Holiday in France
I have just returned from a nice relaxing holiday in the South of France. James and I were lucky enough to spend a week in a huge house based in the Dordogne region. In the very peaceful setting of a beautiful golf course, Maison des Pruniers was large enough to sleep 6 people and had its own swimming pool, though we had it all to ourselves. Our first day there was a Sunday and we discovered very quickly that nothing was open so we were forced to sit by the pool and catch up on some fiction reading ... such a hardship... a lovely change from all those medical text books.
During that week we made several trips, driving into the surrounding area. We spent an afternoon in St Emillion, a hill top town that is at the center of Bordeaux's wine making industry. There we climbed a tower to get a great view of the town and some of the surrounding vinyards, followed by a tour of one of the local vineyards. We had an introduction into the process of wine making, the history of St Emillion as well as a chance to taste some of the local wine.
We also made a trip to the prehistoric caves at Les Eyzies-de-Tayac-Sireuil where we had a tour of the cave Font de Gaume. The cave was discovered in 1901 and is believed to have been first inhabited by stone age people approximately 25,000 BC. The tunnel like cave is now the only cave still open to the public that contains multicoloured paintings. The paintings included pictures of mammoths and bison. Some included carvings into the rock, others followed the natural shape of the rock to highlight features of the painting but all were more like artist impressions of the animals rather than the stick animals I was expecting. On the way back to the house from the caves we made a quick stop into Bergerac to have a short wander around the city.
Another afternoon we hired a canoe and went for a paddle along the Dordogne river. It was less hard work than we were expecting due to the fast current, thankfully we weren't going in the opposite direction. The river is wide and enclosed by all the trees on the banks so you feel enclosed from the roads running along side it.
On our final day in the South of France we made a trip to Bordeaux, where we parked the car and then caught a tram into the city center. We had a wander around the city, saw a strange fountain which sprays water onto the pavement to reflect the surrounding buildings. We also went on a climb up over 200 steps to get a view over the city from a bell tower and ate lunch in one of the cafes which spills out of the restaurant onto the street.
After packing up and leaving the house we decided to make two stops on the way back to the ferry port at Caen. First was the port of La Rochelle, a small town with lots of posh looking yachts in the harbour. There were a huge range of fish restaurants and creperies to choose from so we sampled one of each and followed them by watching the Wimbledon final in an Irish pub. Yep those pubs are everywhere!
The second stop on the way back to Caen was at the town of Vannes. In the center of Vannes there are some really old looking streets which are cobbled and have what can only be described as Tudor esk. They looked almost cartoon like as the architecture was so different from everything else we had seen around France.
It was a lovely and much needed holiday, though I have to admit although James and I made the effort to try with the French language we don't feel we have improved much. Quite often we spoke in French and got replies in English. Sometimes we managed a combination of French and English, accidentally using English words without realising. At least we tried.
Have a look at some photos from our holiday.
Maison des Pruniers
During that week we made several trips, driving into the surrounding area. We spent an afternoon in St Emillion, a hill top town that is at the center of Bordeaux's wine making industry. There we climbed a tower to get a great view of the town and some of the surrounding vinyards, followed by a tour of one of the local vineyards. We had an introduction into the process of wine making, the history of St Emillion as well as a chance to taste some of the local wine.
Looking over St Emillion
We also made a trip to the prehistoric caves at Les Eyzies-de-Tayac-Sireuil where we had a tour of the cave Font de Gaume. The cave was discovered in 1901 and is believed to have been first inhabited by stone age people approximately 25,000 BC. The tunnel like cave is now the only cave still open to the public that contains multicoloured paintings. The paintings included pictures of mammoths and bison. Some included carvings into the rock, others followed the natural shape of the rock to highlight features of the painting but all were more like artist impressions of the animals rather than the stick animals I was expecting. On the way back to the house from the caves we made a quick stop into Bergerac to have a short wander around the city.
Another afternoon we hired a canoe and went for a paddle along the Dordogne river. It was less hard work than we were expecting due to the fast current, thankfully we weren't going in the opposite direction. The river is wide and enclosed by all the trees on the banks so you feel enclosed from the roads running along side it.
On our final day in the South of France we made a trip to Bordeaux, where we parked the car and then caught a tram into the city center. We had a wander around the city, saw a strange fountain which sprays water onto the pavement to reflect the surrounding buildings. We also went on a climb up over 200 steps to get a view over the city from a bell tower and ate lunch in one of the cafes which spills out of the restaurant onto the street.
The fountain in Bordeaux
After packing up and leaving the house we decided to make two stops on the way back to the ferry port at Caen. First was the port of La Rochelle, a small town with lots of posh looking yachts in the harbour. There were a huge range of fish restaurants and creperies to choose from so we sampled one of each and followed them by watching the Wimbledon final in an Irish pub. Yep those pubs are everywhere!
The second stop on the way back to Caen was at the town of Vannes. In the center of Vannes there are some really old looking streets which are cobbled and have what can only be described as Tudor esk. They looked almost cartoon like as the architecture was so different from everything else we had seen around France.
It was a lovely and much needed holiday, though I have to admit although James and I made the effort to try with the French language we don't feel we have improved much. Quite often we spoke in French and got replies in English. Sometimes we managed a combination of French and English, accidentally using English words without realising. At least we tried.
Have a look at some photos from our holiday.
posted by Caroline Black at
11:39
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