Advertisement
Published: April 27th 2012
Joan of Arc
Patron St. of FranceThis blog will be slightly different than past blogs. I will be dividing it into four parts. There will be my normal descriptive narrative of our daily events and corresponding pictures; however, I am also adding additional sections: Daily eats, reviews and daily tips. Hopefully this will be more helpful to those that may read this that do not know me.
April 25 & 26 2012 The trip began at 4 am Wednesday Morning. I had worked until 9 pm the night before and did not get done backing until midnight, but that is what it takes to go away for three weeks. The flight was uneventful, which is a good thing, since I don’t like flying much. Portland to Dulles, Dulles to Paris, 13 hours in the air, but it went buy fairly quickly. Jerry loved Dulles airport because the international wing has a smoking lunge so for once he got to smoke during the lay over instead of waiting 18 hours for a cigarette. The smoking lounge was directly across from a win bar called Vino Volo, wine (specializing in wine flights, typically three of a region or type) and
Notre Dame
No the one in Reims not Paris tapas style food. I had a rose flight and of course the French rose was the best. We also had some light snacks as we had not eaten since last night. We met an interesting man at the wine bar who trains wine steward’s for a living and of course he is from Vegas, he had just returned from a 40 day trip to Germany, France and Italy, he had some recommendations of places to eat while we were in France.
We arrived in Paris at 7 am Thursday morning. Immigration and customs again was no problem and since we had an exit row bulk head seat on the flight and our luggage managed to be the first unloaded we were to the rental car office in 30 minutes after landing.
The car had already been paid for prior to leaving, but there was the matter of insurance and some confusion about using my debit card for the deposit. All was resolved quickly and pretty stress free. What was not stress free was finding the car the parking garage is very confusing and getting out of it was even worse. But we did manage to be on our
way by a little after 8 am.
Traffic from the airport to the A-4 was a little congested and they drive very very fast (not that I don’t drive fast myself but it was a Fiat and new to me).
Reims Our first stop was Reims, which is in Champagne. We had some coffee and a lite bite. Reims is the city that Charles the VII was crowned King and the city that Joan of Arc, the patron saint of France escorted him safely to. The stop was quick, a few pictures, the coffee and purchased a bottle of champagne for later tonight.
Nancy We then drove for about 3 hours to Nancy, a city located in Loraine. We got off the toll roads and took the more scenic route which can be slower but worth the extra time to get to see a different part of France. Everything was very green or yellow, mustard seed blooms everywhere you looked (at least we think they were mustard seed blooms). Nancy is also the birth place of the Art Nouveau scene in France, I don’t really know what that means but Jerry does and he attempted to explain it to me during lunch, but it is kind of like me explaining a Schedule M-1 on a corporate tax return to him.
We had lunch in a place called Excelsior in the heart of Nancy. This is the first place we have experienced a language barrier, the order was slightly difficult to make, but in the end we did prevail and got what we wanted. We both had Quiche Loraine, it was the best Quiche I have ever had, light fluffy and very favorable. We also had a bottle of Pinot from the Loraine region a Cotes de Toul. Part of the plan for this trip is to eat and drink only the food that is of the region we are in at that time. This will help us to fully immerse ourselves in to the culture of the each region.
Strasbourg Our first night is being spent in Strasbourg which is very close to the German boarder, I will write more about the city tomorrow as the travel has pretty much worn me out. Suffice it to say, it looks like a German village more than a French City. The drive from Nancy to Strasbourg was about 2 hours, but it was a long 2 hours as the jet lag and lack of sleep had truly begun to catch up with us. I had to stop a couple of times to get fresh air so I would not fall asleep while driving. Don’t worry, I didn’t even come close. Jerry again did is wonderful job as navigator, until we actually got to Strasbourg, and nothing could have helped us here. Part of the city and the part you want to see is on an Island in the middle of the city. It is mostly pedestrian and bikes with some car traffic and very hard to navigate, especially when you do not read French. It took us about 45 minutes to give up looking for the hotel, park the car and go find it on foot; we ended up being about 6 blocks from it.
8:04 pm (11:05 am in Portland) I am blogging, Jerry is smoking and then we will go to dinner and call it an early night. There is an Alsatian restaurant across from our hotel and since we are in Alsace that is where we will be eating. Tomorrow we will explore Strasbourg then off to Dijon for two days one of which is a private cooking lesson for me.
Dinner was very good I finally after two trips to France got my veal and it wasn’t an internal organ. We are both very tired so we will be turning in soon. This entry is not going to be posted until Friday, as I am having some WiFi difficulty at the hotel.
TODAY’S EATS
Breakfast Café o’lait
Me Jamon & Cheese on a baquette
Jerry: Emmenthal on a baquette
Lunch Split a Terrain of Canard (country duck pate)
Both had Quiche Loraine with a simple salad
Dinner Split a Onion Tarte Flambé (open face crepe with jamon, Munster cheese, onions and crème freche)
Jerry had a ham hock over sauerkraut with a boiled potato (had a nice French name which I can remember or spell)
Me: Veal Cordon Bleu, veal stuffed with ham and Munster cheese in a mushroom cream sauce, served with pomme frittes, and stewed tomatoes and zucchini.
A bottle of Rose (Alsace Pinot Noir Blanc)
Dessert: Kougelkopf glace (Specialty of Alsace, I raisin rum ice cream with a custard sauce.
REVIEWS
Café du Palais in Reims: Very traditional French café found in the 1930’s. Service was friendly the food was reasonable and good. Great place for a cup of coffee and light snack. They also serve lunch and dinner.
Excelsior in Nancy: Language is going to be a problem here. No one spoke very much English so you really have to try to order in French and be sure of what you want. The Quiche was the best I have ever had. Service was ok, really not a tourist place, but I do highly recommend for the décor and the food.
Au Tonnelet in Strasbourg: Good food and reasonable price. It is family run so the service is friendly and good. The food is traditional Alsace fair, hearty and well seasoned. If you have a salt issue, it might be a problem for you.
Hotel – Regent Petite France: Expensive four star hotel even at hotel.com prices. It is in a renovated ice house so the archetiture and interiors are unique. The bed is comfortable and the rooms spacious, but you are paying the price for that. It is very difficult to find so make sure you have precise directions before you decide to stay. Valet outdoor parking is free. Location is excellent. Wifi is available but very low connection you must go to computer room to be able to use.
Reims: Always worth the trip and is an easy day trip from Paris.
Nancy: If you like art Nouveau then make the trip. Easily accessible by TGV.
Strasbourg: A good mix of German and French, worth the 6 hour day but stay more than one night.
DAILY TIPS
Don’t get right off your overnight flight from the states and then drive for more than 3 hours to get somewhere, unless you’re 20 something it will take its toll.
Stay off the A roads (i.e. A-4, A2, etc.) as much as possible the tolls can really add up. Instead opt for the N roads, more scenic and cheaper.
Plan on spending at least two days in Strasbourg and book your hotel just off the Island to make parking easier. Or, just take the TGV from Paris, once here you really don’t need your car.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.071s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 11; qc: 27; dbt: 0.0357s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
