Paris - Loire Trip Update 4/23/13

Chateau d'Artigny, our room is on the second floor

Sitting here in the room at Chateau d'Artigny, which is an impossibly fancy Belle Époque palace built by the famous French perfumer Coty.

Chateau de Chenenceau

View of Loire from Le Choiseul's 36

Chenenceau's Ballroom over the river

I know. I should really STFU, because you hate me. But that's OK, wait 'till you hear about the suffering, because there is plenty. You don't want to know how my butt feels right now. You don't. Yes, the food I'm eating on this trip is some of the best I've ever had. But I'm earning it.

Amboise Chateau

After the first bike day, from Amboise to Chenenceau, a fairy-tale castle (sounds cliche, but just look at the picture, ok?) built over a river and passed from the famous paramour of a French king to his jealous and severe Medici wife, we had covered 50k of gravel, forest, farmland, and terrain that is not, by any stretch of the imagination, not even remotely flat. Discover France lied. They lied. I can hack it. Not sure my butt can take much more, though. Not sure my husband will survive at all. And there are still two mandatory bike days left, one billed as "Moderate," which means, if you're us and not freakin Lance Armstrong, your ass is really about to be grass.

Snails, Hotel Le Choiseul, my new death row dinner

Chateau Amboise

The night before last we had this snail appetizer covered in a creamy foam made with the local goat cheese, layered Napoleon-style with crisps of another kind of cheese or pastry. There was also some basil-infused oil in there. I can't fully describe how exquisite all this was. It had at least five interesting layers of flavor dancing on my tongue. This was at Hotel Le Choiseul's restaurant "36". Go there. It's in Amboise, which is such a lovely little town on the Loire topped with a chateau that began as a Gallo-Roman fortress, became a royal French fortress in the Middle Ages, and then was made supercool and flamboyant by King Francois I, with a bit of help from his pet Italian Renaissance artist, Leonardo da Vinci. Yeah, that guy.

Leonardo's Last Home, Clos Luce

Today we set out from Amboise intending to visit Leonardo's final domicile and workspace at Clos Luce, but alas we discovered they wanted 18 euros 50 each for the entrance, and we are not idiots. Still you can walk in and look at the house. It's very pretty.

So let me outline the suffering for ya. This evening I took a shower and was washing the unmentionable bits, and I realized that my butt wasn't larger because I had been eating too much, although I had, but because it was swollen for being on the bike saddle for hours and hours and hours. The saddles on these bikes are quite hard, not puffy. Very nice quality, fancy brand, but ow. Thank goodness that part of one goes numb after awhile. And then there's the magic cream, the Hoo-Ha Ride Glide that is a bit tingly and lessens the hot spots. Thank goodness for that. My husband joked that he'd like to sit in a bucket of it. If only we'd brought one.

2 Needful Beers in Montlious

Today at lunch, when we'd reached a town that had a little bar, we broke down and had beer at 11:30am just because it would lessen the aches and pains. But what has happened to us? Are we so much softer than when we took that Italian bike tour six years ago? Have we aged that fast? Apparently so.

At the end of the first day, Stoney asked me why we do these kinds of things to ourselves on vacation. We were so tired and in so much pain, and had eaten so much rich food we could hardly speak.

Margaret and Stoney in Ancient Cave, which serves as a bike storage garage at Le Choiseul

But the fact was we had bonded so much over these travails, moment after crazy moment, we had laughed so much at our own foolishness and had marveled at the landscape, the storybook fortresses and chateaus. Have we bitten off more than we can chew? Oh, yes. But the sky, when it's blue, has Peter Max Yellow Submarine clouds floating in it. This part of France is just waking up to spring in that exuberant tender hopeful way that only places that have had long bitter winters can. You can still see winter's mistletoe on the leafless oaks, but on every tree and bush there are soft buds, and the earliest blooming trees are in full pink regalia, and the vineyards are sprinkled with marguerites and mustard flowers. We cheer each other through the tough parts, coach each other up the cruelly steep hills, celebrate the glorious descents, moon over the pretty bike paths through the vineyards and rolling farmland. Each sip of wine has new flavors, each new extravagant hotel is shockingly scenic, and too much for us. And we forge ahead. Proving we can do it, even when it's hard, especially when it's hard.

So my answer to my husband's his question, why?

"Because it's fun."

His reply to that? "I suppose that's right."

Tomorrow is that brutal "moderate" day, though, punctuated with magical castles and rivers and forests and charm, and one terrible hill, right toward the end. It may just kill us, so please, wish us luck.

 

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Paris Diary 4/20/13

Maccarons in St. Germain. Mangez!

St. Sulpice Church, key in The DaVinci Code

I just can't sleep on planes, so here I am, as my husband snores lightly next to me, organizing my photos and thoughts at one in the morning Paris time.

Cour du Commerce St. Andrea in St. Germain

We are staying in a very cute boutique hotel in the St. Germain area, which is the 6th arrondissement. Paris is divided into arrondissements or little neighborhoods that each have the feeling of little villages with their own unique character. They spiral outward from the original city island in the Seine, called Ile de la Cite, like the swirls of a snail shell. In the 6th arrondissement, you find the area of Paris known as the Latin Quarter, because it's the part of town that contains several universities, including the Sorbonne and the University of Paris. The University of Paris is the oldest university in the world, in fact, the faculty of the University created that word 'Universita', which was the name of the guild they formed for their new trade as educators. In the Middle Ages, the students actually spoke Latin to each other, Latin being one of their main courses of study, which became a common language for students from all over Europe, so that's how this little neighborhood came to be known as the Latin quarter.

Hotel Esprit St. Germain

The hotel is called the Esprit St. Germain, or the spirit of St. Germain, and it's on Rue St. Sulpice, which fans of The DaVinci Code may remember for the church of the same name, where is found the Rose line, which is supposed to be the meridian line of Paris. There is a plaque on the floor where the sun shines through a lens in a window and dramatically hits key points on the summer and winter solstices and the equinoxes. This configuration was designed by the famous French astronomer Sully in the 18th century.

But enough history! What have I been eating? The short answer is: too damn much.

Duck foie gras at Le Comptoir

Le Comptoir's Filet

Saumur white wine and crusty bread at Le Comptoir

The recent Paris episode of Bourdain's The Layover inspired us to wait in line for Le Comptoir, where we ordered the filet of beef because we kept seeing it go by and it looked and smelled so delicious. It was a lot of very pink delicious beef. Amazing poivre wine sauce. The beef tastes better, richer more minerally, and yet lighter than our beef in the States. There was some kind of buttery mashed potato and parsnip wine sauce vat o joy on the side that we simply could not stop eating, even though it seemed to contain an entire stick of butter. I had the duck foie gras because it's amazing stuff, and because L.A. has outlawed it. LIttle baby romaine, caramelized pickled onions, wine reduction, plummy mustardy jam on the side, and some very lovely round Saumur white wine with some tropical fruit and stone fruit notes to wash it all down. The wine was so reasonable! The steak was not reasonable at all. Wow! Yum!

Le Comptoir has gorgeous mini rack of lamb, lots of different kind of terrines, including Bourdain's fave, the black boudin. We're thinking of going back tomorrow to try more things off the menu, since it's just down the block from our hotel. The Bourdain episode means this place is packed with eager American foodies, so better to eat here late, around two or so, like we did. As we enjoyed our wine and it got later, we noticed the kitchen staff coming in with bags and bags of fresh produce for the impending dinner service. We also saw that as it got later, the English-speaking tourists gave way to lots of passionate French foodies, a good sign.

Le Comptoir is near a nexus of major streets, so it's an optimal place to people watch. French men really love to rock the brightly colored scarf, and they make it look so good. They are not allergic to pink, as are their American counterparts. I must try to take more street style photos.

My husband was so thrilled we ended up on this double decker airbus with Air France. It was very comfortable, even in coach, and there's loads of carry on luggage space. The screens on the back of the seat in front of you have the all-important on demand media center with plenty of TV and movies, and there's also a live map to show you where you are, and views outside the plan from three cameras, one mounted on the tail facing forward, one on the nose, and one on the belly of the plane showing the clouds and landscape below. Very fun! Stoney kept telling me were were not on a plan but a really cool spaceship.

The chocolate and maccaron stores in St. Germain are ridiculous and tempting and wrong. Yes, I've eaten more than my share of chocolate truffles now and I'm only one day in. Trouble, people. Thank goodness I'm biking for a week starting Sunday.

Chocolate Fishies

Candypalooza in a French Newstand. Buhbye, Diet!

More Crazy Candy!

Art de Chocolate

What exactly do they serve at Schmuck's?

Menu at Schmuck's

Just down the street from Le Comptoir is a restaurant called Schmuck's, which serves something called a Schmuck Burger. Would you try it? Now I do speak a bit of Yiddish, and I'm very concerned.

Menu at Schmuck's

Well, that's it from today's Paris Diary! Thanks for visiting my blog!

 

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