We have a new blog!

For those of you who didn't get the email(!), we have started a new blog.

The address for this lates blog is: http://lafrance2010.wordpress.com

Happy Reading!

Le Duc - Cavagnac, SW France

We travelled from Bristol to Dover on very quiet roads and took the evening ferry over to Calais. We were able to stand on the deck for the whole trip in the warm sun.

We were almost at the front of the boat, so we were able to watch the big doors of the ferry open on arrival. There was only one car between us and french soil. When we returned to our cars the driver in front noticed that he had a flat tyre, but he still drove off of the ferry so he didn't hold everyone else up.

We drove a short distance to the outskirts of Calais, to an Ibis hotel. We tried out our satnav which came with the car, which promptly took us through some dodgy looking streets, so we used the directions from the Ibis brochure, much safer!

Not the best hotel we've stayed in, and we managed to totally confuse the waitress so we had an interesting mix of starters and main courses, ordering far too much, although it was all very tasty.

The following day we started out early and had a good run down, apart from a small hiccup around Paris, (Tracy was map reading, and the Satnav was also chipping in her two pennith, and between them we went out of our way)

Soon back on the right track and we had an event free journey all the way to Cavagnac, arriving at about 8pm.

John, Julie and Rosie, our hosts were awaiting us, and after a brief greeting we went to a local restaurant for a lovely meal. We met John's mum, June and her partner Tony who had been staying at le Duc for the past few weeks, making a lovely job of the gardens and preparing the gites ready for the first visiters.

The following day we were taken around the property and the surrounding area to familiarise ourselves with everything.

John, Julie and Rosie had to leave in the afternoon to get a flight, and June & Tony left the following day to drive home.

We had the opportunity to settle ourselves into our new home, unpacking our belongings.

Le Duc Website

La Couscouillette

We have regularly passed the city of Carcassonne when travelling south and Della did visit a number of years ago but, the Languedoc region of France is not somewhere we have had the chance to explore and so, when the house and pet sitting opportunity near Carcassonne presented itself we were keen to secure the "sit" and spend some time in this part of SW France.

Having recovered from our enforced incarceration at Schiphol Airport by way of several very relaxing and fun days in the company of good friends in France we made our way further south to our latest "sit" in Montlaur near Carcassonne.

A pleasant 3 hour drive and we arrived mid-afternoon at our destination.

La Couscouillette is a collection of buildings, the main home which the owners have renovated over the years and two mills. As the mill accommodation was so unique we decided to spend the 2 weeks in the Sloping Roof Mill. The views of the village of Montlaur from our position atop the hill were breathtaking and we both remarked how this part of France reminded us of the Tuscan countryside.

The weather during our first week was exceptionally warm and sunny which was an added bonus. We were able to take our breakfast on the terrace overlooking the vineyards, lunch by the poolside and dinner in either of the two private and secluded courtyards! The views of the village at night were equally spectacular, enhanced by the starry sky and full moon. Due to the location of the property we were also able to enjoy delightful sunsets and sunrises making for some great photo opportunities!!

There are two pools at La Couscouillette although we only used the larger Dolphin pool which was superb.

A little history.............

The Two Mills of the Couscouillette

"...These two mills were the built in the 13th century and described by Pierre Cabirol, a priest researching the history of Montlaur in the ancient archives of the Abbey of Lagrasse, as the first windmills in the South of France.

They were built in the aftermath of the Cathar wars, in 1260. Simon de Melun, who had been put in charge of the village by the King of France, ordered them to be built. He rented the land of the Couscouillette, paying 12 bushels of grain, to be paid at 'Saint Michel' (on the 29th of September) once a year. Only water mills existed in those days in the South of France. Montlaur had no large rivers, so the villagers ground their wheat at home, using two flint stones, attached one on top of the other by a metal bar. Simon de Melun had been on Crusades to the East and seen windmills operating there. One mill was to be used for wheat, the other for coarser grains.

The mills were burned down during the 100 days war, in 1360, possibly by the Black Prince, and resurrected 80 years later by the Count of Malacoste. The original flint grinding stones are lying outside the Pointed Roof Mill to this day....". (extract from La Couscouillette website).

Walnuts and fruit salad

After a long 9 hour drive from Paris we arrived at our friends Evelyn and Peter's who greeted us with a glass of wine and a lovely meal.

They were set on spoiling us from the start and, as Tracy had a cold and we were both a bit travel weary we really appreciated the care.

We had chance to catch up, as we had not seen each other for a year or more, and to see the progress that Evelyn and Peter have made on their property.

We had lovely weather for the few days we were there, and took advantage of the sunshine to peel some walnuts that were going to the mill to make walnut oil.

In return we were fed handsomely by Peter, and mothered by Evelyn, bringing us tea in bed every morning, and dosing up Tracy with her potion to cure colds.

We enjoyed the animals that are part of the Gorrill family.

We had lots of laughs and the stay was just what we needed, a real tonic. It put us back on track to move on to our house sit near Carcassonne.

Thanks guys, for everything. You're the best.

Train journey to Paris - Day 4

.

Getting up bright and early, we arrived back at our beloved airport at 7am.

The queue had already built up and we took our places, resigned to the wait. The airport staff were kind enough to bring a trolley around intermittently with tea,coffee and biscuits. Tracy joined the queue and Della enjoyed the freedom of being able to escape the queue and run errands for people.

We got to chat with our fellow queuees, swapping stories of how we got to this point in the volcano adventure. One lady in the queue was trying to make her way to the North Pole! Travellers who had been touring Europe and wanted to get back to the US and Canada were trying to get trains to other parts of Europe to make the journey quicker than waiting at Amsterdam.

Some enterprising young people hired a minibus and were going around with signs trying to fill the bus. Whilst in the queue someone told us that they were now releasing suitcases and directed me to a door back into the airport terminal our passports and luggage tickets. I went through a door into an office where our passports and tickets were checked, I was then directed into the baggage claim area of the airport. After describing our cases, I was given a reference and told to return in 2 hours, hopefully by then our bags would have been found! Another tincy wincy step forward.

Della rejoined the queue with Tracy waiting for the train tickets and in 2 hours went back to see if the cases were there. They were and it was with great delight that she wheeled them out of the empty customs area to rejoin the train queue. This caused a mass exodus to the baggage claim area. We had finally done something before everyone else and got ahead of the game for once.

We managed to get two train tickets and after an hour wait in the sun, eating our lunch amongst the tulips,

we boarded the train with all of our luggage and sat down to enjoy the journey to Paris. We had made it out of Amsterdam and were in control of our destiny once again.

Leaving the Airport - Day 3

After completing the night shift we decamped at around 5am trying to keep quiet for the remaining sleepers.

We went in search of a cafe for some breakfast of something other than bread and cheese. We found a nice little bistro serving from 6am. It was lucky that we arrived when we did, as after placing our order of scrambled eggs on toast, fresh orange juice and coffee, there was a huddle in the kitchen consisting of men in suites and waiters. We were then advised that after our order was produced the kitchen would be closing down as the bistro would have to shut due to insufficient customers. The airport now had a McDonalds and a sandwich bar open...... we had to get out of here.

We took our time over our hot breakfast and then went to sit down in another lounge where we had spied some outlet plugs, WITH adapters to convert our 3 pin plugs, these seats were the holy grail of seats and we were up early enough to nab them. We were circled a few times by hopeful laptop owners, thinking that they would pressure us to move on, but we stood our be ground, only one plucky man had the nerve to ask if we would be long, but when we said yes we would be ages, he reluctantly moved on, just popping back every now and again to see if we had changed our minds.

We watched a couple of comedy programmes on the BBC iplayer until a more civilized time of day. After chatting to a lady who had asked us to watch her bags whilst she went to queue for her hand out roll, we discovered that a group of security men were going around asking people what there situation was, could they afford a hotel, etc,etc, with a view to taking this information to the mayor of Schipol who was considering shelling out for accommodation. As unlikely as this may sound to you, in the real world, this information sent Della off searching for said posse,to make sure we would be given a sticker to say we had been surveyed.

She didn't find them, but did get a rare opportunity to see the information desk actually manned and with no queue. Not wanting to pass up such an opportunity she asked the desk if we would be allowed to leave the airport and, more importantly, get back in. The answer was definitely "Yes" We would not be able to have our suitcases, these would be sent on to Bristol.

We booked an hotel with a free shuttle bus to the airport and checked in about 2pm. We then came back to the airport, we did not want to be too far away from the source of knowledge. We bought some toothpaste,toothbrushes and other essentials as well as some new pants and socks.

We visited the train ticket office, (there was no queue here so we thought it would be novel), to find out where the trains from Amsterdam went, and were advised that we could get to Paris from here. Excellent, we thought..... only to be told for international tickets we would need to join the huge queue on our right. As the desk was closing in an hour and the queue was 5 deep and out of the terminal doors, we decided to come back bright and early tomorrow. The desk opened at 6.30am.

Back at our hotel we enjoyed a hot meal and a comfy bed.

Stranded at Amsterdam Airport - Day 2

By 4am we were in the 'zone of all knowledge' T6 being confronted with a queue of people waiting for the desk to open, apparently at 6am, when they had been told, the staff would be helping them to book new flights.

So we joined the queue. 6am came and went and when the staff did appear we were told that nothing would be happening until 2pm when they may have more information.

Today no vouchers would be forthcoming, there was some bottled water to he had, and we would not be allowed to have our suitcases back, they would be sent, whenever the time came, on to our final destination, Bristol Airport, not Heaven presumably.

We took our trolleys and wandered around, luckily bumping into some friendly KLM staff issuing water and cheese rolls, also disposable nappies, which we declined for the time being.

We managed to secure a couple of recliner type chairs where we parked ourselves and whilst Della snoozed happily, Tracy managed to book us 9hrs in the transit hotel area from 12 noon until 9pm.
This meant we could have a shower and a bed, albeit a single, for a much needed rest.

She also went out to forage some toothpaste, brushes and a deodorant. We too would be one of the few here that gave off a nice smell when they walked past.

Della snoozed on and Tracy managed to book us a room in an hotel, outside of the airport, for tomorrow night, what bliss. This means we can have a look around Amsterdam tomorrow and pretend we are tourists after sleeping properly.

We will even be able to buy some clean socks, mine ran off down the corridor the minute I took them off, and other items of undergarments.

After our lovely sleep, and a shower, we left the little cell like room to see what had been happening whilst we were away.

It was 9pm and the bedding down routine, now much more organised was in progress. Proper warm blankets and pillows had been issued, big cheese rolls and water bottles had been dished out, and everyone looked more relaxed. All European airports were closed until at least 1am Saturday.

The rest of the airport was almost deserted, when I went off to find a coffee shop I felt like a survivor of a devastating world event, and when I did see someone else, scuffing along, with a glazed look in their eye, I felt like rushing up to them, but I resisted.

Our body clocks are still on Pacific time (GMT-8hrs) so we were able to handle the night shift with ease. We had the seating areas pretty much to ourselves so we were able to plug in our lap tops (plugs are a scarce resource during the day) and catch up on the blog also speak to everyone on Skpe etc.

We are becoming worryingly like bag ladies with our trolleys of treasures. We have bottles of water and hoard them whenever the opportunity arises, we also do the same with blankets and free cheese roll handouts. We know where the drop off points are for handouts and we are not ashamed to ask anyone in a KLM uniform if they've "got any change mister" !!

After hogging the power points for a brazen amount of time, we gave into the manacing computer nerds hovering ever closer and found a couple of recliner chairs, with power point as luck would have it.

Tracy didn't get as much sleep as me in our cosy cell, so she has dropped off with the other refugees whilst I am wide awake and catching up with the blog.

It is amazing how many styles of snoring there are and very strange to be so close to total strangers whilst they are asleep.

It is 5am, in a totally quiet airport, with just a few people wandering around. Very strange.

It is most inconvenient to us but there are people who are trying to get to weddings, holidays, disabled and elderly people lying on uncomfortable beds, people with young children. Everyone seems to have resigned themselves to the fact that we are stuck for the time being.

Stranded at Amsterdam Airport - Day 1

News Article

We flew out of San Francisco airport on Wednesday morning, back to Vancouver (YVR) to take our KLM flight via Amsterdam, to Bristol.

We had a lovely sunny day in Vancouver waiting for our flight. All was going well and the flight was boarding on time when an announcement was made.....

Our flight was un-boarding due to the volcano which had erupted in Iceland. The ash from the volcano had stopped any planes from flying as when it cools it forms rocks and this would obviously damage the engines.

We did not know if we would be flying or not so we had to wait for an hour whilst the powers that be decided.

To our relief we were allowed to fly an hour later, and we underwent an extended flying time of 10 and half hours as we had to go the long way round, avoiding Iceland. We didn't know if we would be landing in Paris, Brussels or Amsterdam.

On arrival at Amsterdam and after much back patting for getting to the correct destination, our hopes of a connecting flight to Bristol were dashed. We were the last plane allowed to land and from that time on, the whole of Europe's airspace was closed!

Those of us with connecting flights, which lets face it was most of us, were ushered to T6 where we would be told what we needed to do and all would be good. Or so we thought.

The airport staff didn't know what to do, and it quickly became apparent that alternative flights were not an option. We were given vouchers and bottles of water and after much persuasion one by one we left the safety and familiarity of T6 to go and use our own initiative to make ourselves comfortable for the duration of the wait.

It was about 9 pm by this time.

Naively, not realising that we were the last plane in and therefore not the first to be in this position, we headed straight to the onsite airport hotels to see if we could get a room for the night. The problem would then surely be sorted out by the morning.

There was no room at the inn, so whipping out our laptops we congratulated each other on our cunning whilst googling the airport hotels in the area,.... full, Amsterdam,... full. Oh... perhaps we should go back to the T6 zone and see what else we should do.

So with our trolleys to push around our considerable hand luggage, we trudged back to the T6 zone, passing curiously abandoned information desks. There was still a crowd harassing the few brave KLM staff who had stayed around, their only defence was to hand out more vouchers for food. So off we went to spend some of the voucers.

After locating a cafe which would accept the vouchers, we ate our first of many cheese salad rolls and a cup of tea. That was 20 euro gone, we only had one more voucher for 10 euro left. Then Tracy's earwigging skills got us knowledge of a plan to supply camp beds and blankets in another zone of the airport and we were to position ourselves in Lounge 3, so off we went to await the announcement. We managed to speak to Della's Dad on Skype who knew all about the situation and had managed to re-book us on the next available flight........ on Monday! Good old Dad, we now had a back up plan if our alternative more cunning plan didn't work, ie the ferry or the train. (both of which we soon found out were..... you guest it... fully booked).

We waited and waited for the announcement for beds, but none came. Tracy once again averted me trying to curl up on a McDonalds' table by noticing a huge wave of bodies and trolleys surging through the concourse with a purposeful look in their eyes. Beds. We followed the surge and were rewarded, after having to go through security into a "clean zone"(European passport holders only, "too much paperwork for the non-Europeans to have to fill out"), with beds.

Like refugees you see on the telly every day, we were issued with a blanket, a bottle of water and some bread! we picked a spot for our beds, we had few requirements, the spot had to be quiet, no snorers, no children, no bright lights, no recorded message, "please mind your step" no toilets right by us and an electrical socket to re-charge our laptops. Not much to ask!

Needless to say we got a bed but we had to compromise on our other 'requirements'.

There was no 'Dunkirk Spirit' at this stage of the proceedings, just lots of snoring. We did manage to get some sleep, but the cold and the jet lag finally got the better of us and we surrendered our beds to a couple who had been hovering to see if we might be leaving so they could lie down for a while, obviously the 3000 beds provided didn't quite cater for everyone.

The Castro & Market Street

Another walking tour took us to the Castro district of San Francisco. This was a settlement on the edge of town, with cows and pasture between it and the downtown area. It was first settled by Swedish and then Irish communities.

Like the Italian quarter has its flag, the Castro has the rainbow flag on each lamp post as,since the 60's this area had affordable accommodation and was populated by gay men.

There are a number of Victorian style houses in this very expensive area.

The main street has a number of bars which, unlike other areas, are glass fronted and open, not hidden away down some dark alley. The Gay community is open and visible, sending out this message.

Many lives were lost with the AIDS epidemic in this area, and we were shown a Catholic hospice and church which opened its doors to men who at its height, were surviving for only 4 months after diagnosis.

This area sees a big parade in June.

The main road through from the Castro towards the City is called Market Street. This is the main
artery from the ferry terminal at Fishermans Wharf through the city

.

There are a great deal of big commercial properties along this road, many having been re-built after the big earth quake of 1906. The city was raised to the ground due to the fires caused by the earthquake.
When the buildings were rebuilt, architects made an effort to beautify the city, the scenes on these lamp posts show what were common views, Red Indians, cougars and the bottom panel showed farmers with their cows. There were also scenes of miners panning for gold.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_Street_%28San_Francisco%29


The Wells Fargo Museum was an interesting find, full of articles from the Wild West days. The first Wells Fargo branch of the bank was on Market Street San Fransisco.
http://www.wellsfargohistory.com/museums/

Cable car to Lombard Street

The cable car ran passed the bottom of our street, and we could hear the 'ding ding' of the bell as it made it's way up and down the steep streets.

Getting on at the terminal, we didn't feel brave enough to try and jump on in the street, we took the Powell, Hyde route, which took us to the top of Lombard Street.

This is a famous street which is often featured in films. 'Herbie the luv bug' is one. From the top of Lombard street is a good view over the city.

Cable cars only cover a few routes in San Francisco, mainly the steep hills. Other routes use trams. The trams were discontinued some years ago and brought back when it was realised they are a huge tourist attraction. They have sourced trams from other cities in the US and also Europe. There are trams from Milan with the entry and exit signs in italian.

Cable Car Museum http://www.cablecarmuseum.org/
Cable Car Website http://www.sfcablecar.com/

Alcatraz

ei

Alcatraz tours website

We decided to do the night tour of the island, as it promised less people and more atmosphere.

The weather had cleared up from Sunday and we had a clear and sunny cruise over to the island at around 6.10pm.

We were given some back ground information on our way over and once we had landed we were taken in small groups as though we were the new inmates for the island. We had to trudge up the hill towards the cell block. Once inside we were walked passed the showers and allocated our audio equipment to carry on the tour.

Our tour guides were a set of ex cons and wardens.

The audio tour made us feel as if we were new inmates, there was the sound of the prison and other cell mates talking to us, doors slamming etc. It took a little while to get used to it, having never been in a prison before.

We were taken through the process of being allocated our uniform, cell and duties. We were introduced to the Alcatraz hall of fame.



The daily routines were shown to us, where we had to eat, what jobs were available to us and where we could exercise. Only if we were good prisoners, otherwise we would be confined to our cells,or worse still, solitary.

Several escape plans were hatched here, some were carried out and maybe just one was success full. 4 people were never accounted for after an attempt, they could have drowned, or they could have got to South America, no-one knows.

We heard stories from the inmates, the prison wardens and from the wardens' families who also lived on the island with them.

As it began to get dark we were treated to a lovely sunset over the bay, lighting up the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco. The prisoners told us that when the wind was in the right direction they could hear the citizens on the wharf laughing and going about their business. It is very close to the mainland.

As it was beginning to get dark when we resumed our tour inside the cell block, The cells were dimly lit and we were taken to the hospital wing,

where the 'Bird man' was held for his entire sentence. It was beginning to get spooky up there as we were being told that the 'Bird Man' was like Hannibal Lecter, very dangerous. The rooms were dimly lit and they held old operating tables or medical instuments.

When the audio tour finished there were a number of other talks around the prison. One warden showed us where escape attempts had been made, bars filed away etc, one warden showed us how the cell doors were operated.

We made sure we were waiting for the last boat to come and pick us up, we didn't want to be left behind with all the ghosts.

Baseball Game AT & T San Francisco Giants

We decided to have a leisurely breakfast before heading out to the A T & T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants baseball team (or 49ers as they are also known).

The weather had deteriorated overnight and heavy and torrential rain threatened to cancel the game. Local weather forecasters inidcated that the rain should ease off by 3pm and with the game due to start at 1pm it did not look promising.

Nonetheless, we headed out via the Muni underground train and got our first glimpse of the Park.

We made our way to our seats - known as the "nosebleed" seats because of the height in the stadium! We chose these seats primarily to get a good view of the bay - the weather had other ideas!

We found our seats and settled down for a long wait. We soaked (literally!), up the atmosphere, the view of the bay was non-existent but we could see all around the stadium, huge advertising boards, a giant baseball mit, a large coke bottle and a screen showing live interviews and golf from the Masters!

To add to the atmosphere there were several vendors selling candy floss, churros, hot chocolate and popcorn. One of whom looked not unlike Eddie Murphy!!

We waited for an hour and still the rain came down. We made our way to the food and drink area where we bought a veggie dog, comfort food.

We started to get cold and damp and after 3 hours with no start time in sight, we made the decision to abandon the game.

It was a real shame that we did not get to see any baseball played (the game eventually started at 5pm and the SF Giants won!).
Still, we were glad to have the chance to go to the Park and get a feel for the stadium, maybe next time we are in town we will see some live action!!