Tag: Cities

Provence Day 4: Cities of Provence

Today we decided to wander around some small and big cities of Provence. I have to admit – this is not my favourite way of spending time on holidays – I prefer natural marvels way more than architecture must-sees. But I still enjoyed the day. In the end, there is some charm in sitting down for a coffee in a busy cafeteria at the heart of a centre.
We started the day with Saint-Remy-de-Provence. We made a quick walk around its morning market and headed to Glanum – the archaeological site of an ancient Roman city. Radek was delighted to see all of that as he always admires engineering skills. And you can’t rely deny that Romans had them!

Our next destination was a well-known city Beaux-de-Provence. There were loads of tourists but no wonder as the place had a lot to offer. The first thing that sticks out is a hilltop castle (or its remains to be precise) with a great view on the plains (see 1st photo). The ruins are really maze-like as there are lots of different little paths that you could follow and the area is huge.

But the real attraction to me was Carrieres de Lumiere – a high-end light and sound spectacle shown in a former limestone quarry. I have to say this was real something. Classical music played loudly in a chilly cave with visual images accompanying the sound made us really contemplative and relaxed. Worth visiting for sure!

From there we drove to Arles – a somewhat bigger city with a huge Roman amphitheater perfectly preserved and still operative.  Again – Roman architecture and engineering amazed us.


Another city that has an amphiteatre is Nimes. This time we didn’t go inside but from the outside it looked spectacular. We were already a bit titred by this action-packed day so we decided to stroll around Nimes without any specific destination and made quite a long loop like that.


And finally, a cherry on a pie for the day – Pont du Gard. Yep, that’s right, another masterwork of Romans.

Provence Day 3: More Lavender and Ochre

We didn’t feel like we had enough of ochre and lavender the previous day so we decided to see more of this beauty. Also, it’s not really a new discovery to me, but I so much prefer visiting nature resorts than the cities and typical touristic places. So the plan for today was to follow a Colorado Provencal ochre trail and then drive up to Chateau du Bois region to have a walk around the lavender fields.

Colorado Provencal is a truly remarkable place. It’s a 3-hour trail of no technical difficulty that leads through ochre canyons and deserts. The path leads first above a panoramic point where we had a look over the marvels of nature, then we reached a White Desert full of pale formations and white sand, then through a panoramic view of the canyon at the other side and finishing with another desert – this time red. See yourself.

From there we drove to Chateau du Bois to have a strall in lavender fields. Pretty romantic scenery for commemoration of our 7th wedding anniversary (that would fall on the next day).

We got hungry so decided to pass by a neighbouring village – Saint Saturnin les Apt. It turned out to be a lottery win as the place was secluded by tourists – I really don’t know why as I would say it was one of the prettiest settlements we visited throughout the whole visit. There was a castle on a hill, a dame, charming streets, fountains etc. The views were really nice as the whole place was situated on a hill. Worth doing a detour!

Next we visited Mines de Broux – another place worth recommending. It was an old minery complex that now was open to tourists. A 40-minute long tour with a guide tought us a lot about the industry and was really interesting. The day was getting to an end so we had time to visit just one last place and decided to go for Menerbes which is on the list of the most beautiful villages in France. We were super lucky as there was a men choir concert for free that we attended with pleasure. Even our son liked it and it’s not often an almost 2-year old sits quietly and listens to the music! Another beautiful day past us!

Provence Day 2: Lavender and Ochre

Mission completed. Lavender fields: check 🙂
Our main goal of a trip to Provence was to see the lavender blooming.  In the end, this is the main attraction there. So our first tourists’ steps headed to Abbaye Notre-Dame de Senanque. The view you see above appears in most of the postcards sent from here. No wonder… 🙂 Although we were a bit late to see the lavender in full bloom it was still pretty. We also made a walk in the abbey but to be honest – without the violet frame it would have been a bit boring.

We made a stop in Gordes where I discovered my utter love to lavender ice cream. I ate at least two boules of them every day throughout the whole visit. Even now, when I think of them, I start drooling and wish I was there again.

Our next destination was Village des Bories –  beehive-shaped stone huts that date back to the Bronze Age (and have been restored some time ago). A short 30-minute walk around the settlements and we’re off to the next place – Lavender Museum.

Ok, so there was a lot of lavender that day. But what not many know, Provence’s treasure is also its ochre industry. Ochre is a pigment used in all sorts of products. Starting from rubber, ending with cosmetics. To be honest, I never heard of it earlier so I didn’t know what to expect but when we visited ochre trails I was simply stunned. The three ochre-connected places we visited were the most interesting to me from the whole trip. First on: Rousillon.

It’s worth mentioning that these photos were not retouched. The landscape was simply like out of this world. The soil was red. Like… red red red. Check out this (untouched) photo:

Can you see the colour of the soil? Amazing! We made an hour walk around the Sentier des Ochre and then we headed to Rousillon which was … wait for it … red too 🙂 Truly amazing place – worth paying a visit.

Provence Day 1: Pernes-les-Fontaines

Holidays! Knowing that we’re soon coming back to Poland and have lots of days off to be used, we booked a last-minuted stay in Provence, just a 4-hour drive from Geneva. Our main goal for the trip was to see lavender fields. We’ll get to that 🙂

The village we’re staying in – Pernes-les-Fontaines – is a nice touristic place but definitely not impudent. It has lots of little fountains scattered around the place. They are really tiny – don’t expect anything sumptous – but they give a charm to the streets. As every place in France, this one also has a little castle (or what’s left of it), little old city square and a market place. It’s a pleasure to walk around.

We made a short walk around the village, stayed for a beer and ice cream and went back to our quarters to prepare for the next day that would be full of adventures. Stay tuned!

Goodbye Mont Blanc

It’s not really a secret that I set my heart on claiming Mont Blanc. Although I never felt the goal was near, I’ve always had it in my mind and every time I saw the mountain it reminded me of my dream. Today I already know it’s not going to happen during our current stay in France, as we are soon leaving.  It doesn’t mean that I let go but it for sure complicates a lot. So I feel lots of regret when I see climbers like in the photo above. I have to say – my last trip to Chamonix was very nostalgic.

We took Radek’s mum to Chamonix and we did all the musts there:
– we took the cable car to Aiguille du Midi (at staggering 3842m)  to get as close to Mont Blanc as possible for tourists,
– then we took Montenvers train to Glace de Mer glacier where we entered the ice cave.
Ok, what’s missing is step into the void (the glass cage on top of the steeple) but that was closed at the moment and Radek’s mum didn’t really feel like hanging over a chasm. We made a rather fast tour over Aiguille du Midi because lack of oxygen was taking its toll. So last final look at the climbers and off we go to the lower land where Radek and Wojtek were waiting for us.

In Chamonix we walked to the train station, stopping by at Pattisserie’s to stock up on some gooddies. Montenvers train is very nice itself, meandring slowly through forests and mountains. A 20-minute ride took us to the glacier departing station where we had an unexpected mandatory break because the baby got rocked on the train and fell asleep in daddy’s arms.

Once nap time was over we all headed to the ice cave. Because the level of the glacier decreases every year, we first needed to take a cable car down and then walk some good amount of stairs to reach the cave. This really makes you understand what global warming is… Call me an eco-freek but it was very depressing to me. Nevertheless, the amount of ice in Mer de Glace glacier is still overwhelming. It’s not seen at the first glance as it’s mostly covered by rocks and dust but the gray surface down there in the photo above it’s all ice underneath. Should you not believe, have a look at our photos from the ice cave carved at the heart of it.

 And so we finished the day. It’s hard to be parting with places I love but I’m looking forward to what future brings. Some new areas to discover – that’s for sure.
 

Discovering France, Switzerland, Poland and Italy in spring

This spring was plentiful of activities for us. the weather is very good this year so we can benefit from that having 1-day trips around, we did an almost 3-week trip to Poland and went for holidays on Sardinia. here are some flashbacks from this time.

Versoix:

Toddler’s Group Bake Sales:

Szczecin:

Annecy:

Meyrin:

Sardinia:

Lyon in rain

I went to Lyon for the first time since Ania’s stay in Geneva in 2010. I remembered that I hadn’t liked it too much in 2010 but this time I was positively surprised.

Small streets of old town looked lovely in the rain. Though or because of 1st May holiday, streets were full of life with plenty of tourists and shops and restaurants open.

After slow walk through old town, we climbed the hill to visit Lyon’s Notre Dame basilic.

After basilic we took some pictures of Lyon from above and went back to the car. This was a short but really nice visit.

Sardinia Day 6: Capo Caccia, Grotta di Nettuno, Alghero, Bosa

Day 6 was yet another busy day in our Sardinia trip schedule. We started driving east to Capo Caccia where high white cliffs stand out directly from water giving a breathtaking panorama over the Mediterranean and offshore islands. Another attraction of this place was Grotta di Nettuno – „an underground fairyland of stalactites and stalagmites”. We chose the more difficult way to get there – on foot by a 656-step staircase of 110m height. We got pretty tired in the morning sun while going down. I don’t have to mention that the way up was even more of a challenge.

The cave itself was pretty interesting – caves usually are to me. Maybe not the most spectacular cave I’ve ever seen but sure worth visiting.

F

From Capo Caccia we moved to Alghero – a big, touristic resort with beautiful old town and rocky sealine. It was a nice change to have people and open restaurants around. We had a nice walk through the old town and the seaside boulevard, we popped in a couple of tourists shops, grabbed ice cream and some refreshments on our way – in summary: normal holiday stuff. It felt nice.

Our last destination for the day was Bosa. I was lurked in to this place by postcard-like photos of the marina. Well, I learned that they were photoshopped a bit more than I expected but I won’t complain. We were already tired in Bosa and didn’t feel like doing the full tour of the city so we just strolled around and sat down for dinner. What was nice though was the road that led us to this tiny little place. We were going directly above the sea line and could admire the rugged shore. I recommend taking this route, it was truly spectacular. We didn’t stop by for views to often though as we didn’t want to wake up Wojtek. The views stay in our heads.

Sardinia Day 2: Cagliari, Iglesias, Nebida

Our second day of Sardinia adventure was the most serious one in terms of distance travelled, as we drove to the south of the island to see two cities and a natural resort. We started with Cagliari, a big city build around a citadel on a hill. The real reason behind it was probably defence system but years later tourist benefit a lot from this solution by having a picture-postcard view on the city.

We started our tour by the citadel from where we wandered down through narrow streets to Torre dell’Elefante which is a defence tower elevating over the city. Between we stopped for a coffe (Italy, right?) and popped in a couple of churches and a basilica. The city seemed quiet and ancient. The mood was Roman-like.

There are a couple of defense towers scattered all over the city, we chose the one in the centre that would give us a 360° glance around. 

From there we did a short walk on cobblestone streets around the city to reach the remains of Roman amphiteatre and back to the car.

Our next destination was Iglesias – a historic town with no sea line. The description in the guide said it was a city that bubbles in summer and slumbers in colder months. I’d say it was more of a coma than a nap but OK 🙂 We had additional bad luck since we reached it during siesta time so not only there were no people but also everything was closed. So we had no other choice than to wander around super narrow, dark and shabby alleys without any other entertainment than our own presence.

We somehow managed to free ourselves from the labyrinth of the lanes and got to the castle. Or what’s left of it… A short walk up the hill through bushes and we were able to see the ruins.

To sum our trip to Iglesias – it didn’t stand up to to my expectations but to give it its justice, I guess in the high season it would have been way better.  But the next place truly wowed us. Only a couple of minutes away from Iglesias, Nebida is the place to see. Mesmerizing views from a panoramic viewing point above the cliff and a mighty Scoglio Pan di Zucchero (Sugarloaf Rock) standing out from the sea make this place truly special. Restless water, white, yeasty waves, dull and overwhelming clouds – it all contributed to the mood of awe and respect to the nature. We all felt like hipnotized by the charm of this place. See yourself.

Sardinia Day 1: Porto Cervo and Olbia

Yey! Holiday time! Oh, I’ve been waiting for this week to come. Sardinia, here we come! We haven’t been on proper vacation for a couple of years now so we decided it’s hight time for a week off. We chose Sardinia because it’s close to us and looks like fun for nature, mountains and sea lovers.
When we landed we headed straight to Porto Cervo – a lovely little place where nearly everyone own a boat 🙂 Coming from cold and windy Geneva, it was a pleasant change to us to bask in the sun and taking in the peace and quiet of the surroundings.

In high season Porto Cervo is an eldorado for the rich. Super fancy boutiques lined down the Piazzetta were now closed and the whole town seemed secluded. We wandered around, had a look at Stella Maris church, local marina and Roman-style streets and sat down to have pizza and Prosecco wine. We’re in Italy in the end, aren’t we? 🙂

On our way to Olbia where my mom would land, we stopped by to have a look at the sea. The smiles on our faces tell the story best 🙂

In Olbia we had enough time to have a stroll around the old city. It was nice and busy – some alternative to deserted Porto Cervo.

In only half a day we got a gist what would wait for us in the coming week. Some lovely sea-side villages, beautiful marinas, Roman style cities, mountains and sea, sea, sea… Can’t wait for the next days to come!