And the trip continues….

In case you missed K&C Travel: France Part One, click here to read about the first three days of our travels. We packed in a ton of travel, sights, wine-tasting, beach life, and a great trip down memory lane!

dAY 4: Blaye & Castle VaulogÉ

When we left Toulouse, we knew we would be driving through the Bordeaux wine region, just skirting the actual city, so we definitely wanted to try to take in a wine tasting/tour. The Bordeaux region is home to some of the world’s oldest and most expensive wines.  Wines are made up of mostly cabernet sauvignon and merlot and other red grapes. BUT the white Bordeaux wines are some of the yummiest we have ever tasted with really beautiful crisp finishes on their Sauvignon Blanc blends!

When we think of wine tasting, we totally think of how it is in Napa where you can visit so many vineyards, go on tours, and have tastings. In this region, while there are some places that are open to the public, most are small family farms where you must call ahead and make reservations.

Since we were traveling kind of by the seat of our pants, we decided it would be best to stop in the town of Blaye, have lunch, and inquire which vineyards we should try. Okay….enter the best use of my high school and college French EVER! Haha! We stopped at a small boulangerie, and they spoke zero English. Hmmmm….fun!! Actually it was so fun! I stumbled through my French enough to order us a jambon et fromage (ie. ham and cheese baguette sandwich) complete with drinks….and even a dessert! Such a mental win for me! And it was a complete delight to be stuck in this communication game with the two ladies behind the counter. They were giggling right along with us, and we were all in it together! In the end, we all had success!!

Total side bar here in case I didn’t mention it in Part One….Adam and I loved playing the game of “how long will it take them to realize that we are not French?” Not gonna lie…..it was hysterical!! But my absolute favorite moment was when Adam was filling up with gas, and you had to pay inside (not at the pump), and the cashier asked him which pump and how much, and he understood enough to pay, pretty much say a couple of words in French, and get back to the car without being discovered! The joy that he felt in that moment was amazing…..but quickly replaced with defeat when he said, “Hey baby!! They didn’t even know that I don’t speak France!” Haha!! Oh my gosh….that quote still lives in our house…..”I don’t speak France!” Oh man how I love my very American husband! Those moments truly made our trip!

Okay….back to Blaye! It is the sweetest little small town (population around 5K) with a historically really big job of defending the western side of France. The town has a citadel built on a hill above the city which houses the ruins of a medieval castle and overlooks the Gironde estuary and two forts, Fort Paté and Fort Médoc, which altogether served to complete the defenses of water approaches to Bordeaux. It was almost a city within a city!

After a couple of phone calls to various vineyards around the town of Blaye, we had success with Chateau Peybonhomme-les-Tours which told us to come on out! It was a quick 10 minute drive outside of Blaye, and it did not disappoint! Wow! Imagine growing up in a castle, and working with your family to produce beautiful organic wines!

We literally drove up and knocked on the front door of this beautiful home where we were met by Jean-Luc and Guillaume Hubert, father and son who share responsibilities of the wine operation along with Catherine (wife) and Rachel (sister). The family bought the farm a couple of generations back after having their own ties to the wine business….Jean-Luc’s family was in the wine transport business while Catherine’s family was in the wine making business. The purchase of the farm was a natural joint venture!

Guillaume began our tour by taking us up on top of one of the towers on the property. Originally there were two towers, and today only one stands. The staircase is metal, narrow, and it winds around the outside of the tour, but the walk is worth the result for the 360 degree views of the wine region and the river! Next we went under the house to the wine tasting room and the storage/aging area. Guillaume’s family is always experimenting, but it was so cool to see the terracotta wine casks because you typically think of oak or steel barrels. The original aging of wine was in these pottery casks.

And then it was time for a tasting of their most popular blend! Maybe it was the intimacy of the experience, maybe it was the romance of this home, but the wine tasted amazing…so yummy and mineral-y. You could literally taste the world around you…sounds cheezy, but it is so true! And Guillaume was a delightful host. We were comparing notes about kids and life…..it took a tasting and tour to an entirely different experience. AND of all the places we visited, we were sooooo excited to find out that you can actually purchase this wine state-side! If you’d like to try it, click here!

Each day we spent in France was so different than the previous that it is hard choosing a favorite, but this day was right up there because our next stop was a castle….where we would be spending the night! It was such a bucket list item for me!

We continued our drive north on the western side of France into the Loire Valley area of Fercé-sur-Sarthe…..and then we arrived at our castle! I have to add the video here of us driving up because I’m not sure our photos will do it justice! It was so stunning!

Situated off of the highway and close to Le Mans, France for all of our car buffs out there, Château de Vaulogé is tucked way back in the trees for total privacy! This beautiful castle was built in the 15th century with walls and a prison. Later in the nineteenth century, it was enlarged in more of a neo-Gothic style. The beauty of this place is simply beyond, but the charm of the inside and Micol, the owner are what created our experience.

We arrived in the evening and were greeted by Micol and a warm smile! After a busy weekend, we were the only guests in the castle on the night of our stay, and she gave us the nicest room in the château! She showed us to our quarters….yes, we basically had our own wing + turret!….and then met us back downstairs with a glass of champagne! We sat outside on the lawn and visited with Micol which was absolutely lovely learning about how in the world she came to be the owner of a castle! Micol is actually Italian, and when she and her parents purchased the property, it was pretty broken down. She and her family have lovingly taken the steps to restore the château and share it with the public by making it a small boutique bed and breakfast style stay.

We spent the last light of the evening wandering the grounds and dipping our toe into the pool! It is truly dreamy complete with a moat with two beautiful swans!

In the morning we were greeted in the dining room to a full…I mean FULL…French breakfast of breads, fruit, eggs, salmon, pastries, coffee, juice….it was just pretty. The flowers. The table setting. The linens. The morning light. The taste was amazing, too, but it was just so special and pretty! Even though we were the only ones there, Micol and her family spared no details and made our stay completely memorable and one that I would repeat!

 

dAY 5: Bayeux, CrÉpon, & The beaches of normandy

Next, we were on to the Normandy region to see the beaches of D-Day. 2019 marked the 75th anniversary of D-Day, and we could not have timed our trip better. This was a huge bucket list item for Adam because his Grandfather was D-Day + 6 days. One of the best pieces of advice and the best decision we made in all of our travels was to hire a personal guide for the beaches of Normandy! It is definitely a little more expensive than a group tour, but the concentration of information and the personalization of having a guide cannot be topped. AND….a half day tour is plenty because it is a lot of emotions and information. It is hard to take it all in so I would recommend sticking to a half day. Even if you wish to see more, maybe break it into two half day tours.

For us, Adam did some research and came across this guy named Jonathan Dale (https://www.normandy-history-tours.com/) who was actually a few years younger than we are and took us in his own car around the major sites. Jonathan had grown up in the area and was a history major so he was a wealth of knowledge. One of our favorite parts of the tour was the very beginning. We met Jonathan at the train station in Bayeux, a city near the coast and one of the most untouched city during WWII. We zipped off towards La Pointe du Hoc, which is a 100ft cliff between Omaha Beach and Utah Beach where U.S. Rangers began the attacks of Normandy by scaling the cliff walls to take the space from the Germans and remove their viewing advantage. On the way to this area, Jonathan began our tour by going all the way back to WWI and explaining why the previous events and relationships led us to what we know today as WWII. You think you know your history, but man, we were missing a lot that he filled in!

Next we visited Omaha Beach, the site of the bloodiest part of the D-Day invasion where timing, tides, and location really put the U.S. troops at a major disadvantage. Part of the reason was that the Germans had built a seawall that could not be crossed by tanks and trucks, and then they sat up on top of a hill with full sight of our arrival…..very different than the more flat topography of Utah, Gold, Juno, and Sword beaches.

Next Jonathan took us to the American Cemetery which is home to 9,388 graves of Americans who fought in the war. It is so peaceful and somber filled with white crosses or Stars of David similar to the National Cemetery outside of Washington, D.C. You can also find The Wall of the Missing memorial where 1,557 service members’ names are inscribed and declared missing in action during the war. What is so cool about this area is that if you are a family member who is visiting your relative’s name on the wall, the cemetery employee will collect wet sand from Omaha Beach and rub it on the name, temporarily darkening it to stand out and honor that family member. As the sand dries, it fades back into wall of names. We happened to see one while we were there. Oh man….that was really special.

These small towns up and down the coastline are still very visual reminders of what occurred back in 1944. Pretty much everywhere you travel in the area whether it is simply the French, British, and American flags flying together or the German concrete bunkers still visible and basically untouched showing explosion areas and bullet holes, or the trenches that zig zag the local farmers landscape, it is all still there. Time has only slightly covered up or worn away what happened. Our first reaction in seeing people enjoying the sun and surf at the beach was that it felt out of place, but Jonathan reminded us that it was a holiday beach before the war, and the Allied forces were fighting so that it could be that again. So true.

Towards the end of our tour, Jonathan took us up on a bluff on the edge of a farm and away from the crowds. It was so quiet and peaceful, and you could really see those z-shaped trenches still completelly intact. We walked down into a machine gun bunker, and it was crazy to think about how life has just moved on amongst all of these reminders of such a touch time in history. As parents now, the entire experience was eye opening and humbling to think about how young some of those soldiers had to be…..and in a world with no instant information, what would you have done to busy yourself and take your mind off of what was going on thousands of miles away? I asked Jonathan what was the perspective of any German families that he gave tours to, and he said that he never really gives those…not because he wouldn’t, but because he said they typically do their own thing. There is always another side to the story, and I was really curious as to their perspective. Hmmmm…..

We  had supper at a cute little restaurant in Bayeux Le Moulin de la Galette that Jonathan had recommended and then headed out to our hotel for the evening Ferme de la Ranconnière.

The hotel was in the small town of Crépon, and because we had already had supper, we decided to make a run for a sunset walk on the beach knowing that we weren’t that far from the English Channel.

What we didn’t realize is that the tide would be out. Y’all….when you think about D-Day, you see these images of a large expanse of beach. Earlier that day on Omaha Beach, the tide was in, and there was maybe 10 feet of sand before the seawall. Now, we were on the edge of Gold Beach, and it was flat and the tide was out for a good half of a mile! It was breathtaking because you could really picture all the duck boats, soldiers, etc coming on shore. Plus, the low tide exposed the concrete slabs that had been sunken to tether steel bridges to so that the ships could unload all of their vehicles. It was such an emotional site. Adam said he could just feel his grandfather’s presence. It was such a whim of a decision, and we are so, so glad we went down to the beach that night!

 

 

 

dAY 6: Giverny & Paris to London

Like any other day on our trip, we were up bright and early because we knew we wanted to try to stop by Giverny to see Claude Monet’s home where he created his most beautiful gardens…..including the famous lily pads and weeping trees popular in his paintings.

What most people assume is that his paintings came from a garden that he found in Paris or some other city, but he actually bought a property and created the most beautiful spaces that he then painted. The crowds were crazy so we walked the gardens and only peeked into the house, but what I noticed about the inside of his home is that each room had a consistent color theme to it….and each room had a different color, but it was incredible in its own eccentric chaos!

From there we headed to Paris to turn in our rental car. That old girl had been very faithful for a crazy amount of miles….or kilometers! Then we hopped the train into Paris for a couple of hours. It was important to me to go by Notre Dame Cathedral. I hadn’t seen it since college and like so many was completely devastated when it burned. To see that in person brought on such sadness for the years it has stood and been a sign of faith and hope to so many people. I hope and pray it will be eventually rebuilt so that my boys can enjoy it as I did many years ago.

We were short on time in Paris which was probably fine with Adam (be sure to read Part One of this post if you are wondering what I’m talking about!:)), but we ended up with extra time on our hands as we arrived at Gare du Nord thinking we could check in for our train to London about 30 minutes beforehand. Well, we were so very wrong….because it was an international train and not a local train, we had to check in about an hour before. We were technically early for if the train had been local, but because it was international we missed our window by 15 minutes. This turned into booking a new train….okay….no problem. But we ended up being delayed by an hour or so in a very hot, very crowded terminal. The heatwave that France was experiencing caused all sorts of travel issues. We were simply thankful to finally board and get on our way to London.

Our train was traveling from Paris Gare du Nord to London St. Pancras which was close to our hotel. The question I have been asked most about this part of our travel is, “Weren’t you nervous to go under the English Channel in a tube?” People assume that you are in a tube for the entire trip, but you are actually only under water for about 15-20 minutes. The rest of the time you are above ground. It is a great way to travel between Paris and London and so much easier that all the check in at airports because with train travel you pretty much depart and arrive in city center.

Our hotel was the cutest, most kitschy boutique hotel called Batty Langley’s in the middle of London’s financial district. It is not an area that I was super familiar with from when I studied abroad there, but it was fun and young with some great sites and restaurants close by. When we arrived, we checked in, did a quick refresh, and took off to take in a late supper. We were on the hunt for a great old pub which is my husband’s happy place with a pint of cider and fish and chips. At the hour we ventured out most kitchens were closed and the pubs had switched over to mainly bars filled with young professionals just off the markets. Thank goodness our hotel’s motto was “whatever you need at whatever hour you need it” because we ended up order room service of a charcuterie tray and helping ourselves to their “honesty bar,” where you could choose or mix your own cocktails and then fill out your room information to be billed later. After a very late meal, we crashed and were ready to head out to our next adventure…..London!

 

 

 

check back here soon for our time in London and brighton. And if you missed K&C Travel: France Part One, CLICK HERE to read!

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Thank you!  – K&C

 

Train from Paris Gare du Nord to London St. Pancras