Oh the places I've been: France

I've now lived in France for a total of 5 years (I announced this last year as well, but my maths was wrong). So I think I know the place fairly well. And yet, other than a day in Avignon, I've never visited Provence (if we don't count the Côte d'Azur as Provence); out of the entire South-West, I've only spent a weekend in Toulouse; I thought I'd just squeaked into seeing a tiny bit of Brittany with an overnight trip to Saint-Nazaire, but turns out it's not in Brittany after all, and I've never set foot in Normandy. Geez, when you put it like that, I really barely know the place at all!

So I suppose I'm the last person that should be writing a little listicle about places to visit in France, but hey. The places I have been, I tend to know pretty well, so here are some perhaps lesser-known destinations I've enjoyed over the years.

Beaumont-Hamel

Let's start out with one that's probably unfamiliar to most. Long, long ago, when I first lived in France, I used to work as a tour guide of sorts, accompanying British school children around northern France. Amongst many cemeteries, memorials, farms and chocolate shops, one of the places we visited was the Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial in the Somme. This is a little piece of Canada in France (it actually, legally is) where friendly and knowledgeable Canadian guides (if you know any young Canadians, you can actually apply to do this) take you through the terrible battles that happened here.

I've never been big on military history, but this place really brought it alive and helped me to understand a tiny bit of what it must have been like and why so many people died. On July 1st 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme, the British (including the Newfoundland troops) lost almost 20,000 men, with nearly 40,000 more casualties. Absolutely mind-blowing, and with the WWI centenaries coming up, a good place to visit if you want to get some perspective on the war. There are other good WWI sites to visit in the region (Thiepval, Ypres, Vimy Ridge etc.) but this one stood out for the quality of the guided tour, which is probably free (I'm not sure, being there as part of a school group, but I would guess so).

Musée National du Moyen Age

Source

Home of the famous Lady and the Unicorn tapestries, but probably not top of people's Paris lists regardless. I am big on the Middle Ages, however, so I loved it when I visited back in 2010. Apparently the exhibition space for the tapestries has recently been given a "relooking", as the French would say, so if you haven't been yet, now is the time to check it out!

Angers

While we're on the subject of tapestries, I've got to give a shout-out to the Apocalypse Tapestry in the Château of Angers, which I checked out back in 2012. This is amazingly old, amazingly complete (there are missing bits, but 71 huge tapestries still survive) and just all-around amazing, actually. They're packed with interesting symbolism, reflecting not only the Biblical accounts of the Apocalypse, but also the troubled times they were made in (war, famine, pestilence, etc. not being exactly uncommon at the time).

Blois

As we all know, you're spoilt for choice when it comes to châteaux in the Loire Valley, and I've been to a fair few of them. Chenonceau is probably the most spectacular, and the gardens at Villandry definitely deserve a mention, but I thought I'd give a shout-out to the château of Blois, which probably gets my vote as the most underrated of the Loire châteaux. I visited with my parents in early 2011 and it gets points for not only being pretty, but also making an effort to have things to see on the inside, as opposed to some which are basically empty shells.

Chinon

Home to my favourite rosé wine, it's a charming little town in its own right, and my favourite of the small Loire Valley towns I've visited (I've been there maybe 5 or 6 times). It has an old-school castle; a nice main square, good for noshing and people-watching; a hilariously kitch wine museum; lovely river views; tons of old buildings, and did I mention the wine?

Walking the Côte d'Azur

Cap d'Ail - if this looks familiar, it's the background image of the blog

Okay, this is more of an activity than a place, but while thousands flock to the Côte d'Azur every year, I think not so many walk along the coastline, and I can tell you they are missing out! I lived in Nice for 7 months in 2009-10, and my favourite activity became walking along the coast whenever it was nice weather and I had free time (which was a lot, since it's Nice and I only worked 12 hours max a week). I walked the whole coast from Nice to Ventimiglia in Italy, and quite a lot in the other direction towards Cannes. And wow, is it beautiful! If you'd like to try, it's easy to do as well - just follow the coast (the only tricky part was Monaco, too many damn private beaches) and the buses are so frequent that whenever you get tired there'll be one along within the next 20 minutes or so. Makes me miss living in Nice, I'm glad I got out and made the most of it though, in spite of (or because of) being terminally poor (see: worked max. 12 hours a week).

Villas Ephrussi and Kerylos

While we're on the Côte d'Azur, there's actually a ton to see in terms of museums and so on, which again people perhaps don't automatically think of when they think of the French Riviera. The ones that stick most in my head are two lavish and beautiful 19th-20th C villas on Cap Ferrat, the villas Ephrussi and Kerylos. Ephrussi was home to one of the Rothschilds, and Kerylos was built as a reconstruction of a classical Greek villa by a rich guy (who, in my opinion, squandered its amazing location, but that's by the bye). 

Strasbourg

So, Strasbourg hardly counts as off the beaten track, but it definitely earns a spot as one of my favourite places I've visited in France. From the awe-inspiring cathedral to the cute canals of Petite France, it really is a lovely place. And the food - miam miam! If you go, don't miss the painted St Pierre le Jeune church, I'm a real sucker for a polychrome church. 

Poitiers

I was going to finish there, but "polychrome church" reminded me how much I enjoyed Poitiers (which also has one). And a 5th century Baptistry, imagine that! I didn't really have any preconceptions of Poitiers, but it seemed like there was some historical treasure around every corner, I'd gladly go back for a longer visit. 

So that's definitely not all the cool places I've been in France (Reims, Dijon, Chartres, Chamonix, to name a few), but they're some that stick in my mind. Those of you who've lived and travelled here, where are your favourite places? We're hitting up Rouen at the end of the month, and I'd love to get to Bordeaux, Brittany, Lyon, Mont St. Michel, amongst others, but I know there's so much out there to see!

Sunshine and wine

The last big event in my May of Fun was a visit from my lovely sister and her lovely friends on the occasion of Vitiloire, one of my favourite events in the Tours social calendar. Vitiloire is the biggest and the best of all the various wine festivals (and there are a fair few) that go on in these parts. It brings together hundreds of winemakers from all over the Loire Valley - you pays your 5€, you buys your glass and you tastes for free.

Contrary to appearances in the photos below, it actually alternated between bucketing down (and even hailing at one point) and bright sunshine. Luckily there were enough tents to hide in and the rain kept the numbers down a bit (even so, it was often difficult to get to each counter to do a tasting, since dickheads kept just crowding around while drinking their wine instead of moving out of the way).

We found out what wines of the Loire we were just by smelling various scents - I am a red Gamay, a Chinon rosé or a white Jasnières (a wine I'd never actually heard of before). I was surprised at how accurate it was based on just smell. It wasn't even wine smells per se, more like the sort of grassy or charcoaley or whatever you might actually identify in a wine if you can identify these things. I normally cannot tell you at all whether a wine smells of raspberries or grass cuttings, so it was a suprise that he nailed it (I do like a light, fruity red like a Gamay, of course I love Chinon rosé, and although I don't drink whites, I took the opportunity to taste a Jasnières and I did actually enjoy it). This was all written out for us on a "doctor's prescription", so there you go, I just have to drink wine for my health.

I didn't manage to buy as much wine as I would have liked (only three bottles!) but we had a nice time and it sttayed all very civilised. My sister and her friends also stocked up on a few bottles and - tragedy! - because they didn't have any checked luggage, we had to have a go at drinking some of them back in their hotel room that evening before heading out for a meal. (A kind of disappointing flammekueche, as opposed to the as-always delicious tartiflette we had at The Cheese Restaurant the night before.)

Fabulous!

Everyone looks genuinely chuffed here... Could it be all the wine?

It's a bold claim, but I dunno, I think I know a better Dutch Mod Garage Beat Surf band. Fat and the Crabs on the other hand... outstanding. (Also, sounds like a night with your momma, hi-yo!)

It's obligatory to pay homage to the monster of Tours

On Sunday, we took a little daytrip down to Chinon, one of my favourite towns (which I've been to on a number of occasions, including with my sister). The girls went on a visit of the château, while I had a wander around the town and, more importantly, sipped rosé in the sunshine (Sunday was a genuinely nice day, weather-wise). We also had a long and deliciously lunch (and more rosé) at a café on the main square. I had a yummy coq au vin. It was all very relaxed - the weekend was all about food and wine, really, especially for me since I didn't even go to the château (been before). Unfortunately, Jess says the feature mould is no longer in situ :(

A street in Chinon

I found a Secret Jesus underneath some scaffolding

A statue of Rabelais in Chinon. My Rabelais Fun Fact is that he once wrote that a swan's neck makes for the best toilet paper known to man

The Vienne in Chinon

Chilling on the banks of the Vienne

We wrapped up the trip back in Tours with my first visit to the guinguette of the year (it only opened the week before). Luckily enough, it was still sunny and warm enough to make the trip, since I think we've been every time Jess has visited. And of course, the opening of the guinguette really kicks off summer in these parts (and not a moment too soon).

A lovely weekend although I'm looking forward to (continue with) a quiet June! Oh and PS DJ Pie and DJ Pie's pies made a special encore appearance at my sister's request. I even made some special goat's cheese and pumpkin pies for her (being a vege). DJ Pie is available for all your party needs! PPS Finally, we have proper consistent nice weather - sunny and hot! Seriously, I was still wearing a coat into May, as the first photo above testifies to. Long may this continue!

The land of wine and cheese

On Friday, my lovely kiwi friend Marion came to stay the night. She used to live in Tours, but her boyfriend had a last-minute move to Poitiers for his studies and she decided to go back to London to work, since it was too late for her to enrol at uni and she doesn't have the right to work here (and didn't want to spend another half a year hanging about doing nothing in the middle of France). Anyway, you can fly directly from London to Poitiers, I believe, but on this occasion she decided to take a detour via Tours to catch up.

We had a fun evening - caught up on the gossip while sipping cocktails and champagne at mine before hitting up three different bars along with Charlie. I got into another argument with a French guy. Sigh, seriously, even I'm getting tired of fighting with French men, why can't we just get along? Actually, I got into a minor disagreement with one who, in the middle of chatting up my friend, poked me on the breastbone to tell me that he could see the safety pin that was holding my dress together in the front (then stop looking down my dress maybe? I probably need a smaller safety pin, but that's neither here nor there), and then later I had a HUGE fight with an old man.

I'm not a crazy person though, it was totally justified. I was standing next to him at the bar, talking to my friends. He grabs my arse, and I barely even reacted, just like "don't touch me". And then I had my eye on him, so a little bit later out of the corner of my eye I see him going for it again, so I put my hand down next to my side and grabbed his wrist. And then what really made me absolutely furious was that he denied it! I almost literally caught him red-handed! He was all "how could you say that, I would never do such a thing", and I completely flipped my lid at him. If nothing else, I'm proud that my French skills have progressed to the point that I can shout "casse-toi, vieux connard" at a dirty old pervert in a bar at 4 in the morning. Quite cathartic.

I swear to god though, I know there are bad apples everywhere, but I've had it up to here with all these French men who think they're entitled to comment on what you're wearing or yell things at you or touch you. We're going out for Halloween next Wednesday, so I pinkie swear I'm taking this weekend off and staying in, watching the F1, maybe buying myself some winter boots. (I really really need them cos mine have holes in both the toes, but waiting to see what's left in the bank at the end of the month. I'm like a raggedy Victorian orphan, ha ha.)

Anyway, on to happier subjects, I got woken up on Sunday morning (grumble grumble) by a text inviting me out to a last-minute wine and cheese tasting tour (yay) with my friend Philippa and a visitor from Australia, Zach. Our first stop was a goat farm in Sainte-Maure-de-Touraine, where we sampled four varieties - fresh, semi-dry, dry and very dry - of the eponymous cheese. I love Sainte-Maure cheese, it's very yummy. I'd only had the fresh and semi-dry before, and the intensity of flavour of the other two was a big surprise! The very dry variety is almost spicy, it's so strong, and the flavour stays with you for quite some time! It's also very dry in texture, not at all soft and creamy. I liked all of them, but my favourite was probably the demi-sec, so I bought a roll of that (for about 2€ cheaper than it would be in a supermarket).

Sainte-Maure is pretty much a one-horse town as far as we could tell, so we went straight on to Chinon after the cheese farm. We stopped just outside Chinon at a winery offering dégustations. We were a bit confused about where to go once we got into the place, as there was basically a barn and an open door leading into what looked like someone's living room (with two very cute cats on the steps). While we were wondering, some people who were obviously friends of the family turned up and found the vintner for us. With hindsight, I think we must have delayed the start of Sunday lunch, because it was about 1 pm. Sorry!

He was very nice though, and ushered us into a barn for the most sophisticated wine-tasting you're ever likely to find. Philippa was driving, so I asked if there was a crachoir she could spit into. Much to our amusement, he said she could spit into the drain running behind the barrel! Think on that the next time you're around wine snobs... (PS she's much too refined to spit in a drain on a barn floor, she just had a sip of each.)

Small-scale wine-making. The barrel represents the "salon de dégustation"

We tasted a rosé and three reds, and very nice they all were as well. I love Chinon wines - I'm not a big red-wine drinker, but they are nice and light and not oaky or tannic, which I don't like at all. I suppose some sophisticated types might find them a bit lacking in body or flavour, but that doesn't bother me at all. And the rosés are of course lovely as well. I'm not sure the name of the actual vineyard, but I bought one red called Domaine du Grand Portail and one rosé called Clos de la Grille. But don't go looking for them in a supermarket near you - I was chatting to the vintner about where to buy them, and he doesn't sell to any wine shops or restaurants, even locally - they all get sold to individuals turning up and buying them, or at wine fairs etc. It is frustrating sometimes to find great wines and then you can't buy them anywhere even if you're only living 50 km away!

We continued on our merry way to Chinon, and stopped off first at the Couly-Dutheil wine tasting rooms. I was dying for the loo, but Philippa assured me that they had a bathroom I could use, since she'd been there with her parents the weekend before. However, the door was locked and the wine tasting lady earned my undying hatred by acted all shocked that I dared to ask about using the facilities and made us go across the street and up the hill to the chateau in the pouring rain to use theirs. She also made some kind of snobby remarks about people who "didn't know what they were doing" buying wines to store - apparently if you know what you're doing, you have to buy a case and drink one every year to see the evolution of the wine. (By undying hatred, I mean I vowed to seek revenge by tasting her wines without purchasing any. I've had Couly-Dutheil wines before and they are quite nice, but they started at about 8€ a bottle, so this wasn't a huge hardship.) I don't know if this post is reflecting very well on me - I'm really quite mild-mannered, I promise.

Oh, I just read on the internet that there is a bit of a family feud between the Couly-Dutheil and Pierre & Bertrand Couly winemakers. My sister and I visited P&B Couly back in 2010 and enjoyed the wines we had there very much, so with that and the snobbish salesperson, you can put me down on Team Pierre & Bertrand. The t-shirt to that effect is being designed as we speak.

View of Chinon castle from inside the Couly-Dutheil tasting room

We then intended to get some lunch, but it was about 3 pm on a Sunday by this stage, and everywhere had stopped serving :( Zach had to be back in Tours for about 5 to catch a train, so we just had a little wander around the pretty town centre (I think this was my 3rd or 4th trip, but it's still very pretty) and then headed back to Tours. We walked along the Vienne river to get back to the car, which is lined with trees that look nice but turned out to be full of spiders! Kept feeling strands of spiderweb on my face, or seeing them floating about, and then there was a spider in my hair!!!! Major freakout.

Moi in Chinon

The Vienne river, lined with scary spider-harbouring trees

But spiders aside, it was a pleasant trip! And I went home and made jacket potatoes stuffed with pesto and Sainte-Maure cheese - delicious!

Visiting a brothel with my sister & other adventures

Worth it just for the blog title!

Anyway, my sister Jess visited me the week before last, finally getting around to blogging it because I was pretty tired & busy last week! We were really lucky to get some amazing weather and no strikes screwing things up, perfect timing!

Jess arrived in Tours on Thursday, & this was the first time we'd met up in about 2 1/2 years, owing to our various voyages around the world. After supplying her with a brioche and coffee and dropping off her suitcase, it was pretty much straight out to a cooking class, a bargain at 15 euro each! I had emailed the lady in advance asking if she could accommodate a vegetarian (yes) and if she spoke English (yes). As it turned out, she kept her end of the bargain by preparing a fish meal, but I didn't hear a word of English out of her & although she promised to try & speak slowly & clearly, I don't think she did anything differently! It was fine though, we arrived a bit early & she walked us through what we were going to do & I was able to translate for Jess. The final meal was pretty yummy too, sole soaked in a vinaigrette (which I would never have thought would work) and steamed carrots and some yummy little cheese cakey frittery things.



My effort at making lunch



Jess gets ready to tuck in.

After that, we came back home so Jess could have a bit of a nap, having had to get up pretty early to make the trip over, then spent the rest of the afternoon shopping & having a look at the sights of Tours. In the evening we went out to a cheese-themed restaurant that I had heard good things about to fulfil one of Jess's main goals for her France trip, namely eating a lot of cheese. We both had tartiflette, a dish from the Savoie region of France that is made up of layers of potatoes, cream, reblochon cheese and lardons (bacon bits, so none of those for Jess). I had had tartiflette when I lived in Haute-Savoie, but not since, and this was seriously as good or better than I remembered, absolutely delicious and washed down with a green salad, fresh baguette and lashings of lovely Chinon rosé wine. Jess loved it too!



Jess meets the Tours monster

The next day we got up earlyish and headed to Chinon, home of the aforementioned wine and a lovely little well-preserved medieval town (I've been before, you may recall). The goal was to head to a vineyard and do some wine-tasting (and buying). So it was off to the station to catch our 'train', which turned out to be a bus! This was really not made obvious on the tickets or the information board, so lucky we realised since the next one wasn't for hours. Our first call was the castle, which turns out to be where Joan of Arc recognised the dauphin of France as the true king, pretty cool!



We also made Jess's day by walking on some ramparts :



But we also encountered disappointment after trekking down to the castle basement lured by a sign saying 'underground passage', only to discover that you couldn't go in it.
However, this was not a wasted trip, because if we hadn't gone down to the basement we would never have seen the castle's feature mould! Seriously, this was hilarious - all dark, spotlight on this mould and not a word of explanation. Must be high-achieving mould...





Jess at the castle



Et moi aussi



View from the castle


After the castle and a lunchtime crepe and cider (yummy) we headed out on the 20-minute walk into the countryside to find the vineyard where we were going to do a wine-tasting. I think we did a good job finding it, since our instructions were to "go neither to the left nor to the right" - um, except for the bit where we had to make two right turns that she didn't tell us about! We're smart girls though, so we had no trouble and it was a pleasant walk into the Chinonese (?) countryside. The wine tasting was good, although it was a little bit like drawing teeth to get the guy to talk! All very good wine though, like everything I've had from Chinon. We got 3 bottles of rosé and one red (Chinon is particularly known for their reds, although they do rosés too and a small amount of white. Rosé is my favourite though.)

After that, we got the bus back to town and then crossed the river (the Vienne - this département has got a zillion rivers I swear) to chill out in the sun a bit and soak up a great view of the town :



Bridge over the Vienne



The Vienne



View of Chinon

After that, we still had some time to kill before the train back (a real train this time) so we went to the wine museum. Pure hilarity! It consisted of clumsy animatronic figures and a cheesy narration in English that sounded somewhere between a Birmingham accent and someone who'd been dropped on the head (and I know my dad will chime in to say that everyone from Birmingham sounds like they've been dropped on the head. Apologies if anyone reading it's from there, but it is a bit of an unfortunate one!) Oh, and it taught us how to make a barrel as well, we joked that we'll never be able to look at one the same way again (I could probably make a barrel too if I had a boy on hand to bring me wine BEFORE I WAS THIRSTY like the coopers in the display!) It finished off with a domestic scene between Rabelais and his wife, where we learnt some new words to live by - "drink and never die"! Well, it was amusing (glad I had a coupon for a euro off the entrance fee) and it ended with a wine tasting, so that was good! Bought another bottle of rosé there.

After a stop in a café (more rosé), we headed to the station, loaded up with cheese at the supermarket in Tours, and finally arrived home after a full day to stage our own little wine and cheese tasting (two goats cheeses, the famous Touraine St Maure and Petit Billy, gotta love that name, and a sheeps cheese) with my flatmate.

We went for a more relaxed start to the day on Saturday, starting off with a bit more shopping for Jess and then lunch (bruschetta for Jess and chèvre chaud salad for me mmm). I had put Chambord castle on the agenda, but we decided to stay in Tours instead of rushing around the countryside again. As it happened, last weekend was the 'journées du patrimoine' or 'heritage days', so we stopped by the tourist office to check out what was happening around town. Our attention was quickly caught by the fact that you could go visit the last legal brothel in Tours still preserved as it was when it was operational (in case that sentence is confusing, which I think it is, brothels are no longer legal - although they're debating making them so again - and it is no longer a brothel, but it's the last in Tours to survive in its original state). It was a pretty interesting tour, although unfortunately a bit difficult for us because all in French & I had to try and interpret for Jess, which is tough! One bitchy lady made a big deal of shushing me at one point, gave her a dirty look. I was trying to whisper and I think it was pretty obvious that we weren't just chitchatting through the whole thing, at least judging by the tour guide who asked me afterwards how I got on with translating! Anyway, amongst other things we learned that all the working girls had to register at the mayor's office and then after that they were basically prisoners in the brothel and only allowed out under escort for things like doctors' visits. If anyone disappeared from the brothel, the brothelkeepers would get into trouble with the police, so they kept a tight rein on them. There was even a windowless "punishment room" for recalcitrant girls. Sadly, since medical bills were the madam/pimp's responsibility, they would often just kick the girls out if they got sick or past it. Under the Nazi occupation, there was a German soldier stationed at every brothel who was responsible for keeping a register of who every soldier slept with, so that outbreaks of VD could be swiftly isolated and dealt with. The tour only consisted of two rooms, one of which was a sort of bar where you could come for a drink as well as to pick out girls, and the other of which had a secret two-way mirror into the first room - legend has it that the local priest would come to spy on badly-behaved parishioners, but it was most likely just for the shyer clientele. The brothel also had a system of bells meant to alert the prostitutes or the madam about the clients' movements, so that no-one should meet on the stairs.

After the war, the legal brothels were shut down, and it was meant to be used to rehouse people who had lost their homes after the war, but apparently no-one wanted to live there because of the odd configuration of the rooms (I think too many bedrooms, too few kitchen/bathroom facilities), so the last madam and her lover lingered on there for a while, from memory I think she died first and then he was basically squatting there until he died of syphilis. By that stage, the local residents rallied round to save this unusual piece of Tours history and it was bought by the Junior Chamber of Commerce, who are still there today.

Frescoes in the brothel :





So, that was something different & interesting, anyway! I don't think either of us had anticipated a brothel visit! By the way, we also stopped into the Tours archives on the way, which are in a very old building but they just look new inside. There was a small exhibition on early aviators in Tours, which neither of us was the least bit interested in! Some interesting photos of Tours before and right after the war though.

Saturday night we went out for dinner & I had the world's strongest onion soup. First bite, on a piece of bread, okay. Second spoonful, absolutely overwhelming! But my confit de canard was melt-in-your-mouth lovely. After that we went back to the guinguette, where we had also had a drink in the afternoon, and ended up sharing a bottle of wine with some very young French gentlemen! We were also amused by the band names - Bad Billy and F--king Butterflies! It was the last night of the guinguette, summer is officially over. :( Stopped in at another bar for a cider on the way home & got back about, dunno, 1?



Not a great photo, but the only one of us together - at the guinguette

Sunday was Jess's last morning in Tours, and I was a bit hungover I must admit. We tried and failed to find brunch (well, we did find one place that did brunch, but it was like a massive 3-course extravaganza) so just got a croissant for Jess and a bit of abject misery for me, before it was time to put Jess on the airport bus and crawl home to spend the rest of the day in bed. Fun time had by all I hope!