Amanda in Curemonte, Lot department, France – April 2017
Les Plus Beaux Villages de France – The Most Beautiful Villages in FranceTour
Saturday the 29th of April 2017 and ‘Day 11′ Cont…
Curemonte was a hilltop sprawl which we thought might be inaccessible with a car but we were once again wrong and able to park in the heart of the village and take a slow amble around, albeit with one of the windows of the car left open and ALL our belongings, including passports, credit cards, and money, inside. We did have the car key though so at least that was safe…oops! I blame Amanda, it was her window that was down. 😀
We both loved Curemonte and it’ll be on my list of villages to revisit when I return. Amanda has actually been back since our trip and revisited many of the towns and villages with her husband.
Our photos don’t do any of these towns and village justice, especially in a place like this where the village is probably better seen from above rather than right up against the huge walls of these magnificent buildings.
Today’s weather had been perfect and made these already beautiful villages that bit more special. The lovely blue skies had given them a wonderful backdrop.
During our time in France from mid-April to the 8th of May most of the daytime temperatures had been in the high teens right up to a high of 28 degrees. During the night it had been as low as -1 degrees with a light covering of frost but overall the weather was great.
Curemonte, France – Video by Corrèze Tourisme
Collonges-la-Rouge & Tureene
There were a couple of villages, Collonges-la-Rouge and Turenne that we’d hoped to visit but we were running out of time and parking wasn’t easily found, especially in Collonges-La-Rouge which seemed to be hosting some sort of event, plus there was a wedding on. The photos online looked really lovely so we were pretty bummed that we couldn’t take a look.
Collonges-la-Rouge was formed from the local red stone. This small town looked very different from anything we’d seen so far but because it was extremely busy we could only drive by it, kicking ourselves for not realising it would be packed as it was a Saturday afternoon on a bank holiday weekend. I will definitely be coming back here.
As we drove away, we were delayed by a red wedding, not the Game of Thrones type but one where the guests were all dressed in red. The bride wore white of course, though Amanda did comment that her dress made her look like a shuttlecock which made me laugh, she’s such a witch. 😀
Collonges-la-Rouge – video by Walk In France
Turenne
What can I say, again it looked lovely, but we could only see it from a distance. Amanda had a little wander to the start of the village but said it was very steep so no good for me. She also commented that it felt a bit Hogwortesque but it definitely looked like another beautiful village. There are so many towns and villages that we’re going to have to go back to, great excuse. 😀
Turenne, Corrèze department, France – April 2017
All photos and videos are the property of myself and Amanda unless otherwise stated.
Les Plus Beaux Villages de France – The Most Beautiful Villages in FranceTour
Saturday the 29th of April 2017 and ‘Day 11′ Cont…
Carnennac is a medieval village full of beautiful architecture. The Iglesia prioral de San Pedro de church with its ornately carved portal/arched entryway is stunning.
We parked up, possibly illegally, in the shadow of the Château des Doyens, and from the minute we drove in I knew I wanted to push myself and take at least a little glimpse of this pretty village and I’m so glad I did. We were short on time because of the agreed check-in time for our next accommodation but it was worth every second and it’s definitely worth a second visit…it’s very pretty. Carennac village
I’m sorry my posts aren’t very detailed, I’ve forgotten so much but I still wanted to post what I did have. I may come back and fill in more details at some point.
All photos and videos are the property of myself and Amanda unless otherwise stated.
View from our gite ‘Cottage La Grangette’, at Gites de Combarel, Corn, France – April 2017
Les Plus Beaux Villages de France – The Most Beautiful Villages in France Tour
Wednesday 26th April 2017 and ‘Day 8′ of our travels cont…
After leaving Rocamadour we started the short 45 minutes drive to Corn, in the Lot Department of France.
On the way, we picked up food supplies as this accommodation had a kitchen and we were looking forward to cooking for ourselves.
We stayed in a gite complex near Corn called Gites de Combarel. This was our base for the next 3 nights. The complex consisted of a main farmhouse where the hosts lived and three smaller stone buildings that had been converted into gites. We stayed in Cottage La Grangette. The three nights cost us €234.00 and it was worth every penny.
The Gite and its host were great. The property was a lovely mixture of an old building with new styling and facilities. The property was on two floors. The entrance was on the ground floor and comprised a combined living/dining area and a fully fitted modern kitchen. A set of stairs took you down to the lower-ground floor where the bedroom and lovely bathroom were situated. Outside the bedroom door, there was a little patio and table and chairs overlooking the beautiful countryside and shared pool, in the far distance. Unfortunately, the pool wasn’t open this early in the year and given that we had frost each morning, it was for the best. 😀
Daniel and Martine, the hosts at Gites de Combarel were absolutely lovely and made us feel very welcome. The area where you park is close to their property and the farm buildings. It’s a little walk along a path to the gite. It would be nice to know if they’re still the owners as it would be somewhere I’d like to go back to.
Below are videos from in and around our gite ‘Cottage La Grangette’ at Gites de Combarel, Corn, France.
All photos and videos are the property of myself and Amanda unless otherwise specified.
The inner courtyard leading to our room. Photo by Amanda. Chateau de la Falque in Saint-Geniez-dʼOlt, France – Our Accommodation for 3 Nights.
Chateau de la Falque in Saint-Geniez-dʼOlt, France. Photos by Touch of Cinnamon.
Our Accommodation from Saturday 22nd to Tuesday 25th April 2017.
After Belcastel we took a fairly long and, as it turned out, eventful journey to our next accommodation. A minor missed turning meant that we ended up travelling through the beautiful, historic Sainte-Eulalie-d’Olt, the next town along from where we were staying.
Relais du Silence -Chateau de la Falque in Saint-Geniez-dʼOlt, France. Photo by Touch of Cinnamon.
Unfortunately, I was the one driving and had the unenviable task of trying to navigate (using the spiteful wench of a sat nav) through the smallest of cobbled streets. She (sat nav) seemed to think that roads, a mere hand-span wider than our vehicle, are perfectly passable. These narrow two-way streets often ended in a 90-degree turn on to yet another narrow street. Narrow roads don’t normally bother me when I’m driving in Ireland, but in France, I found them nerve-racking, maybe because I was driving an unfamiliar hire car and didn’t want to lose my deposit!? To both our amazement, we managed to squeeze through and were heartily pleased when we arrived at our next accommodation, ‘Chateau de la Falque’ in Saint-Geniez-d’Olt.
A taste of the narrow, two-way streets I had to drive through in Sainte-Eulalie-d’Olt, France. Images lifted from Google Maps.
Chateau de la Falque in Saint-Geniez-d’Olt, France.
View from where we parked. You walk under the stone archway to get to the courtyard and our room. Photo by Touch of Cinnamon. Chateau de la Falque in Saint-Geniez-dʼOlt, France.
Nestled between Saint-Geniez-d’Olt and Sainte-Eulalie-d’Olt, we seemed to have this beautiful, golden spa hotel pretty much to ourselves! I’d have like to have learned more about the property but my French is none existent so I couldn’t ask the French-speaking receptionist for information but on my return, I spotted the following bit of info.
“Occupying a stone convent dating from the 17th century, this refined boutique hotel sits on 5 acres of parkland. It’s 1.7 km from Saint-Geniez-d’Olt village and 5.3 km from Parc naturel régional des Grands Causses.
A spa features a sauna, a whirlpool and a steam room, plus massages and treatments. There’s also a quaint courtyard and a chapel. ”
The convent and its small complex of surrounding buildings were beautifully restored and walking through the stone archway to the inner courtyard made me feel very privileged.
Relais du Silence – Chateau de la Falque in Saint-Geniez-dʼOlt, France. This image is the property of the hotel. Click on the image for their website.
The above image and the next two photos below are from the accommodations own website. If you click on any of these images, they’ll take you directly to their website.
The Entrance & our Bedroom. These images are the property of the hotel. Click on the image to visit the China Junior Bedroom on their website.
Our bedroom and bathroom. These images are the property of the hotel. Click on the image to visit China Junior Bedroom on their website.
The room was larger than expected and decorated in a pseudo-Chinese style with a great bathroom and the added bonus of a seating area. As we were on a tight budget we used to pull the table over to the couch to eat breakfast and make up our packed-lunches before leaving for the day. Living the high life, eh? 😀
The style of the room wasn’t really to my taste but it was large, clean and very comfortable for our three-night stay. I only took a few snaps from inside the room but they were blurry, hence me using the hotels own photos.
Our room is the first door on the Left. Photo by Touch of Cinnamon. Relais du Silence -Chateau de la Falque in Saint-Geniez-dʼOlt, France.
The exterior of the building was definitely to my liking. It really was beautiful and a pleasure to return to at the end of a tiring day’s travels. At night it looked particularly stunning and if we hadn’t been so tired each night, we’d have sat out in the inner courtyard with a bottle of red, but all we wanted to do when we got back, was sleep.
The inner courtyard to the rooms at night. Photo by Touch of Cinnamon. Relais du Silence -Chateau de la Falque in Saint-Geniez-dʼOlt, France.
Views looking over the grounds and courtyard at night. Photos by Touch of Cinnamon. Relais du Silence -Chateau de la Falque in Saint-Geniez-dʼOlt, France.
We were surrounded by fields but only a short drive away from two towns. There was an Intermarché with a petrol station within 5 minutes drive.
Each morning we woke to the sound of cow bells as the cattle came in for milking and in the evenings we were serenaded to sleep by the soothing mating calls of crickets. Perfect!
As for the town of Saint-Geniez-d’Olt, neither of us were particularly enamoured by it but in all fairness, we had been spoiled by some of the places we’d been lucky enough to visit prior to arriving here. Having said that, the accommodation was wonderful and made a great base to visit some really special and beautiful villages and countryside nearby.
Chateau de la Falque in Saint-Geniez-dʼOlt, France. Photo by Amanda.
There was a spa at the hotel but we didn’t go in. We had intended on doing so but didn’t have the time in the end, plus it was quite pricey.
There was only one minor negative to this property and that was the view out of our window, it overlooked an industrial estate of sorts. This was the only negative detail I could point out but it still wouldn’t stop me from staying here again, in the future.
The cost for the 3-night stay was €270 + taxes for the 2 of us, making it €45 per person, per night. We didn’t eat breakfast at the property but it was available for a fee.
Below are three little video clips. Again I apologise for how bad they are, I was using my phone and had/have a bad knee causing me to limp, hence the jerkiness of the clips.
Thanks to Amanda for her contribution. All photos are the property of myself or Amanda unless otherwise stated.
Vitznau on Lake Lucerne, Switzerland – Image taken by my husband – June 2014
I’m recently back from a wonderful holiday to Switzerland and Italy and will write more when I can…this is just a quick overview of my time away. Most photo’s are courtesy of my husband, bar 2 from outside the accommodation in Rome. Please click on the images to take a closer look.
We flew with Aer Lingus from Dublin to Zurich, hired a car and drove down to our accommodation, spending 3 nights in an apartment in Vitznau, on Lake Lucerne.
Our Vitznau Apartment – June 2014
This is the view to the side of us, from our Vitznau apartment balcony – June 2014
We then drove south through the Gotthard Pass passing through some stunning scenery and made our way over the border into Italy, spending 3 nights in another apartment in Pianello del Lario, on Lake Como, Italy.
Gotthard Pass, on our way to Lake Como from Lake Lucerne – June 2014
Top Left, under the apex of the roof is our apartment in Pianello del Lario, Lake Como – June 2014
View from our apartment in Pianello del Lario, Lake Como – June 2014
View from our apartment balcony, overlooking Lake Como at night – June 2014
After 3 wonderful days there, we dropped the hire car off in Lugano (it’s just over the border, back into Switzerland) and took the train down from Lugano to Florence via Milan and stayed 8 nights in Florence… 1 night in a hotel and 1 week in a beautiful villa near Impruneta in Florence, Tuscany where we met up with friends from Australia.
Entrance from courtyard into our Villa in Impruneta, Florence – June 2014
Side view of our Villa in Impruneta, Florence – June 2014
Another side view of the Villa in Impruneta, Florence – June 2014
Pool with a view, Impruneta, Florence – June 2014
Another view from the pool area, Impruneta, Florence – June 2014
At the end of our week in the villa, we kissed our friends goodbye and took the train from Florence to Rome for the final leg of our journey and stayed for 2 nights in an apartment, in central Rome, before flying back from Rome to Dublin…..again with Aer Lingus.
Outside of the apartment in Rome. Photo taken from the internet. June 2014
Another image of the outside of the Rome apartment. Taken from the internet. June 2014
Castel Sant’Angelo, Rome – June 2014
Hopefully, at some point, I’ll get the chance to write more in-depth posts about each location and individual property, adding corresponding links to accommodation and once I’ve had the opportunity to work my way through the thousands of photos, I’ll add a few additional pics from the holiday/vacation.
Thank you for taking the time to read this post and I hope you enjoyed the images.
Touch Of Cinnamon 
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