29/04 - Antwerp

We came to Antwerp for the fashion, not particularily the Antwerp 6. The Fashion Design School is situated nicely in the heart of everything. When we were there, they had a good show on paper fashion. Particularily impressive was a video on a fashion show done by Brazilian Japanese designer Jum Nakao http://www.jumnakao.com.br/ . His show of paper dresses and how each model tore apart her dress at the end of the show was phenomenal. Also worth noting were Issey Miyake's paper dresses. After the show, we strolled through the downtown and found a few interesting fashion boutiques.

28/04 - Bed, Bath & Bread, Antwerp

A comfortable treat for us after many days of hostels. Bed, Bath & Bread of Antwerp, a B&B with only 3 rooms.

28/04 - Antwerpen Centraal Station

A beautiful train station. A unique mix of architectural styles in the old terminal, and an nicely done expansion in the interior that house the high speed railway platforms recently completed. A nice Belgian welcome for us, after the long-haul train ride which took us most of the day, from Caen, then Paris, Lille, and finally Antwerp.

27/04 - D-Day Beaches of Normandy 2

It wasn't the right day and time to visit the D-day beach. The water was high. The wind was chilly. And then the rain. Pointe du Hoc was quite impressive. Scars and craters of warfare were everywhere on the landscape. Empty concrete shell that once fortified the mighty German guns, which defended the Normandy beaches from Allies attack, scattered around the site. Influxes of tourists came and followed their guide like school children. A sensational site, would be much nicer without the tourist noise. Though of course I was one of them. We returned to the Memorial Museum in the afternoon. It is an fantastic museum on everything about WWII and the D-Day battles. At the atrium, a large photography depicting Berlin's Brandenburg Gate in 1989 commemorated the 20th anniversary of the Fall of Berlin Wall.

27/04 - Memorial Museum and D-Day Beaches of Normandy

In the morning, we joined a 1/2 day tour at the Memorial Museum to the Harbour of Arromanches, Normandy American Cemetery, Omaha Landing Beach, and Pointe du Hoc. It was a cold and rainy morning. From the museum, we hopped into a van with a guide for the Harbour of Aromanches, where remnants of wartime articial harbours were still on the beach and out in the sea. These articial landing platforms were prefabricated in England. During the D-day operation, these concrete and steel structures were dumped into the sea to form a series of landing strips for te Allies supply ships. We could only take pictures of these amazing structures from a cliff high above the beach. We then moved on to Normandy American Cemetery, where more than 9000 soldiers were buried.

26/04 - Caen

Sunday afternoon, Caen, Normandy. We lingered in the empty streets. We carried our dirty clothes to the laundry. We chatted with an African student. We bought some food and water and returned to our room.

25/04 - St Malo

After dinner (mussels and fries and crepes) we enjoyed the evening sunset from the fortress of St Malo.

25/04 - Dinard

In the afternoon we took a bus to another fishing village in the area, Dinard. Sun-bathing, sailing, surfing, tide watching, hiking, swimming, painting... Dinard is simply the perfect place for writers, painters and holiday makers.

25/04 - Cancale

One of our main reasons to visit Brittany was oysters. A short bus ride from St Malo brought us into the fishing village of Cancale, just in time to beat the local tourists to reach Cancale's oyster market by the lighthouse. We consumed three dozens of fresh oysters in total, a bottle of super cider and some Brittany biscuits. Cancale's oysters are really cheap, with an average of around 4 euro per dozen, depending on the size. Other than oysters, the village has some charm on its own. We walked down to the oyster farms during low tides and enjoyed some pleasant moments by the sea.

24/04 - Rennes

We stayed a night at Rennes on our way to Brittany.

24/04 - La Rochelle

It turned out to be a very fine day when we reached La Rochelle, a pretty sea-side holiday town by the Atlantic. We dropped off our backpacks at a souvenir shop, had morning coffee and croissant at a cafe near the curved habour and strolled around the town and visited its famous fortress towers. We had lunch at the covered market, tried a few of the local oysters and we spent most of the afternoon relaxing in the beach area where children took sailing classes and adults sunbathed. It was, indeed, a very relaxing day.

24/04 - Farewell Cognac

I could still remember the pleasant smell of bread and cognac as we passed by the bakeries and wineries on our way to the train station before sunrise. A moment of sublime sensation.

A note on the regional trains in France: clean, efficient, comfortable.

23/04 - Cognac

You don't need to be an hardcore fans of Cognac XO or VSOP to visit the charming little town of Cognac. The main reason for us was the discounted accommodation we found online. By the time we reached Cognac, all the wineries were closed. To see all the famous cognac labels clustered in one place seems bizarre to us. We had a pleasant stroll in the town centre before dusk.

23/04 - Bordeaux

While we couldn't afford to carry another bottle of wine in our backpack so wine shopping was out of the scope, there were enough cathedral, architecture and antique fair to keep us busy for most of the day in Bordeaux.

23/04 - Cathédrale Saint-André, Bordeaux

Cathédrale Saint-André, mostly French Gothic with bits and pieces of the original Romanesque structure. Not as impressive as the cathedral in Strasbourg, but still worth a visit.

22/04 - Arcachon

We didn't make it to see the Dune du Pilat, nor the lighthouse at Cap Ferret. At Arcachon, we simply had a relaxing afternoon by the sea.

22/04 - Gujan Mestras

From Bordeaux, we dropped our backpacks at the hotel and decided to make a trip to the sea. Before reaching Arcachon at the French Atlantic, we stopped by the fishing village Gujan Mestras. There was only one reason to visit Gujan Mestras, OYSTERS.

22/04 - Farewell Sarlat

We get up super early for a train to Bordeaux. Extra effort is required to tour France's remote countryside.

20/04 - Sarlat Dinner

How could I leave out the photos of our dining experience of our first night in Sarlat? After a full day on the road, we were welcomed by the pre-arranged dinner at the hotel. We had the two local specialties: duck fillets and foie gras as the main course.

21/04 - Sarlat la Caneda

Sarlat, our base in the Dordogne, is a charming medieval town filled with restaurants and Foie gras shops. A late afternoon stroll in the town centre provided a perfect closure for our day, after the exciting visit at Lascaux.

21/04 - Prehistorical Caves of Lascaux

One of our main reasons to visit the Dordogne Valley was the famous prehistoric cave paintings. After a few hours of bus, train and stopping at Le Buisson, we reached Les Eyzies-de-Tazac-Sireuil at lunchtime. We hiked our way to the Grotte de Font de Gaume without tickets (though we tried to book online two days ago) only to find out that the day's 200 tickets were long sold out a week ago. At the tourist office in Les Eyzies, we were suggested by the staffs to visit the cave at Lascaux, the most famous prehistoric cave in the area. The cave of Lascaux attracted my attention ever since I was a few years old. From a child book I acknowledged the cave is a human wonder in the world. It would be such a disappointment if we failed to visit a cave during our stay in the area. We decided to call a taxi to Montignac, the closest village from Laxcaux despite we weren't sure how we could return to Sarlat after the visit.

At the ticket office in Montignac, the guy queuing behind us, who could speak some English, offered to drive us up to the cave entrance since it could easily took us over an hour to hike up the hill. We followed him to his car and met his wife, who was about 8-month pregnant. They drove us to the cave and we visited the cave in the same tour group. We chatted a little while waiting for our visit time slot. The couple lived near Limoges and worked at a national park nearby.

At 16:30, we finally stepped into the cave of Lascaux II. After some brief accounts on the history and geography of the cave (in French), the guide led us into the main cave where large bulls and horses in rich colours dazzling on the cave ceiling. Under atmospheric dim light, the surreal prehistoric figures came to life. From photographs, I could never imagine how moving the experience could be on seeing the Lascaux paintings in person. Since its discovery in 1940s, the cave paintings at Lascaux had created a big impact in art, history and tourism. Moisture from human breathe of thousands of visitors led to serious deterioration of the paintings, and the authorities were forced to close the cave in 1963. Lascaux II, a replica of the famous original, took a group of artists 11 years to complete. http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/arcnat/lascaux/en/

After the visit, the couple were kind enough to drive us back to Montignac. Knowing that there wouldn't be any bus to Sarlat in the next two days, we could only choose between taxi (50+ euro) and hitchhike for our return trip. The couple took a piece of paper from their trunk and made us a sign "Sarlat". They dropped us off at the roadside where south-heading traffic exited the village. Every car passed by slowed down to read our sign, and it only took us 3 minutes to get onto a luxurious car of a businessman from Paris. We couldn't have better luck. The Paris businessman was constantly on the phone with his blue-tooth. After 1/2 hour winding through the French countryside, the car entered Sarlat at around 18:30. The businessman was super kind, dropping us off right at the townhall of Sarlat. The comfortable ride concluded my second ever hitchhiking experience.

21/04 - Pâtisserie shop in Le Buisson

We had two hours to spare at Le Buisson waiting for train connection. Near the station, we bought two cans of foie gras at a local butcher shop. Next to the butcher shop, we found a small pâtisserie shop and the pastries seemed very tempting. We couldn't resist. To us, these two pastries could well rival any dessert cake we have had at fancy restaurants and 5-star hotels.

We finished the pastries on a bench near the station. As we enjoyed our sweet, we were greeted with smiles and "bon appetit" by the locals.

21/04 - Lazy Cat in Le Buisson