Recently I discovered a new Flickr feature called Galleries . With this feature you can create a gallery of up to 18 photos from other unrestricted Flickr photos on the topic of your choice. So I've been having fun creating Galleries relating to my planned trip to France this coming winter.
I plan to spend February in Beziers and the surrounding area:
Beziers Gallery
I love the fresh markets, flower markets and flea markets in France.
Markets of Beziers Gallery
The Canal Du Midi which connects the Atlantic and the Mediterranean was designed and built by a man from Beziers and goes through Beziers and I plan to do some practice hiking along the Canal.
The Canal du Midi Gallery
Starting March first I hope to start walking the Camino route from Le Puy en Velay to Saint Jean Pied de Port on the French - Spanish border.
The Le Puy Camino Gallery
As you can see some very beautiful photos, hope I'm able to take some that are as good.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Flickr Galleries
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Beziers in February
As I said in an earlier post I'm making plans to do another Camino walk this time from Le Puy en Valey starting the first of March 2010. I hope to be able to average 20KM per day which will give me lots of time to walk the Chemin de Saint Jacques from Le Puy to the foot of the Pyrenees at Saint Jean Pied de Port , by the middle of April. I would like to do lots of practice walking before I start on the Chemin, as a matter of fact I started last week. The problem that I always have is our bitter cold winter weather in January and February some times for weeks on end it is just too cold and windy to get any serious walking done, so I started thinking about going over to France and renting a GÎTES or apartment for all or part of February to give me some time to get in a few practice walks. The criteria that I set for my location was snow free, reasonable temperature, in a small town or city, good transportation links by both train and bus, reasonably priced accommodations, walking trails in the area and in a good location for day or overnight trips to other areas of interest. After doing some research I have settled on Beziers in the Languedoc-Roussillon region of southwest France. A small city of 69,000 very well served by both train and bus, you can take one of several TGV high speed trains daily leaving Paris Charles de Gaulle International Airport direct to Beziers in under 5 hours. Once in Beziers there is good train and bus connections to other locations of interest in the area. I'm planning to stay at an Apart-Hotel which rents studio and one bedroom apartments called Le Fonserane I have been quoted a rate of 210 Euro a week for a studio in February so I will make reservations for the whole month. They won't accept reservations for 2010 until November. Beziers is only a few kilometers from the Mediterranean and short distances from Carcassonne to the west and Montpellier to the east. The Canal du Midi goes through this part of France connecting the Atlantic and the Mediterranean and there are walking trails that follow the canal both east and west of Beziers I'm not sure but I think the trails are the tow path along the canal. I hope to make this a two or three day walk at some point during my stay.