Chapter 8(of 8)Holiday 2005
The Final Chapter

We left Argeles on Tuesday afternoon giving ourselves 48 hours to tackle the 1200 klms trip to the ferry.
Considering that it had taken us about 24 days to get down so far, that doesn’t seem a whole lot of time but, if you beat it up the motor way in France it would be just about possible(but exhausting) to do this distance in 12 hours.
Part of the fun we get out of travelling the roads in France is that we never know quite what to expect from our overnight stops. They usually manage to surprise us somehow.
Our first nights accommodation was destined not to disappoint us.
We had bought in France the current “Chambre d’Hote” guide from Gites de France (our old copy being dated 1994 was proving a little out of date!)
We rang just about every one of these in the appropiate area but they were all booked out.
Our second choice was to pick out a cheap hotel in the Michelin Guide.
Hotel Felix in Castlesarrasin seemed to suit and had rooms available so we decided to head for it.
There were some strange comments in the guide about cowboys etc but, assuming that it must have some vague“Western” theme we said we would risk it.
When we finally pulled into the carpark (read corral) we were fairly gobsmacked.
It was a complete replica of a Hollywood Cowboy movie set.
Hitching posts,General store, Saloon (in which we were to eat a barbecued dinner),
a little chapel (which was the Bridal Suite)

and an Indian Station

Which was where were to sleep.

How far over the top can you get!

The following day saw us driving through the ourskirts of Bordeaux so, on another of our whims, we decided to make a diversion to the wine town of St Emilion.
Was this ever a good decision!
St Emilion was a little stunner.
The cobbled medieval town was of course thronged with tourists but in its cobbled centre even the shopping arcades were pretty.

The star of the town has to be the 9th century church carved out of a single rock in the limestone that underlies the town.

Even the stones overground showed the most amazing effects of 11 hundred years of weathering.

Inside the monks had carved the rock to decorate it.
These were carved into the ceiling of the nave

But one of the most surprising sights were these beautiful 12th century frescoes which had only in the last 10 years been found in that portion of the chapel over ground.
Apparently at the time of the revoloution this part had been used as a smithy and the resulting sooty deposit had preserved them perfectly for 300 years.

As we left the town I had to stop and take a shot of the true heart of St. Emilion and the fruit which, if we were lucky, we might yet drink the fermented juice of,

We drove on that day to Nozay to a “Chambre d’Hote” which had another very handy feature. Madame Urien (telephone 02 40 87 98 75) provided a kitchen for her guests who could then cook their own dinner if they wanted. This was perfect for us, so our last night ended up costing us €43 plus €11 spent on food and wine in the local supermarket.
Further more madame let me help myself to the delicious herbs growing in her garden and to the fruit on the groaning plum tree

Packing the car, which (with the addition of some cases from St Emilion) now contained 12 cases of wine, was possible, but difficult, for the last leg of the journey.

Rennes was our last stop before the boat.
It had been badly bombed during the war but had managed to retain its old town centre

Which had some amazing carved and painted buildings

And an early carving of St Sebastian getting martyered

And so to boat, and home.
In case you are wondering if eating all this wonderful French food for a month had any effect on the Dwyer figure I give you this photo Sile took of me on the boat.

(Its all right folks, it’s just wind!)