Category Archives: France

Stop and smell the roses

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When travelling there is invariably the urge to try and fit in as much as is humanely possibly. This might stem from that old chestnut: the Fear Of Missing Out, or maybe there is genuinely so much to do. But sometimes you need to take a little bit of time and relax into a place. And what better place to do this in Grasse – the fragrance capital of the world.

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Pretty in pink

Now admittedly it wasn’t my first choice. I’ll confess I’d never even heard of it, but I was heartily sick of booking accommodation so delegated it to Chris. I mean if he wanted his car back he just needed to pick a suitable rendezvous. And boy did good! Grasse is the prettiest smelling town I’ve ever passed through. Full of artisan perfumers, plus the boulangeries and patisseries de rigueur for small towns, it should be a must on any francophile’s itinerary.

The place we are staying in is the nicest of anywhere thus far this trip. Sprawled over three floors (4 if you count the secret room at the top), just being in it makes me instantly relaxed. We overlook the central square/oblong where tourists gravitate to for lunch and dinner. It’s constant noise but this is a small town, not a party town so it’s all silent by 10 pm.

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What should you smell?

After picking Chris up from the aiport I drag him to the International Perfume Museum. Now that’s a change – me dragging C to a museum lol. On first glance, a museum about perfume doesn’t seem a very manly thing to do. But it was really well curated and informative. Did you know there is a swallowable perfume now? We saw Marie Antoinette’s travel kit and a living garden of perfumes. I must confess my favourite bits were the “Eye Nose You” boxes where you peered through a hole and saw a photo while sniffing a scent at the same time. Only one pic was a man’s groin and it definitely didn’t smell like it so that was a little disturbing. I mean, it’s been a while but I think I can remember what it smells like if memory serves.

There are of course other things to do in Grasse – I could have visited the perfume factories, made my own perfume, or even headed outside Grasse for a bit of a nature walk, but to be perfectly honest, it’s a nice town to do nothing in.

Stay: Air BnB
Visit: International Perfume Museum
Do: Top things to do in Grasse

Off the grid

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Alas the sister act has come to an end and we are going our separate ways – Tash home via Rome and me to Corsica by (very early) morning ferry. It’s quite a different experience travelling on your own. All the bad choices come down to you and you alone – When you’re together you can share the blame 🙂

Still, I was really looking forward to Corsica although dreading having to catch a ferry. It actually wasn’t all that difficult – I didn’t end up driving the car into the sea and went straight to sleep in my cabin. What luxury!

First thing I found straight off the boat was that my phone stopped working. So much for my reliance on Google Maps Siri.  Good thing there was a GPS in the car – not that it actually recognised where I was going, so I pointed it to the nearest town and three hours of winding roads later I arrived at the approximate location (really need to work on my spatial awareness when booking accommodation – this driving is killing me). I then found a wifi hotspot and purchased an hour’s worth of internet access for 3 Euro just so I could find my way there.

It’s funny how what you’re imagining bears little resemblance to reality. I’d booked this little hut in Afa (think middle of nowhere and you’d be about right). I’d imagined a cute little cottage high up on a hill somewhere where all I could see was the rolling hills. I arrived and in my broken French asked the kid out front of the house to speak to the host. He responded in broken English and led me out the back of the house, past the horse and goat to a veggie patch and pointed to the outdoor toilet and then the hut where I’d be staying (the full horror of the toilet had not dawned on me yet). I managed to keep my jaw from dropping open. It was… not what I expected, but I was determined to make the best of it. I grabbed my bags and settled in to this rustic cottage in ruralania. So if I ignore the garden shed type feel it’s not too bad – and even has wifi. Then I went to the toilet. OMG. It is a dry toilet. If you don’t know what that is – let me enlighten you: You are sitting on a wooden plank, basically doing your business in a plastic lined bucket. You “flush” by dropping sawdust over your err leavings. The horror! You should know by now this Claremont princess’s minimum standard is a flushing toilet. But maybe this will be a character building experience? I mean the horse is friendly and tortoises wander through the garden. Deliverance country has a certain degree of charm. I can stick it.

Ok, I lasted one night then bolted. My new accommodation has a flushing toilet in the Forest in the heart of Corsica. Rudimentary accommodation, but this view…. I’ve also had the most delicious meal since I’ve been here. I’m paying through the nose but totally worth it. The irony is that I randomly chose the accommodation so I’d be closer to the location for my canyoning adventure the next day, but I’m roughly the same distance away!

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Street Art in Corsica

Canyoning was magnificent, as usual. Nothing like sliding down rock faces and hurling yourself off stoney outcrops into ice cold water to make you feel alive. The other canyoners did not speak English which is quite an isolating experience when they’re all jabbering away. It turns out you don’t need to talk to people to have a good time. Actually, as an introvert I already knew that 😉

So now, after two nights in Ajaccio where I Did Not Drive, it’s a Farewell to Corsica and back to the mainland for the final push. Only one week to go!

Eat: La Villa Michel
See: A Cupulatta (turtles & tortises galore)
Do:  Canyoning

Three countries in one day

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You’d think I would have learned all manner of lessons about trying to fit too much into a trip, but here I go again.

IMG_9496After our stayover at Cannes, where incidentally we’ve had the best pizza on this trip, we detoured through Monaco and found ourselves driving around in circles for a good half hour trying to find a parking spot. I may have accidentally gone into a pedestrian only area, but when I circled round for another go, the local gendarmerie was ready for me and sent me on my way. I must admit I was ready to cut our losses and run, but good thing we persevered as there was a pretty impressive Oceanography museum sitting on top of a hillside. I wonder how you get a job curating a cabinet of curiosities? At any rate, it’s a job description that would appeal to hoarders 🙂 I think Monaco makes Cannes look like a poor relation, and it might be a very good thing we had no time for shopping.

IMG_1500After three and a half more hours driving we arrived at our third country for the day: Italy. We decided to splash out on a nice hotel in Lerici so we could soak up the sunshine overlooking the sea. Naturally it was raining – but what a Terrace! Surely it can’t rain the entire time we’re here, can it?

See: Oceanography Museum
Stay: Doria Park Hôtel

Revelations

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I have a confession to make. I haven’t been quite as enthusiastic about this trip as I have been previous ones. It might be because I’m not really doing anything new this time around, or maybe I’ve just lost my passion somewhere along the way. But then I went to see Carrieres de Lumieres in the little town of Les Baux-de-Provence and I remembered why I do this. I feel like I’ve seen as many ruins, shops and old churches as I need to in a lifetime, but I have never seen an exhibition quite like this one. Van Gogh and Japan make a perfect marriage as art, sound, light and movement combine in a transcendental experience. A former quarry houses one of the most incredible things I have ever seen. Every photo I took does not do it justice, so I’ll link to a video and urge you to beg borrow or steal to find your way to the heart of Provence to see this before it ends.

This has also served to remind me that travel is (for me) a transformative process and I should seek to do things that feed the soul rather than just deplete the wallet.

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Bringing back that joie de vivre

Speaking of depleting the wallet, we’ve now hit the Cote d’Azur and staying in the basement of a hotel in Cannes. It’s all we could afford, but we’re splashing out when we hit Cinque Terre tomorrow 🙂

 

Winning France over one cat at a time

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It is quite a handy thing to be on good terms with your ex-boyfriend when he has a wine bar in the South of France(ish) and the latest copy of Borderlands 3. After informing Chris on arrival that our priorities were wine, wi-fi and a washing machine, in no particular order, we immediately focused all our attention on the local cats, but have had to work hard for our smooches. These French kitties are not so easily won over, but there are two of us and we will not leave until we have subverted at least one of these little beasties.

But that’s not why we are here. Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val is a perennial front runner for prettiest town in France and where we are holed up to get a taste of rural France. It is a very small town for a couple of big city gals but a perfect antidote to the stressors of everyday life. Visions of a life in this town, if things had turned out otherwise, flash through my head and I am thankful I have no regrets, although sitting out the front of  Noble Bachus is a pretty fine way to spend an afternoon. We spend several here, rotating through various eating establishments. I’m not sure my liver is going to be able to cope with the outcomes of this trip – my waistline certainly isn’t!

In an effort to stave off the inevitable kilo creep, we went for a three and a half hour canoeing trip down Aveyron river/gorge. Let’s focus on the fact that we made it without hitting each other over the head with a paddle, rather than how we got stuck on the rocks along the way.

We also hiked the top of the gorge, before making our way down to the caves in the hillside. As we were scrambling down the cliff, it occurred to me that this is how those news stories about people being air-lifted out by helicopter with broken legs start out. Fortunately we made it out again, but age certainly doesn’t bring wisdom (or my thrill seeker gene is kicking in again).

As lovely as it has been to recover from our travel and play video games, there’s a lot more than this neck of the woods to discover, so onwards and upwards etc.

La plus heureuse

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This is as close as we got to culture in Paris...

This is as close as we got to culture in Paris…

I’m borrowing from Anne Boleyn’s motto here because a) I’m in France, b) have spent an obscene amount of money shopping and c) have finally had a meal where bacon “bien cuit(e)” was indeed well done! As you can see, it doesn’t take much to make me happy.

I know my plan was to see as many *different* countries as possible but one simply cannot come to Europe without visiting Paris. Our plan to see Versailles was swiftly ditched in favour of shopping in the Marais district on Sunday (Chris actually agreed to this – I kid you not!). We’ll get there one day but there’s a shopping inferno underway here and culture just doesn’t get a look in. After a few weeks of moping around being homesick, I’ve finally remembered the advantages of foreign climes and, shallow as I may be, they revolve around drinking and shopping. I’m still firmly set against living here permanently but the embargo on future travel this direction has definitely been lifted in my mind. Not only do I have a whole new outlook on life, I have a whole new wardrobe… or maybe the new wardrobe has led to the different outlook – who knows? That aside, I still haven’t had enough of Paris and probably never will.

Coming back through customs we obviously looked suspicious as we were stopped and asked if we had anything to declare. I promptly declared my two boxes of porridge in a bid to divert them from the national debt’s worth of clothing in my bag. Fortunately I was under the 20kg limit of oats so crisis averted. As Chris informed me after, they weren’t actually looking for shopping so it was just my general paranoia and guilt over spending my entire holiday savings in one day kicking in 🙂

Places we’ll go back to:

  • La Cafeotheque: THE place to go for coffee in Paris.
  • Lizard Lounge: Happy hour is good value for money and burgers were tasty. Cheap night out.
  • La Mangerie: Yummy cocktails and tapas – get there early!

The City of Boots

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by the River Seine

Romance by the river

I know, I know, Paris is normally thought of as the City of Love, but for this trip it was in fact the City of Boots. Fun shopping for, but not so fun having to lug them all home. Severe. Luggage. Crisis.

Not that we weren’t romantic, but this is as close as it gets:

Sam: Let’s go for a romantic stroll by the Seine
Chris: Really? These things are never as romantic as you think they’re going to be
Sam: I’m benevolent to all mankind (a few vodkas by this stage) – why would you want to wreck that when I’m being romantic?

Anyway, he was right – it was noisy, busy and completely unromantic, plus one of the pairs of aforementioned boots were hurting my feet quite considerably. But I gave it a red hot go.

Maybe we’ll try again on our next adventure: an African safari, coming to your screens Jan/Feb 2013…

Au revoir

France: the bullet point breakdown part II

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Getting cosy at Chateau de Chambord

After our lovely stay in Cordes Sur Ciel we had a bit of a drive on our hands to get to Paris in time. I can’t believe I thought I was going to get a visit to Normandy in on this trip – that plan went out the window about a week ago. My spatial abilities when looking at maps are obviously lacking. Anyway, here’s the bullet point breakdown for the rest:

  • Ingrandes: This was quite literally a “stick a pin in the map approximately two hours away from here” choice but turned out to be a good one. Saint Victor La Grand Maison was a beautiful old house which, as we were the only people staying, we could explore and stay as long as we want. Our host Marie was playing piano and singing opera and it was a real hoot. Unfortunately the weather turned rubbish and we could only stay one night. Also, small villages with restaurants open on a Monday night are few and far between.
  • Tour-en-Sologne: Same principle as above for choosing this one, but we lucked out on the old-world charm of the rooms. Still, a good base for exploring the ten zillion chateaus in the area. We only went to one: Chambord (I think mainly because I love the liqueur), but it was pretty spectacular. Weather remains miserable but restaurant situation improved dramatically with a visit to a Michelin-starred restaurant, L’Orangerie in Blois.
  • Paris: I think Paris needs its own post, but you just know there’s going to be shopping and drinking involved J

Sea change

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OK, so the plan to travel through France staying a night at each place was quite obviously a flawed one. It is exhausting – even when you have your own car. After Carcassonne we were fortunate enough to be able to extend our next stay to four nights at Cordes Sur Ciel. Actually, we had a bit of a hidden agenda because we’ve been looking for a property to buy in France and this area was on our hit list.

Cordes Sur Ciel

Only €200k and this could be yours…

We had also found a place we liked so arranged an inspection with a real estate agent, but holy crap was there a lot of work to be done! I was going to freak Emma out by sending her the picture and saying this is where we were going to live, but it freaked me out too much to do that. No, we’d like to buy somewhere like the place we stayed: Laborie Grande (but smaller). I’m still not convinced of the plan for me to make jam and yoghurt in rural France, but maybe the time’s right for a sea change?* (my family are just falling off their chairs laughing at that… in fact anybody who knows me probably is!).

Mind you, there’s still a lot of France to see and we’re not going to impulse-buy a country house no matter how much I like shopping. Just keeping our options open… and who doesn’t want to know someone who has a house in France where they can stay for free reduced rates?

*btw, if there’s no internet access it’s just not happening.

France: the bullet point breakdown part I

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Sur le pont, D’Avignon

It’s been a while since I’ve posted an update – but that’s because we’ve been driving through France staying a night here, a night there. Nothing *terribly* exciting has happened, so I’m just going to give you a bullet point break down of the first week:

  • Nice: Nice was only supposed to be our entry point into France, but if I’d known how nice it was we would have stayed longer than one night. Stayed in the worst hotel ever, but when you get in at 11 pm, you don’t have too many options. Return visit is definitely in order (just not on a Sunday because all the shops are closed!!!)
  • Brignoles: Meh… Was lured in to staying here because of the B&B pictures, which didn’t quite live up to expectations. Luckily we only stayed one night. There’s a story to tell here when I’m back home after a couple of glasses of wine 🙂 Drove to Cotignac for dinner. Not worth mentioning food-wise, but after our meal we went down a dead end alley way where what seemed like hundreds of cats were having committee meetings. As we drove through their little heads would pop-up, then they’d run away. Of course once we’d realized it was a dead end Chris had to reverse back out for a few hundred metres dodging cats along the way. It went something like this:

    Chris: Just tell me if I’m going to hit something
    Sam: bwahahaha (had a few drinks)
    Chris: $*@!

    It was fricken hilarious. Well, I thought it was funny…

  • Avignon: Of course I went there just to stand on the bridge and sing the song. Well, I sang it in my head. Have taken a thousand photos, but they’re all crap.
  • Carcassone: The medieval town is postcard perfect, but restaurants are very hit and miss. Anything that’s good needs to be booked days before hand so all you’re usually left with is the touristy rubbish. Did find a very nice wine bar on our last night so as long as we can drink the good stuff we’re OK. Shopping was a disappointment, BUT… I did find one shop and now have an entirely new wardrobe. Must keep me away from shops when I’m bored. It’s very expensive!