Canberra - Sydney

Thursday, September 6th

No more sleeps...

3:00pm - at Canberra airport, checked in and drinking tea.

7:00pm - now at Sydney airport, drinking gin and tonic.

Sydney - Narita

Friday, September 7th

Arrived at Tokyo Narita at 6:00am and had to wait for the "Club" to open at 7:30am. Now showered and somewhat fresher than earlier. The weather outside is humid and the airport poorly air-conditioned - could it even be heated?! Flight to London departs around 11:00am.

View from the Club - Narita

All showered and ready to go again

The automatic trains connecting the terminals at Narita

Narita - London

Friday, September 7th

Arrived at Heathrow on time at 3:00pm, then endured the usual very long queue at immigration (the EU gets priority over the Commonwealth these days). Took the shuttle to the Hilton Hotel Terminal 5 and now waiting for room service (pizzas and red wine). Tired and in need of a good night's sleep. Off to Paris in the morning.

 

View from Hilton Heathrow Terminal 5 Hotel

London - Paris

Saturday, September 8th

Easy trip from hotel to St Pancras station via Underground, followed by fast trip from London to Paris on the Euro Star. Found hotel a few blocks from Gare du Nord and it's lovely and the staff hospitable.

Walked from hotel along the canal and busy roads to Montmartre and climbed the (very busy) stairs to Sacre Couer.

 Weather quite warm, so we got hot, tired and thirsty. Beer and Campari back at the hotel.

Now preparing to go out for the big birthday dinner at a secret destination - all will soon be revealed!

And dinner was at.... Le Train Bleu:

Paris

Sunday, September 9th

What else would one do for their birthday but go to the cemetery and visit Jim Morrison:

 and Oscar Wilde:

Then spend the afternoon touring Paris on a bloody Segway!

Whose idea was thtis anyway?

Paris to Fontainebleau

Monday, September 10th

At the age of 37 she realised she would never ride through Paris in a sports car with the warm wind in her hair....

...well 60 is the new 37, and a VW Tiguan is the new sports car, smog is the new "warm wind", and from Charles De Gaulle airport to Fontainebleu via the outskirts of Paris in a Monday morning traffic jam is close enough, isn't it?!

For some reason, everywhere we went there seemed to be another Prudence:

But you can't fool me:

Just as in English, in French "prudence" means "watch out"! And I do...

We spent a few hours in the afternoon visiting Fontainebleau Chateau:

Now that's opulence - those French Kings and Queens certainly knew how to live (until they lost their heads).

After meeting Carla at their lovely new flat:

We had lunch with Robert and Carla at INSEAD:

and in the evening we had a G&T:

followed by dinner at a lovely local bistro.

Fontainebleau to Saint Flour

Tuesday, September 11th

Before we left Fontainebleau we took a stroll around the deserted Chateau grounds:

before making the (relatively) long journey southwards, ending up in the lovely hill town of Saint-Flour (well known to all Tour de France fanatics):

The view from the bedroom window! As I write, Prudence is sound asleep after a typically French dinner made even more memorable by the imaginative presentation, the intimacy of the (small) restaurant packed with locals, and an extremely efficient and energetic waitress (even better - she was French too!).

Saint Flour - Le Puy - Espalion - Estaing

Wednesday, September 12th

Today was an opportunity to sleep in, just a little, but after breakfast (with a view) we left Saint-Flour:

And decided to make a sideways excursion to one of the most important towns of the Chemin de Jacques (Camino de Compostela) - Le Puy en Velay:

Where the intermittent drizzle of the morning turned to rain:

Not a good day to go for a walk, especially all the way to Spain. However, it seemed there were many more people doing just that, both on foot and on bike. Many more than when Rob did exactly this about 15 years ago.

We left Le Puy for the very picturesque back road drive to Espalion which took us through some lovely gorges, and as high as 1400 meters where it was occasionally quite foggy, and cool (11C):

Some of this pilgrim route has been used by the Tour de France as recently as two or three years ago, and here's the proof:

We went through many lovely little French villages, some with twisted church spires (thank God for Sat Nav):

Arriving at our destination of Estaing (near Espalion, more tomorrow):

Rob's favourite town in all of France - pity the photographer couldn't keep themselves out of the picture (prudence, s'il vous plait).

The view from the hotel room window of the River Lot:

We are now enjoying a Campari and Soda, writing this blog, and waiting for (yet another) lovely French meal, with wine naturelement!

And if we're good, we can all go to sleep in a Princess's bed:

Estaing - Espalion - Conque - Villefranche du Lauragais

Thursday, September 13th

Sleeping in the Princess's bed was lovely, and the location was so peaceful and quiet that we probably had our best night's sleep since leaving Australia. We decided to leave "The Manor" in Estaing:

And have breakfast in Espalion. Now, why is Espalion so important? Well, it's on the Chemin de St Jacques; it's where Rob has been before; it's where he wanted to buy a house in France when he first met Prue; it's been his PC background for 10 years; and here it is:

Now, if you thought Grand Designs or Renovation Rescue had some "basket cases", have a look at this one:

Rising damp, rotted beams, unstable foundations, and broken windows - but what a fantasic renovators delight! What's more, it's heritage protected. Partners anyone?

Now Espalion is clearly comfortable, and it has a medieval bridge as well:

Grabbed a coffee at the local bar (doubling as casino and lotto parlour) and a pastry at the local patisserie (fantastic) and headed along the Chemin de St Jacques where a few dozen French "walkers" beat us to the Romanic(13th century) church of Bessajouls:

Where another pilgrim had also beat them:

Back on the road firstly to Estaing again (photographer clearly needs Photoshop to remover rubbish from foreground):

and then to one of the great French sites of Conques:

Even on a Thursday in September it's difficult to find a parking spot in Conques, so you can imagine what it's like on a Thursday in August!

Finally, after a three hour drive, a search for a loo, an encounter with stinging nettles, and too many one way streets, we arrived at our hotel in Villefranche de Lauragais, close to Toulouse and even closer to Negra, departure port on the Canal du Midi, What else would one have for dinner but Casoulet?

Postscript: Australians at the same hotel as us, and departing on a canal boat at the same time as us - prudence!