Northern France - Paris, Brittany, Loire

And now, after all this technical information, let's start our adventurous journey.

We leave at 1:00 PM on Sunday (because one of our travel companions worked until 12 on Sunday, poor guy!) and since getting to Paris in a single stretch seemed too much to us, we stopped in Macon to sleep. Taking advantage of this stop, the next day, 08/09/04, we get up bright and early to go visit the remains of what must have been a grand abbey: that of Cluny. After the visit to the abbey and a stroll around the town, we resume our journey toward Paris. Before reaching Paris, since we were ahead of schedule, we decide to make an unplanned stop to see the famous Napoleonic palace of Fontainebleau, where we remain fascinated by its beautiful French-style gardens. Finally we head off in search of the hotel in Paris, where we have the unpleasant surprise that the hotel we had booked was completely full. First mishap of the trip.

Thank goodness we had the email with the booking confirmation with us, so after we cleared up the mix-up, the landlady immediately found us another hotel nearby. The problem is that finding the rue Dunkerke was a real feat, since it was surrounded by an outrageous number of one-way streets, but in the end, after several hours, we managed to reach our goal, and after dropping everything off in our rooms, we went out satisfied to spend our first evening in Paris. What a thrill to be in Paris! We spend the first evening in Montmartre, where we admired the beautiful church of the Sacre Coeur all lit up! And of course, all of Paris lit up too!

Paris

A day dedicated to visiting the city, which for me and Carmen was the first time, so we let ourselves be guided by the very expert Enrico, Francesco and Giulia, who took us to discover its wonders: Notre Dame, Sainte Chapelle, Palais de Louvre, Place de la Concorde, Arc de Triomphe, Champs Elysées, La Defense, Opera, Centre Pompidou.... In short, a true spectacle! There are no words to describe this wonderful city.

Paris

Another day dedicated to Paris, but today we split up: Francesco goes to see the Orsay museum, Enrico and Giulia go to see the gardens of Versailles, and Carmen and I... how could we not go up the Eiffel Tower? Beautiful! Advice: arrive early in the morning like we did, because if you arrive after 10 there's an incredible line. Going up to the top of the Tower costs around 10€ Advice no. 2: leave going up the Tower for last, after visiting the city, because that way you'll enjoy it more and have more fun recognizing the various monuments you've seen. Finally, hope that it's a nice day.

Paris > Brittany

A transfer stage from Paris toward Brittany. We look for a little hotel in a town that isn't too far from Le Mont Saint Michel so that we can reach it early the next morning. We end up in a small village called Mont Dol, located near Dol de Bretagne, with its Breton-style little houses, the countryside, and a small hill that characterizes the village, at the top of which there's what in Italy we'd call a "baita," where you can enjoy some excellent calvados. To our great fortune and my enormous joy, I and the other girls in the group end up in a splendid Breton little room all wallpapered with little flowers, but above all with a dormer window, while the guys have to settle for a room without a dormer window. The hotel is called Hotel du Tertre and is located in Mont Dol, tel.

02.99482057 Fax 02.99482951 In the afternoon, after getting settled, we tour the bay and its little towns, and I assure you that it's a true spectacle to see Mont S. Michel in the distance from any point of the bay while walking on the wet, damp and soft beach, almost sinking because of the tide. Late in the evening we reach the far tip of the bay, then we decide to head toward Cancale to find a place to eat. Here a nice surprise awaits us: it's dinnertime and in the square they're setting up a kind of "mussel festival," the equivalent of our Brianza festivals where you eat sausages and french fries. The festival is a small thing, just for a few locals, the tables are made of wooden boards placed on trestles.

We walk around just to snoop, and as soon as we get close we're immediately drawn into their dinner; to the great enthusiasm of the locals, we're invited to eat with them at their festival and.... So why not accept this invitation? Satisfied with the very pleasant and above all delicious dinner, we say goodbye to all the participants, who in turn greet us with great warmth, and we head back overjoyed to our enchanted hotel.

08/13/04 We get up bright and early to reach Le Mont Saint Michel as soon as possible, because we were advised to arrive early since from 11 onward there's an invasion of the masses and it's impossible to even turn around, and this is all true: we're lucky enough to park nearby and take a beautiful guided tour of the abbey without too much confusion. Satisfied with the visit, we take shelter in the various little shops, caught by a sudden storm. It's the first warning that makes us understand what the weather is like around here: changeable, indeed extremely changeable. In the afternoon we move on to Dinan, where we also have time to visit the Breton town of half-timbered houses. Here we stay overnight at "La Marmite, chez M. Bouillet" (tel. 02.96390442), where we enjoy a very good fish dinner.

St. Malò

This morning we set off for St. Malò, we do the tour of the ramparts, we dip our feet in the sea, especially since it's a beautiful day, we drive along the coast, stopping in particular to admire the beautiful lighthouse of Cap Frehel, then we head toward Paimpoil and in particular to Lezardrieux. (an unpronounceable name in French, let alone in Breton, here they speak dialect, not French, so asking for information is harder for us, but luckily everyone is friendly and helpful with us and does everything they can to help) Here the legendary Madame Guillou awaits us, along with her splendid house (tel. 02.96201453).

Who could forget her fantastic breakfasts, the wonderful rooms, the laundry hung outside, taken in and kindly hung again in the garage, and above all who could forget her precious dinner recommendation? On her suggestion, in fact, we end up having dinner at the famous fish shop of Monsieur Moulinet, located next to the cathedral of Treguier, and if you're in these parts you absolutely must go there to eat. We found ourselves in front of a boat full of every type of fish, mollusk, and crustacean, with no small difficulty and bewilderment about what to do when it came time to start eating. It was a real shock! When we found ourselves facing a boat on our table loaded with fish, Francesco, our cook friend, was nothing short of enthusiastic, and thank goodness he was there to give us some pointers, because, pardon the roundabout way of putting it, we were completely at sea..

After waking up, we prepared to spend the Ferragosto day calmly and tranquilly in Brittany, and after thanking the "sciura" for having given us good advice the night before, we went to hear mass in French at the great cathedral of Treguier. In the afternoon we headed to Ploumanac'h, the beautiful Pink Granite coast, a truly unique and impressive landscape; the houses were made of pink granite, the low walls of the houses, the sidewalks, but above all the rocks in the sea, and even the sand was pink. A spectacle not to be missed, with the famous lighthouse, also made of pink granite, overlooking the coast. To round off the day in the best way, we couldn't pass up a swim in the English Channel, the only sea swim of this vacation, and to remember this experience in an unforgettable way, at Enrico's request we chose to go to the famous Gulf of Tregastel.

Only I, Carmen and Enrico had the courage to swim, which, due to the notably cold water temperature, lasted very little, but it was very nice. In the evening of Ferragosto, after the several days spent in Brittany, we finally managed to try the cider, but we weren't completely satisfied with it.

In the morning we reluctantly leave the beautiful house of Madame Guillou and get in the car, where several hours of driving await us, since we cross Brittany perpendicularly to reach Carnac, the prehistoric town. I had read something about the alignments of menhirs, but I didn't think of an entire town made up of these aligned menhirs. "Spectaculaires et Mysterieux," the French write on the postcards of Carnac, and they're absolutely right. We admire this spectacle late in the evening, where even the light of the nearly-setting sun makes it all more beautiful.

The next day, 08/17/04, we dedicate the morning to following a marked route to see the menhirs better, and we also reach the largest menhir, called the "grande Manio," and visit a tumulus. Today our tour in Brittany comes to an end, so in the afternoon we set off to discover a new region, the Loire, and its beautiful castles. We decide to stay overnight in a town fairly central relative to the castles we've decided to visit, so we head toward our destination, BLOIS. Along the way we make an unplanned stop and pull over in Angers, where we take the opportunity to visit the first Loire castle, famous for having a huge tapestry depicting Jerusalem Delivered. We arrive in Blois in the evening and settle into the hotel; we get to know the landlady who runs it, who immediately takes a liking to us, and for the rest of our vacation she won't leave us alone anymore.

Every time we set foot in the hotel she stops us to talk about what the weather will be like, asks us what we've visited, gives us advice on what to see, updates us on Italy's results at the Olympics; too great and kind in my opinion, according to Enrico slightly intrusive (though, seeing as he speaks French better than all of us, he's the one who had to listen to her the most). We still recommend going to her place, because we were happy there: Hotel Le Lys, tel. 02.54746608, cost 35/40 € per room. The aforementioned Madame promptly warns us that the schedules in this part of France are peculiar: in the evening people eat early, and if you go to a restaurant after 9 you won't find anything, because they close as early as 10:30, and indeed the first evening when we were late we found out that it's true.

Blois, Amboise Leonardo's house

We're in Blois, so we decide that for our first day in the Loire we'll visit the castle of this lovely town. A very typical castle made up of four facades, each in a different style, because it was built in a different period and by a different sovereign (sorry for the repetition, but it really is a castle of diversified styles). The staircase is very beautiful. Here in the evening they put on shows that, as a friend of mine would say, are "commercial," but in my opinion they're still worth seeing. They're called Son & Lumière and are performances projected onto the castle walls with lighting effects and a musical background, and narration depending on the evening in different languages. I liked it. In the afternoon we visited the castle of Amboise, the castle where Leonardo da Vinci was a guest. We Italians too are a bit proud of our great genius.

Nearby there's also Leonardo da Vinci's house. It's worth taking a little stroll and going to see it, even just from the outside, because it's very beautiful. We didn't go into the park of the house, also because we were hit by a frightful downpour and so we went back to the hotel.

Chenonceau

The Château de Chenonceau is a castle with a particular charm of its own; first of all, it's a castle that was owned and conceived by no fewer than 6 women, among them Diane de Poitiers and Catherine de' Medici. It's really worth visiting; the two gardens of the aforementioned two women are different and beautiful. The castle is built on a bridge over the river Cher and has a spectacular charm. The thing we recommend you do after visiting the castle is a nice ride in a rowboat. For a cost of just 2 € you'll have fun rowing against the current, trying to aim for the arches of the castle. Too much fun.

Chambord

That of Chambord I believe is the most famous and the largest of the Loire castles; what struck me most about this castle is the immensity of the park surrounding it and the beauty of the castle with all its towers and turrets, each different from the other. Inside there's the famous double-helix staircase designed by Leonardo da Vinci, hidden, where those going up will never meet those coming down. It was nice to venture up and down the staircase, imagining ourselves in another world, where our imagination leads us to identify with ladies and knights who, going up and down the staircase, courted each other without drawing attention.

Blois > Lombardy

The day of return has arrived, we set off early in the morning, hiding a bit of sadness and melancholy... from Blois toward Lombardy, hoping for a journey that isn't too heavy and without queues. On the way back we decide to take the Frejus and we arrive in our towns in the evening, aware of having spent a truly splendid holiday and with so, so many things, places, events, episodes, scenery to tell about and,.... as Francesco writes in the logbook, among these things there's also us, that is, the "travel companions" who were the protagonists of these unique and unrepeatable days and who made this holiday "That holiday in France" that we will remember, tell about, think back on.... Laura