The Rail Trip from Valence to Vienna and the Apartment!

Yes, this post is for August of 2011 - After we met up with the Dodd family, there was no time to blog and I became lazy in the fall.   There will be more posts from August (the rest of Austria and Germany) and September (Yellowstone National Park, USA) in the near future.

The trip from Valence to Vienna was a LONG train trip, but it was great!  The high speed train took us from Valence to Lyon where we caught the Austrian Railjet called the Wiesel.



 We had purchased a 1st class rail pass for 3 countries and this was one ride that made it worth it.  For most of the day we were the only ones in the car.

Beautiful Lake

And the views of France, Switzerland, and Austria were Magnificent! 

Different Lake

 

Para-sails galore

Awesome Mountains

Fields are SO green

And MORE Mountains!

We stopped at Salzburg and stayed at a hotel close to the station.  The station was being renovated and the area of the city was disrupted by it all.  We walked and walked to try and find some place for dinner - no luck.  We had passed a bar early in our travels and just headed back there for a bite.  It was OK.

Walkways in Melk

We planned to arrive in Vienna later in the afternoon so we took a short train trip to Melk.  We thought we would have a chance to put the suitcases in a locker at the Melk station, but that station was also under construction and the lockers were closed so I watched the bags and sat on the platform while Lee wandered into town.  Then he stayed with the bags while I trekked up to the Monastery, made a couple of purchases at the Monastery gift shop, wandered around the town square and went back to the station.  Melk is a very quaint town! 

Monastery Entrance

Heading back down to the City

Melk City Center

Old Church

Melk Memorial

 















It is a beautiful City and we return with the family later in August.

We caught the afternoon train to Vienna and arrived at the Wien Westbahnhof about 45 minutes before we were to meet Dr. Prusa at the Apartment.  We got a taxi with a driver who spoke some English and had somewhat of an idea of where the apartment was - even with the address though, he had some trouble finding it.  It was rush hour and the streets in the neighborhoods were very small, but we made it.

The Dr. met us and helped us take our bags upstairs... The apartment was on the 3rd floor - we never ever found the elevator, though he indicated there was one.

The apartment building was incredible as was the apartment.  Dr. Prusa spent an hour or so telling us the tricks of the kitchen, bathroom, windows, and antiques.

The Building Entry

Dragon Bannister

Living Room

Ceramic Fireplace - taller than Di

Then the Dr. walked us around the neighborhood and showed us some of his favorite restaurants and shops in the area and then he headed out to his villa.  We unpacked a bit, went out and had a fabulous Austrian dinner and looked forward to the next days exploration.

France: Crest Day 4, 5 & 6 - Villages, the Market, Mushroom Lasagna, and Ocher Hills

I received corrections from Edwige so I am updating this today, 10/16/2011.

Day 4 (Friday, July 29). We wandered to the train station to set up our trip to Vienna.  The station clerk was great - wrote out the list of trains we had to take and with Edwige's help, we reserved our seats for Monday morning.

Then we went to her favorite market, went home, and had another one of Edwige's fabulous lunches before we all headed out to explore two of the 'nearby' villages; Mirmande and Cliousclat.  Both villages are up in the hills and you hike up further after you park your vehicle.  The stone buildings and skinny streets / walkways are just beautiful.

 
Mirmande had a quiet, country luxury feel to it. Edwige told us that people are rebuilding the stone home in many of the villages, using the stone that was part of the original structures.  It is definitely a labor of love because you must build a normal house structure and then use the stones on the outside.  Not some remodel to be done in a heartbeat or over the summer.

Cliousclat is one of the pottery centers of the region.  It has more artists and shops and restaurants than Mirmande so it is a bit busier with a larger street running through it, but the same small paths between structures. 




The pottery is very nice and we wandered through their operations areas and the gift stores...

I wish I had had the room to pack a few items, but it would have been tragic to have them break.

Day 5 (July 30). This morning we explored the Crest street market while Edwige got rooms ready for a couple of students participating in the Jazz Festival classes.  

The Crest Market was great!  This market seemed twice as big as those in the cities around Paris.  The artisans (jewelry, leather, fabric, etc) had their stalls down the side streets while the meat, cheese, and vegetable stalls were situated along the main street.

It got very busy, but we had a chance to get through it early and bought a wheel of the best cheese ever for Edwige.   It is called "Reblochon" and if you ever get a chance to taste it, please do.  It is made from raw cow's milk so it cannot be brought into the US.


Then we explored the area where Edwige's family had their summer vacation home near Gigor.  We stropped at a wonderful village called Corbonne - like many villages, it had a beautiful, clear pool of water for thirsty visitors.  We drove to Plain de Baix and hiked up to Veylans,  a giant cross on one of the hills.  The countryside is beautiful and the hills are deceivingly high. 

After marveling at the views from the top including the "3 Beaks" (Trois Becs), we made our way to the car and headed back to see the art exhibition and have dinner.

On the way to Matthew and Isabella's house, we noticed an oddly shaped mountain and a castle.  Matthew Tyson and Isabella Oulton have a gallery called Imprints and they live at the foot of Piégros La Clastre (name of the mountain and the Castle.

The dinner was incredible since Matthew and his daughter took a short hike in the afternoon and picked 3 kilos of porcini mushrooms.  They made porcini mushroom lasagna for 20 people.



Day 6 (July 31). Edwige wasn't able to accompany us today because she needed to visit her father and she had some work she needed to get started on. We packed a picnic lunch and Christian and us headed out for Avignon. 
Avignon is famous for being a completely walled city and its bridge (surely you remember the song - Sur le Pont d'Avignon from childhood?).  As you can see, the bridge does not go all the way across.
 We did a driving tour of the city with Christian masterfully navigating the small, winding streets. It would be wonderful to explore Avignon on foot when there is more time.

We then drove on to Roussillon which is famous for its red rocks and and red pigment manufacturing.  These ocher hills have a variety of colors.  This park, Le Senter des Ocres, has descriptions of the plants that inhabit areas, too.  It is a fascinating and beautiful spot.

Christian got a pair of beautiful ocher earrings for Edwige as this is their anniversary.


We stopped in a farmer's field and had our picnic (sausage, cheese, and beer). We visited several additional villages most of them on hilltops with a ruin, church, or castle at the top before stopping to taste wine at one of Christian's favorite vineyards. Needless to say, the wine was incredible. Christian has a fabulous wine cellar.

We went out to dinner with Christian, Edwige, and Delphine to wind up our stay in Crest.   Christian - who is not a morning person - bravely took us to the Valence Train Station  at 7 am on 8/1.   Au Revoir -  it was a wonderful visit.

France: Crest Day 2 & 3 - Annecy & Chamonix

We left Crest around 8 a.m. to meet Christian in Annecy after he made a delivery for his work.  The drive was about 2 hours and was very interesting - the landscape changed dramatically and wonderfully as we went into the more mountainous area  around Annecy. 

Annecy is beautiful.  We met Christian at Annecy Castle or Chateau Annecy, restored to be the Art and History Conservatory of Annecy.  The view from the Castle was very nice. 


We walked around the city and hunted for lunch.  The city has many canals and a number of street performers. 

The sausage shops are fascinating - for the eyes and the nose.   




We toured the Castle and then checked into our hotel for a nap before going sightseeing and then to Delphine's apartment for dinner.  Delphine is Edwige's god-daughter.

Annecy is on one end of Lake Annecy.  Christian drove us to the other end of the lake before we drove to dinner.  What a gorgeous lake!  And hidden amongst the houses on the lake is a part of Tufts University... what a surprise! 



The weather turned nasty and Christian drove in a very heavy rainstorm to the apartment where we met Delphine and she gave us a lovely dinner.  We chatted for a bit and then headed back to the hotel so we all could get up early, Delphine for her job and us for Chamonix.



Thursday dawned overcast and we were concerned we wouldn't see much up the mountain at Chamonix.  We figured we definitely wouldn't see Mont Blanc - not seeing it is the norm we had heard. It tried to break through. 






The town is really cute, like many of the ski towns in Colorado such as Breckenridge. 

We walked the town and the weather seemed to clear a bit so we took the tram / railway up to the Mer de Glace.  The glacier has receded an incredible amount since 1990.  Since 2003 the glacier is losing ice at an increasing speed.  The loss of that much of the glacier made Christian and Edwige sad.




There are still ice caves, we took a cable car down, trekked down the "walkway", and we walked through.  That was spectacular. 

 
We hiked back up - seemed longer going back up, had a beer at the station, and caught the tram back down to Chamonix.  We had lunch and headed back to Annecy and Crest... discovering too far into the journey that we left our binoculars at the restaurant. 

Crest, France Day 1 - Friends, Food, a Walk-About, and a Concert

We arrived in Valence around noon and had to go to the ticket counter since the conductor said we needed to have a stamp on the tickets... we could have been fined, but Di played the dumb tourist and we got a reprieve.

Christian met us at the train station and drove us back to their beautiful home in Crest.  

After arriving, a look at the back courtyard and our room, and meeting the kitties, Edwige served us the first of many fabulous meals.   



 

This lunch was a regional favorite; Guinea Hen with potatoes and bacon. Wow, was it tasty! 



 



We did a bit of unpacking and Edwige took us on a tour of the village of Crest.  


We did not go up to the tower, but we certainly got to some spectacular heights!  We will have to return to do the proper Tower Tour as we never had the time during the rest of our stay.  



 

There are many artists and art Exhibitions in the town throughout this region of France.  Edwige was a curator/director for many years and knows all of the artists so we were welcomed. 


There is an annual Jazz Festival in Crest during this time and some of the artists were performing along the streets. 

This is also the time when a local choral group gives concerts in the evenings.  It was in a very old church in Chabrillan.  The director of the chorale group is a famous artist / film maker an she is quite the showman. She had a couple of her team members direct some songs.  This pictures doesn't do them justice, but it was very impressive!  

Paris Final Week - Chartres, the car, and the TGV

The Saturday morning trip to Chartres was smooth sailing on the highway, through a small town, and then onto the highway again.  There was a short toll road, but no other delays.  The entry to Chartres included some round-abouts - one thick with lavender. 

We lucked out on parking down a nice walking path leading to the old city.  This area had some flavor of Venice with homes on small canals.  As usual the streets were narrow and winding and had fairly steep inclines.   

They were having their Saturday Market and it was a big one.  The produce and all other products looked great.

 

A little further on, we started up the stairway to the cathedral which was about halfway through Rick Steves' walking tour.  

 

The Chartres Cathedral was one of the most beautiful we've seen.  

They are doing a lot of renovation and it is quite noticeable.

 

Around all cities are beautiful flowers, the Tourist Info (TI) center here had every color of hydrangea. 

Right down the street from the TI is a place Rick Steves recommends, Le Pichet.  The sun finally came out and we sat outside and had one of the best meals ever.    

 The rest of the walking tour included more narrow, winding streets and an interesting church - yes, another one.  This is the Eglise Saint Pierre and they have an archeological effort going on inside.  This church has "character" like no other - besides the character standing by the confessional.

Then we made our way back to the car - the way back is supposed to be shorter, but this wasn't.  

Neither was the drive home... We missed a turn-off  to take us the way we drove to Chartres and encountered The Toll-road from Hell!  

The toll plaza appeared to be normal; there were a number of cars and 8 lanes to each of the 8 ticket pay booths - no problem, but NO... 3 or 4 lanes came down to 1 and then every car in France showed up and the odd-ball fighting for a place in the queue started!  This was a total mess (CF, if you are familiar with the term).  2 hours later we got through and were on our way again.  This was horrible, but the worst is yet to come.

Now that we had been driving the van for almost 3 weeks, the gas gauge was dipping below a quarter tank, so time to fill-er-up at a station close to the boat. For a diesel engine, you'd pick the pumps withe the green handles, right? You'd never put something called "gazole" in a diesel engine, right? WRONG, we pumped 68 liters (about 100 euros worth) into the van. About a half mile later, the engine started running rough and started stalling. Then we realized our mistake, we had filled the diesel tank with gasoline (called "essence" in France). We got the van back to the boat and parked it and informed Daniel of our blunder. He made sure we got the keys to his smaller car, so we weren't without wheels for our last days. The cost to drain the tank, blow out the lines, replace the filters was about 240 euros, an expensive lesson / souvenir for Lee and Di.  Daniel later informed us that the van had suffered no permanent damage.

Last bike ride was along a bike path next to the boat headed towards Le Pecq.  It goes along the Seine and there is a garden at the end. 

 

We picked Daniel up at the Le Pecq station, had Champagne and a nice wine with dinner, and heard about his adventures on a friend's boat around Croatia.   We said goodbye to the boat - on a gorgeous morning -  caught the train to Gare de Lyon at Nanterre and got on the TGV to Valence / Crest for the next leg - a very active leg of the adventure.