May 24 This is the 'Real' Madrid

Cindy and Jim with sangria (40°25'03.8"N, 3°42'29.6"W)

Lucia and Cindy with tapas (40°24'49.4"N, 3°42'32.6"W)

Museo de Jamon (40°24'58.9"N, 3°42'20.4"W)

Isabel, Lucia y Pablo (40°26'04.3"N, 3°39'06.6"W)

May 23 Bilbao to Madrid

We took the scenic route instead of the Autopista between Bilbao and Burgos to see more of Spain (and save on highway tolls).  We started the day in rain yet again, but ended up in sunny Madrid, the first full sun we've seen it seems in a couple of weeks.  On the way we took a detour, intended, to San Lorenzo de El Escorial.  En route, the road we chose took us through a mountain pass (El Puerto de los Cotos) at an elevation of 2429 metres (just under 8000 feet).  The route was very interesting, although at times Cindy was a bit nervous due to her fear of falling off roads in high places, especially with tight switchbacks. There was snow on the ground and on the peaks around the pass.  This happens to be Madrid's closest ski area, and you can see the city from up there.  There were several people there that had hiked up the mountains to ski or snowboard down who were loading up there skiing equipment in the parking lot.  We even got to throw snowballs in Spain.  Here's a few shots from the drive and the pass area.  The guys on horses in the last shot were herding some cattle across the highway.

 (42°34'59.3"N, 3°17'44.6"W)

(40°49'24.9"N, 3°57'45.5"W) 

El Escorial is a huge active monastery, with a basilica and the palatial mausoleum for Spain's royalty. (40°35'21.1"N, 4°08'52.2"W)

Although we were not permitted to take photos inside, I snapped this next one surreptitiously with my iPhone.  Maybe this is sacrilegious, but can you see the guy trying to put on moose antlers so that he blends in with his natural surroundings?

May 22 Bilbao and the Guggenheim

We drove to Bilbao from just south of Bordeaux, and to one of the places on Cindy's bucket list, the Guggenheim art museum.  We had seen it on the show "Spain - On the Road Again", with Mario Batali, Gwyneth Paltrow, Mark Bittman and Claudia Bassols (http://www.spainontheroadagain.com/), but seeing it for real was amazing.  The building is incredible.  When you listen to Frank Gehry, the Canadian born architect, speak about his inspiration (his Grandma letting him play with the fish they bought, at the market, in the bathtub before they cooked it), it made a lot of sense.  It is a beautiful building and much of the artwork was wonderful (although Jim would tell you that it is better from outside the building).  After the museum Jim and I went for tapas at one of the places that Mario Batali and Mark Bittman visited in the same episode (no pics taken, food and wine were so good we forgot).  Then we took the Artxanda funicular up to a high area overlooking the city.  Too bad it was so misty and rainy, but it was worth the 95 cent ride each way.  It was wonderful, a perfect start to our visit to España.

(43°16'07.8"N, 2°56'02.8"W)

 (43°16'27.8"N, 2°55'20.3"W)

May 21 Dordogne and Saint Émilion

Today was another rainy day, so our plans for canoeing on the Dordogne were not possible.  Instead we decided to go check out some caves in the area.  We wanted to go to the Grotte de Font de Gaume (44°56'13.2"N, 1°01'35.8"E) which is the only one of the Vezere valley Cro-magnon caves that you can still visit (others are replicas now, the most famous being Lascaux).  Unfortunately they only take 180 people through each day and the tickets were sold out.  So we went to our second choice, Les Grottes de Maxange, and are we ever glad we did.  The story goes, that it was a stone quarry, and in 2002 the fellow who owned it, Angel, was doing some work and broke through into a cavern, he soon realized it was no regular cavern.  This cave is filled with weird eccentric stalactites and stalagmites.  It was really an amazing thing to see.  We were not able to take photos but if you'd like to see a bit, go to this Youtube video promo (44°50'12.3"N, 0°55'00.8"E): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgCxox-aTJo

On the way to St. Émilion, we hit probably the culinary low point of our trip and a first for us on any of our trips to Europe.  It's true confession time and we're not proud of it.  As was previously mentioned it was raining, yet again, and our picnic was out of the question. At Bergerac (yep, Cyrano's home town), in frustration, we succumbed to Ronald's spell and stopped for lunch, at McDonalds.  Cindy says it was actually pretty good.

We continued on to St Émilion, one of the pre-eminent wine regions of Bordeaux.  It's really just a small hilltop village with medieval and Roman history.  Here's a few pics from there.

(44°53'31.2"N, 0°09'26.5"W)

 

(44°53'31.2"N, 0°09'2.15"W)

(44°53'41.8"N, 0°09'24.1"W)

We bought a couple of bottles to have later.  Here's the wine list from one of the places in St Émilion.  Perhaps you could help us select the wine we should have bought for you (prices in Euros).

(44°53'37.0"N, 0°09'21.7"W)

May 20 Orléans to the Dordogne

End of one part of the adventure and onto the next

After:

•   25 hours of French classes
•   Somewhere around 3500 km of driving
•   12 awesome châteaux, oh plus the one we live in, all very different in their own ways
•   Countless bottles of wine
•   Many varieties of cheese
•   Crab, escargot, moules, pâté, quinelles, tartes, poisson, salade Lyonaise, confit du canard
•   Dinners with old friends and dinners with new friends (who we will miss, but see again)
•   Hikes along the Canal d'Orléans and in the Forest d'Orléans, a walk along the D-Day landing beaches of La Manche (English Channel)
•   Cathedrals and Abbeys
•   Jeanne d'Arc (French saint) and Diane de Poitiers (French mistress),

We are now half way through our time in France (and Spain).  We have met some wonderful people, and have some amazing memories to take with us.  Today have left our château flat that has been home for the last month, hopefully for warmer and drier weather.  We will spend the next week and a half travelling into Spain to spend time with our Spanish daughter, Lucia, and her family, before settling into Provence for a month.

Today we arrived in Beynac a sleepy little town, so we thought.  Turns out it is a medieval village with a kick ass castle, here are the pictures to prove it.  Hope you enjoy them. (44°50'24.7"N, 1°08'42.7"E)

May 19 Au Revoir Orléans

Today was our last full day in the Loire Valley.  In addition to packing up for the next leg of our journey, we were invited out to Sylvie and Olivier's home for an afternoon of socializing and a surprise. (47°55'01.0"N, 2°23'23.9"E)

When we arrived we were ushered into a yurt-like, octagonal wooden structure in the back garden with a warm fire burning in the central barbeque that vented smoke out a central hole in the conical roof.  It was quite cosy and warm in there and we spent a delightful afternoon having lunch with their son, Tristan, neighbouring friends Claude and Jerome, and Johann a student from Sweden.  Sylvie and Tristan barbequed veal, chicken and sausages over the fire and we had a great meal and much conversation.




                                                                                                                                                              
The surprise was after lunch when all but Sylvie and Olivier left to get it.  Sometime later we made our way out to the road and saw a horse drawn carriage coming down the road, driven by Jerome, with Claude, Tristan and Johann riding.  When they arrived, Claude got off and Cindy and I got on for a ride into the Forêt d'Orléans where we saw an osprey (barbuzard) nesting high atop a pine tree.



This last photo from the Loire is of Cindy and I with Sylvie and Olivier at their beautiful home in the forest.  Á bientôt!



May 17 Olivet

Well today there are no pictures, but not to worry I will give you a description so that you will almost taste it.  That's right, today is all about food.  Sylvie, the woman, along with her husband, who own the place in which we are staying, has become a friend; and today, bless her heart, she organized for Jim and I to go and visit with her mom and dad at their home.  Jim and Monsieur Chevrier (Roger), went on a walk along the Loiret, while Madame Chevrier (Françoise), taught me to make some wonderful French dishes.  We made Gratin Dauphinois using potatoes from their garden, with garlic, cheese, cream, herbes de Provence, and oh some butter, there must be cream and butter, that's what makes it taste so good. That was to take home for dinner.

For lunch we had potatoes with wine, yes that's right: olive oil in a pan, add shallots, herbes de Provence, the potatoes cut in chunks, and a part of a bottle of red wine.  As TV's two greedy Italians say,  the wine you cook with should be the wine you drink, so we used a lovely Bordeaux.  You let that bubble away until the potatoes are cooked and yummy (and red).  For lunch we also had fresh crêpes filled with cheese sauce, ham and mushrooms, along with turkey, des fromages and for dessert le gâteau.  For the cake we used red peaches that had been picked in the garden last fall and preserved, drained the liquid, put caramel in the cake pan arranged the peaches, covered with batter and let bake, flipped the cake out on a plate, and drizzled with the remaining liquid.

Are you full yet?  I could barely move, it was so good!  Monsieur Chevrier also took us on a tour of his garden, very impressive, peach, cherry, apple, pear and plum trees, kiwis and strawberries, enough potatoes to make PEI jealous, herbs, lettuce, tomatoes, peas and beans, well you get the picture, and oh figs and lemon trees with lemons on them.  Oh and one other thing, they speak only French, no English.  They were very patient with us, and spoke so we could understand, and I think we got along quite well.  I guess those Lyon Bleu classes did help.  (Merci Elsa)

May 16 Guédelon

Chantier Médiéval de Guédelon is the site of a castle under construction using 13th century techniques.  It's a 25 year project currently in its 14th year.  From what we could tell when visiting today, with the exception of 21st century safety requirements, they are generally staying true to the plan.  We thought that a mid-week visit would avoid crowds - what we didn't anticipate was a different kind of crowd, busloads of school kids on educational field trips.  There were a couple of senior citizen busloads too, but apart from their tendency to stop suddenly and inexplicably at points where trails got narrow, they are generally easy to pass.  The classes of kids are more like a cross between an amoeba and a snake in their movement patterns, much less predictable and once on a course impenetrable.  The link to their web site is http://www.guedelon.fr/en/the-guedelon-adventure_01.html and is worth going to.  You can also look for videos of the construction on youtube.  But this is some of what we saw.




Hamster wheel (they call it a squirrel cage) for lifting stones to the work area.






















Blacksmithing.

Treadle powered lathe.

Stone masonry.

Isaac's doppelgänger

May 15 Blois

Blois is a small city now but had a grand past being the home for many of France's early kings.  The chateau is well preserved in the middle of town and was well worth the visit.  In addition to the chateau, we strolled around downtown and visited a couple of churches.  Here are a few shots.  The detail shot shows King Francois I's famous fire breathing salamander (I don't make this stuff up).
 

(47°35'08.4"N, 1°19'51.5"E)

(47°35'20.9"N, 1°20'16.0"E)



May 13 and 14 Boigny-sur-Bionne

As many of you know, Cindy started running a few weeks ago.  She felt great and really looked forward to going, but a week and a half ago she put my back out and have been having problems with it ever since.  Such a drag, the last couple of days we have had to lie low and today she had her spine manipulated.  She has an appointment on Friday with a chiropractor, and we hope that will fix her.  We are taking the time to finalize all of the places we will visit, and the things we would like to see when we leave Orleans next Monday and travel on to Spain to visit with the Lucia and her family, and then on to Provence, we hope for sun and fun.

We did go for a walk into the village here and Jim finally remember to take a shot of the monument on the little bridge over the Bionne creek.  Our American friends will find this quite interesting, I'm sure.

Cindy prepared a collage of pictures of some of the things that we have seen.  Hope you enjoy it.

May 12 Caen and Courseilles

After breakfast with Kate and Julien, where we were introduced to pepitos (pastries filled with chocolate chips and a kind of custardy stuff), we headed off to Courseilles-sur-Mer (49°20'16.8"N, 0°28'08.1"W) near the Juno Beach centre and site of the D-Day landings of the Canadian troops in 1944 and went for a leisurely stroll along the beach of La Manche with Dora, their perfectly behaved dog.  We picked up a feast of mussels, shrimps and crab and headed back to Caen for lunch. What a perfect way to celebrate Mother's Day, when not with Gillian and Isaac, thank you so much.

Julien:  Merci pour m'enseigne comment faire la mayonnaise. Votre secret est en sécurité à moi, et je vais la faire seulement pour mes amis préférés.



May 11 Caen and Cherbourg

We learned something about navigating with a GPS yesterday and especially last night.  The hotel we stayed at in Caen is brand new and in a brand newly developed area.  It does not yet show on Google Maps although putting the address into GM did result in it putting the marker in about the right place.  But of more importance was the data in the GPS.  We chose not to update our maps because they are quite expensive to do so.  So the maps our GPS has in it are about 3 years old now.  In most cases, this is not a problem - generally a new roundabout may be located in a spot where an intersection was or the motorway system (péage) might have been extended.  But in suburban areas that are being developed, it can be a problem.  So the story is that I had written down all the key steps on the route from Chartres to our hotel in Caen, except for the last couple figuring that finding the right exits was the main challenge.  I should have realized that I needed the last bit too since this was not on the GPS. We didn't come to this realization until we tried to program the GPS in Chartres, when we no longer had an internet connection to figure things out.  In daylight when we got to Caen, we made a few wrong turns but I knew generally where it was and did find it.  However, coming back from downtown after dinner, due to one way streets, we could not retrace our route back up to the hotel and had to figure out another way.  I also rely on the sun to help me keep my sense of direction, which isn't helpful at night.  For those who have not driven in France (or Europe in general from our experience), road names are either not posted or very difficult to find so even if you have a map you will get quite lost.  We probably spent about 45 minutes (should have been about 10 minutes) meandering around trying to find the place, but we eventually did.

Kate picked us up this morning on her way back from working overnight in Courseilles and we joined her and Julien for a wonderful lunch (French style, i.e. banquet supper in Canada) prepared by chef Julien.  Then we all went to Cherbourg, about an hour and a half northwest of Caen on La Manche (English Channel) to visit the Cité de la Mer Musée (49°38'50.6"N, 1°37'02.2"W) where we toured a decommissioned nuclear submarine (Redoutable) and the aquariums.  We returned and Kate made a yummy pizza with crème fresh, cheese, potatoes camalized onions and charcuteries.  It was a good day and quite enjoyable.

(49°11'28.7"N, 0°23'29.1"W)