Climbing again

We warmed up in the figues au cul sector. On the way there we passed a Caterpillar with an implement that I named "the thrashing machine": basically an industrial sized weed whacker with steel whips housed in a barrel around two feet in diameter amd four feet long. The operator would just move it towards the brush on the side of the road and it would eat everything in its path with an alarming clamor. Figues au cul was a kilometer away from where we had seen the thrasher initially, and somehow I hadn't really thought that it was going to continue along the road. It was with considerable nervousness therefore that I watched it thrash its way to within a few feet of our car. As the thrasher lurched towards the Ford, I had visions of shattered windows, sideview mirrors sent shooting off into the road, and exploding tires. Thankfully, it did not demolish our car, but continued on down the road.


The thrashing appendage is at the end of the yellow arm. You can see one of the tail lights of our Ford Focus at the lower right hand edge of the image.

From Figues au Cul, we headed to what turned out to be one of my favorite areas: l'amphi. We walked through the Tennesee sector to get there

Its a rock balcony shaded by trees with a perfectly flat belaying area. It is accessible through a short via ferrata and looks out into the gorge

We did "salut les copines", 6b,



then I got my ass handed to me on "Le veuve noire", 7b, and I finished up by onsighting GR15, 6c+.
Heres a french dude casually strolling up it


and Chloe, back at the Tennesee sector

and me, tired

It was already 14:00 and we hadn't eaten lunch, so we stopped at la Malene for sandwiches. I scraped a fist sized ball of butter out of my sandwich (this is my biggest problem with French sandwiches -- WAY too much butter and mayo).
Heres CZ post-limonade and sandwich


After rinsing off, we joined my parents for some watercolors









and then took the requisite group shot in front of the castle

Chloe and I were staying in the room at the very left on the second floor before Gail kicked us out, and then in the room at the top middle (with the windows open).

Chloe and I took a walk up the Tarn before dinner



Dinner was just as good as last night, but a bit heavier. It started with scallops, followed by lamb with an emulsion of zucchini (very much like the previous night) and a cream topped fruits rouge dessert. I also had a generous cheese plate with wonderful roquefort (pronounched roak-a-fore by the locals)... and les Paradines again!

Climbing

We spent most of the day climbing, or at least trying to find the "Gymnase" secteur after a much longer than necessary walk via "Le Grand Toit". After an unsteady start on some easy stuff (relent d'ail), we got into our rhythm and basked in the pocketed glory of Le Tarn. I was happy to do "Plus jamais peut etre" on sight with my still injured ham string! As I was pulling the rope, I saw something get dislodged 30 meters above. This kind of thing happens a lot, and it's usually a small rock or leaf that gets hit by the rope and then falls to the ground. However, this was falling much slower than a rock but a lot faster than a leaf, and I stared at it as it reached the midpoint at around fifty feet. Much to my surprise it turned out to be a baby lizard, waving all four of its legs like crazy, and obviously not very happy at how it's day was going.

On the way back to Ste. Enemie to pick up the parental units, we concocted a story to trick them: we would claim that we had found *another* castle which happened to be a hotel which was much bigger and more impressive than the one that we were supposed to be staying in. The plan was to distract my mom, since she knew the name of where were staying, pull in to the parking lot of Chateau de la Caze, ooohing and aahing and saying how much better *this* castle was, then stop and casually walk into the castle. It all went off like a charm and kenji and gail were thoroughly fooled.

Here is La Caze, and a few views from the grounds



The rooms were fantastic, with a claw footed bathtub and beautiful bathroom in the turret!

and windows overlooking the grounds

There were trout of some kind in the moat, but some of them were so huge that I initially thought they were carp. There was one in particular which looked to be almost two feet long. You can see it in the middle of the photo below. Keep in mind that this was taken from the second story, and the moat is a story below the ground floor

Kenji and I discovered a nice balcony overlooking the river



and then we headed downstairs for another excellent dinner. It started with amuses bouches of trout sashimi (a first for me) followed by perfectly cooked cod and a moelleux au chocolat. We also ordered a half bottle of the excellent languedoc wine called "les paradines" (2003).

Aigueze, le Tarn

A minor disaster was averted by Chloe this morning: Kenji had forgotten his backpack in a museum in Lyon yesterday. This would not normally be such a big problem, except for the fact that the museum was closed to the public today and we were leaving for Saint Enimie! Happily, Chloe convinced the museum to let us come pick up the backpack though. I stayed at the hotel to pack which she and Kenji went to the museum, but from what she told us afterwards, it wasn't the most straightforward of experiences!

It was just before ten when we finally got out of Lyon, thanks to the GPS, and headed south on the autoroute. We stopped en route for some excellent (I'm not kidding!) food at the Montelimar "aire" and then exited shortly thereafter to departmental roads which took us to the ancient city of Aigueze.

I had found Aigueze on the list of the most beautiful villages of France, and Aigueze did not disappoint


From aigueze, we headed to Montclus, with its 13th century Chateau (not restored or open unfortunately)


and then headed out on the web of small and winding roads towards the Tarn. Along the way we also stopped at the stunning Chateau Des Portes overlooking steep valleys on each side




My dad had told me about a small town which they had stopped at when they drove up from Italy to Paris during his Sabattical in the late 70's. I was just a young'un at the time, so I have no memory at all of it except for some blurry images of mountain passes and an embankment of snow. Kenji, however remembered it vividly and also remembered the name of the town: Florac. As it turned out, Florac was quite close to where we were going in the Tarn, so we did a small detour and checked out the town


The drive from Florac to our final destination (Saint Enimie) is spectacular -- passing one beautiful town

after another

and a surprising number of privately owned chateaux. After another half hour of cliffside driving we arrived at the Chambre d'Hotes that I had found on the gites-de-france web site (Barbier La Jasse). It had a nice view of the old city

and a frog which periodically jumps in from the second story garden, much to my parents dismay.

After a pizza dinner, we walked around the town, cast contemptuous looks at Le Hotel les Deux Sourcesand were surprised to see schools of HUGE trout near the bridge pilings. I guess the Tarn isn't completely fished out!

Grenoble

Today we headed off to Grenoble to see some old friends of ours, but not before enduring more crappy Lyon driving and my forgetting something at the hotel. While I was waiting, I saw a procession of Spanish musicians heading off to the conservatory

We had lunch at an interesting place in St. Egreve with tables outside under Cherry trees. It was really great to see everyone again, but a little bittersweet since Chloe and I both miss France and our friends quite a bit.


Given a stable long term opportunity, I'm not sure we wouldn't move back.

After lunch, we headed back to Lyon for our 8:00 dinner reservations at le Caro de Lyon; one of our favorite restaurants anywhere. Dinner was superb as usual





We all had the 30 euro menu which included scallops and a pine nut/spinach pastry as well as various delicious desserts.

Les Puces

After an early start, we realized that 1)we were almost out of diesel and 2)It was Sunday, which meant that most of the gas stations were closed and 3)It was election day, so even fewer people would be out and about. Happily, we found an open service station after driving to two "24 hour" stations which did not accept VISA. Along the way, we saw a camel!


In researching the trip, we saw that one of the biggest antique fairs in France happens at a place in Lyon (Villeurbanne, actually)every Sunday, so naturally we had to go check it out. Unfortunately, the trip down to Lyon took a little longer than expected, and as usual driving in Lyon is a total nightmare, so we ended up arriving pretty much just as things were getting packed up.

The first thing that you are greeted with upon entering the area is a huge asphalt lot, sectioned off into little encampments of people selling mostly junk.

However, on one side of the lot there is an enclosed building

which is also sectioned off into small stores separated by walls made of wooden slats. Inside, there were several places with really nice things. We saw a beautiful farm table for WAY too much money (2800 euro)

and some other nice things




Kenji bought a Chinese jar, of all things. Here he is on his way back from his purchase:

We still hadn't had lunch by this point, so we made the mistake of eating lunch at the cafe in the main building. The saucisse frites plates I ordered had bright red sausages!

We headed back to the hotel and rested for a while, since we were still a little jet lagged from the flight. Gail had found a flyer which advertised an "Antiques City" north of where we were, so after a little more resting we took the tram to the Cite des Antiquaires. The Cite is an entire building full of shops holding very high end antiques, with the added advantage of being able to ship internationally. Its in an ugly, hoodlum infested part of Lyon but well worth the visit.

There were two farm tables that we were particularly interested in:



at 1500 and 1800 euro, but the shipping charges would double this price, so we gave up on the idea.

We were originally going to walk back to the hotel but decided to tram it after seeing the packs of criminals. On the train, Chloe and I overheard an amusing conversation between a girl and her boyfriend in which she demanded to know why he niqued cette meuf while he was in angleterre. I'll leave it to you to figure out what that means.


After returning to the hotel, we headed out to the quai to look for food

but Chloe and I quickly ran out of energy, and settled for bread, epoisses and watching the presidential election coverage on TV. Segolene Royal and Sarkozy were the candidates selected by La France for the final election in two weeks. Amazingly, voter turnout was 84.6 %. Compare that with the past US voter turnouts for federal elections:

2004 55.3 %
2002 37.0 %
2000 51.3 %
1998 36.4 %