Well, after several months of planning it is almost time to pack our bags. We are getting excited and a little bit nervous as it has been four and a half years since our last trip. We have had another booster and had our flu shot this morning.

We leave next Wednesday, flying into Lyon, arriving Thursday and picking up our Peugeot lease car at the airport. Our first gite begins on Saturday in Biron in the Dordogne so we have two one night stops on the way. We then go down to the Bearn region near Pau, back to Fources in the Gers, across to Uzerche in the Correze, followed by a gite near Murat in the Cantal and finishing in Le Crozet in the Loire department ( not the Loire valley ). Some of these areas will be less well known to people, but if you have read any of my trip reports, you will know that we enjoy these less familiar places. Some are new to us eg the Bearn and the Loire, but we stayed in the Gers in 2012, visited Uzerche as a day trip in 2008, stayed in the Cantal in 2016 on the other side of Puy Mary, and stayed in the Dordogne in 2014.

This trip is about enjoying being back in France. We will be doing lots of sight seeing of course, but will not be pushing ourselves to do big days. We have a couple of chateaux planned, lots of lovely bastides in a couple of areas, a couple of forays to the lower slopes of the Pyrenees, lots of little chapels by the road, on top of hills, in the forest, some interesting bridges and viaducts. In fact all the little things we enjoy in France. We have some great looking fromageries near a couple of our gites , and some local charcuteries. We will be in the heart of Jurancon wine country, sampling some Armagnac and eating lots of duck in the Gers . If the weather gods are kind we have some nice terraces perfect for enjoying a glass of wine in the afternoon. And even if they do not smile on us, we will be smiling.

I will do a trip report on our return. I just need to think of a title. Off the Beaten Track comes to mind, but I am not a fan of that expression. I do have a couple of ideas.
Happy travels to everyone planning a trip, especially Cheska and Frances who I know are both going in the next few weeks.

Have a fabulous time. Please stay safe on the roads if you are picking up the car as soon as you arrive. That's a long flight, as we know. I usually wander around dazed and disoriented for the first day at least.

Looking forward to hearing all about it

Safe trip Rhon and hubby. I also prefer the road less travelled, I'm just not a fan of (heavily) touristed areas. While as a tourist you can never really integrate, in areas less travelled you come much closer to it.

Hope your trip is everything you wanted (and more)!

Lavandula

rhon glad to read that you are feeling excited and nervous, as I’m the same. We leave on Tuesday and heading to areas we have never been to before.
We arrive early morning in Paris for 5 days then pick up the lease car and drive to Tours for a month.
Then to Auray for another month to explore all around that region. Staying here is very different for me as we usually stay in bigger towns. Looks a lovely town.
We have friends meeting us at Mont St Michel for two days, and then comes three weeks travelling to follow the Australian Remembrance trail and the usual tourist places.

I was surprised the other day when I got a message from the apartment in Dinan to advise the money was being taken out of the cc two months before our stay. Not sure what happened there as I don’t normally like to pay that far in advance.

I hope you have a wonderful trip and look forward to reading your TR.

PS I even plan to do a little bit of cooking 🤣🤣🤣

It all sounds lovely Cheska. I am sure we will both have a great time. It will be very moving to follow the Remembrance trail. We stayed in the area in 2012 and visited a lot of Australian sites. This was before the Monash centre was built but it was still a very moving visit. Auray is a lot bigger than anywhere we will be. I am sure you will enjoy it as a base.

We were surprised to get an email yesterday, in French, from the Car 2europe people with how to get the app for the manual for the car. So P has downloaded it and been doing some reading. He had already found a manual but this is different. So between the two he should be able to find out what we need. I just have to ring them before we leave and then ring when we get to the airport to come and pick us up. Hoping there are no strikes to waylay us.

Kay, we are not planning on going very far on the first day, just enough to get away from Lyon. Hope your plans are coming together.

Thank you Lavandula. We are looking forward to seeing some lovely areas and taking some walks in the country.

We will be waiting for the updates - enjoy!

Rhon, I've been wondering when you were leaving. I knew it was soon. Your trip sounds perfect. You say "This trip is about enjoying being back in France." In my opinionated opinion, you have found the best way to travel in France. Not just finding the hidden places, but slowing down enough to enjoy them. Have a great time. You know we will be looking forward to your trip report when you get back. Bon voyage!

Cheska, bon voyage to you also. You are another couple who likes to settle in and enjoy France without rushing around. It'll be fun to read about your travels.

My husband finally gave up on an airfare sale and bought tickets, so we'll be following you two on May 1. We're mostly going back to our favorite places since we always want to do all the same things plus some new things. We don't have enough time to go anywhere new so we'll just do a deeper dive in the areas we're familiar with.

Cheska, we might be overlapping you in the Loire for a few days. We'll be staying south of Tours, towards Loches. This is one of our favorite parts of the Loire valley. Rhon has been there--in fact we were in Chedigny about the same time one year. If only we'd known!

Bon voyage to all of you traveling to France. There's no place like it.

Coquelicot. I feel like ‘ the old band has got back together’ with all of us travelling around the same time. Bon voyage to you also.

Visualizing you all on a stone-flagged terrace overlooking a sunny valley, toasting each other with a fine local wine.

Happiness!

Coquelicot, I am pleased to hear you are going again, and so soon. For you it is almost going home. It is lovely to be still finding new things in a place you love.
We can all think of each other in France. I know of others who are also going on exciting trips- one an great sounding cheese tour in Burgundy and the Jura. I am not one for tours but I could handle that one.
From all accounts there are lots of travellers. Paris sounds busy already. We have not been to Paris for years.

Bon voyage to everyone.

You have the germ of a title in your post on That Other Forum.

À la recherche de la France Profonde?

It has crossed my mind, Frances. I hope you will post a report. You always have good advice to give and, as we are all different, I enjoy reading about what others do.

Rhon
Have a wonderful trip. I'll look forward to your report. Sadly, I'm not travelling this year

Cheska - I was a close follower of your pre-pandemic trip (and spent a week in Nimes as a result). I'll eagerly await your report on this trip.

Rhon- The bubbles of excitement are building. A relaxing evening on a terrace with formage and wine sounds perfect. You are going at a great time of the year. I look forward to your trip report. Bon voyage

Cheska- I will be looking forward to your trip report too. How fun to be traveling again!

We have arrived in Sydney for an overnight stay to catch the flight tomorrow. We are exhausted as we have a house sitter for the three months and we have left the house in immaculate condition. At least we won’t have to do a spring clean when we get back.
On Saturday we received an email from Singapore Air offering us an upgrade to business class for the long 14 hr flight Singapore to Paris. The price was reasonable and we decided to take it. The cost of the flights with the new upgrade have worked out the same as we paid in 2019 for Premium Economy.
We thought we may not be able to get seat’s together but we did. We have never flown business class before, and we will never do it again either. I’m so excited as I’m not a good flyer and hopefully will arrive in a better state than I normally do because I may get some sleep. One more sleep to go 🤣🤣🤣

This is the week to say bon voyage to our intrepid Australian travelers. You get to stay longer and you write better trip reports than anyone else. I always look forward to your trips and the eventual reports.

Wishing a great trip to Rhon and Cheska and their spouses.

Hope you have a good time. I just went on my second trip by plane since COVID, first overnigher. I never liked flying to begin with but since I didn't fly for a couple years, I built up a real dread of it. I just hate sitting on a plane for that many hours, I can't imagine it from AUstralia. If I could fly first class, might not be as bad.

FYI, no vaccine works immediately, it takes several weeks (10-14 days for immunity to show up) for immunities to build up to peak level rom a vaccine so your flu vaccine is not going to be that effective for Europe after just a week. That may be as early as you could get it there, not sure, I know some in Australia could get it as of 4/1, but luckily the peak flu season is over for Europe. It was somewhat bad this year in France from what I've read. It may be more risk from fellow Australians on the plane, I suppose. Same for COVID vaccines, etc, it takes several weeks for them to get at the level they should be in protection. But since you are going to be there a while, it will be effective part of the time. Not sure what booster you got, we got the last COVID boosters in US last Fall, but same thing for that vaccine.

100% what Coquelicot said. Have a great time.

Christina we are fully vaxxed with everything. Flu shots have been available for a month or so where I live. Only thing I’m not vaxxed against is too many pastries🤣
I must admit sometimes feeling envious of how quickly Americans can fly to Europe.
Thanks for all the kind words, and a special thanks to all of you who helped keep us Aussies going over the last few years.

I think it's OK flying as long as Australians do, providing you can sleep on the plane. One leg is almost always a night flight. We often break up the flight with a night somewhere, but it does make it a very long trip. Who are you flying with, Rhon and Cheska?

Lavandula