Category: Country Roads of France

Stage 13 of the Tour de France is still in the Languedoc-Roussillon region which stretches from the foothills of the Pyrenees on the Spanish border to the mouth of the Rhône. This stage starts from Narbonne and ends …

Well, we’re at the half way stage and all fans of Cadel Evans, especially his mum, sighed a huge sigh of relief when he survived that horrendous crash. His cracked helmet explains how huge the impact was and …

A tree-lined avenue marks the start of the grand entrance to Château de Chenonceau. Whilst you can picture gold-gilded, horse-drawn carriages transporting its royal residents to and from the château, us …

The Loire Valley is home to over 100 French châteaux, some of these are spectacularly grand.  On our château trail we visited Ch…

The world’s most gruelling bicycle race is just around the bend.  The 2008 Tour de France marks the 95th anniversary of this high profile professional cycling event.  Competitors in this 23 day annual event will hit …

The Camargue is an interesting region in the south of France, very much like its own separate little country. …

So, I got somewhat side-tracked in the last week by yet another impending wedding, this one of my cousin from Singapore.  Family and …

We had a very special wedding invitation tonight – our friends Nick and Sandy from London are getting married in France in …

The western edges of the Massif Central and the northern slopes of the Pyrenees are noted for an excellent concentration of Palaeolithic caves.  Lascaux is set a little further away from the traditional sites, but is the most famous of these early Stone Age caves.  When you get there, you’ll hear the story of how four teenage boys stumbled upon Lascaux in 1940 on a day’s outing.  They knew that their discovery was important and decided to keep it a secret … for four days, and finally told their teacher.  This then evolved into perhaps the greatest archaelogical find in the 20th century.   

I hadn’t researched this town prior to our visit and was surprised to learn that Sarlat-la-Caneda has the highest concentration of medieval, Renaissance and 17th century facades of any town in France.  Our entry into this town was via the main street, the rue de la Republique, which itself was pretty nondescript.  However, once you get away from the main drag, you’ll be surprised at what lies beyond.