France - Travels with Verne and Roy

Historic South of France, June 2024, Part 3: Arles and Béziers

Historic South of France; day trip from Marseillan to historic Béziers and those murderous Crusaders; one night in Arles; Arles Arena, the ancient Roman amphitheatre; Hotel de L’Amphitheatre; Van Gogh exhibition; currently kaput Van Gogh Café; two Arles restaurants – Gaudina and La Gueule du Loup; downtown Arles and the Rhône riverside

A. Day Trip to Béziers

With so many day-tripping possibilities available from Marseillan (for examples, see Part 2 of this trilogy), we almost didn’t get to Béziers. I’m so glad we did!

Béziers City Centre

Parking is free at the open-air Parking du Vieux Pont. From there, you can walk over the old bridge and up the hill into the historic town centre, ascending either by several long flights of stairs, or three lifts.

Or a combination; I think we did two lifts and one set of stairs.

Béziers view: Roy with the triumphant look of a man who has climbed a lot of stairs and can now stop for coffee

Marseillan Port Highlights, 2-29 June, Part 2 – Oysters & Noilly Prat

Marseillan port highlights: oysters and Noilly Prat; flashback to 2017… and 2023; aerial views of the Camargue; les huitres… shucking marvellous; meaning of concylicole; Le port concylicole des Mazet; les coquillages, especially Coqui Thau; cruise on L’Étang de Thau; Oyster Farming #101; Maison Noilly Prat; three more Marseillan restaurants; Father’s Day at home with Wendy

Oysters are synonymous with the Étang de Thau – a 22km-long lagoon fed by the Mediterranean Sea. You can enter it by boat from Le Canal du Rhône à Séte, which is how Roy and I got to Marseillan in July/August 2017 on our boat Karanja, while en route to the start of Le Canal du Midi. (For that story, plus scads of Boaty-McBoatface photos, click here.)

Flashback to August 2017…

Crossing LÉtang de Thau from Séte to Marseillan on Karanja, on a hazy day.

… and to mid-2023

Marseillan Port, 2-29 June 2024, Part 1

A month in Marseillan port, a gorgeous spot in the South of France; avoiding confusion; cassoulet at Marseillan Plage; Here Come the Campbells… the Baragwanaths and Wendy; out and about in Marseillan; running around L’Étang de Thau; two fêtes worse than death (not really); Marseillan Cheat Sheet; our favourite restaurants; best day-trips from Marseillan

A full year ago, Roy booked us a two-bedroom apartment in Résidence Farenc in the port town of Marseillan, right on the water, for almost the entire month of June. Four weeks might sound like a long time to be in the same place. But when the time came to leave, I felt I could have stayed another month. Roy said he felt the same way.

French Triangle Part 3: Dordogne, Carcassonne and Provence

Travel in France: Post-Plague family reunion in Saint-Geniès; dining in the Dordogne; Death Row dinner; tricked into being side-tracked to Montech for lunch, poor Roy!; canal-side in Carcassonne, and why we seldom eat steak in France; Hotel Renaissance at Aix-en-Provence; murals and Ricard at La-Seyne-sur-Mer; cliffs and calanques at Cassis; flagrant disregard of cycle-path etiquette in La Ciotat; homeward bound, with a lot of excess baggage!

Three nights in the Dordogne

As a reminder, this is the first leg of our French triangle: from St Jean-de-Losne in Burgundy to the Dordogne. (NB: There will be a test.)

The heavier line, heading southwest from SJDL to the Dordogne

French Triangle Part 2: Beautiful Burgundy – Esbarres, Dole and Dijon

Before reading about beautiful Burgundy, please check out French Triangle Part One, where we said goodbye to our boat, Karanja; gorgeous gîte in Esbarres, near St Jean-de-Losne; homage to crossing the Channel on Karanja with David; flashback to cassoulet in Carcassonne; lamb shank and lavish scenery in Dole; by train to Dijon for lunch at Le Gourmand; onward to the Dordogne!

So, when we weren’t busy tearfully clearing our personal possessions off Karanja, prior to handing her over to her new owners at the St Jean-de-Losne Salon Fluviale, what were we doing? Exploring beautiful Burgundy while drowning our sorrows in duck-fat and Chablis, it would seem.

St Jean-de-Losne, Piper barge, travels with Verne and Roy

French Triangle Part 1: Farewell to Karanja, 20-30 April

Goodbye to boating in France; dirty minds and a pretty map; shamelessly nostalgic Karanja flashback; 18 Pipers piping; celebratory sake with Masako and Yoshi; apéro, gorgeously Gorgonzola-ey pizzas and Toshi’s sushi; sterling beef tartare, and whitebait with too many eyes

For any dirty minds out there, no – this French triangle of which I speak is nothing nearly as exciting as a ménage á trois in a French farce. In fact, it’s mostly about the breaking up of the triangle that was Roy, me and our Dutch barge Karanja.

In addition, it roughly describes the route from St Jean-de-Losne in Bourgogne, where we said goodbye to Karanja; southwest to the Dordogne to visit Roy’s sister Lyndsay and brother-in-law John; down to daughter Wendy in Provence; and back to Bourgogne.

Verne’s Visa Woes, December 2019

Triple visa challenge; one night in an Athens jail; Japie-friendly destinations and a wander down Memory Lane; a toast to travel in 2020

Arriving in my home town of Durban a couple of months ago was not the time to kick back and relax, as Roy sternly reminded me. I had to get cracking on the three visas I required for our 2020 travels: Australia, France and the UK.

Arles Interlude, 4-7 October

Romantic Roy retrospective; Le Café La Nuit; Roy does 10,000 Roman steps; the Camargue – white horses, black bulls, grey salt and brass bands

Retrospective

Way back in the mid-nineties, long before the digital era, Roy and I spent a week in Provence. We flew to Nice, overnighted there in a room above a betting shop, then drove our hired car to Arles.

Visa Run to Blighty – Part 3: 25 Sept to 1 Oct

The Morrises and The Ivy; friends, family and the three-day Fish Rule; England’s Rose Freehouse; The Real Ship Inn at Sandgate; Eurotunnel to Calais; Beaune again

Sister Summer Trilogy: Shoreham, Herne Bay and Saint-Geniès

Sometimes, we leave Karanja in her home port of Moissac and go off for a while. From what we got up to in August, here’s a trio of sister-centric outings, in the UK and in France.

While visiting my sister Dale and her family in Kent, England, she and I did a couple of day trips – first to Shoreham village and The Mount Vineyard, and then to Herne Bay. Then Roy and I went back to the Dordogne to meet up with his younger sisters Lyndsay and Cheryll.

#1 Shoreham (Kent)

You have to specify Shoreham (Kent) because there’s another one – Shoreham-by-Sea in West Sussex.