Steve Haas Travel

Category: 2022: France

Paris and the Loire Valley

  • 2022 France: Day 13 – Orleans; Final Thoughts

    2022 France: Day 13 – Orleans; Final Thoughts

    I woke up at 3:30am Friday morning and never really went back to sleep, so I’m writing this on about 4.5 hours sleep. Forgive me if it’s not completely coherent. I get restless when it’s time to go and it hit me Thursday night that I was ready to be home. It’s been an amazing trip on multiple levels, but home is home.

    I don’t even remember how I occupied my time before Ash got up other than endless and varied internet browsing. Redditt and Facebook can suck up a lot of time and in fact I probably hadn’t done that for 2 weeks now. Ash was up about 7am, we finished packing and started to make our way about 8am.

    The only stop today on our way to the Paris airport was Orleans, the largest city we’ve come across since we left Paris last Saturday, population about 500k. It was about 90 minutes out of Salbris and we got there before 10am.

    In the center of town is the cathedral, St Croix. This was originally built between 1278-1329, but was partially destroyed by fire in 1568. Reconstruction occurred for over 200 years starting 1601.

    It’s massive. It took me 2 photos to capture the entire side of it. The front side above,

    and the back side here.

    And of course the requisite “ussie”, our last of this trip.

    I tried to capture the scope of the majesty when you first walk in but that’s difficult to do.

    One of the many stained glass windows here, including a series that tell the story of Joan of Arc and her efforts that led to France winning the 100 Years War against England and crowning Charles VII King.

    An altar in honor of St. Joan of Arc, who the English burned at the stake. On either side of this were very nice plaques thanking both British and American forces for the sacrifices made during World Wars 1 and 2, and especially honoring the men who were buried here. I’ve been to American cemeteries in Normandy and Luxembourg and it’s incredibly moving.

    Another attempt to capture the grandeur and size. See tiny Ash walking ahead at the bottom of the photo.

    Many beautiful side altars.

    This is the main altar, standing from sort of the middle of church.

    Looking back at the organ. Note all the chairs – just in the first half of the church.

    Another beautiful side altar – there’s a name for these sculpted from wood that’s escaping me.

    Pews in the front – but no kneelers (continuing that discussion…).

    A cute modern statue in front.

    We went for a walk about town a bit and came across this lovely view. The main drag jutting from the cathedral was draped in Ukraine flags to show their support. Two of the words you see around France the most often in various forms are Liberty and Fraternity.

    We also stopped into a pharmacy to get our COVID tests which we need to fly tomorrow. Both of us negative. We were relieved, although we weren’t too concerned. We’ve been mask free for most of the trip but wore them on subways and at Versailles. During this past week in the country we’ve sort of forgotten about them but boy did we immediately notice not having them in some of the castles that were super crowded. It seemed like every time we opened Facebook we saw another report of someone we know back home testing positive. So it was definitely on our mind but so far we’ve managed to escape it.

    A beautiful old bridge over the Loire River.

    Yes, we never really left the Loire River this whole trip. and Orleans is sort of the capital of this region.

    We were ready for something different for lunch and decided this sushi place would hit the spot.

    From the inside, that’s Ash on the left in the orange with his back to us. I sat across from him.

    Sort of what you’d expect for starters: miso soup and a nice salad but these were really good. I think better than we expected.

    They had this incredible deal for 42 Euros: this boat of a decent variety of sushi rolls and sashimi….

    …as well as hot meat appetizers. On the left were thin slices of beef grilled around cheese – wow. Then chicken meatballs and chicken thighs, all tender and tasty.

    We walked back through the center of town, which was mostly closed off to vehicles, a classic European thing to do which we love.

    This was just looking back at the same cute area of the prior photo.

    I love the look of this street, and of course kids especially can’t resist Paul.

    Looking to the right of the prior photo. I love these narrow streets.

    We drove on to our hotel at Charles de Gaulle where we will stay tonight so we have easy access to our 9:15am flight tomorrow.

    Paul managed the 2.5 hour drive like a champ. Tomorrow he’ll do a 12 hour flight. He did great on the way out so we’re not anticipating any problems.

    We got to the hotel about 4:30pm. It took us just under 90 minutes to check in, drop off our bags, fill the car up with gas, drop it off, and take the airport train back to the hotel. It’s a HUGE airport so it was over 5 kilometers just to get gas because of the way the roads are, even though the station was “in” the airport.

    Ash is playing bridge again, I’m finishing up here. We will have dinner in the hotel and that will be it. So I figured I’d do my traditional “final thoughts” now and be done with it, but I haven’t put much thought into yet so we’ll see how this goes, in no particular order:

    1. Paris – 4th time there, still love it. For some reason I really enjoyed the subways this time. We didn’t really use them at all when we were here last year and it really is such a great way to get around. We went all out on food this time eating some great meals, the best one probably was when our friend Stephanie joined us.
    2. Buying our rings at a little jeweler in Sacre Coeur and using that spot to discuss getting married, finally. I mean, we bought a house together last summer, it’s not like we haven’t been thinking about it, right? But it was special that we did it in our own time, and in our own way, and while overlooking the city of Paris which is special to both of us made it perfect. We will be back.
    3. Castles – touring them brought back all kinds of fantasies and memories of books I’d read as a kid. I have no idea where my fascination with castles came from but this trip really satisfied all that. There is a weird thing that happens where you start to go through them pretty fast because of the “once you’ve seen one” affect, so looking for what was really original in each became the fun part. My favorites were Chambord and d’Usse.
    4. Staying in castles, old manors, etc – It’s cool and all but guess what? Not all that comfortable. I think I’ve had my fill of this. Now if we find one that’s been completely updated and somehow modernized then maybe. But face it: we’re pretty spoiled. We expect things like lots of plugs, coffee in the room, good wireless internet. Basics. Not so much in any of the places we stayed. So the truth is none of them were all that comfortable in the end. Each one had “something” (and often more than just one thing) that was just not quite right. It was fun, glad we did it, probably don’t need to do it again.
    5. Road trips – we did enjoy driving, but/and probably wouldn’t want to do more than we did. It was perfect – just enough to see what we wanted to see without being irritating. The best part was having our own music with us. Except on major highways where French radio would break in with emergency announcements we couldn’t understand! Thankfully that only happened on Saturday and today, because the rest of the week we were on country roads, and often weird backroads. We saw a LOT of French farmland this week, and of course lots of those pretty white cows. They always make me think of “Jack and the Beanstalk.”
    6. The blog and all of you. Ash joked (more than once) about the blog being “my mistress.” Guilty. From the first trip in 2013, it’s become such a huge part of the experience for me – and in fact enhances my experience since it gets me to pay attention in ways I wouldn’t otherwise – that I can’t imagine not doing it. Now, the next trip is Ashland but that’s all about shows for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival so I may skip that trip, or at least cut way back, we’ll see. But it’s here to stay for now. And I so appreciate all of you coming with us and interacting along the way, it really does make it special.

    And speaking of the blog: Ash took this one night when we were at Chateau de Briancon. He doesn’t like it when we don’t go to bed at the same time but I wanted to finish this so stayed up. He said “fine, but you’ll have to only use the light from your laptop because I want all the lights off.” Fine. So this was the result of that.

    See you all in Costa Rica in November.

  • 2022 France: Day 12 – Chateau de Chambord

    2022 France: Day 12 – Chateau de Chambord

    We were up about 7am. Had some “it will do” instant coffee in the room and then got ready to go out for the day.

    Ash had taken Paul out for a bit of a walk while I put some stuff in the car. I met up with them on the long drive up to the house from the road and we left from there. We stopped first to get some pastries and “real coffee” and consumed those at a sidewalk table before we got on our way.

    There was only one destination for the day: Chateau de Chambord. It’s about an hour’s drive from where we are staying, back in the direction of where we last were yesterday. Depending on who you ask, it’s either the greatest castle in the Loire Valley, or all of France, or all the world. So, expectations were high.

    And they were met at least, maybe exceeded. The history of it is interesting by itself: King Francois I – who’d grown up at Amboise, the first castle we saw on Saturday – built this in the early 1500’s as a hunting lodge, along with 13,000 acres of land. All of that is still intact today and the whole thing is a national park. When you first turn onto “Route du Chambord” you’ve got another 5 kilometers – just over 3 miles – to go before you get to the castle.

    And he only used it for hunting, which was so much his passion his nickname was “the father of hunting” because of his dedication to the sport, including ushering in the first official code granting hunting rights during his reign. In those times, hunting was a “pastime viewed as being useful in honing military, political and diplomatic skills” yet had been limited to nobility up until that point.

    This was our first real glimpse of it from the parking lot as we were walking towards it. We were bummed that so many of the towers are covered in scaffolding because it really detracts from the overall look, but glad they are taking care of it so it remains a place for the public to continue to spend time.

    Ash got in line, and I had to walk quite a way up the driveway before I could get far enough away to get the entire wall. You can see how small the people are in the center of the photo. That’s where Ash is.

    I took the liberty of lifting some photos from the internet so you could see it without the scaffolding. And the blue sky helps see it better, too. I didn’t realize until this moment as I was putting this together that we didn’t get a photo of the other side of the castle. This is the front entrance.

    Here’s an image of the entire layout. You enter through the wall in front.

    This is the view from the back. Or is it the front? It’s amazing regardless. Much has been written about that rooftop, intentionally asymmetrical. The idea was for it to look more like the skyline of a village than a unified house. So there’s a lot going on with different chimneys, different ornamentation, etc.

    In the center you can see people on a balcony. We will be up there later in the afternoon.

    We took Paul with us for our first run through it. Everyone always loves having Paul around.

    Beyond the size and the roofline, the most famous thing about this castle is this staircase in the middle. It’s a double-spiral: 2 different entry points going up in unison, but you will never see the occupants of the other staircase. It is largely believed to be designed by Leonardo da Vinci, who was a good friend of Francois. (If you read our entry on Amboise, you may remember that Da Vinci lived there for a time is buried near there.)

    There are 60 rooms (of 426!) that are open to the public. We got through about 20 of them probably. Because we’ve been in So Many castles/palaces, on this trip and others, I didn’t take that many photos. Mostly I wanted to capture what was unique. And in this photo, its’ the size. 15-foot ceilings and just enormous rooms. Francois never lived here full-time, in fact only a total of 7 weeks for the remainder of his life, all around hunting. The castle was too big to heat during the winter, so it was empty then. Everything that was needed for hunting trips was brought at the time. With an entourage of up to 2000 people, that’s a lot of furniture, food, etc., to bring and the logistics were ridiculous. Can you imagine having that much money to fund all of that? It’s astounding to think about.

    Paul needed a little rest at the other entrance to the staircase.

    Here you can see clear to the other side, but you can’t see the start of the other staircase which is just to the right of that wall.

    This is what the inside of the staircase looks like, looking up.

    For some reason I loved this clock.

    As the “father of hunting” there were several rooms dedicated to that theme. Paul was interested in this stuffed game!

    Painting of dogs after a boar in a hunting scene.

    Looking out from one of the balconies, but not the high one. One of the things about that helix staircase it is really messes with your sense of direction. You get in on one side of the castle but sometimes exit to the other side. I generally have a good sense of direction, but I got pretty turned around.

    We went to a “horse and birds of prey” show that lasted about an hour (we wouldn’t know exactly since we left early for our lunch reservations). It started at 11:45am and we left about 12:35pm. If you’ve ever been to a Renaissance Faire, you’ve seen stuff like this. Here’s one of the birds, just taking off to fly from the girl’s arm.

    Lots of costumes, horses, and even costumed horses. It was all in French so we really could barely tell what was going on.

    But the kids loved it, and there were a lot of them. There was a lot of goofy, physical comedy.

    Here’s another bird flying back and forth over the audience between its two handlers.

    As I said, we left early for lunch. Ash booked a spot at I believe the nicest restaurant on the property, apparently just in time. We must’ve gotten the last reservation because we saw them turn many people away after we were seated.

    We’d taken Paul back to the car for the show, so Ash went to get him. I snapped a selfie since I realized I wasn’t in any of the photos in yesterday’s entry. I’m still here!

    Ash came back with Paul just as they brought the first course.

    Ash had a “perfect egg” in a roasted cauliflower soup.

    I had asparagus with what was like a lemon whipped cream on top and below a lime flavored – cheese? Sorbet? It was cold but the texture was hard to identify, but it didn’t melt. It was unique and tasted great.

    That was our view for lunch.

    Ash had the salmon….

    …I had the veal. This was my 3rd time having veal on this trip and each time it’s been amazing and completely different. Veal is easier to find in Europe because dairy is such a big deal here that breeders use the male baby cows for veal. Their methods of raising cows for veal are more – let’s just say civil – than the kind that get protested.

    A tiramisu built to share. We can eat it here because, unlike in the US, it doesn’t have alcohol in it. Yes those are very thin pure chocolate wafers sticking out of it.

    And finished off with the standard coffees.

    We went back to the castle because I wanted to get to that top balcony. It looks a little nicer against a blue sky.

    I love this whole crown thing in the center. Note again how small the people are. Factor in that we are about 6 stories up already. That’s how high this thing is.

    An “ussie” as Ash likes to call them.

    Notice how different each of these towers are. It goes to the idea of wanting a very diverse skyline.

    This might be my favorite photo of the trip. Looking out towards the back of the castle.

    We crossed to the other side to get a photo of the front.

    Only when you got to the very top of the stairs could you look over and see into the other side of the double spiral. I used the panoramic feature to try to capture that here, so the folks in the middle are a little scrunched.

    We left around 3:30pm – that’s 5.5 hours there and we barely scratched the surface. Of course, a 2-hour lunch didn’t help, but it was a lovely relaxing meal. I’d said to Ash early this morning “let’s not do another 2-hour dinner tonight, OK?” Which he agreed to instantly; but then books a long lunch. Oh well. Talk about luxury problems. Still, it might’ve been nice to walk some of those gardens, rent a golf cart to tool around the 13k acres, paddle boats for the ponds, etc. It’s a great outing for a family and there were lots of people out enjoying what was mostly great weather, especially when the sun was out – a high of 71.

    Ash is playing bridge again – he’s practicing for some tournaments he has coming up – and I’ve finished the blog up to this point. It’s almost 7pm. For sure we will take Paul out again and, if we eat at all, it will be something pretty simple.

    It’s now after 10pm. Ash had a couple of calls to make after bridge and we didn’t get out of here until a little after 8pm. We went to the closest thing we could find which was open – there weren’t a ton of choices.

    It looked quaint enough but was pretty “fine dining” inside, although the prices were right. We got out of there with 3 courses each for just 50 Euro, total (including a bottle of sparkling water). That’s happened a lot on this trip, actually. Most restaurants seem to have the deals for several courses, and we’ve been surprised at how reasonably priced they’ve been. This was one of those times.

    Ash started with an avocado salad.

    My first course was cold cooked white asparagus with a dill sauce. I’ve eaten a ton of asparagus on this trip and at least half of it has been white. Must be the season.

    Ash had the fish for his main…

    …and I had the beef. That gravy was something else – really strong flavors especially peppercorn. It was wonderful.

    Ash’s dessert was supposed to be tiramisu – that in the little glass. Plus, some weird lime tart. We definitely liked mind better.

    Mine was profiteroles. I’ve only had this one other time; at a really nice place we ate at in Napa on our first trip together in February 2021. This was not as good as that but it definitely worked: cream puffs filled with vanilla ice cream and warm chocolate sauce over all of that. What could go wrong?

    And that was our day. Tomorrow we are making a stop in Orleans on our way back to Paris. We’re staying in a hotel near the airport for our last night, leaving Saturday morning. It’s been quite a trip! Almost done…

  • 2022 France: Day 11 – Chateau de Chenonceau and Royal de Blois

    2022 France: Day 11 – Chateau de Chenonceau and Royal de Blois

    This was our last morning in Montsereau. We were up by 6am and went out about 7am to find breakfast. We’d forgotten to notify the hotel we would be eating there and after our first experience there didn’t really regret that.

    It was 47 degrees this morning. You can see the mist from the cold coming off the river.

    We went to the same place as the prior morning for coffee and got pastries from two doors down. After a couple of coffees, we made our way back to the hotel, finished packing and checked out. We were on the road by 8:15 just like we wanted to be. After a stop for gas, we got to our destination right about 10am.

    Chateau de Chenonceau was originally built in the 1200s. It was torched as punishment for an act of sedition then rebuilt in the 1430s. It was sold again due to debt and bought in the early 1500s by Thomas Bohier and his wife Katherine Briconnet. They tore much of it down and started over, loving to entertain nobility, including King Francois I, who later seized it from the son for unpaid debts. It passed to his son, Henri II, who then gave it to his favorite mistress, Diane de Potiers, who happily turned it over to Queen Catherine de Medici upon the King’s death.

    There’s a lovely long walk leading up to it.

    It’s very castley.

    Although I admit at this moment, I was shocked and a little disappointed that the front tower wasn’t connected. That’s left over from the one built in the 1300s.

    One of the most unique things about this castle is the entire thing is built over a river, the Cher. Quite a construction feat for those times.

    There’s a beautiful chapel just off the entrance. The windows are modern, done in 1954.

    This long gallery Medici added. Being from Florence, she was inspired by Ponte Vecchio.

    It had what was considered a very modern kitchen for its time.

    King Louis XIV had a room here because, apparently, he had a room everywhere! I’ve lost count now. He got around.

    Same wing as the earlier gallery but one floor up.

    A beautiful mantle at the beginning of that gallery.

    Looking back across the front from the balcony.

    The main gardens.

    If the gardens above were 12 o’clock, this would be about 4 o’clock from where I was standing then.

    The galleries we were in earlier extending behind the castle. And you can really see here how the whole thing is over the river.

    The angle view of the gardens.

    We left here about 11:30 or so, moving on to the next stop of the day, the Royal Chateau in the city of Blois. Blois was a major arts center in the 1400s, and when Francois I became King, he established his first court here.

    We stopped for lunch at a little place outside the castle, sitting under those umbrellas. That’s a part of the castle there in the back on the left.

    We split a ham, cheese and mushroom crepe with salad, and fries.

    This castle doesn’t look like much from the outside, very untypical in that and other ways.

    The other thing that makes this untypical is it had 4 wings centered around a single courtyard, each built in a different architectural style. In the above photo you have Renaissance, specifically Italian, built between 1515-1519 by Francois I. Notice the outdoor staircase which I don’t believe I’ve ever seen, and we loved. On the left is French Classicism, built between 1635-1638 by Gaston of Orleans.

    This is the Flamboyant wing, built by Louis XIII between 1498-1508. At the very left edge of this photo, you see a small part of the small portion of the castle that’s Gothic from the 13th century.

    A lot of the first few rooms are dedicated to the castle history and restoration.

    From the inside of that outside staircase. Prety cool.

    One of the King’s halls.

    The other end of that hall.

    You can definitely see the Italian in this hall, and that harpsichord. It was made in 1572.

    The rest of that same hall.

    Another cool indoor/outdoor space.

    You can see the town just beyond the castle. Unlike the others that were on grand estates, this is literally the center of town.

    Some pretty vases. We would love one for our living room!

    Another huge hall, this built in the 1200s, in the Gothic portion of the castle.

    This is the staircase in the French Classicism wing. Really beautiful.

    The ceiling in the staircase.

    We were done here about 2:30pm. It took us about 90 minutes to get to our next stop, where we will be staying for the next 2 nights, because of some construction detours. The town is Salbris, population about 5000.

    The place is Chateau de Rivaulde. The first castle was built here in 1524, but this version is practically modern, built in 1902. It’s had an interesting occupancy history, including single families, summer camps, and turned into condos at one point. Ash’s current guess is it’s a senior living facility. He found it on Airbnb.

    This is the living room. I’m sitting at that desk to the left of the window as I type.

    This is the view out that window. (Except of course it’s dark at the moment!)

    The fireplace just to the left as you walk in.

    The bedroom in the corner. There’s a window facing the same front lawn…

    …and another facing a little patio below and lots of yard out back.

    Random aside: I’m impressed by how fast the Wi-Fi is here, much faster than the prior 2 places. At the last stay, we gave up and just used our cell phones as a hot spot.

    I tried to explore but there’s not much to see. In our wing there’s just a staircase with its own entrance from the front. This is through the front door. All of the doors have mirrors on them and are locked so you don’t get any sense of the rest of the house. Bummer.

    But the staircase is great!

    The back of the house.

    Nothing but open field behind it.

    Looking back up at our bedroom window which we left open, top right.

    Paul made himself at home quite quickly.

    Ash had an online bridge game at 5pm. I ran up to the supermarket to pick up a few things, then came back and worked on the blog while he finished his bridge game. We left around 7:30pm to go to dinner at a hotel on the other side of town (all of about a 10-minute drive).

    Domaine de Valaudran, another grand house turned hotel.

    Lovely restaurant.

    The amuse bouche was gazpacho.

    I had the snails as my first course, in a pea soup again. That seems to be a theme for this trip. But it was wonderful.

    Ash had a cold crab bisque.

    Ash’s main was scallops.

    I had the veal, this was wonderful.

    You got to pick the cheeses you wanted for the cheese course, which Ash got but I passed on.

    Ash had souffle for dessert.

    I couldn’t really tell what this was going to be from the description – in English even – but it was like a Napolean. Crisp wafers between layers of caramelized pecans and something like a vanilla pudding. Cold cooked pears on one side and a pear sorbet on the other.

    Ash spent most of his dinner dealing with a guest issue in San Francisco (where he runs an Airbnb if you didn’t know). But it’s all been resolved now so at least he’ll be able to sleep in peace. When we weren’t talking about that, we were talking about Chateau de Chambord where we will go tomorrow, our last stop on the castle run. Should be a great one.

  • 2022 France: Day 10 – Chateau de Villandry and Chateau d’Usse

    2022 France: Day 10 – Chateau de Villandry and Chateau d’Usse

    This might be one of the most beautiful posts I’ve done (out of 274 according to WordPress!). Not that I had anything to do with it. The scenery around here is just gorgeous.

    We both got up about 5:30am. This was the view out our window around 6am.

    Breakfast isn’t until 8am so we took Paul out for a long-ish walk. And were greeted with more beauty along the way.

    We came across a little place open at 7am so stopped for some coffee…

    …and sat outside enjoying the fresh air. No smokers around, yay! That’s the dark side to all this lovely outdoor seating over here.

    I mentioned the very narrow street in yesterday’s entry so decided to include a photo of it. And it’s not even one way. Thankfully we haven’t encountered anyone else on it yet as we’ve gone up and down.

    A lovely snippet of river between two buildings as we walked back to the hotel up that street.

    Breakfast was in caves. Literally. Caves built into the hillside of the hotel.

    We left around 8:45am, headed to our first stop of the day, Chateau de Villandry. It’s about a 30 minute drive east along the river.

    Chateau de Villandry was first built in the 1600s for the minister of finance of King Francois I. In 1906, it was purchased by a Spaniard and his American heiress wife, Dr. Joachim Carvallo and Ann Coleman, and they restored it to its former glory and improved on the garden. While the house is gorgeous, this stop is really all about the gardens.

    The front of the house.

    The courtyard. I love that brick on the ground. You toured the house entering on the right, the gardens on the left. We didn’t follow instructions and did the gardens first.

    You enter the house and move upstairs to be dumped onto this path which hovers around the gardens. See the landing over there on the right? That’s where I took the next photo.

    Spectacular. These rival Versailles and I think I actually like them better.

    There are many different sections with many different looks.

    A variety of fountains all over.

    A maze of course.

    There are also herb and vegetable gardens – cabbages in this photo.

    This was past the herb garden, I loved the look of this.

    The house was pretty simple as these things go, which made it sort of endearing – like you could see yourself living here. The Carvallos raised 6 kids here and the estate is still in the family, run by one of the great-grandchildren. (Or is it great-great? I forget…)

    Beautiful dining room.

    And an art gallery! Ash and I joke (often) about needing a house big enough for a gallery.

    At the end of the gallery was this room with an incredible ceiling.

    This was the top of the tower. There was a sign posted as you entered the stairs: “Difficult ascent and descent. Priority to the descent.” Meaning: enter at your own risk. For sure, it was the most catawampus staircase I’ve ever climbed.

    But we made it. See that little slit in the wall to the left of the door?

    This is the view into the courtyard from there.

    We left there after 11am and made a stop at a little shop in the village for a small bite to eat. The breakfast at the hotel was pretty simple and we didn’t eat a ton.

    The next stop was Chateau d’Usse. It dates back to the 11th century, but much of the version that remains today was built in the 1600.s Charles Perrault, who wrote the best known version of Sleeping Beauty, spent some time here and this castle was his inspiration for that telling.

    It was literally magical as we approached it, especially with all of the children around.

    There are lovely gardens built across the front of it, on the right there.

    Because you’d be disappointed if he didn’t….

    I do love this photo of Ash.

    This is looking back at the road that led up to it. When we first turned onto it and I saw this in the distance I literally gasped.

    The courtyard. As we were walking into it I may have gotten choked up a bit, can’t even explain why. Everything about this environment was just so breathtaking.

    That new wing which you can identify on the far right by the change in architecture is occupied by the current residents. Ownership last changed hands in 1883, when Count Bertrand de Blacas inherited it from descendants of the Duchess of Duras, who’d had it since 1807. It has remained in the Blacas family ever since, currently occupied by the Duke.

    The turret and tower on the left side does a whole Sleeping Beauty thing which was so for the kids but surprisingly fun.

    The rooms are decked out in images from the story.

    And of course there’s a prince at the end. You can see the whole thing here if you’re interested.

    I just loved the colors in the flowers at the entrance.

    This was actually on the other side of the castle. I refrained from taking too many photos since so much of this stuff starts to look alike. But this was unique: the little cubby the nobleperson sat in and was carried around the village in. They called it a sedan.

    We do love dining rooms and this was beautiful and elegant.

    The King’s Bedroom, named because Louis XIV would stay here when visiting, as well as other royalty from other places. The last royalty to stay here was an Emperor from Ethiopia, in 1971.

    If you’ve read a bunch about castles, you know the major ones all have their own chapels. This was built in the late 1800s.

    Simple but pretty.

    It was after 1pm when we were done and we were ready for lunch. We walked a little bit into the town and had lunch at the hotel restaurant.

    I loved the dishes here.

    Ash started with lentils….

    ….and I had a salad. That tower thing is layers of apple, beets and goat cheese.

    We both had the chicken, in a lovely gravy with balsamic mushrooms and a teeny egg soufflé. Wonderful.

    There's a beautiful old classic car in front, maybe from the 30's, with a driver leaning across the front door posing for me.

    We were sitting at that window on the right. I noticed people outside taking photos of the restaurant and I thought “I didn’t think it was that remarkable” and then I realized it wasn’t the building they were interested in. And then they all got in it and drove away! Must’ve been a special limousine service or something. (Hey, Pat – what kind of car is that?)

    We skipped a big dessert but had coffees and shortbread cookies.

    We got back to the room after 3pm. Ash took Paul out for a long walk. I got a nap in and started working on the blog. There were a lot of photos so I kept culling to get them down a reasonable number. Finished up until this point about 6pm. We will head out to dinner – just across the street – around 7.

    A photo of Paul which Ash took on their afternoon walk by the river.

    We went across the street – sidewalk really, it’s so narrow – to the restaurant we made reservations at earlier. When we pulled up from our earlier excursion – the parking lot here is the same as the hotel – they were setting up outside and we asked if we could get a table for tonight. They said they were full. Ash let them know we were guests of the hotel and then suddenly they had a table if we could come early, which was fine with us. Dinner is later in Europe than at home – not unusual for some to eat as late as 9pm. We were just fine with 7. (At home 5:30pm is not unusual!)

    Ash had scallops for his first course.

    I had a split pea soup with some bacon. As in yesterday’s meal, didn’t really have any idea what to expect. I knew I didn’t want salmon or foie gras so other than the scallops this was the only choice. We’d figured out it was soup just weren’t sure what. It was delicious. Good thing I love peas.

    Ash had the fish which was pike and he said it was great.

    I had the beef which had a great flavor but had a lot of fat and gristle. That said, it wasn’t an expensive meal so I’m not that surprised.

    Ash had a lovely chocolate thing for dessert.

    Mine was a spice cake with vanilla frosting, some whipped cream and a madeleine.

    We got back to the room a little after 9pm to take Paul out one more time.

    There’s a garden just past the restaurant we hadn’t noticed before.

    The sun was just starting to set behind the castle.

    I let Ash and Paul walk some more and came back up to finish the blog and secure tickets for 2 of the remaining castles we have planned, one for tomorrow and one for Thursday. And there’s one more we will probably go to, plus the one we are staying at tomorrow and Thursday night. This show is going to keep getting better so if you’re enjoying it, be sure to come back. The best is yet to come.

  • 2022 France: Day 9 – A lazy day by the Loire River

    2022 France: Day 9 – A lazy day by the Loire River

    I didn’t get up until about 7:30am, which is pretty late for me, but I’d stayed up the night before to get the blog finished. Ash had just left to take Paul out so I had a few minutes to get ready for the day by myself. We went down for breakfast when he returned around 8am. We weren’t in a hurry to get out – checkout was 11am – so we took our time with breakfast and packing and finally meandered out of there around 10:30am.

    The weather wasn’t great and wasn’t going to improve, plus many things are closed on Mondays so we weren’t even sure what we’d be able to do exactly. We’ve discovered that accuracy of internet information out in the country isn’t very reliable. We decided to drive by Chateau Montgeoffroy because it was like 10 minutes away in the direction we were headed so why not.

    But, alas, it was closed. So I snapped a couple of photos, above and below, and we moved on.

    We couldn’t check into our next place until 3pm so had plenty of time. We stopped around 11:45am for coffee at some random place just to kill some time. It was nothing to write home about, so much so I didn’t take a single photo. But the coffee was great.

    We decided to stop by Chateau Saumsur because we’d heard good things about it. But it, too, was closed. But you could still walk around the grounds and it was a great looking castle so we did. I love in this photo the grapevines in the front and the town sloping down on the right.

    It had an honest-to-god moat…

    …and an actual draw bridge.

    This is like the epitome of a castle. It was originally built in the 10th century, this version was constructed in the 12th century.

    Did you expect anything less at this point?

    The side view. It’s very “Wicked Witch of the West” don’t you think?

    We loved these vistas of the town of Saumsur.

    We got to our hotel just after 1pm so it was too early to check in. She directed us to just about the only restaurant in the area that was open today, just back down the street we’d driven up.

    We were so worried about whether or not it was actually a street because it was so narrow we’d never noticed the restaurant on the corner.

    The view out the windows of the restaurant – still on the river.

    It was a nice little place. And since it was the only place open, we came back for dinner and sat at that table just behind me – I was where the guy in the red shirt is now.

    The first course was gazpacho and some salmon over a carrot and ginger salad, as seen below.

    Second course was fish with some nice vegetables and a great sauce. Ash essentially had the same thing for dinner later; it’s a pretty limited menu. Both of these dishes were excellent.

    This is the wide part of the street (!) which took us back to the hotel.

    Hotel Le Bussy, we found it on Booking.com yesterday morning. Really reasonable rate and a cute location.

    That’s the parking lot I was standing in when I took the prior photo, with a chateau just behind us, Montsoreau.

    Charming lobby.

    Charming room. Small but pretty comfortable. We agreed these beds are more comfortable than the last place we stayed.

    Our view directly out the window…

    …and to the left, with the Loire River in the back there.

    The weather was temperamental all day. We took advantage of a bit of blue sky to take Paul out.

    Some of the town looking back from the parking lot.

    It’s a pretty wide river.

    I loved the pink wild flowers growing on the side of the row.

    And speaking of pink, these were growing outside someone’s wall as we walked back up to the hotel.

    At some point in the afternoon we went out in search of dog food for Paul. These are houses built into cliffs.

    This little bridge was a trip to driver over. Check out the short video below.

    We got back around 4:30pm and just relaxed in the room until it was time to go out for dinner again.

    As I said before, Ash had the same thing he had for lunch. So unlike him. He’d originally ordered the risotto for his main. I’d gotten this for my first course and when he saw it, he changed it to the fish. We were thinking something completely different, but this was definitely risotto, just in wild rice and a sauce we couldn’t quite identify. One thing about being in the country vs. Paris: nothing is in English out here, and the English of the locals isn’t very good, so sometimes you just punt. I wasn’t expecting all the ham on the side but if my French was better I might have known it was coming! This was interesting but not great.

    I had the duck for my main. Also interesting but not great.

    I had strawberry cheesecake for dessert – served in a bowl almost like a pudding, with the graham cracker crust at the bottom. It was good.

    Ash had chocolate cake with a warm filling and raspberry sorbet. This was very good.

    And that was our exciting day. Some driving, some eating, some walking around. And never went more than an hour up the river from where we were. It was just what we needed after spending a good 5 hours in the car each of the last 2 days.

    We have a couple of nice castles picked out for tomorrow, we will see if the weather cooperates. The forecast isn’t hopeful.

  • 2022 France: Day 8 – Mont Saint-Michel, Angers

    2022 France: Day 8 – Mont Saint-Michel, Angers

    I slept about 7 hours, up a little after 5am. I’d done nothing on the blog the night before except test the wifi here by uploading a few photos, so it took until about 7:30am to get the blog up. Ash was up about that time and we went downstairs for breakfast.

    They don’t have a permit to actually cook here so everything for breakfast is cold, or at least room temperature. We were amused that they have the same brand of jam out that we buy at home – a French label, Bonne Maman.

    But they had good coffee brewed on the right, with yogurt, cold meats and cheese kept cold on the left. All you need really.

    We were the first ones down and sat to the left of the window.

    After we took Paul for a walk in the woods, a different trail from yesterday.

    We walked to the edge of the property. There’s nothing but farmland around us.

    We took Paul back to the room and made our way to the one big thing for the day: Mont Saint-Michel. Ash had been here once in 2015 and loved it. He kept trying to figure out how to do this from Paris, but at 4.5 hours away it’s not a good day trip and there’s not much around to try to stay overnight. But as a day trip from the Loire Valley it’s much more doable. It was a 2.5 hour drive. It goes by fast to us. With Carplay on most rentals now, we just plug in my phone and we get easy navigation as well as our music. And in what was practically my car it wasn’t all that different from a road trip at home.

    We got here a little after 1pm. It was a long walk from the parking lot. This was just after we got started. You can see Mont Saint-Michel in the distance just to the right of center of this photo. Just to give you some scale.

    The obsession continues. In this case he didn’t actually touch it but if he could close is fingers down on that spire he would.

    Mont Saint-Michel is an island about 1 kilometer off the northwestern coast of France, on the Atlantic side, not the English Channel. The first monastery was built here around the 8th century. According to legend, the Archangel Michael visited Aubert of Avranches, the bishop of Avranches, around 708, and told him to built a church here. Hence the name. It has a complicated history, including being a prison after the French Revolution until 1863. It’s been a UNESCO heritage site since 1979 and gets about 3 million visitors a year – the 2nd most visited place in France after Paris.

    Closer and from a slightly different angle. I’m really glad we walked all the way to it because you really start to appreciate all of the details the closer you get and you get the sense of it being a full functioning town, which it is.

    One of the the first things you see up on entering the town at the base of the mount is a restaurant known for making the best omelet on the planet, so much so that it’s Michelin rated. Hence the line. We passed.

    But it was definitely lunch time so we found something a little ways down.

    It was after 2pm by now so the lunch rush was over, and we got a nice table in the corner by the entrance.

    Ash had an omelet here – it was definitely different but very good.

    I continued my French comfort food spree and got the beef bourguignon, with carrots and potatoes of course. It was ridiculously hot but very tasty.

    We made our way up to the abbey. Diagon Alley, anyone?

    I don’t remember what Ash was pointing at, this was my attempt to show the height of the climb. We were more than halfway up at this point but still a ways to go.

    I do love this view, despite the vertigo that instantly kicked in. See all those little people and that trail of them over the bridge? This is the way we came, all the way from the parking lots way in the distance at the top of the photo.

    What I love most about this photo is Ash’s tongue. He of course doesn’t even realizes he does that when he’s really concentrating.

    See what I mean? Not much around you.

    A full photo of the abbey from the top deck since we were blocking it earlier. What the abbey is best known for is 800 years of scribing manuscripts. And it’s still a working abbey. Since 2001, a Benedictine community, the order of the Monastic Fraternities of Jerusalem has been in residence here. Thet follow a rule based around 3 pillars: prayer, work, and community life.

    Looking over to my left into the bay and the Atlantic past that.

    I don’t know why I was so surprised at the size of this but I was.

    Looking to my left.

    And behind me after walking up the side.

    One of the side altars.

    It’s not an abbey without a courtyard, right?

    Ash photobombing the symmetry of the pillars surrounding the courtyard.

    The dining hall.

    And, of course, a statue of St. Michael slaying a dragon. As soon as I turned a corner and saw the sword raised from a side angle I knew what it was.

    Simple gardens.

    Looking back up at the abbey from the gardens.

    Outside of the window of the restaurant we ate at, a bird was sitting peacefully while all these people were gathered around it petting it. When we walked past it on our way out, the crowd was gone but the bird was still there. Or maybe it was a different bird, who knows. Still not something you see everyday.

    We’d decided early on we would walk to it but take the (free) shuttle back to the parking lot. And that was the right call on so many levels. These were cool vehicles: no front or back, really, but could be driven from either angle, so they never needed to actually turn around.

    We saw lots of white cows along the way, but this one was right on the side of the road looking right at us as we got close to home so couldn’t resist. We got back just before 7pm, took Paul out for a quick walk and then left again for dinner.

    Angers is the nearest big town by us so we moved in that direction, population about 160,000, about 20 minutes away.

    The Cathedral of St. Maurice originates from the 12th century. Much of this was built in the 1300-1400s.

    Behind me is a beautiful grand staircase leading up from the Loire River.

    This is a huge crucifix on the side of the church.

    Huge. Notice there are chairs in the back, and about halfway up it changes to pews. Sort of. (Some of us are having an ongoing Facebook discussion about this…)

    Small stained glass windows.

    A closeup of this magnificent altar. I haven’t seen anything like this since St. Peters at the Vatican.

    The cathedral, like most in Europe, is built in the shape of a cross. This is the top of it to the left of the altar.

    Not exactly pews. More like benches. With kneelers!

    I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a pulpit this big.

    Across the river you get a really beautiful few of the cathedral and an old fortress on the right.

    This was part of our view at dinner, the point of coming down here. Notice the rest of the fortress there on the left.

    There was a huge area where restaurants from across the street served their customers along the river.

    We started out with fun drinks – Ash a virgin mojito, me something called a Red Vanilla that was mostly different fruit juices but delicious.

    Ash had a salmon salad. (Shocking, right?)

    I had the fish and chips. OMG. These were perhaps the best I’ve Ever Had. And I love this dish and get it often to see how it’s done. That white on top of the fish? Salt. Perfect tartar sauce. Everything was crispy, salty, and greasy – but only in all the best ways.

    It was a very comfortable area and we enjoyed the evening a lot.

    One last photo of the church as the sun was setting on it.

    We were home about 10pm. Ash went straight to bed. I wanted to at least get the photos uploaded but turns out I’ve finished writing, too. I took this at 10:37pm just because those clouds looked so great. That had been my view earlier but now it’s course it’s completely dark. It’s after midnight and I’ll turn in as soon as I post this.

    Tomorrow we move to a new place up the river, making our way back to Paris, and will work in another castle or two. The next stop was going to be Bordeaux, another 4 hour drive south of here, but over breakfast this morning we decided there was no point in going all that way when there was plenty to see here. We booked something less than an hour away and in the right direction and all of that feels so much better. We have some amazing castles lined up for the rest of the trip so it should be fun.

  • 2022 France: Day 7 – Chateau Royal d’Amboise, Chateau de Briancon

    2022 France: Day 7 – Chateau Royal d’Amboise, Chateau de Briancon

    We were up early to help Jim get off to the airport and go pick up our rental. We were going to ride together in the Uber but it was a Toyota CH-R – first one of the day – and the driver had a bunch of stuff in his front seat. Ash and I decided it would just be more comfortable to take the subway, so we did that.

    We picked up the car, made our way back to the apartment to finish packing, and were on our way out when we realized we left Ash’s phone in the apartment. Locked. The host was already on her way so it didn’t delay us too much, and we finally were on the road around 10:20am.

    Soon after we’d met and I mentioned to Ash my love of castles on one of our early morning Paul walks, Ash said “well then we must go to the Loire Valley in France.” Which I’d never heard of but sure, sign me up! This is that trip.

    We found a brochure where we are staying that lays out your castle options in this region. Just a few to pick from. And the one we are staying at now isn’t even on the list so apparently this ain’t all of them.

    Our first stop was Chateau Royal d’Amboise. This is near the town of Amboise but not exactly it, although there is a quaint village that developed around the castle.

    We were navigated to this odd point, we thought, on some obscure side street, but itended up being a staircase down into the village.

    This is a castle on the Loire River owned by the d’Amboise family, until Louis d’Amboise was executed for plotting against King Louis IX in 1493 and the monarch confiscated it. It was a favorite of French Kings from then through Francois I.

    It was after 1:00pm at this point and I was starving. I’d been wanting crepes the entire trip and we found a place in the village.

    Ash got a salmon salad.

    I decided to use the half eaten photo of my crepe so you could see the inside: ground hamburger, potatoes, cheddar cheese. The crepe itself was amazing with that slight crispness on the outside. With that rich egg, this was comfort food and I loved every bite. Super satisfying.

    This is sort of the backside of the castle, but the first thing you see as you approach.

    The Loire Riiver.

    Ash touching the castle selfie.

    Continuing the series.

    I used panorama to get this shot, as well as several others below.

    What distinguishes a castle from a palace is that it’s built primarily with defense in mind. This was built high on a hill and you entered it through that walkway on the left, coming up from street level. It faced the river so couldn’t be attacked from that side.

    A family crest of sorts? I don’t know, I just like dragons.

    Another panoramic shot of the Guards Walkway.

    The Great Hall. There’s a throne right behind that left pillar.

    Cool stained glass window.

    The King’s Bedroom.

    The Music Room.

    Looking back to where we were standing when we took that selfie, on that tower in the center of this photo.

    Leonardo da Vinci had become a close friend of King Francois I who had so respected his work, and he lived out the last period of his life here, and is buried near here.

    We’d eaten under that 2nd group of umbrellas from the bottom up.

    The stairs we’d come down were at the end of the castle there on the left.

    The gardens weren’t extravagant but they were pretty.

    Looking back at the castle from the gardens.

    By the time we got back to the car it was close to 3pm and we made our way to our final stop for the day, another 1.5 hours away.

    This, by the way, is a Toyota CH-R. It’s what the Uber driver had, and is our rental for the week. And it’s the same car I bought in 2018, down to the color. This one is probably newer and is a hybrid but otherwise it’s like being at home.

    Welcome to Chateau de Briancon, where we are staying for 2 nights. This is in Loire-Authion, an area more than a town. I haven’t been able to find out about the history of this place yet since all of the brochures are in French so will have to work on that. We are definitely out in the countryside where English is not as used as it is in Paris. But it’s pretty, no?

    Grand staircase off the lobby. This is used now both as a hotel and as a respite for families with children with disabilities.

    Our room. It’s practically as big as the 3 bedroom apartment we had in Paris.

    We unpacked a little and took Paul out for a walk in the woods.

    He met a horse, and there’s a donkey about to come out of that shack in the back.

    Just beautiful.

    It’s very quiet, all you hear are birds and bugs.

    One of those times where the photo doesn’t quite capture it but I’ll remember what it looked like in real life!

    We relaxed a bit and headed out for dinner around 7:30pm.

    We found ourselves back along the river. Ash was excited to see the hot air balloon.

    This is the town of Loire-Authion.

    The receptionist has recommended this place as popular with the locals, it was across the street from that church.

    Le Cosy, another creperie.

    Ash’s selfie from across the street.

    We started with charcuterie which were simple but tasty.

    Ash had a salmon crepe.

    I had beef tartar, much better than the one I had in Paris last year. With potatoes – can you see the butter? – and a simple salad. Eating tartar always reminds me of eating my mother’s raw meat loaf!

    We split a caramel crepe for dessert that was so perfectly done. The high quality of the caramel was amazing.

    The blue dot places us near the northwest edge of France.

    I grabbed a screen shot of the map to give you an idea of where we are.

    We missed getting a table with this view so took it in before we left.

    The sunset out our window back at the chateau.

    We were both exhausted by the time we got back and went straight to bed. It’s approaching 7:30am Sunday morning. We will eat breakfast here then head to Mont Saint-Michel for the day.

  • 2022 France: Day 6, Paris – Part 4: Le Cordon Bleu, & some ring activity at Sacre Coeur

    2022 France: Day 6, Paris – Part 4: Le Cordon Bleu, & some ring activity at Sacre Coeur

    We woke up to a much cooler apartment and that made for a better night’s sleep than the night before. It probably never got above 70 today and finally rained some so we were very happy with the change in weather.

    Ash took Paul out and came back with croissants, I got yesterday’s blog up. We headed out a little after 10am for the big event of the day, a cooking class at Le Cordon Bleu.

    Ash, Jim, and Shirley took a class here last Friday on sauces. That class was 4 hours, this was just about 2 hours. And in case you’ve never heard of it, here’s the tagline from its website: “Founded in Paris in 1895, Le Cordon Bleu is considered today the largest network of culinary and hospitality schools in the world with more than 35 institutes in 20 countries and 20,000 students of over 100 nationalities are trained every year.”

    The class fee entitled us to free coffees from their cafe so Ash stood in line for us. They were pretty good, too.

    The requisite selfie once we got in the kitchen.

    The layout was pretty impressive. Everyone got aprons, a cleaning cloth, a hat, menus to try what we made here at home, with your own stove….

    …and your own workspace behind you, with a refrigerator below that you shared with your neighbor.

    Today the class was 2 vegetarian dishes.

    Now, one could argue that this was just another selfie once we donned our stuff. But, notice our slightly conspiratorial expressions. What’s true is it’s a ruse…

    …because what we really wanted was a photo of the guy across from us. Let’s just say the photo doesn’t do him justice, but we noticed him when we were walking over from the subway and couldn’t believe it when he crosses the street and we’re all coming to the same place.

    The chef was the guy in the big hat in the middle there, and to his right was Isra, the translator. The woman on the left was one of the school’s students who was super helpful.

    The 1st course we did was a creamed asparagus dish. I was so caught up in it all I never thought to take a photo. The 2nd course was a carrot dish, clearly. This was just after I dumped fresh ginger and turmeric in it.

    We learned some simple tricks that will be easy to apply at home. Like the one shown here: making a paper lid from parchment paper, which allows it to keep cooking while slowing down the evaporation process so you’re left with a glaze.

    This was the finished product as plated by the chef. The round things are fresh rice cakes.

    He also spent a fair amount of time talking about “the perfect egg” which, according to Le Cordon Bleu, is one steamed at 63 degrees Celsius (145.4 Fahrenheit) for an hour. The result is the perfect coagulation of the egg white….

    …and a creamy yoke without overcooking either. Not exactly something you can easily repeat at home!

    They kept pushing for photos with the chef so it seemed rude not to :) Here the main chef has a pretty high status.

    This was essentially the only good view of the Eiffel Tower I’ve had all week. The school was just a few blocks away. I zoomed 5x so a little grainy.

    Ash taking a photo of me taking that photo.

    Since Ash went to 2 classes here we have lots of bags! You brought all the food home with you. I emptied them while Ash took Paul out and we headed out again soon after he returned.

    We were headed back to Sacre Coeur. This was our 3rd time here in this quest to get us some rings. We’ve been talking about it for awhile. Ash didn’t want to spend a lot of money on them because he wants to wait until we go to India together where we can get nice rings of high quality gold for very cheap. So we’ve been looking for about 6 months. At any rate, on my first day here he brought me up here to look at some he’d found. But of course they had to make them in our sizes. We went back yesterday and brought Shirley with us. She bought lots of stuff from that jeweler as gifts for her kids. But we were early and the guy wasn’t there, which is why we spent so much time up there just walking around and eating French fries and ice cream (read yesterday’s blog!) When he finally got there after 6:30pm, the rings weren’t ready even though that was the time we agreed on Sunday and Ash had called the day before to confirm. He swore they would be ready this afternoon. And they were. Three’s a charm.

    We took the funicular up to Sacre Coeur. We’ve walked by it a bunch on this trip but never actually to it.

    It really is a great looking church. I was in it once in 2014 and the inside is just OK, and you can’t take photos. So we didn’t go in.

    And you get a great view of the city from there.

    We sat down on the steps to just enjoy the view for a bit and had a little conversation about what the rings meant to us.

    The short version of that conversation is what we posted on Facebook when we got home: “We asked each other and he said ‘yes.’”.

    It was feeling like some serious rain was coming so we quickly got out of there and came back to the apartment. We used the subway a lot today again.

    We hadn’t really eaten anything since that croissant earlier this morning and it was now about 3:30pm. Ash heated up some of the food we brought home: in this case the cream of asparagus with some peas, and the rice. He added mushrooms. This may not look like much but it was tasty and satisfying.

    It’s now coming up on 6pm. He’s about to finish his online bridge game, I’m caught up with his along with bill paying, etc. We’ll go out for dinner later and I’ll finish up then.

    We went out again about 7:30pm and ended up around the corner at JJ Beaumarchais. Ash had been here once before and really liked it. He called earlier for a reservation and they were booked, but decided to stop by anyway. They said they could seat us outside if we liked. Since we had Paul, it was perfect. And it was cold relative to the rest of the week – had cooled down to 63 that with a breeze felt much colder. I’d worn jeans for the first time all week, and a hoodie. Ash went back for his beany which is why he’s not in this photo. You can see Paul bottom right next to our table. This place, by the way, is ranked like 55 out of 15,000 restaurants in Paris on TripAdvisor. And very well priced as these places go, which is probably part of its high ranking.

    Let’s see how I do tonight on remembering ingredients. This was tuna sashimi, that white stuff was garlic I think. At any rate, it was a great start.

    A spring salad they called it with a surprise in every bite: peas, black beans, pickled red onion, green strawberries, pine nuts, feta cheese. And a green sorbet of some kind. Very tasty.

    Perfectly cooked haddock (white fish) and I don’t remember what else.

    Paul keeping vigil. It’s amusing to watch people’s reactions to him as they pass.

    Almost like a bbq pork, definitely grilled yet a cumin flavoring, bits of raw purple cauliflower again (had that last night). It definitely worked. They got this course wrong with Ash – twice. When they’d asked about things to stay away from I said beef and pork for Ash. The regular server initially sat this down in front of him and then the head guy ran out and quickly switched it with veal. We were like “what, again?” (See Wednesday’s entry for more on that….) They finally brought octopus, cooked exactly the same way my pork was. I might’ve liked it better. Both were excellent.

    The inside was warm and cozy and definitely packed.

    Let’s see: a caramel mousse over lemon sorbet on top of fresh strawberries and rhubarb on graham cracker wafers. Lots going on here. Sweet, tart, cold, smooth, crisp and crunchy.

    Vanilla gelato on an almond cake with cherries and a hazelnut puree and hazelnuts, too.

    A regular coffee for me and a noisette for Ash. We were joking about: Europeans who come to America must be really disappointed at the coffee they get with/after dessert if this is what they’re used to.

    It is after 10:30pm, Ash is already in bed. Tomorrow morning we take Jim to the airport – Shirley left today – and while we’re there we pick up our car and head out for a week of castle-hopping. Should be a fun ride!

  • 2022 France: Day 5, Paris, Part 3 – La Defense, more great food

    2022 France: Day 5, Paris, Part 3 – La Defense, more great food

    This entry is for Thursday, May 19. I’d gotten into this groove of working on the blog late afternoon/early evening then finishing it up just before bedtime and liked the way that was going, but it just wasn’t happening yesterday.

    A bit about the weather here this week, which has been unseasonably warm, highs 85-90. This is my 4th time in Paris – first time in May, last two times in August, and I don’t remember it ever being this warm. And I’m not imagining that: average high in May is 69, and 79 in August. Plus it’s been humid to boot, most days a forecast threatening rain although it hasn’t really. The point is: most things don’t have AC because they typically don’t need it. So we’ve really felt it here and the nights have been a little uncomfortable because this apartment really only has windows on the living room side, and the bedrooms get pretty stuffy.

    But we’ve lived. Thursday was a good 10 degrees cooler and it was nice all day. Ash and I went out about 9:30am to head to La Defense, the business district built in the 80’s and 90’s about 10 kilometers east of us.

    We rode more subways today than we have in awhile. Ash’s attempt to shake this guy’s hand.

    The train station over here is huge and modern, and connected to a full on mall.

    An interesting tunnel.

    And at least one side of the mall.

    The other side of the courtyard had more mall – see the Westfield logo center. There are 224 stores here and a movie theater with 24 screens. Nothing like this in the city center, that’s for sure.

    This is the Grande Arche de la Defense, the point of this trip.

    Here’s the best one yet.

    A decent staircase leading up to the first level.

    We went up to the observation deck which gave a fun view of Paris. See the Eiffel Tower over to the right. (It’s got scaffolding on it if the shape doesn’t look quite right.) And down that straight line on the left is the Arc de Triomphe – the straight line continues! – although difficult to see in this haze.

    There was a whole rooftop experience up here.

    Including a deck where Ash says they hold fashion shows.

    The other side of Paris. On a clear day you can see Versailles.

    These chairs were very comfortable and we sat here for awhile.

    It was 74 degrees, a light breeze blowing, and it felt wonderful after a not great sleep in stuffy air. Pretty sure I slept a little here, but for sure it was the most relaxed I’d been on this trip yet.

    I zoomed some to try to capture the Arc but it’s still pretty hazy. It’s essentially where the road stops in the photo. (If of course continues as the Champs Elysees, you just can’t see that here.)

    There’s also an exhibition hall that was showing a photographer’s work of landscapes and peoples from Nepal, Bhutan, and Tibet mainly. It was really beautiful and we were glad to see it.

    We came back to the apartment and met Jim and Shirley at Korus. This is now the 3rd restaurant we’ve been to on this block, and the 3rd time they’ve been to this one.

    It’s a lovely space where they’ve gotten to know the staff and the owner.

    This was another price fixed meal with 7 courses. A bread course to start. The balls on the left are pastry that somehow tasted like a ham sandwich, parmesan toast above that, with some very light bread sticks and an aiolio on the right.

    This was probably my favorite bite of the meal. A potato soup in coconut milk with clams and white garlic oil. Every bite was a surprise in taste and texture.

    I wish I had a good memory for ingredients! I don’t remember what was in that bowl but it was interesting and tasted great. And of course asparagus and an egg.

    For this course we had choices. Everyone else went for the fish which was John Dory again. I went for this – pigeon – and so glad I did. It was my 2nd favorite bite of the meal. The pigeon was cooked perfectly – sort of a cross between duck and veal, a really nice flavor and texture. Those are artichokes that were grilled and had an amazing flavor. With a simple arugula salad.

    This was probably my least favorite bite of the meal – too bad for dessert. It had ginger in it which made it a bit too savory for me and just didn’t work for me. And I love me some ginger – a ginger cookie is one of my faves – but there was something off in this for me.

    This was a nice finish: a bite of lemon meringue without the crust.

    We were back at the apartment around 3pm and went out again around 5pm. We headed back up to Montmartre to do some shopping and spent the next several hours going in and out of shops and finding different things to snack on (somehow we still had room for food).

    We spent a fair amount of time on this corner just doing the Paris thing: hang out on a sidewalk people watching.

    We shared 3 dishes – crepes with chard, gazpacho (Ok that was mostly me) and really good French fries.

    We also found a Lebanese ice cream place…

    whose specialty was ice cream coated with chopped pistachios, which you can see in the bin there in the center. We all shared a small cup just to try it out. It was OK :)

    We went to the D’Orsay -another 20 minutes subway ride away – because Shirley wanted to get some things from the gift shop. We found a place for dinner sort of near there on an app Ash found called The Fork which was like Open Table but offered lots of discounts. In this case 30%.

    The front room off the entrance was full so we were the first ones seated in here, and were alone for quite a while which we liked. It wasn’t as stuffy or as loud.

    Ash was not wild about his food so I’m only including mine. This was a pea soup with a crazy amount of garlic in it, and that top piece is bacon. It was actually really good.

    I’ll admit this was one of the weirdest things I’ve had in awhile and not sure it worked. Cod on a bed of something warm but pudding-like that neither me or Shirley could identify, kind of bland. With some roasted white cauliflower as well as raw purple cauliflower. And that brown stuff on top was a kimchi puree that overpowered everything else. Sometimes you win, sometimes you don’t. Good thing it wasn’t that pricey with the discount!

    We were super tired by this time – approaching 9:30pm which is late for us – so we just took an Uber back to the apartment. I essentially went straight to bed which is why I’m just now writing this.

    It’s about 7:30am Friday morning. The big event of the day will be a cooking class as Le Cordon Bleu. Should be fun!

  • 2022 France: Day 4 – Paris, Part 2: lots of walking and a great lunch

    2022 France: Day 4 – Paris, Part 2: lots of walking and a great lunch

    Usually it’s the 2nd night of the trip when I don’t sleep well at all, but this time it was the 3rd. I went to bed around 11pm, had trouble both getting and staying asleep. Woke up pretty solid around 4:20am and by 5am it was clear I wasn’t going back to sleep so I got up and made some coffee.

    Here’s a photo from the day before that I forgot to include:

    This car got towed just outside the Thai restaurant we were at. I didn’t get up in time to catch this but that crane on the back had swung over so the guy could put the cables on the wheels, the lifted the whole thing up and over. I caught it just as it was placing down on the truck. Pretty wild.

    Anyway, Ash and I took Paul out this morning for his walk, went down some new streets I hadn’t been on before, learning more about the neighborhood. We went back to the apartment to drop him off then went out for a longer walk around 9:30am.

    This is Lenotre, the patisserie we went to Monday evening but it was closed.

    Really beautiful stuff. Desserts on this side….

    …breakfast pastries over here.

    Who doesn’t need a macaroon tree?

    We both got cafe au laits and I got a croissant, my first proper one of the trip.

    We went back to the Bastille to walk along the canal to the Seine.

    Lots of houseboats along the canal.

    Very cool houseboat with lots of greenery on it.

    We turned right at the river and headed towards the Louvre. It’s hard to walk by Notre Dame, even in the distance, without snapping a photo.

    I’ve been in the Louvre on each of my 3 prior trips, and still have a lot to see. But I decided early on that for this trip I didn’t need to be “in” it, I just wanted to go “to” it, because I so love this atmosphere. This is truly one of my favorite spots on the planet (so far).

    Selfie of us with Ash posing his fingers over the top of the pyramid at the Louvre.

    Ash continuing his “touch the top of it” selfie series…

    I mean, just look at it? If you don’t know the story, this was the royal palace before Versailles. So the building is a beautiful as art in its own right even if Egyptian antiquities are not your thing! Still lots to see. But today I just wanted to be out in it. It’s a miracle I managed to capture that shot without a single vehicle in the road.

    I took this photo standing on a concrete block, then turned around to take the one below.

    A Brandenburg Gate sort of replica, but the point of this photo is really way in the distance. If you look far through the arch you see the obelisk at Place de la Concorde, the Arc de Triomphe behind that, with the Champs Elysees in between. That’s 3.5 kilometers or a little over 2 miles of a beautiful straight line. Ok, I’m a geek.

    A minute’s rest before we moved on. It was coming up on 11am about this point so we started making our way back since we had a lunch date at 12:15pm.

    This is St. Eustache, built between 1532-1632.

    Some of the big masses typically held at Notre Dame, like for Easter, have been held here since the fire.

    Beautiful windows. And chairs again instead of pews.

    And a massive organ.

    This is where we had lunch reservations: Qui Plume La Lune, a Michelin-starred restaurant just a few feet past the Thai place we were at the night before.

    We were the first ones here around 12:20 but it was pretty full by the time we left.

    Meet our lunch dates. I met Stephanie at Disability Rights California in 2015. She’s the payroll manager there and has been there 20 years or so. We had a great working relationship and have become friends since I left. She’s with her son, Jordan. They just came in from a few days in London yesterday, are here for a few days and then off to Rome. We’d had her over for brunch about 6 weeks ago and figured out then that we would all be here about the same time so made plans to meet up. I love it when that happens.

    This was part of a first course, one for each of us: a soft boiled egg with soft mozzarella and herbs. You scooped it all out with a teeny spoon. It was still warm and had a lovely rich texture and flavor.

    These also came with the first course. I couldn’t begin to describe what’s on the left. Pretty though, huh? And very surprising flavor. Actually, that became a theme of this meal: huge bursts of flavor when you weren’t expecting it. The round balls were said to be brioche but had a pretzel sort of flavor and texture, especially with the salt on the outside. But they were great with the herbed butter.

    White asparagus, cooked perfectly, and I don’t remember what else was on here except for the green strawberry which was wonderfully tart.

    Fresh peas, baby asparagus and a white fish called John Dory (or Jaune Dore, in French, or Poisson St. Pierre in French – St. Peter’s Fish). It was a lovely mild fish and the whole dish worked great together.

    I’m generally not a fan of foie gras but this was amazing. The top crispy part gave a bacon-like experience while the soft part still made you feel like your arteries were hardening as you were eating it. Not entirely a bad thing. That butter and au jus reduction made that much better. And that red thing was a sort of tart macaroon that just exploded in your mouth as soon as you closed down on it.

    There was a delicious veal course after this that I’d neglected to take a photo of. When the waiter first greeted us, he asked us if there was anything we couldn’t eat. Jordan is allergic to shellfish, and Ash said no beef. So we were a bit surprised when he sat the veal down in front of Ash. Ash says “oh, I’m sorry, remember I said no beef?” The waiter says “it’s not beef, it’s veal.” I said “it’s still cow.” Maybe it was a language barrier but it took longer than it should have for him to get it, although he seemed quite embarrassed when he finally did. In his mind it was red meat vs. white meat. But it’s still all cow. At any rate, he brought Ash two lovely pieces of seared tuna that were very tasty so all worked out in the end.

    Lots of cheeses and a great jelly to be eaten with the bread in the background….

    …along with a simple salad served as the palate cleansers.

    Essentially 3 desserts. The one on the left was my favorite, maybe everyone’s: a mix of vanilla and chocolate mousses with some crumbles and a wafer. On the right more vanilla on top of a pea emulsion – for figure for dessert – but it worked well.

    Three final bites, each as different as the next: lichee, chocolate, and a passion fruit cream puff.

    What an amazing lunch. We all went back to our apartment and loaded Stephanie and Jordan up with some cheeses that we were never going to finish since they’ve got a few more days here in an Airbnb. They left around 3:15pm and Ash and I left soon after to walk off lunch.

    Ash took us into this art gallery that our Airbnb host had recommended, close to where she lives, still in the Marais. As we walked into this, the main gallery, I whispered loudly to Ash “this is the kind of art we make fun of” and he loudly whispers back “I know.”

    Although this piece and several others like it were detailed enough to be considered art in this critic’s opinion.

    A lovely random park just out walking around.

    We got back about 5:30pm. Ash played a game of online bridge. I played some of my games while working on the blog – the photos here are taking awhile to load so I have to do it in stages. I had it done up to this point by 8pm when we went out again for dinner.

    It’s coming up on 10:30pm and we’re back!

    We ended up at Eataly in the Marias, a good walk from our apartment but definitely doable. Ash had eaten at one in NYC but we don’t have them at home so that doesn’t make it off limits! We rarely eat anywhere we could eat at home while traveling.

    The only thing about all that outside seating is the smokers. It was difficult to bear at points. But we survived!

    I had the pasta of the day which was a beef Bolognese and quite good.

    Ash had a salmon salad that came with a healthy amount of burrata – the white cheese you see. It’s like a mozzarella but creamier.

    And brings us to the end. We have some plans for tomorrow but are also keeping it loose, willing to wait and see what we feel like doing when we get up. So I guess we’ll all find out tomorrow….