Has been an interesting couple of days. We set off from Poitier yesterday morning and programmed the GPS to take the smaller motorway which we thought was 2 lanes each way. So funny. I will post some photos (lots since Dean says I need to post more, if I can as this internet connection is very slow) of some of the roads we went on which were barely big enough for one car let alone room for one each way. It is amazing the narrow roads that cars drive down. I guess if you have stone buildings from hundreds of years ago there wasn't much need to worry about how wide the gap between them was.
We headed for La Rochelle with the intention of walking along the beach and paddling our feet in the water. Well La Rochelle was hosting Europe's biggest ever boating expo with 3000 boats. We wondered why there were so many cars queued up to get to the beache. When we finally got close a policeman, who thankfully was very nice, turned us away as you had to park miles away and get a bus.
So we headed for Rochefort which was lovely. A beautiful city square (which is very common here). We arrived about 3pm and most places were closed between 1pm and 4.30pm. The only two places to buy cheese were closed. Lots of flower shops open??? I have been very impressed with the blue cheeses we have tried here but yet to taste the rochefort:)
Between Rochefort and Bordeaux we got stuck behind a tractor and a motorhome and an old git who Kevin said should be shot. It was so bad we pulled off the road and waited for a wine shop to open (4.30pm) and bought what turned out to be the worst red wine I have ever tasted. Must have seen the tourists coming. We threw the first bottle out. Have 2 more different brands but not expecting much improvement.
Slept in this morning. I have a bit of a head cold so haven't been sleeping so well. Drove into Bordeaux which was really beautiful. Amazing bridges and buildings. Then hit the motorway for Toulouse. It sure eats up the miles and we were mostly doing 110kmhr. The limit is 130 when it is fine and 110 when it rains. We were passed by 2 horse floats and a motorhome and lots of cars. They really fly past at 130-150km. Cost us $17 in tolls but worth it. When you travel on the smaller roads no one seems to pass even very slow things like a tractor. I guess they figure if you want to go fast you would be on the motorway.
We were a bit smarter today and programmed the GPS to go straight to the airport hotel. We figured the staff might speak more english which turned out to be so. We were able to get directions to take the bus and tube into town and back. If we take the car it is very difficult to get a park in town. Toulouse is lovely. We got on the little tourist train (on wheels) which goes about walking pace. The commentary was french but we had a written english version. 35mins for 5.50 euros each. When we got off it started to rain so we popped into the local bar (as you do) and sat next to some french people who spoke fairly good english as they had lived in the USA for 2 years. It was so good to talk to french people who could explain some of the things that we wanted to know although they couldn't work out why my phone says it has no credit even though I loaded 15 euros yesterday and got a message to say it was accepted. Will have to go back to the l'orange shop for the 3rd time. We bought a few NZ things with us to give to people so gave their son a keyring and a pen and they were really stoked.
Kev tells me Ireland beat Australia in the world cup. My God! I bet the Irish are still partying!!
Off to Barcelona tomorrow. Have to drive the car to the hotel so hope that will go well. Kevin is doing an amazing job with the driving. Dean, we will be checking out the places you have recommended. Sounds like there is so much to do we should have a week instead of 3 days.
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