Alas, it was time to pack up the bus and drive for two days across France to Belgium for our ferry home. Robert, our bus driver, was a bit nervous as our group had apparently purchased so much wine, it was more than his insurance could cover in case of theft or accident! Thankfully, neither of those things happened. Whew!
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| Over 1700 bottles of wine! |
Europe has very strict rules for long-haul drivers and every 3 hours we had to pull over to let Robert rest. He had timed these rests to co-incide with meals and/or interesting vantage points as best as possible. My favorite stop was right after we travelled across the Millau Viaduct.
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| Millau Viaduct |
The Millau Viaduct is the highest and the longest bridge in the world. At 340 meters tall, it is taller than the Eiffel Tower! The viaduct is a multi-span cable-stayed bridge over the Tarn Valley. (I didn't remember all of that; I had Google help me with the factoids!)
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| Marianne and I at the Millau Viaduct |
We had a lovely little pit stop after our morning's drive and then it was back on the bus for several more hours before lunch. After lunch we were all pleasantly surprised when one of the tour attendees pulled a box of wine (when in France, you can find boxed wine that's actually really tasty) and proceed to serve crisps (potato chips) and wine to everyone, save our driver, Robert.
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| Traveling in style! |
One of the rest stops had maps of different regions in France. I took a picture of the region we were currently driving through, but it's kind of hard to read. The big red dot towards the bottom left is Millau, where the tall, long bridge was located.
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| A map of the area we toured |
Below are a few pictures I took from the bus window as we drove past.
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| Old volcano turned terraced vineyards |
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| The Loire River, overflowing its banks |
By late afternoon we had made our way to the small wine-making village of Sancerre. Due to traffic delays we arrived as all of the shops were closing for the night. Marianne and I walked around the very quiet (after business hours) town after checking into our hotel. (Imagine a run-down French hotel with red velvet wallpaper and the ingrained scent of 100+ year old cigar/cigarette smoke even though the hotel's been "smoke-free" for 10+ years; that's where we stayed!)
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| Another wee medieval doorway |
We found yet another tiny doorway that was made just for me… 500+ years ago,
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| Sancerre cathedral |
an absolutely stunning church,
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| Ivy covered house |
a gorgeous ivy-covered chateau,
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| Another house |
and one of many ubiquitous shutter-clad homes.
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| Sancerre street |
As most of the shops were shut, we had no problem getting around the streets. Cars drove by from time to time on these tiny streets, and they did not go slow, either. I can't imagine what these streets look like during high tourist season when the shops are open!
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| Another Sancerre street |
The house below is the oldest still-standing home in Sancerre. Well, only the tower is really old, the rest was only, like, 500 years old.
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| Oldest house in Sancerre |
The village of Sancerre is fairly small, but Sancerre valley, where the famed Sancerre grape is grown, is quite large.
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| Sancerre valley |
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| Sancerre village map |
Towards the end of our walk around Sancerre city centre I was getting pretty hungry for dinner. I knew I was getting hungry because I found myself talking pictures of food shops just to show Bill later.
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| I took this photo for Bill |
We made our way back to the hotel and had ourselves one last final group dinner. The next morning we got up, took one last look at Sancerre Valley, and clambered back on the bus for another all-day drive to Zeebrugge, Belgium.
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| One last photo of Sancerre before we depart |
And then we boarded the overnight ferry home. It was great to get home, but what an adventure that was!!
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| View out our tiny ferry cabin window. |
