Today was another busy but not fun day. We completed our last chores before we head south. We were up early to drive to Sens. On the way we had to pass thru Paris and we planned for the worst. We were pleasantly surprised to only hit one short slowdown so we arrived quite early in Sens.
With time to kill we went to a large supermarket to get some French groceries for our cupboards. We are now well stocked for the next few days.
Today we had our safety inspection, and except for discovering that both our low beam bulbs had burned out and needed to be replaced we passed with no problem. François burns thru headlight bulbs at a very rapid rate, no one has been able to figure out why. I am going to have to add periodically checking on them to my driving checklist. We also had one minor part to replace in one of our privacy screens.
We were at Eurocampingcars for about 4 hours waiting for everything to get taken care of. During that time we had a nice conversation with Sandrine the owner. We were surprised to learn that she currently has 68 overseas customers she is supporting.
The library at the homey family run campground we are staying at tonight.
With everything finally done about 5pm we headed to a nice campground on the Yonne river. Tomorrow we are off for Morocco.
Today we turned south. With all of the repairs (fingers crossed) completed on François we are heading south. Our next stop is Sens to get our Control Technique done. We were tempted to try to make the leap but we have two major cities to navigate -Antwerp and Paris and I didn’t want to take them both on in one day.
The drive south was busy and Antwerp did not let us down as we were stuck in traffic there for 15 or 20 minutes. Most of the drive today was really busy from Delft until we hit the first toll way in France. Once again we drove across Belgium without stopping. Belgium deserves more love than we give it.
I picked a campground about an hour north of Paris and it is a charming place next to the Chateau in the picture. Sorel has a population of about 180 according to Wikipedia, but a nice campground and a pretty chateau.
We needed to stop by François’ hometown to check on our mail, and see if we could schedule an appointment for some minor repairs to prepare for our second “controle technique” or safety inspection when we return in the fall. So our day pretty much consisted of fueling up, hitting a grocery, and then driving 300 kilometers to Sens to see the folks at Eurocampingcars.
The lake at our campground tonight.
With the work done in Sens we then drove on for another hour to a campground near Troyes where we settled in for the night. We are going to spend the next few days giving Belgium some more time. We always feel bad because we have frequently driven thru the entire country without stopping going from the Netherlands to France. We hope to rectify that the next few days.
I selected Vichy for todays visit because of its association with World War II. Today and historically Vichy was famous as a spa town with hot springs and naturally carbonated water. Unfortunately for about 3 years of WWII it served as the capital of the puppet French government under Nazi Germany. For me that is always what I will remember it for. When the US and British invaded North Africa early in WWII the initial resistance to the landing was not from the Germans or Italians, but from French troops fighting for Vichy.
Fishing in the l’Allier River.
We both slept well last night (Ton said I slept very well, meaning I snored), so we both woke early (Ton said her early rise was not entirely voluntary but related to how well I slept.) We were underway early and I was hopeful of arriving at the campground in Vichy before the customary 90 to 120 minute lunch. I respect that the French need two hours for lunch, but my one request be that they get together and agree on which two hours. Some campgrounds break noon to two, some 12:30 to 2:30 and some from 1 to 3. We were on track for a 12:30 arrival, but missed by a couple of minutes, and the barrier to the campground was down meaning lunch was on. There were already two other campers waiting, but the good news was this campground only takes a 90 minute lunch from noon, so we had a little less than an hour to wait. So we also had our lunch.
Downtown Vichy.
We headed into town around 2:15 and crossed the bridge to the Avenue of the United States. Running parallel to the Avenue of the US was a lovely park full of trees imported from around the world including an iffy looking Sequoia which still dwarfed all of the other trees.
This Sequoia looks like it has seen better days, but it still dwarfed all of the other trees in the park.
We turned onto Avenue Franklin Roosevelt (there are more roads named after Americans in France than in any other country in Europe) to visit the old Spa hotels. The road and the park that were integral to the old spa are getting a major upgrade, so we were dodging construction sites and equipment.
The Opera House is also getting a major upgrade.
The spa concept was a major tourism draw in the 1800’s and up to WWII in Europe. The concept of going to take the waters was touted as both medically beneficial as well as restful. There was a structured routine that included baths in the thermals, prescribed outdoor walks, healthful meals, and evening relaxation.
One of the halls containing thermal springs. The taps in the foreground are available to fill containers for free.
This led to quite a large industry with luxury hotels to support it. In Vichy the infrastructure that was built in the 1800’s is still largely in place, including large parks with covered walkways around the outside of them in case of inclement weather. These covered walks are impressive as they are made of cast iron and stretch for quite a distance around the exterior edge of the park. There is a large building in the middle of the park that contains an opera hall and casino for evening entertainment, and luxury hotels along one side of the park housed those that had the money to spend time here.
Another part of the thermal building.
There are 11 Spa cities still functioning in Europe though they are not as popular as they once were. Vichy was celebrating that it along with the other 10 cities throughout Europe had been declared UNESCO cultural sites.
An advertisement from the era touting the sparkling water from Vichy. It is still for sale today.
Vichy is also know for a kind of candy called Pastilles. This year they are celebrating the 200th anniversary of the invention of Pastilles. We decided that this would be a good gift for friends so we spent the rest of the afternoon searching for Pastilles to take home. After visiting three stores we are now well stocked with this delicacy.
Some canoes near our campground.
While walking around town we saw many references to Vichy as a spa town, and as a source for Pastilles, but only one mention of its role during WWII. I guess I am not surprised as one story is much more pleasant than the other.
We are going to spend the next few days traveling slowly thru central France. This rugged region is full of river valleys and steep hills. There are over a 1000 castles and ruins in the region, but they tend to be on a smaller scale than the big castles in the Loire Valley and around Paris. It is also one of the least visited parts of France by foreign tourists.
The bridge entering Cahors.
Cahors is located on a U-turn on the Lot river and was originally founded by the Celts. It has been around for a lot of history, but nothing particularly interesting has happened here during history.
This landscape of a river running thru steep hills will be common for the next couple of days.
It was a short drive down from Toulouse, but we left early because today was market day in Cahors and we wanted to arrive while the market was in full swing. We quickly checked in and set up François before walking the 2 kilometers back to town.
The market was going in full force around the Cathedral in town.
As we got closer to town we passed more and more people with baskets of groceries and fresh flowers. The market was quite large and the products on sale were very diverse. The regional specialty is duck and geese with all of the different things you can get from those animals including Foie Gras. We are not big fans of it, but we did get talked into taking a sample and I have to admit it was delicious, though we won’t be buying any.
Near the end of the market with the doors of the Cathedral in the background.
These markets are always a lot of fun. In addition to being a good source of fresh foods that support the local farmers, it is always a big social event. We were really lucky as they were also having a festival celebrating the local bicycle clubs so in addition to the good food there were some other interesting displays as well as live jazz all day. While we were wandering around town at least 4 different jazz bands played. It seems these days jazz is more popular in Europe than in the US.
An interesting statue near the cathedral.
The biggest attraction in Cahors is the Valentre bridge over the Lot. It is a medieval bridge with three towers. Many bridges of this era had towers on them, partially for defense, and partially to collect tolls for their use. These days very few of the towers survive.
The three towers plus our favorite plant.
The bridge was quite a construction project for its age. There is a local story that the architect of the bridge was falling behind so he pledged his soul to the devil if the bridge was completed on time. So the devil intervened and the bridge was completed on time, but the architect reneged on the deal and kept his soul. This caused the devil to put a curse on his family. To honor this story a small statue of the devil is located high up on one of the towers.
One of the towers with the stairs leading to the tower.
While Ton was shooting pictures I was doing my normal gazing at people and things when a very dapper French couple in their 80’s asked me to take their picture. I was happy to oblige and they were very grateful. While I was taking their picture Ton had found a very nice place to pose, and she convinced them to pose for her to take their picture. When she showed them the picture they exclaimed Superb which in French sounds even better than English. Unfortunately she used their camera so we don’t have the picture for our use. We passed them several times and they would show us more pictures they had taken. They were a fun and very cute encounter today.
One more view of the bridge.
We finished off the day with a wine tasting at the visitors center. We were given five tastings of local wine for free. The region is know for Malbec which is most famously produced in Argentina. Ton has never been a fan of Malbec, but I was hoping French Malbec would change her mind. It didn’t, the reds were too dry for her taste though she did enjoy a Rose from the region.
Toulouse is the fourth largest city in France and we had never visited it, though we have driven thru it many times in our comings and goings in France. It is the hub of the French aerospace industry and has the French equivalent of NASA it is not on the tourism path in a big way possibly because it is too far inland for cruise ships to come here on day trips.
These covered walkways called arcades are common in southern France and Spain. This one had nice artwork in the ceiling.
Ton did her normal planning for the visit, and I did the navigation. We spent several pleasant hours downtown visiting all of the normal things we go to look at in European cities.
The tower of the Basilica in Toulouse.
The weather was nice again by the afternoon and there were a lot of people in the streets shopping and enjoying their lunch. Toulouse has several prominent churches and we poked into a couple of them and they were very nice.
The rather austere interior of the Basilica.
The streets were very busy but there was a noticeable absence of guided groups, in fact the only one we saw today was from Lebanon which was a first for us. There was a tourist presence and we heard plenty of American accented English, but it was mostly couples or small groups traveling independently.
Toulouse is famous for its pink tinted buildings, but the light didn’t highlight the pink very well today.
What we did notice was the very high percentage of young people on the streets. Toulouse is home to several universities and the number of students is supposed to be around 100,000. So there was a youthful energy to the town that we really enjoyed. A lot of the American accented English we heard came from younger people rather than middle aged and senior people, which we also enjoyed.
The “New Bridge” which is the oldest bridge in town was originally built in the middle ages. Thomas Jefferson was very interested it and based the design for a bridge over the Potomac on it.
After walking it for a few hours we were surprised that it does not attract more visitors than it does. It is a great walkable downtown with interesting and unique architecture, nice old churches, and good food; all of the things that visitors love. But on the other hand we were glad it didn’t attract thousands of visitors in busses to crowd the center. It is a beautiful city that deserves a visit, and hopefully it will continue to strike the right balance without getting overwhelmed with visitors.
We’re back in France so you have to have a carousel.
Unexpectedly today was about the drive. The drive from Andorra to Toulouse was only about 180 kilometers but google had it at nearly 3 hours in a car so I had an idea that it might be an interesting 3 hours. We were not in a big hurry to get going because as we reenter France we have to deal with the French lunch. Many campgrounds close for 2 to 3 hours mid-day, the one we were aiming at was closed from noon to 2:30 according to their website.
As we were leaving the urban part of Andorra we saw this in front of us.
We spent about 30 minutes steadily climbing out of the valley we had been in towards the ski resort part of Andorra which is closer to France. The roads were pretty good. After we passed thru the ski-resorts the road began to climb even more. When we first saw the snow in front of us I told Ton we probably wouldn’t get that high but we nearly did.
The expensive tunnel that kept us out of the snow.
We would have climbed up to the snow but we instead opted to take an expensive tunnel that kept us from continuing to climb. We were in the minority as most traffic opted to take a long series of switchbacks over the mountain we drove thru. As we were pulling into the toll booth the light rain we had been driving in was starting to turn into snow flurries so I felt ok with our choice to be wimps.
The Pyrenees on the French side of the pass were quite beautiful.
As soon as we exited the tunnel we entered France, though we did go thru an unmanned border crossing a couple of kilometers later. The drive down was on steep roads with a fair amount of switchbacks, for a few kilometers it was quite foggy which had our speeds down to a crawl. After the fog it rained most of the way down into Toulouse.
Despite the weather and the steep road we were still ahead of our 2:30 arrival so I pulled into a SuperU grocery to allow Ton some recreational shopping. After about 45 minutes we left with a handful of things including some white Asparagus that Ton wants to try her hand at cooking.
We finally arrived at the campground about 3pm only to find that it was still closed. I found a place on the road to park and walked up to the gate to see if I could see anyone. I finally located a maintenance guy who opened the gate and showed us to a spot and told me to go pay at 5pm.
We have been looking at Tours for a few days now and we finally decided to make it a stop. No guidebook of France is featuring Tours as one of the cities you should visit. Tours is the kind of town every country needs, there are a lot of things produced here, a lot of things are transported thru here, and a lot of people make a good living here, and it is a good place to live. What it doesn’t have is a lot of cool things for non-residents to look at. It is the French version of Pittsburg or Birmingham.
A pond near the campground.
Our original plan was to drive the 280 kilometers here, check in to the campground and head to town. Based on our quick look around town we would decide whether to stay another day and explore some more or get back on the Autoroute and continue driving to Spain.
While driving I remembered that quite often French campgrounds have extended lunches where you cannot check in. We figured we would arrive at about 1:15, while we were driving Ton did some research and it looked like they would open at 2:30, it was a little frustrating but early enough to take a run into town. But when we arrived there was a sign on the door saying they were closed from 12:00 to 3:30 for lunch. Nowhere but France would a business close for 31/2 hours at lunch. After some muttering by me we both settled in for the 2 hour wait. By the time they reopened there were 7 motorhomes waiting. We will visit Tours tomorrow.
We had a long discussion last night about what to do today. Initially there were two options, go into Paris or drive to Tours. Neither option appealed much to Ton though Tours is in out future as it is a stopping point on our way to Spain. After a lot of hemming and hawing we had not reached a decision when Ton saw that Fontainebleau was free today. So the decision was made and we were up bright and early for the 80 kilometer drive to Fontainebleau.
This guy featured heavily in today’s activities.
Ton had visited Fontainebleau during her student days in London and had very good memories of it. She had told me about it several times during our travels the last few years every time we blew by the exit for it on the A6 Autoroute. It had made a really strong impression on her then.
The other half of today’s featured family.
So we were up and off early for the 80 kilometer drive south from Paris. We made a quick stop in Samoreau a village close to Fontainebleau to make sure they had space for us in their campground, they did, so after checking in and doing a quick drive by of our assigned spot we headed over to Fontainebleau.
A wedding party posing at the main entrance to Fontainebleau.
This is a very large Chateau, probably the third largest we have seen, Chambord, and Versailles were larger we think. There are over a thousand rooms and multiple wings to the place that make it difficult to capture just how immense it is.
The church inside the Chateau.
The theme of the tour definitely is Napoleonic. The stories about all of the rooms talk about how Napoleon and his family used them. So I was a little surprised when I did some research to find that it had been a royal palace since the 1200’s, and the buildings we saw today were all in place when Napoleon occupied them.
The rear of the palace looking across the Carp Lake.
Between 1200 and 1780 it was constantly added on to by various kings until it was transformed from a modest (relatively speaking) hunting lodge to the giant building we see today. Most of the construction took place between 1550 and 1780.
The throne room.
Unlike Versailles, Fontainebleau did not suffer any damage during the French Revolution as it was far enough away from Paris to miss out on the chaos that affected royal buildings in the capital. As it was intact Napoleon used it as his official palace when he declared himself emperor.
The furniture all came from Napoleon as the original furnishings were sold off during the French Revolution.
We spent a couple of hours working our way thru the palace and we missed one section of rooms. There was a lot to see and some of the art and furnishings were spectacular.
A couch for Napoleon to recline on while he had informal interviews.
The grounds were quite large and included a very large man made lake. We were expecting more gardens, but there were no formal gardens. The grounds were effectively giant lawns with a few statues and a few trees.
This stream had a few wild flowers blooming just about the only flowers on the grounds.
At the end Ton told me she was a little disappointed. She remembers being awed by this place when she was a student. Today she was not awed, she was thinking that maybe because over the last few years we have visited so many different palaces and castles that they are losing their ability to wow her.
The Carp Lake does have very impressive carp in it.
We headed back to our campground in Samoreau, and I was really charmed by it. The campground is on the banks of the Seine river and when we arrived they were having sailboat races. There is a small restaurant on the banks of the river that was doing booming business as a large percentage of the population of the town were enjoying the beautiful spring day with friends. I was clinched on the place when Ton casually mentioned that Django Reinhardt had lived here most of his life, he is one of my favorite jazz guitarists.
The locals chilling on the bank of the Seine River in front of our campground.
We took a quick stroll along the Seine to end a very nice spring day in France.
We had thoughts of going to Paris but on the way to the train station we ran into a market near the campground and spent some time looking around. It was a pretty small market, but the different vendors were busy. These markets are very common throughout Europe. Most towns have them a couple of times a week, and in bigger towns they are often daily. While the prices are slightly higher than the supermarkets they are well supported.
A fruit and vegetable stand with a mixture of locally grown and imported goods.
Across the street was a very popular bakery, that had a long line stretching out the door the whole time we were there. We were curious about the food inside, but were never able to get inside.
This bakery is on the corner of the street that the market is on.
After spending about an hour walking around checking out the Saturday sites in our little corner of Versailles, Ton suggested we do laundry. So our trip to Paris was put aside and instead we headed back to the campground to knock out our laundry.
In addition to fresh vegetables and meat, pre-cooked foods were widely available.
A couple hours later we had all fresh clothes, and Ton asked if I wanted to head into Paris. By then it was mid-afternoon so we decided to take it easy around the campground. I did walk over to the rugby field next to the campground and watched a game of high school aged kids, the home team was running away with the game at half time so I headed back to François to rejoin Ton.
Most of the stalls were doing steady business the whole time we were there.
As we do this longer, and as we get a little older, these down days where we hang around become a little more common. We are going to be busier tomorrow.
Today will be short. We were up early as we are shifting to Paris. It was a 300 kilometer drive, but it involved crossing Paris at mid-day. We had one stop in mind for the day which was one of the two Costco’s in Paris.
There was a circus in the parking lot next to Costco.
We arrived at Costco without any incident and went on a shopping spree to stock up with cool things we don’t see in our Costco at home and some old friends we do. François needs new tires and I was hoping they could do them here. We had everything worked out, I would buy the tires now, they would order them and then hold them for me until, we passed thru going north on our way back to Amsterdam then they would install them. Just as we were to seal the deal I mentioned that François was 3 meters tall and everything collapsed, their doors can only accommodate vehicles 2.75 meters tall. So I am still looking for tires.
Eventually we walked out with a large chariot (the French word for shopping basket) full of food, and a bottle of wine from Chile to add to our collection of French and Italian wines. Another interesting (at least to Ton and me) thing is that the days we do the least are often the most expensive. Due to tolls, buying fuel (at Costco), and groceries we spent 400% of what we budget per day while traveling.
Today we wanted to visit a town about 25 kilometers away to check out a restaurant Ton had read about. It is famous for its seafood. It’s funny how sometimes a place is so very different than what you expect. We expected Boulogne-sur-Mer to be a sleepy fishing village. To our surprise when we arrived we found a bustling city with heavy traffic. Instead of a few local fisherman we found a waterfront full of giant seafood factories with semi-trucks backing into loading docks to be dispatched with various frozen seafood for markets throughout and France, and the rest of Europe. Our impression was that Boulogne was a much bigger and busier town than Calais. When I checked though Calais is about 30% larger than Boulogne so again impressions do not always line up with facts.
The street art on display was quite beautiful, parking to enjoy it was hard to find.
We almost abandoned our quest as we could not find a place to park François. All of the street side parking in the city was full. There were a couple of large parking lots by the port, but they also turned out to be full. We tried to get into a lot that looked promising but the entrance was barricaded, which led to me backing François down a narrow street for a couple of hundred yards to get turned around. Just as we were driving out of town I spied a street that looked to have available parking. It took a couple of attempts to find the entrance, but we finally had a place to begin our day.
The pleasure port in Boulogne-sur-Mer.
Boulogne-sur-Mer’s other attraction beside seafood is a UNESCO tower in the old town. We walked up the hill to it but were disappointed when we got there. As we were standing in front of it in a large square, Ton asked me where it was and I pointed at it and she said, it is supposed to be beautiful?
The church belfry taken from the moat of the castle in town.
Having gotten our morning walk in we decided to head back down to the port to Tons restaurant. Local ambiance was not what drove people to this place as the view out of the windows was of the loading area for a giant fish processing building. To get in we had to navigate a couple of tables of workers on their lunch break and step over a large dog which was sprawled across the sidewalk. But when we entered the decor was first class, and the place was jammed. When we got to the hostess she asked if we had reservations I said no and she said nothing available until 2pm. As I was having this conversation an older gentleman was standing next to the hostess stand, he made eye contact and gave me a glance that said hang on, he then had a long conversation with the hostess and at the end kissed her on both cheeks, and then looked at us and said 2 minutes. In less than 2 minutes we were shown to a very nice table. The meal was wonderful consisting of three courses of local fish dishes we were wowed by the food. This was one of the best seafood meals we have had in Europe and was definitely worth the walk.
The 2 Caps scenic route.
We took a scenic route back to Calais. There are two capes that face each other across an inlet in the English channel each with with white cliffs similar to smaller versions of the cliffs of Dover on the English side. In between the towns are dune lands and pastures with rolling hills it was a very nice drive to our final destination of the day the 2 Caps Brewery. After a little GPS misadventure we arrived at the brewery hoping for a table over looking the beautiful countryside. It turns out it is not a cafe, but a place to buy beer to take away. They did offer tastes of beer similar to a wine tasting. We tasted the beer and it was excellent, so we walked out with 6 large beers, and 6 small beers, we just have to find a place to store them in François.
We enjoyed a relaxing morning and Ton whipped up a nice breakfast before we set out for Calais. We began by repeating our walk from yesterday up the promenade to see a giant mechanical dragon that had caught Tons fancy. It is a giant thing on wheels that is about 30 feet tall, for a significant fee you can purchase a ticket to ride on the back. Right as we entered the promenade I saw it in the distance moving around. By the time we arrived it had retreated to its lair (in this case a large glass building), and it didn’t look like it was coming out. We hung around hoping for a few minutes but then the crew that operates it walked away so we decided to move on.
The dragon is impressive it even shoots fire out of its mouth.
We had a pleasant stroll thru town, and while it was windy we decided it was slightly less windy than yesterday. The first part of the town is on an island and guards the mouth of the ancient harbor that put Calais on the map. Today the main town is on the mainland, and the old town is mostly restaurants and hotels catering to tourists.
This statue of de Gaulle and his wife commemorates the fact that she is from Calais and they were married here in 1924.
We had seen a large clock tower off in the distance from the campground that is attached to the Hotel de Ville (town hall) so that was the next stop on our impromptu walking tour. In addition to the clock tower which wasn’t as nice up close as from a distance there was a statue by Rodin in the gardens.
Actually the clock tower and town hall look nicer in this picture than I remember in person. While it looks old it was built in 1925.
The statue by Rodin commemorates 6 burghers of Calais who surrendered the town to the English after a long seige in the 1300’s. They were to be executed but the English kings wife intervened to grant them clemency. I liked this piece a lot but Ton was not as impressed.
The six burgers of Calais by Rodin.
Calais was once a center for lace production so we decided to head to the lace district and check out the church there. After another longish walk we arrived at a square full of cars with a large church. Ton wasn’t impressed she looked at me and said since we walked all of this way I will take a picture. She took her picture and said what is next?
The church in the lace district.
The art museum was free today, or possibly is free everyday we never quite sorted that out, but we arrived about 10 minutes before it officially opened at 1pm and took a seat in the lobby. There were four workers at the front desk staring at us and we in turn stared at them while we waited for the countdown to the stroke of 1pm. Finally, at 12:58 one of the workers came over and invited us in, only to be chastised by another worker, she then turned sheepishly to us and said 2 more minutes. Precisely at 1pm we were presented our free tickets and allowed to enter.
The entrance to the art museum in Calais. They are very punctual but the price is right.
It was a mix of art from many ages and while small there were some interesting paintings and sculptures from different ages that kept us engaged. A large part of it was being remodeled so the displays didn’t take that long to get thru.
We liked this dress with a face hidden in it.
There was a film running about a French artist named Zlotykamien who may have been the original graffiti artist. He started out as a fairly renown artist in the 50’s, but was looking for a different canvas for his work. He found it by painting figures he called ephemerals on walls in cities. Art is in the eye of the beholder, I am not sure if I came across his stuff on a wall in Calais I would recognize it as the work of a famous artist. You can look at the picture below and be your own judge.
A series of ephemerals by Zlotykamien.
The next stop was the highlight of the day for me. This region is famous for a dish called the Welsh Sandwich. It is a dish consisting primarily of melted cheddar cheese with something floating in it. Why it is called a Welsh sandwich is a bit of a mystery as there is no bread in it, and no direct connection to Wales. We headed to the L’Hovercraft Cafe as they were supposed to have the best Welsh Sandwiches.
My Welsh Sandwich Complet. The most traditional of the 18 Sandwiches on the menu.
We sat down and I opened the menu to find they had 18 different Welsh Sandwiches on the menu. I went with the traditional one which consists of ham and an egg with lots of cheddar cheese. As a fan of cheddar cheese I was in heaven, but even I had to admit it was a lot of cheese. To give your heart a complete workout it was served with fries. Ton ordered the plate of the day which consisted of potatoes swimming in a different kind of cheese and a charcuterie plate.
Tons dish also had a healthy amount of melted cheese.
We decided at lunch there were a couple of other places in the region we wanted to stay so we decided to add a third night to our stay here. When we arrived at the campground I asked for a third night and they were happy to oblige, and then told me it would cost €1.20. It turns out if you stay three nights the third one is free except for a tax. We were quite pleased.
Today was a day to move. We enjoyed Delft but it was time to get on the road so we decided to make a pretty long jump down to Calais France. It is a place we haven’t visited on our travels.
We made one stop on the way out of town to have a mechanic look at a problem we have with François. We are getting an alarm when we start the truck that there is a fault with the airbag. We had hoped the place yesterday could deal with it, but they told us we needed to go to a Fiat garage. Our second stop at Fiat service centers (the first one did cars only and directed us to the one that does Ducatos our van.) We met a very nice and chatty guy who checked out François confirmed it was a problem with the computer and told us we were all right to drive as long as we didn’t have an accident. We have a date scheduled to return at the end of the trip to get the problem taken care of.
A ferry departing the port of Calais. It was named after Oscar Wilde who I always assumed was English, but turns out to have been Irish.
The drive was uneventful except for a major detour in Antwerp due to a tunnel being repaired. We followed the signs for the detour, but at the last second I made a wrong turn and went the wrong way on the freeway so we got to repeat the detour. I was not happy with myself or the Belgian traffic people who marked the detour!
Beach huts on the 4 mile long Calais Beach.
We arrived at the campground in Calais about 3:30 and settled in. The day looked beautiful with bright blue skies. Unfortunately the wind was howling and the wind chill was 41 degrees. We bundled up and tackled the promenade along the beach. The beach is beautiful fine sand and the promenade is full of interesting looking places, most of which were closed up for the season. The weather is supposed to be better tomorrow so we will spend more time exploring.
When we woke up in the morning we decided laundry was the priority for today and after consulting google we decided that we were better off here than in Switzerland to get that done. Yesterday we had talked to the campground manager about our options and he mentioned a washing machine at the Avia gas station nearby.
These parking lot laundry setups are common in Europe. This one is in a gas station near the campground.
It was cold in the morning and Ton was comfortable in our warm bed, so she told me to go off and make sure the washers were in walking distance. I tried to remember the directions from the previous night, but promptly took off in the wrong direction. After going the wrong way for half a mile I doubled back, and realized the washer was only 5 minutes from the campground if you go the right direction. After I returned from my morning meander Ton was ready to go so we returned to the gas station.
Our Sunday morning companions in the Avia gas station. He was much funnier than he looks in this photo, his horse had just blown the lead in the last race and finished out of the money.
After we loaded our clothes I went into the gas station to see if there was anywhere to hang out. In one corner was 4 tables with a coffee machine, some on line gambling machines, and a television showing the horse races at Besancon. There were 4 gentlemen in there watching the horse races on TV. They thought I was looking for the toilet so they started shouting directions at me for the toilet, when I asked if I could sit at one of the tables they laughed and said “bien sûr” which means “of course.” So for the next hour and a half Ton and I were honorary members of the Langres Sunday Morning Horse Racing Club at the Avia gas station. We learned that everyone who came in to chat with the members shook hands with everyone present including Ton and me. It was a lot more fun than I envisioned when we walked up to the gas station to use the laundry. There was a bit of drama when one of the customers started shouting angrily at the clerk, the Horse Racing Club rushed to comfort her and decided he was probably a “connard” from Paris.
The Moulin Gate into the town. If you look carefully you will see the British and US flags on the gate next to the French flag.
After our laundry was done we returned to the campground for a lazy afternoon doing a little cleaning, and Ton cooked up a pot of rice for dinner and future meals. The campground had emptied out considerably so we relocated to a spot that had a nicer view.
Our new view from the front window of François. Not bad at all.
After dinner Ton and I took an evening stroll along the walls of the town and back thru the center. We returned to find the campground had again filled to capacity. While today was not a day of journeys or spectacular sites, the Sunday Morning Horse Racing Club made it a memorable one.
We are on our way to Switzerland, but todays stop is about 2 hours short in a beautiful region of France between Champagne and Burgundy. We were on the way early and managed to escape Paris with a minimum amount of stress. We then drove for a couple of hours on the nice but very expensive French Autoroute to Langres.
Part of the ramparts of the city walls. The walls still go all the way around the town and according to one of the signs are the longest still remaining in Europe.
Langres was originally settled by the Galls a long time ago. When the Romans conquered the Galls Langres became the center for Roman administration in the region. The town reached its heights in the 12th to 15th century when it was the center of the Catholic Bishopric for the area. During the 14th and 15th centuries the region was very unsettled so the fortifications that the towns tourism is built around today were built.
The cathedral originally from the 12th century when Langres was the major city in the region.
The campground for the town is incorporated into the walls of the town. We are sitting on the edge of one of the walls looking down into a moat that made up part of the fort. These kind of places are part of the fun of camping in Europe.
Looking down from the walls of the ramparts into the town.
After a stop at the local grocery to stock up on French food (the word on the internet is that food is very expensive in Switzerland) and wine (because no where in the world is wine as cheap and good as France), and diesel (because French diesel is cheaper than Swiss diesel) we headed over to the campground to check in.
An interesting painting from the inside of the cathedral.
When we arrived 1:30 the office for the campground was closed but that is typical in France as the two hour lunch is part of doing business. What was unusual was the sign said they would open at 5:30. We took that to mean that we should grab a spot and come back and register at 5:30. It is a good thing we did because by 5:30 the place was full, and more people were arriving until night fall which the operator managed to jam into various nooks and crannies of the place it was fun to watch the hustle and bustle of all of the arriving RV’s from all over Europe.
The interior of the cathedral. Many of the churches we have visited have undergone major renovations. This one probably looks a lot like it did 100 years ago which we appreciated.
Once we were settled in we had a nice stroll around part of the walls of the fort and down the main street of the town. Langres is like a lot of small towns in France full of history in the past, and kind of a side show today. Often the setting is spectacular as it is here with the town built on top of a giant granite outcrop that commands the surrounding area. They look like they are working hard to get on the tourism map, and based on the full campground having some success.
The most famous person from Langres Denis Diderot an 18th century philosopher.
After our walk Ton prepared a nice meal and we settled in for the evening. We are debating whether to stay another day before moving on to Switzerland. I think it is going to depend on if we can find a place to do the laundry nearby.
Today we are visiting the ultimate palace in Europe. As I mentioned yesterday we have visited many palaces that advertised themselves as the Versailles of . . ., so today was my first time to see the model for palaces thru out Europe.
The view of the palace from our bus stop as we arrived.
Ton visited Versailles a long time ago when she was a student in England. She spent the bus ride over wondering if the second visit would wow her like the first visit did. She remembered thinking she had never seen so much gold before.
A gold fountain, one of Tons memories from her first visit was how much gold there was.
These days you are only guaranteed entry if you buy a ticket on line with a scheduled time of entry. In our case we choose noon. We arrived about 10:15, and headed to the gardens to start our visit.
Part of the gardens of Versailles.
The gardens are immense, the scale and variety of types of gardens is hard to take in. There are several large man made lakes and forest trails that make up parts of the grounds. The gardens made a huge impression on me.
A trail leading to the Trianon Palace on the grounds. Part of the immense trail system of the palace.
We had just begun to explore a small portion of the gardens when it was time to head to the line to get into the palace itself. The only disappointment was that because it was late in the season a lot of the flower beds had been pruned back in preparation for winter.
A statue of Louis XIV near the entrance to the palace.
We joined a line of a couple of hundred people for the noon entrance to the palace. It looks like they allow a few hundred people to enter the palace every half hour. It is a big place, but even a palace the size of Versailles has a capacity that it can handle daily.
Part of the crowd gathering near the entrance to the palace.
The interior of the palace is immense, and the opulence is impressive, and also unsettling. Ton told me that if the palace was built today it would cost the equivalent of 30 billion dollars. The majority of the palace was built during the reign of three kings over about 100 years. The last king Louis XVI was executed during the French Revolution.
I think this is one of the Louis’ responsible for Versailles.
These days it makes an impressive museum and the French are rightly proud of it and how it reflects French culture. The art and statues inside are indeed superb.
A small example of some of the thousands of pieces of art on display in the palace.
The room I really wanted to see was the hall of mirrors. I had read that it was one of the most impressive rooms in the world. Several important treaties have been signed there. As we got closer to the hall the rooms just proceeding it were jammed with people. We have not felt this crowded since the Vatican so that was kind of a bummer.
The hall of mirrors in Versailles.
The room was impressive and very large. The art work was extensive and of very high quality and the chandeliers were beautiful. But I was expecting a little more.
The kings bedroom.
We wrapped up our tour of Versailles Palace in another large hall full of paintings of battles won by the French for 600 years. The last battle included was during Napoleons reign.
A famous portrait of Napoleon by the artist David. Apparently this was one of Napoleons favorite painting of himself.
When Napoleon took over as emperor about 15 years after Louis lost his head, the palace had been ransacked. While he had himself crowned in the palace, the cost of restoring it was going to be very expensive, so he moved into one of the minor buildings on the grounds called the Trianon Palace.
The exterior of the Trianon palace from the gardens.
We had a bit of a walk to the palace because we had entered the gardens earlier in the day we could not reenter the gardens thru the same gate. The young lady told us there was another gate quite close we could use to reenter and gave us directions. It turns out quite close was about half a mile away, and when we got to that gate the nice young lady discouraged us from entering there but told us to go directly to the palace along the street. She said the palace was also quite close, which apparently in France means half a mile because I checked my watch when we got to the palace and we had walked a mile since we left the palace.
The family room in the Trianon which during Napoleons time was used for evening entertainment and meetings with his senior officers. We both liked the yellow.
We enjoyed the palace as the scale seemed more human after Versailles even if it is quite a large home. It was busy with visitors but not teeming like the main palace.
The garden at the Trianon was beautiful.
The gardens here have an annual theme and this year it was Provence. The flowers had not been pruned back so Ton really enjoyed walking thru and taking in the different types and colors.
Another fountain in the main garden of Versailles.
It is an amazing place, but in the end our ambivalence remained about the cost of the place, as a palace it is a scandal, as a museum of French culture it is a treasure. Later in the evening we were talking over palaces we have visited in Europe. We have visited many at this point, and Versailles is the model of many of them, but the one we really thought was the most beautiful and interesting was the Alhambra in Spain. It is also immense, but while Versailles feels like it is built to overwhelm the senses, the Alhambra feels like it embraces the senses, and we think that is harder to pull off.
Last night we purchased tickets to visit Versailles on Friday after consulting the weather forecast and seeing that it was supposed to start raining at about 1 pm today. With nothing special planned we slept in and tried to knock the last of the jet lag out of our system.
The Notre Dame Market in Versailles.
With an open day in front of us we decided to go to the local market which is supposed to be one of the best in Paris. By the time we got going it was almost 11am as we walked down to the bus stop to catch a ride to the market. The sky was bright blue and there was not a cloud in the sky. I wondered if Ton’s weather forecast was accurate, but she stood by it.
Another view of the market with nice puffy clouds in the sky.
We took a turn around the surprisingly quiet market. We began speculating with the paralympics just ending last weekend that Paris may be getting a little lull in tourism. We had the market almost to ourselves.
Ton liked this advertisement.
After a turn around the market and Ton enjoying the sight of a lot of good food both cooked and uncooked we decided to take a little break for a coffee. While we were touring around the market the bright blue skies were giving way to clouds. We decided to jump into a cafe for a coffee and to plan the rest of the day. Since we were only a few hundred yards from the palace we decided to walk over and get a look at the palace.
While we were getting coffee a shower passed thru. Ton really liked this ladies umbrella so she took off after her to get a picture.
It was a short walk to the palace, but just as we were getting there the rain really started coming down. Ton asked me what time it was and I told her 5 minutes to one. She looked really proud of herself as her forecast for rain at 1pm was almost perfect.
A statue to a local hero. He was commissioned into the army at 17, became a general at 25, and was killed at 29.
Just as we got to the front of the palace the rain began coming down in buckets. So we cut our day short and made a dash for the next bus back to the campground.
The name of the cafe is “The smoking dog”. If you look carefully you can see the pipe in the mouth of the dog.
We spent the rest of the day listening to the rain and occasional thunder, and coming up with a more detailed plan for the rest of the trip. Initially I thought we were going to Vienna, but Ton thinks it would be nice to visit Tuscany during the harvest. It is a good thing we don’t have to make reservations when we travel!
Yesterday at the Bastogne Military Museum there was an exterior display commemorating the 35th anniversary of the Berlin Wall. There were three Trabant Cars that had been converted into art, and several chunks of the wall itself which had been used as canvas for art.
Pieces of the Berlin wall used as canvas for street art.
The second place on our list of places we wanted to visit that we have kept missing is Versailles. Ton visited about 45 years ago, and she wanted to have another look, and she felt like I should see it. Several of the palaces we have visited on our other trips claimed to be the Versailles of Spain, Latvia, or Bavaria etc. so we decided to put it on the itinerary and see the original.
The other motivation was to visit the Costco nearby to replace some stuff that the mouse got into as well as add some new American essentials to our cupboards. The drive from Bastogne was an easy three hours, until we hit Paris then the big city traffic kicked in. The main reason we had skipped Versailles in the past was my reluctance to take on Paris traffic. While it was busy and occasionally slow it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.
The Paris Costco, everything looks the same except the signs. The Hotdogs are €1.50.
We ended up spending an hour and a half at Costco and the biggest issue was deciding on what to buy based on the limited space we have to store things. A lot of stuff was left on the shelf, and the stuff that made the cut is really the essentials or the luxury item that will make us happy. I also filled François with the cheapest diesel in France, though I have to admit the last station we saw in Belgium had diesel slightly cheaper.
We are now parked up at a very expensive and mediocre campground in the city of Versailles. The weather is iffy the next couple of days, so we decided to stay three nights so we have the flexibility to see Versailles at its best.
Tons idea to switch to Gouda cheese to tempt our Dutch mouse worked out. So we believe we are now mouse free, but are going to leave the traps in place in case he has a friend.
After I published the blog last night we did something we rarely do, which is go out at night. But the Port Captain strongly recommended that we head back to Stanislas Square after the sun goes down. We were both glad we listened to him.
Looking thru the Arch on Stanislas Square back towards the Dukes Palace.
It is a relative short walk to the square, but we noticed that the character of the town had changed. The day town crowd was business people and tourists, but the night time crowd was much younger. Later we learned that 25% of the population of Nancy are students, and they had filled up the coffee shops and brasseries around the square and were thoroughly enjoying a comfortably cool evening.
The square itself was probably one of the quietest parts of the center of town, which gave Ton plenty of room to work on her photos.
We walked around for two hours, which had us out to the ungodly hour (for us) of 10pm. We really enjoyed ourselves and the energy of Nancy at night.
One of the bustling cafes at the entrance to the square.
It was cold overnight so we slept in. After a nice Tortilla Breakfast from Costco we were on our way to see the Corbin Museum. It was a pretty good walk thru town to the museum almost all of it uphill. Lorraine is a hilly region in France, so once we left the river it was all up hill to the museum.
Arriving at the Corbin House in Nancy.
The Corbin House is now called the Musee de L’Ecole de Nancy. It houses a collection of glass ware and furniture from the Art Nouveau movement in Nancy. Nancy along with Paris were centers for the movement which was in vogue for about twenty years in the late 1800’s and very early 1900’s. It was eventually surpassed by the Art Deco movement which Americans are more familiar with.
These two glass lamps are examples of the Art Nouveau style, which tries to blend natural elements into household items.
Eugene Corbin was the richest guy in Nancy during the time of the movement and a big supporter and collector of Art Nouveau. He had originally lent his collection to the Nancy Art Museum, but a few years before he died, the Art Museum had put the collection in storage, unhappy, he had his collection returned to him, and converted his family home to the museum we visited today.
The dining room of the home with furniture, glass ware, and the ceiling all done in Art Nouveau style.
We took our time going thru the museum and enjoyed the extensive collection. We finished our visit by walking through the gardens of the home.
A painting in the Art Nouveau style.
Having had a long uphill walk, we decided we had earned a sit down lunch, so we headed back towards the center of town to look for a restaurant. After looking at many restaurants we settled on one that appeared to specialize in local foods called La Portager. We settled into our table and began the process of trying to decide what to order. Often at lunch time the options are written on chalk boards, and can be a little confusing to understand, also the waiter didn’t speak English. We were trying to figure out what we wanted and how to order it, when the two couples on either side of us began to sense our uncertainty. One of them finally told us in English that if we had any questions he would be glad to help us. His partner pointed at him proudly and said that he speaks English because he lived in New Zealand. With his help, and recommendation we ordered a platter of local foods for two. It was absolutely delicious.
Our mixed platter of local cheeses, sausages, and a couple of slices of Quiche Lorraine to die for.
We chatted with them for a while. They were tourists like us, but from Paris. As they left we thanked them for their help. Then the couple on the other side of us took over our guide of food from Lorraine. They were a couple from Brittany who had an American son in law. We enjoyed talking to them and they convinced us to try a selection of regional desserts.
A selection of local desserts including a creme brulle with Bergamot, and a Mirabelle Plum with cream. These are both local specialties and are quite delicious. The clear liquor is made from Mirabelle Plums. Bergamot is a citrus from southern France and North Africa, and is a very popular ingredient in Lorraine. It is also a key ingredient in Earl Grey Tea. The Mirabelle Plum is from this region and is grown in small quantities so very few of them leave France.
We really enjoyed our lunch because it combined good food, excellent company, and we experienced new tastes. Thanks to our helpers from Paris and Brittany, and the good humor of our waiter who put up with us stumbling around in a language we did not understand.
Mason des Souers, producing Macarons since 1793.
In 1792 during the French Revolution the Benedictine Nuns in Nancy were driven from their convent. Not having any practical skills to survive on they began producing Macarons that they cooked when they lived in the convent. It turned into a very lucrative business, and the same recipe is still used today to produce them. A Macaron is a cookie and everyone we have met in Nancy told us we had to buy some. After leaving the restaurant we headed over and picked up a box, but we were too full to try them. We will give you a review in the future.
This is an example of an Art Nouveau Building. We thought about eating in the restaurant, but the Excelsior was much too posh for our budget.
