A Soul's Eye View

Another reason I love to travel by bike...

On any given trip to a new place, usually pretty far into the trip, maybe day four or so, maybe after you've been riding in too much heat, or the route was a bit too long, or went over terrain that was rougher than you liked, you'll come upon a view that just blows you away.

Now at that point you may be dehydrated, even bonking just a bit, and if you're like me, you didn't skip the wine at lunch, even though it does dehydrate you, but it's Europe—it's France or Italy or Germany or Austria, and you're in the countryside of those wonderful lands, where the grape vines grow in neat pretty lines, and the wine is just so good, so good it never makes it to America, and you'll have been looking at lovely countryside all day long while you struggle up hills, try not to get lost, make sure you know where your next meal and water is coming from, so basically you're bone tired. All of you is aching just a little, and some parts, quite a lot.

And then you see it—that place that seems to be brimming with God light.

I'm writing about this because it happened to us in the Loire Valley, this April 2013, and years before, in 2007, in the Veneto, the region near Venice in Northern Italy, it also happened. That golden moment, where two of us stopped, aghast, and wondered, wondered with a big huge sense of WONDER, as in Arthur C. Clarke-scale wonder, What is this place? Can we buy a house here? How would we live? Maybe we could afford just a small place here. And then we'd figure the rest out.

Since it happened on the last week-long bike trip, and then again on this one, I hazard that it might be a bike tour thing. I'm guessing it also happens on long hiking trips in the Old Country, on any kind of nice rural traveling vacation in which your transportation is, well, you.

That sense of beauty, of the sublime, is worth the whole trip. And the splendor you see from day one of getting those bikes and the gear, and the road manual, then swinging your leg over the saddle and pedaling toward some new destination, is cumulative. It soaks into you and changes you. It goes hand in hand with the hard exercise you are doing to get where you are going. It's all building toward that tremendous moment of revelation that seems to come, like any good climax in any good story, toward the end of the journey.

In the Veneto, it came after a long day of up and down past mountains and lakes, through a Belle Epoque town, and then over vine-clad hills like patchwork until we came to the village of Rolle. I've got some pictures below, which don't do it justice. It doesn't look like Shangri-La or Rivendell, but it felt that way when we came to it.

Rolle

Vineyards around Rolle, Veneto, Italy

Part of the glory of Rolle was the view from it down into a sweeping valley, lined with more patchwork vineyards. The sun was low in the sky, painting everything golden. And then up in the village, there was a shrine, I think to the Virgin Mary, and there were a lot of school kids there to see it. And as we were riding out of the town right by a steep drop and a low stone wall, their tour bus almost killed us. The rest of the ride we were in survival mode all the way back to the hotel.

Rolle, Veneto, Italy

On this last trip, the God light place was called Candes St. Martin, right where the Vienne river meets the Loire. We crossed over a busy bridge with trucks whizzing by us, always a bit of a hair-raising proposition, and then turned right, gliding downhill down along a river front lined with stone houses, and down a narrow lane, and came upon this church.

Church in Candes St. Martin, Centre, France

There it is, the God light - my camera captured it. And there is that little column supporting a fan vault, an architectural detail I'd never seen before in a Gothic church. I think there is a lot of fan vaulting in England, but I'd never seen anything like this in France, or in my medieval architecture class way back during the Punic Wars.

Square in Candes St. Martin

 There was a charming restaurant right in front of the church, where we could have stopped for a snack, but we were worried about making it to our next destination. I would have loved to tour the church, too, but I could tell my husband was tired, and would feel better just pressing on.

Pricey lunch offering in Candes St. Martin

 These prix fix things are often way too much food for too much cash, but it does look good, doesn't it?

Pretty limestone houses

Detail of Church Porch

Stoney and Me, GoPro and allJ

Just a few blocks down the road, we turned left and saw this, and both stopped and said, "Whoa!" If we hadn't been on bikes we probably wouldn't have taken this route, and we would have missed this. Even if we had taken this route, we might have been going too fast to see that tower.

Tower near Place de la Douve, Candes St. Martin, Centre, France

I could imagine Snow White's Evil Queen opening the curtains and peering out through that window in the tower every few minutes as she does in Disneyland.

There were so many random little magical views like this one, but at that moment, the beauty and the serendipitous feeling of the Loire just basically smacked us across the face. Thank goodness France knows what it has in these picturesque castles and has restored them.

When I was at Ciclavia about six month ago, a regular Los Angeles event in which a nice long circuit of road is closed to motorized traffic so people can ride their bikes, skates and scooters, I ran into a guy who told me about touring all around France, and he said the Loire isn't the real France because it's too touristy. That's probably true, but let me tell you, I didn't care. It worked for me.

If you haven't been to the Loire and are heading to Paris, you can get a day trip bus tour to some of the major chateaus of the Loire, and you absolutely should do it. You just won't believe your eyes.

Cheers, and thanks for visiting my blog!

Love, BeautyJones

Chinon and Joan of Arc

Joan of Arc Statue in Chinon Keep

We're back in Los Angeles now, and a bit sad because it looks like our girl cat Little, who was wasting away when we left, might not make it much longer.

Mister left, Little right

The boycat, Mister, kept waking me up to get petted last night, but I was glad to do it. Thank goodness he is healthy, glossy, fat and pretty, having been well cared for by our wonderful friends at Acme Pet Care. They took Little to the vet while we were gone because she was not doing well, and we'll be grateful to Sara and Andrew forever. If you live in the Los Angeles area and need pet sitters, they are the best. Click the link above to check them out.

Sun over Langeais Chateau in Exquisite France!

All in all, this was an amazingly trip. We have fallen in love with France. It is an incredibly beautiful country, and we've only seen a small bit of it. We know there's much more to explore. I could try to tell you how many chateaux and medieval villages there are in the Loire Valley, but I think you have to go there to believe it. It really knocked us over, and I invite you to discover it. It is a truly magical place. I also think it would be a great area to take school-age children who are learning about European history. But don't see it too quickly. Budget at least a week to soak it in. I'm planning to do a separate post just on the chateaux we saw, and recommend a good plan of how to tour them. Since I've also been to Chambord and Blois in earlier years, I think I'll have a lot of nice tips for you.

Tower at Chinon, France

But in this post, I'd like to talk about Joan of Arc and Chinon.

Bridge between towers at Chinon

A view from the Castle of Chinon of the town and the Vienne River beyond

The Vienne and countryside from Chinon

Chinon is a pretty town that still retains a lot of its medieval character. It sits above the Vienne River, a tributary of the Loire. The keep sits high over the steep slate roofs of the medieval quarter, with gorgeous views of the countryside on all sides. It is a wine town, and you can see the neat rows of vines curving along the soft hills when you look north from the castle.

Maiolica plate with scenes from the life of Joan of Arc

Beefy Bourgeuil and Delicate Chinon Wines

Our guide told us that in France, Chinon wine, especially the reds, are famous. They have a soft, fruity but slightly minerally quality and are a light red similar to pinot noir, pairing well with veal and game fowl. The types of grapes in it are Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon, but coming from this unique terroir, they are quite different from Bordeaux. Do try Chinon when you are in France, because it's not terribly easy to get here in the USA. It's not too expensive, and it's delicious.

Chinon Royal Apartments

Inside the royal quarters at Chinon, there are several rooms with large scrims upon which are somewhat under-edited films about the various historic lords of Chinon. The films do cry out for a bit of a Monty Python parody, intercut with a Jean-Luc Goddard-style closeup of a medieval cigarette. We thought we could detect the coconut Foley doubling for horse hoof clopping sounds. Expense was spared.

Medieval Chinon

Joan of Arc (1412-1431) was a mountain girl who heard the voices of saints, and who ended up putting a French king back on the throne by commanding armies and winning battles. She was then captured by the Burgundians, who sold her to the English, who convicted her of heresy, and burned her at the stake in Rouen. She is that rare thing in history, a medieval woman who appears to have completely transcended the limitations imposed upon her gender. And for that reason, I've found her fascinating since I was a little girl. She was canonized in 1920, and became one of the patron saints of France.

Art Nouveau Joan of Arc

Joan as a War Saving Stamps Poster Child

The French gave a statue of her to New Orleans, where it now stands on Decatur. When I was little, I saw the film about her that starred Ingrid Bergman, and that was it - I was a confirmed Joan of Arc fan.

Ingrid Bergman as Joan

If you don't know who Ingrid Bergman is, then stop reading this right now, go watch Casablanca, and come back. You're welcome. Later, check out her performance in Gaslight. Wow, she was good.
Inside the royal apartments up in Chinon castle is a room devoted completely to Joan and her legend. There is a tapestry showing the incident, which took place right in Chinon, in which she recognizes the dauphin (the heir apparent and eventual Charles VII) even though he has tried to trick her by disguising himself in humble clothes and his valet in royal garb.

Joan recognizes the Dauphin in Disguise

It was she who helped convince him to take back the throne. There are many St. Joan statues, plates, and even false relics in the castle. There are interesting displays showing many depictions of Joan, from the one contemporaneous sketch, to the many romantic depictions of the Maid up to modern day.

St. Joan a la Art Nouveau

Chinon Fortress Guard Tower

I believe that Joan's popularity is so great because there are few female heroes in history, and the human psyche craves female archetypes. And in medieval France, in particular, male-dominated Christianity replaced goddess-worshipping Gallo-Roman paganism, leaving a void. Apparently in the 1400s there was a courtly fashion in France for female prophets and seers, and Joan was simply one who made good. There's an enigmatic appeal in the figure of a teenage peasant girl putting on armor and convincing a king to take back his throne, in a nobody who could somehow frighten the powerful English elite enough for them to condemn and burn her as a heretic. She must have had charisma, and a gift for words, and maybe she did have something of the purity and piety Bergman portrayed in the film.

View of the River Vienne from the Chinon Keep

 When you visit Chinon, give yourself time in the castle and grounds. It has several towers to explore and many evocative vistas. Unless you've taken the right drugs, avoid the historical films and save your energy for the room on St. Joan.

Tower at Chinon

And if we do lose our sweet Little too soon, I know she'll go and sit at St. Joan's gentle feet, and purr her dear loud purr there for all eternity.


Cheers, and Vive la France!

Posted with Blogsy

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.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Long Time No See

I've been sick and very very busy at work, so that's my excuse. Sorry I've been away for awhile. I'm preparing for a trip to France for two weeks.

Going to Paris and cycling the Loire Valley. Please comment below and let me know what you'd like to see. I'm thinking of doing a simple travelogue, and, of course, in Paris, there will be some makeup and some fashion, because that place is modelopolis twenty-four seven - lots of eye candy everywhere.

Here is a collection of looks from the last two weeks, and some products I hadn't gotten around to photographing, and my little depotted palette of lippies for your viewing enjoyment!

 I've had this Sleek cream base palette for a while and am finally getting around to using it. Thinking of taking it to Paris, but I'll be test driving it first. Planning on putting it over my MAC Soft Ochre paint pot to see if it will crease or not. I love the variety of colors in there!

 On this day I was wearing a cherry-colored cardigan, so I thought I'd pull the blue out of it and onto the center of my lids with some irridescent Naked Cosmetics Twilight action. This Twilight collection has lovely iridescent cool tones. I used the darker periwinkle in this set. These pigments are lovely and I haven't heard enough about them. Go check them out at nakedcosmetics.com.

 This was a burgundy eye look using Naked Cosmetics Urban Rustic collection. I just love using burgundy on my eyelids for a bold look. It's a strong look, and yet takes fewer steps to achieve. This kind of round filling in of the eyelid reminds me of the look of silent film stars. It has some mystery and romance. I did very little else on my face, but I think this would look so cool with a similar lip shade for evening.

 Hooded eyes hide the burgundy when I'm looking at you.

 I love this black velvet jacket. I got it at TJ Maxx a million years ago, but it's going to Paris with me.

 This aqua blue shade on my eyes is also from the Naked Cosmetics Twilight set. It's a warmer blue, slightly dreamy and tropical, but I just use it as a sheer wash here. I'm pretty sure I used the NYX jumbo eye pencil in Milk to get this look.

 And here's a neutral eye look with some warm browns in the crease. These kinds of shades are easy to find, but I must say, I'm still totally in love with my Mehron naturals palette. The shades are so true, matte, pigmented and blendable, and I can do an entire eye look with one brush - my bdellium 776 in the yellow bambu collection, which is a dupe for the MAC 217 brush.

 A warm pink lip shade brings out the warmth of this neutral eye look.

 Here's my Zpalette with all, and I mean ALL of my Revlon Just Bitten Balmstains depotted into it. Each of these little tins is metallic, so you can rearrange the shades to your heart's content. And I used a candle to gently melt the product into the tins, once I'd scraped them gently out of the tubes.

I also mixed together 2/3 Revlon Cherries in the Snow and 1/3 Revlon Fire and Ice for the one in the upper right hand corner. Top Left is Milani's new lipstick in Red Label.

I don't think you can do Paris without a few Red Lip days, do you?

Anyway, thanks for dropping by. Please let me know what you are up to in the comments below, and see you sooner than later, this time, Lovely Peeps!

Love, Beautyjones!