France is Pretty

You read the title, right? That’s it. I got nothing else to say.

No. Of course I have more to say, but I will warn you that this will be a photo-heavy post because there was just so much beauty during our week and a half there.

Before I get into it, a COVID update. Jessica and I only traveled to France once we were reasonably sure we were not major transmission risks, and even then, we stayed masked anytime we were anywhere near another human being for several more days. This included Jessica’s family–all of whom tested negative afterwards and made it back to the US successfully.

Paris

Speaking of Jessica’s family…we arrived in Paris on Friday night, when we were supposed to have been hanging out since mid-day Wednesday. So, a few days of visiting were missed. Still, it was great to see them. You can tell our nephews were happy to see Jess, as they tackled her when they got down from the Eiffel Tower and found us having a picnic dinner there…

We stayed with the Taft-Papile clan in a funky little apartment right in the heart of Paris. (Jess and I were isolated in our bedroom, and only joined the others outside or in the living room/kitchen with lots of windows opened and everyone masked.) The place was typical of what I’ve seen of Paris’s old buildings. Beautiful stone on the outside, lovely public areas, in a kinda crumbly way, slowly wearing away throughout, leaving lots of uneveness, and some pretty patchy attempts to modernize the interior. It was functional, but the floor definitely had some odd slopes and such.

We were in Paris less than 48 hours, mostly wandering with Jessica’s parents. It really is a gorgeous city.

The one real sight we visited was Saint-Chapelle. Jessica and I had been here before, but it was fun watching the boys react to the over the top jewelbox-like structure. It’s decorated floor to ceiling and has absolutely stunning stained glass. Highly recommended if you make it to Paris someday…

Jessica and I did manage to snag a few minutes for a drink alone with Emily and Jay. Emily was in a great mood–she’d just landed an exciting new job–receiving the official offer while on vacation. She was pretty thrilled to go back home and immediately give her two weeks notice.

It may be a little sad to call this a highlight…but one of the big highlights of our brief time in Paris was going to Jessica’s favorite bakery (discovered when we were there in 2018), for both of our two breakfasts in town. Boe et Mie has got some delicious-looking pastries, and even their basic croissants and whatnot are superb.

A downgrade from our previous visit was Notre Dame. You can’t get near the sides at all and it’s all surrounded by scaffolding. Sad.

As usual for Paris, we came across a protest. Four years ago it was the most militant animal rights protest I’d ever seen. Not my issue, but I loved their energy! This time it was an issue I can get behind a bit more: there was an encampment set up by Extinction Rebellion blocking a major intersection. They seemed pretty settled in.

Of course, there were mysteries to be solved as well. Like, why are these painted figures so lopsided? Are they both amputees? Is that a genetic thing passed on from painted father to painted daughter? And how did this little orange guy get so strong?

But, really, the highlight was getting to spend time with all of the Tafts and Papiles. It was a bit brief before Emily, Jay, and the kids had to leave, but fun to see them in such a different place than usual!

Tours

Once the Papile clan took off, Mark, Sue, Jessica, and I hopped a train down to Tours. We were planning to use Tours just as a jumping off point for a three day trek through the Loire Valley, but we found it to be an unexpectedly cool town. The streets were mostly very quiet, and for a place so far north and so far inland, it had a bit of a summery feel–I think maybe because of the yellow and white stone used along many streets.

A bit further from our hotel, the older part of the city had lots of well-maintained half-timbered houses–some from over 500 years ago–and other medieval buildings. Most of these surrounded the lovely Place Plumerau, where the largely empty streets were replaced by an insanely-packed crowd. We also had one of the best dinners of our trip there (and there was a lot of great food throughout our time in France).

Hidden down a narrow little street behind our hotel was the unexpectedly gorgeous cathedral with a fascinating variety of stained-glass styles.

And along the main boulevard, a gorgeous Hotel De Ville (city hall)…

The funniest thing to happen in Tours:

I mean, it’s not that big a tourist town, and this weird little train came down a pretty-empty, nothing-special kinda street.

And, the scariest thing was walking the staircase at our hotel. I loved the place–super cute and friendly owners–but those stairs were c r e a k y…and they definitely swayed and bounced a bit with every step.

Loire Valley Hike – Day 1

Our first day hiking with the Tafts, was L O N G — about 15 miles — and F L A T…that is until we climbed a huge hill at the very end of the day. Parts of it were gorgeous, but it was pretty slow going. After going for about 2 miles just to get out of town, we spent a lot of time hiking through fields of onions and rapeseed. The brilliant yellow of the rapeseed fields was beautiful, but the effect wears off a little after several hours. Also, it was mostly paved, so our feet hurt. We did wander past some cute little farmhouses, an old mill, and a great crumbling ancient church in the town of Savonnieres.

We stayed the night in the tiny (pop. about 1,000) town of Villandry. It was cute, and our hotel had a great courtyard. The main attraction is the chateau gardens, but since not too much was in bloom, we satisfied ourselves with the view from beyond the fence. By the way…does anyone have an explanation for this style of stunted leafless trees that seem to be popular all over France (and elsewhere)?

The weirdest thing on this first day was the wine caves we passed just before reaching our destination. We were trying to figure out what they were, and while one sign said they were part of a winery, online it seemed like maybe they doubled as a nightclub. In a cave. Outside a tiny town. In the middle of nowhere. Hmmm.

Loire Valley Hike – Day 2

Our second day of hiking was mercifully shorter and much more varied. It started with Mark acting goofy in my photos, led us through woods, orchards, the completely empty town of Valleres, and past some very peaceful fields.

We also scared these little ducklings enough that the mom flew off and left them behind.

But, the funniest part of our day was preparing our picnic. We found that in several of these little towns there were baguette vending machines. One euro gets you a baguette. (Or, in Villeres, we got a croissant from one!) Even better was the goat farm we passed. It advertised itself as having a “24 hour disributeur.” We were skeptical, but when we arrived, we found it was as advertised. After checking out the stinky goat barn, we went to the little building next door, where a vending machine sells goat cheese logs, yogurt, and more. Cash, credit card, whatever works. Love it! A great way to directly support farmers without them having to have a full-time staffed farmstand. And, while we’re on the subject of vending machines…we also saw a pizza vending machine where you can personalize your pizza–30 seconds to get one to bake at home, 3 minutes to have one ready to eat. Crazy.

As we arrived on the ouskirts of Azay-le-Rideau, we took a brief detour for wine-tasting. I found the crumbling artistic flourishes on the exterior of the chateau amusing. The three Tafts found the wine delicious. A nice rest break.

Eventually we made it to the incredibly cute little town of Azay-le-Rideau. The stone paved streets were cozy and quiet, but the real highlight was the chateau. The Chateau d’Azay-le-Rideau is built on a tiny island in the middle of the River Indre. We didn’t pay to go inside, but wandered around the outside, which was gorgeous from literally every angle. There were also beautiful gardens around it. Seriously one of the prettiest places we’ve visited.

Did I mention France is pretty?

Loire Valley Hike – Day 3

To keep day three a reasonable length, we started by taking a taxi halfway from Azay-le-Rideau to our ultimate destination of Chinon. The day started out promising in the miniscule village of Saint-Benoit-la-Foret, passing the church and some lovely farms. But, after an hour or so, we ended up on a series of endless logging roads through the woods. They weren’t the most lovely woods either, since large chunks had been logged a one point or another. It was fine, but not the best bit.

We got really nervous that the whole day would be a waste when we saw our trail marker (red and white stripes) on this sign…

But, it turns out that this was just moments from the best chunk of the whole walk. It started with some wandering through vineyards that were just waiting to start springing as spring starts to spring…

…but, eventually led us into the outskirts of Chinon where we found the Chapelle Sainte-Radegonde de Chinon, labeled as a “semi-troglodytic church,” which was surrounded by a huge number of homes all built into the side of the hill. Most were abandoned, but as we got closer to town, there were more and more that were still in some sort of use.

We also discovered there’s a huge network of natural and human-made caves in the hill under the fortress at the top of the hill in Chinon. In a few of those, wineries have set up storage caves. We visited one that also doubles as a tasting room.

Chinon itself was also wonderful. It has a great medieval fort up on the hilltop and some quaint little medieval streets and preserved older homes, all set along the Vienne River. We really enjoyed just wandering around and being surrounded by the crumbling old buildings. A lovely, quiet, little town. Very chill.

So, yeah…all that. France is pretty, eh?

More Family!

The next day we took the train back to Tours to pick up our bags, say goodbye to the Mark and Sue, and meet up with my parents, Linda and Don. It was fun to briefly have all our folks together…

And, if you haven’t been blown away by the beauty yet…it gets better. Just give me a sec to get there…

Prehistory

With my parents, we headed down to the Dordogne region of France. Our first and last days were spent–at least partly–visiting sites related to stone age peoples, and in particular to some of the most stunning and best preserved cave paintings.

Our first stop was Lascaux II. Lascaux is probably the most famous painted cave in the region (perhaps the world), but decades of tourism — after it was discovered by some young men in the midst of WWII — led to increasing damage to the original cave. Lascaux II is a nearby reproduction of the original cave. More recently, Lacaux IV opened, but it sounds like the production there is a bit overdone, so we decided to go with Lascaux II. Unfortunately, someone–I won’t name names–reserved our tickets for a tour in French. (OK. It was me. But, to be fair, there weren’t any English-speaking options.) My parents used to speak better French (and have better hearing), and Jess and I remember a litle from high school, but…we were mostly lost throughout the tour. There were bits and pieces we understood, but just that, bits.

Probably the most interesting thing we learned was about how the paintings tended to incorporate the natural shape of the rock to delineate parts of the animals represented. Despite it being a reproduction, it was actually quite cool and a lot of it was very beautiful. I managed to take one photo inside the cave before I realized photos weren’t allowed–oops–so, here ya go:

We also visited the Grotte de Font-de-Gaume, which is one of the last caves open to the public where you can see the original cave paintings (rather than reproductions, like Lascaux II). They strictly limit the tourists though, so it doesn’t get degraded too quickly. Here our tour was in English and our guide was quite funny. Her English was very good, but she was very apologetic about her occasional failings. A few times she depended on written notes or a little help from one tourist who spoke some French and had been here before, but really, she was quite good. A lot of what we saw was similar to Lascaux, but there were some subtle differences in style. Font-de-Gaume was a bit less over-the-top beautiful and overwhelming, but because of the original works, small group, and narrow tunnels, it had a nice air of intimacy.

One other quick note: one of the most impressive parts of this visit was my mom. She recently had a surgery to improve her mobility and it’s done wonders. When we saw her in New York in the fall, she had trouble walking a block. Here, we climbed about 50 meters up a hillside on a half a kilometer walk to the cave. I’m not saying she ran the whole thing, but that’s a stunning improvement over 6 months earlier. That increased mobility also helped when we visited all the ridiculously beautiful towns in the Dordogne region…

Sarlat

My parents had been talking about going to this area forever, partly because they like some series of books based here. Jess and I were fine with going wherever. Turns out my folks were right–it’s fucking gorgeous.

We stayed in the town of Sarlat-le-Caneda, which has a small, incredibly well-preserved medieval core. Like all the towns in the area, the main building material is an incredibly lovely yellow-orange stone. It’s great during the day, but around sunset it really glows. To add awesome to exquisite (is that a saying?), the place we rented had clearly medieval roots, but also a nice fancy updated kitchen/living room situation. Anyhow, Sarlat looked a bit like this…

BTW, have you noticed France is pretty?

Since we’re looking at these pretty towns, I’ll point out that many of the roofs in he area are actually made of stacked stones, not shingles or any such modern device. Here’s a nice example:

We happened to arrive Friday night, just in time for the sprawling Saturday morning market. Foods and such are sold all through the center, and handicrafts and tourist junk are sold on the edges of the old town. I liked that arrangement. We picked up some great cheese, bread, salami, jam, fruits, and more that kept us picnicking for lunch for several days.

The region here is known for its food culture–heavy into duck–so we ate well almost every night. The best is the duck-fat fried potatoes, which were so greasy and delicious and came with most meals. Everyone else enjoyed the foie gras, but that was too much for me. Sarlat celebrates its duck/goose consumption with these guys in a square right next to a major market hall…

For some reason I didn’t get photos of any of our ridiculously delicious meals, but I did get one of the cave in the back of one of the restaurants we were invited into. It has a copy of a Lascaux cave painting, a stream running through it, and…a bunch of high chairs.

Sarlat is also associated with the salamander–the mythical fire-surviving kind. You can see it in the S-symbol that’s everywhere, but also in other images. They seem very proud of it. Those little metal S’s were everywhere, to the point where they were almost a tripping hazard.

Sarlat’s aristes were also full of good advice, like “eat more croissants” (advice we followed every morning)…

…and “eat your children” (advice my parents thankfully failed to follow).

From Sarlat, we explored up and down the Dordogne River valley. Some places we went back to multiple times, so I’ll try to give you a sense of things by looking at the places we visited starting in the east and heading west, our general direction of exploration over a few days time. Here’s a map of the area with our various stops highlighted. (Thanks Rick Steves.)

Carsac

Our first stop was just outside the village of Carsac, at the Eglise Saint-Caprais de Carsac. It’s a beautiful little church that stood out nicely on the cloudy morning we visited. It was pitch black when we went inside, and I was pulling out my phone to use the flashlight when a motion sensor made the lights pop on. Even more surprising is that there was someone in there! He looked like he had been meditating, praying, perhaps crying in the dark. We left him alone. But, the inside of this simple medieval church was tranquil and well cared-for…and oddly had a lot of modern technology (see the speakers on the pillars?). Anyhow, it was a nice first stop.

Cingle de Monfort

Just down the road we stopped at a viewpoint where you can overlook the castle of Monfort from a curve in the river. We didn’t stop at the castle when we drove by. It’s privately owned and there were plenty more to look at further along. It was a nice view and gave us a taste of what lay further downriver.

Domme

A fortified medieval town high on a hill above the river, Domme gave us more of a clue of what the area had been like in the middle ages–a war zone. The English and French faced off here from opposing castles for centuries, and much of the land traded hands multiple times. In Domme we explored clifftop views, narrow alleys, medieval gates, and more. It was a rainy, quiet morning, with hardly anyone around, but an absolutely gorgeous little town.

La Roque-Gageac

This town was a bit of a crossroads, and we returned here a few times. It’s absolutely stunning, nestled between high cliffs and the Dordogne River. In fact, the river floods so frequently that the ground floor of most buildings there is built to allow rapid abandonment. The town generally rises in tiers from the river up the hillside, and above it all a medieval fortress is carved directly into the cliff face (look for the stairs leading up). We skipped the tour of the fortress, but Jess and I wandered the town from end to end. Interestingly, the church at the east end of town is surrounded by tropical plants, including a huge grove of banana trees. Nevertheless, this unusual choice made a bit of sense, since the rest of the town was spotted with everything from ivy to wysteria. Overall, another gorgeous town.

(Note: the chateau at the far end of the town is a 19th century creation–not actually medieval.)

We also took a one hour boat trip from there that explored down river as far as Castelnaud-la-Chapelle. It gave a different view on things, and was just a pleasant way to spend the afternoon.

Note: France continues to be pretty.

Castelnaud

Up on the hill at the next curve in the river below La Roque-Gageac lies the Chateau de Castelnaud. This impressive place switched hands between the English and the French multiple times during the Hundred Years War. Linda chilled in the car, but we made Don come with us on a ridiculous one-way circuit (no choices allowed!) up and down about 437 flights of stairs (I may have lost count somwehere).

First of all, the castle itself was gorgeous, looking like something straight out of a fantasy about medieval warfare.

One feaure you may have noticed in that last photo above was ports for cannons in the walls of the castle’s towers. This was something I hadn’t really seen before, but makes sense as the castle continued to be a site of battle well into the era of gunpowder. In fact, most of the exhibits in the castle were dedicated to military technology: armor, guns, cannons, swords, polearms, a ridiculously huge number of crossbows, and a very cool explanation of different varieties of catapults and trebuchets.

There was even a part where we stepped out onto the wooden hoardings that would be added along the castle ramparts. Thankfully, these were a modern reconstruction, and didn’t crumble under our feet, because through the holes (for dropping stones and such on attackers) we could see a good long way down…

The views from the casle reinforced the notion of its importance in warfare. You could see up and down the Dordogne for miles, to La Roque-Gageac in one direction and the Castles of Feyrac and Beynac in the other.

The silliest bit was the video game we played, where we attempted to rescue our captured friend from the castle. We lost our last life when we wrestled over a pot of boiling oil. Our friend rotted away, imprisoned forever in the depths of Castelnaud.

One of the best bits was the live blacksmithing demo. We saw a nail made from a chunk of iron righ before our eyes. This guy is on duty here 8 hours a day. All that hammering with that amount of heat is a serious workout. Impressive.

And the saddest bit was the commercial kitsch. Evidently French tourists buy the same junk for their kids as ‘mericans do.

Beynac

Castelnaud was often in opposition to the residents of Beynac, just a bit down the river. Beynac was also a fabulous archetype of a medieval castle, looming over the town and the river below. It has views out to the castle of Feyrac and beyond that to Castelnaud. (You can see Feyrac over Jessica’s shoulder and Castelnaud barely in the distance.)

The displays at Beynac were a bit more sedate, but tended to focus on the lives lived here more than the battles. These lives included Eleanor of Aquitaine and her son Richard the Lionheart, some rather famous figures.

And the walk down through the town was not too shabby as far as beauty goes either…

Jardins de Marqueyssac

Our last stop brought it all together. (You can find it at the star I put on the map above.) From the gardens of the Chateau de Maarqueyssac, you could see pretty much everywhere we’d been: the castles, la Roque-Gageac, Domme, and a good stretch of the river connecting them all.

Not to mention, the gardens themselves were pretty and made for a pleasant walk about…

The one thing I didn’t understand was this sign hanging by the entrance:

It’s clearly the Michelin Man, but what’s he doing? At first I thought he was waving a fist full of money (because entry to the gardens isn’t cheap?), but on closer inspection, it seems to be a cup of some sort. Maybe some reference to Michelin-star-receiving resaurants in the area? No clue. Once again, the Michelin Man is a source of mystery.

After a great few days, it was time to say goodbye. Jess had meetings to make in the Netherlands, and I had a Jess tto follow wherever she was off to. But, it was a lovely visit to France–an escape from work, a reunion wih family, and some seriously gorgeous towns.

Conclusion: France is pretty.

PS-Happy Mothers Day to both the moms featured above.

PPS-Fuck the Supreme Court.