the rest of a strenuous day

So after an afternoon of making biscotti and cookies, we napped. Then about 6pm some of us played boules (or petanque - my team won) and at about 8 pm, we started dinner with crema sparkling wine, then white asparagus, followed by roasted blackfoot chicken and potatoes. Then cheeses. Then the biscotti and cookies we made earlier. Then Grand Marnier, Madeira, and other beverages.We finished up around 11pm.

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Life is hard

So today I am struggling to adapt to the routine. I woke around 8:00 (a miracle in itself) and wandered down for breakfast.

They have 5-6 baguettes delivered every morning. Delicious. The fruit is fresh and local. Delicious. The coffee is strong - and yes, delicious.

After a strenuous couple of hours, we loaded up to go to the market in Cholet. We got rained on, but who cares? Booth after booth of produce, meats, cheeses and baked goods. More macarons, some saucisson sec, and off to the regular store for chicken. Back to the maison for lunch.

A light lunch, with only 4-5 glasses of wine over a couple of hours. Then a nap. I am now off to the kitchen to learn to make biscotti from one of the other guests, who came here via Italy.

It's tough, but I believe I am up to the task.

One more shot - this is the dinner bell, as if I needed help. 

 -D

Location:La Giraudière,La Tourlandry,France

Day 2 update

Tough day today; we had breakfast, went to the market, came back, and ate lunch, which lasted almost four hours including sipping wine and watching the cows in the field behind us. I'm not sure that you can see them in this photo, but we could see them from our table, pictured here.

Life is very hard here. Please keep us in your thoughts.

From Brussels to La Giro

As Vicki noted, yesterday was mostly a travel day, as we left Brussels early and headed south.
I love all the doors, like this one on a 15th century belfry in Cambrai:

Here is a close up of the mechanical bell tower that has been ringing since shortly before I was born.

As for a photo of the macarons, my apologies - there is no photo. They weren't around long enough.

 
On the way down, we also saw evidence of France's energy program. While they are increasing their use of alternate energies, nuclear energy is still the primary source - around 75% of their energy is nuclear. They can even export electricity to their neighbors.

I can't report much after Rouen. Vicki took the wheel and my eyes were either closed or my life was flashing in front of them.

Then we arrived at the Dalles. Voici l'entree....

And the house itself. Our room is the one with open windows, second story on the left.

Incroyable!

It's 7 AM and the bread and wine were just delivered...

So we get fresh bread and wine delivered every morning. That cannot be a bad thing.

We had a fun day of travel yesterday from Brussels to La Giro. I'll start at the end; here is a view this morning from our bedroom:

Pas mal, eh?

–We arrived here a little past 7 pm and were greeted by Teresa and Reginald Dalle, our wonderful hosts; fellow visitors Ken and Jeff, who have been living in Cheltenham for the past two years but are returning to the States after this visit; and Mohammed, who keeps La Giro running and everyone fed. (We were also greeted by the news of the Supreme Court decision on the health care act, to which we all raised a glass!)

The front of La Giro is as you can see in the photo but much larger, as there is a large park that you drive through once you are in the property. Around the side is more of the estate, which includes a pool (although it is a bit cool yet to swim), and the back faces a large pasture belonging to the dairy farm next door. It is this pasture in which cows graze. Teresa said that she has been intrigued by the comings and goings of the cows each day... And it's true! You can quickly become quite curious about the almost magical appearance and disappearance of so many animals. One minute there are seven; almost the next, there are 30! (Okay, so the cow watching involved aperitifs and wine, but still...) We had an incredible four-course dinner, made by Mohammed from food fresh from the day's market, follower by Cointreu distilled just down the road. I don't think that any of us will ever be hungry again after that meal, which we finished around 10:30 pm.

A good time was had by all on the drive down for Brussels (except for the one time I almost caused Dan to have a heart attack with a close pass... Could I help it that the passing lane ended so quickly???). Our first unscheduled stop was at Cambrai, which was a medieval village complete with city gates, destroyed by the Germans in WWI. The Battle of Cambrai was noted for the first successful use of tanks. One of the buildings still standing was the town hall, upon which a bell tower hosts Martin and Martine, who have been ringing the bells since 1512.

So we strolled around, had our first pastries on the trip, and stopped for a quick drink before we set off down the road. Dan had a very strong coffee, and I had a biere cerise, which is a tart and tasty cherry beer. Before we left Cambrai, we sampled macarons, which are tasty little macaroon-like cookies with cream filling. I don't think that these have made it yet to Memphis, but they will no doubt help us keep our status as one of the most obese cities in America.

On to the many toll roads toward La Giro... Needless to say, we didn't need to stop for lunch but finally did in the little village across the river from Rouen, only to find that there are not many places serving at 3 in the afternoon. We finally found a spot where we could get a beer (of course) and a bite, so we enjoyed a lovely thunderstorm while sitting across from the town cathedral.

 
I'm sure that Dan will post photos of many things that we saw, but they included wind farms, both le Loire and la Loire (who knew that there were two???), and two really high bridges that took the highway down to one lane because of wind dangers. These were bridges not over water but over valleys, which I didn't really understand, but it's France so it must be good. :)

Location:La Giraudière,La Tourlandry,France

Weather

Here is our weather forecast for the next 10 days:
http://www.weather.com/weather/tenday/Chemille+FRPL0131:1:FR.
Quel beau temps!

Belgian flower pots

These were lined up in the Brussels city centre. Can you imagine having to load the dirt for these puppies???

Flight here and first stop

Whoa. I don't think it was this hard to keep moving last time we flew to Europe. There were small children nearby on both flights this time. I am sympathetic and glad they get to go home/visit Europe too - but we got very little sleep on the plane.

That is enough griping, however, parce que nous sommes a Bruxelles! We got our little Peugot 208 and made it to our B&B. Vicki always worries when she picks a place, but this time she knocked it out of the park. It is awesome, across the street from a park, and our host, Brigitte, is warm and welcoming.







We also saw Manneken Piss, which gets new costumes regularly. I have to say that he was much smaller than we anticipated. The nearby chocolate shops had chocolate models of him that were more life-sized.




Had beef tartare for the first time. Good, but nothing to blog about. Good hot waffle and a good beer.

Previous travels

I have been asked if this is our first trip to France. It is not. My parents first took me and Susan, my sister, after my senior year in high school. While I know that I enjoyed that trip, my memories of our travels in France are less than sharp.

My second trip was with Vicki in 1986 - and 24 high school boys. I was teaching French at CBHS at that point and got hesitant permission from the Brothers to organize a trip. Vicki and I teamed up with Charlie Leonard, the head basketball coach - we were outnumbered -  and took the group to Paris and Normandy. While the overall trip was successful, I will be forever in debt to Vicki, who had to ride herd on some of our students, particularly one who was much more committed to finding an international relationship with young ladies through recreational smoking than our more traditional approach. And Charlie? Well, he saw more of the Parisian nightlife than any of us.

One of my early students, Brooke Saucier, who continued his studies in French in spite of his time in my classroom, studied in southern French for a semester. Vicki and I were fortunate to be able to visit him in Montpellier and see the Mediterranean coast with his personal guidance. I remain close to Brooke today and know that he is reading this and laughing. My conversational abilities in French leapt forward on that trip, thanks to many conversations with Brooke and his friends the Bangemanns, who opened their home to us. 

Another memorable trip to Paris was as one leg of a larger trip with our friends and neighbors, Rod and T. Leigh. We were celebrating Rod's and my fortieth birthdays and spent some wonderful time in Paris before moving on to England and Ireland.

Finally, our last trip was at Christmas in 2007. We were traveling with Vicki's parents and our two sons and it was a fantastic trip. We arrived in Paris on Christmas Day and stood in front of Notre Dame listening to the music (photo). Pretty amazing trip.

This trip will be the longest we have ever taken, and the first trip that we will not at least pass through Paris. I can think of no better place to celebrate our 30th anniversary.

First nite: Brussels

No, we aren't planning to post every nite's venue, but this first place looks so cool that we had to share it: http://www.cote-parc.net/. Dan doesn't know this, but I picked this place just because of this cool light fixture: 

The website states that the B&B is "in front of Park Elizabeth of Koekelberg." I can't find anything about an Elizabeth of Koekelberg. I'm sure there are Elizabeths in Koekelberg, but who was the one famous enough to have a park named after her? Maybe it's an issue of prepositions... Do they mean Park Elizabeth IN Koekelberg? Around Koekelberg? 


The place is also near the National Basilica of the Sacred Heart (Koekelberg Basilica), which is the 5th largest church in the world. That sounds like a great place to go take a nap until we can check into the B&B Côté Parc.

~v

Our destination

As our 30th wedding anniversary approaches, we are giving ourselves three weeks in France sans our [grown] children, work, or other obligations responsibilities. Our generous friends, Reginald and Teresa Dalle, have invited us to stay with them in their country home in the Loire Valley. We have said no to their invitations before, but this year, we said yes!

We invite friends and family to follow our travelblog. If you want to get an email when posts are made, just enter your email address in the box to the right. C'est parti!    ~v