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

Loire Valley: Amboise and Le Choiseul

One of the reasons I love to travel is that new places offer a sense of wonder, a moment of openness, a sense of exhilaration. Exquisite landscapes, spots that seem to transport one back centuries, delicious food—this latest trip to France included many.

So now, how to share them with you? How to give you just a taste of what Paris and the Loire were like for us? After our trip to France I have over 1600 images and hundreds of GoPro video clips to sort through, so I've started breaking things up by day, and I thought the first day of the Discover France (discoverfrance.com) Deluxe Loire tour would be a nice place to start.

Amboise Chateau

Amboise is a town along the Loire topped by a chateau with Gothic and Renaissance elements. What you see today is actually only about a quarter of the size of the chateau at its height. Due to the bloody aftermath of a Huguenot conspiracy that left the chateau festooned with corpses, the place fell into disrepair during the age of the Louis XIV, the Sun King. But in its heyday, the Renaissance king Francois I, a contemporary of the English king Henry VIII, grew up here. In the early years of his reign he made many improvements, turning it into a showplace.

Portrait of King Francois I, who made the Loire very fashionable for chateau building

Amboise, with the ramp up to the Chateau at left

Francois brought Leonardo daVinci to his court and set him up with an atelier in Clos Lucé, a charming brick and half-timber house that was connected to the Chateau by an underground tunnel. At that time Leonardo was designing cutting edge weaponry and machines, as well as architecture and art. When he moved to Francois's royal court, he brought the Mona Lisa with him, which is how it came to be in the Louvre.

Leonardo's Last Home, Clos Lucé

Turrets and towers of Amboise Chateau

Amboise afforded us many many wow moments. The power of the castle looming over the sweet little village on the river - pictures barely do it justice. To arrive in Amboise we got off the train and walked down to the river, crossing the bridge - all recommendations of Rick Steves, by the way.

View of Amboise from the bridge across the Loire

And if you don't know who he is, go to his website, RickSteves.com, and then when you get the chance, watch his travel show on PBS. The man is a genius, because he has made the charms of traveling to Europe much more accessible to us chiefly monolingual Americans. His guidebooks are an invaluable resource. His tips save you frustration, needless waiting on line, and open up unforgettable experiences.

Pennants flying at Amboise Chateau

Because history passed it by in the 1600s, the town of Amboise retains a medieval charm. On a major corner is the well-known chocolatier and patisserie, Bigot. As you can see here, they play the Leonardo theme to the hilt.

DaVinci-Inspired Chocolates in Amboise at Patisserie Bigot

Frozen Desserts at Patisserie Bigot

Pastries at Bigot

More to eat at Bigot

Beautiful little houses, Amboise

If you are an architecture fan, you won't run out of eye candy in Amboise. So many little adorable houses.

Room at Le Choiseul, Amboise

Le Choiseul, our hotel, managed to be humble and four-star all at once, homey and comfortable with lots of little buildings, a pool, and a pretty garden. Our room was in the Hermitage, and it had its own little patio. And even though it was up against a fairly busy road running along the Loire, it managed to be quiet.

Brasserie in Amboise - order the petillant, the local fizzy wine. It is delicious, has a flavor profile more like prosecco than Champagne, and it's reasonable.

Sunset over Chapel St.-Hubert, where DaVinci may be buried, at Amboise

Leonardo on an Apocryphal Bicycle -
the bicycle sketch in his notebooks is believed to be a fake.

Amuse bouche at Le 36, Le Choiseul

The food at Le 36, the restaurant at Le Choiseul, was exquisite, bordering on molecular gastronomy. Of all the very swanky food we had in the Loire included - yes, included - in our bike tour, this was my favorite. The view from the restaurant was lovely and peaceful, over the river and its island.

I could say much more about just this one place, but I will stop here, as I dream of returning to the Loire.

Cheers, Beauty Fans!

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!

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Paris a Go Go

Conciergerie, entrance to the kitchens

What a busy day! Today we have started our 6-day Paris Pass, which cost a lot, but you get to go to pretty much all of the major stuff in this town, and take the subway, so today we did six things afforded by it. We are going to max out this puppy, if it kills us.

Here's what we did, like crazies, in only one day:

Marie Antoinette thinks, what if I'd let them eat, maybe some of my cake. I mean, I really had a lot of freakin' cake, and I never was going to eat all of it....

3d experience of Paris in Archaeological Crypt

• The Archaeological Crypt of Paris, a museum of the History of Paris, about 35 feet under the street in front of Notre Dame. There are Roman ruins and the stones of medieval houses made of repurposed Roman blocks, their latin inscriptions and leafy capitals still visible, and the remains of the old Seine-side docks down there, with plenty to learn about. And this was supercool because it had many interactive 3d models of the city at different times in history, including a detailed reconstruction of the various building stages of Notre Dame. It's fun for me to imagine Paris as a small Roman outpost city, and then a medieval fortress beseiged by Vikings. Rick Steves said the place merited only 15 minutes. We spent 45.

The Conciergerie, the Old Royal Stronghold, and Prison and Court of the Revolution

• The Conciergerie was originally where the kings of France held court, before the Louvre rose up on the Right Bank and was expanded and made progressively more and more fancy and monumental. The Concergerie then became a court and prison during the Revolution, and eventually was the place where Marie Antoinette waited to be bundled off to La Guillotine. A visit to the Conciergerie begins as you step down into a huge gothic space that could have inspired the dwarves' great hall in The Lord of the Rings. It is the first floor of a castle of the Middle Ages with soaring gothic limestone arches above, and it's amazing that it's still here. Then you sit and watch a blow by blow slideshow on the Conciergerie's key role in the Revolution, the experience of an accused, how they would enter the prison, where their trial would take place, where they would be held, and take their doomed and hopeless exercise with the other prisoners, and finally, where they would be prepared for death. Then you walk through these rooms, seeing the place where they prepared the condemned for execution by cutting the hair and tearing open the back of the chemise. There is a table with a beautiful and scary pair of scissors just waiting to be used. And, of course, Marie Antoinette herself is there in effigy with her back to us, praying as she waits for trial. This macabre room is a reconstruction, because her brother-in-law Louis XVIII, when he got on the throne, demolished the old rooms and created in their place an expiatory chapel dedicated to Marie Antoinette, with an altar, and a stained glass window showing her initials, and dark walls decorated with silver tears. Also on the walls are paintings of her last days, and in these there's an idealization of Marie Antoinette that borders on sanctification, with the Queen in glowing white clothes, her eyes toward heaven as if she is St. Joan, while the the bestial revolutionaries send her to her death. There is one room simply lined with large plaques listing the names of those killed during the Terror. It was over two thousand seven hundred people. We looked for Stoney's family name Ledoyt there, and lots of spelling variations, and thankfully, found nothing. But we imagined what it must be like for those who can find the names of their relatives there. The Conciergerie is a great place to get a sense of the complexities of human nature and the challenges of creating a better world from a system of dramatic inequity. At best, it's a cautionary tale.

Windows of St. Chapelle

• Near to the Conciergerie is St. Chapelle, which is a jewelbox of gothic stained glass built by Louis the Ninth to house his fancy new relic fresh from the Crusades, the Crown of Thorns. This is being restored, and there was an interesting video showing all the care that is being taken to brighten and restore the windows, retaining the original look. The view of the tall ceiling with colored light streaming in is eye-popping, and not to be missed.
• After a refreshing stop at Quigley's Irish Pub, in which I learned that my last name is Northern and a bit Protestant, from the friendly Irish Catholic barkeep, we had a wine tasting at O Château, near St. Eustache and Les Halles. We learned that anything called a 'Domaine' is a small wine producer, and that a white wine in a green bottle is usually dry, whereas a white wine in a clear bottle is usually demi-sweet or sweet. The wines were good, a Sauvignon Blanc from Sancerre, a Rose from Provence, and a Bordeaux from the Dordogne, and the tasting was included with the Paris Pass. The prices of the bottles, had we wanted to buy, were at least twice as pricey as they should have been. Our fellow tasters were mostly English speakers, some from Scotland, some from South Africa, and they were a lot of fun.

Our Scottish Jokester Friends at O Château

 

After the wine tasting we visited the courtyard of the Louvre at Cafe Marly and had a very expensive half bottle of Sauvignon Blanc, which we justified by remembering that we'd shared a lunch of chicken gyro and fries takeaway served to us by Madame DaFarge at the Cafe Soleil for 5 euros 50. The view of the Pyramid at the Louvre was almost worth it. Stoney enjoyed the many willowy waitresses with very long legs and very short skirts.

• Finally, we took the subway from the Musée d'Orsay stop to the Eiffel Tower to catch the Bateaux Parisiens cruise of the Seine, which took forever to load and unload, but was a silly good time, full of French singing and giggling, and gave us pastel sunset views of the key monuments, including the Conciergerie, Notre Dame, the Louvre and the Musée d'Orsay.

Conciergerie at Dusk

Because we were out until ten pm, we got to see some things lit up as we stumbled back to our digs on the Isle St. Louis.

Notre Dome in the Blue Hour

View of Notre Dame from Isle St. Louis

Today, we take on the Louvre. Wish our feet luck!

Au revoir from Paris!

 

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