A long day in the saddle

Tuesday 12^th  July

Well – who would have thought that we could spend all morning yesterday at Carrieres de Lumieres? We visited in 2014 and saw the Klimt exhibition and felt we just had to come back and see the Marc Chagall exhibition. This venue was once a limestone quarry and is now an ‘art gallery’. The art works are projected on the limestone walls.

Part of the Carrieres de Lumieres complex.

We hit the place at opening time (before the tour buses) so were able to park right at the front door. As well as the Marc Chagall exhibition there was another show, a tribute to Lewis Carroll, Alice Through the Looking Glass. Alice was a short show, only 8 minutes, and it was wonderful. I am in awe of the production team who have the vision to produce this and make it work. The projected images move and change and it is all set to music.

Alice Through the Looking Glass

The Cheshire cat

The Marc Chagall exhibition moved through periods of his life and focussed on the changes in his art work in the different phases of his life. This was also set to music. To see everyone mesmerised by what they are seeing, and to hear them talking in whispers is quite amazing. The quarry space is quite big so even as tour buses arrived, the crowd dispersed throughout the area and you never felt hemmed in.

Just a few pieces of Chagall's work.

This looks like you are in a cathedral with stained glass windows - rather than just pictures on the walls. We saw these windows in real life in the cathedral in Reims.

Chagall went through a circus period and this is just one of his paintings from that time.

Once we left Carrieres de Lumieres we headed northwards to Montelimar via places we had not been on our previous trip to France. Lunchtime and we stopped at the first place we found serving food, in the small town of Tarascon. I don’t think the owner was used to getting foreigners in for lunch and he took great pains to make sure we were happy. The ‘glass’ of wine came in a huge glass – probably 3 standard drinks. Not happy with just a glass of wine we stopped for a wine tasting along the road. There was one other couple in the winery – Australians! They are doing it a bit more upmarket than us; driving a Mercedes and I am sure not staying at Premiere Classe.

As we travelled through this area we passed more medieval villages and castles. Seems like there will be plenty more to visit next time we are in France. The scenery was also changing – not as dry, more green and vineyards. We passed over a couple of different mountain ranges though not as high as in the east and on the flatter land there was still a lot of hay being cut.

The chateau in Beaucaire - we didn't go inside as we were just passing through the town. Maybe next time.

And the bull fighting ring in Beaucaire. This is still in use.

 Our accommodation was another Premiere Classe hotel which advertised having just been renovated. I think this consisted of a quick paint job because it still had crappy pillows, the aircon (while it worked) leaked all over our towels, the inside door lock didn’t work and the bathroom was in pretty poor nick.

The weather has changed again and last night we got thunderstorms and it rained most of the night and a lot of the day today. We have driven from Montelimar to Tossiat (near Bourg-en-Bresse), around 200k. We followed the Tour de France route where possible (they will be there on Saturday) through to the days end at Parc des Oiseaux near the village of Villars des Dombes. Along the way we stopped at a relais for lunch – just a truck stop along the way marked with the collection of vans and trucks out the front. We have no idea what we are going to get when we pull up at these places but they usually turn out to be quite good. Today’s menu included entrée buffet of cold meats and salads, steak hache (like a burger) and frites, chocolate mousse, wine and coffee.

It was an interesting drive with plenty of change in type of roads, hills, flats, big towns and tiny villages. Looking at it on the ground we can see that it would be quite challenging for the cyclists. It was a long day in the car – imagine it sitting on a bike seat!

We came across this one lane bridge on our travels and seems like this is a real holiday destination for the french with lots of camping and people in canoes in the river.

Now we are at a gite in the village of Tossiat. This is a small town but has probably everything we need without going to the bigger town of Bourg en Bresse, though we will go there to shop as there is more choice. The gite is lovely – seems very new, clean and bright. The owners are very nice – he speaks a bit of English but his wife speaks none. We managed to deal with all the essential stuff with our limited communication. We are here for a week and will explore this area as well as going to see some of the tour.