surprise drive
by the back van driver
Cordes sur Ceil, France
We’ve taken you on strolls around villages, boat rides down rivers, treks across hills, trains across continents; we’ve taken you vicariously with us on tuktuks, tandems and even elephants. Today, would you like to take the passenger seat in the front of The Other Van and follow Rob as he winds his way through the French countryside? You’ll be looking through the lens of Grandpa’s camera as we cover almost 300km, and due to stopping very very often, it’ll take us almost eight hours to cover the distance. We’ll pass through so many delightful villages you won’t believe there could possibly be yet another one over the next hill….we’ll coast down the longest downhill so far: 8km non-stop downwards. We pass three cyclists struggling their way 8km non-stop upwards, one is walking and still has an unenviable long way to go. We’ll struggle up our own hills. We’ll drive through a gorge. We’ll spot a castle. We’ll come across one of France’s self-proclaimed most beautiful towns, and it truly is. We’ll admire massive bridges from a distance; stone, iron and concrete structures. We’ll pass under some, drive over many. The afternoon sun will cause Rodez to glimmer like a celestial city. But we don’t stop there, we’re aiming for a smaller place, another old town. Twenty kilometres out we think we’re close: “Not long to go now,” someone ignorantly quips. What we don’t know is the fact that we are about to trade fairly major roads for a wriggle through little towns and narrow country lanes dissecting sunflower fields. I’m sure there must be a more *major* way to get to this town, and judging by the number of people there when we arrived there must have been – the town was humming with hundreds of people at the Sunday market, cars lining every street possible, but we passed hardly a soul on the remote country roads that eventually widened into the town of Cordes sur Ceil. What a gem of a place, and what a way to get there.
You see, we’re travelling blind in France. Apart from following “Le Tour de France” and a schoolgirl reading of “A Tale of Two Cities”, our knowledge of France is very limited, to say the least. We have done no research, read no novels to the children, consulted no guidebooks, not even googled anything. We know little about the history, less about the geography and nothing about politics other than talk of banning religious symbols ten years ago – or was it twenty? We just came expecting cheese (we finished the first Petite Brie today – not that there was anything petite about it, not when it was the size of a dinner plate! We’ll start on some mozarella tomorrow – will you stay and join us?), we just came hoping to see shabby chic furnishings and fields of lavender. A fairly stereotypical understanding, don’t you think? So, knowing next-to-nothing, every day is full of surprises. French Family had suggested a different route to the one we’ve ended up on, but we aren’t for a moment disappointed – we are just struggling to imagine how beautiful *their* suggestion would have been! Coz this way is divine.
We were given a magazine containing hundreds of Aires by some friendly Britons in Holland, and we have used this to good effect, planning our route in conjunction with a map showing toll roads (no country in Europe – or is that the world? – has more toll roads than France and they are to be avoided at all costs – because they DO cost a tidy sum. Besides, the major roads are perfectly adequate, often even being dual carriageway, and the minor roads that are not even on the map, but which we have found ourselves on, have turned out to be fascinating, especially for the passengers).
So, come with us, will you? Now that we know, we can promise it will be a lovely day!
Time on the road: need to check Jboy13’s record!
Distance covered: 289km
Tags: 2008/09, food, postcard: France, price, transport
rayres
Those sunflowers are like fields of happiness!