave in the centre of the picture. Our campsite is behind the trees on the left; Looking south towards Andorra with a fortification on the left protecting the pass.

Tuesday 29th September 2015 – Niaux, France

Most surprisingly, we slept well despite the chimes and walked across the road to get fresh bread at the boulangerie. We had to avoid parking in part of the aire as the signs warned that there would be a market on Tuesday morning. We needn’t have bothered as there were only two stalls but we did buy some veg at one of them.

We set off east and drove through Foix, stopping on the outskirts for some supermarket shopping. Then it was south on the main road towards Andorra that rose slowly, surrounded by mountains. Our destination was the ‘Grotte de Niaux’ one of the very few caves open to the public where it is possible to see original prehistoric art. I had researched this on the Internet before we left and also booked a tour in English of which there is only one per day. The tour was at 13:30, so we arrived early so that we could have lunch beforehand.

There are many caves in and around the Pyrenees and there are two major caves on opposite sides of the river valley at Niaux – the Grotte de Niaux and the Grotte de la Vache (discovered by a cow!). The theory is that the painters of the art in the Niaux cave did not live at the entrance of that cave but at the entrance of the Grotte de la Vache across the valley. No signs of occupation have been found at Niaux but at La Vache, large amounts of evidence have been found, although there is no art in those caves. Therefore the thought is that the Niaux cave was considered ‘sacred’, a theory reinforced by the fact that all of the art is deep in the cave, some more than 2 km in, a very difficult and potentially dangerous journey. The art was painted in the Magdelenian Period (18,500 to 10,500 BC) over a period of approximately 10,000 years between 13,850 and 12,850 BC. It consists of lines, dots and animals – mainly bison and horses with a few ibex, one auroch and some fish. Unusually there are also some engravings on the floors of the cave although we weren’t able to see these. To protect the art, only a limited number of people are allowed into the caves each day and the public are only allowed into the one gallery, the Salon Noir, which is 800m into the cave and has 80% of the art that is in the caves. Our guide, an archaeology graduate who had been giving tours of the cave for seven years, was excellent – keen, very knowledgeable and very good English. For most of our party English was not their first language, there were even some French people despite the fact that only English was spoken. It made a huge difference to have the whole talk in English rather than just short snippets during a French language tour. The paintings, in black and red, were even better than we expected. We have seen other cave art at Lascaux, Font de Gaume and Altamira but this was exceptionally detailed and, in most cases, the animal was clear without the need for any explanation. Like in many other caves, the artists had often used the natural contours of the stone for parts of the animals and it is thought that the features of the walls of the Salon Noir were why it was chosen for so many paintings. An excellent tour and fantastic paintings, well worth a visit.

We drove just over the other side of the valley to ‘Le Camping des Grottes’ where we had the choice of almost all of the pitches. As confirmation that we were in the mountains, the clouds built up over the peaks and it started to rain.

Photos: View from the entrance to the Grotte de Niaux – our campsite is at the bottom right; A picture taken a year after the “official discovery” although graffiti still clearly visible in the cave shows that it was visited as early as 1580; Map showing the layout and galleries of the cave.

Monday 28th September 2015 – Castelnau Durban, France

We were ready too early for the museum so we took a stroll around the walls of Lectoure admiring the magnificent views that there would have been if there hadn’t been for the thick mist that meant that we couldn’t even see the bottom of the hill. We arrived at the museum at 10:10 to see a sign that said that the next visit to the museum was 15:00. The original notice did not make it clear that it was a guided tour at 10:00 and, if you missed that one then you had to wait until the afternoon. Very disappointed, we had to leave without visiting the museum. However Lectoure is a lovely place and we would definitely like to return, stay in the aire again and visit the museum precisely at 10:00.

Leaving earlier than intended, we were able to plot a route via a number of places of interest, the first of which was the Gorge de la Save and a Roman Villa, both close to Montmaurin in the Haute-Garonne. This is the department of the Mid-Pyrenees and the terrain became much hillier with the foothills of the Pyrenees in the distance. We followed signs to gorge only to find a barrier blocking the road. We followed a circuitous route to get close to the other end of the gorge and in Montmaurin we saw signs to an orientation table. Following the signs, in a few metres we came to a small parking place next to a picnic table and the orientation table. There in front of us was our first view of the mountains of the Pyrenees, very hazy but we could pick out many jagged peaks including the massive Pic de Casamanya (2740m) in Andorra. The sun was shining brightly and it was lunchtime, so we sat at the picnic table eating Camembert and French bread looking out at the panorama of the Pyrenees.

Following new signs to the Gorge de la Save we reached the other end of the barred road, parked up and walked into the gorge. As far as we could ascertain, the road closure was as recent as July this year and had been done due to the risk of rock and tree falls. However, it was open to pedestrians and we had it to ourselves – very peaceful with the sound of birdsong and the babbling stream. The limestone gorge is full of caves and provides a very pretty walk.

On then to the Roman Villa less than a mile away. Unfortunately, as we expected, the villa was closed as it was a Monday and many historical sites and museums are closed on Mondays.

Every Wednesday when I am at home I volunteer for Hands on Heritage at the Avalon Marshes Centre on the Somerset Levels. The volunteers, led by two professional archaeologists, are helping to build a reconstruction of part of a Roman Villa and an Iron Age Long House. We take part in all sorts of activities including pottery, woodwork (doors, furniture, wooden roof tiles etc.) and building cob walls. Before I joined, the group made two excellent replicas of Iron Age canoes based on one found in the lake villages near Glastonbury. The members of the group are great company and one of the most enthusiastic is Lucy who has renamed the group as ‘Axe Club’. I knew that Lucy had been brought up in France but during a recent chat I discovered that she lived in the Mid-Pyrenees in the area of Ariege. As we going to be travelling near that area, I asked Lucy to recommend some points of interest and one of them was the village of Montbrun Bocage. That was our next stop and a fascinating village it is. Definitely Mediaeval and with many characterful buildings and a lovely market square, we spent a most enjoyable hour wandering around it’s streets and up to the ruins of its castle / chateau shrouded in trees.

Next on the agenda was the Mas D’Azil, an enormous natural cave with a road running through it. It is so big that it was used in WWII to house an aircraft factory out of sight of enemy bombers. In the middle of the cave is the entrance to the show cave, although this is mostly about prehistoric occupation rather than stalagmites and stalactites. It was too late to visit the caves (and we had other plans) but it was fun to drive through and we stopped in the car park at the southern end so that we could walk into the cave to have a closer look.

On then just a few miles to the aire at Castelnau Durban, our stop for the night. Confusingly, when we arrived there were quite a few motorhomes parked in the car park that specifically stated that they were not allowed. We drove on another 100m to the designated aire and parked up with one other motorhome. Having settled in, it was twenty minutes later when we discovered why other motorhomers had parked elsewhere. We were directly opposite a church that had a bell mounted on its roof and on the hour it rang extremely loudly. As if that wasn’t enough, it was one of those clocks that we had occasionally encountered before, it chimed the hours twice!

Photos: The walls of Lectoure in the mist; The Gorge de la Save; One of it’s many caves; The market square of Montbrun Bocage; Montbrun Bocage houses; Montbrun Bocage shops; The southern end of the Mas D’Azil cave; The interior of the cave with the road running through.

Sunday 27th September 2015 – Lectoure, France

A long drive today and the journey went well so we pressed on a little further than intended unusually using toll motorway for the final stretch east from Bordeaux. Driving along the smaller French roads is a delight and, if we have time, we try to avoid motorways which are usually devoid of interest. We were hoping to see a Roman Aqueduct north of Saintes and a Gallo-Roman theatre south of it but neither were signed off the main road and we didn’t have time to search for them. Saintes looks as though it might be an interesting place with lots of archaeology and we have noted it for a visit at some point in the future.

We were firmly in wine-producing lands on this journey, passing through Cognac, Bordeaux, Graves, Sauternes, Bergerac, Duras and Buzet and probably other regions that we didn’t spot. We were still in the Buzet area when we stopped at Lectoure, a lovely walled, Mediaeval, hilltop town. The aire here is delightful with great views from the site and just a short walk into the town. It was quite late so we just went for a short walk in the town, admiring the extensive views from the bastion and taking a look in the large church with its unusual tower. We noted that the archaeological museum opened at 10:00 tomorrow so we planned a visit before we set off.

Lectoure is on the Puy to Santiago de Compostella pilgrim route and, when we returned to the aire we met a couple of pilgrims. The young German man and his French girlfriend were walking with their Romanian rescue dog – a truly international group! Unfortunately the dog was struggling to keep up with the pace even though the couple had deliberately set only a modest target for each day and had taken a number of days off. They had a tent and were camping every night and were concerned that, if they continued at an acceptable pace for the dog, they would end up crossing the Pyrenees in very poor and cold weather. They were seriously considering abandoning the walk.

Photos: The aire at Lectoure; An excellent model of Lectoure town in the room outside the closed museum; A sign pointing to an unfortunately named hotel in Lectoure. It was actually very smart – an historic monument, the 18^th century ‘Hotel de Castaing’ inherited by the Bastard family in 1821. It would be a lovely place to stay with excellent views and the restaurant menu looked very nice.

Saturday 26th September 2015 – Coulon, France

Maillezais is in the Marais of the Vendee, a vast area of flat land criss-crossed by thousands of water channels, large and small. This is very similar to our home area of the Somerset Levels, both areas having been marsh land before the local abbots decided to create a water system to drain the marshes and create fertile farmland. The Somerset Levels were drained by the abbots of Glastonbury and the Marais were drained by the abbots of Maillezais Abbey. The two abbeys are now twinned and this led to the men’s choir that I belong to, the Brue Boys, being twinned with the Voix de Marais choir. Our trip down through western France gave us the opportunity to visit the home area of the Voix de Marais.

In the morning we visited the ruins of the Maillezais Abbey. The Abbey became an important cathedral before being destroyed in 1562 during the Wars of Religion. It was then used as stone quarry in the 1800’s paralleling Glastonbury Abbey that was destroyed during the Reformation and also used as a quarry. The ruins are very interesting and, included in the entrance fee, is a comprehensive guidebook in English, which made the visit much more enjoyable. On a small rise and surrounded by the flat lands of the Marais, the views from the top of the ruined tower were fantastic.

In the late morning we set off, intending to move much further south but only drove about 20 km when we came across Coulon, set in the heart of ‘Green Venice’. This area is in a part of the Marais which has even more water channels and it is a big tourist attraction. Traditional flat-bottomed boats, similar to Venice’s gondolas but not as fancy, are punted or paddled through the water channels with overhanging weeping willows. Trips of various lengths are offered or you can hire a boat yourself. We took the option of a walk along the waterways to the pretty village of La Garette.

We had visited with the tourist information office in Coulon where the man told us that he was sure that the local bar would be showing the rugby (England v Wales) that evening. He was wrong! We had a good meal in a local restaurant before returning to Henrietta in the local aire to follow the match on text via the Internet. We lost and it was probably just as well that we didn’t see the match – it would have been far too stressful!

Photos: The Maillezais Abbey; Fortified later in it’s life, the abbey walls are quite impressive. In other areas it was protected by a moat; Until the 1960s, the barge (‘batai’) was the main form of transport in the Marais, used for fishing, hunting, passenger transport and carrying all types of goods. They came in different lengths and widths suitable for the different waterways. In La Gerette there were many old photographs of barges loaded with people, dung for fertilizing the fields, floating hayricks and people on horseback; There were also many pictures of cows being transported – they must have been quite docile or they would have ended up in the canal. This cow was very calm – we didn’t see it move at all; A guided and punted tour; Paddling their own batai; The French are very keen to have fresh bread once or twice every day and there are bakeries everywhere but, if you are too far from a boulangerie, here is another option – a baguette machine, €1 a time.

Friday 25th September 2015 – Maillezais, France

We arrived in Caen (Ouistreham) at 21:30 last night and stayed at the Pommiers Municipal campsite, which was nothing special but was very convenient being 5 minutes from the port.

The next morning we set off early for a long drive south to Maillezais in the Vendee. We normally travel slowly taking in as many sights as we can on the route but we wanted to get to the Pyrenees fairly quickly, so this was a day of driving.

We arrived in Maillezais early enough to park up in the aire and take a walk around the pretty village and admire the pretty church.

Maillezais is in the Marais of the Vendee, a vast area of flat land criss-crossed by thousands of water channels, large and small. This is very similar to our home area of the Somerset Levels, both areas having been marsh land before the local abbots decided to create a water system to drain the marshes and create fertile farmland.

Photos: One of the restaurants in Maillezais – The Song of Frogs – was well named, in the evening the sound of frogs was all around; The Maillezais church illuminated at night; Detail of carving around the doorway of the church.

New sojourn to France, Spain and Portugal

This sojourn in our motorhome, Henrietta, started slightly differently to others. Although we are going to France, Spain and Portugal, we headed north from Somerset to Gloucestershire. Being very keen on rugby and it being the World Cup, we had applied for tickets to a number of matches but only obtained two. The first match was Ireland v Canada at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff and the second was Scotland v Japan at Gloucester’s ground, Kingsholm. We stayed in the Briarfields campsite in Cheltenham and used the excellent bus service to Gloucester (every 10 minutes) to get into Gloucester early on Wednesday 23^rd September. It was great fun having lots of banter with the crowd and I was told on many occasions that I was a brave man to wear a Bath shirt in Gloucester! There were vast numbers of volunteers on hand to help or just to have a chat and they were all smiling. It was a good match and the Scottish supporters were very happy at the end. Even the Japanese supporters were happy and there were quite a few in the crowd.

On the Thursday we drove down to Portsmouth to catch the ferry to Caen. We normally travel Dover to Calais but, given the trouble in Calais with potential delays and the fact that we were travelling to the south of France, we thought that the Caen ferry was more sensible.