End of the year soirèes – Découverte de la France

As we have mentioned before, the Découverte de la France (Discover France) class at AVF is one of our favorites – and has been since we first came to Lyon.  This spring Andrée-Anne, our very able maîtresse, focused on architectural styles.  She gave us a good background in class and then took us on short “field trips” around Lyon to admire examples of Art Nouveau and Art Deco (buildings, stained glass, wrought iron, etc).  We are fortunate to be in Lyon where there are so many examples – and all within walking distance.



Enjoying gâteaus on the patio overlooking the back yard.

 (That's Andrée-Anne at the head of the table.)

And so, it was very logical to have architecture be the theme for our end-of-year soirèe at her home.  (Andrée-Anne and her husband, Bruno, have a lovely apartment on the second floor (American style or first floor French style) of their building.  What is surprising is that attached to their apartment, they have a large back yard complete with grass, trees, flower beds, hedges, etc.) 

We were each supposed to bring a dessert, preferably gâteau (cake).  All of them were delicious, but two architectural creations really stood out:

Modern building in style of Le Corbusier
 (a famous French architect)




Château fort -  complete with

draw bridge, turrets, cannons, and friendly gate keeper.

Needless to say, we are looking forward to seeing what Andrée-Anne has in mind for next year.

The Night of the Trumpet

Our AVF group was sponsoring an event in a small local château, and we were urged to sign up for

Château de Montchat

it.  We have enjoyed AVF events in the past, and the thought of going to one in a chateau (with refreshments, of course) was intriguing.  But, this event featured a gentleman talking about trumpets and related instruments.  While we definitely like listening to trumpets being played, the thought of listening to someone talk about them wasn’t exactly enticing.  Well, peer pressure won, and we signed up.

A side note:  We were taking a bus we hadn’t taken before and were a little unsure of our stop.  While we were waiting for the bus and discussing when to get off, a complete stranger came up to us and said in perfect English, “Do you need any help?  This is the bus I take often.”  David told her where we were going and what we thought the right stop would be; she said we had the right stop, she would be getting off there, too, and we should not hesitate to let her know if we needed any help or had any questions.  Again, anytime someone complains about how rude the French are, just tell them they are full of banana oil!

The audience packed the room!

Now, back to our story...The chateau was a short walk from the bus stop, and we actually got there early.  We checked in at the desk, joined ~ 148 other folks, chatted with friends, and took our seats.  Then came the big surprise…the gentleman giving the talk, Nicolas Baronnier*, was not only very knowledgeable, but his presentation was interesting and quite enjoyable. 

 


He actually explained the various factors that

The instruments discussed and demonstrated.

cause different horn designs to sound different.  (We didn’t realize, for instance, that some have round tubing and some oval, for instance.) He illustrated his points with demonstrations of a variety of instruments and music styles – even a conch!  He was very approachable and encouraged questions, and he stayed on to chat with folks.  In short, we both learned a lot and were pleased we had come.

One of his many demos to illustrate points he made.

 

 

When the presentation was over, we were surprised to see folks spontaneously standing up and

Time for refreshments.

stacking chairs.  In no time at all, the lecture hall became a venue for a variety of foods and beverages! 





David and Roger, his biking buddy, stationed themselves behind a table and were pouring various beverages – mostly sparkling wine.  (They tried charging people, but no one was taking them up on it.)

Roger and David on the right - and
 their attempt at free enterprise.

If there is a moral to this story, it would probably be to make sure you take advantage of as many opportunities as possible to hear and learn new things.  You just never know!



* Nicolas Baronnier is from the Lyon area.  He began studying piano and trumpet at the Conservatoire National de Musique de Saint Etienne and at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Lyon where he graduated 1^st in his class.  He has performed throughout the world and often combines his career as soloist with teaching and promoting young artists.  You can find out more about him online.


 

Bike Trip Loire - The Sixth Day - Celebratory dinner - May 17

We had breakfast at the hotel in the morning and headed for the train station. 

David, Tom, and Roger at the Gare De Blois

Roger, Tom, and David between trains

We caught a train headed [after a change of trains at St Pierre-des-Corps, a suburb of Tours] for Nevers, arriving about 2:30.  We were in Lyon by 6:45 for the celebratory dinner.

While we did not travel at a great rate of speed over difficult terrain, nevertheless we had accomplished an enjoyable tour of at least 302km.  We made time for a bit of sightseeing, ate and drank well, met some interesting people, learned about the Loire Valley, and enjoyed each other’s company.  That is all worth celebrating. 

David, Dominique, Roger, Gerard, Tom, Christine

While we traveled back to Lyon, Anna, Christine, and Dominique spent some time assembling salads and a delicious pasta dish, followed by cheeses and dessert.  We had two bottles of French sparkling wine and numerous bottles of red and white wines.  We sat out on Roger and Dominique’s terrasse with a great view of the sunset over Lyon and laughed and talked for hours.  A memorable finish to a great week!

Night View From Roger and Dominique's

Here are some links relating to the Basilica of Saint-Benoit-sur-Loire that we visited on the third day, and for Max Jacobs, a remarkable individual who was associated with the Basilica.
http://www.tourisme-loire-foret.com/Basilique-Romane-de-St-Benoit-sur,215

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Jacob

Bike Trip Loire - The Fifth Day - May 16

 We wanted to spend some time on this leg seeing the famed château of Chambord, built by King François I in 1549.  This was a side trip on the Loire trail, but going a bit farther the night before made it easier to spend time at Chambord by shortening our journey on Friday.

Friday was a gorgeous day – blue skies, little wind, warm enough so I could take my jacket off at times.  We arrived at Chambord, an absolutely spectacular chateau in an equally spectacular setting.  Now owned by the state, it sits in huge grounds.  We approached down a long drive that opened up to reveal the château.  There is a small village adjacent to the château and we had lunch in a restaurant with a full view.  The food was quite good – I had a turkey roll with hazelnut stuffing while the other three had fish.

Chambord - the Largest Château in the Loire

Tom, Roger, and David Lunching at Chambord

After lunch we bought some postcards, and rode our bikes to the other side of the château and took several more photos. 

David, Roger, Gerard, Tom at Chambord

After research the night before, we had decided to spend our last night in Blois as it had several trains a day that we could take on our way back to Nevers.  So, off we went on a scenic trail through the woods surrounding the château.  We had an easy day as the terrain was flat and scenic and the weather extremely pleasant.

The only minor down note were the swarms of gnats we occasionally ran into Thursday and Friday.  We had to keep our mouths closed or we would have exceeded our daily protein allowance.

Château at Blois

Our hotel was a scenic, slightly run-down Belle Epoque structure across the square from the Blois Château – a great location, and a serviceable hotel.  We had dinner in a little wine bar next to the château, where we polished off two bottles of Pouilly-Fumé.  I had duck à l’orange for dinner – very tasty.  After dinner, Tom had Cognac, I had Calvados;  we then all had coffee.  Roger and Gerard then went off to find an Irish bar, and Tom and I called it a night.  Just as well – Roger said something the next day about being charged eight Euros for a Guinness.

Distance traveled 57km.

Bike Trip Loire - The Fourth Day - May 15

Finally a beautiful day – little wind, and often at our backs.  It’s amazing the effect a bit of wind has.  If it is 10km in your face and you are traveling at 15km, then you have an effective head wind of 25km – makes forward progress much, much harder.  A 10km wind at your back when one is traveling at 15km means an effective head wind of 5km – a HUGE difference. 

Again a scenic day, very level, paved trail much of the time, river, canals, châteaus.   We approached the city of Orléans about lunch time, and ate in a restaurant on the outskirts apparently catering to construction and repair workers.  We had a good, plain meal – steak frites again for me.

Bridges to Orléans, Cathedral in Center

We crossed the bridge into Orléans to see the cathedral – a huge ornate structure rivaling Notre Dame in Paris.  Lots of restoration work has been done as there had been damage done during the war.  Orléans also played a pivotal part in Jeanne d’Arc’s campaign to evict the English from France.  It was here that she won one of her greatest victories.  We bicycled away from the cathedral and down the Loire.

 Arriving at Meung-sur-Loire, we biked about a mile into the outskirts to the Gite – and no one home!  We rang the bell; Gerard phoned and left a message.  From a neighbor, we learned that the woman had gone to the doctor that afternoon.  Finally we went to a park to wait.  We had arrived relatively early in the afternoon, but after two hours, Gerard found a hotel about 10km away in Beaugency.  Gerard left another message on the answering machine at the Gite and we left.   We arrived at Beaugency, crossing an old stone bridge on the Loire.  We stayed in an old hotel in town and ate in a restaurant across the street.  Very satisfactory.

There is an amusing legend about the old stone bridge in Beaugency.  Many years ago, it seems the townspeople had difficulty crossing the river by boat but did not have the means to construct a bridge.  A well-dressed man appeared one day and offered to provide a bridge in one night, provided he got the soul of the first user of the bridge.  In desperation, the townspeople agreed.  The next morning, to their astonishment, they had their bridge!  Looking across, they could see a shadowy figure on the other side.  Resourcefully, they sent a cat across first.  Upon its arrival on the other side the Devil seized his prey and disappeared in a rage.

Beaugency Bridge

We had a really good breakfast in the hotel the next morning.  Distance about 70km.

Bike Trip Loire - The Third Day - May 14.

Wednesday dawned beautifully – sun, lots of blue skies, gentle breezes. 

Our trail led over the pont canal, so at 9:30, while the rest of the crew finished organizing themselves, I biked up to the middle of the bridge to look at the view up and down the canal below.  Both ends of the bridge had elaborate cast-iron lions, shields, etc.  I went to the other end of the bridge to see where we were headed and to look more closely at the decorations.  In a few minutes the rest of the group crossed and we took time to take a few more pictures and admire the views.

Pont Canal with David, Roger, Gerard

 Then off we went, on trails through the woods away from the canal.  After an hour or so, the clouds began to cover the sky, a few drops fell, and we had a bit of wind in our faces.   Nothing serious as we wound through picturesque villages.

We wanted to stop at Sully-sur-Loire to see the fourteenth century château, and Roger, whose tire had gone flat Tuesday, wanted to have the bike shop there put on a new tire.  For those reasons, we cut off a loop of the trail and arrived in time for lunch.  Oddly, the three most prominent restaurants were two Italian and one British-type pub.  We picked one of the Italian ones and Tom, an Italian-American, pronounced the pizza good.  

After lunch, Tom and I went across the street to look at the château while Roger and Gerard got new tubes and tires on Roger’s bike.  There was a bit of a rain shower that Tom and I avoided by sheltering in the entrance to the château.  The château is spectacular, one of the iconic Loire châteaus almost completely surrounded by water.

The Château Sully-sur Loire

David at Sully

We finally left town at 3:50, stopping on the way to see a very old Basilica at Saint-Benoit-sur-Loire, parts of which date from the 11th century.  We then biked the remaining 6-8km to our stop for the night, a Pension in the outskirts of the small town of Germigny-des-Prés called ‘Cerviña’ that caters to bikers on the Loire trail.  Turned out to be our best stop of the trip.  Marie, our hostess, a typical vivacious Frenchwoman, of French-Spanish parentage, served us drinks and dinner family style, with her and her teenage son eating with us.  Her husband apparently did the grilling of the meat, there were potatoes, a never-ending supply of red wine, cheeses, rice pudding, and coffee.  The walls of the dining area were covered with song and poetry quotes, expertly lettered.  Madame Marie  regaled us with non-stop patter about the quotes on the walls, etc., and demanded to know our names and histories. 

D, R, and G with wall quotes at the Pension.

Pension in Germigny-des-Prés - Tom, Gerard, Roger's Room at Top of Stairs.

The next morning she provided a light breakfast and even phoned ahead to make reservations in a Gite [country inn] for that night.

Gerard found our accommodations each night and they always turned out well.  Took a lot of pressure off us knowing how far we had to go and that there would always be a bed waiting for us.  Covered 59km.

Bike Trip Loire - The Second Day - May 13

Some of us were definitely feeling the effects of the previous night – Gerard went back to beer and Tom swore off wine the entire day, and drank lots of water.  I did not eat much for breakfast.  Only Roger seemed mostly unaffected. 

We decided to walk around the town of Sancerre a bit before starting off.  The view from the town was spectacular, out over the Loire valley.  At about 10:30 we headed out, or in this case, down.  Much faster over the distance than the night before.

Another View from Sancerre

Quite the scenic day along the river and canal, stopping for lunch in Belleville-sur-Loire.  I had steak frites, a particular weakness of mine.  Continuing along the river and canal, mostly on top of the levee or on old canal barge tow-paths.  Head winds were a problem a times.

I considered that I was in the best physical condition that I had been in for several years.  We had just bought a house in early December, and I had been spending weeks cutting and removing brush and building terraces with 57- pound concrete blocks.  I then backfilled the terraces with soil I had delivered.  I moved 10 tons of blocks and 22 tons of dirt, besides digging the wall foundations.  I had not done any biking for months, and found that while aerobically I was in good shape, my backside, even with padded bike shorts, was not used to a bike seat.  Will not make that mistake again.

The weather seemed to be improving as predicted, with only a few sprinkles.  We stopped in Chatillon-sur-Loire for a beer.

That evening, we stopped in the town of Briare, an old industrial town famous for its ‘Pont canal’, or bridge carrying a canal across the canal we had been following. 

Briare Pont Canal Entrance

A word about canals and the Loire – the river has been an avenue of commerce for centuries.  Before the canals, flat bottom boats were built to carry materials down the river, and then the boats were broken up and sold for fire wood.  Over time an elaborate system of canals, locks, and tow-paths was built, culminating in the 19^th century such that the Loire was linked to the Seine and it became possible to boat goods up and down the Loire and to boat them to the lucrative Parisian market.  Briare has an elaborately decorated bridge carrying a canal across the Loire canal, which was built in the 1890s, after railroads had taken much of the traffic away from the canal barges.

Lock Gate on the Canal

Our hotel was adjacent to the canal after it exited the bridge – very picturesque.  I took a walk into town before dinner, but did not stay long as it looked like rain.

Barge headed for the Pont Canal, Hotel on left

We had dinner in the hotel dining room – very good, with a pichet of Loire white wine.  I had fish with Champagne sauce and white asparagus, ratatouille, and rice.  Gerard had duck, Roger had trout, and Tom had feuilletée asperges – white asparagus and puff pastry.  We had covered about 54km for the day.

Sunset over Briare from our dinner table, through the window

 

Bike Trip Loire - The First Day - May 12

The day dawned overcast and blustery as predicted.  We all met at Roger and Dominique’s to load the car.  At about 8AM, after lots of laughter and pictures, we were off. 

The Happy Bikers - David, Tom, Roger, Gerard



The Loaded Car on its Way

It took about 3-1/2 hours, with a stop for coffee, to reach Nevers.  We quickly found a non-metered parking place on the street and unloaded the bikes, whereupon it began to rain lightly.  Luckily it soon stopped.  We took a shortcut through town to the trail rather than following the trail around the town as we wanted to get some distance down the valley that afternoon.  We had learned to book hotels in advance after the ordeal of last year, and we needed to get to Sancerre by that evening.

It was a bit chill and breezy, but still very scenic as we wound through town and out into the countryside.  After about an hour we reached the small town of Cours-les-Bains on the banks of the old barge canal that parallels the river for much of its length.  We headed for the small restaurant across from the church and ordered a restorative carafe of wine while we pondered our lunch choices.  [It shows how serious Gerard is about his biking, that he, the Frenchman, often had beer rather than wine.  Less alcohol, more hydration.]  For lunch I had barbeque ribs – I was interested in what they would be like in France.  They were good but pretty standard sauce and preparation – I could have been in the US.  Tom had Tartiflette, sort of a large bruschetta with all kinds of vegies, and some meat and cheese on it.  Roger and Gerard had turkey skewers which Gerard pronounced as a bit tough, possibly from a turkey that had been around ‘at the time of Nixon’.

After lunch, we started off again and about 20-30 minutes later it began to rain – hard.  We got wet, but fortunately it stopped fairly soon and we were able to dry out.  We were then able to enjoy the scenery and the trail, much of which was paved and restricted to bikes, pedestrians, and only occasionally an official vehicle or nearby resident whose only access to their farm was along the trail.  The trail often ran along the top of the levee so we had a good view of the river and/or the canal.

Two hours later, rain again threatened, and we decided to take shelter.  Good idea, as rain came down in sheets, but only for a few minutes.  Once it stopped, we were off again.

As mentioned, our first night was in Sancerre, a famous old walled town unfortunately atop a high hill.  Tom and I mostly pushed our bikes up the hill, Gerard and Roger mostly rode.  We stayed at a nice old hotel, the Hotel des Remparts, which as its name suggests was near the remnants of the old city walls.

View of the Loire From Sancerre

David with Hotel Sign at Right

After cleaning up and changing clothes we met in the hotel bar for a glass of the excellent local Sancerre [white] wine, made with the Sauvignon Blanc grape.  We then repaired to the hotel restaurant for dinner and two bottles of excellent Sancerre, which as it turned, out was a bit too much.  [For those who are interested, it was Domaine Bernard Fleuriet et Fils.  For dinner we had the 2012; in the bar we had the 2011, which I thought was a bit better.  Both excellent, however.]

At Dinner - Hotel des Remparts, Sancerre

For the day, we covered 62 km – not bad considering the late start.