Sur le Pont – 13 July 2010

Today's theme was bridges: Starting with the town we camped in – Le Malene – we drove through the spectacular Tarn Gorge, with many rock arches for the road to wind through, to morning coffee at another bridge town – Les Vignes. The itinerary was planned simply to take us to Millau, but the route itself proved to be a major scenic attraction.



In Millau, we were able to get printed instructions from the Tourist office (no doubt in high demand), to take a trip over the new bridge, which broke a number of records when it was built. A specially built viewpoint has a display about the making of the bridge, and then the drive over the 2.5km length goes all too soon.

Our fourth bridge was Pont du Gard. This section is the most impressive section that remains of the 50km Roman aqueduct, designed to provide water for Nimes. The sun was baking hot by now, and the well presented history of the bridge, construction, and water in Roman times, was a very cool respite from the heat.

Our final destination of the day was Avignon, and of course the Pont, made famous in the nursery rhyme we had learnt in French lessons.

We enjoyed walking around the town in the early evening, watching the performers there for the annual festival of arts, and generally enjoying the atmosphere of a lively buzzing town, before returning to our tranquil campsite and an excellent 3 course meal, the main was duck cooked in a local Provencial way - absolutely delicious.

A Postman's “Castle” - 12 July 2010

Hauterives is the location of the Palais Ideal du Facteur Cheval, our first stop of the day. This creative folly is the work of a postman who collected rocks on his 32km postal round, and over a period of 33 years, built a whimsical folly. Stairways lead up to turrets and vantage points, over the “castle”. All manner of building styles are involved, from Egyptian, Roman & Aztec. The locals considered him slightly mad, but he persevered, and when the local authorities changed their minds about allowing part of his construction to be a mausoleum for himself and his wife he started again, at age 78, and built his own tomb in the local cemetery, using the same type of building style.

Our intended destination was Millau, so we took the scenic route along the Ardeche, and over the mountains. The road was full of hairpin bends, gorges and stunning scenery. Every vehicle (except one) was extremely courteous, and made it easy for us to pass, and we had a brilliant time enjoying various mountain roads.

We were very tempted to stop for the night at at picturesque gorge village of Pont de Mont Verte, but decided it was too far from Millau. So carried on to Florac, over a high mountain switch back road, across a plateau to La Malene. By this time we were only 35 minutes from Millau, so decided we should stop at this very appealing town. The combination of arch bridge and medieval town rising out of the surrounding cliffs, was irresistible. But just as we paid for the campsite, the thunder and lightening moved in, and we put up the outer shell of the tent in an almighty deluge. The extremely heavy rain lasted for at least 30 minutes, and as soon as it stopped, we decided to explore the town for dinner, while the world dried out.

After spending most of the day with pharmacy thermometers registering 36 – 37 deg, we now found ourselves in a muggy 31 degrees, which was not totally adequate to dry everything out. But by the time we had a salad in a local restaurant (while our neighbouring table dined on the most enormous platters of steaks and frittes we have ever seen), the campground had returned to a much drier appearance and we looked forward to seeing it in the morning sunshine.

Hot, hot and hotter – 11 July 2010

The air was delightful and fresh when we emerged from our tent, but it didn't take long to get hot and then progressively hotter through the day, until early in the evening a pharmacy temperature gauge said 35 deg. so it was obviously higher mid-afternoon.

The first stop of the day was Semur-en-Auxois. This town is definitely worth the slight detour. The town tour leaflet from the Tourist Office takes you on a pleasant walk to a viewpoint looking at the town along the Armancon river.

Our goal for the day was Lyon, so we only made one more brief stop in Tournus. This town has a Romanesque Abbey, but not much else. However, the previous day it was the departure point for the Tour de France.

Lyon was only another hour away and our hotel was in the centre of town, and easy walking distance to everything, although 'easy' is not the description we would give to the steep and long walk up to the Basilica in the heat. But the effort was most worthwhile for, initially, the view and then the Basilica interior. This stunning church, totally over-the-top was built to fulfil a vow for deliverance from the invading Prussians. There are other notable buildings in the town, but none as amazing as this.

The Rue St Jean is a must for dinner. We enjoyed delicious salads (Lyonaisse salad is, naturally, a local dish), and the street is lively and interesting; all the more so, as the final of the World Cup was on and dinner was interspersed with cheers and groans from neighbouring bars showing the game.

On our way to Provence – 10 July 2010

Having nearly missed the ferry on our last trip to France because of traffic congestion in Dover, we allowed an extra hour for the queues in Dover only to find no traffic, so sat on the quay for 1.5 hours. For a new experience, we chose a ferry to Dunkirk.

Our intention was to get halfway to Lyon for our first night so chose a campsite in Soulaines-Dhuys. We optimistically set off on the non-toll roads, but after several deviations for closed roads, we realised this was false economy, and joined the excellent motorway toll road system. While driving at speed here, we encountered a violent electrical storm with fork lightening all around us. Fortunately we had had an opportunity to pull off and put the hood up, before it struck (not literally!).It was a matter of minutes after the hood was up that the deluge started so we were very pleased that a service area appeared at that moment.





Lunch was at the market town of St-Omer, and after leaving the toll system at Reims, we stopped at Chalons-en-Champagne. We were now in the champagne area, and this town is quite delightful, but not as small and cutesy as our final destination, Croix Badeau. To discover the campsite was adjacent to a very lovely little town, was a bonus. But the surprises did not stop there. At the far end of the little village was the Venise Verte restaurant; what a fabulous find!

Gardens of England – 4 July 2010

Inspired by our wonderful garden experience last Sunday (and also the reminder of Great Dixter garden yesterday), we set out to have a gardens day, before the roses are past their best.

Hever Castle is a favourite place to visit, but we have never seen their rose garden in bloom, so we started the day there. The garden was a picture.

Then on to Riverhill Gardens for lunch. A very peaceful spot, but we decided we should come back and visit again when the rhododendrons are out.


Nearby is Squerryes Court, which we had seen in the BBC production of Emma, last year. This garden is terrific, and at this property we also visited the house as well. The production took place in most of the house, and photos of the filming helped us remember where the scenes were shot.

Following Squerryes, we called in at Lullington Castle, to see how the 'World Garden' had progressed since we visited in 2007. Everything looked so much bigger, although the severe winter had damaged a lot of plants. It all still looks great, and this time they have also developed two plastic houses, the one we liked best was a large collection of stunning cacti.

Our original goal for the day was a visit to Cobham Hall, a girl's school in a stately home, which opens to the public in school holidays. It was fun to have a delicious cream tea in the ornate banqueting room.

The informative tour guide regaled us with interesting family history, from the days when the Tudor house was built to 1956 when the house was given to the state in lieu of death duties. A sad end to a proud family tradition.

The most interesting piece of trivia was to learn of the family connection to the history of 'The Ashes'. These were given to the 8th Earl by the Australian ladies associated with the cricket tour in 1883, when the 8th Earl was the captain of the English team. He kept The Ashes on the mantelpiece until his death, when they were given to the MCC, and are now awarded as the trophy to the winning team in the bi-annual English/Australian cricket series.

Lambeth Palace Library – 3 July 2010

The Lambeth Palace Library is celebrating its 400 year anniversary, with a display of some of its most famous treasures.




Although the display is contained in just one large room, it takes an hour to cover the room with the audio tour. There was a great variety of books and manuscripts, from a copy of the Guttenburg Bible, to Mary Queen of Scots death warrant. The book we found most fascinating was a first edition of Foxe's Actes and Monuments of the Church, more commonly known as Foxe's Book of Martyrs, opened at the page showing the illustration of Bishop Hooper being burnt at the stake. As Bishop Hooper is in the family tree it was a rather fortuitous coincidence.

Next door is the Garden Museum, who were giving a discounted entry to ticket holders from the Library exhibition. The Museum is small, but has a nice garden, where they serve most excellent vegetarian salads. The current exhibition features the gardens of Great Dixter, and Christopher Lloyd, who developed them. As we have visited these wonderful gardens twice (in different seasons), we found this most interesting.

Following lunch, we went back to the library for two of their lectures. The first featured a book about the Danse Macbre. We had been introduced to this in Slovenia, when we visited the wonderful painted church there. The speaker featured this church in his talk. The second lecture was a most illuminating discussion on the background to several witch and anti-exorcism tracts in the Library collection.

A pleasant walk along the Thames took us back to the underground.

From Suffolk country grandeur, to Constable Country – 27 June 2010

Starting at Stratford St Mary, we enjoyed meandering through delightful country towns, many associated with John Constable. He caught the stage coach outside The Swan in Stratford St Mary, to unsuccessfully try and interest the London public in his paintings.

Next was Nayland, where we saw one of only three religious works by Constable, and this is the only one to still be in the location it was painted for.

Kersey is a real 'chocolate-box' village. The ford, which is still in use, is a must for photos. We carried on until Chelmsford, where we left the route for a detour to Helmingham Hall Gardens. These gardens are wonderful, and unlike yesterday's, these definitely are in our top five favourite gardens list! The moated Tudor house is a draw-card in itself, even though it is not open to the public. The main gardens are also moated (possibly a Saxon moat), and an absolute delight to visit. The roses were stunning, and I would recommend a visit in June, to catch the gardens at their best. There is also a lovely formal garden behind the very tempting 'Old Stables' tearooms.



Back on the AA route, we went through the colourful town of Hadleigh to East Bergholt, where Constable was born. The church there has the distinction of not having a church spire. The tower was started by Cardinal Wolsey, but never finished, and the bells still hang in a temporary wooden enclosure.

Flatford is just around the corner, and the National Trust have preserved Willy Lott's cottage and the boat building dry-dock, and it is possible to walk around the area, looking at the various sites where Constable did some of his most famous paintings. The afternoon was so warm, we did a boat trip from in front of Bridge Cottage, the NT display centre. This took us along the River Stour, which featured in many of his paintings, to the Fen Bridge where Constable crossed the river twice a day going to and from school in Dedham.

The last stop of the Day was Dedham to visit the church, found in 26 of Constable's paintings, and which also has one of his three religious paintings on the wall. Although this was originally painted for the church in Mannington, it was displayed here when that building was demolished with the intent that at least one of Constable's religious paintings should be on show in Constable Country.