France

Avignon. A beautiful city straddling the Rhône River. The Rhône River splits just prior to Avignon coming from the north. There is an large piece of land, an island, that separates Avignon and the cities to the west. The river reconverges just as it passes the main part of the city. We found a campground on the island just opposite of the main Old City of Avignon, Camping du Pont d’Avignon. This was a lovely campground Just opposite a public use area where you could sit on the river and enjoy a bottle of wine and some cheese while looking across the river at a famous arched medieval bridge and up the hill towards Basilique Saint-Pierre, which we did.

That night we sat and watched the evening lights sparkle as they  illuminated the city and bridges reflecting in the waters of the Rhône River. We ordered a stone fired pizza and enjoyed it on the riverfront with another bottle of red French wine.
The next morning we crossed the bridge and just wandered the city to see the sights. There were sidewalk cafes lining every cobbled street beckoning us to sit with a sweet and a cappuccino.

We packed up and left next morning heading to see a friend, Ted Simon. We had called him a few days before to let him know we are riding past and he invited us to spend the night, go out to dinner, and of course, drink some wine. We arrived in the afternoon as did another traveler, Ian Munch, from the UK. We had a wonderful evening listening to live music in the shadows of Église Saint-Jilien, a Catholic Church. We all chatted away while enjoying drinks, wine and fantastic food served by the attentive staff and owner. After strolling back to Ted’s house we all hit the sack for a great night sleep.

Saying our goodbyes in the morning, with a promise to return, we pulled out of town and headed north. In a few days time we would need to catch the ferry to a place we hadn’t been for a few years, Ireland. The day was promising to be incredible. With cool temperatures we rolled through the beautiful French countryside. A couple hours in we stopped in a little village to grab a pastry and coffee. As I sat on the motorcycle while Melanie grab the food a man came out and started talking to me. I was parked in front of his house and he invited us in to see his Moto Guzzi collection. What an incredible collection he had with stories to each one of where he had rode. Moments like this is another reason to always say yes.

Continuing on we found a campground for the night, Camping les Borgnes, on the Dordogne River. It was a beautiful area with a swimming pool, restaurant and bar. We found a nice little patch of grass down by the river to pitch up our tent. As it happens, the night we were there the chef was fixing a special paella. They also had live music under the sparkly lights around the pool area after dinner. We bought our tickets for the dinner and the music and had a beautiful time before retiring to our tent later in the evening.

As we continue north the next day we found little lanes to travel along and ate our fill of wild berries growing alongside the lane. There were many fields of bright sunflowers with their faces all searching for the sun. These fields were just before we came across the perfect French village. We were just taking our time on our motorcycle because the area was so beautiful. We rounded a bend and the village started to come into view. I immediately took the first right into town and crossed a little bridge over the L’Auvézère River. We parked up just beside a little pastry shop with seating on the square and people just milling about. The village, Ségur-le-Château, was just the perfect picturesque village overland travelers seek out. We sat and chatted with a few groups of people that had felt the same way, and had moved there. Reluctantly, we had to move on as pre-purchased ferry tickets were waiting. Exactly why I don’t like plans.

Anytime we see a world War II memorial we stopped to pay our respects. There was another village to the north that we wanted to stop at, with quite a different history. On June 10th, 1944, four days after D-Day, this village was destroyed. On this day troops belonging to the 2nd SS Panzer division of Nazi Germany entered the village. By the time they left all 643 inhabitants, including 247 children, were massacred. This village was destroyed and the innocent people massacred in retaliation for French resistance capturing a German officer. They locked the women and children of the village in the church and started it on fire, throwing hand grenades and machine gun fire through the windows. The men were lined up and shot. The town was burned to the ground to hide the evidence and the identities of those killed. After the war, on orders of President Charles de Gaulle, the site has remained the same and has been maintained as a permanent memorial. As we walked the solemn sight it reminded us of the horrors that humans inflict on other humans. When we were finished we quietly got back on the bike discussing what we had just seen as we continued north.

That evening we found another beautiful campground along the Loire River. That evening we opened a bottle of French wine and, as dusk descended, watching a castle across the river light up, it’s perfect reflection mirrored in the water. We decided to spend a couple nights here and the next morning wandered into the village of Amboise. We walked the cobbled lanes up to the chapel at the chateau where Leonardo da Vinci is buried. It was undergoing construction so we couldn’t go inside. We sat outside of a pastry shop with a view of the château and enjoyed a couple perfect cappuccinos while doing some people watching.

A couple days later on we made it to the Cherbourg ferry port where would he crossing to Ireland.

Cheers,
2WANDRRs