France photographs, summer 2006  (244x)

An overview of all pictures (that we use on the website) of our journey through France in June 2006. We use 2 cameras, both digital (Minolta DImage Z3 and a Sony W1).

On tuesday 6 June we leave to France and after a first night in a cheap hotel we drive on to the north of the Massif Central. We find our first campsite in Orcet, just southeast of Clermont-Ferrand.

Today we explore the neighbourhood of Clermont-Ferrand with the many (extinguished) vulcanoes. By car we climb the Puy the Dôme and visit the theme park Vulcania.

Today we have a quiet start and later drive around Clermont-Ferrand and visit the city itself. There is suppoesed to be a medieval festival going on, but we find it a bit disappointing.

We make a long tour through the area southeast of Clermont-Ferrand (Monts Dore) and drive through beautiful nature.

We leave from Orcet and drive via Le Puy-Velay, to a campsite in Rivière-sur-Tarn, near Millau. The last part of the journey leads us through the impressive Gorges du Tarn.

Near Millau we want to see the magnificient bridge that has only been completed a short time ago. The 2.5 kilowithers long bridge is supported by pillars more than 300 withers high above the valley.

Today is rock-day: strange rock formations in the Chaos the Montpellier-le-Vieux (where we have to pay) and beautiful sceneries we get for free in the Gorges the Jonte.

Elisabeth stays on the campsite to rest and Teije wants to visit some caves and drive around.

We drive to the north, through the beautiful nature of the Cantal.

When we wake up it is cold (21 C) and it starts to rain. But in Albi it is 35 degrees Centigrade and via Carcassonne we drive to the coast at Narbonne. There the temperature has dropped again to 21 degrees and rain starts to fall again.

In our hurry to put up the tent last night we have chosen a bad spot and first move to a place where we can get the tent pegs into the rocky soil. The sky is clouded and it is very humid. In the afternoon we go to Narbonne, a lively town with street theatre and music.

Today the weather is fine and we spend most of the time on the beach, the reason we came to this place.

Near the sea it is clouded and muggy with 24 degrees C, in the inland it feels much nicer with hot (34 degrees) and dry weather. Except visiting Carcassonne we also see a lot of castles of the Cathars when we drive through the inhospitable region of Corbieres.

In Narbonne we visit a garage because our brake shoes are almost gone. Since it is no weather for the beach we make another tour, also to the prehistoric museum in Tautavel. At the end of the day we return to the garage an there we are told one brake claw is stuck and the brake dishes are damaged. So we have to come back again tomorrow.

The car parts haven't arrived yet, so we decide to spend another day at the beach and the weather is nicer than the last few days.

We try to spend the morning on the beach, but there is a strong wind and it feels as if we are being sandblasted. In the afternoon we return to the garage and some of the ordered parts (a French car model in France!) are wrong. They do what they can and in the end we leave the garage € 290 poorer.

We leave the clouded coast behing and drive through the Gorge the l'Ardèche, a beautidul valley with nice panorama's, and then along the borders of the French Alps.

Tour through the surroundings of Digne-les-Bains, an area with lots of fossiles like a wall with ammonites.

After visiting Castellane we drive through the spectaculair Grand Canyon of France, the Gorges du Verdon.

A trip to the Cote d'Azur, from Cannes to Monaco, nice to see once, but we find it too crowded. What are all these people doing here?

We do everything in slowmotion today. The afternoon we spend on a nice spot at Lac the Castillon, sitting, playing, reading and swimming.

Today we start on our way back home. It is about 1400 kilowithers, so we take 2 days for the trip. And at first we take time to drive through the Alps, since we love mountains!

The last and short stage to our house. After a breakfast in Tilff (Belgium) we arrive home at 4 in the afternoon. Another holiday has come to an end.