Our journey through France took us from the iconic to the quaint, blending historical marvels with scenic beauty. We began in Perpignan, where Salvador Dali famously declared the train station the center of the universe—though its charm felt more modest than cosmic.

Our adventure led us through stunning landscapes, from the rolling hills and babbling brooks of the Lot and Aveyron regions to the picturesque town of Amélie-les-Bains. We explored the impressive Millau Viaduct, a testament to modern engineering, and delved into the history of Avignon, home to the grand Palais des Papes.

Our travels continued through the Jura, with its tranquil beauty and unexpected culinary surprises, before heading to Lyon, renowned for its gastronomic delights. Along the way, we navigated charming villages, bustling cities, and unique accommodations, crafting a rich tapestry of experiences that showcased the diverse allure of southern France and beyond.

Perpignan

Salvador Dali once declared that the train station in Perpignan was the center of the universe. Standing in front of Gare de Perpignan, I wondered what he was on that day—it seemed like a very normal French train station to me.

Perpignan was just a pit stop for us to collect our hire car before heading off. We stayed in a hotel close to the station, as I refused to walk any further than necessary due to my infected foot. We ventured into town for dinner, and my impression was that it seemed quite nice. It is close to the famous anchovy fishing area of Collioure and serves as a jumping-off point to the Camargue and French Riviera.

The next morning, we collected our hire car and, after picking up a few supplies, headed back toward Spain and the Pyrenees mountains. For those wondering why we traveled to France to collect a car to drive back into Spain—it’s simple. We planned on leaving the car in northern France, and cross-border hire is really expensive.

We meandered through the beautiful lower mountains and ended up in Amélie-les-Bains, a tiny town on the banks of the Le Tech river at the base of the mountains. That night, we dined on a tapas feast of tortilla, sardines basilic, anchovies, mussels, calamari, and tuna salad, all washed down with red wine in the town square before falling into bed.

The Manoir

We continued our journey through France to a property near Barran in southwestern France, where friends were staying. The old house had been beautifully converted, and the surrounding land turned into a truffle tree farm (Truffarde) owned by a wine importer with a great love of food—what more could we want? We spent the next week sitting by the pool, eating great food, drinking wine, and generally being lazy.

We decided to head back into Spain with our friends for a week-long road trip. We once again crossed the Pyrenees and spent the first night in Aínsa, a pretty and historic old walled town. Then it was on to Jaca, which has an old citadel and an interesting old town where we stayed in a hotel off the main square. In Jaca, we experienced the area’s famous apple cider, which I can do without trying again, and ate some fairly unmemorable food.

Next stop was San Sebastián, which for me was possibly the most disappointing place I’ve ever been. It didn’t help that we arrived in the town at the same time as a massive storm, and it poured rain the entire time we were there. The town was full of drunken Brits on bucks’ nights, and the pintxos (tapas) were overpriced and, in my opinion, overrated. We stayed one night and moved on.

Heading back toward Barran, we stayed a night at Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, where one of our friends traveling with us had started the Camino de Santiago a few years before. Saint-Jean is another pretty old walled town at the base of the mountains, but highly touristed and quite expensive.

It was then back to the Manoir for a couple more days before saying goodbye to our friends and heading north into the Dordogne. We spent about a week camping in a lovely campground set in a forest just outside Les Eyzies and enjoyed the food and sights of the area. A highlight was a canoe trip down the Dordogne river, where you float past massive defensive châteaux and pretty medieval villages.

Exploring France

Our journey through France took us in a general easterly direction through the amazing Gorges du Tarn and on to the walled city of Avignon, once the home of the Pope and a favorite of ours. Any visit to Avignon must also be coupled with a trip out to Pont du Gard, the amazing aqueduct built by the Romans to provide water to Nîmes.

Then it was on to Saint-Laurent-du-Pont, a scruffy town with a nice campground at the base of the Alps. Our plan was to head to Chamonix the next day and stay there for a few days. But as with all good plans, we arrived in Chamonix to find it heaving with tourists, and the tent pitches at the campground were on a steep angle—roll the wrong way in the night, and you’d end up at the bottom of the hill. So while Chamonix, with Mont Blanc right there, was breathtaking, it was all a bit too busy for us, so we kept going and ended up in Switzerland.

We camped in a very strange campground in Switzerland. On the site opposite us, a guy sat and meditated all day, and the people in the tent next to us had built a miniature fence around their tent with sticks, complete with a working gate. When they returned from a day out, they walked up the path they had made from stones, opened the mini gate, went through it, closed it, and then proceeded to take off their shoes and put them on the shoe rack they had also made out of sticks—all a bit weird for me. The whole experience at that campground was strange, and it had a very weird vibe. We wandered down to the bar to sample the area’s famous yellow wine, but that was it. The next day, we hightailed it out of there, did a bit of a loop around Lake Geneva, and headed back into France and the Jura.

The Jura

The Jura is a stunning part of France that shares a border with Switzerland and is very rural. It was in the Jura that I encountered Jésus sausage, which to this day makes my stomach curl. Perhaps it was payback for my atheist ways, but that Jésus sausage made me sick.

In the Jura, we stayed in a delightful one-star campground set by a babbling brook in the tiny village of Baume-les-Messieurs, which sits at the confluence of what were once three glacial valleys. As it was now August and the peak French holiday season, the campground was a great hiding place from the maddening crowds swarming all over the rest of France. The only downside was the squat toilets.

We did a side trip from here to Freiburg, Germany, to meet our friend Joern, where we had a great schnitzel for lunch and later an amazing sausage in a bun from a roadside stall. Freiburg is a very old and very pretty university town, and we camped a few kilometers out in the most pristine campground I have ever seen. We only stayed there a couple of nights before heading back to France and on to Lons-le-Saunier to drop off our car before catching the train to Lyon.

Lyon

We arrived in Lyon to an almost deserted town—everyone had left for their annual pilgrimage to either the seaside or the mountains. We also arrived at the onset of a heat wave with temperatures around 40 degrees Celsius every day. Let’s face it, ancient French cities are not built to be cool but rather to stay warm, so it was pretty damn hot.

We stayed at the Hotel Iris, which was quite close to the Hôtel de Ville and in a great part of town. Lyon is the gastronomical heart of France and is famous for its bouchons (similar to bistros) and specialty dishes, which we were keen to sample. Despite the heat, we soldiered on and dined on some yummy food, my favorite being the pike quenelles.

Lyon was once a major silk producer and is the home of the printing press. Now, it is a big, busy town with the obvious social problems seen in many other large French cities.

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