Brucatos Italy France Belgium 2015: Ah, France...

Tuesday, 26 May 2015

Bonjour!

On the drive to Saint-Affrique

Beautiful French countryside

Yes, we are finally in France! So, to recap our wild and wonderful Monday. We were up around 4:45 a.m. and out the door to the airport a little after 5. The drive to the Cagliari airport took just about half an hour, especially as there wasn’t much traffic on the roads at that time of day. We dropped the car off at the Sixt location and left the keys in the drop box. We very much enjoyed our little Renault, and I think I am actually going to miss sliding the key “thing” into its spot and then pressing the start and stop button! How adaptable we humans are!

Ryan Air’s policy is to check people in for individual flights, and when we got to the airport, they were checking in people for two earlier (yes, my friends, earlier than 8:10 a.m.) flights. However, we didn’t have to wait long until Marseille was announced, and we were checked in, baggage sent off, and we were through security. I am still wondering why more people don’t avail themselves of Ryan Air’s “priority boarding” as it got us on the plane first, with absolutely problem with our carry-on luggage. (Note: I did notice that when one elderly grandmother-type was being checked in by what looked to be her son, that her bag WAS overweight, but nothing was said, and away she went! Do you think it’s the difference between countries, or what, because they were sticklers in Spain!) At any rate, the flight was a little less than an hour, and soon we landed at the Marseille-Provence airport.

The directions to rental cars was a little less than clear – it said that they were located in Halls 3-4 – and naturally we were in Hall 1. But a 5-8 minute walk got us to Hall 3-4, where suddenly, (how Italian!) the signage all disappeared!

Hotel Le 1837 bedroom

Our living room with kitchenette

Love our bathroom!

We had to ask someone, and it turns out that all the rental cars have their own little booths – out in the parking lot, which we had failed to notice. Oh well! No problems at Europcar where we picked up our nice little (not old, certainly, but not brand new!) Peugeot, piled in the luggage, and out the door we went!

Hotel entrance hall -- love the staircase!

Indoor pool with aquarium!

Our view of the hotel and courtyard

Leaving the airport and finding our way to the autoroute (freeway) was a bit tricky, as I had left our French Michelin map at home. (It was more than several years old, so I figured we would pick one up when we got here.) At any rate, we did have Emmy (GPS) and she was able to get us where we needed to go, and we were on the road about 10 a.m. with the course set for Saint-Affrique. Absolutely lovely driving weather – coolish, so it was nice to drive with the windows open, and it took us about 3 hours.

Our plan was to spend the day with our wonderful friend, Nathalie, and her family. As it turns out, yesterday was a holiday in France – Whit Monday – so Nathalie didn’t have to work (she is a teacher’s assistant in a local private high school) and Nathan, her 16 year-old son was also off. We had first met Nathalie via email when Robert broke his leg and was in hospital in Nimes. She is a friend-of-a-friend, who very generously volunteered to come to Nimes to help me/us if we were in need. Well, we certainly were in need, but things came together so quickly thanks to our insurance company and a great hospital, that it wasn’t necessary for her to make the long drive, although we really appreciated the offer!

Me, Nathan, Pascal & Nathalie!

Beautiful town and area!

Then, several years later, we met for lunch and an afternoon when we were in the Dordogne region, and at that time we were able to meet Julia as well as Nathan. (Julia is now in Paris going to the Sorbonne, and doing really well – I can’t even remember how many languages she speaks!) So, this was the first time we would make it to Saint-Affrique – although now that we have seen the town and the area, WOW, it’s a truly beautiful place and I am sure we will be back! (And I know that Robert says that about most places in France, but between the mountains and the views, this place is really special!)

We got to the hotel – Le 1837 – a little after one. And again … WOW! Apparently just a few years ago, the building was Nathan’s school -- but it was renovated about three years ago, and it is a knock-out of a hotel! And, thanks to Nathalie’s friend, we were shown to Suite 1 – and it’s HUGE and beautiful! We have a large sitting room with kitchenette, a huge bathroom with mega-tub and rain shower (going to take advantage of that!) and then a very comfortable bedroom.

On top of the world!

(The indoor swimming pool also has an attached aquarium, which makes for a great viewing opportunity, and there is a billiard room and workout room as well!) Nathalie had also left us a wonderful basket of amazing French goodies (she is SO amazing!) – including, of course, our very favorite Roquefort cheese, pate, bread, croissant, cookies, etc.

Nathalie and me!

Saint-Affrique area

We certainly are not going to lose any weight here, that’s for sure!

We called Nathalie once we were settled, and she arrived shortly with her partner, Pascal, and Nathan – who I could hardly recognize, as he has grown so tall! He’s 16 now! It was so terrific to meet Pascal. Unfortunately, he had to work yesterday, but we were able to spend a bit of time with him, and he is a lot of fun! He is also very interested in history and movies, so he and Robert had a lot to talk about, and we are hoping they will be able to visit us in Tucson sometime soon. His English was very, very good – certainly MUCH better than my French, and both Nathalie and Nathan are fluent English speakers.

After a nice visit, Nathan needed to get to his band rehearsal and Pascal had to work, so Nathalie took us on a wonderful tour of the area. As you will be able to see from the photos, we found some amazing places! (Besides working at the school, Nathalie also works as a professional photographer, and her pictures are amazing!) It was so wonderful to be taken on the “tour” – Nathalie was driving up roads that reminded us of last year in Turkey! We went to the top of one mountain, and then through Roquefort, which is lovely. Nathalie knows so many people, we were able to see some places – like a 14^th century old farm building, which is now used for wedding receptions and events – but the stone work is incredible; we loved the arches! As Nathalie pointed out, we both love stone walls – and while we had never thought of it, I guess we do!

Ancient stone farm building

On top of a hill near Saint-Affrique

Always more scenery...

Nathalie then dropped us off at the hotel for a short rest, and picked us up for dinner (with Nathan!) about an hour later. Dinner was at Hotel Chateau du Creissels in the valley actually beneath the Millau Bridge, about half an hour away. The hotel itself is lovely. (In fact, I believe I had made a reservation there for us to stay which I had to cancel when R broke his leg! But now we were back!) It wasn’t quite dinnertime yet, so we walked around the grounds – just beautiful, lots of roses, and there are also great view of the Millau Bridge from many angles! And then came dinner! We were seated at a very nice table in a beautiful vaulted room – I’m running out of adjectives, but it was gorgeous! (Oh, there’s a new one!)

The menu had an assortment of set menus as well as an a la carte menu, so there was a lot to choose from. I had their menu with a pate starter along with wonderfully dressed greens, and R had the salad with what he said were little scallops; we both enjoyed very much! For mains, I had an excellent piece of poultry – baby pintard, but I forget the actual name, with vegetables. R had a fish that he can’t remember the name of – which he said was great. Then came the cheese board … THREE different types of Roquefort and some other cheeses – but our comment was, when you’ve got three different types of Roquefort, why bother with anything else? And finally, dessert. We all had their frozen raspberry ice cream…YUM…what a wonderful meal!! Then Nathalie drove us back to the hotel and dropped us off. As we had gotten up so early in the morning for the flight, we were both pretty tired. (Also, on our tour in the afternoon, there was a very stiff breeze blowing, but it was good to be outside!) So back into our wonderful suite, and right to bed. THANK YOU, Nathalie, Pascal and Nathan, for a wonderful day and dinner! We will remember it always!!

Up this morning about 6, and now getting organized to get back on the road. Today we’re heading for the Dordogne and more of those decorated caves! So!

Lots of love,

xxx

Hello! As usual, I have WAY too many photos for the amount of words -- and I do tend to get a bit "wordy" at times. So, because of the amount of photos, I am holding off on dinner pictures until tonight! So! More later!

xxx