Isle of Man TT practice 

I know I haven't put much on the blog lately but thought I would let you know what we did early this evening.  Yes that is us standing right on the fence, yes the bikes are so close you could touch them and yes they are going really bloody fast! 

Well we are having such a good time and so busy that I have neglected my blog duties.  It seems like ages ago that we left Carcassonne and went on to Millau. 


Every night I think right tomorrow I am going to be good and not over indulge and every day there is another delight that must be consumed!  Of course you can't have a meal in France without having some French wine, especially when it doesn't appear to result in a hangover.  I think there has only been one day when Karen and I haven't had a wine or three.  The meal deals have sucked us in nearly everyday as well so we have been eating three course dinners every night and on one occasion it was four courses.  That could be the cause of my bike pants being very snug fitting now.


Since the last update we have spent 3 nights in Millau, 1 night in Oradour-sur-Glane, 1 night in Nantes, 1 night at Mont-St-Michel and 2 nights at Grandcamp-Maisy (Normandy Beaches). Then onto Amiens & Villers-Bretonneux, Somme for 2 nights.  Now we are in a B&B, a stones throw away from Brighton Beach (yes we are now in England, so country number 4).

The village of  Roquefort

One of the many meal deal menu's.

As already mentioned on the last little post Millau was very exciting except for one small hiccup.  Karen ate some thing at the Roquefort cheese restaurant that didn't agree with her and she ended up spending the next day becoming better acquainted with the hotel room.  Despite this we have become fans of Roquefort cheese.      







Along the way we have met some really nice people one of those was the guy in this photo.  After leaving the cheese caves of Roquefort Maurice & I were nearly out of petrol.  When we got to the petrol station it was unmanned and only took credit cards, French credit cards!  So this nice young man used his credit card so we could fill up.  Thanks to him we didn't have to push the bike to the next petrol station.







       
               

The main square of  Oradour-Sur-Glane. 

Oradour-Sur-Glane was a destination suggested to us by friends, Sue & Dawn.  It is hard to explain the feeling we all got from this place and as this is a holiday blog I don't want to get to somber.  The entire village has been left as it was after a massacre of 600+ civilian men, women and children by the SS during WWII and is now a permanent memorial site.

Benji from Big Ben Cafe in Oradour.

The new village of Oradour was built right next to it and this is where we found Benji, the Cafe owner who didn't speak English until he found out we were Australian! 









Nantes was just an overnight stop so we didn't get up to much other than a few giggles at a bar near the motel.

  

Mont-St-Michel

Mont-St-Michel is much larger than I imagined and has many, many more tourist shops selling cheap souvenirs than I expected.  We were disappointed we couldn't stay right on the island itself but found a nice motel just near the causeway.  Karen and I did the tourist bit around the Abbey and we were rewarded with stunning views from the top.

View of one of the Normandy beaches seen through
the opening of a German Command post
bunker

Grandcamp-Maisy on the Normandy coast line was very very cold.  This didn't deter us from visiting several interesting spots and military museums from the D-Day landings.

The Australian Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux, Somme

One of the must visit places on our list was Villers-Bretonneux, Somme.  For those of you who don't know this was the site of huge loses of Australian Soldiers during WWI and the original resting place of the unknown soldier, who is now entombed at the Canberra War Memorial.  The village has many shops, cafes and roads etc named after Australian towns and states.  Apart from the Australian memorial & cemetery there are several smaller ones including Adelaide Cemetery near the edge of town. The school also has a large sign above it's assembly area which reads "never forget Australia".  

Sad to say he was only one of many
unknown Australian Soldiers.

So yesterday from Amiens we travelled straight to Calais to catch the Ferry.  We learnt that you should book at least 24 hours before so you save more than 1/2 on the tickets.  The crossing was pretty painless and the babies were safe and sound on the vehicle deck (I think Maurice & Kev would have preferred to stay with them rather than sit with us in the lounge!)

Maurice really doesn't want to leave his baby and
Kev is just taking a last look!

While I had the time I thought I would put in another post.  Yesterday was an exciting day especially for Maurice and Kev as they got to ride over the Millau Bridge.  This is an astounding structure and, although it is hard to tell from any of the multitude of pictures that we took, its sheer height is amazing.

Country number three.  This blog update finds Karen & I feeling like Princesses!  We are staying in a motel in the middle of the walled city of Carcassonne.  It comes complete with a 12 century castle (ramparts and drawbridge included).

Maurice's comment of the day
"That's my idea of a women in
uniform".  He apparently took it to cheer
Kev up as he was feeling a bit poorly that
day.

After spending 3 nights in Lisbon we rode back into Spain spending 1 very enjoyable night in Salamanca.  Then to Pamplona for 2 nights.  On ANZAC day we crossed into France and the lovely little village of Martres-Tolosane for 2 relaxing nights.  Then onto our castle with our Knights in not so shining Dri-Riders on their trusty BMW steeds.

Yummy!!! One of three visits to Cafe Belem.

The ride into Lisbon was not one of most enjoyable moments with their motorways going every which way.  Zumo got a little confused and we did a few u-turns but eventually got to the camp site.  Number 1 on the highlights list is the Custard Tart from Cafe Belem.  They rate very highly on the Yummy scale.  Thanks for the suggestion Barbarella.  We purchased tickets for the hop on hop off bus which included all the tram rides up and down the narrow steep streets.  These led to some great views over the city.  I took a tour of Torre D Belem, the fortification on the river. 

Torre D Belem

A huge meal at the Camping ground.
All for  that  for  $80 (euro) including a $10 tip.

Salamanca was just an overnight stop but what a great night we had.  We had a fantastic meal which was served by an extremely amusing waiter Jose'.  A few wines later we were all feeling very full and very relaxed.

                                                                                         

                                 The running of the bullshit artists!


Although we didn't make the running of the Bull's in Pamplona we did walk the route and had a look at the bull ring.  We learnt that we are not very good at using co-ordinates in Zumo and ended up running into a brick wall, Not Happy Jan.

Cazeres. 

The country side of Northern Spain & Southern France is just perfect.  Despite the weather not being the best the rides over these few days have been delightful.  The Gopro (helmet cam) has been going just about non stop and every time we turn it off some thing else pops up around the next bend.  It is a bit hard to edit all the video on the run so you probably won't get to see to much of it on here.

The reason my backside doesn't look that good in uniform!

Our first camp ground in France was in such a pretty location that we were in no hurry to leave.  The food in one of the local restaurants also rated extremely high on the yummy scale and we ate so much not even I could fit in a coffee.  We also had the opportunity to wash all our clothes, which believe me after a few days on the run is a note worthy event.  Of course we also visited a Patisserie with very friendly staff. 


WiFi is a bit hit and miss so I haven't been able to update as much as I would have liked. Maurice and I are having a heap of trouble with our phones so email is definitely the way to go if you want to to get hold of us.