My France Report

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Nov 8th, 2002, 08:04 AM

Tina

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My France Report

Thanks to everyone who gave great suggestions while I was planning my 1st trip to France. Here are my long winded thoughts! Tina Preface: My friend Delia and I stayed with another friend Stephanie. She has been in Paris since June 2002 after transferring jobs from Canada. She has a great apartment in the 16th arrondisement (where the "bourgeois elite" live, as our friend Delia likes to tease her). I was completely overwhelmed by what I wanted to do and see on my first trip to Paris. So I made a list and Stephanie was kind enough to show us around. If we hadn't had her with us, we wouldn't have seen nearly as much as we did. We also had a chance to see how Parisians live and eat and it was really a great experience. Communication: Stephanie's French is getting better by the day and is also taking lessons. I took French for 2 years in high school and about 3 semesters in college but never used it until now! I was amazed by how much I retained 15 years later. I was nervous using it but I think people appreciated the effort and helped correct me at times. We thought that we were treated better and interactions were almost always more interesting when we spoke French. Transportation: Parishuttle (crazy driver, but reliable), Metro (bought a couple of carnets for the 2 weekends we were there). Walked a lot. The musicians in the Metro were interesting, most were very good, especially the classical music string orchestra we saw at one of the stops (we had also seen them at the Place des Vosges). The drunk fella in the crowd also enjoyed them. Parisians are crazy drivers. Road rules do not apply to motorcycles and scooters.

Nov 8th, 2002, 08:06 AM

Tina

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Churches: Notre Dame, Sainte Chappelle, Sacre Coeur. Every church we saw was amazing. The stained glass in Sainte Chappelle is especially beautiful when the sun is out. Museums (favorite in order): Rodin, Marmottan, D'Orsay, Hotel D'Invaliides. Rodin & Marmottan were good sized museums for me; not too big. Was starting to get overwhelmed at the D'Orsay. Couldn't do the Louvre on this trip. The Invalides was only interesting for the exterior and Napoleon's massive tomb. We bought a museum pass to go to the Rodin, Orsay, Invalides and the top of the Arc de Triomphe. It was well worth not having to stand in line, especially at the Orsay. Delia joked about using the pass to go into the Louvre just to go use the toilettes! Gardens: Luxembourg, Place des Vosges, Tuileries. Loved sitting at the parks, relaxing and watching families play, especially the time when a toddler almost took a header into a fountain! Markets: Grenelle Sunday Market (15th), Rue Cler. Way fun experimenting with new foods and eating what the French eat. The wild boar (sanglier) pate was very good, better than the venison (chevreil) pate. Also enjoyed the expensive ($28 Euros/kg) Salier (?) cheese that was recommended to us by an American gentleman standing in line with us. Yum Yums: Bertillon Ice Cream, hot chocolate at Angelina's, falafel sandwich on Rue des Rosiers, Chez Antoine (16th - mostly because of Antoine), any patisserie in the city and Poujauran (7th) & Kayser (5th) Boulangeries. Jean-Luc Poujauran is quite the rock star boulanger. The lines go out the door and he's pretty easy on the eyes too.

Nov 8th, 2002, 08:14 AM

Tina

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Disappointments: Poilane Bread (not spectacular, a bad batch? Now I feel bad about saying that since he and his wife were killed in a plane crash a week after I returned), not exploring Cimetiere Montmartre after stopping there to eat lunch, not being able to go inside the Opera House (performance?) or in the parks our last day in Paris (too windy?). Also not getting a chance to use the space age public toilettes or going on a Seine riverboat ride. Oh well, there's always the next time. Fun: Watching the traffic snarl at the round-abouts atop l'Arc de Triomphe, doing the food markets and taking our food back to Steph's to make and eat. Carrying around friend Loretta's picture of her taken 29 years ago in Paris and finding her forgotten picture location at the Place de la Concorde. Running across 4 lanes of traffic at the round-about to this picture spot. We were on a sugar high after having gone to Angelina's! Surprise: the beautiful dome and arch work in Galleries Lafayette. The streets were also a lot cleaner than I thought after having read so much about the dog poop on Paris streets. The French really love their dogs , children and gardens. The dogs and children are very well behaved and the children and gardens are clean and well dressed. Cliche I never get tired of seeing: the Eiffel Tower. Best spot for seeing it all lit up at night is at the Champs du Mars. Touring tools: The walking tour book by Rick Steves was really helpful. It had some good walk itineraries as well as commentaries on major art pieces at the Louvre, Orsay, Rodin & the Marmatton, to name a few.

Nov 8th, 2002, 08:17 AM

Tina

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on Delia & I took the TGV (high speed train) to Lyon. I had purchased tickets on the SNCF website a month earlier. Trying to retrieve tickets at the Gare de Lyon in Paris from the automatic ticket booths proved to be futile. Our North American credit cards don't have a chip that allows us to use them effectively here. No problems getting them from the customer service desk, though. The train itself is great. It's very smooth, affordable and comfortable - and they run on time! Old Lyon: Traboules - fun! They are secret passageways used by silk weavers during the 19th century to protect the transport of silk through the streets of old Lyon. The traboules quite often lead to another street, so make sure you have a map handy! The funicular took us to Basilica Notre Dame (great views of the city from there) & Roman Theater (it has been rebuilt). There are many charming streets and Cathedrale de St. Jean has old clock, one that has moving characters that come out when the hour strikes. Presqu'ile: garden at Musee des Beaux Arts, more traboules, silk screening workshop, big fountain in front of the Hotel de Ville. If we didn't know any better, we would have thought that the Hotel de Ville was a big hotel chain in France. Croix Rousse: fun, lively neighborhood, another old Roman ruin (smaller). City is beautiful at night, all lit up. Puts Paris to shame. Good dinner at Les Enfants Terribles in Bellecour. Great name for a restaurant! Did not eat organ meats... We also got our first taste of French television at our hotel (Comfort St. Antoine - basic, clean, great location in Bellecour area). I watched "the Exorcist" in French and thought it was never funnier! Picked up our car (Citroen Xistris?) on the way out of Lyon. . I went through Europe By Car and had no problems. It was, however, hard finding the car rental place at the Gare Perrache (where are the signs?). The car (intermediate size - we're picking up Steph in Avignon and another friend Chris in Chambery) was very roomy and comfortable. I was very nervous getting out of Lyon, but one we did, it was pretty easy, although I apparently don't drive fast enough at times. The toll roads are easy to follow, but it was really expensive to take them! (Since it was our first time out, we didn't want to take the smaller roads yet.) It cost us about $19 by the time we puttered around and got to Chamonix. There are plenty of rest stops along the way (they are called "Aires".) Stay tuned for more... Chamonix, Chambery & Provence.

Nov 8th, 2002, 10:19 AM

sue

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Thank You, Very good report.

Nov 14th, 2002, 01:11 PM

tina

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Sorry for being such a delinquent poster on my report. Here's more: Chamonix - October 15 & 16 Chamonix, a huge skiing and mountaineering mecca, has spectacular views of Mont Blanc and the surrounding Alps. We also had great weather the 2 days we were there. Unfortunately though, it was too windy to take the Aiguille du Midi cable car near the top (3842m) of Mont Blanc, only to the Plan de l"Aiguille (2308m). From there, we hiked to the Mer de Glace glacier and back down to town, about a 5 hour hike. It was a great hike, lots of great views of Chamonix valley and Mont Blanc. The hike from Mer de Glace to town was an especially hard downhill. Steep! Take the train if operating, usually through September. We had a great dinner our 1st night, at Le Bartavel. I had a disappointing meal the following night at another restaurant, although the plate was really impressive - a hunk of ground meat wrapped in bacon, green beans wrapped in yet more bacon, tomato gratin, an egg souffle - it was huge! If you poured melted cheese over this plate, it would've been perfect.

Savoyard cooking is very heavy - lots of cheese, meat, and more cheese. Fondues, tartiflettes and raclettes anyone? We stayed at the Hotel de L'Arve. Good location, right next to the river Arve. It was nice listening to the rush of water every morning. Since we were there off-season, the hotel kept the heat off, so it was always a cold morning and none of our laundry dried out. We had more fun watching American tv shows and movies in French. Learned lots of new words and phrases! Chambery - October 17 & 18 Old Chambery is very charming, even in the rain. The trompe l'oeil work in St.Francois de Sales cathedral is amazing. The Fontaine des Elephants in the center of town makes a great landmark when you're turned around. Nice dinner at the Hotel Savoyard. It looked like a nice place to stay too, but all the hotels in old Chambery were sold out, as there was a convention in the area. We stayed at the Lion D'Or near the gare, where we picked up Chris. Fun: Wasting the day away in a cafe, while it's dreadfully cold and rainy out. Shopping in grocery stores, especially in the condiments section. Great selections of tapenade, olives, spices and jams! Disappointments: The icky cold rain for 2 days and not going to Annecy. Instead, Delia and I went to Thonon-Les Bains to check out the sights of Lac Leman (Lake Geneva). The weather was so overcast and cloudy that we saw nothing. We were hoping to go to Annecy after we picked up Chris, but the weather was so lousy we decided to just stay put in Chambery. Tain L'Hermitage - October 18 A great side trip to the home of Valrhona chocolates. I had so many samples, I thought I was going to puke. Bought lots of treats. Montelimar More candy and more sampling! Montelimar, situated along the Rhone and the gateway to Provence, is the nougat capital of France. We had a great dinner at La Braise. Creme brulee is so different (better) in France. The dairy products there are so much richer in general. It was also a little disconcerting seeing all the nuclear power plants around Montelimar (and Provence!). We stayed the night at the Hotel Dauphine, run by a man who apparently dislikes Americans. What a grouch. The next morning, we could not find the nougat factory & museum. Boo. We continued to get lost and found driving around.

Nov 14th, 2002, 01:30 PM

Patrick

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Such a good report Tina. I liked your description of the cheese dishes in Chamonix. We were there 5 nights this summer and I have never seen so many places featuring cheese dishes so many ways. They say on a quiet night if you're real still you can hear all the arteries clogging on the tourists.

Nov 14th, 2002, 01:30 PM

mimi taylor

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Loved your open, honest report!

Nov 15th, 2002, 10:48 AM

tina

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patrick, got a kick out of your comment - that's how i felt too, esp. in the savoy! ok, finally, here the rest of my report: Provence: Orange - October 19 Amazing and impressive Roman Theatre Antique. About 2000 years old and built around the time of Julius Caesar. We also saw Orange's impressive Arc de Triomphe, also built about the same time as the Theatre. The weather was cool, but the sun was out so we lunched outside at the Cafe de Commerce. Had a nice, comforting meal of stewed lamb, brussel sprouts and potatoes Dauphinois (cheesy). I really liked ordering whatever was the plat du jour. It seemed to always be good wherever we went. The drive south to our gite outside of Pernes les Fontaines was beautiful. Lots of vineyards, and the fall colors and Mont Ventoux and its range were out showing off. Too bad we weren't here when the lavender fields were in full bloom. La Nesquiere Our gite (guesthouse) for the next week was beautiful. It's attached to the main house, which also includes a vineyard and apple orchard, horses, chickens, dogs and cats! Our gite could probably sleep about 10 people, but the four of us got to have our own rooms with own showers and toilets, and really spread out. The gite's owner, Isabelle, is a very nice lady, very welcoming and helpful. Her house is 400 years old. We also sampled a bottle of their first wine pressing, which was good (according to Delia & Chris, since I can't drink). ! I can really get used to living here... this place would be perfect if it had at least one bathtub and a pool outside. Isle sur la Sorgue - October 20 The Sunday market was wonderful! We got there early to get parking and scope out the stalls before the throngs of buses arrived. This market is great for antiquing. We bought lots of stuff - mostly linens (I love the Provencal colors!) and soaps, jams, honey, tapenade and sausages for the house. I can't imagine Isle during the high season; this place was packed! Avignon: After shopping, we picked up Stephanie at the gare. Well, she was no where to be found, because we were at the wrong station! Avignon has 2 stations: one in the old city and one outside Avignon, in Courtine. Luckily for us, we found this out early, as we will be leaving Provence from here next week. We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the old part of Avignon, taking a tour in the Palais des Papes (the Popes' Palace). It's huge; popes would continue to add sections during their "reign". The frescoes in the palace were my favorite parts. After a much needed cafe break, we strolled on the Pont de St. Benezet, a bridge built in the 12th century, which used to span over the width of the Rhone. Now only 4 arches remain. Note: many stores and restaurants are closed Sunday and Monday. We ended up having dinner at La Perle d'Asie, a Chinese-Thai-Vietnamese Restaurant in Carpentras Sunday night. It was very weird ordering Chinese food in French. Also, fill up your gas tank whenever you can, since gas stations (especially in the smaller villages) are also closed on Sunday and Monday. Eek, gas is expensive; the cheapest gas we bought was $1/per liter (in Avignon near the train station and Isle sur la Sorgue).

Nov 15th, 2002, 10:50 AM

#10

tina

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St. Didier - October 21 Stopped briefly to pick up provisions for lunch and snacks, and hoping they had a fun market. It was very small market and disappointing for Stephanie, as she had market envy. We also saw a film crew shooting something here. The weather was cloudy but warm. Venasque The first of the hill top villages we visited. Worth noting are the fortified walls the village still has, as well as the nice views of the Luberon valley. A very sleepy village. I also got my first European porcelain stoop toilet experience here. It was actually pretty clean. Gordes Lots of tour buses here. Walked around town, reading all the menus at all the restaurants and settled on a very small cafe called La Pause. What a fun experience that turned out to be. The restaurant only seats 10-12 people and there were 2 other couples besides us 4 girls. After they left, we ended up playing with the owner's dog and we ended up having a nice conversation with the owners, who happened to speak English. As we left Gordes headed toward the Bories, we happened upon a turn-off facing the other direction that afforded us a great view of the town, perched on the hill. It was a wonderful sight. Stopped at the Village of the Bories, which was interesting. Bories are 1-2 story shelters that are made from limestone slabs built without mortar. Before heading back to the house, we stopped at the Lavender Museum in Cabrieres. We watched a movie on how lavender is harvested and processed into essential oils. We also learned the difference between "lavande" and "lavandin". Lavande is the real lavender plant and lavandin is a hybrid plant that produces more plants, but the smell is not as nice and subtle as real lavender. Seeing as though it was going to be difficult finding an open restaurant on Monday, we had arranged for dinner at the main house, cooked by Isabelle's mother. It was a wonderful experience. We relaxed and had a nice aperitif of wine, kir and grenadine syrup (I had non-alcoholic grape juice - delicious!). Then the first course was an asparagus quiche, followed by a main course of a stewed lamb shoulder, cooked in a Moroccan tangine, served with a rich, hearty barley dish. As if that wasn't enough, that was followed by a cheese plate, then a light dessert of berries and cream. It was heaven.

Nov 15th, 2002, 10:52 AM

#11

tina

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Beaumes de Venise - October 22 Started out at the small market and a stroll around town. Stopped at the Olive Oil Museum. Bought lunch fixings (roti chicken, bread, olives, wine and cassis syrup). Before we headed off to find a picnic spot, we stopped at a vintner's shop and tried the muscat, a dessert wine. Beames de Venise is famous for their muscat. We had a nice conversation with the man working there and he told us of a great spot down the road where we could pull off to have lunch. It was just past the Notre Dame church. We had a splendid time having lunch there - the weather was perfect, it was quiet... this was how I imagined Provence would be. We went to the church after lunch. The road leading to the church was so narrow, I really thought I was going to do damage to the car! The church was closed, but the property it was on was very pretty, with lots of olive trees around it. Seguret Another pretty hilltop village, Seguret was one of my favorite villages. A lot of these small villages require that you park at the bottom of the hill and walk up to town. We were really working off our food! Seguret has a lot of stray cats, it seems, and people like to feed them. The shops there specialize in miniatures. I bought a miniature fountain wall hanging from a nice older man who showed me his nice view of the surrounding area from the workshop at the back of the shop. I found the people in Seguret to be very gracious. We then wanted to check out the fortress on the very top of the hill, so we hiked about 1/2 hour (?) up. The visibility was very good that day. There are v ery nice views of the Dentelles de Montmirail from the fortress. Gigondas As we had heard that wine from Gigondas is very good, we stopped by to sample wine from a couple of different vintners. Since I can't drink, I experienced everything through the others. I learned that 1998 was a very good year for wine. Vaison La Romaine We wandered here to have dinner and to check out the ruins we read about. Unfortunately they were already closed, but you can view some of them easily from the street. I liked how they incorporated a garden-like setting with the ruins. We had dinner at the Festival Cafe in the main drag. I had a salad with smoked duck and giblets and hot, garlicy mussels. Yummy! St. Remy de Provence - October 23 I had read that St. Remy has a great market and it was true! Stephanie was very happy to finally be able to experience a big market. This market was laid out better than at Isle. It was less claustrophobic and more spread out. I thought there was more variety here as well, with more food stalls. We also recognized a few vendors who were at Isle. Isle has the antiques but St. Remy had more vendors for linens. I wanted to buy everything! Again, we were happy that we got started early. Les Baux It was drizzly out, so no picnic today. Instead, we went to Les Baux, a beautiful, albeit very touristy, medieval village, once inhabited by the Grimaldis (now of Monaco). We had lunch and took a tour of the Chateau Les Baux, which was very interesting and kind of fun. Luckily, the sun came out, as the Chateau ruins are out in the open. There were displays of a battering ram and a couple of catapults. We got interactive with a stockade display. Hee hee. I was happy the weather cleared up, because the views of the Alpilles were amazing from here. Pont du Gard We got to see this amazing ancient Roman aqueduct at the perfect time, at dusk. The Pont was lit up spectacularly at this time. I am so amazed at how this could have survived for so long and the wonderful condition it is in. Plus it's always a wonder how any of these monuments and buildings were built without the modern conveniences we have now.

Nov 15th, 2002, 10:53 AM

#12

tina

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Roussillon - October 24 My favorite Provincial village! Roussillon is known for its wonderful colors. There happened to be a market there this morning and I bought a tube of ochre pigments. When you come into town, you'll notice that the facades of the buildings are very colorful. We had a lot of fun getting ideas for room colors just by strolling around the streets and looking at all the buildings. We went on a short hike, the Sentier des Ochres. It was amazing! The colors of the rocks and walls are so beautiful: the reds, oranges, yellows, whites, even purples and everything in between. We had fun smearing the soft sandy colors on our hands and on Delia's face. We headed back to the market and picked up quiches and wine for lunch. Another beautiful day for a picnic, this time by the church. We also had a friendly cat as a guest today. Bonnieux A very sleepy village. Just about everything was closed, but we stopped for a short visit to the Bread Museum. There seems to be a museum for everything except for the cigales (cicadas). Cigales are a very popular theme on linens and pottery. We wondered why that was (since we think they're annoying in the States) and the best answer we got was a romanticized explanation that the cigales sing so beautifully and it signifies the beginning of summer. Hmmm... We joked that we're going to move here and open a Cigale Museum. If you build it, they will come... Not much else to do here in Bonnieux but to climb up to the church for the view. Menerbes Yet another sleepy village. Peter Mayles lives here, but I'm not sure why Menerbes is so popular with tourists. It's full of expensive stores. We must've missed something... We did, however, go to another strange museum here, the Musee de Tire-Bouchon (corkscrew museum). It was fairly interesting and attached to a vineyard, the Domaine de la Citadel, where we took a self-tour around the distillery and cellar. Their wine is also very good. Pernes les Fontaines - October 25 Our last morning in Provence. Sigh... after breakfast, we said goodbye to Isabelle and walked around her property for a little bit, then went to Pernes les Fontaines. We spent the past week driving through the town at night and decided to finally see the town in daylight. What a revelation! Pernes was full of great sights - fountains, an old fortress wall, a church with a great overlook and best of all, wonderful trompe l'oeil facades everywhere. The tourism office does a great job in organizing cultural and historic walking tours for vistors. They provide you with a map of town, and depending on how much time you have, you could do a1 or 2 hour tour. Buildings in town are marked with colored arrows to guide you. We picked up pizzas and dessert for lunch and headed out to Avignon (Courtine) to catch the train back to Paris. We gave ourselves plenty of time to get there, knowing we were going to get lost, and returned our rental car with no problems, but I sure wish they could post bigger signs for that area! The train back to Paris was a full load. We got there early so there was space for our luggage including all our market goodies. The hardest part about train traveling is tackling all the stairs with all your luggage. I could not imagine being handicapped in Paris, that's for sure. I miss France. I miss the food. I can't get a decent baguette anywhere...