Robert's French Adventure

(click on photos and maps to enlarge)

  In 1997, I spent  three fascinating weeks in the Pyrenees Roussillon region of the South of France visiting Pete who runs Country Cousins which manages rental properties in the area and whose site gives better regional information than I could..  After a day in London, a day in Paris, we drove to Pete's house in Fenouillet, our headquarters for our day trips.  We ended up driving through the mountains to Barcelona and Sitges.

London; Dover; Calais

Paris from Sacre Coeur; Sacre Coeur, Pete, and our Parisian hosts

On the road from Paris to Fenouillet

Fenouillet:  in the first photo, taken from the valley floor, the village is above the church steeple; the next three photos were taken from the village looking back into the valley (note the same church steeple; Fenouillet is situated between the ruined castles of Saint Pierre and Sabarda

La Redouna; Pete's house is the white one in the middle; I did not sing for my supper, but I did make curtains

Robert; Pete; Anna Madrigal (Tales of the City)

We explored numerous villages and towns with day after day of perfect weather

Rennes le Chateau is mentioned in The Da Vinci Code; the statue of the devil Amodeus is very odd, especially in a church.

Perpignan is a handsome town of 100,000.  Interesting place to spend the 4th of July, great place to spend Bastille Day.

Mont-Louis; Besalu

Ceret, a great town market where we bought the fabric to make the curtains.

Lesquerdes festival, where the town population must have doubled for lunch.

Gorges de Galamus:  fortunately i did not have to drive on these mountain roads using the excuse that I hadn't driven a stick shift in years.  The other pictures are of the hermit's hut which is now a tourist attraction;  the path down to the hut is about three feet wide.

Limoux, where we had a great "pub lunch" on our way to Ikea in Toulouse; very odd blue fountain.

Castelnou

Bocal du Tech where I swam naked in the Mediterranean!

Estagel:  this village dance was one of many wonderful planned and unplanned local events we attended.

Sitges, Spain:  wonderful resort town 40 km southof Barcelona  which is easily reachable by train.

Barcelona

Unusual contrast of church and amusement park on the summit of Mt Tibidabo.  I did not go on any of the rides which reminded me of the Stratosphere in Las Vegas.