21 January, 2024

After 4 blissful days in the village of La Napoule we retrace our journey along the A8/E80 to just before Avignon where we take a right onto the A7. We need to check out at noon but can’t check into our next accommodation until 5:00pm. With the trip only taking 3 hours, we have some time to kill. Therefore, our first destination is the village of Mirmande which is 32 km south of Valence.

It’s a lovely sunny day and 8 Deg. C. when we depart the hotel at 11:03am. Would you believe, within half an hour of driving, we come across not one, but two, accidents on the opposite carriage way – the first with 2 fire units in attendance. Not surprising as it is a Sunday and given the risks that we’ve seen French drivers take such as cutting in front of you to change lanes and other haphazard forms of driving. There are some dreadful and dangerous driving examples and probably the worst that we have seen so far in Europe.

It seems that French drivers don’t know how to use their cruise control. The speed limit on the freeways is 130 kph but we are in no hurry so I set our cruise control to 116 kph and stay in the slow lane other than when passing trucks who are limited to 90 kph.

On many occasions a French driver would slowly pass us doing about 120 kph then move back into our lane with about 1 car length between us. They would then slow to about 110 kph and I would have to pas them again. One woman passed us three times doing the same thing. I eventually decided to speed up and put some distance between her and us and thankfully we didn’t see her again. Perhaps it is a women driver thing that they can’t work out how to use the cruise controls as every one of the drivers that did this to us was a woman driver. It helps driving on the RHS as I get to see the French drivers up close and personal when we pass them on the freeways.

2 hours into our journey we see the first road sign to Valence.

An hour later, after we take a rural road, we arrive at the idyllic hillside village of Mirmande, a French commune located in the Drôme department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of France.

“One of the most beautiful villages in France”, in Drome. Hidden behind the ramparts, intertwined in a labyrinth of alleys, the houses of Mirmande have preserved their beautiful stone facades and their old doors.

The walled town is not anywhere near as beautiful as our favourite medieval town of Spello in Umbria, Italy but still quite pleasant.

We park outside the village and walk to its base. Shortly we come across Restaurant Margot which seems to be open so we pop in for a hot chocolate each.

After the wonderful, friendly service we received from the staff at the Pullman, the owner’s taciturn ‘welcome’ is disappointing.

However, the restaurant is beautifully appointed, from its curved vaulted ceiling to its chandelier, framed colourful posters advertising past art exhibitions and a wall featuring framed butterflies which turns out to be wall paper.

Our goal is to walk to the top of the town where the medieval Eglise Sainte-Foy is located which we achieve in about 15 minutes, wending our way upwards along steep medieval cobblestone-paved laneways between stone walls and cottages and passing several galleries and artisanal workshops.

From a feudal point of view, Mirmande was a land (or lordship) first owned by the Adhémar, with the first part of the village built by the Adhémar de Monteil family in the 12th century. From the 14th century it passed to the bishops of Valencia who gave its inhabitants a charter of freedoms in 1469.

In 1835 the village hosted 5 annual fairs, had a few tile factories and 5 silk-working factories.

After the disappearance, at the end of the 19th century, of silkworm breeding which supported nearly 3,000 people and which supplied the silk industry in Lyons 135 km north, it was fruit production which ensured Mirmande its development and reputation.

During WWII, the Resistance was established in 1942. From April 1944, Mirmande was home to a marquis. According to Pierre de Saint-Prix, he notably contributed to hiding opponents and refractors to the STO, with the support of many notables of the village (including the mayor dismissed by the Vichy authorities, Charles Caillet).

Then based in Mirmande, the painter Marcelle Rivier actively participated in this movement as a liaison agent. Following the failed arrest of Pierre de Saint-Prix by the Gestapo, the latter took refuge in the woods, upstream from the Caillet farm.The Mirmande marquis participated in receiving airdrops and in certain sabotage and skirmishes.

After the village’s decline in the 20th century, 2 men contributed to the resurrection of this village: the cubist painter André Lhote, attracting numerous artists and organizing large-scale exhibitions, and the famous volcanologist Haroun Tazieff who was its mayor for 10 years from 1979-1989.

After we leave the village it is our intention to call into a Leclerc hypermarket for supplies. But, as it’s Sunday no supermarkets are open, not even Carrefours Expresses.

We arrive at the accommodation at 4:30pm and after much faffing about involving my parking while Lynn accesses the apartment building, gets into the apartment via a keybox code to get a parking card and returns we finally park the car in a nearby parking garage and lug our luggage up a very narrow, winding staircase to the 1st floor apartment.

It’s a very small, basic apartment more suited to student accommodation but it will suffice for the 4 days that we are here. Fortunately there are a couple of fast food shops along the street so, while a load of laundry is being washed, we go to the pizza shop directly across the road for some take away.

After fiddling with the TV’s settings we settle down to watching a couple of movies then hit the sack.

22 January, 2024

Today’s temperature is due to be 9 Deg. C. and raining so after some cereal for breakfast we drive to the Leclerc hypermarket we were planning on visiting yesterday.

Here I buy a new pair of jeans for the grand total of Eur8.95! My others, which I’d purchased before our trip to the USA in 2019, have been wearing very thin so time to avert a disastrous wardrobe malfunction!

Supplies purchased, and while Lynn does my ironing, I head out to case the ‘hood in search of restaurants that might be open tonight (most shut on Mondays) and a quick look at the old town for places to visit over the next day or so.

Ironing done, Lynn then works on updating the blog while another load of laundry is being washed. As only restaurants in the old town might be open tonight we opt for a simple meal in followed by a couple more TV movies.

23 January, 2024

After a long lie in we wake to a sunny day with a promised top of 14 Deg. C. Clothing repairs completed, we walk the 10 minutes into town with our first stop the Hotel de Ville in Place de la Liberte.

Located in the heart of the Rhone corridor, Valence is often referred to as “the gateway to the South ”. Founded in 121 BC by the Romans, it quickly acquired importance thanks to its position at the crossroads of Roman roads and achieved the status of a Roman colony. Over the centuries, the city grew. The period from the Middle Ages to the 19th century is well represented in the city center.

The town hall is located in the heart of downtown Valence, in the pedestrian streets. The building was inaugurated in 1894 by Jean-François Malizard, then mayor at the time. Its architecture is particular, since it has a belfry, a secular bell tower symbolizing the independence of the city from the Catholic Church, a classical facade and a roof of tiles of different colors. City halls under the Third Republic were designed to exalt republican values.

One of the streets off Place de la Liberte is Rue Dauphine which has some traditional apartment buildings and a street art mural.

The area we are in now is all purely pedestrian lane ways. We walk several blocks and notice this stand-alone archway that frames the craggy Ardeche hills on the opposite side of the Rhone River.

The gate is firmly locked and the park looks like it has been abandoned. Apparently it has been closed since 2018 due to subsidence and cracks in basement vaults explained by the history of the site. Before becoming a public park in 1982, the place had homes, an abbey, a prefecture and a bombing in 1944. The outcome of an independent survey was due in 2022, but still the park remains closed.

From here we wander around the corner to Place de Saint Jean which is the location of a covered market and Eglise Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Valence, a Catholic church located in the old town. It is perched at the highest point of the city, a sign of its antiquity, and would be one of the very first places of Christian worship here. Documents evoke the course of different councils within it, notably those of 374 ( 1st Council of Valencia ) and 855. It is traditionally held that the original part of the church was built during the High Middle Ages .

A farmers’ market operates here on Tuesday mornings. In fact, Valence is very well catered for by markets, having one every day except Sunday in the various places around town.

Although the bell tower is ancient, the interior of the rebuilt church is non-descript except for the unusual, curved wooden seating behind the altar.

Several blocks away to the SW is Place des Clercs, a public square with restaurants, bars and shops and adjoining it is the apse of Saint-Apollinaire Cathedral, the oldest monument in the city.

From the 5th century when the episcopal district was created Place des Clercs began to gain importance. Businesses were set up, markets took place and justice was done.

Bishop Gontard (1063-1099) initiated the construction of this building in the historic district of Old Valence. It was consecrated in 1095 under the triple name of Saints Cyprian, Cornelius and Apollinaire by Pope Urban II who went to the Council of Clermont to preach the first crusade.

Destroyed during the Wars of Religion, the cathedral was rebuilt in the 17th century and its bell tower was replaced in the 19th century. It has an ambulatory, allowing the passage of pilgrims and confirming its role as a stopover church on the way to Santiago de Compostela. It was burned twice, in 1562 and 1567, by the Huguenots and rebuilt from 1604 in the initial Romanesque style. The entire building, although almost entirely rebuilt in the 17th century, retains all the characteristics of the first Romanesque cathedral.

In 1799, Pope Pius VI was exiled and sent to France. He is in his eighties, he is very weak and his journey stops in Valencia, where he dies on 29 August. First buried in Valencia, his body was brought back to Rome, but the Valentinois demanded his heart and his entrails, which were returned and are still preserved in the cathedral. The visit of the Pope and his Swiss Guards encouraged a pastry chef to create a character-shaped shortbread cookie, the Swiss, which is still a specialty of Valencia.

Further South is Esplanade Pic, bordered by the Champs du Mars, where the Kiosk de Peynet, created by architect Poitoux in 1890, is located.

Also in Esplanade Pic is a statute of General Jean Etienne Championnet who was born in Valence in 1768 and died in Antibes in 1800, a major general of the French Revolution. The statue is homage from his home town.

In 1942, while passing through Valence, Raymond Peynet, drew for the first time, his two lovers. He says “Sitting on a bench, I drew the Valence kiosk which was in front of me, with a little violinist who played alone on the platform and a little woman who listened to him and waited for him. We also saw all the musicians who, with their instruments in their cases, were leaving the Valence kiosk in the park. In the caption the little musician said: “You can leave alone, I will finish on my own”. Raymond Peynet will name this drawing: “The Unfinished Symphony”. Max Favalelli, editor-in-chief of the magazine Ric et Rac, renamed it “Les Amoureux de Peynet”.

The Peynet Lovers couple enjoyed immediate success and quickly became part of the heritage of popular imagery. Since then, Le Kiosque des Amoureux de Peynet, as it is called, has become a historic monument.

From the Esplanade is a view of Parc Jouvet below, the Rhone River and the Ardeche hills beyond.

We retrace our steps to Place des Clercs to sit in the sun for a while with a cuppa, then we return to the apartment.

Tonight, for dinner, we plan to take advantage of the take away shops in our street – Mexican tonight, methinks.

24 January, 2024

18 Deg. C. is the forecast today so we plan to visit the remaining sights listed for Valence this morning.

First stop is the Chapelle des Cordeliers on Rue Andre Lacroix, a former Catholic place of worship, now disused. The most attractive part of this simple church is the facade. The monumental baroque portal has retained its original carpentry.

Cordeliers was the nickname given to the Friars Minor of the Observance or to the Conventual Friars Minor established in France. The name of these monks would have been attributed to them mainly because of the rope which encircled their robes, and proposed by John I of Beauffort during the Seventh Crusade.

The Cordeliers settled in Valence in the 12th century. Their convent is built to the north of the city. Ruined twice during the Wars of Religion, it was rebuilt not far from its original location in the 17th century. The chapel, consecrated in 1696, is the only vestige. During the Revolution, it was successively transformed into a fodder store, an ammunition store, a meeting room, then after 1945 it housed the Departmental Archives. Currently it houses the headquarters of the Drôme Heritage Conservatory.

In the same street is the 13th century Draper’s House, the oldest house in Valence, built from stone and tucked away in the Saint-Jean district. Its architecture indicates that it was likely to have been a wool merchant’s house. The facade’s rendering, the quality of the material used (large mollasse blocks, ornamentation, alternating archstones) shows how wealthy the owners must have been.

Several blocks SW is Place de la Pierre. In the 15th century, the inhabitants of Valence obtained from the Dauphin Louis, the future King Louis XI, the concession of two annual fairs and a market which were confirmed by François I in 1538.

A traditional market place in the old town, Place de la Pierre owes its name to an imposing stone hollowed out with three holes used as wheat measures. The bottom of the holes was slightly inclined in order to lead the grain towards another opening through which it flowed. This stone disappeared in the 19th century.

The western part of this square has seen a succession of different buildings, including a small church dedicated to Saint Martin during the Middle Ages, destroyed at the beginning of the 16th century. A market hall was established on the site of the church. It remained in operation until the end of the 19th century, then converted into a Labor Exchange (Bourse du Travail) at the beginning of the 20th century. Since the trade unions stopped using the building in the 1980s the site occasionally hosts exhibitions and is generally used for cultural purposes.

A block further South is Le Pendentif, a Renaissance-style funerary monument built in memory of Canon Mistral. Erected in 1548 in the cloister of the Saint-Apollinaire cathedral, this is a triumphal arch, renowned for the perfection of its vault (a pendant vault, hence its name). The monument, which was to serve as a chapel on the ground floor and a tomb in the basement, was once more sumptuous, decorated with stained glass windows, glass roofs and wrought iron fences. The upper surface of the vault was topped with a copper cap. But the Wars of Religion ransacked the building and pillaged its treasures.

Put on sale in 1796, the pendant was bought by Antoine Gallet, a liqueur maker who converted it into a pubic house, to the great dismay of Jules Ollivier, historian and magistrate from Valentin, who tried to restore its dignity. In 1832 it was sold at auction and fortunately bought by the City of Valence and the Pendant was one of the first monuments classified in France in 1840, barely three years after the creation of the Historical Monuments Commission.

One of the laneways off Place des Clercs is Grand Rue where La Maison des Tetes is located. Antoine de Dorne, a law professor at the university and the consul of the town, was the first known owner of this urban residence, built him around 1530, when he returned from travelling in Italy.

A jewel of architecture from the beginning of the 16th century, this former private mansion, marking the transition from the flamboyant Gothic style to the Renaissance style, owes its name to the numerous heads which adorn its facade. Sculptures symbolize the winds, Fortune, Time, or even theology, law or medicine while the corridor is decorated with busts of Roman emperors.

The residence was purchased in 1794 by the widow of Pierre Aurel whose son, a friend of the young Bonaparte then stationed in Valence, would later be recruited as the army’s head printer in Egypt. Today, the building belongs to Valence town council and it how houses the Interpretation Centre for Architecture and Heritage.

We return to Place des Clercs which is adjacent to the apse of the Cathedrale Saint-Apollinaire.

The square was once the site of public executions in the city, the most famous of which was that of smuggler Louis Mandrin in 1755.

The sunshine entices us to sit at one of the cafes that border the Place. It specialises in desserts so Lynn decides to order a traditional crepe with lemon juice and sugar. Imagine her surprise when she discovers her crepe has been sprinkled with lemon juice – and salt!

Time to wander back to the apartment which we do via the Fontaine Monumentale with its view of Boulevard Maurice Clerc.

What’s for dinner? Take away, of course, from the ‘Chicken’s Run’ shop on our street.

Tomorrow we plan to leave at 11:00am for a 4-hour drive north to Dijon where we’ll be for 5 days.

25 January, 2024

Normally the drive from Valence to Dijon on the A7/E15 toll road would take 2 hours 50 minutes for the 315 km trip, whereas the toll-free route would take 4 hours 55 minutes. Yesterday, Google Maps had forewarned us that the toll route would instead be 4 hours, thanks to the motorway north being closed in a couple of places.

What it didn’t forewarn us was as to why it would take so much longer. It’s thanks to the Bloody Idiot French! There’s obviously absolutely nothing going on between their ears when it comes to managing road closures and diversions!

We leave the apartment at 10:30 am, expecting to arrive 4 hours later at 14:30 pm. 15 minutes later we come to the entrance to the motorway which is closed and are diverted onto the N7 which inexplicably comes to a standstill for over half an hour.

As we slowly stop and start we believe it’s due to the D86C bridge over the Rhone that ends in a small roundabout at the junction with the N7 at Saint-Vallier that is the cause, only to find miles up the road that an electrician has parked his van on the side of the N7 to do some work but it’s slightly blocking the road which means that the lorries have difficulty passing each other in the opposite directions. The electrician’s stupidity or typical French “don’t give a sh*t about anyone else” attitude has caused at least a 15 km traffic jam in both directions. Mind you, closing the only major freeway from Marseilles to Lyon without police traffic management in the small towns and roundabouts on the N7 doesn’t help.

We finally get back onto the A7/E15 at 12:30 pm at Chanavas with the motorway taking us through Lyon which, incidentally, has grown enormously since Lynn last visited here about 20 years ago. But this only lasts 45 minutes as just on the other side of Lyon the motorway is closed once again for no apparent reason.

Why close a major freeway in both directions? Surely there are better solutions. Again the French “don’t give a sh*t about consequences” or “didn’t think that through” causes major economic consequences for thousands. Must be related to the same French guys who tested nuclear blasts in the Pacific in the ’70s. It doesn’t affect them so who cares.

This time we are left to our own devices as there is just the 1 ‘Diversion’ sign that leads us into a labyrinth of narrow, suburban streets. 18-wheeler semitrailers struggle even to get around the corners. What moron thought that it is OK to divert a major freeway through small suburban streets? Again we sit in the “truck stop” for half an hour while we creep onto the D306 where a series of traffic lights block the traffic with no police traffic management in place. What a total f*** up. Eventually we merge with the A7 once again. Our new ETA is 3:30 pm.

I vow to never go to France again after our upcoming trip is completed. France has become a third-world country with third-world management thinking. The food is rubbish and way over priced. Have all the French chefs moved abroad?

Thank goodness, we have no more issues once we are back on the motorway, arriving at the underground parking station adjacent to the hotel on Place Grangierin Dijon at 3:30 pm – 5 bloody hours later!

By the time we check in and unpack we are knackered after such a long and frustrating day, but a glass of red and the bold, quirky artwork that is characteristic of the hotel revive our spirits, somewhat.

Fortunately the hotel has both a restaurant and a brasserie so we choose the cheaper brasserie for dinner. A nice change to take-a-ways but probably lower quality at a higher price.

9:00 pm – lights out – literally and figuratively! Little did we realise that today still hadn’t finished with us …

26 January, 2024

By the time we surface Australia Day is almost over. It’s due to rain in Dijon today so we plan to have a day in to catch up while enjoying the view of Dijon’s rooftops, and thousands of chimney pots, from our room.

By 1:00 pm, although overcast, it still hasn’t rained so we decide to pop out to see what’s nearby. Typical of all the French towns and cities that we have visited on this trip the pavements are covered in dog poop. Despite doggy doo plastic bags provided by the towns and signs telling owners to pick up their dog crap, none of the dog owners bother. Filthy French!

The obvious place to start checking out the town is the imposing Eglise Notre-Dame at the end of our street. A masterpiece of Burgundian 13th century architecture the Notre-Dame has a remarkable facade decorated with fine arcatures and rows of false gargoyles. On top of one of the front towers is a clock known as Jacquemart.

Adjacent to the Church is the Palais des Ducs et Etats de Bourgogne (Palace of the Dukes and States of Burgundy). In the square in front of the palace is a statue of Philippe Le Bon (Philip the Good).

From its height of 46 m, the Philippe le Bon tower offers a panorama of Dijon and its surroundings. The Tower, originally called the Terrace Tower (Tour de la Terrasse), dominates the entire Palace of the Dukes and the Estates of Burgundy whose designer was Lyon architect, Jean Poncelet. Built between 1450 and 1460 for Philippe the Good at the same time as the ducal dwelling, it recalls the prestigious medieval past of Dijon under the reign of the great dukes.

Walking through the Palace we come to Place de la Liberation and the Town Hall. The semi-circular square was designed in 1685, by the Versailles architect, Jules Hardouin-Mansart, to receive the equestrian statue of King Louis XIV but the statue didn’t arrive in Dijon until 1725 due to transport difficulties at the time. However, it ended up being melted down to make canons for the revolutionaries in 1792.

The classic reconstruction of the Palais des Ducs began in the 17th century according to Jules Hardouin-Mansart. It was finished during the course of the 19th century.

The whole building now houses the Town Hall and the Musee des Beaux Arts (Fine Arts Museum).

Next door is the Theatre Municipal, built on the site of Sainte Chapelle. Work of Jacques Cellerier, it was built in neo-classical style which was fashionable at the beginning of the 19th century.

In the next block, on Rue Vaillant is the Church of Saint Michael. The first phase of construction was of gothic influence whereas the the facade was inspired by the Italian Renaissance.

La Nef (The Nave) is located in the former abbey church of Saint-Etienne and is now occupied by a cultural centre, local library and the Musee Rude which has moulds of works by the Dijon sculptor Francois Rude.

Dotted throughout the Old Town are half-timbered houses …

… now used as restaurant venues.

Place Francois Rude is also known as Place du Bareuzal due to the statue of the grape harvester placed above the fountain in the centre of the square. After having spent a long time treading grapes, the wine growers came out with “red stockings” (bas roses).

On Rue de la Liberte is the Moutarde Maille house, creators of flavours since 1747 – master mustard makers also offering vinegars, oils and pickles. Famous for Dijon Mustard.

At the end of Rue de la Liberte is Porte Guillaume, a 18th century triumphal arch named after Guillaume de Volpiano, the 11th century reformer of the Saint-Benigne Benedictine abbey. The arch was inserted into the town’s ramparts but at the end of the 18th century when the ramparts were demolished, the arch became stand alone.

Around the corner on Rue de la Poste is the Post Office building which faces Place Grangier.

Henri Grangier Square occupies the site of the Dijon Castle built by Louis XI in 1478. The King of France had this fortified site built to protect the city militarily and impose its power after the death of Charles the Téeraire. For the Dijonedes, the castle became the symbol of the resumption of control of Burgundy by royalty after more than a hundred years of independence. It was demolished during 1887-1897.

Also on Grangier Square is a 2020 sculpture entitled Le Computeur du Temps (The Time Counter) by visual artiste Gloria Friedmann. The 4 m high work is “an allegory which represents our planet on which sits a man with a clock in front of his face”. Riveting.

As it’s now mizzling we return to the hotel. We will venture out again this evening to find a restaurant around Les Halles, the covered market.

In the meantime, I go back to the car to get some fruit out of the ASDA cold bag we have in the footwell behind the passenger seat, only to find that the cold bag has disappeared. I check with Lynn that we hadn’t taken the bag upstairs to our room, given that we don’t have a fridge. She is as perplexed as I am. Her response is: “(1) We put it in the boot with the other bags. (2) When we took some items out of it yesterday then you asked me if we needed to take anything out of the boot I got distracted, we locked the car and walked away, with the bag still sitting on the ground out of sight behind the car and someone has picked it up. (3) The car has been broken into with a scanner key and someone has taken it, like what happened in Boston.” After we check the bags in the boot and determine that nothing has been taken, I conclude that option (2) is the most likely and that Lynn is losing it.

Around midnight I decide to go and check on the car which is on Level -6, the lowest level in the parking station. Who should I see but a 20-ish year old, skinny black dude in a black track suit and grey beanie walking along the row of cars checking if any of the doors are unlocked. He legs it. It’s then that I realise that in addition to the missing cold bag my prescription sun glasses are no longer in the glove box, my heavy duty black leather snow gloves and the 2x hi-vis vests that were tucked into the passenger seat pocket are also missing. What is it about my prescription sunnies and leather gloves?? Also taken during the car break-in when we were in Boston!

I take it up with the guys on Level 1 who are supposed to be managing the parking garage. It turns out that they hadn’t locked the garage when they went home whereby people can only get after-hours access by scanning their parking ticket – i.e. they have a legitimate reason to enter the secured garage.

27 January, 2024

Straight after breakfast we go to the head office of the parking garage company which is a couple of blocks away in order to view the CCTV footage of Thursday evening, the 25th. We are told we have to report it to the police in order for them to request and view the footage. Typical French bureaucracy. They can’t just do it the easy way.

15 minutes’ walk later we enter the police station at Place Suquet. I want to report this, not because the missing items are particularly valuable nor was the car damaged, but if it isn’t reported these petty thieves won’t ever be deterred.

Fortunately for us both the cop on reception and his colleague who interviews us and submits the report speak English so about 50 minutes later we are walking out the door again having been seen promptly and courteously, even sharing a few jokes with the interviewer. He says they will review the tapes tonight and will email me, but I’m not going to hold my breath. They probably have no intention of checking out the video but just want us to think that they are doing something.

Right, time go get on with what we had actually planned to do today. Like Zielona Gora in Poland with its trail of Bacchus sculptures, Dijon has a trail of brass owl markers on the footpaths which take you around the old town to discover various historical sights. In addition to the Owl Trail there are also the Zola, Rousseau and Moses Loops which link into the Owl Trail.

But first, we see that there are Saturday morning markets set up in the nearby streets so we check these out.

These market stalls lead to Les Halles covered market which was closed yesterday afternoon. Today, it is surrounded on all sides by market stalls, such as the flower stall with large bunches of mimosa.

Inside it is vibrant with all the stalls trading giving the place a buzz. So far, every Les Halles market hall we’ve visited in France, only a few of the stalls have been open which tends to suck the energy out of these spaces.

Now, onto the starting point of the Owl Trail, Jardin Darcy. This was the town’s first public garden created in 1880 designed around the reservoir built 40 years earlier by the engineer Henry Darcy to bring water to the town. This garden is guarded by the “White Bear”, a tribute to the famous animal sculptor, Francois Pompon.

From here we walk past Porte Guillaume, which we visited yesterday, to just passed the Hotel des Postes with its academic architecture. Here is a surprising Art Nouveau building with pagoda roofs, quite different in style despite the fact that it was designed by the same architect, Louis Perreau, who designed the Hotel des Postes.

The next spot on the Trail is Les Halles so we cut to the next site, Place Francois Rude which is named after a famous Dijon sculptor who was born near here and who sculpted “La Marseillaise” the famous bas relief on the Arch de Triomphe in Paris.

Also here is a contemporary piece by artist Gloria Friedmann – a sculpture of a tree with a human face.

No. 40 Rue des Forges is Hotel Aubriot. Its cellars in the 13th century were used to store the monetary reserves. Guillaume Aubriot was in charge of these exchange vaults with his house built above.

Next door at No. 38 is Maison Maillard, erected for Jean Maillard, Dijon’s mayor in 1560 which has a remarkable Renaissance facade.

Next is the Eglise Notre-Dame. As mentioned yesterday, on top of one of the front towers is a clock, “Jacquemart”, a war spoil of Philip The Bold. Originally, the clock was made before 1382 in Kortrijk, Belgium. Philip the Bold, who had sacked the city, brought back the clock as a trophy and in recognition of their help in the Flanders war. “The most beautiful work that could be found here or beyond the sea”, as the medieval chronicler Jean Froissart described it, was mounted in the months that followed on a tower of the Notre-Dame church.

The clock is almost too difficult to read from the street. Just stolen for the sake of stealing. They could have mounted it in a better location.

On a building around the corner of the church is a sculpture of an owl which, over the centuries, has become a good luck charm for passers by who have defaced it by rubbing it.

Also on Rue de la Chouette (Owl Street) is Maison Milliere. Built in 1483 by the merchant Guillaume Milliere it has retained its typical Medieval appearance – street stall on the ground floor and family dwelling on the 1st floor. The facade has kept its wooden-beamed walls and enameled bricks.

Up the street is L’hotel de Vogue, the best example of a 17th century town house between courtyard and garden. It was built for parliamentary president Etienne Bouhier and passed by marriage to the ‘de Vogue’ family in 1782.

Fun fact: Maison Milliere and the courtyard of L’hotel de Vogue were used as decor for the 1990 movie “Cyrano de Bergerac” with Gerard Depardieu.

At the corner of the street is Rue Verrerie (Glassware Street) where the antiques dealers’ quarter begins. In the past, this street was known by other names often connected to the activities carried out in it: Pig Market Street, Sargis Street (textile), Shearers’ Street. Typical of the Middle Ages it has well-aligned houses with corbelled, wooden-beamed walls and arcades.

This brings us to Place du Theatre which we visited yesterday. This time we enter La Nef (The Nave) located in the former abbey church of St-Etienne at the Musee Rude which has casts of the monumental works by Dijon sculptor Francois Rude (1784-1855).

Dominating the space is the cast of “The Departure of the Volunteers of 1792” , commonly called “La Marseillaise”, which was commissioned by the State in 1938 fearing that the Arc de Triomphe de l’Etoile in Paris would be destroyed during the war.

Most of the museums in Dijon have free entry so today we also visit the Museum of Fine Arts (Musee des Beaux Arts).

The collections range from Antiquity to the Middle Ages in Europe and in Burgundy featuring the tombs of the Dukes of Burgundy. Then from the 17th century to modern times.

The tombs of John the Fearless (1371-1419) and his wife Margaret of Bavaria (1363- 1423). Behind, the tomb of Philip the Bold (1342-1404), are in the Guard Room of the Palace of the Dukes of Burgundy. The tombs consist of painted alabaster effigies with lions and angels, and below, figures of mourners. The Guardroom, a large ceremonial and banquet hall, was built 1450-55 by Philip the Good (1396-1467) in flamboyant Gothic style.

The tombs were originally from the Chartreuse de Champmol, a Carthusian monastery which was sacked during the French Revolution and the tombs moved to Dijon cathedral in 1827. The effigies are 19th century reconstructions, the originals being destroyed in the French Revolution.

In all, there are 1500 works presented over 4200 sqm of exhibit space. These works cover more than 2000 years of art history combining paintings, sculptures, art objects and furniture.

Outside, in the courtyard, is the Tour de Bar. Designed according to the model of a medieval dungeon, the Tour was built from 1365 by Philip the Bold. It is the most ancient part of the Palais des Ducs.

At this point my back is starting to ache so we terminate the Owl Trail for today and will do the remaining 5 of 22 sites tomorrow.

After an afternoon nap, Lynn is very hungry by 4:00 pm so by 5:00 pm she can’t wait for the French restaurants to open at 7:00 pm so we head around the corner to Burger King for an early dinner.

Unfortunately, they are so slow it takes nearly an hour to receive our meal and to make matters worse it’s cold. Lynn takes it back to the counter and asks them to redo a hot meal. This is the most pathetic attempt at fast food that we have ever experienced. Ahh, the French… bad expensive food, non-existent service, thieves and dog poop everywhere. It really is a third-world country – or perhaps it is just inhabited by third-world people these days.

28 January, 2024

Fog! Freezing fog as it turns out with a top of 6 Deg. C. today.

This does not deter us from reconnecting with the Owl Trail at the Palais de Justice (Law Court) which was designed for the old Burgundy Parliament in the 16th century.

Attached to this building is Hotel Legouz de Gerland with its elegant facade on Rue Vauban and its courtyard.

At this point we join the Zola Loop at Place Jean Mace. From here we walk to Place des Cordeliers. Dijon architect Pierre Le Muet (1591-1669) is credited with building the Hotel Gauthier which has a dormer window bearing the date 1642. Its facade with bossed windows is typical of its time.

On Rue Sainte-Anne we come across the former convent church (17th century Carmelite Convent). Its facade is typical of the religious architecture of the Counter-Reform period.

Towards the end of Rue Sainte-Anne is the former church of the Bernardine Monastery which is now the Sacred Art Museum.

Next door the other buildings and cloister are part of the Museum of Burgundian Life. We decided to check it out since it is warm inside and entry is free. Typical of the French… it is just after noon and they close the Museum for two hours from 12:30 so it will be a dash around to see things. My kind of visit actually. Unlike Lynn who likes to read every detail and mull over every exhibit I just want a quick glance at some of the more interesting exhibits. A 20 minute visit is more than enough.

This museum presents a collection of items showing the daily life in Dijon and rural Burgundy from the 18th to 20th centuries.

Recreations of 11 shops that used to line the streets of Dijon (pharmacy, hat shop, grocery, butcher’s, furrier, clockmaker, biscuit shop, toy shop …) are presented.

Next is Place Emile Zola named after the French novelist, journalist, playwright, and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism.

On this square, which at the time was called Place du Morimont, public executions took place until the turn of the 19th century.

From here we walk to Place Boussuet, named after the bishop of Meaux and writer Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet (1627-1704), whose birthplace is located nearby. His sculpture stands in front of the Saint-Jean Church on the Place where Bossuet was baptized.

Across the road from the church at No. 15 is the ‘Roofless House’. Legend has it that a pie-maker made delicious pates but one day a child’s finger was discovered in one. The pie-maker was put to death and the roof of his house destroyed…

Next door at No. 13 is the Hotel, a beautifully-restored 15th century house.

Here we end the Zola Loop and rejoin the Owl Trail continuing on to Saint-Philibert Church. The porch of this ancient church in the parish of wine-growers served as a place for the election of the town’s mayors until the French Revolution at which point it became a storage room for salt. The church was reconstructed during the height of Romanesque Burgundian Art in the middle of the 12th century. The porch is now a sleeping place for the homeless.

Not part of the Trail, but on the corner of the street is a house with a bench upon which are 2 wreaths A plaque on the wall indicates that Maxime Guillot, pioneer of the Resistance, was seriously injured on this spot on 29 January 1944 by the Gestapo.

The last stop on the Trail is Saint-Benigne Cathedral. From the time of the ancient abbey rebuilt from the year 1000 by Guillaume de Volpiano, the church features a crypt of Romanesque Burgundian Art. Here the relics of Saint-Benigne, the 1st apostle of Burgundy, are to be found.

Attached to the cathedral is the former abbey which now houses the Musee Archeologique (Archaeological Museum) on the Square des Benedictins.

It is now just after 1:00 pm and it is bloody cold and still foggy. We decide we need to find a cafe for a hot chocolate to warm up. As this is a third-world country nearly all shops are closed on a Sunday. We find a bistro open near our hotel but, as it’s lunch time, it’s only serving food. However, they serve food all day so we make a booking for a 5:00 pm dinner (surely they can’t be as slow as Burger King!).

As we pass by the Galeries Lafayette next door to our hotel we discover they have a cafe on the 1st floor. The hot chocolate is very good and while we sip our warming drinks I notice the store has a 60% off sale. I find a very nice pure cotton shirt reduced from Eu65 to Eu25.99. A real bargain for this country!

L’edito Restaurant & Cafe turns out to be a real find. Good service, varied menu, great food and beer at a reasonable time and price and they can also be found in Reims, Chalons-en-Champagne and Dunkerque. That’s dinner sorted at those 3 upcoming destinations!

29 January, 2024

Back to a sunny day with a top of 13 Deg. C., or 7 degrees warmer than yesterday.

Today we will walk the Rousseau Loop which starts near the Hotel de Vogue. At 7-9 Rue Auguste Comte is a timber-framed house from the early 16th century. At the corner of the house is a small street called Rue Pouffler. In the Middle Ages, where the car park is now, used to be a market specialising in salted meat and lard.

About half way down Rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau is the bell tower of the former Church of St Nicholas.

Nearby is Rue Vannerie which has a number of mansions and gardens. One of them is No. 39, Hotel Chartraire de Montigny which has a superb rocaille door (one of the more prominent aspects of the Rococo style of architecture and decoration that developed in France during the reign of King Louis XV (1715–74) featuring scrolls and curves).

At No. 66 is a Renaissance sentry box at the Hotel Le Compasseur mansion.

Back onto Rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau we come to Placette Garibaldi. This small square is a tribute to the man who helped Dijon defend itself during the 1870 war. The trompe l’oeil wall is the work of Dominique Maraval (1986) and the bust of Garibaldi by Macorati (1961).

A market selling cheese, vegetables and lard took place in the Middle Ages at the “corner of five streets”. On the original site, at No. 79, a low-relief depicting a bull lying down still adorns the building’s facade.

At the corner of Rue Jean-Jacques and Rue Chaudronnerie is another 16th century house, this one was owned by the Ramaille family.

No. 28 Rue Chaudronnerie, the Maison des Cariatides (House of the Caryatids) was built for the Pouffier family in the late 16th century. The decorative facade is typical of the Burgundy Renaissance style. Life-size statues called caryatids surround a cauldron, a symbol of the owners’ trade (cauldron merchants). This is the end of the Rousseau Loop.

En route to the hotel Lynn calls into the Notre-Dame Church to find that she has the place entirely to herself. I have seen more than enough Churches in Europe to last a lifetime so she can really have the place to herself.

For dinner this evening we are booked into the hotel’s Brasserie once again to take advantage of our 2 free drinks!

Tomorrow we drive NNW to Epernay for a total of 8 days in the Champagne region. Bonne sante!

30 January, 2024

Taking the toll roads will take us around 2 hours 40 minutes to drive the 285 km to Epernay. We are going to leave at 11:00 am as we need to call into Ikea to buy 2 more hi-vis vests and get fuel at the Leclerc petrol station next door which will have us arrive on time for our 2:00 pm check-in.

Just as well we leave at 10:30 am as we find that the information from the cop that we could buy the vests at Ikea is wrong (Leclerc has them) and a young woman in front of us in the pay-at-the-pump queue faffed for ages – doing the same thing over and over – trying to get the pump to work and then to get a receipt from the machine.

So, at 11:30 am we finally get onto the motorway. It’s sunny and 9 Deg. C. Compared to our trip from Valance the motorway is relatively quiet with the occasional semi-trailer.

Thankfully our motorway route has us skirting Troyes and some distance from Paris as French farmers are blockading major roads into Paris at a 30 km radius. Hopefully that won’t be blockading Calais when we are due to arrive there on 7 February and due to depart on LeShuttle 3 days later.

We take the D3 off the A26 and a road sign tells us we are now in the Champagne region. Only trouble is, there is not a vine in sight! And we don’t get to see any until about 100 m from where the D3 becomes the Avenue de Champagne in Epenay where elegant wine houses form an impressive guard of honour on both sides of the avenue into the town.

At the apartment we collect the keys and I haul our suitcases up 3 flights of narrow stairs. Our apartment is under the eaves with solid, exposed wooden timbers supporting the roof.

Next we drive about 4 km away to a Leclerc hypermarket for provisions. Needless to say they have an extensive collection of bottles of champagne in their wine section.

As we have found in most French supermarkets, the locals just love their fromages. These 2 rows of chiller cabinets are chockers with cheese.

When we return to the apartment we find bottles of champagne chilled in the fridge which we can purchase, plus a small wine fridge also full of wine. We promptly open a bottle, an Andre Dormay 2016 champagne from Cauroy-Les-Hermonville. Now, that’s how you should run a rental apartment!

31 January, 2024

Bliss! A lie in and when we crawl out of bed we discover it’s a sunny day. This prompts us to walk up the block to check out today’s morning market in the Halle Saint Thibauld. As usual, only a handful of stalls are open offering fruit and veg and one fish stall.

As we venture further up the street we come across a Monoprix store where we need to purchase some batteries and an optometrists (there are several in the same street) where I buy a pair of clip-on, polarised sun glasses, to temporarily replace those that were stolen. Lynn reckons I look like a mad scientist in them, when I flip them up!

The Saint-Martin Portal was built in 1540 and is attributed to the Reims sculptor, Pierre Jacques. In Renaissance style, the portal is one of the oldest monuments in Epernay. Classified as a historic monument in 1908, the portal was preserved after the demolition of the church and was reinstalled in the square located near Place Hugues-Plomb. Decorating the portal are stone garlands between which all kinds of animals play, including salamanders, an architectural detail which links this portal to the time of Francis I.

Several blocks away is the Eglise Notre-Dame. Built on the site of the Ursuline convent during 1897-1915 it has been restored several times due to the effects of bombing and presents different architectural styles. The church is characterized by a medieval transitional style: the exterior is inspired by Romanesque and the interior by early Gothic.

It houses large Cavaillé-Coll organs offered by Paul Chandon de Briailles in 1869. They come from the old Saint-Martin church. Its listed bell dates from the end of the 14th century.

We continue to Place de la Republique, a large roundabout from which 6 roads radiate, one of which is the Avenue de Champagne.

The Avenue de Champagne (formerly the Avenue de Commerce) extends for nearly 1 km lined on both sides by magnificent private dwellings constructed over many centuries by the Champagne Houses. Some were originally built as a Head Office, others as the private home of the proprietor. All of them reflect an architectural style that celebrates the brand in particular and Champagne in general. The Avenue is now a (UNESCO) World Heritage site, listed under the heading Champagne hillsides, Houses and Cellars.

Here on the Place we find a number of daggy, old-style restaurants, bistros and wine salons.

For example, La Fine Bulle, a tasting room entirely dedicated to champagne. From the outside, would you have guessed that the boutique highlights the vintages of 25 winegrowers and those of prestigious houses? And every month, a new House offers 2 of its vintages for tasting plus a tasting of 5 champagnes from partner winegrowers? Nor us!

Later in the afternoon we head out to investigate the Avenue de Champagne. At the Place de la Republique is a large orb which we discover is actually a balloon that flies aloft but tethered to the ground – just not today. Apparently the attraction accommodates up to 29 passengers and offers, at 150 meters in the air, a 360º panoramic view of the Montagne de Reims, the Marne Valley, the western slopes and the Côte des Blancs.

The Avenue de Champagne is also said to have been called the Faubourg de la Folie (“crazy suburb”) — a name that still suits it well, conjuring up the grandeur of the buildings that line it on both sides.

The late 17th century marked the construction of magnificent cellars, which by the end of the 18th century made this avenue the address of choice for pioneering Epernay Champagne producers. The arrival of the railway then brought a boom in business that fostered a taste for architecture on a monumental scale. The avenue became home to grandiose properties of every style that were constantly rebuilt as successive wars and fires took their toll. Famous residents of the avenue include such great names in Champagne as Moët & Chandon, Perrier-Jouët, Boizel, de Venoge, Vranken, Pol Roger, Mercier and G.H. Martel

At the beginning of the Avenue is the Hotel Particulier Auban-Moet. This stately home was commissioned around 1858 under the direction of architect Victor Lenoir, who also designed the Gare Montparnasse in Paris. In 1920 it became the Town Hall of Epernay.

Across the road on a corner block is the huge, “modern” headquarters of Moet & Chandon. In July 1918, the building was badly damaged by a bomb and its subsequent fire. Reconstruction ran from 1928 to 1934, under the direction of the then House Director Jean-Rémy Chandon-Moët, to plans drawn up by architects Henri Picart and Bruno de Maigret.

The facade consists almost entirely of windows, providing maximum light to the offices and workshops. The surrounding masonry is meanwhile composed of sand-coloured bricks that are quite untypical of the region and probably deliberately chosen to convey the image of the wine itself. The architects opted for what was then a relatively modern building material: concrete.

The construction of the “Commerce” building, in particular, could not have been achieved without load-bearing concrete columns — essential to overcome the instability of a site hollowed out by cellars below the surface. The building is exceptionally tall, standing some 80 metres high and positioned like a sentry at the entrance to the Avenue de Champagne — a concrete expression of confidence in the future of the Avenue’s residents and their namesake Champagne wine.

Since the 1800s, the original headquarters building of Moët & Chandon Champagne next door has conserved its aesthetic value.

Several doors along the Avenue is the “Musée du vin de Champagne et d’Archéologie régionale”, previously the Chateau Perrier. In 1811 cork-manufacturer Pierre-Nicolas Perrier married Adèle Jouët and founded what was to become the celebrated House of Perrier-Jouët. In 1854 they commissioned the building of this Louis Treize style chateau. It originally served as the Perrier private family home and stands today as a magnificent example of Late Romantic Era French architecture.

In WWII the chateau served as Army Headquarters, first for the British Army (1940), then for the Germans (1942-1944) then for the Americans in 1945. It was then converted into the Epernay Municipal Library and Museum, making an important contribution to the magnificent built heritage of the “Champagne Avenue”.

Since 1950 the chateau has also housed the regional museum of prehistory and archaeology, based on a major donation of artworks and archaeological artifacts to the town of Epernay in 1893. Some 40 years later eminent French archaeologist, Abbé Pierre Favret, was appointed as the director and curator of the collection — one of the most important archaeological exhibitions in France comprising some 80,000 regional artifacts (dating from the Paleolithic to the Early Middle Period) together with (since 1960) 4,000 artifacts and documents relating to the history of Champagne wine.

Nearby is the Boizel Champagne House launched in 1834 by 2 pastry chefs which has since operated as a family concern and by both husband and wife, now in its 6th generation. During its history the House has always been innovative – shipping its wines to London in 1851; launched the first brut champagnes in 1872; shipping wines to Australia in 1923; creating the first Blanc de Blancs in 1929; 2008 introducing the first ‘Zero Dosage’ cuvee and in 2018 opened its Atelier 1834 tasting room on site.

Tonight we are walking back into the town square to have dinner at Sacre Bistro that is recommended by our hosts and has a good rating on Google. Perhaps it is the quiet winter time and maybe they have a temporary chef working in the Bistro because the food is inedible.

We order Chicken Supreme but there is nothing supreme about it. At A$46 a plate it is part chicken breast and part wing with a swirl of mashed potato. By now we are getting used to overpriced food in France but the chicken piece is tough, microwaved and under-cooked rubbish. Even the serrated knifes we have been provided with (a clue, perhaps?) can’t cut it – literally and figuratively!

I send mine back and Lynn struggles through about half of hers until she encounters pink, under-cooked meat. Even the wine is a tiny (125ml) glass of undrinkable Chenin at A$12. Have all the good French Chefs gone skiing for the winter or moved to better countries??

1 February, 2024

After the rain stopped this afternoon we went to an underground cave in town for a champagne tasting – a flight of 6 degustations for Eur15 – normally you only get 2 for Eur16.

They were: 1. a chardonnay (Chapuy, Brut Reserve Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs) – our rating 1; 2. a meunier (Sendron Destouches Cuvee de Reserve Brut) – our rating 3; a pinot noir (Baron Dauvergne Grand Cru) – our rating 2; 4. a traditional blending of 3 grapes (Collet Brut) – our rating 4; 5. a blended rose (J Perard Pere et Fils Grand Cru Brut Rose) – our rating 5, and 6. a rose de saignee/maceration rose (Leriche Tournant Brut) – our rating 6. We leave with a bottle of No. 1 for Eu35.

At 7:30 pm we rock up to Chateau Perrier (the Museum) on Avenue de Champagne to see the competitors in this year’s 26th Monte-Carlo Historic Car Rally that is driving through Epernay tonight with an expected 90 classic cars. The rally is from 31 January to 7 February and is organised by the Automobile Club de Monaco.

Leaving Reims at around 7:00 pm tonight, the competitors will head for Langres, passing through three compulsory checkpoints: Epernay, Vitry-le-François and Bar-sur-Aube.

The first team is due to arrive at around 7.45 pm in Epernay for the first checkpoint. These collector vehicles, exclusively models that took part in a Monte-Carlo Rally between 1911 and 1982, will then make their way along the famous Sparnac artery driving towards the next 2 checkpoints.

In all, 248 competitors, starting from Reims, but also from Bad Hombourg (Germany), Glasgow (Scotland) and Milan (Italy), are expected in Monaco for the real start of the big race, on Saturday 3 February. The cars will then travel the small roads of SE France for six days.

2 February, 2024

Savouring our last long lie-in for a couple of days we have a late breakfast and catch up with a few things. After our below-par restaurant experience a couple of nights ago we’ve decided to dine in with a charcuterie board, a freshly-baked baguette and an artisnal flan for dessert.

Check-out tomorrow is an early 10:00 am and as it will only take us 30 minutes to drive north to Reims through the Parc Naturel Regional de la Montagne de Reims, we’ll take a circuitous route visiting a number of Champagne villages along the way.

3 February, 2024

Pity it’s an overcast, cold, rainy day as we won’t be able to see the usual views of the Champagne region. Naturally, our first stop is at the abbey where Dom Pierre Perignon is buried in the village of Hautevillers, 7 km away.

Appointed procurator of Abbaye d’Hautvillers in 1668, Dom Pierre Perignon spent 47 years overseeing the abbey’s worldly affairs until his death on 24 September 1715. He acted as manger, builder, legal specialist, merchant and, above all, winegrower and maker.

Abbaye d’Hautvillers’ reputation flourished under this stewardship as he pursued his proclaimed mission: “to make the best wine in the world”. He was a visionary who developed revolutionary grape-growing and winemaking techniques that helped earn Champagne wines their reputation for unique nobelesse and refinement.

His wine was served in Versailles and praised by the Sun King, Louise XIV. In the 19th century his renown spread worldwide and he was celebrated as “the spiritual father of champagne and Hautvillers as “the birthplace of champagne”.

Hautevillers is also famous for its 140 traditional wrought iron signs. There’s even a map that plots a circuit to view them.

Driving down the hill towards Ay we come across a field of vines which, by the tombstone by the roadside, indicates that the grapes from these vines are grown for Moet & Chandon.

The village of Ay-Champagne is the location of the House of Bollinger. Athanase de Villermont inherited a vast estate from his family on the outskirts of Ay. He unerstood the potential of Champagne wines but as an aristocrat he was forbidden from undertaking any commerical activity.

Then he met Joseph “Jacques” Bollinger who specialised in selling Champagne wines and Paul Renaudin, a born-and-bred Champenois. On 6 February 1829 the company Renaudin-Bollinger & Cie was founded with Joseph in charge of sales and Paul overseeing the cellar. Anthanase had founded a Champagne house that would transcend centuries.

From Ay we drive to Avenay Val-d’Or, Mareuil-sur-Ay, Cuis, Oger, and on our way to Vertus we drive past vineyards owned by Veuve Clicquot near Le Mesnil-sur-Oger.

Barbe Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin was born in 1777, the daughter of a textile manufacturer in Reims, Champagne. Widowed at the age of 27, she took control of her own destiny and became one of the first modern entrepreneurs. In an era when women were excluded from the business world, she dared to assume the head of the company founded by her father-in-law in 1772, a role she undertook with passion and determination. True to this heritage, the House is proud of its motto: “Only one quality, the finest.”

Her creativity and drive for innovation led to many firsts in Champagne: the first known vintage champagne; the invention of the riddling table; the first known blended rosé champagne. Three inventions that revolutionised champagne making and were widely adopted by producers, becoming the basis of modern champagne production.

Madame Clicquot made her name into a brand of excellence and her formidable contributions earned her the nickname of “la grande dame of Champagne”.

Vertus is our furtherest stop south where we turn NW and drive to the ridge-top Eglise Saint-Martin at Chavot-Courcourt with views down to the Marne River valley.

From Chavot we drive across the Marne River to Vandieres …

… where we find the Chateau de Vandieres, a private chateau owned by the Desrousseaux family. It was built in the 16th century, remodeled in the 18th and completely restored after damage from the 1914-1918 war.

Acquired in 1816 by the gentleman glassmaker, Joseph-Auguste Desrousseaux (1783-1838) was the castle, its buildings, courtyard, and garden. It was then inherited by Edward in 1836 then passed to his son Auguste in 1861. The castle park was created in the 19th century by the famous landscape architect Jacques Lalos.

Driving through woodlands on our way to Vandieres we had come across a couple of triangular road signs with an exclamation mark and the word, “Chasse” – Hunt!

Sure enough, driving to Cuchery we pass by a hunting party. One guy in a hat with, in addition to his gun, a big, black umbrella (un parapluie), and the rest of the party further down the road with their hounds.

From Cuchery we continue eastwards past the villages of Fleury-la-Riviere on the D324 and Mailly-Champagne on the D26.

On the approach to Verzenay we pass its windmill. This pivot-type windmill was built in 1818 by the Tinot-Vincent couple on Mont-Bœuf to grind cereals (wheat, barley and rye). It stopped operating in 1903.

It served as an observation post during the war of 1914-1918 . On 27 September 1917, Raymond Poincaré, President of the Republic, and the allied leader Victor-Emmanuel III, King of Italy, went there to observe enemy lines. It regained its role as an observatory in 1944 for the American army.

In 1923 it became the property of the Heidsieck Estate and underwent restoration in 1949. In 1972, the Mumm Champagne house acquired it and has since maintained it and opened it, for private receptions, to its guests who can enjoy an exceptional panorama of the champagne vineyards.

Our penultimate destination today is the Lighthouse at Vezenay – miles from the ocean – but overlooks a sea of vineyards. To publicize his brand of champagne created in 1909, Joseph Goulet decided to do a publicity stunt. He decides to build a lighthouse on a hillock, in the middle of the Champagne vineyards. In the evening, the lantern begins to rotate and lights up the hills of Verzenay until it is visible from Reims. It is one of the first buildings in the region made of reinforced concrete.

During WWII, the lighthouse was used as an observation post. After the war, only the reinforced concrete tower resisted the shots. For many years it was abandoned until it was bought by the town of Verzenay from a champagne house in 1987.

Today, the lighthouse offers several services to visitors. After climbing the 101 steps, the belvedere offers a 360° view of the vineyards; the ecomuseum offers a guided tour on the history of champagne, and the tasting area offers prestigious vintages from winegrowers in the Montagne de Reims.

At 3:00 pm we arrive at the Mercure on Boulevard Paul Doumer overlooking the Canal de l’Aisne a la Marne and the Stade Auguste-Delaune which we discover will host a spirited match between Reims and Toulouse tomorrow afternoon.

The hotel is a block away from Rue Libergier which leads to Reims Cathedral.

Since it has been a long day we decide to eat in the hotel restaurant tonight. I am now absolutly convinced that there are no good French Chefs left in France. I had a steak that was supposed to be succulent and covered in a sauce. The meat was so tough that even a very sharp steak knife couldn’t cut it. I had no chance of chewing it (and I tried). I managed to eat about 25% of the meat but gave up before I broke my teeth on it. I have eaten more tender boiled lollies in my life. What a joke. It is almost impossible to make steak this tough no matter how bad you are as a chef. I am seriously done with French food!

4 February, 2024

Another freezing, overcast day greets us with a top of 11 Deg. C. At 10:15 am we walk a couple of blocks to the Vesle tram stop where we buy 2x Eu1.80 daily tickets and jump on an A tram towards Neufchatel, alighting at the Schniter tram stop.

This tram stop is near to the Monument aux Morts de Reims, the meeting point for our 2-hour GuruWalk of Reims Town and Cathedral.

The monument is located above the Place de la République created on the site of the ramparts of the medieval city. The war memorial was designed by the architect Henri Royer in collaboration with the Reims sculptor, Paul Lefebvre. It was erected in 1930 in memory of the town’s children killed during WWI (1914-18).

Across the road is the Halles du Boulingrin where flea, book, arts and crafts and festive markets are held and it’s also used as an exhibition space.

While we have been in France we have seen numerous red and white Historic Monument plaques about the place. The red design is based on the maze that used to be in the Reims Cathedral, then adopted France-wide as the logo for historic monuments. Apparently numerous cathedrals in France had labyrinths embedded in their floors but have mostly been removed. Chartres Cathedral is the only undisturbed medieval labyrinth left in a cathedral nave in the world.

On Rue de Mars is a gorgeous pastry shop, “Aux Merveilleux de Fred”, which highlights traditional specialities including Merveilleux, a delight from Flanders. A flagship product revisited by Frédéric Vaucamps, this dessert is distinguished by its light meringue. Initially in chocolate, it’s now available in a multitude of flavors and sizes, the individual-sized ones seen in the bottom LH corner of the photo.

Further along the street is a building with interesting architectural features. The Mumm expedition cellar, known as Le Cellier, is a former place where champagne was made, currently a cultural center in Reims.

It was built in 1898 under the direction of Reims architect Ernest Kalas for the champagne company Jules Mumm. The facade is made up of two very distinct parts: a practical part in red brick pierced with a large circular forged door evoking the shape of thunderbolts; the decorative upper part presents in five scenes the stages of champagne manufacturing – an example of an advertising facade.

In 1905 the cellars passed into the Mumm GH fold; they were then the property of Veuve-Cliquot champagnes, then Jacquart before becoming the property of the city in 2010. After the bombing of the town hall in March 1917, the Reims municipal council sat in the cellar.

Across the way is the Hotel de Ville. Previously housing a museum, the city archives, a savings bank, a library, the city police, a tribunal and the chamber of commerce, it now only houses municipal services.

Nicolas Lespagnol, the city inhabitants’ lieutenant, laid the foundation stone on 18 June 1627 and the new building was constructed to a design by the architect Jean Bonhomme. The council began meeting there from 1628 onwards. The façade was completed in 1636 and the building as a whole completed with the corner tower in 1823.

Construction resumed in 1863 and completed in 1880. It was burned down on 3 March 1917 during WWI and rebuilt post-warin 1924. The architects Roger-Henri Expert and Paul Bouchette contributed, along with the sculptor Paul Berton, born in Reims. President Gaston Doumergue reopened the building on 10 June 1928.

Past the Hotel de Ville, th Rue de Mars becomes the Rue du Tambour (Drum Street). Located in the heart of the commercial district, Rue de Tambour was one of the busiest in the old town. Here is located the oldest bourgeois house in Reims, known as the Hôtel des Comtes de Champagne because it served as residence to Thibaud IV (1201-1253) and more generally to the Counts of Champagne when they came to Reims for the coronation of the kings of France.

The residence dates from the Middle Ages. It belonged to Nicolas Razulet, viscount of Saulx-Saint-Rémi in 1703, but apart from this it was a residence of the city’s bourgeois. This residence was also a “hotellerie” under the name of Le Coq Royal. Before WWI, when it was partially destroyed, the ground floor was occupied by shops. After the war the Taittinger Champagne House bought and restored it under the direction of the Ministry of Fine Arts then occupied it. The house is currently owned by the Taittinger champagne company and is used at cultural events.

Rue du Tambour becomes Rue Colbert which ends in the Place Royale (Royal Square). A bronze statue of King Louis XV stands in its center, commissioned by the city from the sculptor Jean-Baptiste Pigalle and inaugurated on 26 August 1765, depicting “the sovereign in Roman garb, with laurels on his head and one hand extended ‘to take the people under his protection'”.

From here we walk around the back of the Cathedral past Jardin Henri Deneux to the Carnegie Library of Reims (Bibliothèque Carnegie de Reims), a public library built with money donated by businessman and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie to the city of Reims after WWI. Reims was one of three “front-line” cities to be given a Carnegie library, the other two being Leuven and Belgrade (Belgrade University Library).

Founded in 1910 by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace decided after WWI to provide a library to the cities particularly battered by bombings. The Carnegie Endowment offered the city of Reims a sum of US$200 000 (more of 3 million francs at the time) to build the new library.

Built in the 1920s of Art Deco designby French architect Max Sainsaulieu (1870–1953), it combined the mission of heritage conservation and of a reading public library. Until 2003, the Carnegie Library was the main library of Reims.

Finally we walk around to the front of the stunning Notre-Dame de Reims also known as Reims Cathedral. The Catholic cathedral was dedicated to the Virgin Mary and was the traditional location for the coronation of the kings of France. Reims Cathedral is considered to be one of the most important pieces of Gothic architecture. It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1991.

Interestingly, according to the cathedral’s original drawings there were supposed to have been 2 spires topping the 2 front towers and one in the centre over the space where the altar is located.

The cathedral church is thought to have been founded by the bishop Nicasius in the early 5th century. Clovis was baptized a Christian here by Saint Remigius (Saint Remi), the bishop of Reims, about a century later. He was the first Frankish king to receive this sacrament. The stone’s location marking this spot in relation to the size of the church at the time shows that Clovis was baptised outside the church, a requirement before he would be allowed into the church according to Christian law.

Construction of the present Reims Cathedral began in the 13th century and concluded in the 14th. A prominent example of High Gothic architecture, it was built to replace an earlier church destroyed by fire in 1210. Although little damaged during the French Revolution, the present cathedral saw extensive restoration in the 19th century. Severely damaged during WWI and II, the church was again restored in the 20th century.

At the beginning of the 10th century, an ancient crypt underneath the original church was rediscovered. Under the archbishop Heriveus, the crypt (which had been the initial centre of the previous churches above it) was cleared, renovated, and then rededicated to the sainted bishop Remigius. The cathedral altar is still in the same place, directly over the crypt, where it has been for 15 centuries.

During the Hundred Years’ War’s Reims campaign the city was under siege by the English from 1359 to 1360, but the siege failed. In 1380, Reims Cathedral was the location of Charles VI’s coronation and eight years later Charles called a council at Reims in 1388 to take personal rule from the control of his uncles. After Henry V of England defeated Charles VI’s army at the Battle of Agincourt, Reims along with most of northern France fell to the English. The English held Reims and the cathedral until 1429, when it was captured by Joan of Arc, allowing the dauphin Charles to be crowned king on 17 July 1429. Following the death of Francis I, Henry II was crowned King of France on 25 July 1547 in Reims Cathedral.

With the restoration of the French monarchy after the downfall of Napoleon, the practice of royal coronations at Reims resumed, but only briefly. The last king of France to be crowned there was Charles X in 1825. His reign was deeply unpopular. He was overthrown in the Revolution of 1830 and replaced by a Constitutional monarch, Louis Philippe I, who was sworn in at the Parliament in Paris rather than crowned in Reims.

The coronation of Charles VII in 1429 marked the reversal of the course of the Hundred Years’ War, due in large part to the actions of Joan of Arc. She is memorialized at Reims Cathedral with two statues: an equestrian statue outside the church and another within.

On our way to Place Drouet d’Erion we cross the tram lines on Rue de Vesle. Our guide tells us that there was a competition for the design of the new trams and one suggestion was for the front of the trains to look like a Champagne flute – the winner!

We pass by Eglise Saint-Jacques. In 1190 the erection of the new church of Saint-Jacques-le-Majeur began. The roof was finished in 1270. An enlargement was made in 1548 in the choir and the side chapels. The Gothic tower was destroyed by a storm in 1711, and the new bell tower has a Louis XIV-style lantern.

Our tour ends at the Fontaine Sube. From here we walk up Rue de l’Etape to the Cryptoportique (today a sunken theatre space) at Place du Forum and visit the Musee Hotel le Vergeur’s garden.

The private mansion is named after Nicolas Le Vergeur, a wealthy 16th century landower who created the Renaissance part of the building consisting of the facade to a courtyard with a gallery on the upper floors. The constuction work that had stared in the 13th century with the Gothic room continued through to the 17th century. After WWI the whole bulding was restored and restructed by Hugues Krafft, founder of the Societe des Amis du Vieux Reims to which he bequeathed the mansion house and his collections for the creation of a museum.

Tonight, as most restaurants are shut on a Sunday evening or the kitchen doesn’t open until 7:00 pm, we fall back on our old stalwart – the Asian restaurant – in this case a Vietnamese restaurant (Saigon Ca phe) opposite the Fontaine Sube. Does not disappoint!

Walking back to the hotel we cross Rue Libergier where we have an illuminted view of the cathedral.

5 February, 2024

While our room is being cleaned we walk up the road a couple of blocks to the AirBnB accommodation we’ve booked in May, which is in the block right in front of the Cathedral on Rue Libergier, to check out the parking.

in 2005 I travelled around the Champagne region with friends Luc and Ilse (now living in Antwerp) and I recall visiting a Chamagne House in Oger where we bought copious quantities of its Grand Cru Brut – Champagne Jean Milan. When Luc and Ilse lived in Australia Luc used to import itsince he liked it so much.

So today will be a deja vu day when I drive Lynn to Oger, 40 km South, for a tasting which I’ve booked for 2:00 pm. After tasting 6 different champages we settle on 2: the Extra Brut Grand Cru, and the Grand Reserve Grand Cru which has been kept in oak barrels – what a difference in taste. And I now have their Sydney distributor’s address!

Late this afternoon we walk 15 minutes back to Place Drouet d’Erlon, where we were last night, to L’edito Restaurant, the restaurant group we found in Dijon which has a continuous dining service from 7:00 am to 11:00 pm and a varied menu of good food at a reasonable price.

6 February, 2024

Not only is today Lynn’s sister’s birthday, but also their departed father’s. Eric would have been 99 today.

It’s supposed to be raining all day today so we had planned a day in. As bits of blue sky emerge after breakfast we walk up to the Library which overlooks the Cathedral. Our walking guide suggested we go to the top floor to get a good photo of the Cathedral but, of course, the Library doesn’t open until 1:00 pm today. This is our third attempt to visit the library. The French go out of their way to make things difficult. I would hate to be a French student needing library access. We’ll leave it until we return in May.

However, we venture down Rue Chanzy and discover more restaurants, one of which is the Japanese restaurant, Genki, which we returned to this evening. Here we have an excellent, reasonably-priced tonkatsu meal each plus a sake and a Sapporo beer, a beer I haven’t had the opportunity to enjoy since our visit to Sapporo, Hokkaido in 2017.

Around midday tomorrow we’ll depart for Calais via the toll roads. We should arrive around 3:00 pm, but as we can’t check in until 5:00, we’ll leave our luggage and park the car and head around the corner to the local laundromat.

7 February, 2024

I open the blackout curtains to find that we have a large puddle on the windowsill – on the inside of the room. I know we had sustained heavy rain overnight, but this is ridiculous!

After checking out at noon I walk around the back of the hotel to where the car is parked while Lynn moves our luggage down to the hotel entrance, under cover. Would you believe some freaking idiot Frenchperson has reverse parked next to our car but has managed to park crookedly so that his/her front bumper is protruding into the driveway as well as only being 0.01mm from my back bumper!

This involves me having to repeatedly parallel reverse/forward until I have moved the car to the right of his/hers so that I can finally reverse out of the parking spot. Then, instead of simply reversing down the ramp so I can drive around to the side of the hotel to the entrance, I have to drive further up the car park then do multiple point turns (there’s a truck in the way) to accomplish the same thing.

Finally, we have packed the car and drive away but not very far until the road we are supposed to take is – CLOSED! Of course it bloody is! At least this time we have a complete set of Diversion signs to follow. When we rejoin the road we see that only 1 block of road has been closed, and not a workman in sight. Must be lunchtime.

It takes us 2 hours 45 minutes to drive the 273km on the toll road in poor visibility due to the incessant rain the entire way. It was 11 Deg. C when we left Reims. It is 6 Deg. C when we arrive at Calais.

We park right outside the BnB which is just located behind the Grand Theatre de Calais. Laurent, our host, greets us, helps us put our luggage in the house then jumps in the car to direct us to our secure parking. This involves driving around the block, driving through a very narrow rolladoor entrance into a courtyard, then reverse parking into a very narrow garage – at least not as narrow as the one in Toulouse. A 2-minute walk later we are back at the BnB.

Here we collect our bag of laundry and walk 3 minutes to the local laundromat on Rue des Fontinettes. An hour later the laundry is washed, dried, folded and packed and we return to the BnB around 4:45pm – close enough to our check-in time of 5:00 pm.

Nathalie, Laurent’s wife, is home to check us in and show us the room which is on the 3rd floor under the eaves. Back in the day this would have been the maid’s room accessed by a very steep and narrow set of stairs.

“Tom Souville” is the name of our chambre – the name of one of the Corsaires de Calais (1777-1839) – and hence has a nautical theme. Our hosts purchased the house just before COVID. During COVID they employed a woodwork teacher at the local school (as there were no students in attendance) to custom-make the wooden window shutters, table, oar headboard and overhead light.

As soon as Nathalie recommends a local pub to us which has a continuous meal service we are out the door and walk the 5 minutes to “Au Calice” for fish and chips and pork mignon which has a huge serving of delicious, cooked vegetables included in the price of the meal – at last!

A nice quiet room with blackout shutters and a big comfy bed – a great sleep guaranteed.

8 February, 2024

100% chance of rain is forecast today and it is 100% accurate. After a quiet breakfast we rug up and walk across the square to the Theatre bus stop where the No. 1 bus will take us around a 20-minute ride to the Outlet Centre at Coquelles. All buses in Calais are free – parfait!

Well, it should have been around 20 minutes, but for some unknown reason our young bus driver stops the bus just short of our destination – something about a blocked road?? Even though no other vehicles have stopped and all drive onwards. So we all get off and we walk the 5 minutes to the Outlet Centre. Here there is an Asic store where Lynn buys a new pair of trainers for Eur114. She needs a size larger than usual in order to fit her orthotics.

Prior to arriving at Asics, Lynn took a photo of the shopping centre to show just how empty it was of shoppers. A short time later when we are in the Galerie Layfayette store she is confronted by 2 security guards dressed in red who indicate to her, in French, that she is not to take photos and to delete those that she had. Nowhere is there a sign that says no photos. Bizarre!

Mission accomplished we make our way to the Outlet bus stop and 5 minutes later we are on the No. 1 bus and alight at the Theatre bus stop.

At 2:30 pm the rain has finally stopped so we walk a short distance to a watchmaker. The rubberised strap of Lynn’s watch broke last night so we try to purchase a new one. The French, being French, didn’t have a strap narrow enough but instead of finding a slightly wider one and filing it down to fit like our guy in Brisbane did, they just give up (surrendered, as they do). Looks like it will have to wait until we get to Wales.

Since we are out we decide to continue down the street to visit Le Beffroi and l’Hotel de Ville de Calais.

Following the merger of the cities of Calais and Saint-Pierre-Les-Calais, the former Hôtel de Ville de Calais became a museum. The town hall of Saint-Pierre was used for a time for the Greater Calais agglomeration, but it quickly proved to be too small and the construction of a new building was decided.

Of the 95 projects proposed, architect Louis Debrouwer’s was selected and was a pioneer by using reinforced concrete. The architecture combines the Flemish and Renaissance styles.

The town hall contains magnificent stained-glass windows depicting the liberation of the city by the Duke of Guise in 1558 as well as a canvas by Jeanne Thil representing the dedication of the Burghers of Calais and the busts of Henri de Guise and Richelieu.

Its construction began in 1911. The building was inaugurated in 1925 and saw the marriage of Captain Charles de Gaulle and Yvonne Vendroux. It was listed as an Historic Monument in 2003.

In 1885 the City of Calais placed an official order with the sculptor Auguste Rodin for a work about the dedication of the 6 burghers of Calais (Eustache de St Pierre, Jacques and Pierre de Wissant, Jean de Fiennes, Andrieus d’Andres and Jean d’Aire), heroes, during the siege of the city in 1347.

It was inaugurated in 1895 and installed in front of the Richelieu park. The monument was moved several times in the city and since the end of WWII placed in front of the current town hall. This bronze is the first in a series of 12, scattered around the world. Only the first four were executed during Rodin’s lifetime.

As we exit the Town Hall we walk into freezing cold rain blown by a freezing cold wind. Back at the BnB I update the blog while Lynn does my ironing. Later this afternoon we are returning to Au Calice for some more delicious pub grub.

9 February, 2024

Sunshine! Now, that’s a change. And just as well as we plan on visiting the ‘old town’ and port this morning.

The bus stop for the city centre shuttle is in front of the Coeur de Vie mall, around the corner from the Theatre and our B&B. We must have just missed one as we stand on the footpath in the freezing cold wind for about 20 minutes before one comes along.

Unlike the regular bus routes, the shuttle’s route is up Rue Royale then turns onto Boulevard des Allies. Here we alight and walk to the Phare de Calais – the lighthouse.

Those who scale the 271 steps to the top of the brick-built tower and its black lantern room are rewarded with a 360° panoramic view of Calais, its hinterland, the port facilities, the Strait of Dover and, in clear weather, the White Cliffs of Dover.

It has an unusual situation as it is located in the town, among residential streets and opposite a church. It’s also built on a mound, a reminder that one of the bastion’s of the old city walls once stood there. A busy port for centuries, Calais has always figured in maritime signalling documents. The top of the watchtower had served as a landmark for sailors before the current lighthouse entered service in 1848.

Several blocks away is the Notre-Dame de Calais church, unlike any other church in France. Tudor style, it is the only religious building built in the English perpendicular style and its bell tower is in the center of the building.

In 1214, Adrien de Wissant built a church dedicated to Notre-Dame and established a parish in 1224. After the capture of Calais in 1347, Edward lll attached Notre-Dame to the archbishopric of Canterbury. The city having been emptied of its inhabitants, the English called on Flemish workers, then allies, to build the upper parts of the nave, the choir and the bell tower. In 1921 the young Captain Charles de Gaulle and the Calais native Yvonne Vendroux were married in the church.

To one side of the church is La Citerne Royale – the Royal Cistern. In 1691 Louis XIV ordered the construction of this reservoir which could hold 1,800 cu. m of rainwater from the church’s roof for use of the garrison and the population during drought. It was in use up to the middle of the 19th century, now preserved as an historic building.

Close by, on Place d’Armes, is the Tour du Guet which was possibly part of the defence system created by Philippe Hurepel (1224). From the 1st floor of this tower Jean de Vienne, governor of Calais announced to the surviors of the 1346-47 siege the conditions for surrunder of the town set by Edwrd III, King of England.

In 1580 an earthquake shook the tower which was split down the middle and one half totally destroyed. In 1696 an English cannon ball opened a large breach in its wall. In 1940 German bombs and shells fell around it, likewise allied bombing during 1940-44, especially in 1944 to assist the Canadian ground forces to liberate the town. During its existence it was used as a military pigeon loft, a military optical telegraphic system and a lighthouse. Its bell was cast in 1770.

From here we walk towards the coast. On our right is the lighthouse which is separated from the sea by the Courgain Maritime quarter, the city’s maritime heart. Outside Calais’ old city walls for several centuries, the quarter developed a rebellious and united spirit. A domain of sea-farers, it spawned generations of fishermen, lifeboatmen and even pirates, among them Tom Souville, nicknamed “Captain Tom” by the English sailors. The quarter is the venue for events such as the Herring Festival, the Blessing of the Sea and water jousting. The daily fish market is run by local artisan fishermen and is a regular and very popular meeting place for the locals.

Crossing over the Canal des Pierrettes we pass by the statue of Tom Souville.

On the opposite side of the road is Fort Risban. First mentioned in 1346 when Edward III of England’s troops, finding Calais’ defences impenetrable, decided to erect a small fort to prevent any supplies from reaching the town by sea. Under the English occupation the wooden tower was replaced by a stone structure, the New Tower, renamed Lancaster Tower after 1400. Altered many times by Vauban in the 17th century and the Corps of Engineers in the 19th, this sea fortress was dismantled in 1908 but refortified during WWII.

Unexpectedly, standing in front of one section of the fort’s wall is a bronze bust of Gilbert Brazy by sculptor Wagener. Master air-mechanic, Brazy was lost in the Arctic in 1928 with the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and the crew of the seaplane “Latham 47” who were searching for General Nobile’s expedition to the North Pole. We saw reference to this when we visited the Roald Amundsen section of the Polar Museum in Tromso, Norway last year. The survivors were saved by a Danish icebreaker but the mystery of the loss of “Latham 47” has never been solved.

Walking further towards the beach we walk past the large, glass structure that houses the Calais Dragon, a colossal construction made of steel and carved wood – the most imposing and technical construction imagined by François Delaroziere. Highly expressive, it spits fire, smoke and water. It can lie down, stand up, run up to 4 km/hour and flap its thick canvas wings. Its opal-colored wooden skin covers an area of ​​600 sq. m. 48 passengers can climb up to its back by means of a staircase built into its tail and embark on a 45-minute ride along the Calais beach front.

Today it appears it’s in hibernation, surrounded by cherry pickers carrying out maintenance. In fact, it appears that St George visited recently – its head has been severed!

From here we walk to where the Calais Beach meets the jetty, then walk out along the narrow jetty to a small lighthouse at its end.

The beach extends for several kilometers to Cap Blanc-Nez, passing through the neighboring beaches of Blériot-Plage and Sangatte. Today, it looks like the beach will need to undergo a fair amount of maintenance and grooming to make it usable by summer bathers.

Throughout France we have seen these signs and bags for dog walkers directing them to pick up after their pooches otherwise incur a Eu135 fine. Obviously there doesn’t seem to be an army of poop inspectors on the prowl given the amount of poop we see on sidewalks.

At the end of the jetty we can see parts of the Port of Calais where several ferries are docked.

Calais Port 2015 was the first maritime project under the European Union priority infrastructure plan.

Conceived in 2003 in response to a twofold challenge: to be capable of berthing the next generation of ferries and ro-ro (roll on roll off) ships, and cope with the increase in traffic forecast on the 2020/2025 horizon by installing state-of-the-art port facilities on land reclaimed from the sea.

This project enabled the doubling of the port’s capacity by the construction of a new dock leading to the sea. Calais Port 2015 entered into service on 31 October 2021.

As we were walking to the end of the jetty we saw several small, white dots in procession on the Channel. By the time we get to the end of the jetty one of those dots materialises into a rather large ferry.

Given the wind today, I’m glad we’re taking the LeShuttle train tomorrow rather than having to deal with a ferry crossing.

Clouds are gathering so we walk back to the BnB from the beach. Along the way we see another example of Calais street art.

En route Lynn calls into the Coeur de Vie shopping mall and books a hair cut for this afternoon.

Tonight we will experience “table d’hote” at the BnB which is where you sit down with the hosts to dine. Laurent conducts cooking classes so we will be treated to his cooking this evening. On the menu is local charcuterie for starters, chicken fillet with mustard and sauteed carrots for mains and chocolate hearts for dessert – starting at 7:00 pm, of course.

The food is excellent and probably the best French food we have had in France this trip.

Tomorrow we board the 11:20 am LeShuttle at Coquelles to Folkestone arriving at 10:55 am – real-time time travel! We’re due to have lunch with Alex at Anvil Green then drive 160 km to Wokingham to stay with Lynn’s friends, Barbaran and Stuart, for several days en route to Wales. We last saw Barbaran and Stuart in Villaricos, Spain in November 2022 when we visited them at their shed on the Med reno, fondly known as ‘Wonky Walls’.