A little Prague boat trip

There are quite a lot of different boat trip possibilities on Prague's waterways from large tour boats to slimline gondolas. We chose an hour-long small-boat-and-larger-boat combined voyage run by Prague-Venice Boat Trips. Their ticket sellers are the ones dressed in white sailor outfits hanging around the Charles Bridge. For some reason they are mostly Nigerians! The trip is priced at 340 Czech crowns per person but, as we were a party of five, some spirited haggling (not by me obviously!) got that down to 300 each.

We started out in a private little boat which took us a fairly short distance through back-lane canals to the main tour boat moored atmospherically under a dark arch of the Charles Bridge. There we were offered coffee, tea or beer from the cute bar pictured above to keep us occupied while we waited for the boat to fill up a bit more. The ticket price also includes a choice of ice cream or gingerbread - get the gingerbread, it's delicious! The view below was our starting point.

This boat tour does not go far up or down the river, instead weaving between the bridges' arches in order to give us great views of historic buildings, bridges and architecture on each side of the river. Prague city centre is a bustling, busy place and I enjoyed the slower peaceful sailing away from the tourist madness! Our audio narration was good and interesting and this part lasted about half an hour I think before we returned back under the bridge and were briefly told the historical significance of each of the arch beams above our heads - there's one each remaining from four different stages of the bridge's construction.

The boat trip ticket also included free entry to the Charles Bridge museum. This museum is only small, but gives detailed information about the building of the bridge as well as its predecessor, the Judith Bridge. The extensive model pictured below is fascinating - I do like a good model! - and it was also possible to descend an iron staircase and see the original stonework of both the Charles and Judith bridges.

Exploring Ironbridge, the beginning of the Industrial Revolution

Ironbridge 

Back in 2015 Dave and I began our thirteenth year together by visiting a historic bridge in Northumberland. At the time of its construction in 1820, the Chain Bridge was the longest carriage-carrying suspension bridge in the world. This year, entirely unintentionally, we spent the first day of our fifteenth year together strolling around the village of Ironbridge near Telford in Shropshire - the site of the world's first cast iron bridge.

Now preserved as a historic monument by English Heritage, the bridge itself was originally basically a giant advertisement! It was constructed over the River Severn in 1779 to prove the point that iron was perfectly suited as a material for large scale architectural projects. Local foundry owner Abraham Darby III had the bridge built and, from a promotional point of view, it was a roaring success as people straight away began travelling to Coalbrookdale to see it and iron became a popular choice for further bridge manufacture. We had even seen a quartet of small iron houses a few days previously at the Black Country Living Museum. A village grew up around the bridge, Ironbridge, and the new name is now used to encompass the incredible industrial heritage trail along this short section of the River Severn.

Ironbridge Gorge model 

We visited the Darby Houses situated uphill from the bridge itself and home to several generations of Abraham Darby III's family. These two buildings, side by side, were rescued for preservation pretty much in the nick of time as they had been allowed to get into a very poor state of repair. Now partially renovated (and with more work planned) the houses host a small museum to the influential family and their Quaker faith. It was very interesting and a well laid out museum with helpful staff. There is even a dressing-up room where we tried on period clothes of both society and Quaker fashion. It turns out a bonnet rather suits me!

One of my favourite exhibits was down in Ironbridge itself at the Museum Of The Gorge. There an intricately detailed  twelve-metre-long model of the Gorge as it was in 1796 shows the various industries concentrated there, how the River Severn was vital to their success and how they interlinked. The Ironbridge can be seen in the centre.

Ironbridge Gorge model 

Of course most of the industry that made Ironbridge famous has now gone so the Gorge we visited is once again a clean, peaceful place. Paintings up at the Darby Houses showed images of the valley partially obscured by smoke or with the polluted night sky glowing orange. I imagine it is a far more pleasant place to visit these days - and certainly a healthier one in which to live! The main business these days seems to be Afternoon Teas and we did partake in a cuppa and a slice. Eighty Six'd is an independent cafe uphill and a little away from the main tourist street. There's slate art on the walls and I loved their brightly coloured crockery! We can certainly recommend you to the Coffee And Walnut Cake (pictured) and the warm Apple Cake With Ice Cream. Sitting up in the bay window watching the world pass by made for a reflective end to our Ironbridge day.

Tea and cake at Eighty Six'd 

A river walk along The Templer Way

The River Teign 

We went for a very different type of walk yesterday along a short stretch of The Templer Way from Newton Abbot towards Teignmouth. The whole of this hiking route covers eighteen miles from Haytor on Dartmoor to Teignmouth on the coast tracing the route by which granite was exported from Dartmoor via the unique Haytor Granite Tramway and the Stover Canal. We picked it up from Forde Road in Newton Abbot, parking near the Teignbridge Propellers premises which looks to be making use of old railway buildings. Forde Road has parking restrictions on weekdays, but not at weekends.

Early on we crossed Aller Brook where there is a small nature reserve sandwiched between the A380 and the industrial estate. A noticeboard there had information about regular events including birdspotting walk and maintenance parties so if you are local and want to get involved, take a wander down there to check the poster. I couldn't find it reproduced online so if anyone knows of a link, please Comment below.

Deciding on this walk from looking at our Ordnance Survey map of the area meant we didn't really know what to expect and our imaginings of a standard footpath alongside a river were only correct for about ten minutes after which we were confronted with this signpost:

As luck would have it, the tide was about as low as it was possible to get so we had plenty of time to complete our five miles to Coombe Cellars pub and back. However the Way is literally along the edge of the river so is covered by water at high tide! Much of this part of the route is over mossy shingle so is slippery under foot and I was frequently glad of my trusty boots and to borrow one of Dave's hiking poles to aid my balance. It's a beautiful walk with impressive views across the river and estuary. We saw a white heron and a gaggle of twenty-one swans as well as geese and seagulls.

The Way was almost completely flat which made a nice change from the more usual Devon undulations although this didn't mean it was easy walking. We both felt like we had more of a workout than the two hours and twenty minutes timespan would suggest! Bizarre sights such as trees with their trunks washed pale by the tide or with seaweed flung into their branches added interest and keeping an eye on the high tide line showed us that walkers really could get themselves stranded along here if they weren't careful! Drawing near to our turn-round point, the Teign widened considerably making its two channels look like tiny threads of streams in the midst of the muddy silt.

Cycling the Ebro Delta

L'Ampolla sculpture 

The first excursion we chose from our new Footpaths Of The Mediterranean folder (thank you Ametlla Tourist Office!) was actually, for us, a cycle ride although walking around the Ebro Delta is perfectly feasible too. We parked up just by a roundabout on the way into l'Ampolla. It had the distinctive sculpture pictured here which I have been unable to find online so I am not sure what it depicts or who created it!

From the roundabout, it was an easy cycle down to the seafront with just a little confusion once we got there as we expected the promenade cycleway to have started already, but we had to navigate a short road one-way section first. Then the open path beckoned and we tootled along the prom in gorgeous sunshine, only screeching to a halt to take a look at this amazing sculpture, El lector de l'Ampolla by local artist Paco Morales who is from Deltebre. The book being read is Odysseus which I am taking as a second sign to get on and read my own copy (the first sign having been the Phocaean Greeks at Empuries speaking the same Ionian language as Homer.)

El lector de l'Ampolla sculpture 

Footpaths of the Mediterranean 10 

The best thing about cycling the Ebro Delta is that it is practically flat for miles - and not just looking so, but actually cycling flat! We soon shot off the end of the leaflet map pictured below and made up our own ride along the camis and levees that separate the natural park from acres of rice paddies. At this time of year we hardly saw anyone else, just two other cyclists and one walker so it felt like the whole delta was ours alone!

The Ebro is a favoured area for birdspotting and we saw several varieties of waterbirds, a couple of which we could even identify! We definitely saw cormorants, herons and flamingos. I tried to photograph the flamingos but they were just too distant for my phone camera to cope with. If you enlarge and squint at this vista, I promise you that is what the white blobs are!

Flamingos on the Ebro Delta 

Our visit lasted about three hours in all including a brief picnic lunch on a convenient bench out in the middle of nowhere. I was delighted to finally see the famed Delta especially as it might not exist in such a way for much longer. Threatened by sea level rises from one side and lack of incoming sediment from the other (the River Ebro has been dammed upstream), I would say get there soon if you want to experience this amazing habitat. However erosion from so many tourists' feet (and wheels) is another threat.

Footpaths of the Mediterranean 10 

A great day wandering historic Perigueux

We didn't get to Perigueux on Friday as the weather was

Mad street art in Perigueux 

miserable - those April showers starting as they mean to go on! Saturday dawned grey, but we decided to take what might have been our last chance to view this historic town, dressed up for rain and ended up wearing far too much in glorious sunshine. Definitely a better outcome than the forecast's promised drenching!

We parked for free in a little car park down by the river. Dave had researched getting there by the little local Peribus, but it involved a mile's walk at the campsite end, a change of bus and a journey of well over an hour so we took the car instead. The town was busy in the morning as the bi-weekly farmer's market had taken over several of the squares and surrounding streets. The market happens on Wednesday and Saturday mornings, packing up about 1pm, and there was an excellent range of food stalls including fruits and vegetables, cheeses, meats, honey and mead, and breads.

Our first sight upon exiting the car park though was

Perigueux cathedral 

Perigueux's unique Byzantine cathedral whose spires tower above the other buildings. I did get a blue sky picture of it later in the day, but it looked more imposing I think against the ominous grey clouds. Saint Front Cathedral was originally modelled on St Mark's Basilica in Venice with its floorplan being a Greek cross. This felt quite weird when we actually stepped inside briefly as two large sections of chairs face across towards each other giving worshippers no view of the altar or the service. The cathedral seemed to be mostly dull grey stone inside and I thought it best seen from outdoors! Built in 1669, Saint Front looks quite plain in early images with only its tower to distinguish it. The domes were added when the cathedral was rebuilt to the designs of Paul Abadie between 1852 and 1893.

Perigueux has surviving Roman stonework and lots of

medieval structures including this old 'moulin' by the side of the road into town. (If you see this on your right, the slope down to the car park is imminent on your left!) We had intended to visit the Tourist Office for a historical town map, but didn't arrive until after their lunchtime closure. Instead, we wandered the old town at random.

Narrow streets have dramatically tall buildings leaning in towards each other and many of the most interesting alleyways are still unevenly cobbled, rising in the centre to drain water (and originally sewage) to gutters on each side. We spotted signs for a historical town walk which is marked by yellow stripes on the side of various buildings. This led us through a medieval maze of streets including those of the Jewish quarter, and alongside sections of the city walls which are still very much in evidence. We loved seeing buildings with their original thick wooden doors, and some had small stone statues in niches above.

This weekend just gone was a pan-European celebration of

artisan crafts and crafters entitled 'Les Journees Europeennes des Metiers d'Art'. We saw two exhibitions that were part of this - one of pottery in a small gallery and the second of various arts in a wonderful venue. Delphine Viau and Vero And Didou showcased their talents for leather bags and recycled lighting over two floors of the Mataguerre tower. The tower was part of the defensive walls, made of thick stone, and with a steep spiral staircase enabling us to enjoy these fabulous views across the rooftops of the old town. Originally there were twenty-eight towers and twelve gates, but Mataguerre is now the only one remaining.

Lunch was coffee and cake at Le Fournil patisserie which has a good selection and also offers the usual bakery breads, plus salad boxes and savoury pastries. There are a few little tables inside along one wall. Suitably refreshed, we wandered back down to the river so Dave could drop off his waterproof coat at the car. In hindsight, I should have left my wool coat too as shortly afterwards the cloud cover cleared and the sun shone on our canal and river walk.

Perigueux has a short canal built just inside the bend of the

Perigueux canal 

river L'Isle. It's banks are now primarily for leisure with a Voie Verte passing along here. In the hour or so we walked out and back we saw dozens of cyclists, runners and other walkers. It is amazingly peaceful and feels rural despite being just metres from the town. Returning along the narrow strip of land between the river and canal we enviously overlooked small houses and fantastic little plots of amenity land, some with hammocks and swing chairs, others which had been dug into full-scale allotments.

After such a great visit, the downside to Perigueux is the huge sprawling Centre Commercial we needed to drive through to get back to Antonne Et Trigonant. There are so many businesses and such weight of traffic that getting across the roundabouts safely was a pretty hair-raising experience. I wouldn't let that put me off visiting again, but I might choose to camp elsewhere if possible and cycle in along the Voie Verte!

Dragons and a Japanese garden in Toulouse

It's almost exactly a year to the day since we last visited

Toulouse and I was glad that we got a fairly warm sunny day yesterday in contrast to the previous year's grey damp! We got the train from nearby Escalquens station. The journey is only about twenty minutes on comfortable seats at a grand total of €11.60 for return tickets for us both. There's free car parking at the station too, and a friendly cheerful man staffing the ticket office. Off peak return tickets would have been a euro each cheaper, but we would have been limited to early afternoon trains or those after seven pm. As our train in wasn't until half past ten, we chose the open return instead and actually caught the quarter past five. Six hours of walking around Toulouse was plenty and we were both pretty shattered by then!

There didn't seem to be the same wealth of public

69 Allees Jean Jaures, Toulouse 

sculpture and street art in Toulouse as I had appreciated in Spain, however we did discover the above pictured Antonio Saura fountain sculpture, created in 1987, and I liked this architecture at number 69, Allees Jean Jaures. (I haven't been able to find the artist responsible by Googling so if you recognise the work, please comment.)

The pedestrianised old town centre starts fairly close to Gare Matabiau and we spent a while taking in the sights and atmosphere. There's a good selection of independent shops and boutiques to browse and the streets didn't feel as enclosed as in many historic parts of towns. Perhaps this area doesn't retain as much of its medieval plan as is the case elsewhere. Escaping shopping opportunities for waterside tranquility, we walked along the Canal Du Midi until Dave was suddenly surprised to realise we were exactly retracing our cycle ride from last year along the Canals du Midi and de Brienne to the River Garonne.

Our dragon sighting was in the park Jardin Compans

Tholus by Tom Petrusson 

Caffarelli where this fabulous sculpture by Tom Petrusson is sited in the centre of a pool. It is entitled Tholus and was created in 1993 from pieces of scrap metal.

We sat in the sun outside a little kiosk cafe for an excellent hot chocolate before taking a stroll around the Japanese garden that we had seen marked on our town map. The Japanese garden only covers a small space in the Jardin Compans Caffarelli so it would be easy to miss if you didn't already know it was there. Part is neatly raked grey gravel studded with largish boulders, then a pathway leads around an open sided wooden building to a traditional space with green trees, huge koi carp in a pond, and a red painted bridge overhung by a blossoming cherry tree. The Japanese garden, and indeed the whole park, was quite busy so we didn't experience any Zen serenity, but it was beautiful to visit.

Japanese garden, Toulouse 

A cute detail in the Japanese garden was this miniature

natural artwork that someone had laid out on a flat tree stump by a path. It would have been easily overlooked but for the eyecatching trio of red berries.

In order to see more art, we spent a couple of afternoon hours at Toulouse's modern art gallery. It is located in the former slaughterhouse and is appropriately called Les Abbatoirs. Fortified by our favourite coffee-and-cake lunch at a cafe called Baker's Lounge (I had croque monsieur and flan nature, Dave went with Brioche Suisse and pain aux raisins), we almost completely failed to understand the main exhibition of work by Antoni Tapies. We saw one of his large works in Ceret's Modern Art Museum and I didn't 'get' that either. Seeing dozens of pieces collated from across his lifetime should perhaps have been easier to comprehend but wasn't! I was a little envious of a small school group who were being taken around by a enthusiastic guide. She sat them in front of several works, discussing and explaining, and the children were knowledgeably joining in. I understood some of the French language discussion - but still not the art!

Upstairs, Les Abbatoirs had rooms with work by other

Picasso stage curtain, Les Abbatoirs, Toulouse 

artists including items from the Daniel Cordier collection. Some of the were interesting to see, but I think Les Abbatoirs is the first modern and contemporary art museum I have visited where there wasn't a single work to really wow me. A possible exception was a huge eight by thirteen metre stage curtain painted by Picasso in 1936 and now housed in the basement. It is best viewed from half way up the stairs and the mythical figures tower over visitors standing at ground level. Interestingly, it looks 3D in my photograph here, but didn't in reality.

Our longest hike of the season - Amelie Les Bains to Montalba

Saint Jean Pla de Corts is a great base for walking and I

There's not much at Montalba 

have blogged several already. Today's was our longest hike since leaving the UK in October. We didn't walk as far as on some of our summer expeditions, however after 11km and with over 300m of ascent, Dave and I are feeling both weary and very pleased with ourselves right now! We were walking for four and three-quarter hours, including quite a few photo stops, and got to see some of the most fantastic views in the area. Several times I thought that I must start taking Dave's big camera on our hikes as my phone really isn't up to the job of capturing a wide panorama. One day I will remember to think about this before we set out!

We nearly had a disaster before we had even extended our

Amelie Les Bains from half-way up the hill 

walking poles. Our map, got from Amelie Les Bains tourist office several weeks ago, indicated that we should park in the multi-storey General de Gaulle car park. On arrival, this car park was completely closed up for the winter break. The what?! It turned out that from the 14th December until the 31st January all the paid parking in Amelie is suspended so the multi-storey was closed, but the roadside car park was open and its Pay And Display machines covered with black plastic. Result!

Starting by ascending the Chemin du Pastou by the General

Woodland path above Amelie 

du Gaulle Parking, we walked alongside the high stone wall of the Hopital Thermal des Armees and on into woodland with lots of cork trees, the occasional olive tree, and huge boulders by the path side. The ascent was pretty much relentless for the first hour to the extent that Dave was a little concerned about his pumping heart rate. (He checked online when we got home and it probably shouldn't beat quite that fast at his age. Oops!) The path was mostly quite narrow and definitely a footpath rather than a vehicle track. We had lots of steps created with rocks or roots and it was beautifully peaceful. Being overtaken by a fell runner - yes, running up! - was mildly galling, but otherwise we had the walk to ourselves.

Uphills do eventually end and this one was almost

Our picnic view of Montalba 

immediately replaced with an equivalent downhill. We got closer to the river which flows along the valley floor and is more of a stream at this time of year. It is tumbled with rocks and boulders which created dozens of diddy waterfalls and, at one point, a deep-looking swimming hole. We ended up right alongside the river for a short almost magical section listening to the babbling water. Then we had to cross to the opposite bank - a tad precarious! And as the river turned away from the path, we saw the remnants of old agricultural terracing on the hillside above us and realised that Montalba was up at the top. Of course! Yay!

Arriving in Montalba two and a half hours after setting out

Cross at Montalba 

from Amelie, we laid out our picnic rug and paused to enjoy the view from 543m above sea level. Not quite as high as our Campanilles picnic last March and considerably chillier. The hamlet seemed to consist of two farmyards, the one pictured above with its chapel and another a couple of hundred metres away. This was also a junction of footpaths including the PR-1 and had a running water fountain of (presumably) drinkable water. I saw this simple cross too. It has a name plaque in the centre which is worn, but I think said 'Laurent Coste 1859'. I haven't been able to find out anything about it online though.

The map had our return route as retracing our steps, but

Old footbridge viewed from the road 

did also suggest walking the road as an alternative possibility. The road is mostly only wide enough for one car and seemed very quiet so we thought we would be ok going this way and it actually turned out to be a perfect contrast to the outward route. Walking to Montalba we had to spend much of the time watching where we put our feet and were often between trees or at the bottom of the gorge. Walking back we could trust the road to be smooth and there were gorgeous long views up into the mountains and along the valley. The road was mostly flat or gently downhill but took a longer route so we didn't expend as much effort, but did still take two and a quarter hours to return to Amelie.

I joked that we could treat ourselves to a cake when we got to town, expecting everywhere to be very closed as it was now late on Sunday afternoon. We got lucky though - a patisserie was open and had a delicious selection of gateaux so we brought a couple home. Dave had a Foret-Noire slice and I had a Paris-Brest eclair. Perfect!

Le Petit Prince by Andres Munoz 

Wandering the streets of Avignon and a Halloween trick or treat for Volkswagen

Our newest campsite is Camping Bagatelle beautifully situated on the

Looking through the walls 

banks of the River Rhone within easy walking or cycling distance of Avignon's historic centre. It does feel busy after our summer of isolated CLs and there is a definite ebb and flow of motorhomes through the day as overnighters appear to pitch up late afternoon and are gone again by mid-morning. Our pitch is just over €17 a night with our ACSI card which is a little pricier than Anse, but the wifi is a staggeringly good €4 for a whole week - and that's for a login code each! The site is sheltered by lots of trees which do unexpectedly drop twigs onto Bailey's roof, but it means we avoided the worst of the high winds earlier this week and hopefully will do so again early next week. Temperatures are pretty good here too - Dave's been able to wear his shorts for the past two days which he is happy about!

Our friends Chris and Marta were both enthusiastic about Avignon so we had high hopes that, so far, have been pretty much realised. Our first venture over the bridge did coincide with a couple of heavy rain showers so we sheltered in the arches of the imposing city walls. Unfortunately it is no longer possible to walk around the walls as apparently the stonework is unsafe so we just looked up instead.

Avignon walls with convenient rain shelters 

My biggest surprise was that the famous Pont d'Avignon, of "sur le pont

Le pont d'Avignon 

d'Avignon" song fame isn't actually a bridge any more - it stops mid-river. We learned that river erosion and multiple wars had made it too expensive to keep rebuilding so efforts ceased in the 17th century. Today it is possible to pay over the odds to be able to walk onto the half-bridge, but we have settled for looking at it rather than from it. There's so much else to see! The streets nearest the Bridge and the Palais des Papes - seven popes were based in Avignon between 1309 and 1377 - made me question 'what recession'! Historically there has been a lot of money here and, if the numerous boutiques are anything to judge by, there still very much is. Our first (rainy day) visit left us with this impression, yet the next day, when we ventured through the historic district into the 'real' Avignon on the other side, I saw a vibrant working city that I liked very much. Elegant architecture sits side by side with quirky modern ideas, cycle routes and pedestrian areas abound and there is a relaxed vibe that isn't just about the tourist industry.

Fun clock high on an apartment building wall 

Blocked up windows dotted throughout Avignon are painted with

Theatrical scene street art 

theatrical scenes and the town has twelve theatres which, together, host a month long Festival of Theatre in the summer. We visited the large indoor market, Les Halles, which has a vertical garden climbing its front wall. Quite a sight! Inside, it is just constant temptation - fresh produce and treats including fruits and vegetables, cheeses, breads and pastries, meat and fish, olives and preserves, lavender products and honeys ... it's wonderful! We bought ourselves a delicious sheep's milk cheese, perfectly ripe pears, deep fried aubergine slices (beignets) and a feuilletée stuffed with courgette and goat cheese. I even learned to say feuilletée properly!

After Les Halles we wandered as far as Route De Lyon and a great health food shop called Biotope. They stock lots of different tofu products including yet more new-to-us flavours as well as loads more intriguing tins, jars and packets. It was quite a walk to get there and we are planning to make a return journey by bike. There's a traffic-free cycle route leading over the bridge by our campsite into town. Lots of the back streets in town are practically traffic- free for most of the day too so we are looking forward to more exploring, both in town and further afield.

On a different note, here is a kind of trick or treat from Greenpeace for Halloween:

"Volkswagen tricked us. Now they should treat us.

The VW emissions scandal revealed just how dirty our cars really are. They poison our air and warm our climate. But this nasty trick could be a turning point, a chance for companies to move away from a reliance on fossil fuels and invest in greener alternatives.

The technology for electric and hybrid cars is developing so fast that zero fumes on the road and greener cars could soon be the norm. But they need to be made more accessible. If a company like Volkswagen commits to making electric cars more accessible it could be the spark that sets off a wholesale revolution of the car industry. But we also need the government to improve car testing systems so that dangerous, polluting cars are kept off the road.

Sign the petition to tell VW and the government to take action now."

A Sunday cycle from Anse to Trevoux + travel blog linkup

I hosted a little linkup for travel bloggers this time last month and

Book sculpture at Camping Les Portes du Beaujolais 

enjoyed reading two posts which were added by A Wandering Woman's Travels: Postcards From Thailand and A Train Trip To Wellington (New Zealand). Both are countries that I have not yet visited although know people who have and were very enthusiastic about them. There's another linkup for travel blogs at the end of this post. Let's see where you have loved (or hated!) visiting.

The unusual metal book sculpture pictured above is near the entrance to our current campsite, Camping Les Portes du Beaujolais. It is a Camping Municipal and a particularly nice one with some posh log cabins and chalets and even a wellness centre. It closes at the end of October for everyone except, apparently, self-sufficient camping cars and motor homes. They can use limited facilities all year round. We got chatting to the guy on Reception who has moved here from Alsace and is wonderfully enthusiastic about the region. Thanks to his advice we found our pretty cycle ride today and will also be staying on longer than planned in order to take advantage of the walkable distance to Anse station where we can catch a train into Lyon. He explained why many of the French municipal campsites are becoming very run down: the Mairie issue three year licences and any investment on the part of the licencee remains at the campsite after that period. However, the manager here had her licence renewed for a further six years and again now for another nine years so it is worth her while to make improvements. It's working too! Visits are up from 6,000 campers staying an average of two nights in 2003 to 22,000 staying an average of four nights this year. Our ACSI card gets us a price of €16.80 per night including electric. Wifi is extra at €8 for three days. A bit pricey, but we got two codes for than so can be online simultaneously!

Just outside the campsite entrance, a downhill slope leads to an earth

Bridge at Trevoux 

path which is an offroad walking and cyling route. We followed this until it met up with a bridge over the beautiful Le Saone river. Once over the bridge, a quick detour through narrow village streets got us down to the river and to a great cycle route sur les bords de Saone that we followed all the way to the picturesque town of Trevoux. It's only about five kilometres and I loved cycling through woodland with all the orange and yellow leaves. France in the autumn has spectacular colours! The route was quite busy with other cyclists and pedestrians, it being a Sunday afternoon, but no one was rushing and we exchanged a lot of Bonjours. We definitely must have looked like tourists though. For us, it is lovely and warm here so we were wearing t-shirts. All the locals have already dusted off their winter coats.

Two huge cruise ships passed us including this pictured one, the Scenic

Emerald, which had glass sided cabins for ultimate views. We mooted the idea of a river cruise for ourselves as we would both enjoy sightseeing at that pace and I shouldn't get the same travel sickness as I do out at sea. We would just need to find one that doesn't insist on dressing up too smartly for dinner every evening. Perhaps we'll look into what is on offer for the Danube - or the Nile!

Once in Trevoux, we sat awhile in the sun watching the passersby, then rode over that elegant bridge shown above which is only crossable by pedestrians and cyclists. There are tracks back along the other side of Le Saone, unsurfaced but perfectly rideable even for a nervous ninny like me! A 'Route Barre' sign turned out to be a fib, for cyclists at least, and we got out into agricultural land for a while before returning to the motorway over which there is a bridge. We did have a slight problem with a bramble-covered path which put paid to our Short Cut! If you also ride this circuit, ignore the potential track shown on google maps. The industrial estate after the motorway bridge IS a dead end. However there's cycle route markings on the edge of most of the road into Anse and all the car drivers gave us a generously wide berth. We easily followed the Gare signs back to our camping after a good two hours out. I was considerably less saddle sore than the last time too.

Seize the night! 

Shrewsbury - new sandals and a superb park

We loved Shrewsbury! We spent yesterday afternoon there mostly

Flower bed in Dingle Gardens 

exclaiming at the varied architecture, doing a spot of shopping and exploring the streets and parks. Probably we should have gotten the historic buildings leaflet from the Tourist Information Office so we had a better idea of what we were seeing, but there are lots of helpful plaques and noticeboards around town too. Shrewsbury is a good hour's drive from our campsite. We had visited a couple of my ancestral villages en route - more about that in another post - so got to the Park And Ride not long before noon. Shrewsbury Park And Ride is superb value! For £2.50 we got our parking and a Group Of Two return bus ticket to the town centre. Friendly driver and clean buses too.

Our first photocall on arrival was this huge Darwin-inspired sculpture

Charles Darwin outside
Shrewsbury library 

(pictured below) down by the riverside. We had spotted it from the bus. Darwin is a huge deal around the town even having a shopping centre named in his honour - I'm not sure if he would be pleased about that! He was born and grew up in the town. The sculpture is entitled Quantum Leap and was erected in 2009 to mark Darwin's bicentenary. I have seen it described as a helix, a spine and even a shell. We also saw a large bronze statue of the man himself which was prominently placed outside the library where we took advantage of the benches to perch and eat our picnic lunch. The historic building used to be Shrewsbury School and has an impressive list of alumni including Michael Palin, Nevil Shute, John Peel and the aforementioned Darwin. There is a Greek inscription on the wall behind the statue which Dave unsuccessfully attempted to decipher (he does know some Greek!).

Quantum Leap in Shrewsbury 

Just over the road from the library and along from two fabulous old

Laura's Tower 

buildings is an anonymous paved path which led us unexpectedly to the grounds of Shrewsbury Castle. Exploring without a map is much more fun - especially in a small enough town that even I can't get too lost! The Castle is constructed from a gorgeously coloured sandstone and we thought its gardens were beautifully presented. All of Shrewsbury is decked out in stunning floral displays and, unknown to us at this point, the best was still to come. We were intrigued by a lone tower set above the Castle gardens and away from the main structure. Known as Laura's Tower although I have been unable to find out why, this now marks the site of the original Norman castle that was built in 1070 and lasted until the reign of Edward I. There's a pretty good view from the top of the semicircular steps, but it wasn't possible to actually get to the top of the tower. The Castle itself is now open to the public and is primarily a regimental museum.

Shrewsbury Castle 

Away from the Castle, we plunged back into the maze of fascinating

Grope Lane, Shrewsbury 

streets that make up the centre of Shrewsbury. The town nestles in a bend of the River Severn so is prone to flooding these days, but we didn't see any sign of that. There is a fantastic array of shops and cafes, independents as well as High Street names, with very few units standing empty which was good to see. I overheard a tour guide telling her group that this spot at the top of the brilliantly named Grope Lane is the most photographed view in Shrewsbury. It is a particularly narrow street where the medieval buildings lean in towards each other and was, apparently, named for the economic activity taking place within it i.e. prostitution. Wikipedia has an entertaining article about the history of this once common street name. (Probably best not to click this link if kids are reading over your shoulder!)

In my opinion, Grope Lane should now be famous for the lovely little Quirky Coffee Shop just to the left at its top. I loved the decor and the very comfortable armchairs set in the fireplace! Good coffee, great cake - I had the Red Velvet to match my armchair and Dave had an excellent Poppy Seed and Cherry Cheesecake which, we later discovered, shouldn't actually have been on the menu, but was delicious! The Quirky Coffee Shop also stocks dozens of blends of Morgan's Brew tea. I am happy to recommend the Pembrokeshire Peppermint as the perfect refreshing drink for a hot day! While we are talking tea, Shrewsbury has a

Russian Caravan tea at Whittard Of Chelsea 

Whittards into which I rushed to get some of their excellent hot chocolate. I struck lucky with the Summer Sale being on right now and picked up a set of five flavours for £12, reduced from £18, and also a pack of appropriately named Russian Caravan tea, reduced to £3 from £4.25. I love a Sale sticker and, having not bothered to look for new sandals in Jones Bootmaker when we were in Chester because I thought they would be way over budget, I did venture in to the Shrewsbury branch when Dave spotted 'sensible' prices in the window. Amazingly I had a choice of sale sandals in my size (8, never easy to find!) and came away with these super comfortable Birkenstock Gizeh Sandals for just £27. (Jones are running down their summery stocks now and have sold out of the Gizeh, so links here go to the same sandals on Amazon).

Birkenstock Gizeh sandals 

Our final delight of the day was walking alongside the River Severn on a

Percy Thrower bust 

tranquil wide footpath/cycleway bordered with weeping willows and lime trees. It's a wonderful green space and led us to the massive Quarry Park. The Shrewsbury Flower Show had not long finished and all the marqees were being dismantled so it was pretty hectic until we passed through an unassuming gate and found ourselves in the most beautiful bright garden. A true riot of flowers! Shrewsbury Parks department have certainly outdone themselves! We absolutely loved the flower beds and displays. We learned that Percy Thrower had been the Parks Superintendent here from 1946 until 1974 and was responsible for much of the initial design and creation of these Dingle Gardens in the Quarry Park. There is a bust of him overlooking the immaculate gardens and I am sure all Blue Peter viewers of a certain age will recognise his name.

Dingle Gardens, Shrewsbury 

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