France Travel Journal, Part 4 (or is it 5)

Posted on | July 22, 2008 |

So, here we are again. I hope you’re not bored with the journal. I’m trying to keep some of the details in, while sharing with you some of the fun we had. Today I will tell you about our trip to the Burgundy and Provence regions of France!

On Monday, we checked out of our hotel and got a taxi to the Charles De Gaul Airport. We had reserved a car with Avis, since they are nice enough to have automatic transmissions on some of their rentals (DH doesn’t drive a stick!) and we didn’t want to drive in Paris. (An aside - driving in Paris is truly taking your life in your own hands. Those crazy scenes in the movies? They don’t hold a candle to it! I’ve included this video I found on YouTube, because it’s the closest I could get to the feeling of being there.

Another thing in France: they like their mopeds and bicycles. And they like riding bikes and mopeds by weaving in and out of the car traffic. Seriously, folks, it’s nuts! But I guess if you’re smoking 3 packs of cigarettes a day, risking your life for your daily commute is nothing. Something cool that is coming to the US, I hear, is a rental bike program. In Paris they even had this cool Velib system where people could rent bikes for a nominal fee. We ate at one restaurant twice because it was right next to a Velib “station” and we were fascinated by people renting and returning the bikes. I know, we’re lame.

OK. Back to the trip. We rented a Citroën C4 Picasso (a Picasso!), a French-made car. It was comfortable to sit in, large enough for our luggage, and it was compact enough to fit in with all the other compact French vehicles. It was easy to drive, once we figured out that it had different controls than our cars here in the US. But again, it was fairly easy. We had a portable GPS with us throughout our trip, but especially for this part.

Painted door at Cote St. Jacques

It was a very rainy day (as were most of them in the north of France!), but we got on the road with smiles on our faces, ready for some time in the country. We drove to Joigny in Burgundy. It was about two hours from the airport and it was easy highway driving. We had reservations at a Chateau called Le Cote St. Jacques. Upon entering the street where the Chateau was located, we were a bit surprised. We expected more of a castle-like appearance; however it was on a street. Our concerns quickly were allayed when we walked into the reception area. We were in the “old” part of the hotel, on the side away from the river, since the rooms were significantly less expensive on that side. Our room was astounding! After being in a small box in Paris, moving to a hotel room where we had a king-sized bed, a TV with British and American news channels, a huge closet (with hand-painted doors - see right), a real shower and tub and even a bidet was amazing. The decor was lovely and relaxing in yellow and green - nice French Country decor.

We had made reservations for dinner at a little restaurant in Auxerre, called Le Jardin Gourmand. We had read about it in Frommer’s and we were absolutely thrilled with the dinner. Our meal was fabulous, and really, considering that we had five and six courses and Dave’s were paired with French wines, it was not that expensive at all. The service was impeccable. They worked with my allergies, and the food was still tasty and elegant and gourmet. Olivier Laplaine, the co-owner and manager, served our meal and told us why each thing was on the plate (I felt like we were judges on Top Chef!). All the vegetables were grown in their organic garden on the property there around the restaurant. And Pierre Boussereau, the chef/co-owner even came out to say hello and to make sure we enjoyed our meal. Before we left, Oliver wanted to be sure we knew of the sites in Burgundy, so he brought out a map for us and showed us what our route for the next day should be. It was a lovely way to end our first day in Burgundy.

Abbey in Auxere, France

We slept a bit late, since Dave had five glasses of wine with his dinner (don’t worry - I drove back to the hotel!) and we were just glad to have slept somewhere out in the country. The Burgundy region is filled with Medieval castles, abbeys and cathedrals. We were excited to be able to see them and to wander the streets. As we drove, I took photographs of the countryside and some of the buildings so I would have them as inspiration later. We got a late start, but headed out to Auxerre again to see the Abbey and the Cathedral. There was a lot of walking and it was a Tuesday. Why is that relevant? All museums and paid attractions are closed on Tuesdays. So, bummer. We didn’t get to see some of the original 15th Century frescoes. I guess we’ll have to go back some time!

Basicica Mary Magdaline, Vezelay, France

We then went to Vezelay, a Medieval town that has the Basilica of Mary Magdeline and is a spot for many pilgrimages. It is located at the top of the mountain, and I was determined to make it to the top to get some photos. We had lunch and then made our way up. We stopped in some of the shops along the way, picked up a few souvenirs and some great tourist information. It was a lovely day, really. We headed home after visiting the Basilica.

Joigny, France

We were quite tired upon our return to Joigny and we were not in the mood for a big dinner again - one six-course meal per week is more than our share! And so we checked with the staff at Le Côte St. Jacques, and they were able to make up a room service dinner for us from their critically acclaimed restaurant. We enjoyed the quiet evening and unwound. The next morning we were to drive to Provence, so we had a big day of driving ahead of us and we wanted an early start.

The next morning we ate petit dejuner (breakfast) at the hotel. It was a lovely setting - a beautiful view of the river and the gardens behind the chateau. Dave had an omelette, and I had the most amazing samun fume (smoked salmon) that they made right there in the hotel. I will never be able to eat the packaged smoked salmon from my local grocery store again! It was quiet in this part of the chateau and we were glad to have a quiet breakfast after a week of crazy loudness in the Paris petit dejuner room!

We headed out on our long trip to Aix in Provence. We had reservations at a Latin Bistro at 7 pm that we hoped to make. We set off on the road, ready with lots to talk about and our GPS to guide us - or so we thought. The GPS was not always able to find satellites, which was quite frustrating, as she’d lose satellites for the rest of the trip when we needed her most! But that’s travel and technology for you! We stopped several times and switched drivers.

One interesting thing about France is their rest stops. They are either really nice or not nice. Let’s start with the quick stops, where they just have a spot to walk, and bathrooms. The women’s bathrooms were, um, interesting. They were literally a hole in the ground with two porcelain “foot spots” for you to lean over the hole. Let’s just say that trying to squat with a balance problem is more problematic than it is for others. Thank goodness the French have handicapped bathrooms I could use. Sheesh! Now for the nice: The rest stops often have spots for coffee (they even advertise them with a coffee cup on the road’s “services” signs, along with gas and food!). We figured it was like a Starbucks kind of thing - paper cups to leave with. Not so. In France, they truly do take their cafe seriously! We were surprised to see real cups and saucers with our espressos! It made for a good way to take a break and get the energy to get back in the car for a while.

Sculpture of Cezanne, Aix en Provence, France

And we were in the car for a while. Over 5 hours of driving and we made it to our hotel, a Novotel. The service was quite nice there and the rooms were air conditioned. We brought in our luggage and headed out to our reservations. Dave was driving, since the long day on the road got to me and my energy was waning. Our GPS was somewhat helpful, but parking in Aix is not easy, and we didn’t know they had parking garages. We drove around for a long while, and ended up in the midst of a shopping area, where, upon cobblestone streets, people were walking without a care of the car coming to them. Now we weren’t the only ones on this road, but we were in the lead of at least two other cars and it was, well, an adventure! All the time, we were on the lookout for a parking space. We ended up parking about .75 km from our restaurant. By the time we parked, though, I was exhausted and we decided to head back to the hotel for an early night. No Le Bistro Latin for us.

Le Marche, Aix en Provence, France

The next morning we went back into town and there was a street marche (market) which was a ton of fun. It was on what Frommer’s calls the prettiest street in Europe. I had fun at the market. They had some things for 5Є each and I found a few tops that I had to have. Dave looked, but was unsuccessful. They had lovely French textiles and fun hats and some crafts.

We stopped in a cafe for a quick cup of espresso and then headed back to the car where we embarked upon the final part of our trip - the drive to Nice. And I will tell you about that in the next installment of the France Travel Journal!

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