We arrived in Paris this morning and are spending one night near the Chateau of Vaux-le-Vicomte, which we finally got to visit today -- it's been on our list for years.
The weather is perfect, and we had a great visit to the chateau. Right now they have an impressive exhibition detailing the life of Nicolas Fouquet who built the castle. It's done through all sorts of very cool multimedia techniques with animated life-size figures who seem to "speak" in the rooms, and video that truly looks three-dimensional. Attached is a picture of an elegant "ball" in the dining room. It is a video which seems to extend the room into the distance, and it really feels like the minuet is going on right there with you.
If anyone is looking for a good day trip from Paris, I recommend the chateau of Vaux-le-Vicomte.
Hmm, did your driver to check out those fancy Vaux le Vicomte dudes' manbags? Seriously, after all your trials and tribulations in the planning of this trip, I am so happy your trip starts on this high note. Bon voyage.
Maybe Colleen is a contrarian. Having spent 22 years creeping up the list from less-visited to more-visited attractions (Is the Eiffel Tower still standing? Must see it, eventually.) I say, Bravo!
We have finally got the wifi situation straightened out at the apartment where we are staying in Sancerre (just above the classroom where we start French language lessons tomorrow). Americana, I want to thank you so much for your recommendation of lunch in St. Fargeau -- a lovely little town and an absolutely wonderful lunch at the restaurant in the former railroad station.
What a fabulous time it is to be here in one of the most beautiful little towns I've ever visited. The purple wisteria is blooming all over town -- covering the wall of the courtyard right outside our window. And everywhere the fields are bright gold. It reminded us of the mustard fields in Napa, but we found out this is colza, which is the plant used to make what we call canola oil (I believe the British call it rapeseed). You can't really capture the brilliance of the fields in a photograph, but maybe the attached will give you some idea.
I just had to share this picture after a magnifique experience yesterday. The director of the school where we're taking French lessons has his own small plane and offered to take up any students who wanted to go for a 30-minute flyover around the Sancerre area. Mike and I were the only ones who said "oui" and it was so amazing. We had so wished we could see these colza fields from above, and here we were offered the opportunity. It did not disappoint!
(I will write more about the school later -- just let me say here that it is incredibly wonderful.)
Thanks for the nice comments, everyone. We have been offline for a few days because the school kept us so busy.
It was all fun stuff in the evening -- in addition to the flyover, we had a trip to a goat dairy where we got to try our hands at milking the goats, a visit to a winery, with a really outstanding tour / explanation of the whole process by the school director, and all the students cooking a final dinner together, with all the recipes and explanations from the lead teacher in French of course! Pas d'anglais dans la cuisine ou à la table!
We also had so much fun getting to know a few of the other students that we ended up spending any free time we had sitting around gabbing. (We were supposed to do it in French, but I must admit that we lapsed into English when the teachers weren't around. )
Oh, also on the holiday (May 8), we were able to meet "Happy in Paris" Dave for lunch in Sancerre, and then visit "his" beautiful little medieval village of Charité sur Loire.
There has been a lot more, but I think maybe Mike will eventually blog about it, and I do want to write up something about the school eventually, so I won't go into great detail here.
Anyway, we left on Saturday for the Dordogne, where we are now. But when we arrived the promised wi-fi wasn't working. We finally got it working today for the owners of the house (who are also in residence upstairs) by using our Airport Express. I think we may have sold them on a switch to Mac when they saw how easy it was!
So we are finally back online, and I hope Mike gets inspired to continue with the blog!
I just got back last night and I too was amazed at the wisteria and the fields of colza, which at first I thought was mustard. I took a million pics of those yellow fields, but none from overhead in an airplane! I also was intrigued with some purplish blue flowers which smelled like heliotrope, but were perhaps instead a variety of hydrangea? Not sure, maybe someone can clear that up. Anyway, it was nice to be in France in the springtime and see so many beautiful seasonal blooms. Chenonceau was incredible, as was Villandry.
Posts: 44 | Location: Amelia Island | Registered: 25 December 2005
We're now well into our Dordogne stay, which has also been wonderful. The house where we are staying is just about perfect. I will eventually write a review, but if anyone is looking for a Dordogne rental, check out La Borie des Combes. The website says Sarlat, probably because that's what most people have heard of, but it is actually about 15 km south of Sarlat, between Beynac and St.-Cyprien.
It is a lovely property, and very well located, overlooking the Dordogne River in the midst of chateau country. The owners, who are Americans relocated to France, are so nice. They live on the property with their beautiful collie, Hula.
Yesterday morning we canoed down the Dordogne River, a truly magical experience. The attached photo shows our river view of the Chateau de Castelnaud. We visited the chateau, with its fascinating museum of medieval warfare, in the afternoon so we could look down on the river where we had passed by a few hours before.
Americana, we tried to go to the ferme-auberge you recommended near Font-du-Gaume, but the ferme was fermée for lunch. So we just went up the road a bit to another similar place. Highly recommended, as well, for anyone who is in the area. We had a wonderful 18-euro fixed menu, which actually we enjoyed more than lunch the previous day at the well-known (and more expensive) La Belle Etoile in Roque-Gageac: La Grange du Mas
Checking in now from near Uzès, in the little town of Vers-Pont-du-Gard. So far we have had two really wonderful experiences with the famous Roman bridge. Our first morning here we walked to the bridge from our gite through the woods, along the remains of the ancient acqueduct. But today was the absolute best. We canoed down the river under the Pont du Gard. Here's a photo just before we went under the bridge, showing a bit of the bow of the canoe.
The river looks very still in that photo, which was great because we got that beautiful reflection in the water. But just on the other side, it was flowing very fast, practically rapids, and it was pretty exciting getting through there. This canoe trip was a bit more challenging than the one in the Dordogne, where we could have just floated the whole way.
Of course by boat! What a novel approach to Pont du Gard. And Roz, no postcard of PdG is as nice as your pic, bravo! While you are down there, check out the nearby lovely village of Castillon du Gard. Keep your travel stories coming. Can't but can't wait for more…
Amazing photo of Pont du Gard, Roz -- and your notes are making me want to return to the Dordogne for another visit! Sounds like you have been having clear weather, too, which was not the case when we were there a couple of years ago. Ah well, thye vagaries of nature!
Judy
Posts: 3901 | Location: Berkeley, CA | Registered: 22 March 2005
Americana, we have been to Castillon twice, on Monday for croissants because our local bakery was closed, and again today for lunch. It is a beautiful little village. It's the town you see under one of the arches from the Pont du Gard. Here is a picture I took on a previous trip.
After lunch we went to the nearby St.-Quentin-la-Poterie. It's a good thing we don't have any extra room in our luggage, or I would probably not have been able to resist buying some of the beautiful original ceramics in the many pottery stores there.
Judy, we have been pretty lucky so far on this trip in the weather, although I will say that the only real rain we have had was about a day and a half in the Dordogne. I guess that's the price for the beautiful green countryside. I did just post a photo album of selected pictures from our week in the Dordogne here.
A wonderful day today ... we met Kathy (kaydee) and her husband Charley with their Luberon tour group for lunch at the beautiful winery Domaine Faverot. This was the all-women week; they had dubbed themselves "Charley's Angels," although they did admit they also had a bit of the devil in them! They had obviously all bonded and were having a terrific time. We loved meeting them and joining in the fun.
Kathy had invited us to join them for their group tour of the vineyards and a tasting, followed by a delicious lunch of Salade Niçoise, some of the best cheese I've ever had anywhere, and a wonderful dessert of strawberries with meringue and creme fraiche.
In the photo below, you can see a bit of the winery, with the table set for lunch behind us. (Kathy is on the left, and Charley on the right; Mike and me in the middle.) After lunch, François, the vintner, even played the guitar and sang for us.
One more quick note from a quick stop in Lyon. We decided to drop our car here and spend the night before TGV-ing back to CDG. We signed up for the Lyon City Greeters program, having had a great experience a while back with the program in Paris.
Our "greeters" Bernard and Christine were absolutely wonderful hosts, spending 3 hours with us on a whirlwind tour of their favorite parts of Lyon. We covered a lot of ground, really enjoyed talking with them, and learned so much about Lyon. Here's a picture of one of the "painted walls" they showed us. All over Lyon there is a program to create these amazing trompe l'oeil paintings on building walls. This one shows the Lyon chef Paul Bocuse (one of many famous present and past Lyon citizens depicted on this building.)
Lyon is a great city; we only got a taste of it, but it left us wanting to return. And we highly recommend the Lyon Greeter program.
I went to Lyon last month (my first time there). One of my French friends (who lives in Ajaccio, Corsica) took me to her parents' country home outside of Lyon for several days (on a hilside with a view for miles--perfect!!). Like Roz, I enjoyed the opportunity to have a guided tour of Lyon. I also loved seeing the painted buildings, as shown in Roz' photo! My friend says the best maker of chocolate in Lyon is Bernachon. Their chocolate was delicious!! So if you are in Lyon, I recommend stopping by Bernachon!!
Kathleen
Posts: 108 | Location: California--Bay Area | Registered: 24 August 2005
[catching up with Roz and Mike] That Pont du Gard pic is fantastic, Roz - thanks! And great that you guys connected with Kaydee and Charlie and the Angels!
You mention that you joined a wine tour of the Luberon with Kathy (kaydee) and her husband Charley at the beautiful winery Domaine Faverot. We will be in the Luberon in early June (10th to 22nd). Could you please put us in touch with kaydee as this tour sounds amazing and it would be fun to meet up with some other travellers from this forum!
Could you please put us in touch with kaydee as this tour sounds amazing and it would be fun to meet up with some other travellers from this forum!
Kathy (who uses the member name kaydee on SlowTrav) and her husband run small group tours of the Luberon, and other areas in Europe through their organization, European Experiences. These are week-long tours; we only joined up with them for the day at Domaine Faverot via a special invitation from Kathy (since we already knew each other, and we just happened to be staying not far away).
I think anyone can visit the winery for a tasting, but I'm not sure if they normally give tours in addition. Perhaps if you are interested in a winery tour, you might start another topic in this forum to ask for recommendations.
If you are interested in meeting other Slow Travelers while in the Luberon, you can post your schedule on our Trip Calendar and also put a message in our GTG forum.
By the way, I just had to share this. Mike and I are now the "photo of the day" on the web site for the language school we attended: Coeur de France Mike seems to be going for the special award for the most authentic French facial expression!
Glad to hear you and your driver had a successful visit. 
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