Alps, Provence and Rocamadour

French Alps and Provence

Everybody has some opinion about France. We have been to France many times, however most exciting was our three weeks long trips around the country in August of 2007. The first part of it was visiting the French Alps and Provence, afterwards continuing a trip to the exceptionally nice town of Rocamadour.

This part of the trip (especially before arrival to the French Alps and Provence), apart from the mountains, was mostly related to food and wine. The second part of the trip (the Atlantic coast and Paris) was mostly relaxing. It included camping near the Atlantic Ocean, and Disneyland in Paris and ended with champagne tasting near Reims. Our trip around France started with wine tasting in the capital of Burgundy Wines – Beaune.

We stayed at a pretty good hotel Stars Beaune – comfortable enough for the price we paid for it. The hotel was located not far away from the main road and it was especially convenient as we arrived late in the evening.

Chamonix Mont Blanc

Our next stop after some wine tasting in Beaune was Chamonix Mont Blanc, the town of ski resorts. Our campsite was located just a few hundred meters from the lift to the Aiguille du Midi (3842 m above sea level), a mountain in Mont Blanc massif and one of the best panoramic views we have ever seen.

From the viewing platform, you can see the highest mountain in Europe Mont Blanc (4807 metres above sea level) as well as many other peaks of the Alps. Using local transportation provides the possibility to enjoy excellent hiking and climbing places around Chamonix Mont Blanc. Routes are marked and have different levels of difficulty, however, if you do have not appropriate shoes and equipment, the best choice would be to use the easiest routes only.

Provence

After a couple of days in Chamonix, we went to Provence. Arrival at Provence was a huge change after living close to the snow and ice. The temperature of the air after driving just a few hundred kilometres reached +35 Celsius. As it was the end of August, it was too late to enjoy the beauty of lavender fields, but we had an advantage to buy fruits and vegetables from local gardens. One old nice lady we visited, spoke only French, however the deal of buying fruits was successful.

Our next short stop was in Grasse; we visited the factory of Fragonard perfumery (there is also a Fragonard perfume museum in the town but it was closed because our arrival was too late in the afternoon). A guided tour of the factory was free of charge but as you may guess, at the end of the exposition there was a shop with the company’s production. Obviously, to our gift items consisting of French wines were added original French fragrances.

After Grasse, we went to Nice and enjoyed a couple of very sunny days on the beach there. There are even no photos from Nice because the sun was so hot and the water in the sea so relaxing that all the world around didn’t exist for us those days.

It took about half an hour in the evening after arrival to find good and well-equipped camping to spend a couple of nights there. The campsite was located about 15 minutes from the beach. It was a very good choice to start the trip by hiking mountains with further rest in the French Riviera.

From Nice, we started our way towards the Atlantic coast. About 300 km from Nice (not far away from Avignon), we made a stop to see a very exciting historical object Pont du Gard – an ancient Roman aqueduct bridge made in the 1st century AD. This aqueduct was built across the Gard River. Since 1985 Pont du Gard has been listed as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site.

Rocamadour

After the French Alps and Provence, our next destination was Rocamadour – a small spectacular old town in the southwest of France. Since medieval times, Rocamadour has been a popular destination for religious pilgrims visiting the cathedral’s Black Madonna.

Nowadays, many tourists are coming over to see the cathedral, which is built almost vertically into a cliff. I shall say that it was worth coming to Rocamadour – everything there looks magnificent.

For a couple of days, we were sleeping in tents at Camping Ferme Brache, located next to the town. There also were several different tourist attractions in the surrounding area, such as a demonstration of the full cycle of cheese production with a tasting, goose farms and an open-air monkey park La Foret des Singes.

We also visited from there another very nice medieval town Sarlat. The local food market in Sarlat is famous and it was a fantastic experience! There are only 10 thousand inhabitants in the town, however, more than 1 Million tourists visit Sarlat every year.

You can continue reading about our experience on the Atlantic coast of France during this trip.