When my English friend Dave caught wind that I was soon to be back in London and needed to make my way to Barcelona, he was only too happy to take a weeks’ break from his hectic job to join me for a drive across France and Andorra. We were joined at the last minute by Dave’s mate Steve, who proved to be the exception to the rule that ‘three’s a crowd’ as he was a great addition.
After passing through the Channel between England and France we moved rather quickly south towards Central France to Oardour-sur-Gland, a historical site I had wanted to visit since seeing it mentioned on a documentary about World War II.
When my English friend Dave caught wind that I was soon to be back in London and needed to make my way to Barcelona, he was only too happy to take a weeks’ break from his hectic job to join me for a drive across France and Andorra. We were joined at the last minute by Dave’s mate Steve, who proved to be the exception to the rule that ‘three’s a crowd’ as he was a great addition.
After passing through the Channel between England and France we moved rather quickly south towards Central France to Oardour-sur-Gland, a historical site I had wanted to visit since seeing it mentioned on a documentary about World War II.
It was decided that the village should be left as a Martyrs Memorial for the residents, victims of the brutality of the Nazis. A sobering site to wander through, trying to comprehend the atrocity that occurred here. There is also a museum that accompanies the village memorial.
Further south towards Toulouse is the stunning Milau Viaduct. However, it’s more than just an impressive viaduct, it happens to hold the record for the world’s highest road bridge and one of the concrete pylons holding up the roadway is taller than the Eiffel Tower and Auckland’s Sky Tower and is only a matter of meters shorter than the Empire State Building! The viaduct was built as previously the roadway descended into the valley, before climbing back out, shortening the journey across the valley from anything up to 45 minutes to less than 10 minutes.
After an afternoon on the beach of France’s South Coast we made our way through to Toulouse where the next day we had a date at Airbus’ Head Quarters and Aircraft assembly plant. We would join a tour of their A380 manufacturing plant, now the largest commercial airliner in the world.
While in Toulouse we were lucky enough to stay with brothers Felix and Luke, French workmates of Dave's for the weekend. We would venture out with the locals to go bowling with their friends, followed by a great afternoon of go-karting; I had forgotten how much fun that was!
Once done in Toulouse we packed up and headed onwards to Barcelona, windy our way through the Pyrenees Mountain principality of Andorra, (buying the cheapest duty free booze I have ever seen enroute) before we finally arrived into Catalonians capital. From Barcelona I would meet up with my father and we’d soon board the Hanjin Brussels and steam all the way to Singapore aboard the massive Containership!
