Brockville babes and their bad boys wearing berets board their Burgundy barge

At exactly 11:00 A.M. sirens screamed, police converged from every direction and vans containing barricades emptied their loads and, in mere seconds the Champs Elysee was closed to traffic.  All in recognition of the Journee Sans Voiture.  In no time at all, all the major routes in Paris were barred to motorized vehicles.  Pedestrians appeared out of nowhere and the streets all became pedestrian malls.  Brenda and I witnessed all of this from the comfort of the famous Fouguet's, a Champs Elysee bistro that is so famous, they can charge very silly prices for everything on their menu.  We had been walking all morning and, after yet another wonderful bistro lunch, it appeared that we would be unable to make it back to the hotel for the arranged van pickup.  So, we had to grab a cab back.  Fortunately taxis were exempt from the traffic ban.  In fact our cab driver had the radio cranked up, was singing at the top of his voice and proclaiming that he was "king for a day".  I must say that taking a Paris cab with no other cars on the road was an almost surreal experience.  Needless to say, we made it back to the hotel for the pickup with time to spare.

Right on time, two dark blue vans arrived at our hotel to take our motley crew the three hours to the barge tied alongside a narrow canal, with cattle and peaceful countryside all around.  Our adventure had begun and in mere seconds our champagne welcome began.  The rest of the afternoon / evening began to get a bit hazier but suffice to say that a memorable first night on board was had by all.  Tomorrow at 8:45, the lines will be cast off and we will be underway.

The pics are:

1- Closing the Champs Elysee

2- Brenda returning to the "scene of the crime.......in joke"..........Fouquet's

3- The girls "van up" for the ride to the barge

4- After a three hour drive the champagne sure tasted great

5- All in berets for the first amazing dinner......and they are only getting better

The team is at full strength

The initial impetus for our trip to France was a week aboard a chartered barge, cruising the Canal de Burgogne, with 8 friends from Brockville.  Up to this point, for us it has all been a build up to the "main event".  So, over the past two days, our barge mates have been amassing at our "team hotel" in Paris.  As of dinner last night, everyone was "present and accounted for" and ready to go.  We have all been exploring Paris on our own, each couple having spots to revisit or to try for the first time.  Brenda and I visited the relatively new Picasso Museum late yesterday afternoon only to learn at dinner that 4 of the others had been there independently earlier in the day.  So much for herding cats!

Today, more art for us at the Orangerie, an amazing collection amassed "back in the day" by significant Parisienne art dealer and collector, Paul Guillaume, his wife Domenica, and Domenica's second husband after Guillaume's death, Jean Walter.  This is a remarkable collections of Picassos, Cezanes, and all the major artists of the time coupled with a purpose built portion of the building which houses the world's major collection of Les Nympheas (the Waterlilies), by Claude Monet.  We actually were so enthralled with the art that we nearly missed our lunch rez at Phillippe Excoffier (not to be confused with the long dead Escoffier).  Excoffier was the long time executive chef at the American embassy in Paris prior to striking out on his own and runs a small, intimate restaurant on a tiny back street, where unlike many of the "known" chefs, he is actually in the kitchen preparing your meal!

The team will be grouping again this evening at Willie's bar (no relation) and after a final planning session over dinner, it will be off to the barge tomorrow.  Let the games begin......................

The pics are:

1- Hail, hail, the gang's all here!

2- One of our number modelling the crew berets in a "sneak peek" before boarding the barge

3- Sacre Coeur dominates the skyline, looking north from our hotel balcony

4- The aforementioned balcony.......we decided to cancel our planned balcony cocktail party.  Any guesses why?

5- 2 enormous elliptical rooms house Monet's Waterlily canvasses, wrapping the entirety of each room

6- Les "Sappeurs et Pompiers" (firemen) stationed near our hotel have developed the ultimate approach to window washing

Faaaaaast travel day

It has been a long while since I have been a passenger on the TGV.  I had forgotten how damn fast that train travels!  We hopped on in Lyon and 2 hours later hopped off in Paris.  The countryside flew by and, with only 2 stops along the way, we were just nicely settled, then we were getting off.

Two of the Brockville couples that we are meeting arrived before us.........Ardis and Marsha were firmly ensconced in the sack to work off jet lag and, after a brief "hi......how are you?", Bill and Penny were fast behind them.  Brenda and I wandered the city which was as busy as ever and finally met up with Bill and Penny for dinner in an intimate little restaurant on the left bank.  Our hotel is wonderfully located on the right bank, a couple of blocks south the l'Opera and, has typical "can't swing a cat" bedrooms which will likely seem quite large after we get to "our" barge on Sunday.

The pics are:

1- Some of the hundreds of thousands of locks which were attached to the Pont des Artes.  The locks have all been removed from the bridge structure itself, for fear that the lock's weight would collapse the bridge.

2- Wandering through the Louvre, Brenda stopped to admire the gardens.

3- The quintessential rive Rive Gauche shot in Paris.

Paul Bocuse - encore une fois

Roaming around the "old city" of Lyon you quickly realize that it is pretty "touristy", but I guess that is what we are.  We took the funicular railway, through the mountain, to the top of Fourviere hill, atop which the locals built Notre Dame de Fourviere, a magnificent basilica, itself topped with a golden Statue of "Notre Dame".  Several centuries ago, Lyon was spared from several bouts of plague and enemy attacks, prompting the construction of the basilica.  Interestingly, the Lyonnaise promised to build the basilica after the city was spared from an initial plague however, it took several more disasters from which the city was spared, to spur on construction.  I guess inertia is not just a modern phenomena.

We hiked back down the hill to the site of two Roman theatres, dating to BC, which are still in use today for outdoor summer concerts.  Maybe the Romans should be consulted regarding the renovation of Ontario's crumbling infrastructure, maybe starting with the Gardiner Expressway!  Surely we can get at least a couple of decades out of that stuff.  The Roman sites have a commanding view out over the modern day city of Lyon and would be an amazing site at which to experience a concert.

As always, dining figures prominently into a day in Lyon and it was back to our old friend Paul Bocuse for lunch.  4 of his local bistros are named: Le Nord; Le Sud, L'Est, and L'Ouest and, I will let you guess in which areas of the city each is located.  We selected Le Sud for lunch, which is conveniently just around the corner from our hotel.  The fare is far simpler than our dinner the other night and MUCH more reasonably priced as well.  However, the flavours and the service certainly carry the signature of an expert restauranteur.

Tomorrow we head for Paris and serious troop reinforcements.  Our Brockville friends will begin arriving and massing in Paris for our assault on Burgundy.  God help the crew of our chartered barge.  I suspect that even they will have a week to remember ;-)

The pics are:

1- A tiny golden "Notre Dame" looks out from the top of a dome over the city of Lyon below

2- The funicular speeds up inside the mountainto the top of Fourviere hill

3- Those Romans knew how to build.  How much modern infrastructure will still be in use in 2 millennia?

3- The "old city" is a web of narrow streets and alleys full of bouchons, bistros and restaurants 

4- "Le Sud" de Monsieur Bocuse

5- Madame est bien heureux!

Lyon

Lyon, the third largest city in France, is a unique study in contrasts, with old Roman ruins, beautiful historic neighbourhoods and wildly modern buildings and infrastructure.  It may have lost its long time, world beating gastronomic reputation to Copenhagen, Saint Sebastian, Spain, or somewhere in South America but it is still a "foody" paradise.  Small local bistros called "bouchons", still serve typical Lyonnaise fare at reasonable prices (for France) and they are packed at noon and for dinner.  Each one has a daily "formule", or daily special, which, from our experience is tremendous.  They even have a unique standard measure for wine..........the 46 cl. bottle, called a "pot Lyonnaise".  Back in the day, when Lyon was a major textile city, the silk workers were each entitled to a half litre (50 cl.) of wine per day, at work.  Their stingy bosses, created a bottle that was the same size as a 50 cl. bottle, but with an extra thick bottom which held.........you guessed it, only 46cl.  So.......one litre of wine would serve 2 workers with a little something left over for the boss.  To this day, the pot Lyonnaise is still a standard wine order in the local bouchons.

The impact that one man, Paul Bocuse, has had on this city cannot be overstated.  Immediately adjacent to our hotel, on the largest public square in the city, is located the Paul Bocuse institute, a culinary school and gastronomy centre.  Local restaurants proudly display their Paul Bocuse awards and, his 6 local restaurants are the most sought after tables in town.  We also passed several displays around the city where Bocuse is celebrated as a local hero.  Not bad for a guy who "way back when" could not get a job in a kitchen!

More exploring today then TGV to Paris tomorrow......

The pics are:

1- Our hotel in Lyon with the Institute Paul Bocuse next door

2- A small sample of renovated old riverside neighbourhoods

3- And there is also a lot of this kind of architecture

4- Outside our noon time bouchon.....wonderful Lyonnaise meal

5- A pot Lyonnaise........you would think those silk workers would have noticed the extra thick bottom?????

The culinary summit

One of the main reasons to include the city of Lyon in this trip was to finally obtain a reservation at L'Auberge du Pont de Collonges, the flagship restaurant of Paul Bocuse, arguably the originator of nouvelle cuisine.  He prepared the menus for the inaugural flight of the Concorde.  Bocuse has 6 or 7 restaurants around Lyon but as our cab driver said on the way, "you are dining at the BIG Bocuse". 

The day dawned sunny and warm, with the heat increasing when we stopped dead on the autoroute on the way to the airport in Bordeaux due to a very unfortunate fatal accident ahead of us.  We made the flight with time to spare and arrived in Lyon, obtaining an impromptu tour of the beautiful city on the lengthy cab ride in from the airport.  It looks like we will have wonderful exploring opportunities for the next two days.

L'Auberge is celebrating 50 years of operation, having maintained 3 Michelin stars for several decades of that time.  Bocuse, at 89 years old, is unfortunately too frail to pay his daily visits to the restaurant however, Madame Bocuse still personally greats each patron at their tables and wishes each a memorable stay.  She is a delight!  We have sampled more innovative menus and we have eaten more complex food preparations however it was truly a treat to try the Bocuse menu which features many of his famous signature dishes.  Everything about the experience was perfect, from the venue, the service, the decor and of course.......the food.  The bill was pretty special too but, what the heck........we are only doing this once!  To me the telling tale of the "total package" in world class restaurants is the staff attitude.  Almost all great restaurants serve up memorable food (although we have tried a few where that was not the case) but often the staff take themselves way too seriously.  At L'Auberge we were joking and laughing with the staff and even had one waiter head to kitchen for "more information" when we disagreed on where Bocuse had trained in his early years (we were both wrong!!!)

The long cab ride back from the restaurant took us along the illuminated river banks with all the historic buildings glowing.  The ride further illustrated that we have much to see in the next two days.  Gotta get going...............

The pics are:

1- We arrived early at 8:30 p.m. however the place filled up shortly thereafter

2- Happy to be here!

3- Have you ever seen such a generous serving of foie gras?

4- There has to be something on those desert tables that we will want to try ;-)

The beach........sun........Cap Ferret

Not to be confused with the far more chi-chi Cap Ferrat, on the Med, Cap Ferret is located at the tip of a peninsula which creates the Bassin D'Arcachon, a bay between the French eastern coast and the Atlantic Ocean.  It is under a two hour drive from Bordeaux.  From the Cap........next stop North America.  This locale is the Nirvana of French oyster aquaculture and tastings and oyster degustations can be experienced everywhere.  Today has been the first brilliantly sunny day that we have had so far, creating the perfect "beach day".  Many French must have agreed.  Getting into the better restaurants was impossible and the beaches and walkways were crowded but, everyone was friendly and just enjoying the day.

The pics are:

1- I have never seen a surf fisherman catch a fish.......today being no exception

2- Across the bay are the largest sand dunes in France 

3- A beautiful peninsula with a real "vacation vibe"

4- The local oysters are magnificent and there several different types to try

5- Hey ........where did all the water go?

6- Vive la France.......where everyone can go topless!

7- The highways out to the Cap were alive with Heather in full bloom

8- The blog gods decided that two pics are better than one???????

Saint-Emilion and the city of Bordeaux

Today, we crossed "les Deux Meres", the Garonne and Dordogne rivers, on our way to the "other" major Bordeaux wine region centred around Saint-Emilion and Pomerol.  Saint-Emilion is an ancient town, still largely surrounded by its historic walls and now dry moat, with major wine producers located right up to the town gates.  Wine tastings, bistros and wine negociants are everywhere, clearly proving wine to be the economic lifeblood of the community.  We toured around, tasted some wine, bought some wine and hit the road for the big city.  The chateaux in this region are mere shadows of the regal edifices around Medoc and.........a guy can only drink so much wine and still navigate a car around the tiny, twisting roads.

Metropolitan Bordeaux is a city of over 700,000 people, yet has the feel of an even larger community, with broad boulevards, grand architecture, and vast public parks and gardens.  And, I swear every one of the 700,000 was out enjoying a sunny warm Saturday.  The city was jammed but oddly did not seem crowded as we explored the city centre, an entirely pedestrian venue.  Our car was parked 6 levels underground!  As we window shopped the designer boutiques and other merchants, we both wondered how anyone can afford to actually live in the city.  500 square foot apartments are selling for $1,000,000 and prices for food and clothing are well higher that our Canadian prices.  The city is however humming with much new construction and busy retailers.  While it is great to travel it also does highlight some of the advantages of "home".

The pics are:

1- The old wall surrounding St-Emilion is still largely intact

2- Looking back at St-Emilion from the surrounding vineyards

3- A small sample of the vertical selections of Chateau Petrus in one negociant's store in St-Emilion

4- Brenda strolling along one of the wide pedestrian boulevards alongside the Grand Theatre in Bordeaux.

5- The square in front of the Grand Theatre was bustling

6- The Quay along the shore of the Garonne River has multiple names along its total length of many miles of grand buildings. 

Worshipping at the temple of Bacchus

There are many regions in the world in which to do wine tours but.......there is only one Bordeaux!  We had an early morning tour and tasting booked at Chateau Mouton Rothschild and had to hit the road early, without catching a coffee or something to eat.  So our first caloric intake today just happened to be a barrel taste of the yet to be bottled 2014 Chateau Mouton Rothschild.  I have had worse breakfasts!

We have hit pay dirt on this trip.  We are in arguably the most important wine region in the world in the middle of the vendange.  Great good fortune.  At Mouton Rothschild we were able to experience the entire process, from the pickers in the field, to the first pressing being carefully placed into primary fermentation barrels less than two hours after the grapes were cut from the vines.  After a few centuries of doing this, they seem to have it down to a science.  Wine is everywhere.  Roadside signs warn that the vendangeurs (pickers) are near at hand and to drive carefully.  Restaurants are alive with discussions of the current crop (thought to be very good) and wine tractors line the tiny country roads, hauling fresh picked grapes to be pressed.  Visitors in the yards of wineries seem almost invisible to the workers, as each fresh load of grapes is whisked through the the process and into a fermentation vat.

D2 is the tiny wine highway which winds its way from Bordeaux through Sainte-Estephe, Paulliac, St-Julien Beychevelle, Medoc and Margaux.  Many of the storied wine chateaux are on, or just off, this road and they are magnificent to behold.  We took in as many as we could but finally had to return to our new digs outside Bordeaux in an area sadly surrounded by fields of corn rather than grapes.  When we first arrived, "our" chateau seem quite imposing however after visiting the "real deal" all day, it is a rather humble abode albeit very comfortable with a great view over the Garrone River into the city of Bordeaux.

The pics are: 1- At Mouton Rothschild the grapes are lifted to the top floor for processing, so that no pumps will be needed at any point in the process........I guess wine flows downhill. 2 - less than 2 hours after being picked, a batch of crushed grapes is loaded into the top of the first fermentation barrel. 3- this is the fermentation barrel room.  The grapes have been loaded from the floor above. 4- a close up of one barrel.  Mouton Rothschild has developed a barrel with two transparent plastic staves so you can see the crushed grapes in the barrel.  Fermentation is just starting. 5- At Chateau Lynch-Bages at traditional method is used to load grapes into the crusher.  They will have to be pumped up into the fermentation barrels.  6- Pichon Longeuville is just one of the many imposing chateaux along D2.  7- the sun was rising behind Chateau Palmer as we drove out this morning.  7- Chateau Fraser is surrounded by corn fields.  Corn wine is likely not to catch on!