Month: February 2016

Today was a day for wandering. All types of wandering.

Breakfast Everyday!

Exchange Rate: Your $$$ gets you part of a Ferris Wheel Ride!

Lyon Panorama

Lyon: View from the Hill

La Basilique Notre Dame de Fourvière

Lyon Staircase

Chocolat Chaud (as often as possible)

Apparently, the Lyonnaise have some trouble with Brits

We first had to repark our car. Apparently (we discovered) the entire City Center is “Payant” parking. Which means “PAY UP” (loosely translated). After lengthy phone and text discussions with our host, we learned that meant regardless of how many euros we wanted to spend, we could only park for 3 hours near our apartment. We needed to drive away from the river and find a spot on a street without “Payant” written on every parking spot. This involved about 30 minutes of cruising, but Dan’s parking Kharma held true and we found a good spot. Good because it was not TOO far, and because there was an EXCELLENT bakery directly on the way back to our apartment.

Of course, that is not hard since there is an excellent bakery on virtually every corner in all of France (at least all we have seen so far).

Next, we wandered across the river (actually two rivers…the Rhône and the Saône). Then up the Funicular to the top of the hill where there is a beautiful church. Then we wandered down the hill through the Rosary Gardens. Wandered around shopping and restaurant areas until we decided Onion Soup would be EXCELLENT on a cold and damp day.

Then we wandered into a particularly excellent-looking bakery, and bought some really yummy looking pizza slices and pastries for an “eat in” dinner. We decided after the “authentic-ness” of last night, we would be a little less adventuresome,  but still more authentic than ordering Dominos. .

We also wandered into a grocery store to buy laundry detergent. Our apartment has a machine, but the detergent bottle was pretty much empty. We wanted to do a couple loads, so we thought we would leave the place stocked for the next inhabitant. We THINK we bought laundry detergent. It could have been toilet bowl cleaner or Shower Gel since there was no internet to translate the bottle. Guess we can always buy clothes if ours dissolve in the machine!

Tomorrow we are leaving Lyon and heading South.  Not sure where the next stop will be.  Several suggestions from friends:  Nimes, Arles, Avignon.  These are all near to each other and all have available AIRBNBs.

Well, it finally happened. We had our first “less than perfect” meal. The food was only average. BUT, the waitstaff spoke English very well AND the restaurant was very relaxed and friendly. And they had an excellent Belgian Beer on tap (Affigen, if anyone is keeping track).   And, as always, there is a story to tell…

We “discovered” the place on TripAdvisor. Only to pick one of about thirty places on the sort of “main” restaurant street in Lyon. We are standing in front of it and it is totally empty (7:30 is a bit early for dinner in France). On TA there is a box to make a reservation and an associated 30% discount. SO we made a reservation, walked in and claimed our 30%!

I don’t even feel guilty about it because:

• The discount encouraged us to select THIS place
• The significant discount focused us on the relaxed and friendly vs. the average food.
• My accountant (Howie) has shown me the way in achieving discounts of all manner without the least feeling of guilt. Hmm, maybe I will ask for a discount on my Tax Return for promoting his services.

And the food was not “bad,” so much as I just ordered something that I regret a little. I was going for “Authentic Lyonnaise” and it was called “Andouillette Sausage.” The internet was not good in the restaurant, or I might not have ordered this. Wikipedia later translated for us… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andouillette. Other internet references translated it as “Pig Poo Sausage.” In part because it is made from the pig’s lower intestine and partly because of how it tastes. Liz, too, was feeling adventuresome, so she ordered Beef Tartare Thai Style.

The finale, the Chocolate Cake with Gelato was AWESOME. And did I mention the beer was good?

We slept in a bit today. Recovery from Troisgros and the ensuing food coma. Several people asked what we ate; the following was the menu, and I thought a pic of our Apres-Dessert might help. Although the waiter thought it was our Birthday (again), the kitchen got it right. 

Chocolate Anniversary Butterfly

Dinner at Trois Gros

Once we got moving, we had breakfast as provided by our host. This was a special bread – like a coffee cake with cranberries and nuts. Then we decided to drive. Medieval villages dot the landscape so we thought we’d visit a couple. The first was Saint-Jean-Saint-Maurice-sur-Loire. The second was Saint-Haon-le-Châtel.

Loire River

Loire Village

Loire Hillside

Picnic Anyone?

2016-02-27 14.40.18

Medieval Door.

Although people live here “modernly,” (i.e. with plumbing, electricity etc.) the houses LOOK like they did 500 years ago+.  Very nice to walk (a lot) in hopes of eventually being able to eat again!!!

Once back in Roanne, it was time to think about dinner. I was not sure we would ever want to eat again after Troisgros, but we managed! This time a small place near the Loire River that was obviously the life’s work of a charming couple. Neither spoke much English, but the wife introduced us to her best friend (her dictionary) and I always travel with Dr. Google. So we managed! Another food coma!. But this time we had to walk back about 2 miles  to our apartment before we could crash.  And,  crash we did!   Tomorrow it is off to Lyon for a couple days.

Forgive me a long story (does he tell any other kind, you ask?)

We are in Roanne, and the AIRBNB is the BEST SO FAR. Not just in France but anywhere!!! The host speaks not a word of English, but asked her upstairs neighbor to translate. She has a beautiful place…kitchen fully equipped including coffee, orange juice and a loaf of the local bread speciality. And fridge stocked with jam, butter, eggs, etc. And, so far this has been one of the least expensive places, too!!! She pointed out the English Language TV Channel (we are having Donald Withdrawal) and gave us the WiFi Codes (TECHNOLOGY).

Our place in Roanne

RoanneKitchen1

RoanneLivingRm

Roanne’s Special Bread

Our place was lacking ONE thing, though. A hair dryer. Obviously, Dan cannot go out in public without first using one. What to do? This is where the EXCHANGE RATE and INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS (and MORE TECHNOLOGY) Come in…

We walked to a pharmacy where they had some hair products. No Dryer. No one spoke any English to ask where we could obtain one. We tried our best charades example of drying hair, which got giggles but no hair dryer. NO WORRIES. Google’s Translate App to the rescue. I speak “Hair Dryer” into my phone and out comes: ”Sèche-cheveux “ both written and spoken. The clerk said “ahhh” (but in French…and since we have been here a week already we can handle that no need for Google).   She said “LeClerc” which is a HUGE Grocery-and-everything-else store in a shopping center. We said “Can we walk” using our fingers to demonstrate. She said “no”…and made her best charades-driving-motion.

More TECHNOLOGY: We walked outside and fired up Google Maps to tell us where…we were ready to drive. Dr. Google told us it was less than 1km away!!!

Here is the INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS (and more EXCHANGE RATE) part. Either…a KM is bigger in Europe than the USA (After all, the Euro is bigger than the Dollar). Or, the French lady thinks all Americans are fat, lazy and unfit. Actually, many may be, but not Los Harris!   Well, we may be fat after all the great food…did I mention we are eating at Three-Michelin-Star Troigros tonite?

So, we walked to LeClerc, acquired the necessary Hair Adjustment TECHNOLOGY. A nice portable one that we can use for the rest of this trip and for any future 220V sojourns – EXCHANGE RATES again…Our 110V stuff doesn’t work here (110 does not convert to 220 for hair dryers without smoke and fire).

And a final note: Troisgros has a boutique hotel associated. You can spend a fortune on dinner, then spend another fortune on a room for the night (400euro). Our AIRBNB is across the train station (MAYBE 200yards) from Troisgros. It is $60/nite. I am not sure if that falls into INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS (taking advantage of tourists) or EXCHANGE RATE (400euro to watch the inside of your eyelids for a few hours) or TECHNOLOGY (AIRBNB just paid for our dinner!). I just mention it because it proves Americans may be fat, lazy and unfit, but some at least are not stupid.

So, it is Thursday eve. and we have successfully managed Paris. Hopefully we will also manage leaving Paris (which will happen tomorrow AM by rental car) – with our heads! A lot of people didn’t in former days. But we spent NOT ONE MINUTE in jail and as far as I know, did not leave a residue of angry Parisiennes.

We even found that our complete lack of French language functionality was not a real problem. It was easy to convey IMPORTANT thoughts like: “I’ll have the crepe with Nutella and Banana, Please.” More complicated political and other discussions… well I can’t explain Donald Trump in English either!   But that’s OK. Remember, we were trying to behave ourselves and NOT piss anyone off. Best to leave the politics aside and talk about subjects that are agreeable to all (such as crepes).

We thoroughly enjoyed the city and everything about it, but we are looking forward to a change, and the South of France will be just that.   Our first stop is Roanne (which is about 4 hours driving), and we will be dining at Michelin 3-star Troisgros.   Here I might create the first international incident of our trip…if I should happen to grab the wrong fork for the course (or…egads…order a BEER) you may read about it on the first page of the paper tomorrow!

Today (Thursday,  I think) dawned nice and sunny, which is a big change from each of the preceding days. We hopped on a train (Which stops across the street from our boat) and visited the City/Palace of Versaille. I guess I would say that Paris isn’t opulent enough, so we had to up the ante a bit. Needless to say, we did NOT get any PRACTICAL decorating ideas for our new construction from this day.

Last night we ate at a famous chef’s place as recommended by the book provided by Ms. Peterson. The chef (Christian Constant) has three places right in a row. They start at reasonable, and head towards astronomical. Price wise. I figure if they don’t actually share the same kitchen, they DO share the same vision. So we picked the Café (Lowest prices). I had Quail stuffed with Fois Gros and Liz had Chicken-something-french. Both Mains were preceded with French Onion Soup – perfect for rainy cold weather (which it has been every day). AWESOME.

Liz is enjoying the wines…but we don’t remember from day to day WHAT she enjoyed so every day is a new and exciting one.. I should mention the Beer situation here in France. There is not much that the French do. And they seem to be aware of this so they import Belgian Beer. Leffe is quite good and commonly available on draught. It is especially good with Quail, I learned last night!

Misfits report another 8 miles walked today. However to expand our range we included the METRO in our excursion. We saw: the Bataclan and offices of Charlie Hebdo, as well as the Place de la République. The latter especially was quite moving, with many memorials and apolitical statements of sympathy and solidarity. Although most were in French, it was pretty easy to understand the meaning even without Google Translate. Particularly moving: pictures of very young people with words like “assassiné.“  I don’t want to say our lunch, after these, was “somber,” but meditative for sure.

We also did some more “ordinary” things such as a visit to the Arc de Triomphe and a long walk down the Champs Elysees.

Yesterday we expanded our food horizon with Galletes and Crepes. Awesome and yummy. We also did a dinner cruise for 3 hours to celebrate our anniversary. A chuckle on the latter: our waiter (a really friendly guy named Joseph – I think Spanish) brought our dessert with candles and sang happy birthday to us!? Now, My birthday is SOON, but was not yesterday. I did alert the cruise folks about our anniversary (#25) when I booked. I guessed (since confirmed by Dr. Google) that “Anniversary” must be close to “Birthday” in meaning when translated to French. I am pretty sure that the waiter was surprised at how OLD we look for 25, but he was not going to ruin our evening by saying so ;-p

Tonight, we are going to try a restaurant from a book given to us by our good friend Karen Peterson. So far, we have been doing pretty well food-wise by just stopping when hungry at the nearest place. I am looking forward to a place actually vetted by someone!!

According to our “Misfits” (like a Fitbit but for people who are non-conformist, left-leaning and free-thinking) we walked 10 miles today. I think that was entirely within the Louvre.   We saw the usual suspects there: Mona, Venus, Jesus (x100) et al.   Amazingly, we  saw a Roman Statue (2^nd century) that reflects the advanced Roman Culture of the day, for the dude was clearly taking a selfie.

We also saw (climbed and conquered) Notre Dame and lunched in the Latin Quarter. Now we are back on the boat, and will be rocked gently to sleep very shortly

Pre-Paris: our flite left about 2 hours late. And we realized we don’t care.

“Don’t look back.
You are not
going there!”

–Patch seen on a jacket sleeve