Angouleme, Bordeaux & the Tour de France

At Remy Martin
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We failed to mention in an earlier blog that we met a great UK family living in France, holidaying in Spain, who had given us their contact numbers and invited us to stay with them when we drove through France.  We´d met them at a restaurant in Benidorm on the Costa del Sol.  Well we gave them a buzz from San Sebastian and they were happy to have us.  Oh, their names?  Magnificent Mick and Mary, daring Dave, his wife the boundless Becky and their kids Abbie (little Mummy) and lovely little Luca.

Great people!
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San Sebastian to Angouleme was a pleasant trip.  We stopped in at Hondarribia - very nice little town not far from San Sebastian.  We drove into France and we weren´t disappointed.  We loved it last time and we knew we´d love it again.  We stopped in at Biarritz for lunch and only wished we had stayed a couple of nights there rather than five in San Sebastian - absolutely gorgeous, and so nice to hear "Bon Jour!"

We tasted some incredible cognacs made by Martell, Hennessey and Remy Martin, up to $2000 worth

Tour de France
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We arrived at Angouleme and needed to phone the Brits.  The mobile phone´s battery was flat and all the public phones in France only took a special French Phone Card, so I had to beg with a young girl in a motel if I could use her phone.  Phoned and, thinking we were in the right meeting place (Formule 1 Hotel), waited and waited and waited.  Thank God Becky had a brain.  She found us after realising we were at the other Formule 1 (there were two).  The GPS didn´t do the right thing by us that time!

At St Emillion - Bordeaux wine region
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It all didn´t matter in the end.  Mick, Mary, Dave, Becky and the two kids lived in a wonderful large old (straight out of one of those French movies) French home, previously a restaurant.  We instantly felt at home with their old English hospitality.  They´d even made dinner for us and insisted we sleep in the master bedroom because we had Jagger and his cot... so nice.  Jagger loved it - the kids (especially Abbie who was like a little Mum to him), different toys, plenty of room to run, and he adored Mick and Mary who gave him a good fix of special grandparent-style attention.  We had many a very late night/early morning with Dave and Becky drinking, talking, drinking, playing yahtzee, eating, drinking, smoking Dave´s ciggies, drinking, laughing, and drinking.  It was like we´d known them all for years - we had a wonderful time.

We got out during some of the days to see and experience some great places - Cognac where we tasted some incredible cognacs made by Martell, Hennessey and Remy Martin, up to $2000 worth of 50-100 years old, and yes Mark bought one for the bar (a lot cheaper one mind you!).  The Brits took us to a little place called Aubeterre-sur-Dronne - gorgeous litle town where we had a great lunch and checked out the Eglise Monolithe, a place of worship, burial site and hiding place for people 2000 years old carved into the rock but hidden for centuries until a man in a truck got his wheel stuck and found a hole.  The church was dug out by hand - amazing!

Went to the Bordeaux wine region for 2 nights, staying in a hotel at Merignac.  On the way we stopped to look at Saintes (lovely) and Royan, coastal town (nice).  We stopped in at a few chateauxs in the upper wine region of Bordeaux to taste some wine - lovely people, great wines!  In France, in smaller wineries, we needed to drive in, knock on the door and ask if we could taste some of their wine - a very private affair but the owners were lovely and friendly.  It continued to amaze us how we could still communicate when we didn´t speak the same language!

The best wine region of Bordeaux was Medoc, although some of the owners were a little less friendly.  Great wines though!  The chateauxs were beautiful.

St Emillion was a gorgeous little old town with lots of character.  We even found a couple of places within the town where we could taste some wine.  Some of the wineries were spectacular with special wine cellars built into caves in the rocks.

Back at Angouleme, Dave and Becky took us to the Tour de France.  What a highlight!  Sat around the finish line to watch them all ride (I mean fly) in after riding for around 200 km.  Mark found a top photo spot on top of a 3 metre souvenir box and even got himself on TV, but getting down proved a mission nearly impossible!

Mark went back the next day to watch the Tour de France time trials and got up close with the Aussie, Cadel Evans - yes he got him on video; got to shake his hand but had no pen for an autograph - bummer, you know how Mark loves his memorabilia!

We were very sad to leave our new friends at Angouleme!