The Trip Back

Hi everyone, and welcome back to another blog post from your favourite blogging Méribel ski instructor. I'm now back in jolly Leamington Spa after the long drive back through France. Harriet and I decided to make a road trip of it, and stay overnight a couple of times heading north. There's so much choice of where to stop, and if you've ever driven to and from the French Alps yourself, you will know that choosing somewhere is such a fun process. Our first night was a bit of a curveball, because it was off the normal route up to Calais...... a pretty town called Avallon.

Some of our friends took a road trip through France a few months ago, and mentioned Avallon to us. Located North West of Dijon, we thought that we would give it a punt. I thought diverting out that way was going to add quite a few miles to the journey. But in fact after the visit our route to Troyes from this different angle, revealed that not many extra miles were driven in the end. Result.

Anyway, we both enjoyed what Avallon had to offer. A typical French town with cobbled streets and plenty of old buildings with character. Unlike many places in Europe, Avallon wasn't flattened in either of the two world wars, which has helped retain its character. According to Wikipedia, the town has definitely suffered over the centuries with various troubles, but not so much recently.

I'm guessing one of the the main industries here is tourism. So much so that the night we stayed, there were hardly any eating options available. The vast majority of the restaurants had temporarily closed for a break after the end of the main holiday season. There was a small resto that was already packed, a Mexican themed place that was fully booked with reservations, which left us with a takeaway pizza/kebab opportunity. Oh well!?! Note to self, don't expect much food in early September.

A lovely little place, and a nice change as a stopover. Would I put it in my top 5 list of stopovers between Calais and Méribel? Probably not, but it's always lovely to see somewhere new and we certainly had no regrets.

The morning after our stay at Avallon, we drove further into the Aisne countryside to visit a stunning place called Vézelay. We had seen some information pamphlets the previous night in our hotel, and we thought we'd give it a go. As we arrived we saw a road sign that claimed it was one of the most beautiful towns in France. That's quite a confident claim, and I can kind of see what they were hinting at. What Vélezay is famous for is the huge Abbey.

It's an incredibly impressive structure, which sadly had most of its exterior covered in scaffolding due to renovations. It has quite a history, and back in the ninth century it was claimed that some of Mary Magdalene's relics were discovered here. If this type of history is of interest to you, check out Wikipedia's page on this magnificent Abbaye.

Away from the Abbaye, there are some more lovely cobbled streets, carrying on from the theme from Avallon. And there were plenty of interesting arty type shops for one to browse. They were most certainly aimed at tourists, but I got the feeling that it wasn't tacky in any way.

After having had lunch we jumped back in the car to spend four hours heading further North. Our final stopover was beyond Reims at a large town called Saint Quentin. Harriet and I had stayed there before, probably about twenty years ago, but our memory of the place was a little fluffy. Our hotel was within a couple of minutes walk from the impressive Town Hall and Market Place. There wasn't much going on when we were there, but we got the feeling that all sorts of events and activities frequently take place there.

Saint Quentin also has one of those whopping big Basilicas, sadly not as impressive as Vélezay's. But this part of France was very much affected by the bombings during the First World War. And in its defence, it was also going through quite an extensive renovation that was nowhere near as advanced as Vélezay's. Plus there was an archeological dig going on directly outside the Basilica.

As you can see I didn't take many photos in Saint Quentin, make of that what you will!?! However there's no denying the fact that it is a convenient place to stay overnight being just a couple of hours drive away from Calais. I know this post has been nothing to do with Méribel or skiing, but I realise that many of you do drive down to and from the French Alps. I thought that it might be of interest to some of you. Don't worry, the next post will be back on message. Live. With. Passion. Martin.