3-20-2021
D Vautier
Our family went to England to celebrate the Millennium with a good friend. She had rented a quiet little chateau in southern France. Unfortunately I have very few pictures of our thrilling and fun-packed adventures. My camera was stolen and besides we were having such a good time that it didn’t seem to matter.
We flew into Heathrow on December 24 and G picked us up. I don’t really know how we all fit into her little car but we did. I had two kids on my lap. Cyn was crowded in the back with the other kid surrounded by a whole bunch of baggage.
We immediately set out for France but first I went down to Hove on the southern coast near where G lived and I rented a car. Off we went to France via the Channel tunnel (Chunnel). It was quite an experience riding the Chunnel. G took her two kids and we took our three headed to a cabin in the woods near Carcassonne called Montreal where we would party and celebrate the new millennium all by ourselves, the eight of us.
The trip to southern France was not at all without incident. Cyn insisted on stopping at anything of interest, and believe me, everything in France is of interest, especially to a hyper History major. First it was Amiens and its beautiful gothic church, older then hell. Everything in France is gothic and older than hell. Next it was Paris. But it’s impossible to get out of Paris because I got caught on the Periphery, which is a freeway that circles Paris. There are very small road signs on the freeway so it’s truly a “Blair Witch” waiting to happen. I don’t know how many skeletons there are of people who could never get off the Periphery. Finally we got in the road to Orleans, then Clermont, Beziers and finally Montreal. We were surprised that G was not there, only to arrive two days later. She had used gas in her diesel rental car and had to stop for a day and get it changed.
We had an incredible amount of fun visiting the old castles and forts. This was the Languedoc, loaded with ancient ruins and history.
On December 27 we drove to Barcelona taking two different cars and planned to rendezvous at the big church. The problem was there are lots of big churches in Barcelona. Our family went to the famous Segreda while G and her daughters went to the cathedral. Barcelona has a great big castle right in the middle of town as most of these places do. We never saw G. She took her kids to the other cathedral. quel dommage !
staircase to get to the top of the four towers. The girls (cyn and Fiona) were scared shitless of climbing those stars which had no hand railsis a very different church, famous for being one of the mostThis iconic examples of Antoni Gaudí's unique style, combining elements of Art Nouveau, Catalan Modernism and Spanish Late Gothic design. The boys immediately started climbing up the winding .
.Around the church were all these interesting places to eat but the kids wanted to go to MacDonalds so we went there. UNBELIEVABLE
CarcassonneWe went to Carcassonne for Christmas. There’s a large castle in the middle of the city. Few people live in the castle but it had become a huge entertainment center including lots of amusements and shops. That night, Christmas, 1999, we saw all the fireworks.
The site of the so-named evil double/god heresy turned out to have a most pleasant atmosphere and of course, the expected standard beautiful older-than-hell cathedral. Cyn took a liking to a particular beautiful lamp we later dubbed the “vagina” lamp but she decided not to buy it.
Catharism, or Albigensianism (named after the city of Albi), was a spinoff religion that believed in a good god and a bad god. Christians were very intolerant of this gentle and benign religion so they waged a horrible and bloodthirsty crusade starting around 1215 to convert or eliminate these horrible and bloodthirsty Cathars. It seemed just like a big power grab but it left a lot of ill will and ruined castles. So we got to see a lot of ruined castles while we were there. The one that was most challenging was Montsegur which caught us all in a nasty snow storm. I put Val on my shoulders and raced back to the car.
All I remember was that we had a most wonderful time that evening and had only the car radio to announce the new year. Cinq… quatre… trois… deux… un…
What a wonderful new millenium !!! a Happy new millenium.
We had two days to get back to the London airport which meant that time was short and Cyn wanted to go buy her lamp at Albi. We get the lamp and drove headlong most of the night. There was no way I was going anywhere near Paris and instead followed the cost through Toulouse, Bordeaux, Poitiers, Tours, Chartres, Rouen, Evreux, Abbeville and finally Calais. All these places had the typical beautiful cathedral and naturally we never had time. I remember gazing out over the spires of the church of Chartres and wishing so bad to stop. Chartres is famed for its massive Cathédrale Notre-Dame.