On The Champagne Trail

Sunday, July 22, 2012 Eva 0 Comments



If French is the language of love then French champagne is the magic drinking potion of love.  What could be more sensuous to drink than a frosted flute of golden liquid that tantalizes the palate and nose.  And those celebratory bubbles of joy are perfect for festivities.  It’s a sharing kind of drink that gives more pleasure when paired with good food and good company.

A recent trip to Uluru (Ayers Rock) in central Australia with a group of close girlfriends - all of us this year celebrating our milestone birthdays with bottles of bubbly – had me looking back from a distance of 8 months and thousands of kilometres away to our time in France travelling the Champagne route.

Champagne countryside



EPERNAY

The departement of Champagne is the French heart of sparkling wine countryside and Epernay is its epicentre.  While the average person would save champagne for celebrations and special events it appears that in Champagne the locals don’t need an occasion to drink it.  It’s on the lunch table and dinner table most days according to a local.  How lucky are they to be sipping this beverage of delight on a daily basis and none other than the highest of qualities.

We had arrived after a late harvest so the autumn vines were bare of fruit. The vast spreads of vineyards across these chalky hills and flat lands grow three varieties of grape that all go into making up champagne – pinot noir, pinot meuniere and chardonnay. 

We spent a night in Chalons-en-Champagne at an Ibis hotel, a 40-minute drive to Epernay, as moderately priced accommodation in town was full then moved to Epernay for 3 nights.  In France we often make use of the hotel chain Ibis as they have hotels in numerous locations and are affordable, comfortable, clean and usually well located.  Very formulaic but at least you know what to expect.
Avenue de Champagne, Epernay

Situated on the town’s main artery, Epernay’s classically elegant Avenue de Champagne, are some famous maisons de champagne such as Pol Roger, Moet et Chandon, Mercier, Perrier Jouet and many more.  There is an air of restrained affluence along this street.  We chose three cellar tours to do – Moet et Chandon, Mercier and de Castellane.  These were the ones in this small town that were most readily accessible to the public and also easily reached on foot from our hotel.   Mumm, Taittinger and Veuve Clicquot are located around Reims.  Mind you, after three lots of champagne tours and tastings (not all in the same day) we’d just about reached bubble fatigue.


Dom Perignon looks out at Moet et Chandon entrance above

M & C cellars below

MOET & CHANDON

Moet & Chandon, who are part of the swanky LVMH conglomerate (Louis Vuitton Moet and Hennessy) put on a classy but pricey tour with an introductory self-promoting film narrated by Scarlett Johanssen and then finished off with a glass of bubbly.  The limestone cellars were impressive and we learnt a lot about the methode champenoise and the history of the brand. 80% of its champagne is exported worldwide.  It was incredible to learn that the grapes are all hand-picked so as not to bruise the fruit.  Are you for real?!

MERCIER

Mercier, also part of the LVMH stable, has a very showy tour where we descended by lift to the cellars, put on audio headsets and taken by electric train through their massive underground network followed by a selection of champagne tastings.



Mercier champagne house




DE CASTELLANE

De Castellane is a champagne house probably not so well known in Australia – around 20% of it is exported but mainly to European countries.  “In France we keep the best champagne for ourselves” replied the guide. Oooo-kay, so what does that imply about the well-marketed, brand-conscious ones that fill the shelves of international grog shops?  This maison had the least showbiz factor about it but was the more realistic and interesting for two reasons – its Belle Epoque tower that stands as a landmark above Epernay and its real-life production plant.  In the factory we watched staff in action as bottles were being labelled and packed by modern machinery. Climbing the tall tower leads to panoramic views of Epernay and the surrounding Marne Valley. 

Maison de Castellane's Belle Epoque tower

de Castellane museum and
bottling plant


Some interesting facts - a bottle of champagne has anywhere between 43 to 250 million bubbles (depending on the size of the bubbles and which scientific study you believe) and has 3 times more pressure than a car tyre (whoa, a live bubble bomb!!).   We were shown how the indentation at the bottom of the bottle is important for distributing the pressure.  Initially, flat-bottomed bottles would explode in cellars.  The best vintage year in the last decade was 2002.  Not every year is a good vintage year for champagne. You can tell the quality of a champagne by the size of the bubbles – a high quality product has very small (fine) bubbles so we were told.
Considering that Epernay sits atop miles of musty underground limestone tunnels and cellars it is a wonder that the place doesn’t cave in on itself.
Driving along one of the many Champagne routes we passed through peaceful villages in bloom and past rows and rows of vineyards.  Some places such as Bouzy and Dizy seem aptly-named for the locality – after a few glasses you too could be feeling like this.  There are hundreds of small, family-run champagne producers in the region that sell to the local market.   

DOM PERIGNON

At the tiny village of Hautvillers, we visited the resting place of the father of champagne, the Benedictine monk Dom Perignon.  He lies in front of the altar at the Hautvillers abbey church.  

Across the road from his abbey is the champagne producer Gobillard et Fils (Gobillard & sons).   As we entered, the place was heaving with families sitting down to tastings around wooden tables and Parisian daytrippers loading up their cars with not bottles but boxes of champagne. 


Hautvillers abbey church, Dom Perignon's resting place


 

VERZY FOREST

A change of scenery from champagne tasting was a daytrip east for some hiking through the Verzy Forest to see a pocket of distorted beech trees, the Faux de Verzy (meaning fake or false), that have been growing bizarrely for centuries.  Some have developed canopy or umbrella shapes, others reach out gnarled limbs.  The dark outlines of branches remind me of black ink that has been blown with a straw across paper.  Botanists have been mystified as to their twisted and exceedingly slow growth pattern.  Whilst walking along a trail we were stunned out of our reverie by loud rustlings of leaves and pounding of hooves as a pack of wild boar tore out from the woods in single file metres away from us.  Whoa, adrenaline rush!  It was exciting to see real wildlife in its natural surrounds.   

Twisted beeches, Verzy Forest


Close by, along a quiet leafy trail, we reached the edge of Mt Sinai (no idea about the name) on foot which has a World War II bunker and a great lookout to the plains below.

Max by this stage was coming down with a cold.  He’s ending the trip the way we started. Two weeks into our travels he caught a cold and two weeks away from the end of our wonderful adventures he’d caught another one. What can I say, he's consistent.

Memorial church, Dormans in the Champagne region

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Medieval Troyes and Ceremonial Reims

Monday, April 30, 2012 Eva 0 Comments




Our October sojourn in the French Valley of the Kings had drawn to a close for us.  It was time to leave the land of forested estates.  Where the rich, the elite and the aristocratic can be seen gathered on Sundays in hunting parties dressed in period costumes atop their horses, accompanied by a traditional horn blower and packs of hounds.  Where gateau-like chateaux adorn the landscape.  Where fairytales, fantasies and follies come to life.

So we left Fantasia Land (ie, the Loire Valley) to head towards another well-known area of France – Champagne, the Land of Bubbly. Eastward bound we travelled deeper into colder weather and greyer skies.  After weeks of gorgeous sunshiny high 20’s it was now downright gothic and wintry.

TROYES

First stop – Troyes – for several days. Two reasons drew us here. It was the ancient and original capital of Champagne filled with half-timbered medieval houses ….and……. strangely, factory outlet shopping districts, according to our Lonely Planet guidebook.  Whoa, we’d held back on consumerist pleasures such as retail therapy for most part of this long-haul trip and now, nearing the end of it, we were in the mood to let those euros shake loose from pockets and purses.

Troyes after rain

What did we discover apart from heaps of affordable international brand name labels and it being the home of Lacoste?  This town is the origin for the name “troy weight” - the unit of measure for gold.  

In the heart of the city whose layout resembles the outline of a champagne cork, Troyes is a delightful-to-explore-by-foot place (even in pouring rain) that has beautifully preserved its medieval small town charm.  Narrow cobblestoned streets and town squares are bordered by pretty half-timbered buildings, some of which slant more precariously than the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Some streets and laneways have great names such as the dark and narrow Ruelle des Chats (Cats Alley).
After a few champagnes you could be forgiven for thinking
that you weren't seeing straight

We picked up a Troyes City Pass that gave us discounts to outlet shops and museums, free champagne tastings, chocolate samples and an audio-guide of the historic centre. We came across many wrought-iron framed wells, numerous stone churches crammed with beautiful statuary and art, an old Jewish quarter and, of course, a large range of cafes, wine bars and restaurants squeezed into any conceivable space. 


Ruelle des Chats

Detail of Sts Crispin and Crispinian, patron saints of shoemakers
in Eglise St Pantaleon, Troyes

TOOL MUSEUM - SERIOUSLY GOOD 

A fascinating stop was at the Maison de l’Outil, Troyes’ tool museum – it was seriously good.  Housed in a historic multi-storeyed creaky 16th century building was a vast collection of around 10,000 tools from bygone trades and eras.  Carvers, coopers, milliners, butchers, carpenters, stone masons, upholsterers, glovemakers, you name it, all crafts were represented. This place is a shrine to the art of manual labour.

Max stands in courtyard of Troyes' Tool Museum, above
and
in front of one of its many collections

REIMS

A memorable daytrip from Troyes was to Reims, the coronation capital of many of France’s kings. To pronounce it is something like “Rance” but rolling the ‘rrrrrrr’ and saying it as if you have a blocked nose.  Here we were entertained by buskers and acts around the town’s café-lined squares and visited the fascinating and massive statue-encrusted Reims’ Notre Dame Cathedrale where Joan of Arc stood by Charles VII at his coronation.   

We ate a bison sausage hot dog and bison hamburger for lunch at an outdoor Canadian promotional event (rather tasty) and stood sombrely in Eisenhower’s and the Allied’s map room in the Surrender Museum (Musee de la Reddition) where the Nazi Germans surrendered to the Allies, effectively ending WWII.  There’s so much more to explore in Reims, including Roman ruins as well as the champagne houses of Taittinger (a little out of town) and Mumm – however, we were saving the champagne tasting for Epernay.  A daytrip certainly cannot do justice to such a richly historic town, but at least we tried.

Horsemounted Joan of Arc faces the Reims Notre Dame Cathedral
A few examples of over 2000 statues
at the Reims Cathedral

Surrender Museum, Reims

This was the one day we decided not to drive and instead caught the train to Reims – 22 easy minutes there, 3 long weary hours on the return due to a power failure on the train tracks.  We sat patiently in the train-to-nowhere with other passengers for over 1 ½ hours whilst railway authorities decided what to do, then shepherded like a sheep flock to a bus stop where we stood outside shivering in the cold for a further half an hour waiting for a bus that never arrived and finally ushered back again onto the railway platform to catch a slow train to Troyes. 

Two fabulous Champagne cities explored. Onwards next to other places within the Champagne province loaded down with our many clothing purchases (more Max’s than mine!) squeezed into a brand new mini-suitcase which is crammed alongside our swollen backpacks in the small car boot.

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Autumn In The Loire

Friday, March 09, 2012 Eva 0 Comments




We’re back home in Perth in body but with heart still in France. I read over my notes and reflect back on our wonderful time passed in beautiful surroundings …..

FRENCH HOSPITALITY IN LE GRAND PRESSIGNY

We’re in the Loire region for an indulgent ten days to bask in the land of grandiose royal chateaux, and bask we are doing. Edith, the friendly owner of the Monpazier house we’d rented, and her husband Paul are keen to meet us at their 18th century weekend country house in the Loire Valley.  So, the village of Le Grand Pressigny is unexpectedly on our agenda. 

Edith's garden, Le Grand Pressigny

Under an arbour of acacias in the warm sunshiny autumn in Edith’s untamed walled garden the four of us get to know each other as we sip on Vouvray champagne (a small wine growing village in the Loire) and feast on platters of cold seafood salad, smoked salmon with crème fraiche and boiled potatoes, a refreshing zucchini salad and prosciutto with a crisp lettuce salad.  A French tarte is next followed by small cups of espresso indoors behind the coolness of huge shuttered windows.  

“Do you ever get tired of seeing chateaux or are you amazed every time you see one?” I ask Edith.  In their salon, we gaze at old prints of some of France’s immense array of castles.  “No, I love them.  They are part of French history”, she replies.  Her response reassures me. We’re a few days into what will become an “8-chateaux in 10 days” line-up and I’m hoping it won’t be a case of ‘shattered by chateaux’. 

Edith is an elegant, charming hostess with excellent English, a passion for learning Italian and a curiosity for meeting strangers such as ourselves.  Husband Paul is retired whose passion is Egyptology.  He has us captivated as he describes being trapped in Cairo during the riots earlier that year and of being airlifted out of the country amid great fear and panic. Before we know it, almost 6 hours of convivial company passes by in a flash and plans are made for catching up in Paris where they live.  It’s time to make the 1½ hour road journey back to our accommodation about 12km further past the attractive little town of Amboise. 

Town views from Chateau Amboise

LOGIS LE FLEURAY

We are in the Loire to celebrate my birthday and we base ourselves at a gorgeous country lodge, the Logis Le Fleuray, that has all that we are not accustomed to as budget travellers – a sparkling swimming pool, tennis court, gracious staff, an outstanding restaurant and a king-sized bed (in other words monumentally big, not the typical French Napoleonic size) with crisp white linen in a spacious charmingly decorated room.  It is situated about 12 km from the lovely town of Amboise which is renowned for its fortress chateau that overlooks the pretty town and for its famous inhabitant, Leonardo Da Vinci.

Ordering an afternoon tea tray after a swim in the pool is an extravagant treat so we sit outside our room’s French doors facing the peaceful countryside whilst a waiter brings us a large tray of white crockery and delicate slices of cake and biscuits from the main lodge. A bright red hot air balloon drifts by and we watch with fascination as it slowly descends into the neighbouring field.  We take delight in the moment and remind ourselves how lucky we are. 

Birthday celebration at Logis Le Fleuray

On other days we soak up the never-ending glorious balmy afternoons and dusks on our terrace with improvised dinners of local wines and typical French food staples – baguette, cheeses, dry sausages, various duck pates, terrines and luscious mini gateaux picked up from local supermarkets.  Oh, what a blissful lifestyle.  After a cold, wet summer the French are appreciating the exceptionally warm sunny autumn season and we are thankful for the Indian summer conditions.  We’re not yet ready for the dampness and cool of a traditional autumn and impending winter. 

The Loire Valley has numerous gorgeous chateaux to choose from, all within a relatively short drive from each other.  This is the land of real-life royal fairytales that come with huge doses of intrigue, love affairs, plots of murder and betrayal, secrets and clandestine ambitions amongst kings, dukes, courtesans and courtiers thrown in over the centuries.  To stand out from the others, chateaux pitch their theme or uniqueness for their share of tourists.  

CHATEAU D'ANGERS

The military-inspired fortress of Chateau d’Angers at the western end of the Loire region was a midday stopover on our way to Amboise after farewelling our friends in Brittany.  It sits in the centre of the lovely city of Angers with its striking squat black and white-striped towers, nowadays protecting the famous and priceless 14th century Apocalypse Tapestry.  In a modern, specially-designed museum built to house this magnificent 100 metre-stretch of medieval tapestry is a vast dimly-lit space of grim depictions of death, strange fantasy animals and scenes from The Book of Revelations.  They read like a visual horror story. The castle grounds are a quiet respite for a picnic lunch.  


Chateau d'Angers above
houses the Apocalypse Tapestry

ABBAYE DE FONTEVRAUD

From military to monastic, not far from the town of Saumur, is the massive Abbaye de Fontevraud.  Friends Odile and Patrick had suggested that it was definitely worth a look and we were glad to have made the detour.  Built in the 12th century this amazing site has beautiful cloisters, an unusual scaly-roofed multi-chimneyed Romanesque kitchen and an enormous abbey church all but empty except for the faded sculpted figures of King Henri II, his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine and their son, Richard the Lionheart lying in repose.  After the French Revolution, much of the site became a prison until the early 1960’s.  

AZAY-LE-RIDEAU

Enchanting Chateau Azay-Le-Rideau proudly sits looking narcissistically at its own reflection in the stillness of the lake. Amboise Chateau is small and quaint with an unfortunate tale to tell of how King Charles VIII unceremoniously died by running into a low doorway and knocking himself out.  Chateau Villandry is outstanding for its spectacular gardens.  Its ornamental love gardens in red, pink and white begonias symbolise the 4 types of love – fickle love, tender love, passionate love and tragic love.  And then there are its Renaissance kitchen gardens originally set up by the monks.  Who would have thought landscaping with vegetables could look so amazing!   


A small part of Chateau Villandry's extensive grounds

CHATEAU CHAUMONT-SUR-LOIRE

Chateau de Chaumont-sur-Loire hosts an annual Festival International de Jardin (an international garden festival) which we were lucky to view in its final days.  Innovative, experimental and futuristic would be the way I’d describe some of the unusual plots with names such as the Pixelated Garden, the Garden of Extinct Plants and the Memory Library. It truly deserves a whole day’s outing to take it all in.  Within the chateau itself, of interest is Catherine de Medici’s royal bedchamber and that of her astrologer’s, as well as the beautiful 17th century floor tiling in the Council Chamber brought across from Palermo in Sicily. 



Chateau Chaumont-sur-Loire
and in the grounds, below
a Chinese-inspired garden in the Festival International du Jardin


CHATEAU DE LANGEAIS

Then there’s the medieval Chateau de Langeais which is entered through the picturesque village of Langeais and over the drawbridge. It’s small but packed with brilliant medieval furnishings and beautifully tiled floors.  It was here in Chateau de Langeais’ grand hall that Duchess Anne de Bretagne at the age of 15 was secretly wed to Charles VIII, therefore uniting Brittany with France.  In its parklands are the remains of a 10th century fortress tower, the oldest in France, and one of the biggest treehouses we’ve ever seen.  Climbing it was de rigueur, of course (so I told Max)! 


The town of Langeais viewed from the chateau's drawbridge


Chateau Langeais' treehouse in an ancient cedar


CHAMBORD

And the granddaddy of all chateaux – Chambord - can’t help but take your breath away.  With its lavish, riotous roofline and sheer size looming up from a vast estate, this is King Francois I’s elaborate Renaissance grandeur on a boastful scale. 

Chambord was a favourite re-visit for us. Inside the castle is an intertwining double helix stone staircase designed by Da Vinci in such a way so that if two people were to climb each staircase they would never meet.  Max and I mounted the staircases and immediately lost each other.  Searching for each other on all the landings at every level and through the thick of the crowds was futile. Thank goodness for mobile phones!  Like the phone ad, Nokia does connect people. 

Chateau Chambord



BLOIS

Nearing the end of our ten day stay we move on to Blois and downsize to VERY budget but clean, comfortable accommodation, a short walking distance from the town’s large chateau.   

Lording over the city and Loire River the grand Blois Chateau is a mix of architectural styles from various centuries.  It was here that seven of France’s kings ruled.  We check out Catherine de Medici’s secret cabinet of poisons, her bedchamber in which she died and the king’s bedchamber where Henri I was assassinated.  

Entrance to Blois Chateau

Eight chateaux done and dusted but, remarkably, neither of us feel chateau-ed out.  We have admired each and every one of them for their own individuality, history and unique backdrop.   However, after all that gluttonous French living our waistbands have popped out – BOOM! – just like that.  So, we try going from gourmet dining to cup-a-soup.  I say ‘trying’ because it’s a huge hurdle adjusting from wanton eating to minimalist style.  Once again, we have feasted on lovely foods, lovely sights and feasted on every other sensory level.    
 


It is about now that I discover that Paris will be hosting a huge international Chocolate Expo on our arrival there.  How important is that, I ask you, to a chocaholic like moi?  Very, with a capital VIP (Very Important Pleasure).  That’s enough incentive, I hope, to stick to breakfasts of black tea and dry biscuits and cup-a-soup dinners.  Goodbye chocolate chaud and pain au chocolat until we eventually make our way to gay Par-ee!

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Revisiting Brittany

Wednesday, January 11, 2012 Eva 0 Comments




Once more (our 4th time over the years) we found ourselves landing on the doorstep of French friends Patrick and Odile in western France, or more correctly the region of Loire-Atlantique near Brittany.  We were welcomed with typical Gallic hospitality into their rural wooden cottage – with bisous (kisses) and French champagne, of course!  

Travel talk is always top of the agenda when we meet.  These two are hard-core backpackers with an unquenchable sense of adventure who don’t let encroaching age slow them down. For them, talking in English happens generally only when we meet. Like themselves, friendly family members who dropped by to visit chatted and joked with us with ease and skill in English, too.  Oh, we were so envious and impressed.  If only we could speak French as easily as they joked in English! 


Typical French hospitality. Salut!

One of my favourite words learnt in French from Patrick and Odile (I’m sure they’ll be embarrassed by this) on our first visit to their home many years ago is the word “poubelle”.  It sounds such a pretty, refined and melodic name for the commonplace rubbish bin.  Translated into Franglish its meaning sounds something like ‘beautiful poo’, does it not!?  The French language is certainly the language of romance, even when it comes to labelling a humble rubbish bin.

Our friends’ flair for traditional cuisine is sensational and they effortlessly whip up luscious meals in super quick time.  I have watched a delicious quiche Lorraine thrown together on a previous visit in the time that it would have taken me to read the recipe and locate the ingredients. These two intrepid travel buddies of ours understand which cheeses to pair together on a cheese platter and which wines to marry with each course with such aplomb.  But of course they are French, no?! 

Truly Breton - galette, butter and cider.

Everything is so excruciatingly tasty. Fish, shellfish off the Atlantic coast, seasonal vegetables, wines, French bread and pastries.  We savour Odile’s fresh-out-of-the-pan galettes (savoury buckwheat crepes) served traditionally with ham and cheese topped with a fried egg and washed down with Breton cider and finish off most evening meals with a platter of regional cheeses.   What a way of life….. what a waistband!

BRITTANY ATTRACTIONS - WHERE TO NEXT?

Venturing away from gourmet kitchen delights and their tranquil garden in this peaceful rural setting, we’re taken to places that we hadn’t seen on earlier visits.  Previously, our friends had driven us to many fascinating spots not far from the serenity of their country life - the salt marshes of Guerande, pretty fishing villages such as St Goustan and St Cado, the mystifying prehistoric stones of Carnac, numerous tourist spots on the Morbihan coast, science fiction writer Jules Vernes’ birthplace of Nantes and the list goes on.   This time, they've selected the port town of Vannes (or Gwened in the Breton language) to the west and the Ville Fleurie (a national competition for the best flowering villages) of La Gacilly to the north.

LA GACILLY

La Gacilly is your quintessential picturesque French village set on the riverbanks.  This tiny place is renowned as the birthplace of Yves Rocher and his cosmetics empire as well as attracting many artisans and craftsmen in glass, leather, ceramics, jewellery, metal crafts, painting and sculpture.
La Gacilly in bloom

La Gacilly's town buildings adorned with giant artwork and photographic displays

Stone village houses and shopfronts are adorned with colourful plants and a flower-festooned pedestrian bridge spans a river across to the other side where the Yves Rocher cosmetics foundation and his botanic gardens sit on the banks.  All colour of bloom looks fabulous against the grey stonework.  When we visited, young boys were fishing along the riverbanks like Huckleberry Finns with their lines and rods dangling in the water.  The village oozed a peaceful charm about it. 
Throughout the town and along the riverbanks an intriguing annual international photographic exhibition was on display alongside enormous works of art.  Following  the riverbanks, through the town’s streets and in amongst flower and vegetable gardens, huge scale photographs lined pathways – some quite beautiful and others very confronting and thought-provoking, especially the images of war, disaster and poverty which sat incongruously amongst the tranquillity of their setting.  This stimulated much discussion and contemplation amongst us.

Signpost in French and the Celtic-like language of Breton

ILE D'ARZ

Along the coast on another day trip, we boarded a ferry passing by many oyster beds sitting in the tidal shallows of the Golfe du Morbihan to reach the small Breton island of Ile d’Arz. 

The black and white striped flag of Brittany could be seen proudly flying from many sailing and fishing vessels.  On the island, pathways led us around the tiny commune in search of historic points of interest, into a medieval stone church and past duck hunters firing off their guns in the reeds.  These hunters were the same chaps that we’d spotted earlier into our walk at one of the island’s cafes having a drink as we passed by their line-up of rifles and kit that brazenly lay propped outside against the stone walls trustingly (or foolishly) unattended.  A strange sight, indeed.  Luckily, no madmen or unsupervised children walked by.

Low tide on Ile d'Arz

Low-roofed Breton cottages on Ile d'Arz

VANNES

On our return to shore, through the arched entry of Vannes’ old city walls, we discovered a lovely harbour town of half-timbered houses and buildings, Vannes Cathedral with its beautiful stained glass windows and prettily landscaped gardens along the stream (formerly the moat) behind the old town ramparts and historic washhouses (lavoirs).
Half-timbered buildings front the Vannes Cathedral

Flower-lined moat along the city's ramparts


A game of petanque played out in the historic centre of Vannes

Back at their home and nearing the end of our short stay, after a few glasses of the fine stuff gales of laughter erupt from us as Patrick forgets words in his own language after speaking for days in English.  It’s time for us to move on.  We leave behind two legendary travellers-cooks-extraordinaire who share a similar cynical and dry sense of humour and world view as ourselves.  We hop into our trusty black French steed and head on out of this blissful rural retreat and down the motorways towards the Loire Valley.


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