Driving in Provence, Part 2 - from the road
Trip Start
Apr 06, 2003
1
61
69
Trip End
Ongoing
Villefranche-sur-Mer, Rousillon, and Reims,
France
Monday, April 18, 2005
We are now in northern France to spend a couple days
in Champagne - where they make the drink - before
finishing up this 2-week trip in France.
We spent 4 days in a small town on the Riviera called
Villefranche-sur-Mer. While the locals boast about
getting 300 days of sunshine a year, only 1 of our 4
days belonged to that group. Since we couldn't work
on our tans, we spent the days visiting some of the
museums (Chagall in Nice was our fav but we also went
to the Matisse in Nice and the Picasso in Antibes).
We visited a perfume factory - this FREE tour
conviently ended in their shop where we were suckered
into a few expensive purchases. And we also spent an
afternoon in Monaco but because Prince Rainier had
just died, almost everything was off-limits. The
world-famous Casino was open but we didn't dare enter
when we noticed you have to pay a EUR 10 entrence fee
just to loose your money - obviosly, this policy is to
keep the riff-raff like us away.
After leaving the Riviera, we headed back to Provence
where we stayed in a very cool hilltop town called
Rousillon. It is surrounded by beautifully colored
hills in various shades of reds, oranges, and
yellows. We took a very nice walk amoung the hills -
it reminded us of Sedona a bit. We visited a few
other small nearby villages and ended our Provence
journey yesterday with a trip to Carpentras where we
saw France's oldest synagogue from the 14th-century.
This morning we left Provence and spent the entire day
driving north - 8 straight hours in the car. We made
it from the very south of the country to the very
north. It was a very long day!!! Now in Reims, we
had time to visit the amazing Cathedral (which has
Chagall stained-glass windows) and grab some sushi for
dinner...exactly what we needed after nearly 2 weeks
of French food!
Tomorrow we are driving 15 KMs to Epernay to visit the
Moet et Chandon champaign caves, where a monk named
Dom Perignon invented the drink in the 1700s. There
is a tour of the caves (where the bottles are stored)
as well as a discription of how it's made and a
tasting. I wonder if my sophisticated pallet will
know the difference between this and the USD 5 bottles
I usually buy!?!?!
Then Sunday morn we head back to A'dam, about 5 hours
away. We will likely stop in Verdun on the way to see
the trenches and craters that make up the last
remaining scars from WWI.
Being our first ever 2-week vacation, it sure did fly
by and I can happily report that Julie and I are still
talking to one another =)
Hope all is well with everyone and happy tax day!
Speak with you soon.
-Stephen and Julie
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