The French Countryside (AKA what happened in between Tour de France stages)

We had such an amazing time exploring France by following the Tour.  This blog post will mostly be photos as much of what happened en route was covered in the previous "Following the Tour" posts.  I think one of the things that made these couple of weeks so awesome was that we really got to see and experience so many different parts of France -- most of them in smaller cities and villages that reminded us more of home. 

Table picnic our first night in Tours

I can't tell you how great it was to know that whatever we ended up ordering to eat (or buying in the store as we so often do), it would be fabulous.  On our first night in Tours, we took ourselves to one of the local supermarkets and scoped out the situation -- we were looking for all of the fixin's to have what we like to call "table picnic."  At home, this translates loosely to finishing up the bread, cheese and meats from the fridge, with a little bit of fruit or nuts or honey or something thrown in.  The most important element of "table picnic" is, of course, the wine.

Matt doing some shopping in Carrefour

Table picnics are a common theme on our travels (and you can have them anywhere -- no table required).  =)  They're a great way to save money, try more things than you might get in a restaurant, and it also forces you to get out there and see how the "locals" do things.  Stores of all sizes are a cool way to see, essentially, a part of a country's culture.  Things are often the nearly the same, but lots of differences exist as well.

For example, did you know that it is nearly impossible to get cubed ice in France (I've been to France many times, and this one was new to me.)  We camped for 4 nights in the Alps, and in an effort (failed) to save some money, thought we would buy a cooler and food for those 4 days.  French lesson #2:  Cheap coolers are not worth it, especially when you can't fill it with ice.  However, we did end up with a very nice box in which to store things (which we ended up leaving at the rental car office.)  =)

Oh, the duck.  How I love the duck.

French food is famous for a reason, by the way.  It really, really is fantastic.  I'm talking about knock-your-socks-off 90 cent croissants and ridiculously good train station sandwiches, to say nothing about the places listed in one of my all-time favorite books, the Michelin Guide (the French restaurant bible).  Sadly, due to our space & weight constraints on this endeavor, ours still sits on the bookshelf back in PA, but I thought about it a lot while we were in France.  =)  I don't think I have ever had a bad meal here, and this trip was no exception.

We had some great local experiences while following the Tour de France.  Over Bastille Day (July 14th -- France's Independence Day) we were staying in the town of Pierrelatte.  Our bad luck with bad internet/Wifi continued (3 days prior lightning had shorted everything out in the area during a thunderstorm). 

We had some work to do planning, but instead, we followed the crowd to the center of town and were treated to a lovely local fireworks show, music and overall small-town-festiveness.  =)

Matt doing some pre-breakfast tasting of Chateauneuf-de-Pape

 Matt & I both love good wine, and my interest in the subject probably started when I studied abroad in France my junior year in college.  Fortunately for us (unfortunately for the budget), France is full of good wine -- everywhere.  =) 

One of the highlights was tasting Chateauneuf-de-Pape (an amazingly great wine) in Chateauneuf-de-Pape.  It was an unplanned side trip once we realized how closely we would come to it along the Tour de France route.  We popped in around 0930, and were standing with an animated, knowledgeable and wonderful elderly lady offering up free tastes within minutes of our arrival.  We met a local vinter, bought a bottle for later and were off to breakfast.  (Yes, I know, wine before breakfast...what can I say...we're on vacation.)  =)  It was SOOOOO good.

Renting a car (when economically feasible) is really a great way to experience a place as you can get off the beaten path (i.e. the freeways of France -- also, we discovered that they were way too cost-prohibitive for us as 1 1/2 hours out of Paris, we reached our first 15 euro toll.  Yikes.)  We loved our little Peugeot, "Svelte." 

I'm not sure how great the rental car company was taking care of him as he was long overdue for service and kindly asked us electronically to please put some more oil in him, which made for a good laugh as I tried to explain to the nice car supplies man that the car had told me it needed more oil but I didn't know what kind to put in (situations that high school French does not prepare you for...).

Svelte coming in handy when it started raining before we had eaten our salad

Camping was also a great way to experience a new part of culture.  Once again, the food did not disappoint.  The restaurant at the campsite did not offer things like hotdogs, chips, or burgers, but instead offered up selections such as salmon tartare, and duck terrine, all locally sourced.  I really do love France.  =)

Trying out my camping spoon on some world-famous melons =)

Our campsite at Au Pres du Lac

Along the roadside as we were heading into the Alps; after a delicious meal, of course =)

The people we met, the scenery we saw, and without a doubt the food we ate, all came together for a magical couple of weeks in the countryside.  It was sad to drop Svelte off at the airport, but also exciting as we were heading back into Paris for another week (one of my all-time favorite places!)  Next post -- the unforgettable and unmatched "je ne sais quoi" of Paris.  See below for some more photos/captions of our adventures.  =)