Foreign Perspectives

We’re starting to look around for somewhere to go for our daytrip next week although we’ll need to watch the weather I think ‘cos it’s pouring at the moment.

Anyway, we reckon that anywhere that’s within about two hours drive of here is a runner, subject to there being something to see at that sort of range, of course.

To the south that takes us as far as Barcelona though, as you know, we’ve been there quite a lot and are looking for somewhere different.

The east took us to Avignon which amazed us as we’d thought it would have been four or five hours to get there. There’s quite a lot that way that we’ve not seen of course: Arles is the major place but there’s also Aigues Mort and the Camargue to name but three.

For the north we have Toulouse which we’ve not been to for quite a while and Albi which we’ve not been to at all. Closer than that there are heaps of smaller places under the two hour limit we’ve set ourselves.

We rarely go terribly far to the west so I suspect that there’s quite a lot for us to see that way. Tarbes seems about the limit but that would include Lourdes.

Also in the frame is our next overnight trip for which we’d run to four or perhaps five hours which encompasses a vast tract of France, Spain and even bits of Italy I think. Out as far as Biarittz to the west, Monaco to the east, Valencia to the south and possibly up to the Loire in the north.

Any thoughts as to where would be best?

Although we’ve been living in the Languedoc-Roussillon for getting on for four years now, we’ve only seen the Pont du Gard for the first time yesterday.

How come? Well, the Languedoc-Roussillon region is really strung out and the Pont looked a long, long way from us. In fact, Wendy didn’t believe that it would only take us a couple of hours to drive there yet, as usual, the Mappy was just about dead on.

The perfect time to arrive at the Pont is in the early afternoon as you can see. That has the light falling on the aqueduct just about perfectly.

As you’d expect there are loads of water based activities on offer around the area yet strangely it doesn’t seem overlly touristy as the relatively few tourist shops are confined to the visitor centre complex which isn’t visible from the aqueduct itself.

We’ll be running up a full article shortly for Whole Earth Guide but don’t wait around for that if you’re in the area: just go!

We thought we’d have a little daytrip to see the Pont du Gard on Wednesday. It’s only about two hours drive from here so no real problem getting there and back in a day.

The game plan was that we’d head off as soon as the guests checked out ie around 9am but, as usual, didn’t make it away ’til rather later than that and it ended up being more like 11.30 before we started onto the motorway. As it turned out, that was about the perfect time to see the aqueduct as in the morning the sun highlights the abomination that the French added in the 1700s (ie the bridge) and in the afternoon it highlights perfectly the aqueduct itself leaving the bridge in the shade, as it should be.

By then we’d had a quick squint at the map and figured that as we were there anyway that we might as well stay and see both Nimes and Avignon.

Or, in short, we’re just back this evening.

We’d a very enjoyable evening last night when Colin McAllister who bills himself as a storyteller and traditional singer had a meal with us and treated us to an excellent song about Killinchy where I grew up. He’s got probably one of the best “jobs” (if you could call it that) in that he gets paid to tell stories in a number of different European countries and obviously considers it as a very enjoyable hobby that just happens to pay money.

The Polish family who called in for a meal have put the thought in our heads of going to Poland for our Christmas break. Poland probably isn’t the first country that you’d think of going for Christmas but they seem to have pretty much the same Christmas traditions as we do, unlike the more southerly countries in Europe.

Well, touches down is a little more correct as the runway at Perpignan is too short by a long, long way for it to actually land.

Perpignan airport is at quite a convenient distance from Toulouse so it’s quite a popular spot for plane spotters after a view of the latest models of Airbus being tested.

We just happened upon this particular test of the landing and taking off of the A380 this afternoon. What’s very, very striking about the plane is that it is considerably more quiet than the normal Airbus plane such as the Ryanair one that landed during the test flight.