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Jeff801 Jul 28th, 2010 01:44 PM

3 week drive around France
 
We spent three weeks driving around France. We picked up a Peugeot 308 convertible from the Open Europe program in Geneva, traveling from the Haute Savoie to the Pyrenees, and ending with a few days in Paris.

We got picked up the car from Open Europe on the French side of the Geneva airport. Because of a delay at LHR, we arrived after Sunday closing time. I had been assured by the woman at the desk, I called before we left the ground an hour and 40 minutes late, that she would wait for us. She did and patiently programmed our GPS for us before we left the airport.

First stop was the Chateau des Comtes de Challes, in Challes-les-Eaux. We chose it in part because it was the only well reviewed place in our first area that had a restaurant open on Sunday evening. They held a lovely table on the terrace for us despite our late arrival. In the event, the dining room had been reserved by a local choral group that was giving a dinner concert. The heat led to the doors and windows being left open and we got to enjoy the concert at dinner.

The hotel is nice, the people were very pleasant, and the bathrooms in every room have been very nicely updated. As a rule, we have learned to always reserve a room at least one level above the most basic in small French hotels. In nearly every hotel where we reserved a basic room, we upgraded at least one level.

On our first full day, we drove to Chamonix to visit the Mer de Glace for the first time since 1989. That time, when we got off the small cable car the entrance to the Ice Cave was a few steps from the cable car stop. It is now 250 meters and 350 steps across bare rock from the cable car. We spent the second day in Annecy.

We then went on to Autun which we chose because it was between Cluny and Beaune. We stayed at Les Ursulines, despite its description by Fodor's as sparsely furnished. That is a substantial understatement. The room and bathroom were so limited that I would not have been surprised if an imprisoned priest had tunneled through from a neighboring cell. (See full rant "Have Nun of This Place." on Trip Advisor if you are interested.) We did get to the sound and light show at Cluny on Friday and enjoyed Beaune on Saturday.

We then drove to the Auvergne, a region which unaccountably gets few American visitors. We thought the scenery compares well with the much loved areas of Tuscany and Umbria we have visited. We stayed at the Hostellerie de la Marrone, close to the Plus Beaux Village of Salers. There are not enough nice things to say about this somewhat isolated and very quiet hotel. Sitting on the terrace, holding a drink in one hand and scratching the shoulders of the owners' Labrador with the other is an instant cure for high blood pressure. The hotel has a lovely dining room and is well located for exploring the "Route de Fromage" and the volcanoes national park. Bring your hiking shoes.

We went into the Dordogne for our next stop. The Villa Romaine in Carsac, 12 kilometers from Sarlat, is a relatively new property with a nice pool, exceptional food and a very nice staff. On their recommendation, we chose the Motgolfieres du Perigord for a balloon trip the next evening. The wind was so light that we traveled only 4 kilometers during an hour in the air. It seemed like a much shorter period of time as we had a lovely time, went down into the river valley, and drifted across the Castles of Beynac and Castelnaud.

We then spent a few days in the Pyrenees, struggling to get our car up roads the Tour de France would race up a week after we were there. I don't think I ever appreciated the grades and difficulty in racing a bicycle on those roads merely watching on television. Perhaps I'm just not that attentive. We stayed at Les Viscos in St. Savin. We had the best room in the hotel, but it was merely OK. On the other hand, the food was superb, and worth the trip alone.

We had promised ourselves another stay in Cordes-sur-Ciel during the medieval festival on the 13th and 14th of July. We took photographs from our last stay, but none of the exhibitors from years ago but one was repeating and we returned with most of them still in our luggage. It was a rollicking and somewhat exhausting time.

We returned the car in Paris the following day. We would probably still be looking for the car return if we did not have the GPS. We stayed at the Renaissance on the Avenue Wagram. They upgraded us despite our using Marriott points for the stay and, I am slightly ashamed to admit, was delighted to have a really good shower available after three weeks of limited facilities. Most remarkably, we were in the Marais, and asked for a restaurant recommendation from a wine merchant (me) and fromager (my wife) near the St. Paul metro entrance. They independently recommended l'Enoteca at the corner of Rue St. Paul and Rue Charles V. This is a remarkable restaurant with exceptional food and very reasonable prices. After lunch, we returned to thank each of the gentlemen for their suggestions.

Incidentally, in distinction from our last substantial drives in France, there are speed cameras everywhere and the drivers for the most part obey the speed limits. We did the same. I'll check this report from time to time and will be happy to answer any questions you may have.

annhig Jul 28th, 2010 02:24 PM

hi Jeff,

thanks for sharing in such a moderate way your report of what was clearly a well-organised and civilised trip. i have an image of you and you significant other in old-fashioned goggles leaning over a leather steering wheel, with hair streaming out behind, but in a peugeot 308 that seems somewhat unlikely.

i am interested in what you say about speed cameras - in 10 days driving between Roscoff and the southern Loire and back, we encountered only one, and that in the first morning as we drove towards Dinan. After that, rien. but I agree that the french seemed surprisingly good at observing speed limits. AND lane discipline. But WHY do they have to drive so close to one's exhaust-pipe and overtake so recklessly? they seem to view every gap in the traffic as a slur upon their collective manhoods.

regards, ann

schnauzer Jul 29th, 2010 03:50 AM

I loved your description of the sparsely furnished hotel room!! Any photos?? of the trip not the hotel room!!

Schnauzer

klondike Jul 29th, 2010 07:44 AM

Thanks for the report!

If you use viamichelin.com to plan your trip, they show all the usual speed cameras.

kerouac Jul 31st, 2010 12:17 PM

Speaking of airport agencies waiting for late flights, I was amazed once when huge thunderstorms delayed all of the flihts from Paris. My so-called 7pm flight from Orly didn't get to Marseille until past 1:30am and yet all of the rental offices were still open waiting for their customers.

Mucky Aug 1st, 2010 04:31 AM

Having just returned to the UK after driving near Limoges, Cognac Versailles we also saw some speed cameras.

What I will say is this, they are clearly marked, the speed limit is very clearly marked and where there is a sign there will always be a camera.

This in stark contrast to the UK, where there are camera signs everywhere with often no camera and the speed limit isn't always clear for each particular camera.

The French have very good roads, but the Tolls on the motorways are driving all the lorries through the small villages, while the motorways are fairly empty.
Surely this isn't what was intended?


I love France !!

Muck

kerouac Aug 2nd, 2010 06:15 AM

They are going to be removing the warning signs for the speed cameras. The signs are now placed 400 meters before the radar camera. In the future, there will just be signs saying things like "entering radar zone" without telling you where the first camera is and how many there might be.

And that is the new trick: in many areas, there will be more than one radar camera, and the cameras will measure how fast you drive from point A to point B. Up until now, people have been slowing down for the camera and then speeding up once they have passed it. This will become very unwise.

TDudette Aug 2nd, 2010 06:27 AM

On a tour, the leader said that the speed traps, while catching many speeders, have led to more uninsured drivers because the people who get caught can't afford whatever they have to do to get "rehabilitated" as drivers and have to drive to work so they just do.

How's that for a run-on sentence. But is that a fair statement?


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