What I Did on my Summer Vacation (France edition)
Finally home from the France trip. My bags stayed to party in Madrid! They are due home this afternoon.
The cast of characters: Sister, DBIL, and I for the entire 3 weeks. Two of DBIL’s golf buddies and their wives joined us for the Provence week.
Normandy was fantastic. Our base was Bayeux, a charming little town of 12,000. I’ve wanted to see the Bayeux Tapestry ever since I learned about it in art history eons ago. Regretfully, it has been taken down while the museum is being renovated.
We spent one day at Mont Saint Michel. Highs were in the low 40s. Windy with intermittent rain in the morning. Wished I had re-ordered the Barbour rain hat, but was glad I had the Quince trench coat and the cashmere/cotton scarf from The Met.
Lunch was at creperie that seated fewer than 20! The crepes were not at all like I was expecting but they were delicious, nevertheless. Mine was ham, spinach, egg, and cheese.
I finally got a Kouign Amann! It is a specialty of Brittany but MSM is on the Normandy/Bretagne border, so it can be found in MSM. Kouign Amann translates to “butter cake.” It is a laminated dough with lots of caramelized sugar and butter. I first heard of it on The Great British Baking Show. It is a favorite of Mary Berry!
Our visit to WWII battlefields and cemetery was very moving. My DBIL’s father was in the landings at Omaha Beach and lived to tell about it. For his valor he received the Distinguished Service Cross. DBIL’s dad’s movements and actions are recorded in several books about the landings. Our guide had done his research and was able to take us to places where he had seen action. Very moving for all of us but especially so for DBIL.
We stayed in some very blah hotels but two were standouts for their hip-ness. We were only in Paris overnight to change trains. We stayed at the Citizen M near Gare du Lyon. Very very contemporary. Self-check-in on iPads. All lights, a/c, etc in the room were controlled by an iPad. Tiny room but so extremely well organized, it did not feel small. Neon sign in the lobby: Voulez-vous coucher avec moi? Cracked me up! The sheets were heavenly; great service; nice shower.
In Bordeaux, our hotel was named “First Name.” Again, very contemporary. I think it was an office building that had been converted to a hotel. The stand-out feature (for me) was the in-room French-Press coffee. YUM!
On to Provence…
There were 7 of us, all friends who have traveled together before. We had a 5 bedroom villa on an estate that was once an old mill. https://www.moulindelaroque.com/la-roque-villa-cigales-en.htm The owners of the mill were terrific. He is from Belgium and she is from Richmond, VA. I got horrifically sick one day (not food poisoning; probably a 24 hour bug) and she checked on me periodically while everyone else was out touring. So sweet!
My pictures of our villa
The gray door on the left is the fridge!
The black case hanging from the window hook is a knife case. One of the tour organizers is a professional chef. She always travels with her own knives.
View from the kitchen window
Our tour organizers (https://eccolacucina.com) were fantastic. They usually conduct small tours (10-12) in Italy. This was their inaugural tour of Provence and they did a bang-up job! We visited lots of markets, wineries, an olive grove, a few churches, did some tromping around picturesque little towns, etc. Everyday we had lunch in an interesting restaurant in whatever town we were visiting. Most evenings, a private chef cooked dinner in our villa.
Dessert made by the private chef. 😍
The highlight of the week for me was a cooking class at La Mirande in Avignon. It started with the chef leading the 7 of us to the Les Halles, the fresh food market. He chose the ingredients for the lunch we were going to prepare - fresh shrimp, gorgeous asparagus (white, green, and purple), duck breasts, yellow zucchini, eggplant, strawberries and more.
White, green, and purple asparagus starter. It is topped with 3 small raw shrimp.
The work table set up with ingredients. Wood burning stove in the background! The chef was a master at working that wood stove.
Duck breast with grilled eggplant, grilled yellow zucchini, grilled baby artichoke heart. I can’t remember what the sauce was, but it had olives in it for saltiness. It was a fabulous experience!
After the Provence portion of our trip ended, the 3 of us drove to Bordeaux for a river cruise. We hit Les Grand Buffet in Narbonne (I cannot recommend it but it could just be my aversion to crowds), walked around the walled city of Carcassonne but were too late to have lunch so missed the opportunity for authentic cassoulet.
A friend had told me we must get to Albi to see the cathedral. I’m a bit of a ho-hum, another cathedral tourist, but I am so glad we saw this one. It is huge Gothic brick structure. The entire interior is decorated. IIRC the painting is all original!
Finally we made it to Bordeaux and the river boat cruise, my first river cruise. It was aboard Avalon on the Garonne and Dordogne rivers. I loved it, but I’m a sucker for a cruise of any sort. It was relatively small. I think max passenger capacity was 168 and there were less than 150 on this cruise.
There were a lot of included excursions. I took one excursion to a vineyard/winery. And a cooking class at a winery in St Emillion. What I really prefer to do is lounge on the boat, reading, and watching the river go by.
I’m still waiting for my luggage to catch up with me. It decided to hang out in Madrid for a few days. I’m so happy I had an Air Tag on it and could see exactly where it was. I don’t mind that it is delayed. Takes the pressure off having to do laundry immediately!
Clothing post-mortem:
When traveling and having to re-wear things, I always hang my pants by the hem using the weight of the waistband to help wrinkles fall out. The green linen pants from Quince were great. Even though they would wrinkle while wearing, the majority of the wrinkles would fall out before I needed to wear them again.
The lightweight jeans from Eileen Fisher are now my favorite pants. They are a generous straight leg, but I would not call them wide leg. They were cut sufficiently generously that an REI merino wool base layer fit well under them. Yes, it was so cold in Normandy that I had to wear top and bottom base layers.
The jury is still out on the Quince trenchcoat. Looks good initially but wrinkles badly. After a while, I was giving off Columbo vibes. It has been packed in my suitcase since Monday. I can’t wait to see what it looks like when it finally gets home.
The LLBean navy merino wool cardigan was serviceable. My only complaint (and it was a big annoyance) is that the buttons are too thick for the holes. It was difficult to button the sweater.
I did okay on shoes - J. Crew field shoes and Rothy Points in camel.
The laundry on the ship was a dream. All items were returned sooner than promised, all pressed, and nothing shrunk not even my knit tees. Prices were very reasonable - IIRC 2 euros for tops; 3 euros for bottoms.
The villa had a washer and dryer. The owner showed us how to use it, but cautioned us about using the dryer. She said she has lived in France for 30 years and finds all of the dryers too hot even on the lowest setting. I tried it for 10 minutes just to see. My clothes were steaming, literally, when I opened the door! The villa had an outdoor clothes line and an indoor drying rack to use in lieu of the blast furnace dryer.
I took a Lilly silk top and pashmina to wear to dinner on the ship and never even unfolded it. Everything was ultra-casual.
Nothing came home unworn besides the Lilly silk top.
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Spanish, the Citizen M we were in had a very nice lounge. I don’t recall the menu. We had drinks, a charcuterie board, and a cheese board. There was also a quiet work area.
You might be able to see the bar behind these drinks
The frou frou cocktail is mine, of course. I love frou frou cocktails! 🍹 - last month
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@Gooster! I’m so pleased you have joined this thread. I took your advice on so many things - driving from Avignon to Bordeaux; reservations at Les Grands Buffets (quite an experience!); appropriate clothing for the various areas; even the weather website!
I thought the crepe looked more like a galette too, but it was billed as a crepe. The dessert crepe/galette was so good, but it appears that we failed to get a picture of it. I, however, took a picture of the description on the menu. I’d like to try to duplicate it sometime.
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@Gooster, you are right. I did not care for Les Grands Buffets, but I’m glad I experienced it. One of the sisters who operated the Provence tour is a trained chef. She was green with envy that we were going to Les Grands Buffets. And the owner of the mill where our villa was said she has never been able to get a reservation. It was worth the price of admission but I don’t think I want to go again.
It was terribly crowded. They seat 500 at each seating. I had to fight my way to get to anything. Plus, the smell of a room filled with 130 different cheeses and a wide wide assortment of seafood really got to me.
The escargot were very good and the crepes suzette were divine!
The caramel on the dessert crepe/gallette was a sauce not a flan. It was fantastic. I let my sister and DBIL each have a teeny bite…but only one. 😋
Cassoulet in a convenience store somewhere between Carcassonne and Bordeaux.
texanjana