France

We didn't just want to see the capital city in France and nothing else, so we decided to hire a car and explore a few of the surrounding towns. In order to avoid having to drive much in Paris itself, which looked like a frightful experience from what we saw as pedestrians, we collected the car from Orly airport. This car rental office had the added bonus of being open on Sunday evening, when we wanted to return it.

Our first stop was Tours, where we stayed in an Airbnb place in a semi-rural area, owned by a very nice lady who spoke very little English. With my broken French and her broken English, we were able to communicate quite well! The house was in a very nice setting, in the big garden area at the back of the main house, which was a nice change after our Parisian apartments. Our hostess also had a lovely, friendly dog who got used to us pretty quickly.

cathedral in Tours

We paid a brief visit to the centre of Tours and to the little town of Amboise from our base, but our main excursion was to the chateau du Chenonceau. After seeing Schonbrunn and Versailles, it was going to be hard for a provincial castle to compete, but again, it was interesting to read all about the castle's history, and the stories of the different owners. Among the past owners were the mistress, and then the widow, of Henry II, who had a little tug of war over the place, as well as the devoted widow of Henry III who spent the rest of her days in perpetual mourning here, having her bedroom decorated in black and with symbols of death, with a little place to pray for her departed husband's soul.

le chateau and les grounds

The grounds were very attractive, with one garden made by Henry II's mistress, and one by his wife, as well as a “16th century village”, a little labyrinth clearly designed for children judging by the height of the hedges, a flower/vege garden and some caryatids in the park. The setting itself was gorgeous, the castle situated right on the river Cher. John assessed it would be a reasonable base in case of a zombie apocalypse, as well, as the castle was surrounded on several sides by a moat.

sitting astride the river like a boss

The next day we made the long journey to Mont St-Michel – longer than necessary, I suppose, as we deliberately avoided travelling on any toll roads with the aid of our trusty GPS. The internet advises that the cost of avoiding the toll road may effectively equal the toll, with longer routes with more braking, but the prospect of having to pay 10 euros or more for a shorter motorway just felt too steep for us.

Speaking of steep... The island with Mont St-Michel looked fantastic as we approached, rising up like a fairytale fortress from the flat surroundings. I think the outside view was the most impressive. I suspect our tour of the inside would have been more memorable if we had got an audioguide, but when we went to buy tickets we found out they were free that day, as it happened to be the weekend in France when all public monuments are free?! Anyway, we were so surprised I think we just wanted to get in quickly while our good fortune lasted. And on the inside, it just looked like lots of stone rooms leading on from one another. We had a good time exploring the tiny surrounding streets, though, and walked a short distance around the fortress wall.

Impressive!

View from the abbey on the island, of the rather barren landscape and cool sky!

The next day, we headed back toward Paris to explore Monet's house and gardens in Giverny. As this was still on the magical weekend, although it wasn't free, it was a reduced rate of 5 euros each. Monet certainly had a beautiful property in a beautiful village – it was a popular place to visit, it seems, but it wasn't overly crowded. It helps that his gardens were surprisingly big, so even in the famous lilypond area we were able to stand on the bridges by ourselves for a little bit. Monet's house had lots of artwork, both his own and the Japanese works he got so interested in, so I felt like we got a bit of art gallery thrown in for the same price – bonus!

the famous bridge (I think)

 

some of the main gardens

We successfully dropped our car back off in Paris, and endured another early start the next day, 5.30am, for our 7.30am bus down to Lyon. This was our last stop in France on our way down to the tropical land of Spain. This journey featured the first female bus driver we've had so far, and I think she wore black heels throughout the trip. If not, she was at least wearing them beforehand, afterward and during the break halfway through, so definitely gave that impression. Heels or not, she skilfully navigated a very tricky, narrow bend in the road, packed on both sides with parked cars, in the final length coming into the Lyon station. I was glad I wasn't in her shoes (sorry).

On a more sombre note, we heard on our way down that John's grandmother had just passed away, at age 101. It was both sad and happy news; she had been getting slowly more frail over the last few years, and more so recently. We were glad to be able to be there for her 100th last year. It's sad that we won't be able to see her again on this side, but happy that we know she's gone where frailty and pain have no more power.

Upon our arrival, we checked in to an hotel with the friendliest receptionist we've ever encountered, then walked across the bridge to check out a couple of Roman ruins; a smaller and larger ampitheatre. It was a bit strange to just be able to walk onto these ancient remains – even more so to do it for free. Apparently, although the back wall has gone, the acoustics when speaking on the stage are still excellent, wherever you sit in the ampitheatre. The boards also informed us that when in use, the bigger theatre would have been able to seat 10,000 people!

We also visited the Notre Dame church here, and were taken aback with how elaborate it was. With the exception of the Royal Chapel in Stockholm, this is the fanciest church we have seen yet. There were huge, beautiful, sparkly mosaics on the wall, fancy ceilings, detailed columns – basically beautiful details wherever you looked.

the ornate ceiling

Having restricted our culinary experiences in Paris to sweet snacks and bread for lunch, as we had heard how expensive French food can be, we finally splashed out in Lyon and had dinner in a restaurant. We felt it was fitting, Lyon being the gastronomic capital of France. All of the special Lyonnaise meals sounded gross, so John ordered a “grilled poultry”, and I got a salad! with chicken in caramelised honey. It was the best meal we've had out on this trip; Lyon lived up to its reputation!