Beaune to Provence

Saturday - 9/18/10

Our second night in Beaune, I parked the car in an open lot down the street from the hotel, not wishing to deal with their tight garage again.  I couldn’t find a pay station, so asked a woman if it was a free lot, and she said yes, so saved us 9.50 Euros.  Another successful conversation in French – well, mostly French – a lot of sign language was used.

There were 2 bus loads staying at the hotel and I couldn’t load up our car until one of the buses left, so after breakfast, we brought our luggage down just after the 1^st bus left, and I went to get the car.  Beaune has a ring road that is one-way counter clock-wise, and because of where I was parked, I had to drive all the way around the town so I could get back to the hotel – only took 10-15 minutes.  As I said before, it isn’t a very big town.   We got the car loaded up and were on our way south on the A6 by 10:00AM.

Originally, I had planned to make a couple of sightseeing stops along the way, but decided I would rather just get going as I was anxious to get to the house and get settled.  I put Francine (our GPS) to work and she did a brilliant job of getting us through Lyon, which is a very large city, and the traffic was very heavy. 

The French autoroute system puts our interstate system to shame.  The road is smooth, well maintained, and clean.  There are rest stops, call “aires” spaced frequently along the highway.   A few are just picnic spots and restrooms, but most of them have a café or restaurant, gift shop, and gas.  Some even have motels.   However, they are toll roads and not cheap.  It cost us 19.60 Euros from Paris to Beaune, and I think a little over 25 Euros from Beaune to Avignon.  They also have whimsical sculptures periodically alongside the highway, and do an excellent job of showing what historical or tourist sight is off the next exit.  We had lunch at one of the aires at – would you believe – McDonalds!  It was jam-packed, too, and we didn’t hear a lot of English being spoken…none that I recall.  They had kiosks where you could order your food and pay by debit or credit card, then just pick it up – pretty slick.  We had grilled chicken sandwiches called “So Grilled” – it was a new recipe, apparently.

When we got to the Avignon exit we were to call the owners of the house we are renting so they could meet us there.  We called from an aire just outside Avignon and spoke with the owner, who speaks pretty good English.  I didn’t have really good instructions to find the house – the best directions were in French – so relied on Francine.  She took us down a one-lane back road and got us to the road the house is on, but we didn’t see the house or anything with the house number on it.  I wasn’t really sure what the house looked like from the front because the pictures I’d seen were all from the back.  We drove up the road again, and I called the owner, but he didn’t pick-up.  There was a man in his yard nearby, so I approached him and asked him for help in French.  I showed him the French directions, but I couldn’t understand what he said in reply, but started out up the road again.  We meandered up a narrow road to an old village, and the owner called – we had to go back, but he would wait for us in front.  We went back to where Francine first led us and started down the road again.  Finally, we saw a man and a dog standing at the foot of a long driveway – it was Louis!  The house isn’t even on the road, but at the top of that long driveway.

When we got up to the house, Louis’ wife Cathy was there, and they showed us the house.  It’s a very spacious house with a large kitchen, large salon (living room) and dining room, 2 bathrooms, and 3 bedrooms.  One bedroom has 2 sets of bunk beds for kids.  One has a queen sized bed and one has 2 twins.   The grounds are nicely kept  - the lavender is done blooming, but there are olives on the several olive trees around the back.  Louis says they harvest the olives in November and take them to a mill.  Last year they got 13 liters of olive oil from their own trees.  The décor inside is very Provence-like:  Bright yellow and orange in the main room, tile floors throughout.  The bedrooms are white and the bathrooms are tiled.  They had the house built for his parents, so it isn’t too old.

Louis & Cathy told us where we could find a grocery store, so after they left, we went to Cavaillon, about 10 KM away to the supermarket – it’s huge – sort of like a Fred Meyer store.  In addition to some food, we had to buy things like dishwashing soap, laundry detergent, TP, paper towels, etc. as these houses are normally rented to Europeans who bring their own from home.  We also bought a couple of bath towels to supplement what are here – we’ll take everything we don’t use with us to the next house.  The supermarket was a madhouse.  I learned that tired kids are the same here as in the US – cranky!

When we got home, I fixed dinner of hamburger steaks,  potatoes, and tomato salad.  We had cassis sorbet (black current) for dessert.

We went to bed early as we were both beat – my light was out by 10.

A Day in Burgundy

Greetings from Beaune!  This is a really pretty old town...pretty small, actually.  Today after breakfast, we went to the Hostel Dieu, which is a hospital that was founded in the 15th Century to serve the poor and dying.  We came here 16 years ago and found it just as interesting this time.  Beaune has a lot of interesting old buildings with whimsical stone carvings on them. 

It was about noon when we finished at Hostel Dieu and headed out into the vineyards.  We had lunch in Meursault -- a wonderful "Salade Gourmande" with greens, meat turines, vegetables, etc.  It was good and filling.  We then drove to La Rochepot, a 15/16th century chateau that has been somewhat restored and has some furnished rooms.  The guided tour was in French, but the guide gave a brief summary in English for our benefit as well as for that of some Australians.

Then we got lost...well, not really...we finally decided we were on the wrong road, going in the wrong direction, so turned around and when back, finding our way back to Beaune.  Beautiful vineyards and where there are not grapes there are cows -- lots of the white Charolaise (sp).  They seem to have a lot more personality than our normal cows at home.

We got back to the hotel around 6:00; just in time for a short rest before going back to Le Grande Bleu for dinner.  This time foie gras, chicken cooked in red wine (the sauce was wonderful, but it was a really old, tough bird), and burnt cream.  We needed the walk back to the hotel.

We are looking forward to doing our own cooking as eating out is wearing on us & "tres cher" (very expensive).  We plan to cook dinner "at home" tomorrow night when we settle into our house in Provence.  We plan to have a rest day on Sunday - maybe find a village with a Sunday market and just explore the immediate area without doing too much.  We're both ready for a good rest.

It may be a couple of days before I can post again since the house does not have internet access, but there is a place in a nearby village that does have Wi-Fi, so I'll probably head there every couple of days.

In the meantime, take care and au revoir.

Paris to Beaune - Day 4

We got up early this morning and were in the lobby to pay our bill and get a taxi by 9:00.  We needed to go to Orly Airport to pick up our car.  I had arranged for a shuttle, but again, they were a no-show.  The hotel called a taxi for us, but none came, so finally I walked a couple of blocks over to the taxi stand and brought one back.  All the way there, I mentally rehearsed what I was going to say to the driver. I still had to wait about 5 minutes for a taxi -- I guess this is pretty typical of Paris in the morning as everyone seems to want to go someplace by taxi.  When the taxi finally pulled up, I said, "Bonjour...I need to go to my hotel for my mother and my luggage, then go to Orly."  I said it all in French & he understood me and there was no problem!  Yea!  When we got to Orly, I needed to call the car company to have them send a shuttle, but I couldn't find the courtesy phone and couldn't get a signal on my cellphone, so I went to the Information Desk and they called the company for me and a few minutes later we were on our way to the car place. 

We got a brand new Peugot 5008 van -- only 8 km on it.  It rides very nicely, but I'm still trying to figure out all the bells and whistles.  Our luggage & Mom's ambulator fit in it just fine. 

I missed one turn trying to get to the Autoroute, but found a gas station and filled up (the tank was empty), and found my way back in the right direction with no further problems.  Once on the Autoroute, no problems.  We stopped for lunch at a rest stop.  It's about 182 miles from Paris to Beaune and we made pretty good time.  When we got off on the Beaune exit, I did have some trouble figuring out where to put the money for the toll as there wasn't an attendant.  American credit cards don't work in those machines because they have magnetic strips rather than chips.  Finally, a voice came over the speaker and we figured it out.  We got to the hotel with no probem, but the parking garage is really tight.  I still haven't gotten a feel for how big the car is and it is bigger than the typical French vehicle, I was afraid I'd get it hung up on a wall or post.  So left it sort of double-parked and went inside.  The desk said they had a nice room, but there were some stairs -- I checked it out: too many stairs for Mom.  They found another room, we got checked in.  The toilet is in a tiny little cabinet parallel to the door, hardly any leg room.  Mom says "this won't work."  I go back to the desk.  They have ONE more room -- "only solution" -- I check it out.  The toilet is still in a tiny little cabinet, but this time it faces the door, so it will be okay -- we just won't shut the door.  I think the woman was getting a little annoyed.  I tried to move the car, but just couldn't get it turned around, so asked if there was someone who could help me.  This garage is like a deadend and there is a post between each parking place.  The hotel manager came went down with me, turned the car around like a pro, then moved his car which was in a much bigger space, so I could back into his space!  What a nice guy!  Tomorrow, I am going to park in an open lot down the street!

Later in the afternoon, I went out to scout around and walked down into the center of Beaune -- not too far, actually, but quite a walk for Mom.  There's a really nice restaurant just down the street, but when I checked at the hotel desk, I learned they were booked solid (it's a Rick Steves' recommendation, too).  I didn't want to take the car out & I knew Mom couldn't walk too far, but we found a nice place, Le Grand Bleu, and had one of the best dinners we've had on the trip.  Escargo, beef steak (from one of the Charolet (sp) cattle we saw on the drive down), wine, and dessert.  It was after 9:30 when we left the restaurant.  We're finally getting the hang of eating dinner in France.

Well, now I'm all caught up on my postings and it's 11:30 & time to head for bed.

All for now.  Take care.

Paris - Day 3

I didn't have time to post yesterday, so catching up now.

We we got up yesterday morning, the pavement was wet as it had rained during the night, and the sky was dark.  By the time we got out and about, it was starting to clear up.  After breakfast, we took the 3rd line of the hop-on-hop-off bus tour, which takes in more of  the must-see sights of Paris.  We got our first views of the Eiffel Tower since we'd been in Paris.  I took a bunch of pictures and they all looked different because of the different sky in the background.  Some have clear blue sky and some have dark clouds.  When we were heading back into La Concorde, there was some sort of event or demonstration and the police had it blocked off, so the bus driver had to make a U-turn and take a detour.  The traffic was terrible and it must have added about 45 minutes to the trip.  We were glad to get off the bus, and by the time we got back to the hotel, we had only about an hour before we needed to go out again. 

There is a huge police presence in Paris.  I think I saw more police in 3 days than I see in 6 months at home.  We were surprised at how clean the city is, at least in the parts that we saw, and many of the old buildings have been recently cleaned.  I think in the 4 times I've been to Paris this is the first time I've seen Notre Dame without scaffolding around it.  We were also surprised at the young people, especially in the Latin Quarter.  Tuesday night I think some of those kids were only about 12-13 years old.  I realized later that the French schools are often closed on Wednesdays (they go half-day on Saturday), so maybe that's why so many kids were out that night.  There didn't seem to be as many out last night.  Another thing I've noticed is how much better the cab drivers are in Paris -- maybe it's because I have a bit more French, and maybe it's because the city's tourist board has gotten after them for being so surly, but we've had very nice cab drivers.  People have also been very helpful and considerate of Mom and her ambulator (walker), helping us get on & off the buses, over curbs, etc. 

Last night was our cooking class -- the reason why we decided to go to Paris.  We left the hotel a little before 4:30 to get a taxi to go to Montmarte.  We figured we needed to allow lots of time due to the traffic, but of course we got there in about 30 minutes.  So, we walked around a little and found a nice place to have a cup of coffee.  The Cook'n with Class school is on a pretty non-descript street above Sacre Coeur and from the outside you'd wonder what kind of school is it, anyway...  Inside, though there is a very nice kitchen with a large work table with room for 6 students and the instructor.  The work table doubles as the dining table when you get to that part of the evening.

Our instructor was a young female chef named Constance, who is probably about 26 or so.  She started culinary school when she was 15 and went for 5 years.  She worked in Palm Beach for about 18 months and speaks very good english.  She's also cooked for the American Embassy. Our classmates were a mother/daughter from California, but the daughter has lived & worked in Paris for 2 years (lucky girl!); also, a couple from Toronto who had recently celebrated their 25th anniversary.  They were really nice people and we enjoyed learning and cooking with them -- eating, too.

The first thing we did was make the dessert, which was chocolate mousse and a spiced cracker/cookie (I got to mix the dough).  Next we started on the sauce for the meat course as it needed to simmer for about 1 1/2 hours to reduce -- nothing was wasted as many of the scraps from the other preparations went "into my sauce" as Constance would say: mushroom stems, parsley stems, etc.  She started out with veal meat trimmings & bones the butcher gave her.  Once the fatty parts were browned, she took them out so the sauce was not greasy.  A little carrot, a little onion (Mom peeled and sliced the onion), a little garlic, a little white wine.  It was not salted until the end and Constance explained that is because if it is salted at the beginning, it will be too salty when it reduces.  We all got to cut up chanterelle mushrooms, which Constance cooked twice - the first time to get the water out, then she drained them for quite a while and sauted the again to heat them through just before serving.  She also cooked tiny little potatoes.  She sauted them to give them color, then cooked them in about a pound of butter - seriously! - and they cooked - actually simmering in the clarified butter - for quite a long while, very slowly.  Afterwards she drained them for a long time so there was very little butter left on them, then warmed up again in the same skillet as the mushrooms.  The entree was salad greens with a vinegarette, topped with 2 heads-on prawns (we all got to clean prawns & Mom sauted them) - they were seasoned with fresh ginger & lime zest, and triangles of squid that were quickly sauted until then curled up.  The meat was veal filet which was cut into medallions (I got to cut them), tied with string to hold them together, seared, then finished in the convection oven.   The prep work for the meat course was done before we started on the entree, but the meat wasn't cooked until after we had eaten the entree.  After the meat course, we had several cheeses and breads, and there were 3 different wines served during the meal.  We finished with the mousse which had been chilling in the fridge while we were cooking everything else.  Everything was delicious!  It was 10:30 before we left and 11 before we got to the hotel.  I got an email from Constance today with the recipes and instructions.

Since it was our last night in Paris, we needed to pack up, so that's why no blog posting yesterday.

We had a lovely time in Paris, but were ready to move on with our adventure.

Paris - Day 2

Yesterday afternoon, Mom was energized after her nap, so we took a walk over to Notre Dame and since there weren't a lot of people waiting to go inside, we popped inside for a little while.  There was a Mass in progress -- we heard part of the homily, in French.  There were a lot of people milling around inside, and we walked around to look at the windows.  It is huge, and the pillars are huge, too.

A month or so ago, I finished reading Ken Follet's "Pillars of the Earth," which is a novel revolving around the construction of a cathedral in 12th century England.  That has helped me better appreciate what is involved with the construction of these huge stone buildings in the days before modern construction techiques and machinery. 

We spent a few minutes watching the late afternoon sun pass across the front facade of the cathedral.  We both noticed how even with all of the traffic and tourist activity, how peaceful Paris seems when you're just passing time on a park bench.  I think part of the reason is because there are no sky scrapers in this older part of the city, so everything seems so open.

We had started out in search of an early dinner, but by the time we finished marveling at Notre Dame, it was about 7:00, so we were right on time for the local restaurants to open for dinner.  We ate at Le Petit Chatelet, which is right next door to Shakespeare & Company, and faces a little side street that runs below the main boulevard along the Seine.  It was a very pleasant evening and we sat outside, feeling very much like "we're in Paris!"  We were served a dish of marinated olives with our appertifs of Kir. We both had a chevre tart for the starter course, which was a round of goat cheese baked in a round of puff pastry atop a lettuce salad and garnished with pesto and tomatos.  It was really delicious.  For the main course, we both had the duck confit served with a vegetable gratin.  It was good, too.  Mom had sorbet for dessert and I had the terrine of chocolat with carmel ice cream.  The terrine was sort of like a very rich, dense brownie and had a texture somewhat like flourless cake.  It was a very good dinner, but we couldn't wait to get back to our hotel and to bed as we were both very tired -- especially me as I had not taken a nap, so had been up for over 24 hours.

This morning, we got up around 9 AM, feeling pretty good.  We had breakfast at the hotel, then set out for the L'open Tour, a hop-on-hop-off bus that conveniently stops across from our hotel.  There are 4 lines and 2 of them stop there.   First we took the line that goes to the east side of Paris, to the Bastille and Marais neighborhood.  We hadn't been in that part of Paris before, so it was interesting to see it.  We then took the line that goes south past the Luxenbourg Gardens and Montparnasse.  It also passed Les Invalides and the Roden Museum, which we visited the last time we were in Paris.  We got off by the Cluny Museum, which isn't far from our hotel.  We had lunch at a nearby cafe (Salade Nicoise), thinking we'd go to the museum afterwards, but I forgot to check the museum hours and it was closed today.  Most museums in Paris are closed either on Monday or Tuesday.  It was just a couple of blocks back to the hotel, so we walked back and rested for the rest of the afternoon.

The "hop-on-hop-off feature of the tour doesn't work really well for us because it is difficult for Mom to go up and down the stairs to the upper level (why would we want to sit below?) and getting her walker on & off has its own challenges.  But, it's a relatively inexpensive way to see a lot of Paris that we wouldn't see otherwise.
Our hotel is very comfortable and the staff is very friendly and helpful.  I feel sort of a connection with the hotel because of its name "Henri IV."  I just finished reading "The Confessions of Catherine de Medici" who was married to King Henri II, and the mother of Henri III.  Henri IV was a cousin, who inherited the throne upon Henri III's death, and is prominent in the book.  We like these small hotels.

Kathy & Royal Larison are also in Paris this week -- they've been here since last Thursday -- so they walked over from their hotel (about 3.5 km) to have dinner with us.  It was so good to see them as we hadn't seen them since we were in California in March 2009.  We had dinner at Le Navigator, which is right around the corner from our hotel.  I made reservations for 7:00 and when we got there, of course, we were the only ones there, and no one else came in until around 8:00 or later.  The staff must of thought it was odd for us to make reservations for such an early dinner.  We had a good dinner, made even better by the company and had a really good visit.  After dinner, we walked with them to the taxi stand a block or two away.  We have made plans to get together again while we're in Provence.

One thing that is kind of hard to get used to, but it is quite common here as well as in England, is the presence of animals in restaurants.  There was a cat in the restaurant where we ate lunch yesterday and one in the restaurant tonight.  I remember when we were here in 2000, we ate lunch at a cafe on Rue Cler and the woman sitting right next to me (it was a shared tressle table) had a dachshund on her lap.  She would occasionally push a bit of food to the edge of the table so the dog could delicately take it.  Of course, since it was a dachshund, so I wasn't at all offended!

Another nice, warm, sunny day.  We are happy with what we've done -- we did not plan to visit all the big sights while we're here because we've seen most of them before.  It is enough to just be in Paris.

We have arrived in Paris!

Our Air France flight was unevenful, but we were very glad we had bought Premium Voyager seats - 40% more room and some little extras, too.  9+ hours on a plane is a long time and I especially appreciated the extra space.  Our flight arrived on time and we were met with a wheelchair at the gate for Mom.  The nice thing about having a wheelchair "driver" is that he takes you to the front of the line, so we got through passport control very quickly & our suitcases were already at baggage claim when we got there. (Premium Voyager gives you "prority" baggage handling as well as 2 bags per person with no additional charges.) However, we did have to wait awhile for Mom's walker to come off the plane.  We had checked it at the gate in SeaTac, but we had to pick it up in baggage claim.  The shuttle service I reserved didn't show up -- fortunately, we did not pre-pay.  We got a very comfortable taxi (VW station wagon) with a very pleasant driver.  The traffic was terrible, which probably explains what happened to our shuttle. It took over an hour to get to the hotel.  Our flight came in at 8:25 and we arrived at the hotel at 11:00 -- about what I figured, and not bad considering the traffic.

We had a minute of concern about Mom's walker --besides it taking so long to get off the plane that we thought it may not have gotten on the flight -- when the cab driver got it out of the car the wheels were locked together and we were worried that it might have been bent, but the driver was able to get them unlocked -- whew!

When we arrived at the Hotel Henri IV in the Latin Quarter, our room was ready, so we were able to put our feet up for a few minutes.  On the hotel's website, there's a picture of a room with a view of a church right across the street, and that's the room we got!  St. Severin Church is right across from the hotel and our room looks out over the flying buttresses.  The room is small, but comfortable with a nice bathroom.

After a short rest, we went to visit the church, then had lunch at L'Auberge St. Severin, which is on a pedestrian street that is very touristy.  The food wasn't spectacular, but my salad with toasted goat cheese was good as was the sorbet for dessert.  Mom enjoyed her onion soup and apple tart.  The main courses weren't worth writing about.  We walked around a little bit, then headed back to the hotel.

Mom took a nap while I ventured out.  We're in a very interesting neighborhood with narrow cobbled streets and some interesting old buildings, but it is very touristy in some places and and there are a lot of shops and restaurants, cafes, etc. operated by people from North Africa and the Middle East.  Our hotel is about a block from the Seine and Notre Dame is just across the river.  It's really a good location for what we want to do.  I browsed some of the book and poster vendors along the river, but didn't buy anything.  I sat on a bench where I could enjoy a view of Notre Dame for awhile and did some people watching. Then, I spotted Shakespeare & Company, the famous English bookstore, which is just around the corner from the hotel, and popped in for a minute before going back to the hotel. 

The weather has been very nice today -- sunny and it got quite warm while I was walking around.  We were surprised at how green everything is -- they've had a lot of rain this year.

So far so good.  We're in Paris!

One week to go!

We leave a week from tomorrow!  We're surprisingly calm about it. 

Our biggest worry right now is "how are we going to get all of THAT into this little suitcase!"  Obviously, we are going to have to do some prioritizing.  Our commitment to traveling light is rarely ever carried out.  We did our first 3 trips, using our convertible "Rick Steves' bags" which hold an amazing amount of stuff, but as we've gotten older we've graduated to roller bags.  We both always take far more clothes than we will need, especially since we have laundry facilities at the 3 rental houses.  Intellectually, we know that we can certainly buy some things once we are there, but still have a fear that we'll end up with hemorrhoid cream instead of toothpaste, so we bring it from home.

Yesterday, I called our bank and credit card companies to let them know we will be traveling out of the country, so they can flag our accounts.  Last trip, my debit card was refused in a 3-star restaurant -- and I had called the bank from home, and used the card several times before.  We ended up using Mom's card for the same account, and I called the bank when we got back to our hotel.  Another lesson learned: bring back- up debit & credit cards.  I guess we should be grateful that the banks keep such good track of our usage to protect against fraud.

I'm also trying to figure out which travel books to take with us.  Rick Steves encourages us to tear up his books & just take the pages we need, but I have a real hard time ripping up a book.  I'm thinking of just copying the pages we'll need for Paris, Burgundy, and Normandy, but taking the entire book for Provence.  I also want to take the Michelin Green Guides for Provence, Languedoc, and the Dordogne.  Rick does a great job with the sights he thinks are the ones worth going to, but the Green Guides provide information about sights not covered by Rick.  I think that finding our own "backdoors" is part of the adventure of travel. Besides, it's gotten so that most of the sights in the Rick Steves books are already crawling with Americans and can't really be considered "backdoors" anymore.  We have our Kindles for our other reading material, saving the weight of taking 5 or 6 paperbacks each, so taking the travel books shouldn't be a problem -- unfortunately, most travel books aren't available for Kindle. I think handling the actual book is easier anyway, especially for the maps.

I've also got a stack of maps.  We are, of course, taking "Francine" our Garmin GPS, but after using her assistance around home, I know we still need to have maps and do some route planning in advance.  Francine doesn't mind "recalculating" if we decided to take a detour from her prescribed route.

I'm excited about the trip getting closer, but at the same time I realize that the faster our departure comes, the faster our return home will come.

I hope you'll all enjoy reading my blog, which will be more interesting once we get going, I promise!

Au revoir for now...