French retreat
14 - 21 August
Stayed a night in a 4 star hotel in Perpingnan, spent the afternoon at the pool, and Rach spent the night with a mild food poisioning. We picked up K's parents from the train station the next evening after picking up the Right-Hand drive rental car, and drove up to the Villa we had rented for a week in the village of Joch. Joch is at the base of the Pyranees and is a tiny place perched on the edge of a hill overlooking the Tet valley. The villa was great and when we weren't tripping about we spent our time swimming in the pool and relaxing on the terrace.
On Tuesday we went to the market in Il sur Tet, which is on Wednesdays. Instead we drove over a very narrow winding road for about 4 hours to visit Carcasonne, the return journey along the toll motorway was about 90 minutes. There was some great scenery though, we were all amazed when reaching the top of the drive up the mountain to find large flat plains. Carcasonne is a medieval fortress town which is well known for it's Disney like appearance. It's packed with tourists and so forth, interesting to see though.
On Thursday we drove up the same road but carried on a different route to Andorra. Andorra has it all, skiing in winter, hiking in summer. We decided to go shopping. Again a really interesting drive through some great terrain, until you hit the french border police when trying to back into France. Nobody was being stopped as far as I could tell, I think they just liked adding an hour to everyones journey.
The rest of the week was spent swimming, sleeping, drinking wine, and generally having a very quiet time, which we really needed, after being on the road for almost 2 months.
More photos are here - Joch :: Carcassone :: Andorra.
Next stop, Spain.
Stayed a night in a 4 star hotel in Perpingnan, spent the afternoon at the pool, and Rach spent the night with a mild food poisioning. We picked up K's parents from the train station the next evening after picking up the Right-Hand drive rental car, and drove up to the Villa we had rented for a week in the village of Joch. Joch is at the base of the Pyranees and is a tiny place perched on the edge of a hill overlooking the Tet valley. The villa was great and when we weren't tripping about we spent our time swimming in the pool and relaxing on the terrace.
On Tuesday we went to the market in Il sur Tet, which is on Wednesdays. Instead we drove over a very narrow winding road for about 4 hours to visit Carcasonne, the return journey along the toll motorway was about 90 minutes. There was some great scenery though, we were all amazed when reaching the top of the drive up the mountain to find large flat plains. Carcasonne is a medieval fortress town which is well known for it's Disney like appearance. It's packed with tourists and so forth, interesting to see though.
On Thursday we drove up the same road but carried on a different route to Andorra. Andorra has it all, skiing in winter, hiking in summer. We decided to go shopping. Again a really interesting drive through some great terrain, until you hit the french border police when trying to back into France. Nobody was being stopped as far as I could tell, I think they just liked adding an hour to everyones journey.
The rest of the week was spent swimming, sleeping, drinking wine, and generally having a very quiet time, which we really needed, after being on the road for almost 2 months.
More photos are here - Joch :: Carcassone :: Andorra.
Next stop, Spain.
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