Pierrefonds – 29 August 2011

BBC TV has had several series on Merlin and Prince Arthur as young men, set in a most stunning medieval castle, with amazing turrets etc. When we planned to take a week in France, we checked the Web to see where this castle might be, and discovered it was in Pierrifonds, just north-east of Paris. This seemed a good place for our last night.

We had hoped to pack up our tent after visiting the castle, which helpfully opened at 9.30am. But the grumpy 'dragon' in the camp office was adamant the the 'regulations' did not permit us leaving the tent beyond 10am. So although we would have liked a totally dry tent for our last morning, we had to make do with a nearly dry tent.

The castle is massive, originally built in the 14th century by Louis d'Orleans, it fell into disrepair until Napoleon I bought it and his nephew Napoleon III restored it in the 19th century. So a lot of flamboyant details were added, but the effect is still quite medieval. Somehow the filmmakers have avoided the more modern additions, to give a strictly medieval look.

We enjoyed our dinner beside a lake, overlooking the castle on Sunday night, so returned for a goats cheese salad for lunch, after the castle visit. Then we set of north for Calais, stopping off first at Compiegne. This town was where Joan of Arc was captured in 1430, it also has a palace designed as a summer holiday home for Louis XV and restored by Napoleon I. The town is really beautiful , full of substantial houses.

Close by is a very interesting historical spot, where the Armistice was signed, in a railway carriage on tracks running through a dense forest, at 11:00 on 11 November 1918 to end World War I. The carriage was preserved, with the table and the original chairs used by the various generals when signing the treaty. In 1940, Hitler staged a triumphant ceremony when the French surrendered to him, using the same railway carriage (at that stage a memorial in the forest clearing), sat in General Foch's seat, generally made the French eat humble-pie and took the railway carriage to Germany in triumph! Fortunately things changed five years later, but sadly, the original carriage was mostly destroyed in a fire.

The museum houses an identical carriage from the same railway company, and it is set out as it was when the WWI treaty was signed. The whole museum is very interesting, particularly the stereoscopic pictures they have, of all aspects of WWI. They must have about 50 of these, the quality off the pictures is incredible, and the photographers were not at all squeamish. To see pictures of the soldiers in trenches, medical operations, aeroplane accidents, and bombed villages made the war very real. We found the bombed village scenes very moving, as we had just driven through dozens of villages with their lovely old churches and cute houses; to be faced with such a massive rebuilding task and achieve it so successfully is amazing.

North-east of there is Noyon. This humble town boasts a huge cathedral. This one dates from 1150, but four previous cathedrals stood on this site, and this was where Charlemagne was crowned. The cathedral was a real contrast to our visit to Chartres yesterday. Not at all graceful, simple windows, in fact solid and ugly from the outside, and just plain massive inside.

There were two things of particular interest. A memorial for the allied soldiers in WWI, including a New Zealand Shield. The moving words 'To the memory of one million dead of the British Empire, of whom the greater part rest in France' really made it even more tragic. Behind the cathedral is a unique half timbered library.

From here it was north to Calais, passing by a series WWI War Cemeteries, and attractive villages. We wondered how many of these were in ruins after WWI, as we were driving right through the heart of the Somme battlefields.

Chartres and beyond – 28 August 2011

The '24 Hour Circuit' museum opened at 10am, so we got there at opening time, and found it interesting, and then took the 11am minivan tour of the circuit, including the famous Dunlop Bridge, grandstands, control room, pit stop and workshop area.

There was a small team of cars practising, so that gave a feel of the race excitement. The tour leaflet showed the 13.6km 24-hour circuit included public roads, so this was probably the best discovery of the tour, and we enjoyed driving the public road sections of the circuit, about 60% of the route.

Although we have visited Chartres before, it is right on the way to Pierrefonds, so we stopped again. After all, the UNESCO protected cathedral in Chartres is quite awesome. Originally building began in 1020, mostly burnt down in 1194, it then survived the 100 Year War, French Revolution and both World Wars (although all the glass in the windows was removed during both World Wars).

The windows are amazing, donated by aristocracy, royalty and priests in the early 13th century, the detail in the fine 176 stain glass windows tells Bible stories and glimpses of daily life. If that was not enough, around the Choir are Bible stories illustrated in carved stone. This is referred to as the 'Bible in stone'. If you were to study each window, it would be a very long visit indeed. We unfortunately had limited time, so only allowed an hour, plus a walk around the historic centre.

Our destination of Pierrefonds took us on a ring road around Paris. We were unsure how slow this would be late afternoon on a Sunday, with locals returning from the weekend, but it proved to be very easy, with signs saying 'Perif fluide', although the other direction was at a standstill. This was definitely a time for the stressless guidance of a GPS. It was fun to drive along a section of the Seine with the Eiffel Tower a short distance away.

24 hours of Le Mans – 27 August 2011

The morning was a total contrast to the day before, with brilliant sunshine. Our route to Le Mans went straight through the centre of the Loire Valley. We have visited here previously, but it is such a beautiful area, it was a pleasure to have a second visit. We decided to visit the gardens of Villandry again, as these were the highlight of our previous visit.

The gardens are laid out in a similar to the monk's gardens around their abbeys. All the vegetables are grown inside neatly ordered box hedges. Standard rose bushes around the gardens represent the monks at work. In front of the chateaux is a more formal box hedge garden, where each geometrical pattern tells a story – about love.

The grounds are extensive with more formal gardens behind, viewing platforms and a new gardens since we were last there – a sun garden full of gold, orange and yellow flowers; and a cloud garden with blue and silver flowers.

We passed a few more chateaux on our way north, before arriving at Le Mans. Murray was keen to visit the town, because of it's racing fame, but the town itself is also well worth a visit. The approach to the old town was past part of the original Roman city walls, said to be the best left in France, we were certainly impressed.

The Tourist Office staff were most helpful and gave us a map of the town, information on the 'Le Mans 24 Hour Race Circuit' and nearest camp site, 5k out of town. After admiring the old town, Cite Plantagenet, we found the campground and put up the wet shell of our tent. Unfortunately there was no food at the local village, so back to town we went.

This time, a poster on a large tower caught our eye, clearly they had buildings illuminated at night. The Tourist Office was still open, and told us it started at 9.30pm and lasted two hours. We had not paid the €20 deposit for a barrier pass at the campground, as we had expected to be home well before then, as we still had to finish setting up camp.

So while Christine researched the restaurant menus and made a selection, Murray went back to get a barrier pass. The office was most unhelpful and refused him one, saying the gate was locked at 10pm and a key did not allow entry. He tried to explain about the illuminations, but they couldn't/wouldn't understand.

Murray retuned empty handed and we set off for dinner, with the curfew time of 10pm to work to. By having time to research, we were able to avoid the obvious tourist traps, and found a small restaurant tucked away, with a good looking menu and much more reasonably priced than the tourist traps. It turned out to be another gourmet highlight. We explained our time constraint to the waiter, and he was extremely helpful in making sure we left in time. Our car was parked in front of the cathedral, so we were able to watch 5 minutes of illuminations there, before heading back to the camp ground.

As is always the way, when under pressure, we missed a turning, found the alternative road had a 'route barree' sign, then took a long way round that and got back about two minutes to ten. With the car in front of the barrier arm, there was no movement of the barrier, the office was closed, so no help there, a barrier card was clearly required for access.

We needed the car beside the tent to pump up the air-bed, so took the only option we had – manually, the barrier would lift up about 100mm, this was enough for our low sports car to sneak underneath! There are times when a lack of French can prove a problem! We discovered that at 10 pm, actual metal gates closed across the driveway, effectively locking the drive to all, including card-holders. But why she refused to sell a card, when she was about to close the office at 7.30pm, and Murray was obviously going out, is a mystery!

Distressed and Inspired - August 26 2011

Other than the fact that the D-Day Landings had happened four days earlier, there was nothing particularly unusual about a June day 65 years ago in Oradour-sur-Glane. But in just three hours that fateful afternoon, the entire 642 villagers were dead and the village itself was a smouldering ruin.

The village has been preserved, as it was, as a permanent memorial to those killed that day and as a permanent reminder that wartime atrocities such as these should never happen again. Unfortunately the visitor's book here does not include the names of those subsequently responsible for the Killing Fields, Rwanda, Bosnia, Sudan and so on.

We were on our way north from the Dordogne towards Le Mans. The direct route through rural France went very near this village. We were glad we had made it a stop-over point, as it is a very poignant reminder of the horrors of war and the inhumanity that mankind is capable of when in the grip of an ideology and given power without rational checks and balances.

The 200 Nazi SS soldiers would each have had a mother of their own but that did not stop them herding the mothers and children into the church before gassing and machine gunning them and shooting the men, then setting fire to the town.

All around the town were poignant reminders of the families who lived there. Sewing machines, burnt out motor cars. Various shops were possible to recognise, the church had not escaped either. This was a very sombre place, and the weather reflected this too. Heavy storm clouds were all around us, but fortunately a lull in the rain allowed us to walk around.

We carried on through the rain until we reached Saint Savin, where the sun finally came out for the first time that day. This attractive town has an 11th century abbey church, now protected by UNESCO. The interior contains an amazing series of 12th century Romanesque frescoes. They cover the Old Testament stories from Creation to the Ten Commandments.

Not far from here is Angles-Sur-L'Anglin. This features as one of the attractive small towns of France, and we agreed. Set on a river, with the remains of a ruined castle up on the cliff top, this town would rate among the high-lights of the trip. We should have been so overwhelmed by it's beauty, that we took a hotel room there, but instead, we found the closest camp site in a village nearby and

no sooner had we put up the shell of the tent, when the heavy rain we had experienced for most of the day returned. But all was not lost, after it cleared up again, we walked to the restaurant in the small local town, and enjoyed the best meal of the trip so far. No tourist town this, no English spoken, but we figured out the menu and had a beautifully presented, truly gourmet meal.

Dawdling down the Dordogne – 25 August 2011

As expected, we were woken by rain once more but the thunder was a very lack-lustre affair and the rain was all over by the time it was a decent hour to arise. Driving up river we visited Domme which had its weekly market day and thus abundant crowds of tourists milling around.

Having surveyed the scene from the fabulous viewpoint at the edge of town we wandered back past all the shops crammed with the artisans wares all vying for the tourist eye and tourist Euro.

Dropping back to the valley floor we returned to Castelnaud, and just happened to be there at a suitable time to re-visit the patisserie, after we had slogged up the hill to the chateaux. It really was not worth the climb and we felt sorry for the serfs who rebuilt this castle 10 times during the 100 year's war.

The castle was the English base and Beynac just down river was the French base. Whether it says anything about who won; or the contrast between English and French design flair; or what; is hard to say but Beynac is world's apart in terms of tourist appeal.

Again it is a hot hard climb from river level to the Chateaux at the top of Beynac, but the views are great and the buildings along the route very attractive.

Wherever you are, looking down on the Dordogne, it is hard not to notice the stream of canoes and kayaks paddling down river and since we had a vendor based at the beach a few yards from our campground we decided to join the throngs of happy paddlers. From La Roque-Gageac to St Vincent-de-Cosse is 9 km by river

and you can take as long as you like to drift, swim, or paddle down as there are shuttle buses returning you to the start point every hour. By the time we had finished photographing Beynac we realised that we were close to an hourly departure time and if we hurried we would make the next bus, or have to wait an hour; we made it with 10 minutes to spare.

After a swim back at camp we set off to find the viewpoint looking over the great loop of the Dordogne, it was frightfully disappointing compared to the other views we have seen in the last two days. Carsac was just around the corner so we carried on to look at the beautiful Romanesque Church, which did make the trip worthwhile.

It was the perfect night for a picnic, but the pull of Le Roque-Gageac was too strong, so we walked back again to eat on the roof terrace at the other end of town enjoying the two specialities of the area – foie gras salad for entree and walnut gateaux for desert. By the time we finished, the town was flood-lit, making attractive reflections in the river.

Discovering the Dordogne – 24 August 2011

We knew the forecast was for thunderstorms on Wednesday, and we heard some thunder in the distance at midnight, but at 5.30am it started in earnest overhead. It was such a contrast to the perfect sunset the evening before. The lighting and thunder playing games with us, sometimes nearly overhead, then moving away, only to come back again. It played this game over and over, to the accompaniment of torrential rain.

After a couple of hours, it stopped and we hastily began breaking up camp. We had only got as far as the bedding and inner tent, when it returned. So we relocated to the camp buildings for breakfast, then used the next lull to roll up the very soggy tent and put in a large plastic bag. We then had a shower while the rain continued to provide nature's shower, and we were off in the rain. Fortunately the thunderstorms had moved away and after a few false starts, the sun came out more and more frequently.

The Dordogne river valley starts to get more interesting after Bergerac. This town has a beautifully restored old centre. We passed through several pleasant country towns, and the visual treats really kick in once you get to Castelnaud. But just before that, we made a diversion to visit Les Milandes. This is a romantic looking castle in a wonderful position, high above the Dordogne Valley. The castle was the home of Josephine Baker, an American who found fame as a Paris cabaret singer and exotic dancer. The story of her life and the costumes she was famous for, made the visit very interesting.

Our lunch stop (we had intended to eat at the castle, but lunch waits were 45 minutes) was Castelnaud, just down the road. This stunning spot beside the river, has the most essential picnic asset – a great patisserie (in fact we bought lunch here three days running – great walnut tarts, walnuts are one of the specialities of the area). After our riverside picnic, we set off to visit the Marqueyssac Gardens.

We had seen pictures on the Web, and they are stunning for those (like us) who are captivated by clipped box hedges. The gardens were developed for 30 years from 1861 by Julien deCerval, abandoned and then in 1996 restored to their former glory. The chateaux and gardens occupy the entire flat area at the top of a massive cliff – in fact an entire flat topped mountain.

A very strategic spot above the river. A military owner before Julien, moved 2500 tons of rock to make a large straight ride, to exercise his cavalry charger. A track navigated the cliff top, and from a belvedere at the far end, we looked down on the stunning village of La Roque-Gageac and close by, a camp site, also on the banks of the Dordogne.

After exploring the gardens, we drove back to the river and managed to secure a riverside site at the campground. As we planned to stay for two nights, its position was brilliant, right in the heart of the most interesting part of the Dordogne, on the river and near a 'must visit' village.

We erected the very wet outer shell of our tent, and set of to explore Sarlat, 10k away. We had visited this by chance in an earlier visit to France, but not explored the surrounding area. We were very impressed by Sarlat last visit, so were interested to see if second impressions after seven more year's of travelling, matched our first. The quick answer is 'yes', Sarlat is definitely a must visit village when in the Drodogne. It is full of wonderful medieval buildings, a large square and masses of narrow fascinating streets.

Back at the campground, we made our way along the river to our own stunning village – La Roque Gageac. This beautiful village is built on pretty much a steer cliff, there is just enough space between the buildings and the drop into the river to fit two lanes of traffic, but no footpaths so it is “walk, or drive, with care”. Up above the river side buildings, narrow paths lead to a beautiful small châteaux, a church and houses. We dined beneath an ivy clad châteaux, on the rooftop terrace of a restaurant, our table right above the Dordogne. We were able to dine and watch a group of six balloons rise from the other side of the river.