Frayssinet-le-Gelat

We were told the house we were renting was in a place called Frayssinet, in the Lot, SW France.  So there we went.  We arrived and called our contact who was to hand over the keys and we could not work out why her directions, did not match our location.  Then it clicked.  There are not one, but FIVE places in the Lot, SW France that all start with Frayssinet, including one on its own simply called Frayssinet.  We were supposed to be in Frayssinet-le-Gelat.  So it was another 40 minutes and some pretty sharp driving by the JB before we arrived at our little home for the week.  It was worth it.  A lovely little place split over three levels, with full functioning kitchen, couple of bedrooms and TV room which actually featured some English speaking shows – can you believe that even Top Gear is dubbed in French?  Jeremy Clarkson speaks French in a voice unfamiliar to us. 

Frayssinet-le-Gelat is pretty much as small and quiet and provincial as French villages come, so after a few days of home cooked meals and freshly laundered clothing we explored the valley heading to places such as Cahors, Sarlat-le-Caneda, Cazals, Fumel, Prayssac, Montayral, Les Arques and we spent a lovely afternoon at the pilgrammage site called Rocamadour.  It´s this amazing religous site built on a rock edge overlooking a gorge, that obviously had water running through it an ice age or two ago, shaping the limestone facades into spectacular caves and cliff edges.   The area is considered one of best prehistoric sites in the world. 

Caves here are 14-16,000 yo, and inhabited until 1966

Cahors: Pont Valentre

We reckon better than Charles Bridge in Prague - less touristy anyway and no dodgy sailors hovering...

View out of one of the ´grottes´(caves) we toured through

Sarlat-le-Caneda: honey coloured limestone buildings

 

Cave at Rocamadour

 

Rocamadour: Buildings built right into the cliff face

Rocamadour: View from cathedral

 

Cathedral built into a cliff face underneath a cliff edge on which a chateau is perched

This is a hotel/residence built into the face of the cliff. Look closely for the reinforcing surrounding

Relics of Chateau Nouvelle

 

Cathedral at Fumel

 

Chateau de Fumel

 

Chateau de Fumel

 

Cathedral at Prayssac

 

WWG: The middle one...

Frayssinet-le-Gelat: Memorial commemorating 15 villagers executed by German soldiers whilst retreating in 1944

The razzle dazzle of downtown Frayssinet-le-Gelat

Feeling revived and invigorated after a week in the French countryside, we arose early yesterday morning and headed south to Spain.  We stopped in lovely Biarritz on the way through for a break and refreshment.   

Beach at Biarritz, on our way to San Sebastian

Biarritz coastline

Today marks the exact half point of the entire holiday and because we´re on budget, for our couple of weeks in Spain, we´ve decided to up the ante a little, so we checked into our 4 star hotel last night which is located at one of the most panoramic points in the whole of San Sebastian.  The JB had a difficult time keeping his eyes to the road, the views on the way up were THAT amazing.  Today we´ve had a mixed bag of weather, but unperturbed we trudged on up to Mont Urgull and wandered through the little musuem they have up there, beside The Sacred Heart Statue.

View over La Concha Bay - our hotel is over there somewhere

     

San Sebastian and La Concha Bay from Sacred Heart Statue, on the chateau de la Mota (12C)

 

Sacred Heart Statue which overlooks San Sebastian

The weather forecast is a little cold for the next few days – if you look closely at a couple of the photos you can see snow on the Pyrenees behind San Seabstian – but we´re rugged up and ready to continue.  San Sebastian is a much bigger city than we anticipated and so we´re busy trying to fit everything in to our short stay here.  We head for Madrid on Saturday, until then, as you were!