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Published: September 28th 2010
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Field of Sunflowers
Growing sunflowers seemed a popular thing to do. At this time of year they were all facing downwards looking a bit sad! From Paris we were off to the region of Champagne. Rightly, I was thinking we might be drinking some nice champagne which as it turns out we didn't, but we did drink sour wine (more about that later). We had decided, in the spirit of touring and also of stinginess that we would avoid all the toll roads, taking back roads instead. We felt that while we might be taking a bit longer, this way we would be getting nicer scenery and a better feel for the country and it's people. It didn't take long to work out that probably everyone took the toll roads, as sat nav lead us down one country lane after another. Every 20 minutes or so we'd be driving through some neglected agricultural settlement situated on a one way road which had houses and machinery sheds all clustered together, with animal pens not far away. The primary colours that France is renowned for were everywhere and the weather was mostly very good (and a lot better than the UK). France certainly does 'shabby chic' well, as on the whole, most places seemed in need of a good carpenter and a coat of paint. However you get
Phoebe and her Massive Cheese Wheel
We found a giant version of the cute cheeses Phoebe likes in her lunchbox and had to get it for her....she ate it all! the feeling that leaving things mostly unrepaired is the usual approach. So often cars would be missing a rear vision mirror, or a bumper bar would be hastily stuck back onto the car with electrical tape (have to admit we are beginning to take the same approach with Lentil).
Troyes was the first major stop and we had heard about the local specialties: Troyes cheese and Troyes Andouilette, which is a sickly fatty looking sausage made of pig tripe (stomach lining for those unfamiliar). Happily it was market day, so we tripped off to stock up Lentil's fridge. Nick had decided that he should make an effort to eat more offal, as after all, killing an animal for meat alone is a bit of a waste, and many people swear by (well-prepared) offal. Buying and eating some Troyes sausage was a good way to start so we bought some (along with pate, vegies, fruit, three different types of cheese, olives and quiches....mmmm!) and Nick cooked it up that night. I, being vegetarian, was spared of the experience, and as it was being cooked, filling the van with smoke and fat, Phoebe quickly decided that she too was going to
Typical French House
House like these are EVERYWHERE in France. Must have 1) stone walls, 2) shutters and 3) cute flower boxes be a vegetarian. The report from Nick was that overall it was a bit unsatisfactory, too fatty and not as nice as actual pork. Adding to mine and Phoebe's dissatisfaction, Lentil had a certain pungent bacon smell for the next 24 hours.
We stopped in Beaune, as there was apparently good wine to be had. Having free camped for a while we decided a caravan park was in order. Playing on the play ground I spotted some kids about Phoebe's age. A bit of a rarity seeing as all the European school holidays were finished and school was definitely back. I pricked up my ears and oh, whats that... they speak English! I rushed to tell Phoebe and after an initial shyness they were all playing excellently. The kids, Matthias and Emilia, were from Canada and were also travelling the world for a year. Nick and I met their parents and we had a good chat and exchanged travel tips (they were also going to the Middle East and Asia), which finished with an exchange of emails and of course, blog addresses! Phoebe is already planning a trip to Canada in 15 years time to visit them.
The
View in the Morning
We free camped in a tiny village where we had 270 degree views of vineyards. In the morning we saw some workers harvesting by hand thing to do in Beaune is a 'degustation', or in other words a tasting. Having spent two years in Adelaide, Nick and I had become well acquainted with wine tastings, so were looking forward to a snooty French version of whatever Adelaide could dish up. Well, the place we went to made South Australia look like the centre of wine sophistication and snobbery. Some tatty looking guy emerged from the backyard who almost begrudgingly consented to a tasting (even though it was clearly advertised out the front), then bought out some label-less bottles (!!) which, he told us, had been opened a week ago so probably wouldn't taste so good. “No,” I said “I imagine they wouldn't”. Some bottles were ok but we didn't know what to do other than gulp down the off wine and turf what we couldn't drink into the spittoon. In hindsight, we were way too polite, we even bought a bottle of wine, but quite frankly I just wanted to get out of there with as little awkwardness as possible. I really don't know what the story was there, possibly a language issue, but I suspect he couldn't be bothered opening proper bottles for a
Nuclear Cooling Towers
Nearly 80% of France's power is nuclear, so eerie looking cooling towers were a regular feature of the landscape straggly bunch of foreigners in the off-season (even worse, English speaking foreigners).
Further down the road in Lyon, the gourmet capital of France, we stopped for a look around and of course a bite to eat. Being vegetarian in France hadn't exactly open my eyes to new and exciting vegetarian dishes, but in Lyon we came across a vegetarian cafe. We had
plat de jour, or plate of the day, which was hard to describe, but I can assure you, was very inventive and delicious.
Heading out of Lyon we stopped for petrol and had two hopeful looking young guys approaching us. They were in need of a lift, and did we think we could oblige? We've never picked up hitch hikers before, but these guys were young, smelly backpackers and well, we took pity on them. Roman and Jean-Etienne were French and had been travelling Europe for over a year. They had been getting around solely by hitch hiking and had been free camping in a tent. Suddenly our free camping situation in Lentil looked like comparative luxury. On shower-less days I had discovered that a pot of warm water, bar of soap and a facewasher does almost the same thing; these guys would have no such comforts and after 10 minutes in the van with them their lack of showers was becoming obvious. Phoebe was sitting in the back with them and shrunk further into her Harry Potter book, avoiding eye contact. Roman was carrying a guitar with him and upon first mention of the guitar he whipped it out and started playing a us a few songs. He serenaded us with love songs in French, Italian and even Bosnian! He had an English repertoire as well consisting of Bob Dylan and a few other 70's classics. Jean-Entinne told us of all the countries he loved Bosnia the best. Roman then chimed in with “He only love Bosnia because he find girl there”. “Ah”, I chided “so Roman learned the songs but Jean-Entienne got the girlfriend”. After some more discussion about Bosnia, as well as the finer points on the lyrics of 'House of the Rising Sun', it was time for them to hop off. We waved goodbye, and then quickly opened our windows to air out the van and checked to see if all valuables were still in place! I can't say we'll be aching to pick up hitchhikers again, but it wasn't such a bad experience.
We continued our drive further south....off the French Riviera!
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christine giles
non-member comment
risks
good to risk hitch hickers.that is travel.Phoebe r u looking forward to school? love AC