May 21, 2013 - Avignon - Part One

Evening from winey, sunny, villagey and foody Avignon - the place so good our blog will be done in parts!! We left Siberia (pronounced lee-yon) by train and arrived to meet the apartment owner of the place we have for five nights - Jean Pierre responded to the honeymoon card that Krista had played by arriving with a massive bunch of flowers. Not only was I outdone, but outdone by a Frenchman wit two first names. How can I compete?! We went straight to the markets as we had half hour before closing, and secured cheese, dips, baguettes,...

May 18, 2013 - Tour de Lyon (winter)

Hello from wintery rainy Lyon. We have descended into winter here. The weather change was so surprising it led Krista to ask me whether I thought it thundered in France. Turns out this country is indeed not immune to thunder and shockingly it has in fact thundered just a few times. We left Paris in a blaze of excitement as we got to do our first fast train trip on the TGV to Lyon. I was so excited I arrived at the station 90 minutes early and also dumped an entire bottle of coke over my new wife's very fancy new French coat. She took it...

May 18, 2013 - Ancient Celts on French Hilltops

Well, we woke up to a horrendous rain and wind storm today. It's just as well we were packing up to leave for our next base location at Carcasonne about three hours west of Sauve. Fortunately, after driving for over an hour we were rewarded with blue skies although the wind was still gusty. We stopped at the archaeological site of a Celtic oppidum (hill fort) named Enserune. Enserune was settled in the sixth century BCE and eventually became an active trading hub with other cultures like the Greeks. It is situated high on a hilltop with a...

May 17, 2013 - Amazing French cuisine and a fascinating Roman villa

Last night we walked down the lane from out gite (French guest house) to a restaurant that had been recommended by our host for Richard's birthday dinner. The food was truly the amazing French cuisine we have always heard about. Richard and I both ordered a filet of duck breast with red berry sauce served over a bed of polenta. Richard said the French always cook meet extremely rare so when I was asked how I wished the duck to be cooked I ordered medium. I was sure glad I did as it was quite rare but very tasty. Our meal began with toasted...

May 16, 2013 - Bordeaux

We spent the morning wandering around the centre of Bordeaux, which is not far from our B&B. The historic part of the city is on the UNESCO World Heritage List because of its outstanding 18th century architecture. It is very beautiful, with a lovely large park and many pedestrian only streets. In the afternoon, we drove to Bourg to visit Chateau de la Grave (http://www.chateaudelagrave.com/index.php). We had a very interesting tour of the winery from the owner, and enjoyed tastings of several vintages. It was a very enjoyable visit. The...

May 16, 2013 - Market day at Anduze

Today we went to market day at nearby Anduze. Anduze is a small medieval town about 20 miles away and it was fun to walk around and look at everything. I saw a man sharpening knives with a very old stropping machine but he had a sign that said no photography so I didn't take a portrait of him as much as I would have liked to. There were stalls selling mostly teenage clothing, jewelry, ceramics and household items. The heart of the market was, of course, the produce, meat and fresh fish stalls. I didn't even recognize some of the vegetables....

May 16, 2013 - Paris

Bon jour from Paris! This dutiful husband is at a cafe sinking red wine as his new wife has disappeared into a salon for a cheeky haircut - never mind she still cannot speak a word of French and that I am currently using her only translator, the iPad to write this post. Interesting to see how she looks! Actually she just got back, an outstanding short bob, very French. If I could double marry her I would. Guurrowellll. We have had an outstanding start to the honeymoon - we are staying in the heart of the Paris red light district, so we...

May 15, 2013 - Avranches to Bordeaux

A long drive from Avranches today, about 6 hours driving time. We stopped in La Rochelle for lunch and arrived in Bordeaux about 1700. Despite all the sitting, we managed to get almost 14000 steps in because we walked to and from a restaurant that was about 45 minutes away.

May 15, 2013 - Controversial Julius Caesar head highlight of Arles antiquity museum

Well, Richard recovered enough from our marathon at Avignon yesterday to strike out for Arles today. The city became an important Phoenician trading port, before being taken by the Romans in 123 BCE who expanded it into an important city, with a canal link to the Mediterranean Sea being constructed in 104 BCE. However, it struggled to escape the shadow of Massalia (Marseilles) further along the coast. Its chance came when it sided with Julius Caesar against Pompey, providing military support. Massalia backed Pompey; when Caesar emerged...

May 14, 2013 - Avignon: A 14th century home of popes

Today, we journeyed to Avignon to walk in the footsteps of popes during The Great Schism of the 14th century at the papal palace there. The Great Schism which lasted between 1378 to 1417 occurred when the King of France, who did not like the reigning Italian Pope, elected his own instead (or rather his French cardinals did)and ensconced him in a papal palace at Avignon. This so-called antipope, Robert of Geneva, took the name of Pope Clement VII. The 15,000 sq meter palace had been originally built for Pope John XXII, a successor to Pope...

May 14, 2013 - Dior and cooking pots

Picorette was such a wonderful restaurant that we decided it was worth a trip back to Granville so we could enjoy it again. Our other motive for returning was to visit Les Rhumbes, the childhood home of Christian Dior. It is now a museum and was featuring an exhibit that blended with the Impressionist Festival that is currently on in Normandy. There were displays of Dior dresses from the 1940s right up to today. Some of them were incredibly beautiful-works of art in their own right. The gardens surrounding the house were designed by Dior’s...

May 13, 2013 - Rouen and Honfleur

We had a long drive to Rouen today, to see the famous cathedral and an impressionist art exhibition. This is the town where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake. Today we found it to be a most charming place, with interesting architecture and beautiful shops. The Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Rouen is a huge Gothic structure. The current building was started in the 12th century. It is seen in many paintings by Monet. He did a series of over 30 paintings of the cathedral in the 1890s. The building itself is immense and has suffered much damage...