France from the back of a motorcycle.

On August 21st I waved goodbye to Mick as he headed off on his BMW K1200 GT with Grado, Italy locked into his GPS. I wasn't too sad cause I knew I'd be seeing him in a week myself when he picked me up from the Rodez Airport in the south of France. On the morning of Saturday the 28th I boarded a dreaded Ryanair flight and two hours later we were fixing the new Autocom to my helmet. The only question now was, North or South? I had my sights set on south to Carcassonne and since I was appointed navigator that's were we headed. Three hours later after a stop in Toulouse for sausages we arrived in Carcassonne. We followed the Good Book (Lonely Planet's guide to France Mick borrowed from his sister) to a recommended 2 star hotel in the city. I was anxious to see the Castle that the city was known for so so after we threw our bags in our room we headed towards le cité which happened to be about a 20 minute walk from the hotel. However the site of the castle was just around the corner and we were not disappointed. Carcassonne was a fantastic introduction to medieval France and more beautiful than I could have imagined. We walked up to le cité and walked around the walled city for the remainder of the evening. Due to our huge Toulouse sausages we didn't have any room left for dinner. We filled what space we did have left with Coca-Cola and Amstel. The view on the way back was amazing as well as all the lights had come on and the entire walled city was beautifully lit up.

After being awoke at 3am to the fire alarm going off, all the guest at the hotel went outside to either await a fire truck or the hotel manager. The manger showed up first and after a bit of messing managed to turn the alarm off. We got the impression that wasn't the first time it had happened. Back to bed and up early on Sunday and on our way North again. Our destination was Sarlat-la-Canéda about a three hour drive. But three hours turned into 5 after our stop off at Gouffre de Padirac, caverns with a massive sink hole as an entrance. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take any images inside the gaves so you'll have to let google do the honors. When we drove up we were a little apprehensive, as there was a queue of about 50 people of all ages outside. We were worried it was going to be a 'disneyesque' experience but when we saw the size of the sinkhole we knew were we wrong. After a long flight of stairs descending into the earth and a long walk down a cave passage (conveniently paved) we reached water where gondola's (also convenient) were awaiting to take passengers through the cave. After a short time we arrived at land again where we got out and made our way through the accessible 2km of the cave. Then back into the boat and headed towards the light.

Onto Sarlet, still awestruck by the awesomeness of the cave we arrived hungry and quickly found a hotel for the night. Mick had a great time driving down the small medieval cobble stoned alley way to get to the Hôtel Les Récollets. This was an absolutely amazing hotel. Set in a small cobbled stoned alleyway with views that look out of over the city. Very friendly staff who seemed to love the fact we were on a motorcycle. Now that we had a place, on to the important things: Dinner. We headed towards a restaurant recommended in the Good Book but it was completely full (must be good!) so we went to the restaurant just across the way hoping it would be just as good, we were not let down. I will never look at a duck the same again. I had the traditional meal of a Cassoulet while Mick had margaret canard which was also delicious. We ended the night with a stroll around town which was very lively for a Sunday night, we particularly enjoyed a punch and judy going on in one of the squares. I also wont forget the view from our room that night, looking out over a completely medieval city with a clear sky and stars as a backdrop.

We knew we had a full day ahead of us on Monday and it was a day we were looking forward to, but I don't think we knew exactly how much of an impression the day was about to make on us. Our plans were to head to some more caves in the Dordogne area. We asked ahead at the hotel if we'd need reservations for the caves as the book highly recommended them. But he said with such short notice it was best to just go and see if they had space. The first cave we headed to was Font de Gaume. The woman at the ticket office informed us that normally we would have to reserve a space a month in advance, however 'tourist season' had officially ended the week before, therefore it would be an hour wait. For us this meant an obligatory ice cream break. Once again we weren't allowed to take photos inside the caves. This is one of those things that I'll never be able to explain to anyone, it's something you'd need to experience. Within the cave there were several prehistoric paintings that dated back to 17000 bc. The most amazing part was how the artists used the natural shape of the cave rock as part of the paintings themselves. We then had a choice to go to either of 2 more caves. One was just around the corner but the next tour was at 4pm which would take the rest of our day and give us a 2 hour wait. So we headed to Rouffignac instead. Unfortunately we felt as tho we chose wrong, as the Rouffignac caves consisted of an hour 'train/trolly/cart' trip into the depths of a cave while a rude french woman repeated herself twice at every stop in french. When we asked if there was an English tour (which all the others had) we hardly got a reply of a shrug. The highlight of the tour was at the furthest depth of the cage there was the 'Sistine chapel' of cave paintings, animals of all shapes and sizes painted across the domed top of the 'room'. Very impressive.

After the caves we continued our journey north and stayed the night in Brantôme. We stayed the night in a cutesy BnB run by a chatty British woman who informed us that on Monday nights the town pretty much shut down . We had dinner at an outdoor restaurant next to the river. While we ate our delicious duck we were able to watch the sun sink into the horizon which set the river alight with pinks and purples. After dinner we took a short stroll around the town and but everything was shut up tight, so we headed back for an early night in.

Up early the next morning as we had a long drive ahead of us to the coast. The woman at the BnB was kind enough to give us a list of towns to hit along the way that would take us on a beautiful drive through wine country and farms filled with sunflowers. However at some point the list blew out of my hands and we had to make our own way. But I don't think we could have gone wrong if we tried. When we finally reached the sea we stopped at the tiney beach side town of Talmont to grab some lunch, delicious pizza. Back on the bike, we started seeing signs for the Zoo in La Palmyre which was on our way north so we decided to stop in. We were there for a good 2.5 hours and it was one of the best zoo's I've been to. My particular favorite was the Pelican who took a liking to Mick and walked along side him as if they were having a conversation. We then headed on as it was getting late and we needed to find a hotel for the nite. I struggled to remember the names of the town that was recommended to us. Finally giving up we headed to La Rochelle as it was a bigger city and we'd have better options.

Around 8pm, we pulled up to Bar de l'Hôtel de Ville which was a bar that had 9 rooms above it located conveniently in the center of the city and right next to the famous harbor. We unload and headed off to find dinner. It was only fitting that we had seafood and boy did we. Mick ordered a plate of mixed grilled fish and I went for a large pot filled with what I'm pretty sure was everything that lives in the sea. It was good, but hard work. I must have had 5 different utensils designed for cracking, scraping, de-boning and general picking small morsels of meat from various shells. Of course this was all followed by profiteroles, some of the best I've ever had. We then strolled along the harbor for a while making our way back to our hotel/bar where we had a final glass of wine before heading for bed.

Wednesday morning we decided we'd head back inland a bit and set the GPS for Chinon. On our way out of the city Mick saw a bike shop and thought it would be good to have the front tire looked at as it had been bothering him for the last few days. A spot on the tire had begun to wear a bit and causing a bit of alignment issues. After waiting only an hour to get it changed we were on the road again. We had a lovely drive through the country side, more wine vineyards and more sunflowers. However just outside Chinon the bike came to an abrupt halt, I thought Mick had just stopped the bike but when we tried to push it off the road the bike wouldn't budge. We both thought we may be in some serious bike trouble. Our first thoughts were that somehow the guys who fitted the tire messed something up, however they worked on the front wheel and this seemed like an issue with the back. As we were stopped around a corner I headed back to warn any traffic that may be coming and left Mick to see if he could find the problem. After a few minutes he waved me back and said that somehow the back break had locked-up, after a bit of messing around with it and using the rest of my coke to cool the plates down it seemed to unlock. We still aren't sure what actually happened perhaps a small stone was lodged in the break...all we knew was that it was fixed. Onwards to Chinon!

Happy to have made it to Chinon safe and sound we sat in the sun for a minute before looking for somewhere to stay for the night. We booked ourselves into the Hostellerie Gargantua for the nite. This hotel is best described by Lonely Planet:

"Harry Potter would feel right at home at this turret-topped, soaring medieval mansion, once occupied by the town bailiwick , and now a simple endearing offbeat period hotel. Spiral staircases, pitch-dark wood and solid stone conjure the Middle Ages atmosphere..."

We absolutely loved it. I was beside myself when I went in to check it out while Mick waited at the bike. I came back beaming like a little kid and best part was it was our cheapest stay yet. Unloaded and headed out for a walk about town. We stopped and had a few drinks beside the river and then walked around for quite a while looking for dinner. When we couldn't find anything to our liking (and our pricing...) we settled on pizza where we sat next to an English couple who had a few suggestions on what to see in the town and on our travels. The next morning we headed up to the famous Chateau Chinon. This place has made it's mark on the history books as the place where in 1429 Joan of Arc met with future Charles VII and informed him that he would be king. The Chateau was in in ruins with only a bit of restoration, but we didn't need any buildings as the view alone was worth the visit. We then headed back down to the city and tried to go to the Caves Painctes, 15th century wine cellars in caves under the Chateau, however it had just closed for the tourist season the week prior.

Back on the bike again and back to the Atlantic coast. We took the advise of the young English couple we had met the night before and set our sites on La Baule. Late in the day we pulled into the town, which was lined as far as the eye could see with resort hotels...not our cup of tea. So far we had been staying in Medieval towns where prices were relatively cheap. However we were here now so we had to make the best of it. La Baule wasn't in our guide book so we had to wing-it in regards to finding a place to stay. We headed inland, away from the beach stretch and found a nice little Hostellerie for about the same price we had been paying. Then we headed straight for a walk on the beach were we saw the most amazing sunset and we kinda figured, "hey, this town ain't so bad after all." The region we were in is famous for it's crepes and galettes, so for dinner we found a creperie. But this place wasn't just any creperie this was the Cat Creperie. It had cat pictures, paintings, figures, dolls, toys everywhere, including a 4 foot tall wooden cat carving and napkins every. Not to mention the galettes and crepes were amazing. I ordered a crepe that comes with rum, on fire... it was awesome.

We had a bit of time to kill the next morning so we hopped on the bike, sans all of our bags, and headed out to find the salt flats which apparently La Baule is famous for. We found them, drove past them and stopped in a small town of Guérande which was another cool medieval city. We ate ice cream and bought salt (why not!). Then back to the road north towards Brittany. Our destination was the town of Dinan. Upon our arrival we thought we'd check out the local hostel as it sounded like a great place to stay, however, it ended up being a few kilometers out of town, so we ended up at a hotel inside the city walls. That night a lady who worked the hotel recommended that we head around the corner for diner. It was early (7pm) and we were the only customers. We had a bit of a chat with the owner, turns out he'd been to Oregon before and rafted the Rogue. Then we had dinner...wow. I nearly cried at how good it was. It was a set menu with a starter, main, desert and cheese. Of course we ordered duck for dinner and it was actually the same meal that we'd had before but the way it was cooked was amazing. I've never tasted anything quite like it. Afterwards we had a small walk around the walled city and a few more glasses of wine at a bar.

We decided it would be best to book another night in Dinan so we could head out to Mont St. Michel and not have to worry about staying somewhere for our last night. Mont St. Michel was only a 40 min drive from Dinan and when we got there we were both blown away at how beautiful it is. I've seen it in photos but to actually be there is such an amazing experience. Tide was completely out so before we headed into the 'city' itself we went for a walk on a beach that is usually covered with water. Once inside the city we headed up to the abbey and followed a tour round which was fantastic. We were very happy for the tour because there are so many small things we would have never known about the abbey and the people who lived there.

That night we headed back to Dinan for a walk around town. We strolled down the Rue du Jerzual, a street that is labeled one of the best streets in Europe. It's a very steep cobble stoned street that heads from the walled city down to the harbor and river. Once at the bottom we sat by the river and had a drink and then headed across the river for a dinner of Moules et Frites (mussels and chips)! They were delicious.

The next day we had a bit of time to kill before catching our 7pm ferry from Cherbourg to Rosslare. We decided to make a stop at St. James to visit an American War Cemetery. It was beautifully set in a peaceful valley, quite and serene with only the sounds of birds chirping. I couldn't imagine a better place for men who died in such an awful manner to come to rest. We silently walked around the cemetery paying our respects to the dead. Then on to Cherbourg for the boat trip home.

We stopped at a market before getting on the boat to pick up our last french dinner, consisting of 2 baguettes, pork pate, cheese, chorizo and chocolate. Once the boat started moving, I suddenly remembered...I don't do boats very well. My head immediately started to swim around and I couldn't walk straight. So while Mick stayed up stairs to enjoy his Guinness I headed to the cabin to lay down and read my book. As long as I laid down everything was fine. After a rough nights sleep for me and a great one for Mick we pulled into Rosslare to be greeted by the fine Irish weather. From there we had a 2.5 hour drive home in some of the heaviest rain we've been in, especially on a bike.

A few overall notes from the trip:

• I enjoyed being on the back of the bike more than I thought! Not a second of boredom.
• We learned that in the French countryside if you don't eat between 12-2 and 7-10 you don't eat as everything closes down (thank you Super-U or we would have starved).
• France so many medieval towns much more than I expected.
• The food is delicious: bread, chocolate/almond croissants please and duck!
• The french are quite nice no matter what Mick says.
• Wine is much cheaper than beer!

I really enjoyed the trip and and can't wait for my next holiday! Which happens to start tomorrow at 9.45am when I head once again to the Dublin Airport this time headed home. See you soon PDX!

France 2010