dimanche, juillet 23, 2006

summer road trip adventure

On Monday afternoon Mystery Guest came to Caen and Tuesday morning whisked me off on a road trip to the south of France!












We started off by a very long drive crossing the entire country in 38C+ heat , driving from Normandy to a tiiiiiny village lost in the hills near Lyon. Since we were heading down south Mystery Guest figured it was the time to stop by and visit his cousin and her boyfriend since it had been over a year since he’d seen them. It was so fun, they are really nice and we had a great time sitting in a courtyard of these oooold houses playing cards and chatting.









The region is amazingly beautiful, it reminds me a bit of home, many more hills than Normandy and the crisp scent pines was so familiar. Just driving around was heartwarming.













The next day we drove to the nearby town of Puy famous for its green lentils and a beautiful cathedral. We hiked all around the town and up “into the Virgin” as our hosts put it… ;-) It is a huge statue of the Virgin Mary perched on the peak of a hill overlooking the city, the view of the region made all those steps very worthwhile!










After lunch we left and continued our adventure crossing over into the Dordogne region where we stayed at a cute B&B in Sarlat. I had heard tons about this adorable village, and it was wroth it! The town is amazingly well preserved and as Mystery Guest said, "it's like being in a Medieval theme park" :-) The lady at the B&B recommended a fabulous restaurant for dinner where we made sure to take advantage of regional specialties, I had the dried ham, confit de canard, goat cheese and ile flottante for dessert (of course all accompanied by a local red wine! Yummy!)We hit the sack early after 2 days of long drives and were up early to go see some nearby towns.













The drives on the little roads were beautiful; I think this is one of the most beautiful regions of France that I’ve visited! There are so many hills and towns practically carved into them, facing winding rivers dotted with kayak tours… Just having the windows open, music playing and lively conversation made this trip fabulous.










In the afternoon we visited the caves of Lascaux, impressive! I had always thought that the drawings were much smaller but it is unbelievable that humans did such amazing things 17,000 years ago… it is a humbling experience.

The next day we were off back to Normandy. It was a long drive but there were some stunning sunflower fields to gaze out out the window…!










The couple days was a quick trip but so much fun! To just up and fly by the seat of your pants is the way to go…! Its funny how many inside jokes and tales are created on trips like these. From funny translations in roadside rest stops: “Trush, please put your periodic trimmings” (Trash for sanitary napkins etc…) or driving through towns with names like “Silly” or “Craponne” tee hee. I love it.

2 commentaires:

Anonyme a dit…

Raaah I look so high on that picture !! Scary ... I swear I didn't smoke anything, it was just fatigue.

MilkJam a dit…

awww you're cute ;) but yes, poor chauffeur driving 2,000km!!!