Today we visited the Viaduct of Millau and the village of Roquefort

Viaduct of Millau (pronounced Meow) is a 2 1/2 hour drive from the barge. It is a suspension brige over a gorge... the highest and one of the longest suspension bridges in the world, an engineering marvel. It was spectacular. We drove under it and then on it! The lovely thing about French engineering is that an object must not only be functional, it must also be aesthestically pleasing.

Village of Roquefort is, of course, where Roquefort Cheese is made. It is cured in special caves that are only in the side of the mountain where this village is located. No one else in the world can make 'Roquefort'. Story has it a shepherd, while tending his flocks aout 2000 years ago, left his sandwich (bread and curd) in a cave he was sheltering in. Months later, he returned to the cave and found the sandwich covered in a green mould. Being hungry, he scraped off the mould and tasted it... and voila! Roquefort was discovered. Whether this story is true or not, these caves have the moisture, air flow and temperature variation to turn sheep's milk (with the help of a penicillan mold grown on bread) into world renowned Roquefort cheese. The tour was fascinating and of course we bought some cheese. All in all, we had a great day!

A very French experience today....

Next Monday, I start my intensive French language lessons, so need to travel from Castelsarrasin to Toulouse/return every Monday to Friday. So today, while Peter waited in the car, I went into the local train station to buy a ticket for 5 weeks travel. I told the man I was studying in Toulouse, and needed a ticket for the next 5 weeks. I didn't qualify for a 'student discount' because of my age. So he decided I needed a 'senior's card' which allowed me a senior's discount. I know he was trying to be helpful, but then he tried to see the best way for me to travel... a monthly ticket? No. A concession ticket of someother description? He decided no. And with every step, he was consulting another colleague. Also with every step, he decided to explain to me very carefully in French how he was going to do it. To make a long story short... 45 minutes and now 7 people waiting very patiently in line behind me, he decided I needed one ticket for each trip... so proceeded to print out 50 single tickets with a Senior's discount, putting each day in a different folder, and patiently explaining to me how I must protect so many tickets, how I mustn't carry them all at once, how I had to accompny each journey carrying my Seniors' pass, etc. It took an hour for me to buy the train tickets.

On the 'up side' his diligence saved me about $150 in travel the way he did it. The down side was Peter was waiting in the car park the entire time when he could have been on the barge which was just across the canal. C'est la vie en France.

I have been very lax in keeping up the blog. I will try to do better.

We are back in France on the barge, after being in Switzerland for 3 weeks. Loved every minute.. cold but very little snow.

Today, we are visiting Lourdes which is about 130 kms away from Castelsarrasin, our winter port. We have been reading about Lourdes... besides being a 'Disneyland' for the religious (do you want a paperweight with snow falling on the Blessed Virgin Mary?), it is the second most visited city in France (after Paris)!! But winter is their low season. I guess not too many people on crutches and in wheelchairs move around outside in the winter.

There are over 150 people each year saying they have been 'healed' after visiting the Grotto and touching the water (Bernadette had a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary several hundred years ago, and a spring welled up on the spot, now a 'grotto'). The Vatican over the centuries has recognised 61 of these cures as 'miracles'. So... it should be interesting.

Tomorrow night, we are going out to dinner at a restaurant just started by a young French women who, last year, won the TV show title of 'Masterchef' of France. The prize of €100,000 allowed her to open up a small restaurant at her farm. The restaurant is only about a 30 minute drive from the barge. But this woman, would you believe, lives on the farm with her husband and their 6 children between the ages of 18 months and 8 years, and raises her own cows, chickens, and garden vegetables for the restaurant!!! And we thought we were busy!

Ballooning around the Alps in Switzerland

We flew at a balloon meet last weekend, in Crans Montana, a VERY POSH ski resort. We were asked to fly the Crans Montana balloon, so Peter was the 'Hare' for every flight (but in Switzerland, they call it the 'renard' or fox). The flights were spectacular but the down side is all flights had to be only about 30 minutes long due to wind currents and landing opportunities.

Discovered a gem of a restaurant

Happy New Year to all, and we wish everyone health and happiness in the years to come. We went on a drive to the North and found a 'Plus Belle Village' as listed in the Micheline Guide called 'Les Plus Beaux Détours de France'. But better yet, in the old village square, we happened upon a tiny restaurant called 'Les Sommeliers'. We had a 2 course meal that rivalled anything we have ever had, for $16.00. The service was spectacular, the local wine superb, the ambiance warm and friendly... even the 'loo' was decorated with warmth and flare! Loved it. I had a starter (smoked salmon, creme frais on blinis, which I shared with Peter) and a main (baby deer slow cooked in wine). Peter had a main (three types of fish in a cream/wine sauce, and a dessert of roasted chestnut cream cake roll which he shared with me). Love being in France!!!

Merry Christmas to Everyone

We are going to cook a goose on the barge today, in our small oven! Indeed, when we bought the goose at the 'live poultry market', we measured it to make sure it would fit in our oven! I also think we will be having 'goose' left overs for the next week or so. The smallest goose we could find was 3.75 kgs (8 3/4 pounds).

We wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, health and contentment.

Back on the Barge in southern France.

Peter and I are back in France on our barge.

Yesterday, we drove to Andorra high in the Pyrannees on the border. Andorra doesn't seem to belong to either France or Spain, although they speak 'catalan'. PV and I wondered how they were able to maintain their principality throughout history! Maybe it wasn't worth conquering by the different factions? Anyway, everything is duty free, as we discovered! So we spent lots of money on wine, clothes, gifts, and exotic food. We had great fun.

We even bought a whole parma ham for 19 Euros!!! (That is a whole ham for about $A25.) I now have to learn how to slice it very thinly. It is supposed to last about 6 months!! So we thought with a little effort, and some help by our friends/guests, we could eat it all by next July.

The weather was strange up there. As we climbed the mountains, the temperature started climbing and got up to 10°C (50°F), and it was raining. But then the more we climbed, the colder it got and the rain turned to slush, then huge snowflakes falling softly. It really felt like Christmas! (I have a hard time relating to Christmas when I am in Australia and we go to the beach on Christmas Day!)