It is going to be difficult to describe the incredible road trip we made at the end of October in Sicily. We spent two complete weeks there, without the kids, to explore this extraordinary island.

We had multiple goals : spend time together, enjoy the food and wine, dive in new seas and see most of the places listed on the UNESCO World Heritage list. And it is exactly what we did.

After a smooth landing at Palermo's airport we took our rented car and headed immediately towards Cefalù, an adorable coastal town with narrow streets, a gourmet restaurant above the sea and a beautiful arabo-norman cathedral which is a must-see of course. We quickly moved on towards Taormina, a famous diving and partying place but we decided to make a pause and a quick search on the Internet gave us the location of Tyndaris. It was a very very nice surprise as we ended up spending three hours walking in the ruins and the streets of this ancient Greek city. It is always pleasant to be alone in those places and to be able to imagine it teeming with life.

But Taormina was a case of love at first site. The city is built on a mountain overlooking a coast cut out with little bays where the diving resorts are. It is a little place where most streets are just stairs, where you ride a funicular to reach the city center where we had found a charming little hotel. We spent three full days there, discovering sunk roman columns and doing a little cave diving, enjoying delicious cocktails, Granitas and warm brioche, roaming around the hidden or crowded streets and gardens beautifully illuminated at night and marveling at the majesty of the Roman amphitheater overshadowing the city. We also booked a visit of the volcano Etna which ended up being a private tour and that was very cool.

When it was time to continue south we headed up to Noto, one of the most famous Sicilian baroque city of the Val di Noto which encompasses 8 cities which shared a common fate. They were all completely destroyed by the enormous 1693 Sicily earthquake but afterwards it was decided that new settlements would be built at the same place and the nobleman nominated for the task decided to design the new towns in a baroque and renaissance style which is now named Sicilian Baroque style. The most notable one is Noto and we decided that it was worth its reputation. The city is built in a special stone which gives it a honey tone when the sun shines. It has a geometrical pattern and large squares where bars and restaurants welcome the visitors. There we bought a special ticket and visited various places such as a theater, the city hall, churches, palaces. And then we moved on to Syracuse.

We have a split opinion about Syracuse. Well at the same time the city is composed of two parts and we slept exactly in the middle. The part inland was of no interest except the ruins of Neapolis, a huge archeological parc which dates back to the Greek and then Roman presence in the area. It is spectacular, a mixture of well-kept, unkept ruins, quarries and chaotic landscape right in the middle of the city. Unfortunately we couldn't see the so-called tomb of Archimedes but the visit was worthwhile. The other part is in fact an island, Ortygia, linked to Sicilia by two bridges. This is where Syracuse is up to its reputation. Ortygia is beautiful, colorful, noisy, interesting. We found great places to walk around, to eat, to listen to music. And one of the most impressive places was the cathedral which still retains the pillars of the ancient temple dedicated to Athena. This mixture of old and new, of paganism and monotheism was quite surprising. We also had a few dives as we had heard that it was a famous diving place. To be honest we were a little disappointed. Except a bronze statue of a mermaid that was recently placed underwater, we didn't see anything extraordinary. But it is always nice to go underwater so we don't complain.

The day we left Syracuse was a very busy one. We headed inland and made a stop at Caltagirone, another famous Sicilian baroque city. This one which is a maze of very little streets perched on a rocky outcrop is characterized by the extensive use of multi-color mosaics and one of the most visible example is a staircase of 142 steps, each one decorated with polychrome ceramic tiles. We couldn't stay long because our goal was the Roman Villa del Casale which is almost at the center of the island. It dates back to the end of the IIIrd century, has around 30 rooms including private roman baths and apartments, a central garden and fountain (a pool I would say). More important, the excavations have revealed preserved mosaic floors of incredible beauty and diversity. This visit was one of the most awing, moving and informative visits of the road trip. If there is a place to go when in Sicily, this is one of them. But the following one was also extraordinary.

The valley of the Temples in Agrigente is unimaginable if you haven't experienced it. We were lucky to have booked a room in a B&B situated in the middle of the archeological area with a direct view of the temples by day, illuminated by the sun, and night, beautifully lighted by warm electrical lights. Our stay was perfect, welcomed by a family living in a mixture of traditional house, farm, surrounded by dogs, birds, peacocks (at least 10). And there are no words to describe the feelings experienced when you walk from temple to temple, some almost completely in ruins, others almost complete. We listened to ours hosts recommendation so, after having visited the archeological museum we headed to the valley and walked our way up during daylight to slowly walk our way down during dusk. It was magical.

And we ended our road trip in Palermo where we spent almost three days there. Before taking our quarters in the city center, we made a stopover in Monreale where we discovered what a religious mosaic decoration ...  Read more  

 Seats have been booked for almost a year and emotions where intense.
AJR in the 1st half is a very nice band and so full of energy. A very nice experience and for me, a discovery. The kids already knew them of course!

I rank Imagine Dragons at the level of Pink Floyd, the Rolling Stones or Genesis. The musicians are real artists, amazing and the singer is a phenomenon with an extraordinary voice and in total communion with the audience. The girls (not only mine) mutated to authentic groupies to my "ears" disadvantage.

There were over 30000 people vibrating to the songs, all famous to everybody.
The castle nearby provided a magical setting that enhanced the entire experience!

All in all, a unique and awesome experience! 

 This summer, we decided to make a home-run regarding diving.
The little port in the south of France were we tend to spend our summers has an amazing diving base C.A.P. Port-Vendres. That is also the place we made our last diving levels, so the staff knows us, we know them, and they also have an amazing restaurant inside the base.
What better location to dive? Right.
At the same time, our Nephew who saw us diving regularly asked to try it out. So he did a first time, and decided he wanted to go further. He soon achieved "Silver Diver" level (FFESSM). He'll be able to make N1 when 12 years old.
On the other hand, some friends wanted to try out diving, so we took them with us to try it out .
Of course, as usual, I took loads of pictures and made a small movie posted to Youtube on my channel. 

 It is the time of the year again, where the family has to get out of the mist, and see some sun.
Having had bad experiences with the Covid-19 the past years we didn't want to go too far, so we chose to go to Malta. We had heard that the visibility under water is awesome, and that there are lots of Wrecks and Caves to explore.
Once arrived, we were actually shocked by the "architecture" in the tourist places. As there are no rules as what to build and how to build, the result can only be described as ugly chaos. Fortunately, when going to the old places (M'dina, Valletta), we were amazed by the beauty and history we could see.

Because experience taught us, that diving every day twice is quite tiring, we did pause the 4th day to visit M'dina. The last 2 days in Malte we spend in Valletta, and visited the usual tourist places. Note that the Military Museum is really a must.
Regarding the dives. we saw some awesome Wrecks, and also some awesome caves. The visibility was excellent (compared to what we have in southern France) so we were really positively surprised by what we saw.
Our Dive-Guide having seen pretty fast that we had a good level, took us exploring the inside of the wrecks (sometimes, I could barely pass as the passage ways were made for small people).

The caves he took us to were of different sizes. Sometimes you could just wiggle your way through, and sometimes you could literally drive a bus through it. But see for yourselves. All pictures and movies are available in our Gallery
A small video with the best parts can be seen on Youtube 

 This summer holiday season, we had decided to go diving again down south at our regular diving school (C.A.P Port-Vendres). Also, we have decided to actually pass some levels, and my wife and our youngest made the N2 (Autonomous Diver to 20m depth, and 40m with supervision) level. My oldest and myself achieved the Nitrox and Advanced Nitrox level.
After we had all classes and levels done, we of course went in for many more dives to explore the local "reserves" around the diving base.

Some pictures and videos of our dives can be seen in our Gallery. 

 the Gang went skiing again, this time to the Pyrenees.
Well, not the usual gang, our oldest is not in the same "holiday" region so she gets her holidays when we come back.
At the same time, as she had some exams to pass - the timing was not that bad.
To complete our numbers to 4, we took a friend from our youngest with us. Condition was she knew how to ski! and she does know how to ski.
We found a small location where to stay, and the host even had a beer brewery (which made the beer consumption go up). Breakfast and dinner being included, it was really "resting" to be there.
No more hunting for the next dinner location etc. We just came back from Skiing, rested until dinner was served and had a nice time with the hosts and eventually some other guests.
The slopes were really nice, and there was enough snow to open them all. The day before we left had seen some decent snow-fall, so the last day was really an awesome skiing day.
Some more pictures can be seen in our public cloud. 

 For the first time, we went diving in Lanzarote during october school holidays.
In fact, our diving club L.A.C. (Liancourt Aqua Club) organized a quite cheap diving week for those who wanted to participate.
After flying in from Paris Orly, we landed in Lanzarote, had a small briefing in the evening on how the diving would be organized, and went for it. In short, we had 2 dives in the mornings 9h to 13h (with break), and in the afternoon we were free to do as we please.
We had mostly 2 group of divers. One group was supervised, as the divers had only their level 1 license and weren't allowed to go deeper than 20m. The rest could go at least to 40m, and some even had the license to die alone at 60m (as per our diving instructors told us while signing for our level 3 license).

The underwater landscape was amazing. As Lanzarote is composed of around 300 volcanoes, the underwater landscape was in par. We did dive in shallow waters as in deep waters (going down to 48m), did visit some old ship-wrecks, and some caves just because we could. Went to water from stairs, boat, or just jumped in. Check out the videos we did on Youtube: My video, and the Video of a diving friend.

Because, as all divers know, our nitrogen levels were too high to take a plane right after diving, the last day had to be spent on land.
2 spots that anyone on Lanzarote should visit are: the "national parc of Timanfaya", which is the the landscape saved from human intervention since the big eruption of 1730, and the site called "Jameos dela agua". Both truly awesome!

I also put some pictures on my public cloud  

 in between Covid-19 Season III and IV, we decided to go on holidays early this year, starting with the second week of July.
While driving down south, we first met the gamer friends of the kids in Issoire and invited them for dinner. Before dinner however, the kids decided to do a lasergame.

The next day we went down to our "home" town in the Corbière were we spent 7 days visiting some of the old Cathar fortresses (Montsegur, Aguilar and Termes), and also the city of Narbonne.
Note that the Cathar fortresses are always worth seeing. The location where these are built is just unbelievable.

Once that week was over, we went down to Port-Vendres a gorgeous little city on the sea side. Because we expected our Junior to join us with Friend and kid, we had to rent something able to take in 7 people. Renting a Yacht was cheaper as it seemed all prices for flats went highwire with all french people going on holidays in France.
For 14 days, my oldest and myself were working on getting a new diving license, while my wife an our youngest did enjoy their time reading and diving.
During these 14 days however, we also went out with the Yacht and spent a night in the "Baie de Paulilles" where we celebrated my wife's birthday, and we also sailed to the Spanish "point of Creus". Needless to say that the entire family enjoyed the ride and the time on the Yacht.

On the way back home, we stopped in the "Lot" were we stayed for 3 nights discovering the region. 2 places I'd really recommend to anyone going there, is the "Padirac chasm" and the small city of Rocamadour embedded in the mountainside. Both were really breathtaking.
On the 3rd day we visited the private "Castle of Cenevières", lunched in a very cute but too touristic village called "Saint Cirq Lapopie" and lastly visited the "Saint-Pierre Abbey of Marcilhac-sur-Célé" which was fascinating thanks to a dedicated guide.

All in all, these holidays have been amazing.  

 Our youngest has taken an interest in World War II and asked us if we could visit places related to it. Of course my wife immediately devised a little trip which led us to Normandy where various memorials dot the land.

We rented a colourful house in the middle of nowhere and literally went off the grid as no network was available. But it didn't matter as we were always visiting something. Our first museum was the Airborne museum in Sainte-Mère-Eglise where the Battle of Normandy (operation Overlord) started. On the night of the 6th of June 1944, paratroopers were dropped behind enemy lines and landed, amongst other places) in this little town, one being famously caught by his parachute on the church's bell tower. The museum is awesome, with artefacts, real planes and gliders, dioramas, and the use of iPads and QR codes to watch documentaries and listen to testimonies. The afternoon was spent outdoors at the Pointe du Hoc were a path roams around German blockhaus and defences.

The next day was spent in Bayeux which was a mixture of interesting things to do and a major disappointment. The attractions and museums are still dealt with as if we were in the 1980's with no booking on line (we didn't get to see the famous Bayeux Tapestry as it would have entailed hours of queuing) and an outdated (although interesting) museum dedicated to the Battle of Normandy. But the city is cute and lunch was nice. We ended up going to the beach to take a look at the famous landing beaches. There was nothing left at Omaha but what is left of the Mulberry harbour in Arromanches on Gold Beach is quite impressive.

While driving back the following day we stopped at Caen and enjoyed a guided tour of the Abbey of Saint-Etienne, founded by William the Conqueror in 1063, and now the city's town hall. We spent the afternoon in the Memorial of Caen which encompasses the entirety of World War II. It is an extremely interesting and well devised museum with all aspects of the war being exhibited. We spent four hours there and the girls (and us) expanded their knowledge about this war. We gave up on the galleries dedicated to the Cold War. This will be another opportunity to go back to Caen and continue visiting the city and its surroundings.  

 Due to the pandemic, we did what most French people did : we decided to stay in France and enjoy its the natural and historical wonders. So we packed our bags (well lots of them), hopped in the car and hit the road.

Our first stop was around 400 km south where we made our first stop. We landed in Chatelguyon, a cute little spa town situated in central France. Our hotel was awesome (2 rooms linked by a terrace, a heated pool, a jacuzzi ...) and our first visit was for Vulcania, a park dedicated to volcanoes, which is in fact quite logical as the area is famous for its array of extinct volcanoes. But, as everywhere in France, it is also full of castles (we had a guided tour at the personally renovated Tournoèl castle) and historical landmarks (we visited the museum of Gergovie where, in 52 B.C., the Celts led by Vercingetorix inflicted a major defeat to the Roman troops led by Caesar).

We then continued south towards Montpellier where we have family, making a stop at the amazing Templar fortified village named the Couvertoirade. This time we rented a charming house in the centre of a medieval village north of Montpellier. We spent time with our son, relaxed on the beach and also rediscovered the area (sailing the Mediterranean sea, spending half a day in the Camargue area where wildlife can easily be spotted, canoed on the river Herault and got lost in the adorable village of Saint-Guilhem-le-desert and the medieval fortress of Aigues-Mortes).

The next week we stayed along the Mediterranean Sea and continued towards Spain, stopping at Sorède, not far from Port-Vendres. There we (the whole family) just dived (early in the morning, later in the afternoon and even one during the night) and chilled out. Some of us were able to do a wreck dive (my eldest daughter and myself). You can see a selection of pictures in the Diving Gallery.
We just made a break into our diving spree to visit the animal sanctuary of Sigean. It starts with an hour in the car driving among wild animals (bears, lions, antelopes ...) and then we continued on foot the rest of the day. It's a huge sanctuary with numerous species, some of them considered endangered species. So I guess it's not a bad idea for them to be protected.

During our last week we started heading back North, towards home. We made two stops. The first one was in our next home place. We discovered the cutest village in the middle of the Corbières Massif at the foot of the Pyrenees. Not only is the place gorgeous but he inhabitants (permanent or holiday house owners) were incredible. We got along so well that leaving was heartbreaking. So we hope something to sell, that suits us, will come up so we can establish our family home over there. From there we roamed around and climbed to some of the so-called "vertigo Citadels" of Queribus and Peyrepertuse, we enjoyed lunch in a medieval restaurant (no forks !!!) and followed an inspired guide in the impressive Fontfroide monastery.

Before arriving in the Cathar country we had made a pause at Tautavel where a lovely guide explained to us how the prehistoric cave had been discovered and what it revealed of this long gone cousin of us humans. So we had decided to continue on this prehistoric trail while driving back north and this was our last stop. We spent two days in the area of the Lascaux cave which we visited during a private tour. The entire cave was recreated identically to the first and the rendering is astonishing. We spent two hours there admiring the mural paintings and listening to another fascinating guide.

The other visits we made were also nice (castle of Villerouge-Terménés and the castle of Hautefort). We wanted to spend some time in Rocamadour, one of the prettiest places in France, but the temperature was so high it was impossible to stay under the sun. So we saw it from a high point on the restaurant's terrace and we will go back another time.

Our road trip ended on a humbling visit to the martyr town of Oradour-sur-Glane where the German Das Reich Division exterminated 642 civilians. The place has never been reoccupied since and one just walks around the ruined streets and houses where scattered burned objects (cars, sewing machines, tables ...) lie around. It was a very solemn way to end our holiday but also an accurate transition to the next little trip we made two weeks later.