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Hiking Montagne Sainte-Victoire

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During the time we were based in Aix en Provence in the south of France, hiking to the top of Montagne (Mount) Sainte-Victoire, was a priority. Looming over the French Departments of Bouches-du-Rhône and Var with a peak elevation of 1,011 metres, Montagne Sainte-Victoire is most famous for its many appearances in the paintings of Paul Cezanne (1839-1906), who could see it from near his house in Aix-en-Provence.

Now, I am not a big fan of hiking, but this was something hubby really wanted to do, and let’s face it, its not everyday you get to hike to the top of a mountain so celebrated! The view at the top would be amazing and after sampling endless amounts of french cheeses and pastries, I figured the exercise would do me good, besides … how tough could it be?

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Turning 30 in San Sebastián, Spain

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Our epic French honeymoon had one cheeky little side trip slipped in – a five day detour to the home of the pintxo – let me introduce, San Sebastián, Spain. San Sebastián is one of the most drop-dead, simply stunning places I have been, and after first venturing there in 2006 with my best friend on a short jaunt from our then-base of London, I knew I would be back.

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Martin Berasetugui Degustation, San Sebastian

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For my 30th birthday, we were fortunate enough to be in sunny San Sebastian in Spain, and high on my list of ‘must do’ dining experiences was the famous degustation at Martin Berasetugui’s namesake restaurant, Martin Berasetugui.

Consistently rated as one of the world’s top restaurants, the restaurant is very exclusive and we had made reservations months in advance. Upon arrival at 9pm for our reservation (we tried to book for 8pm, but they told us nobody dines so early in Spain, so 9pm it was!), we were shown to our beautiful candlelit table right in the middle of the restaurant – best seat in the place!

It was fine dining all the way, from the lovely “two waiter” introductions through to the footstool that was placed at our table next to my chair… for my handbag of course! No placing handbags on restaurant floors in here!

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Detouring to Bayonne and Biarritz

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Leaving St Emilion was bittersweet. On the upside, we had tasted (and purchased) an extensive selection of Bordeaux wines; on the downside, we didn’t have enough time to really see the medieval town, explore its underground caverns or venture on a cycling tour of the nearby wineries. But, you live and learn, and the experience of regret as we were leaving certainly solidified my strong preference to never spend just one night somewhere – it is just too much of a tease!

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Saint-Émilion – the heart of red wine country!

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Saint-Émilion is one of those places I dreamt of visiting … a history steeped in tradition, and a thriving modern viticulture industry, including the world’s first UNESCO listed vineyard! Due to a tight timeframe, we only had an afternoon, an evening and a morning in Saint-Émilion – not enough time as I would have liked, but with 8 weeks to explore France, we had to make a few sacrifices in order to spend decent amounts of time in other places.

We arrived in Saint-Émilion from Sarlat et Canada in our trusty hire car, and I will never forget the look of the lush, green vineyards covering the rolling hillside as far as the eye could see – it was glorious! As we pulled up the long road that led to the medieval town centre, we realised with a bit of a shock that there were cars parked on both sides of the road ALL the way around the town! Seems like everyone else had the same idea to visit Saint-Émilion on the same day as us!

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Stunning Sarlat and the Saturday market

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Having done extensive research into the region, we were super excited to arrive in Sarlat and explore the medieval town and its surrounding sites, laden with historical significance. Originally developed around a prosperous Benedictine abbey prior to the 9th century, Sarlat enjoyed various degrees of popularity and economy over time. We are fortunate it was of no huge significance economically or strategically in recent centuries, otherwise it might not be the beautifully preserved and stunning medieval town we would soon discover it to be.

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Vue générale sur la Pile d'Asiettes au Lac Supérieur de la Salle du grand Dôme.

Gouffre de Padirac & Rocamadour

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After a beautiful few days exploring the stunning Loire Valley and Amboise, we drove our trusty Renault four hours south to the Dordogne department in Aquitaine, with our destination of Sarlat e La Canada (more commonly referred to as just ‘Sarlat’) highlighted on our map.

En route to Sarlat we have scheduled in a couple of exciting pit-stops – the first one being Gouffre de Padirac in the Lot Department.

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Amboise and Clos Lucé

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As we had just spent two glorious nights at Chateau de la Barre exploring the Loire Valley’s  grand Chateaux (including Chenonceau, Chambord and Cheverny – read more in my post “The Loire Valley Chateaux“), we only booked one night in Amboise, one of the Loire Valley’s bigger cities.

With such limited time in Amboise, we limited our site-seeing to one “must see site” which was Leonardo da Vinci’s old home, and now a museum honouring his work – Château du Clos Lucé.

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