PART 2
Ian did a great job navigating the treacherous conditions and I held my breath and fought the urge to shut my eyes (we were driving blind anyway – it wouldn’t have changed anything). We crossed the Andorran border and were back in France.
Our join-the-dots adventure took us next to the medieval fortress of Cité de Carcassonne in the region of Occitan. The old city consists of two concentric outer walls with 53 towers and barbicans or fortified gateways. It has a ditch around the outer wall and a cool drawbridge. It’s a very imposing structure and viewed from the surrounding countryside it looks straight out of a Disney movie set, only less plywood and CGI.
The town has about 2500 years of history. First settled by the Gauls in the 3rd century AD, then the Roman’s transformed the settlement into a fortified town. The Romans were followed by Visigoths, Saracens and Crusaders until the place lost its military significance in the mid-17th century when it became an economic centre for the woollen textile industry. We wandered the old cobbled streets and were lucky to be in the Cathedral when three men came in and sang some hymns in the most divine three part harmony. As is often the way in old cathedrals, the acoustics were marvellous and the effect of the three voices was exquisite. It literally sent shivers through our bodies.
On then to another dot on the itinerary – The Millau Viaduct, a cable-stayed bridge that spans the gorge valley of Tarn near Millau in France. It is the tallest bridge in the world with one of the seven masts standing 343 metres above the base of the structure.
We found an old road that ran underneath the viaduct and walked up to see it from below. It is epic in size and very hard to describe. When you see trucks driving over it and see how they are dwarfed by the scale of the masts you get some idea but still it is difficult to convey the magnitude of the project.
Check out this short video on the bridge’s construction. It is mind blowing! You will never guess how they did it.
This viaduct was built to alleviate road congestion around Millau on the drive from Paris to Spain. (For the Sydney-siders reading this, I’m thinkin’ Military Road/Spit Hill?)
It’s a very elegant spectacle and an engineering marvel.
From this modern (2001-2004) feat of engineering we drove on through the French countryside to Pont du Gard which is the highest of all the ancient Roman aqueducts and one of the best preserved. Its three tiers make it look very grand. It stands nearly 50 metres tall but descends a mere 2.5 centimetres over its length which is indicative of the precision of the Roman engineers. The bridge is part of the Nîmes Aqueduct which is 50 kilometres long and was built in the first century AD to bring water from a spring at Uzès to Nîmes. Over the entirety of the aqueduct’s length it fall just 12.6 metres. Just look at the size of that thing and tell me that’s not impressive! The tiler couldn’t even get the fall right in our 900mm by 900mm shower! These days it is a popular place for the locals to swim in the Gardon River and it makes quite the backdrop for some stunning holiday snaps.
We drove on through Provence to our destination, another dot on our itinerary, our own private moulin in the vineyard. Unbelievably pretty with a rose covered doorway, the round, stone windmill was surrounded by heavenly scented lavender humming with the sound of bees and set smack bang in the middle of a glorious green vineyard laden with new grapes. A spiral stair took you to the boudoir complete with a large round bed and gorgeous views over the fields below. Our lovely host spoke no English and so she described the ins-and-outs of the place with the help of spoken word google translate and gestures before she buzzed off in her little Citroen to leave us to explore. We set off to have some dinner before it got too late and drove to one of the many stone villages that sit atop many of Provence’s hills, Bonnieux. There we sat on a terrace overlooking the town as the sun set and we tucked into an amazing wood-fired pizza of all things.
Back at our little mill-in-the-vines we marvelled at the vast starry sky then lit the candles to light our way to bed, for the moulin has no electric lighting. Each morning a basket with fresh croissants, pastries and baguette was sitting on the doorstep to enjoy with our tea. I wanted to get an old Remington typewriter and a bottle of local red and start work on the next Man Booker Prize winning novel while breathing in the lavender’s scent and gazing into the blue sky distance while Ian rode a bicycle through the vineyard to replenish the baguette, brie and Bordeaux. It was très romantique.
We spent the days driving around the Provence countryside admiring the vast fields of every shade of mauve and purple in their rolling lavender stripes. We visited the Sénanque Abbey which was beautiful until the dickheads (what else could you call them?) turned up. Explicitly asked to be respectful and quiet as this is actually an Abbey and a place of worship and contemplation, people turned up with their mega lenses and loud shouty, shouty voices and promptly ruined the serenity so we left. Honestly people! Have some respect!
We had the most amazingly delicious meal in a lovely garden restaurant in the hilltop town of Sault in the heart of lavender country. Who knew you could take fresh salmon and crème brûlée and combine them! Bliss! Kind of sounds awful, but believe me it was sublime.
Our moulin host left us a bottle of local rosé and we’ve become fans. Very drinkable.
It was time to leave our beautiful moulin and head to the next dot. Avignon. We checked out the historical Palais des Papes or Papal Palace, one of the largest and most important medieval Gothic buildings in Europe. Once a fortress and palace, the papal residence was the seat of Western Christianity during the 14th century.
The old part of Avignon is enclosed behind stone ramparts and on the day we visited was deep in the midst of a three week long Arts Festival. Nearly every town square or large street corner had a troupe of players performing some dramatic interlude. There were flyers on every bare surface and actors distributing invitations to attend their presentation in the various venues all over the city. All very jolly. We couldn’t depart Avignon without strolling “sur le pont d’Avignon”, well stroll what is left of it anyway. The Rhône River has had a tendency to wash Pont Saint-Bénézet away over the years and I think they just got tired of rebuilding it. I was taught the song way back in kindergarten so it was sort of cool to actually visit. Even The Wiggles do a version now. The four surviving arches are believed to have been built in 1345 so someone knew what they were doing. There are several chapels on the bridge, including one where Saint Benezet is interred. He was a shepherd boy who, tradition has it, while tending his flocks was told by Jesus to build a bridge. The locals took some convincing but succumbed apparently.
On through the beautiful French countryside which was dotted with green or golden fields of various grains, rolled bales of hay and vast glorious sunflower crops (tournesol in French as they turn their flowery faces to follow the sun across the sky). Sometimes the brilliant yellow stretched all the way to the horizon in an awesome display.
Our next dot was the Musée Miniature et Cinéma in Lyon. What an amazing place! Lyon is where cinema was invented by the Lumiere brothers who have their own museum in Lyon but this museum is dedicated to the props and effects used in cinema but also several large rooms dedicated to the display of miniatures. There is a convention of scale in the production of miniatures and the usual one is 1:12 so most things on display are a twelfth the size of the original item. The detail is extraordinary!
The scope of objects and scenes was unbelievable. Think of an item. Any item. I’ll bet there was a miniature one in a case in this museum. A glove, a lolly jar, a chandelier, a double-neck guitar, a camera, knife and fork. There was even a display of a miniaturist’s workshop. OMG how meta is that!? A tiny dolls house on the shelf in the miniature scene with miniatures of miniatures and the miniature tools of a miniature miniaturist!!!
For those of you who may have read the story about my quest for little things when we were visiting New England last year, you will get just how mind blowing I found all this (check it out). To be fair, Ian was pretty blown away too. If you find yourself in Lyon and you like little things, I can’t recommend it highly enough.
We had another fabulous meal in a quaint restaurant in Lyon. It is a very stately city built on the confluence of the Rhône and Saône Rivers with grand old buildings lining the waterways and dominated by the magnificent Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière which is lit up at night.
Next stop Château de Chambord in the Loire Valley. It is one of the most recognisable châteaux in France because of its very distinctive French Renaissance architecture. Built 1519-1547 it has been altered and added to over the years.
It has the most elaborately decorated roof line I’ve ever seen and the thing I really wanted to experience, The Double Helix Staircase that runs right through the centre of the building.
It is possible that Leonardo de Vinci came up with the plan for this amazing bit of structural engineering trickery, literally two spiral staircases following the same trajectory but not meeting. There is a central light well, lit from a windowed tower on the roof that illuminates the stairs and gives the thing some scale when you stand inside. The chateau is very grand and we enjoyed checking out the history and the beautiful rooms and that marvellous staircase.
Our final night was just out of Chambord in a tiny village. A couple have a guest house with a beautiful garden and forest. Set in the forest are several cottages, one of which was our home for the night. Patrice and Beatrice were the most wonderful hosts, serving aperitifs in the garden in the evening followed by a fabulous three course meal with abundant, and varied wine at the dining table by the fountain in the garden. There were two other couples at our table and another two couples at a different table. One of the couples who shared our table spoke excellent English and the other couple spoke a little. The food was elegant and delicious, the company interesting and friendly and the evening warm and dry. We finished back in the outside lounge area with coffee and liqueur and then rounded off the whole night with Ian and I having a soak in the private Jacuzzi. It was a touch of luxury at a very affordable price. The amazing meal was a mere 25€ a head with everything included!
Our train didn’t leave from Calais until later the next evening so we drove on to Lille the next day and enjoyed mingling with the very excited French tricolored crowd as they gathered in the squares around large screen televisions moved outside from pubs and restaurants for the viewing of the final of the Coupe du Monde. There was a pretty big police presence too, some with flack-jackets and machine guns (!) but we didn’t witness any anti-social behaviour. We did have to drive down a crowded street with a GB sticker on our car which was humiliating as we would rather have been taken for loser Socceroo supporters than loser English supporters ha ha. We had to leave before the final whistle but continued to listen to the French radio coverage of the match. Believe me, you don’t have to speak the language to know when the broadcasting nation has scored. By all accounts Croatia played very well (they even scored France’s first goal - oops) and good on them for making the final. France were too strong however and defeated them 4-2 as we arrived at the passport barrier.
Once more in our car, on a train, in a tunnel, under the Channel and back to the where it all started which is where all proper Join-the-Dot puzzles end. If you stand back, squint and look at the total picture you will just make out a fabulous wonder-filled journey taken by two wandering Australians in a little black car.