Reset search
France2023France2023
SatelliteEdit route

France2023

June - July 2023
6 weeks in France. Paris, Lyon, Albi, Pau, Bordeaux, Quimper, Paris Read more
  • 18footprints
  • 2countries
  • 40days
  • 163photos
  • 0videos
  • 13.3kmiles
  • 6.1kmiles
  • 5.3kmiles
  • 936miles
Follow Calendar Share Bucket list
Date ascending
  • TravelerFrance2023
    1
    Day 11

    Albi Day 1

    June 21, 2023 in France ⋅ ☁️ 84 °F

    Today we walked around the old town of Albi. The cathedral here, like the Basilica in Lyon, is ever present above the city, but not for the same reason. In Lyon, it's perched on a hill, but in Albi, it is a monstrous fortress with a very tall steeple. It claims to be the largest brick structure in the world. Behind it is the former bishop's palace and a lovely garden. While Albi has a new and modern part of the city, the old town, from the Medieval and Renaissance periods, is well maintained and thriving. Another church, Saint-Salvi, is even older than the cathedral, completed in its current form in the 1200s. You can see the bell tower was later added onto with bricks. There is a nice trail along the river we plan to walk on later.Read more

  • TravelerFrance2023
    Day 18

    Pau

    June 28, 2023 in France ⋅ ☀️ 79 °F

    We got into Pau after a fairly short train trip from Albi through Toulouse. The scenery changed again as we made our way along the northern edge of the Pyrenees. Pretty wooded areas occasionally gave way to open vistas where, had the weather been better, we could have seen the snow-capped mountains. We toured the castle where Henri IV was born, a fairly oppulant manor for a regional lord. Then we walked along the southern ramparts, famed for their beautiful views of the mountains. Of course, over the course of seven days, they never appeared from their cloud cover. But neither rain nor gloom kept us completely down. A couple side trips and some long walks helped get us through our time in this overhyped city.
    Noted as one of the (if not the) best city in France to retire to, we found it quite lacking in vitality and things to do. I think it's reputation comes from having a couple golf courses surrounding it, as everyone knows this is every retirees' main daily activity.    Read more

  • TravelerFrance2023
    Day 20

    Jurançon

    June 30, 2023 in France ⋅ ☁️ 70 °F

    This side trip from Pau, actually a southern suburb of Pau, was delightful. We took the city bus to the Cave there, passing a rather large cheese factory along the way. The wine producer here is a conglomerate of various producers. The Cave presses, ferments, and bottles the wines for all the various chateaus. It's such a small producing area that it makes more sense to do it that way instead of each house doing all the work themselves. The facility itself comprises at least three large buildings plus a visitor's center/tasting room. Their gem is the building for aging and bottling. Roman mosaics, found during area construction projects, cover the walls. The storage room is beautiful, with unique lighting. And the wine is pretty good, too!
    After the tour, we set off on a jaunt to the village. Pretty flowers everywhere along a small river winding through town.    Read more

  • TravelerFrance2023
    Day 22

    Bayonne

    July 2, 2023 in France ⋅ ⛅ 75 °F

    Today we took an unplanned side trip to Bayonne. The weather was nasty in Pau and it was predicted to be sunny in Bayonne, so we hopped on the train and headed toward the coast. Along the way we could see the swollen rivers, high and muddy from the recent rains. Of course, the weather didn't improve, and by the time we got to Bayonne, it was pouring. But we headed out and found lunch at a unique tiny restaurant called Janine. Only 5 things on the menu. Really good food.
    Eventually the clouds broke, and we walked around the town a bit. The cathedral is gigantic and lovely. When we got to the gardens, it started to rain again, but we pressed on and eventually made our way back to the train station.    Read more

  • TravelerFrance2023
    Day 23

    A Mountain Walk

    July 3, 2023 in France ⋅ ☀️ 70 °F

    Today we headed to the mountains by way of the train. When we got to Pau, we visited the tourist office, who told us it was not possible to do any hiking in the mountains without having a car. While they were somewhat correct in that we couldn't get to the officially sanctioned, back-country trails without one, the train brought us to the pretty little town of Bedous, where their tourist office happily showed us many options, including the rather longish trail we did take. The map showed a trail that was 11.9 km long, but after we followed their descriptive directions, which got worse as the trail went on, we ended up walking about 14 km, which might have been shorter than if we followed the sparse directions. Anyway, it was a gorgeous day, the best of our whole time in Pau.Read more

  • TravelerFrance2023
    Day 24

    Arrive in Bordeaux

    July 4, 2023 in France ⋅ ☀️ 79 °F

    It was a bit of a tiring day today. Another gloomy start to the day in Pau, but we had plenty of time to get on the train to head to our next stop, Bordeaux. The train ride was fairly insignificant but pretty crowded, I guess because the final destination was Paris. Luckily, we were early enough on that we could place our luggage in the rack, unlike many who got on later. Lots of tree farms along this route that I figure were for lumber, as they were mostly pine trees. While the skies didn't clear any once we arrived in the city, it at least wasn't raining. We caught the tram to the closest stop by our apartment and made the trek. Our building, modern on the outside and pretty nondescript, is very nice on the inside. The large balcony is really nice. Enjoyed dinner outside at a lively bistro in the shadow one of the large churches. Indulged in their meat and cheese platter and sampled the local wine.Read more

  • TravelerFrance2023
    Day 25

    First Day in Bordeaux

    July 5, 2023 in France ⋅ ☁️ 73 °F

    Started the day here with a visit to the tourist office. Bought some city passes and headed out for the day. Of course it was sprinkling some, so we had to have umbrellas. Right outside the tourist office is the Place des Quinconces, a large park where Tour de France will end stage 7 on Friday. They are already set up and the city seems pretty eager and ready to go. Very unlike Pau, when we left on Tuesday, you would have never known that the next day they were hosting the start of stage 5. A couple of road block signs and a few tiny yellow jerseys sparsely hanging over two streets were all we saw. It's definitely a big deal here, though.
    So we started checking out the town. While the city is old, it is dominated by buildings of the late 1700s/early 1800s. The city center is a huge shopping district with many high-end shops. We escaped the rain in the Medieval church, Église Saint-Pierre. It wasn't very ornate and was really dark, but the altar was modern. We also went inside the beautiful Église Saint-Louis des Chartrons, the church that was just around the corner from where we ate ladt night. Once the rain cleared, we strolled through the Jardin Public, a very popular city park.    Read more

  • TravelerFrance2023
    Day 26

    Second Day in Bordeaux

    July 6, 2023 in France ⋅ ⛅ 81 °F

    Started off today back at the visitor's center to book a tour of St. Emillion, the medieval town famous for macarons and, of course, wine! Today is a much nicer day, so we'll do more sightseeing. Unfortunately, with the construction style of the city, with narrow streets and tallish buildings, it doesn't make for the best picture taking. But, we went to a few places that had better viewing options. We took the tram to the centre-ville and took in some of the main attractions. There are still a number of gates left in the city from when it had a fortified wall. The wall is long gone, but we started off with Porte Dijeaux, now just an archway in the middle of a street. It was a close walk to the big open Place, which includes the Mairie, the Pey Berland tower, and the imposing Cathedral Saint-André de Bordeaux. We didn't go up into the tower, but it is an incredible bell tower built in the 1400s and topped with a golden statue of Mary. The cathedral is magnificent both in and out. Not overly ornate, but it is beautiful stonework. We stopped for a pause in the gardens behind the Mairie.
    Of course, we window shopped in the huge shopping district, then got a baguette sandwich from a closeby bakery, and had lunch along the river, in the gardens next to the famous Miroir d'Eau. Later on, we ended our sightseeing at the Muséum de Bordeaux, the local natural history museum.    Read more

  • 2024© FindPenguins
  • Home
  • About us
  • Blog
  • Group Tracking
  • Press
  • Terms
  • Privacy Policy & Cookies
  • Support
  • Legal notice
  • English