Holiday 2017, day 15 : The end.

8AM and we're really to hit the road. But first we need inspection to come by and see that we left everything in one piece.

We left at 8:30AM and the drive went well. Little donkey was happy sitting in the front.

At some point we saw this cool new Mustang.

The drive home went very well. We enjoyed a nice highway dinner just before the Dutch border in Belgium and we got home around 10PM where we were greeted by our lovely cat-boy Silver :-)

Holiday 2017, day 14

Today we had to pack since we're leaving tomorrow morning. So it wasn't a big deal that it poured down with rain all morning. I think we're all ready to go home again, we want to go back to our little boy Silver whom we haven't seen for 2 weeks now...

Holiday 2017, day 13 : dinner in Périgueux

This was the view from our balcony at about 5AM. I went back to bed after I took the photos, my earache went to bed with me unfortunately...

We spend the day at the pool or around the cabin. But in the evening we drove to Périgueux to have a dinner in one of the squares we saw earlier this vacation.

This was inside the church.

And this, too.

Because restaurants here don't open for dinner until 7PM and we got there just after 6, we walked on to another square and had a drink there first. It was a square with a few little bars.

After 45 minutes we walked back and sat down for a wonderful dinner. For the first time since my diet I ordered a three course meal including lots of things I couldn't eat for a few months like... carpaccio, lasagna and icecream :-)

Around 10PM we walked back to our car through the lovely little streets.

The cathedral by night. This was a very nice evening :-)

Holiday 2017, day 12

We had driven past this Dakar-truck numerous times and everytime we wanted to take a picture. This time the gate was open so I just drove in and we took photos.

Getting off of their turf was a bit harder, had to break a few traffic rules to do that ;-)

And I had my first beer again in months! YAY!

Holiday 2017, day 11 : Sarlat

Today we visited the medieval centre of a town called Sarlat. In one word: beautiful!

I think part of the church is missing and they are now using the remaining part as a market, really cool. And on the side they created the biggest functioning doors I have ever seen in my life!

There were lots of little shops of course. One was a bit arty but it was mainly car-art, pretty cool. The sight of this crushed Ferrari nearly made me cry...

There just is medievalness whereever you look...

Here as well.

One downside of France is that the Frenchies are still really digging the Foie gras. Foie gras is seen as a delicacy. However this is a more accurate description:

Foie gras - French for "fatty liver" - is the diseased and enlarged liver of a duck or goose, produced through force feeding.

It should be completely banned!

Sarlat is really worth a visit. It's not big so very easy to see everything on foot.

And we picked a great day to visit too :-)

Holiday 2017, day 9 : Bordeaux

Today we visited the city of Bordeaux. We parked outside the city centre so we started our journey in the suburbs. To get to the centre we walked through a market / food court.

Even the suburbs look nice here.

Then we saw the Basilique Saint-Michel. Pretty cool building considering the tower is seperate from the rest of the building.

Very nice square around it as well with a little book market.

We stopped here (Moony) for lunch, very nice place, can recommend a meal here!

It's a burger bar and they've got some real nice one too!

It was getting pretty hot outside eventhough the forecast said "cloudy"....
This is the Pont de Pierre crossing the Garonne river.

The banks of the Garonne in Bordeaux. The river itself was big but the water very muddy.

Another Bordeaux landmark: Porte Cailhau.

And then this "must see". It's "Le Miroir d'eau", mirror of water. Very nice place with lots of people enjoying a refreshing stroll in the few centimeters of water.

At first I was wondering why they call it a mirror...

But every so often the water level drops, leaving wet stones behnd and then....

Selfie time!

After a while the water comes back slowly but because the stones have warmed up this creates a lot of steam which in turn is another awesome thing about this "mirror of water" :-)

Walking on.... we came across the coolest icecream shop in Bordeaux. They make the icecream look like a flower! Oh, and you can get a macaron on top!

Of course there had to be some shopping involved too.

Milan and I thought the LEGO store was quite fascinating :-)

And then we walked back to our car.

I can conclude that Bordeaux is very much worth a visit and definitely a city I could live in!

Holiday 2017, day 9

Another day at our temporary ranch. It ended with a boardgame :-)

Holiday 2017, day 8 : Oradour-sur-Glane

Today we visited the remains of the village of Oradour-sur-Glane. This village was surrounded and sealed off by German troups on June 10th, 1944, the inhabitants were slaughtered, homes were pillaged and destroyed. We entered through the museum which lands you near the middle of the old village.

I'll let the photos speak for themselves with an additional comment here and there.

Used to be the garage.

The doctor's car still stands near the entrance of the square where all the people were initially round-up.

The bakery.

Women and children (youngest child was 8 days old) were locked up in this church in which they were later suffocated with smoke and/or burned to death.

Some tried to escape but soldiers tried to shoot all who did. One women succesfully escaped through this window.

The molten church bell as a witness as to what happened.

The church.

Most remaining personal possesions have been removed but pottery, sewing machines, cars and bed frames are scattered all over the place. In some houses stones have been erected to remember the folks who lived there.

The tram stop.

It was a memorable visit.

English info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oradour-sur-Glane_massacre.

Nederlandse versie: https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloedbad_van_Oradour-sur-Glane.

In the evening, after we put the games away and sat outside enjoying some peace and quiet, this huge mantis showed up. I had never seen one before!