April 28 Chécy

Well this time of year, in this part of the world, it is all about Jeanne d'Arc.  In the community that our chateau is in, Chécy, this weekend was medieval festival weekend, so we went down to see what it was all about.  They take it all very seriously, there were swords and axes, and many people dressed in period costumes, and a lot of interesting characters wondering the streets.  We had some mulled hot wine, which came in handy, as it was cold today.  We took a few pictures of some interesting things that we saw.  (47°53'30.4"N, 2°01'29.6"E)

This first picture was for Isaac: blacksmiths hard at work.  That is the biggest bellows I have ever seen.

The next two pictures are for Gillian.  These are bagpipes that may be from this region or from a different period.  They have a similar, but more reedy sound and they are not as loud as the Scottish pipes.  

 This last picture I think shows what happens when chickens go rogue.

April 26 Staying Local

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Today was a rainy day so we took it slow.  Of note to some, Cindy has started taking up jogging again in preparation for the "Dirty Girls" 5K fun mud-run later this summer.  Here's a couple of pictures of her heading out and returning from a run in front of our chateau.

We had a wonderful meal with our hosts, Sylvie and Olivier Gouchet and their son Tristan, at their home last night.  It was nice to have some social time and share views on life in different parts of the world.  Merci Sylvie et Olivier.

April 25 Chateau Chenonceau

Chateau Chenonceau is a beautiful castle set across the Cher River.  It was given to King Henri II's mistress Diane de Poiters, but after he died his wife Catherine de Medici removed her, took over the place and added to the castle.  Don't feel too bad for Diane because she ended up in another castle not far away.  The part over the river was simply a bridge when Diane had it, but Catherine had the gallery over it constructed after she took over.

(47°19'31.5"N, 1°04'12.1"E)

There are some great gardens around the site as well.

April 24 Chateau Chambord

We set out to see two of the big name chateaus/castles today, Chambord and Cheverny, but only managed the first one.  Chambord is so huge it took much longer to see it than we'd figured.  This is probably largely due to us deciding to walk around the large man-made pond after touring the chateau, a distance of about 5 km.

Chambord is at once both magnificent and strange from the outside.  It's as if several different designers from different periods and places decided to add stuff on to the original design.  Here are a few shots of it.

Chambord Chateau.  (47°36'58.5"N, 1°31'01.3"E)

Here's Cindy looking up from the 3rd level terrace at some of the tower finishes such as that shown in the second picture.



Much of the stone used to make it is very soft and easy to inscribe, apparently.  Lot's of inscribed graffiti in the walls, but not all of it is recent.  Check this out.

We did find some bottles of Chambord liqueur in the gift shop, but I think it is actually produced at chateau near Cheverny (and we didn't buy any).

As we were tired, we decide to take a route back to our chateau via a few low on the radar screen chateaux at Talcy and Beaugency.  Going into Talcy we found this old windmill, below.  It is within eyesight of a nuclear power plant located on an island in the Loire River.

Where are Don Quixote and Sancho Panza when you need them?  (47°45'59.0"N, 1°27'02.5"E)

Culinary Discovery:  Walnut Vinegar.  Awesome on salad with olive oil, pepper and salt.

April 23 East of Orléans

We took a trip eastward today to check out some small towns and interesting architecture along the way.  First we stopped at St. Bernoît-sur-Loire, a very tiny village with an enormous church.  Benedictine monks founded a monastery here in about 630 then in 672 set out to and retrieved the remains of St Benedict from his original monastery in Montecassino that had been destroyed a century earlier.  The literature was a little foggy on this, but it seems St Benedict's remains remain.  When we went inside we found a mass service under way with the monks singing in Gregorian style while a flock of nuns sat dutifully in the pews.  We stayed for a while but couldn't really explore this church much as a result.

Next we went to Sully-sur-Loire, to visit a large chateau surrounded by water.  On the way we passed by a large nuclear (nucular for W) power plant with four large cooling towers.

Chateau Sully (47°46'03.2"N, 2°22'31.5"E)

The coolest thing was at Briare: the Pont-Canal.  Here a canal connecting the Seine and Loire Rivers crosses over the Loire River on a bridge, which is apparently the longest one of its kind in Europe.

Pont-Canal at Briare. (47°37'45.5"N, 2°43'49.4"E)

April 22, Boigny-sur-Bionne

Not much to tell you about today, except that although we speak about being in Orléans for a month, we're actually in the country-side outside the village of Boigny, which is in the town of Checy.  So today was a bit of a logistics day: laundry, grocery shopping in Neuville-aux-Bois (where Cindy got herself a loyalty card to Super U), and reading. We did catch a small market in Neuville where we bought a mellon.  It was a really small market.

We met the owner of our flat in Chateau de la Bretauche today, Sylvie, who had just returned from visiting her son who is studying math in Bergen, Norway.  She is a very warm and energetic person.  We are her first renters of this place.  She took a photo of us behind the chateau, below.

I've decided to start a periodic feature in the blog as it goes on; roll the Ta-Da music:  Culinary Discoveries.  Retroactively, the 'duck in a can' would have qualified for this, but the inaugural feature is: gin on mango.  Try it.  You'll love it.  Slice up your ripe mango and splash a bit of gin on it.  You may never eat mango without it again.  This isn't so much a French things as it was Patrick's (see April -- blog entry) thing.  Ça marche!

(47°55'7.2"N, 2°01'10.9"E)

April 21, Orléans

Took a trip into Orléans itself today.  It's quite a  historic city going back before the Roman time.  It is most famous for being the home of Jeanne d'Arc for a while and the site of one the main battles she was involved with.  Many of the old buildings are half-timbered, which reminded us of Rouen.  The cathedral is enormous and quite impressive.  We were fortunate to catch part of a service and hear the organ playing.  Here's a few shots from today.

Jeanne d'Arc statues are everywhere.  Here are two, one in front of the former city hall (which, itself, is quite spectacular inside) and one in Place Jeanne d'Arc.  Evidence of the effects of the second world war are one these two statues.  Note the bullet holes in the standing statue (47°55'7.2"N, 2°01'10.9"E).  The mounted statue was rebuilt in 1950 with the generosity of the people of New Orleans (47°54'9.4"N, 1°54'29.5"E).  In liberating Orléans from the Nazi's, the US forces bombed the hell out of Orléans resulting in much of the city needing to be rebuilt.  When you look at the photos on display near the second statue and compare what you see in them with what it looks like now, it is incredible how much destruction was sustained.

 Half-timbered buildings (47°54'0.0"N, 1°54'20.4"E)

Ok this last shot may seem a bit odd, but we were told by friends of ours who spent extended stays in France last year to try 'duck in a can'.  Our initial reaction was to laugh but they insisted.  So this was tonight's meal.  Someone asked in a comment if we'd had anything decadent yet.  Perhaps not decadent but surprisingly tasty and no doubt unique to France.  It is confit de canard -  basically pieces of duck cooked in a can with copious quantities of goose fat.  You take the duck pieces out and warm them on a baking sheet in the oven and cook potatoes in the goose fat.  We had white asparagus with this as it is white asparagus season here.  We will definitely do the 'duck in a can' again, but I suspect we'll skip the white asparagus in the future.

April 20 (or 4-20 day), Lyon to Orléans

It was a very windy, rainy cold day at Lyon and it seemed even colder at the airport where we met Renault to pick up our car.  Due to a lost in translation thing, between my broken French and the Renault guy's broken English, both the shuttle driver and we ended up waiting about 50 metres away from each other in clear sight not knowing who was who.  At least he got to wait in a warm vehicle though.  He evidently was pissed since he made no attempt to help with bags and was quite short with us.  I don't think I've ever been treated quite as rudely.

But we did end up getting our car - we own it, we bought it (temporarily) - it gets returned to Renault on June 27.  It's a Dacia Duster 4x4.  Here is our car:

We drove through a lot of rain on the Péage (toll highways), but as we approached Orléans the weather cleared up to sun, but still a bit chilly.  After picking up groceries and such at a Super U on the way off the Péage, we arrived at our chateau (well, apartment in the chateau).  It is in the town of Checy, next to the community of Boigny-sur-Bionne, about 10 km east of the centre of Orléans.  Here's a shot of the chateau, which if you look closely at the top row of windows, second from the right, you'll see Cindy reading a book.  That window is to the living room.  The next window to the left is the kitchen and the central windows are to our bedroom.  

 

 

Here's the view from that window.

Even if you are not a geocacher type, I recommend putting these coordinates in Google Earth to see the chateau and its setting.  (47°55'7.2"N, 2°01'10.9"E)

April 19 Lyon

Last day of school today!  But mixed feelings about it.  We learned a lot but have WAY more to learn.  Our teacher, Elsa, was fabulous and our classmates were also great.  It was a bit of United Nations in the class.  Here's a photo taken after the end of classes.  (45°46'12.7"N, 4°50'48.9"E)

From left to right, back row, are Diego (Brasil), Lara (Portugal), Julia (Germany), Elsa (the fabulous teacher), Olga (Brasil), Cindy (my favourite wife), Dale and Chun Moon (S. Korea), John (USA, or as he likes to say, Canada sud).  In the front row are Camilla (Brasil but living in Denmark), Raffael and Isabelle (Switzerland) and me.

Tomorrow we pick up our car and drive to Orléans where we will live in a chateau for a month.  Check it out if you like at www.vrbo.com/457445.

April 18 Lyon

Here's a photo of us with our "host parents" for the last two weeks as we were sitting down for dinner tonight.  They are Marie and Patrick Nénert and we've really enjoyed their friendliness, patience with poor French, speaking slowly (because we listen slowly), hospitality and cuisine.  Patrick has an excellent taste in wine which we've come to appreciate each night.  (45°46'19.4"N, 4°51'23.4"E)

 Cindy at lunch contemplating the fountain and a cherub on the fountain.  (45°46'6.5"N, 4°50'31.9"E)

We toured the Lumiere Museum today.  The Lumiere brothers effectively invented motion pictures. Here's a shot of Cindy in the Salle de l'Hiver in the Lumiere mansion.  She's not on a cell phone; it's the audio tour hand piece.  (45°44'43.1"N, 4°52'15.2"E)

April 17 Lyon

This week's French has been quite a bit more challenging in class with more homework.  In addition, we got a take home test yesterday due Friday at the beginning of class.  Our routine these two weeks has been to wake up whenever we do, no alarms, have a leisurely breakfast then do our homework etc.  By noonish we head out to grab some lunch before afternoon classes.  After class we generally just go for a walk and explore, sometimes with a purpose, sometimes not.  The weather this week has been awesome, mid 20s with a light breeze - warm enough for shorts, but not uncomfortably so.  (Sorry Canada and northern US.)  But we are expecting rain tomorrow and much lower temperatures if that makes you feel better.

April 16 Lyon

We made contact with a former exchange student to our Rotary district today, through the magic of our cell phones with French SIM cards.  BTW, if you want the numbers for our phones, send us an email.  We can receive unlimited calls and texts, although calling out is a bit dear.

So we had a beer with Quentin Delextrat and his 'friend' Chloe.  Chloe was quite delightful (Elle est très charmant) and was practising her English with us much as we were French with her.  Quentin and Chloe are in 2nd year at the Catholic University of Lyon, psychology.  Quentin lived in Bemiji, MN in 2009-10.

Having a beer with Quentin and Chloe at Place des Terreaux.  (45°46'03.3"N, 4°49'59.5"E)

April 15 Lyon

Back to school today.  The vocabulary today was all about sports.  But the big news was that Cindy and I got the results of our test from last week back and we both passed with flying colours.  Fantastique!

We only took one picture and it was actually for our nephew, Nolan.  Here it is:

Cool toilet seats.  (45°46'09.3"N, 4°50'54.2"E)

Avril 14 Lyon

Le dimanche est un jour de reste, donc nous avons décidé non de blog aujourd'hui.

Vraiment, le raison que nous n'avons pas de blog est que nous avons oublié la carte de caméra dans l'ordinateur encore. C'est domage.

Le dimanche ici etait un tres bon jour avec soleil et chaleur, pas comme au Canada.

April 13 Lyon

While we feel the pain of those in Canada who are wondering if spring will ever arrive, we can confidently say that it has here.  Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day in the mid 20s in Lyon.  But even here folks are saying, "Finalement!", after a long period of grey wet coolness.

We covered a lot of the city yesterday with our day transit pass and revisited a few sites we'd gone to in our jet-lagged stupor last weekend, now that the weather was pleasant.  Checked out les Halles Paul Bocuse, a large indoor market (where farmed salmon cost between 45 and 99 euros per kilo, ouch!).  Figured out our way around the main train station here so that we are prepared for our return to the airport next weekend to pick up our car.  That way we won't be trying to figure it out with heavy packs on our backs.  Then we strolled around the Croix-Rouse district again and had a beer in the sun outside a brasserie.  We returned to Notre Dame de Fourviere and took in part of the Saturday mass to hear the sound of the organ and singing inside the basilica.  Oh, and we also got our phones connected to the system here so we now have phone numbers here.

Here is home sweet home for these first two weeks.  We're on the 6th floor (which would be 7th in Canada.  The trees at the end of the street are at the gates to Parc Tête d'Or.  (45°46'19.4"N, 4°51'23.4"E)

Cindy enjoying a beer in the warm sun in Croix-Rouse.  The platter of tasters in front  of her is mine.  Yum! (45°46'28.5"N, 4°49'51.6"E)

Here are a couple of shots taken as we decended from Croix-Rousse to Presqui'ile.  (45°46'16.9"N, 4°49'53.8"E and 45°46'12.8"N, 4°49'49.1"E)

Although I posted a panoramic like this earlier, this view from Notre Dame today was so much clearer that you can actually see the snow capped Alps on the horizon if you click the shot and look at a bigger version. (45°45'45.9"N, 4°49'22.8"E)

April 12 Lyon

Not a lot to report today.  We studied in the morning and wrote our tests during our afternoon class.  They weren't too difficult.  After school we went for a walk, had a Starbucks coffee and headed back home for dinner.  But it's the weekend (in French, le weekend with the accent on end).  We will be genuine tourists again for a couple of days.

Cindy took some pictures of flowers, below.

(45°46'7.5"N, 4°50'31.9"E) 

Cindy following the principle of "see a toilet, use it", but waiting her turn.  (45°46'4.9"N, 4°49'46.7"E)

April 11 Lyon

Another day in class learning Cindy's favourite, grammar.  And we have our first test tomorrow on this grammar and vocabulary from  earlier in the week.

After class we took a tour arranged by the school of the Croix-Rousse district which was once the largest silk weaving centre in the world with over 8000 looms operating.  It's now referred to as Bobo, short for bourgeois and bohemian.  It is the hip, politically left and artsy part of town up on a hill overlooking the main downtown, Presqu'ile.  Here's a couple of shots from the tour.

Our tour guide, Magali, and the group. (45°46'14.2"N, 4°50'03.7"E)

A panoramic of Lyon, from the Croix-Rousse hill. (45°46'20.7"N, 4°49'54.6"E)

April 10 Lyon

After school today, Cindy had to take pictures of quelque choses chocolats.  Check out these cakes and the giant Easter egg (about 50 centimetres high) with gold leaf on it below.  (45°46'7.5"N, 4°50'48.0"E)

Then we went for a stroll in the Parc Tête d'Or, the largest park in Lyon complete with a small lake, zoo, velodrome, mini-train on tracks (couldn't talk Cindy into riding on it for a photo op), playing fields, botanical gardens, tropical greenhouses, etc.  Here's a few photos from the park.

Jim behind a statue of naked women who are frolicking amongst the pansies.  (45°46'26.4"N, 4°51'22.8"E)

Lake in the park (45°46'55.8"N, 4°51'16.8"E)

Cherry blossoms (45°46'47.6"N, 4°51'19.1"E)

Les tortues en échelon (45°46'33.6"N, 4°51'16.9"E)

April 9 Lyon

Not much to post about today as we spent our day in school.  Jim did get promoted to a higher class today (he was in the lowest level and got promoted to the second lowest level where Cindy had already been placed - small victory).

Here's a shot of Cindy in our tour group this evening led by the school showing us the Presqu'ile area of town.  (45°45"53.6'N, 4°49"58.7'E)

After the tour, we got together with a Kiwi, a Scot, a Brit and a German at a pub to have a drink and speak English for a bit.  Tonic for the brain.  (Best part was Jim was in the bar with 5 women!)

April 8 Lyon

First Day at School

Here's Cindy waiting for her first class to start. (45°46'12.7"N, 4°50'48.9"E)

After school we went for a walk through Place du Maréchal Lyautey where we sat on the edge of the fountain dedicated to Napolean III for a photo like the kids take these days, camera pointing at us. (45°46'06.6"N, 4°50'31.1"E)