Driving into Madrid was a nightmare !!!

Oh my god !! I thought driving in Paris was tough.  This place has tunnels everywhere. We got sucked into one tunnel and ended up 10 km's across town. It then took an hour to get back across town. There are also one way streets everywhere so even when you work out where you are, you can't get where you need to get. In the end Carolyn jumped in a taxi and gave the driver the apartment address and I tailed him in the van not letting him out of my sight. It then only took us 5 mins - great strategy if you get lost in a foreign city. Hamilton liked saying "follow that taxi !!"

Have locked up the car for the next 4 days whilst we explore Madrid on foot !!

First walk around Madrid last night was great. Our apartment is only a 10 min walk to the old town which looks fantastic. Dinner was a plate of grilled meats and some Spanish wine - all good.

Adios.

In Spain!!!

We are now done in the Loire Vally! We drove for about seven or eight hours where we ended up in a city just over the boarder of France and in Spain! The town that we stopped in is called Vitoria. We just did an over nighter here than got up and drove for another six hours the next day to Madrid! Its very different to France, but it's still really cool!

Blake

Wine School & Tour - Loire Valley

November 9th 

  

Today we had an amazing tour of the 'Langlois Chateau' which is owned by Bollinger (Champagne). The winery was not really open but the Director took us on a personal tour. It started with a classroom session on the basics of winemaking which was great and the kids thought it was better than normal school !! We saw the whole wine making process and explored some of the tunnels/caves underneath the winery - it has around 4km of tunnels which are used to store the wine. We tasted some nice White and Sparkling wines and picked up some 2006 sparkling Cremont de Loire which we rated very high (and only 11 Euro per bottle). 

Another fire tonight - pretty cold. 

Will have to come back to this region.... 

Off to Spain tomorrow !

cheers

Phil 

Exploring the Loire Valley

8 November

Spent the day checking out local towns (Saumur, Montreuil-Bellay, Doue-la-Fontaine) and some of the recommended Chateaux in the area:

Fontevraud Abbey

Breze (deepest moat in Europe - 20m)

Saumur Chateau


All very impressive in stunning scenery of the Loire river and endless vineyards.  Mixture of rain and brilliant blue skies !

Cheers
Phil

Farewell Paris - off to the Loire Valley

7 November

Picked up the car is Paris this morning which we'll have for the next 16 days of the journey. We got upgraded to a large 9 seat diesel Renault van as it needs to be dropped back in Rome which is our drop off point. Its huge !!  Its got 3 seats across the front so the kids take turns sitting upfront - they love it.

 

Blake and I picked it up and drove out of the car hire place and straight into the round-a-bout around the Arc de Triomphe - wow - 5 lanes but no lines on the road !! We cruised through in the van and headed back to the apartment to pick up the gang - a baptism of fire. I think the time in HCMC helped though and whilst getting out of Paris was a bit rough we made it unscathed. We drove through Chateaux and wine country and arrived in a tiny town in the Loire Valley called Sanziers (near Le Puy Notre Dame) to find our house for the next few days. 

Our house in Loire Valley

It was only 7 degrees when we arrived so we lit the open fire and enjoyed a welcome bottle of wine from our hosts. 

A Day on the Bus

To give the legs a rest today we got on the L'Open Tour today. We did 2 different circuits - Montmartre and the Grand Tour. Fantastic way to get around Paris sitting on the top deck with a commentary the whole way.  Driving up the  Champs-Elysees and next to the Seine was amazing.

Thought Montmartre was a bit feral. Maybe we didn't see the good part !

Great dinner out in our neighbourhood last night. The boys discovered that the French do great Steak and Chips !!

Cheers
Phil

Le Petit Marcel 

Disneyland

Huge day at Paris Disney - in at opening (10am) and out at close (7pm). Quite a change of pace from previous days in Paris. We all had a ball. Its not hard to enjoy Disney but we were blessed with great weather and no crowds. Most rides had 5 minute queues which meant we could go on Indiana Jones roller coaster ride 3 times in a row !! Fun !!!

Alexander was a little frieked by the characters (as they were so much bigger than him). He loved the Buzz Lightyear shooting ride (twice!). Very careful not to shoot Buzz, only the bad guys  !

The legs took another pounding today. Kids crashed tonight. Quiet day tomorrow ...  

Cheers
Phil