2016 Europe: Let"s Go to Italy

Sept 17 we start the trek

After a croissant and some coffee we loaded up the Seat Leon and headed southeast. We have a week to make our way to Pontedarra Italy were I start the scooter part of this adventure. Our first stop is Chateau du Riau. Been looking at all these Chateaus we should stay in one. Actually, this is a return trip to the Riau. Many years ago, before internet and cellphones, we stayed at the Riau. I remember standing on a rainy, chilly night in a roadside phone booth, many of you will have to Google that, calling so see if they had a room. I guess I found it in a guide book. It could not have been very expensive then as I was really tight with a nickel and today it still a fair price, but not what I would have paid back then. It was Sunday and we had failed to procure a bottle of wine for the evening but the fourth generation owner gave us one from his cellar. It was quite magical back then. Let's see what it is today.

Via the toll road it is just over three hours, but I know you prefer the back roads so we are looking at just over four hours to get there. Should be a pleasant weekend drive.

The Chef requested a picnic table for her restaurant today. So I searched and found one in a little village. We had to circle the place to find a parking place as the street was only about one and a half car wide so we could not park on the street. Across from it was a lumber yard that was closed and so we pulled in there. Out of the car and about to cross the street, the Chef says “this will not do. I have to pee.” Go in the lumber yard nobody will see you, not that there was anybody around anyway. That offer was declined and off we go down the highway to look for some “trees”. Not always easy in rural farming France where most land is used to plant but we succeeded. Back in the car and off we go to look for a place to set up the restaurant. First stop had to much sheep shit. Back in the car and down the road we go. Finally we find a acceptable location for the Chef and we pull off into the field of sun flowers and have a great lunch. Back on the highway and not 200 meters down the road is a sign for a picnic area with toilets. Happens often.

So we get to the Chateau du Riua. (www.chateau-du-riau.com ).Looks nice and a little familiar, but not sure it is the place of my dreams. There has been some definitely color enhancement on the website because it is not that white. More beige. We are met by the owner and we are at the place that we have the reservation, so we settle into our room. The nagging of not being at the right location bothers me so I get on the computer and start searching. I go to Dijon on google maps and start working my way down the canal south from there and there it is. Cheteau de Longcourt!! I have sent a email and hopefully we will be sleeping there tomorrow night. ( www.chateaudelongecourt.com )

Gauss I could have made a worse mistake.

the brit parked in front of us was leaving also. he had been on the boat. his trunk was full of wine boxes

I use modern technology more but we always have the paper map

some roads with line and some without

the pee trees

these sunflowers are hugh

left over pizza in the windy Che Vicki restaurant today

talk about the box and there is one

It is raining again so there are no arrival pictures of the chateau

Chateau to Saint Etienne

I arose late for me. It is cold here and they do not turn the heat on until February around here. We are the only guests at this fine establishment I discovered this when I meandered down for early coffee at 8 AM and only to places were set at the big table. For breakfast we got, bread, another type of bread, and an other bread, juice out of a box, coffee and some marmalade.

I talked with the owner, Baron and Barrone Durye, for awhile. His family has owned it since 1500's. He and his wife are proud members of Son's of the American Revolution as one of his direct ancestors was Admiral de Barris who fought at the Battle of Yorktown that saved the revolution. As I have pointed out before almost no one realizes what we owe the French from history. Most people I tell this to usually come up with one of those ignorant gibe arrogant stupid American retorts. Ignorance is bliss. Just ask Donald.

With the forecast for more rain we decided to forego Chateau Longecort and head for the Med in search of sunshine

We bid our farewells and told Isabella to take us to Vichy the non-highway way. Isabella is sweet but she does not use common sense. Probably because Garmin did not issue her any. I have lamented about “fastest route” or “shortest route” short comings before. About how just one milometer or one second shorter and the Garmin brain in Isabella sends you off “willy neally” as my wife says. That is a true expression and the name of a book from England, I think from the 40's, I recently discovered in France. In the end, we let her have her way with us. I had always wanted to go to Vichy. It was the headquarters of France after the French surrendered Paris. I am a big fan of Casablanca and Vichy France is prominent in that.

We arrive via the back roads that would have been grand if it was not raining consistently. As it has for several days now. We went in search of groceries and headed for the main Carrefour, a big grocery store. Unfortunately, they were have huge garage sell in the multi-deck parking garage and everything with 1km. So we moved on, but Isabella suggest another smaller one on our route and we took her up on it. The parking lot was full as everyone was coming here instead of the big one, but we found a close parking spot and sent Vicky into the store while Isabella and I discussed how we were going to get to Saint Etienne. We decided on a mixed route. A scenic highway through the hills and then a major road, but not the autoroute to our destination. Vicki returned and we snaked our way out of town and joined D1 across the mountains. A green road. There was a lot going on in Vichy, the massive garage sale, a big farmer/rural show with old tractors and stuff and a artsy thing. It would have been fun with just even a short break in the rain but we moved on.

The green road was pleasant with no traffic and would have been great with a little sun. We were looking for lunch which can be hard to find on Sunday in rural France we rolled into Saint -Just-en-Chevalet, small village, and found a couple of places open. The nice restaurant said “complie” which means we are done. As we exited a very nice lady came up and in French to told us the other restaurant was “complie” and the bar advertising food did not serve on Sunday. I thought that was very kind of her. So, on down the mountain we went.

We arrived in St. Etienne without reservation so when we came to the first Ibis I said lets stop. She said no, go to the center of time. When we got to the center we consulted Isabella and she said the Hotel Corent was close and she showed us how to snake our way there. I thought it was the perfect place. On a shady street, near the train station with a big sign that said 32 euro. A bargain I said, but she said no. So, I took charge of Isabella and found a Mecure, sort of like a Holiday Inn, a good solid chain hotel and asked her to take us there. This is a nice place across from the park with a gate and a little box that you have to maneuver to get permission to come in. It is a nice modern hotel and, as it is a business hotel, it was empty on Sunday night. The girls at the front desk were fun and I tried to wrangle my usual discount and they just kept looking at each other and looking at me and shaking their heads “no” at all my requests. Not to be defeated I continued and in the end won a free buffet breakfast, a 17.50 eur prize, probably so I would just go away.

Today was “OK”. It would have been great with just a peek of sunshine long enough to get out and explore a little.

We are off to dinner as fortunately a good business hotel has a restaurant, even if it does not open until 7:30.

OK, we are back from dinner. We had no formal meal yesterday and luck having one today, to find out our hotel has a very limited weekend menu. I ended with a soup, excellent, and a appetizer platter.

they have windows on the bathroom doors so when the tour comes through they can see the royalty on the pot

there is a reason her friends call her "princess"

Saint Etienne to Manosque

As we headed out of town we both commented on how this was such not pretty French city. That fact that it was foggy and rainy contributed to that but it sat in a bowl and all around were big high apartment buildings all the way up the side of the hills. Don't think we will come back to see if it looks different in the sunshine.

In a rush to get to sunshine we skipped the back roads and told Isabella to put us on the autoroute and go pronto. She did well for several hours until the autoroute ended and said "at roundabout take 2nd exit and then first right". It was obvious the main road was straight ahead, but what the heck, lets see what she does today. In the end she took us down a secondary road, with turn on a one lane farm road, of the hill and through the dale back to the main road. I think she has been hacked by the Russians as no way is this the fastest route. We took control away from but still let her play.

Sun and blue sky arrived as we went over the first pass. Life was good again.

Manosque

Sept 21

When I pick a place to stay I figure in several parameters, price, location, past reviews, etc. and then throw a dart. I can not remember a disappointment. Some are better than others but all clean, safe and good. This time I did almost no research and threw the dart. It hit on Gite Le Pimayon just outside Manosque. It is behind the Peugeot dealer just out of town in a rural area. Not sure how this one was going to work out. It is a old farm house converted in to a Gite as most of them are. The whole thing is surrounded by tall evergreens giving it privacy. The whole thing is also very eclectic. Sort of disorganized orderly. As we searched through the maze of a yard with shrubs, trees, pool, flapping sun cloths, chickens, pet birds, and dog as big as a horse and more, I started to have my doubts. We finally encountered the owner who spoke not a word of English and while we are trying to communicate a car wheels in and comes to sliding halt on the driveway and out pops his wife. She is very enthusiastic and speaks some English. She directs us to our quaint little apartment, gives us beer and cookies tells us to settle in and her son, who speaks English will be home soon if we need anything more. She also asks us if we would like a dinner restaurant recommendation and we say yes. She tells of two place, Les 2 Freres and a cooking school. She says she will call to find out what time they serve. Meanwhile her son comes home and introduces himself. Nice young man who's first day of University is tomorrow and Vicki will note later she has never seen anyone so excited about going to school. We have a wifi connection problem and Steven says he can fix it. Something to do with his router not assigning our equipment a IP address but he can fix it. We all circle to watch him do his voodoo on the computer, which takes longer than normal because our keyboard is different than the European one and he has to hunt and peck, and everything is English so you can see him working on the translation in his head and then diving in. This takes awhile but he is successful on two device and we thank him and tell him we don't need the others done. Partly because I am afraid my life line to you might be severed.

While all of this is going on his mother, Arielle, is dialing for dollars to find us a restaurant. Both places are closed all week for vacation and being Monday a lot of places she could recommend are closed. She continues working the phone until she finds what is just right for us she thinks. We had told her we want just basic French food and she picks the La Table du Pre Saint Michel, a little restaurant in a hotel.

The party breaks up and we go our separate ways but not far as they live over us. Our bedroom is the former wine cellar of the farm and quite cozy except the steps are very uneven and the entrance is low, so it takes a couple of round trips to get used to it all without having a surprise every time you enter.

We head out to dinner and I am expecting the typical hotel restaurant. We walk in and all the tables are set formally but we are in France and that is not unusual but I figured it just a step up from a steak and frtes restaurant. Thankfully the owner new we were coming and spoke perfect English as they were just changing the menu over to fall offering as everything here is fresh. She told us what we could have and what we couldn't have. Vicki settled on a beef appetizer and lamb. I chose the salmon tartar and the dead duck. The splurge for the night was a good bottle of local red wine and well worth it.

We were stunned and pleased when the food came out. It was all gourmet in presentation and taste. Especially considering the price, not cheap, but a average restaurant charge. We greatly enjoyed the food and the wine was excellent. That was only added to by the kindness patients of the owner, waitress and the chef which made the three hours fly by.

The purpose of coming here was to let Vicki see the lavender fields. I had been here last year on the scooter adventure and sent home pictures of the lavender which was in bloom but was not supposed to be that time of year. Riding through all the lavender fields now did not get me any points. She just kept commenting on how beautiful they must have been “when you were here”.

So for out two days we just drove the countryside one day, questioning Isabella's sanity, but letting her have her way with us until we got tired of the goat tracks and took over manually, walking a few small towns and the second day just took the day off. We did ride in to town for Kebab, gyro in America. The surprising part about the Kebab was it was Vicki's suggestion, where she usually complains when I suggest Kebab shop for lunch. It was a beautiful day and after we walked around the old town I forewent the Kebab and had the rabbit instead. The meal and company were great. To our right was a British women and her eight year old daughter +/- who live here and on the left was a nice French man and between the two there was no need for translation to order.

There is a international writers convention in town this weekend starting tomorrow. All around town they have writing stations for you to write a letter and they mail it anywhere in the world for free.

There were people of all ages setting at these points writing letters and having a ball.

We got home about 3:30 and at five I sat outside to read and enjoy. Stevens came home for school and joined me for a glass of wine and soon the whole Van Der Graff family was setting at the table. It was a great happy hour and Stevens had the patience of saint interpreting for us and his parents. In fact he said he greatly enjoyed as it gave him to chance to learn our dialect and improve his English.

This was, like many, a lucky stop.