Monday, July 16, 2012

Tour De France time in France



A garden in Toulouse.

On Friday 29th June, we took the train to Bordeaux, where there was a wine festival, for 4 days. We stayed 2 days, sampling Bordeeaux wines. There were tasting pavillions along the foreshore. We visited Millésima, a fine wine sales outlet. They sold quality wines, only with corks made from the cork tree. we were shown a large bottle of champagne in a metal box, priced at 3000 euros.
At 11pm one night, we saw a 400 sq. M. light show on the Palais de la Bourse. That was followed at 11.30 by a fireworks dispay which was extremely noisy but didn't last long.
As our main course one evening we decided to sample Calamari (squid) with a black ink sauce. The black ink was from the sack of the calamari. Our meal was black, different & a bit tasteless.

Bordeaux wine festival. Along the foreshore
Bordeaux wine festival. Along the foreshore
On Sunday 1st July we flew to Bristol. where we hired a rental car & drove to a B & B in Goodrich, Herefordshire. Lindsay & her parents , Alan & Barbara also joined us there.. The purpose of our visit was cider tasting & to visit that area of England which which we had not seen much of previously.. The countryside is very green & picturesque. It rained every day except for the day we returned to France. We visited cideries. I had cider with lunch & dinner. Barry mostly drank ale, which he likes as he finds it has more flavour straight from the tap & not chilled, as beer is in NZ.
Ledbury, Herefordshire in the rain
 The Cathedrals in Ledbury & Hereford were impressive. At Hereford Cathedral we saw the Mappa Mundi & Chained Library. These are two of Britains most important historical treasures.& are displayed in the new library building with displays of rare books, documents & artefacts dating from the 8th Century..
The Hereford Mappa Mundi is the largest surviving complete medieval world map. It is made of velum (calf skin), I think it must have been a big calf!. During Medieval times people had no idea that NZ & countries in our part of the world existed.. At the Cathedral we also saw the Hereford 1217 Magna Carta.
One day we visited Barry's 3rd cousin, who lives in Shropshire. He has been in contact with her during genealogy research. we had a very interesting day. She gave Barry some documents which she had inherited from her Great Grandfather.
Maise with sunflowers in the distance
On the 5th July we returned to Moissac. Trevor & Isabel joined us the next day. We spent 6 days travelling on the canal de Garrone & then the Baïse River. I had a rest from doing much of the rope work as Trevor was happy to go ashore with a card to activate the mechanism which starts the opening or shutting of the lock gates & emptying or filling of the water, then help with the ropes around the bollards & back to the boat.
Nérac, on the Baïse River is one of the most beautiful towns we have visited in France..
Nérac
Our turning around point on the Baïse was at Condom. (Nothing to do with the device!) This was once a busy River port where barrels of Armagnac & rolls of cloth were landed onto barges on their way towards the Garrone & Bordeaux.
The Three Muskateers & D'Artagnan, at Condom
Now we are making our way back to Argen.

Cooked escargots in the foreground, ready for sale at the evening market in Vianne