Rain, Rain, Go Away
Thursday, May 01, 2008
We stayed an extra day at Camping Le Moustoir in Carnac because the weather had turned sour (rain) and we hoped to wait it out. According to the internet, it appeared that the weather was going to stay bad for another 3-4 days and we wanted to move on, so Tuesday morning we did a slow pack, hoping the clouds might break up (no) and finally left around noon, making our way southeast towards Vannes and the Golfe Du Morbihan –a great estuary at the bottom of the Brittany Peninsula. We stayed on the smaller roads, working our way around the Golfe, peeking in on tiny towns and hamlets as we passed by. Near Lamor-Baden was a sign indicating a tumulus nearby and we detoured towards it.
A tumulus is another ancient Neolithic landmark – a burial
mound, made of stones and covered with soil that eventually grows grass and
ends up looking like a natural mound except for the low doorway at the base.
This one, the Tumulus of Tombii was off a narrow country road in a wooded area,
in what felt like the middle of nowhere, and once upon a time probably was.
We could actually walk (crouching) through the dogleg passageway into the burial chamber about 40 feet deep within the hill. It was very dark and you needed a flashlight to negotiate the path.
The passageway and burial chamber were built using great flat roof stones supported by standing stones in a dolmen-like manner, then filled with smaller rocks and finally covered with soil. The chamber is empty now – perhaps the remains are in a museum somewhere but it is obvious that whoever was buried in this tumulus was an important personage in his/her society – this structure was no easy feat to build. As always, when confronted with ruins from past civilizations, I am reminded that the people who lived those so many thousands of years ago, were not primitive but lived in structured, complex and sophisticated societies.
It reminded us a lot of Newgrange, the immense burial chamber in Ireland, only this one is much smaller. Unlike Newgrange which is considered a national monument and invites tourism, this tumulus is just another of the myriad of megaliths that dot the landscape in southwest Brittany and is not protected from the public by entry fees or high fences. It is just there for young French couples to climb in and make-out or to graffiti “Excalibur” on the walls.
It rained all day long. We finally gave up trying to escape it around 4:30 and followed signs to a free camp parking lot in one of the little towns and stopped for the night. We have learned that the “P” for parking signs that add “Aire de Service” indicates areas where self-contained motor homes can free camp for a night in designated areas. What a great idea! If we can find them, we can use these 3-4 nights a week and the rest of the time use campings to plug in and shower and all that stuff.
We stopped at Lidl, our favorite store over here, and bought a little portable refrigerator. Little is relative
– it holds more than our built-in refer but is the same size. Looks like an ice
chest but has 12V and 240 power hookups. We are quite pleased with it because
it will let us keep our food cold when we are free camping. We haven’t
successfully learned to power up the propane option on our built-in refer and
we don’t trust the 12V option, so that refer works best with electric hookups.
The new one does wonderfully with 12V so we can free camp more often and not
worry about spoiling our food.
Wednesday it was still raining and we were still on the smaller roads as we worked our way towards Nantes and our destination, the Loire Valley. Once more we had the opportunity to visit the beautiful French countryside and we would have enjoyed it more if the rain would stop. We passed St. Nazaire, a great seaport at the mouth of the Loire as it reaches the Atlantic. St. Nazaire is a ship building port and during WWII was a German submarine base.
We reached Nantes, about 50km inland, during rush hour and got stuck in intense traffic gridlock in the downtown. We were attempting to see the Chateau des Ducs de Bretagne and the Cathedral St Peter and St Paul in the center of old Nantes but the traffic was so intense that when we finally reached it, we drove on by the chateau and beat it out of town. I was exhausted by the time we cleared the city and I wasn’t even driving. Bruce, who once again is showing his mettle as a European driver, drove through the mess without batting an eye but it took us about 2 hours to negotiate through the city. We would love to visit the Chateau but not enough to tackle the Nantes traffic again.
Tired of the rain and of driving, we found a cute little camping about 6km east of the city at Thouare-sur-Loire and checked in. The campground is run by an adorable little French woman who is charmed by Bruce, but speaks no English at all and since our French is very limited we cannot determine if there is bus access to Nantes from here. As much as the city’s attractions appeal to us, we ain’t driving back in town so we probably will miss the Chateau, the cathedral, the Jardin de Plantes, the Ile de Nantes with its giant mechanical elephant and the free wifi district downtown.
On the upside – we are at the beginnings of the Loire Valley and Chateau-land and will be kept busy for the next few days at least driving around checking them out.
Supposedly, the rain is going to stop tomorrow – Friday – but today we marked our 1 month-out anniversary by loafing at camp and washing a little laundry. We tried walking along the Loire but dark-roiling clouds kept dumping rain on us until we retreated back to Lily (and the sun temporarily jumped out, as if to say; “…and stay in the van!”)
Friday, May 02, 2008
Our wish came true and the weather improved enough for us to get back on the road and began a day in search of Chateaux, Abbeys and picturesque towns.
We crossed the Loire at Thouare-sur-Loire (sur means “on” or “on the”) after stumbling across our first chateau, the privately owned “Pigeonnier le Chateau” a minor but interesting home with a very interesting name. Do you suppose they once raised pigeons?
After crossing to the left bank we took the D751 east; the road is on top the levees of the river built to protect the farmlands from flooding.
Looking at our map, I think we drove perhaps 50 km today – maybe 75 if we include the touring through towns – and it took us about 6 hours. We are meandering back and forth crossing the river as it pleases us.
A few kilometers east of Nantes were two towns facing each
other across the Loire: Oudon and Champtoceaux. Oudon has a fortress chateau –
I’m guessing it was built perhaps during the 100 years war in the 1400s because
of the architecture and it was pretty deteriorated except for the exceptional
tower that lords over the town. Across from Oudon, sitting atop a hill was
Champtoceaux. A fortified settlement has existed there since 200-300BC when the
Celts ruled the area, then the Romans came and the Normans (Vikings) Holy Roman
Emperors then Dukes and Kings and right up to modern times the place has been
occupied. It was a fortified town with keeps and ramparts and toll bridges at
the river and was caught up in the 100 years war that Joan of Arc played such a
pivotal role in the 1400s. By the end of that war, the Duke of Brittany had the
fortifications torn down and life resumed outside fortified walls. Some of the
ramparts and towers remain though and they inspire a lot of historical
interest.
At first I thought perhaps the two towns, Oudon and Champtoceaux may have been enemies during war times– that one may have been British and one French and they battled one another across the river like so many of the castles on the Rhine in Germany or in the Dordogne Valley in Southern France– but that is only speculation – since the tourist offices were closed for lunch when we were there, I’ll have to do some research to find out.
This, the western Loire has world class vineyards (Muscadet, Saumur Champigny, Anjou red, coteaux du Layon – golly – the way I roll those names off you’d think I was a connoisseur, eh?). We are following the Tourist Route du Vin through vineyards just beginning to bloom.
A few more kilometers down the road we reached St. Florent le Vieil with a 16th century ancient abbey sitting at the top of another rise above the river. We missed a turn to get to the abbey and found ourselves driving up the narrow medieval cobbled streets in town center to finally reach the summit and the abbey.
There are dozens of hilltowns perched above the river like guardians of the lands below them. On both sides of the river we find chateaux rising above the trees that allow them privacy from prying tourist eyes. We won’t see the chateaus the Loire Valley is famous for until after we reach Angers – still another 40km away and at this rate perhaps we arrive tomorrow or maybe not.
Ingrandes, a little town we reached has a camping right on
the Loire. Only problem is the office is closed and we think we have to cross
the river to find the town hall to make reservations? It was after 5 when we
arrived and we have found that the French promptly close up shop - we don’t
think they will be open if we can track down the Mairie (town hall). We don’t read French well and what we can
interpret of the instructions says we are to call a number. Since we don’t have
a phone we decided we will free camp here until we are required to explain
ourselves at which time we will be happy to! We are right on the banks of the
river and it really is a lovely spot.
Lovin the Loire
Sunday, May 4, 2008
We free camped undisturbed in the city camping at Ingrandes except for digs by the only other campers there, a French woman and her husband who objected to our use of the shower house in the morning. She reminded us of Mrs. Birney, the nosy old woman in Bruce and Bill’s neighborhood growing up.
We continued on our way toward Angers with the expectation of camping there but we arrived in the late morning and were able to finish our touring within a couple of hours so we didn’t stay.
Angers is a really cool town that grew on the banks of the Maine river as it joins the Loire. What is cool about Angers is its chateau, a huge black and white striped fortification built 900 years ago and still standing in good shape. The chateau is home to the largest tapestry in the world; the Apocalypse Tapestry with 80 or so panels interpreting the Apocalypse according to John. We visited the tapestry eight years ago and it is something to see, but since we have seen it and the entry fee has been hiked up to 8.50 euro each, we decided to our money could go elsewhere this time. If you haven’t seen it, it is well worth the entry fee.
Actually there are other cool things about the city including St. Martin Cathedral, the remaining Roman walls and the great old town with its twisting, narrow streets that are like a maze to negotiate. Angers is also the home of the one and only distillery for all the Cointreau liquor to be found in the world.
We walked through old town and got lost in the maze, having a wonderful time finding our way out. And then it was time to go.
Angers is the first in the trail of notable chateaux – a few
kilometers south is the town of Brissac and home to the tallest chateau - at
seven stories - in France. We were not impressed. It looks like it has seen
better days and half the exterior was covered in scaffolding. It was on
beautiful grounds but we were disappointed in our first viewing of a
residential chateau.
We pressed onward toward Gennes following the white roads on maps (eg; the smallest roads) that took us down country lanes through tiny hamlets and across farmlands, many still growing mustard plants. We have identified alfalfa and lettuce to add to the mustard fields but a lot of the land is still being prepared for spring plantings. Farmers are tilling the soil with their big tractors or with little rototillers depending on the size of their plots.
We were driving the small roads looking for more megaliths
and dolmens that showed on the map. We couldn’t find them but we did stumble
across signs to a Roman Amphitheater and followed them only to be disappointed
again because it was closed for restoration. We were beginning to feel like we
couldn’t get a break: blah chateau, no megaliths, no amphitheater. We did
realize we had reached Gennes, our destination, so we went in search of a
camping. Got lucky (finally!) and found another free camping Aire de
Camping-car spot. It seemed to be in the towns sport center – a Petanque
tournament was going on just beyond the parking lot.
We have been camping for a month now with almost exclusively French campers in evidence – and not too many of them yet, I suppose because of the abominable weather. This Aire had five campers from the Nederlands. It was great to see because that is an indication to us that the other countries are beginning to get out on the road – plus they speak English.
Back to the Petanque tournament: Bruce learned to play Petanque on our last trip. Petanque is the French version of English boules and Italian Bocci-ball. He loves the game. For the last week, we’ve been driving through tiny towns with Petanque courts and players, and he has been trying to coax me into a game (we brought our balls with us). Watching the tournament really fired Bruce up and when the tournament was over, the 5 Dutch campers (who were traveling together) decided to play and invited us to play with them. Bruce was in heaven and I did not embarrass myself with my skills.
We played until we could not see the jack (wooden target ball) due to darkness then bid our adieus to the Dutch and returned to Lily. It was 10 pm and too hot to sleep.
Oh – the weather has definitely improved. Short sleeves and capris or shorts during the day and flannel sheets only that night. We hope this continues except we learned we need to find a fan quick – both 240V and 12volt- for night sleeping. If nights continue like last night, we will roast as the summer plays itself out.
It finally cooled off enough to sleep and the next morning (today-Sunday), after our breakfast of fresh, flaky, chocolate croissants –which Bruce routinely finds for us – we drove off in search of troglodytes.
This area is know for the caves carved out of the limestone tufa when the chateaux and towns were built. (This means all the chateaux and villages in this area are white stone – with slate roofs - very attractive.) In the past, the poor made homes out of these caves – today they are used as storage sheds, wine cellars, mushroom farms. They are everywhere in the Saumur region – in fact, the caves hid about 75% of the population of Angers and Saumur during the French Revolution (which is another one of those obvious facts that come as revelations to me at times: that the French Revolution took place elsewhere besides Paris!)
We had two points of interest today before finishing our day at Saumur: a subterranean museum and an abandoned Troglodyte village about 25km west of Saumur.
Once again we drove the white roads leaving Gennes and once again they took us across the beautiful French countryside and through tiny villages with narrow laned roads. We found the dolmen and magalith we couldn’t find yesterday and looping along the back roads we finally found Helice Terrestre de l’Orbiere an amazing, surreal underground cave sculpture by a local artist Jacques Warminski. He took a troglodyte homestead and transformed it into monumental carvings that he then reversed above ground. So, the artistic carvings below are mirrored above. It is absolutely fantastic and there is no way our photos will share how remarkable and surreal it is.
We continued our cave quest arriving at the Village
Troglodytiques at Rochemenier, another teeny, tiny town off a teeny tiny white
road. The village was very popular with the French out for a Sunday drive but I
was more excited by the 12th century church across the street from
the entrance to the village. Bruce and I have seen Troglodyte towns in Guadix,
Spain that were way more authentic and impressive than this, so we walked
around the village then had lunch in Lily before we left the find Saumur.
At Samur we found a chateau to get excited about. Chateau
Samur (what an original name!) lords over the town by the same name and over
the Loire. At some time in its history it was an armory and thank goodness it
wasn’t blown up while holding the ammunition because that would really have
been a loss. We found our first real-live drawbridge and were able to figure
out how it works; we walked along ramparts that were 30 feet high at least and
we took in the panoramic view of the river and the town below. What a beauty!
Our campground – we elected to pay so we could shower, hand wash laundry, wifi and recharge batteries – is right across the river from the chateau. What a view.
Hero Worship
Monday, May 05, 2008
There are not a lot of historical women who are standouts to
me, but two women do shine – one of a spiritual and one of a temporal
nature: Joan of Arc and Eleanor of
Aquitaine. Eleanor was a Queen of France and a Queen of England as well as a woman of fame and fortune in
her own right. Her French court was the origin of the romantic ideal of love
with ballads that were developed by troubadours; at age 25, she and her
husband, French king Louis VII went on a crusade; and after a marriage
annulment from Louis, she married England’s King Henry II - who had a famous
ecclesiastic battle with Thomas Becket. She was mother to two kings (both of
Robin Hood fame) Richard the Lion Heart and (Prince) John Lackland. She died in
1204, having outlived both Henry and Richard by many years. Eleanor was a woman
for the history books.
Today we visited the place where Eleanor has been resting for the last 804 years at Abbey Fontevraud in the Loire Valley. Several of her family members lie in state here with her: Henry II, Richard Lion Heart and Isabelle of Angouleme, wife of Eleanor’s son, John Lackland. They all chose the abbey as their final resting place because they felt more Angevin than English. They are all represented with good Gothic funerary sculptures of painted tufa (the same limestone the whole area was built out of).
Fontevraud Abbey was founded in 1101 and became one of the largest and most influential monastic complexes in Europe. It has some amazing architecture that covers several centuries and an amazing history. The monastery was for both men and women and was governed by a woman, the Abbess, a unique situation at any time, especially in the middle ages. The kitchens – architectural wonders, gardens, infirmary, cloisters, and abbey church have been beautifully preserved, especially when one considers the whole place was turned into a penitentiary after the Revolution that continued until the last prisoner left in – 1985(!) The gardens today grow the same plants historically used by the monastery. I wish to report that Cannabis Sativa was grown under the feeble pretense for use as hemp. – Far Out man!
The complex is being restored after the neglect of the prison years. It was really neat to be walking among the buildings with the background sound of stone cutters and masons working the restoration, similar I am sure of the sounds heard by the denizens of the monastery as is was being built and kept up over the centuries.
We also saw more chateaux;
one - Chateau l’Usse is supposedly the inspiration for the story of
Sleeping Beauty – I think that is just a marketing ploy to interest tourists
but it is a lovely chateau and would have been a wonderful setting for the
story! I can imagine impressionable little girls being absolutely enchanted
with the idea of visiting Sleeping Beauty’s Castle – and forever fearing apples
after hearing the story one more time.
We briefly and unknowingly followed a Moulin tour. Even though we have Sir Gar (the GPS) we got lost today, following the Vienne and l’Indre rivers rather than the Loire. Along those rivers there are several historical watermills (moulins) and we were lucky to find a double and triple mill at a junction where the rivers intersected. Had we known of the Route de l’Moulin beforehand we might very well have followed it to its conclusion but we are heading east along the Loire and must continue in that direction for our May 20 date with our friends, the Goodmans.
We spent the night on the river l’Indre in a camping that only cost 10 euro in the town of Montbazon, just south of Tours.
I keep forgetting to mention that Bruce and I are back to our European Cribbage tournament – I won the tournament on our last trip – right now we are tied: 9 – 9.
Hero Worship - part 2
We read our travel books and various brochures collected for
the area and decided to follow a bit of Joan d’Arc’s trail. I got interested in
her on our last trip when we visited Rouen, the town where she was burned at
the stake by the English in 1431. Ever since, I have taken a photo of every
statue/plaque/painting of Joan that I have seen all over France. I am getting
quite a collection.
Two towns that played a part in her story were nearby;
Chinon and Loches. It was at the fortress chateau in Chinon in 1429 that Joan
began her quest by picking out the disguised dauphin Charles VII in a roomful
of courtiers.
The chateau is pretty much ruined now and as we entered the town
we saw a lot of restoration work going on at the hilltop were it sits, so we
elected to bypass the chateau and make our way to Loches where, after the
Battle of Orleans Joan convinced a dithering Charles to march to Reims and be
crowned king. (The more I read of Charles VII the less I find him worthy of all
her efforts. He seems mainly to have been a party animal who would prefer to
play with his mistress than accept his responsibilities.)
The medieval Loches is contained within a citadel on a rocky bluff overlooking the valley. It is a splendid example of 11th century living and looks like a movie set. Walls protect the old town with only one entrance, Port Royal, which is very impressive.
On our way to Amboise we tried to visit another chateau, Chenanceau. This castle was built by 3 influential women, two of whom were Diane of Poitiers, mistress of Henry IV and Catherine d’Medici, wife of Henry IV. Don’t you suppose that was an interesting situation. Chenanceau is famous for its beauty and its tangled relationships. We arrived around 4pm and found busloads full of tourists and school children. We couldn’t bear the thought of putting up with that much chaos so we turned around and marched ourselves right back to Lily, got in and took off.
We ended our day back on the Loire in Amboise, a beautifully picturesque town with another chateau atop a rocky bluff. We camped on Il d’Or, an island that splits the Loire. Our campground view was of the chateau with the white limestone tufa and gray slate-roofed town beneath it. Shortly after we arrived we heard, then watched, two hot air balloons ascend from behind the campground and float off over the chateau. What a sight.
Amboise is an important chateau in the French scheme of things. Charles VIII (not Joan’s, who was VII) died here after bonking his head on a door jam. Francois I was raised here and it was here that Leonardo Da Vinci came to live his last three years, bringing the Mona Lisa to France. Have you ever watch Drew Barrymore’s movie “Ever After?” Francois I and Leonardo where characters in that as well as a chateau who’s name/location I am dying to know
Wednesday morning we bought tickets to see Chateau Amboise and are delighted we did. The chateaux are pricey – if we were to visit all 38 that are on a brochure we have, we would spend over 500 euro, so we are doing a lot of drive-by shooting (of photos that is). We are mostly interested in their exterior architecture and that can be satisfied in the drive-by manner. This one interested us because it is here that Leo is buried. And because it is a good looking chateau with a fabulous view of the Loire. I would love to have been a soldier with duty at that place (in peacetime preferably).
We left the chateau and walked to da Vinci’s house “le Clos Luce” about 600 meters away. It is a handsome two story brick home in a lovely little park with some large models of his inventions – like his helicoptor. Inside in the basement are more models of his mechanicals.
Finally finished with Amboise we decided to make for Orleans. Each year, this very week May 1–8, the city celebrates Joan d’Arc victory over the English, there at Orleans, helping to end the Hundred Years War. We could reach Orleans in time to see what was happening on the 8th.
Driving along the N951 we kept passing more chateaux – the valley reeks of them – from the over-the-top Sleeping Beauty type to the smaller “family”chateaux to the manor homes. We are getting overdosed by them and need to move on to something different.
Bruce was driving along towards Orleans and kept wondering why oncoming traffic was flashing their lights. Now, in the States that means “cops ahead” and why we thought it was different here we’ll never understand. As soon as we realized that may be what it means we were pulled over. Bruce got tagged big time for not wearing a seatbelt – one of his little flaws – that cost him 90 euro today. He was not a happy man. The Gendarme was not going to just hand us a ticket either, he expected payment right there. I guess he suspected we may try to leave the country and not pay and perhaps frame the ticket at home? There was no talking him out of this one, we did get to use our International Drivers License though – lucky us.
Since we had already blown our daily budget we decided to keep on spending and, stopping at a caravan store, we bought a 12V oscillating clip-on fan for Lily. Then we found a Lidl and while stocking up on a few grocery items we found insect screening we can install in the doorway of the van. The good weather has brought out the bugs in force and we are tired of dodging and weaving and scratching.
Reaching Orleans we got totally lost trying to find lodging for the night and drove around in large circles trying to get our bearings. Finally we found a municipal camping in Olivet, a little oasis in the urban sprawl of the Orleans area. The camping in on a lovely little river/creek lined with trees and the sites (pitches here in Europe) are defined by hedges. The hosts are very nice and speak English (always a plus for us monoglots) and best of all there is a big parade tomorrow in town celebrating the 579th anniversary of Jean d’Arc’s liberation of Orleans!
Thursday, May 08, 2008
The parade was to start at 10:15 in the morning so we got up
and were moving early. We walked to the electric tram a little less than a
kilometer away and encountered our first travel dilemma: we weren’t sure how to
read the tram map and the ticket machine was not working. A lady (an
angel) walked up to the stop and speaking English(!) offered to use her ticket
to get us on the tram. We paid her our fare and she walked us aboard, then
explained that due to the holiday the trams were not running as usual and we
would have to get off at different points than we had been told. Nelly was going
to the Fete (the celebration) for the first time in years and years and she
offered to escort us. We eagerly accepted her offer. She told us what we would
be seeing today: an homage to Jeanne d’Arc by the provinces of France, all in
regional costume.
Nelly took us to a perfect site for viewing and we had a fabulous time. We saw people from the Aquitaine Languedoc region who traditionally lived in a swampy area and used stilts to get around. These people ran, danced, hopped on one leg, and did just about everything but cartwheels on stilts at least four feet off the ground! They were fabulous. Regions from all over the country were sharing their cultural specialties in dance and clothing.
We saw Orleans sister city in Spain (didn’t get the name) whose representatives wore the strangest masks. We listened to the Breton delegation play hauntingly beautiful pipes and then dance to the music.
We admired members of the Breton group who dressed like Braveheart and walked with Irish wolfhounds.
We saw a musical instrument that looked a cross between a mandolin and a jack-in-the-box played by people wearing the most interesting hats and coiffes from the Poitou Charetes province.
Every group was so incredible and so varied – it was hard to believe they all were from the same country. We stood bewitched for over two hours.
When the parade was over we parted ways with Nelly, thanking
her profusely, and walked to the cathedral (sort of an obligatory thing for
us). This place was huge – built in 1601 in the flamboyant Gothic style
(meaning lots of tall fancy spires – flamboyant means flame by the way), you
could almost get lost in the interior. There are beautiful stained glass
windows detailing the story of Joanne d’Arc and lots of chapels in the apse
(the top of the cross shape most churches are laid out in) that were still
painted. We have seen a lot of churches and most of the ones we’ve seen no
longer have painted interiors so it is a treat when we find ones that are.
Around 2:30 we decided to take the tram back to our pitch so we returned to the tram stop that had dropped us off at the city in the morning.
The trams were really not working now. Two more angels found us and helped us get to a bus then a tram stop that was working and eventually we made it back to the camping.
Without the help we received from our angels today we would have been scratching our heads trying to figure out how to get to and from the city of Orleans and have missed the parade completely.
Angels are a good thing and I really do believe in their existence –not necessarily the cherubim with wings but people who come to your aid seemingly out of the blue when help is desperately needed.
We had a fabulous day today - all in celebration of one of my cultural heroines.
Friday, May 09, 2008
Left Orleans and the Loire Chateau trail traveling southeast towards the Burgundy region of France. We weren’t really sure where we wanted to go next, only that we needed to continue east then north into Germany. We saw Nevers on the map and decided to go there. But before Nevers was Gien, and before Gien was Sully-sur-Loire which happens to have a fabulous medieval fortress chateau owned by the city and on grounds that double as a public park. The chateau has a moat still filled with water, a drawbridge, high rounded towers capped with conical roofs, symmetry and beauty to spare. Everything you could want in a chateau and on splendid grounds. It was built over 700 years ago and is still a stunner. The walled town was just across the moat with one bridge as the only access to the chateau. You can imagine the townsfolk hurrying across the bridge to the safety of the chateau not wanting to be left behind as the drawbridge was raised in times of strife. It was to be our last big chateau on the Loire and it was a lovely way to end the tour.
As I’ve mentioned before, we love taking the small roads – the white roads on the maps or the slightly bigger yellow roads; but they tend to slow us down. If we drive 100km (that is only 62 miles) in a day, we’ve had a big drive day. Today we drove 200km and were exhausted by the end of the day. We got through Gien – a very cute town on the Loire (no chateau) then went inland for 17km to Briare, a small town with an Art Nouveau bridge canal that spans the Loire. Boats take the canal across the Loire to somewhere. The bridge canal was built of iron between 1604-1642. It is really neat looking and a really bizarre concept. Pleasure boats cruise the canal now.
We never made Nevers but continued our drive in a northeasterly direction through more small towns, across the vast farmlands and fields and fields of mustard. You can’t complain about the views in France – everywhere we have ever been in France, the land has been beautiful – from farmland to forests to villages to the cities – this is a beautiful country. It is also a large country. We feel like we are driving through Texas – which we thought we’d never get out of last year on our trip back east. France is very similar – it is like a Cobb salad – once you delve into one, it just explodes into a larger and larger salad.
We were in the Burgundy region now heading towards Dijon, the mustard capital of the world. But we weren’t close yet. We drove through Varzy and Clemecy working towards Avallon (because we liked the name) but we found Vezelay first.
It was our first real-live hilltown this trip. Other towns we’ve passed through are walled but this one is completely contained on the hill. The town is old and probably grew around an abbey that was founded in 858 AD (or so) but became famous in the 1000s when the abbey was dedicated to Mary Magdalene. It’s heydays were the 11th and 12th centuries when it was the starting point for the 2nd and 3rd Crusades. It also was a point along the pilgrimage route to Santiago del Compostela in Spain. It is almost picture-perfect and reminds me of some of the wonderful Italian hilltowns we loved.
We spent the night free camping at the base of the town, along with several other camping cars.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Here is the thing about traveling by car: driving allows you the freedom to wander anywhere you want. And here is the thing about bringing travel books; they can explain what you are seeing as you wander. They compliment one another perfectly, but sometimes it just doesn’t work. Epoisses is a good example. We have three books on France; Lonely Planet (good information by region), DK eyewitness(very pretty pictures by region) and Michelin Green Guide(good info by site), yet not one of these three books told us about Epoisses, a walled city & chateau on the D954 somewhere between Avallon and Semur-en-Auxois. Looking like a setting out of the 1400 century, Epoisses had all the makings: an old fortress, a church and houses or shops all enclosed within gated ramparts protected by a moat. It should have made some sort of impression on our books – it sure impressed us!
We had another long drive day, we are working our way through France, we have ten days to make it to Frankfurt, 362km (225 miles) away, and we may need them all to get out of this gargantuan country! Have I mentioned that France is the third largest country in Europe behind Russia and the Ukraine?
Today began in the hilltown of Vezelay and ended in the
river town of Gray, 140km east (as the crow flies – 200km as our roads went).
We traveled by Avallon (liked the name), past Epoisses of-no-information, to
Semur-en-Auxois, a 14th century fortress town with neat round towers
– one of which has an alarming gash - and a spirally church. We continued to
Alise-Ste-Reine, whose former incarnation was a Roman town developed after
Julius Caesar kicked the Gauls’ ass once and for all by defeating
Vercingetorix, the Gallic chieftain and formidable opponent, in 52BC. This town
has some history.
You just wouldn’t believe these French towns. It doesn’t matter where you are in the country (and remember how big we keep saying it is), there are these adorable little villages, with old, old buildings, tiny streets (what we would consider alleyways at home) and ancient churches – everything and I mean everything, is at least 200 years old –and then you get to the old stuff. It is all so darn quaint – you feel you are in a storybook. And here is the thing: the Europeans take it all for granted – this old stuff is all they know. They laugh when we tell them about our designated historical buildings – they live in ones that are older than our historical homes.
Anyhow – that was basically our day – driving through quaint towns. We drove through Dijon of mustard fame, a bigger city with a fabulous old town, but we have done Dijon before so we didn’t feel the need to revisit. We are working our way towards Ronchamp and an interesting church (we’ll take photos) in the northeast corner of Burgundy. We left Dijon and drove to Gray – a town on the river Saone and we are camping on the Saone in a nice campground.
By the way, Gray isn’t in any of our books either.
End of the Tour d’ France
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Sunday we finished the Burgundy region of our Tour d’France by visiting the former mining town of Ronchamp and the Chapelle Notre-Dame-du-Haut, designed by a famous French architect, Le Corbusier. I saw this church (chapel) in a tourist book eight years ago and ever since I’ve had a hankering to see it.
Unlike all the other churches we are seeing, this one is new – finished in 1955 and it is described more as a sculpture than a building. It is perched at the top of a hill above Ronchamp with a wonderful view of the whole valley below it. It is made of concrete and it flows into curves rather than straight lines, reminding me of Gaudi’s work in Barcelona. The exterior is quite large and sweeping and when you enter inside you are taken aback by the smallness of the space within. It is very different from all the churches we have seen so far and I am very glad to finally get to see it.
We ended our day in Colmar – a delightful city in the Alsace Lorraine region of France. Right next door is Germany (across the Rhine). The Alsace has been a land desired and fought over by France and Germany for centuries. Presently it is a part of France but the German influence is very obvious. The buildings in this delightful place are half-timbered, pastel, multi-storied affairs often dating back to the 1600s if not earlier. They look right out of a Grimm Brothers German fairy tale. What a difference from the cities and villages of the rest of France that we have been traveling through. We’ve been seeing villages that look like they sprang up from the soil with earth tone buildings matching the color of the land they inhabit. German towns seem almost joyous by comparison with their coloring and use of wood. I don’t understand why there is so much German influence here in the Alsace when historically, the Alsatians seem to identify more with France than Germany.
Colmar reminds us of Brugge, only with more color. Once
again the old city center, while small for modern city standards, is large
enough to walk about and not leave the ancient, original architecture all day.
There is a canal that runs through an area of town named Petite Venese (Little
Venice). You can tour the area via boat or simply walk it. Storks (the bird)
are considered good luck and in centuries past were commonly seen nesting on
tops of chimneys within the town. Today, the environment is harming their
habitat and they are fewer, but a campaign is in effect to help repair that
environment and they are beginning to increase in numbers again. We were lucky
enough to see a nest with an inhabitant on the top of one of the churches.
We entered the cathedral and were struck by the wood carvings – another hallmark of German influence. There were statues of the Last Supper, Madonna and Child and the Crucifixion, as well as various saints. Colmar is the keeper of the Issenheim altarpiece by Matthias Grunewald; a masterfully painted triptych (which as the name implies is a three-part work) of Christ in agony on the cross and a joyously psychedelic depiction of the Resurrection. The city is also the birthplace of Bertholdi – the sculptor who built our Statue of Liberty.
We have been so tired from driving, we took a much needed three night break in Colmar. We spent one day washing a lot of clothes and the next visiting the town.
Wednesday we will follow the Alsacian Wine Route, which will take us through more fairy tale villages and finally to Strasbourg.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Yesterday (Wednesday) we drove about 68km of the Route d’Vin Alsac which, as its name implies, passes by a lot of vineyards interrupted only by quaint villages a la Colmar. It is really hard for us to remember we are still in France – all the villages have the half-timbered, overhanging temperament of German towns. The vines are now sporting healthy young green leaves and soon young white grape clusters should be appearing. The Alsace region is known for its white wines: Sylvaners and Rieslings and Gewurztraminers and judging by the number of vintners and vines, they produce a lot of wine.
There is a family tradition that a branch of my family comes from Alsace. When the Germans gained control of the region sometime in the 1800s (I’m guessing), the family – preferring not to live under Germany control – left the Alsace to eventually land in Switzerland and from there, finally, America. (thank you Auntie Gwen for the story and if I messed to much with it, Uncle Dean, I’m sorry.) We’ve traveled through Alsace twice now and I can think of worse areas to be from.
The weather has warmed up enough that we are roasting at night. We brought 2 sleeping bags – a 4lb and a 3lb weight and they both are too heavy now. Strasbourg hosts an Ikea and as we entered the outskirts of the city we made a beeline for the Ikea. We found a light weight comforter and a fan. The fan is even more essential than the comforter, especially as we get further south and it heats up even more. Lily is proving to be quite capable of holding heat – an advantage in colder periods and a distinct disadvantage in warmer climes (good for drying clothes though). We left the Ikea quite pleased with our discoveries.
We found the Strasbourg Municipal Camping and tucked in for the night.
I would like to add here that we are missing 2 things – our bicycles and our kayak. It seems everyone here but us has bicycles and we are just crying at not having some. They sooo widen your range beyond walking. We haven’t seen any used bicycles for sale – when we left the states we said if bikes “fell in our laps” we’d buy them but that hasn’t happened and we are so sad. The other thing we miss is our inflatable kayak “Rosie.” We have seen so many waterways that would have been a delight to float down, but we decided not to bring the kayak and we have been whining about that decision too.
Thursday we took public transportation into the city. Public transportation in Europe is a wonderful thing. Between buses, trams, metros and trains you could comfortably live without a car over here – imagine that in the U.S!
Strasbourg means “City of Roads.” It is a meeting point for commerce traveling from the south to north and east to west. The city has played a part in history since 842 AD when two grandsons of Charlemagne signed a pact to work together against their scheming older brother. The documents signed were the forerunners of the modern French and German languages.
An island, Le Grande Ile, straddles the Ill river and this
is were the historical Strasbourg lies. An incredible cathedral, made of rose colored Vosges sandstone, was begun in 1176 and completed in 1284. The delicately carved
open-aired spire was complete two centuries later but despite its “newness” it
is still a work of art. The cathedral is a masterpiece in stonemasonry with
carved statuary in pristine condition covering the exterior. As always, the
statues tell biblical stories and were aides in teaching the bible to
illiterate masses of centuries past. The facial expressions on these statues
are so clear they look like they were carved yesterday, not hundreds of years
ago.
For me, the exterior made the church – the interior was sort of plain with a few exceptions: the intricate 14th century stained glass windows made with small pieces of colored glass giving the windows a jewel-like appearance; interesting stations of the cross; an exceptional ornate organ and an astronomical clock that looked like a great big boom box with woofers and tweeters. But the outside was a lesson in “Wow.”
The whole island – a Unesco World Heritage Site (and you
can’t argue with the World Heritage list) – is a maze of old half-timbered
buildings following the river and streets opening up into large spacious
squares. Some of the houses, besides being half timbered, had carved timbers.
As one of the tourist books says, it is an ambler’s paradise. There are
shopping opportunities to please the most discriminating shopper. An area along
the water, dubbed Petite France is especially charming with houses backing up
along the riverfront.
We spent an enjoyable day strolling the quays and streets that encompass Le Grand Ile.
Friday we left Strasbourg and spent our last day in France searching out the Maginot Line. It was a WWII French Folly – a long fortified trench built along the borders to stop the Germans from invading. Obviously it didn’t work. We know why the Germans wanted the land though – everywhere you look in that area you see German styled villages. We figure the Germans were just trying to get back what they felt was rightfully theirs!
We are leaving France and the free wifi the French McDonalds and several campgrounds have provided. We don’t know how the access will be after France so if you don’t hear from us as often as in the last month, you’ll know we are having a little more trouble connecting. We’ll figure something out (we always do)
Next time you hear from us - Germany!
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Heidelberg, Germany
I have a problem with Germany. This country and I cannot a find common ground. Germany; Deutschland; Allamania - the rest of the world can’t even decide on a name, and that indecision seems to reflect my opinion.
Despite linguists’ opinions that English and German are closely related, we cannot begin to decipher the written word or the spoken language. This puts a damper on our abilities to communicate with the locals, most of whom we’ve had contact with do not speak our language. When asked what country we visited on our last trip that we liked least, we always say Germany yet our memories of the country are pleasant. We followed the Romantic Road through charming villages; our time on the Mosel river was priceless; Munich and Heidelberg are cities whose memories we treasure: the Black Forest and mad King Ludwig’s castles were memorable.
So what is our problem? The only thing I can figure is our inability to communicate with the people.
We returned to Germany this trip in order to collect our friends, Larry and Kathi Goodman, from the Frankfurt Airport. Our plan was to drive to Italy and spend almost a month touring the country.
We chose Heidelberg as our base because it is a lovely city,
only an hour south of Frankfurt, with a good campground right on the Neckar
River. We can watch working barges and cruise ships pass along the river and we
can feed the local swans right from our camping pitch.
We arrived on Friday, May 16 and set up camp in the same site we had eight years previously. Talk about déjà vu. The day we arrived the weather was balmy but Saturday, Sunday and Monday it was cooler and overcast with occasional sprinkles. We stayed close to home, cleaning and rearranging Lily in preparation for the Goodmans’ arrival.
Monday we took the bus into town and reacquainted ourselves
with Heidelberg.
Tuesday, we left our chairs and table at our site (pitch) to hold our space (it had enough space for a tent and was near the shower block) and set off to collect our friends.
We left early Tuesday morning because we had hopes of accomplishing a couple of somewhat important errands that needed to be dealt with: We have two portable LPG tanks – one for our built-in stovetop and refrigerator and the other, a Campingaz tank for our portable BBQ and burner. Both were running low so we needed to refill them. And we needed an oil change. Both errands ended as tail chasers. We did get the Campingaz tank replaced but the tank for the rig (a different brand) is not going to happen without a lot more hair-pulling.
Our oil changing errand was also a failure – the garages we were referred to all had bays unable to accommodate Lily’s height. Why they couldn’t just roll her up on a couple of ramps outside the bays and change the oil we don’t understand – but that is not the German way, we guess.
We spent all morning driving around Heidelberg and Manneheim
trying to succeed in our tasks and by 1:00 when we had to drive to Frankfurt we
were thoroughly frustrated.
What a great mood to begin a vacation with our friends.
Thankfully, picking up the Goodmans was painless and a welcome turn around for the day. We all were excited to finally be together and that helped erase our lousy morning.
Driving back to Heidelberg was a breeze right up to reaching the camping when our clutch decided to give out. We rolled onto our pitch and the clutch literally died on the spot! We didn’t even have the chance to set Lily on her leveling blocks (thankfully she isn’t too off balance).
(Shades of our 2000 trip when we lost an engine!) Wasn’t this a fine pickle? We had figured on staying one more day in Heidelberg for Larry and Kathi then on Thursday we would begin our beeline to Italy. Now we had a busted clutch. And all of this is happening in Germany where we can’t communicate!
Thank gods it blew at the campground because the English-speaking manager (who reminds us of a good friend back home and thusly has been dubbed “Memo”) was able to help us set up an appointment with his mechanic on Friday. Not Wednesday – too soon; not Thursday – a national holiday (of course it would be complicated, we have no affinity with this country). After slipping Lily to the hospital (garage), hopefully she will be repaired and ready for departure from this country on Saturday. (And what is slipping you might ask? – That is German-speak for towing.)
And so we had three days instead of one to explore Heidelberg. Our first day, Wednesday, was spent perusing the “Royal Mile,” a 1600-meter long pedestrian only street with shops and restaurants galore. We found the Heidelberg branch of the world famous Kathe Wahlfart Christmas Store (original store is in Rothenburg on Tauber on the Romantic Road) and bought a couple of original Christmas ornaments. (I wasn’t passing up the opportunity this trip – on our last visit to the Rothenburg store we didn’t get any ornaments and I’d regretted it ever since).
Thursday morning we spent repacking Lily (poor, broken Lily) to accommodate all four of us and then we returned to town to take in the Schloss (castle) for which Heidelberg is famous. A gigantic ruined fortress/castle that was originally built in the 1300s and destroyed and rebuilt two different times before its final destruction in the late 1600s, it is a considered the epitome of the German Romantic period. Paintings have been made and poetry written about this beautiful ruin which dominates the town of Heidelberg.
Friday, while Lily (poor, broken Lily) is in the hospital we hope to take a short cruise on the Neckar for a swans-eye-view of the town and maybe experience going through one of the locks that control the river.
Trapped in Heidelberg
Friday morning Lily (poor, broken Lily) had a 10am appointment at the garage. We’d (re)joined AAA via the internet while in France because there is supposed to be a reciprocal program between the road service companies in different countries and we thought it might be a smart move to belong to AAA. We had Memo call the German road service company, ADAC, in hopes they could arrange towing (slipping). They said they’d send someone out to look over Lily (poor, broken Lily).
ADAC arrived late; agreed a tow (slip) was needed and left after promising to send an ADAC approved tow truck. We would still have to pay for the tow (the reciprocity didn’t extend that far – darn) but at least we had help finding one.
We waited and waited. By 10am (appointment time) the tow hadn’t arrived and we decided that Larry, Kathi and I would go on into Heidelberg and meet Bruce at noon (or as close to noon as possible) after he accompanied Lily to the garage. As it turned out, he didn’t reach the garage until well after noon so our timing was not cooperating with the cruise schedule and we decided to cancel our cruise and instead spent an abbreviated day in town before returned to camp.
Arriving at our pitch Bruce and I realized we had no bed – where were we going to sleep that night? Memo (our host) offered a leftover tent and two chaise lounge mats which we gladly accepted. Only problem was the tent was musty and mildewed. Next option – Memo lent us his station wagon to sleep in. It was so imbedded with smoke it made Bruce feel ill and we were glad we had only one night of homelessness.
Saturday we awoke with great anticipation of the afternoon return of Lily (a healthy, running Lily). Little did we know the disappointment in store for us that day.
We returned Memo’s car with a public “thank you” and private “thank god that’s over” and, with another free day on our hands decided to take that cruise after all.
It was a cool, cloudy day but the little cruise ship had
indoor seating so we were fine. We embarked on a three hour trip up the Neckar
River, through two locks with a stop at Neckargermund, a 1000-year-old town and
onward to Neckarstanich, an 850-year-old town with four castles. Because we
were to pick up Lily a (healthy, running Lily) at two, we didn’t explore either
town but considered our cruise to be the journey, not the destination. The
river and the lush green valleys it had carved out on its way to the Rhine was
lovely; handsome towns and bike paths followed the banks of the river. Oh…for a
bike!
Back in Heidelberg, we split from the Goodmans – they returned to the camping to break down camp, we to the garage to fetch Lily. When we reached the garage, the gates were closed and garage doors locked up with no one in sight. This did not look good.
We walked through a gate and began knocking on doors and windows. Bruce found a young man and told him we were there to pick up our camper. He had been waiting for our arrival and had bad news for us. The wrong parts were delivered to the garage from the supply house and since this was Saturday everything was now closed until Monday, but the parts were reordered and we should return on Monday at 4pm to pick up the campervan.
Well shit.
We asked if we could get into Lily (poor broken Lily), who was resting seven feet high on a lift, to get a few things. The kid found a ladder and soon I was filling shopping bags with some essentials: bath towels, a change of clothing for all of us, food and coffee fixings when Bruce reminded me that we had no way to cook the food I was planning to bring. At that I broke into tears right there in Lily, 7 feet off the ground.
This was just too much: We were supposed to have left Heidelberg on Thursday. It was bad enough that we were 3 days behind schedule but now we would lose 6 days off the Goodman’s trip and we were still in Germany. And that was IF we were able to leave on Monday.
Bruce and the poor bearer of the bad news looked on helplessly as I wept. Bucking up, we grabbed the bags had the kid gave us a ride to old Bus #35 stop and we rode it back to the camping where I proceeded to cry again as we broke the news to Kathi and Larry.
And so our quest for sleeping arrangements began once again.
There was no way we were sleeping in Memo’s car again and the tent was still gross. We decided we would use the tent as a bottom tarp and the tent all weather cover as our over-tarp to keep any night dampness off us and our sleeping bag.
Mentally exhausted from the intense day, Larry and Kathi adjourned to their tent and we to our nest by 8:45 pm.
At 9 pm it began drizzling.
It was a slightly soggy night that really got out of control at 5 am when the intermittent light sprinkling turned into a semi-serious downpour.
We got up and started scrambling to save bedding.
Around 8:30 the sky cleared, the sun came out and we four spent Sunday morning drying and airing out our camping equipment. The Goodman tent got a little damp but basically worked the way tents are supposed to: keep the occupants comfortable. Our little nest got wetter but we weren’t soaked and we didn’t get cold – our main concern pre-rain. We had had two interesting and not very restful nights since Lily (poor, broken Lily) was taken away.
Since there was nothing we could do except pass the time as positively as possible, we opted to take a train to the towns we didn’t visit on our cruise Saturday.
Neckarsteinach, the town with the four castles, was the furthest away (at a whole 10km) so we chose it as our first destination.
Our arrival was announced by the sounds of an oom-pah-pah band and we followed them to a fish-fest where a line of people was queuing up to buy a fried fish meal. We joined them, selecting catfish, sea-salmon and pike-perch as our entrees. They were delicious with ample enough portions to make us all want to take naps. Instead we explored the town, walking up and down hills from castles to river trying to work off the meal. Finally, mid-afternoon, clouds began returning in the sky and fearing a deluge we returned to the train and made for the camping rather than explore the second town on our list.
The rain did not materialize and we reset camp. Bruce and I decided to set up the moldy, musty tent and let it dry out in hopes of improving it. We slept in it that night and while it remained musty it was the best sleep of our three nights.
Monday afternoon we were supposed to get Lily but by this
time we weren’t believing nothing until it happened. We returned to Heidelberg
and crossing the river walked the Philospherweg a reknowned walking path with
fabulous views of the city, castle and river.
We had lunch – Italiano – and started getting serendipitous signs that perhaps we actually were going to be on our way to Italy: the restaurateurs were Italian and spoke it; we bought gelato ice cream from a vendor for the second time in as many days and this time he spoke Italian to us – either Serendipity was showing us the way or playing a cruel joke.
At 3:30 Bruce left to see how Lily was doing and Larry Kathi and I returned to the camping awaiting a call from him as to the status. At 4:15 he called with the report that we were going to be on our way.
Hooray!!!!
Bruce arrived with a healthy, running Lily. We packed her up, bid our goodbyes to the camp folk we had met and who had been so kind, and at 5:30 we drove out.
And so finally, after a 10 day stay, we left the two-day town of Heidelberg.
Despite our lack of German language skills, this visit we were able to find Germans who spoke English –the camping owners, the people who ran the restaurant, and most especially a young university couple, Michael and Nicole, which whom we had some good and in-depth conversations. Other people we met didn’t let our mutual exclusive languages dissuade them from communicating with us – and vice versa – even though none of us knew what the other said. Everyone was friendly, but still it is very frustrating not to be able to talk.
We drove south on the A5 and when we saw Strasburg across the river, we crossed the Rhine back into France.
Ah blessed event – we could read the signs! (Well, sort of.)
We continued along main roads to Colmar, returning to the camping we had stayed at 2 weeks ago at 9:15 pm. The office was closed so we let ourselves in (remembering the gate code) and set up camp.
Tuesday morning (5/27/08) Kathi, Larry and I set off to explore the town while Bruce took on the gargantuan task of our laundry. By the time he was done we had clothes hanging from every spot imaginable within Lily. And at .50euro per 6 minutes, we were quite happy to let them finish drying the last 10% in that manner.
We were back on the road again by 1:15 after a couple of grocery stops (L’Clerc and Lidl). Still heading south: destination – Cinque Terra.
We are finding it a bit harder to find wifi service - that means updates may be futher apart than in the last 6 weeks. Bear with us, we'll report in as often as possible!
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