DJmotortouring – Page 8 – EUROPE BY ROAD (and other travel blogs)

L’Ametlla de Mar (Catalonia), Spain April 2025 (Tour 11)

We returned to L’Ametlla de Mar.

We were here just a few months ago, during Tour 10, and enjoyed it so much that we stayed for three nights. Rather than risk repeating myself too much, if it’s a brief description of the town and it’s principal attractions that you want, you should read my earlier blog on the place. I will say however that Vanya and I were very pleased to be back. The town doesn’t have a great many tourist attractions but; there are plenty of other places in Catalonia that do, if that is what you want. No, L’Ametlla de Mar remains a friendly Spanish fishing village at heart with a genuine and honest feel about it. It is a nice place; a place to absorb Spain.

We noticed a few changes about L’Ametlla during this our second visit but; nothing detrimental. The Nautica remains a recommended campsite but even more so now that they have cleaned up the small beach of Playa Pixavaques. Vanya actually used the beach for some sunbathing this tour although the water was far to cold for her to contemplate swimming. The company down by the harbour offering Tuna Tours is still operating and I am keen to give that a go but not in April. I don’t like cold water either.

Needless to say, we returned to Bar Pica Pica which, despite a change of bar staff, was as welcoming (and busy) as ever. The bar does not do good tapas and yet it’s tables on Placa Nova are invariably filled with locals. We got to talking with a very pleasant couple, a local man who spoke fervently about L’Ametlla and the surrounding area (and with whom Vanya was able to practise her Spanish) and his partner from Stuttgart (with whom I was able to practise my German). We also tried a couple of different restaurants this time around and weren’t disappointed. One was the Restaurant-Bar Nino on Carrer de Sant Joan (another bar very popular with the locals) but, sadly, I cannot remember the name of the other one which actually did the better food (too much wine).

L’Ametlla’s street art continues to flourish. Indeed, I found a new one and the town is now promoting them as an ‘urban art festival’ and has produced a map to help visitors search them out.

Yes, we stayed another three days and enjoyed the place just as much as before. We’ll be back again.

Palamos (Catalonia), Spain April 2025 (Tour 11)

From the Cap de Creus we thought to chase the sunshine, most of which seemed to be well south of Madrid. Toledo looked a good choice but we’d not rush there because the weather forecasts seemed to be changing every day. Our next stop was to be an old favourite, the Nautica Campsite in L’Ametlla de Mar. However, with one thing and another, we were late getting away and so paused for the night at another small town on our way to L’Ametlla called Palamos.

Palamos competes with L’Ametlla de Mar in claiming to be one of the few remaining authentic fishing towns on the Catalonian coast (it certainly has the largest fishing fleet on the Costa Brava) but, I was very disappointed with the place. It appeared to me more like a beach resort (albeit a nice beach resort) and I reported as much on my facebook entry for that day. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

From what I’ve read since, I missed a few things in Palamos which could have caused me to think differently had I seen them. It was an impromptu decision to overnight in Palamos and, in my defence, we were running late but; had I properly researched the place before charging off into the town for a look-see, I think my facebook entry would have been considerably more positive. Sorry Palamos.

I won’t bore you with the detail as to how I went wrong. It will suffice to say that I ended up chasing my own tail and missed much of the town. I don’t know how but, I failed to find the historic old with it’s narrow cobbled streets and small squares and, of course, it’s many restaurants selling the famous Palamos Prawn. For future reference, the old town is situated behind the town’s main beach (the Platje Gran de Palamos) which I thought was nothing but a residential area. Of course I found the harbour, walked the length of the town’s very long mole and noticed the Fishing Museum but didn’t go in and so missed out on a free cooking lesson – entrance is free on the first Sunday of every month! And finally, because I’m getting increasingly embarrassed now, I found a tiny but very tidy, sandy beach to the north of the town (complete with a ruined castle) known as the Platje de la Fosca but; had I continued northwards, beyond the ruined castle, I would have come upon an even prettier beach (the Platje de Castella) and, beyond that, the not to be missed tiny Fishermen’s Hamlet of Cala S’Alguer. I could go on but… spare me!

We will return and next time, I’ll not miss out on the old town, restaurants selling Palamos Prawns, the Platje de Castella, the Sant Esteve de Mar Castle and, especially Cala S’Alguer. Neither will I overlook the 15th century church of Santa Maria, the Mirador del Pedro, the Emporda DO wine route (to say nothing of the celebrated Camino de Ronda – especially the 11 kilometre stretch between Palamos and Calella de Palafrugall). I suspect there is more that I missed but that will do for now.

Cap de Creus (Catalonia), Spain April 2025 (Tour 11)

Of all the places along Spain’s eastern coastline, the one I have most wanted to see is the Cap de Creus and now, I’ve seen it.

We drove to Cadaques for a couple of days and that allowed me one full day to wander the Cap de Creus. The Cap de Creus is a nature park and marine reserve which opened in 1996 and almost fills a small peninsula on the north coast of Catalonia. At it’s western end it stretches between the two small resort towns of El Port de la Selva in the north and Roses in the south. It’s most easterly point is the Far del Cap de Creus (lighthouse) which also happens to be the most easterly point of the whole Iberian Peninsula.

It is truly beautiful and makes for some great walking but, it is not the wild and remote nature park that some blog writers would have you believe. It covers less than 17,000 hectares of land and sea; is criss-crossed with numerous well marked paths and; can be walked from one end to the other in just a few hours. That is positively tiny when compared with, say, the Cairngorms National Park which totals 452,800 hectares of often rough and very demanding mountainous terrain. There’s a road (the Gi 614) which connects El Port de la Selva and Roses with the lighthouse and; it is a 20 minute drive from Roses to the lighthouse, with tourist buses plying that route in the high season. Oh, and at the Far del Cap de Creus there’s a large car park, a restaurant with limited overnight accommodation, a cafe-bar and an esplanade offering wonderful views out to sea. No, there’s very little about the Cap de Creus that is wild and remote but don’t let that stop you visiting the place. It does have some spectacular scenery.

My walk to the lighthouse began from the Wecamp Campsite in Cadaques. You must follow the road to start with. It leads past the Hermitage of San Baldiri and on to Salvador Dali’s old house in PortLligat but after PortLligat you can leave the road and follow a series of coastal trails all the way to the lighthouse. The one I followed takes you along past the pretty beaches of S’Alqueria Gran and S’Alqueria Petite and then around the even prettier beaches of the Badia Guillola. It’s not hard walking (young children can easily handle the trail) but gradually the beaches give way to a more rugged landscape. There are few trees; it is mostly scrub vegetation but the lack of trees facilitates sweeping views along an increasingly jagged coastline of small cliffs, rocky coves and tiny islands. The sea is crystal clear.

My first sighting of Far del Cap de Creus

I knew I was close to the lighthouse when I started seeing small groups of people. I’d not seen a single person during the 2 hours or so that I had been walking and taking photographs but there were plenty of people milling around the lighthouse. There were a dozen or so boats moored in the cove to the south of the lighthouse and a coach (probably from Roses) pulled up as I reached the cafe-bar. My first priority was a couple of cold beers and I promise you the first one didn’t touch the sides of my throat – I drank it so quickly.

The lighthouse was built in 1853 and is the second oldest in Spain. It’s a rather average looking lighthouse and there’s little else I can say about it except that it featured in the 1971 film ‘Lighthouse At The End Of The World’, starring Kirk Douglas and Yul Brynner. No, I’ve never heard of the film either.

There’s a track near the lighthouse which leads down to the ‘Cova del Infern’ (the Cave of Hell). It’s a tunnel eroded by the sea and best viewed, I suspect, by boat. I didn’t bother with it. I didn’t bother with the unusual looking restaurant either (there were too many people there, queuing to get in) but I subsequently discovered that the restaurant is a converted police barracks. After taking a obligatory photos of the various buildings, I set off to explore the coastline to the north of the lighthouse.

I think the coastline to the north of the peninsula (especially around the Pareja de Tudela) is, by a long way, the most interesting. There’s more exposed lava rock to the north of the lighthouse and the area is considerably more rugged. Erosion caused by the sea and, in all likelihood, the strong tramuntana winds which blow down from the Pyrenees has made this part of the cape nothing less than fascinating. This is an area that especially intrigued Salvador Dali. He often walked the area, seemingly obsessed with the strange rock formations with names like the Camel, the Eagle and the Rabbit and; it is said that at least one of his paintings, ‘The Great Masturbator’ was inspired by one or more of these rock formations.

There are countless interesting rock formations…

I’ll end this blog with one more anecdote about the Pareja de Tudela area and then leave you with my favourite photo from the area to the north of the lighthouse.

Between 1964 and 2004, this part of the coastline was owned by Club Med and they built a huge and very successful holiday complex here. There’s little left of it now. After the Spanish government decided the peninsula was to become a national park and marine reserve, Club Med were on notice to leave. Once the complex closed, a decision was made to totally dismantle it and; in 2009 some 430 buildings were levelled and removed. Even garden flowers planted by Club Med were uprooted and disposed of if they were not indigenous to the area. Wonderful.

Cadaques (Catalonia), Spain April 2025 (Tour 11)

I’ve long wanted to visit the Costa Brava town of Cadaques (and the Cap de Creus National Park) but the single road in and out of Cadaques has been restricted to just motorbikes and cars. That changed late last year and motorhomes may now use the road. It was a no brainer where we would be going once we crossed into Spain. We booked ourselves into ‘Wecamp Cadaques’ for the two nights that I thought would allow us sufficient time to experience the small town of Cadaques and give me the opportunity to explore some of the Cap de Creus National Park. I thought a hike to and from the Far de Cap de Creus would do the trick – that’s the lighthouse.

Cadaques is one of the more picturesque towns I have visited in my time – a jumble of steep cobbled alleys and whitewashed houses over which the 17th century Santa Maria Church presides. It has changed over the years; fishing has slowly given way to tourism (we were told that just three fishermen in Cadaques are now licensed to fish on a commercial basis) but that is to be expected in a town with the pulling power of this one – Salvador Dali – and it’s general inaccessibility has ensured it is not at all tacky.

Cadaques is most famous for being where the Surrealist artist Salvador Dali and his wife Gali lived. They bought a house on the water’s edge in the PortLligat area in 1930, just a stones throw from Wecamp Cadaques and he lived and worked there until his wife died in 1982. The house has been left very much as it was when they both lived there (complete with unfinished canvases and the paintbrushes he was using) and now serves as a museum. It has been described as “weird and wacky” (as is expected of someone like Dali) but the Salvador Dali House Museum draws thousands of visitors throughout the year. It has also served to draw numerous other artists to the town and there are plenty of art galleries, workshops and craft stores dotted around the place.

The Santa Maria Church on the tiny Plaza de la Iglesia is a must see; if not for the pretty church itself, for the panoramic view over the southern side of the town and it’s coastline. There are numerous pretty coves and beaches to the north and south of the town. The Playas des Llaner Gran i Petit are the two in the town itself.

Cadaques is also home to the Michelin Recommended Compartir Restaurant (I think I mentioned that in a Roses blog?) but we weren’t inclined to try it. There were enough other good restaurants in Cadaques and they weren’t charging anywhere near as much as Compartir.

One of the two days we spent in Cadaques was Sant Jordi’s Day – that’s Saint George’s Day in England. Sant Jordi’s Day is also the Catalan holiday of ‘Books and Roses’ which is not unlike our Saint Valentine’s Day except that in Catalonia, men buy women roses and the women buy men a book. I’m not entirely sure of the significance of the book but, judging by some of the book covers on the stalls of an impromptu market that day (three stalls selling roses and three stores selling books), it could be that the women buy the men a book with a view towards educating their man about a woman’s particular wants and needs…

Our last night in Cadaques was special. We sat for many hours outside a tiny, very friendly restaurant across the bay from the centre of the town… drinking the local wine, eating tapas, talking and watching Cadaques change as night came on.

I’ll walk Cap de Creus in the morning…

Sainte Marie La Mere (Occitaine), France April 2025 (Tour 11)

We spent the morning on the beach with the dogs and then, while Vanya chose to chill by one of Le Brasilia’s many swimming pools, I elected to go for a hike around the Tet Estuary to a gem of a town called Sainte-Marie La Mere (not to be confused with Saintes Maries de la Mer in the Camargue) .

Saint-Marie is similar to Canet en Roussillon in that it is has two very distinct parts, the old town and the beach except they are divided by a road in Sainte-Marie La Mere while in Canet en Roussillon they are a good mile or two apart . I wasn’t interested in seeing the beach on this occasion. I simply wanted to see the old town – the heart of Saint-Marie La Mere.

A pleasant two mile walk in the sunshine by the side of the River Tet and then through fields of artichokes (did you know that artichokes are a species of thistle?) took me to the Rue de Canet and then on to the centre-ville by way of Avenue Arago.

Sainte-Marie La Mere is a small town (it has less than 5,000 inhabitants) and a half day is sufficient to see most everything. Moreover, I had downloaded a useful brochure (a leaflet really) produced by the local tourist office which both helped me find my way around and ensured I didn’t miss anything of note – see www.saintmarielamer-tourisme.com

I actually downloaded three items from the website – the ‘leaflet’ I’ve already mentioned; a three page brochure identifying when and where all the local farmer’s markets are held (that was for Vanya) and; finally a lengthier brochure produced by the Perpignan tourist office entitled ‘Randos & Balades’ (Hikes & Walks); which gives brief details of 38 circular routes of varying lengths and difficulties in the area. Not all of these are available in English but, trust me, you don’t have to be fluent in French to follow them.

Amongst other things, the Sainte-Marie La Mere leaflet made reference to various “trompe l’oeil” which are dotted around the town. These are life size murals which look real from a distance. Most of those in the town were painted by a self-taught local artist, Bernard Gout, and they can be found in numerous towns and villages in the area. I really like his work and, to be honest, it was fun seeking them out.

I worked up quite a thirst during my search for the trompe l’oeil and made time for a long cool beer in a friendly bar on Rue de la Paix before making my way back to Le Brasilia.

We would stay one more day in France (and do nothing but enjoy Le Brasilia’s abundant facilities) and then make our way into Spain. The weather forecast in Catalonia and Spain in general is good for the forseeable future and I read somewhere that the restriction on taking a motorhome into the beautiful village of Cadaques has been lifted. Both Cadaques and the nearby Parc Natural de Cap de Creus have long been on my wish list of places to visit. At last!

Elne (Occitaine), France Apri 2025 (Tour 11)

We had booked into Le Brasilia for 4 nights (which eventually turned into 5) knowing that it is a good spot with plenty of interesting places to visit in the surrounding area. The day after our visit to Le Barcares, we drove south to the slightly larger town of Elne, reputed to be the oldest town in the area. Elne was where Hannibal, after crossing the Pyrenees in 218 BC, paused to negotiate a peaceful crossing of Gaul on his way to attack Rome. From it’s position on the Tech River, a few miles inland from the Mediterranean Sea, it grew to become one of the most prominent cities in the area and remained so until slowly eclipsed by Perpignan in the late Middle Ages. Now it is a quiet predominantly agricultural town of less than 10,000 people.

The town’s most interesting features are the Cathedral of Sainte Eulalie et Sainte Julie and the Episcopal Palace (the catholic bishopric was established in the 6th century and wasn’t transferred to Perpignan until 1601) and for those not interested in ecclesiastical buildings (Vanya) there is a butterfly farm (Le Tropique du Papillon) which we didn’t get to enjoy because we had our dogs with us. I imagine that the last thing anyone wants to see, least of all Vanya, is Beanie tearing around the Mediterranean Garden, hounding rare butterflies to death.

No, I made do with a short tour of the cathedral and it’s cloisters and then we wandered the town admiring the artwork of the sculptor Aristide Maillol (whom I wrote about when we visited Banyuls sur Mer), a painter called Etienne Terrus (whom I had never heard of but who became a highly regarded impressionist painter and was a close friend of Henri Matisse) and a number of contemporary artists who, no doubt influenced by Terrus, have made Elne their home (for the time being at least).

The cathedral dominates the town and is impressive. Parts of the current building date back to 1069 but most of the Cathedral was destroyed (and the town’s population massacred) in 1285 when a French army invaded Catalan as part of the Aragonese Crusade. It was rebuilt in the 14th century.

One of the statues in Elne which is easily identified as a Malliol creation is the war memorial honouring the town’s fallen in the two world wars, and France’s wars in Indochina and Algeria. The model for the statue was Dina Vierny (the muse, model, avid art collector and member of the French resistance during WW2 whom I wrote about in my blog on Banyuls sur Mer). She was the model too for his Pomone which is in the Tuileries in Paris. She wisely kept her clothes on for Elne’s war memorial.

‘Elne, les ramparts sud’ by Etienne Terrus

A great many of the works of Etienne Terrus are to be found in Elne’s Terrus Museum & Art Gallery although; the numbers were greatly reduced between September 2017 and April 2018 after a guest curator became suspicious about some of the exhibits on display in the museum and suggested they were fakes. No less than 82 of the 142 works on display were later found to be fakes. The 60 works now on display in the gallery were authenticated and ‘Elne, les ramparts sud’ (see above) is amongst them.

There are plenty of other works on display in the streets around the town and I took a few photographs but…

… Sometimes it is the streets themselves that produce the real beauty:-

We’re staying on in Le Brasilia for at least another two days and so tomorrow I will visit Sainte Marie-Marie La Mere…

Le Barcares (Occitaine), France April 2025 (Tour 11)

We took a day out from Le Brasilia to visit the small town of Le Barcares just 8 miles north of Canet en Roussillon. It was market day in Le Barcares and that is as good a reason as any to visit somewhere in France. We’d have a good wander around the market and then take brunch by the sea.

Le Barcares has the unenviable reputation of being amongst the first of the towns and villages along this stretch of the coast to fully embrace tourism at the expense of it’s fishing interests. Some investors moved in during the 1960’s with ideas to develop a leisure complex to the north of the town. They planted an old cruise liner (the Lydia) on the beach near the port (which they later fitted out as a nightclub, restaurant and casino) and built a promenade connecting the Lydia to Port Le Bacares (which became known as the Allee des Arts after the investors arranged for various artists to create an open air museum of contemporary art along it’s length). It was an ambitious, cutting edge project but it was well received and for many years was successful. Over time, however, interest waned; successive owners failed to maintain the liner and; by the 1980’s Lydia had fallen into disuse. The ship and the promenade lay derelict until 2011 when the local council bought it for a million Euros with a view to revitalising the complex by turning it into a cultural attraction.

The liner has since been refurbished. A small museum and art gallery has been installed and part of the ship is set aside for exhibitions and events. The exhibits along the promenade, which originally comprised a series of monumental sculptures (such as the Soleilonautes – see below), have been added to by a street art collection fashioned out of and/or on old shipping containers. In addition, some nearby land owned by the council was reserved for the creation of a new initiative, the Traditional Fishermen’s Village. This consists of a small collection of fishing boats and thatched wooden cottages and serves as a tribute to the people who first settled this area. I like that idea.

The Le Barcares Council are to be commended for trying to make the best of a truly awful situation but, with the exception of the Fishermen’s Village, I’m not sure their plans will work. I hope I’m wrong but the realities are that (a) the ship is very much under utilised and will be prohibitively expensive to maintain (especially with recent Trip Advisor reviews proving very negative) and (b) the sculptures and street art collection are, to my mind, unimpressive and already looking tired. I think too that these exhibits, especially the more abstract ones like the Soleilonautes (8 wooden totem poles arranged in a circle), would benefit from an explanatory plaque. I like to know what I am looking at and what was in the artist’s mind at the time. Fingers crossed that it all comes good because the council are at least trying.

Les Soleil0nautes. What is it supposed to represent?

Moving on. We parked the Van on a large motorhome aire near old port (now a marina) – thanks again to the council for such a facility – and walked into town along Rue Magellan. The view across the marina entrance towards the Pyrenees was something else. Pic de Canigou, once thought to be the tallest mountain in the Pyrenees at 2,748 metres (it’s not even close; that honour goes to Aneto at 3,404 metres), looked fantastic with it’s tops covered in snow. We were so impressed with that view, we almost missed out on the Fishermen’s Village.

The farmer’s market in Le Barcares is not the biggest market we have seen in France and it certainly didn’t have the variety of Bar sur Seine in Grand Est but it was a fair size and a real joy to wander. Vanya particularly liked it, buying a new top and a grape vine. Yes, a grape vine. I very much liked some oil paintings on sheets of tin of all things but resisted the urge to buy. I was going to have my hands full walking back to the Van with Nala and a 20 year old Muscat grape vine.

I’ll let the pictures do the talking…

… but that Muscat vine on the table!?!

Canet en Roussillon and Saint-Genis des Fontaines (Occitaine), France April 2025 (Tour 11)

A major change of plan. From Chateauneuf du Rhone we were intending to drive down into Provence for a few days and then head for the islands of Corsica and Sardinia. However, the weather forecast for those areas is not good – rain and/or strong winds. Instead we are going to make our way to the southwest of France and then on into Spain. We’re on tour for the best part of three months and will therefore have plenty of time to catch up on Corsica and Sardinia later.

It was Vanya’s idea to book in at Yelloh’s Brasilia over the Easter Holiday and a good idea it was too. We usually book campsites one day at a time during our tours but at weekends we invariably book both the Friday and the Saturday because, so popular is motorhoming in France, it can prove very difficult to find empty spaces on a Saturday. Vanya suggested it could be the same over the Easter Holiday weekend and so reserved a space in Le Brasilia (located just outside Canet en Roussillon) for the Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. It was an inspired thought because the place proved to be packed all over the Easter break with French and German holidaymakers. Of course, Le Brasilia is also Vanya’s most favourite campsite of all those that we have visited during our tours and it came as no surprise when she later booked us in for the Monday night too. No problem. What’s not to like about the Le Brasilia?

Canet en Roussillon is not one of my favourite places but the weather forecast for the area was promising and it does serve as a great place from which to take day trips out. On this occasion we visited nearby Le Barcares, Elne, Saint-Marie La Mere and, of course, Saint-Genis des Fontaines; although the latter was business in that I wanted to buy some wine from my favourite wine producer in the area. I do it every time we are down there.

No more about either Le Brasilia or Canet en Roussillon (you can refer to earlier blogs for further information on those those places) but, since I have not done so before, I will make brief mention of Saint Genis-des Fontaines. Individual blogs on Le Bacares, Elnes and Saint-Marie La Mere can follow.

We have visited Saint-Genis des Fontaines at least four times before (probably five) and never mentioned anything other than that I favour one of the local wineries – Les Vignerons des Alberes.The most significant building in the village (after the winery) is the Abbey of the Saint Genis which dates back to the 8th century. There’s not a great deal left of the original abbey but the cloister is remarkably well preserved and the lintel above the front entrance, which I understand dates to the early 11th century, is supposedly one of the oldest traces of Romanesque art anywhere.

So, here are a few photos.

The restaurant with the amazing sign is on Avenue des Ecoles, almost opposite Les Vignerons des Alberes. It’s name is “Y en aura pas pour tout le Monde” which translates to “There won’t be enough for everyone” – there’s confidence.

That’s the entrance to the winery, Les Vignerons des Alberes. While we were in there, a Pays de Catalan Choir entered and started singing. I don’t know what that was about but as they they left, they were gifted a couple of boxes of wine. We saw them later in the village exiting a small grocery store with a couple of boxes of eggs.

As for this year’s wine, I took away some boxes of the usual Cotes du Roussillon Rouge (Vanya added a couple of boxes of Chardonnay) and a few bottles of two reds recommended by a local; the first being a Premium Cotes du Roussillon Rouge and the other a Cotes Catalan Grenache. I’m looking forward to tasting those.

Chateauneuf du Rhone (Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes), France April 2025 (Tour 11)

A fair amount of driving south to the Rhone River saw us arrive at the tiny medieval town of Chateauneuf du Rhone (not to be confused with Chateau Neuf de Pape) in the Drome Department of the Auvergne-Rhone Alpes Region. It is just across the Rhone from Viviers in the neighbouring Ardeches Department and while we were only staying the one night I took time to briefly explore both villages.

The most noticeable feature about Chateauneuf du Rhone appeared to be it’s castle ruins and that was to be my first objective. Unfortunately, I chose a wrong route up to the castle (requiring a bit of a scramble); only to find an easy path at the top which contoured around the back of the hill all the way to my starting point. That was not the most promising start and, honestly, if it is the castle that you are interested in seeing, the short hike up the hill really isn’t worth the trouble. There’s simply not enough left of it to justify the effort.

Having said that, the views down the Rhone Valley weren’t bad and I could see that the neighbouring village of Viviers (and in particular it’s Cathedral of Saint Vincent) was within easy walking distance; probably no more than a couple of miles away over an impressive looking bridge (and, sad as it may sound, I do like bridges). That then became my next objective.

My bad luck that day continued. The weather closed in; the rain got heavier; I got wetter and; the Cathedral of Saint Vincent was closed when I arrived. Not the best introduction to somewhere new. I took shelter until the rain abated and then made my way back to Chateauneuf du Rhone to look for a restaurant or bar where we could eat that evening (pausing briefly to watch a couple of river cruise boats motor under the bridge).

*With few exceptions, I prefer River Cruises to Sea Cruises*

As for the village of Chateauneuf du Rhone, everything in the village seems almost as old as the castle ruins (it really is a medieval village) but, we found a friendly restaurant-bar for the evening that served an outstanding pizza and the accompanying Ardeche Viognier was as good as it gets – so much so, that Vanya promptly purchased 10 litres from a local supermarket.

I’ll end this brief entry (we are, after all, only passing through on our way south) with a few more photos of Chateauneuf du Rhone but, following an admittedly short stay in the village (and in cold, wet weather too), I didn’t see much in the place to make me want to return. From what little I saw in Viviers, I think it is worth revisiting (when the weather is a little kinder). There has to be a reason for the Rhone River cruises to unload their passengers there every day.

Charolles (Bourgogne-Franche-Comte), France April 2025 (Tour 11)

Drove south, deeper into Burgundy to an area of wooded meadows and rolling fields filled with white and cream coloured cows. We were in Charolles in the Saone et Loire, the most southerly of the Burgundy Departments and home to the iconic Charolais Cow. More about the cows later.

Charollais is a sizeable village of some 3,000 people and is known in the area as the ‘Little Venice of the Charolais’. It is nowhere near the sea but sits at the confluence of the Aronce and Semence Rivers and is almost entirely surrounded by water. So all you need do is introduce a couple of canals, exercise a little imagination and, bob’s your uncle, you have a Little Venice. I’m being unfair; it is a pretty little place (despite the darkening sky and the rain that fell during my wander around the place).

It’s classified as a ‘Village d’Etape’ which, in case you don’t know, is a designated ‘Stopover Village’. Such villages make travel around France, especially if you are using the motorways, so much more interesting. They must be located within 5 kilometres of the motorway and offer a full range of services (hotel accomodation, restaurants, shops, pharmacy, garage and petrol station, etc). Equally important they must be villages of less than 5,000 people with a tourist information facility and some points of interest (be they historical buildings and/or hiking trails) and, most important, the village elders must be concerned to maintain the place’s character as a village. At the last count there were more than 40 Villages d’Etape across France but their numbers are growing. I think this is a tremendous initiative.

A little bit more about this particular Village d’Etape before I get back to the Charolais Cow. There are two buildings which stand out in Charolles and are visible from just about everywhere in the village; the remains of a feudal castle and the church. There’s not a great deal left of the castle complex which used to belong to Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgendy. There’s the Charles the Bold Tower which sits on a rise over the village but most of what remains of the castle has been transformed into the Hotel de Ville by the town councillors.

The most impressive building in the town is the virtually reconstructed red sandstone church, L’Eglise de Sacre Coeur, which had to be rebuilt during the 19th century. It is famous for it’s Blumenroeder Organ which was installed in 2015 – a “majestic organ which was designed to perform 17th century European music… (that) has aroused the admiration of organists and music lovers from many countries… through the richness and clarity of it’s sound”. I cannot comment on that – the church was closed – but the townspeople here are very proud of it.

Most of the town is focused around the church. There are one or two pretty places and there are a few good restaurants; which is to be expected in the birthplace of two of the all time great French Chefs, Albert and Michel Roux. They left for London in the 1960’s and opened the Le Gavroche Restaurant (the first UK restaurant to win first one Michelin Star and then two Michelin Stars and then 3 Michelin Stars and, if that wasn’t enough, they trained both Gordon Ramsey and Marco Pierre White).

As was mentioned already, Charolles is home to the iconic white Charolais Cow which supposedly produces the best tasting beef in the world and has it’s own PDO (Protected Designation of Origin). The village has a museum dedicated to the cow (the Maison du Charolais); the official tour of which ends with a tasting of the meat!?! I elected to try the beef in a restaurant later in the evening and had reserved a table for Vanya and I at La Bonne Franquette near the centre of the village.

That evening Vanya and I took Nala and Beanie to La Bonne Franquette and after a warm welcome from the proprietors I ate a wonderfully tender sirloin with a quite exquisite taste (without the earthy taste which can sometimes mar the flavour of the beef). This may be because Charolais cows are fed only on local grass throughout the year? I don’t know but I can confirm it is excellent beef.

The worsening weather prompted us to head south west (we’re chasing the sun again) to Chateauneuf du Rhone. Otherwise we’d have stayed to visit the Saint-Christophe en Brionnais cattle market. It is a weekly affair and, supposedly, a real event.