Today we left France for the day. We are parked up in Kehl Germany as it was the best option to visit Strasbourg France. The problem was that when we woke up the weather report had gotten much worst. They were now calling for heavy rain and high winds due to a “Bomb Cyclone’ that was hitting southern France. I think a bomb cyclone is a new more dramatic way to say cold front, but it certainly gets your attention.
As we learned yesterday Colmar was the home of Frederic Bartholdi, the sculptor of the Statue of Liberty. All of the guide books said there was a replica of the statue in Colmar, but we never found it. As we were leaving Colmar on a four lane road thru an industrial park, there was the statue in the middle of a traffic circle, so we circled around a couple of times so Ton could get a good picture.
A replica of the Statue of Liberty in Colmar, the home of the sculptor.
We had a quick drive over to Kehl as the roads were mostly freeways, and arrived before the effects of the bomb cyclone. We decided on a quick trip into the town to see what was there. Like many border towns the center seemed to cater mostly to day trip shoppers from France looking for bargains.
Downtown Kehl, mostly consisting of shopping aimed at French day trip visitors.
We did get to visit a Woolworths Department Store which while they became extinct in the US about 25 years ago are still going strong in Mexico, France, and Germany. After a quick walk thru downtown Kehl, and our first visit to a German grocery store, the rain was starting to set in so we hustled back to François.
Some days we tour exotic medieval cities, and some days we hunker down in the back of François. This afternoon we hunkered down and watched a good Netflix Movie with Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson.
After a lot of time looking for a good French beer we have now discovered one. We have tried two different types of Fischer Beers and they are both excellent.
The Fischer Three Alsatian Hops Blonde, a really good beer.
Colmar is by far the largest city we have stayed in so far on this trip while it is only 65,000 people most of the places we have been staying have populations less than 2,000 so it felt quite big. The camp site we are staying at is about 2km’s from the center of the city so we even wimped out and bought day bus passes. It turned out to be a good idea as by the end of the day we had walked 10 miles despite taking the bus into town.
We really enjoyed Colmar as it had a lot to see and do in a pretty compact area. We started at the tourist office and picked up a map for the walking tour of the town. Colmar is the home town of Frederic Bartholdi who is the artist who sculpted the Statue of Liberty.
The metal pointers used to guide you as you follow the walking tour of Colmar.
Colmar also had a great selection of half timbered buildings but on a little grander scale than the smaller villages we have been visiting. After a week of touring towns and villages of these half timbered towns we are still enjoying them.
Some more of the beautiful architecture of Alsace. They do a nice job of decorating them also.
Colmar also has a section called little Venice with some small canals with homes built on the canals. It is a pleasant area that they maximize the tourist value of the canals.
Some photos of the little Venice area of Colmar.
Up to now on the trip we had not eaten out except for our Chinese the first night. There were two Alsace dishes we wanted to try. The first was Bretzel, which is a pretzel with toppings. For our mid-morning snack we had Bretzel with Munster Cheese which is a local cheese. It was very reasonable at €1.50 and made for a nice snack.
Many variations of Bretzels on display. We recommend the Munster.
The other dish is called Tarte-Flambeê in French or Flammakueche in Alsatian, we decided to go with the French as we could pronounce it. It is flat bread covered with cream, onions, and other toppings. It is very similar to pizza but quite a bit lighter. We decided to split one for lunch and choose a simple one of cream, onions, cheese, and ham. We were both very happy with our Tarte-Flambeê. Ton says Trader Joes has frozen ones at home so we will be looking for them in the future.
Our Tarte-Flambeê/Flammakueche lunch.
After covering our 10 miles on foot we decided to head back to François for a little break. Ron took a little nap, and Ton made a nice dinner of sausages potatoes, and Choucroute which is Alsatian sauerkraut. Something we will be looking to stock up on before we leave France as it is quite good and now a super food that helps our digestion.
After dinner we went for a little walk and watched some canoes in the river next to our campsite. It was a nice way to wrap up a good day here.
Today we shifted a whopping 10km’s to Colmar. We did make a side trip to another Alsatian town on the way to Colmar.
We both woke up about 5 am smelling smoke. I lay there wondering if something was burning when Ton also woke up and asked if we were on fire. This motivated me to get up and check to see if anything was burning in François. It turns out that we were not on fire, but the smoke from the wood fires in the town next to us had settled into the little valley the campground was in. Once we determined we were safe we went back to sleep for a couple of hours.
We finally got on the road to our primary target for the day a town called Eguisheim. In 2013 it was voted the most beautiful village in France. I had punched in a free parking site on the soccer field, but when we got there the town had blocked access due to all of the rain, so we headed over to the municipal parking. The parking was brand new and high tech with bar code readers, but the area designated for RV’s cost €6 for 4 hours. It seemed excessive but I didn’t see any other options, so I gnashed my teeth and ponied up.
The most beautiful village in France in 2013 is full of wineries of course.
Eguisheim is indeed a lovely village. Originally a double walled village. It is built in a circle which is unusual in France. We walked the space between the two original walls, over time when security became less of an issue the space between the two walls was built up with homes and work spaces. These half timbered buildings are really well preserved. The colorful paint is from the 20th century. Up until then the buildings were earth toned. We had a great walk enjoying the variety of buildings.
The road between the two walls . The houses on the left are built into the old outer wall. The houses on the right are between the outer and inner walls.Another view of the circular road around town.
Many of the towns we have visited in the last few days still have Easter ornaments up. Apparently the Easter Bunny is a big deal, and in addition to a lot of bunnies the French decorate trees and bushes with colored Easter eggs. The displays remind us of the Christmas and Halloween displays we see at home.
Easter bunnies overlooking the entrance to a winery.Not an Easter theme, but a home with nice decorations,
As we were wrapping up the walk thru town we came around a corner to finds a very imposing man dressed in medieval clothes and doing a vigorous sword dance. It turns out he was the owner of a coffee shop who had no customers so he was filming himself in the ally. We decided we would have a coffee. He was an interesting character, originally from Germany, I asked him if it was a traditional dance, he said “nah, I just make it up as I go, maybe in 100 years it will become a traditional Alsatian sword dance.”
Our final stop for the day was at a nice winery recommended by the sword dancer.
As we went to pull out of our expensive parking I inserted the barcode paper I was given when I purchased the ticket to the machine that controlled the gate. It said reading and then did nothing, I repeated this several times without the gate opening. Finally I got out and tried several more times figuring it might work if I was standing next to it looking irritated. As I was about to give up and go looking for help, a guy in a parking attendants uniform walked up and took the paper, he tried a couple of times, then punched my code into his electronic device to make sure I was not trying to get away with something. He finally started muttering about technology in French while he worked on getting the gate to open, it finally did and with a Voila and an apology we were on our way to Colmar.
The weather had gotten a little better overnight after heavy rain as we fell asleep. While it was still pretty cold and cloudy it was not raining. Today we visited Riquewihr and Ribeauville. They are both listed as must see villages in Alsace.
The first stop was Riquewihr as we could walk there from our campground. As we were walking into town Ton stopped me and pointed at what I thought was a wineshop. It turns out she had read about this excellent microbrewery in Ribeauville and we had found it. We went in sampled their IPA and a Belgian Dark. Both were excellent. Refreshed, we headed into town. The town was as beautiful as the guidebooks suggested, but very tourist oriented.
The entry into Riquewihr.
As we were walking up and down the streets we saw a large group of Asian tourists and presumed they were Chinese. It turns out they were Thai. After spending a couple of hours in town Ton had killed the battery on her iPhone taking pictures so we decided to head back to François for lunch and to charge her phone.
After lunch we headed over to Ribeauville. It was a short drive over in François. Ribeauville was supposed to be larger but less picturesque than Riquewihr according to both of our guidebooks. Since it was Sunday the parking was easy. Our first site on entering the town were two storks nesting on a large timber building.
Storks are a big thing in Alsace. They build these stork nest platforms in towns and fields to keep the storks from nesting on chimneys and utility poles.Ribeauville is in a valley surrounded by vineyards with three castles overlooking it. The combination of colorful timbered houses, the vineyards and the castles make for some great views.
In fact despite the guidebooks Ton and I liked Ribeauville a little better. It had more of the timbered homes, and it felt less like a tourist town and more like a real town that had great views.
A collection of half timbered buildings from Riquewihr and Ribeauville.
As we were walking thru town we came on a different group of Asian tourists, and much to our surprise they were also Thai. It is a rare day when the only Asian tourists you meet in France, are Thai. This time I could not resist and one of the Thai couples were taking turns turns taking pictures of each other so I asked them in Thai if they wanted me to take their picture. They were pretty startled to have a pharang (white guy in Thai) speaking Thai to them.
This little guy was in the field next to where we parked François, who can resist a cute lamb.
The weather has been pretty mediocre. Nearly every day has had some showers and most days the highs have been in the 50’s and lows in the low 40’s so we have been using more gas than normal. Today was supposed to be particularly bad with rain pretty much all day, highs in the low 40’s and lows around freezing. When we woke up this morning the weather app had a pretty ominous warning in French about a chance of snow. We got on the road early to cover about 120 km’s to Alsace before the worst of the weather set in.
Our Garmin did pretty good routing us for the first half of the trip until near the end she decided to take a short cut over a winding mountain road. We were in the Vosges which are a pretty major mountain range and even the main roads were twisty.
Ton tried to talk me into ignoring her and stay on the main road, but I figured what the heck. The road was a little narrow and steep and ultimately pretty but while it may have saved 10 km’s it came at the cost of about 20 km’s at 40 kph as we negotiated hairpin curves while going up and down various mountains, so we did not come out ahead.
Views from our “shortcut”, note the snow on the mountain in the background.
We are planning to spend the next few days in the Alsace wine region. The Alsace is on the border with France and Germany and over the last 250 years has changed hands between the two countries 4 times. It is an interesting mix of French and German cultures.
After we settled in the temperature dropped the wind kicked up and the rain starting pounding. Some days you just need to hunker down and wait out the weather. In the evening we did get a little walk in to break the cabin fever.
A view of Beblenheim the little village next to our campground. Ton likes this because my coat matches the poppies.
The main goal for us today was to visit the village of Essoyes. Essoyes is famous as the summer home of Renoir. He did a lot of his later paintings there, as he spent a lot of senior age years there.
Last night we parked up on a winery in the area owned by the Lameroux’s. It was a nice parking spot for up to six campers including water, and a dump. We walked down to the winery when we arrived to check if it was ok to park. The wife of the owner met us and she did not speak any English, we managed to mime that we were in the camper aire, and she said good. We decided against a tasting and she looked relieved. This morning as we were pulling out her husband happened to be pulling into work. He stopped and thanked us for staying and invited us back if we were ever in the area, and you could tell it was heartfelt. Our experience in Les Riceys was really exceptional, and if an area ever motivated me to learn French it was here, as the people were fantastic.
The road from Les Riceys to Essoyes is on the Champagne tourist route.
The drive over to Essoyes was short, and we parked up next to a new museum for Renoir. In fact it was so new that the main exhibitions were not open yet. The museum included a video presentation about Renoir’s life in Essoyes. It was quite well done and helped us understand the rest of the tour. We followed the walking tour thru the village, and as we approached his home we realized we were going to run into lunch. We went in and did a quick tour, but decided to come back for a more extensive tour after lunch. We saw one of the curators and tried to ask in broken French if we could return after lunch, and he smiled and with a proper English accent said of course. Later we learned he was from the south of England.
The River Ounce as it cuts thru Essoyes.The same view as painted by Renoir.
The home Renoir lived in was exceptionally well restored and supported by one of Renoir’s great granddaughters so a lot of the furniture is family heirlooms. Essoyes is a beautiful village, and if you like impressionists and particularly Renoir it is worth seeking out.
The living room in Renoir’s home.The actual bed that Renoir used, he preferred simple country style furnishings.Another Renoir to finish the day.
It was still pretty early when we were done so we decided to keep heading east. We picked out the town of Contrexeville in the Vosges as it was generally in the right direction and had a couple of parking options. The GPS said it was 130km so we figured about 2 hours. The GPS had lately been picking pretty good roads where the speed between towns is about 80kph (50 mph), and most towns were bypassed. Today she decided to send us down little D roads where top speed is about 65kph (40mph), but there are lots of little villages where you are creeping thru at 30kph. Our two hour drive turned into 3 hours. We did not mind that much as the countryside was really beautiful, and the roads were nearly empty.
A typical view on our drive today.
Contrexeville is a spa town with a small Casino. They are trying to develop some tourism, but the Vosges do not seem to be attracting a lot of tourism. The campground tonight is really nice and an incredible bargain at €11.
Ton likes sheep almost as much as she likes cows. When we crossed over to look at them they were a couple hundred yards away, they all came trotting over to check us out. The Rue de September 11 commemorates the day the town was liberated from the Germans in WWII.
We are still a bit jet lagged so we find we are falling asleep late and then sleeping in. This morning we were not up until 9am. The plan for the day was to return to the little village we stopped in yesterday.
Les Riceys is actually a combination of three villages that were at one point the border fortresses for 3 different principalities. In the distant past before France was a country there was a Riceys in the Duchy of Sens, another in the Duchy of Burgundy, and a third in Champagne. Each of the Riceys have their own fortified church. They are now happily together as Les Riceys.
The wine in the area is Champagne, though it has only been allowed to be called Champagne recently due to the strict French rules about these things. It was restricted because some of the vineyards are in Burgundy, so it was not purely from Champagne. Now they are allowed to call it champagne as the village mostly resides in Champagne.
A interesting store front in Les Riceys.
Today we stopped at two wineries. At the first winery Pascal Walczak the owner welcomed us with open arms, but he did not speak English. Luckily for us there were two other visitors from Luxembourg who took us under their wing and translated for us. We learned a lot about Champagne. We were also able to get some tips about places to go in Luxembourg and Germany from our impromptu translators. It was a nice stop.
The weather called for hard rain in the afternoon so we rushed over to the Tourist Information to try to find another place to visit before the rain set in. The office recommended a place called Morize Pere & Fils. She called ahead and said that they were beginning a tour shortly and we needed to head straight over. When we go there it was a tour in French, with no helpful Luxembourgers along to help with the translation. The tour guide was one of the sons, though he was our age. The tasting was also nice, and the champagne was good. The problem is neither Ton or I are big fans of champagne, and while we recognized it was good wine, it still was not to our taste.
The sign board for the winery Champagne Morize Per and Fils.Rose de Riceys, a very interesting wine unique to the area.
Les Riceys is a nice little village with a well kept feel, and a lot of wineries specializing in Champagne. If you are a fan we highly recommend you try it. Right after the second tour the hard rain arrived, so we hunkered down in François for the remainder of the day.
Today is labor day in France so we knew we were going to be limited in our sites as most everything was closed. Since we are in the Champagne region we decided we should go to some wineries. Ton did some research and while Chateau-Thierry is in the heart of the high end champagne country she decided we should go to southern Champagne as it has smaller family run wineries vs the big world wineries like Dom Perignon. We aimed for a town called Riceys as it has a lot of family run wineries.
After an uneventful run over very quiet roads due to the holiday (no trucks) we got to Riceys and found two free aires on winery sites. But it is a small town and as it was a holiday everything was closed. After a little poking around Ton suggested we head to Troyes which was only about 45 minutes away.
Ton made a great call, as Troyes was a beautiful town to walk in, even though almost everything was closed. Troyes has one of the best collections of half timbered homes in France and most of the city center still contained these wood timbered building. While many of them have been modernized and turned into name brand businesses they still bring a great feel to the town.
A sample of the wood timbered homes in Troyes.The cathedral in Troyes.
We also toured the cathedral as it was open. As our first cathedral of the trip it did again impress us. It was interesting as it has a lot of 20th and 21st century religious art on the inside.
The three wise women inside the cathedral in Troyes. A modern interpretation of the three wise men, we think, the sign was only in French.A gargoyle on one of the churches in Troyes.Troyes is also the home of the founder of the Knights Templar and the local tourism office uses the knights to help you on the walking tour of the town.
As we continue to find; often times the best days on these trips are ones you did not plan on.
We slept in a bit as we are still fighting jet lag, but around 9am we decided to get up and get going. We had a quick last chat with Thom and Kathy before they took off, we hope our paths cross again on our tours.
We decided to hit the Lidl on the way out of town now that we had taken stock of everything we had left behind, we had a few more food items we needed. We also stopped at the €2 store for a USB splitter for our cigarette lighter, Ton was skeptical but so far it is working great.
Our plans for today was a place that I have wanted to visit since we started visiting France. Belleau Wood is one of the most famous battles that the Marine Corps has participated in. The battlefield is located near Chateau-Thierry. During the battle the Marine Brigade which was attached to the Army 2nd Infantry Division was assigned to first stop a German advance on Paris and then regain some of the ground that had been lost including a hill top forest/hunting preserve called Belleau Wood. At the end of the 15 day battle the Marines had over 6000 casualties including 1060 dead. They fought so ferociously the Germans said it was like fighting Teufel Hunden, which got translated as Devil Dogs, a nick name the Marine Corps carries until today. The French were so impressed with the valor of the Marines that they renamed the wood, and when you enter the memorial the entrance says Belleau Wood in English, and Bois de la Brigade de Marine (The Wood of the Marine Brigade) in French, as it was renamed.
Ron standing next to a French 75 gun in Belleau Wood, this was also the main artillery piece for the American Forces in WW1.
For a place with such a violent history the wood today is a quiet park, there are some remnants of the trenches that were hastily dug during the battle, and some impact craters from artillery rounds. Other than that it is an amazingly quiet place with beautiful vistas of the countryside including a wheat field that the Marines had to advance several hundred yards thru under machine gun fire to reach the wood. The story is that when they were faltering in the wheat field Sergeant Major Dan Daly rallied them by shouting “Come on you sons of bitches, do you want to live forever!”
Next to the wood is the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery which has 2289 graves of Americans killed in Belleau Wood and Chateau-Thierry including 3 sets of brothers.
The graves are simple Crosses and Stars of David with the name of the man, his unit, and his home state on them. They tell a very simple story quite movingly. The most haunting are those that say here lies an American Soldier known only to god, for those who could not be identified.The chapel on site on the side of Belleau Wood overlooks the grave sites. Inside is a simple chapel with the names of over 1060 soldiers, sailors, and Marines, who are missing from the battles in this area.
The final stop for us on the day was the Chateau-Thierry monument which is on a hill overlooking the city. It was built after the war to commemorate the Americans and French who fought together.
It is a relatively simple monument listing the battles and the major units of the American Expeditionary Force in World War 1. It was designed by a French-American architect Paul Cretics who served in the French Army during the war. After the war he returned to the US and designed a war memorial for the state of Pennsylvania before designing this one.
As with every one of the American Cemeteries we have visited in France they are immaculately maintained, and the French staff obviously takes great pride in their work. Everyone on site that we spoke to including the security guards immediately switch to English when they realize you are American. They bend over backwards to help you with your questions. It is really a moving experience. Tonight we are parked in an aire in Chateau-Thierry but the monument is visible on the hill above town.
Today we slept in until a little after 9am, and then headed over to Veron. Our first linguistic adventure of the day was with the front desk clerk. Her English was very good and she had spent a year in the US as an exchange student. We asked her for a taxi and she asked where we wanted to go I replied Veron, she did not understand, so I tried again and she did not understand, so I wrote it down and she giggled and said oh the village next to hers. I was pronouncing it Ve-RON, and it should have been VER-on.
We picked up François and settled up our storage bill for the winter. Next stop was Auchan where we picked up a few groceries to get us started, with a promise from me to Ton to return tomorrow to finish up. We moved over to the aire in Gron which is conveniently located to all of the shopping and Ton spent the afternoon setting up the van with minimal help from me, I mostly tried to stay out of the way.
François settling in with our American and French neighbors.
We were in the middle of our meal when a van similar to ours pulled in to the spot next to ours. As they were backing in I heard the directions being given with a distinctive American accent so we stuck our heads out to say hello. Thom and Karen Metcalf had picked up their new to them Knaus a few days earlier and were getting some last minute things taken care of. We had a nice conversation with them and enjoyed their stories of traveling the world. They had a cool portable washing machine that Ton is interested in hearing how well it works as finding places to wash clothes is her pet peeve.
The flights today were courtesy of Alaska and American Airlines. Both flights were quite full, and the American flight had the tightest seats we have seen in quite a while. Ton managed to get a little sleep while I was up the whole flight.
To get from the airport in Paris to Sens is a fairly straightforward. You catch a subway into Paris for about 40 minutes, you then transfer to another subway that takes you to the train station. From Paris to Sens is about a one hour train ride, unfortunately it is not one of the cool high speed trains but just a little local. The most difficult thing about the trip is lugging the suitcases thru the subway and on and off the trains.
We arrived in Sens about 2pm, checked into the hotel and slept for a couple of hours until supper. We had a Chinese Buffet as it was the only option near the hotel besides McDonalds. The Chinese was interesting as in every country the food is adapted to local tastes. In this case this means in addition to the usual suspects of fried rice, and noodles, fish, and calamari, there were “Chinese” frog legs, and snails. The frog legs were quite good actually.
We had an incident free flight. Thank you United airlines.
Our first trip in our own RV in Europe is over. We were a little nervous that we would burnout, but I think the opposite happened. There were more places we wanted to see. The only issue was the weather was starting to turn to winter. During the trip we covered 5500 km’s (about 3400 miles). We discovered some new parts of France, and really enjoyed Spain. I think we could do another long trip in Spain and not repeat ourselves as we have Madrid, LaMancha, the Pyrenees, and Galicia to still visit. We also think we need to give Brittany more time.
François performed well and gave us no issues. As time went by we found a good rhythm to the trip, and for the first time managed to take a few days off where we just sat and rested.
Our plans for the next trip to Europe are under way, right now it looks like Germany will be the target.
We were up bright and early to deliver François back to France Motorhome Hire. After a quick turnover we were off to the train station in Sens. The trip to Paris was quick and relatively easy, involving a train and two different subway lines. We were lucky that both the train, and the subway to the airport were express with no stops.
There was nothing much to talk about the rest of the day. We went out for a kebab dinner at a place we have discovered near the airport hotel we use. At the end we settled down for the night in a proper bed for the first time in 50 nights.
The weather is definitely going towards winter. No frost this morning but very dense fog. Over night we were joined by 4 other RV’s so it was not the quiet night we had expected.
We had two main chores to accomplish today, wash our clothes and particularly the sheets and towels, and give François a bath inside and out.
Of the two chores the most dicey looked to be getting the laundry done. We normally do our laundry at campgrounds as they usually have washers and dryers, but as the camping season is done, none of the campgrounds are open. Last night we googled laundromats in Sens and only got one response and it is right in the middle of the old city. We decided to head in there early to see if it did exist and if we could find a place to park reasonably close to the laundromat. It did exist and after a small adventure down one way roads we found a place to park only 10 minutes away. The first chore done, we headed over to Auchan and gave François a bath. The next trip Ron is going to have to lay on some proper vehicle washing supplies.
Today is Sunday so by the time we finished those two chores everything was closed. We headed back to Gron, and spent the afternoon cleaning up François’ interior and packing.
Gron, the small village where we are spending the night.
In the evening we took a quick stroll around the park next to the aire. The village has planted some apple trees in the park. Each tree is a different variety, and they all still have fruit on them. We were poking around looking at the apples when a couple from the village began encouraging us to eat them. They were all delicious much to our surprise and you could really tell the differences in the varieties.
This fellow really encouraged us to take all we could. Note the different varieties on the ground.Ton’s favorite variety based on a taste test of the different apples.
We woke up to frost, another sign that it is time to probably be going. In France most churches stop tolling there bells around 6 pm, but for some reason in Noyers they toll them all night, so I heard midnight counted off on the church bell.
The trip is pretty much in the maintenance phase at this point. Today we headed towards Sens and began getting François ready to be put in the barn for the winter. (in this case it literally is an old barn.) After fueling up with diesel and propane our pockets were considerably lighter, due to a combination of expensive French diesel, and Ron letting the fuel gauge get into the red. We stopped at Auchan to do some last minute gift shopping. Ton had done an inventory of food and planned our last cooked meals, they are going to be large in order to get rid of all of the perishables.
A village in Burgundy, one of many beautiful little villages tucked away in fields.
We have settled in in an aire in Gron and Ton is packing one of the suit cases. This aire has this super high tech toilet unlike anything we have ever seen. It is self cleaning, has a push button locking system, and dispenses soap, water, and air to dry out of a large fixture in the center. Everyone who approaches it spends a few minutes studying how to operate the thing.
As the trip is winding down we are less focused on seeing things and more focused on moving in the right direction. Now we are not googling good places to visit, but where are laundromats, and car washes in Sens.
Today though we decided to make a couple of stops, the first was Vezeley and the second was Noyers. We miscalculated the time it would take to cover the 200km’s as the GPS after behaving itself for the whole trip decided to send us on a 80km adventure along one and one and a half lane D roads which slowed us down considerably. Having said that the leaves are turning here and we did see some really beautiful countryside.
One of the roads the GPS sent us down, luckily we did not run into anyone.
When we arrived at Vezaley we pulled up in the parking lot and both of us realized we had stopped here in the spring. It is a beautiful place but it was getting late, so we decided to head to Noyers. It was a good decision.
Fall colors.
We arrived in Noyers about 4pm and it made a good first impression. We quickly got our warm clothes on as it is quite cold and spitting rain on and off. The town is one of the best collections of half-timbered buildings we have seen in France, and has an air of pride and history that made us like it quite a lot. Ton saw a patissiery and decided she wanted an eclair, but after we bought it we realized it was something else, but never the less delicious.
A courtyard of half timbered buildings in various states of restoration.Two more examples of half timbered buildings.A nice window surrounded by vines.
We ended the day in the gothic church at sunset and the stained glass windows were perfectly illuminated by the setting sun. We are really looking forward to a walk in the morning, and the sun is supposed to be out then. Right now the church bells are pealing and it is drizzling on the roof of François. Tonight we are going to give François’ heating system a test as it is supposed to get down to freezing here.
After a short nights sleep and feeling a little worst for wear we woke up to beautiful blue skies. It was time to make some tracks and begin heading towards the barn. Today we decided to drive about half way to Sens, and for the first time we used a toll road on the trip to expedite the 550 km’s we wanted to drive.
There is not much to talk about today as it was a long drive, and it turns out a holiday in France so there was extra traffic. Ton took a couple of windshield pictures of fall colors as we drove thru the central mastiff a mountainous region in central France.
This highway bridge the Viaduct de Millau jumps over a valley and is about 500 feet high and over two miles long. It is also quite expensive costing €12, but it probably saves you 45 minutes of winding down into the valley and then climbing back out. Instead you jump across the valley in 2 minutes.
After 16 days in France we finally reached Spain. We could have spent the entire trip in France, and enjoyed ourselves, but this trip was supposed to be about Spain. So we finally decided to head south.
Tree lined road found frequently in France, the leaves are starting to turn.
Except for one pit stop to put in just enough fuel to make it safely to Spain, we powered thru about 280km’s of driving. We only put in enough fuel to make it to Spain because France is now the holder of the record for the most expensive fuel in the EU. We have been paying €1.45 per liter, that is around $6.80 per gallon give or take. The first fuel station we saw in Spain had diesel at €1.15 per liter so we had a little celebration.
We had planned a photo op at the border between France and Spain, but it did not happen. The border was invisible, we did not know we had crossed into Spain until Ron noticed the road signs were suddenly in Spanish, and Basque. There was not even a sign welcoming us to Spain.
Ron sitting down at the kitchen table/drivers seat.
We had a nice drive down the coast to a small fishing village called Orio. We are parked a couple hundred yards from a very nice beach, surrounded by very tall hills on both sides. In fact guys parajump from the hills above the beach and circle around for 10 or 15 minutes before landing next to the RV park.
Parachutist coming in for a landing next to the beach.
In the evening we walked into the town proper, and kept looking for the old town, all we saw were modern condo’s and wide new streets. This area has been having a second home boom in the last decade or so, and the construction is very modern, quite different than France. After wandering down to the old fishing port we finally caught a glimpse of the old town, but it is tiny compared to the modern town.
Everyone we talked to over the last few days told us we had to go to Bordeaux. Ron was a little intimidated with the idea of driving into a big city, and there are no official aires or campgrounds in the city. After some research our Dutch Parking App listed a parking lot next to a soccer stadium and municipal pool that had good access to the city by bus.
One of the new trams in Bordeaux, there is a lot of work going on to expand the tram lines.
To everyone who told us not to miss Bordeaux thank you we both enjoyed it very much. It is a medium sized city with a very well developed transit system that was easy to use. The waterfront promenade goes on for a couple of kilometers and is wide and pleasant to walk. The promenade has cafes on one side, and river cruise ships, and one very expensive yacht on the other.
These Buildings fronted the river. Bordeaux is one of the larger ports in France.
We visited the World of Wine Museum which is a little pricey, but a very modern multi-media museum, and the entrance did come with a taste of one wine from their world selection. The different multimedia displays included something to taste touch, and many different ways of visually presenting information about wine. It was interesting to see how curators are trying to integrate all of the audio visual stuff that is available now. We also got a small taste of French humor in some of the presentations which was fun.
A display on Egyptian Wine.Most museum stores have books and t-shirts for sale, this one has wine. My kind of museum store.
After cutting ourselves off after over three hours in the museum we headed down town to look at some of the buildings in town. The city center is quite nice, and looks like it was not terribly damaged during WWII despite being a major base for German U-Boats. With a city as tuned into wine as Bordeaux is the cafe scene is quite extensive, and a lot of people were enjoying an afternoon drink, so we decided to join them for a beer. We had a couple of French microbrews and they were quite satisfactory.
We spent the day exploring the wine region on the west side of the Gironde River. This area has some of the most expensive wines in the world. To get there we had two choices, a 100km drive around the Gironde and thru Bordeaux, for the time and gas, or a 20 minute Ferry Ride that would put us right in the middle of the wine area we were aiming towards, for cash money. We opted for the ferry ride because Ron is a sucker for ferries, and does not like driving thru big cities.
François in the hold of the ferry.François posing in front of a windmill and grape vines.
We really wanted to see the town called Margaux which is the center of the Premier Cru wines. As we were driving there, harvest was in full swing everywhere. This limited our opportunity to visit wineries as the smaller wineries that we tend to visit were closed due to the harvest. When we got to Margaux the town itself did not make much of an impression, besides having a couple of larger than normal homes it could have been any small French village.
Surprisingly to us they harvest a great deal of the grapes in Bordeaux with machines.
We decided to get out to take a quick walk thru town, and were about to head back to François when we saw a winery that was open, in France we have learned that an open sign does not always mean they are open. We were poking around the outside trying to decide when a lady stuck her head out of the door and informed us they were open. We went in with her and found ourselves in the poshest place we have been to in quite a while. She offered us a tour of the winery for €50 each. We decided to splurge for a glass of wine and some desert instead. While we were savoring our small moment of poshness, another American couple came in and joined us. We had a nice conversation with them before heading out. The wine was really good.
Ron enjoying a good wine, and trying to look like he belongs in such a nice place.
On our way out of town we saw the signs for Chateau Margaux whose wines retail for over $1200 per bottle and decided to do a drive by. On arrival we saw that their parking lot was pretty full so we turned into the winery, but were stopped by a security guard and told to turn around. We clearly are not Chateau Margaux customers!
Chateau Margaux where we were not welcome.
We spent the rest of the afternoon driving around looking at the Chateaus, and the harvest process before parking up for the night in a little village in the center of the wine country. The village of St. Laurent Medoc is not nearly as posh as Margaux so we fit in.
