As we started out of the airport rental car lot, the Parisians gave us a warm welcome – in typical Paris fashion, the taxis were all on strike, blocking traffic and slowing all progress on the highways. I may never take a taxi in Paris again!We started our tour by driving north-west first to Giverny (Claude Monet's home and site of many of his paintings),then continued north to Normandy and the D-Day landing beaches. In Giverny, we discovered a small town full of old houses and gardens, a museum of American artists (so many of them spent time there and were influenced by Monet), as well as the home of Claude Monet and museum dedicated to his work.
All around were examples of Monet's paintings: the waterlily pond and Japanese bridge, the fields of wildflowers, the hills and blue sky... all that was missing was Madame Monet and the children.
An overnight stop en route to the northern coast was the quiet beach town of Trouville (straight out of Maupassant’s “Pierre et Jean”), where we enjoyed dinner at a Cuban restaurant during the Euro 2008 match (France-Italy) and a short but chilly walk on the beach and around the small town.
Following our itinerary, we continued on to Arromanches. This is the town where the British built a floating port and docks that would allow them to support the D-Day landings. The museum (Musee du Debarquement) shows a model of the original port, pictures of the delivery and setup of the floating docks, and the story of how it was built. There is also a film about the days surrounding D-Day and the landings. In addition, there are displays dedicated to each of the nations involved in the landings - eleven countries in all: Canada, Belgium, Denmark, Czechoslovakia, US, UK, Norway, Poland, New Zealand, Australia, Greece. http://www.normandy1944.com/
The next stop of course was the cemetery. There are several cemeteries in the area, for the different nationalities, but we visited the American one. One of the first impressions I had, in the museum before entering the cemetery, was that the museum guards all spoke English very well. They had evidently been trained in American English, not only for basic expressions but for conversation as well. There was an American manager at the museum conversing with the guards, helping them with their English at the same time. I was very impressed at the efforts.
Outside in the cemetery, there were headstones that stretched all the way to the cliffs and into the surrounding treeline. Most of the stones are Christian crosses, but there are a few Jewish stars as well. (I didn't see any other symbols.) The pictures speak for themselves.
I noticed there were several groups of children there, and I realised it is the perfect place to being young people... if young people, or politicians, or military commanders could see how many graves are left behind after a war, perhaps they would think twice about going to war, perhaps they would come up with other solutions.
As we continued our drive along the northern coast, we stopped for the night in St Malo, a walled city overlooking the Gulf of St Malo. We toured the old city and took a long stop for dinner in one of the many seafood restaurants along the city walls. I highly recommend a great little hotel outisde the city walls, the Hotel Beaufort: http://www.hotel-beaufort.com/
On a foggy morning, we approached the abbey of Mont St Michel, watching it grow and become clearer as we drove around the sheep pastures and local markets along the route. The abbey is on a hill in a tidal bay, which floods and recedes at great pace. As a UNESCO world heritage site and major tourist destination, it is always crowded among the shop-lined narrow cobblestone paths leading up and down the mount to the abbey at the peak.
I don’t think we need to talk about the huge stupid mistake we made…
confusing diesel and unleaded fuel and spending half a day and a lot of money getting the car fixed.
Finally we arrived in the Loire valley and the chateau region. On my fifth or sixth visit to the area, I am still not tired of it! We visited Leonardo da Vinci by stopping by at the Chateau d’Amboise (where he worked for King Francois 1) and his home, Clos Luce. We visited two of my favourites, Chenonceau and Chambord, where we toured through the interior rooms and exterior gardens.
I had to wonder, as I noticed the changes over the years, if the chateaux are trying to become more user-friendly or if they are dumbing down the information presented to the tourists. Anyway, there were plenty of tourists and good maintenance at each chateau.After two days in the Loire valley, we continued south to Bordeaux. Here we stayed in our first B&B, in this case a studio apartment at the home of a nice family on the outskirts of the city. We spent the evening discovering the city of Bordeaux, walking along the promenade near the river, and exploring the winding streets of the old town. Dinner once again included crepes and wine at a local café, as we made the most of our Tour de France to sample local cuisine everywhere!
Our host family arranged for a few visits to big and small vineyards, as we drove through the regions of Pauillac, Medoc and Margaux. We started at Chateau Pontet-Canet (Pauillac), a neighbour to the Rothschild vineyards. We sampled several big name reds and toured among the vines and barrels.
Later in the day we visited a family-run vineyard, Chateau ReVerdi (Listrac), where we sampled both reds and whites, and learned more details about winemaking and the business. My education continues!
As our tour turned toward the south and east we took a side-trip to Carcassonne, another walled city and another one of my old favourites. It has been a long time, but I remember it as being a magical place, where I toured the fortress walls, met locals in the side streets, and found a quiet café to write postcards.
This time, I thought Disney had taken over! I was very disappointed with the influx of tacky tourist shops, crowded streets and poor display of information. I had described this great place to my travel mate and looked forward to showing off another treasure of France, but ended up very disappointed. We didn’t spend much time in Carcassonne, so we had time to continue our route towards Avignon and check in at the wonderful B&B, “La Sousto” http://www.lasousto.com. This place is run by a very welcoming and hospitable French couple, and located in the town of Chateaurenard, just south of Avignon and within easy drives to a few other sites in the region. We took an evening in St Remy, spent a whole day in Avignon, and visited the Pont du Gard.
Avignon was its usual respected historic city, well maintained and fun to visit. As I had visited so many times before, I opted to stroll the city and take care of some business while my travel mate took tours of the major tourist sites. I had not really seen parts of the city outside of the palace and museums, so I enjoyed some new and different discoveries.
In the evening, we found our way to Pont du Gard,a Roman aqueduct that had been an undiscovered swimming hole last time I visited, but has now been renovated and built up to a well-maintained tourist site with services without being overrun or tacky.
It is also a UNESCO World Heritage site, so they have done a good job keeping the spirit of the site while providing good information for visitors. On our last day of this little Tour de France, we drove from Avignon towards Nice, stopping off for lunch at a partly nude beach at Santa Margherita. Our drive took us for a few hours of beautiful weather and scenery along the Mediterranean coast. We arrived in Nice and checked in to the Hotel Albert 1er, in a great location near the Promenade des Anglais and casinos. The following day we returned our rental car and prepared to end this adventure and continue on our separate journeys.
Several train trips through Italy and a ferry ride across the Adriatic Sea later, I finally arrived in Croatia.
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