A holiday away from the Charente - Part One.

We have never been to the United States before and at the invitation of a number of friends who have moved there over the years, we decided to do some visiting!  We have long time friends from both South Africa and Rhodesia scattered around, so there was much to catch up on and see.  One of the very top opportunities was to spend a few days at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and meet up with Gaelyn from  http://geogypsytraveler.com/; we have been following each other's blogs almost since the day I started blogging.

This post only covers day one and two of a 4 week trip, so I hope you have the stamina for all there is to see and follow!! I still have many photos to look through, edit and check, so this is all going to take sometime!

9 June 2016

One of our friendly French neighbours took us and our luggage to the railway station in Angouleme to catch the TGV (high speed train) to Paris. There he is, wheeling a case!  However, the trip was in doubt until the last minute due to French union strike action. When we had booked all the travel 6 months previously, that wasn't on the radar!!  To cut a long story short, Nigel went to our local station 3 times to check if our train to Paris would run!  Each time he were told yes, and then the day before we travelled, we had an email to say it had been cancelled!!  After another trip to the station,we finally managed to rebook, but all trains were almost full due to cancellations and our seats were upstairs, up which we had to drag 3 cases, plus hand luggage and cameras!

Leaving Angouleme, I could not fail to remind you that it is the city of the  comic strip and a haven for graphic artists; these are a few of the paintings around the railway station.

There appeared to be a Bar - Brasserie behind these doors, but it all looked pretty quiet while we were there - well, it was half past seven in the morning!

10 June 2016

By the time we had arrived in Paris, with arms full of luggage and located and caught the shuttle bus to our hotel, the time flew, so the only photos I managed was this one from the hotel window, looking out at the sunrise the following day, and those below.

There were signs everywhere that the UEFA Euro 2016 Football (soccer) Championship was on in France and  hotels everywhere were packed with soccer fans!

Waiting at the hotel the next morning for the shuttle bus to take us just up the road to........

 Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport.

These are Air France 'planes, but their aircrews had been on strike intermittently for many weeks, creating enormous disruption. Strikes are still going on as I type this! Luckily we were flying with American Airlines!

Our first morning, with a sunrise, in Delaware, after landing at the nearby Philadelphia airport  the evening before.  We were very tired, as it had been a long two days travel from home, especially with the 5 hour time change!

Also see my daily diary HERE

and My Life Before Charente (updated 09 April 2016) 

The start of our amazing holiday begins at Carcassonne

I apologise for the long break from my blog, but we had an amazing holiday and I am still going through the many photos which we took, therefore posts will still be slow for a while!  Furthermore, to those that follow me because of the Charente region, I apologise, but we will be in several different regions of France for a while, plus a trip to Spain, a cruise in the Mediterranean and a week in the UK.

We left home in mid-May, driving south to Carcassonne.  We were to meet, and stay with, a former school friend of mine who lives close to the town, and who I have not seen for more years than I like to remember!   We arrived in the area by late morning so we decided that we would see the city itself, before proceeding on to our friends.

Carcassonne is a medieval fortified city in the French department of Aude. The first signs of settlement in this area have been dated back to 3500BC.   It was founded in the Gallo-Roman period, but has developed over the centuries into a much larger town.  

The following is what is written on the  sign as you enter the medieval area :-  

After the Albigeois crusade, in the XIII century, the Seneschal representing the King of France occupied the town.   In September 1240, Raymond Trencavel tried with the help of the local lords to recapture the town by laying siege to the 'Cite'.   Helped by the occupants of the 'bourgs' (market towns), besiegers finally reached the ramparts of the fortress which nearly fell into their hands.   The siege finally failed and the King of France asked the local authorities to have the houses which had betrayed him pulled down.   In 1263, King Louis IX 'Saint Louis' decided to create a new bourg on the South side of the river Aude in order to give back to the 'cite' the defensive potentialities.   This is the way the "Ville Basse of Carcassonne" called "Bastide" was born on the present site.  The new town was characterised by an orthogonal plan forming 1000 square metres.  In 1355, during the 100 Years War, the Ville Basse, hardly fortified was completely destroyed by the "Black Prince".   Two years later, Carcassonne was rebuilt on the South side of the river as a smaller town, but surrounded by ramparts and towers.  

For further information on the town see Here

In 1849, the city had fallen into such disrepair that a decree was passed by the government to demolish it.  This caused such an uproar, that in 1853 restoration was started.  There is a double ring of ramparts and 53 towers.

 It was added to the UNESCO list of world heritage sites in 1997.

The restoration is excellent, and it is wonderful to walk around the site and imagine you were there many, many years before! The wooden sections atop the walls are to protect defenders standing on the battlements.

 The church is undergoing restoration at the present time, but here are a couple of photos without signs of scaffolding.

There are also a few active shops in the centre. I am sure they do very good business with the tourists, especially during the summer months.

You can clearly see here the double ramparts.

and from the outside looking up.

I just loved this little bridge which was on the outside of the old city.

The river Aude, with the more modern part of the city  on the left, on the opposite side of the river to the older fortified city.

The dome in the newer part of the city under which I believe they hold events and performances. 

I loved this doorway in the new area

and this fountain, which sadly was dry!

This is a beautiful city and I would love to return and spend more time here and surrounding areas. I hope that you enjoyed this first day of our trip, I will try to keep up to date a little more often now!!  

What you will see when I return to posting again at the end of June (I hope!),

What with all the post-holiday effects and so much to do on our return home, I will not be blogging regularly for a while yet!   We are extra busy catching up with house and garden, especially with the fruit trees, which are heavy with fruit, so they are very time consuming. Added to that, we have visitors coming!  I  posted my daily diary here by mistake the other day, but despite removing it fairly quickly and putting it in the correct place, there were a number of comments, and then emails from people who could not see the post. Sorry, but it is now at its proper place at http://photodiarydps.blogspot.com.  I have also moved the comments there as well.   The other reason for holding back is because I do not currently have the time to properly visit all your blogs and I have sooooooo many photos to edit!!!

Here is a small photographic taster, from our travels outside the Charente, with much more when I get back to normal:-)

A visit to Carcassonne. A historic fortified French town in the Aude department,  not  far from the Mediterranean.

A trip to Barcelona in Spain.

Part of our sumptuous stateroom on the cruise ship Liberty of the Seas.

The gymnasium on the ship.

A visit to Monaco, just before the Formula 1 GP took place

The Sphinx room on board ship.

Mount Vesuvius, just outside Naples

Snow on the Pyrenees - a rare sight in May, we are told!

Off to the UK!

'Visiting' both our families at Haycombe Cemetery near Bath

A visit to my grandparent's old house at Batheaston.  Sadly the two garages have been built in front of it, so it was impossible to see it properly!

Back home in the Charente, a blackbird takes a bath.

The bees are busy

as are the butterflies. This is "Small tortoiseshell" Aglais urticae