Time passes as grains of sand through an hourglass

22 July 2013 by Sara Holden Posted in Blog Tagged Bordeaux, Dune de Pilat, extraordinaryplaces, France, sand dunes 1 Comment

And so the days of our lives go pretty slowly trying to get to the top the largest sand dune in Europe – Dune de Pilat in the Bassin Bordeaux.

Slowly and in my case… panting like a broken down horse. But at two hundred metres high and shifting around 15 meters in height depending on the season, even though it was quite a hike to get to the top, but the view is stunning – with sand and sea as far as the eye can see and beyond. Hiking up in one thing – getting down can be done in a variety of ways – people have surfed it, skied it, mono-boards, run, rolled and strolled. We stood and watched three young French lads throw themselves off the side of the dunes in spectacular, sand shifting sumersaults, “go-proing” themselves as they tumbled, and then we took the stairs.

Between the sea and the forest – the largest sand dune in Europe

As far as the eye can see – Far far out to sea

How many steps to the stop… this is just part one!

Flying high above Europe’s largest sand dune

Deceptive to the eye – it stretches high and far

Coffee, Castles and Crusades

22 July 2013 by Sara Holden Posted in Blog Tagged 2CV, Bordeaux, CharlieCharleston, chateau, France, Jumilhac le Grand

As we have meandered through the back lanes of France we have often criss-crossed the route of a rather less benign journey – la route de Richard, Coeur du Lion and all his caped Crusader chums.

As we sat sipping coffee in the sunshine in front of yet another glorious chateau, barely marked on the map in Jumilhac le Grand – we couldn’t help but wonder…. given the bloody and arduous task ahead of them, why more of them didn’t just drop to the back of the line and settle down in a nice little place in the Dordogne. How different things might have been now if only they have taken to the time to have a coffee and admire the view!

More than just frog’s legs

22 July 2013 by Sara Holden Posted in Blog Tagged Chubby, extraordinaryplaces, France, frog, frog's legs, tent

We were expecting to see frogs legs on the menu, but we weren’t expecting to see the whole thing happily squatting on the floor of Chubby, our tent.

It was out first day in France and up hops the little fellow to bid us bienvenue. I’m not sure what kind of frog this is – can anyone help me with that – but he seemed a pretty cheery chappie, possibly even more so when he saw we were having pork for dinner.

You don’t see many of those about, do you!

Our own toilet and a fridge – what more could you want?

22 July 2013 by Sara Holden Posted in Feature Tagged 2CV, Bordeaux, Charlie Charleston, CharlieCharleston, Dinant, extraordinaryplaces, France 2 Comments

We’ve been on the road for just over a week now, so here’s a little update – how we beat Black Saturday, our first visitor and our own toilet!

Black Saturday dawned bright and blue and we were completely unaware until the day before that the day we had picked to start our grand tour, was the same day that the rest of Europe always picks to start their two weeks in the sun. Leave in the afternoon and you will be fine (probably), was the advice we were given, and it was academic anyway. Despite being up with the lark, the flat still needed to be cleaned and then Charlie needed to be packed.

Have you heard the expression – squeezing a quart into a pint pot? It is our daily task. We have tried to pack the minimum, but even just with Chubby, our clothes bags and food provisions, we still have to wrestle it in every day. Have we brought too much gear – inevitably? Do we need it all right now – of course!

Can we fit it all in – yes we can!

So by mid afternoon, we were ready to go and “put some miles between us and Amsterdam”. Charlie ate up the road all the way to Dinant in Belgium; our advice was good and we saw no sign of the holiday exodus – so there’s tip number one, never leave in a hurry! We swapped the lowlands of the Netherlands for the craggy outcrops of Belgium’s premier climbing region, chugging slowly between the towering rocky pillars that greet you at the entrance.

Quite the arrival

Day two, country three as we crossed over into France. We’ve travelled diagonally across France from Dinant to Bordeaux, with a few stops along the way. It’s not meant to be fast, but we did not expect it to be this slow either. The GPS is programmed to avoid motorways, which has brought us through countless delightful villages and towns – all at 50 km per hour!

vive la France ancienne

Wine as far as the eye can see

A few days ago we were calculating how long to travel 250km: “I reckon three and a half to four hours,” I said. “Time was I would have said about an hour and a half,” was Geoff reply, with fond memories of a Ducati motorbike with an engine as third as big again as Charlie’s!

But we are now based in Bordeaux for a few days – staying first at the house of old family friends – Charles, Linda, Katie, Isobel, Fudge the dog and Ben the giant ginger cat – and now camping out in their soon(ish) to be summer house.

I’m not naughty at all!

They can just chat away – I’ll sit over here

Barbecue at the building site

There are walls and a roof, but the rest is a building site. It is in a gorgeous village by the sea and as Geoff says “we’ve scored our own toilet and a fridge”. What more does any one want!