3200 km of Michelin Tire Prints

With this post, I can finally draw the curtains on Tour La France...Thanks to our new travel mate Serena, all our destinations were found without much difficulties. In case you don't know her, Serena works for Garmin, and pronounces French street names with an American accent. On hind sight, I think we should have opted for Kate instead, who can't be bothered with reading street names. Reason being, street signs in France are inconsistent in names and numbers, they are either placed inconspicuously, or does not even exist in sight. Most of the time, I struggle to find the name of the street AFTER we made the turn. So a precise GPS to show the distance to turn is very important, the roads in France can be very close to each other too.

Before we embarked on the road-trip, the Cols were the roads that scared us the most. The thought of those small winding roads, with the cliff on the right, and a truck on the left, just sent us hallucinating with "Final Destination" scenes. Lucky or not, our planned route through the Cols were closed, and in view of bad weather, we ended up with a half scenic route from Nice to Digne. 150km of hair-pin curves was scenic enough. Cols are in fact mountain passes, the highest being Col de la Bonette. Those at higher altitudes are closed in the winter-spring season, except for a few such as Col de Vars which might be open in Spring. These routes are bikers' heaven! Plenty of youtube videos of the Cols if you are interested. Useful information pertaining to the Cols:

http://www.bison-fute.equipement.gouv.fr/acces-aux-cols/listecols.do?nom=&codeDpt=0&massif=ALPES&typeCol=X

http://www.inforoute05.fr/wir3/cameras.html

http://www.infotrafic.com/route.php?region=FRANC&link=cols.php?Ouverts&761765025

After the trip, we realised that we had probably taken the most dangerous routes while we were in Dordogne, right from the start of our trip. There were endless small hairpins, which was even more difficult to manoeuvre than larger ones seen at the Cols. Worse still, these small hairpins were accompanied by 13% slopes, some unpaved (mixture of rocks and grass). I would have thought that these routes are meant for ATVs only. Didn't take any videos as I was too busy looking out for on-coming cars for the driver, these hairpins turn 300 degrees, without any mirrors at the curve. Just when we thought the 1 car-width roads are too small for a 2 way traffic, the roads can still get smaller. 1 bad judgement at the edge can send us down the cliff!


Our favourite leg: Nice to Annecy through Digne and Grenoble
The roads here are acceptable enough for me to take videos. Never knew how a snow shower is like (at 5:30 in the video), but now we do. This route has surprises at every turn, from towering mountains, gorges, lakes to a troglodyte village, Entrevaux. This video is not for one with motion sickness.

Red Red Wine - Bourgogne (better known as Burgundy)

Needless to say, this leg is a gastronomy stop.

I've read about French wine and their wine regions, but that pea brain of mine just could not register that Bourgogne's speciality is Pinot and Chardonnay. Since I'm not a fan of Pinot, this fact is now etched in my cerebral hemispheres.

We set base in Beaune, where we could savour both the bourgogne cuisine and their distinct architecture.

Hotel Dieu - Hospices de Beaune

This used to be a hospital for the public, and was built by Nicolas Rolin (Chancellor of the Duke of Burgundy) and his wife. The multi-coloured roof is very typical of Burgundian architecture.

The Hospice married both Burgundian and Flemish architecture beautifully.

The sick and poor used to be housed in this room, males on 1 side and females on the other. There was a purpose for the decorations on the ceiling to bring comfort for the sick, which I think that it was really thoughtful of the founders then.  The Chapel at the end of the room was for nuns to pray for the sick.

To raise money for free/subsidised medication for the poor, the Hospices also provided a private room for patients who can afford to pay.

The kitchen. Interesting to know that the patients each have a carafe of red wine by their bed. Water on the other hand, was considered to be more harmful due to possibilities of water pollution. The patients' meals were also planned according to the individual's constitution. Poultry are reserved for patients with weaker digestion, while red meat such as beef are for patients with better constitution.

The dispensary. Herbs such as dill, menthe and thyme etc were used as medicine for various ailments.

The stained glass here have a very different genre as those seen in most churches. The colour theme is just shades of grey and yellow. 

1.5 Days of Wine Tasting

For this 1.5 days, we can hardly remember doing anything except an information overload on wine making, and an endless list of Pinot, Chardonnay and Crémant.

Beaune is a town that is rather developed on the surface, little would I expect that there are actually cellars  running everywhere underground! 

Our 1st wine tasting stop was at Marché aux Vin. I came to know of this place through travel reviews, and was even more intrigue by it during our visit to the Hospices. This company bought over the vineyards that were once owned by the Hospices, and is still holding on to some really aged bottles in their cellar now. Entrance is 10 Euro/pax, and you get to keep the taste vin (a shallow metal dish) that they give out for tasting.

After we woke up from 1.5 days of intoxication, we kinda regretted spending that 20 euros on Marché aux Vin. If we will do this again, we'll probably dedicate the time for an oenology session (1 to 1.5 Hrs) instead.

Marché aux Vin

Old bottles from the Hospices

We didn't suspect anything running underground with this amount of buildings in the surroundings.

We went direct to a wine maker, Chateau de Meursault to check it out. 15 Euros/pax, wine glass to keep. You can also make reservations for lunch and other tours with the Chateau. Details: www.chateau-meursault.com

Wine pairing information with cheese, and other food.

It is very old world to put their emphasis on terroir, which I personally agree very much with. Here, the maker believes that the plants around the vines are also very important to harmonize with the grapes. As we are not in the season, we couldn't really see what's growing in this garden.

The Chateau has its history since the 11th century, and this cave has been intact since the 13th century.

Bottles left for ageing since years ago. I've been restraining to clean off that thick layer of dust on the bottles.... 

This cave is humongous! It is a maze of red wine bottles in here.

This room is 800 sq m,with more than 800 barrels of alcohol. To be matured 15 months for red wine, and 1 year for white. They make Marc here as well, which is similar to Cognac. These are aged for 12 years in the barrels to reduce the alcohol level from >70% to 40%. 

Look at that layer of dust since 2001!!!!! This is what ageing is all about...

The distinct coloured roof of Burgundy, in the town of Meursault.

Our last tasting was at Veuve Ambal, a maker of sparkling wine (Crémant). This is one of those times when we felt really fortunate to be visiting in the non-peak season. Through the tourism brochure, it stated that the guided tour starts at 2pm. We went a little earlier after lunch, and was surprised that we could start whenever we want, as it is off-peak, and they are not expecting a big crowd. The staff who attended to us is very knowledgeable, he studied wine for 2 years in school, and can be a qualified sommelier. We chatted for the entire afternoon, and clarified everything about wine. What we wanted to know, and what we do not know that we do not know...it was an amazing afternoon for us!

I've always wondered why Pinot fetches a premium over other grapes. It seems that the main reason lies in the difficulty of harvesting the vines. It is a more delicate species than the rest, needs to be hand-picked and requires more attention during loading. In Burgundy, the best plots of vines are usually found in the mid-slope  facing East and SE (Grand Crus). But of course, grapes from the same Grand Crus could still taste different between different makers, so the best is to taste and find one maker to your preference.

We've thought of growing vines as a retirement hobby, but it seems more difficult than we thought. First, we need a sizeable plot at a good location with good terroir. Then, we need to go through the entire farming to harvesting process which is not that easy at all. Vines need pruning to concentrate their juices, then it is the picking and sorting of the grapes (which can't be squashed during loading, otherwise oxidization will occur) and the pressing (1st press is the best)...blah blah and blah...so I guess we'll stick to growing vegetables instead.

After this trip, I suppose we will not spend that premium on Moët when we are back in Singapore. What's it with Champagne? It's only a region isn't it, so why should I pay a premium for crémant made in Champagne?  Not that Moët is not good, but there are other makers with pretty good recipes on crémant too.

The mix of grapes that they use in making the various crémant recipes.

Food and accommodation

We stayed in Beaune hotel. Good location, but not very value for money. Very bad sound proofing too, we could hear our neighbours putting the key into the keyhole, turning the key, opening the door to pulling the key out. No joke, it is true!!! Private garage is 5 Euros/day. We checked out other Logis along the same stretch, and found that there are cheaper and better options.

Food specialities:
Appetizers: Escargots, Jambon Persillé (looks like 猪脚冻, but with ham instead).
Mains: Bouguignon beef stew, Coq au Vin (cock stewed in burgundy wine), veau or lapin (rabbits) with Mustard sauce (Dijon, the father of mustard makers is only a stone throw away).
Dessert: Pain d'epices (ginger cake).

Lunch at Meursault is pretty good. I promised that we will not take any more pictures on food, so here is the ambience...This is a hotel-restaurant, very cosy setting and traditional home-cooked burgundian meals... brilliant!

Snow-capped mountains in Spring - the Rhône-Alpes Region

Annecy is our 2nd last stop of "Tour La France", with the route from Nice to Annecy as our favourite leg of all. I'm still tidying the videos, so stay tune for the final post on the road-trip after our last stop in Burgundy.

We will not forgive ourselves for not visiting the French Alps while we are in France, so this stop is a MUST for us in the trip. In fact, we dedicated 3 nights in Annecy as compared to the rest which we only spent 2 nights at most.

Being us, not staying in Annecy centre was an obvious decision. So we are now left with the west and east bank and the other end of Annecy lake. Our 1st choice was to stay with Maison du Moulin near Doussard, where the people running the place are very experienced in para-gliding. This is a sport that I have always wanted to do before I get more and more scaredy cat with my age. And so, I let Maison du Moulin decide...if they accept my reservation, I will join them for para-gliding in Annecy. Otherwise, we remain boring and safe. The verdict was, we had to settle for Residel Hotel on the West bank of Annecy lake. We were very safe, but not bored after all.

Annecy

The landscape in the Alps reminded me of Switzerland. Sporadic Scandinavian architecture randomly spread at mid to bottom slope.

It felt like we've walked into one of those landscape painting at Place de Tertre. Snow capped mountains with a lake, what more relaxing than this...

We took this picture entirely because it is iconic of Annecy. The town is just too touristy in my opinion, nothing more than 2 meals in this town.

Sluice gates controlling the flow between the lake into the river.

The Student - acting cool with my polarized sunshades.

My polarized sunshades were really useful for dinner here. The sun was glaring right at us at 8pm.

Chamonix

Spring is indeed a good season to travel without the crowd, but we did not expect to run into risks of not being able to see as much as we wanted. Aiguille du Midi was closed due to high risks of avalanches, and we were not allowed to hike from Plan du Aiguille to Montenvers without a mountain guide in winter/spring. This explains why I only see videos of those hikes in summer. Seems like we have a reason to come back again.

Since this is the low season, we even managed to grab a parking lot just infront of the ticketing office of Aiguille. Chamonix town is only steps away.

And so, we settled for the tram ride to Montenver for the glacier. Again, visits were all restricted due to bad weather. The ice cave within the glacier was closed too. 

The cable car to the ice-cave right in the heart of the glacier...but it was closed!!!!!

Mer de Glace - literally means Sea of Ice. Since there weren't much to see with the cave and trails closed, we sat by the glacier and witnessed 2 mini avalanches at a distance. We were also hoping to catch a dare-devil ski down the off-piste track...but nah...tough luck for us.

Gorges du Fier

The Fier river starts from the foot of Mont Charvin, and runs through valleys and passes including Annecy. This river was created some 20,000 years ago from glacial actions, which in turn formed the Gorges du Fier through erosion of water emptied out from the glacier. We couldn't help but marvel at the wonders of nature in this visit.

Montrottier castle from the bridge leading to the gorges. There is a legend on the love story between a princess, knight and a page during a time of rivalries between the lords. The legend then explained the sight of a pile of rocks being the burial ground for the page.

It was a little terrifying to be hanging over angry water at the footbridge.

One of the many faces of the gorges.

This is a Marmite created by the action of water through time.

View of the entrance to the gorges from the castle.

Pont de la Caille

This is a place to go only if it is on the way to wherever you are going. We took a wrong exit towards Chamonix and ended up paying more than we should, otherwise, the scenery we got here would be free.

Princess Daisy: Mario is coming to save you from Dino! 

Food and Accommodation

I didn't research on food specialities in Annecy before we set off for the trip. But through a quick walk at Chamonix and Annecy, it was pretty obvious what are the specialities. I suppose the cuisine is very much influenced by Switzerland (or vice versa), since the Alps is so close to the border. Savoyarde cuisine is key here, brace yourself for cheese and more cheese! 

Fondue Savoyarde: Similar to Swiss cheese fondue, but without schnapps to compliment the dish.

Tartiflette: Cheese, bacon and potatoes gratin.

Raclette cheese.

Hotel Residel is just next to the lake, but separated by a road without private access to the lake. Some other hotels have their private access, but we'll have to pay a little premium for that. I suppose we'll leave those choices for a "do nothing" trip when we'll lounge the whole day away fishing by the lake.

Residel is very well equipped with a small kitchenette, and it is the only accommodation in our trip that provides a hair dryer! Down side is that we are on the side of the lake with lesser dining options, and where the strict dining hours apply. Not much issue if you drive, since going to Annecy town is only 10 mins away.