It had been an interesting morning. We had spent several hours wandering through the Pont de Gau Bird Park near the town of Stes Maries-de-la-Mer, photographing thousands of pink flamingos who flock there every day to gobble up the rice that the Park provides for them. Returning to the truck, we decided to have a […]
A must-stop on the way to Arles is the Pont de Grau Bird Park founded in 1949 by the passionate Camarguais ornithologist André Lamoroux. In 1974, his son, René Lamoroux, took charge. He envisioned a large sanctuary for local and migrating birds. Today, the park has grown to 60 hectares where thousands of birds can […]
The Camargue – It has a mystical ring for any European. Beautiful wild white horses and Gypsies gathering in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer once a year. The Camargue, the Rhône River Delta, is the largest delta in Western Europe, but it is much more than that: Fighting Camargue bulls, straw thatched white farm houses, dykes, brine lagoons, lakes […]
Driving through the Southwestern part of France, many people had insisted we visit Carcassonne, the largest fortified city in Europe. What struck us first were the impenetrable walls high up on the hill, yet people were driving their cars into the fully walled cité where they clattered by us over the cobblestones. Cars in a […]
Being members of the Silk Road Motor Caravan Club, fellow travelers British/Scottish Chris and Jack Kane, invited us to stop by at their home in Vinça, France. Having just returned from a six-year journey through Central and North America, they were keenly aware of our needs to get off the road for a few days. […]
Note: We are in the South of France near the Italian border. We’ll bring you up to speed with a new segment of blogs soon – after Christmas. Sunday, December 22, 2013 Today, when Swiss light the fourth candle on their Advent wreaths and Nevada City has the last of its famous Victorian Christmas markets, […]
Gascony in southwestern France no longer offers any tourist facilities like we had experienced all the way from Switzerland. This is farm country where they grow mostly sunflowers, wheat and corn. Signs advertised Foie de Gras (goose liver pâté) and Armagnac, a type of brandy distilled from wine made from a blend of grapes. Stopping […]
Saint-Cirq-Lapopie is a commune in the Lot department, (state), in southwestern France. It is a member of the Les Plus Beaux Villages de France (“The most beautiful villages of France”) association. Its position, originally selected for defense, perched on a steep cliff 100 meters above the river, has helped make the town one of the […]
The area around Espédaillac is known to have several Dolmen and Cazelles. The Dolmen, also known as portal tomb or portal grave, is a type of single-chamber megalithic tomb or burial chamber, usually consisting of three or more upright stones supporting a large flat horizontal capstone (table). The oldest known Dolmen are in Western Europe […]
Looking at the Michelin map, Espédaillac is not even a dust spec. Our Garmin GPS knew where it was but the first road sign we spotted indicated: Espédaillac, 6km. At one point in history, the village must have been a central stopping place for military and other travelers. One of the main buildings, situated next […]
