Saturday 6 June
Ah, the delight of a comfortable bed! After a good night's rest we woke to a warm sunny morning and foregoing the hotel breakfast, headed for the Intermarche on the edge of town for water and croissants (freshly baked). Today we had a longish trip (500 km, five and a half hours) of autoroute driving ( and a not insignificant amount of eurocash donated to the Peage) to Colmar in the Alsace region which borders Germany. The A7/E15 up to Lyon was quite busy but it was a pleasant journey through rolling hills cloaked in early summer greenery and looking very lush. Circumnavigating Lyon was not the nightmare it can sometimes be and we made good time to our stopover, the beautiful medieval village of Perouges (named after Perugia in Italy).
This lovely hilltop town is a member of the Plus Beaux Villages de France organisation, and rightly so. It is exquisite. Being vehicle free, we were required to park in a discreet parking lot half way up the hill and then wandered up a pretty path accompanied by lovely birdsong and enjoying magnificent views over the countryside east of Lyon. In the carpark we were warned by a little posse of gendarmes to hide our bags and lock the car carefully - beware of les voleurs! Surely not in this delightfully buccolic neck of the woods!
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| Up the lane to Perouges |
There did seem to be a lot of cars and people arriving and on reaching the edge of the village we discovered the reason for Perouges' popularity - a Medieval Festival was due to kick off at 2 pm and the whole place was a hive of activity preparing for this wonderful event. Unfortunately our schedule did not permit us to linger and take in the festivities. Anyway we weren't really dressed for it - many folk were arriving in full medieval regalia. I don't think Jess could quite get her head around the thought spending a Saturday afternoon in medieval drag! Medieval festivals are very popluar throughout Europe in the summer - a great day out for the family. There is food, music, crafts, falconry, dancing and war games with swords and bows and arrows.
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| This way to the Medieval Fete |
We wandered the ancient cobbled streets and took in the unspoiled beauty of the place - the whole village has been used as a film set (notably The Three Musketeers) at times. Built in the 14th and 15th centuries it has changed little in the intervening years.
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| Perouges |
In the centre of the village and well protected by high walls is the Place du Tilleuls dominated by a 200 year old tilleul (flowering lime) tree planted shortly after the French revolution. The restaurants here were filling up but there was little breeze to cool the air so we opted to return to a restaurant just outside the walls.
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| Place du Tilleuls |
A culinary specialty of Perouges is a kind of galette made with brioche dough, flattened pancake style and baked at high temperature with a caramelised sugar topping. Of course we had to try just a slice - interesting texture and very crunchy on top, but a little sweet for our liking. It was interesting to see the balls of dough proving in the sun on a stone window ledge.
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| Local galette bakery |
We were shown to a table in the garden of the restaurant, Le Veneur Noir (The Black Huntsman - sounds suitably medieval) and decided to have the barbecue meal - entrecote for both of us. The setting is very pretty, the service delightful and the meal pleasant (what can one really say about a barbecued steak?). Shaded from the hot sun and with tilleul blossoms floating down to settle on our hair and in our drinks nothing could have been more peaceful. We did notice that most of our dining companions were French - maybe Perouges is not very well known outside the region.
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| Lunch in Perouges |
The tables are set under two beautiful trees, a tilleul and an amazing acacia with the most fascinating twisted branches sprouting from a tall trunk.
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| Acacia tree in the garden of Le Venuer Noir - amazing. |
Besides the lovley old buildings in Perouges there are two other standouts - firstly the divine rum and raisin ice cream I had for dessert at Le Veneur Noir ( fat juicy golden raisins soaked in rum - not sure if I should drive after a bowl of this delicious stuff!) and secondly the intensely coloured and vigourous flora - trees, vegetable gardens and most of all, the pelargoniums and roses.
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The pelargoniums are almost fluorescent!
And somehow the Pierre de Ronsard roses arrange themselves so artfully around a window
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| Vegies seem to thrive here too! |
As we strolled downhill to the carpark we encountered more crowds arriving for the afternoon's festivities - what a perfect day for a fete! For us it was to be back to the autoroute and a journey north-east to Colmar.
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| Some medieval citizens in Place du Tilleuls |
The three hour drive took us through the gorgeous countryside of the Bresse and the Jura Mountains ( not very high, but forming the border between France and Switzerland). Bresse chickens have a reputation for being a great delicacy - and a price tag to match the reputaion. Closest we came to one was the roadside rest area named for the famous fowl and complete with a natty sculpture.
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| A very large Bresse chicken alongside the autoroute |
We saw fat cows munching the impossibly green grass, young corn plants ready to shoot up, forests (full of deer and boar so the road side signs claim), rolling hills, deep valleys - what a land of plenty. This is the birthplace of Raymond Blanc, the delightful chef who is domiciled in the UK and makes the most mouthwatering TV shows. As we approached our turnoff just before the German/French border we noticed towering thunder clouds forming on the horizon. Our blue skies turned dark and the temperature plummeted. We had just driven into Colmar when the rain storm hit and we were very pleased to check into our hotel, the Turenne, circa 1625. Fortunately the rooms have been revamped since that time and we once again were impressed with the level of comfort.
The rain didn't linger and were were able to head out and wander the cobbled streets of the old city along with a large number of tourists from all over. Colmar is certainly tourist oriented but this does not detract from the somewhat Germanic charm of the buildings which are a jumble of shdapes, sizes and colours but of a uniform age - distinctly medieval.
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| Petit Venise, Colmar |
We strolled alongside the canal area (Petit Venise) admiring the pretty houses and spotting a copyu nutria (Strasbourg water rat) frolicing in the water. Kind of ugly cute and quite large. Bet they have sharp teeth too!
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| Copyu nutria in the canal Petit Venise, Colmar |
Although we were not especially hungry we found a table at a popular brasserie in the middle of the Place de l'Ancienne Douane called Schwendi Bier Und Wiestub. The waiters spoke a strange mix of German and French - totally unintelligible to me but we managed to order - a kind of chickeny schnitzel in cream sauce for Jess and the local version of pizza for me - known as Tarte Flambee or Flammekeuche in the Alsatian lingo. Not bad, not great.
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| Dinner time, Colmar |
The sun came out agian and we strolled along the canal and back to the hotel - two sleepy trippers! A bit of surprise along the way. A bottlebrush in full flower - a little out of place but nevertheless very pretty.
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| A little bit of Aussie in Colmar |
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