LilleNorthern France
and the Loire Valley
Aug 25 - Sept 7
There are also pages about
Paris,
Versailles,
Chateau Chambord,
the
Rally Coeur de France, the
Track and Museum at Le Mans,
and the Beaches of D-Day.
Spent two weeks in France again after leaving Belgium. Lille, Paris, the Loire Valley, up to the Normandy coast, and then hightailed it back across France to Luxembourg (that will be the next installment).
Lille
Spent a couple of days in Lille regrouping and hiding from the rain. Actually the weather wasn't that bad but the R&R was welcome. We'd been running around Belgium at a great pace and knew we'd be back at it in Paris.
Actually Lille lacks tourist stuff and that's OK also.
Our hotel there was a short-stay apartment with a genuine living room and couch. Even a stove and a microwave but Terry couldn't find any popcorn anywhere - such disappointment.
Back in Antwerp, the hotel had an ice machine and the room had a coffee pot so she made real ice tea. Guess that will have to remain her last touch with American civilization for a while.
We did get out to an art museum housed in an art deco natatorium, La Piscine. We were expecting another museum but got trapped into looking at art. Maybe it was good for us.
Also went downtown to eat, resupply the car with food and stuff, and go to a
brewpub. Man does not live by sloth alone.
The death of Murat by Jan Weerts.
Chateaus in the Loire Valley
Plus
Chateau Chambord on another page.
Chateau Cheverny, near Blois, had a great write-up in the tour guides and is a well-run estate that has 16 rooms on view. Some are decorated in 17th century styles and some are decidedly 20th century. All in all, the building is big and old but they avoid saying just when it was built. The interior is very different from room to room. Still, it is an interesting visit. The more modern rooms would be correct for an old house tour in the US.
Pictures around the dining room and an entering hall depict the story of Don
Quixote.
The back side, with the faux moat.
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Chateau de Champchevrier, near Luynes, on the other hand is a real disappointment. A nice tour by a college girl on her summer job revealed a manor house built in 1728 and deteriorating rapidly. The main income for the owning family is putting on hunts with their pack of hounds in the spring and fall. The tour consists of visiting some outbuildings with displays of a kitchen, laundry, and a lame video about hunting horns. Then the girl very nicely took us through 5 rooms of the house which are set with old furniture, some from the family, some from garage sales in the area. Of course they forbid pictures inside the house.
Bayeux
There are two things in Bayeux of note. Well, maybe three if you count their claim to be the first city liberated after D-Day, but that sounds pretty iffy since it's 20 miles inland and there's a few dozen good sized towns closer to the coast.
Anyway, back to our story. The Bayeux Tapestry, of course, is the main draw. William the Conqueror's step-father commissioned its weaving in England to be displayed in the Cathedral in Bayeux. It was first hung in 1077 but not completed until 1082.
It tells the story of William, Duke of Normandy (then known as William the Bastard) and King Harold and the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Oddly it ends at the battle and doesn't even show Williams coronation. Maybe his step-father ran out of money - or patience.
There are 58 panels and it's 230ft long. Originally the panels were separate but at some unknown time someone connected them and put a band along the top and bottom that is adorned with numbers - presumably there was an index but all that is lost.
To see the tapestry, you first pay your money (7.50€) and go to a room where an even longer printed cloth explains what you're going to see. Then you are given an audio guide and can walk down the hall and around the corner past possibly the most revered cloth this side of the Shroud of Turin.
We cheated. You can't take pictures, of course,
so Bob photographed a photo on the wall at the exhibit hall.
But the colors, amazingly, are still this vivid. Not bad after 900 years.
| The second draw is the cathedral in which the Bayeux
Tapestry was first displayed. It was opened in 1077 (at the christening of
the church). Big place. Great windows. Here's a few pictures.
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If you want to see these two windows in detail, download the pictures (links above).
Other sights around Central and Northwest France.
A church at Chambord.
A wookie barn. This may be thatching gone nuts.
There was one door on the other side, in the owner's yard.
Sunflowers are a major agricultural crop in the area north of Tours.
It's now September and we don't know when these things are harvested.
Maybe somebody living near Kansas can tell us the lifecycle of sunflowers.
Brewpubs
Lille - 3 Brasseurs. One of a chain with 21 in France, 2 in Montreal, and 1 each in Belgium, Martinique, Tahiti, Reunion Islands, and New Caledonia.
This one in Lille is on the busy, disorganized Place de Gare (train station plaza). Food is pizza and daily menus on the board. In addition to their 4 beers, they have large number of blends ("cocktails") including tutti-frutti. The menu lists sizes at .25, .33, .50, 1.0, 1.5, 5, 30, and 50 liters. The last 2 are kegs of course.
This vat isn't what it seems. Look inside below - it seats 5.
| Paris - The Frog & British Library. A chain in Paris
and beyond. Frog & Rosbif, Frog & Princess, etc. This one is at the
Bibliotech, library. It's an unromantic corner cafe and inside it's pure
modern. Fish and chips are the British staple and there's other non-regional
standards like chicken sandwiches, steak, and burgers. Expensive (as is all
of Paris). 6€ per imperial pint. Paris - The Frog at Bercy Village. There's 4 Frogs in Paris as well as one in Toulouse, Bordeaux, and Lisbon. This one has the same menu and the same beers as the one at the Library.
Their happy hour is from 6 until 8. A 4-pint pitcher is "only" 17€. |
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Bercy Village
Other beers we had in France:
La Saint Jean des Cidres distillery and shop. They also make Calvados.
A sin. Imagine these on the same shelf.
