On our way to the Loire Valley we stopped in two small troglodyte villages Souzay-Champigny & Turquant where the houses and shops are built into the side of the hill in caves.There were two distinctly different types of these areas - one a very old area where the caves had not been developed much - there were no "buildings" here just openings and tunneled areas and caves.Some caves had openings above where the cave dwellers used to drop the grapes down into t...

Puy du fou, a theatrical outdoor establishment where history comes to life in the form of shows about significant historical events and stories was a planned highlight on our itinerary. The costumes, animals and sets are true to the period, and the visual and sound effects stunning. All the shows had elements of suprise that kept us amazed and wowed. We watched 5 shows: A mythical falconry tale with lots of amazing birds the sword in the stone/knights of the ro...

We arrived at Mt St Michel about 6pm to loads of mosquitoes - of a massive size. Keeping the doors and mozie screens closed on the campervan was a priority. It was quite a warm evening, and we were to find out later that it was also high tide which makes the mozies rise off the sand. With this being the top tourist attraction in France we'd heard the best time to view it was before or after the tourist coaches arrived or left for the day, and we were keen to get...

Rouen has a couple of sites of interest and historical significance. It has some very old Cathedrals and an Abbey, but also it is the place where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake. I recall doing an essay on Joan of Arc back in college days so it was interesting to see this, and I expect we will encounter some more sites relevant to her in the Loire Valley next week, so this is an interesting historical figure to connect with in different locations on our trip....

Today we picked up our campervan - it took a long time to go through all the instructions (hopefully between us we can remember the myriad of things we got told and shown).First impressions are that the campervan is pretty well laid out. Its not quite as big as I imagined - which is both good (driving wise) and bad (space wise inside).The water in the tank is heavily chlorinated - the first cup of tea was so bad it was tipped down the sink, and we've decided we w...