France: We came, we saw, they were closed...

Well hello everybody! We're back. Having got the laptop fixed and pulled fingers out of places they probably shouldn't have been in the first place, here is the latest blog. We will have to play catch up over the next few months and load our adventures after Columbia (carrying on from where the lap top died). But I am sure you are probabaly more interested in what we are doing now and may choose to peruse our earlier adventures as they get posted.



Having said goodbye to the family we hit the road at 8am on Monday morning. It was raining and it rained all the way to Dover, in fact it didn’t stop raining until we reached France. But then it is to be expected that in England rain will prevail and we just counted ourselves lucky that the few days we had in Cornwall were not a complete washout. The M20 to Dover was busy but we managed to keep to the speed limit or a little above at times, to reach the port with time to spare (all of 15 minutes before we were boarded). The boats have changed a little since we last crossed the English Channel, allegedly the world’s busiest shipping lane, and are now like miniature cruise ships with three eating areas and a duty free shop. During a break in the rain, well it eased a little, we wandered outside to wave cheerio to Blighty before heading to the cafeteria for a hot chocolate and chocolate croissant.



Surprisingly the transition to driving on the “wrong” side of the road was not too difficult. Although I feel it was assisted by those kind French truck drivers flashing their lights, blaring their horns and gesticulating wildly hollering words of wisdom through their windshields. We took the coast road to avoid the traffic (and trucks) between Calais and Boulogne which is rather scenic at times. Feeling slightly peckish we stopped at 1pm local time for a coffee and perhaps one of those gorgeous little French tarts, but Leanny put her foot down and suggested I just have a coffee! But it was just a wild dream to have coffee as everything in the town was closed. Indeed it felt like we had arrived in France and they had seen us coming and run off. We headed back to the car and continued our adventure south until we reach Le Touquet la Plage de Paris. This was quite a large town, sprawling along the seafront with very large houses. As you may have guessed it is considered to be the beach for Paris, and the houses were not weekend beach shacks. But again, the town had a semi-deserted feel as at this time of the year there are no holiday makers.



All signs in France guide you to the freeway as they are toll roads, so it took Leanny a lot of patience to fathom out which road we should be taking. A general sense of direction and some ambiguous turns of the steering wheel did get us onto the “picturesque” minor back road we had selected on our map. By 3pm we decided that we had to have lunch and promptly stopped at a large supermarket for bread and cheese (well you just have to really). The bread was fresh and the cheese cut thickly as we chomped through this gourmet delight watching the rain on the windshield in the supermarket car park. And who said I didn’t have a romantic side?



By late afternoon we reached Amiens, a large town north west of Paris. We learnt that cheaper hotel rooms need to be secured by 5pm (it was 6pm when we arrived) and thus we stayed at the All Seasons hotel for 101 Euros for the night ($165). It was a converted attic room of an old mansion, a decent size and quite comfortable, albeit taking the majority of our daily budget! There is a stunning 12th century cathedral in Amiens which reaches a height of 42 metres. Whilst architecturally beautiful, it was the engineering of such a vast structure which is quite amazing. We could not help but make comparisons to Machu Picchu, which was constructed a century later.



The rain had eased and we set off for the Champagne region through autumnal countryside (shrouded in mist). Although the weather could have been better, it does not detract from the beauty of the countryside in northern France and it was certainly worth the pain of trying to find the right “back”road. By mid-afternoon we had reached our goal of Epernay, the home of Champagne. Due to the time, we checked in to an Ibis hotel in the centre of town, clean and basic (but not cheap). We ventured to the tourist office to find a more pleasant style of accommodation and were pointed in the direction of L’Interface, a B+B a stone’s throw from the Avenue D’Champagne. We met with the owners and secured a room for the following two nights. The owner asked if we wanted to stay that night, to which I replied that we had already booked into the Ibis “That is good” he replied “as I ave no rooms tonight”. Blunt and to the point, but with a French accent they do tend to get away with it.



Our first day in the Champagne region. By midday we were settled in our B+B, after which we eagerly walked up the Avenue D’Champagne to taste some wines. This is where rural French behaviour becomes apparent - everything closes between 12 and 2pm. Our tasting was delayed by an hour and a half, but that only served to whet our appetite further. Our first winery was Moet et Chandon, which is one of the most famous champagnes. They know it and charge an entrance fee accordingly (14 Euros each). It was interesting to hear about how champagne is made and to walk through the cellars. It is stated that everything is done by hand with so much care and passion, but the owner of the B+B assures us that this is just what they tell the tourists! After the glass of champagne permitted with the tour “No, you cannot keep the glasses as we sell them” we wandered back into the main square. We spent a while watching the locals going about their business and grabbed some tea as we realised we were both just knackered. On our second day we visited the Mercier winery, which was a more yeasty style of champagne. We paid for an extra tasting here thinking that the vantage was a vintage, but it turned out to be a non-standard blend of their champagne. What? you may ask, and quite rightly. The big name champagnes select grapes from the region and blend them to get “their” champagne taste. In poor years they will often include wine from the previous year to help maintain “their” flavour. However, in good years they produce a vintage, which is made from just that years grapes and will be laid down (by law) for at least 5 years (Dom Perignon can stay down for 40 years). However, sometimes the winery will release a non “their style” champagne that is not a vintage. Well it can all get a little confusing, particularly after a few tastings. Having been tricked into getting another glass (well it didn’t take much really) we headed to another winery called Achille Princier an independent winery off the main tourist route. In this winery you are shown a very informative video and then take a self-guided tour of the cellar. We then tried two champagnes, a regular champagne which was rather nice, and a vintage, which had been matured in oak and had a slightly port flavour. It was rather different and nice (and we got to keep the glasses). Well with so much champagne one can only eat and sleep, so we did. Oh and by the way, the Australian Chandon is in the same group of companies as Moet et Chandon.



Having drunk not nearly enough champagne we set off to Reims and its majestic cathedral. Actually it is very similar to the one at Amiens so was not as impressive as it should have been. The rain had eased but was still present making everything wet! As accommodation is pretty expensive in France, we chose to stay in out-of-town motels. Whilst clean, they do leave a little to be desired. Typically a double bed is under a single bunk bed and two cases fill the available floor area. Still on the bright side they are normally less than 40 Euros (about $75) and well within the budget, allowing more money for the essentials like food, wine and beer! Reims was an overnight stop and we headed south through truly beautiful countryside to Moulins. We were hoping to get further but we are not in a hurry and Moulins was a very pleasant little town. The following day we hit a bit of a mountainous area south of Clermont Ferrand. The area is volcanic and evidence of old volcanoes is still to be seen, although they have been extinct for a very long time. The mountainous area has resulted in some spectacular roads and I don’t mean because of the fabulous views achieved. It is now I wish I had got a nice V6 or V8 sports car! Oh well, we made it down alive, so there’s a blessing. By late afternoon we reached Le Puy en Valey a few hundred kilometres further south. The terrain in this region is quite hilly and Mon Petit Peugeot (the MPV as it is now called) needs a little goading to make it up some of the hills (like 3rd or even 2nd gear). But we have travelled over 1500kms and it’s all gone pretty well so far.



Heading further south, our next issue was navigating through Marseilles. This port city is vast but is serviced by toll-free motorways, until of course you want to get from one side of the city to the other. That’s when they get you with a toll tunnel (and 3 Euros worth). We had tried to thwart the Frenchies’ plan to make us pay by avoiding the toll roads. We learnt that all major destinations are signed via toll roads, but local towns are not. So to avoid the toll road, you need to find the “next” local town on your desired route. But in Marseilles there are no signs, only Toutes Directions (all routes) which takes you via the toll tunnel. You can try to avoid the tunnel but I doubt that you will! Well after Marseilles it was plain sailing on free motorways through to Hyeres and then a short hop to La Londe, our destination. We did find someone in our parking bay when we got here so I wrote a polite note, well perhaps not that polite. As one would expect, any written signs can only be done in capitals to suggest shouting.

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