Friday 17th October 2008 – Brech, France

We had beautiful Autumn weather for a lovely drive to Brittany. There were lots of vines on the way to Saumur and more on the hills behind the southern banks of the Rhone where there were also large numbers of wine caves. We crossed the river to the north bank at Gennes and were rewarded with beautiful views of the Rhone and the land to the south. The Rhone was very low with most of the river bed consisting of sand banks and islands. Judging by the very high flood prevention banks and walls, the river rises much higher at other times of the year.
For some reason best known to itself, the sat nav wanted to take us via Nantes but Jane suggested a better route from Ancenis on the D164 and D16. This turned out to be excellent – fast roads, few lorries and very pretty. We joined the main N165 just south of Pontchateau and, although it was a faster road, it wasn’t nearly as interesting. We soon arrived at Auray and stopping at the Leclerc hypermarket we stocked up with some wine. Just north of Auray we stopped at a camperstop at Brech, best described as ‘adequate’. I spent some time reorganising the lockers in order to accommodate the wine before preparing dinner.
Photos: The Montreuil-Bellay camperstop with the former abbey in the foreground and the romantic chateau behind; The River Rhone near Gennes.

Thursday 16th October 2008 – Montreuil-Bellay, France

We were very lucky that we had good weather for our walks yesterday as today started with heavy rain. As we moved north through lots of forest and then more open country, the weather gradually improved. We stopped at Boudeilles, with its two chateaux perched on a hill over the river below. The village was very pretty and we discovered that it had a very pleasant camperstop next to the river with views of the chateaux. The village was obviously quite a tourist attraction and was also very arty. There was a festival of art based on recycling with signs to different sections all puns on the French for ‘exposition’ – ‘Expot’ had sculptures based on old pottery and ‘Expeau’ had sculptures in and around the river.
The next stop was Brantome where the town is surrounded by water. The town was positioned by the river and my guess is that the river was then partially diverted by the addition of weirs so that it surrounded the town. Across the river from the town is a monastery, now used as a very grand town hall.
We were now back into the area of prehistoric dolmens and mehirs and there were a number on or close to our route. We stopped briefly to view a couple of dolmens positioned next to a large spring that almost certainly had religious significance to the population.
We had picked another camperstop for tonight and this turned out to be another inspired choice. The large car park at Montreuil-Bellay was in the former priory garden, next to a meandering river and with a view up to a chateau and the town perched on the hill behind the priory. It was a lovely peaceful spot and we had time to wander up to investigate the town before night fell. Another highly recommended camperstop.
Photos: The watermill at Boudeilles; The chateau, river and weir at Brantome; The river at Montreuil-Bellay – the camperstop is a little way beyond the tower.

Wednesday 15th October 2008 – Perigueux, France

We had noticed that there was a market in the square in front of the cathedral and I headed there to buy some bread for breakfast. The market was large, bustling and had at least three artisan bakers. I chose one that used a wood fired oven, producing a large variety of different shaped, dark-crusted loaves. Most of these were very large and the half loaf that I chose would keep us going for at least three days. Needless to say, it was gorgeous, the wood fire producing a thick crust with a wonderful flavour.
The tourist information map provided two walks, one based on Roman Perigueux and the other on Historic Perigueux. We followed both of these, stopping for lunch back at Henrietta as we were never very far from the camperstop. The Roman trail was interesting, especially the ‘Temple de Vesone’ but the highlight was definitely the historic trail. The architecture in the old town is absolutely fascinating with a huge variety of stone buildings. These showed evidence of the changes in use and fashion over the years – timber-framed additions had been tacked on, windows changed or blocked up and new buildings shoe-horned into gaps between older ones. As always, the cathedral church was impressive but there was so much more to see.
After dinner we ventured out again as I wanted to take some night shots of the old town. The atmosphere was excellent with very few people around and some lovely lighting in the old streets.
Perigueux is a lovely place and I would highly recommend visiting it, especially with a motorhome.
Photos: I love French markets – they had taught these Merlu to do synchronised swimming!; A chandelier in the cathedral; A building in the centre of Perigueux showing many different designs of windows and the changes that have been made over the years; The River Isle at night; One of the many attractive Perigueux streets at night.

Tuesday 14th October 2008 – Perigueux, France

It was a warm but overcast morning with haze in the distance. It was time to start heading north away from the warm weather and towards the English Channel ports. The journey was through rather boring countryside until we crossed the Lot River at Villeneuve-sur-Lot. After that there were more hills and as we approached Bergerac a profusion of vineyards appeared. The vines looked very pretty in their Autumn colours, most of the grapes had been picked but there were still a few bunches on a few vines.
Our planned destination turned out to be an inspired choice – a popular camperstop on the river Isle and right next to Perigueux’s old town. We made the mistake of following some signs to the tourist information office. They turned out to be signs for vehicles (not that there was anywhere to park once you got there!) and we walked round a one-way system until we arrived back just a few metres from where we had started. However, the staff were very helpful providing us with an excellent walks map and telling us where the Internet cafes were located. There was one just a hundred yards away and we ordered drinks and settled down for over an hour of emailing and blogging. We were the only customers for the whole time and the bill came to €5.60 (£4.50). Given that recently we had been paying €5 just for the Internet connection, this was very reasonable.
We really liked what we had seen of Perigueux today and decided that we needed to investigate it further tomorrow.
Photos: A vineyard in the Bergerac region producing Monbazillac sweet wines; The camperstop at Perigueux with the old town and cathedral in the background; We never did find out why this Perigueux house was perched on the wall.

Monday 13th October 2008 – Toulouse, France

After a relaxed start we went into the centre of Toulouse and did a little more exploring before meeting up with Paul and Louisa at the Capitol. We went to the same restaurant as yesterday, the Bistro de la Daurade in the Rue Jean Suau. We had a real French lunch, all two and a half hours of it, and the food was excellent again. The conversation flowed and it was great to catch up with all of their news – it was hard to believe that it was over a year since we saw them last.
We all visited the church of Saint Sernin, this time there wasn't a service in progress, and then went on to the Toulouse Rugby shop. There was a tremendous range of clothes and other gifts – ten times that of Bath Rugby. And then we discovered that we were in the men's shop – there was a separate, admittedly smaller, shop for women! This is a rugby-mad city and the support for the club is huge as shown by the nearly full-house (perhaps 30,000?) at yesterday's match.
We said farewell to Paul and Louisa and I am sure that we will get together soon after we return to England.
Photos: We came across this shop in the morning – it sold all sorts of British food, including Marmite and we were running very low. Unfortunately the shop was closed on Mondays; The tower of St. Sernin's church.

Sunday 12th October 2008 – Toulouse, France

Today is the day of the Big Match – Toulouse v Bath, the opening match in this season's Heineken European Cup. This will be the first live rugby match that we have seen since Bath played in Albi (close to here) last December. But kick-off wasn't until 16:00 so we had to to find something to do beforehand.
Being a Sunday, the buses back to the campsite finish at 19:00 and that would make it very tight to get back from the match in time. However, Marc at the campsite told us where we could park the motorhome near to a Metro station and we followed his advice. We started at the Place St. Sernin where there was a large flea market and we also took a look in the church of the same name but, as there was a service in progress, we only stayed briefly at the back. We then moved on to the intriguing Jacobin Monastery, with its very high ceilings and the tomb of Saint Thomas Aquinas, the 13th Italian philosopher. After an excellent lunch close to the Garonne River we crossed it and walked slowly along the banks towards the stadium. That is actually on an island in the middle of the river and we needed to walk over another bridge to get to it. We then discovered that there was no easy way up the very high flood-defence walls. After informing a group of Bath supporters on hired bicycles, that they were going to have a problem, we climbed up some steep emergency steps and over the top of the wall and down onto the pavement. When we arrived we bought tickets for €15 each (very reasonable compared to England) and we entered the enormous stadium. I can't quite understand why the stadium is a football stadium when rugby is much bigger than football in Toulouse. The stadium was nearly full by the time of the kick off and although there were quite a few Bath supporters, we were hugely outnumbered by a very enthusiastic and vocal crowd. I won't go into detail about the game but just to say it was very close, tense and Bath were winning with only three minutes to go. Toulouse won, kicking a penalty with the last kick of the match but Bath scored the only two tries.
After the match we met up with our good friends Paul and Louisa and other supporters would had made the journey to Toulouse. After a chat, we had to make our way back to Henrietta but we arranged to meet up again tomorrow.
Photos: A very large mirror in the Jacobin Monastery allows people to view the ceiling without breaking their necks but also allows interesting views of the people; The monastery ceiling; These people were very calm given that these flying saucers had just landed by the river; Bath pressing on the Toulouse try line – needless to say, both Bath tries were scored in the second half, as far away from us as possible at the other end; A group of Bath supporters.

Saturday 11th October 2008 – Toulouse, France

After a late start we travelled in to take a look at the city. A bus took us to a Metro station and we took a train into the centre. The Metro was very impressive – the driver-less trains were very frequent and it was a smooth and fast journey.
It turned out to be quite an eventful day. We stumbled across a celebration of Breton and Occitanian music. People here are very proud of their Occitan heritage with the Occitan language, once spoken in parts of southern France, northern Spain and northern Italy, is undergoing a revival. Many bagpipes were in evidence often very obviously made from a goat skin complete with four legs, the chanter attached to the neck and a wooden plug in the rear end. When we stood close to the players, the smell of goat was very noticeable, however the music was great except when they played 'Yellow Submarine'. We also watched a parade of marching bands and it became apparent that the Breton music was actually being played by groups based in the Occitan area.
We walked around the square where there was a local food fayre with many stalls selling honey, duck products, pates and truffles. I was tempted by the latter but was put off by the €590 (£480) per kilo price tag! I was not tempted by the 'Dressage de Chien Truffier' (Training of the truffle dog??????) for €16 – much cheaper but what is it? Something that smells of truffles so that you can train your dog how to recognise the scent?
As we left the Capitol Square where the music was based, we came across a protest drive by a large number of motorcyclists driving their bikes slowly through the streets blasting their horns and revving their engines. We never did discover why they were protesting.
Our last stop was at the Cathedral of Saint Etienne where we admired the stone and marble alter and the lovely wooden carvings of the choir stalls.
Photos: The bagpipe players with their bagpipes clearly made from goatskins – you will have to imagine the smell; There were some real characters playing; One of the bands marching in the parade.