Saturday 30th June 2007

Bonjour from beautiful France. We began out French adventure in Normandy. Visiting the D Day beaches and cemetery was a sobering and emotional experience but worthwhile. We also took time to explore the magnificent Mont Saint Michel. A few words can’t come close to describing it so here’s a picture

Our next stop was Carnac, home to literally thousands of standing stones, many erected in long lines that stretch for several kilometres. There were also many tombs, dolmens and other curiosities to explore. Needless to say we had a great time. Here is one of the many, many photos we took of a bunch of rocks in a field.

The Loire Valley was the point when we really felt like we were in a different country. The landscape and architecture changes and there were vines for as far as the eye could see. We spent a few days south of Angers, driving around the countryside and visiting wineries, an underground mushroom farm and the remains of a troglodyte village, abandoned only 100 years ago. Before leaving the Loire we went to the fairytale castle that is Chenonceau Chateau. It’s the one that looks like this.

I’m writing this in Chartes, a small city not far from Paris. It’s home to a breathtakingly large and beautiful (mostly) Gothic Cathedral and we had a fascinating tour of it today. Tomorrow it’s Paris but that will have to wait for the next instalment.