Eight Seniors ?Do? France: Betty1?s Trip Report, Condensed Version (believe it or not!)
 

Sorry it has taken me so long to get around to doing a trip report. I have been trying to write up a day by day summary and having a hard time because I didn?t have time to take notes during the trip. So I?ve decided it would be better to do a ?highlights? version. (Not sure anyone is interested in all those details, anyway.) If anyone wants more detail about any aspect of our trip, just ask. Anyway, here goes.

Overall assessment: We had a GREAT trip! Yes, we had some difficulties, mostly due to circumstances beyond our control (e.g. strikes, HOT weather, etc.) and no, we did not do everything on our overly ambitious agenda, but (as Mr. Rumsfeld might say) when you consider what might have gone wrong and didn?t, we did pretty well. No one got seriously ill or hurt (we did have one pickpocketing incident but, thankfully, no physical harm to anyone). No traffic accidents. All our reservations were honored. And, other than the unprecedented heat, we had great weather.

June 3 ? 7 PARIS We left from Charlotte, NC on June 3 on USAir (through Philly) and arrived in Paris on time the next morning. Luckily, ours was one of the flights they allowed to land. Took Parishuttle into town. The poor driver did his best but it took us about 2 hours to get to the Hotel St. Jacques in the Latin Quarter. (All access into Paris was clogged due to the public transportation strikes.) So our Paris itinerary was shot to pieces before we even arrived. A good part of our activities the next 3 days was determined by where we could get to and what was open. We did not get into Sainte Chapelle or the Conciergerie (closed due to strikes) nor did we get to Versailles (RER C not running) but we did manage to see Notre Dame, the Pantheon, the Jardin du Luxembourg, the Louvre, the Tuileries gardens, Place de la Concorde, the Arc de Triomphe and the Musee d?Orsay. A few of us also went to the Musee Rodin one afternoon. The museum was closed but we got into the gardens which were wonderful to see, especially the Burghers of Calais. (My first visit there.) Trying to get back to our hotel we were caught in a ?manifestation? (interesting conversation with some CRS guys). All the metro stations were either closed or jam-packed, buses to our part of town were not running and there was not a taxi to be had. We wound up walking all the way to Montparnasse, decided to have dinner there with some friends of mine and finally got a taxi back to our hotel around 11:00 pm. Oh, the joys of Paris on strike!

I see that all my apostrophes, quotation marks and dashes have turned into question marks. Anyone know how I can fix that before I continue?

I'm not absolutely sure, Betty, but I think the transformation to ? occurs when you copy and paste from a word processing program. Maybe if you use the "Preview My Reply" capability, you can change the apostrophes, etc. one by one. A hassle.

Maybe someone else will tell post an easier way. I'm interested in the long, detailed version of your trip!

Sorry, no. That happens when you cut and paste from Word for some reason.

But keep the report coming anyway!

Uh-oh, I should have used the Preview. Make that...maybe someone else will post....

OK, I guess you are all smart enough to mentally change all the question marks to the appropriate punctuation ;), so I'm not going to worry about it. Here's some more.

The worst thing about the strikes was that it was virtually impossible to find out in advance what was operating and what wasn?t. Although I had made every effort to find out about our TGV to Avignon, it wasn?t until the morning of the day we were to leave that I discovered that our train had been canceled! Nothing to do but go to the Gare de Lyon and hope. Needless to say, it was a zoo! We got lucky, however. Although our train which was to have left sometime after 2:00 pm was canceled, they added on another one leaving earlier! How?s that for French logic? After some confusion (is this train going to Avignon or not?) we managed to find some seats and got to Avignon ahead of schedule. The most aggravating thing about it: no one even asked for our (almost $600 worth of) tickets!

June 7 ? 14 PROVENCE I must say I was glad to have left Paris behind. We picked up our two cars (luckily they were ready an hour early) and set out for our house in Saignon. We stopped in Apt for groceries (note to self: 8 people trying to buy groceries is probably not the best idea!). I called our house owner for directions (had to do a detour since the main road from Apt to Saignon was closed off for a ?fete?!), got a bit lost but finally managed to get to our house. No time for inspection or explanations since we had reservations at the Auberge du Presbytere for 8:00 pm. (Owner said he would come back the next evening.) Dinner at the Auberge was excellent and the people very nice. When we got back to the house around 10:30 or 11:00 we were all ready to fall into bed. Only one problem: the maid had only made up 2 rooms for 4 people instead of 4 rooms for 8 people! No sheets or towels in 2 rooms. Much as I hated to do it that late, I had to call the owners to bring more sheets and towels. What else can go wrong?? We finally collapsed around midnight.

Over the next 7 days we fell in love with our house. We learned that it was originally built in the 1800?s but had been remodeled in 1992. It was very secluded on the Plateau des Claparedes (about 1 mile from Saignon and about 5 miles from Apt) with a security gate and a house alarm system. It was surrounded by lavender fields (not quite in full bloom) and sweet-smelling yellow genets. There was a nice pool a short distance from the house. Downstairs there was a large living/dining/kitchen area and up a winding staircase, 4 bedrooms and two bathrooms. On a lower level, there was a fifth bedroom and a shower. We came to look forward to returning ?home? in the late afternoon.

From our base in Saignon we visited the Luberon hill towns of Roussillon and Gordes (Abbaye de Senanque), Vaison-la-Romaine, the Pont du Gard, the Camargue, Cassis (took the boat ride to see the ?calanques?) and Avignon. We did not make it to Arles, Orange, Moustiers Ste. Marie, St. Remy, Les Baux or Aix-en-Provence (tried to do the latter but on market day the parking was impossible.) Oh well, something left for the next trip.

We had 3 dinners out. Besides the one at the Auberge in Saignon, we ate twice at a wonderful hotel-restaurant just east of Apt near St. Martin de Castillon called Lou Caleu (provencal for ?The [Oil] Lamp?). We had planned to have one dinner at Le Fournil in Bonnieux but could not get reservations there. We weren?t too disappointed since Lou Caleu was so good that we didn?t mind going back there a second time. The rest of the time we cooked at home, each ?room? planning and preparing a meal with a bit of help from the others. It may not have been as ?fancy,? but I assure you that we ate as well at home as we did eating out. One of our group even made an apple pie from scratch! My favorite time at the house was early morning, having a cup of good French coffee with a croissant, French bread or (my favorite) a pain aux raisins on our terrace and ?listening to the quiet.?

Hi Betty,

Thanks for your report. Looks like it is going to be good.

You're all to be commended for rolling with the punches.

Waiting for more!! Betty, we stayed one year in Saignon, and loved The auberge, nice people, nice dog! The owner is also a friend a a goat cheese makeer we know. I'm sorry I didn't take a photo of the lavoir across from the fountain. I recently bought a book on the lavoirs and that one is not in it.

Thanks, Ira. I think that learning to "roll with the punches" is one of the reasons traveling is such a valuable experience. Besides, what else can you do?!

Glad to hear from you, Mimi. Your posts over the past several months were very helpful to me. I think that you and I have a very similar love for Provence. I adore Saignon! Such nice people there. I just wish I had had more time to spend there wandering those quiet, quaint streets. Next installment...

June 14 ? 15 ALBI Our week in Provence was over all too soon and we set out for Albi. To me it felt like going home as I had spent a year there many years ago as an ?assistante d?anglais.? I dearly love the town but regret all the modernization?s that have taken place over the years. ?My? café, Le Pontie, used to have red leather banquettes and marble top tables. Now it is all chrome and black. And (horrors!) it also houses a pizzeria! And the main square now covers an underground parking garage.

After a long day on the road we arrived in Albi in the late afternoon of a stiflingly hot day to discover that our hotel, the Hotel du Vigan, only had 2 rooms with AC. (I really hadn?t expected any to have it, but somehow, it made things worse that four of us would be cool and the other four would swelter.) I simply could not face trying to sleep in that heat so the two couples stayed at the Vigan and the rest of us went down the road to the Mercure. (Say what you will about those big American-style hotels; sometimes they can be a godsend.) The fellow at the desk of the Vigan was very nice about it, even called the Mercure for us. We all got back together the next morning for breakfast at the Pontie and then visited the Cathedrale Sainte Cecile (all were suitably impressed by the architecture and the interior decoration) and the Toulouse Lautrec museum. We then set off around noon for our B&B near Sarlat.

June 15 ? 18 DORDOGNE Our B&B, Aux Trois Sources, was lovely with beautiful gardens and the couple who runs it could not have been nicer. Two of our four rooms had kitchenettes and all had refrigerators, which came in handy. The breakfasts were quite good, including yogurt and fresh fruit as well as the usual breads, jams and hot drinks. Although it has a real ?country? feel about it, it is only about a 5-minute drive from Sarlat.

During our 4 days in the Dordogne, we visited Lascaux II, Font de Gaume and Pech-Merle caves (had reservations for all). This was my first visit to FdeG so I particularly enjoyed that one, but the climb up to it is a killer and the inside is not for the claustrophobic! We also saw the Musee de la Prehistoire in Les Eyzies, Domme, the Chateau de Beynac and, of course, the town of Sarlat. We had one nice and very inexpensive (15 E menu) dinner at the Hotel Bonnet in Beynac. Our other dinners were in Sarlat at Le Quatre Saisons and Le Rossignol, both recommended by our B&B owners, very good and not expensive. Our other dinner was at the Pizzeria Romana (we were in the mood for something a bit lighter) just across from Le Quatre Saisons. Some of the best pizza I have ever had.

Again there was a lot on my agenda that we didn?t get to: the other Dordogne Valley castles like Castelnaud and Les Milandes, Rocamadour, the Gouffre de Padirac and the Jardins d?Eyrignac. I had also wanted to have dinner at the Hostellerie la Bouriane in Gourdon, but we found it was not practical to have dinner that far from ?home.? Next time.

Betty - I love your trip report - sounds like you had a wonderful time. I was particularly interested in your hotel in Paris - Hotel St. Jacques. I am staying there the end of Sept for 6 days. How was it? I note that you walked from there to Montparnasse. How was that? Could you walk to most sites from your hotel? Are there any good restaurants/cafes close to the hotel that you could recommend. Thanks!!

Betty, I've been waiting for your trip report! It sounds like a wonderful time! I loved reading about Provence b/c I have been to those places and savor the memories, and Dordogne b/c I've never been!

Were you the leader as in you recruited people for the trip or were you a group of friends, with you designated leader b/c of your knowledge of French/France? Just curious about how you did this!

Now that it seems that the Eiffel Tower is OK and no one hurt, I can continue my report!

To Barb: Yes, we enjoyed the Hotel St. Jacques. Only drawback is no AC and it was HOT. It is wonderfully located on the rue des Ecoles. Easy to walk to the Pantheon (maybe two blocks away), the Jardin du Luxembourg and Blvd. St. Michel, and the Ile de la Cite. The Maubert-Mutualite metro stop is a couple of blocks away (assuming they are running when you are there!)
Two restaurants nearby I would recommend: Chantairelle, on rue Laplace - we had the 25 E menus which were very good and Le Petit Prince de Paris on rue de Lanneau, also good and even less expensive.

To Grandmere: Yes, I suppose you could say that I recruited them for this trip. All but one of them were in my "French for Travelers" class that I taught at the College for Seniors in Asheville, NC. (associated with UNCA) I asked if any would be interested in a trip to France and, luckily, several were.

To continue:

June 19 ? 21 LOIRE We drove north from Sarlat, heading to our chateau-hotel just south of Tours. Decided to make a detour north of Limoges to see Oradour-sur-Glane. Although it meant sacrificing visits to Azay-le-Rideau and Villandry in order to do it, I thought it was worth the time. There is a new (to me, at least) entrance with a museum that recounts the awful story of Oradour, but it is still the burned out town that hits you like a punch in the stomach. I lost it completely when attempting to translate the plaque on the church to my group. I can?t say that this stop was ?enjoyable,? but I?m glad we did it.

I hope I will be forgiven for not revealing the name of the chateau. I hope to do a similar trip next year and may well want to stay here again. It is a beautiful place, approached via a winding dirt road through the woods. The owner, who is from Luxembourg and speaks near-perfect English, is thoroughly charming. He reveled in telling us the history of his chateau, including a stopover by Joan of Arc on her way to Chinon! The grounds are beautiful and there are even peacocks, including two snow-white ones, which I had never seen before. (Lord, those things can make a racket!) The interior is equally lovely, just worn enough to have some character. We were his only guests for the 4 days we were there so had the place to ourselves. (I think there were two other rooms.) The rooms are quite large and beautifully decorated. The breakfasts were wonderful and so generous we didn?t need much lunch: they included boiled eggs and cheese as well as the usual bread, butter, jam, etc.

During our two full days here we visited Chenonceau and Amboise (went to Clos-Luce but discovered that they have made some ?improvements? and raised the entry fee to 11 E! ? our group declined to pay that much.) We also went to Blois and Chambord. The latter was something of a disaster. As we approached we saw signs advertising a ?Game Fair.? (yes, in English!) When we arrived at the small roundabout where you would normally go to the right to get to the parking lot beside the chateau, we saw policemen directing traffic off further to the right through the woods. We complied, of course, but when we realized they were sending us some distance away to park we stopped to let out some of our group including two ladies who have some difficulty walking long distances. We thought we would be able to meet up with them at the entrance to the chateau. Meanwhile the two men and I followed the road through the woods and eventually arrived in a roped-off parking area (actually a field!) which was at least a mile from the chateau! After a twenty-minute hike we finally got back to the normal parking lot which had been taken over by concessionaires selling all sorts of things. It looked like the midway at the county fair! There were literally thousands of people there. We went to the chateau entrance but did not find the ladies there. We tried to work our way back to where we had left the others and realized that the ?Game Fair? area, which required tickets to enter, was between us and the others, so that we could not get to them nor they to us! It took a bit of fast-talking to convince the ticket taker to let us in to look for our friends, but he finally did. After another ten minutes or so, we saw them coming toward us. They had had to do the same on their end to get through. I had never been so relieved to see anyone!

June 22 ? 24 CHARTRES, GIVERNY, PARIS AND HOME
We left our chateau early on Sunday, hoping to get to Chartres before services began. We didn?t, but that was OK, as we were still able to get in and the music was beautiful! Had some lunch there and went back in for a better look afterwards. Then on to Giverny where we barely had time for a quick look before heading to Nanterre to turn in our cars. I would NOT recommend others do this, at least not at the Europcar office. It was difficult to find and out in the ?boonies.? We were late getting there but, fortunately, they did not charge us for an extra day?s rental. As far as I could tell we were nowhere near the RER and would not have wanted to attempt it with all our collected junk anyway. Instead we had them call 2 taxis for us. It cost about 30 E each to get back into Paris.

We spent our last two nights at the Grand Hotel Leveque on rue Cler. Rooms are small and the carpet in our room was very dirty, but we were very grateful for the AC and, wonder of wonders, the ice dispenser in the lobby! Sunday night some of us had dinner at the Comptoir du 7eme and then walked over to the Eiffel Tower in time to see the twinkling lights come on at 10:00 pm. It was magical! Lots of Parisiens and/or tourists were picnicking on the Champs de Mars. One group had even brought flowers and candelabras!

Monday we went to Montmartre where I finally had a crepe a la crème de marron at the Place du Tertre. Unfortunately it was cold and not very good. That evening we had a delicious dinner at one of my favorite restaurants in Paris, La Petite Chaise. (When we arrived the street in front of the restaurant was full of some very well dressed Asians and several black Mercedes. We also noticed a man sitting at one of the tables in front of the restaurant. Others who approached him would kneel. We found out later that it was the king of Thailand!) We finished off our last night in Paris with a cruise on the Seine. Very enjoyable in spite of the fact that the young woman doing the commentary spoke English with a near-incomprehensible accent. I am sure that those who did not understand French had no idea what she was saying!

The next morning we took the Parishuttle back to CDG. It was a bit late but we arrived in plenty of time. Contrary to what I had feared, check-in and security was efficient and pretty quick. We got to our gate and had time to eat our sandwiches we had bought on the rue Cler before leaving.

Our troubles began in Philadelphia. Both my travel agent and the USAir people had assured me that a 1 hour 15 minute connection time would be sufficient. NOT! The Philadelphia airport was sheer chaos! First they kept us on the plane for an extra 15 minutes because Immigration and Customs were overwhelmed by previous arrivals. I won?t go into all the details; let?s just say that they were not equipped to handle that many people arriving and trying to make their connecting flights. Half of us barely made it onto our scheduled flight that left at 5:30 pm, the rest having to wait for a 6:50 departure. When we got to Charlotte, guess what? NO bags for either group. I can understand that they didn?t make it on the first plane, but why not the second one?? Luckily we were spending the night in Charlotte. My bags arrived at the hotel at 6:30 am the following morning.

So, there you are. Considering this was my first attempt at planning and leading a group trip to France, I think it turned out OK. There are, of course, lots of things I will do differently next time. The main one is that I will not try to do so much and allow more time for just relaxing. I guess no one gets it exactly right the first time. Hopefully I will continue to improve as I plan future trips. A huge ?merci beaucoup? to all here who gave me generous help, advice and information. I couldn?t have done it without you.

Thanks Betty, Oradour is on my list. It must be very sad to see that war ravaged place and it enforces my pacifist stance. Peacocks are beautiful and loud. One of the farmer's I would visit to buy herbs raised them, and as I type this, I look at 2 dozen of their beautiful plumes.

Betty:
May I post your trip report on my Magic of Provence site at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/provence ?

Yes, John, of course you may. I was intending, however, to do a slightly more detailed version of the Provence portion of our trip for your site. No harm in having both, I guess. BTW, thanks again for your help and advice. Obviously, you were right when you advised that I might be planning a bit too much!