Things on the go

Well after six weeks back in northern France, I can't believe how fast the time has gone by and that there are only nine days before we fly to India. I had such good intentions of using this down time to get fitter, finish a painting promised to a friend and put a concerted effort in to learning enough French to get by. I haven't entirely failed in all of these things. The odd bike ride here and there hasn't hurt, as well as enough horseriding that I'm now comfortable if not confident trotting bareback; spending two weeks labelling little jam pots with the French workers at Eli's company has helped on the language front and the intentions of painting the picture are still there even if the inspiration isn't.

I have grown a little older in the interim; I celebrated my 28th birthday with not one but two yummy cakes (a mille feuille and a caramel cheesecake) made by our in-house chef, Henry. We also moved into a gorgeous house in a village called Tortefontaine (or twisted fountain) and have all been busy with unpacking, painting the odd worn-out bit of furniture and cooking and eating three times a day. So here are a few pictures of the house and its surroundings - Claudia and I the morning after we partied at the house with friends from London and Paris; Maude the cat stuck on top of a ladder (we rescued her after this picture); me and my birthday cakes; the Landy happy in its new home; our bovine neighbors and the crucifix on the road outside our house.

Please excuse the bad formatting, I'll get the hang of it soon I hope!
Next stop: Bangalore...

Almost Carcassonne

For those who read this with a view to making sure we are still alive and haven't driven over a cliff, apologies for the silence. While I'm in an apologising mood, sorry about the lack of pictures so far, I have finally copied most of them onto my computer and will go back and add them to the blog soon! We are very much alive and back in St Remy and the Euro trip has come to a slightly premature end.

A few days after Barcelona, we set off from Conat (shown in the picture is the view from the house window of the whole town) towards Carcassonne, where a university friend of Eli's, Steve was heading to visit his mom for two nights from Hong Kong. All was going brilliantly until, with an hour to go 'til Steve's mom's place, the Landy popped out of gear and much whirring and grinding ensued. We pulled over onto a conveniently placed gravel patch and thus our days in the Landy were unceremoniously over. As good as Eli is at fixing these things, this thing was a bit too serious (we think), and something had gone wrong in the gearbox (possibly) or in the clutch (conceivably), and was not something Eli thought was easily or affordably remedied. So, we had the darling car towed a few km's back to a garage we had filled up at 10 minutes before the breakdown by the mildly amused garage owner (who had been chatting to Eli about the Landy while we filled up), and asked Steve's mom if she wouldn't mind terribly coming to get us. This she kindly did, along with her boyfriend, the less-than-amused town butcher who had to be up for work in 5 hours (it was already 11pm). So we had made it to Carcassonne (well to Puicheric close by), albeit sans Landy.

We had a great weekend though with Steve, Paula his mom, Modeste the butcher and Tiffany the dog, who with three walks a day is probably the luckiest mutt in France. We spent Saturday night at the Puicheric fete, which was a grand affair for such a tiny village, with a pretty impressive cover band and full-on carnival on the go. On Sunday we tagged along to a lunch in a nearby village with three British couples who live in the area, and who were all very entertaining with the hosts having owned a restaurant in LA, which was frequented by the rich and famous, as evidenced by birthday notes from Leonard Cohen and relaxed impromptu photo's of Mick Jagger and others hanging on the walls. On Monday Steve had to leave for a wedding in England which he sadly didn't get to as there was a family emergency in Hong Kong and Steve and Paula both had to fly over as soon as they could. We stayed on in the house with Modeste for a few days and walked Tiffany and organised to get the Landy towed back up north and eventually got on the train headed for Pas de Calais.

We didn't quite end the holiday there, as we drove 7 hours back down to the bottom of Normandy a few days after arriving home for 3 days on a little island called Noirmoutier with some of Eli's Parisian friends, as well as Dave from England who had been on a parallel adventure to ours, but who had been working on farms instead of touring the motorways. The weather wasn't amazing and so we had one good beachy day and two wet indoor days playing UNO, then headed home again via Paris for one night, where we had to go to apply for our visas to India for the end of October.

So, there are still exciting times ahead...about a week to go before Eli, his brother Henry, Henry's friend Gaultier and I move into a brand new house in Tortefontaine, a village about 10km from where we are now. Only 2 months later we head off for brand new travels in India!!! Watch this space...

Barcelona!

We made it into Spain finally, it turns out the 2 hour traffic jam we had endured sans roof in the midday sun was because of a little frontier town which sold tax-free booze and smokes and all sorts of other tat so people were heading not to Spain itself, but merely the border. So the trip into Barcelona was jam free after that. We parked and walked to Park Guell, designed by Gaudi and within which are buildings and fountains of his signature organic style. We then drove down and had a quick look at his Segrada Familia, which we could barely make out behind all the scaffolding. Since we hadn't organised a place to stay for the night, we found somewhere central and busy for the car to sleep and for us to use as a base, then walked around looking for a nice bar. Finally in a tiny side street we stumbled upon 'Nevermind', a grungy grimy little bar with incredibly cheap beer. We were happy. Three hours later and wishing we had paced ourselves we thought a nap was in order so we covered the Landy with the tarp and curled up awkwardly in the front seat for a few zzz's. At around midnight we woke and wandered around some more until 3ish, then fetched the car and found a tiny cul-de-sac where we slept some more. I would have loved to spend more time in Barcelona as the atmosphere is great and we didn't see much of it, but thatll have to wait I guess. We arrived back in tiny Conat around 10am and were accosted by a little old man urging us to go and watch the concert on the go in the village's church. So dirty and tired we crept into the back and watched a few brilliant classical performances in the beautiful little building built with the local pink marble, before sneaking out and back to the house for a sleep.
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Conat & The Pyrenees

We have spent the last 5 days or so in a tiny village in the French Pyrenees called Conat. A friend of Eli's family had kindly said we could stay in her house there during our trip and it has been a very welcome break for both of us, mainly because we have come to realise just how close we have come to total brokeness after most of the campsites have charged more than we expected, and so a financial rest as well as a physical one has been just what we've needed. The village is so small that only 45 people live there all year round, but its a bit busier now, in Summer, because it is the starting point for quite a few walking trails into the mountains. We have mostly been hanging out at the house, I've finally finished reading Shalimar the Clown and have started on another book, have cooked my first ever ratatouille and been doing a little bit of painting. We went for a cycle into the next town yesterday, uphill all the way there but obviously a nice breezy downhill all the way back! Today we are heading across the border into Spain to hopefully spend the night in Barcelona. I say hopefully because we have been in the most ridiculous traffic jam for about 2 hours and it doesn't show any sign of clearing up. Bleh.
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Monaco, Nice, Cannes, the Landy and me

Monaco may be great for formula 1 but not so much so for Land Rovers; there is a very steep little road leading into it which was packed with cars when we arrived and we had to manoeuvre very carefully so as not to bump into anything else! Once in town though the roads were easier and after a sneaky photo op for the car on the roundabout in front of the casino where all the Lambo's and Bugatti's hang out, we walked around for half an hour, had a very expensive coke and set off for Nice. Despite its name, nice it isn't. At the beginning of our trip, I was probably most excited about the south of France but now I can understand Eli's reluctance to stay any length of time there. Granted the view of the Med is great, but the little strip of beach looked packed with people and on one beach entrance I saw a sign saying Journee la Plage: 14 euro. Maybe its great out of season though! We drove on to Cannes, only a little further along the coast, where Eli's friend's parents had kindly found us a bed for the night, and who also took us out for dinner and walked around Cannes a bit with us. After a long day driving in the heat and a long two weeks in a tent, it was most appreciated! The next morning we were keen to get away from the holiday beaches and decided to go to the Camargue, the largest river delta in Europe at the mouth of the Rhone and where the white Camargue horses run wild! We wanted to stop at St Tropez on the way, which sounded easy enough but actually involved at least 3 hours of almost stationary traffic in the glaring sun on the only road leading there. Once we arrived, very hot and sticky, we had a beer with Eli's client who works at a very fancy hotel in Ramatuelle next to St Tropez and he drove us around the hotel grounds a bit and showed us the incredible view. The Landy started acting up a little just before we reached the Camargue, so we found a campsite closer to where we were which turned out to be really cheap and cheerful and apart from it being right next to a high speed train track, pretty peaceful too. We unpacked the car the next morning and drove into the Camargue national park where we saw some of the famed wild horses and some not so wild ones all saddled up and ready to ride. The Camargue is also famous for bull breeding and apparently bull fighting too. Apparently unlike Spanish bullfights, these ones are not destined to die during the spectacle though. Still sounds like the poor animal must be frightened half to death. This too is the only place in Europe where they have flamingos living in the wild. We saw quite a few strutting around in the marshes along with loads of other birds. Makes me wish I was a birdwatcher so I could tell what they were! Anyway it is an incredible, unspoilt place and we were about to experience its other claim to fame because the Landy sputtered and died while we were still in the reserve. I guess if you're going to drive a very old car halfway around Europe you should know what can go wrong with it. Luckily (for me), Eli has replaced or repaired most of the car and so knows it very well. So I had faith in him finding out what the problem was. He did eventually and we were on our merry way after about 3 hours, but not before the Camargue's notorious mosquitoes had had their merry way with us. Cheeky buggers. Anyway today we are itching our way along towards a place called Prades which we will call home for about the next week. It sounds lovely and remote and a good place to rest for a few days.
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Deiva Marina and the world's best campsite

We have spent the past three nights in Deiva Marina at a campsite which seems to be a well-kept Italian secret. Whereas all the previous sites we have stayed at have been host to mainly Dutch and French campers, this one was almost completely full of Italian families who have probably been spending their holidays there for generations. It is on a secluded spot of coastline and you have to drive through an old railway tunnel to get to it, so it is kept happily separate from the town's main beach, which is packed with grids of matching umbrellas and men in speedos. Our tent was perched on an outcrop with the turquoise waves lapping at the rocks below - bliss! Our first day was spent lazing on the beach and swimming in the beautiful clear ocean, then a quick cycle into town for supplies and a very successful steak and egg on ciabatta dinner. Then yesterday we took a train to Corniglia which is one of the Cinque Terre or 'five lands', and from where we walked along the coastal trail to Riomaggiore, stopping for a swim in the sea on the way. Between Manarola and Riomaggiore is the Via Dell'Amore, the 'lovers' road', where countless padlocks have been locked onto the railings and everywhere else by couples who have walked along it. Eavesdropping a guide in front of us, we gathered that this tradition comes from an old Italian movie about a 'bad boy' who falls in love with a rich girl and so they were kept apart by locks, or something to that effect. Despite having brought about 20 different padlocks of various colours and sizes on this trip, we didn't have a spare with us, so will have to return one day to leave our mark, but the view of the rocky outcrops along the mediterranean and the old towns with houses virtually piled on top of one another was unforgettable, so the Cinque Terre have certainly left theirs! Once in Riomaggiore, we hired some snorkelling gear and went out on a boat with about 6 other people to the most protected area along this bit of coast. It was wonderful to swim around and look at the shoals of little fish and down into the deep blue beyond. Eli did well for a first-time snorkeller, maybe one of these days I'll get him into some SCUBA gear! Back at the camp we managed to cool a few beers down to a vaguely acceptable temperature, and enjoyed them with gnocchi from the supermarket which was pretty divine. Today we bid Italy arrivederci and head for Monaco to show off our pimp ride amongst the Ferrari's and Lamborghini's!
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Pisa, Lucca and the Cinque Terre

We left Siena this morning and drove through some amazing Tuscan countryside towards Pisa, where we parked the car and walked 20 minutes in the wrong direction looking for the tower. Eventually we found our way and spent all of 5 minutes in the park by the leaning tower and cathedral watching everyone set up their shots pushing against the tower, hands resting on the tower etc etc. We can also confirm that yes, it is definitely leaning. We had to get back to the car though before the meter ran out so that was it for the leaning tower and us! Off to Lucca where we cycled the 4km around the fortified town walls and saw glimpses of the renaissance-era monuments and churches. Lucca has played an important part in Italian history and I'll definitely try to learn more about it once we get back! For now though, the ocean calls and we will be arriving in Portofino in half an hour to unpack then head to the beach!
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