Woke up late and wasn't feeling so great

When we arrived at 4pm at the house in Aix a couple of days ago Kirsty said that they had been awake for about an hour. Heidi and I were baffled they could be asleep until so late...... until we went out drinking with them. 


Anyway, so today was a 3pm start, Johannes who plays the cello made us all scrambled eggs with about 3kg of cheese in there which really hit the spot. After this hearty 3.30pm breakfast we piled into a couple of cars and hit the road to go to the beach at Saint Croix. 


The beach was still packed when we got there at around 6pm and then we stayed until around 8.30pm. The amount of daylight here is amazing. The sun was still well and truly up when we left and the salt water washed away the cobwebs so we were feeling like we still could salvage a day. We went for dinner at the nearest town where Kirsty tried to order a bottle of "Fanny" rose(which was on the menu) but the waiter said "he had no fanny". Hilarity ensued. 

 The next morning we went to the local markets in Aix in search of the homme poulet, but there was none to be found at these markets. Then we drove to a nearby town called Avignon. This place still had preserved its ramparts, which was pretty awesome as there was walls all around it still. 

Don't bother your trechubets with this wall, go around and attack the mud gate.

It also happened to be quite the place for theatre performances as during our lunch there were people giving live performances as advertising for their shows and also about 4 other groups walking around in their costumes handing out pamphlets for their show. The city of Avignon was really beautiful, I think when we come back this way it would definately be worth staying there for a night or 2.

Pants are optional in Avingon

From Lyon to Provence

Our second day in Lyon  had some better weather, so we set off for our cafe and little pound cake thing again. Being a pretty nice day, I had wanted to walk to a large nearby park, called Parc de la Tete d'Or. Being in Croix-Rousse this meant we had to descend down a heap of steps because we were on a hill. Ryan was following google maps on his phone but took a wrong turn somewhere, because the 7 or 8 flights of stairs we walked down (at least!) ended up more or less in a pile of dirt with some workmen and no exit, so we had no choice but to look like foolish tourists, turn around and walk back up them.

The stairs that led to nowhere

So with at least half a croissant burned off, we adjusted our route and found the correct set of stairs to descend. The calves were feeling it the next day (and day after!) I can tell you! We eventually found the park, which was enormous and had a massive lake full of swans and ducks and geese, and it even had a zoo, all there integrated into the park and for free! Nice work Lyon!

Water buffalo at Parc de la Tete d'Or

We wandered around the park and zoo (which had giraffes, crocodiles, water buffalo, and a heap of monkeys and flamingos) for a couple of hours until we were pretty much lost right at the top end of the park. So to get us back quicker, we picked up some bikes that are stationed around all over Lyon and rode them, albeit a little wobbly, back down to the park entrance.

Picking up some bikes - my first ride in 20 or so years!

Back in town we bought a couple of baguettes and found a nice park to sit in and eat them and watch the world go by. This was when we checked our emails and found out our sub-tenant was moving out, so we then went home to give notice to our landlord that we were moving out, and  sort out some other stuff. Not really the kind of issues we want to be dealing with on the other side of the world, but that's the way the croissant crumbles.

Wine, cheese and charcuterie back at Le Barge

Later that afternoon it was still a lovely sunny day so we headed back out to Le Barge which we had enjoyed so much the day before. Being a Friday night it was completely buzzing, but we found a table and enjoyed a carafe of wine and a cheese and charcuterie platter sitting beside the Rhone as the sun slowly set. Aaaahhh.

Salmon tartare and gazpacho with straw

The next morning we packed our bags, and after going out for a quick cafe we hit the road for Provence. My sister Kirsty is currently playing a festival with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra in Aix-en-Provence and is staying in a house with a pool with 3 others, so lucky us got to crash on their couch! So after a long-ish drive (lots of traffic being a weekend - you were right Audrey!) we arrived at the house and were greeted by Kirsty and immediately hopped in the pool!

1 Euro vin in Aix

Kirsty was playing in an opera that night so Ryan and I headed into the town of Aix for dinner (I had a yummy salmon tartare) followed by a little vin (literally - we passed a bar which was serving little glasses of 1 Euro wine). Then we met Kirsty and her musician pals after their performance and went along to their party (as it was the premier performance of the opera). Free champagne for everyone - woohoo!  When the bar ran dry we all headed to another bar the musos often frequent and stayed out until the wee hours of the morning!

Ou est Le Barge?

So after un cafe in Dijon Wednesday morning (which was dead) and then checking out of our hotel and having heart attacks regarding the fact that the owner of our apartment has suddenly decided to sell after 3+ years of no contact, we hit the road.


We set sail for Beaune, heading through a trail of small towns and miles of green vineyards. Such beautiful countryside.... We arrived in Beaune and parked the car for a quick stop and baguette to eat and a couple of emergency emails to put out the real estate fire that was a-blazing at home.

Basilica of Notre Dame on top of Fourviere hill in Lyon

From Beaune we headed straight to our next destination, Lyon. Ryan is brilliant at handling the European roads - I don't know how he does it but I'm in charge of navigation (which is a piece of cake, thanks Google). Anyway we high-tailed it down France's amazingly well-kept but expensive freeways to Lyon, France's 3rd largest city. We checked into our hotel (which was amazingly modern for the price) in Croix-Rousse, an old silk weaving area on top of a hill in Lyon. We dumped our bags in the room and headed down to the heart of Croix-Rousse.

Giant meringues in every flavour right next to our hotel

If you have been following our blog, you will have noticed that no expense was spared with our wining and dining in Paris and Champagne, so once we got to Lyon we did a quick budget check over a glass of vin and then had a massive freak-out so pretty much sent ourselves straight home with a quiche for dinner for Ryan, and a meringue for dinner for me.

Some more examples of the French sweets which are expanding our girths

The next morning we realised the budget was actually OK, and we could afford to continue to eat, we just didn't need to accompany every meal with a bottle of France's finest champagne. So we headed out into a cool and somewhat drizzly Lyonnaise morning in search of our routine cafe, and found a place that served little pound cake type things with the espressos (or noisette, as I have been getting)! Over the road, the Croix-Rousse markets (which are the biggest in Lyon) are open 6 days a week (quite unusual we've found, in this nation which seems to have an aversion to working). We had a stroll through them and looked at all their fresh looking produce neatly displayed in individual bowls, and Ryan found his trusty old chicken man dripping chicken juice onto potatoes underneath. It was still early so Ryan wanted to kill some time before ordering his beloved chicken leg and chicken juice-soaked potatoes, but didn't want to venture too far because sometimes these Frenchies will pack up their stands quicker than you can say hot potato.

The panoramic view from the Fourviere hill

So another "un cafe" nearby, in what was turning out to be a bit of a miserable morning in Lyon, was enough to pass the time until we could go back and get some chicken and potatoes, which has become Ryan's favourite French dish (watch out Eveleigh markets, Ryan is coming with a rotisserie van to you soon!)

View over Lyon from top of Croix-Rousse hill

Since it was colder and more les miserables than we had anticipated, we took said chicken back to the hotel to get changed, pick up an umbrella and consume the chicken (I only had some of the potatoes, and which to be honest weren't as mind-blowing as the ones I had in Paris). Better equipped, we then got the metro to Bellecour station. We were both impressed with the efficiency of the public transport system in Lyon and Ryan nearly threw himself off the top of the Fouviere hill when I told him Lyon has a population of around half a million people. (Note: get it together City Rail).

Ryan's favourite guy - homme de poulet et pomme de terre

We walked through the large square of Place Bellecour, which in the rain, isn't the greatest, then over the Saone river to the old town, which I thought was extremely pretty - little narrow cobblestoned streets which I have become a sucker for. Now I'm not a huge fan of museums (refer back to my Louvre review) but I had read about this particular one, Musee Miniature et Cinema, which caught my eye, and I must say it was some of the best 7 euros I have spent! Five levels of props from landmark movies (Bruce, if you're reading, you would have died), as well as explaining how movies are made and then a number of miniature scenes, things with tiny little props (some you needed a magnifying glass to see) - some which have been used for movies and some which have just been made for their amazing-ness!

Tilt-shift pic of Place Bellecour from Fourviere Hill

By the time we came out of the museum, the rain had stopped and the sun came out, hooray! So we took the nearby funicular up the Fourviere Hill to the impressive Basilica, which has an amazing outlook over the whole of Lyon. So we spent some time up there enjoying the vista and taking some pics before heading back down to the river.

Ryan enjoying un vin on the Rhone on Le Barge

Lyon is situated on and around two rivers (the Rhone and the Saone) which converge just south of the heart of Lyon. I had read that there were some barges which had bars and restaurants on the Rhone river, and so after heading over to the Rhone and randomly looking for some barges, we found one (called "Le Barge") which was situated literally on the water and serving drinks and tapas, which is all Ryan and I ask for in life (watch out Sydney Harbour, we are coming with a le barge bar to you soon!)

Crepe Suzette (flambe!) for dessert

After a lovely evening drink on Le Barge on the river, we headed back to our neighbourhood where I had read had a great crepe place. I'm glad I'd done my research because it was out of the way and pretty quiet, but cheap and delicious! Better crepes than we had in Paris actually (which are meant to be Paris' best!) - just the right amount of crepe to filling ratio! And that was the perfect end to day 1 in Lyon!

No you're a moutarde

On Monday morning we were pretty sad to be leaving Epernay, our champagne caining headquarters and home to the best street ever. You can have your Champ de Lyselles, your Broadways, your Abby Roads, your Sesame Streets, your King Streets, my heart will always be in the Avenue de Champagne.

Best street: world.

We met Dan Smith for un cafe and then went driving around the champagne region in search of some places that would let us degust their champagnes.
There are so many small towns in the area apparently each of these towns can have a couple of hundred winemakers using the grapes from it. The some of the areas having been designated as grand cru have little tombstones in front of the vines that belong to that champagne maker.

We found a champagne house called Paul  Goerg that seemed deserted at first, but after a bit of back and forth in broken French and English the lady realised that we wanted to cain the champagnes. Its not like Australia where they have cellar doors and it's expected that you drop by and taste everything, the houses are kind of more like offices and they're probably trying to run a business before we barged in through the front door. I think you're supposed to book at the very least. Anyway we tried some of the champagnes and felt bad that we had rocked up unannounced so we purchased a bottle of one of the blanc de blancs for around 16 of the euros.


The lady at next place Larmandier-Bernier was particularly worried that we hadn't made a booking but fit us in for a tasting anyway. We tried their brut and also their 2006 vintage single vineyard grand cru blanc de blac. The vintage one tasted awesome and I had to have a bottle. So I said immediately I'll take that. Probably should have checked the pricing first as it was 40 of the euros. I guess we'll have to save that for a special occasion. Luckily Heidi's birthday is coming up soon.


After that purchase our champagne budget was done and we headed back to Epernay. We went back to our favourite champagne tasting bar C. Comme and had another glass then said goodbye to Dan and went onward to Dijon.


We navigated our way to Dijon without too many troubles and checked into the hotel. Dijon is a relatively small town and there wasn't too much going on when we arrived. Anyway after a bit of a wander around we found some people having their afternoon wine at a bar called La Comedie. This bar was quite buzzing and served carrot sticks with aoili with every drink round which is probably the healthiest meal we've had all trip.


Hunger was getting to us, so we went off in search of a dinner. We came across the main square which is quite spectacular after you've walked around a pretty quiet town. Also we managed to score a pizza and bottle of rose for 25 of the euros. 

Panaramic of the main square.

The next day we went out to get un cafe and the town was swarming. The markets were all setup and every man and his street pooing dog was out and about. We just had a couple of coffees and people watched until it was a reasonable hour to order some vin ie. 11am. Then we went and got a wine from the middle of the markets at a wine bar.


In Dijon there's an owl trail, which is a walking trail to view all the sights. The architecture in Dijon is interesting, they have kriss kross thingys through a lot of the houses in the inner city. Its pretty fun trying to find the owls embedded in the side walk especially once you hit the areas they're digging up to put in the new tram transport system. After we lost the last owl we came across a wine merchant who did tastings. He specialised in the Burgundy region, so gave us a lot of insight into the styles areas and grapes used. Also how "grand crus", winemaker and grapes are all attributed to the taste of the wine.

They love their XXXX so much in france their buildings are a tribute to it.

This was an owl a while ago but I think everyone rubs it for good luck 

For dinner, we went to a quiet place and had some snails for entree. They were pretty tastey, but to be honest soak anything in parsely, olive oil and garlic and its hardly going to taste bad is it? 


So one last thing we found out they do call Dijon mustard(moutarde) "Dijon Moutard" here too.

More Champagne!

After a restful night of sleep, we had an average hotel breakfast followed by meeting the boys at a cafe, appropriately for un cafe, and then headed down the Avenue de Champagne where the cellars of Moet et Chandon, Mercier, Perrier Jouet, Pol Roger and many more are found.

Moet et Chandon

Most of these champagne houses require a booking to see the cellars and taste their champagnes, but Moet (pronounced mo-wette), accepts walk-ins, so we booked tours for an hour later, and killed some time after finding a little champagne house, Champagne A. Bergere, where we could taste 3 champagnes for the bargain of 5 euros. Their blanc de blanc naturelle (no sugar added) was a winner, and most of the bottles sold for under 20 euros which was great value!

Moet for everybody!!!

We then headed back to the other end of the scale, to Moet et Chandon. Moet is part of a massive multi-billion dollar company, LVMH, which seems to own half the world. So we joined the tour, along with at least 20 other people, and learned about the company's history and watched a video (oddly narrated by Scarlett Johansson) which was supposedly about the Moet story but was in fact a glorified 3 minute ad. We went down into the caves - these wind for 28 km! - followed by tasting their Brut and rose in a tasting room full of pictures of Scarlett Johansson in various seductive poses. Then we got kicked out the other end (I literally had to chug the end of my rose) into their gift shop where you could buy Moet cushions and deck chairs and various other paraphernalia not related to champagne.

Beef carpaccio - delicious!

By this time we were hungry, so went to the brasserie opposite the brasserie where we had dinner the night before, and keeping up my raw meat theme, I had the beef carpaccio, which was yum! Oh, and we all shared a bottle of Pol Roger. Meanwhile, we all had a dream of sharing a magnum (ie. big bottle) of champagne in the park. So we went back to the place where we had tasted some champagne and foie gras the day before, and even though it is near impossible to buy cold bottles of booze in this country, the nice man had a selection of cold magnums for us to choose from! We decided on one, and then asking if he had any plastic cups, he offered us 5 champagne glasses if we brought them back afterwards! Perfect! We were set!

4 guys, a girl and a magnum

We found a nearby lovely park, and the sun was out, so it was perfect magnum consuming conditions! We were all obviously a little excited about the magnum, because before we knew it, it was gone! Dan and Ryan then slipped away, and then came back with..... another magnum!! And not only that, but they bought some foie gras from the man who also provided them with a knife and a baguette! So it was a very happy afternoon!

Vineyards at the end of Avenue de Champagne

By 4pm or so Laci and Paul had to get the train back to Paris to get the Eurostar to London, so we waved them off while us and Dan wandered back down the Avenue de Champagne. It was a lovely sunny afternoon so we walked the entire length and towards the end there are actually some vineyards. On the way back we found a cute champagne house called Paul Etienne Saint Germain which had a sign saying tastings outside. So we knocked on the large door and a friendly man greeted us and took us into the little tasting room where he and his wife told their story of their dream to one day make champagne. Having grown up in Epernay they built their company from the ground up and now have their champagne served in Michelin-starred restaurants around the world. They were so cute!

Paul Etienne Saint Germain

So after that we walked around town a bit more, which being a Sunday was pretty dead and not much was open, but we found a little place for dinner where I had the steak tartare again. I now prefer my meat raw. After a long day I hit the hay after dinner but the boys kicked on for one more and watched a Eurocup match. I must say the weekend in Champagne was one of the best of my life and we were lucky to be able to share it with friends!