My husband Dave and I have been living in France since 2003. We live in a house with a large garden about 45 minutes from Limoges, Haute Vienne in an area known as the Limousin, which is just over half way down the length of France. After living and working in London and living in the East End, living in the Haute Vienne has come like a blast of fresh air, peace and quiet.
For my own interest, and that of others, I have decided to write about holidays taken, and our life living in France.
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Dave and I decided we needed a break and thought that going to Menton in the South of France would be a good idea. When we first started going on holiday together we visited Nice for a week and had taken a train to Menton one morning and thought it looked very nice and agreed it would be great to come back to on a future holiday. So one Saturday morning in early September 2009 we packed the car, programmed the SatNav and set out on our holiday. The route to Menton would be via Clermont Ferrand and then on to the motorway A7 south after that.
The journey went very well but it was surprising once you hit the main motorways how much in tolls you had to pay, and very regularly. [One little warning, you need to have your credit card or plenty of change to hand in order to pay these tolls. I think the tolls came to about 60-65 Euros one way to Menton].
We decided that as part of the holiday it would be nice to stop off at a BnB at the Pont St Esprit/Ardeche for a couple of nights to break the journey. However, as we drew nearer to Junction 19 on the A7 I grew more and more dismayed to see that the area was somewhat industrialised with 2 great chimney stacks belching out steam. This was not what I expected. We drove for about 10 miles and finally with a little difficulty we found the BnB which was set back from the main road down a dirt track just before going over the Pont itself. We arrived at the BnB at around 5pm to be met as we got out of the car by a very strong wind gusting dust all over the place, called the Mistral. The grown up son of the owner came over to welcome us with his very friendly dog, Dune. He led us a short way down the side of the house through two great, tall wooden doors and ushered us into a stone hallway and up a wide stone staircase to our room. The house dates from the 18th century and has been in the owner's family for around 220 years and here and there are paintings of some of the family's ancestors.
Our bedroom was reasonably sized and painted by hand in a strong peachy/pinky colour with blue stripes below the painted dado and the inbuilt wardrobe was painted with a scene of a blue bird of paradise perched in a tree overhanging a pond. It was very unusual. In the room was also a nice marble fireplace. I found out later that the BnB sometimes ran painting courses and the students had painted the bedrooms as part of their painting courses.
After we had settled in I phoned a French friend of mine, A-M who had moved down to the area a few weeks earlier to work. She said she'd be over as soon as she could as she was some 20 kms away. So, in the meantime, we went for a short walk around the property. Monsieur, the owner, himself came over to say hello and gave us a couple of fresh juicy figs to try which he had just picked from one of his trees. We had a few words with him then carried on and couldn't help noticing how dry all the land was, having been blasted by the sun since the last time it rained which, we were told, was the previous May. We walked down to the river which was so low it was down to a mere stream in places. To the left were the remains of an ancient stone bridge now ruined which jutted out some metres into the dry stony river bed. We found out later that the house had been a toll house in far off days and would take a toll from each and every person wishing to cross the bridge, which had been the only one for miles around. We thought we'd try and get on to the old bridge to take a couple of photos but it was too dangerous and there were locked iron gates preventing people getting onto it.
We went back to the house and soon A-M arrived and we all sat down for a couple of drinks and a chat. She'd just started a new job working for the town hall in Nimes. We then decided to go to a local restaurant called L'Etourdi and managed to find our way there despite it getting dark by then. The restaurant already had quite a few people dining so there was a good atmosphere. We were shown to our table outside and chose our menu. To be honest, by that time, we started to wonder whether it was going to be warm enough to sit outside, with the wind still blustering around the other side of the thick perimeter hedge. However, we enjoyed our meal despite it getting a wee bit chilly by the end of the meal. A-M had to make her way back home and we decided we would all meet up again the next evening.
The next morning, we decided to go to a nearby medieval village called Aigueze which A-M told us was very interesting. It was so hot and we were surprised to see lots of walkers with their sticks making their way up the hill to the village. We parked up and walked down to the village which was very pretty with a large church and castle to the right. We went to view the river Ardeche (a tributary of the Rhone) from the castle. Dave went to explore a bit further along the battlements while I made my way back the short way into the village. On the way past I noticed a very funny sign on a restaurant's door which I took a picture of (see below). It made me think of our cat Sooty who can tuck in to a meal any time of the day, no problem, and is rather big as a consequence.
Then we went into the church which was deliciously cool in comparison to the throbbing heat outside. Inside the church was shining in all its painted and gilded splendour. Such a change from our English churches. On coming out again into the sun, we decided we would sit in the shade and have a coffee at the local cafe on the square. It was lovely sitting there with other people having their breakfasts, reading their papers, and the sparrows and pigeons coming down to have a drink in the tinkling fountain next to us. After we finished our coffees we went for a walk around the rest of the village which was very clean and tidy. All the houses we saw appeared to be completely renovated. We noted there were 2-3 restaurants one of which was called Chez David. There were also stone faces carved on buildings and stained glass, then we came across a kitten which we played with for a couple of minutes.
Then we went into the church which was deliciously cool in comparison to the throbbing heat outside. Inside the church was shining in all its painted and gilded splendour. Such a change from our English churches. On coming out again into the sun, we decided we would sit in the shade and have a coffee at the local cafe on the square. It was lovely sitting there with other people having their breakfasts, reading their papers, and the sparrows and pigeons coming down to have a drink in the tinkling fountain next to us. After we finished our coffees we went for a walk around the rest of the village which was very clean and tidy. All the houses we saw appeared to be completely renovated. We noted there were 2-3 restaurants one of which was called Chez David. There were also stone faces carved on buildings and stained glass, then we came across a kitten which we played with for a couple of minutes.
After our visit to the village we thought we would move on to Uzes, a town maybe some 40 kms away, which is a very interesting, full of antiquarians and on the day we visited (Sunday) there was a vide greniers (flea market/stalls) all along the streets. We stopped off at a little Creperie (pancakes) and had lunch and watched the world go by in the sun. After eating, we meandered along the roads looking at the stalls. After quite a while walking up and down cobbled streets and looking at things we found an ice cream shop which sold the most amazing ice cream sundaes in tall, long-stemmed wide bowled glasses. Mine was absolutely enormous. Just a couple of shops down from there was an amazing sweet/biscuit shop which had such an array of goodies you couldn't really take it all in. This was definitely a foodie paradise.
The whole area around Nimes, Arles, Ales, Uzes etc is full of Gallo Roman sites to visit including the famous Pont du Gard, a Roman viaduct. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to visit the Pont because by this time we were running short of time and had to get back to the BnB to get ready for the evening's meal. A-M came over and we sat outside having a couple of drinks and taking photos. The wind was beginning to die down by then. We were duly ushered into the dining room at around 7.30pm where we met a charming older Belgian couple, Monique and Andre. They were staying at the BnB for a couple of days then going on to a house near St Etienne for the rest of their holiday. We introducted ourselves and then the meal commenced, which was prepared by the adult son of the family. The food was very nice indeed. As the evening progressed we found that we all got on like a house on fire telling funny stories and jokes and it was a shame when the meal came to an end. It was a really good evening (see photo below, I'm the one in pink). A-M had to get back home as she was working the next day so we said our goodbyes and said we'd be staying at another BnB on the way back home and we could meet up with her there again.
We got to Menton sometime around 3 or 4 pm feeling rather hot and dry. There's nowhere to park in Menton and although our SatNav got us to the hotel in the centre of Menton we couldn't find any parking space near the hotel anywhere so as we went round and round the streets we soon got lost. What a nightmare. Anyhow, we did find our way back to the hotel in due course and I dashed out of the car and into the hotel up to the first floor to speak to the manager who said they had one parking space outside and to park in that to unload all our luggage. We would then have to park our car in a nearby public underground garage which was only about 5 mins walk away. The manager explained that we should go to see the Supervisor of the underground car park and get a weekly pass which would allow us to come and go as we pleased, and the more we used it the cheaper it would get. So that's what we did.
Our room at The Richelieu Hotel was small, basic but clean and tidy with a small ensuite shower room. There was no air conditioning but as it is a 2* hotel it is not particularly surprising. We had taken a fan with us anyway so that at least would make the nights a little more comfortable. The shower turned out to be the main problem with the cold plastic curtain wrapping itself around your body and the water going too hot or too cold.
We unpacked what we would need and went for a walk around town and down to see the sea. Menton has generally pebbled beaches but some have sand and it's best to go to those. The pebbles are excrutiating under foot if you don't take sandals you can go in the sea with, which I learned to my cost!
Menton is a colourful town and there are plenty of places to visit in and around it. For the week we stayed there (beginning to mid-September) the temperature was around 25-28oC every day, so pretty hot but not unduly so. The climate there is mild even in winter, and hot for most of the year, especially when compared to England.
The next morning, seeing as we had travelled quite a long way the day before we decided to have a quiet day walking around Menton and chilling out. We walked to the pedestrian area from our hotel which only took a few minutes and had a look in all the shops there. I found a shop which sold beautiful 100% Egyptian white cotton blouses and shirts etc called Blanc de Nil, and I bought one of each for both of us.
I was tempted by the linen shops and thought I might buy some of them on the last day. I loved all the multi-coloured table clothes, serviettes, linens etc and I could have gone mad buying everything in sight. I did though buy some sweet smelling soaps including the Menton speciality, lemon shaped perfumed soaps. Menton is known for its lemons and has a Lemon Festival every February. Our next door neighbours in our village have been to Menton twice for the Fete des Citrons and really enjoyed it. There are a few souvenir shops with cicada singing etc and that has to be expected, but the linen shops sold very good quality linen and all manner of beautiful items for the table.
We had a walk along the promenade and looked at the beaches. The nearest one to us was pebbled so we went further up towards the Old Port and found that there were sandy beaches along there. According to the basic map I had printed off my computer of Menton, it seems that apart from the various beaches for humans, there are even beaches for dogs to walk and play on! To the right of the photographs there is a marina with loads of posh boats moored there. Someone we spoke to recently said that once camper vans were able to park around there but that is not the case now. All campers have to go to proper camp sites.On the second day, Wednesday, we decided to go to Roquebrune which is a hill top village found in the hills above Cap St Martin. It's only a short drive from Menton. The road up to Roquebrune is rather tortuous and gets very narrow and claustrophobic at the top where the village itself starts. There are car parks before you get right up to the top. There's a hotel called Les Deux Freres (The Two Brothers) on the small square at the start of the village. If you look over the parapet to the left of the hotel there is a wonderful view of the sea and coast below. I checked the hotel and it looked as if it would be a nice place to stay. It has an outdoor restaurant which looks over the bay below. There is also a small cafe next door to the hotel which serves drinks, cakes and snacks.
Roquebrune is not for the disabled. The lanes and paths up through the village are generally extremely steep and as I suffer from asthma I found it very taxing. There are quite a lot of steps too. Near to where you enter the village is a very pretty little church but on the day and time we visited it was closed. We made our way up through the village to the castle which is at the top of the hill and Dave went right on up into the castle to look inside while I waited in the small square below for him. I took the opportunity to have a look in the small jewellery shop on the square and tried on some rings. Dave soon returned and said there wasn't that much to see in the castle. When I was young, I had been to Roquebrune in c.1968 and it I seem to remember reading that an English gentleman had restord the castle as much as he could as it was in a very ruinous state and was in danger of falling down. Nowadays, there is no mention of him in the pamphlet. Roquebrune is definitely worth a visit if you can manage it.
We returned to Menton and relaxed a while then went for a swim at one of the sandy beaches near the Old Port. The sea was nice and calm and Dave managed to get in and he said it was alright. I was rather shocked to find the water cold myself and took a lot longer to get in. I was surprised because when we had visited the area before the water had seemed much warmer.
The evenings were mainly lovely and warm so it was a real pleasure to walk around and eventually sit out at one of the many restaurants and watch the world go by while enjoying some good food. A nice surprise for us were the wandering musicians. There were accordianists, lady singers, guitarists and a Russian group, which played a range of types of music.
One thing we noticed though was that Menton seemed to become pretty much deserted after about 11pm in the evening. Perhaps most of the holiday makers are families with children so they tended to go back to their hotels comparatively early. I don't know.
There was a bit of a catastrophe the next morning when I realised that I had left my ring at the jewellery shop in Roquebrune when I had been trying rings on! We drove up there again and got my ring back, fortunately. We stopped to have a coffee at the cafe next to Les Deux Freres hotel on the way back to the car.
When my family and I first visited the area on holiday back in c.1964, we stayed in a villa on a road which I believe to be the road to Castillon. Obviously an enormous amount of time has gone by and well I wasn't too hopeful of finding it again but I wanted to look anyway. We set the SatNav from Roquebrune to Castillon and despite that we got completely lost and went back to Menton in the end, defeated. We went and had lunch in the pedestrian area of Menton. There is a central brasserie in the big square in the pedestrian precinct which we found to be very good. On our second visit there the owner already remembered us.
The next day we visited St Paul de Vence which is found up the hill behind Nice. I was told by my sister that it was very nice. St Paul is also very steep, with narrow lanes and lots of steps. There were a lot more shops and a lot more people here than at Roquebrune. Even so, I liked the look of it a lot. While meandering around the village I noticed lots of art shops selling paintings, carvings and showing exhibitions of various artists etc and of course souvenir type shops. I also found a nice jewellery shops which sold rings and bracelets for 10E and necklaces for 20E, so I bought a couple of brightly coloured pieces. All very tempting.
We stopped to have lunch at a Creperie (pancakes) which was very nice and the pancakes were delicious. It had a small outside terrace but there was no room out there when we arrived. To be frank, it looked to be a real squeeze out there and I don't think we would have enjoyed it. All in all St Paul was a lot buzzier than Roquebrune and worth a visit if you don't mind a more commercialised place. Good atmosphere.
Saturday and the last real day of our holiday. We thought we'd try Castillon again, this time programming the SatNav from Menton and it worked a treat and we soon got on to the right road. I scoured the route on the way up trying to remember the place where we used to park the car but everything has changed. There are now motorways, giant viaducts tramping their way across the hills and new roads everywhere. I thought I might have found possibly which corner it might have been but all the terracing has gone or become overgrown with trees and other vegetation. Back in 1964, we had to climb about 22 stone terraces to reach the villa! So, unfortunately, we couldn't find it. We got to Castillon thinking it was going to be very interesting being a village of artists but when we got there and walked around we found the place pretty much deserted with most of the artists' shops shut for the season, although it was still only early September. The best time to visit Castillon would probably be between July through August, which is when the French have their holidays.
After this disappointment, we decided to move onto another place called Sospel which sounded as if it might be very interesting. On arriving one couldn't help noticing the huge church which turned out to be in fact a Cathedral! In such a small town. It is a beautiful example of baroque splendour and there were painted, and fake marble surfaces everywhere. Everything in very good condition. I noticed that there were a lot of trompe l'oeil effects around people's shutters and windows as well, all very well done indeed. You really had to look carefully to see if it was a real shutter or not. We also found a shop with big yellow curtains under the archways on the other side of the square to the Cathedral that did faux marbeling and other paint finishes. Some of the examples on show were very realistic. On another corner of the square was a very intriguing little shop that seemed to be full of interesting and unusual things. We peered through the windows trying to look in, as it wasn't open and we dearly would have liked to go in it but we couldn't wait around for it to open.
After this we went down the road towards the river as I had noticed what looked like to be a medieval bridge. We walked over to it and noted the almost dried up river bed, all overgrown with shrubs. Very sad to see the lack of water everywhere. There wasn't much of interest the other side so we retraced our steps.
By this time we were beginning to feel rather hungry. We went back to a little square with a fountain that had several restaurants around it. We chose one and sat down. Hardly had we sat down than there were a few spots of rain and the owner came rushing out to usher us inside but we said it was ok with the parasol. The rain soon stopped anyway. We had a very pleasant meal sitting out there and the owner came over to talk to us. He wondered if we had seen the cathedral to which we replied yes. I'm not sure if I've got this right but he said that back in the middle ages there were two Popes, one in Avignon and one in Rome. Apparently Sospel supported the Avignon Pope. Also, according to him, at that time Sospel came under the protection of Menton and Ventimiglia (just over the border in Italy). This being the case Sospel became a diocese and because of this new status justified having its own Cathedral. I'm afraid I'm no historian and I'm sure someone else could explain the matter a lot clearer. I mentioned to the owner that I had noticed a lot of trompe l'oeils and paintings etc around the town. Also, on a public notice board there were various art classes advertised. He said that at one time Sospel had had an Academie of Art. We were impressed by how interesting Sospel was and how friendly and informative our host was also.
I would definitely recommend a visit to Sospel. There are no doubt a lot of other things which we did not discover in our very short visit, which might be of interest.
In the evening, seeing as it was our last night in Menton, we decided to don our new white tops for the occasion. We went to a restaurant we had been to twice before (Le Balico, 3 Place des Herbes, Menton) and because the lady recognised us from our previous two visits, we were quickly shown to a table despite the restaurant being very busy. The Russian group came around later on and a good time was had by all.
It was sad to be leaving Menton but we got up bright and early next morning, and had breakfast at the hotel for the last time. The lady who served us our breakfasts was very friendly and chatty. You have to pay extra for the breakfasts at this hotel. Once that was done we got all our stuff downstairs and packed the car and off we went, this time to Vezenobres in the Gard area. This is another hill top village which is situated very near to Ales, Uzes and Nimes. It was very hot driving despite having the air conditioning on full blast and we had to stop at least a couple of times to cool off and have a drink. By the time we got to Vezenobres we were dying to jump into a cool shower. We did have a bit of trouble finding the BnB at first but a lady directed us and we soon found the villa. Like the other BnB we stayed at this one was also found down rather a twisted dirt track but it is marked quite clearly from the main road.
As we got out of our car in the ample parking area of the villa, Geoff came out to welcome us and showed us to our room which was in the square tower of the villa (which had two wings either side of the tower). Everything in the villa was light and airy, spotlessly clean and finished to a high standard. When we had rested we went downstairs and had a chat with the two owners, Doug and Geoff. Doug does all the cooking and Geoff does the gardening. There's a swimming pool and a couple of the guests were sunbathing around it when we arrived. Apparently the villa was in a bit of a sorry state when Doug and Geoff bought it 6 years previously and they had to carry out a lot of renovation work, a lot of which they carried out themselves. The gardens are lovely, all set out for easy maintenance, and planting for a very hot/dry climate. There is even somewhere to play boules (petanque).
We went up to Vezenobres which is only a short drive away. I didn't fancy climbing up to the village on foot in the heat of the afternoon (the villa being at the foot of the hill). You could walk it though if you waned to. We found it to be quite different from the other hill top villages we had visited it being perhaps the least commercialised of them all. There is a pretty central square with a big water feature, a cafe/restaurant and an art shop. It was very quiet indeed. Also quite a few of the ancient houses in the village had to be propped up by loads of accros to stop them falling down. We sat down in the square and had a couple of cold drinks. It was lovely and peaceful.
[A little bit of history: Vezenobres hasn't always been peaceful unfortunately. During the beginning of the 1700s the 'Camisards' who were Protestants/Huguenots (some of the leaders called prophets lived in Vezenobres) raised an insurrection against the persecutions which following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 by the Catholics. The revolt by the Camisards broke out in 1702, with the worst of the fighting through 1704, then lessening up to 1710 and final peace in 1715. Many Camisards were massacred or deported].
My friend A-M came over to see us from Ales which is only a short drive away. Doug decided to make coq au vin for the evening's meal. The meal was very enjoyable with all the guests joining in telling stories and jokes. There was a really good atmosphere. The photo below is the only one I have taken of the garden from our bedroom window.
[A little bit of history: Vezenobres hasn't always been peaceful unfortunately. During the beginning of the 1700s the 'Camisards' who were Protestants/Huguenots (some of the leaders called prophets lived in Vezenobres) raised an insurrection against the persecutions which following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 by the Catholics. The revolt by the Camisards broke out in 1702, with the worst of the fighting through 1704, then lessening up to 1710 and final peace in 1715. Many Camisards were massacred or deported].
My friend A-M came over to see us from Ales which is only a short drive away. Doug decided to make coq au vin for the evening's meal. The meal was very enjoyable with all the guests joining in telling stories and jokes. There was a really good atmosphere. The photo below is the only one I have taken of the garden from our bedroom window.
Our last morning and we had plenty to eat for our breakfast with croissants, juice, coffee etc to set us up for our day's travelling back to the Haute Vienne.
We had decided to take a different route back home seeing that we had taken quite a detour to go to Vezenobres. The route back was to take the N106 up through the Cevennes mountains then take the A75 to Clermont Ferrand. After that we would take the N141 etc to get back home. Doug and Geoff said it was a beautiful drive through the Cevennes. The scenery was beautiful but I wouldn't like to live there in the winter. Dave soon got his hand in with the hairpin bends and really enjoyed the drive.
Towards the end of that part of the route we stopped in a small town called Florac to have a breather and a cup of coffee. We found a small hotel that was as it turned out in the process of shutting down for the winter, although it didn't say it was closed outside. The lady in charge wasn't very keen to make us coffee but in the end, with a bit of persuasion, she did but with rather bad grace I must say. Never mind, it was very nice coffee and the huge alsacian type dog in the foyer was a lot friendlier and came over to put his head in my lap. He was so big his head filled my lap, so I was very glad he was friendly.
We got on our way again but after an hour or more stopped off to have lunch. I wish we hadn't because it was awful so we were glad to be on our way again up the A75 towards Clermont Ferrand. Once we reached Clermont we turned left and took the D941/N141 towards Limoges taking in a bit of the volcano area of the Auvergne along the way.
We really enjoyed our holiday and all the things we did and places we visited and I highly recommend it to anyone who fancies a trip to the South of France. Menton is a lovely place and is very near to all the other famous places along the coast such as Nice, Monte Carlo, Cannes etc.
Bon voyage!
