Hilary and Stan in Europe 2011 - Day 7 - A ride near Les Tuillières, to Le Poet Laval

Le Poet Laval

 ... or, Day Three of Hilary and Stan's "Tour de France!!"

Today was a 'rest day', set aside by Cyclomundo with a potential 37 km circle ride that would return us to Les Tuillières again in the afternoon.  On Susan's very helpful advice (the wife and co-owner of  Les Tuillières), we elected, instead, to do a shorter ride, to what she said is one of the most beautiful villages in all of France... Le Poet Laval .  Built in the 13th century by the Knights Hospitallers of the Soverign Order of Saint John (now known as the Knights of Malta), this small castle, church ad fortified village was used until the early 19th century.  At that time, it fell into disrepair when most of the inhabitants moved into the valley.  Recently, however, it has been restored, with vacation homes and artist studios.  Situated only 10 km away from our hotel, it seemed like a nice, short ride.

Endless fields of Lavender

The only trouble is, we managed to get lost!  And then, having left later in the day, it got hot.  By the time we finally figured out how to get there (thanks to Hilary's fractured French and some very helpful motorists), we were really feeling the summer afternoon heat.

The village is situated at the end of a steep hill, which made it an especially hot journey to the top.  Once there, however, we were rewarded with magnificent views, and a truly beautiful village.

 

 

We made it back just in time for a personal cooking class, hosted by Susan's husband and gourmet chef, Hermann.  We had such fun putting together dinner for Hermann's guests that night - seven of us - which ended up with delightful conversation, going late into the night.

Tomorrow is a new day.  We'll be leaving especially early to avoid the heat in order to travel to Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux, our last town in the Drome region of France.

Hilary and Stan in Europe 2011 - Day 6 - Grane to Les Tuillières

... or, Day Two of Hilary and Stan's "Tour de France!!"

We woke this morning to find, to our relief, that it was overcast today and therefore cooler.  Although this ride was only 40 kilometers, we had a bit of climbing to do so it was nice we could avoid the heat for this.

Crane

Today's ride took us through some very picturesque towns and up into the foothills of the Drome region.   We stopped in Crane, the largest town, for coffee and found a bakery open with freshly made tomato and cheese baguettes and delicious pastries, which we packed away in Hilary's panniers for lunch.

Fresco in Aouste

 From there, we cycled into nearby Aouste, a quaint village with a large Roman fresco that met you on entering the main street, acknowledging Roman ruins that are found in this region.

 On leaving Aouste, we began climbing, a short, but at times sharp six kilometers to the summit of Pas de Lauzun, on the way to Saou.

Climbing up Pas de Lauzun

We made it!!

Saou

Plaza in Saou

We stopped in Saou, another lovely little village, to break out or baguettes and pastries for lunch at the village main plaza.

Our final approach to Les Tuillières was marked by what we're sure were some missing instructions which led us off to a baffling intersection.  We finally figured it out by... you guessed it, retracing our steps and religiously studying our map.

View from our bedroom window

 matter, we made it to Les Tuillières, where Susan and her husband Hermann welcomed us with a glass of wine and a gourmet dinner in their garden.  Their hotel guests - a couple from Belgium and four from Switzerland were delightful company,  Two were professional artists, which made for very interesting converstation.  Sabine Stinglhamber, who shared her web site at http://www.simplesetsauvages.be/, is a remarkable sculptor in Belgium.  Pieter, who is Swiss, is a landscape painter.  It turns out that Hermann, who is an accomplished chef, also teaches gourmet cooking classes.  So, since we're staying two nights here, Hilary and I will be joining in tomorrow night to help cook dinner!

Hilary and Stan in Europe 2011 - Day 5 Chateaudouble to Grane

• 
  

Aka, "Hilary and Stan's Tour de France, 2011" !!

Hilary, Stan and Madeline

At last, today was the start of our cycling tour through France. It's not quite the Tour de France, but if what we've seen of the Drome region is any indication, our tour, which will take us through Drome and into Provence will be a very picturesque ride!

We met Madeline at 8:30 AM for a lovely breakfast with a bowl (not a cup!) of rich cafe au lait, with creamery milk, homemade preserves and hearty bread. About an hour later, our tour guide arrived, a bustling, efficient woman, who brought with her two bikes, a bike pump, a map and detailed turn-by-turn instructions for us to follow.  This was to be a self-guided tour, meaning we were basically off on a treasure hunt... with the treasure a bed and a good night's sleep at our next destination.  Luggage would be carried forward for us.  Dinner would be provided at several locations, however, in others reservations would be made a local restaraunt.  With final instructions, and some last minute packing, we said goodbye to our gracious hosts, Madeline and her daughter Elizabeth.

Hilary started down the road, with me following.  She stopped less than 1 kilometer down the road, next to some of the most magnificent sunflower fields we had ever seen."I'm in heaven!!", she said. We were off to a great start.

The countryside here is truly beautiful.  Vast, well-tended fields of grains, sunflowers, and corn, were dotted with ancient farm homes along quiet country roads.  What was particularly striking, especially when riding a bicycle, was the utter silence surrounding us.  The only sounds heard were birds, singing in the summer sunshine.  This was unusual for us -the only time I usually hear birds singing there is in the early morning - not all day, as it is here.

Another striking feature were the numbers of butterflies fluttering between wild flowers.  I wondered whether this might be because much of the the region has been turned into organic farms. Less pesticides... more butterflies?  The warm California-like weather must surely help as well.

Following our map and instruction sheets proved to be more of a challenge than we thought.  Hilary did a great job of navigating, but inevitably we found ourselves on "Le Grande Adventure"... meaning, we were lost.  So far it has not been catastrophic, as sooner or later intersections that 'should have been there', don't appear, and we stop, bewildered... then retrace our path back to the last landmark, usually only a kilometer or two.  And then, almost always, the reason why we went wrong becomes crystal clear and we head off in the right direction again.   It's been kind of fun... so far!

The ride itself was pretty easy.  Total distance: about 50 km.  Of course, Hilary is riding a bike that could have doubled as a Sherman Tank in the second world War.  I had what the folks at Cyclomundo (the self-guide tour operator) called a "racing bike".  What a great sense of humor. With gears that rattled and and clanged every time I tried shifting, and weight that would only be an advantage when going downhill, 50 km is plenty.  And this, from a guy that just averaged 120 km a day for six days over the Colorado Rockies a couple of weeks ago!

The hotel we stayed the night.

To be honest, however, this is supposed to be a nice quiet stroll through the French countryside. Not an attempt to conquor Mont Ventoux.  With this bike, I'd die trying, so no use even thinking about it!  And so, for this, the bike and the route we're doing seems perfect so far.

Still, by the tine we made it to Grane, the weather was getting pretty hot.  We were glad to find our way to the pool at the B&B we stayed at.  Dinner that night, at a fine restaurant just around the corner from where we stayed, was lovely.  Day One of our "Tour de France" was a success!

Grane

Hilary and Stan in Europe 2011 - Day 4 - Paris to Chateaudouble

My GOD, how could we have done this?  Hilary and I work with a start at 10:00 AM. Clearly, we are still recovering from jet lag.  I found myself up until the early hours of the morning, unable to sleep.  So, if some of you received email messages at strange hours of the morning, you know why. However, what I failed to do was to set an alarm... and we just HAD to get across Paris to the train before it left for Valence, our first destination in Provence, at 11:20 AM!

Fortunately, we were able to get our act together rather quickly.  Having no other alternative is a great motivator.  Actually, we got out of the hotel, grabbed a taxi, and arrived at the station a half hour before it left.

 

Whew.  Hilary and I settled down to play a game of Scrabble.. which, despite my being regularly trounced by her, I still find rather enjoyable.  That iPad of Hilary's is terrific for this. Although the touch and feel of the old fashioned board game is still great when you are at home, I bet we'll never go back to it when we're traveling... it's that good.

The train station in Valence

The time passed by quickly.  Before we knew it, we had arrived at a very modern train station in Valence, about fifteen minutes away by taxi from Chateaudouble, our destination for the night and the start of our cycling tour.

When the taxi pulled up to the Bed and Breakfast, I wasn't sure if it was the right place. There were not signs indicaing this was a hotel... just an old and very authentic looking farmhouse set off the main road.  At the door, an old woman appeared who looked down, smiled, and waved us in.  

 Her name was Madeline, and, yes, she was expecting us.  We climbed up the stairs and were shown into a quaint bedroom with a fireplace and a very comfortable bed.  Madeline spoke only a few words of English.  Hilary spoke only a few words of French. I spoke, to my embarrasment, even less than she.  But somehow, we managed to communicate.  Although we had arrived early, Madeline saw we were famished.

Before we knew it, she had brought out a delicious lunch, a zuchini, rice and cheese risotto (or something like it), fresh tomatoes in a Djon maironaid, together with vine ripened peaches. We sat on the porch overlooking the sunlit courtyard below, taking in the beauty and utter peace around us.  We had arrived.

Properly speaking Chateaudouble is not part of Provence, but in the Drome region to the north. And, as we found out, we were not actuallly in Chateaudouble, but were within walking distance. Refreshed, and seeing we still had much of the afternoon left, we set out on a walking tour.

Along the way, we met some inquisitve donkeys that, I'm sure, would have apprecaited some fresh fruit, had we brought some along.

Farther along, we passed by oat, barley and young corn fields.  And, of course, we managed to get lost, or, more accurately, 'bewildered' as Dad used to say. The most obvious signs are simply not there.

The reason? I'm sure it's because EVERYONE knows where Chateaudouble is.  So, you'll find signs for everything except that.  We flagged down a passing cyclist, then, following his directions, wandered up a hill before we realized it was ending in a dirt road...then doubled back and figured out where we really needed to go.  I have a feeling we'll be doing a lot of this over the coming week!

Chateaudouble turned out to be a lovely little village.  Hilary said the population there is 473. We counted eight. Fortunately, there was a store with ice cream, which made up for it.










 

I took far too many photos of stone buildings that looked like they had been here since the middle ages. The reason?  As we went along, we saw more and MORE of them... just about every builidng, it seems dates back at least a hundred years.  Madeline, the dear old grandmother who greeted us today, said that her farmhose, which she moved to in 1956, the year she was married, had been refurbished in 1840. Refurbushed!! The actual age of parts of the building, she thinks, dates back to the 1600's.  Many of the buildings in Chateaudouble seemed to be newer than Madeline's farm house, but not by much

We made our way back to the farmhouse with plenty of time before dinner.  We're getting used to dinner meals here in France... nothing really happens until at least 8:00 PM.  It was 8:40 PM before we actually sat down to dinner.  But what a dinner it was. Five courses, most which was from food raised on the farm.  Madeline's daughter, Elizabeth, had prepared the meal for us.  She, her husband and two sons (they have four children) run the farm.  Madeline mentioned that the Drome farming region was one of the first in the world to openly endorse organic farming. She had been part of this movement, which began in the late 1960's, long before organic farming became a worldwide movement. With a smile, she said in her broken but perfectly understandable English, that everyone back then thought they were crazy.  The wholesome food was delicious, and a wonderful end to a lovely day.

Hilary and Stan in Europe 2011 - Day 3 - Paris

Hilary overlooking the Seine

We had a beautiful day today in Paris. Much of the afternoon was spent at the Museum D'Orsay, a where there was a special exhibition of Edouard Manet that traced his evolving style from realism to Impressionism.

Musée d'Orsay

It was such a delightful pleasure coming face to face with paintings and sculptures that i know so well.  I loved the rich subtleties of the Monets, the bold brushstrokes and brilliant  colors of Van Gogh, the delicate figurine of a 14 year old dancer by Degas, the achingly beautiful sculptures of Paul Dubois and Rodin.

Notre Dam Cathedral

But, by far the most memorable part of the day was hearing Vivaldi's Four Seasons being played brilliantly in the 12th century, rarely publicly opened Upper Chapel in Saint Chappel, the private chapel of Louis IX.

La Sainte Chappel

 The small chamber group (there were only six players) was led by Bertrand Cervera, a young and rather dashing violinist who played with virtuosity and a humorous irreverence.  We were in the second row, resulting in an intimate experience with a work I have played myself many times over the years.To give you an idea of what it was like, here's a recording, with Bertrand Cervera playing with Jane Rutter, a virtuoso flute player, in this beautiful chapel:

Hilary and Stan in Europe 2011 - Day 1 and 2

Stan here. We've made it! One week after a wonderful cycling adventure with friends in Colorado, I met up with Hilary in Heathrow airport after flying in from Vancouver. Hilary had flown in from New York after seeing Naomi off on a month-long bus tour along the eastern seaboard of the US. Remarkably despite flight delays on both sides and a long hike, toting luggage behind, from Terminal One to Terminal Three, we found each other within fifteen minutes. From there, we took the tube to the Novatel Hotel on Euston Road, next to the British Library, for an overnight stay in London before taking the Chunnel toFrance. That evening, after shopping and smiling at the buskers in the very touristy, but enjoyable Covent Gardens, we managed to see Billy Elliott. Hilary had taken the girls there when they were in London three years ago, however, it was a first for me - I loved it.

St. Pancras International Train Station, London

The next day, we had barely enough time to take in parts of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, before rushing back to collect our luggage and make our way to theSt. Pancras International train station, a short walk from the hotel, and the start of our journey to Paris. The longest part of the Chunnel ride was waiting for the train, which turned out to be over an hour late. Taking the train was uneventful, if you can consider we were traveling through what the American Society of Civil Engineers has identified as one of the seven wonders of the modern world - a fifty kilometer tunnel, thirty seven of which below the English Channel.

Along the way Hilary and I treated ourselves to another miracle of the modern age - Scrabble, on Hilary's new iPad. Traveling will never be the same.

We arrived in Paris late in the evening, but not too late to enjoy a glass of Chardonnay along one of many lovely sidewalk restaraunts near Le Six Hotel, a comfortable boutique hotel on 14 Rue Stanislas, located in the heart of Paris. Tomorrow is a new day.