Best of France
A Trafalgar Tour taken September 2012
11 September – Novotel Tour Eiffel Room 13 09
Well, we have arrived! In the rain!! Train travel quite straight forwards but our seats were next to a bulkhead so only had a quarter of a window. I read and Eddie played Sudoku on the tablet for some of the time.
Easy exit – no customs. Had to wait in an orderly queue for a taxi. Driver we had was OK. ‘Little English’ he said. ‘Un peu Francais’ I replied and he laughed. He also greeted us with ‘Bon jour’, then waving at the rain, said ‘not so bon!’
Traffic chaotic! Dodgem’s Paris style! And I had thought Rome traffic was bad!
Hotel large and our ‘snack’ cost 39 euro! Very nice, but too much. There are club sandwiches that we know and love, and then there are these giant ‘battering rams’! - plus pommes frites!
We have to go shortly to meet 44 other travellers.
12 September, Novotel, Lyon
Had a drive around Paris and especially down the Champs Elysees and by the Arc de Triomphe. Then we had a three-course meal at a restaurant that was decorated with copper pots and pans. Even had flattened pots for door handles! Very chic!!
Dinner was OK but after our late lunch ‘snack’ I could not eat much. French onion soup with cheese bread on top. I had the soup but not much of the bread – too heavy. Then it was salmon, beans and pureed potatoes – baby food -only had about half. However, dessert was a lovely small dish of crème brulee that was absolutely delicious so I ate the lot!
Afterwards, we had another drive around and Daniel (pronounced Dan-ee –el) drove the bus through a very narrow stone gateway into the courtyard area of the Louvre with its glass pyramid. Then he stopped the bus at a large place (piazza) where we could take photos looking down towards Paris proper (old town) with majestic Eiffel Tower in front.
One affable Texan on the tour took our photo in front of it, then we took one of him and his partner. The two solos asked me to take their photos also. A great way to meet others on the tour. One of the solos is a young black woman who comes from Chicago but speaks French so I had thought she would have been from the south eg New Orleans or the Islands. She feels the cold and had on a large full-length quilted black coat over the top of a pink sweatshirt with the hood up! We were in short sleeves. A little chilly but nowhere near coat weather we thought.
This morning it was up at 6am, bags out at 6:30 and on the bus at 7:45am. It was still dark – only starting to get light as we were leaving! We had a comfort stop off the motorway at 10am and then we drove on to Beaune. A beautiful little old town.
We found a basic cafe and shared a filled baguette with a coffee, then wandered around. Only one problem – only cafes and tourist shops open between 12 -2pm, lunchtime! We saw a really nice pen & ink sketch in an art shop that we would have liked to buy, but wasn’t re-opening until 2:15pm and we had to meet up with the group at 1:50pm – bummer!
Then our TD Vanessa led us through the town to a winery where we went into the cellars and tried one white – nice & crisp, and two reds. I preferred the younger one but thought the white was the best. Wewere allowed to keep our glasses! The place was named after the woman who became Charlemagne’s mother –“Reine Pedauque” - Berthe, the Webbed-footed one!
The young man who talked to us about the winery and the wines was very knowledgeable. He was quite pleasing on the eye and his name was Valentin! Everyone, especially the ladies, really enjoyed themselves. As we were leaving a woman gave us some blackcurrent juice in our now empty glasses. Very tasty. I noticed that the ‘chandeliers’ in the cellar were made from old wine bottles! Very quirky!!
Then it was a two-hour run here to Lyon. Eddie went to sleep as did several others including the two American-Italians. Very loud and brash. I read my Helene Hanff and watched the scenery. As it was all motorway some was not very interesting.
When we got here we only had an hour to relax and freshen up before our bus and walking tour of Lyon with Christien. He was a very amusing 45 year old Frenchman. He said he had a French mouth so could not say certain English words such as ‘squirrel’ – needed to buy or borrow and English mouth! When Daniel had to stop the bus in a hurry, Christien quipped – “Just testing the brakes!” 
He took us through the old town and through these passages – Traboules – that pass through the buildings to get from one street to another. They are also for the inhabitants of the buildings and have their post boxes inside, but the doors are open until 7pm each night and re-open in the morning so anyone can use them. Also were lovely old stairwells and light wells. The stairs had inverted U-shaped holes in the stone risers. He said they are for the mice. “We have cats, but they are French cats, so always on strike!!” but actually, the holes were made to put candles in to light the stairs at night before the days of electricity. Very cool.
Lyon has two rivers – The Rhone and the Saone, and two hills. Nice church up on one of the hills but we couldn’t go and see it as it was being renovated.
Dinner was quite nice – duck terrine followed by veal and floating Islands for dessert.
Some people are not sensible. We were told before our walk to wear good, sensible, flat shoes as we’d be walking on old cobbles – and these are like those in Prague – very big and chunky with gaps between. One woman, married to one of the American-Italians, that we refer to as ‘black lips’ because of her lipstick colour, came on the walk in shoes with 4 inch heels! She teetered along precariously and slowed the pace of our walking tour. ‘Big Coat’ was still wearing her coat, perhaps it was very hot in Chicago before she left so temps here feel cool in comparison?!
Quite a nice day. More relaxed than our ‘Vicki’ tour. We have more time to spend strolling around town.
13 September – Boscolo Hotel, Nice
Nice (!) older style hotel but we have a lovely room – large – and the end of the hallway , Level 2.
We got underway just after 8am and got to Avignon around 11:30am. Nice place – walls all round the town. The Bridge doesn’t go right across the river but is very pretty. Both Eddie and I have a touch of the ‘tummy bug’ so needed to stay handy to the ‘loos’. We didn’t, therefore, walk up to the lookout garden above the church – Saint Benezet – that has a golden statue of the Virgin Mary.
A cool wind – The Mistral – was blowing, so although the temperature was 22-24C, it felt a lot cooler, so Eddie wore his jacket for the first time and I wore my cardigan.
Then we had a 3-hour drive, with a comfort stop, to Monaco. I wrote out cards for friends and family and then continued reading my book for a bit, but got sleepy and fell asleep! Me!!
Some of the scenery was interesting. Took a photo through the bus window of the bare mountain range that Cezanne often painted. Don’t think it came out well though because of reflection in the glass.
Monaco was amazing! We went to the Rock where the Palace is. From parking the bus under the Rock, we had to ascend two escalators, then a lift, then another escalator which led out into the street next to the Cousteau Museum with a statue of a giant white baby in front. Sculpture was actually called “The Planet 2008”, why we don’t know, but we all called it ‘The Bebe’, as Vanessa called it.
We only had about ¾ hour there, looking at the gardens, palace and wandering down a residential street. Then Daniel had to negotiate narrow, curvy roads again to bring us here to the Hotel. Its 7:30pm, our cases haven’t arrived and we’re supposed to meet at 7:45pm in the lobby to go to a restaurant for dinner. I wanted to change out of what I have been wearing all day. Also thought I would have time to do some laundry, as we are here two nights. Guess I’ll have to be a washer-woman after dinner!
Later: we finally got to the dinner place about 8:15pm! Vanessa waited – for too long a lot of us thought – for ‘Back Lips’ and Big Coat.
We sat at a table of six. A Canadian couple – Ray & Kay, and Indian couple and her name was also Kay, and me – Jay! The Indian husband thought this a big joke and kept repeating our names! Apparently my name in Hindi means Victorious – I like that!
Quite a nice meal. The main was a slow cooked beef in wine sauce – very tasty and tender, with ravioli stuffed with mushrooms. The Peach Tart for afters was lovely.
In bed by 10:40pm. I only read a little then fell asleep.
We had a free morning today. I woke a couple of times in the night with cramp – first in the left calf and then in the right thigh! Very painful. Got up the second time and took some cell salts. It was 6:10am. I went back to sleep and woke again at 7:30am. We got up and had breakfast just after 8m. We sat with a group of people we haven’t had conversation with yet. They apparently went to the Hotel Bar up on the roof last night after dinner. I had heard some noise for a bit, but still fell asleep, so they weren’t too noisy.
After breakfast we went for a walk along the Promenade Anglais by the water and the stony ‘beaches’. Was already hot so we slowly walked through the tree’d park near the Hotel, then down a couple of streets in the ‘Old Town’ and espied a sandwich bar! We took notice of that for later. We came out on a large square with Neptune in all his glory and leaving nothing to the imagination, in the centre of a Romanesque fountain display, and came back to the Hotel.
Eddie then had a shower while I went downstairs to try to download my emails. Helped one of the solo women on the tour to connect to the wifi. We could then get on the web but our emails would not download. I finally went into my ISP website and checked my mail there. Most I had already received, but my friend let me know she had received her ‘heery coo’ card (that was quick!) and another friend sent me a rude joke concerning Lotto and balls!
I then came up and had my shower and then we went and got a French sandwich. We sat on a bench in the wee park while we munched, then came back to the Hotel. The nice Receptionist at the desk said she would post our cards when I asked her where we could find a post box. When we came up to our room our card would not work so back down to reception and she had to re-configure the card. Eddie thinks that by putting it in his pocket with loose change it may have upset its programme?!
The Hotel is very busy. An Ocular Conference is on the go and there are opticians everywhere! They were having morning tea when I was down using the wifi and they were very noisy. Even when the convenor went round ringing his bell to get them to return to the conference room they took no notice! Took 15 minutes before they moved.
In the afternoon, we had the optional tour of St Paul de Vence – a medieval hill top town. Beautiful, just as I expect a hill town to be! Had a lovely time walking around. A very arty town. We purchased a small water colour painting of 2 wee owls and the French “Je vous aime bien” written underneath. We actually bought it from the artist. Took a picture of his shop sign so we would remember where we got it.
Then we came across a real Italian Gelateria and had a nice sit by the church steps while we ate them. I had lemon & berry and Eddie had Hazelnut. Delicious. The Italian in the Gelato shop thought I had Italian ancestry (I wish!) we suggested he could come and open his shop in Hamilton as we don’t have such good gelato, and he said he might just do that! However, if I was him, I wouldn’t leave St Paul for our ‘cow town’– or rather, I would have stayed in Italy!!
Two young Asian people came along and recognised our accents – they were from Wellington. We greeted each other like long-lost cousins! Had a great chat about our respective tour experiences.
We had to go find the Postbank Vanessa had pointed out on our way up to the town as we were getting short of cash. Then we stopped at a gift shop near the start of the town proper, by the wall, and I bought a nice off-white hat with a string of brown beads round the crown for 14 euro. Very stylish and cool as it was very hot up in the hills.
As we were walking around we came across a very unique ‘sculpture’ of a horse in a little square and the whole thing was made from horseshoes!!
Then the bus took us all on the upper roads – Basse, Mayenne and Grande Corniche to the Perfumery. Road were very windy and narrow with gorgeous views across the Med., but steep cliffs like the Amalfi Coast. Very scary.
The Perfume visit was OK but I thought they would have had more variety of gifts to purchase. We ended up getting a scented candle that I thought a gift for a friend whose birthday will occur while we are still overseas.
We were cutting the time a bit fine as we had to go higher up (!) to our restaurant for the evening. One of the women who had climbed the steps to see the village of Eze up top, did not return! Her husband who had a bad limp hadn’t gone with her. Everyone else was back on the bus. We waited about 10 minutes then the affable Texan went with the husband to look for her. One of the solo women suggested going up the first lot of stairs and calling her name – loudly! So she ran after them. Another 15 minutes passed before they all finally appeared. She had taken a wrong turn and missed the final flight of stairs down.
The restaurant was lovely, like a Bodega with a view down the valley to Eze and out to sea. 
We had aperitifs, crostini and tapenade on the terrace and then a very nice three-course meal. The red wine was better than the rose this time. We sat with Ray & Kay again, the affable Texan and his partner plus another couple we had not sat with before. At one stage, the owner/chef came out to speak with everyone – Geoff from Perth, Australia!
At the end of the meal we were offered Grappa or Limoncello – I quickly opted for the latter!
Coming down the hills was OK as it was dark and I also got Eddie to sit next to the window. We had a couple of hairy moments with stupid drivers in cars, but Daniel is a Master Driver! He got a big applause when we arrived safely back to our Hotel.
The last photo is of Eze from the Perfumery Parking area. The guy in the white shirt is Daniel!