Trip to France and Philadelphia
Mike and Judy Henderson
September 30 - October 25, 2014
Continued
10/13/2014 (Monday) Monday dawned cool and rainy, but with the promise of clearing later in the day. We were supposed to sail last night to Chalon-sur-Saone but the water in the Saone River was too high and the boat could not pass beneath the bridges. Buses were supplied instead, for our events of the day.
We begin with a panoramic view of Lyon from our ship in the very early morning.
We had breakfast with some new friends.
Our first trip took us to Beaune where we visited the Hotel Dieu (or Hospices de Beaune), a hospital built in 1443 to serve the poor.
[Note: The French use the word "hotel" differently than we do. To them, it means "a building". So the city hall is "Hotel de Ville" and "Hotel Dieu" means "house of God".
The interior of the hospital has been "restored" to look like it might have in the early days of its operation. However, the fixtures appear to be fairly elegant for a hospital that catered to the poor in the 15th century, so I expect its image has been sanitized a bit.
Here's a ward where they treated the patients. We were told that there might have been two patients per bed with no separation of the sexes until the King visited (about 200 years later) and issued an edict to prohibit that practice.
And this is a view of the kitchen.
The pharmacy where they mixed herbs and chemicals for the patients.
After touring the hospital, we walked around the town. It's an old town but has many small shops.
Our next stop of the day was to Castle Rully (near the village of the same name). The castle has passed through the family and is in need of maintenance. To raise money, the Count gives a tour of the castle, along with lunch - for a fee, of course. Here's a view of the castle as we approached.
And here's a panoramic view of the land around the castle.
This is the "courtyard" in front of the castle. You can see in this picture that the castle is showing it's age and needs quite a bit of maintenance.
The Count, a relatively young man, greeted us, and we went down to the wine cellar for a tasting of some of the wines produced from vines on the castle grounds.
We tasted two white wines produced from Chablis grapes.
Here's Judy at the tasting.
After the tasting, we had lunch. It was served in what used to be the castle stable.
Lunch was a beef bourguignon, served with a red wine made from Pinot Noir grapes, and potatoes au gratin.
Here's a picture of the group at our table. The Count is helping pick up the plates.
After lunch the Count gave us a tour through some of the rooms of the castle and told us stories of his ancestors. The castle was originally built in the 12th century, and was enlarged at various times. It's been in the same family since the beginning. It was surrounded by a dry moat and had a drop-down drawbridge at the entrance. The moat was filled in about two centuries later after one Count fell in, late at night while returning from the village. The current Count has three young sons, so there is a new generation of the Rully family in line, and it is their home.
We had free time to roam around the castle grounds. Here are some of the vineyards behind the castle. Although it's hard to tell from the picture, all of the fields in this picture are vineyards.
And here I am in front of one of the vineyards.
After we returned to the ship, it was time for dinner, and dinner was formal.
We had dinner with Debbie, Ed, Ray, and Ann. Ray was a professional trumpet player who played primarily in New York and Nashville. Judy enjoyed swapping stories with Ray.
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10/14/2014 (Tuesday) Tuesday dawned bright and clear and just a tiny bit cool. Perfect weather. And it looks like it will remain that way for the rest of the week.
Here's a panoramic view of Lyon from the ship.
This morning we had a tour of the old town of Lyon. We went to a pastry shop which served these "pralines". These are very different from the New Orleans pralines but were good. They were a sugar concoction on a thin pastry base. Not something you'd want a lot of.
As we walked through the streets we learned about the history and architecture through little earphones, with a local guide leading the way. You can see the earpiece in this picture.
We wound up at a market, "Les Halles de Lyon - Paul Bocuse". Paul Bocuse is a famous French chef who works in Lyon. There were stalls selling all kind of things in that market - wine, cheese, pate, pork, beef, poultry and more. The following couple of pictures are from one of the poultry stalls. I was surprised to see chickens with some feathers left on, as well as the head and feet.
Then, back to the ship and another dinner.
Later that evening, we had a night tour of Lyon in open-top buses.
Lyon is known as the "City of Lights" (as is Paris) and many buildings were illuminated.
We went up to a cathedral on a hill. Here's a view of the back, during the day.
And from the front at night.
And finally, a view of Lyon from the hill.
By the time we got back to the ship it was late and we fell into bed. The ship departed and begin it's voyage down the Rhone to Tournon. We had to pass through a number of locks, but after the first one, we were asleep.
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10/15/2014 (Wednesday) After our late night, we slept until 7:30. We woke up to a nice day with just a bit of clearing fog.
Another walking tour brought us to a wine merchant, where we did more wine tasting.
We're ready for a tasting, listening to the owner-merchant explain about the vines and the soil.
The wine merchant was very animated in his discussion.
Judy at the tasting.
After the wine tasting, we went to the chocolate factory.
This was an amazing place for chocoholics. You could sample any of the chocolate, and as much as you wanted. You could overdose on chocolate without even trying.
This picture is of the sampling station just as you entered. They had the list of all the kinds of chocolate they made, and small wafers in little bins at the lower part of the display.
A view of one of the counters.
That afternoon there was a cooking demonstration by the ship's bakery chef. He demonstrated how to make crepe suzettes. This is the bakery chef. He had a great sense of humor. Really!
Judy having some of the "goodies" that were available after the demonstration.
Here's a cake he made that shows the route and the stops of our trip.
Eventually, it was dinner time and a picture of our table.
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10/16/2014 (Thursday) Docked at Viviers. Weather is good and we have a busy day today.
Here's the view from the dock in the morning.
We're going on a walking tour to visit the church in this picture - at the top of a rock.
In medieval times, the Rhone flowed through the plain shown in the picture. Today, the river has been channelized but still can overflow its banks. The guide is showing the water level of a couple of recent floods.
Viviers is a medieval town and has the narrow winding streets typical of medieval towns.
We eventually got to the top of the hill. Here's a view of the countryside.
And a view of the town.
Here I am at the top of the hill.
We went into the church...
And were treated to an organ concert by a very wonderful organist.
After leaving the church, we went to a potter's shop for a demonstration of making a pot on the wheel. Here's the potter getting started.
And almost finished.
The potter.
After lunch, we went to a truffle farm. Truffles grow on the roots of oak trees. Acorns are planted, and when the trees are about a foot high, they take them out of the pots and put some ground up truffle on the roots, and then plant the trees in a larger pot. When large enough, the trees are planted in the orchard.
Traditionally, pigs are used to hunt for the truffles but the couple who have this farm use dogs to find the truffles - specifically yellow labs. Yellow because they're easier to see in the dim evening light during the short days of winter.
The owner's wife is digging a truffle found by one of the dogs.
And here's a small truffle.
We then had a tasting of truffles. Here's a bin of truffles.
The truffles are sliced very thin, then served on a bread round with oil and salt.
Here's Judy tasting.
The dogs had been trained to love truffles by mixing truffles in their food when they were young puppies. Now they are real mooches of any pieces of truffle.
Judy and me at the tasing.
After the truffle tasting, we went to a a wine tasting in the Chateauneuf-du Pape wine region.
Here's a picture of one of the winemakers (L) and the guide (R).
The soil in Chateauneuf-du-Pape is very rocky - the land was once part of the river bed. It's a wonder that they can grow anything there. But I understand that the grapes do well in rocky soil, and it's forbidden to water them in this region, forcing the roots to grow deep. In one area the rocks are nearly a meter deep.
One thing we missed by taking the tours is the passage through the lock number 9 at Bollene, the highest lock in Europe, 23 meters, a bit over 75 feet. Here's a stock photo.
We rejoined the boat at Chateauneuf-du-Pape and it immediately left for Avignon.
After dinner, we went walking in Avignon to the famous bridge of the song - le Pont d'Avignon.
Unfortunately, we couldn't get on the bridge (but we did so the next day). I wanted to dance with Judy on the bridge, like in the song.
Sur le Pont d'Avignon
L'on y danse, l'on y danse
Sur le Pont
d'Avignon
L'on y danse tous en rond
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10/17/2014 (Friday) Docked at Avignon. We did a walking tour of Avignon this morning. Avignon was the seat of a series of popes from 1309 to 1377. The reasons the Avignon Papacy was established are complex so I won't go into that here. Avignon is not a terribly interesting town, especially after seeing all the other river towns on the Seine and the rest of the Rhone.
This is the castle of the Popes, but it was constructed as a fortress as well.
It's not easy to view it from the outside so here's a view of a model of the castle.
It was primarily built as a fortress because of the time, so it doesn't have a lot of grandeur. Also, the castle was stripped when the Pope moved back to Rome and was looted over the years. It's in the process of being renovated.
After the tour of Avignon, Judy and I went to Pont d'Avignon, just so we could say were were on the bridge. Here's a view looking out toward the river.
A view back toward the town.
And a view of the chapel that's built into the bridge.
And Judy on the bridge.
Finally, here's a view of the bridge during the day.
After this, we returned to the ship for lunch. It occurred to me that I haven't shown any pictures of the dining room so here are a few.
There were many desserts but I only took a picture of the ice cream station.
The afternoon tour was to the Roman aqueduct, the Pont du Gard, that's close to Avignon. It's impressive but difficult to photograph. Here's one picture. Judy and I climbed to the top of the aqueduct - it was a lot of steps.
And here's a stock photo from the web. This one shows the full extent of the aqueduct - the three tiers.
That night was formal dinner and we enjoyed it with Ed and Debbie.
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10/18/2014 (Saturday) Docked at Avignon. We took a bus tour down to Arles this morning. Arles is in southern France and you can feel the difference in the town. Security is not as good in Arles as in other towns and one of our cruise friends almost had her iPad stolen by a young thug - a grab and run attempt. Luckily, she was able to hang on to the iPad.
Anyway, Arles has several Roman ruins, including a coliseum and an outdoor theater. Here's the coliseum. They're doing a lot of renovation to both the coliseum and the theatre.
And the theater.
After seeing the sights, we had time to visit the local outdoor market. It was sort of a combination "farmer's market" and a flea market. Quite interesting. We bought a couple of things there to take home.
The boat sailed from Avignon while we were in Arles, and met us in Tarascon. We had lunch and then departed for a tour of an olive farm.
Here are some olives ready to go to the crusher. They have been graded and will produce different classes of olive oil.
Here's the crusher. They crush the whole olive - seed and all. The pulp is then squeezed to get the oil. The olive contains some water, which has to be extracted from the oil.
Then, we had a tasting of olive oil and wine. Wine seems to be a part of everything in France.
This is the woman who owns and runs the mill. She instructed us in how to taste olive oil, and also how to cook with it.
We both enjoyed the tasting and the day.
After the visit to the olive farm we went to the small medieval town of Baux, which was nearby. It was built on top of a rock formation. By this time, we were pretty overdosed on medieval towns. But this one had something special. Aluminum ore was found nearby and was named Bauxite after the town.
