Well, this is the end. We've been in Paris since Monday morning. We dropped the car back to Peugeot, after dropping our bags at the Hotel, then heading up the Champs Elysees and going 1 and a half times around the Arc d'Triomphe. It was a blast! (Anne here – David did an awesome job of driving into and through Paris – no lane markings, 5 lanes of traffic when there should only be 3 – roundabouts the size of the Stadium.....and motorbikes and cyclists everywhere! Thanks David!)
We spent Monday afternoon on the Avenue de la Grand Armee, which is on the other side of the Arc D'Triomphe and where all the local motorbike shops are situated.
We are in a very nice hotel a block away from the Seine, in the Chatelet and Les Halles area, a 15 minute walk from the Louvre.
Tuesday was Bastille day here in France and we spent the day watching the airforce flyover, then heading over to the Latin Quarter for a long lunch. We've enjoyed watching parts of the Tour de France on Television in the afternoons. There was a big fireworks display at the Eiffel Tower, which we got to watch from one of the bridges near the hotel.
Wednesday, we went for dinner with Mary (Trish's sister) and Simon at their lovely apartment in the Les Invalides district.
And today we've just been for a walk around Saint Germain and the Louvre, before having another long lunch and a pleasant final dinner.
Tomorrow, we are up early to head to the airport and the long trip home. We leave at 12:30 in the afternoon, arrive in Singapore at 7am local time, where we spend a day in the Crown Plaza at the airport. Awe arrive in Auckland at 11am and then get back to Wellington at about 3 in the afternoon, in time for work at 9am on Monday morning.
Yehaaa....Great holiday, had a ball. We've got some great ideas for our next couple, so looking forward to more great travelling.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Sunday 12th July – Week 4 – Best meal of the holiday
We are now in Chalons en Champagne for a night in a hotel before heading back to Paris on Monday to drop off the car and spend the final 4 days in the French capital, including Bastille Day on Tuesday.
Jane took us on an interesting drive to our little hotel called Les Clos Des Mutigny in a tiny town called Chaussee Sur Marne, which is about 20kms from Chalons-en-Champagne. Chaussee was on the way to Chalons, so we stopped their on the way to check out the hotel. The town is indeed tiny, the hotel very nice, but when we arrived was in full swing with a wedding after party, so we headed to Chalons for some sightseeing.
On our arrival into Chalons, we were hit by a rain shower, and as this is Sunday, absolutely nothing except the church and a few restaurants were open, so we wandered round abit until we found a restaurant where we had what is our best meal of the holiday. Salad, Steak for me, pork casserole for Anne, then a crème Brulee to die for followed by coffee.
Despite our best efforts at reducing the amount of luggage we take, Anne is just folding up the little bags that Singapore Airlines gave us with a pair of socks, toothpaste and toothbrushes. We won't keep the socks, but apparently the rest of it may come in handy some time, so we'll keep that, including the unfashionably brown nylon bags. Note to self – check to see if those little toothpaste things end up in her handbag back at home at any stage. Our luggage including the bag, but excluding the camping gear weighed 14kgs when we left New Zealand, so we have done very well with travelling light. The camping gear added an extra 17kgs, but next time we'd buy a lot of that when we get here.
We are now having a quiet night in the hotel having taken everything out of the car and for the first time in 4 weeks packed it all back into just two bags. No more using the boot of the car as a wardrobe and no more camping. We've really enjoyed that aspect of our holiday and now have a drive into Paris to look forward to, followed by a drive up the Champs Elysee, round the Arc De Triomphe and then 5ks to the Peugeot dealership. By the time you read this, I will know whether the short 100m round the Arc D' Triomphe ended in tears, or whether I survived one of the craziest roundabouts in the world – I look forward to the challenge.
Jane took us on an interesting drive to our little hotel called Les Clos Des Mutigny in a tiny town called Chaussee Sur Marne, which is about 20kms from Chalons-en-Champagne. Chaussee was on the way to Chalons, so we stopped their on the way to check out the hotel. The town is indeed tiny, the hotel very nice, but when we arrived was in full swing with a wedding after party, so we headed to Chalons for some sightseeing.
On our arrival into Chalons, we were hit by a rain shower, and as this is Sunday, absolutely nothing except the church and a few restaurants were open, so we wandered round abit until we found a restaurant where we had what is our best meal of the holiday. Salad, Steak for me, pork casserole for Anne, then a crème Brulee to die for followed by coffee.
Despite our best efforts at reducing the amount of luggage we take, Anne is just folding up the little bags that Singapore Airlines gave us with a pair of socks, toothpaste and toothbrushes. We won't keep the socks, but apparently the rest of it may come in handy some time, so we'll keep that, including the unfashionably brown nylon bags. Note to self – check to see if those little toothpaste things end up in her handbag back at home at any stage. Our luggage including the bag, but excluding the camping gear weighed 14kgs when we left New Zealand, so we have done very well with travelling light. The camping gear added an extra 17kgs, but next time we'd buy a lot of that when we get here.
We are now having a quiet night in the hotel having taken everything out of the car and for the first time in 4 weeks packed it all back into just two bags. No more using the boot of the car as a wardrobe and no more camping. We've really enjoyed that aspect of our holiday and now have a drive into Paris to look forward to, followed by a drive up the Champs Elysee, round the Arc De Triomphe and then 5ks to the Peugeot dealership. By the time you read this, I will know whether the short 100m round the Arc D' Triomphe ended in tears, or whether I survived one of the craziest roundabouts in the world – I look forward to the challenge.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Saturday 11th July – Week 4 – weird or dead today
Today being Saturday, we decided to go for a drive around some of the small local villages. Heading away, as is custom before breakfast, we headed for our first stop of Bar Sur Seine – about 40kms away.
Having parked the car in Bar Sur Seine, we rounded the corner onto the main street of town, to be met by this loud music coming, we thought, from a 4WD that had just parked on the footpath where we were about to walk. “A bit rude” we thought. Firstly parking on the footpath right in front of us, then having really loud music. As we walked past the 4WD (on the road, cos it was on the footpath), we realised that the loud music wasn't coming from the 4WD, but from a speaker mounted high on the wall of a nearby building. As we walked up the street, the music stayed at the same volume because every building seemed to have a speaker on it. After 100m of that street we rounded the corner to get the same thing on the next street. I have no idea what the music was for, or why it was being played, but the speakers all looked reasonably permanent, so it must be a local custom. Our objective was to get a coffee and some croissants for breakfast, preferably away from the noise. Having walked the length and breath of the town without being able to escape the music, we decided to stop at the only local cafe that had anybody in it. Everybody was inside scatching their Loto tickets, so we ordered our coffees and went and sat outside at the unoccuppied of the two tables that were out on the sidewalk.
We then realised that these tables were for smokers at that sidewalk dining was not really part of this town. Next two guys came out and asked if they could share our table. “of course” we said, and so they started to pour their beers at 10:30 in the morning. Shaking wildly, this was obviously the hair of the dog, and this was the weirdest town we had visited anywhere we had travelled. The music gave it a bit of “The Prisoner” feel, from the 60's tv series. Anyway, after that, we gulped down our coffee and headed out of town – it was the weird bit of the day.
From there, dead was the order of the day as we travelled through a series of towns, all of which were part of the L'Aube champagne route, and without exception they were all complete deserted. First off was Chaourse, which makes a cheese that is famous throughout the area. Having tried it, it is neither particularly tasty, particularly creamy or particularly textureful, but it is the local cheese and they are obviously very proud of it, so we have tried it and can now move on. From Chaourse we then visited Les Riceys and Essoyes. All these towns are on the Route Des Champagnes, but the volume of grapes was nothing like we had seen in the Alsace, or the Mosele. There were plenty of Champagne houses to visit along the way, but it's not really our thing, so sorry we didn't. Because all the towns were so quiet, we headed back to Troyes for a long lunch in the square, before returning to the campground and our last night camping.
After nearly 20 years of service, actually, make that 15 weeks of service over nearly 20 years, we have decided to leave our tent in the campground at Troyes, as it's quite heavy, is past is prime, doesn't enable us to stand up and would we'd probably have to get it cleaned by NZ Border Control. We left the tent, our two camp chairs and some other stuff at the camp restaurant. The campground owner was very happy to receive them and said that people were always showing up who had forgotten their tent, or had some mishap that would make them very happy to have our tent.
Having parked the car in Bar Sur Seine, we rounded the corner onto the main street of town, to be met by this loud music coming, we thought, from a 4WD that had just parked on the footpath where we were about to walk. “A bit rude” we thought. Firstly parking on the footpath right in front of us, then having really loud music. As we walked past the 4WD (on the road, cos it was on the footpath), we realised that the loud music wasn't coming from the 4WD, but from a speaker mounted high on the wall of a nearby building. As we walked up the street, the music stayed at the same volume because every building seemed to have a speaker on it. After 100m of that street we rounded the corner to get the same thing on the next street. I have no idea what the music was for, or why it was being played, but the speakers all looked reasonably permanent, so it must be a local custom. Our objective was to get a coffee and some croissants for breakfast, preferably away from the noise. Having walked the length and breath of the town without being able to escape the music, we decided to stop at the only local cafe that had anybody in it. Everybody was inside scatching their Loto tickets, so we ordered our coffees and went and sat outside at the unoccuppied of the two tables that were out on the sidewalk.
We then realised that these tables were for smokers at that sidewalk dining was not really part of this town. Next two guys came out and asked if they could share our table. “of course” we said, and so they started to pour their beers at 10:30 in the morning. Shaking wildly, this was obviously the hair of the dog, and this was the weirdest town we had visited anywhere we had travelled. The music gave it a bit of “The Prisoner” feel, from the 60's tv series. Anyway, after that, we gulped down our coffee and headed out of town – it was the weird bit of the day.
From there, dead was the order of the day as we travelled through a series of towns, all of which were part of the L'Aube champagne route, and without exception they were all complete deserted. First off was Chaourse, which makes a cheese that is famous throughout the area. Having tried it, it is neither particularly tasty, particularly creamy or particularly textureful, but it is the local cheese and they are obviously very proud of it, so we have tried it and can now move on. From Chaourse we then visited Les Riceys and Essoyes. All these towns are on the Route Des Champagnes, but the volume of grapes was nothing like we had seen in the Alsace, or the Mosele. There were plenty of Champagne houses to visit along the way, but it's not really our thing, so sorry we didn't. Because all the towns were so quiet, we headed back to Troyes for a long lunch in the square, before returning to the campground and our last night camping.
After nearly 20 years of service, actually, make that 15 weeks of service over nearly 20 years, we have decided to leave our tent in the campground at Troyes, as it's quite heavy, is past is prime, doesn't enable us to stand up and would we'd probably have to get it cleaned by NZ Border Control. We left the tent, our two camp chairs and some other stuff at the camp restaurant. The campground owner was very happy to receive them and said that people were always showing up who had forgotten their tent, or had some mishap that would make them very happy to have our tent.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Friday 10th July – Week 4 – Drive to Troyes
After two educational days in Verdun, we are off to Troyes and the heart of Champagne country today. The start of the trip continues the WWI theme, with the drive from Verdun to Bar Le Duc being on the famous Voie Sacre – the sacred road. This is the road is WWI that was used to ship a constant stream of men and supplies to the front line. 8 quarries had to be developed along the 60km course of the road to create enough gravel to keep the road maintained. In order to maintain morale, men were constantly cycled in and out of Verdun. Any unit that lost 1/3 of its capability through death or injury we reassigned to a different location in the war. It is for this reason that 80% of French soldiers in WWI served in Verdun at one time or another. The Voie Sacre, today, is marked with kilometre markers, topped with a soldiers helmet.
Jane took us on a myriad of back roads, some of which amazed us as to her knowledge of the minutiae of the French countryside. The fist stop of the morning was at Bar Le Duc for a coffee au lait, pain au chocolat and a pain au raisin. From there is was on to Briemme Le Chateau, the cabbage capital of France. Approaching the town, the Chateau sits on top of a hill at the end of the main road into the town. It is not open to the public and learning the Briemme was the cabbage capital of France, we decided to move on. Briemme supplies 25% of the entire French cabbage requirements, although I suspect that in reality, 25% of the French cabbage tonnage, is a very similar figure to 25% of the Alsatian cabbage tonnage – bloody sauerkraut.
Arriving at Troyes, we headed first to the town centre for a look around and lunch. The town itself is very nice, with large squares and a nice mixture of modern, old and very old buildings. Some of the 15th century buildings are on an incredible lean and it would have been great to see what they were like on the inside. I can't belive that the floors are on the crazy angles of the outer beams, but as they aren't open to the public, who would know. After lunch, we headed excitedly for the campground for our last two nights of camping on the holiday. That evening, we headed into the town for a dinner of Andouilette de Troyes, a chitterling sausage made of stomach, tripe and other unmentionable bits, topped with fried shallots and a green salad. Despite the sound of it, it was actually very nice.
Jane took us on a myriad of back roads, some of which amazed us as to her knowledge of the minutiae of the French countryside. The fist stop of the morning was at Bar Le Duc for a coffee au lait, pain au chocolat and a pain au raisin. From there is was on to Briemme Le Chateau, the cabbage capital of France. Approaching the town, the Chateau sits on top of a hill at the end of the main road into the town. It is not open to the public and learning the Briemme was the cabbage capital of France, we decided to move on. Briemme supplies 25% of the entire French cabbage requirements, although I suspect that in reality, 25% of the French cabbage tonnage, is a very similar figure to 25% of the Alsatian cabbage tonnage – bloody sauerkraut.
Arriving at Troyes, we headed first to the town centre for a look around and lunch. The town itself is very nice, with large squares and a nice mixture of modern, old and very old buildings. Some of the 15th century buildings are on an incredible lean and it would have been great to see what they were like on the inside. I can't belive that the floors are on the crazy angles of the outer beams, but as they aren't open to the public, who would know. After lunch, we headed excitedly for the campground for our last two nights of camping on the holiday. That evening, we headed into the town for a dinner of Andouilette de Troyes, a chitterling sausage made of stomach, tripe and other unmentionable bits, topped with fried shallots and a green salad. Despite the sound of it, it was actually very nice.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Thursday 9th July – Week 4 – Verdun
Today is World War I day. Verdun was the centre of one of the major conflicts of WWI. While the French leadership were concentrating all their efforts on preparing for the Somme, the Germans were building up capability and infrastructure to attack Verdun. The Germans were desparate for a morale boosting win because the population were becoming despondent with the lack of progress that was being made in the war.
On the morning of February 21 1916, they began their attack and in the first 10 hours unleashed 2 million shells on the towns around Verdun. The fighting which went on for 300 days and while the Germans originally made good progress towards Verdun, they were constantly thwarted by the French and at the end of the 300 day war, they were back to where they started and around half a million people were dead.
Verdun is a very historic town and our day started with a walk around the old town. Verdun is on the Meuse River, which flows through the centre of the town, making an attractive centre piece and the site of many of the cities restaurants and bars. We visited, town gates, the town hall, the cathedral, the head quarters for the World Capital for Peace and the Carrefour Des Marechaux, the siting of 16 statues of generals of the 1870 Franco Prussian war and WWI.
The cathedral had beautiful stained glass windows and an intriguing entry door system. When you approached, there was a door that said 'pull', which when you did you were immediately confronted with a door that said 'push'. I'm not sure what the intention of these back to back doors were, but if it was to keep the noise out, it railed because I fell into the church laughing at it. Maybe it's designed to keep the birds out.
The Carrefour was the furthest point from the centre of town on our walk and the point at which todays shower took place, which had us sheltering under an archway for half an hour waiting for it to slow down a bit.
After a lunch of Carpaccio of Beef and Pizza (a fairly standard lunch), we head out of town to the war memorials. We visited the Monument de Lion, the museum, the Ossuaire of Douaumont, the destroyed town of Douaumont and the Fort de Douaumont.
Over the course of the battle, their was 60m shells fired and some of these were pretty big. This had a devastating effect on both the local towns and the local countryside. By the end of the war, 9 villages that housed around 3,000 people had been completely destroyed and because of the risk of unexploded shells, they have never been rebuilt. All the towns now have memorials on the site where they existed, and to this day each town has an elected mayor, so that these 'lost towns' are able to carry on in some small way.
The Monument of the Lion marks the point at which the Germans were stopped and rather than the usual proud rampant lion statue, the lion is very much an ailing lion, lying on its side (see photo). Just down the road was the museum, where we spent a couple of hours. Our knowledge of the two World Wars in not as extensive as it could be and it was interesting to read that while the match that ignited world war I was the assassination of Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand of Prussia by a serb, the Germans and French had both been angling for a fight. The Germans wanted to share in the spoils of colonialism that was serving the British, Portugese and French so well, while the French were still smarting at having lost Alsace and parts of Lorraine in the 1870 Franco Prussian war. Both sides entered the war expecting an easy march to victory in Paris or Berlin, but 4 years later at the cost of millions of lives, little had been gained by either side (except the French got back their captured lands).
WWI saw the rapid development of artillery shelling, hand grenades and chemical warfare (mustard gas). In addition, the bright red trousers traditionally worn by French soldiers, were replaced with a much paler trouser, designed to help the soldier blend in with the landscape. Both sides went into the battle expecting wounds to come mainly from bayonets and bullets, whereas most wounds were the result of shrapnel for the shells or the grenades. On the upside, WWI saw the rapid advancement of plastic surgery, x-rays and telecommunications. It was the latter that enabled the war to be co-ordinated over such a large front and the Germans laid 8 – 9 million kilometres of telecommunications cables along the front over the course of the war.. Anyway, that's what I learnt from the museum and it was really interesting.
Next stop was the Ossuaire de Douaumont. This is the permenant memorial to the fallen French soldiers. The remains of some 130,000 are encased in the lower vaults and there is a massive cemetery with all the crosses lined up in neat formation. The Ossuaire has a huge tower, which we climbed to the top of to get aerial views of the cemetery, the surrounding countryside and the museum.
We then visited the destroyed village of Douaumont and it's fort, which at the time of the German invasion was manned only by a few elderly (probably my age) reservists.
Although it is now nearly 100 years since the war, the countryside all around the area still shows all the signs of all the shelling that went on and although it is now a forest, all the ground is still crater
ridden and there are many trenches still in existence, with their barbed wire.
On the morning of February 21 1916, they began their attack and in the first 10 hours unleashed 2 million shells on the towns around Verdun. The fighting which went on for 300 days and while the Germans originally made good progress towards Verdun, they were constantly thwarted by the French and at the end of the 300 day war, they were back to where they started and around half a million people were dead.
Verdun is a very historic town and our day started with a walk around the old town. Verdun is on the Meuse River, which flows through the centre of the town, making an attractive centre piece and the site of many of the cities restaurants and bars. We visited, town gates, the town hall, the cathedral, the head quarters for the World Capital for Peace and the Carrefour Des Marechaux, the siting of 16 statues of generals of the 1870 Franco Prussian war and WWI.
The cathedral had beautiful stained glass windows and an intriguing entry door system. When you approached, there was a door that said 'pull', which when you did you were immediately confronted with a door that said 'push'. I'm not sure what the intention of these back to back doors were, but if it was to keep the noise out, it railed because I fell into the church laughing at it. Maybe it's designed to keep the birds out.
The Carrefour was the furthest point from the centre of town on our walk and the point at which todays shower took place, which had us sheltering under an archway for half an hour waiting for it to slow down a bit.
After a lunch of Carpaccio of Beef and Pizza (a fairly standard lunch), we head out of town to the war memorials. We visited the Monument de Lion, the museum, the Ossuaire of Douaumont, the destroyed town of Douaumont and the Fort de Douaumont.
Over the course of the battle, their was 60m shells fired and some of these were pretty big. This had a devastating effect on both the local towns and the local countryside. By the end of the war, 9 villages that housed around 3,000 people had been completely destroyed and because of the risk of unexploded shells, they have never been rebuilt. All the towns now have memorials on the site where they existed, and to this day each town has an elected mayor, so that these 'lost towns' are able to carry on in some small way.
The Monument of the Lion marks the point at which the Germans were stopped and rather than the usual proud rampant lion statue, the lion is very much an ailing lion, lying on its side (see photo). Just down the road was the museum, where we spent a couple of hours. Our knowledge of the two World Wars in not as extensive as it could be and it was interesting to read that while the match that ignited world war I was the assassination of Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand of Prussia by a serb, the Germans and French had both been angling for a fight. The Germans wanted to share in the spoils of colonialism that was serving the British, Portugese and French so well, while the French were still smarting at having lost Alsace and parts of Lorraine in the 1870 Franco Prussian war. Both sides entered the war expecting an easy march to victory in Paris or Berlin, but 4 years later at the cost of millions of lives, little had been gained by either side (except the French got back their captured lands).
WWI saw the rapid development of artillery shelling, hand grenades and chemical warfare (mustard gas). In addition, the bright red trousers traditionally worn by French soldiers, were replaced with a much paler trouser, designed to help the soldier blend in with the landscape. Both sides went into the battle expecting wounds to come mainly from bayonets and bullets, whereas most wounds were the result of shrapnel for the shells or the grenades. On the upside, WWI saw the rapid advancement of plastic surgery, x-rays and telecommunications. It was the latter that enabled the war to be co-ordinated over such a large front and the Germans laid 8 – 9 million kilometres of telecommunications cables along the front over the course of the war.. Anyway, that's what I learnt from the museum and it was really interesting.
Next stop was the Ossuaire de Douaumont. This is the permenant memorial to the fallen French soldiers. The remains of some 130,000 are encased in the lower vaults and there is a massive cemetery with all the crosses lined up in neat formation. The Ossuaire has a huge tower, which we climbed to the top of to get aerial views of the cemetery, the surrounding countryside and the museum.
We then visited the destroyed village of Douaumont and it's fort, which at the time of the German invasion was manned only by a few elderly (probably my age) reservists.
Although it is now nearly 100 years since the war, the countryside all around the area still shows all the signs of all the shelling that went on and although it is now a forest, all the ground is still crater
ridden and there are many trenches still in existence, with their barbed wire.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Wednesday 8th July – Week 4 – Moselle to Verdun
CNN reports storms over Europe this morning and although the worst of it is more Northeast than we are, we are still in this rain, shine, rain, shine, heavens open, overcast type of weather pattern. It is supposed to be gone by the weekend and the only real impact it is having is that we're staying in hotels, rather than camping. As far as the sightseeing goes, we usually just have to shelter under a shop awning until the current shower passes.
We're changing our itinerary on the fly at the moment – and it's really great to have the flexibility to do that. We had originally planned to spend 5 days in the Rhine / Moselle region, but are now going to spend time in the champagne region at Verdun (site of a major World War I battle), Troyes and Epernay.
After a latish breakfast, we left our hotel and headed down the Moselle. The vineyards climb their way up the sides of the valley, the steepest ones being at an angle of 65 degrees. We stopped and took photos along the route and did a walk in some of the small towns. Bratwurst has become my favourite food of the moment, so I had a couple for lunch (Anne just had one of course). The scenery is very beautiful, with the river, the villages and the vineyards, but there is only so many photos that you can take that involve a church steeple, some houses, a bit of river, a boat and a vineyard. That's my view anyway, although there are some people who say you can never have too many handbags, shoes or motorbike jackets, so maybe I'm wrong there.
After the Moselle, it was back onto the motorways and the hour and a half drive to Verdun to find a hotel for the night. Tonight was washing night and as luck would have it, we spotted a laundromat in the centre of town, so after checking into the hotel, we headed to the laundromat and more importantly a nearby bar to wait for our clothes to do their thing. Dinner was at the same bar and was a Carpaccio and a small dessert between us, so I guess we were still burning off the numerous Bratwursts we had eaten over the past few days.
We're changing our itinerary on the fly at the moment – and it's really great to have the flexibility to do that. We had originally planned to spend 5 days in the Rhine / Moselle region, but are now going to spend time in the champagne region at Verdun (site of a major World War I battle), Troyes and Epernay.
After a latish breakfast, we left our hotel and headed down the Moselle. The vineyards climb their way up the sides of the valley, the steepest ones being at an angle of 65 degrees. We stopped and took photos along the route and did a walk in some of the small towns. Bratwurst has become my favourite food of the moment, so I had a couple for lunch (Anne just had one of course). The scenery is very beautiful, with the river, the villages and the vineyards, but there is only so many photos that you can take that involve a church steeple, some houses, a bit of river, a boat and a vineyard. That's my view anyway, although there are some people who say you can never have too many handbags, shoes or motorbike jackets, so maybe I'm wrong there.
After the Moselle, it was back onto the motorways and the hour and a half drive to Verdun to find a hotel for the night. Tonight was washing night and as luck would have it, we spotted a laundromat in the centre of town, so after checking into the hotel, we headed to the laundromat and more importantly a nearby bar to wait for our clothes to do their thing. Dinner was at the same bar and was a Carpaccio and a small dessert between us, so I guess we were still burning off the numerous Bratwursts we had eaten over the past few days.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Tuesday 7th July – Week 4 – Rhine and Moselle
Right, so here's some things I need to understand about Germany. What's with the cash? This is one of the most advanced societies on the planet, producing some of the best engineered products and I can't pay for a restaurant meal with a credit card. I knew it was like that in the 90's, but really expected that it would have changed in the ensuing 15 years. What made it worse, was that neither of the banks in Bacharach would accept our ATM cards, so we were worried that we wouldn't be able to get any cash. On second thoughts, Bacharach is like some tiny kiwi town, so if you rock into town with your fancy pants bank card, don't be surprised if all they've got is PSIS and the local credit union. We resolved the cash shortage problem today at the next town, but going into the bank was like going into a bank 20 years ago. There was an ATM, another machine that appeared to enable people to make specific payments – like for the electricity and then in the main part of the bank, 3 woman working on computers who looked like they were typing up the ledgers. Despite the neon lights out front, it all seemed very backwards.
After breakfast and a brief walk around Bacharach (it was raining), we headed down the Rhine to the town of St Goar – where we found the bank. St Goar is another tourist town, with a pretty main street full of shops selling a range of tourist tat – cuckoo clocks, beer steins, plastic knights and soldiers, knives etc. The stuff that we'd never wanted before we still didn't want and the stuff that we did like, we'd already got, so after a look around we headed on to Boppard.
There is a cycle track (about 8 feet wide and asphalt) all the way along the Rhine and the Moselle that we have traveled on so far, and although the weather has been decidedly marginal, there is a constant stream of cyclists (mostly of retirement age) riding up and down the river. They are usually accompanied by a bus or some sort of support vehicle and they cruise from town to town stopping at the local cafe's and restaurants. The track is generally slightly downhill, as it follows the course of the river and this is the way that you find most of the riders riding. Helmets aren't compulsory in France and Germany and most people don't wear them, which surprises me as an experienced crasher. Cycling is the latest form of transport to be added to the river's repertoire, and accompanies the barges, cruise boats, cars, trucks and trains that were already storming up and down on or beside the river.
Boppard was a bigger town, which we really liked. It's about 20ks from Koblenz, which is the convergence point of the Rhine, Moselle and the Lahn rivers, so would be a good base for exploring the Rhine. We had however decided to get back into camping, and had chosen another campground on the other side of the Rhine in a town called Lahnstein, so we headed off there to check it out. We got there at 2pm, but the office was closed until 3pm. The campground was set on the top of a hill beside a castle overlooking the town. It was a superb site, but not wanting to hang around for an hour, we headed down into the town and then decided to head down the river on the opposite side to that which we'd come up. As we headed into town, we decided that the town wasn't very nice – it was a bit industrial, then as we headed down the road and got stuck by yet another lot of road works, we decided that the Rhine itself was pretty industrial with all those barges constantly going up and down the river and trains along beside the river. We also decided the Rhine was full of daytrippers and tourist tat – great to have seen it but no need to stay any longer.
It was at this point, that the rain started and we decided that firstly, camping was out for the night and secondly, that it was time that we headed to the quieter waters and the Moselle sounded like a better option than the very busy Rhine. We were on the wrong side of the river for the Moselle, but there are ferries that cross he river at many points so we caught one of these small car ferries for the 3 minute trip (3 minutes, $EUR4.50) and yes, Anne did pay the ferryman before we got to the other side. Jane then took us on one of her back road direct trips, that had us winding our way through the forest and the hill country between the Rhine and the Moselle. Most of the road was single lane, two-way, so it was good that there was a couple of cars ahead of us to lead the way.
The Moselle was lovely and much less busy and also less industrially oriented. For a start, there were no trains and no barges and the towns were much smaller. There was a similar number of vines stretching up the sides of the valley on either side of the river. Many of the vineyards have cog type railways (think of a wellington cable car and your pretty much there), which wind there way up the sides of the valley. The Moselle also had lots of campgrounds right beside the river, but the German style seems to be to just have a fairly open paddock, where all the campers and caravans just park up for the night. The several that we saw did not have a single tent in them, so that, there general appearance and the regular showers were enough to have us heading for a hotel for the night.
Cochem is one of the main towns on the river and we chose a hotel there to spend the night, with Carpaccio and Pizza making a welcome return to the menu. Cochem is spread over both sides of the river and the restaurant we chose was on the other side from our hotel and had a great view of the village and the castle on the hill.
After breakfast and a brief walk around Bacharach (it was raining), we headed down the Rhine to the town of St Goar – where we found the bank. St Goar is another tourist town, with a pretty main street full of shops selling a range of tourist tat – cuckoo clocks, beer steins, plastic knights and soldiers, knives etc. The stuff that we'd never wanted before we still didn't want and the stuff that we did like, we'd already got, so after a look around we headed on to Boppard.
There is a cycle track (about 8 feet wide and asphalt) all the way along the Rhine and the Moselle that we have traveled on so far, and although the weather has been decidedly marginal, there is a constant stream of cyclists (mostly of retirement age) riding up and down the river. They are usually accompanied by a bus or some sort of support vehicle and they cruise from town to town stopping at the local cafe's and restaurants. The track is generally slightly downhill, as it follows the course of the river and this is the way that you find most of the riders riding. Helmets aren't compulsory in France and Germany and most people don't wear them, which surprises me as an experienced crasher. Cycling is the latest form of transport to be added to the river's repertoire, and accompanies the barges, cruise boats, cars, trucks and trains that were already storming up and down on or beside the river.
Boppard was a bigger town, which we really liked. It's about 20ks from Koblenz, which is the convergence point of the Rhine, Moselle and the Lahn rivers, so would be a good base for exploring the Rhine. We had however decided to get back into camping, and had chosen another campground on the other side of the Rhine in a town called Lahnstein, so we headed off there to check it out. We got there at 2pm, but the office was closed until 3pm. The campground was set on the top of a hill beside a castle overlooking the town. It was a superb site, but not wanting to hang around for an hour, we headed down into the town and then decided to head down the river on the opposite side to that which we'd come up. As we headed into town, we decided that the town wasn't very nice – it was a bit industrial, then as we headed down the road and got stuck by yet another lot of road works, we decided that the Rhine itself was pretty industrial with all those barges constantly going up and down the river and trains along beside the river. We also decided the Rhine was full of daytrippers and tourist tat – great to have seen it but no need to stay any longer.
It was at this point, that the rain started and we decided that firstly, camping was out for the night and secondly, that it was time that we headed to the quieter waters and the Moselle sounded like a better option than the very busy Rhine. We were on the wrong side of the river for the Moselle, but there are ferries that cross he river at many points so we caught one of these small car ferries for the 3 minute trip (3 minutes, $EUR4.50) and yes, Anne did pay the ferryman before we got to the other side. Jane then took us on one of her back road direct trips, that had us winding our way through the forest and the hill country between the Rhine and the Moselle. Most of the road was single lane, two-way, so it was good that there was a couple of cars ahead of us to lead the way.
The Moselle was lovely and much less busy and also less industrially oriented. For a start, there were no trains and no barges and the towns were much smaller. There was a similar number of vines stretching up the sides of the valley on either side of the river. Many of the vineyards have cog type railways (think of a wellington cable car and your pretty much there), which wind there way up the sides of the valley. The Moselle also had lots of campgrounds right beside the river, but the German style seems to be to just have a fairly open paddock, where all the campers and caravans just park up for the night. The several that we saw did not have a single tent in them, so that, there general appearance and the regular showers were enough to have us heading for a hotel for the night.
Cochem is one of the main towns on the river and we chose a hotel there to spend the night, with Carpaccio and Pizza making a welcome return to the menu. Cochem is spread over both sides of the river and the restaurant we chose was on the other side from our hotel and had a great view of the village and the castle on the hill.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Monday 6th July – Week 4 – Bacharach
Single beds, single bed duvets and small bath towels – we must be in Germany. Indeed we are, a hop, skip and a jump from Germany's former territory and we were into Deutschland, visiting the Rhine and the Moselle rivers.
Before leaving Strasbourg this morning, we did a bit of a walk around the central city, grabbing a coffee and then getting on the motorway. Leaving France on their 130 kph motorway, we hit Germany and switched immediately to a 90kph rough single lane road for 6ks, which was quite a surprise. As soon as the road increased to dual carriageway, the Germans were off and roared passed me. As the speed limit increased to 130kph, the speeds got even faster and I got blasted past by a range of BMW, Audis, VWs and of course even the “man in the white van” made a brief appearance as he shot past me in one hell of a hurry. Also on the road were more trucks than I knew existed.
The roads in Germany are free and although they allow unlimited speed in some places, they are also the home to millions of trucks, traffic jams and contra-flows. All of which makes for a mixed result, as some of the locals we have spoken to complain of the number of road works, where the lanes are coned off, traffic is at a crawl and there is no apparent work being done.
The weather has now changed from tropical to unsettled and rather than a cloud burst in the afternoons, we are now getting regular deluges at any time of the day or night, the skies are generally overcast and camping has been put on the back burner until the situation rights itself, or the holiday ends, whichever comes first.
Our first deluge of the day came on the motorways and it was one of the scariest experiences I've ever had in a car. Just as I pulled out to pass a truck, the heavens opened and the conditions turned into a white out. All I could see was the silhouette of the truck ahead of me and the white line to the side of me. Everything else was just spray and the road almost immediately was covered in surface water – all this while travelling at 130kph, although the speed reduced rapidly until the conditions improved a couple of minutes later. The brief trip to Bacharach (the small town on the Rhine where we are staying) involved 3 single lane contraflows and one tailback that went on for a couple of kilometres. This is more traffic trouble in one hour on German roads than we've in 3 weeks on French ones, so from our perspective, the French pay as you go system seems to yield a better result.
Bacharach is a pretty little town at the side of the Rhine. We have booked a hotel there for one night. We didn't arrive until mid afternoon, so after checking in and having a bite to eat, we went for a walk around the town before retiring to our room to watch the latest stage of the Tour de France.
We were walking around the town in the evening looking for somewhere for dinner, when this elderly woman came out of one of the restaurants, looked up to the skies and then said to us, “it's certainly chilly out tonight, it was 30 degrees yesterday. Are you looking for something to eat?”. We were both somewhat surprised at both the perfect English and the direct but very friendly apporach, so we both said yes, and with that were taken into one of the smallest restaurants we've ever been in. It was like stepping back in time. The restaurant was a small room the size of a living room, with only 7 tables, one of which was taken up by the Lord of the Manor, who appeared to be in his 80's, but was nonetheless doing the books on his laptop.
The room itself was wood panelling to waist height, with 3 layers of red tiles above that. Animals heads and skins adorned the wall, along with badges from various police and fire departments and there were a couple of stuffed animals on the shelves around the room. The table cloths were green plastic, leadlight lampshades hung from the ceiling and the curtains were red string. The owners obviously had something to do with horses, because there were also several photos of them with horses in their younger days. All the tables and wood panelling in the place was dark, so it really did have a rather old fashioned but comfortable feel to the place. Half of the tables had customers, so Anne settled in for what turned out to be one of the most enjoyable meals of the holiday. After all the French fare, it was nice to have some simpler food, so the Bratwurst and French fries, and the Weinerschnitzel was absolutely perfect. The lady of the house of course convinced us to have some of her home made apple struddle, which was to die for, so we left the restaurant well satisfied and all for the extremely reasonable price of only 30 Euros including a beer and a pitcher of wine (the food and wine were suggested by the lady of the house! She ordered and we enjoyed)
It is difficult to know how the GFC is affecting Europe (as translating the odd news we see is beyond our language skills) but certainly things seem quiet especially as this is peak season! The restaurants are not full and neither are the hotels, nor the campgrounds – certainly a surprise at this time of year! We have been told that a lot of Europeans are holidaying at home (be that in France or Germany!). The exception of course is the Netherlands, where 1 in 5 of them have got a caravan, so they are all out traveling the highways and biways of Europe – as we are.
Before leaving Strasbourg this morning, we did a bit of a walk around the central city, grabbing a coffee and then getting on the motorway. Leaving France on their 130 kph motorway, we hit Germany and switched immediately to a 90kph rough single lane road for 6ks, which was quite a surprise. As soon as the road increased to dual carriageway, the Germans were off and roared passed me. As the speed limit increased to 130kph, the speeds got even faster and I got blasted past by a range of BMW, Audis, VWs and of course even the “man in the white van” made a brief appearance as he shot past me in one hell of a hurry. Also on the road were more trucks than I knew existed.
The roads in Germany are free and although they allow unlimited speed in some places, they are also the home to millions of trucks, traffic jams and contra-flows. All of which makes for a mixed result, as some of the locals we have spoken to complain of the number of road works, where the lanes are coned off, traffic is at a crawl and there is no apparent work being done.
The weather has now changed from tropical to unsettled and rather than a cloud burst in the afternoons, we are now getting regular deluges at any time of the day or night, the skies are generally overcast and camping has been put on the back burner until the situation rights itself, or the holiday ends, whichever comes first.
Our first deluge of the day came on the motorways and it was one of the scariest experiences I've ever had in a car. Just as I pulled out to pass a truck, the heavens opened and the conditions turned into a white out. All I could see was the silhouette of the truck ahead of me and the white line to the side of me. Everything else was just spray and the road almost immediately was covered in surface water – all this while travelling at 130kph, although the speed reduced rapidly until the conditions improved a couple of minutes later. The brief trip to Bacharach (the small town on the Rhine where we are staying) involved 3 single lane contraflows and one tailback that went on for a couple of kilometres. This is more traffic trouble in one hour on German roads than we've in 3 weeks on French ones, so from our perspective, the French pay as you go system seems to yield a better result.
Bacharach is a pretty little town at the side of the Rhine. We have booked a hotel there for one night. We didn't arrive until mid afternoon, so after checking in and having a bite to eat, we went for a walk around the town before retiring to our room to watch the latest stage of the Tour de France.
We were walking around the town in the evening looking for somewhere for dinner, when this elderly woman came out of one of the restaurants, looked up to the skies and then said to us, “it's certainly chilly out tonight, it was 30 degrees yesterday. Are you looking for something to eat?”. We were both somewhat surprised at both the perfect English and the direct but very friendly apporach, so we both said yes, and with that were taken into one of the smallest restaurants we've ever been in. It was like stepping back in time. The restaurant was a small room the size of a living room, with only 7 tables, one of which was taken up by the Lord of the Manor, who appeared to be in his 80's, but was nonetheless doing the books on his laptop.
The room itself was wood panelling to waist height, with 3 layers of red tiles above that. Animals heads and skins adorned the wall, along with badges from various police and fire departments and there were a couple of stuffed animals on the shelves around the room. The table cloths were green plastic, leadlight lampshades hung from the ceiling and the curtains were red string. The owners obviously had something to do with horses, because there were also several photos of them with horses in their younger days. All the tables and wood panelling in the place was dark, so it really did have a rather old fashioned but comfortable feel to the place. Half of the tables had customers, so Anne settled in for what turned out to be one of the most enjoyable meals of the holiday. After all the French fare, it was nice to have some simpler food, so the Bratwurst and French fries, and the Weinerschnitzel was absolutely perfect. The lady of the house of course convinced us to have some of her home made apple struddle, which was to die for, so we left the restaurant well satisfied and all for the extremely reasonable price of only 30 Euros including a beer and a pitcher of wine (the food and wine were suggested by the lady of the house! She ordered and we enjoyed)
It is difficult to know how the GFC is affecting Europe (as translating the odd news we see is beyond our language skills) but certainly things seem quiet especially as this is peak season! The restaurants are not full and neither are the hotels, nor the campgrounds – certainly a surprise at this time of year! We have been told that a lot of Europeans are holidaying at home (be that in France or Germany!). The exception of course is the Netherlands, where 1 in 5 of them have got a caravan, so they are all out traveling the highways and biways of Europe – as we are.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Sunday 5th July – Week 3 – Route Des Vins / Strasbourg
We were up at 8am and had the tent cleaned and packed by 8:30 and were then on the road along the Route Des Vins to Strasbourg. The campground at Ribeauville had been really great, but after two heavy showers, the area around our tent was now very muddy and its original appeal of being well shaded meant that in the dry spells it hadn't dried out at all.
Being a Sunday night tonight, we have decided that this and Monday night will be hotel nights. Tonight will be in Strasbourg, where we have booked the Hotel Gutenburg, right in the centre of town and then Monday night we will be on the Rhine in a tiny little town call Bacharach.
Our route to Strasbourg was on the Route Des Vins, the tourist road that runs from one end of the Alsace to the other. It's actually the road we've been driving up and down for the last couple of days, but I just haven't got around to mentioning it. After all the rain, the day was amazingly crystal clear and we took some great photos of the vineyards and the small towns as we went along. There really is a town every couple of kilometres and in some of the photos, you can see two or three them spanned out towards the horizon. We stopped at the town of Itterswiller, because it in particular caught our eye, with all the houses and hotels having brilliantly colourful window boxes full of geraniums and petunias (Anne told me that).
Our first scheduled stop on the way to Stasbourg, was at the town of Obernai. Parking on the outskirts of town, we did a walking tour of the town and it's very impressive cathedral. There were a myriad of bus tours in town – old people and American school kids, so the place was pretty busy. Being a Sunday of course, there were also a hundred motorbikes in town, with their owners all wading around in their extravagantly hot protective gear. I enjoyed looking at the motorbikes, but couldn't do the 30 odd degree heat with all the gear.
Leaving Obernai, it was on the motorway to Strasbourg. Jane did an excellent job of navigating us straight to the hotel door, or the parking building 50 metres away. Heading out to find some lunch, there was a Romanian Food Festival on in Gutenburg Square, which is right beside the hotel, so we stopped there to see what they could do with minced meat and potato and also to pick up some information about tourism in Romania. The Potato salad and the spiced mince sausages were very nice, as was the Apple Struddle, which had a filling that was almost like cream cheese.
After lunch, we headed to the Strasbourg Cathedral, which is magnificent – both the external facade and the stained glass windows inside. People were climbing up inside the church towers, but given the heat and the recent lunch, we decided that we'd go and check into our hotel and watch the Tour de France (which isn't nearly as good when you've only got French, German or Italian (we did have all three) commentators.
We went for a long walk in the evening, down to Petite France, the canal area of Strasbourg and then along the riverbank of the River Ill doing a big circuit all the way back to the cathedral, before heading back down to Petite France to one of the restaurants we had seen beside the canals. It had the intriguing name of La Corde A Ligne – The Clothes Line and all the menu items were named after things to do with washing, or washing machines. It sounds odd, when translated to English, but the menu itself was pretty cool and we had a meal of Spatzle and meatballs in a mustard sauce (me), and Spatzle and half a chicken (Anne), which we shared.
Being a Sunday night tonight, we have decided that this and Monday night will be hotel nights. Tonight will be in Strasbourg, where we have booked the Hotel Gutenburg, right in the centre of town and then Monday night we will be on the Rhine in a tiny little town call Bacharach.
Our route to Strasbourg was on the Route Des Vins, the tourist road that runs from one end of the Alsace to the other. It's actually the road we've been driving up and down for the last couple of days, but I just haven't got around to mentioning it. After all the rain, the day was amazingly crystal clear and we took some great photos of the vineyards and the small towns as we went along. There really is a town every couple of kilometres and in some of the photos, you can see two or three them spanned out towards the horizon. We stopped at the town of Itterswiller, because it in particular caught our eye, with all the houses and hotels having brilliantly colourful window boxes full of geraniums and petunias (Anne told me that).
Our first scheduled stop on the way to Stasbourg, was at the town of Obernai. Parking on the outskirts of town, we did a walking tour of the town and it's very impressive cathedral. There were a myriad of bus tours in town – old people and American school kids, so the place was pretty busy. Being a Sunday of course, there were also a hundred motorbikes in town, with their owners all wading around in their extravagantly hot protective gear. I enjoyed looking at the motorbikes, but couldn't do the 30 odd degree heat with all the gear.
Leaving Obernai, it was on the motorway to Strasbourg. Jane did an excellent job of navigating us straight to the hotel door, or the parking building 50 metres away. Heading out to find some lunch, there was a Romanian Food Festival on in Gutenburg Square, which is right beside the hotel, so we stopped there to see what they could do with minced meat and potato and also to pick up some information about tourism in Romania. The Potato salad and the spiced mince sausages were very nice, as was the Apple Struddle, which had a filling that was almost like cream cheese.
After lunch, we headed to the Strasbourg Cathedral, which is magnificent – both the external facade and the stained glass windows inside. People were climbing up inside the church towers, but given the heat and the recent lunch, we decided that we'd go and check into our hotel and watch the Tour de France (which isn't nearly as good when you've only got French, German or Italian (we did have all three) commentators.
We went for a long walk in the evening, down to Petite France, the canal area of Strasbourg and then along the riverbank of the River Ill doing a big circuit all the way back to the cathedral, before heading back down to Petite France to one of the restaurants we had seen beside the canals. It had the intriguing name of La Corde A Ligne – The Clothes Line and all the menu items were named after things to do with washing, or washing machines. It sounds odd, when translated to English, but the menu itself was pretty cool and we had a meal of Spatzle and meatballs in a mustard sauce (me), and Spatzle and half a chicken (Anne), which we shared.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Saturday 4th July – Week 3 – Koenigsbourg
Off through the back roads of the Alsace today to visit the hill top castle - Haut Koenigsbourg. The castle had been a ruin, but was fully restored at the start of the 20th Century. It had been first built in the 12th Century and is located on top of a 700m hill, that had views of the Alsace plains, was a perfect defensive stronghold, that is until the Swedes destroyed it in the 17th Century. In 1870, The Alsace and part of the Lorraine became part of Germany as a result of the Franco-Prussian war. It remained in German hands until 1918 and it was during this period that Kaiser William II had it restored to its former glory.
We spent a couple of hours in the interior of the castle, which was very much a defensive fortress whose primary purpose was for the defense of the lands surrounding them. The views over the Alsace, were surprisingly still quite hazy, but it did show that for as far as the eye could see, all there was was vineyards.
After leaving the castle, we stopped in a couple of small villages, but not finding anywhere that grabbed our fancy for lunch, we headed back to Ribeauville, but then had to sit in the car for 20 minutes to wait while the heavens once again opened, in yet another attempt to a.) clear the air of humidity and b.) provide a job creation scheme for the campers who were still mopping up after yesterday's deluge. We decided that once again, a pup tent was no place for anybody over the age of 5 during a torrential down pour and that as we had survived the previous days down pour, we would be OK to survive the latest.
We got a hell of a a fright at one stage, while driving around. A bolt of lightning hit the ground very close by which made an almighty bang. Just as we were hitting our heads on the ceiling of the car, it's accompanying thunderclap went off as well. That's the second time in Europe that we've got very close to lightning bolts and both were pretty spectacular.
We spent an enjoyable couple of hours walking round Ribeauville and having a late lunch / dinner of Beef Bourgonogne. When we returned to the campground, everything was OK, but the door of the tent was half open, but nothing had been taken. A couple of minutes thought about why somebody would look into the smallest tent in the campground brought us to the conclusion that it must be kids, just as one went by with an obvious look of guilt on his face.
There was a local outdoor disco on at a park up the road, so we went up to that for an hour or so, enjoying the 70's and 80's music and the dancing girls on the stage. The DJ with his curly dark hair, mustache and sequined, sleeveless top was also a sight to behold. The disco finished at 11pm and then the drums started, so we walked back to the campground and were soothed off to sleep by their rhythmic beat.
We spent a couple of hours in the interior of the castle, which was very much a defensive fortress whose primary purpose was for the defense of the lands surrounding them. The views over the Alsace, were surprisingly still quite hazy, but it did show that for as far as the eye could see, all there was was vineyards.
After leaving the castle, we stopped in a couple of small villages, but not finding anywhere that grabbed our fancy for lunch, we headed back to Ribeauville, but then had to sit in the car for 20 minutes to wait while the heavens once again opened, in yet another attempt to a.) clear the air of humidity and b.) provide a job creation scheme for the campers who were still mopping up after yesterday's deluge. We decided that once again, a pup tent was no place for anybody over the age of 5 during a torrential down pour and that as we had survived the previous days down pour, we would be OK to survive the latest.
We got a hell of a a fright at one stage, while driving around. A bolt of lightning hit the ground very close by which made an almighty bang. Just as we were hitting our heads on the ceiling of the car, it's accompanying thunderclap went off as well. That's the second time in Europe that we've got very close to lightning bolts and both were pretty spectacular.
We spent an enjoyable couple of hours walking round Ribeauville and having a late lunch / dinner of Beef Bourgonogne. When we returned to the campground, everything was OK, but the door of the tent was half open, but nothing had been taken. A couple of minutes thought about why somebody would look into the smallest tent in the campground brought us to the conclusion that it must be kids, just as one went by with an obvious look of guilt on his face.
There was a local outdoor disco on at a park up the road, so we went up to that for an hour or so, enjoying the 70's and 80's music and the dancing girls on the stage. The DJ with his curly dark hair, mustache and sequined, sleeveless top was also a sight to behold. The disco finished at 11pm and then the drums started, so we walked back to the campground and were soothed off to sleep by their rhythmic beat.
Friday, July 3, 2009
Friday 3rd July – Week 3 – Eguisheim and Colmar
The heat and humidity continue. It's getting really muggy now something has got to give and I feel it might be me. Mid morning sightseeing runs in the mid 30's and the humidity is through the roof. Anne's fear of thunder and lightning has been forever cured, because it's as regular as breathing at the moment. It's all happening a fair distance away, but so far there's been no cloud burst to bring the temperature, or the humidity, down.
We headed off to Eguisheim, after a breakfast of Pain au Raisin and Pain au Chocolat. This campground has the luxury of a shop that stocks fresh pasties every morning, so we're making the most of that while it lasts. Eguisheim is a small town about 15kms away from Ribeauville. All the towns in the area are located very close to one another and this would appear to be because the locals live in the town and work on the vineyard, so had to live reasonably close to their own vineyard.
The town is once again picture postcard, but as we walked around it, the skies darkened and we were soon walking in the midst of a constant shower. We stopped by the main town's square for a coffee, along with all the septuagenarian cyclists that had decided that this riding lark wasn't nearly as good when it rained. After the coffee, we visited the local church which was the most elaborate affair we've come across so far, and once again, very in keeping with German rather than French taste (or at least what I've observed of French taste in church interiors, which is very austere. I took a quite neat photo of the interior of the church, which required a 4 second exposure time, because the church was so dark. The result was rather good, if I say so myself, and revealed an array of colours and patterns that are not visible to the naked eye.
Next stop after Eguisheim was the town of Colmar, a biggish town with a population of around 100,000 people. We spent about 3 hours walking round the town, photographing the small squares and the streets and visiting their little Venice, although the name is a bit of a stretch because 1 small canal does not make ones city the next Venice. Returning from a brief visit to an electronics shop, we were greeted with black skies and the rain had started. We decided to head back to Ribeauville amidst a moderate rain shower. Stopping at a Decathlon shop on the outskirts of Colmar, we heard the heavens open above us onto the roof of the mega store. Leaving the store, we stopped to check out how next year's tent, an example of which had been pitched outside the store, would handle a Noah-esque torrential down pour. Heading back to Ribeauville, the rain was unbelievably heavy, so we stopped for an extended visit to the supermarket, hoping to see the storm pass. The storm seemed a bit more than the locals are used to, as every aisle at the supermarket had a bucket in it, and when we ventured outside, the local fire department had been called to pump out the basement, which had obviously flooded.
Wondering how the tent had survived and keen to see the devastation, we returned to the campground to find that our tent was only slightly damp inside, but very muddy on the outside. Others had not faired so well and some of the tent sites were in a hollow, so we watched with interest as one diligent wife removed 3 10 litre pales of water for inside their tent (while her husband had a cigar outside :-( ). All around the campsite, people were busying themselves with sponges, mops and brooms (where does all this stuff come from) to mop up from the deluge. We did a quick assessment, had a brief chat with the neighbours, decided that things were looking ok and headed into town for dinner. We were pleased that we'd put our sleeping bags in the waterproof bag we carry all our camping gear in, as despite the massive down pour, they were still totally dry. The neighbours told us that when they were sitting in the tent during the down pour, they could feel some big creeks start to develop under their tent. We decided that we had been best to stay away and that our ignorance is bliss policy had worked well for this camping dilemma.
We returned after dinner to a mostly dry tent and turning over the air bed to conceal the wet patch that had caught the slight leak, we settled in for a quiet nights sleep.
We headed off to Eguisheim, after a breakfast of Pain au Raisin and Pain au Chocolat. This campground has the luxury of a shop that stocks fresh pasties every morning, so we're making the most of that while it lasts. Eguisheim is a small town about 15kms away from Ribeauville. All the towns in the area are located very close to one another and this would appear to be because the locals live in the town and work on the vineyard, so had to live reasonably close to their own vineyard.
The town is once again picture postcard, but as we walked around it, the skies darkened and we were soon walking in the midst of a constant shower. We stopped by the main town's square for a coffee, along with all the septuagenarian cyclists that had decided that this riding lark wasn't nearly as good when it rained. After the coffee, we visited the local church which was the most elaborate affair we've come across so far, and once again, very in keeping with German rather than French taste (or at least what I've observed of French taste in church interiors, which is very austere. I took a quite neat photo of the interior of the church, which required a 4 second exposure time, because the church was so dark. The result was rather good, if I say so myself, and revealed an array of colours and patterns that are not visible to the naked eye.
Next stop after Eguisheim was the town of Colmar, a biggish town with a population of around 100,000 people. We spent about 3 hours walking round the town, photographing the small squares and the streets and visiting their little Venice, although the name is a bit of a stretch because 1 small canal does not make ones city the next Venice. Returning from a brief visit to an electronics shop, we were greeted with black skies and the rain had started. We decided to head back to Ribeauville amidst a moderate rain shower. Stopping at a Decathlon shop on the outskirts of Colmar, we heard the heavens open above us onto the roof of the mega store. Leaving the store, we stopped to check out how next year's tent, an example of which had been pitched outside the store, would handle a Noah-esque torrential down pour. Heading back to Ribeauville, the rain was unbelievably heavy, so we stopped for an extended visit to the supermarket, hoping to see the storm pass. The storm seemed a bit more than the locals are used to, as every aisle at the supermarket had a bucket in it, and when we ventured outside, the local fire department had been called to pump out the basement, which had obviously flooded.
Wondering how the tent had survived and keen to see the devastation, we returned to the campground to find that our tent was only slightly damp inside, but very muddy on the outside. Others had not faired so well and some of the tent sites were in a hollow, so we watched with interest as one diligent wife removed 3 10 litre pales of water for inside their tent (while her husband had a cigar outside :-( ). All around the campsite, people were busying themselves with sponges, mops and brooms (where does all this stuff come from) to mop up from the deluge. We did a quick assessment, had a brief chat with the neighbours, decided that things were looking ok and headed into town for dinner. We were pleased that we'd put our sleeping bags in the waterproof bag we carry all our camping gear in, as despite the massive down pour, they were still totally dry. The neighbours told us that when they were sitting in the tent during the down pour, they could feel some big creeks start to develop under their tent. We decided that we had been best to stay away and that our ignorance is bliss policy had worked well for this camping dilemma.
We returned after dinner to a mostly dry tent and turning over the air bed to conceal the wet patch that had caught the slight leak, we settled in for a quiet nights sleep.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Thursday 2nd July – Week 3 – Ribeauville / Riquewihr / Kaysersberg
Have I mentioned that it is hot – man is it hot today. It got so hot that we eventually had to put the roof up on the car – 36 degrees is too hot to be driving round in the sun. We started off in Ribeauville, as we'd only gone half way up the main street on our walk the previous night. From there, we headed off through the vine covered countryside to Riquewihr. Riquewihr is a small town set on a steep hillside. You enter through the main gate, which is the archway in the middle to the town hall. The walk through the town isn't quite on hands and knees, but it is a fairly steep hill. We were there about midday, so the sun was high in the sky and there was no protection from the sweltering sun. Although it sounds like a fairly quiet day so far, the couple of hours walking in the heat had taken it's toll on our energy, so we retired to the shade of the campground and had a well earned siesta until some of the heat had gone from the sun.
5pm was a good time to be back out sightseeing and we visited a couple more small towns – Kaysersberg, which I'm sure we visited in the early 90's – it had a very familiar feel to it.
The big talking point of the day was, however, the dinner. Remember, the when in Rome comment. So tonight Anne and I tried the local delicacies. I had the Sauerkraut, with 5 different meats and potatoes, while Anne had the meat tourte (pie in other words). The previous night, these dishes had looked pretty good, so with great anticipation, we rocked up to a restaurant in Riquewihr (it doesn't matter what restaurant in what town – they all service it) and duly ordered our choice of dinners. The Sauerkraut is is in fact sour – it's made with white wine, but it tastes more like vinegar. I hadn't know this, until I tried it. The meats are slabs of fatty bacon, ham, and one very white sausage. The potatoes are simply boiled newish potatoes. I can now confidently report that the potatoes were the highlight. Make no mistake, this isn't something that is put on for the tourists – everybody eats it, and now I have too. But that's it, never again. Given the quality of food in the rest of France, this really is bland fare. I'm not sure what we are in for in the next week, when we head into the Rhine and Moselle, but just right now, I'm not feeling confident. Anne's meal consisted of a meat pie and many different grated vegetables – swede being among them. This is called a Tourte and once again – once is enough. The highlight of the meal was dessert!
We returned to the campground and were met with the familiar site of the people that had been sitting outside their caravans when we left at 10 O'clock in the morning, who had been there, outside there caravans, when we returned at 4, were still sitting outside their caravans when we returned to the campground at 10pm. This seems to be a feature of campground life, where some people just rock up to a campground and then revolve their entire life around and caravan and an awning for the week or so that they are there.
5pm was a good time to be back out sightseeing and we visited a couple more small towns – Kaysersberg, which I'm sure we visited in the early 90's – it had a very familiar feel to it.
The big talking point of the day was, however, the dinner. Remember, the when in Rome comment. So tonight Anne and I tried the local delicacies. I had the Sauerkraut, with 5 different meats and potatoes, while Anne had the meat tourte (pie in other words). The previous night, these dishes had looked pretty good, so with great anticipation, we rocked up to a restaurant in Riquewihr (it doesn't matter what restaurant in what town – they all service it) and duly ordered our choice of dinners. The Sauerkraut is is in fact sour – it's made with white wine, but it tastes more like vinegar. I hadn't know this, until I tried it. The meats are slabs of fatty bacon, ham, and one very white sausage. The potatoes are simply boiled newish potatoes. I can now confidently report that the potatoes were the highlight. Make no mistake, this isn't something that is put on for the tourists – everybody eats it, and now I have too. But that's it, never again. Given the quality of food in the rest of France, this really is bland fare. I'm not sure what we are in for in the next week, when we head into the Rhine and Moselle, but just right now, I'm not feeling confident. Anne's meal consisted of a meat pie and many different grated vegetables – swede being among them. This is called a Tourte and once again – once is enough. The highlight of the meal was dessert!
We returned to the campground and were met with the familiar site of the people that had been sitting outside their caravans when we left at 10 O'clock in the morning, who had been there, outside there caravans, when we returned at 4, were still sitting outside their caravans when we returned to the campground at 10pm. This seems to be a feature of campground life, where some people just rock up to a campground and then revolve their entire life around and caravan and an awning for the week or so that they are there.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Wednesday 1st July – Week 3 – Dijon / Alsace
Boy was I grumpy this morning. It all started the previous night, when I slammed my finger in a door, trying to manouver my way into the washing cubicle in the Beaune campground. The problem is that, any cubicle you have to shut a door on, you have to get through the door and then wedge yourself between the toilet or wash basin in order to be able to shut the door. I don't know who designed the facilities in the Beaune campground, but they don't bear any resemblance to any dimensions that I possess.
Beaune is a stop off point halfway between Calais and the south coast of France. Everybody in the campground is there for just one night, and I think the design of the facilities reflects this. After the finger crushing incident last night, the shower cubicle doesn't have a lock, the hooks are on upside down and all the toilets were full for an age when I arrived at my usual time, which in other campgrounds has seen me have the full facility to myself.
Anne came back and said that all the women had commented that these were the worst facilities they'd come across. It amused me that the women discussed this and the shared suffering helped them all get over it. There was not a word spoken in the men's facilities and I suspect everyone of us was seething. OK, got that off my chest. So after one very hot and muggy night (that didn't help my mood either) we packed up the tent and headed off on the road to Dijon
Dijon is the capital of burgundy and as such is a largish city of quarter of a million people. In the past, it has been incredibly wealthy and this is reflected in the magnificent historic buildings in the centre of the town.
The traffic was pretty busy getting into town, so we found a car park within close walking distance of the city centre and headed off on foot to explore the town centre. As we walked along the street, we noticed some big brass placards in the footpath with an owl logo on them. There owl is a little carving housed in the Notre Dame Cathedral, that is supposed to give good luck if you rub it with your left hand. The symbol is also used on little brass arrows all around the city, to lead you on a walking tour.
We, however, had the Michelin guide tour, which we followed. The first stop was the Eglise Notre Dame, which had a fairly gruesome facade with three tiers of gargoyles all leaping out of the front of the church. The church wasn't open, so we headed off to the Place de La Liberation. This is a large semi-circular place, with the town hall on the flat edge of the semi-circle. The centre of the Place has a series of water fountains coming straight out of the paving stones, so you are able to walk right over them, which a number of very wet small children obviously had done. The outside of the Place contained a bunch of restaurants. At mid morning, the place was still quite quiet, so we headed off down some side streets and found some local markets and a busy shopping area. Although it's a big city, Dijon had a really good feel to it with a really lively street scene. Sorry to report, but in our short visit we did not see anybody selling mustard.
After Dijon, it was a much longer drive via motorways full of trucks in scorching heat to the Alsace. The Alsace is a series of very small villages and we've chosen one called Ribeauville to camp in for 4 days. The Alsace, home of the Alsatian dog, is very close the the German border and the german influences are very evident. The towns, which some people have described as chocolate box, are much more elaborately decorated than your average French town, but this is reasonably typical of German towns. The local cuisine consists of such favourites as Sauerkrautt, Spleitzly, pork sausages and potatoes.
The campground is of a really good quality and we have a very nice pitch with plenty of shade. The facilities are top notch, the staff are really friendly and it's the sort of place that people come to for a week, so it has more of a “permanent” feel about it.
After pitching our tent, we headed into town centre, which is about a 15 minute walk away. If we thought at Burgundy was full on wine production, it is nothing compared to the Alsace, where they have been growing grapes since about the 3rd century. Today, the whole region is devoted exclusively to growing wine and it is just staggering how much grape production there is. It seems that there are only two things that are important here – grapes and god. Every town is built around a church and everybody lives in the town, so that the productivity of the hillsides are maximised for growing grapes.
Ribeauville is a lovely medium sized village, which means that the main street is a kilometre or so long and has shops, bars, restaurants and wine caves all the way up it. The town can't be much more than three blocks from one side to the other – kinda like Dannevirke, but interesting, so not like Dannevirke at all.Once you've walked up the main street and down a couple of side streets you've pretty much seen the entire town and it is beautiful . You'll see some photos of the town and some of the others that you're about to read about and they are pretty stunning. The locals obviously take a huge amount of time to ensure that the towns look at their absolute best during the summer months.
Our dinner was in one of the restaurants, which served a mixture of more traditional French cuisine as well as the local food. We opted for the more traditional option, but vowed after watching the other diners that we'd be eating cabbage, sausages and potatoes at the next opportunity – when in Rome and all that.
Beaune is a stop off point halfway between Calais and the south coast of France. Everybody in the campground is there for just one night, and I think the design of the facilities reflects this. After the finger crushing incident last night, the shower cubicle doesn't have a lock, the hooks are on upside down and all the toilets were full for an age when I arrived at my usual time, which in other campgrounds has seen me have the full facility to myself.
Anne came back and said that all the women had commented that these were the worst facilities they'd come across. It amused me that the women discussed this and the shared suffering helped them all get over it. There was not a word spoken in the men's facilities and I suspect everyone of us was seething. OK, got that off my chest. So after one very hot and muggy night (that didn't help my mood either) we packed up the tent and headed off on the road to Dijon
Dijon is the capital of burgundy and as such is a largish city of quarter of a million people. In the past, it has been incredibly wealthy and this is reflected in the magnificent historic buildings in the centre of the town.
The traffic was pretty busy getting into town, so we found a car park within close walking distance of the city centre and headed off on foot to explore the town centre. As we walked along the street, we noticed some big brass placards in the footpath with an owl logo on them. There owl is a little carving housed in the Notre Dame Cathedral, that is supposed to give good luck if you rub it with your left hand. The symbol is also used on little brass arrows all around the city, to lead you on a walking tour.
We, however, had the Michelin guide tour, which we followed. The first stop was the Eglise Notre Dame, which had a fairly gruesome facade with three tiers of gargoyles all leaping out of the front of the church. The church wasn't open, so we headed off to the Place de La Liberation. This is a large semi-circular place, with the town hall on the flat edge of the semi-circle. The centre of the Place has a series of water fountains coming straight out of the paving stones, so you are able to walk right over them, which a number of very wet small children obviously had done. The outside of the Place contained a bunch of restaurants. At mid morning, the place was still quite quiet, so we headed off down some side streets and found some local markets and a busy shopping area. Although it's a big city, Dijon had a really good feel to it with a really lively street scene. Sorry to report, but in our short visit we did not see anybody selling mustard.
After Dijon, it was a much longer drive via motorways full of trucks in scorching heat to the Alsace. The Alsace is a series of very small villages and we've chosen one called Ribeauville to camp in for 4 days. The Alsace, home of the Alsatian dog, is very close the the German border and the german influences are very evident. The towns, which some people have described as chocolate box, are much more elaborately decorated than your average French town, but this is reasonably typical of German towns. The local cuisine consists of such favourites as Sauerkrautt, Spleitzly, pork sausages and potatoes.
The campground is of a really good quality and we have a very nice pitch with plenty of shade. The facilities are top notch, the staff are really friendly and it's the sort of place that people come to for a week, so it has more of a “permanent” feel about it.
After pitching our tent, we headed into town centre, which is about a 15 minute walk away. If we thought at Burgundy was full on wine production, it is nothing compared to the Alsace, where they have been growing grapes since about the 3rd century. Today, the whole region is devoted exclusively to growing wine and it is just staggering how much grape production there is. It seems that there are only two things that are important here – grapes and god. Every town is built around a church and everybody lives in the town, so that the productivity of the hillsides are maximised for growing grapes.
Ribeauville is a lovely medium sized village, which means that the main street is a kilometre or so long and has shops, bars, restaurants and wine caves all the way up it. The town can't be much more than three blocks from one side to the other – kinda like Dannevirke, but interesting, so not like Dannevirke at all.Once you've walked up the main street and down a couple of side streets you've pretty much seen the entire town and it is beautiful . You'll see some photos of the town and some of the others that you're about to read about and they are pretty stunning. The locals obviously take a huge amount of time to ensure that the towns look at their absolute best during the summer months.
Our dinner was in one of the restaurants, which served a mixture of more traditional French cuisine as well as the local food. We opted for the more traditional option, but vowed after watching the other diners that we'd be eating cabbage, sausages and potatoes at the next opportunity – when in Rome and all that.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Tuesday 30th – Week 3 – Drive to Nolay / Beaune
OK, last night's dinner was a lie. It was at the restaurant we had had lunch the day before and while it was very nice, was 2 courses for Anne and 3 for me and there were no dancing girls or men carrying banners.
After two days in the hotel, we were up early-ish, showered packed and gone by 9:30. Checking out of the hotel is only marginally easier than packing up the campground, mainly because you have to walk everything to the car from the hotel room, rather than having the car packed right beside the tent. You also have to check the hotel room to make sure you haven't left anything – and yes, we did nearly leave all the camping gear in the wardrobe in the hotel room – and that wasn't deliberate. We had taken it out of the car, because the roof won't go down with the camping gear in the boot and I couldn't be bothered moving it between the back sear and the boot everytime we stopped.
The hotel has been lovely for two days, but it did have an extraordinarily small bathroom – 75cm square is only just big enough for a shower and the toilet was wedged so tightly between the wall and the handbasin that you sort of had to corkscrew yourself by sitting with your legs pointing one way to avoid the wall and your upper body the other way to avoid the handbasin. This was more a mild source of amusement that annoyance and it was very nice to have the two days in the hotel.
The drive today was in the direction of Beaune (pronounced bone), with two stops along the way. The first stop was at the town of Autun, with it's cathedral. The drive to Autun took about two hours, which was very pleasant with the roof down. While we walked around Autun, the temperature was soaring into the 30's, but it was a dry heat, so pleasant to walk in.
After leaving Autun, we stopped 40ks down the road at a small town called Nolay – which we had been told had a nice campground. On closer inspection, it appeared to be quite a distance from the restaurants in town, so we decided to head to Beaune where we had been recommended a couple of campgrounds from our UK camping guide book that was within walking distance of the town centre. The drive from Nolay to Beaune was through wine country, with grape vines covering every square metre of the surrounding hillsides. Everywhere we've been outside of Paris has been a wine “region”, but this was the first time we'd seen grapes planted on such a massive scale.
We arrived in Beaune to darkening skies and at one stage on the drive, drove over a rode with steam rising off it and puddles, so although we didn't encounter any rain, rain was obviously in the air. The 5 minutes it took to pitch the tent was a sweat inducing affair and that was just to hit in the 12 tent pegs. After that, we headed into Beaune at about .2:30 for our first food and drink for the day.
Beaune is a lovely little fortified town in the heart of Burgundy. It has a bustling historic centre, with many restaurants, cafe's and bars. There are also many wine cellars within the walls of the city and many of these were offering tastings and tours. We opted for our usual wine sample of a bottle of the local (this time Pinot Noir, which was served chilled) with a pizza outside in the shade.
The heavens did eventually open, which saw us first sheltering under a shop awning in the late afternoon. The rain shower did very little to reduce the humidity and a repeat performance at 10pm, while we were sitting in the campground bar made only a slight difference, so it was a very warm sleep in our wee tent overnight.
After two days in the hotel, we were up early-ish, showered packed and gone by 9:30. Checking out of the hotel is only marginally easier than packing up the campground, mainly because you have to walk everything to the car from the hotel room, rather than having the car packed right beside the tent. You also have to check the hotel room to make sure you haven't left anything – and yes, we did nearly leave all the camping gear in the wardrobe in the hotel room – and that wasn't deliberate. We had taken it out of the car, because the roof won't go down with the camping gear in the boot and I couldn't be bothered moving it between the back sear and the boot everytime we stopped.
The hotel has been lovely for two days, but it did have an extraordinarily small bathroom – 75cm square is only just big enough for a shower and the toilet was wedged so tightly between the wall and the handbasin that you sort of had to corkscrew yourself by sitting with your legs pointing one way to avoid the wall and your upper body the other way to avoid the handbasin. This was more a mild source of amusement that annoyance and it was very nice to have the two days in the hotel.
The drive today was in the direction of Beaune (pronounced bone), with two stops along the way. The first stop was at the town of Autun, with it's cathedral. The drive to Autun took about two hours, which was very pleasant with the roof down. While we walked around Autun, the temperature was soaring into the 30's, but it was a dry heat, so pleasant to walk in.
After leaving Autun, we stopped 40ks down the road at a small town called Nolay – which we had been told had a nice campground. On closer inspection, it appeared to be quite a distance from the restaurants in town, so we decided to head to Beaune where we had been recommended a couple of campgrounds from our UK camping guide book that was within walking distance of the town centre. The drive from Nolay to Beaune was through wine country, with grape vines covering every square metre of the surrounding hillsides. Everywhere we've been outside of Paris has been a wine “region”, but this was the first time we'd seen grapes planted on such a massive scale.
We arrived in Beaune to darkening skies and at one stage on the drive, drove over a rode with steam rising off it and puddles, so although we didn't encounter any rain, rain was obviously in the air. The 5 minutes it took to pitch the tent was a sweat inducing affair and that was just to hit in the 12 tent pegs. After that, we headed into Beaune at about .2:30 for our first food and drink for the day.
Beaune is a lovely little fortified town in the heart of Burgundy. It has a bustling historic centre, with many restaurants, cafe's and bars. There are also many wine cellars within the walls of the city and many of these were offering tastings and tours. We opted for our usual wine sample of a bottle of the local (this time Pinot Noir, which was served chilled) with a pizza outside in the shade.
The heavens did eventually open, which saw us first sheltering under a shop awning in the late afternoon. The rain shower did very little to reduce the humidity and a repeat performance at 10pm, while we were sitting in the campground bar made only a slight difference, so it was a very warm sleep in our wee tent overnight.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Monday 29th – Week 3 – Vezelay sightseeing
Mulling over, as you do, the benefits and freedom of camping versus the luxury of staying in a hotel in Vezelay, it struck me how delightfully appropriate that we were staying in a hotel in a town called Vezelay. Anyway, We've decided to stay on an extra day in Vezelay. It's a nice town, with canals in the low lying countryside around it, so we decided that we'd go for a drive this morning, then have a relaxing afternoon round the town.
While we were walking round Vezelay yesterday, we noticed a brass clam shell embedded in the cobblestones. The clam shell is the symbol of the Camino de Santiago, the pilgrim walk we had seen in Northen Spain on our trip last year. The particular walk started from Lourdes in France and goes to Santiago De Compostela in the top north western corner of Spain. It appears that the Caminos can go from a wide range of places and one leaves from Auxerre and passes throufh Vezelay on the way, hence the clam shell on the road. As well as the Basillica, we've also seen a lot of nuns and monks around Vezelay and everyone was very well dressed when we were out on Sunday night, so it's obviously quite a religious town.
We got going after a relaxing breakfast in the hotel and headed on some very quiet back roads to the small town of Vermenton about 25ks north of Vezelay. We made a number of stops along the way in some tiny villages, but it was nice just cruising along with the roof down and the wind in your hair. At Vermenton, we got out and went for a walk around the town and found ourselves in their beautiful Parc Municipal Des Illes, which as the name suggests is a gardens set on island in the middle of the river Cure. The Cure is partly locked, so there were some river boats parked nearby and the park had some small waterfalls caused by the small dams needed to keep the river at the correct level for the locks. It was a very picturesque gardens and even had a boulorama, which is mass Boule courts for the town's people to play on.
After that, we headed along some even smaller back roads to a small town called Mailly Le Chateau, which is a tiny town with a (you guessed it) castle on the top of the hill. Having walked around the town, the outside of the castle, and taken some photos, we headed back to Vezelay at about 2:00pm – melting with the roof down in the 33 degree heat.
A very light lunch today of a baguette and a bottle of mineral water, was followed up by a walk around the town and then an extravagant 8 course meal with dancing girls and men carrying banners in the evening.
While we were walking round Vezelay yesterday, we noticed a brass clam shell embedded in the cobblestones. The clam shell is the symbol of the Camino de Santiago, the pilgrim walk we had seen in Northen Spain on our trip last year. The particular walk started from Lourdes in France and goes to Santiago De Compostela in the top north western corner of Spain. It appears that the Caminos can go from a wide range of places and one leaves from Auxerre and passes throufh Vezelay on the way, hence the clam shell on the road. As well as the Basillica, we've also seen a lot of nuns and monks around Vezelay and everyone was very well dressed when we were out on Sunday night, so it's obviously quite a religious town.
We got going after a relaxing breakfast in the hotel and headed on some very quiet back roads to the small town of Vermenton about 25ks north of Vezelay. We made a number of stops along the way in some tiny villages, but it was nice just cruising along with the roof down and the wind in your hair. At Vermenton, we got out and went for a walk around the town and found ourselves in their beautiful Parc Municipal Des Illes, which as the name suggests is a gardens set on island in the middle of the river Cure. The Cure is partly locked, so there were some river boats parked nearby and the park had some small waterfalls caused by the small dams needed to keep the river at the correct level for the locks. It was a very picturesque gardens and even had a boulorama, which is mass Boule courts for the town's people to play on.
After that, we headed along some even smaller back roads to a small town called Mailly Le Chateau, which is a tiny town with a (you guessed it) castle on the top of the hill. Having walked around the town, the outside of the castle, and taken some photos, we headed back to Vezelay at about 2:00pm – melting with the roof down in the 33 degree heat.
A very light lunch today of a baguette and a bottle of mineral water, was followed up by a walk around the town and then an extravagant 8 course meal with dancing girls and men carrying banners in the evening.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Sunday 28th – Week 2 – Drive to Vezelay
French supermarkets are a bit different to ours. Firstly, they sell just about everything – clothes furnitire, camping gear, home appliances. It's sort of like Moore Wilsons on a Mega store scale and every town has several. Then there is the annoying habit of not having any wine cooled. We've now got into the habit of heading straight for the wine section, followed by the frozen peas basket of the freezer, before heading off round the rest of the supermarket to buy whatever else it is we need for the day. After about 10 minutes, we head back to the frozen peas to collect our now cooled bottle of wine. Next, there is the checkout. There is only ever a couple of aisles open, none of them are for 10 items or less and checking out is just another part of the French social scene, so don't expect it to be quick. Most people seem to come to the supermarket about once a week or fortnight, so they always have full trolleys, they never offer to let the person with 6 items go first – why would they remove this social opportunity from us. We've taken to Anne standing in the queue, with me standing in eyesight, but near the frozen peas. When she finally gets to the front of the queue, I come charging along with my chilled bottle of blanc ou rosé. Finally, they've got right away from plastic bags, so you have to bring your own recycled shopping bag.
Today we awoke to the sound of fire breathing dragons – at least that is what the locals call it. In fact, it's the hot air balloons flying overhead on their way to drift over the Chateaux at Chenonceau. They are on the go first thing in the morning or at the end of the day and obviously drift depending on the direction of the wind. 4 went over last night, while we were sitting at the bar – two very close together, which was a bit disconcerting. This morning there was just one, but it was right above us, so a fairly noisy way to start the morning. We were up and 7:00am and showered, packed, fed and on the road by 8:30.
The French roading system is excellent going up and down the country, but much more variable going across the country. As our trip today is from Chenonceaux to Vazelay, which is largely across country, we are taking a wide range of roads to cover the 270ks in 3.5hours. The first part of the road was dangerous – there have been 25 road deaths on it since 1999. We know this because as we were driving along, we saw these black wooden stick men with yellow flourescent X's on their chest. Just as I said, what do they mean. We rounded a corner and there was a sign advising us of the carnage. We saw several more of the black men before we headed onto the motorway, but not before getting Jane totally confused by a new motorway on ramp that wasn't on her map sent us on a 10 minute detour finding the correct route. Because today's trip is quite long, we've instructed Jane to get us there on the fastest route, so while the motorway covers about 2/3rds of this, the reminder is on an ever narrowing range of back roads, that got down to a single lane, but two way road. It certainly took us on some interesting roads, and the scenery was good. It wasn't a route that we would have chosen ourselves, but then we wouldn't have analysed 120,000 roads to determine the fastest way to get to Vezelay.
We are spending a night in a hotel in Vezelay, mainly because after two weeks in a tent we feel like it. The bit of luxury is certainly much appreciated and it makes us appreciate both the freedom and social contact that camping gives us and the luxury that the time in a hotel offers. Having had a quiet day yesterday and then a drive today, we realised that we have been going at the sightseeing pretty hard, so we intend to have a day in a hotel every week for a bit of variety.
We are now well and truly inland and the temperature is into the 30's. Boy is it hot, and boy can I feel the sympathy flowing out of New Zealand. OK, fair call, I won't go on, but it is really hot. We found a nice little restaurant in Vezelay and deposited ourselves there for a couple of hours enjoying a slow sunday lunch, with a bottle of Rosé – our drink of choice in France. Take note here, when in Burgundy, drink the red and not the rosé. Anyway, after lunch, we did a walk around the town, which is set on top of a hill with a Basillica at the top of it. The annual fair was on today, so we got to wander around that for a while, before retiring to a small cafe for a well deserved (non-alcoholic) drink. At 7pm, it was still stiflingly hot. Dinner was a pizza and a carafe of the red (got it right this time) wine.
Today we awoke to the sound of fire breathing dragons – at least that is what the locals call it. In fact, it's the hot air balloons flying overhead on their way to drift over the Chateaux at Chenonceau. They are on the go first thing in the morning or at the end of the day and obviously drift depending on the direction of the wind. 4 went over last night, while we were sitting at the bar – two very close together, which was a bit disconcerting. This morning there was just one, but it was right above us, so a fairly noisy way to start the morning. We were up and 7:00am and showered, packed, fed and on the road by 8:30.
The French roading system is excellent going up and down the country, but much more variable going across the country. As our trip today is from Chenonceaux to Vazelay, which is largely across country, we are taking a wide range of roads to cover the 270ks in 3.5hours. The first part of the road was dangerous – there have been 25 road deaths on it since 1999. We know this because as we were driving along, we saw these black wooden stick men with yellow flourescent X's on their chest. Just as I said, what do they mean. We rounded a corner and there was a sign advising us of the carnage. We saw several more of the black men before we headed onto the motorway, but not before getting Jane totally confused by a new motorway on ramp that wasn't on her map sent us on a 10 minute detour finding the correct route. Because today's trip is quite long, we've instructed Jane to get us there on the fastest route, so while the motorway covers about 2/3rds of this, the reminder is on an ever narrowing range of back roads, that got down to a single lane, but two way road. It certainly took us on some interesting roads, and the scenery was good. It wasn't a route that we would have chosen ourselves, but then we wouldn't have analysed 120,000 roads to determine the fastest way to get to Vezelay.
We are spending a night in a hotel in Vezelay, mainly because after two weeks in a tent we feel like it. The bit of luxury is certainly much appreciated and it makes us appreciate both the freedom and social contact that camping gives us and the luxury that the time in a hotel offers. Having had a quiet day yesterday and then a drive today, we realised that we have been going at the sightseeing pretty hard, so we intend to have a day in a hotel every week for a bit of variety.
We are now well and truly inland and the temperature is into the 30's. Boy is it hot, and boy can I feel the sympathy flowing out of New Zealand. OK, fair call, I won't go on, but it is really hot. We found a nice little restaurant in Vezelay and deposited ourselves there for a couple of hours enjoying a slow sunday lunch, with a bottle of Rosé – our drink of choice in France. Take note here, when in Burgundy, drink the red and not the rosé. Anyway, after lunch, we did a walk around the town, which is set on top of a hill with a Basillica at the top of it. The annual fair was on today, so we got to wander around that for a while, before retiring to a small cafe for a well deserved (non-alcoholic) drink. At 7pm, it was still stiflingly hot. Dinner was a pizza and a carafe of the red (got it right this time) wine.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Saturday 27th – Week 2 – Lazing around in Chenonceaux
It's been a busy couple of weeks, so today we've had a lazy day going for a walk up the river past the Chateau at Chenonceau for a couple of hours, followed by a slow lunch at a restaurant in Chenonceaux, followed by a snooze and finally dinner in the campground restaurant. Tomorrow we pack up and drive to Vézélay, where we are staying in a hotel for a night, before heading onto Burgundy, where we will be back in campgrounds again.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Friday 26th – Week 2 – Amboise and Leonardo Da Vinci
Hold the phones, we have a WINNER. And today's winner is......... dah, dah, dah, dah..... the man who has a remote control for his caravan. There's an old couple parked beside us with a very large caravan, which they had somehow turned completely around, so that the door faced towards the river and the nice view. As they are leaving this morning, we were all prepared for the manouverings of the 4WD and lots of heaving and grunting to hook the caravan up to the car, but no. Anne watched in stunned amazement as the man stood beside the caravan, remote control in hand and turned the caravan round to now face the correct way, then lined it up with the car, manouvered it over the tow ball and when all the work was done, simply connected it to his car.... Now that is impressive.
We appear to be living in something resembling a war zone, with little mounds of dirt piled up all round the place. New mounds appear every night, as the local mole population goes about their work digging up the ground all around the tent. This morning we awoke to find 3 new mounds and one resurrected mound. I flattened one yesterday, which obviously had a mole sleeping under it, cos it was all pushed back up again this morning. Apparently, worms love the sandy ground the campground resides on, and moles love worms, so its a happy mix – unless you're the campground owner. I'm kind of expecting one to pop his little head through a hole in the tent floor one night, while we're asleep.
I got in touch with my girly side today, when I bought 3 pairs of shoes. I think I made the sales ladies day, not by buying 3 pairs of shoes, but by requesting a pair of socks to try the shoes on with, and then when she had the drawer open grabbing a pair of women's stocking instead. There was a good reason for wanting the stockings, but who's going to believe me, so i'll leave it by saying that all the women in the shop had a great laugh at this man with his funny French trying out shoes in woman's stockings.
Incase you were wondering, we went to Amboise today. It's a pretty little village about 20ks away, with a chateau that we aren't visiting, because we're over them. But what it is most famous for is Clos du Luce, which is Leonardo Da Vinci's last residence. He lived there for 3 years before he died. The house is now a museum. It's a big house, it overlooks the Chateau that was the home of Francois I, who was the king of France. It had lots of his “inventions”, which were things that he sketched designs for, but because he had no means to power them, they were never able to be built. Being so far ahead of his time, he had drawn designs for things like parachutes, helicopters, machine guns, tanks, military (movable) bridges.
We spent most of the day in Amboise, because a.) it's a pretty little town, b.) I bought 3 pairs of shoes and c.) we had an awesome lunch. I had a goose gizard salad, which despite it's name was really nice. For my main, I had an very spicy sausage, which I suspect came from some equally exotic parts of a range of animals. Anne had a Terrine entree and salmon and hoki for her main.
We had a lite dinner at the campground again, and have now purchased a small table, in the form of a blue hard plastic box, so that we have something to put our nibbles on, while we sit on our camp chairs. We realise that this is letting the side down completely, as there are some very exotic camp tables that you can buy, but with our extremely restricted space, we don't have room for any of those sorts of things.
We appear to be living in something resembling a war zone, with little mounds of dirt piled up all round the place. New mounds appear every night, as the local mole population goes about their work digging up the ground all around the tent. This morning we awoke to find 3 new mounds and one resurrected mound. I flattened one yesterday, which obviously had a mole sleeping under it, cos it was all pushed back up again this morning. Apparently, worms love the sandy ground the campground resides on, and moles love worms, so its a happy mix – unless you're the campground owner. I'm kind of expecting one to pop his little head through a hole in the tent floor one night, while we're asleep.
I got in touch with my girly side today, when I bought 3 pairs of shoes. I think I made the sales ladies day, not by buying 3 pairs of shoes, but by requesting a pair of socks to try the shoes on with, and then when she had the drawer open grabbing a pair of women's stocking instead. There was a good reason for wanting the stockings, but who's going to believe me, so i'll leave it by saying that all the women in the shop had a great laugh at this man with his funny French trying out shoes in woman's stockings.
Incase you were wondering, we went to Amboise today. It's a pretty little village about 20ks away, with a chateau that we aren't visiting, because we're over them. But what it is most famous for is Clos du Luce, which is Leonardo Da Vinci's last residence. He lived there for 3 years before he died. The house is now a museum. It's a big house, it overlooks the Chateau that was the home of Francois I, who was the king of France. It had lots of his “inventions”, which were things that he sketched designs for, but because he had no means to power them, they were never able to be built. Being so far ahead of his time, he had drawn designs for things like parachutes, helicopters, machine guns, tanks, military (movable) bridges.
We spent most of the day in Amboise, because a.) it's a pretty little town, b.) I bought 3 pairs of shoes and c.) we had an awesome lunch. I had a goose gizard salad, which despite it's name was really nice. For my main, I had an very spicy sausage, which I suspect came from some equally exotic parts of a range of animals. Anne had a Terrine entree and salmon and hoki for her main.
We had a lite dinner at the campground again, and have now purchased a small table, in the form of a blue hard plastic box, so that we have something to put our nibbles on, while we sit on our camp chairs. We realise that this is letting the side down completely, as there are some very exotic camp tables that you can buy, but with our extremely restricted space, we don't have room for any of those sorts of things.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Thursday 25th – Week 2 – more of those bloody chateaus
We seem to lack a few of the true essentials that are required for camping. Sure we have the bare essentials, but looking around, it is obvious that we are not like these people and that we are really just pretenders to the title of “a true camper”.
First comes the attitude. I always thought that camping was about “getting away from it all, roughing it a bit”, but looking around me, that is obviously not the case. Real campers go out of there way to gather around them every little gadget that makes it possible to replicate as closely as possible the comfortable life they have at home, while doing so in such a way that enables you to up sticks and move to a new location every couple of days. This involves two things and they are divided very strictly along gender lines.
For the man, it's the gadgets – sky dish, multi-burner barbeque, fishing rod, a wide range of fully collapsable table, chairs and loungers, even a collapsable clothes line for her-indoors. Which brings me on to her indoors – an englishman's home may be his castle, but his caravan is the showroom where he displays to the world, like a peacock displaying it's feathers, the domestic heaven within which he resides. And this is where the wives seem to spend an inordinate amount of time sweeping, arranging, straightening anything and everything to do with their domain. Anne and I with our “this is where I lays ma head at night and I'l be gone for a days sightseeing first thing in the morning”, just don't fit. We haven't camped in New Zealand for over 20 years, so will be interested to see what things are like in NZ when we go camping next summer.
Today's sightseeing is to what is widely considered to be THE jewel in the Loire crown – Chenonceau (the town has an 'x' on the end, the chateau doesn't).
Chenonceau also has a great history. When Charles II came to the throne, he gave it to his mistress, Diane De Poitiers, who was 20-years his senior and a widow. Diane DP dressed in black and white, as was befitting a widow in mourning and such was her persuasive powers of C2, that she convinced him to do the same, much to the despair of the rejected and humiliated queen – Catherine de Medici. When C2 was unfortunately killed in tournament, Catherine de M took over as Queen and, you got it, Diane DP was given her marching orders. Now depending on which version of the story you read, DDP (mistress) was either sent to live in another chateau, or ended up living in abject poverty for the rest of her miserable days.
Anyway, once she got her hands on it, Catherine went on an extensive renovation program, which basically got the castle up to the spec that we see it in today. The chateau is by the river Cher, and DDP (Mistress) had built an arched bridge from the Chateau to the other side. CDM (new queen) upgraded the bridge to put a massive two story gallery above the bridge.
During WWII, free France and occupied France we divided at the Cher river and Chenonceau was the conduit by which many refugees were able to escape into free France. The Chateau was under constant threat of being blown up by the Germans, because of this.
Anne and I walked around the gardens and toured through the chateau for a good couple of hours enjoying the sites and the history of the place.
A quick baguette for lunch and we were off to Chaumont Sur Loire, where DDP (mistress) was said to have been sent by CDM (new queen) after C2 got bumped off (accidentally) in a tournament. By this stage Anne and I were completely chateau'd out (we were c(s)hattered), so we wizzed round the chateau and then headed back to the campground.
There you go, I am now completely up to date. Tomorrow, we are off to Amboise, which has a chateau, but more importantly has a market which we are hoping will be a good'un and a museum to Leonardo Da Vinci who lived in the town. We are here until Sunday morning, so we think we'll hire some bikes on Saturday and go for a quiet ride up the Cher, past Chenonceau.
First comes the attitude. I always thought that camping was about “getting away from it all, roughing it a bit”, but looking around me, that is obviously not the case. Real campers go out of there way to gather around them every little gadget that makes it possible to replicate as closely as possible the comfortable life they have at home, while doing so in such a way that enables you to up sticks and move to a new location every couple of days. This involves two things and they are divided very strictly along gender lines.
For the man, it's the gadgets – sky dish, multi-burner barbeque, fishing rod, a wide range of fully collapsable table, chairs and loungers, even a collapsable clothes line for her-indoors. Which brings me on to her indoors – an englishman's home may be his castle, but his caravan is the showroom where he displays to the world, like a peacock displaying it's feathers, the domestic heaven within which he resides. And this is where the wives seem to spend an inordinate amount of time sweeping, arranging, straightening anything and everything to do with their domain. Anne and I with our “this is where I lays ma head at night and I'l be gone for a days sightseeing first thing in the morning”, just don't fit. We haven't camped in New Zealand for over 20 years, so will be interested to see what things are like in NZ when we go camping next summer.
Today's sightseeing is to what is widely considered to be THE jewel in the Loire crown – Chenonceau (the town has an 'x' on the end, the chateau doesn't).
Chenonceau also has a great history. When Charles II came to the throne, he gave it to his mistress, Diane De Poitiers, who was 20-years his senior and a widow. Diane DP dressed in black and white, as was befitting a widow in mourning and such was her persuasive powers of C2, that she convinced him to do the same, much to the despair of the rejected and humiliated queen – Catherine de Medici. When C2 was unfortunately killed in tournament, Catherine de M took over as Queen and, you got it, Diane DP was given her marching orders. Now depending on which version of the story you read, DDP (mistress) was either sent to live in another chateau, or ended up living in abject poverty for the rest of her miserable days.
Anyway, once she got her hands on it, Catherine went on an extensive renovation program, which basically got the castle up to the spec that we see it in today. The chateau is by the river Cher, and DDP (Mistress) had built an arched bridge from the Chateau to the other side. CDM (new queen) upgraded the bridge to put a massive two story gallery above the bridge.
During WWII, free France and occupied France we divided at the Cher river and Chenonceau was the conduit by which many refugees were able to escape into free France. The Chateau was under constant threat of being blown up by the Germans, because of this.
Anne and I walked around the gardens and toured through the chateau for a good couple of hours enjoying the sites and the history of the place.
A quick baguette for lunch and we were off to Chaumont Sur Loire, where DDP (mistress) was said to have been sent by CDM (new queen) after C2 got bumped off (accidentally) in a tournament. By this stage Anne and I were completely chateau'd out (we were c(s)hattered), so we wizzed round the chateau and then headed back to the campground.
There you go, I am now completely up to date. Tomorrow, we are off to Amboise, which has a chateau, but more importantly has a market which we are hoping will be a good'un and a museum to Leonardo Da Vinci who lived in the town. We are here until Sunday morning, so we think we'll hire some bikes on Saturday and go for a quiet ride up the Cher, past Chenonceau.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Wednesday 24th – Week 2 – Loire Chateaus
The town of Chinon is near to the first nuclear power plant built in 1963. Because of this the campground has emergency procedure in case of nuclear disaster, although it appears to have suffered in the translation. The instruction is to “stay indoors and lead a retiring life”. Most of the campground occupants appear to be following the instruction, even though there is no nuclear emergency.
Irrespective of whether a nuclear emergency is imminent or not (and in a remarkable change of fortunes, the French now claim the “green” high ground because their nuclear power doesn't burn fossil fuels – a far cry from the derision heaped on it in the 70's and 80's), it was time to move on, so we checked out of the campground at Chinon and headed an hour down the Loire valley to Chenonceaux, stopping at two Chateaus along the way.
History as a succession of days, dates and names is one of the driest topics on the planet. It needs something to bring it to life and nothing does this better than a bit of financial skull duggery, rags to riches or riches to rags stories, death in extenuating circumstances or a bit of inappropriate shagging. The history of the chateaus that I find more interesting cover these topics in spades and it really does make for a lively tour (even if self guided by the Michelin Guide) if you can get the spiced up version of the story rather than the “official” sanitised one.
First stop on the day was the Chateau at Azay Le Ridau. Azay was called Azay Le Brulé (Azay the Burnt) after Charles VII was insulted on his way through by a guard. The town was seized, razed to the ground and 350 of the soldiers troops were executed to thank them for the insult. Later a chandellier fell onto the dining table while a visting Prussian Duke was visiting and thinking he was under attack, was all set to put it to a similar fate.
The existing chateau was resurrected from its burnt out shell by Gilles Brethelot, one of the great financiers of the time. The chateau was confiscated from Monsieur Brethelot after he was implicated in a financial scandal and fled leaving his wife and 6 children to cop the flak. See what I mean about “history at its best”.
Next stop was Villandry – one of the two jewels in the Loire crown according to us anyway. Villandry is rightly famed for its amazing gardens. The chateau had been left to ruin, when it was bought be an american heiress and her Spanish husband in 1905. They were both research scientists, but he gave up his time and she her money to restore the gardens at Villandry to their former glory. I've loaded quite a few photos, because it really is a beautiful sight.
Villandry is still owned by the family that bought it in 1905 and it very much has the feel of a family home. The parts of the house that are open to the public up are virtually un-roped so you can look out windows, sit on chairs and touch the walls, which is virtually unheard of in all the other chateaus. All the rooms have amazing bunches of fresh flowers (from their own gardens, I assume). Many of the other chateaus are stuffy and cold inside, with heavy curtains to protect the precious tapestries, but Villandry has none of that and you could imagine the family living in the rooms of the house when it had closed to the tourists for the day.
After Villandry, we drove to Chenonceaux to find our campground for the next four days. It is a 3-star and very nice – beside the Cher river, lovely big pitches, plenty of trees for shade, a restaurant on site, wifi internet access and the real bonus – fresh coffee and pain au chocolat and pain au raising delivered each morning – fantastic.
Irrespective of whether a nuclear emergency is imminent or not (and in a remarkable change of fortunes, the French now claim the “green” high ground because their nuclear power doesn't burn fossil fuels – a far cry from the derision heaped on it in the 70's and 80's), it was time to move on, so we checked out of the campground at Chinon and headed an hour down the Loire valley to Chenonceaux, stopping at two Chateaus along the way.
History as a succession of days, dates and names is one of the driest topics on the planet. It needs something to bring it to life and nothing does this better than a bit of financial skull duggery, rags to riches or riches to rags stories, death in extenuating circumstances or a bit of inappropriate shagging. The history of the chateaus that I find more interesting cover these topics in spades and it really does make for a lively tour (even if self guided by the Michelin Guide) if you can get the spiced up version of the story rather than the “official” sanitised one.
First stop on the day was the Chateau at Azay Le Ridau. Azay was called Azay Le Brulé (Azay the Burnt) after Charles VII was insulted on his way through by a guard. The town was seized, razed to the ground and 350 of the soldiers troops were executed to thank them for the insult. Later a chandellier fell onto the dining table while a visting Prussian Duke was visiting and thinking he was under attack, was all set to put it to a similar fate.
The existing chateau was resurrected from its burnt out shell by Gilles Brethelot, one of the great financiers of the time. The chateau was confiscated from Monsieur Brethelot after he was implicated in a financial scandal and fled leaving his wife and 6 children to cop the flak. See what I mean about “history at its best”.
Next stop was Villandry – one of the two jewels in the Loire crown according to us anyway. Villandry is rightly famed for its amazing gardens. The chateau had been left to ruin, when it was bought be an american heiress and her Spanish husband in 1905. They were both research scientists, but he gave up his time and she her money to restore the gardens at Villandry to their former glory. I've loaded quite a few photos, because it really is a beautiful sight.
Villandry is still owned by the family that bought it in 1905 and it very much has the feel of a family home. The parts of the house that are open to the public up are virtually un-roped so you can look out windows, sit on chairs and touch the walls, which is virtually unheard of in all the other chateaus. All the rooms have amazing bunches of fresh flowers (from their own gardens, I assume). Many of the other chateaus are stuffy and cold inside, with heavy curtains to protect the precious tapestries, but Villandry has none of that and you could imagine the family living in the rooms of the house when it had closed to the tourists for the day.
After Villandry, we drove to Chenonceaux to find our campground for the next four days. It is a 3-star and very nice – beside the Cher river, lovely big pitches, plenty of trees for shade, a restaurant on site, wifi internet access and the real bonus – fresh coffee and pain au chocolat and pain au raising delivered each morning – fantastic.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Tuesday 23rd – Week 2 – Loire Chateaus
The usual early start and then we were on the road to the chateau at Montreiul-Bellay. We knew that the chateau itself was closed, but there was a market in the village on Tuesdays and French markets are always good, so we were keen to go for a walk around the chateau and visit the market. The drive was pleasant and the walk around the town and the chateau was interesting, but the market was a major disappointment – it appears that markets in the Loire aren't nearly as big an affair as they are in Provence and are really just a local vegetable market, so it didn't really warrant a trip.
From there we went to the Ussé chateau, the inspiration for the sleeping beauty fairy tale. The Chateau is set on a hillside beside the river Indre. There is a small chapel in the grounds and some nice box gardens in front of the chateau,beneath an arched entranceway to the chateau. Once inside the chateau, you got to do the usual, walk through the family rooms, but we also got to walk through the attic in the roof of the house and see how it was constructed and the mud and straw insulation that was used.
After that we walked around the ramparts inside the external facade, which provided great views of the surrounding countryside. At one stage, we saw a really interesting tapestry. I'm not usually a big tapestry fan – they seem to always be of war or religious scenes and although I can appreciate the artistry and the detail, they all come across as pretty much of a muchness. This particular tapestry has been described as “a realistic country scene” by the Michelin Guide, but too me it is more of a raucous party. Note, this is a massive tapestry and covers most of a large wall. On the tapestry it shows a scene of country folk sitting round tables drinking. On closer inspection however, there appear to be a couple of gents getting a bit too friendly with some of the local ladies and there are even two gentlemen relieving themselves against a fence. I was amazed and delighted not only that the scene had made it on to a tapestry, but the same skill and craftsmanship that goes into all the other tapestries had been applied to this scene of obvious debauchery – superb.
Usse's final point of interest is that is had an underground cave that used to have a tunnel that lead all the way into the forest that could be used to make a hasty escape if the locals turned nasty. This unfortunately collapsed at some time in the past, so you are no longer able to go exploring through it.
Last stop for the day was the Chateau at Langeais. Good bit of scandal here – Anne of Bretagne who owned and lived in Langeais, inherited her title (Queen of Brittany) and money at the age of 11 in 1491. At that time, Brittany was owned by Britain and not France. At the age of 14, Anne was married to Maximillion of Austria, but that marriage was annulled after a year, when she got a better offer from the king of France. That marriage lasted for 6 years, until he died and then her marriage contract stipulated that she would marry whoever became the king of France. This backroom dealing essentially united France and brought peace to the land – a good bit of negotiating for a 14 / 20 year old.
The most notable thing about the chateau was the gardens, which has a massive tree hut built into one of the trees. (see pictures). I climbed it all the way to the top, which was great, although I don't think the class of school kids who weren't allowed on it were particularly impressed that this old guy was climbing around on it.
From there we went to the Ussé chateau, the inspiration for the sleeping beauty fairy tale. The Chateau is set on a hillside beside the river Indre. There is a small chapel in the grounds and some nice box gardens in front of the chateau,beneath an arched entranceway to the chateau. Once inside the chateau, you got to do the usual, walk through the family rooms, but we also got to walk through the attic in the roof of the house and see how it was constructed and the mud and straw insulation that was used.
After that we walked around the ramparts inside the external facade, which provided great views of the surrounding countryside. At one stage, we saw a really interesting tapestry. I'm not usually a big tapestry fan – they seem to always be of war or religious scenes and although I can appreciate the artistry and the detail, they all come across as pretty much of a muchness. This particular tapestry has been described as “a realistic country scene” by the Michelin Guide, but too me it is more of a raucous party. Note, this is a massive tapestry and covers most of a large wall. On the tapestry it shows a scene of country folk sitting round tables drinking. On closer inspection however, there appear to be a couple of gents getting a bit too friendly with some of the local ladies and there are even two gentlemen relieving themselves against a fence. I was amazed and delighted not only that the scene had made it on to a tapestry, but the same skill and craftsmanship that goes into all the other tapestries had been applied to this scene of obvious debauchery – superb.
Usse's final point of interest is that is had an underground cave that used to have a tunnel that lead all the way into the forest that could be used to make a hasty escape if the locals turned nasty. This unfortunately collapsed at some time in the past, so you are no longer able to go exploring through it.
Last stop for the day was the Chateau at Langeais. Good bit of scandal here – Anne of Bretagne who owned and lived in Langeais, inherited her title (Queen of Brittany) and money at the age of 11 in 1491. At that time, Brittany was owned by Britain and not France. At the age of 14, Anne was married to Maximillion of Austria, but that marriage was annulled after a year, when she got a better offer from the king of France. That marriage lasted for 6 years, until he died and then her marriage contract stipulated that she would marry whoever became the king of France. This backroom dealing essentially united France and brought peace to the land – a good bit of negotiating for a 14 / 20 year old.
The most notable thing about the chateau was the gardens, which has a massive tree hut built into one of the trees. (see pictures). I climbed it all the way to the top, which was great, although I don't think the class of school kids who weren't allowed on it were particularly impressed that this old guy was climbing around on it.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Monday 22nd – Week 2 – Loire Chateaus
There is a vast array of camper vans and caravans at the two campgrounds we've visited to far. By far the most impressive was “Bounder”, which when it was parked as far forward in its allocated space still had a couple of feet hanging over onto the campground access road. In addition to its length, it also sported three extendable wings that retract when it's on the road, but then are spread out when it is in situ. Unfortunately, we didn't get a picture of it, but it really was a sight to behold. The most intriguing caravan so far was the one that parked beside us for a night in Chinon. Before the owners packed up to leave, it was one of the uglier ones we'd seen, but as they started to pack up, we noticed that the tow ball was located at the side of it, rather than the front. Anne and I were both pondering how this could work and how the body could be swiveled around, when the side of the caravan simply disappeared only to appear out the other side being carried by the wife. A quick flick and it was folded in half and stored. With in two minutes, the whole caravan had been dismantled and folded up origami style into nothing more than a small trailer with a blue canvas cover.
Most people we've met at the campgrounds have been very nice and when we arrived in Chinon, the English woman in the camper van that we pitched our tent beside was very concerned that we'd parked on the side of their camper van that had the toilet and that they'd keep us awake at night as they visited the loo. After a peaceful night sleep, we met the man who owned the camper van and he was from Geelong in Victoria and traveled around Europe for 3 months a year during the Melbourne winter – retired of course. He did spend two years traveling Europe with a caravan when he first retired, but now just comes over for a 3 month excursion each year, collecting his camper van from Cambridge and heading straight for France – nice.
Our camping equipment has expanded slightly, since we arrived. Rather than covering the evolution of man in 4 staggering steps (quadra-ped, knuckle dragging bi-ped, staggering erect bi-ped to stable erect bi-ped) as we scramble out of the tent, we've now bought a map and instead come bounding out of the tent, puppy-like, on all fours until we're clear of the veranda, where we can stand up, don our jandals and walk off, head held high with dignity (maybe).
Today's sightseeing is the first of several that we are going to sped visiting the Chateaus of the Loire. The first stop was the chateau at Montsoreau and the troglodite caves and houses built into the rock cliff faces at Souzay-Champigny. We don't go into all the chateaus, there's only so much fine porcelain, tapestries, wooden rafters and walks around the parapets that a person can stand, so we're trying to chose the best ones to go inside and the others just visit the gardens and admire there external architecture.
Next stop was the town of Saumur – quite a large town, with a very impressive chateau on the top of the hill overlooking the town. The chateau wasn't open, due to it being Monday, but we did get to walk all around it, before heading down into the old part of town, through the cobbled streets before buying some snacks for lunch which we then walked back up to the chateau and ate, sitting on a park bench overlooking the chateau and the town.
In the afternoon, we visited the chateau Brézé. The most impressive feature here was the massive deep moat that surrounded it. It's dry now, but it must have been 20m deep. The moat wall has openings that lead into massive underground tunnels and an underground fortress, which is large enough to house a small army. Now two things I can't tell you is how the openings work with the moat (I assume that it had to be filled with water) and how big an army they could house in their underground fortress – maybe I'll google that later. Again, this was an external visit and we didn't go inside the chateau.
Last stop for the day was the chateau at Le Rivau. The walking tour that we did said that the motif above the main door contained the families moto, that “they would never be demoted in rank”. I was interested to read later that the family lost it's wealth and status 300 years ago, when while working in the king's court, the master of the house had had too much of a good time and lost the family chateau by not being able to honour his debts. The chateau had gone into serious disrepair following there downfall, until it was bought by the present owners in 1994 and it has now been completely restored and they have created some amazing gardens with some awesome sculptures (see pictures)
On returning to the campground, we stopped at the supermarket to buy some drinks and nibbles, which we sat down to enjoy by our tent, before heading out for dinner in the nearby town.
Most people we've met at the campgrounds have been very nice and when we arrived in Chinon, the English woman in the camper van that we pitched our tent beside was very concerned that we'd parked on the side of their camper van that had the toilet and that they'd keep us awake at night as they visited the loo. After a peaceful night sleep, we met the man who owned the camper van and he was from Geelong in Victoria and traveled around Europe for 3 months a year during the Melbourne winter – retired of course. He did spend two years traveling Europe with a caravan when he first retired, but now just comes over for a 3 month excursion each year, collecting his camper van from Cambridge and heading straight for France – nice.
Our camping equipment has expanded slightly, since we arrived. Rather than covering the evolution of man in 4 staggering steps (quadra-ped, knuckle dragging bi-ped, staggering erect bi-ped to stable erect bi-ped) as we scramble out of the tent, we've now bought a map and instead come bounding out of the tent, puppy-like, on all fours until we're clear of the veranda, where we can stand up, don our jandals and walk off, head held high with dignity (maybe).
Today's sightseeing is the first of several that we are going to sped visiting the Chateaus of the Loire. The first stop was the chateau at Montsoreau and the troglodite caves and houses built into the rock cliff faces at Souzay-Champigny. We don't go into all the chateaus, there's only so much fine porcelain, tapestries, wooden rafters and walks around the parapets that a person can stand, so we're trying to chose the best ones to go inside and the others just visit the gardens and admire there external architecture.
Next stop was the town of Saumur – quite a large town, with a very impressive chateau on the top of the hill overlooking the town. The chateau wasn't open, due to it being Monday, but we did get to walk all around it, before heading down into the old part of town, through the cobbled streets before buying some snacks for lunch which we then walked back up to the chateau and ate, sitting on a park bench overlooking the chateau and the town.
In the afternoon, we visited the chateau Brézé. The most impressive feature here was the massive deep moat that surrounded it. It's dry now, but it must have been 20m deep. The moat wall has openings that lead into massive underground tunnels and an underground fortress, which is large enough to house a small army. Now two things I can't tell you is how the openings work with the moat (I assume that it had to be filled with water) and how big an army they could house in their underground fortress – maybe I'll google that later. Again, this was an external visit and we didn't go inside the chateau.
Last stop for the day was the chateau at Le Rivau. The walking tour that we did said that the motif above the main door contained the families moto, that “they would never be demoted in rank”. I was interested to read later that the family lost it's wealth and status 300 years ago, when while working in the king's court, the master of the house had had too much of a good time and lost the family chateau by not being able to honour his debts. The chateau had gone into serious disrepair following there downfall, until it was bought by the present owners in 1994 and it has now been completely restored and they have created some amazing gardens with some awesome sculptures (see pictures)
On returning to the campground, we stopped at the supermarket to buy some drinks and nibbles, which we sat down to enjoy by our tent, before heading out for dinner in the nearby town.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Sunday 21st – Week 1 – Drive to Chinon via Rennes
Today we drove from Dinan in Brittany to Chinon in the Loire Valley, via Rennes. Since we reset Jane, she's had this annoying habit of making a bonging sound (you know bong, bong, bong) whenever my speed exceeds the published speed limit by more than 10kms per hour. She only bongs 3 times then stops, but it had got to be so regular that I had to pull over to the side of the road yesterday and reset her, so that she stopped her incessant bonging.
As we began our drive to Rennes today, Anne commented about 20 minutes into the trip that I was doing “123kph in a 110 zone”. I waited for a good minute before commenting “that was so much less offensive that Jane's bonging”. “Wasn't it” said Anne. Oh dear, I thought, that sarcasm went straight over her head. A minute later Anne said “oh, that was annoying, wasn't it”. Since then, we've had no more bonging and no more running commentaries, so all smooth sailing.
Also on the trip to Rennes, we past one of the pesky machines that tells you your current speed. As we approached it, it started flashing my speed, with the word around it “Trop Vite.. Levez La Pied” “Too fast, lift your foot”, which I thought was a rather gentle reminder about keeping within the speed limit.
We arrived at Rennes at about 10am, which is way too early for anything to be open in France on a Sunday. We parked by the town square and went for a walk around the town, past it's basilica, which was in good voice for the Sunday service, the opera house and the famous cathedral, which was ringing out a merry tune on the church bells calling people to service. We found a lovely square in the sun and sat down for a cup of coffee. As we hadn't had breakfast, we asked if he served croissants, which he replied “non”, then intimated that we should go to the boulangerie around the corner and bring them back to have with our coffees. This amazed us, because firstly he didn't serve food, and rather than buy it in, he was quite happy for people to sit in his courtyard and eat pastries from a brown paper bag bought round the corner. This is obviously the practice, as we've repeated the practice since then and it's all very accepted, which seems remarkably relaxed.
Rennes is mainly a university town, that seems to have more shoe shops per head of population than anywhere else I've been. Apart from being a bit scarfy and very shoppy, Rennes also seems to have a good drug trade going, as we noticed on several occasions the tell tale sign of a pair of sneakers hanging from an overhead power line. The one at the back of the church seemed particularly out of place.
After Rennes, it was back on the motorway and off to Chinon. We arrived in Chinon at about 3pm, via a trip to Saumur where we thought we would stay. We didn't, however, like the campground in Saumur, so have come further east to Chinon which has a much nicer campground (even as a 2-star, it was less Butlins like than Saumur – are we becoming campground snobs already??).
The notice on the door said the office was closed until 4pm, and just to find yourself a spot, get setup and come back to the office at 4pm. We duly returned at 4pm, got the site, organised a power adaptor to charge our batteries and then headed off to town to have a look around and eventually go to dinner.
June 21 is national music day in France and every small square was having a band of some sort playing music until all hours of the night. It is also, apparently, the night that the local motor cyclists come into town on mass (maybe it's every Sunday night) and parked on the river bank opposite the restaurant we were dining in, so we got to see a great variety of motor bikes and motor cyclists to while away the evening watching. As for the music, some of it was good, some of it was better appreciated from distance. Returning from dinner, the band at the bar down the road from the campground was belting out A”Eye of the Tiger”, which from a distance sounded passable. On closer inspection, however, it was anything but passable, so after a couple of truly dreadful renditions, we headed back to the campground and “appreciated” the music from a safe distance.
As we began our drive to Rennes today, Anne commented about 20 minutes into the trip that I was doing “123kph in a 110 zone”. I waited for a good minute before commenting “that was so much less offensive that Jane's bonging”. “Wasn't it” said Anne. Oh dear, I thought, that sarcasm went straight over her head. A minute later Anne said “oh, that was annoying, wasn't it”. Since then, we've had no more bonging and no more running commentaries, so all smooth sailing.
Also on the trip to Rennes, we past one of the pesky machines that tells you your current speed. As we approached it, it started flashing my speed, with the word around it “Trop Vite.. Levez La Pied” “Too fast, lift your foot”, which I thought was a rather gentle reminder about keeping within the speed limit.
We arrived at Rennes at about 10am, which is way too early for anything to be open in France on a Sunday. We parked by the town square and went for a walk around the town, past it's basilica, which was in good voice for the Sunday service, the opera house and the famous cathedral, which was ringing out a merry tune on the church bells calling people to service. We found a lovely square in the sun and sat down for a cup of coffee. As we hadn't had breakfast, we asked if he served croissants, which he replied “non”, then intimated that we should go to the boulangerie around the corner and bring them back to have with our coffees. This amazed us, because firstly he didn't serve food, and rather than buy it in, he was quite happy for people to sit in his courtyard and eat pastries from a brown paper bag bought round the corner. This is obviously the practice, as we've repeated the practice since then and it's all very accepted, which seems remarkably relaxed.
Rennes is mainly a university town, that seems to have more shoe shops per head of population than anywhere else I've been. Apart from being a bit scarfy and very shoppy, Rennes also seems to have a good drug trade going, as we noticed on several occasions the tell tale sign of a pair of sneakers hanging from an overhead power line. The one at the back of the church seemed particularly out of place.
After Rennes, it was back on the motorway and off to Chinon. We arrived in Chinon at about 3pm, via a trip to Saumur where we thought we would stay. We didn't, however, like the campground in Saumur, so have come further east to Chinon which has a much nicer campground (even as a 2-star, it was less Butlins like than Saumur – are we becoming campground snobs already??).
The notice on the door said the office was closed until 4pm, and just to find yourself a spot, get setup and come back to the office at 4pm. We duly returned at 4pm, got the site, organised a power adaptor to charge our batteries and then headed off to town to have a look around and eventually go to dinner.
June 21 is national music day in France and every small square was having a band of some sort playing music until all hours of the night. It is also, apparently, the night that the local motor cyclists come into town on mass (maybe it's every Sunday night) and parked on the river bank opposite the restaurant we were dining in, so we got to see a great variety of motor bikes and motor cyclists to while away the evening watching. As for the music, some of it was good, some of it was better appreciated from distance. Returning from dinner, the band at the bar down the road from the campground was belting out A”Eye of the Tiger”, which from a distance sounded passable. On closer inspection, however, it was anything but passable, so after a couple of truly dreadful renditions, we headed back to the campground and “appreciated” the music from a safe distance.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Saturday 20th – Week 1 – Mont Saint Michel, Dinan Sightseeing
Since we last caught up, the bottom seems to have dropped out of the camping market and we have plummeted in net worth from a 4-star campground in Dinan to a 2-star in Chinon (Loire). The tent, air bed and sleeping bag are the same, but the shower cubicle is now more like what I remember from 15 years ago and I have to shave in the open, in view of the entire world. Note to self - “seek out 4 star campgrounds in future”. This campground also doesn't have wifi, so I haven't been able to update the blog for a few days. On the plus side, the tent site is shaded, level and after one night appears free of the heavy dews that we had suffered in Brittany. That is the major plus in moving from Brittany to the Loire – coming inland, the temperature is a couple of degrees warmer and the wind even more so. We ate dinner outside last night and were hot for the first time since Paris, so that is a great improvement.
So back to Mont Saint Michel. It's about an hours drive from Dinan, so we were up early. We're always up early. Tenters rise and fall with the sun, and as nobody else tents, we always have free range of the shower facilities and get a full day in, because the sun rises at 5:30am and sets at about 10:00pm. The campgrounds host an impressive and vast array of caravans and motor homes, but I'll tell you about some of those another time.
Mont Saint Michel is an extraordinary site being an abbey that rises straight out of the sea on a tiny island just off the coast. It is linked to the mainland by a causeway that was built in the 19th Century. It has the highest tides in continental Europe with a difference of up to 15m between low and high tide and the tidal estuary around the Mont is some 250sq kms. This is one of the most impressive things about the Mont. When we visited, it was low tide and it was only from the very top of the Mont that the sea was just visible as a thin blue line on the very distant horizon. There was a sign at the end of the car park saying that “today the sea does not cover this car park” (see picture). Very reassuring!
The town on the mainland just before you get to the Mont is Beauvoir and is Tourist Central and it would not have been surprising to find a Happy Eater and a Tex Mex restaurant. It reminded us a bit of the Niagara Falls or the pyramids at Giza, where the commercial reality of what the tourists come to see is that you get something unbelievably tacky playing as a parasite to a beautiful attraction. Ouch, that was maybe a bit harsh.
The Mont has the abbey perched on the very top of it and houses, hotels and shops on its lower levels. You walk through the houses on narrow cobble stone streets and then climb very steep stairs to get to the Abbey. There has been a building of some religious significance on the Mont since the 8th century and the current abbey was started in the 10th Century. The building itself is rather austere, with very simple lead light windows (no magnificent stained glass here, thank you). It was used as a prison during the French Revolution. There was a very nice cloisters (a small garden enclosed by a double layer of pink granite columns. The dining room was notable because the monks ate in silence – so they seemed to have missed the point of food and wine.
At various times on the tour of the abbey, we were able to see outside to the vast tidal estuary and there were people thousands of people doing tours on the sand – most walking, but some on horseback. We never did find out what the particular purpose of the walking tours was, but with the bitterly cold wind, we weren't tempted to follow there lead.
After several hours on the Mont, we decided that we should stop for something to eat somewhere, as we hadn't had breakfast. We found a small Boulangerie in Pontorson, a small town a couple of ks down the road and less touristy than Beauvoir.
Breakfast consisted of a pain au raisin and a Pepito. A Pepito is two long thin strips of pastry filled with custard and chocolate drops. I'd never seen one before, but new as soon as I did that I had to have one. We took our sugar sensations and went off to find a seat to sit down and enjoy breakfast. There was a couple of seats outside the church just around the corner. Beside the seats were 2 small children who were playing soccer, using the church door as the goal – as you do. When we sat down, two small girls seemed to materialise onto the next seat . Here's Anne and I tucking into this Pepito and beside us are these two young girls looking at us with these sad begging eyes (If you've seen the movie Bolt, you'll know the look). They were well dressed and obviously well fed, so we upped sticks and went and had breakfast somewhere else, without succumbing to their emotional blackmail.
We spent the rest of the afternoon walking round Dinan, before having a delicious meal of Brochettes (skewers) of fish (Anne) and meat (David) at the Atelier Gourmand one of Dinan's riverside restaurants.
So back to Mont Saint Michel. It's about an hours drive from Dinan, so we were up early. We're always up early. Tenters rise and fall with the sun, and as nobody else tents, we always have free range of the shower facilities and get a full day in, because the sun rises at 5:30am and sets at about 10:00pm. The campgrounds host an impressive and vast array of caravans and motor homes, but I'll tell you about some of those another time.
Mont Saint Michel is an extraordinary site being an abbey that rises straight out of the sea on a tiny island just off the coast. It is linked to the mainland by a causeway that was built in the 19th Century. It has the highest tides in continental Europe with a difference of up to 15m between low and high tide and the tidal estuary around the Mont is some 250sq kms. This is one of the most impressive things about the Mont. When we visited, it was low tide and it was only from the very top of the Mont that the sea was just visible as a thin blue line on the very distant horizon. There was a sign at the end of the car park saying that “today the sea does not cover this car park” (see picture). Very reassuring!
The town on the mainland just before you get to the Mont is Beauvoir and is Tourist Central and it would not have been surprising to find a Happy Eater and a Tex Mex restaurant. It reminded us a bit of the Niagara Falls or the pyramids at Giza, where the commercial reality of what the tourists come to see is that you get something unbelievably tacky playing as a parasite to a beautiful attraction. Ouch, that was maybe a bit harsh.
The Mont has the abbey perched on the very top of it and houses, hotels and shops on its lower levels. You walk through the houses on narrow cobble stone streets and then climb very steep stairs to get to the Abbey. There has been a building of some religious significance on the Mont since the 8th century and the current abbey was started in the 10th Century. The building itself is rather austere, with very simple lead light windows (no magnificent stained glass here, thank you). It was used as a prison during the French Revolution. There was a very nice cloisters (a small garden enclosed by a double layer of pink granite columns. The dining room was notable because the monks ate in silence – so they seemed to have missed the point of food and wine.
At various times on the tour of the abbey, we were able to see outside to the vast tidal estuary and there were people thousands of people doing tours on the sand – most walking, but some on horseback. We never did find out what the particular purpose of the walking tours was, but with the bitterly cold wind, we weren't tempted to follow there lead.
After several hours on the Mont, we decided that we should stop for something to eat somewhere, as we hadn't had breakfast. We found a small Boulangerie in Pontorson, a small town a couple of ks down the road and less touristy than Beauvoir.
Breakfast consisted of a pain au raisin and a Pepito. A Pepito is two long thin strips of pastry filled with custard and chocolate drops. I'd never seen one before, but new as soon as I did that I had to have one. We took our sugar sensations and went off to find a seat to sit down and enjoy breakfast. There was a couple of seats outside the church just around the corner. Beside the seats were 2 small children who were playing soccer, using the church door as the goal – as you do. When we sat down, two small girls seemed to materialise onto the next seat . Here's Anne and I tucking into this Pepito and beside us are these two young girls looking at us with these sad begging eyes (If you've seen the movie Bolt, you'll know the look). They were well dressed and obviously well fed, so we upped sticks and went and had breakfast somewhere else, without succumbing to their emotional blackmail.
We spent the rest of the afternoon walking round Dinan, before having a delicious meal of Brochettes (skewers) of fish (Anne) and meat (David) at the Atelier Gourmand one of Dinan's riverside restaurants.
Camping
Another successful nights camping – that's two and two more than many people I spoke to before going on holiday would give me credit for. Some aspects of camping have changed in the 15 years since we last did it – the shower cubicles (based on an exhaustive survey of one campground) are much bigger and have wet and dry areas, so you can have a shower, get dried and dressed without having to hop around so you don't get your clothes wet while you're dressing.
Another thing that's changed is me – I'm 15 years older and getting in and out of a pup tent has not got easier in that time. Getting in involves bending at the waist until your upper body is parallel with the ground, bending your knees and ankles as far as they will go (not very far) so you are as low as possible, then stepping forward in this ridiculous position, until you have started to enter the tent, at which point you drop to your knees and scramble in over the air bed which takes up 95% of the available space on the tent floor. You then do your best houdini impersonation to get yourself out of whatever clothes your wearing (gym shorts and polar fleece) that you don't want to sleep in. One night, I forgot to take my shorts off, so had to perform that de-robing exercise from inside a zipped up sleeping bag – how dignified. Getting out of the tent involves reversing the de-robing exercise, then crawling to the end of the tent, Straining to get one foot out and then doing a lunging uncoiling step to thrust yourself forward past to verandah (grandiose term for the small overhand the protects the door of the tent from some weather) to come to a wobbling stand in front of the tent. You then hobble around trying to get the stones off your feet while slipping in to your jandals which have been specifically bought for trapsing round a campground. How good do you think that $EUR90 6 foot high tent looks when you've completed that. Never mind – maybe on the next trip.
Another thing that's changed is me – I'm 15 years older and getting in and out of a pup tent has not got easier in that time. Getting in involves bending at the waist until your upper body is parallel with the ground, bending your knees and ankles as far as they will go (not very far) so you are as low as possible, then stepping forward in this ridiculous position, until you have started to enter the tent, at which point you drop to your knees and scramble in over the air bed which takes up 95% of the available space on the tent floor. You then do your best houdini impersonation to get yourself out of whatever clothes your wearing (gym shorts and polar fleece) that you don't want to sleep in. One night, I forgot to take my shorts off, so had to perform that de-robing exercise from inside a zipped up sleeping bag – how dignified. Getting out of the tent involves reversing the de-robing exercise, then crawling to the end of the tent, Straining to get one foot out and then doing a lunging uncoiling step to thrust yourself forward past to verandah (grandiose term for the small overhand the protects the door of the tent from some weather) to come to a wobbling stand in front of the tent. You then hobble around trying to get the stones off your feet while slipping in to your jandals which have been specifically bought for trapsing round a campground. How good do you think that $EUR90 6 foot high tent looks when you've completed that. Never mind – maybe on the next trip.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Friday 19th – Week 1 – Saint Malo, Dinard, Rance River sightseeing
Learned a valuable lesson last night – the paraplegics get the normal toilets..... Might seem obvious when you read it, but when your not in the habit of searching out “normal” toilets, it came as something of a revelation. Unfortunately, I only learned this after my second encounter with what I now believe to be referred to as “Turkish style” toilets. The timing of learning from my dear wife that the paraplegic toilets were in fact “European style” was comical due to her delivery being mere moments to late to save me from my contortions, but good for her for keeping herself occupied while I was indisposed.
There we go, always good to start the day with a bit of toilet humour. Now where were we – ah yes, up early, showered and off to find breakfast, but not before stopping at what is now our favourite pass time in France – camping shopping. Decathlon is the sporting megastore in France and it's camping gear is so ridiculously cheap that we should have bought everything when we arrived and given it away at the end of the holiday. Stand up tent - $EUR90, airbed - $EUR20, camping chairs - $EUR11, Sleeping bags (good enough for summer) - $EUR20. All set up for less that $EUR200. Other stuff like polar fleece tops are $EUR15, so it's all really cheap.
Anyway, after the purchase of the two camp chairs, we were off to Saint Malo to start the days sightseeing. Saint Malo is at the easterly end of the Brittany Coast and is a fortified town. In the 17th Century, it was France's foremost port and controlled all the trade to the East Indies. Some people made some serious coin as a result of the trade, but it was then attacked by the British in 1693, which resulted in the fortified town being built. Sadly, 80% of it was destroyed in 1944, but it has been rebuilt in keeping with its former self and so today there are impressive ramparts to walk around.
In addition to the ramparts, there is also Fort National, which is build on a rocky outcrop just out in the harbour. At low tide you can walk out to the Fort. The day we were there, the weather was sunny but cold, so we were walking round in polar fleeces, and jackets – and shorts of course. Inside the ramparts, the town is all stone buildings, but it had a rather touristy feel to it, so we left and headed around to Dinard, a town about 10 minutes along the coast, where we stopped for a lunch of Carpaccio, crab salad and goat cheese salad.
After lunch we drove down the Rance River, which goes from Saint Malo all the way to Rennes(long way inland), which we will visit on Sunday when we drive to The Loire. Our first port of call was Plouer Sur Rance before going on to Vicomte Sur Rance where we did a walk beside the canal and locks. Finally we stopped at Evran, where there were more locks and we saw a great house boat – basically a caravan stuck on top of a barge, with its wheels removed. (see the photos). Lots of the boats we saw at our stops were British, so it's obviously a popular trip to bring your boat over to Brittany and then sail them up the Rance.
On arrival back at the campground, we tried out our new chairs, while enjoying a glass of wine before heading on the river walk (again by the Rance) into Dinan for dinner.
There we go, always good to start the day with a bit of toilet humour. Now where were we – ah yes, up early, showered and off to find breakfast, but not before stopping at what is now our favourite pass time in France – camping shopping. Decathlon is the sporting megastore in France and it's camping gear is so ridiculously cheap that we should have bought everything when we arrived and given it away at the end of the holiday. Stand up tent - $EUR90, airbed - $EUR20, camping chairs - $EUR11, Sleeping bags (good enough for summer) - $EUR20. All set up for less that $EUR200. Other stuff like polar fleece tops are $EUR15, so it's all really cheap.
Anyway, after the purchase of the two camp chairs, we were off to Saint Malo to start the days sightseeing. Saint Malo is at the easterly end of the Brittany Coast and is a fortified town. In the 17th Century, it was France's foremost port and controlled all the trade to the East Indies. Some people made some serious coin as a result of the trade, but it was then attacked by the British in 1693, which resulted in the fortified town being built. Sadly, 80% of it was destroyed in 1944, but it has been rebuilt in keeping with its former self and so today there are impressive ramparts to walk around.
In addition to the ramparts, there is also Fort National, which is build on a rocky outcrop just out in the harbour. At low tide you can walk out to the Fort. The day we were there, the weather was sunny but cold, so we were walking round in polar fleeces, and jackets – and shorts of course. Inside the ramparts, the town is all stone buildings, but it had a rather touristy feel to it, so we left and headed around to Dinard, a town about 10 minutes along the coast, where we stopped for a lunch of Carpaccio, crab salad and goat cheese salad.
After lunch we drove down the Rance River, which goes from Saint Malo all the way to Rennes(long way inland), which we will visit on Sunday when we drive to The Loire. Our first port of call was Plouer Sur Rance before going on to Vicomte Sur Rance where we did a walk beside the canal and locks. Finally we stopped at Evran, where there were more locks and we saw a great house boat – basically a caravan stuck on top of a barge, with its wheels removed. (see the photos). Lots of the boats we saw at our stops were British, so it's obviously a popular trip to bring your boat over to Brittany and then sail them up the Rance.
On arrival back at the campground, we tried out our new chairs, while enjoying a glass of wine before heading on the river walk (again by the Rance) into Dinan for dinner.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Thursday 18th – Week 1 – Drive to Brittany
I'm writing this at 8am in the TV room at our first campsite. The first night went very well – slept like a baby, except when it rained – twice. Anne is getting right into the spirit of things, sitting in the sun reading the Practical Caravan magazine and enthralling me periodically with readers letters about their 1988 Sprite Musketeer caravan, “that still attracts admiring glances from passers by” - oh dear. It's not supposed to be a comedy magazine, but Anne has lost it completely and is in hysterics reading it.
We checked out of the hotel at 9am and caught a taxi around to Peugeot to collect the car. The Paris traffic was absolute bedlam, but we did get to drive round the Champs Elysee, which was kinda cool. We had a couple of dramas when we got the car. The first was very minor, but whoever had delivered the car had managed to give it a Paris paint job – scuffed up rear bumper from bump parking your way into a park.
The second drama was a bit more problematic – I'd left the windscreen mount for our GPS “Jane” (that's the name of her plooty English voice). To compound our problem, “Jane” decided that she wasn't going to find any satellites – none. That makes her rather useless for her only purpose, to navigate us round the place. Fortunately, we had a map, so set about navigating our way out of Paris under our own steam. Even more fortunately, if you have to get lost anywhere, the centre of a big city is a pretty good place, because the first direction sign they give you is how to get out of the place. What seemed at first to be a major problem, was completely solved 10 minutes later as we were out of the Paris limits and on the motorway to Rouen on our way to Brittany. About an hour into the trip after several hard resets (which didn't seem to do anything) and two soft resets, Jane all of a sudden got her mojo back, triangulated of a healthy number of satellites and started telling us where we were. A quick stop at a motorway services had the campground address typed in and then we were on our way to Dinan in Brittany for our first nights camping.
Our tent is a small pup tent that we last used when we traveled around Europe 15 years ago. That was the last time that we did any camping, but we decided it would be a different way of seeing Europe and after 5 years, a change seemed like a good idea. We've come away armed with a list of specially chosen campgrounds – we used a campground guide when we traveled round Europe in the 1990's and all the campgrounds were good, so we've got the newer version of that book and have selected the campgrounds we want to stay in, in the places we are visiting. As well as the campgrounds, we also have a list of hotels that we have researched in the same areas, so that if the weather is bad, or we get tired of camping, we can go and stay in a hotel.
In addition to our tent, we have bought an air bed, air compressor and two sleeping bags from New Zealand. We have bought a mallet in Paris and will go and buy a couple of camping chairs today. We have no cooking facilities as that is what restaurants and cafe's are for.
The trip to Brittany took until 3pm, which gave us time to pitch the tent, sort out all our gear so that what we needed to get at regularly was easily available and then head into Dinan for a bit of sightseeing before drinks and dinner. The walk into Dinan took about 20 minutes by bike track along the river bank. When we arrived at Dinan, it is a picturesque little town with lots of boats moored on the river, with the usual array of restaurants and bars beside the river. There appeared to be a larger walled village above the town, so we walked up one of the steep narrow cobbled streets towards the top of the town. It was only when we got to the top of the hill that we realised that Dinan is in fact a fairly large town, with a bustling town centre, lots of tourist shops, several chain hotels – ibis, Mercure and Best Western, to name a few. All the houses in the town are stone, and with all the flowers in the middle of summer, it's a real picture. After an hour of street wandering, we retreated back down to the river for a couple of drinks and a meal before wandering back down the river path to the campground for our first night sleeping in our tent.
We checked out of the hotel at 9am and caught a taxi around to Peugeot to collect the car. The Paris traffic was absolute bedlam, but we did get to drive round the Champs Elysee, which was kinda cool. We had a couple of dramas when we got the car. The first was very minor, but whoever had delivered the car had managed to give it a Paris paint job – scuffed up rear bumper from bump parking your way into a park.
The second drama was a bit more problematic – I'd left the windscreen mount for our GPS “Jane” (that's the name of her plooty English voice). To compound our problem, “Jane” decided that she wasn't going to find any satellites – none. That makes her rather useless for her only purpose, to navigate us round the place. Fortunately, we had a map, so set about navigating our way out of Paris under our own steam. Even more fortunately, if you have to get lost anywhere, the centre of a big city is a pretty good place, because the first direction sign they give you is how to get out of the place. What seemed at first to be a major problem, was completely solved 10 minutes later as we were out of the Paris limits and on the motorway to Rouen on our way to Brittany. About an hour into the trip after several hard resets (which didn't seem to do anything) and two soft resets, Jane all of a sudden got her mojo back, triangulated of a healthy number of satellites and started telling us where we were. A quick stop at a motorway services had the campground address typed in and then we were on our way to Dinan in Brittany for our first nights camping.
Our tent is a small pup tent that we last used when we traveled around Europe 15 years ago. That was the last time that we did any camping, but we decided it would be a different way of seeing Europe and after 5 years, a change seemed like a good idea. We've come away armed with a list of specially chosen campgrounds – we used a campground guide when we traveled round Europe in the 1990's and all the campgrounds were good, so we've got the newer version of that book and have selected the campgrounds we want to stay in, in the places we are visiting. As well as the campgrounds, we also have a list of hotels that we have researched in the same areas, so that if the weather is bad, or we get tired of camping, we can go and stay in a hotel.
In addition to our tent, we have bought an air bed, air compressor and two sleeping bags from New Zealand. We have bought a mallet in Paris and will go and buy a couple of camping chairs today. We have no cooking facilities as that is what restaurants and cafe's are for.
The trip to Brittany took until 3pm, which gave us time to pitch the tent, sort out all our gear so that what we needed to get at regularly was easily available and then head into Dinan for a bit of sightseeing before drinks and dinner. The walk into Dinan took about 20 minutes by bike track along the river bank. When we arrived at Dinan, it is a picturesque little town with lots of boats moored on the river, with the usual array of restaurants and bars beside the river. There appeared to be a larger walled village above the town, so we walked up one of the steep narrow cobbled streets towards the top of the town. It was only when we got to the top of the hill that we realised that Dinan is in fact a fairly large town, with a bustling town centre, lots of tourist shops, several chain hotels – ibis, Mercure and Best Western, to name a few. All the houses in the town are stone, and with all the flowers in the middle of summer, it's a real picture. After an hour of street wandering, we retreated back down to the river for a couple of drinks and a meal before wandering back down the river path to the campground for our first night sleeping in our tent.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Wednesday 17th – Week 1 – Notre Dame, Jardin Des Plantes, Latin Quarter, Jardin Des Luxembourg
Catching up to the present now, thankfully. Today it's the hottest it's been since we arrived – in the high 20's and not a cloud in the sky.
Our walk today was a lot more local than the previous couple of days and started with a walk to the Seine, over the Pont Neuf and then down to Notre Dame. Saw a cool site at the Notre Dame. There was a group of very young children being taken on an outing to the cathedral. In order to keep them in line, there teachers had two long pink ropes with hand hold at regular intervals. The children were all in a line with one pink rope down one side of them, the other pink rope down the other side. The children then held the hand holds and got marched around the cathedral. Civil libertarians would be having a fit, but it was a pretty effective way to keep them all in check. (See photos). After a walk around the inside of the Cathedral, we headed off to the Ile de St Louis, then down to the Jardin Des Plantes past the Paris University.
We hope that the campus of Paris University is closed for refurbishment. If it's not, then I think there only graduates are drug addicts and taggers, because it looked like it was in an awful state of repair.
The Jardin Des Plantes is one of the many big public gardens in Paris and has a zoo and an indoor tropical garden. It was nice walking around the garden and also nice to get a chance to walk in the shade, because the day was awesomely hot.
After the Jardin Des Plants, our walk took us to the Latin Quarter. We have a book of Paris walks that we are working our way through. We don't follow the walks too strictly and if we see something that takes our fancy, we go off and look at that as well. Paris is a great city to walk around and it's a cheap way of seeing lots of the sites. The Latin Quarter is quite similar to where we are staying in Saint Germain, as it has lots of little streets that are absolutely full of restaurants and bars. After the previous days marathon walk, we were determined that we would stop and have a break and some lunch today. The first stop was a little bar on a tiny little square with restaurants all around it. We only stopped because I needed a comfort stop and the price of $E9 (9 euros) for a small Orangina and a small mineral water seemed fairly steep, but when you need to go....... Anyway, for $E9 you would think that you'd get a normal toilet, not the French “two feet and a hole in the ground”. Never mind, when in France......
Anyway, after the drink break we carried on walking and found a really quaint little street with lots of really nice looking restaurants – you know, cane chairs, white linen table cloths, decent sized wine glasses, so we stopped there for lunch, before continuing on to the Sorbonne University, then a high school that is claimed to be the most exclusive in France. Finally, we walked through the Jardin De Luxembourg, which was really beautiful and full of university students enjoying an afternoon in the sun.
Dinner that night was a light meal (carpaccio and a Pizza to share) in a little Italian restaurant.
Our walk today was a lot more local than the previous couple of days and started with a walk to the Seine, over the Pont Neuf and then down to Notre Dame. Saw a cool site at the Notre Dame. There was a group of very young children being taken on an outing to the cathedral. In order to keep them in line, there teachers had two long pink ropes with hand hold at regular intervals. The children were all in a line with one pink rope down one side of them, the other pink rope down the other side. The children then held the hand holds and got marched around the cathedral. Civil libertarians would be having a fit, but it was a pretty effective way to keep them all in check. (See photos). After a walk around the inside of the Cathedral, we headed off to the Ile de St Louis, then down to the Jardin Des Plantes past the Paris University.
We hope that the campus of Paris University is closed for refurbishment. If it's not, then I think there only graduates are drug addicts and taggers, because it looked like it was in an awful state of repair.
The Jardin Des Plantes is one of the many big public gardens in Paris and has a zoo and an indoor tropical garden. It was nice walking around the garden and also nice to get a chance to walk in the shade, because the day was awesomely hot.
After the Jardin Des Plants, our walk took us to the Latin Quarter. We have a book of Paris walks that we are working our way through. We don't follow the walks too strictly and if we see something that takes our fancy, we go off and look at that as well. Paris is a great city to walk around and it's a cheap way of seeing lots of the sites. The Latin Quarter is quite similar to where we are staying in Saint Germain, as it has lots of little streets that are absolutely full of restaurants and bars. After the previous days marathon walk, we were determined that we would stop and have a break and some lunch today. The first stop was a little bar on a tiny little square with restaurants all around it. We only stopped because I needed a comfort stop and the price of $E9 (9 euros) for a small Orangina and a small mineral water seemed fairly steep, but when you need to go....... Anyway, for $E9 you would think that you'd get a normal toilet, not the French “two feet and a hole in the ground”. Never mind, when in France......
Anyway, after the drink break we carried on walking and found a really quaint little street with lots of really nice looking restaurants – you know, cane chairs, white linen table cloths, decent sized wine glasses, so we stopped there for lunch, before continuing on to the Sorbonne University, then a high school that is claimed to be the most exclusive in France. Finally, we walked through the Jardin De Luxembourg, which was really beautiful and full of university students enjoying an afternoon in the sun.
Dinner that night was a light meal (carpaccio and a Pizza to share) in a little Italian restaurant.
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