Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Honeymoon journal entry #8: Final entry

Yesterday, we slept in and then went to the Supermarche to buy some souvenirs, watches (we finally got watches!) and towels to cushion the wine we're bringing home with us in our suitcases. Then, we headed to the Gouffre de Promeyssac (a big cave with stalagmites and stalactites). It was pretty cool - our second cave we've visited together - the first one being in South Dakota last year. They didn't allow photos - sorry!

After relaxing a bit at home and cleaning up the house to get ready for our departure, we headed into Le Bugue for dinner at Le Restaurant Abrevoir (see pic below).


























It was located on Grand Rue in Le Bugue in this little hidden area of quaint streets and homes and a few shops. The food was AMAZING, even though I forgot the French dictionary that we had been trying to bring with us to restaurants to translate some of the menu options...

So, we ended up ordering some things we weren't sure of. And by we, I mean Eric. His meal was the big question mark. We knew it was "Rognons de veau" in a mustard sauce. Veau means veal, and I assumed "rognons" meant "little pieces" or something like that. In reality, he had veal kidneys in a mustard sauce! (We looked up "rognons" when we got home.) I tasted one, and it just tasted like smokey meat. Eric wasn't too upset about it at all - he just kind of wondered why all the pieces were a bit round and exactly the same size. :) Oops...

I had duck with cherry chutney and potatoes. It was so tasty - best meal I had the whole time in France. For an appetizer, we had risotto with asparagus and a cream sauce - that was sooooo good, but it really killed my poor sensitive stomach later, and unfortunately, we didn't have any Pepto-Bismol... That's all I want to say about that.

Today, Wednesday, we had to say goodbye to our sweet little cottage and LeBugue. Here are a few more pics of Le Bugue and our cottage.


















































We headed out of town around 10 am and drove to Perigeux, a larger city about 40 km away. There, we wandered around the Centre Ville (downtown) and the market and enjoyed listening to a band (with members of all ages) play different tunes (lots of Sinatra and old classics). We bought a pretty tablecloth for my mom as a "thank you" for watching Indy for these 10 days.

Then we had a little lunch outside (pizza and cokes) in a cute little square where there were about 3 different restaurants all with tables outside. This interesting gentleman came over to the area and opened up this machine in which you insert this paper and then turn a crank and it plays songs, which he then sang along to. That was fun - he sang that one song from the Moulin Rouge soundtrack about "les escaliers."

After that, we headed to Brive, and I have to say that I am very proud of my stick handling skills that I've developed during the past 5 days. The first day, I accidentally started in 3rd gear and I couldn't find reverse (until Eric helped us figure out you had push down). Well, today I had to drive around Perigeux and Brive, both cities that are busier than Le Bugue and have lots of hills and pedestrians and crazy drivers that do U-turns whenever and wherever they want. Well, we finally pull into the area where the Avis car rental place is, and there are hardly any parking spots on the street (and there is no parking lot). I successfully parallel parked while reversing up hill. When I got into the space, I shouted "I rock!" I feel much more confident in my stick skills now. However, some of those hilly back road, somewhat mountainous windy roads where you have to slow way down and then turn sharply and then step on it to get up the hill - those still freak me out a bit. I'd still avoid those if possible.

Anyway, now we're relaxing at our hotel across from the Gare (train station) in Brive. (We were really as close to the train station as you could get. This pic is the view of the train station from our hotel room window. We didn't want to have trouble getting there on time that early in the morning.:))

We leave for Paris CDG airport at about 6 am tomorrow.

* * * * * * * *

That was our last journal entry! That final night, we wandered around Brive for a while and then had dinner at the restaurant attached to our hotel. And we tried escargots for an appetizer! It was actually quite tasty - lots of oil and garlic and a bit of a seaweed after-taste, but I give it two thumbs up!

The next day, we travelled for about 24 hours straight and arrived home safely. My mom and Indy greeted us at the airport. :)

Monday, August 31, 2009

Honeymoon journal entry #7:

Today, we slept in again and then drove to Montbazillac, a little town south of Bergerac. There, we tasted some wine (Montbazillac is one of the most well-known vineyards of the region), bought 4 bottles to take home and then grabbed lunch at a little restaurant. The woman who worked at the Maison du Tourisme et du Vin (House of Tourism and Wine) was the nicest woman ever - she didn't speak much English so I was forced to really try to speak a lot of French and explain things if I couldn't think of the exact French word. I really enjoyed talking with her!


Then, we toured the Chateau (there are pretty much chateaus in every town) and took in some of the beautiful scenery (are you sensing some common themes of our trip yet?). The town is at the top of a hill, and it overlooks many rows of grapevines, rolling hills, sunflowers, etc.














Next, we decided to take a walk - the Maison du Tourisme et du Vin gave us a map and directions in French for a walk that took us right through some vineyards, next to some cute country homes and through some woods. It was HOT, but we had no idea until we got home that it was about 95 degrees! Knowing that makes me feel better for taking the short cut back to the car early. :)

Here are some pictures from our walk...

















































After our long day out in the heat, we headed to the Supermarket and bought dinner and some other snacks. We just ate a dinner of steak kabobs and salad (and bread and cheese, of course). Now, we're relaxing and drinking some Belgian beer (Leffe).

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Honeymoon journal #6:

Today, we slept in again until about 9:30. After a quick breakfast, we went to Castelnaud - a little village that sits along the Dordogne River and has a huge castle from the Middle Ages that sits atop the hill. The whole town is basically nestled into the side of a hill.

So, since I've killed the engine in our car a few times while climbing the windy hills (this happened on our drive to Sarlat...), I was too scared to drive up the road to the castle. Instead, we parked down below near the river and then walked up to the castle. It ended up being a great decision because the side streets were tiny and about as wide as a small European car, and they were made with little stones.

It was fun to hike up those roads and see the little houses and yards and gardens of the locals. The castle itself was very cool and gave us some nice views of the area.



















Taking in the views of the Dordogne River and the surrounding countryside














Eric standing in front of the Dordogne River and the village of Beynac



After our castle tour, we sat by the river and ate lunch. Then we drove a few km to the Jardins de Marqueyssac - which were considered overhanging gardens because they, too, were situated up on a cliff. They were impressive! Definitely worth the money and the trip! We got a good workout hiking around the gardens (it was more like a park), and then we were rewarded with spectacular views of the area, the river, surrounding villages, etc.

Here are some pictures from the gardens...










































































Then it was time to drive back to our house - we took a different route so I could avoid some of the crazy steep hills on the way home. :) We hung out at home (our cottage) for an hour or so and then headed into Le Bugue to find dinner. At 6:30, we were turned away from a restaurant because they don't start serving until 7 pm. So we wandered down the street and went into a shop that sold foie gras and wine. The shop worker was so nice - when he found out we hadn't ever had foie gras, he offered us a sample on some bread. Then when we asked if there are any specific wines that are good with it, he opened up a bottle and poured us samples of that! We tried foie gras de canard (duck) and d'oie (goose) and a white wine called Rosette to go with it. We ended up buying some foie gras and 2 bottles of wine. We were able to communicate completely in French - although I know my language skills aren't as good as they used to be.

Then it was time for dinner at Oscar Brasserie. We got to sit on a patio overlooking the Vezere River. The food was ok (this was the night I accidentally ordered a hamburger, and I thought I was going to get some type of steak...oops), but it was just nice to eat out and have such a lovely view. Plus, the whole meal only cost 27 Euros, and we got an appetizer, entrees, 1/4L of wine, coffee and dessert! We love it here!

Now, we're just home at the cottage relaxing and drinking some of the wine we bought.

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Honeymoon journal entry #5:

Saturday morning, we slept in and enjoyed our breakfast out in the yard - there is a table with chairs covered by a sort of canopy/awning made out of bamboo strips that are covered with grape vines. Our yard overlooks some farms and trees and hills - it's so peaceful.

After breakfast, we drove to Sarlat, a town about 30 mins away, for the market. It was amazing and had so much more than we expected. We actually ended up spending quite a bit there - on ourselves and a few of our nieces. We bought some kids' books for the girls and for our future kids (en francais!). Eric bought some aviator sunglasses, and then we bought a provencale tablecloth (which I have wanted ever since I studied in France 7 years ago) and a ceramic vase that attaches to the wall. We're hoping it'll look good in our living room.

Sarlat itself was a really cute town. Buildings of stone. Windy, narrow streets that are made only to walk on (although I'm sure some crazy French people drive mopeds, bikes and possibly SmartCars down some of these streets). It looked almost like there was some German influence to the buildings. Anyway, it was very quaint and exactly the type of town I was hoping to visit ever since we started planning our honeymoon in France.

At the market, the book vendor was the nicest man ever. He gave us many recommendations of places to see and he even wrote down the address/name of a farm that also serves dinner at a fixed price. We may try to go there later this week, but it sounds like it's in a confusing place - tucked away in a hamlet between some other small towns... We'll see!

After that market, we headed home and relaxed by the pool.

Eric went swimming, and I just dangled my feet in the water and enjoyed the sunshine. The weather has been fabulous - blue skies all day today. Later, we ate an early dinner outside and then took our wine glasses and bottle, along with a blanket, and had a little wine picnic in the backyard. Back there, we sat on a hill overlooking the neighbors' field and a bunch of trees, and we chatted and watched the sun fall behind the trees. We had fun taking some pics with the gorilla pod (our little tripod).

After that, we did Eric's fav evening activity here - we watched a movie (I think it was Wedding Crashers?) in English with Dutch subtitles. Yes, Dutch. The cottage owners are from Holland and have satellite TV here. Hence the Dutch.

Friday, August 28, 2009

Honeymoon journal entry #4:

Friday, we took a train from Gare Austerlitz in Paris to Brive-la-Gaillarde in southwestern France (it's the Perigord or Dordogne region). We entertained ourselves on the train ride by watching episodes of 24 on Eric's PSP.

In Brive, we picked up our rental car, which turned out to be an Audi 4-door hatchback. The nicest woman (with the cutest little 4-month-old golden retriever puppy) who worked at a little convenience store, helped give us directions to Le Bugue (the town our cottage was in) from Brive. Thank goodness for that lady because we forgot our huge packet of info that Simply Perigord (the company who rents the cottages) had mailed to us a few weeks prior...

So we were off to attempt driving a stick through a small French town, finding the right highway, navigating a million round-abouts and getting to the Simply Perigord office on time to pick up our cottage key. I killed the engine a few times on the way out of town... the stick said that reverse was where first gear usually is, so I was trying hard to not accidentally start in reverse. It confused me, and as I learned later, I was killing the engine because I was accidentally starting in third gear.

Anyway....Eric did a great job navigating. Really amazing since we started out not knowing where we were at all. Unfortunately, we went past our exit on the main highway and ended up having to navigate through smaller country roads to backtrack. At one point, while attempting a 3-point turn (with the front of the car right near the edge of a 15 ft or more drop off into a huge ditch/cliff), I couldn't figure out how the heck to get the car in reverse -- I kept pushing the stick all the way to the left and up, just like the little picture said, but it would not work. Eric thought it'd be a good idea to just get out and push the car backwards while it was in neutral, but I had terrible visions of me killing my husband on only our 7th day of marriage. So that idea was thrown out. I tried once again to go in reverse, only to make the tires spin forward and almost propel me off the cliff. At this point, I freaked out and told Eric "you do it!" (although I knew that he had never driven a stick before).

This is where we have our friend Tim Kurt to thank. He had just told us a story about his stick-driving problems in England, so Eric tried pulling the stick up and then pushing it in/down. It worked! FYI...in a European manual car, it is tricky to find reverse! If Eric hadn't tried that, our car would probably still be in a ditch/off a cliff. After that, I did much better with reverse and starting in first gear.

We finally made it to Le Bugue and were very happy to find our cottage. It is adorable. We were very happy to find ourselves in the country with fresh air and animal sounds - birds, roosters, the occasional cow. After settling in a bit, we took the car in to town to the Intermarche (kind of like Walmart - groceries and random other stuff) for some groceries. It was awesome - we bought a couple bottles of wine that were only like 3 Euros each, Eric got some Cognac and then we got some breakfast, lunch and dinner supplies - all for just a bit more than what we had paid for dinners in Paris. That night, we made a simple pasta/veggie dinner at home accompanied by a baguette and cheese and wine.

I definitely deserved the wine that night! It helped me de-stress!

Here are some more pictures of our cottage:

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Honeymoon journal entry #3:

Today, we grabbed a quick breakfast at Columbus Cafe (a small walk-up cafe down the street from the Pantheon and our hotel). We had muffins and coffee (Eric) and OJ (me) - tres francaise, I know. Then, we tried to find watches at Monoprix (the Target of France), but they apparently don't carry them.

Side note/tangent about watches: See, Eric and I both have watches, but we don't wear them because the batteries are dead and because they were gifts from old relationships. So when I mentioned that when I studied in France I bought a cute lil watch from Monoprix, Eric got really excited and proclaimed that we should buy new watches together at Monoprix! Sadly, this didn't happen...We'll keep searching.

Anyway, Monoprix did carry kleenex, and we bought that, which is good because our noses have been stuffy since we got here.

After that exciting shopping venture, we took the Metro to the Eiffel Tower. Eric felt confident in our leg strength and talked me into taking the stairs instead of the elevator. We went as high as you can go up the stairs (a bit more than half way up).


Our legs were sore after that, but we continued to walk around the area for a bit and then grabbed lunch at a local sandwich shop/bar. Sandwiches were not so good, but the beer was delightful. :)

On part of our walk, we saw this cute white Newfoundland (which reminded us of Indy's boyfriend Tonka back home) walking off-leash. I tried to get a picture of him taking a swim in a fountain, but he jumped out too fast. His owner was a cute elderly French man who had a special whistle that he used to get the dog to come back to him. It was cute and made us miss Indy.

After lunch, we took the Metro over to the Arc de Triomphe. We struggled with how to actually get to the Arc (struggled = spent a serious 20 mins or so). You can stand across the street and take pics of the Arc, but you absolutely cannot cross the street - there are tons of cars coming from about six different directions. We saw signs telling us to take stairs down into a tunnel to get to the Arc, but we weren't sure which stairs were the correct stairs. We tried one set of stairs that led us to the Metro station. That wasn't right. We tried another set that took us back where we initially came out of the Metro. That wasn't right. Then Eric found the correct stairs, which took us to a place underground where we had to pay to go up the Arc. We decided at that point that our legs were too tired and we didn't really care enough to pay to walk up more stairs. Funny thing is, I had been there before with my mom and I don't remember it being difficult at all!

So we walked along the Champs Elysee for a bit and then went to a little cafe/brasserie near our hotel for a little cheese plate and wine. The stinky cheese just is not for me (Eric either). But I do love me some Camembert and Brie.

After that, it was nap time and then we went out for a late dinner in the Saint Germain area - some pizza and a carafe of wine enjoyed while sitting at a table outside.

It was our last night in Paris, and it was lovely.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Honeymoon journal entry #2:

Today we walked over to Crepes a Go Go and enjoyed crepes and coffee (for Eric) and tea (for me) for breakfast. It was a lovely way to start out our day...except for the crazy Parisian bees (2 were killed during our meal - one by Eric and one by the server).

After that, we bought 2-day passes for the metro (the subway system) and took it up to Montmartre and Sacre Coeur. We successfully evaded the street vendors who try to coerce tourists into spending money by tying a bracelet around a person's wrist and then forcing them to pay for it. Anyway, we avoided them and then took our time walking around outside and inside the church.


We snapped a few pics in front of the church and then wandered over to the artists' square in Montmartre. We looked at lots of different paintings and drawings and decided to buy an oil painting from an artists who was really nice. The painting is of a French cafe with the Arc de Triomph in the background. We told the artist that we were on our honeymoon, and he said we should come back in a few years with all our petits enfants! ha! He also complimented me on my French, so I really liked him - he was immediately my favorite Parisian.


After that, we took the Metro over near the Louvre and found a little Italian restaurant for lunch. We both had some pretty good pasta and bread to keep us full and prep us for the Louvre. Then, we spent several hours wandering around the Louvre, which was extremely busy - it's still high tourist season, I guess.

Lots of people + not a lot of air conditioning + a glass pyramid trapping in heat = very hot and thirsty Heidi and Eric. But we did enjoy the museum. There are so many old things, pieces d'art to take in. It's really impressive.

After the Louvre, we headed over to the Tuileries and sat to rest in the shade. Our rest didn't last long, though, because we saw like 5 rats running between the bushes near us! I think they like the tourists and all the food scraps they leave behind.

Next, we found a cute little place with several restaurants and a petit marche (mini mart). We decided to eat a smaller dinner that night, so we bought Camembert, grapes, ham and some bread -- and of course some vin! We just relaxed and ate our petit diner at our hotel while watching French MTV. Eric especially liked Punk'd (you can still hear the English being spoken, but the French is dubbed over it).

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Honeymoon travel journal entry #1:

Flew to Paris last night and arrived at about 9 am. Took the RER to the Luxembourg stop and made our way fairly easily to our hotel - Hotel des Grands Hommes. They made a mistake with our reservation - somehow they never entered us in the computer so there were no rooms available for us. Fortunately, we ended up with a great room at their sister hotel next door (Hotel du Pantheon). So, now we have a room with a view of the Pantheon and Sacre Coeur - way up on the hill. It's a beautiful view.

Right now, it's about 9:30 pm, and you can hear cars driving past and people speaking in French six floors below on the place in front of the Pantheon. Our windows are open - I love French windows and how they are almost floor-to-ceiling and don't have screens.

Today, after checking in to our hotel, we wandered over to Notre Dame and took some pics outside. The line was really long to go inside - we might go back another time.

Then we made our way to La Sainte Chapelle. Even though I had been there before, it's still breath-taking. Eric seemed to like it as well, although we were both in kind of a jet-lagged daze. At some point, we got a panini and shared it along with a diet and regular coke (un coca light et un coca). The caffeine didn't do much for the jet lag.

This afternoon, we wandered over near the Louvre and sat outside the pyramid next to the fountain. We are planning to go back tomorrow or Thursday when they are open. Then, we took a much-needed nap for about 2 hours. After that, we cleaned up for dinner and headed over to a restaurant near the Sorbonne and had a nice meal outside.

Now, we're just relaxing...Eric's snapping photos of our view out the window.

The Stones are back

We are back from our honeymoon in France and are slowly adjusting to the time change. We've actually been a little busy since getting back on Thursday night. We spent Friday running a few errands and then went to sleep that night at 9 o'clock. Yesterday, we went to our friends' Nick and Ingrid's wedding in Rochester and we spent the night down there. Today, we are just relaxing at home - and we finally got all or pictures online! There are more than 300... Yikes! But we were gone for 10 days and we couldn't help taking pictures of all the beautiful views, grape vines, Paris sites, etc. We did a lot in 10 days, but we really took our time and relaxed too. We did 1 or 2 big things each day and then spent most evenings/nights relaxing at our hotel or cottage. We wrote down what we did each day in sort of a travel journal kind of way, so I think I'll post those as separate blog entries so you can read more details about where we were and what we did.

If you want to scroll through all of our pictures, click on the album below.

Honeymoon in France

Dordogne

This is the cottage we will hopefully be staying in during part of our honeymoon in France!

I'm waiting to receive official booking forms, but the cottage is available and talks are underway!

We'll spend the first three days in Paris and then five days in this cute place in the Dordogne region in the southwest of France, about an hour from Bordeaux.

I don't think I can contain my excitement for another month and a half...