La Rochelle

Last day of the holidays.  We had a choice, stay in Poitiers and go kayaking or use the final day of our Interrail pass and go to La Rochelle for the day.  We gave Tom the choice and he went for La Rochelle.  So, off to the train station we went and hopped on the train to La Rochelle.  I have been before, when I was 18 I went on a train holiday with some friends from school and we ended up in La Rochelle.  I expected to recognise it when we arrived, I didn't!  Considering most of the buildings have been there for 100s of years, I'm figuring it just didn't stick in my memory.  I knew where the youth hostel was and it was still there, but apart from that I had no recall at all!

Oh well, meant it was a whole new town to explore.  We stared out down by the harbour and were doing our usual thing of looking in shops, taking photos etc when I got a call from Hiromi!  So, Hiromi had posted yesterday that she was on the Île de Ré.  We were surprised, Matt got in touch with her via FB to say we were in La Rochelle, no reply, so this morning I had sent her a message on Insta saying we were going to to be in La Rochelle.  It was quite a site, seeing Matt in his South Africa cricket top, speaking Japanese on a busy street in France - didn't quite all add up!

Anyway the upshot from the phone call was that Hiromi was going to get the bus over to La Rochelle so we could meet up.  We couldn't believe it! We spent the next hour looking around the town, the plan was to go for a boat ride, but we didn't have time for that now.  We had an ice cream, did some shopping, looked around the towers of the harbour - one named 'Nicolas' which was obviously the biggest and best, and then went in search of the bus station ready for their arrival.

Hiromi said all 4 of them were coming over, she said they were staying with a friend on the Île de Ré so we were expecting Hiromi, Sachiko & John (who live in Bath) and their French friend to arrive, but no French friend, but Kyoko, her other daughter - so the whole gang.  We found their bus stop and saw them immediately.  Then it was non stop chatter.  Hiromi is 80 something now and it was hot and she didn't look too good on her feet, so we walked to the ice cream shop they had been recommended and tucked in (was actually our second ice cream of the day - but shush, don't tell anyone!) 

We chatted some more, then went for a tiny circuit of La Rochelle, but once again we felt like we were dragging Hiromi around, so we found a bar and had a panaché and continued to chat.  It was lovely.  I sat and chatted with Kyoko and Sachiko, whilst Tom and Matt chatted to Hiromi.  We took photos, but before we knew it, it was time to leave - so we said our goodbyes and headed back to the train station.  We certainly weren't expecting that for our day!

We got back to Poitiers starving - 2 ice creams, really not enough for lunch, so stopped off in the square for tea, then we returned to the hotel, packed our bags ready for our return trip - train to Lille leaves at 7.19 in the morning.  

Poitiers

Had a good sleep in our cool and silent room.  Had breakfast at the hotel, not a bad selection, although I am getting a bit bored of hotel breakfasts now.  Packed up and headed to the station for our TGV to Poitiers - we are back in 1st class again, very lovely.

We arrived in Poitiers on time, got off the train, it was hot, hot, hot (again!) We hauled our suitcases up a very long flight of steps and then across the city to our hotel.  We were interrupted in the main square by a professional bike race which was about to set off - plenty of gendarmes and army souls about checking all ok.  In fact everywhere we have been where there has been a festival we have seen fully armed army personnel and everywhere else we have seen plenty of police - made us realise how rarely we see either in the UK.  Taxes are higher here, but the towns and cities are definitely richer because of it - they are cleaner, all have dedicated cycle lanes, the trains are plentiful and have all been on time, the place just feels much more organised and richer than the UK.  

The community feel seems better too - when we were in Biarritz we were walking down a street, when we saw a lad in his teens (with his mates) get in the way and make a lady feel really uncomfortable.  A bloke who had just parked up, admonished the lad and made him say sorry to the lady.  That would very rarely happen in the UK these days, and if it did, the bloke would be in trouble for being rude to the lad rather than the lad being in trouble for being rude to the lady!  Which is why discipline in schools is so bad.  On the trains, people are very quiet including children, everyone is respectful of others.  No listening to your phone with the speaker on, no children screaming / shouting.  No rubbish left on seats, all tables returned to the centre before leaving.  It is so lovely to see people being respectful rather than being entitled!

Also, in the caves, we didn't wear helmets, we could have hit our heads on the rock, but I'm guessing it was assumed that we would be sensible enough not to do so.  On some trains, the doors are manual, we were trusted to use them correctly.  Feels like they have a sensible balance of everything, whilst we have swung so far on the cautious side that the generation growing up won't know to avoid rock so they don't bang their head and then if they do - it won't be their fault and they will seek to name, shame and sue, when all they needed was some common sense and self responsibility!

Anyway, rant over, we watched the race start and then headed to the hotel. We were quite early so, our bags were stored for us and we headed out in search of panaché and lunch.  We went back to the square and found a place that did 'Cheesy frites' and got a couple of portions to share.  We then checked in - finally, in the last hotel of the holiday we have achieved the holy trinity - air conditioning, tea making (Tom's room even had a coffee maker) and a fridge. How very exciting.  We had to swap rooms with Tom - we have had problems in nearly every hotel here, they have seen our booking and assumed we were 3 lads on holiday - my name being a male name in France and been given a twin and single.  When we have arrived, receptionist's eyes have popped out, apologies made and a new room found. 

We had showers and then headed out for an explore.  As it was Sunday, everything was closed and the streets were empty.  Although it was a shame not to see it bustling etc, it was also really nice to enjoy the quiet and emptiness, especially after yesterday in Bordeaux and to just wander around and take in the atmosphere. Poitiers is essentially a very old town and there were lots of nooks and crannies to explore. 

Matt was in photo heaven, with lots of old buildings, vines reaching across roads, spires etc. etc.   We found a hill, we climbed it (228 steps), took photos, walked back down, found a river with a stream that had been managed so you could play in it - so we cooled our feet down in it which was delicious.  We then walked back through the old town, found ourselves a glace each (pretty much the only shop that was open) and headed back to the hotel for a shower and rest before tea. 

Tea - we headed out and decided on a restaurant near the hotel, burger for Tom, pasta for me and Matt.  Was ok, but not great - hope to find better for tomorrow.

Bordeaux

Saturday - we got up, packed and headed back to the markets for breakfast and a spot of people watching.  Matt found me a croissant jambon fromage which made me happy and the boys had the same as before I did the ordering and got told I spoke French well - I was a happy bunny.  We spent a pleasant hour watching the world go by imagining what it would be like if we lived here and could go shopping here for our food.

Dreaming over, we headed to the bus for the station and then on to our train to Bordeaux, we were worried we might not get on, as there were a lot of people on the platform, but all was ok. When we realised it was a long train, we walked to the end and got on easily.  Found a table with 3 spare seats, asked a man who was sitting there if it was free, he said yes, then got a massive hump, got up, refused to sit anywhere else, stared at Matt for 5 mins, then came back, pretended to pick up something from the empty chair and then pushed Tom's bag off the table and walked off.  Our first negative interaction - he was just an angry man though - you get them everywhere and luckily he got off at the next station and the rest of the trip was pleasant.  

We arrived in Bordeaux on time and our hotel was directly opposite the station which made it very easy.  We were able to check in straight away which was great.  The temperature had gone up, we were back in 30 plus degrees again. Our biggest hotel room yet with silent air conditioning - we are yet to achieve the hold trinity: air conditioning, tea making facilities and a fridge - normally 2 out of 3.  Anyway nice enough, the first time we weren't in an independent hotel.

Luckily the lady in Reception was extremely helpful, gave us a map and told us what to do to see as much of the city as possible.  Luckily there was a festival on (of course!) which meant that there was a special travel ticket available €3.40 for unlimited trips on the bus, trams and boat ferries - a relief as it was very hot and the city quite well spread out.  We got the tram to Place de la Borse, right on the river, an area where water fountains keep the ground wet, everyone takes off their shoes and gets wet feet (water wasn't particularly cold).  Some were lying in it!  We then got the water ferry up the Garonde to a bar area where we had a..,panaché each and then we went looking for a nice street with flowers etc in it - took a while but we got there in the end. First job was to get a glace as we were hot, it was very much a boho area, we found a huge antique store stuffed full of odd curios.  Somehow the boys fell in love with a bear who looked like he needed a home and jumped into their arms.

We then got a tram south to Port du Bourgogne (a mini l'arc de triomphe), walked up the river to Porte Caihau (a rather good looking chateau type gate).  Apparently Bordeaux was once a medieval city, but city planners decided to rip down the walls etc and build a grandeur version in its place.  These two gates are what remain of the medieval city.  The rest of the city really is very grand, they did a good job, looking at it, you would think it was the second city of France, but turns out the population is about 200k.

Next stop was Rue Sainte Katharine which apparently is the longest shopping street in France.  Today it was festival Braderie, basically the street also had a market on it for the length of it.  It was so so so busy, too busy for us country bumpkins, it wasn't pleasant browsing, it was stressful trying to move!  We decided that enough was enough, we were hot and bothered, so we went back to the hotel for a shower and reset before heading out again.  The plan was to go to Halles de Bacalan for tea - where there are food stalls etc, but it was a long way away and we were tired, so we decided to find something near the hotel.  I did some research - there was an old fashioned French restaurant nearby.  We went along and got a seat - no bother and had the cheapest meal of the holiday.  Toulouse sausage for Matt, steak frites for Tom and cordon bleu for me, and we all had dessert and a bottle of wine and it came to €66, an absolute bargain (although once again we had no vegetables!)  

The boys then headed into the station for a spot of train spotting whilst I chilled out at the hotel.

Biarritz

Wednesday, we packed up our belongings and walked up the hill to the train station - bit cooler today, but still a sweaty job.  We got the express to Bayonne which is just outside of Biarritz.  We had an hour and a half to kill at Bayonne, so found ourselves some lunch nearby the station - cheesecake for me and Tom and a local dense almond cake thingy for Matt.  Everyone in Bayonne was dressed in white and red, something was going on...we looked it up - only the largest festival in France - over a million people land there each year for 4 days of festivities.  We looked around stalls and made a vague plan to return, to find out what it was all about.

We got the train to Biarritz and then a bus to as close to our hotel as we could get before wheeling our very loud suitcases through the streets of Biarritz to our hotel.  Immediately we got the vibe for Biarritz.  We had read up on the place, apparently it was the place to go to in the 1920s/1930s, but then the Cote D'Azur took over and it went into decline until the 1990s when the surfers found it.  We were expecting it to be slightly shabby - oh no, not at all. Everywhere was immaculate, the people (of course) beautiful and it had a really good vibe (even better when 3 Brits aren't wheeling really noisy suitcases down the middle of the street).  We found our hotel, it also has a really cool vibe about it. Everything was rattan / macrame / earthy and the air conditioning was silent - yahhhhhhhoooooo.

We had showers and then headed out for a panaché to refresh and then for a little look in the cool looking shops.  The town is proud of its art deco heritage, there were lots of souviner shops with art deco style goodies - Matt fell in love with a door matt of all things. 

Matt knows a Japanese translator who lives near Biarritz, so he got some recommendations from her for tea and we headed to one of them - Casa Juan Pedro, right on the sea's edge.  We had to queue  for half an hour - but looking at the menu, fresh sea food and moules and prices, very reasonable, and the fact the queue did seem to move, we decided to wait it out.  It took 30 minutes to get seated, but we got served straight away so that was fine.  We had a plate of crevette brochettes to start with and then Tom and I had moules and Matt had a plate full of large grilled gammas for mains.  All washed down with a litre of white wine.  It was all delicious.  Even more so, because on the table sat next to us was Leo a nearly 3 year old playing with his cars who sort of adopted us.  

We tried to speak to him - but every time we tried he would say 'non', but he wasn't shy and we had fun playing with him. Made our night, in fact we decided it was more fun to stay there than to go home to watch England play in the world cup semi finals.  We got back just in time to watch us score and then mess up and loose.

Thursday, we got up around 9 and headed to Café Colombus for breakfast (a memory from Canada) where we all had a croque monsieur.  Bit cloudy and drizzly this morning, so we decided to have a useful morning and gathered up all our dirty, sweaty clothes and headed to the Laverie.  The Laverie just happened to be in a hip area of the city with a big market, a big kitchen shop, and a Carrefour City.  We put our clothes in and went for an explore.  The big kitchen shop did have moulds by my favourite mould maker (Scrap Cooking who are French) but didn't have anything useful unfortunately.  Went to Carrefour City for a drink and then headed into the market - which was rammed full of people and the most amazing produce.  Fruit, veg, bakeries, butchers, ham, fromage, you name it they had it and it all looked amazing.  We had found our breakfast spot for the rest of our stay.

We put our clothes in the dryer and headed out again, found an estate agent and found our dream home - just outside of Biarritz with swimming pool, 5 bedrooms and plenty of garden.  We have all taken to this town immediately and in a perfect world, would quite like a house here!

By the time we got our laundry back to the hotel, the sky had cleared and it was hot and sunny again.  We headed out for lunch - crepes/galette and then headed to the Aquarium for the afternoon.  Was in a very funky art deco building.  We saw plenty of fish, a couple of lovely turtles, seals (phoques in French!) 2 films, we were in there quite a while and get this - we got out of the shop without buying anything, although there was a lovely crab for €180 which was tempting but a little too large.

We got back to the hotel and then got ready for an hour on the beach - just 3 minutes walk from our hotel.  Was a gritty beach, but the water wasn't too cold, we all went in, I only shrieked once, for a paddle.  Was pleasant and had to be done.

We went back to the hotel for a shower and then headed out to meet up with James - the husband of the Japanese translator Matt knows - she had had to go back to Japan suddenly, but Matt had met James before, so we met up for a drink.  He is half British half French, grew up in Durham.  One of the most chilled men I have met, was a nice drink and meet up, shame we didn't have longer.  

We then headed back into town in search of dinner and ended up in Café de la Place.  We all went for the menu du jour - as it had local specialities on it.  I had a trout tart, followed by Poulet de Basque and Mousse au chocolat, the boys had Piquillos (cod stuffed peppers) and Tom had Chipirons (mini squid) for his main and apple tart for his dessert - all very good and of course, washed down with wine.

Friday, we got up and went to the markets for breakfast - more drizzle this morning, but it was still warm.  Pain au raisin for Matt (he was very happy as hotel breakfasts don't include pain au raisin which has made me wonder if it is a traditional breakfast food?!)  Tom and I went for Chausson aux pommes.  We then went back in to find ourselves some sandwiches for lunch.  We then got the bus to Cité de l'océan - we got tickets to this place in combination with the aquarium.  It was a venue with lots of immersive experiences based around the sea.  We did a couple of virtual reality sessions - one diving with sharks, 2 lots of surfing, coral conservation.  There were lots of interactive games, a polar base experience, a ship in a storm and our most favourite a 5d film of a module out of control skidding and crashing into various environments - polar bears, over the mountains to penguins (?!) then skiing, and all sorts of things.  We were shaken, splashed, blown and whipped with a cable - it was great fun - could have done it all day it we were allowed.  

We walked down to the beach to have our lunch and then walked back to the hotel along the coast line (and via a bar for a panaché of course!).  Then to the hotel, for a shower. We all then went out independently to do some holiday shopping - didn't get much but had a wonderful ice cream - cassis with lots of big fat blackcurrants.

We then went to the roof top bar on top of the Aquarium for our evening panaché, we were going to stay there for dinner, but the menu was very limited and quite expensive, so we headed back to Casa Juan Pedro as we knew the food would be very good, we all had something different and it was very good.

 

Lourdes

We arrived in Lourdes on time, it was hot, but the hotel was downhill, so we dragged our very loud suitcases down the streets to the Astoria Vatican.  Another 3 star hotel, we checked in, they were surprised to find I was a female, they had seen my name and assumed I was male, and put us in a twin room.  They found us a double bed opposite Tom's room and we made our way up to it.  The room was hot, hot, hot, but we put the air conditioner on and it worked - yahooooo.  However, every minute or so it growled at us - boooooo!   We tried everything, but were unable to stop it growling at us - it even growled at us when we turned it off!  Tom's room, of course was perfect, cold, air-conditioning with no growling and a view of the castle.   Lucky boy!

We had showers and then headed out for a panaché on the Pont Vieux - we are now under the impression that every town has a Pont Vieux.  Everywhere we looked there were monks, nuns and lots of people dressed in white with lanyards / neckerchiefs etc etc.  And oh my word the shops were insane.  We are talking mass consumerism, in every shop you could buy 100 different models of Mary - plastic ones, wooden ones, glass ones, neon ones, large ones, small ones and so on.  Also you could buy water bottles in the shape of Mary, for filling with holy water, a 100 or so different medals of saints, fridge magnets galore, towels, tea towels, t-shirts, mugs, shot glasses, towels, sweets, chocolates etc etc all with Mary.  

So we had to look up the story of the place.  Back in 1858, a peasant girl, Bernadette, saw an apparition of Mary in a cave.  She told her parents, they beat her and told her not to go back.  She went back and saw another apparition of Mary, and again and again.  In one apparition, Mary told her to dig in the mud to find water, she did so, and that is the source of the holy water.  In the end her parents and priests believed her - she saw Mary 8 times.  An artist was asked to make an image according to the apparitions Bernadette saw, apparently Bernadette was unhappy with it as the Mary she saw was very young the and the artist made her much older.  However, that image has stuck and that is what the souvineer shops all sell now.   Bernadette was made a saint. 

Catholics from around the world make a pilgrimage to the cave and church which is on top of the cave and take part in a candlelight parade in the evening.  Lots of ill people come to be blessed and drink the holy water. 

We felt like were in Vegas for Catholics,  not being at all religious, it was hard to take it seriously, as it was so over the top, but we did our best to keep our faces straight at the right times.

We had a good look around some of the shops, Matt couldn't help himself and bought a Mary water bottle for holy water. He also found me a patch which I was very happy about as it seems Catholics like tat but don't like proper tourist souviners such as patches!  We found ourselves in the Basilica of Notre Dame and after observing others, figured it would be ok to fill some bottles up with the holy water.  We were really surprised that 1) you could just walk in without any security, 2) it was free, 3) you could wander freely anywhere.  It was a big place.

By now it was tea time, so we went looking for tea and found it just outside the Basilica, sausage and frites for Matt, steak and frites for Tom and pork chop and frites for me - very French, very busy and unfortunately a little average.  The mass tourism here, has brought the prices down, but not driven quality up it seems. 

We then headed back to the Basilica for the 9pm torchlight procession.  Once again, it was open to anyone, and no-one was checked, all were welcome and there was a lovely atmosphere of peace about the place.  There were chariots galore with ill and old people in them, and then literally 1000s of pilgrims, with their banners etc (saw one from Ampleforth) who walked around the huge square, whilst priest prayed in French, English, Spanish and Italian.  There were people singing Ava Maria etc etc.  As I said it was quite peaceful but after an hour we decided to call it a day and headed back to the hotel.  We were just about to go to sleep when we heard some big bangs, and again.  Looked out the window - fireworks.  It is the 14th of July - Bastille Day.  Carine had told me that fireworks weren't allowed this year - Lourdes hadn't got the memo and we were treated to 25 minutes of really good fireworks.  Luckily Tom's bedroom had a really good view of them.

Next day it was boiling - it got up to 38 degrees, however, we had discovered that there was a really good cave system nearby and decided it would be good to visit.  We had tickets booked for 1.30, so we decided to head to the castle in the middle of the town for the morning. We got there easily, but stupidly decided to walk up the stairs to the top rather than take the lift, big mistake, in 5 mins time we were all sweating profusely!  Oh hum, we had a good explore around the castle - all the usual things - kitchen, portcullis, oil holes, herb garden, taxidermy animals - all of which were looking very grumpy, a tower and great views of Lourdes and the mountains around (some of which still had snow on them).

We walked back to the hotel and got ready for the caves, first stop lunch, we decided on icecream - which was served to us in the formation of a rose - never had that before, nice little touch.  We then fired up Uber to get a taxi to the caves, booked it, then it was cancelled.  Tried again, no joy.  The caves were a good 10 miles from Lourdes, so no chance we could walk it, and it was boiling.  We decided to walk to the train station and see if we could get a taxi from there.  They quoted us €50 - ouch!  Tried again with Uber, no joy, so we had to go with the other taxi.  So, it was a lovely trip out of Lourdes, very picturesque and we got to the caves in air conditioned bliss.  

Not sure how to describe the caves, they were amazing, and I mean AMAZING.  They were massive, and just full of formations - stalactites, stalagmites and pillars everywhere, you looked: big ones, small ones, MASSIVE ones etc, and it went on and on.  They had only named a couple of the formations because there were so many of them.  It was so full on that it just became normal to walk into a cavern and find it full of amazing formations. It made Ingleborough and White Scarr Caves just look rubbish.  Not sure any of us could go to them again now and be impressed!  Also, our guide was amazing, we had an audio translator device so we could hear commentary in English, but he was also fluent in English and funny too.  Also he was dressed as a typical French as you could get - a white shirt, blue suit type thing and a black beret.

After walking for about an hour through the caves we came to a dragon boat. 'Welcome to the White Star Line' our guide said as we got on (best line of the tour).  We sailed across a couple of flooded caverns and then carried on our way through tunnels until we came across a little train.  We all got on and then we had a high energy, fast ride back to the surface, bells clanging, lights flashing etc, great fun.  We were a little bit sad it was over, the temperature inside the cave was 14 degrees, it was 38 outside, we very much enjoyed being cool for an hour and a half.

We had a lovely tart each and then luckily we managed to get an uber taxi back (think our problem was that we were trying to get an uber taxi during lunch time which on reflection, probably wasn't a great idea!)  Our driver was from Chechnya - and we spoke to him in a strange combination of French and English.

We got back to Lourdes, had a rest and than headed back out in the heat for tea, ended up in a pizza restaurant which was about 40+ degrees but the pizza was good.  We then headed back to the hotel to watch France bow out of the world cup.