From South West France – Armagnac country

Since we last reported three weeks ago, we have spent a few days in Switzerland, followed by more than two weeks in the south of France.  After d’Hobby’s brakes were fixed in Austria it was westward-ho into Switzerland, and a long weekend in Bern (the capital) which is one of our favourite cities from past visits, camped by the river, and a pleasant walk into the old city centre.

After we left Bern and headed south we had a blow-out on a rear tyre on the autoroute near Geneva.  Because we were right on the carriageway we called out the local automobile club on an SOS phone to change the wheel for us (too dangerous with your own inadequate tools as traffic zips past 1 metre away at 130kph !).

Anyway, this got us to a tyre dealer in Geneva where we bought two new tyres – the spare was bald, so the remaining rear tyre became the new spare.  Good news is the dealer in UK who sold us the motorhome has offered to pay for the two new (Pirelli) tyres.

Annecy in the French Alps was the next stop – a truly beautiful setting on the lake and a quaint old town to complete the picture – full on market through the town on the day we visited.  (Pity about the killing of the English/Iraqi family that happened there a few days after we left.  Local opinion is firmly on a professional assassination rather than random mayhem).

Then, after Annecy, we drove south on the Route Napoleon, climbing and descending through the French Alps towards Nice, before arriving in Fayence to stay with Mark & Lorna (Jan’s brother & sister-in-law) at their Provencal farmhouse ‘Mas de Cabrie’.  We stayed in their self-contained guesthouse complete with the pool etc., and house sat the property, including two of their older dogs, while they went off in a camper van for a week’s break to the Dolomites (in Italy) with their younger dogs.

We had a really relaxing time, and a lovely 10 day break from travel – walking the dogs twice a day – swimming in the pool on fine days, and exploring some of the surrounding hill towns and villages with their markets, cafés, bistros and boulangeries.
Reluctantly leaving Fayence (they had new paying guests arriving), our next stop was Aix-en-Provence, again one of our favourite towns in the South of France.

Then on to Carcassonne in the deep south, and Rugby country.  There is an ancient citadel ‘La Cité’ on the south bank of the river, with all the towers and ramparts intact, and the medieval town is still within the walls – a full-on tourist trap of course.  On the north bank of the river is the ‘new’ old town which dates (only) from the 16th / 17th century, and this is in turn bordered by the Canal du Midi, which stretches from Bordeaux on the west coast all the way through to Marseilles on the Mediterranean.  We cycled along a stretch of the canal one day – about 12km each way, and it is very pretty, with large plane trees along most of the banks, and picturesque locks every couple of km.

We are currently staying at a campsite next to the River Baise in Condom (no jokes please), heading north-west towards Bordeaux.  This is the centre of the Armagnac growing/producing area, and we did a tasting (degustation) at the local Cooperative/Distillery this afternoon.  We bought one bottle of 10-15 years old Armagnac blend after tasting a range of 4 vintages – blends of 5yrs and 10-15 yrs; plus single grape vintages of 1985 and 1966.  The older ones were fantastic, but so were their prices!  Also bought some local wines to stock up the cellar a little.   Condom is also the home town of Alexander Dumas and his fictional character D’Artagnan, plus The Three Musketeers, with statues of them all in the town square.

From here we plan to make our way north via Bordeaux, with a re-visit to St Emilion, and then up the west coast to Brittany, eventually arriving back in the UK in first week of October.  Mike is due to have his 6 monthly blood tests, check-up and prescriptions, and we have organised to visit the Motorhome Show in Birmingham on 18th October.  It will also be an opportunity to get the van serviced – we’ve done 10,000km in the last 3 months, and hopefully renegotiate the insurance for the next 12 months.  After that we will probably head south again to Spain for winter (but our plans are as flexible as ever).