Trip to France (30th wedding anniversary edition)

To celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary (this June 19th), Amy and I decided to make a trip to France on holiday.  This time around we chose to visit the Savoie region (neither of us had been there) and then finish up our trip in Paris, where the school that Amy attended was planning a centenary celebration of sorts.

Complicating matters for this expedition was the fact that I managed to sprain my ankle rather badly (soccer match injury) a couple of weeks before our departure date, and while I had graduated from crutches to a cane at the point we were due to leave, I was still wearing an Aircast "boot" and I really couldn't put a lot of weight on the injured ankle (running/hiking were out of the question). Based on some experiments in Arlington I decided that biking was still a possibility, so we decided to move ahead with trip (or more accurately do the trip together, as opposed to my staying home).

We were scheduled to take an Aer Lingus flight through Dublin, eventually terminating in CDG Paris. Amy decided to arrange for wheelchair service for me, so as to baby my sprained ankle, so we got to experience what that meant in each of the three airports we transited through (Boston, Dublin, Paris). 

In Boston there was some confusion and waiting at the ticket desk, but we did eventually connect up with the wheelchair person, who took us through security (bypassing at least some of the line), but then spent a good 15 minutes waiting around for someone to run my aircast boot and collapsible cane through the x-ray machine.

In Dublin we were met on the jetway by a nice Irish lady who took us on an extensive a trek to a different terminal and deposited us at the gate. Had to take another bus to a separate building after that, so I did have to do a fair amount of hobbling to get onto the Paris plane.

The flights themselves were unremarkable I am happy to say; I enjoyed watching "American Fiction" on the first leg, then did my best to nap (without much success) on the second leg.  

In Paris the arrangements for the mobility-impaired were very efficient, we were again met at the gate and then zoomed through customs (bypassing quite a long line, hah), then eventually handed off to another crew who put us on a shuttle and then a golf-cart thing to make it to the CDG TGV train station. Very crowded waiting area; we sat around for a while but eventually took the elevator down and got onto the train to Lyon. Amy bought us 1st class tickets, but it was still a bit on the cramped and crowded side; she also had to do all the heavy lifting when it came to schlepping the bags, since I was using my cane to get around and could not really manage a suitcase.

Lyon train station was also quite busy; from there we had another 1.5 hour ride out to the city of Chambery, and then finally another even more local train from Chambery to Aix-les-Bains (we finally pulled in there around 4:40pm or so).

We were pretty exhausted at that point, but there was still more to do. The extremely nice Airbnb person whose apartment we were renting had volunteered to come down and drive us from the train station to her place, so we got a chance to chat with her a bit (and I suppose she had an opportunity to discreetly check us out as well).  After she showed us the arrangements, we dropped our bags and she drove us back down to the bicycle rental place (whew!) where Amy had reserved a couple of city e-bikes.  We were happy to have the e-bikes since the ride back up to the apartment was quite steep, and required some actual climbing.

Final few tasks of the day: we again hopped on our bikes and into the town center to visit the grocery store (Monoprix, not the greatest supermarche' I have ever been to in France but adequate) where we bought fruit and water and snacks, then we biked again over to a take-out Thai place where we bought some dinner, then a final haul back up the hill to our apartment.

The e-bikes were functional, I think it was a good pick to get around in this particular city. The one weird quirk was that it took a long time for the motor to provide power once your turned it on; it would power up and show as "active" at level 2 or 3 or whatever, but the motor itself wouldn't kick in for a good thirty seconds.

Very very tired after eating dinner, Amy collapsed around 8:30 and I stayed up a bit later trying to keep awake for the 9pm start of the France-vs-Austria Euro cup match, but couldn't quite make it and hit the sack around 8:50.

Tuesday Jun 18:

The Airbnb that Amy picked out is very nice; it is perched up high on the hillside and the 3rd floor unit has a good balcony and big windows looking out to the west, with view of the town and the mountains across the lake. Small but very functional kitchen, good window shades, comfy living room. No AC, but in fact I don't think we really needed it. Photos:

I went and visited the boulangerie for pastries at 6:45 and had my coffee; Amy got up a bit later (maybe 7:30) and we had breakfast. At that point we decided to hit the road and do a bike tour in the morning, so we got geared up, put on our sunscreen, packed some things for lunch, strapped on our helmets, and got on our bikes.

Our route (picked out by Amy) was a nice one. We rode west through the city center until we hit the lake (Lac du Bourget). This is a very sizeable body of water, maybe 3 or 4 kilometers across at the widest part, then about 20 kilometers or so from northern tip to southern tip. 

Starting off next to the lake, heading south.

Our route took us south along the shore, then around the base of the lake, and then up north a couple of kilometers at which point we started climbing up into the hills. Immediately to the south and west of the lake is the peak that dominates the area, the so-called "Mont Du Chat" (cat mountain), about five thousand feet in height.

We made our way up the mountainside and eventually arrived at the entrance to a tunnel, of course named "Tunnel Du Chat". Great setup for bikes, they had a separate bike and pedestrian tunnel to the side of the car tunnel, very nice way to go (well lit, good ventilation).  This was definitely a first for me, I've never before tried a dedicated cycling tunnel:

Some interesting cat-themed artwork on the tunnel walls too:

On the other side we made our way north and a bit west along a nice winding country road, great views off to the west and lovely grape vines and poppies along the side of the road. The road eventually descended down to a valley: the Rhone river, in fact.  Sizeable river with a good current and a quite chalky color (I assume from Alps runoff).

We passed this oddball sign built to commemorate the day on which the Tour De France passed this specific point:

North for a bit more, then turned east along a set of canals, then finally reconnected with the road that ran around Lac Du Bourget. From there we made our way up and around the northern tip of the lake and cycled south, hugging the coastline.

We eventually pulled into the Aix-les-Bains centre ville around 11:45, so just shy of a four hour ride, around 60+ kilometers total. Very pleasant, definitely recommended. We had a bit more lunch at the apartment and then a nice nap... always good to do your heavy biking in the morning and spend the hot part of the afternoon inside relaxing.

Amy made a restaurant reservation for us at a local gourmet restaurant, Melodie (very tasty).

Wednesday June 19th: Happy Anniversary!

We kicked things off by biking down to the local marche and shopping for cooking ingredients. Both of us were feeling somewhat deprived of green vegetables, so we bought salad makings, spinach, and ravioli (stuffed with asparagus and with lemon) and finally some middle-eastern things (stuffed mini courgettes), tabouli, and some roasted eggplant + red pepper. 

After that we toyed with the idea of going for another "huge" bike ride, but decided we would cut back a bit and just do 3-ish hours instead of 5-ish; we rode from Aix-les-Bains down to the city just to the south, Chambery.  There is a really lovely bike path that you can take for this ride; first running along the side of Lac Du Bourget, then running along the banks of the riger Leysse. They have great cycling infrastructure in this region I have to say, it is a pleasure to use such nice bike paths.

The ride was a bit on the warm side, and my legs were a tiny bit sore from the previous day's ride, but still a pleasant jaunt.  We had a cup of coffee in a cafe not far from the "Elephant Statue", then hopped on our bikes and made our way back, arriving around 11:15. Lunch was provisions from the market, and then a nap. We did a little shopping after that and then worked on cooking our dinner: pasta, spinach, and salad.

Passed on the way: a chocolate factory abutting the bike path(!):

At the elephant statue:

After some puzzling I managed to get the TV in the apartment to show me highlights from some of the Euro championship games, which are going on now. Germany vs Scotland, France vs Austria, and Portugal vs the Czech Republic. The Portugal team in particular seemed incredibly loaded with talent, but in fact a lot of the other big countries (Germany, France) are heavy contenders as well.

Sore throat for me, however in the afternoon and evening.

Thursday, June 20th:

I woke up with lots of cold symptoms: cough, sore throat, drippy nose.  To be extra safe I decided to take a COVID test, and (eek) the test came back positive. Bleah, very annoying. Not much to be done about it though, so got my high-quality masks out and we went about our preparations to check out of the apartment.  

We had a leisurely breakfast and made ourselves some sandwiches, got cleaned up, packed our suitcases, and then cabbed it down to the train station. Rainy day, not much good for biking. 

Train to Paris was uneventful; it turned up on time at 9:53am and deposited us at Gare du Lyon at the appointed time, 1:15. We decided to take the subway to the hotel (Hotel de Villiers); it was on the M14 line, which is a huge and gleaming monster of a subway train (don't think I have ridden that one before).  The hotel is not to far from the neighborhood where Amy used to be when her family was living in Paris; down-to-earth and not too touristy (it looks like people actually live there).

Preparing to leave Aix Les Bains:

Walk in the neighborhood, Rue de Levis (nice market-ish street). 

Resting in the afternoon, Amy out exploring a bit.

That night we had dinner at Arpege, a very memorable meal (detailed description some other time...). Getting there was quite a challenge; we opted to cab it but the traffic was beyond horrendous, due to the closures created by the various stuff being set up for the upcoming Olympics. Lots of waiting around in gridlock...

Friday, June 21st:

Today was a very minor shopping day for us; we took the metro over to the Les Halles area and spent time poking around a couple of the cooking supply shops that are there, which have a good reputation.  Our thought had been to look at saucepans, to try to find something to replace one of our larger nonstick pans that has been getting closed to the end of its lifetime.  We didn't find an exact replacement, but found something pretty close (just a bit smaller), and more importantly that looked like it would fit into a suitcase. 

I was leery about spending too much time indoors with other people (even with mask) so after that I just spent time resting in the hotel room while Amy roamed around exploring and doing a bit more shopping. Lunch at Vert-Midi (super-quick salad place, just what we needed).

Dinner at Mache restaurant -- no question the best meal we had in Paris. Very inventive, staff and cooks all clearly younger and out to prove themselves. 

A few of the dishes:

This was the dessert -- indescribable but incredibly delicious (I still have no idea just exactly how they made it):

Some of the wines:

Saturday, June 22nd:

Today was our museum day; we took the metro out to see the Arts & Metiers museum, which I had never been do, which is in the 3rd arrondissement north of the Marais.   Not a great science museum for little kids, but rather more focused on the history of the development of scientific techniques, with lots of relics: weights, measures, lab equipment, machines, and so on from the "early" days of science (18th and 19th centuries).

After that we walked over to the Pompidou Centre to take in an exposition on the sculptor Constantin Brâncuși, someone whose art I had never really followed. That was enjoyable, there was a lot to see, and the space was elegant and well arranged. I've walked around the Pompidou center before but I had never really spent any time on the inside, so that was fun. We bought a few small things in the museum bookstore as well.

Cafe au Lait from a place near the A&M museum:

Museum itself:

Entering the Pompidou center:

View from the top floor:

At the exhibit:

Hmm, is someone watching me?

 

Lunch at Grandcoeur, a bistro not too far from there, just a few blocks. Food was good, although the menu was a bit on the limited side.

We made it back to the hotel eventually; Amy at that point got ready to head over to her Marymount event (I decided it would probably be a mistake to attend given that I was probably still a bit contagious).  I spent an enjoyable late afternoon and early evening going for a few short walks in the area and then being a couch potato in the hotel. Marymount photos:

Dinner afterwards at a cafe just around the corner from the hotel, basic stuff (Amy had fish + chips, and I had a green bean salad and a slightly avocado + smoked salmon plate).

Sunday, June 23rd:

Travel day today. Worked out in the hotel gym, had a quick breakfast, got packed up, then headed for the airport. Felt a good deal less lousy this morning, thank goodness (still a few symptoms but way better than the past couple of days).  Amy thankfully never did test positive even after sharing a smallish hotel room with me, so that was a blessing.

Nice weather, low 60's, sunny, so the walk to the metro was pleasant. We took the M14 again to Chatelet and then took the RER "B" from there to Charles De Gaul.  It was the usual CDG experience, lots of delays and strange directions from staffers (this time around we were "regular" travelers as opposed to "wheelchair" folks).  After we dropped our bags off we headed for the security line, but before we could get there we had to go through some sort of computerized/automated security gate thing which was supposed to take your picture after scanning your passport. We inched our way through a huge line, then when we finally arrived, the gizmos were acting oddly, sometimes working and sometimes malfunctioning for no reason (with harried staff members racing around trying to work around the issues).

Flight from CDG to Dublin was uneventful, then made it onto the second leg to Boston. Flying to Boston from Dublin has some significant advantages in that you can actually go through US customs while still in Dublin, meaning that you can then bypass the whole customs circus in Logan (a major time savings).  As luck would have it entertainment console thing for my seat was busted, but I had crosswords to do and books to read, so I entertained myself for the duration.

A lovely trip for celebrate our 30th-- very memorable!