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From: Arnold/Debra
To: 
Cc:  
Sent: Sunday, September 03, 2000 11:29 PM 
Subject: Sunshine, Sunflowers & Sun Kings

Dear All

I know it has been a long time since I last wrote but, well...no excuses really.  Work is over, Belinda has visited and now we are in the Loire Valley soaking up the sunshine, the fields of sunflowers and going to places visited by the Sun King, Louis XIV.  But let's take a step backwards. 

Work in London finished for both of us on 28 July (although Arnold was officially on leave until end of August).  It was a little traumatic for me leaving because I had more or less been offered the whole Project to manage for the Company and the working relationships developed over the 7 months I was there were really very good.  Nevertheless, Europe kept calling. 

No sooner had work finished and Belinda arrived and the round of tourist type things began.  The weather was good to us most of the time (although Belinda was hoping for cold, typically English weather) and it enabled us to do lots of things.  A few days in Cornwall, a visit to Adrian in Bristol (thanks again Adrian) and back to London via Bath.  Belinda particularly enjoyed Stonehenge and it doesn't matter how many times you see it, it still has a "feel" about it.  I think the highlight of Belinda's trip was a visit to Lords cricket ground where we went up into the Visitors dressing room, stood on the balcony seen so often on television (see picture) and saw the museum in which the Ashes are held.  It was very interesting and will give us a different perspective on the cricket next time we see it televised from Lords.  We were also able to go inside Buckingham Palace and the Houses of Parliament and each of these is impressive in its own way.  Shopping was excellent in London as all the summer sales were on and Belinda's luggage went home very much heavier than when she arrived. 

Belinda left us on 18 August and we had to be out of the flat by 20 August.  Mad rush to clean up and then load our new van with all the things we had accumulated over almost 10 months in London.  Well, not quite, two tea chests of stuff went home.  Before we knew it we were on the docks at Portsmouth loading onto a ferry heading for Le Harvre.  This was an overnight ferry and after a relaxing drink watching the coast of Britain slip away, the trip passed uneventfully as we slept. 

Remembering to drive on the "wrong" side of the road we arrived uneventfully at Chartres, a small mediaeval town with a very large 800 year old cathedral with stained glass windows dating from 12th & 13th centuries - the best in Europe.  It was absolutely amazing and it was great to be able to share this with Lesley & Wayne Gould (Lesley is a former colleague of Arnold's) who happened to be in France and whom we organised to meet in Chartres.  The English guide we had for our visit to the cathedral hadn't had much experience really - he had only been studying the cathedral for 32 years!  He taught us how to read a stained glass window and what he didn't know about the history of the place and about the statues and windows really wasn't worth knowing.  Every text book, souvenir book etc etc written about the place seemed to have been written by him and it was well worth the 40FF we paid for the guided tour.  A bit of an eccentric type of personality but that added to the interest.  The children in the group were threatened with being thrown in the well if they misbehaved and it seemed to work.  He just looked at one kid at one stage and there was instant silence!  

Lesley and Wayne went back to Paris and we stayed on a few days in Chartres to more or less get organised and try to organise domestic life in the new van.  Lots more room in this van and it makes living in it a lot easier.  

Leaving Chartres we headed into the Chateaux district of the Loire Valley.   Oh, yeah, it has a lot wine too!  We visited the Chateau at Chenonceaux where, amongst other things, King Louis XIV honoured the residents of the chateau with a large portrait of himself because he had enjoyed himself so much there.  Wonderful formal gardens and huge fireplaces, along with Belgian tapestries and several paintings by the old masters - Van Dyck, Reubens etc etc.  

Moving on through the Valley we drove passed fields and fields of sunflowers being commercially grown.  It is not something you see much of in Australia and as they are such "happy" flowers it was great.   It is Sunday moring, the baker has just been to deliver fresh baguettes, croissants etc to the camp site and before we go off for some wine tasting thought it might be a good idea to write to you all - may not feel like it afterwards.  

Tomorrow we catch up with Ron & Tricia Cooper in Azay-Le-Rideau and we will spend several days being tourists together.  Will report on those exploits next week.  Will have to get into the habit again of weekly missives.  Shouldn't be too hard with all of France ahead of us.  As the weather gets colder we will head south to Spain/Portugal and then ... well not sure really.  

Food's great (particularly the creme brulee), wine's good (have to say though that we still have a preference for Aussie wine !!**) and we are starting to get back into the swing of being on the road.  Look forward to hearing from you all again too.  

Until next time  au revoir. 

Deb & Arnold
damag@bigpond.com  

 

 From: Debra ad Arnold
To:
Sent: Monday, September 11, 2000 1:48 AM 
Subject: Stranded in Azay

Dear All 

Can't believe a week has passed since last I wrote.  Not that we have been doing very much.  France is on strike - well - the lorry drivers are and petrol is non-existent where we are at the moment.  Apparently fuel is too expensive here and the lorry drivers don't like it.  So far they have been offered a 15% reduction, but still they make life difficult - it is said that emergency services may soon be struggling for fuel! 

Last week we were looking forward to meeting our friends, the Coopers, in Azay Le Rideau, in the Loire Valley.  We duly arrived, as did they, with the intention of spending a couple of days together before each going our separate ways to different parts of France.  One week later, in blissful conditions, we are still in Azay (all 4 of us).  The petrol strike has made it impossible to go very far and, as we are in such a wonderful campsite (by a river with a family of white swans in residence right in front of us) and with the weather being so good to us, a very peaceful week has been spent. Eating, drinking, occasional walking (to a restaurant or to send post cards or through the apple orchards [where scrumping was the order of the day - pinching fallen apples]) and a lot of just sitting around in the sunshine has consumed our time (see picture - also shows our new van).  It really is such a hard life! 

The Chateau at Azay is small but has an amazing light show at night.  We had heard the music on several nights and it was starting to wear a bit thin but, having now gone to the light show, it has much more meaning and is really a very pleasant back drop to our nightly meals which we share with Ron and Tricia (pre-dinner drinks being an integral part of the ritual).  A visitor to the light show is left to wander around in his/her own time and is invited to allow the music and lights to work on one's imagination.  This is very easy to do when the optical illusion of swans flying across the chateau suddenly appear and a wonderful carpet suddenly appears on the grass in front of you.  Vivid use of well hidden lighting appealed to my sense of the theatrical and the overall feeling of the chateau at night was mystical.  The dappled effect of blue and red lights on the vibrant green leaves of the oak trees will long be remembered. 

Before we were made aware of the petrol problems we did venture to the Chateau at Villandray where the formal gardens are not only floral but also vegetable and the surroundings quintessentially Loire Valley.  Sunflowers still abound, although many are now not quite as glorious as they were.  We also went to  Chinon and Samaur and wandered around these two old towns.  Meeting up with friends of Tricia and Ron also gave us a chance to experience French hospitality in a home environment where champagne was served to wet the head of the new baby we had gone to see. 

So, all in all, our week has been slow, sunny, pleasant, relaxing, full of good company, food and wine and I really can't think of a better place to have been trapped for a week.  I believe there will be petrol tomorrow or the next day and so hope to have some exciting, rather than restful, news for you next week. 

Bye for now 

Love 

Deb & Arnold
damag@bigpond.com  

  

 

 

To:  

Cc:  

Sent: Monday, September 18, 2000 5:24 AM 

Subject: Look back in (at) Anger(s) or Back to the Future(oscope) 

Dear All

Sitting in the fading sunlight, exhausted after a stroll along the promenade of the resort town of Les Sables d'Olonne on the Atlantic coast.  It has been quite a strange week since last I wrote and, having had a couple of glasses of local wine (sorry Mum!), I will try to make as much sense of things as possible. 

As you know, the petrol strike had stranded the Coopers and us in Azay Le Rideau.  I think you also know that we weren't that fussed by that either as it was such a lovely place, the weather was brilliant and the company very pleasant.  Monday dawned as lovely as ever and it was time for the parting of the ways.  We were heading in one direction, the Coopers in another.  We headed off towards a town called Lavardin where there are some wonderful 12tth century frescoes.  We were almost in Lavardin when the phone rang.  It was Ron saying that he thought that we should do some travelling together because he & Tricia felt sad at the parting of the ways.  Great minds think alike and we had also felt somewhat miserable at leaving our friends.  To cut a long story short, we saw the frescoes and headed of to Chinon to meet the Coopers again.  That is cutting the frescoes short (sorry frescoes).  They were truly magnificent but tragically they are falling off the walls as the plaster decays and it would seem that this particular lot of pictures aren't important enough to save.  It was a humbling experience though standing in a place of worship that has been functional for 800 odd years and still the graphic displays of devotion are so clearly evident.  Enough of the heavy stuff. 

Meanwhile back with the Coopers in Chinon we decided we would go to a town called Angers.  The main attraction of this town is the chateau that contains the largest tapestry in the world.  This was commissioned in 1373, completed in 1382 and was 168m long by 4.5m high.  Due to its falling into disrepair, the tapestry is now only about 100m long and in most places probably only about 3.5m tall.  It was amazing.  The tapestry tells the tale of the Book of Revelations in the New Testament and is now held in a specially lit and temperature controlled room to preserve it after an amazing restoration job was performed on it in the early 1990s.  On the way to Angers we also stopped an an Abbey in which were buried Henry II, Richard the Lionheart and Eleanor of Acquataine, amongst others.  The Abbey was being restored and because of the number of workmen and the amount of scaffolding, we all felt that it lacked any atmosphere but it was still a remarkable place.

Having spent the day walking Angers, we decided it was time to move on and we decided on something completely different.  A couple of hours drive saw us arrive in a place called Futuroscope.   The place is exactly what it sounds as if it may be.  It is a place filled with futuristic buildings and is oriented towards new things.  It is really like a huge theme park and is filled with "rides", 3D image movie projection, 360 degree cinemas, IMAX cinemas and all sorts of interesting things about the local area.  You actually had to be there to appreciate it.  The architecture was beyond belief and some of it ground breaking stuff (spheres inside cubes all made from glass etc).  The trip through the Grand Canyon in one of the buildings was incredible and the 3D ride down into Atlantis was every bit as fascinating as the 3D face to face meeting with T-Rex (the prehistoric one, not the band).  A 9am-6pm full day in Futuroscope was exhausing and we all fell into our respective beds after a full and rewarding day. 

I have just been told dinner is ready and I have one minute to finish up here. 

The next morning saw the parting of the ways again for the Coopers and us as they headed for the mountains and we for the coast which is where we are now - the Atlantic coast of France where the sun is still shining (26oC today) and topless bathing is quite common (not this little black duck!).  Probably enough information for now I think. 

Thanks to those who have been keeping in touch.  Would love to hear from all of you at some time (note from Arnold the spoilsport...please do not send pictures; they take forever to download and the ISP chucks us off the connection and we have to start all over again and try (again) to repeat the download and may get chucked off again) 

See you all next week.

Any news of the Olympics would be appreciated. 

Love 

Deb & Arnold 

 

 

To:  

Cc:  

Sent: Tuesday, September 26, 2000 3:39 AM 

Subject: Strange sort of week 

Dear All 

I will have to learn not to brag about how wonderful the weather is!  After my last email it rained buckets.  The ferocity of the rain was like several tropical thunderstorms at once - minus quite the tropical humidity (thankfully).  The rain was so heavy that leaving the van was almost impossible for a couple of days hence the first part of last week was rather boring.  

We decided to leave Les Sables (and hopefully the rain) and headed for La Rochelle a little further down the coast.  Still raining!  Sat looking at each other, several books, and the rain through the window - boring!  The afternoon of Wednesday allowed us into the town of La Rochelle which is a very pretty port town with an old 12/13th century walled area and a huge chain that blocked the entrance to the port.  This  used to be pulled across the entrance of the harbour between two towers.  Towers are still there but the chain seems to have rusted away - strange that! 

Thursday night we went back into the town for dinner.  It was an early birthday dinner for Arnold as we were not sure if we would be in a reasonable sized place on the actual day - we weren't.  A multitude of restaurants assailed us with wonderful menu selections and choosing which one was the difficulty.  Having made the decision, we were not disappointed.  Arnold's entree of muscles  was enormous (I stopped counting after he had eaten 50) and my garlic and aniseed prawns were also numerous.  Candied duck and pork filet mignon were next - sadly no room for desert.  Staggered to the taxi stand and collapsed into the van shortly afterwards.

That was the boring part of the week.  We headed for a town called Pons which is near Cognac - yes, THE Cognac, with the weather being back to fine and 30 degrees C again.   Here we met Irene & Bill Sly who were racing back to the coast to get a ferry back home to Cornwall.  They join us on our list of email friends and we hope they had a pleasant journey home.  (Thanks for the drinks by the way Bill.) 

Arnold's birthday, Saturday, was spent walking around the very pretty town of Pons and then walking through the fields of corn, grapes and sunflowers back to the caravan park.  Quiet day but the weather could not have been better.  All of that leads up to what happened on Sunday and the reason that I probably didn't feel like emailing you all yesterday.

We left Pons heading for Cognac and almost into Cognac is the Remy Martin distillery.  Here we were just in time to catch a tour of the whole place before they closed for their regular 2 hour lunch.  Unfortunately, the tour was in French and so comprehension was a little restricted (the English tour was not till after lunch).  However, our guide did speak some English along with German, Spanish, French and probably a couple of others as well and supplemented our tour on a couple of occasions in English.  A small train takes you around the huge grounds of Remy Martin and drives straight into the storage houses for thousands of barrels of Remy.  These barrels are all made only from the oak of the Limousin region and are responsible for the natural, warm, amber colours of the cognac (see picture).  Some of the cognacs at Remy age for over a century and the price of their top (saleable) cognac is around 1,200 pounds (sterling) - haven't got a pounds sign on this computer!  Needless to say this was not the cognac that we tasted after our visit to the site.  It was a fun visit and ended the dull week quite nicely - but wait, there is more. 

We drove a little further on then to a town called Oradour sur Glane (see picture - not, it is not a war movie set!).  This was a place, unlike Cognac, that neither of us had heard of until some reading was done during the aforementioned rainy days.  As a marked contrast to the frivolous nature of the visit to Remy Martin, here was what was left of a town that was destroyed during WW2.  Ruined, fire-scarred walls and a cemetery stand in memory of 642 victims of a brutal attack by a detachment of SS troops.  An oddly peaceful feel surrounds this site, despite the fact that part of the horror of the massacre was that Oradour had been chosen for its innocence and insignificance, the better to terrorise the French.  On 10 June 1944 all of the exits to the town were blocked off.  The citizens were ordered to gather together on the fairground, amongst them 450 women and children.  The women and children were locked in the church;  the men were separated and taken to various parts around the town.  Grenade explosions and machine gun bursts killed many;  fire and dynamite completed the massacre.  One woman managed to escape through the church window without being shot.  A young boy and a few men were the only others to escape.  The whole town was bombed, set alight and left as an example of what could happen.  

Needless to say, having visited the town, been to the cemetery and gone back to the van, the feelings were not unlike those we experienced when we went to Buchenwald.  Also, as in Buchenwald, the notices around the site indicate that it is there as a reminder of what must not happen again - even more chilling because it is still happening.  A sobering (and I mean no pun) afternoon. 

We drove on in silence until we reached Limoges where we have spent today - more about that next week.  Thinking about Oradour has sort of put an end to my positive thoughts at the moment so will end for now.  So as not to totally depress - porcelain and enamel abound in Limoges - more next week. 

Hope you are all well as we are.  Catch up again next week 

Love Deb & Arnold 

 

 

To:  
Cc: Sent: Monday, October 02, 2000 12:48 AM
Subject: Can't afford the porcelain!!! 

Dear All 

Even the cheap stuff is SO expensive it is unreal.  Lots of lovely porcelain in Limoges but at unrealistic prices and, naturally, the only dinner set that Arnold and I could agree on was something like AUD$7,000 for a six person setting, let alone the extras like coffee pots, vegetable dishes etc - just a little extreme I think!  Anyway, it was Monday morning when we went to Limoges and it was closed.  No joke, every shop in the town was closed until 2pm.  Fortunately, the churches and museums were all open (they close on Tuesdays - well the museums do anyway) and we spent the day looking at porcelain and enamel work dating from around the 12th century.  

Weather a bit nasty again (it is autumn after all) causing an "in the van" day during the week but didn't stop us heading towards the area of the Dordogne where the Dordogne river has been dammed as it comes down the mountains and the views from the mountain tops were spectacular.   Again the autumnal leaves are unbelievable - so much more vibrant somehow than they are in Aus - or maybe it is just that there are so many more of them. 

Climbed a gentle slope at a place called Chapelle La Rat where a 17th C church stands on top of the mountain overlooking the moorlands of the Millevaches (literally a 1,000 cows) or as some scholars (!) would have it from the Gallic mello meaning high place and the Latin vacua meaning empty.  The area is known also for its beef production.  I could go on about the Celtic theories of other scholars - but I won't.  You see travelling is very educational - as long as you read the guide books!  

We are currently in the Dordogne and from the van can hear the river as it bustles its way over some rocks causing a small rapid just behind us.  The trip to the town of Argentat was, in places, breathtaking.  We stopped at a place called Gimel-Les-Cascades.  It is a very small town (with just another old 12th C church [two actually]) and a wonderful set of waterfalls.  Only problem with the waterfalls was that to get to the really good viewing spots we had to walk.  Going down was fine (well apart from the knees - Yes, Alison & Dave - I have the problem too) but coming back up the slippery, muddy rock strewn path was a little more arduous (the guide book states "requires stamina").  Three separate waterfalls make up the cascade.  The Grande Cascade tumbles down 45m;  the Redole, 27 m.  The two cascades one above the other are an impressive sight.  The third one, the Pony Tail, appears suddenly, spouting from a little rocky promontory;  it plunges 60m into the deep ravine called Hell's Swallow Hole.  These falls and the view from the top of the mountain overlooking the dammed river were probably the highlights of the week. 

Last night, having finally found an open campsite (closer to the town than we thought) we walked into the town to have a drink by the banks of the Dordogne only to find that we just had to have dinner because the food listed on the menu was just too tempting.  Gambas (prawns) flamed in Cognac followed by Steak Poivre and then cheese and desert (Tarte aux Peche and Creme Caramel), along with a bottle of St Emillion (sorry Bill, no Medoc on the list) left us staggering the 3km home in the dark.  Once we got out of the town it was sooooooo dark that it was difficult to see the white line on the side of the road, let alone walk it!  The beauty of this though was the clarity of the sky above us.  The stars stood out like beacons and I was lucky enough to be able to make a wish on a falling star (if anyone would like to correctly guess my wish, there will be a prize!!!!).  

All in all a great week leaving us ready for what else is to be discovered during the next 7 days. 

Hope all is well with you and keep the emails coming, we love to hear from you. 

Deb & Arnold 

To:  
Cc:  
Sent: Monday, October 16, 2000 2:52 AM 
Subject: The Sistine Chapel of Prehistory 

Another amazing week my friends!! 

First up, a town called Domme which is called the "Acropolis of France".  High up on a mountain side with golden sandstone buildings enhanced by colourful window shutters and fancy ironwork balconies draped with grapevines, this town (to which we had to walk a distance) was terrific.  Because the gates of the once walled city still stand and are very narrow, we couldn't take the van inside the city walls.  A steep walk led us to such a wonderful view over the River and valley below.  

Next town - Sarlat the town with the most heritage listed buildings in France.  Several enchanting hours later, lunch in the main square.  Have to admit that we have succumbed to the foie gras.  Having now had it - don't need to do it again.  The menu offered by the restaurant to which we went was totally local produce so we did the tourist thing and had the following 

            An aperitif of walnut wine (a chilled sweet liqueur type wine - interesting) (walnuts abound here and   on our walks we can feed ourselves quite well on the windfalls - no Ron not from the tree!) 

            Foie Gras (along with some local Bergerac red wine) 

            Canard (duck) cooked with garlic potatoes - an amazing amount of fat on the duck - much more than would ever be served in Aus but really tasty and the potatoes were brilliant - no greens though!!!!!  [and a little more local red] 

            Chocolate covered walnut gateaux - I didn't eat the cream! 

Now I know why the French (and others) have such long lunch times - well 2-3 hours are necessary aren't they!?  Don't like the thought of working til 7 or 8pm though! 

Friday 13th was a bit 13thish!  Tomato paste fell out of the fridge and the lid fell off with the contents spilling on the floor, scraped the back of the van (minimally) on a big flower pot not seen in the rear view mirror, carpet got wet in the bathroom when the shower was inadvertently turned on!!!!!  Oh well!  Day was considerably brightened though by our visit to the land of Prehistory. 

First stop was the Roque Saint-Christophe, a majestic cliff a kilometre long rising 100m above the road and the valley of the Vezere river.  The cliff face contains five natural floors which were carved out by the river over a period of 600 million years.  The traces of art and the flint tools discovered on these five levels show that over 72,000 years ago the Roque was inhabited by prehistoric men - Neanderthals.  About 40,000 years ago Cro Magnon Man took the place of the Neanderthal.  The Neolithic period (9,000 years ago) followed and the Roque was used in the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, during Roman conquest and actual documented history of the Roque being used as a fortress started in the 10th C.  It is said that this place is comparable only with certain smaller sites in Turkey (Capadoce) and the USA (Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona), none of which were occupied in prehistoric times but only from as recently as the 6th C (in the case of Turkey) and 13thC in the case of the USA.  

Looked at all our pictures of this remarkable area and it is not possible to give you any sort of perspective of this place.  There are arched cupboards carved out of the rock, holes in the floor of the rocky shelter that were for holding water and grain and even channels carved into the rock to provide for collection of water from above and to allow waste water to drain away.  The wear on the stone stairway is evidence of the long occupation of this site.  Stone does occasionally fall from these rocky ledges and, no doubt, lives were lost along with the accompanying houses when it happened.  An amazing place. 

I will quickly mention the Grotte (Cave) de Font de Gaume and I am not doing it justice by hastening past it.  This cave is 130m long with 250 prehistoric paintings.  We only saw about 30 on our visit to this cave.  The most horrific thing was though, that over the years, obviously before heritage preservation became the done thing, graffiti of the "gouge out the rock" type covers many of the drawings.  In this cave more than others it was pitifully noticeable. 

Yesterday was probably the most amazing day of the week not only because of the Sistine Chapel of Prehistory (see picture) but because of what modern man has done in order to preserve this wonderful place.  The name of the cave is Lascaux but the paintings we saw were in Lascaux II.  For many years after their discovery the cave was open to the public.  Because of various "diseases" brought in by the public (the green leprosy and the white disease) the cave was closed.  It was felt by the Tourism gurus that the treasures were too grand for only scientists and archaeologists to see but they had the problem of green algae and calcite destroying the cave if it was open to the public.  A plan to totally recreate, to scale and to perfection, the complete cave was formed.  

It took 10 years of work to reconstitute Lascaux II.  Modern day computers allowed the recreation of the voumes to the very millimetre.  It is said that only a specialist could tell whether the cave was real or not.  Unfortunately it was a little "unreal" to start with but allowed a warm place for a little bit of history about the original cave, only 250m (metres not miles!) up the road.  Having walked into the reconstruction, where every rock indentation or bulge has been perfectly recreated, soon made you forget it was a copy.  The Abbott who authenticated the paintings (the Catholic church took a great interest in archaeology and many clergy were involved with ancient art forms) called the roof of the Great Hall, the Sistine Chapel of Prehistory and, having seen the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, the analogy is very apt.  The use by the artist of the natural topography of the rock was common, to give perspective and depth to the paintings. The complexity of some of the drawings is astounding - remember they used flickering oil (fat) lamps to paint by with horse hair brushes or colours sprayed from their mouths. 

I have gone on enough.  It is very hard to explain the feelings of awe when confronted with ancient masterpieces and with modern ones recreated by man.  I think it is going  to be difficult to top this week of ancient sites for a while.  Even heading for Bordeaux (as we will be tomorrow) seems to pale into insignificance. 

Hope you are all well. 

Thinking of you 

Love 

Deb & Arnold