Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes

Hotel de Ville, Lyon

Part 3 of our vacation was in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. We drove 5 hours from Sarlat-la-Canéda to Lyon, the capital of the region and the second largest city in France. This was going to be our base for the next 2 days, and where we catch out flight back to Paris and onward to Singapore. I don't enjoy driving in big cities, so we booked a place just slightly outside of the city centre. I made a reservation for dinner and we took the bus into the city. For some reason, I though that it was going to be a short walk from the bus interchange to where the restaurant was - possible because it looked like a straightforward straight ahead direction. It turned out to be a couple of metro stations away! But it was a blessing in disguise because we came across a marché de Nöel and also got to see the Fête de Lumieres. Mistakes don't have to be bad. At the

Fête de Lumieres, Lyon

marché the kids had their candy floss, a chocolate coated mashmallow and a ride on the carousel. We bought a mini Gâteau à la broche, and would have sampled a lot of the food had we not made the dinner reservation.

Monsieur P, rue de Royale

After the long walk, we were all ready for our dinner at Monsieur P. The P is not for Detective Poirot but for its owner and chef Florent Poulard. The place came highly recommended on Tripadvisor. For starters, I had this amazing  beetroot salad, so good that even my son enjoyed it. I had Pollack for the mains and a fantastic Chestnut mousse and Clementine sorbet for dessert. Great food and friendly service. I was looking for the French gastronomique experience in a child friendly restaurant and that was exactly what we got. Completely satisfied.

When we got back to the apartment, we realised that there was no hot water for our shower. We had suspected this before we left for dinner but thought perhaps the water would get warmer if we let it run a little longer. The heating in the apartment also wasn't great. I messaged the owner and told him that we will move to another place tomorrow and asked him for a refund for that 2nd night. I am still waiting for the refund. The entire family ran in and out of the shower very quickly that night.

Palaise l'Isle, Annecy

All packed, we drove out to Annecy the next morning. Perfect weather, the sun was out. We walked to the lake and took a quick stroll around the Vieille Ville. We had a delicious brunch at a creperie called Quai No. 10, situated along the Thiou Canal and a stones throw away from the iconic Palaise l'Isle. The owner of the creperie told us that he just got back from a trip to Bali and Singapore. A vacation swap. Annecy was gorgeous even in winter.

Chamonix

We drove on to Chamonix, but not before we accidentally drove through the Mont Blanc Tunnel and into Italy! We should have driven on for another 50 minutes to reach Aiguille du Midi. Instead we turned back to Chamonix, and discovered that the cable cars from Chamonix  up to Aiguille du Midi were closed for a few weeks. With no mountains to climb, we went to a forest for a stroll along a river. Later we had Italian for dinner (that would be the second Italian encounter of the day) and a walkabout the town centre. The weather forecast indicated a 100% change of snowing at 7pm and they kids kept a lookout for it, but it did not come. The snow finally came about 7am the next morning. So we got to experience light snowfall for about an hour before we drove back to Lyon to catch our flight.

7 days seemed short but it felt like we did a lot during that short period of time. And we felt God's presence with us throughout the trip giving us special glimpses of the wonderful world that He created.  

Until the next time France, au revoir et a bientôt.

Dordogne

Château de Beynac

I've never heard of Dordogne before I started my planning for this holiday. And it took me a long time to decide if I should visit the region in winter. Would everything be closed? This place is known for its wonderful cuisine but will any restautants be open? The Gabares will not be operating along the river and it would be too cold to kayak. Not a wine enthusiast and it would be way past the grapes harvesting season. But the research that I did suggested that Dordogne is a bit like the Cotswolds in England, beautiful in any season.

It was an 8 hour drive from Mont-Saint Michel to Sarlat-la-Canéda. I didn't want to be searching for our accommodation in the dark when we arrive, so we decided to start off at 7am. Driving through French villages in the dark on the left hand side of the road was quite an experience. My two sons were excellent navigators throughout this holiday and thank God for journey mercies. I would probably stay the night in Loire Valley if I do the same drive again in the future. We managed to arrive in Dordogne Valley when the sun was still up and the autumn colours of the region were amazing. Felt excited about spending the next few days here.

Medieval town Sarlat-la-Canéda

We stayed in the heart of the medieval town. The orange-yellow hues of the limestone buildings and small lanes were quaint. Many shops were closed during this time of the year but we didn't have too many issues finding food. We had an exquisite dinner at Hotel La Couleuvrine on the first night. Sarlat makes a good base for people exploring the Dordogne Valley, because it has a lot of amenities including large supermarkets and, ahem, McDonalds just a few minutes drive out of the medieval part of town.

The next morning, we drove 30 minutes to Font-de-Gaume. This is the only remaining cave in France containing pre-historic polychrome wall paintings that is still open to the public. Less than a hundred tickets are available each day and they have stopped taking advanced booking since the beginning of this year. Everyone who wishes to visit have to be personally present to buy the ticket. I read that in summer, visitors line up as early as 7am even though the office only opens at 9.30am. We arrived at 9am and were first in the queue - the advantages of visiting in winter. Thibaut, our English speaking guide was very friendly and knowledgeable. It was surreal to stand just inches away from something that was painted more than 17,000 years ago. Don't miss this when you visit Dordogne. Later we drove by La Roque Saint Christophe, a pre-historic human settlement in the face of the limestone cliffs. We also came across one of the many goose farms in the region where the famed Perigord foie gras comes from.

Lino, our truffle hunter

We visited Château de Beynac after lunch. Purged on a cliff next to the Dordogne river, it used to be home to Richard I, King of England. The castle is not as well maintained as those in Loire Valley, but it offer a stunning view of the Valley.  We did a truffle tour in St-Cyprien the next morning. The tour was hosted by Edouard who gave us an excellent introduction to the fungi. My daughter loved playing with Lino, the truffle hunter. With his help, me managed to gather close to 400g of Perigold black truffles which sells at the current market price of about EUR750/kg. The tour was lots of fun for the kids and helped all of us appreciate the wonders of God's creation, including those well hidden under the ground. 

Brantôme

We spent the rest of the day driving around the region and ended up in Brantôme. The town is encircled by the La Dronne river and is known as “Venise du Perigord Vert”.

I am so thankful that I chanced upon charming Dordogne when researching on the holiday. Next stop, Lyon.

Normandy

Étretat

Our recent holiday in France was so short that I didn't have a chance to blog. 7 days with short daylight in the winter, lots of driving and much to experience. I got back to work the day after the holiday so that I could quickly get over the jetlag and have been trying to finish up the photobook of the holiday. Unfortunately I did not realise that Apple had stopped the Photos printing services until I finished compiling the photobook. At first I thought that I had chosen an outdated template so I painstakingly transferred the photos to another template. I realised later that I had to update my Mac OS and use the Mimeo photo app extension to convert my template. I thought I was finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel when I realised that the photos loaded onto Mimeo were blurry. I have been trying to find other alternatives for the last 2 days - extremely frustrating, and completely disappointed with Apple. When frustrated with Apple, Keep Calm and Blog. 

We flew Airfrance to avoid CDG Terminal 1; I don't mind iconic, so long as it is updated. It took more than an hour to get out of the airport and another hour to sought out the car rental - they couldn't tell me where the hand break was. The kids prefer nature so we didn't plan for any time in Paris, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise. We did see gilet jaune protestors during our trip but they are mostly at roundabouts slowing down the traffic. Our first stop was Étretat. It was raining heavily most of the morning, so the chances of seeing the white cliffs weren't good. Everyone was hungry so we had to find a place for lunch. By the time we finished lunch, the rain had cleared and we were treated to a beautiful view of the limestone cliffs. The kids played on the pebble beached for awhile. To my surprise, the family was adventurous enough to take the hike up the cliffs that inspired some of Monet's paintings. 

Bayeux

It started to rain again when we got back into the car. We decided to head to our hotel in Bayeux and defer the visit to the D-Day sites until the next day. Château de Bellefountaine was an excellent hotel. There were even black and white swans on the grounds and a river running through it. It was unfortunate that the hotel dinner was fully booked because the menu looked amazing. We had a light dinner in Bayeux instead and managed to take in the beautiful Christmas lights in the city. There were no takers for the Tapisserie de Bayeux, which depicts the Norman conquest of England. 

We had an early start the next morning. After breakfast, we checked out and headed to Arromanches-les-Bains. This is the historic location where an artificial harbour was built by the Allied forces to unload heavy equipments on D-Day in June 1944. You can still see remnants of the floating structure along the beach. After that we drove to the Normandy American Cemetery &

Normandy American Cemetery & Memorial,
Colleville-sur-Mer

Memorial in Colleville-sur-Mer. More than 9,000 American soldiers were buried here. Many died as soon as they got off their battleship. A sea of white crosses and Star of David across the cemetery was a solemn reminder of the sacrifices of so many to free Western Europe from the grasp of tyranny. There were balsam veteran's wreath place at the foot of each headstone. The American flag was flown at half mast to remember President Bush Snr who passed away the day before. At the centre of the memorial is a bronze sculpture named "The Spirit of American Youth Rising from the Waves" with inscriptions that bring great hope to the families of the fallen soldiers: "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord".

Mont-Saint Michel

Our final stop in Normandy was Mont-Saint Michel. I've had wanted to see this place for a very long time. And 2 years ago, when we visited the Loire Valley, I did consider driving here but was dissuaded by the hotel owner. I am glad I took his advice, because our eldest son wasn't with us for that trip.  Now we got to see this amazing place for the first time together. We could have joint the free English speaking tour at 3pm, but we were far too hungry, so we started off with a wonderful lunch at La Mère Poulard. I am glad we filled our stomachs first because the walk up to the monastery required quite a bit of energy. But the climb was well worth it because the monastery and the view of the top was astounding. It's unbelievable how hundreds of years ago, people managed to build such an huge structure so high up.

Nightfall at Mont-Saint Michel

The one advantage of travelling in winter is that you don't have to wait too long for the evening lights to come on to illuminate the buildings. We decide to go for crêpe de banane and wait for the sky to darken. And what a sight we were rewarded with - it was like a picture perfect postcard. We stood there in the dark for at least 1/2 hour taking many photos. After that, I was thinking of taking the 2km walk back to the hotel, but it was getting cold so we decided to hop onto the free shuttle bus instead. It didn't feel like I got enough of the place. Definitely worth another visit in the future.

Despite the rain and change of plans, we managed to do quite a lot in Normandy on the first 2 days of our vacation. Next, we were off to Dordogne.