moulin de la pipe

i mentioned our happy go lucky approach to accomodation this year already and there were moments on the trip that i had no idea what i had actually booked and what to expect. the print-out from the booking and a good sat-nav meant we were sometimes totally taken by surprise, and often just happy how great our places were. moulin de la pipe was one of those places where we were just lucky. a great old hotel now run by the jazz loving owner who holds concerts for 2000 people twice a month it has breathtaking scenery and a wealth of interesting places to go to. check it out!

magical moments

Just back from a couple of days in Belgium where the days were sunny but the nights already close to freezing point and as we caught the last sun rays i had to think of what must have been the most beautiful moment of the entire summer, a long and relaxed lunch with dominique and michel in lagrasse, in a little farm belonging to their friend. After we conquered lagrasse on horse whe crossed the river over the mighty bridge and walked just along the famous abbey to an old farmhouse, where dominique served one of the best meals we ever had. i don't even really recall what it was - some roasted veggies, and a ratatouille, plus an apple tart for dessert, some wine...Deac said later he felt like being in a film, in one of these fantastic french films, where life is small but beautiful...sheer magic!



le plo

le plo in montlaur is one of the places we dream of going to more or less all the time and as much as we try not to compare it with our beloved geronimo it is hard to resist. in the end i decided that it's better to list the things they have in common: very special people, fantastic horses, and spectacular landscape. it was beautiful to see that all the horses we rode six years ago were still there and happily coming on the trail, and after a little bit of checking deac got dulce, rike rode the gorgeous zuccador and i ended up with the lovely apache. day long rides took us deep into the corbiere mountains, to lagrasse, montagne d'alaric, and other places steeped in history and with stories to tell.

chateau floure

france this summer had a number of surprises in store and actually only pleasant ones. after a lot of fuss about where to go and for how long to stay we suffered a little bit from the fact that practically all places we wanted to use had some restrictions simply because we left it too late to book. so literally two days before we left london we still needed to fill in some accomodation gaps and one was a couple of days in carcassonne that our barn wasn't available any longer. what we found was the aptly named chateau floure just east of carcassonne in the smallest village - really only a few houses around the chateau, but nevertheless very pretty, and a grand place it was.

coming straight from a long day on horseback we arrived in a cloud of dust and horse smell only to be treated like kings. a beautiful pool and a lovely restaurant made me actually try to re-arrange all follow-on bookings only to stay here longer, but guess what...spaced out again.... 



france II - arquette-en-val et carcassonne

the most difficult decision this year was whether we would go all the way down to the south of france to see monsieur plo's horses again (and the beautiful corbiere mountains) which clocked up another 1000 kilometres on the car but felt right as it is just so pretty and we've never seen lovelier horses this side of the atlantic...

we stayed in a wonderfully converted barn in arquette-en-val which belonges to tony who could not be a better host and the whole place felt great, with lot's of space for just the three of us and our pet tortoise. carcassonne trips where on the agenda as much as a visit to the only major cathar castle we hadn't seen yet, montségur. extra bonus was our trip to lagrasse on horses right over the village bridge into the market place and the commotion it stirred, and simply the best ever lunch with dominique and michel in a farmhouse nearby.

uci downhill worldchampion 2010 masters 50+

you think we are rather in the fast lane in london with that typical juggle of work and commute, child and husband, horses and cats, and all the hussle that comes from it and to me fast is probably doing 120 mph on the motorway but most certainly there are people doing speedier things than us. so boy was i impressed when i saw my dear old friend stephan in this clip. personally i'd rather try it on a horse but then i wouldn't try it in the first place. we are impressed!!!

watch the whole clip here

summer I - france

 

we started in reims this summer and the beautiful sculptures on the cathedral would later cross our path again when we learned in naumburg that the same sculpturer or at least his workshop worked in both places. 

in beaune deac tried in vain to find the marey museum but to his dismay it had been closed and the contents shipped to paris.

more success in lyon with the lumiere museum and a wonderful street market just around the corner took care of breakfast and lunch. what an impressive villa! lyon itself was a bit of a revelation as we learned about the importance of the second-largest city in france as well as it's rather grand splendour. fab shopping in the old part of town with all chic french labels neatly lined up in gorgeous shops. so we stocked up on groceries and not on shoes (shame!) before heading south to carcassonne.