Parlez vous Francais? No we don't...

Bordeaux is a bit of a shock to the system after being almost solely on the beach and in small towns for the last few weeks of our trip. It is a lovely city, and we quickly warm to the excitement and atmosphere.
The city has a uniformly attractive appearance, after being rebuilt at the same time a couple of hundred years earlier.

Place de la Bourse

Lost in Bordeaux

After one day of city sight seeing, we have exhausted our excitement and head to the local tourist office to book a wine tour for the next day.  We decide on a tour of the Sauterne region, one of 8 Bordeaux wine regions. Sauterne is a sweet, white wine, similar to a moscato and well suited to our palate!

Chateau Gireaud

Perfect travelling size

What we would have preferred!

Some facts about Sauterne wine:
 - The grapes are grown in the worst available soil, something that is tested and governed by a ruling body
 - The vines are not to be watered
 - The wine must be a blend of different years for it to be labelled a Sauterne
 - The wine achieves its distinctive flavour thanks to a mould called Botrytis, which infects the grapes
 - One normal vine yields around 1 bottle of wine; One Sauterne vine yields 1-2 glasses

Sauterne vineyard

It is an unseasonably hot and sunny day, and we visit three beautiful Chateaus, with wine tasting at each and a delicious lunch at the second.

The aftermath of lunch

By the time we reach the last Chateau we are less than interested in hearing about the wine making and spend the time lying on the grass and drinking the wine.

Too much Sauterne

We leave the tour with full stomachs, fuzzy heads, and a bottle of delicious Sauterne which we intend to take back to NZ.... (if we don't drink it first!)

Happy shoppers

In Bordeaux we rent a little Peugeot to take us down to the beach-side town of Biarritz.
In Biarritz we return to our favourite activities of beach basking, swimming and excellent dining.

Main beach, Biarritz

We have a couple of nights here and wish we could have had more. It is a perfect mix of lovely beaches, fabulous produce, great restaurants and laid-back French living. We can definitely see ourselves returning here!

Off to another delicious dinner

Our next stop is Hossegor, a surf town only half an hours drive up the coast. This town reminds us of Coffs, and of course we love it!

Hotel pool overlooking du lac

The main drawcard of this particular destination is the Quiksilver Pro France 2011 (part of the ASP tour - the world surfing championships), which happens to be on at the local beach.

Amazing waves Hossegor

Kelly Slater

Slater, well on the way to his 11th world title

A couple of days of watching amazing waves and our favourite surfers pass quickly, and our time in France draws to a close. With the rental car safely returned to Bordeaux, we catch our next plane to Porto, Portugal.

The one where he asks her to marry him...

The long-awaited update.. (our blog has been on holiday with us..)

The second village along the walk

The Cinque Terre is, as the name suggests, a collection of 5 picturesque fishing villages on the north west coast of Italy. The main attraction here is the 10km walk between the villages, so on our first morning we rise ready to tackle the track. We are staying at the southernmost village, Riomaggiore, so this makes our mission simple - Walk from Riomaggiore to the final village and then catch a train home.

The fourth village, see final destination in the distance

The first part is a stroll and we scoff secretly at the hordes of tourists with boots and walking poles. We arrive at the second village and find that the next part of the track has been washed out. The alternatives are to either hike up and over a hill, or catch a 2min train to the next village. 

As we embark on our climb, we notice a marked thinning of tourists. After half an hour of vertical climbing, in 30 degree heat, we can see why! However, it is with a sense of achievement that we arrive at our next village sweaty, dusty, and ready for lunch. 

Somewhat sweatier, but still smiling

Overall the walk takes about 6 hours with lunch and gelato stop included. We see tour groups of people in white, pressed pants and boat shoes looking remarkably fresh and know that we are amongst the few that have actually walked the whole journey. 

A refreshing sea awaits at the end

Wearied, we catch a well-deserved train back to our home village. With the sun setting over our balcony, Oli decides that it is the perfect time to propose. After a few moments of surprise and a couple of tears, the answer is yes! 

Proposal sunset

It is a relief to finally be able to take the ring out of its hiding place in the bottom of the pack and it looks much better on Sarah's finger than in the box! With family and friends asleep on the other side of the world, we head out for a delightful dinner in the village to celebrate. 

The next morning we go to the local square (which happens to have the only internet access) to attempt to Skype our families and friends with the exciting news. This leads to a fairly entertaining episode for all involved. The poor internet connection and Skype problems result in us having to shout our good news into the laptop.  We then have numerous strangers passing in the square congratulating us and stopping to listen. 

The long awaited ring photo

Finally, after many dropped Skype calls, text messages and mobile calls we manage to reach nearly everyone. After this, we head off to the beach for the rest of the day.  

Three days in the Cinque Terre pass too quickly and we are sad to leave. From here we train to Pisa, where we catch the first of our cheap Ryan Air flights, to Spain.  We have five nights booked in San Sebastian, a town in the Basque Country of Spain, renowned for its good food and surfing.  

Local beach with hired mal

The food of choice here is Pintxos (tx pronounced ch), a form of bar snack that the Spanish seem to eat at all times of the day. Think tapas, but all laid out on plates sitting on the bar. The barman hands you a plate, and you then select your Pintxos. At the end you are supposed to tell him how many you ate, and pay the bill. 

Pintxos bar

Basking in Basque

Traditional cider pouring technique

Our days pass easily in San Sebastian, with hours spent at the beautiful beaches reading, swimming and surfing.

7pm, still lying on the beach reading

The only alteration to the routine is a brief stop at a friendly local dentist, who kindly agreed to perform a root canal on Oli's molar (the one that broke in Positano) at short notice!  This is an interesting experience in Spanglish, but thankfully all goes well.

Muy Bien Dentist

From San Sebastian we catch a train up to Bordeaux, France, where our stories will continue...

Amalfi - Cinque Terre

From Dubrovnik we catch a day time ferry to Bari, on the east coast of Italy. We split our 8 hour trip into segments of food - ice creams, lunch, chips, drinks. The rest of the time we mow through several books.

 Just passing the time.. (thanks Dave)

Ferry sunset and finally signs of land

Bari is just a stop-over, and we are not really interested in exploring the city as we arrive in the dark. We are whisked to our Hilton hotel room, complete with the strange addition of a see-through shower in the middle of the room! Breakfast is another splendid buffet, and we package up a delightful picnic lunch for the onward journey.

No modesty, these Italians (note toilet behind me - also clearly visible)

Lunch haul from the breakfast buffet

To get from Bari to the Amalfi Coast, and Positano, we have arranged a hire car. It is the first time on the wrong side of the road, and the wrong side of the car, for both of us, so we are more than a little apprehensive!

With Sarah changing the gears, GPS from Australia doing a fair attempt at navigating and Oli trying to stay on the right side of the road (literally) we find our way out of Bari. Once we get on to the open road, things are a lot easier and the ride becomes fun. This is the case until the last 30km, when the road suddenly changes and we find ourselves on a tiny cliff top road, barely wide enough for two cars to pass.

Note... wing mirror position

This is ok, until we meet our first tour bus. The only warning we have as we approach a blind corner is the sound of a horn. Does this mean we should stop, we wonder? Luckily we do, and only just in time to pull in our wing mirrors and for Sarah to close her eyes as a large tour bus rounds the bend. Repeat this several times and, with our nerves on edge, we wind our way closer to Positano.

Said bus

Positano is the jewel in the Amalfi coast. This is also reflected in the hotel costs, but we are staying in a lovely apartment with partial views over the sea and a balcony where breakfast is served every morning.
We spend our time here lying on the stony beach, walking up through the valleys and cliff top streets and dining on salads and pizzas from a favourite local restaurant.

Positano

Our time in Positano passes as above, until the last day when a storm rolls in. Lightening and torrential rain greets us in the morning and our plans of beach are ruined. We spend the day catching up with emails and Skype. A walk in the afternoon between showers is a high point. Plans of dinner outside on the balcony were dashed by ongoing rain, plan B of an outside restaurant was also a washout as we are forced from the table before our entrees arrived by an impending downpour, so we go back to our favourite haunt for takeaway lasagne. To top things off, while biting into a soft bit of salad, one of Oli's back teeth decides it has had enough and breaks in half!

On that note, we are reasonably happy to leave Positano, and set out the following day on our next driving segment of the journey, a 670km trek to the Cinque Terre in north west Italy. As daunting as it sounds, the drive actually goes pretty well, with the Italian highways allowing for good speed. There is no speed limit that we can see, but judging by the other traffic it is somewhere between 120-130km/hr. This does not stop most people from going a lot faster than that, and we enjoyed being overtaken by several ferraris, porsches and the like.

Our rental car (we wish)

We arrive in La Spezia, a town just to the south of the Cinque Terre, and proudly deposit our car. We then catch a train to the first village, Riomaggiore, where we are staying.
We are greeted at our apartment by a lovely elderly woman, who is the mother of the family that owns it and who speaks not a word of English. This does nothing to stop her from showing us around in great detail, talking in non-stop Italian as we nod and smile and pretend to understand.

We look out through the shuttered windows onto the peaceful blue bay of Riomaggiore and know that we are going to be happy here for a few days!