Friday June 7 Au revoir la France, Benvenuti in Italia

Up and at 'em about 7:30 and on our way by 9. We were sorry to leave the unusually bucolic Au Bien Être Hotel in Villecroze. The rooms were spotless, our adjoining patios were really extensions of our very private rooms and what more can we say about our gourmet dinner last night!  What a great place to spend a week relaxing.  Too bad we don't have that kind of time!

We were here in the hills of Provence to see Tourtour affectionately known as "the village in the sky."  There, at 635 meters, the views down the valleys and over to the Luberon Mountains are outstanding. We spent some time in the open piazza, had coffee and croque-monsieurs, did some shopping for provisions and also for ourselves and hopped back into the car for the trek down to the autoroute. Winnie, unfortunately, had some trouble maneuvering the many roundabouts......or was it operator?  We were 4 hours from Camogli, Italy and wanted to get there by 4 so off we went!  

Said "au revoir" to France about 12:30 and then traveled the old fashioned way, by map!  Winnie has a chip for Ireland and one for France but none for Italy!!  So we said "au revoir" to Winnie also. We did stop for a picnic at a rest area above Monaco. Bea commented, " No wonder Grace Kelly left the US!"  We saluted our last "piqué-nique francais" with more fabulous French bread and cheese, sliced tomatoes and salami. This time, thanks to Bea, we also had gherkins and petite onions, olives and French mustard!

For the most part we did A-OK with our Michelin Map of Italy. The auto-strada along the both Rivieras, French and Italian, is elevated or tunneled!  How did the inhabitants of these towns ever go anywhere?By traversing the mountains we guessed!  

We got to Camogli pretty easily but then had to maneuver a one way street, unload ,get the car to the private parking lot and then descend a steep stone stairway to the hotel entrance. This was some feat!  Hotel Casmona is right on the beach. Each room has huge floor-to- ceiling windows so the breeze and the roar of the waves is always present. 

We met on the hotel patio at 6:30 to drink some more of the French wine we'd bought and then proceeded to Ristorante Don Paulo where we had reservations for 7:30. It was the first evening we had not eaten "al fresco"  but the restaurant could accommodate only inside even with reservations! We met Therese, John G's favorite waitress, ordered some more wine and commenced to peruse the menu. Our waitress spoke no English or French so we felt a little disadvantaged!!  However, we did fine ordering our food. I ordered curled octopus with rocket (arugula), Bea had anchovies with tomatoes, Tom had a delicious, warm salad and the three of us had frito misto. Peter opted for the trenette pesto and risotto marinara. All was very tasty. 

After dinner we strolled along the promenade, listening to the rolling waves, people-watching, even stopping for a cappuccino. Back at Hotel Casmona, we opted to continue listening to the rolling waves from our beds!  Decided to meet the next morning for an early breakfast, then walk around Camogli and take some photos with Simone Schiaffino before heading to Tuscany to meet the rest of the Arrows at our villa in Foiana Della Chiana. 

Thursday June 6 Forty miles in eight hours!

So, our quirky Hotel de la Muette turned out to be not only quirky but surprisingly comfortable. And we truly enjoyed the quirkiness!!  Breakfast buffet was again ample and delicious. After bidding adieu to Brigitte and Alain, we left Arles ready to do a long but scenic route to Avignon. Again, how did we ever find our way out of a city without a GPS?  I guess we just grit our teeth and followed our noses!

I had found an article that stated you could drive from Arles to Avignon in 40 minutes or you could take all day driving through lovely villages and dramatic landscapes of western Provence.  We opted for the latter in a somewhat abbreviated fashion.  The directions in the article were fairly easy to follow. The first area we visited was Les Baux-de-Provence. It was an exceptional site with views down over the  Apilles hills and up to the ruins. 

From there we drove toward St Remy through the "chaotic hills" that "look like the aftermath of a brawl between the gods!"  Just before the entrance to the city, we stopped near the key Roman site of Glanum, the ruins of a Roman city from the first century AD. Across from Glanum are a Triumphal Arch and  a Mausileum, also from the first century, standing and in pretty good condition. Amazing!!  Driving on the way into St Remy, we made a quick stop at the St Paul de Mausole monastery/clinic where Vincent Van Gogh committed himself after cutting off part of his ear in Arles in 1889 after a year of frenetic painting.  St Remy itself is a very cute town;  all of these towns have an old part, sometimes inside a fortified wall, and a new city. We wandered around the old part, did some shopping and had a coffee in the main square. 

Time was getting late so we scooted to Bonnieux. Along the way we stopped for a picnic lunch at an actual picnic area!  Croissants, bread, cheese, tomatoes, olives, jambon and salami---delicious !  Even a spot of local wine!  Bonnieux, a town in the Luberon Mountains, is one of those picturesque towns on the side of a mountain all contained within a wall. We visited the local cemetery which is charming and well-tended. Each family has an upright grave stone with photos, plaques and various pieces of floral majolica. Fascinating and beautiful!

Now it was really getting late and we had 2+ hours to get to our next hotel. So we decided to make a quick stop in Avignon to see the bridge (Sur Le pont d'Avignon....) and the papal palace. Mistake!!!  We literally got stuck with all 4 tires rubbing against the curb in one particularly narrow street!  We immediately decided to get out of Avignon and on to Villecroze. 

So, we thought the excitement was over until Winnie went haywire for about 45 minutes. U-turns galore, at two toll stops and along country roads. WINNIE!!!  Eventually we got back on track and arrived at Au Bien Être in Villecroze, a fabulous hotel off the beaten track. We had two rooms next door to each other on a terrace by the pool!  

Dinner at the restaurant was a gastronic delight. We were the only diners and were given the royal treatment!!  Peter started with a delicious potato/vegetable soup and the rest of us had a Provençal salad with local chopped crudités and fresh peas. I had a fish dish which also contained poached veggies, the guys had beef au poivre and Bea had another cut of beef--all delicious. We even had dessert; I had fresh strawberries with creme fraiche, Peter had a chocolate crepe with ice cream  and Bea had a flaming Grand Marnier soufflé. WOW!  Then the chef brought us each a taste of his apple liqueur. What a dining delight the evening was!!  We were even serenaded by a distant cow bell apparently hanging on the neck of a donkey! And we only had to walk a few feet to find our beds!

Wednesday June 5 Arles all day!

I think it was the sound of the trash trucks that awoke us this morning!  We are in the CITY and our room faces a main street--even if it's only 10 feet wide!  Breakfast was a buffet on the ground floor. We met the Sextons there at 8:30, chatted with Alain, Hotel Muette owner while we cooked our eggs dropped individually into "an egg boiling machine!"  Hard to explain. We ate on the terrace, one of the amenities of this quirky place!  Dried fruit, yogurt, croissants and baguettes completed our buffet--delicious and filling!

Our first adventure of the day was to find the local market. This was the first Wednesday of the month so we were in luck. The usual Wed. market would be double in size!  And it was huge!!  We never even reached the end of it!  There was clothing, jewelry, household goods, pottery, carved wooden objects and utensils, shoes!! We even saw mattresses for sale! The food items ranged from produce to meat to olives to cheese to herbs to fish--too much to name!!  We bought some gifts and picnic supplies and did some amazing people-watching. So many things and people to see!  

Then we picnicked along the Rhone, sitting right on the stone ramparts!!  The weather has been beautiful--mid 70s.  We had to move from our first location because Bea got splattered with....well, you can imagine!  We sat along further on the ancient stones and had bread, salami, cheese, tomatoes and cherries. What more could we ask for? Walked a little further and had a coffee. Then we wandered around the "old city" enjoying the sights. 

At Place de la Republique, we saw the Hotel de Ville with the French flag blowing in the wind, a very old and tall obelisque and then we strolled over to what we think was the Opera under reconstruction. After finding the gate open we went into what might have been practice rooms before we were shooed out!  Before leaving the Place, we toured the  Cloitre St Trophine, a basilica built in the 15th century;  not as impressive as Chartres but older. 

We followed our noses to the  Amphitheater, the stadium/arena built by The Romans when the they were overtaking Gaul. Up in the South Tower, the views of the city were spectacular. So many abodes, some even with patios/terraces and one had a bathing beauty posing for us. Anyway, it was amazing to sit in the bleachers gazing at all of the Romanesque arches through which the Arlesiens entered, thrilled to the sights of man fighting beast and exited. Weird how similar this arena is to the design of all the sports' stadiums we see today!

After a short respite back at the hotel, we had pre-dinner cocktails in our room and then  went to a nearby restaurant, Le Seize, for dinner. We ate outside on the patio, the ambiance was perfect, but some of us thought there was a little ordinariness to the food.  Bea and I had an excellent spring salad with peas and arugula, Tom had a chicken dish, Bea had fish and Peter and I had bull's meat stew. I liked it because of its name. Again, back at the hotel about 10 and in bed. We walked the whole "old city" today!

Tuesday June 5 A day on the road

Unfortunately we had to leave Beynac this morning. What a beautiful, restful, charming place!  Francoise and Jean-Claude Fleury could not have been more pleasant and accommodating. And Petite Versailles is truly idyllic in spring--probably all year long!

We left the Fleurys about 10:15 and proceeded into Beynac village to stock up on provisions at the alimentation and the boulangerie. Also bought some local wine and foie gras for the villa. It was probably 11 or so before we got on the road for Arles. Winnie said 5+ hours to get there. We decided to take the route labeled "Most use of Freeways" even though it twas the same amount of time as "shortest distance."  Some of the back roads in France are "tight;" we figured our driver would have an easier time on the autoroutes. Who knows??  We did go pretty far south because there was no highway going east to Arles. 

Anyway, it was a fairly easy drive. We did get hung up the first time we had to pay a toll!!  But we figured it out AGAIN and clapped for our subsequent victories!!  (The autoroutes in France are expensive; one toll, of about 5 that we paid, was more than 20E!  Stopped 3 times at very modern, well-stocked, clean rest areas (aires in French) for coffe, gas, bathroom breaks, general shopping  and once for our picnic lunch--delicious!!  Nothing like French baguettes with tomatoes, cheese, country salami and olives!!

We arrived at the Arles exit shortly before 5. Winnie indicated we weren't far from Hotel de la Muette. Once in the "ancien ville" we got a little concerned--were these really vehicle streets?  Would we scrape the side of the rental car?  But Winnie was correct again!!! Through several tight turns we finally saw our hotel. 

Talk about contrast!!!  Hotel de la Muette is very quaint. But there are no elevators, the stairs are narrow and steep, the halls are dark!!!  However it is charming and the owners are interesting and speak some English. After check-in, Peter was able to find a parking space just outside the hotel and we were assured that the car would be safe. 

So, off we went to explore a little of ancient Arles, a city dating back to the time of Julius Caesar. We wandered around some of the extremely narrow streets, found a street with recommended restaurants for later, strolled along the Rhone River, watched a river cruise boat get under weigh and then walked back through the old city to find a restaurant for dinner. 

Two restaurants we tried said we needed reservations!!  Rick Steve's didn't tell us that. Ultimately we found the Place du Forum where there are plenty of eating establishments with outdoor accommodations. We chose Bistro Arlesien and ordered tartine Provençal, prawns Provençal, salads, spaghetti bolognese steak hache and finished with cappuccino.  The walk back to our hotel was short and we all retired immediately!!  Traveling is exhausting!!!  Merci mille fois to Peter today for his great driving!!

Monday June 3 A dazzling day in Dordogne

Today we awoke, refreshed, to another beautiful day in Dordogne. We had a sumptuous breakfast, prepared by Francoise, consisting of hard boiled egg with cheese, freshly squeezed orange juice, bread with home-made preserves, carrot cake, creme caramel and coffee. Mmmm!  

I had a very successful conversation with Jean-Claude et Francoise.  The outdoor market doesn't start for 2 weeks. Their Lab, Stiki, brings veggies and eggs from a neighbor to them each morning by carrying a plastic bag in her mouth. The laundry facilities?  Madame will wash and dry all of our dirty laundry. They also advised us on the short walk to the chateau and where to go for the best place with a view for a picnic lunch. 

Our first stop of the day was to Sarlat to put gas in the car and visit a bank ATM. Then off we went, back to the village of Beynac, parked the car and set off on our walk to the Chateau de Beynac, one of the most imposing in France. The chateau was the setting of the 1998 movie "The Messenger:  the Story of Joan of Arc."  Walking to the chateau was circuitous and steep!   During the Hundred Years' War, it was a stronghold for the French.  Like most chateaux, Beynac is sparsely furnished although there were two typical rooms that you could look at but not enter. It's the views that make this chateau so breathtaking!  This is a cliff-clinging chateau 500 feet above the Dordogne River and the awesome vistas of the Dordogne countryside. 

After our walk DOWN the steep path, we strolled a bit around the medieval village

and then returned to the car. We drove along the Dordogne to La Roque where we bought some sandwiches and drove UP to the esplanade in the village of Domme on the other side of the Dordogne. There we had our picnic lunch and gawked some more at the gorgeous vistas. After a coffee and a chat with Mark who was getting Global service for Bea's iPhone, we headed back to Petite Versailles for a rest before our evening activities. Imagine my glee at seeing all of our laundry for the past 10 days, on our bed, washed, dried, folded and sorted!!!

After a relaxing respite organizing, napping and reading (guess who did which!), we drove back down down to the village center to The Hotel de Chateau for dinner. Truly, we're not sure which was better:  the food or the meaningful conversation!  We enjoyed traditional duck confit, omelette with mushrooms, steak hache, salads de gesies d'oie confit  and saussicot avec champignons.  We closed the place!!!  But we were practically the only diners!!

Back at Petite Versailles we met some new guests, also from America, here also with the recommendation of Rick Steves. Hallelujah for Rick and Winnie!!

Sunday June 2 WOW!!!!

What a magnificent day!!  It started with the 4 of us having had a great night's sleep. We met in the lobby of Hotel Chatelet and walked up to the Cathedral of Notre dame de Chartres for 9:15 mass in Gregorian chant. It was spectacular in a most spectacular cathedral. The stained glass windows and rose window are unbelievable; they are non-descript from the outside but full of color inside. Our only regret was the chill!

Outside the weather was perfect-mid 60s. Also outside we took time to gaze at the spires. In the 12th century fire, one of the Romanesque spires (fairly plain) burned and was replaced by a higher, more ornate gothic spire. The other Romanesque spire remains so the look is unusual and a little unbalanced. 

We hustled back to the hotel because checkout was at 11. After checkout and packing the car, we ambled back to the town center looking for coffee and something to eat. Le Serpente again seemed our best bet. We had a German waiter who was a little pompous!  I ordered "cafe au lait" and was corrected. "Cafe au lait," I was told is served at home while "cafe creme" is what one orders in a restaurant. We had a mixture of omelettes and pancakes and, of course, coffee. 

We walked back to the hotel, figured out how to leave Chartres (thanks to Winnie, our GPS with a British accent) and began our 5 hour drive to the Dordogne area to the medieval town of Beynac. 

We traveled mostly along autoroutes and stopped once for water, coffee and a bathroom break at a very nice service area.  When we got to the Sarlat exit, we began to drive along the beautiful , winding back roads of Dordogne.  For the most part these roads follow the Dordogne River through quaint medieval towns and by majestic manor homes. One in particular in Vitrac looked like a castle but seemed to be privately owned. 

We found Beynac fairly easily and wound our way up a tiny road toward the chateau to La Petite Versailles where we had reservations for 2 nights. Jean-Claude met us in the driveway, helped us into the Chambre d'hote, explained the details of our exceptional rooms and gave us a recommendation for dinner. He and I spoke successfully in French-Je me felicite!!  We left almost immediately for the village of Beynac and La Petite Tonnelle because it was already 7:30 and we were quite hungry!

We had a little trouble finding the restaurant. It was actually up the main avenue of the medieval village.   We ate outside on the patio of the medieval building cut into the rock. Dinner started with local wine and beer. In perusing the menu, we were having a few problems and were helped by the man sitting next to us. Peter Lecornic is from Montreal, traveling in France, his father's native land, by car and bike. Among the 4 of us, We ended up having fish soup, duck pâté stuffed with foie gras, fish with chorizo, mushroom omelette and a local lamb dish. Dinner was delicious and very interesting!  We got back to  our accommodations and crashed about 10 PM. 

Change of title of the last blog entry

Another oops!  We haven't yet had our FINEST day in France. The title of our last post should have OUR FIRST DAY IN FRANCE!!!

Saturday June 1.Our finest day in France

Our 3:30 AM phone call awakened us abruptly to a new day on Saturday, June 1. After checking out, we met our airport shuttle bus at 4 and arrived at Dublin Airport by 4:30.  The airport was actually crowded but we were ahead of the game; we'd already checked in our 1 bag!  The rest we carried on board. Our flight boarded at 6:30 and by 7 we were on our way to Paris. 

We'd made plans to meet Bea and Tom at the Hertz rental. We made it there by 10:30 but no Sextons!  We asked Hertz if there was another rental office and received a negative answer. Bea and Tom were asking the same question and getting the same answer at another terminal!  After a few phone calls and some driving in circles, we finally found each other and left the airport. 

We decided to stop as soon as we could and reconnoiter!  After a bit, we found a small restaurant, ordered sandwiches and ate outside. It seemed like a good idea to head straight for Chartres. So we got the GPS all set up and off we went by 12:30. Whatever would we do without a GPS!!  Getting from Paris to Chartres with a good map is not a problem. However getting OUT of Paris or INTO Chartres is another problem altogether--almost impossible without a GPS!

The traffic around the Periphetique of Paris was unbelievable!  Then when we tried to get off the motorway at the toll....I'll just say it was difficult!  If it weren't for Connie,  Bea and Tom and Peter would still be there!  We didn't arrive in Chartres until 3 but then easily found the Hotel Chatelet and got settled in for the night. 

The sole historical attraction in Chartres is its cathedral, built in the 13th century. Hard to fathom building a  massive stone Gothic structure with stained glass, spires and arches 800 years ago!  It's actually the fourth church on this site. Because of a prized relic Chartres "found itself in the big time on the pilgrim circuit." A church burned to the ground in the 11th century and the new cathedral was completed in 1260. It is truly an Age of Faith church. 

So we decided to explore the city of 40,000. We stopped on the way to the cathedral to inspect an outdoor car show. Bea's next car will be a Jaguar F-type!  We walked around the massive cathedral, gawked at all of the people and then proceeded to wander around the old town.  We window-shopped, walked through the flower market, listened to the French chatter and just enjoyed our stroll. 

Back at the cathedral, we stopped at Le Serpente for beer and wine while listening to the cathedral bells on the quarter-, half- and on the hour. 3 hours later we were still talking!!  We had eaten peanuts, onion soup, pâtés, fois gras and salads. We were now behind the shadow of the cathedral and it was CHILLY!!!  On our way back to the hotel we stopped in a cool cafe that was narrow but had many levels. It was for the monks way back in history. We had decaf expressos with chocolate covered beans--just what we needed to warm up!!!  Back at the hotel by 9 and, since we were all exhausted, to bed!!

Sent from my iPhone

Saturday June 1 Our first day in France