March 25, 2015 - Departure

'Twas the night before leaving and all through the house
All the creatures were stirring "Now where is that blouse?"

The stockings were strewn all over the stair
In hopes they'd dry quicker if left out to air.

We'd like to be nestled all snug in our beds
But visions of checklists keep clouding our heads.
Dave in his lounge chair pores over a map
While Lynn writes this blog post, computer in lap.

Just an hour ago you could hear us all chatter
With children and grand kids, our loved ones who matter

Our last night together flew by like a flash
Stealing kisses and hugs before we must dash.



The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow (what? Isn't it supposed to be spring?)
Made us happy to know there'd be sun where we go.
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But our suitcases, all packed, leaving time for a beer. (For Dave, not Lynn)

Well, I'm afraid I've rolled poor Clement C Moore over in his grave a few times already so I'll quit butchering his poem.

We are ready to go! Seems to have been so long in the planning. But the bags sit in the front hall and the check list is down to the "close the house" items and final few items that need to be packed at the last minute. It's hard to believe we've finally made it to departure time.

Because we are taking so many different forms of transportation, we worked really hard to keep our luggage to a minimum and managed to keep it to one checked bag apiece, one carry on and one personal item apiece. Not bad for 2 months. We really limited our wardrobe. For example, I'm taking 4 short sleeved and 4 long sleeved shirts for the whole 2 month stay. We have laundry facilities so packing any more isn't really necessary, although I'll truly be sick of those clothes before we leave. All the weight lifting I did over the past year at Hybrid Fitness will help me manage those bags.

We fly to London, then catch a train to Winchester to visit friends for a few days before returning to London to catch the Eurostar (the train that takes only 3 hours between London and Paris). Of course, that requires taking the Tube (subway) across London to get from one train station to another. Then from downtown Paris we must take a train out to the airport where we are meeting our friends and picking up our car. Then finally we get to make our way to La Borie des Combes.in Bézenac. That's a lot of humphing of luggage! I've been working out, but managing all that luggage will be exhausting.

I did buy the world's lightest suitcase (weighs under 5 pounds empty) by IT from eBags. Hoping it will last, but between the well-designed inner space of this suitcase and the compression bags I bought, I managed to get all my clothes, shoes and toiletries into this one bag. Score! It's a hit so far.

Our carry-on is filled mostly with electronics - C-Pap machines for both of us (getting old requires extra equipment), lots of cameras and the assorted cords and chargers for these. Dave can't live without music so an iPod and Jawbone are coming with as well. The laptop will go in my backpack. And we're bringing a few carefully selected guidebooks.

For money, we'll use credit cards and ATM (Debit) cards. The Debit cards work in all ATM machines, giving you cash in Euros at the current rate of exchange. Our bank doesn't charge any fees for this, so we get our money at the rate of the day. We got a Barclay chip and pin credit card as we've had some problems in the past with using American magnetic strip cards in France. Mostly in self-serve, not-attended situations like toll booths and unattended gas stations. However, buying train tickets in the past has been an issue as the ticket kiosks and the tellers can only accept chip and pin cards. (These cards have a data chip in them and require you to enter a pin number in order to complete the transaction.) So, in the past we've had to go to an ATM to take out sufficient cash to purchase the train tickets.

We're also carrying our drivers' licenses and insurance cards as well as back up credit cards. We'll keep this stuff in our money belts that we wear under our clothes while traveling. Once in La Borie des Combes, we can keep some of this stuff in our rooms. We learned long ago to make sure we each carry at least one credit card that the other doesn't carry so that if one of us loses their purse or wallet, the other has a credit card that hasn't been compromised and can be used to pay our way out of our troubles.

Gotta run to get this adventure off to a good start. Will share a bit of the Dordogne next post.

From Spain to Thézan via Figueres and Collioure

It's been busy since Duane and Judy arrived, but today Dave, Judy, and Duane are off to visit Cathar castles and I'm staying home to catch up on the blog and house chores. The temperatures are fine, but the day is grey. According to the "météo" (weather report) it should be clearing this afternoon, but for the moment it looks like a good day to read a book - or write a blog.

Our trip home from Barcelona was a full one with stops in Figueres, Spain and Collioure, France.

The attraction of Figueres is a Salvador Dali museum that he built out of a burned out theatre in his home town (right next to the church where he was baptized).



If you know Dali, you know how eccentric his art was, but this museum helps you understand his genius as well. He was truly a talented painter who could paint classically if he wanted to. But he had a view of life and an imagination that explored all kinds of media (including one person created out of computer circuit boards). He loved trompe-l'oeil images such as the painting of the nude which seen from a distance is a portrait of Lincoln.


He also liked to spoof the styles of other painters like Matisse, Picasso, Seurat, Gaugin, etc. Many of his famous works are in this museum as well as his personal collection and the rooms were set up by Dali himself along with his wife Gala. This museum is well worth seeing even if you think Dali is a bit crazy.



That said, there were plenty of people there to see the museum when we arrived around noon. Many were tour groups of students which made seeing the 22 rooms a bit challenging and there were times when patience was the only solution.



We finished around 2 and decided to eat at a sidewalk cafe on the square by the museum. Nothing stellar, just sandwiches and pizzas. Then we hit the road for France with a plan to stop at the beach town of Collioure which had been described to us as "must-see".



And the recommendation is correct. This Mediterranean town has everything you could want in a beach resort.





A wide but protected cove with pebble beaches. The water must be quite warm here as people are still swimming at 5 PM.



An old castle on the promontory above the town which nestles in the foothills of the Pyrenees as well as a castle right in the center of town clinging to a large rock right on the water's edge.



An old part of town whose soft pastel-colored buildings climb narrow streets and alleys into the hillside.



An old church on the harbor front with a couple small red boats floating in front. A broad walk out to the spit of the breakwater. The only problem is the changing weather. There is a chill breeze blowing off the land that calls for windbreakers especially as the sun becomes more diffuse in the gathering clouds. The flat light makes the photos less stunning than they should be.

Dave and I are forced to retrace our path around the water's edge of the fortress path as somehow I've no longer got my glasses. I had taken them off to clean them when sprayed by a bather showering off the sand (pebbles) next to where I was standing. Somehow, they didn't get put back onto my face and it is probably 15 minutes later that I realize they are missing. Unfortunately, they must have fallen onto the path and been stepped on. We find the bent frames with a single lens set up on a rock. As we're looking for the other lens, a woman carries it to me, noting that it had been scratched up. Miraculously it is not broken. With all the pieces, we are hoping they can be repaired so I put them all in my purse. A bit later, I do a bit of twisting, fit the lens in and discover that the glasses are wearable, the scratch low enough to not be in my normal field of vision.

The other out of context surprise is seen when we round the corner at the base of the castle on the water's edge. Collioure, impressionist painting that it is, is also the French Commando training center whose motorized rafts are moored up against the side of the castle. Who knew?

Collioure has cleverly set up a "Chemin du Fauvisme" with 19 stations mostly along the waterfront where copies of famous paintings by Matisse and Derain are displayed at the point where they were painted. We follow the chemin as we wander to find all the paintings.



Another artistic feature are brass picture frames (empty) that frame particularly picturesque views. We check out a few of those as well.

Dinner is a difficult decision. Avoiding seafood and dairy is difficult in this town on the sea, so we end up eating in an Italian restaurant where the food was OK. Duane and I had the daily special which was duck with honey sauce which was quite good. Pizza and pesto pasta were the other choices.



When finished, we stop for ice cream from the vendor across from the restaurant. The ice cream is displayed like artwork and the option of sorbet as well as ice cream means we can all have dessert. French ice cream is so-o-o good.

By now the sun is setting and we still have about 2 hours to get back to Thézan. We get home about 10:30 planning a sleep-in day for Friday. We tumble into bed soon after arriving.

Credit Cards in France

Warning to all our visiting friends and family: American credit cards don't work universally! France has been using the chip technology for credit cards for many years and now many of their card readers are of the type where you insert the card partway in to read the chip rather than slide the card to read the magnetic strip. Most American cards don't have the chip and so don't work in these new readers. We've been having trouble this time in France especially trying to use kiosks or automated machines to purchase tickets for transportation or pay tolls on the Autoroute. The other places that we had trouble were paying for gas and paying in restaurants. We have had to start taking out larger amounts of cash to be covered should our card be refused. (So far, ATMs have taken our debit cards without a problem.) In the case of the restaurants, they didn't have an alternative way to swipe the card and could only take cash. For the gas station, we had to move to a pump that didn't have an automatic card reader and then pay inside. What a pain! So moral of the story is: If you can get a card with a chip before you leave, do it. If not, be prepared to have to pay cash (draining your bank account and not being able to postpone the costs into the next month). Bring your debit card for ATM machines as your credit card will consider money taken out as a loan and start charging interest from day of withdrawal. ATMs typically do not have fees at the French end, but your bank probably has an exchange fee at their end, so check ahead of time with your bank to be sure you know what you will be charged. (for us it was $1.42 on a withdrawal of $142, which was the equivalent of 100 Euros)

Some additional notes: After a note from our friend Ron who pointed us in the direction of prepaid chip and pin cards, I've begun to research how to purchase one here. For more information about this, see the Rick Steves article: http://www.ricksteves.com/plan/tips/moneytip.htm Ron suggested that one popular UK company is FairFX. More later as we get more information. Basically the major inconvenience comes when trying to use automated public transportation kiosks where there is no human clerk option and for gas stations whose pumps only take chip and pin cards.

After some additional research, there is a company that will let you buy a prepaid chip and pin card with dollars in the states (and we're hoping at its location at the Toulouse airport and the Lyon airport). The card is loaded with the amount of Euros you specify and can be recharged online. It seems to not have fees as long as you don't let it sit around unused for months. Called Travelex Cash Passport, it would appear that you can buy this card from the states and have it delivered to your home before coming. For my kids who are coming without enough time to have a card delivered (although, you can specify an airport pickup location in the online order form), Dad and I will try to get two cards with some amount loaded that we can all use.

Learning to buy groceries

Our big project for the day is purchasing groceries to last the weekend. We've learned that there is a market in town on Tuesdays and Thursdays. There are some shops in the centre ville, including a good bakery and butcher. These shops can have a tendency to not follow their scheduled open hours, but they are very near. They also close for lunch and open again around 4:30 for a few hours. To be checked out for sure. There is a large grocery store that carries a lot of other goods as well a short drive away at the end of town. So that's where we headed.

It took us several hours as we had to read all the labels, find the right aisles and make choices between many options for most products. But we managed to stock up and learn lots of the names for foods in the process. We've also got a French beer to try and another bottle of the local wine. We bought chicken and porc and I'll try out the gas "cooker" (British English for stove) to start to get a feel for the way it works. There's an oven too, so I might have to start collecting recipes to try. In general sizes of things are smaller for canned goods, the variety of meats is wider including veal, duck, and rabbit, as well as chicken, pork, beef and turkey. Meat is quite expensive in general, but with the choices of fresh fruits and vegetables, that's not too hard to imagine eating less meat and more fruits and veggies. But overall, I'd say the cost of groceries is not far off from what we pay in the States. I expect we will shop more frequently to eat fresher foods. It is easy to eat bread, cheese and sausages with some fruit for a quick meal, so pizza isn't necessary as a quick meal here. And no cooking involved.

You bring your own bags (you can purchase large reusable plasticized totes if you don't have any - we bought two and that was enough for all our shopping). And you pack your own groceries (which I like a lot). Also, you put a coin into the rack of carts outside the store and it unlocks one from the queue of carts. When you return the cart after shopping, you put the key from the handle of the locked cart behind into yours and your money is returned. What a clever way to make people put their carts away (and not steal them). Maybe I'll try to take some photos so you can see how it works.

Just finished a late lunch. We had a discussion with Jean-Yves and Marie-Christine about eating Spanish versus French produce. Spain allows genetic engineering and France does not. Origin of the produce is always labeled in the supermarket - another cool thing. I think that we were advised to avoid Spanish produce and Dave thinks we were advised to prefer the Spanish produce. Well, we've asked for clarification from Jean-Yves and Marie-Christine, but in the meantime, we bought Spanish strawberries (1, 29 Euro) and French strawberries (3,00 Euros) and did a taste test. The Spanish strawberries were much larger and redder, but tasteless. The French strawberries were smaller and flavorful. I've noticed that the location of production is noted even on the grocery slip.

Next up, a walk around town. Later

Arrival in Beziers

In St Etienne, in the morning after a continental breakfast of crusty French bread and homemade marmelade (Marie-Christine again), Jean-Yves took us to a small village near St. Etienne (St Victor-sur-Loire, which now is part of St Etienne) to see an 11th century church, small castle and medieval town perched above the meandering Loire River.

We also checked out the beach and small marina of St Etienne along the Loire. The cherry blossoms were blooming at the beach and the day was warm and sunny. Here's the link to the French Wikipedia article about these two places: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Victor-sur-Loire It includes a couple of photos as well.

We finished by checking out an overlook high above St. Etienne that gives a perpective on the whole city and surrounding valley.

Then we were on our way, driving along the Rhone, enjoying all the flowering fruit trees in the orchards along the Rhone valley, until we turned away from the Rhone River just north of Avignon. We arrived in Beziers, catching glimpses of the Mediterannean as we got close. Our apartment is actually in a small wine-growing village called Thezan-les-Beziers about 8 km northwest of Beziers. We arrived around 6 PM with perfect directions from owners Tony and Marian, confirmed by our GPS system. After a tour of the apartment, we headed through town (getting completely lost in tiny alleys of streets), but finally making our way to the supermarket to pick up dinner and breakfast to tide us over till we can get organized to do a proper shopping.

Back at the apartment, we ate on our terrace at sunset, savoring a local red wine (Fitou), bread and cheese and grapes. A raspberry tart completed the meal.

We've now unpacked, Dave is working to figure out the TV (has satellite subscription to British TV package) and I've connected to the Internet. Tomorrow, I'll take pix of the apartment and post them. It's 11:20 here now and the wine is gone, so it's time for bed. Adieu!

St Etienne

March 31, 2011: After a breakfast of croissants, French coffee, fresh fruit compote and assorted meats and cheeses, we hit the road for St. Etienne. 5 1/2 hours later, after driving through hills of the Alsace wine region, we arrived late afternoon in St. Etienne to visit our friends Jean-Yves and Marie-Christine. These are folks we met when I was teaching French and doing student exchanges. I was last here in 2003 and we had lost touch. The drive, while rainy provided glimpses of spring - flowering cherry trees, budding bushes, and fields prepared for planting interspersed with wooded hills showing their castles, medieval churches and monasteries. Taking the fast route involved driving the autoroute which in France is quite civilized. Most drive the speed limit, roads are in good repair, and the speed limit when not otherwise posted is 130 km (about 80 mph). The French drive on the right unless passing, so navigating is pretty easy. The only surprise is that many trucks (and there are MANY TRUCKS) drive only 80 km making passing a continual need.

Once in St Etienne, we checked out Jean-Yves new house right in the middle of the city (160,000 people, high unemployment, working class city that was where the industrial revolution began and then it got left behind when coal mines closed and manufacturing changed.) We took a walk down to the center of town nd back while waiting for Marie-Christine to get home from work. Jean-Yves retired just 3 months ago and is reveling in his new-found freedom to walk the city.

We enjoyed a lovely dinner of cabillaud (type of cod) en papillote (wrapped in parchment or tinfoil) baked with julienne of vegetables and carrots. We also had the most delicious potatoes which I want to try to make soon. Of course this was preceded by an aperitif called Kir (cassis and white wine) using a cassis made by Marie-Christine from black currants grown in her backyard, then an endive salad. Afterwards there was a cheese plate and blueberry tart. All washed down with a burgundy and a bordeaux. Yumm!

Then to bed for the weary retirees - but not before Dave lost in pool to Jean-Yves (4 games to 2).

Strasbourg

Arrived 7:30 AM Wed Mar 30, Frankfurt Germany, having left from Chicago O'Hare at 11:50 on Mar 29. Connecting flight was through Atlanta all on Delta. Everything went totally smoothly. Mike and Browen had taken us to Chicago the evening of Mar 28 where we had dinner at the Big Bowl in Schaumberg. (Yummy oriental).

Picked up our car at a hotel near the Frankfurt Airport. It's brand new (had 15 or fewer KM on it when we started driving) and we "own" it until we turn it in and "sell it back" to Peugeot when we leave in June. It is comfortable, rides well, seats 4 comfortably and 5 for short trips and has a great GPS system. Runs on Diesel (called gazole in France) and gets about 60 mpg. Which is good cuz it cost us $100 to fill up the car today! Gas in Europe is sold by the litre and diesel costs around 1 Euro 59 right now per liter (that's about $2.75 a litre, or $11 a gallon). Oh, yeah, and it's a 6-speed. Vroom!

Trip from Frankfurt to Strasbourg took only about 3 hours and was Autobahn all the way. (Remember that there's no speed limit for most stretches of German Autobahn. But we didn't drive too fast - 130 KM/hr max - or about 80 mph - when the road was empty)

Arrived Comfort Inn hotel in Strasbourg around noon, just in time to eat at the hotel restaurant, Louisianne. The place is classic French local (our hotel is not in a touristy area, but rather a business/residential area) - yellow and red toile curtains on the windows, exposed beamed ceiling, and yummy food. We had the special - ham in mustard sauce served with flat green beans and spaetzle. I had Bordeaux, Dave had a beer. And we shared the tarte du jour - apple tarte with a custardy base and nuts. And double expressos.

We took a nap for an hour, then cleaned up and walked to the tram stop for a ride into "centre ville" (city center). There we wandered in the old part of town, bought some maps, got rained on a bit, visited the huge gothic cathedral, then walked to La Petite France, an even older part of town. Photo of old timbered building is 15th century restaurant, still in operation, located on the cathedral square.

Found a bierstube (winestube) in La Petite France for dinner and had the 3-course menu at 27,50 Euros (not counting drinks). We both had tarte à l'oignon (onion tart - kind of quiche-like, but very oniony, a regional specialty). Dave had fish and I had chicken and both were heavenly. The French can take German foods and make them gastronomic and not just hearty. For dessert, Dave had orange "soup" and I had île flottant (meringue with toasted almonds floated in a vanilla cream sauce. We drank the local Reisling (Alsace Reislings are really dry and we love them.) and ended with coffee again. (Maybe that's why I'm still up typing and it's 11:20 PM!)

Our dinners, chicken in marsala sauce front, fish with choucroute (sauerkraut) in back.

Our desserts: Ile flottant in front, orange soup in back.

My favorite parts of the day: We saw a moving company unloading furniture to a 4th floor apartment using the equipment in the photo below. You've got to be ingenious when it comes to old buildings.

Notice the platform at the top, being off-loaded into the open windows of the 4th floor apartment (French buildings have a rez-du-chaussée or ground floor, and our second floor is their first floor. Confuses the heck out of Americans all the time. )

Two encounters with Strasbourgians stand out.

1. We couldn't get the ticket kiosk at the tram to accept our credit card, so a French businessman bought us tickets and refused payment for them. What a kind gesture! (Especially as there's no other way to get tram tickets than the kiosk at the stop. Sheesh.)


2. The second involved a retired banker who was chatting up the lady in the souvenir booth inside St Thomas (Protestant) church in la Petite France. He asked if we would like a personal tour, invited a Canadian couple to join us, and spoke in English so David would understand. He then proceeded to give us a 45 minute tour and history lesson of the highlights and importance of pieces within the church and had to be reminded by the lady that the church closed at 6 PM. He was amusing, full of stories and history. He kept quizzing us on religious history and church architecture. You'll be glad to know that Dave got lots of points cuz he remembers all this stuff. Most entertaining.

Good night. Tomorrow we drive to St. Etienne. Wishing you all were here with me!