051 France: Bordeaux region

France: Bordeaux region -  Royan; Le Verdon-sur-mar; Pavillac; St.Emillion, Brannen & Vignonet

We take a ferry from Royan to Le Verdon-sur-mar. We stop for lunch in a small village called Paulliac. We wander into a cheese and wine shop, which is unattended, and at the back of the shop, unprotected, are bottles of old Mouton Rothschild selling for over $1000. We call at the winery on a Saturday but it is closed, so we've saved some money :)

We are having some down time in a very small village called Vignonet, in the middle of nowhere! Well actually it is well situated for day trips into the Bordeaux region. Our host Roland is quite a card. Keeps talking to us in very fast French. We keep saying we don't understand but that doesn't stop him. He laughs a lot, so do we, but we have no idea at what!

They have a high tide here that causes a bore in the river Dordogne. There are many and varied forms of transport for riding the wave.

We cycle, yes we. While there is no evidence of me cycling, I actually cycled 4km to dinner one evening AND BACK !.

In Bordeaux we finally succumb to "Le Petite Train". It is very hot. There is a sign in Bordeaux that says "Bordeaux is not a destination it is a lifestyle." I have to agree. Not much for the tourist but it appears like an amazing place to live. Parks, Art, Architecture, wide walkways, open pavement restaurants.  I love the 'feel' of the place.

The grape growing in this area is heavily regulated. Here they are cropping the top. There are over 10 sub-regions within the Bordeaux region. E.g. Medoc which Frank preferred as there was a higher CabSav content. Each sub-region specialises in a type of wine E.g. Merlot in St. Emilion.

Frank finds a South African to talk wine with. They spend ages. Frank learns a lot about the region but doesn't manage to land a free sample. He has a wonderful, happy time.

 

Our neighbour in the village is a keen gardener. Frank asks him if he can take his photo with the crop and he is absolutely adamant "No Photo". If you look closely you'll see a coin about the size of 20c. Later on the guy came round with two tomatoes and 5 potatoes for us. Frank has some interesting 'chats' with him where they both laugh a lot as they struggle to understand each other.

So Frank discovered this permanent speed detector. The speed limit is 30kph. On his bike he breaks the speed limit. As we are walking home he runs towards the detector (in his thongs) - I get the speed but where is Frank??? spooky. Frank is writing to the Guinness Book of records claiming a world record for over 55's running on a road in thongs (flip flops for the Poms) at 18kph.

Each evening we walk along the Dordogne. This has been a brilliant week, even though we didn't do much. We are well rested. All our clothes are clean. We are much better informed in French wines and we've eaten more bread and cakes than I care to mention :)

 

 

050 France: Richelieu, La Rochelle, Port des Borques, Rochefort, Trizay, Cognac

 France: Richelieu, La Rochelle, Port des Barques, Rochefort, Trizay, Cognac

Sunflowers make you smile. You just can't help it. Field after field of them. Wonderful.

 

We stop at Richelieu which turned out to be a fascinating place. Was quite important at one time. The palace was sold stone by stone but the grounds remained intact behind this massive wall. The locals now benefit from this. There was just something about the place.

La Rochelle. An amazing port. Frank did another tower climb. There was a festival starting the next day and we were lucky to catch the rehearsal. We came a bit unstuck with our plat du jour - ham and cheese crepe, followed by a chocolate crepe; both lovely but too much together, however I don't remember us actually leaving any leftovers!

Port des Borques. Very different. Fishing 'village' - about 100 houses. We never did find out what these fishing platforms ever did. There was an enormous tidal range.

Taken at sunset, the fishing platforms look like a scene from Star Wars.

We realised we haven't seen many sunsets - we are not usually up this late (10:00pm !! :))This reminded us of Broome.

Thank goodness Frank likes Arsenal. We'd been looking all over for the office of tourism. According to the map it had to be here. Frank spots Arsenal written on the arch and wanders over - and guess what was hidden right behind?
The ladies were very helpful and assisted us finding, what turned out to be in our top three places we've stayed - Trizay. We think they were just happy to have something to do. I bet not many people find them.

Top notch accommodation. Private balcony, with day beds. Fluffy dressing gowns and slippers. Jacuzzi, pool, lake, 5 star restaurant. Plus we only paid E100 per night as we got a last minute deal. Trizay is well out of the way but we didn't care :)

We never tire of the amazing architecture. Cognac is picture perfect.

We have a tour of the Hennessey distillery, inclusive of a small boat ride to the warehouses aboard the Hennessey boat.

Just look at the year on the barrel. The cognac would have been in approximately 20 different barrels during its life. The 8 testers have declared it still can improve. The blending of the spirits is fascinating. takes 10 years to master.

Cognac is a brandy, but not all brandy is cognac. We have tastings at the end of the tour, thankfully Frank is driving, so I get his share. I LOVE cognac.

049 France: Tours

France: Tours

Hotel D'Ville

 

We settle into our deck chairs and watch a very drunk man trying to fish with a stick and a piece of string. Very entertaining.

We join the crowds to watch France V Germany in the world cup. It was good to be part of it even though France lost.
We were amazed by just how many of the young people were smoking. It seemed about 80%

A true supporter, with his goat. Don't you take your goat to town?

The Loire was not the river we had imagined. It was wide, shallow and relaxed. There was something quite soothing about it. This picture shows how shallow it is. One swimmer is standing up in the middle of the river.

Something else that was quite different about the river were the boats. We haven't come across this style before.

Other than the old town and the main street, Tours wasn't that impressive. It was extremely hard to navigate, cramped, dirty. In hind sight we would have been better off staying in Amboise.

 

048 France: Loire Valley; Chateaus

France: Loire Valley
There are 71 Chateaus to visit. We 'do' 9:
Chenonceaux, Amboise, Luce Clos, Villandry, Azay-le-Rideau, Usse, Chambord, Cheverny & Chaumont

I've just picked out some of the photos

Usse

 

Nine is enough

Each Chateaux had a differentiation. Some it was the gardens, some the interior, some the furnishings. Usse had a Sleeping Beauty theme in the Keep as the story was based on the chateau and it was very well done.

Things that surprised us: Just how many old beds and tapestries there are. And so many of them in amazing condition. The colours in one tapestry made in 1700 and something were as bright as if they were new.

Our favourite was Chenonceaux.

 

 

047 France: Chatel-Guyan, Riom, Orcival, Gour de Tzenot, Volvic

France: Chatel-Guyan, Riom, Orcival, Gour de Tzenot, Volvic

View from our room in Hotel Splendid :) And once upon a time it really must have been. Now it is" a grand old dame" - if you know what I mean. Elderly gentlemen in suits at breakfast, possibly residents.
Chatel-Guyan is a thermal town, past its hey-day; but it must have really been something in the 30s. There is a Casino, which for the size of the place surprised us. The centre has a lovely park where people congregate to take the waters. It just has a nice feel to it.
They put crème fraiche on their pizzas and it is delicious.

So many of the churches are up on a hill.

Now this was a very big deal for me. We climbed Puy-de-dome (no train this time) A 1 hour trek to climb 368 Meters. Two sections were so steep that I had to walk sideways with vey small steps. It only took 30 mins to do the descent.

Not only a magnificent view, from the top, but magnific meadow flowers.

We made it. You can see from our clothes it was quite cold at the top. I certainly wasn't cold on the ascent.

One of those magic moments. We returned to the car and the gravel was carpeted with butterflies. As we approached they rose in a cloud. Priceless.

We visited 'The source of Volvic", which is quite a famous brand. But if you look closely you can see what brand we were drinking!

We went into the Office of Tourism in Riom. We asked to climb the tower, which only cost 3E. The assistant said we'd be better off crossing the road and opening the door to number 12 as we could climb that for free. So we did. It was weird. Private apartments. I wonder how many people she sends over there?

046 France: Lyon, Thiers

France: Lyon, Thiers

The French take their cycling seriously. Even though we are a long way from the 'Tour de France", there are hill roads with these signs every kilometre.

We've selected No Tolls and shortest route on the GPS and are rewarded with some magnificent back roads, although a couple are pretty scary. This town had an open barn, with a sign, that sort of translated to "fill your bottle and leave the right money"  For white wine.

Lyon was really relaxed. Not a tourist town. We were impressed by the town and the transport. The Cathedral dominates the town from on top of a hill, reached by funicular railway. The walls have some of the best mosaics we've seen.

Roman amphitheatre that is still used. They are preparing for a concert for that evening but there is a huge wind. A bough falls off a tree and lands, firstly on a car roof, and then between Frank and myself. We are very lucky it doesn't hit us.

This was a very powerful 1889 statue by Fontaine Bartholdi who did the NY Statue of Liberty in 1886. The horses were so realistic. Then we noticed the hooves have claws!

We stopped for coffee in Thiers. We spent far longer there than we planned. The town was fascinating. It appears it is famous for the knives it produces. Some of them were works of art, and cost over $1000

Amazing architecture. Every little gap was plugged by a building of some description.