Travelling around France
I love this time of year in the south of France. Apart from the occasional storm, the weather is usually bright and sunny, the countryside is looking at its best, there are flowers everywhere, and the roads haven’t yet been taken over by tourists.
It’s warm enough to enjoy cycling or walking, but not so hot that you have to go out before 6am to avoid sunstroke. If I didn’t live here all year round this is when I would visit the region - either May and June or perhaps September.
Yesterday we set off to see a village called Puy l’Eveque, in the Lot Valley a little way east of here, and last week we popped up to Molieres in the Dordogne. Next week I’m spending a few days doing ‘field research’ down on the Mediterranean coast near the border with Spain - nice work if you can get it, I hope you’re jealous!
The problem with France is that it is just so big! We can’t just pop over and drive along the Alsace wine route, or spend the afternoon exploring the more remote Alpine villages, since just getting to these places takes many hours. So our research trips take a lot of planning, to be sure we see lots of interesting places and don’t spend all day in the car.
I remember when we stayed in a gite in the Alps a few years ago, we thought we were nearly there at 6pm, but eventually arrived seven hours later having driven at a snail’s pace along about 100 km of single track winding roads and mountain passes, and getting lost in the dark numerous times. Needless to say the owner was not thrilled to see us, having long since gone to bed.
Still, she got her revenge - she pointed to a dim light way in the distance and almost vertically above where we were parked and gave us a key. We then had to spend half an hour scrabbling the car up an old goat track clinging to the side of the mountain in order to get to our gite. Still, it had lovely views the next morning.
Since every time we went out we had to renegotiate the track and a long mountain pass, we more or less stayed put for the next fortnight. Very picturesque but not very adventurous.
The valuable lesson we learned, and I highly suggest you learn the same lesson, is to be sure you know exactly what you are booking, and where it is!
Mountain tops and very rural settings might often have the best scenery but will be less practical if you want to go to a restaurant. Look at the ‘attractions nearby’ on a map and see just how ‘nearby’ they really are. If a holiday rental property advert is talking about places to visit that are more than an hour’s drive away, that gives you a bit of a clue that there perhaps isn’t much to see closer to hand.
