Our trip to the south of France - Part One. #roadtrip #france #southoffrance

Hi everybody and welcome back to the channel and if you're new here, welcome! I'm Jane and my husband Michael does everything behind the camera. We're British early retirees, we've got no debt, we've paid off the mortgage and we live a thrifty, frugal and money-saving life in Brittany in northwest France and and every Sunday we share with you an aspect of our private life and this Sunday we're going to share with you our trip to the south of France. Well we're heading south, we are heading towards Nantes in the Loire at La Tique and I don't know where they're all going but they're all going to the same place at the same time so I imagine behind us somewhere because they are at a standstill I imagine back there somewhere there's been an accident because look at that that's mile upon mile upon mile of vehicles going nowhere look at that sky look at that blue sky A bit of b-roll that bit, we'll catch that in a few seconds. I love this bike doesn't it? It looks like this kind of road that they have here, it looks like Mr Bean should be cycling down. It looks like Mr Bean should be cycling down. Oh I love it, I love these. Absolutely gorgeous. And I like the way that we know the history of these roads don't we? They were straight roads built by Napoleon to move his armies really quickly and they were planted with trees all along the way to shade the army. Amazing. So Napoleon grumpy little bugger built good roads. Vineyards, vineyards, vineyards and we are just approaching somewhere called Limoux and Limoux is famous for a dry white sparkling wine. So we stayed in the small market town of Quillon and we chose it because it was equidistant between Parc Sans and Perpignan and as you can see here it's nestled in the foothills of the Pyrenees and we had plenty of blue sky and you can see here these beautiful plane trees planted all throughout this beautiful town and you can imagine it in its day as a walled town defending itself against anyone who would dare enter. We were absolutely charmed by Quillon, its little streets, its cute houses and its lovely squares. So the lovely town of Quillon is on the river Aude which the French pronounce Aude and we wander around this most evenings. We went out and walked the dogs because it was like our home base for a couple of weeks and the lovely old streets I can imagine it full of life. It's certainly not in its heyday and it's not anymore and the whole area is so suffering from depopulation. A lot of these homes are summer homes so people go away, they might work in places like Toulouse or other cities throughout the year and then when they have their holidays they go home, they go home to their little town of Quillon and stay in their maybe old homes, maybe they've inherited it from granny or it's always been in the family but these beautiful avenues and boulevards were just absolutely charming. We fell in love with the place and we think everyone who lives there is so very very lucky. Very close to Quillon is another small market town of Esperanza and it has an absolutely famous Sunday market and the day we were there it was Easter day and the market was bustling. It's probably one of the biggest markets that I've ever been to. It had a really eclectic ambience. Esperanza, Esperanza market, we will be back. You've got to be early at the bakers and we were sadly too late and when we arrived they'd sold out of bread. Luckily I did get in the queue and get some of the strawberries. Three of those punnets of strawberries for 10 euros, what an absolute bargain and they were the sweetest juiciest strawberries I've had in a very long time. There I am queuing up. I'm not missing out on these strawberries. The queues at this market were absolutely endless. Wherever you looked, whichever stall it was, there was a queue. They were really really busy. All around the market is lots of little squares and bars and cafes and we managed to get into a really busy cafe there and get ourselves a couple of Grand Crèmes to drink and and just sit back and just take it all in. There's just so much to see, there's so much to feel, there's so much to look at. You can spend a lot of money at these markets because you just feel just drawn to it. You really do. What I love about it is it's very real. You can see there you can buy your plastic buckets, your shopping carts, you can buy a new pair of shoes or a collar for the dog. They've got it all. We visited Aksat the second day after we arrived. It just was such a misty, moody and evocative place when we arrived because the mist was rolling down off the hills. It was quite chilly when we were there but we really wanted to see the place. We had a lot of houses to go and view in Aksat and we wanted to walk around at our leisure and we were just stunned by this cute little place, these tiny streets. You couldn't get a car up unless it was a tiny tiny car. I don't think you could get my car up there and just look at these views and everywhere you looked. Mike and I are sort of giving each other a knowing look at the moment. There are houses in that shop that we viewed. You never know, they could be ours one day. We may end up living in Aksat one day. And as you walk down through to the village there is a lovely square. There's a new medical centre, there's a new school, there's the village church, there's Mary around the corner and a post office and that little square there has a market every week. Aksat, you totally charmed us. Here's your favourite. This is my favourite bit. I bet you, if we look up on YouTube, the tour of France has come through here. Oh, guaranteed. Alet Laban, we loved you. You're a birthplace of Nostradamus. You've got your thermal healing springs and you are so full of charm. And I know people are going to say, where's the people? But like I said, this is a very depopulated area. Most of these are retirement homes or second homes and that home there with the balcony, I would love that one. Oh, I would love that one. There's no way we can afford Alet Laban. It's a very, very desirable area. But we absolutely adored it. It's just so evocative. It's so historical. It's just medieval at every turning point. And we loved it. And yet, it really did speak to us. It really did. We absolutely loved it. Those little back streets. We're sitting here now, you know, doing this voiceover, you know, Mike and Jane sat here looking at this screen again, reminding ourselves that we would just love to go there tomorrow for a walk around, take a flask of coffee, take a packet of sandwiches, just chill out, just find a bench down by the river, maybe sit on that one. Just sit there in the shade and just take it all in. You know, it's been here for centuries and centuries. It's remarkably well preserved and you can see the work that's going on there. And some of these houses, you know, they're like 400,000. So people are buying them. People are renovating them. People love to live here. We did, you know, go for a snoop at a couple of houses that we could afford, but they were so deep and dark up alleyways and back streets that I don't think we would ever get any light. But nonetheless, we adored this place. It's just beautiful. And as usual, with the river Ord running next to it and the cool air coming down off the foothills, it just totally charmed us. More of those gorgeous plane trees. We're at lost at this stage. We're trying to find the thermal springs and we didn't realize that the thermal springs and the lavoir where people collect water was all in the same place. But it was really cute and charming and it's very, very well used by local people. So here we are at the springs and it's a lavoir. So all of those stones are where you can wash your clothes or you can sit there or you can dangle your feet in the water. Now, I had a lovely chat with these three people here and they told me all about the qualities of the water and how people come from miles and miles and miles around to collect this water as they're drinking water. They believe in the mineral qualities of this and there's the old lavoir basins. You wash it on the right and you rinse it on the left. And I absolutely adore lavoirs. If these walls could talk, if they could tell us the gossip that went on there, the news, the birth announcements, who's marrying who, what's happening, are we going to get a new priest this year, will the church ever welcome Monsieur again? Because you know what Monsieur did, didn't you? Little gossip about that. So there we are with everybody collecting their water. We had a lovely chat with them. They told us that people come to sit there and put their legs and feet in the water for its healing properties. And just in front of you can see a gentleman there and he's done his laundry and he's got it out in the sun and drying. We drank the water. We're still alive to tell the tale. I don't know if we're any fitter, stronger or healthier, but Allez Le Bains, as it is pronounced, is magical. If you are ever in the Carcassonne or Capignon area, don't miss this place. Go there. I'm sure it's busting in the summer. We were there the week before Easter, so it just felt as if it was still asleep, ready to come alive at any stage. And lots and lots of these houses are for rent and you could go there for your holiday. Well, that's the end of the first part of our trip to the south of France. Don't miss it next Sunday where we take you to Limoux, Carcassonne, Capignon and just have the most fantastic time. I've got to say Carcassonne is the most castle-y castle I've ever been to and I have been to a few castles in my time. Capignon captured our hearts. We adored it. It's just cultural and lively, beautiful. You don't want to miss that part of the video. And of course, we had to go on the Petit Train Touristique. We loved every minute of it. We'll see you next week. Thank you to everybody for watching. Make sure you hit the like button. Don't forget, come back next Sunday for the second part of our trip to the south of France. Bye for now. Carcassonne. Big castle.