Tour de France

25.06.2010

1st stage Bruck – Acqui Terme 634 km.

The departure is already at 07:00 o’clock in the morning, since we must still insert a vocational stay in Niederdorf (district Bruneck South Tyrol) around with Franz Bergmann the further proceeding with the development of “go-last-minite.com” to discuss. But after lunch at about 13:30, the time had come.

We drove on the Pustertaler road in the direction of the highway “Brenner-Modena”. At Bressanone we joined this highway and headed south towards Verona.

The drive to Verona took about 2.5 hours. Traffic was moderate and we made swift progress. In Verona we took the turnoff towards Milan and then at Brescia we took the highway towards Turin. The highway exit at Allessandria was the right time to change to the country road. Now we left the Po Valley and entered the first foothills of the Apennines. Passing individual wine-growing areas and a very fertile countryside, we arrived in Acqui Terme at about 18:30. Unfortunately, we had forgotten to print out exact directions to get there, so we were stuck right in the center of town and had to get new information from a hotel to find tonight’s lodging.

The Hotel Valentino was not in the center of town but a little to the east over the river in the former spa park. The hotel is newly renovated and the rooms are all modernly furnished. It is only about 15 min walk to the center of the city. The city has a real kurcharacter with Italian flair. Here you can see some Roman remains of an already very old bathing culture. This ancient sulfur bath was already extensively used by the Romans. Today, however, one notices that the ravages of time have not spared this city. In the evening, in the center of the city, you can see the Italian hustle and bustle through the presence of playing and screaming children, as well as street cafes with young people and restaurants that invite you to dinner. After a pleasant evening in one of these restaurants, we made the short walk back to our hotel, tired and satisfied.

26.06.2010

Stage 2 Acqui Terme – Cavaliere 384 km

In the morning at 08:00 we woke up to beautiful weather and had already become accustomed to the peculiar smell of this sulfur spa. After breakfast we continued south and crossed the Apenin on the highway No. 30 and from Cairo M. on the A6 highway towards Savona…. This highway is peppered with spectacular valley crossings and tunnels and leads through lonely valleys and gorges out to the Ligurian Riviera. From here it is only a stone’s throw of 100 km to Monaco.

This principality should be the stopover of our 2nd stage. Already the arrival opened us a fantastic view of this probably unique city built on the rocky coast. The famous Formula 1 Grand Prix of Monaco takes place here every year. For us it is almost unbelievable that a car race can be organized through these narrow streets.

The principality offers an impressive insight into the world of the rich and beautiful.

The fortress hill with the palace of the princely family is an absolute must when visiting this small state. The guided tour of the prince’s state rooms and reception rooms gives us a small insight into the unknown history of this principality.

Not to be missed is a walk to the Grand Casino and a visit to the Hotel de Paris.

Unfortunately, sandals are not allowed to enter this venerable house.

We therefore decided to have our afternoon dessert at a nearby ice cream parlor. The stay in Monte Carlo is with 3 hours a bit short, but to get an impression of this city it is enough.

For the drive to St.Tropez and on to Cavaliere on the Cote d’Azur, we decided to use the highway. A wise decision, since we again had no travel description of the booked hotel with us.

The drive from Monaco to St. Tropez took 2.5 hours and led us through an interesting Mediterranean landscape with impressive porphyry rocks that stood out from the landscape due to their red color.

This landscape is characterized by small groups of trees and a lot of resistant Maccia bushes that cause great headaches for agriculture.

From St.Tropez we trusted the coordinates of the hotel that we had entered into our hiking GPS device. Unfortunately, these coordinates were a bit inaccurate and so this device did not send us to our hotel but about 25 km further west to a lonely beach with a castle. After we no longer knew what to do, we called the hotel and were guided to the destination.

Arriving at the hotel, we realized that this is a real oasis on the Cote d’Azur. Located directly on the sea, all rooms face the sea with a view of a fantastic Mediterranean Sea. You can easily stay here for the next 4 days.

After a late dinner on the terrace with a full moon, the evening could be ended again enjoyable.

27.06.2010

Relax day on the Cote d’Azur

This morning we woke up early and enjoyed the view of the Mediterranean Sea. It radiates a heavenly tranquility, you would think the high season does not take place here.

Before breakfast there will be an extensive stay in the sea. Here the surf is zero and I feel like I’m in a calm lake. No swell disturbs my swimming.

Breakfast on the terrace is a buffet and quite rich by French standards.

The service and the staff are very friendly.

We therefore decide to spend this day directly at the hotel by the sea.

After an extensive sunbath, (air temperature 26 °, a small breeze makes the direct sunlight bearable.) we decide to take dinner in the small nearby town of Cavalaire.

At the same time, this can be combined with a short evening walk. It’s Sunday and you can see that many locals take the chance and let this balmy summer day fade away. At the moment there is not much tourist activity.

Everyone still has time to chat with each other and enjoy the mild summer night. Next week is the beginning of the vacations in France and there the situation will change abruptly.

During our evening walk we discover a cozy fish restaurant and immediately take it under the microscope. Here you can find oysters and scallops and fresh fish. Without thinking twice, we settle here for dinner and have not regretted it.

The cuisine of Provence can be really enjoyed here.

A bottle of rose wine and fresh oysters…… what more could you ask for.

At the end we have a Calvados and then we finish this beautiful evening on the terrace of the hotel under the full moon.

28.06.2010

Trip to the real Cote d’Azur to St. Tropez

When visiting the Cote d’Azur, a trip to the famous harbor town of St. Tropez is a must.

Likewise, a day at the famous Tahitian beach of St. Tropez should do the trick.

At 11:00 in the morning we reach this really beautiful beach. There are soft sun loungers with parasols and a covered parking space for our Volvo.

All this for a modest € 50.00 per day. By Cote d’Azur standards, it’s a bargain.

The beach is not crowded, because even here apparently the high season has not yet arrived.

Next to the beach there is also a public beach section for people who do not want to spend this money.

(You have to bring your own camping bed, packed lunch and parasol).

The illustrious crowd consists of 80% French, a few English, Swiss and Dutch.

Service is a priority at Tahiti Beach. Champagne is served, rose wine is drunk and people live like God in France.

Most people tune in here for lunch with Pastice and go swimming in the sea once or twice.

Even lunch is an experience for those who bring the necessary purse for it. Tahiti restaurant serves fresh sea fish, which well and truly bring it to 4 -5 kg per fish. To this end, the modest Frenchman drinks another bottle of wine and smokes a cigar in comfort. The people on the Cote d’Azur know how to live and enjoy.

After that, you can only lie on the beach lounger. The beach boy has already carefully put them back in the right position so that the greatest possible sun benefit can still be taken.

After a long nap it’s time to go to the sea again and finish the beach day until about 18:00. After that, there is enough time to plan in time for dinner.

However, we preferred to visit the famous town of St. Tropez.

This small fishing village really has its charm. The vibrant life takes place in the port. We watch as the ships slowly make their way back to the harbor and the passengers crowd the pier.

Here, ship passengers mingle with beachcombers, locals with tourists.

It is a colorful mix of interesting people who all want the same thing: See and be seen, enjoy the evening and have a good time.

A good address to do this is the “Senequier Tea House” on the harbor pier which has been around for more than a hundred years.

In the town itself there is one designer store after the other, so that the tourist can take his personal souvenir of St. Tropez.

29.06.2010

Relaxing in the bay of Cavalaire.

We want to use this day to have a good rest and to enjoy the pleasant atmosphere of the hotel and its surroundings.

A lazy day at the pool with a few trips to the sea are a very pleasant accompaniment to our “Tour de France”.

In the evening we decide to visit the place that already enchanted us on Monday with its delicious fish dishes.

This time we were lucky and we got a nice seat on the terrace overlooking the harbor.

Dinner was again “par exelance” and ended in a leisurely evening walk back to the hotel.

30.06.2010

Cavalaire – Marseille – Aix en Provence 146 km

Early in the morning we are awakened by our resident seagull and decide to take a morning dip in the pool and sea.

After breakfast and check out we leave the hotel for Marseille.

Passing the towns of Le Lavandou and Hyeres, we leave the Cote d’Azur behind us and drive via Toulon to Marseille. This city has the second largest port in Europe after Rotterdam. Important in this city is the old town with the port and a visit to the famous fortress Chateau d’If.

This fortress can be reached by boat from the old harbor in about 20 min. The fortress is known from the novel by Alexandre Dumas “The Count of Monte Cristo”.

It served as a notorious island prison from the 17th to the 20th century. It is a strange experience when entering this old building. One can almost be overcome by the feeling of suffering and deprivation of freedom. It seems that the walls still hide eerie stories within them.

There is something you can not miss when visiting Marseille:

The famous fish soup “Boullaibaisse”.

I ate them in a typical harbor restaurant on the quay of Marseille.

After the extensive visit to this beautiful city, the trip continued to Aix en Provence.

The city is the capital of Provence and known for its many cultural highlights in the summer. The famous painter Paul Cezanne was a citizen of this city.

Nothing stands in the way of a typical Provençal dinner. The best place for this is the “Cours Mirabeau” a large avenue that reminds a little of the Champs-Elysees or the Ramblas in Barcelona. This is where life happens in the evening with musicians and restaurants. We enjoyed it.

01.07.2010

Aix en Provence – St. Etienne – Clermont Ferrand – Montaux 802 km.

The hotel we spent this night in is a beautiful southern French mansion. The name “Le Pigonnet” refers to the area surrounding the site southwest of Aix en Provence. The center is about 15 min away on foot.

An excellent breakfast was served on the hotel’s garden terrace. Connected to this terrace is a beautifully landscaped garden with old chestnut trees.

In this area there is also a swimming pool.

After breakfast, however, we hit the road for our next destination, the “Val d’Loire”.

We wanted to get the modest 800 km that lay ahead of us behind us as comfortably as possible. Driving towards St. Etienne on the highway, we could still see many vineyards. Shortly before Lyon we left the Rhone valley and drove towards St. Etienne and got to see the Loire for the first time. After a short stopover at Clermont Ferrand, we drove north towards Paris. We let the fertile volcanic landscapes of the Auvergne pass us by on both sides. The highway was empty and so we were able to reach our destination in a short time and without any problems.

For us it was clear that we will choose an accommodation in the Loire Valley that corresponds to the country. What could be better than spending the night in a castle. This was a unanimous decision and we set up our night quarters at the Chateau du Portail. We are the only guests here. It’s just wonderful: a garden with swimming pool and together about 1 ha of garden and lawn. All for us alone. The castle is from the 14th century and has a great flair. It has a total of 5 rooms and is very lovingly run by an American with Swiss roots and his French wife.

The area in the Loire Valley is very quiet and tranquil. We can’t see any mass tourism. For dinner, you drive out to one of the dreamy villages in the area.

02.07.2010

Loire – Valley of the castles 134 km

The Loire is the longest river in France and is known for its more than 600 castles. Some of them should definitely be visited.

The most famous castle is Chateau Chambord near the town of Blois. This castle was built in the 16th century. was built and is the largest Loire castle.

Knight games are also performed here and at night it is completely illuminated with a spectacle from 23:00.

Inside, the castle has little to offer, as it was completely stripped and looted during the French Revolution. But worth seeing are the many towers and turrets that can be visited.

Nearby we visited another castle. Cheverney Castle is privately owned and was the basis for the comic strip “Tintin”. Through the unique silhuete the comic artist was inspired for the adventures of these heroes. The castle still accommodates its own owners and thus it also looks lively. The current marquis of the castle likes to engage in extensive chasing with his dogs. The dogs can be viewed by visitors in their kennel.

All castles have beautiful and extensive parks. It is very hot today about 35 ° in the shade, so of course we are looking forward to our castle pool. We spend the afternoon in the castle’s own garden and let the master of the house spoil us with Martini Rouge.

In the evening we go out to a 2 hood restaurant at the Loire.

03.07.2010

Monteaux-St. Benoit-Tours-St.Jean de Monts 652 km

We know that we are not far from the Atlantic coast, so we decide to visit our former co-worker Kendra in St. Jean de Monts. But since she works all day, we still see some churches in the Loire – Valley. The first stop takes us about 110 km east to the small town of St. Benoit. Masses are celebrated here daily at 12:00 with Benedictine monks accompanying them with their beautiful chorales.

2 hours driving time should be enough to get there in time. We made a big miscalculation there. Unfortunately, we were half an hour late due to the very heavy traffic and were still able to watch the last third of the show.

After an extensive visit to the basilica with the relics of St. Benedict, we set out to visit the famous basilica in Tours. This trip lasted about 2 hours. Tours is a very busy city with a beautiful historic center.

The basilica is dedicated to St. Martin and has a bright crypt and a beautiful cloister.

Unfortunately, we didn’t have a city map with us, so it took us a little longer to find our way around this city. But after two hours we had seen everything and headed towards the Atlantic coast.

After a few miles on the highway, I noticed that we were running low on gas and couldn’t see any information about the nearest gas station.

That’s when we decided to get off the highway and try our luck in the towns. But unfortunately we were here in an area that had a very poor density of gas stations. After 40 minutes of driving and 3 liters of diesel in the tank, we were lucky and found a service station at the last minute.

That could have been a real eye sore. Conclusion: From now on, we will visit a gas station early on when the tank is a quarter full.

After this little adventure, we arrived safely in St. Jean de Monts and looked forward to seeing Kendra again.

We arrived just in time, Kendra had just finished work and so we could spend a nice evening together.

04.07.2010

St. Jean de Monts – Nantes – Perros-Guirec 320 km

In the morning we could still have a leisurely breakfast with Kendra and then set off in the direction of Brittany.

Nice and slowly we are approaching the furthest point of our hometown.

The landscape becomes more fertile again than on the Atlantic and we see extensive meadow fields, corn fields and vegetable fields.

The signs will be bilingual (French and Breton).

After about 4 hours of driving we see a beautiful fishing village on the Atlantic Ocean with its typical pink granite rocks.

Now we know that we are at the destination.

Here we will stay for the next 3 days before we start our journey home.

This Breton coastal landscape is truly unique. The hotel we are staying in is a spa hotel overlooking the sea. So nothing stands in the way of a few relaxing days.

05.07.2010

Perros-Guirec – Mont St. Michel – Dinon – Perros-Guirec 404 km

Visiting one of the famous sights in France is also an absolute highlight for us. The island of Saint Mont Michel is located in Normandy and is visited by more than a million guests.

Getting there is relatively easy, as we only have to use the highway heading east.

Monday is usually not busy, so we set off at about 11:00.

After 2 hours of driving we arrived and could comfortably visit the island fortress with the church and abbey.

This great structure built over several floors on the mountain, offers plenty of impressive experiences. Be it the cloisters, the crypts or the monastery church, everything has its special charm.

After two hours of sightseeing, we continued on our way to Dinon. This typical Breton town impresses with its still really old town center. The houses are half-timbered and the narrow streets invite you to stroll.

The cider was served to us in a traditional cup. Tastes very refreshing and is very similar to our apple cider.

Towards evening we left the city again towards the hotel and ended this with an extended walk on the beach of Trestraou.

06.07.2010

Relax Day on the beach of Trestraou

Brittany offers a variety of beautiful and clean beaches. We have one of these beaches on our doorstep.

The water in the Atlantic Ocean is currently about 19°. It is very refreshing with an air temperature of about 21° and a light westerly wind.

The beach is wide and a playground for children. But you should pay attention to the tide. It can happen that after three hours the water is 2.5 meters higher and the beach has suddenly become much smaller.

The weather is very nice today and we take full advantage of this bathing day.

In the evening there will be another in “Memoria to Michael Jackson” directly on the beach with a double. So there is something for the tourists.

07.07.2010

Perros-Guirec – Agneaux – St. Quentin 634 km

Today it is time to start the journey home. To bring the Tour de France to a close, we will head towards Normandy and then visit the cities of Le Havre and Amiens.

On the way we found out that the partner municipality of Bruck was nearby. The commune is called Agneaux and is located in the center of Normandy just near St. Lo.

A visit to the village is still an opportunity to have a snack in the brasserie in the middle of town before we continue to Le Havre and Amiens.

In Amiens we will visit the largest cathedral in France. The city is otherwise not very interesting, but the cathedral is definitely worth seeing. After a quick snack at the station, we set off for St. Quentin. We were forced to choose this city because there was no bed to be found in Reims, our actual stage destination. (Reason: The Tour de France has also chosen this city for

07.07.2010 chosen as a stage destination).

So we stayed quite cheaply in a hotel of the Campanile group and hit it off well.

08.07.2010

St. Quentin – Reims – Strassbourg 428 km

Early in the morning we drive without having breakfast to Reims to have breakfast in the center.

The city has not woken up yet, so we get to the city center nicely and without problems. There we look for a nice cafe and have breakfast in peace.

The Tour de France starts this morning not from Reims but from Epernay, so it is still very quiet in the city.

The last cleaning work after yesterday’s cycling stage is still being done. At the same time, the morning life in this city slowly begins.

We would like to visit the cathedral of Reims and after breakfast we set off.

The cathedral was used for centuries as a coronation church for all French kings. It is worth seeing and we marvel at the many figures carved in stone.

After a detailed sightseeing tour, we set off for Strassbourg, our last destination.

Arriving in Strassbourg, we check into our hotel and plunge into a bustling life surrounded by small alleys and lots of half-timbered houses.

This city really lives from tourism and is very worth seeing. You should definitely spend an evening in this city. Besides the famous cathedral, the side streets with their stores and restaurants are a real experience.

After a traditional Alsatian dinner, this last day is coming to an end.

09.07.2010

Strassbourg – Bruck 554 km

Departure 08:30 in Strasbourg.
Route Offenburg – Karlsruhe – Stuttgart – Ulm – Munich – Kufstein – Bruck.

Today we end the vacation and with it the entries in this travel diary.

The conclusion of the trip for us is a mixture of adventure and recreation.

Many impressions could be gained and many people we met. The Frenchman is a very friendly person who sometimes becomes more approachable when you speak his language. But he is also trying harder and harder to get to grips with a foreign language such as English.

Tourism has also become important in the minds of residents in France.