A bit of R&R in rural France

Tuesday 14^th June

We’ve been having a bit of a rest the past few days and not doing a lot of touristy stuff.

Sunday is a day of rest in France and the country was very quiet. After the baker came at 9 we just took our time and then ventured out to a place that was open for lunch on Sunday. It was pretty much at the southern end of the map we have of the Ardennes region where we are. The roads around this village are extremely narrow (but still all bitumen) and you really need to watch out for moving farm vehicles (though not on Sundays). A lot of the roads have signs on them – not passable during snow and ice. Thankfully, while it is cold and wet, it is not icy. We had noticed on the way here a particular breed of cow that has a rear end build almost like a horse – not the emaciated pelvis type build of the cows I am used to. They are creamy colour and turns out they are Charolais, for beef.

This is our gite for the week. Upstairs 2 bedrooms and bathroom. Downstairs kitchen, bathroom, living room and the glass above the garage on the left is a lovely sunroom. It gets quite warm in the afternoon even though it is overcast and rainy.

Along our way to the restaurant we went and looked at an aerial viaduct which was used to transport goods to the Maginot line. It is no longer used as a railway line but if you want you can do ‘aerial elastic’ from the top! Anyway, found the restaurant, and joined a group of about 20 bikies, and another group of around 20 people celebrating a christening. It was a lovely lunch, and unlike some formule lunches where you only get a couple of choices, we had choice of around 10 mains and the same desserts.

Aerial viaduct - no one bungy jumping the day we were there. Looks like they only do it one day a month over summer.

The hotel/restaurant where we had lunch, in a nowhere town, just a dot on the map. There is a bit of WWII history in the area - we are not far from Verdun which featured somehow in WWII.

We had our first supermarket oops Sunday night. We bought boeuf rognons in a double mustard sauce – mistake! I don’t care how you dress up rognons, but nothing can change the texture of kidneys. There was a neighbourhood cat that would have enjoyed them where I threw them on the lawn.

Monday was another rest day. We tried to use the washing machine here but it didn’t spin the clothes so we loaded them in a bucket and headed to the nearby (big) town to put them through the laundromat. Two passes through the town and no sign of a laundromat, but as we headed out the other side of town we spotted all the trucks and tradie vans so decided to have lunch there. Another great value for money meal and in my improving French I was able to ask the waitress if there was a laundry in town. We must have driven right past it because when we headed back into town it was obvious.

This brings us to today. We decided to go to Reims and visit the cathedral there which is where the coronation of the Kings of France took place. The outside of the cathedral is pretty impressive and rates up there with the cathedral at Orvieto in Italy. It is another church in the gothic style. The inside is not as spectacular as some we have seen; it has a couple of nice stained glass windows done by Marc Chagall, and a couple of beautiful circular windows.

The cathedral at Reims. They are doing a lot of renovation at the moment so the tour to the towers is closed.

These are the windows done by Marc Chagall. He used lovely soft colours.

One of the circular windows - the main one is being restored.

From the cathedral though we visited the Palais Du Tau, which is where the king of France and his entourage stayed and prepared for the coronation. They had some amazing religious treasures in there but the thing that really grabbed me was the tapestries. There were probably over 30 of them and all huge, some dating back to the early 1500s and in great condition. I still just don’t get how they made these!?! Did they have a pattern, was it done on a loom, how many worked on it, how long did it take, and on, and on….

Just one of the rooms with tapestries. They were just incredible - more because I just can't imagine how the work was done. 

 

And walking back to the car we just passed this gateway and looking through the alley you get this view of one of the side entrances to the cathedral. You just need to keep your eyes open as you never know what you will see. 

Reims is in the centre of the champagne producing area of France, but as Rob doesn't drink champagne, and I really only have a glass very occasionally, we didn't bother to visit any wineries. And it is not like Australia where you just rock up - you actually need to make an appointment. 

A visit to another defunct car racing circuit finished the day before we headed to a very small market not far from home. We only bought a couple of tomatoes – passed on the oysters for 14euro kg when we bought them a couple of weeks ago for 4euro kg.

This is the stands and the pits at the old racing circuit at Gueux. It is one a main road and appears not to have been vandalised at all. That is all there is to see - no circuit that we could see. 

Now it is nearly dinner time. Rob is in front of the TV, remote control in hand, and resting his eyes. When the remote falls on the floor and wakes him it will be dinner time.