Search engine search engine of the digital world, what’s the best travel booking site of them all? Hmm.. we tapped booking.com for a handful of stays along our French adventure which progressed smoothly. However when news arrived (with less than 24 hour notice), that booking.com double booked our B&B in Bordeaux and cancelled our stay, this set off an unpleasant scramble (needless to say their claim to have found a similar stay for us at the Holiday Inn in Bordeaux city, proved their customer service people either never traveled or had severely bad timing with humor).
In the end, it meant that our original 5-night stay at Verrieres & Vignes (the scenic B&B in wine country), would be curtailed to 3 nights, as we refused to be fully cancelled. The hosts there were incredibly hospitable and sensitive to our situation and worked to make our stay nothing short of uber-welcoming. This also gave us the opportunity to reconfigure the next few days which eventually took us off track (westbound to the Basque Country). The reason, one of Olivia’s closest friends was there for the weekend so we decided to make a surprise reunion of it for the girls (who hadn’t seen each other in over a year). “When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade”, not sure exactly if I even figured out the true meaning behind the saying but we definitely made the best of our situation. One of the weekend’s highlights was our day trip to San Sebastián (or Donostia), the Basque city just over the Spanish border. The grey morning eventually gave way to a bit of sunshine here and there which made our beach chill session at Playa de La Concha a lot more enjoyable. It was Brigitte’s and my second time doing a day trip to the Basque city (9 years apart), this time covering more of the city and having our girls along to share in the experience.
Back to France and back on track moving east, we spent the next few days just outside the famed Medieval Citadel of Carcassonne in the Occitan region. We had visited the impressive Cité Médiéval 3 years prior (when the “Concentric, Eccentric” art exhibit was live), and felt it would be great to revisit now that the girls were both of age to enjoy it. But before making our way over to the citadel, we stopped at Château de Serres in the Malpère AOP (new to us), for a tasting of the local wines (in Serres’ case featuring reds derived from “Atlantic grapes”, think Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon and “Mediterranean grapes”, like Syrah and Grenache as the proprietor and former journalist had informed us).
What started as a Roman hilltop fortification around 100 BC later became an awesome citadel bearing two protective walls and 53 towers (in the 14th century), and played an important role to its numerous masters over the past two millennia. In peril of being demolished due to its state of disrepair and neglect after Napoleon had demilitarized the fortress, Carcassonne cité was saved by its mayor and restored by renown architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc who’s life work and genius included the restoration of other notable French landmarks (such as Paris’ Notre-Dame and Mont Saint Michel among others). We got close and personal with Carcassonne which was buzzing with visitors, a testament to its mass appeal and continued significance in France’s culture today. After lunch (which featured the local delicacy, cassoulet), we attended the Chevalerie show, a medieval times reenactment including sword fights, jousts and impressive horseback riding. The girls loved the show and repeatedly asked whether the swords, lances and spears were actually real (yup, they were we reassured them and the actors handling them were masters of their trade).
Another Occitan attraction that drew us and wasn’t too far from our B&B in Montreal, was the Gouffre Géant de Cabrespine, or the Cabrespine Cave. Discovered by two cave enthusiasts in 1968, Cabrespine was opened to the public 20 years later. Today it boats a glass balcony capable of tingling the spine as it gives way to the 200+ meter drop below. The views of the magnificent cave present themselves not only down but also up, parlaying the sheer magnitude of the structure in a more computable way. And as caves typically do, this one played to multiple senses too, from sight to sound (i.e. dripping water effect), to temperature (a constant 14 Celsius or 53 Fahrenheit in this case), timelessness and sense of entrapment. The group guided tour (only way to see the cave), was interesting and the stalagmites and stalactites were super cool but the helictites stole the show for me; the white crystal or snowflake shaped formations and their intricate never ending detail arrested my attention.
The girls were somewhat split on Cabrespine, O was in “oh my” mode while L was leaning towards “Let’s get out of here”. Our visit lasted about 50 mins all in and was well worth the experience.
Next up: Edging closer to Provence.
Our Provençal Year 