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Posts tagged ‘France’

Aug 23

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Bordeaux

“Take Versailles, add Antwerp, and you have Bordeaux” was Victor Hugo’s description of the city, impressed as he was by its 18th century grandeur.

I’d always thought of Bordeaux as grimey, sleazy and unsafe.  Perhaps an unfounded reputation, or at least an old one.

The city has been going through a concentrated effort to clean-up; the buildings in the old town were once blackened from pollution, the ochre stonework is now being returned to its original brilliance.

The first glimpse of the old city is as you cross the Ponte de Pierre.  Looking to the Port of the Moon, a majestic ensemble of opulent french architecture sweeping along the river front.

Port of the Moon, Bordeaux
Ponte de Pierre, Bordeaux

Claimed a UNESCO world heritage site in 2007, Bordeaux is enjoying a renaissance.   It is a quasi-Paris; there are wide boulevards with magnificent Parisienne style buildings, a towering cathederal and a scattering of churches.  

Head deeper into the old town where cobblestone streets narrow and the buildings lean, the city is full of character and life.  We loved it so much, we stretched our two night stay to three.

We’ve lucked out with AirBnB accommodation in the old town pedestrian quarter.  Penny has also joined us for one night.

After being in the countryside for three weeks, we missed the pace of a city and enjoyed wandering through the old streets discovering out of the way bistros and bars.

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However, the main reason for adding Bordeaux to our tour was to dine at Le Gabriel, a Michelin star restaurant.  Don received the dinner as a farewell gift from Keystone, his former employer.

Lucky for me, the dinner was for two and I got a gurnsey!  I might point out that our vacation may have abruptly ended if I hadn’t!

Le Gabriel is located in a beautiful 18th century building, at the Place de la Bourse.  We are dining on the second floor and are shown to the best table in the room, overlooking the square below with views across the river.  

The sun is setting as we sip our champagne and toast a thankyou to Keystone!

We are indulging in the 8 course degustation with matching wines.  The evening is an exceptional culinary journey, under the direction of chef François Adamski.  An experience of elegance and excellence, combining classic with inventive cuisine to create authentic flavors of the highest quality.  Please note, some plagiarism from the website may have occurred in this paragraph.

The menu had a summer theme with a heavy seafood accent, which included langoustines, fish, caviar and duck.  The only red meat was a superbly cooked rack of lamb.  The wine selection was predominately white to match the seafood.

We are not unaccustomed to dining well.  However, when you are traveling for a year, it’s a luxury we don’t indulge in too often.  We’ve had some amazing meals on our trip, but this was by far the only five star experience.  The food was superb, the service faultless and the venue, authentic French.

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Bordeaux almost met with a devastating fate in 1944.  Under German occupation, but with the realisation that this wouldn’t be for much longer, Hitler ordered for its destruction.

German demolition expert, Heinz Stahlschmidt, could not bring himself to wantonly destroy such a beautiful city, when the war was clearly lost.  Instead, he disobeyed his orders; destroying the ammuniation storage sites instead, saving the city and thousands of lives.

A traitor to Germany, the French granted Stahlschmidt asylum and he lived out his life in Bordeaux. Recognised by the French as a hero in 2000, he died at the age of 91 in 2010.

Bordeaux as a city, was a delightful surprise.  The best surprise was at the end of our stay when we went to pay the €49.50  for parking, our credit card wasn’t accepted.  Just as I was about to pull €50 out, the attendant simply told us he would let us out for free – bonus!!

Aug 20

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Villefranche-de-Lonchat

This was one of the first legs of our trip that we booked.  Knowing that Europe in August is in full-on holiday mode, we didn’t want to be moving around.

At the time, we didn’t know how much traveling we would do prior to plonking in one spot for three weeks.  As the time approached, we were very ready to stay put in one place for a while.

Neither of us had much knowledge of the Dordogne area, but I thought it had to be nice, as it was only 20km from Saint Emilion; a wine appellation I am very fond of and a town I had visited 15 years ago.

Our home for three weeks is on a small property called Beaulieu; the owners have converted a barn into two apartments. The other booking failed to show up, so we have the place to ourselves.

The apartment is spacious and well-appointed: a large kitchen, dining and lounge downstairs and an upstairs loft with bedroom and bathroom. After living out of a backpack and staying mostly in accommodation consisting of simple bed and bathroom, this is luxury.  The first thing I did was entirely unpack the contents of the car and then my backpack.

Our nearest village is Villefranche-de-Lonchat, consisting of a boulangerie, pharmacy and a little general store. The locals are very proud of the nearby Lac de Gurson.  Whenever we mention where we are staying to anyone, they all seem to refer to the lake.  The nearby villages got together and created a beach and recreation area.  It looks very pleasant, but given we have a pool where we are staying we haven’t taken a dip in it.

The landscape is a patchwork of grapevines, sunflowers and corn fields, interspersed with grassy fields and grazing cows.

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Since arriving back in France I’ve been having an affair…..with french food.  It started with duck; duck magret, duck confit, duck salad and the pièce de résistance is of course duck foie gras.

We even visit a local foie gras farm (stop reading if you are a vegetarian or animal rights activist, the following paragraph may cause distress!)

The owners wife was Irish and delighted in giving us a tour, perhaps a bit too much of a tour.  Aside from seeing the ducks wandering freely around the yard, we also got to see how they are fattened up in their short (but very happy) 12 week life and how a quickly and calmly that little life ends.  We still bought some foie gras!

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Foie Gras in the making!

The love affair continues with saucisson, jambon, baguette, croissants, pain-au-chocolate, cheese and more cheese.  Then there is the wine; french champagne, sweet white wines, dry rosés and rich reds. The french have a wine to match every morsel you eat!

Many of the surrounding villages have a weekly fête; a local food and wine festival.  Rows of picnic tables are set up in the town square, surrounded by local producers selling plates of food straight off the farm. It’s a gastronomical feast: steaming vats of escargot and seafood paella, lamb and pork sliced straight from the roasting spit and of course there is duck in every way imaginable.

But leave room for desert!  Don’s favourite is the local ice cream; we even visit an ice cream farm during our stay. He also loves ‘chichi’s’, the french equivalent of spanish churros, served with a rich chocolate sauce.  Then there are pancakes and an array of fresh tartes…….Don has a sweet tooth.

I discovered the ‘Jesuit’ (named so, because the shape looks like the Jesuit hat), it’s a cross between a custard tart and vanilla slice, sensational!  We’ve checked out a few fête’s during our stay.

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It’s no surprise that the kilos are creeping on.  I think we acquired a few sitting around the Greek islands for 5 weeks. Lazing in the sun reading books does not help your waistline, but it was heaps of fun!  But, if we are going to keep eating our way across France, I might need a new wardrobe.

So, we decided to hire two bikes and go out riding most days.  The bikes have been a great way to explore the local villages and have the added benefit of getting some exercise and hopefully shifting a few kilos. I’m not so sure the later is working, they seem to falsely justify eating more!

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Both of us speak very basic, you could say, pathetic French.  Though to the amusement of the French, we are willing to give it a go.  But rattling off a well rehearsed phrase like a parrot can get you into more trouble, when they reply back in rapid French. It’s worth throwing in early ” Je suis Australien, et parle un peu Français.”

Lets face it, being Australian does have advantages; we are generally considered the more exotic and preferred tourist, over other English-speaking countries.  I say “milk it when you can.”

To date we’ve always experienced people with good humour and enough English, or at least sign language, to help us get by.

One Friday night we find found ourselves at a local tavern in Minzac. There was live entertainment from Jacques and he enjoyed involving guests. He was very excited to discover we were Australians and announced this to everyone.

Suddenly, Don is part of the entertainment. Jacques hands him the mic and wants him to sing Hotel California. Well, it was a laugh and there are times when you are glad you will never see these people again!

Don´s music career!
No way am I singing!

We hadn’t expected any visitors during our stay, but had two friends surprise us. Don’s school friend, Bruce Wymond was in London for work and popped over for a weekend. Penny Arrow who we’d met skiing in Japan, took a detour from a trip to Spain and came to stay. It was lovely to catch-up and spend time with both.

As you should have gathered by now, I am not going to give a day by day description of our time in Villefranche. That would even bore me.  In general; we played ‘tourist’ as little as possible.

Most of our exploring was on bike, or through living out our weeks as much as possible like locals. Buying from local wineries and markets at different villages, visiting the village fête’s of an evening.

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Some of the highlights include touring down the Dordogne visiting the towns of Beynac, Domme and Sarlat, on our way to pick-up Bruce.  This is the more popular tourist end of the Dordogne.

Numerous medieval towns are set along the banks of the river, or perched above with fortified walls and towering castles.  Well worth the visit, but we were glad to return to the peace and quiet of Beaulieu and our surrounding villages.

Beynac
Domme
Dordogne

We took Bruce, on the way back to the airport, to visit the Lascaux II cave.  The original cave dates back 17,300 years.  This is certainly the oldest ´thing´we have visited on this trip.  A bit sceptical at first about visiting a fake cave, until we learn why.

The original cave was discovered in 1940 and opened to the public in 1948, but the exposure to visitors breathing carbon dioxide was damaging the paintings and the cave was closed to the public in 1963.

Lascaux II is a near perfect replica, built 200 metres from the original site.  It took 7 years to painstakingly construct and another 5 years to reproduce the art.  Not only is the effort of replicating the cave impressive, so is its contents of Paleolithic cave paintings.  The paintings of animals are all on the roof of the cave and the detail and colour is amazing.

Well, our three weeks has quickly come to an end.  I had great expectations of catching up with emails, completing some boring admin and most importantly getting the blog up-to-date.

I didn’t quiet get there. Somehow time flies by, even when you think you have a lot of it.  Before we knew it, we are back on the road continuing our tour through Europe.

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Jul 30

Celebrating in Paris

Our niece, Claire Callander, has been tripping around Europe for the past 8 weeks.

She’s been traveling like any other 21 year old does; on the cheap. Busing around 12 Countries and 24 cities in 53 days.

We have a small window of opportunity to catch-up and take Claire out for her 21st Birthday, which she celebrated on her trip.

Claire is staying at St Christophers backpackers at Gare du Nord. By the way, we are staying at the Hyatt; that’s the difference between traveling in your 20’s and at our age (to be fair, we only stayed here after finding a good deal online).

We treat Claire to dinner at Sacrée Fleur, a quintessential french bistro which boasts about handmaking everything with fresh seasonal ingredients. It’s speciality is beef.

It’s a unanimous decision to share the Côte de Boeuf. When a large 1.5kg fillet of beef arrives on a sizzling plate, I didn’t think we would finish it all, but we did! Following that are two deserts to share between us; a Creme Brulee and Orange Crepes with Grand Marnier. Very french!

The meal was superb, Claire declared it the best meal on tour. Though after the stories we heard, I don’t think that would have been hard. It was a great meal and one of the best we’ve had in Europe.

It was lovely to see Claire and hear about her trip. I think we got the censored version, but she clearly had a fantastic time.

I’m not sure how much of the 24 cities they actually see on tour, but they see a lot of European bars and nightclubs. It sounds like loads of fun and I can remember doing similar trips. It was exhausting just listening to the itinerary, I certainly don’t have the energy for that now.

We drop Claire back to the hostel, she is looking a little weary having just left the Greek party islands of Ios. This is probably her earliest night to bed in months.

We have a quick breakfast together the next morning and ‘FaceTime’ her parents back in Melbourne. Claire has one day left before flying home and is planning to spend it shopping in Paris; nice ending!!

We are back in the car, heading south to the Dordogne region to take up residence in a cottage near the village of Villefranche-de-Lonchat for 3 weeks.

Don, Lucy & Claire – Sacrée Fleur, Paris
Claire ‘s best meal in Europe
Paris view from Hyatt

Jul 29

En route to Paris

Upon leaving Lausanne we have two days before we are due in Paris for dinner with our niece Claire. Not being a fan of one night stops we opt to pick a town along the way and spend two nights.

In total it’s about 5 hours, so if we do a few hours before we stop, it will make the second half an easy drive into Paris.

We sort of stumble upon Semur-en-Auxois as our mid-point destination, another one of your typical medieval french villages sitting atop a bluff.

We really are sounding a bit blasé about the spectacular historical sites in front of us. It’s just that we are surrounded by them. Châteaux after châteaux, castle after castle; they are all magnificent, set in stunning locations, but we can’t visit them all.

We find a room for €70 at the Hotel Cymaises. A former 18th century mansion converted into a hotel. It’s well located with parking on the property (always a bonus).

We spend our full day visiting some of the surrounding towns and sites of Burgundy:

Abbaye de Fontenay, a UNESCO world heritage site, was founded in 1118, it is one of finest Monasteries in France. The 6 hectare property was converted into a paper mill between 1791-1906. Then Eduardo Aynard purchased the property and commenced restoring it. Today, the property remains in the family and they continue to maintain and restore it, primarily with their own funds.

Vézelay; another UNESCO site, is famous for the Basilica of Sainte-Marie-Madeleine. It is believed that monks had relics of Mary Magdelene. These relics were apparently torched by Huguenots in the 16th century.

Being in the region of Burgundy, it would be remiss not to sample some local wine. We visit Domain Camu just outside of Vézelay. After tasting a few, we leave with a dozen wines in hand; a start to our supply for Dordogne.

We try to stick with local wines, often the house wine; “vin rouge de la maison, s’il vous plaît.” An essential french phrase in our limited repertoire. It’s fair to say, the WCP has dropped dramatically since crossing into France. Buying bottles at a vineyard averages about €6 a bottle, about the same for a carafe of house wine at a bistro.

Driving back to the hotel we pass through Époisses. In the centre of the town stands the 15th century Castle of Époisses. It’s a very imposing and grand building, surrounded by a moat. The adjoining grounds also include a chapel and a dovecote with over 3000 huts. A rickety ladder is crafted to slide around the inside to access the pigeon homes.

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