Table of Contents for this Episode
Categories: Lyon Area, Provence
Discussed in this Episode
- Lyon
- Provence
- Le Chambon-sur-Lignon
- Les Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse
- Basilique Notre-Dame de Fourvière (Lyon)
- Avignon
- Papal Palace (Palais des Papes)
- Nîmes
- Arles
- L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue
- Eygalières
- Les Baux-de-Provence
- Les Carrières de Lumières
- Pont du Gard
- Jardin de la Fontaine (Nîmes)
- Uzès
[00:00:00] Annie Sargent: This is Join Us in France, episode 512, cinq cent douze.
Bonjour, I’m Annie Sargent, and Join Us in France is the podcast where we take a conversational journey through the beauty, culture, and flavors of France.
Today on the podcast
[00:00:30] Annie Sargent: Today, I bring you a trip report with Sandy and Melissa Fabry, where we’ll embark on a journey to Lyon, and Provence, and we’ll discover their favorite spots, culinary adventures, and travel tips, as well as candid travel mishaps, as usually happens when you go on a trip anywhere.
Podcast supporters
[00:00:51] Annie Sargent: This podcast is supported by donors and listeners who buy my tours and services, including my Itinerary Consult Service, my GPS self-guided tours of Paris on the VoiceMap app, or take a day trip with me around the southwest of France in my electric car.
You can browse all of that at my boutique: joinusinfrance.com/boutique.
And Patreon supporters get new episodes as soon as they are ready and ad-free. If that sounds good to you, be like them, follow the link in the show notes.
The Magazine Segment
[00:01:23] Annie Sargent: For the magazine part of the podcast today, I’ll talk about some of the things I’m working on, some of the things happening in my life, because honestly, the news has been very, very quiet. I mean, the Olympics are over, we are all very sad that it’s over, but life goes on. And so I’ll just share a few of the things happening in my personal life with you.
Mother-Daughter Trip Report
[00:01:52] Annie Sargent: Bonjour, Sandy and Melissa, and welcome to Join Us in France.
[00:01:56] Melissa Fabry: Bonjour, Annie.
[00:01:57] Sandy Fabry: Bonjour, Annie.
[00:01:58] Annie Sargent: Wonderful to have you. Today, we’re going to talk about your mother-daughter trip to Lyon. Let me see. Where… where all did you go? You went to Lyon? You went to Provence? You tell me. Clearly, I don’t know anything.
[00:02:12] Sandy Fabry: And at the very end we went, our last day on the way back to the Lyon Airport, we went to Le Chambon-sur-Lignon.
[00:02:21] Annie Sargent: Ah, Le Chambon-sur-Lignon. Very nice. Very nice. All right. All right. So, I’m not sure how to do this. Shall we just talk about your favorite things first?
What Inspired the Trip?
[00:02:31] Annie Sargent: What inspired this trip? Do you guys do this? Do you take trips together?
[00:02:35] Melissa Fabry: Yeah, we do every couple years. So we’ve done New York a couple times and then we were in Paris in 2021 in the Fall, and then wanted to see more of France. My mom has seen more of France, but she hadn’t been to these, hadn’t been to Lyon, and hadn’t been to the parts of Provence that we went to, so it was exciting to see new things for both of us.
[00:02:55] Annie Sargent: When did the trip take place?
[00:02:56] Melissa Fabry: November of 2023.
[00:02:59] Annie Sargent: And it was just the two of you, right?
[00:03:00] Melissa Fabry: Yes.
Getting Around on this Mother-Daughter Trip
[00:03:01] Annie Sargent: How did you get around?
[00:03:03] Sandy Fabry: Everything. Airplane to Lyon, train a bit, metro a bit, bus once, and then the last three days we rented a car.
[00:03:13] Annie Sargent: Oh yeah, that’s right. I saw that you rented an electric car. So we’ll mention that at some point, we don’t have to get into that right away, but that would be interesting because a lot of visitors would like to rent electric cars. And obviously I’m a fan, but I’m not sure if it’s easy for visitors to get the charge to start.
Favorites on this Trip to Lyon and Provence
[00:03:29] Annie Sargent: That’s the problem typically. At any rate, okay, so what were your favorites on this trip? Perhaps, Melissa, you could tell us first what your favorites were.
[00:03:39] Melissa Fabry: Sure. I liked, food is always a nice top priority for both of us, so I enjoyed the different food, we did a food tour in Lyon, which was really fun. We had a young, very energetic local who showed us around, and we got a good variety of food, including the taco, the Lyon taco.
[00:03:55] Sandy Fabry: Actually, it was T-A-C-O-S. Tacos.
[00:04:01] Annie Sargent: Yeah, it’s always tacos in French, but is it like a hot pocket with lots of cheese, and meat in it?
[00:04:07] Melissa Fabry: Yes.
[00:04:08] Annie Sargent: Okay, so it was a regular French tacos.
[00:04:11] Melissa Fabry: Yes, we hadn’t heard of it before. And we coming from the West, coming from the West Coast, we thought it was like a taco.
[00:04:17] Annie Sargent: Yeah, no, no, no, no, no. It’s not a taco at all, as a matter of fact.
[00:04:22] Melissa Fabry: Very good, of course. Of course.
[00:04:24] Annie Sargent: My husband likes these things. I can’t eat them. I think it’s just like… I mean, I like to be full, but not like that.
[00:04:33] Melissa Fabry: A little goes a long way. I don’t think anyone finished theirs.
[00:04:36] Annie Sargent: Yes, yes.
Food and Street Art Tour in Lyon
[00:04:37] Annie Sargent: Yeah and just, I just enjoy seeing different architecture, and just walking around, and stopping for a coffee, and watching people go by. Every place was beautiful.
So what sort of food tour was this? Was it the sort of food tour where you go to the market first thing in the morning, and you eat as you go along? How did it work?
[00:04:54] Melissa Fabry: This was street food and street art. So it was a nice mix of different cuisines, as well as a lot of street art that’s in Lyon.
[00:05:04] Annie Sargent: What do you think, Sandy? Do you enjoy street art as well?
[00:05:07] Sandy Fabry: No, I didn’t like the street art in the beginning at all. I was annoyed because we paid money for a street food tour. And when he started, he was all about street art. And I thought, I am not going to like this. But the more he talked, the more I liked it. And he was great with the food tour, too. He said that in Lyon, they take already good food and elevate it to the next level.
[00:05:37] Annie Sargent: Uh huh.
[00:05:38] Sandy Fabry: And so that’s kind of the places we went. Five or six stops. And one stop was pizza, but really good pizza. One stop was empanadas, with fillings like we’d never had before.And then it ended with a wonderful ice cream stop. But in the end, I was all into the street art. So funny how it happens.
[00:06:03] Annie Sargent: Lyon is kind of famous for street art. They have quite a bit of it. So they are famous for that. And so what won you over?
[00:06:11] Sandy Fabry: The three dimensional ones, that I’m sure I’ve walked by a whole lot of times and just never really looked up.
[00:06:20] Annie Sargent: Uh huh.
[00:06:20] Sandy Fabry: Enough to see the little faces, and the little whatevers. They were out of ceramic and affixed.
Mm hmm.
And they were very cool.
[00:06:31] Annie Sargent: Yeah, it’s very fun if you know what you’re looking at. It’s very fun. Now, that doesn’t sound like a lot of French food, though. Pizza and…
[00:06:39] Sandy Fabry: It wasn’t, I guess.
[00:06:41] Annie Sargent: I mean, most people, when they say a food tour, they think, oh, we go to the market first thing in the morning, we purchase a few things, and then we go to a kitchen, and we fix it together, and then we eat it together.
That’s your typical… Or you have other food tours where they just take you around, and different vendors prepare a taste for you, of this, and that, and that, and that, yeah?
And then my food tour is more like I just tell you about it, I tell you the history of the food, the history of the area, I take you to the places, and I say, okay, go in the store and buy that, ask for that.
So it’s more like I give you the tools to buy the stuff yourself.
[00:07:18] Sandy Fabry: Do your, do it!
Yeah.
[00:07:20] Annie Sargent: Do your own thing.
[00:07:21] Sandy Fabry: However, I have to say, the Ice Cream Stop is a store owned by two men who are trained French pastry chefs.
So it was definitely, and they use the pastry with the ice cream.
[00:07:38] Annie Sargent: Aha, that’s nice. That’s very nice.
[00:07:40] Sandy Fabry: And that was very, that was pretty French.
[00:07:43] Annie Sargent: And so did you tell me the name of this tour?
[00:07:46] Melissa Fabry: I don’t think so. We can send you some extra.
[00:07:49] Annie Sargent: Yes, I would like to know, because people ask, you know, who did this tour and…
[00:07:53] Sandy Fabry: We got it online, but we’ll find it.
[00:07:56] Annie Sargent: Right, right, yeah.
Les Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse
[00:07:58] Annie Sargent: You went to the Paul Bocuse, kind of food market as well, on your own.
[00:08:03] Sandy Fabry: Yes.
[00:08:03] Annie Sargent: What did you think of that?
[00:08:05] Melissa Fabry: Yes, it was yes, it was late in the afternoon, so by the time we got there not much was open, and it was hard to tell what had closed for the day, or what had closed for the season, since we were there in November, or what just was vacant. So, it wasn’t, we weren’t there very long.
[00:08:22] Annie Sargent: Yeah, so yes, this is a beautiful place, but you have to go, I mean, Les Halles in general, which is what this is, it’s Les Halles Paul Bocuse is what it’s called, you have to go in the morning. Because even if they are open in the afternoon, tradition, I mean, these are people who work a lot, right?
They open every day of the year, say, perhaps Christmas, most of them are very small businesses and so it’s the same people working there day, after day, after day. And they get exhausted.
So they only work, they open at eight or seven sometimes and by two, most of them are closed or gone. But Paul Bocuse being, you know, it’s a bigger city, it’s more famous, more visitors, so they stay open longer. But to get the full experience, you need to go in the morning.
Les Terrasses, Michelin Restaurant
[00:09:08] Annie Sargent: So you went to Les Terrasses, that’s a Michelin restaurant.
[00:09:12] Sandy Fabry: Yes, we did. Melissa picked it. It is next to the cathedral in Lyon, the Basilica, I guess is the right term.
[00:09:24] Annie Sargent: Oh, so the one up…
[00:09:25] Sandy Fabry: And so the view was, yes…
[00:09:27] Annie Sargent: Okay. Yes. Because there’s both a Basilica up above, and a Cathedral down below.
[00:09:32] Sandy Fabry: The Basilica, right. It was the Basilica. So the view was gorgeous.
The view was beautiful. The food was amazing in so many ways, but it was a combination of the food with the setting, with the train staff, with the wine pairing that made it so wonderful.
[00:09:53] Annie Sargent: So Melissa, why did you pick that one?
[00:09:55] Melissa Fabry: We wanted to have, you know, one really nice dinner experience, and that just seemed to have a nice combination. And we both cook a fair amount, and so we enjoy things that either we can’t get at home, or just would not try at home, and so their menu really fit the bill, I think, for all of that.
[00:10:13] Annie Sargent: Was it one star, two stars, three stars?
[00:10:15] Melissa Fabry: One star.
[00:10:16] Annie Sargent: One star.
[00:10:17] Melissa Fabry: Yeah, so that was… that was a nice treat.
[00:10:19] Annie Sargent: So usually starred restaurants, I mean, the flavors are wonderful, but it’s also the art of putting together something that looks spectacular. It’s food and art together. It’s also the fact that they charge a little more, although if it’s just one star, probably you paid less than a hundred, perhaps, per person?
[00:10:39] Melissa Fabry: You know, per person, I think, maybe?
I think it was maybe 80, or something…
[00:10:43] Annie Sargent: Right. Right. So they can afford to have the nicer ingredients, and they have the trained everything. And it’s more like a theater experience. There’s a whole procession of how things happen in a Michelin starred restaurant. So they will just present you.
It’s like theater, it’s lovely, you know, but it takes a long time.
[00:11:02] Melissa Fabry: Yeah, it took about three hours. So it was our dinner in, dinner and entertainment for the evening.
Bouchon Type Restaurants
[00:11:06] Annie Sargent: Yes, yes. That’s great. You tried some bouchons in Lyon.Sandy, do you want to explain what the bouchons are?
[00:11:14] Sandy Fabry: Oh, I’m not sure I can. You tell me if I’m incorrect, but in the beginning, they started with the silk workers, I believe, as a lunch, a way to feed them.
[00:11:25] Annie Sargent: Yes!
[00:11:26] Sandy Fabry: In someone’s home?
[00:11:27] Annie Sargent: Yeah, so I’m not sure, I’m not sure about the history, but what I was getting at is a bouchon is a sort of restaurant, just like you, you would have a brasserie, or a fast food restaurant. Well, a bouchon is a style of restaurant. And it’s very traditional, and typical of Lyon and it is, it started as common man lunch place kind of thing.
[00:11:51] Sandy Fabry: That’s what I’m trying to say. Yes.
[00:11:55] Annie Sargent: And then it grew.
[00:11:56] Sandy Fabry: And it still very much is that.
[00:11:58] Annie Sargent: I mean, most of them, you know, you can eat at a bouchon for around 50 euros at dinner, and perhaps a little less at lunch, but they’re usually very interesting. And a lot of them serve the same foods. Like, they will have the Quenelle de Lyon, obviously, because everybody wants to try that, and they’re delicious.
They have a lot of white sauces, they have the normal Lyon stuff. Did you have a favorite food, favorite place besides the Michelin?
[00:12:25] Sandy Fabry: Oh, my favorite place. In Lyon or on the whole trip?
On the whole trip, is there one meal that just sticks out in your mind? Like… that was great! Bouchon was a wonderful experience, without a doubt. And the food was very reasonable and I had what was called, what translates into brain of the silk worker.
[00:12:48] Annie Sargent: Yes, yes. I can’t remember. I’ve had this. It’s like a, you know, Cervelle de Canute or something.
[00:12:55] Sandy Fabry: It’s a cheese, it’s a cheese dish. That was delicious.
Acte 2 Restaurant
[00:13:01] Sandy Fabry: My favorite meal probably was the one in Avignon at the restaurant called, I believe, Acte 2.
[00:13:08] Melissa Fabry: I agree.
[00:13:09] Annie Sargent: Yeah?
[00:13:09] Melissa Fabry: Yes.
[00:13:10] Sandy Fabry: Okay.
[00:13:11] Annie Sargent: Why did that stand out for you?
[00:13:13] Sandy Fabry: Man, it was every bit as good a food as the Michelin starred restaurant. It did not have the location. It did not have the view. We walked to it from our hotel. It was about three blocks into a neighborhood, a little side street. I’m not even sure it had a sign. But inside it was tiny, maybe it could seat 30, maybe?
[00:13:39] Annie Sargent: Mm hmm.
[00:13:40] Sandy Fabry: And the wife was the front of the house. And the husband was the chef, and we were just treated so lovely, and it was so easy, and so good.
[00:13:51] Annie Sargent: Yeah. Yeah. One of those family restaurants that we are very good at in France.
[00:13:56] Sandy Fabry: Yes. yes. And we could just walk back to the hotel.
[00:14:00] Melissa Fabry: Oh, I think it’s a fairly new restaurant. Our hotel told us about it. But they already had it really well organized and run. And we always appreciate too, how, you know, this France so well does, you know, uses what is local, and what is available, and uses everything of, you know, a chicken or whatever.
And so it’s always neat to try different preparations of things.And mom, I think you really enjoyed the quince.
[00:14:23] Annie Sargent: Aha, quince! Yes.
[00:14:25] Sandy Fabry: The quince. The quince is my new discovery.
Interestingly enough, it grows in my neighborhood. And last fall, a neighbor was giving it away by the bagful, but I didn’t take any because I didn’t know it, and didn’t know what to do with it, and assumed I wouldn’t like it. And then I had it three times while we were in France, and loved it.
[00:14:46] Annie Sargent: So it was in the form of a jam?
[00:14:49] Sandy Fabry: No, one was kind of in a cookie. Kind of a dessert. It was all in dessert. One was on a lovely slice of cheesecake in Avignon. And I can’t remember how the third was prepared. Do you, Melissa?
[00:15:02] Melissa Fabry: No.
[00:15:03] Annie Sargent: We have a thing in France called pâte de coing. So it’s like a paste of quince.
It’s like a…,let’s see… pâte de coing… I’ll show you because you can see, since we’re recording this on Zoom, you can see what I’m seeing.
[00:15:18] Sandy Fabry: Yes.
[00:15:19] Annie Sargent: This, like that?
[00:15:20] Sandy Fabry: Oh, yes.
[00:15:21] Annie Sargent:Yes.
You can make slices of this, or like here, you can make cute little shapes with it, and you can serve it with cheese, or with cheesecake or, you know, it’s like something that enhances the flavor. It has this really distinctive flavor to it. It’s very nice.
[00:15:38] Sandy Fabry: It is very nice. And now I can’t wait for this fall so I can go back to that neighbor and hopefully she’ll give me quince.
[00:15:45] Annie Sargent: Ha, ha, ha, ha. And you’ll try and cook them. That’s great.
[00:15:48] Sandy Fabry: And I’ll cook them. Yes.
Papal Palace in Avignon
[00:15:50] Annie Sargent: That’s fantastic. So that restaurant you really liked was Acte 2 restaurant. You liked the Papal Palace as well. Maybe, Melissa, tell us why. Because some people love it and some people don’t. I don’t understand why that is so, like… what did you think, Melissa?
[00:16:06] Melissa Fabry: Sure, you know, the grandeur of it, obviously, is very impressive, and I don’t know how relatively new it is now, but there you do kind of a virtual reality tour through it, and you go at your own pace, and it just shows you kind of how it maybe looked when it was decorated, which was interesting. And then you can go up on the roof, and so you get a beautiful view of Avignon. And we went late in the day, which I think helped with not being so crowded because there are some tight spaces in there. But then I think, probably what helped us both really enjoy it was the art exhibit that was in there at the time, was quite impressive, too. It was this woman who did some tapestry work, but then also did sculptures out of stacked cardboard.
And it was fascinating. 10, 15 feet high. Pretty impressive. I’m sure it’s gone now. It was just temporary, but… So it’s neat to see that they’re using it for art space as well, because there’s certainly huge rooms that they can fill.
[00:16:56] Annie Sargent: That’s wonderful. Yeah. Never heard of this person. That sounds good.
[00:17:00] Sandy Fabry: These sculptures were big enough that you could walk through.
[00:17:04] Annie Sargent: Oh, wow.
[00:17:05] Sandy Fabry: And unless you were very close to them, you would have no idea they were cardboard. They were all cardboard color, but you still wouldn’t have thought that they were, they were like corrugated cardboard stacked on top of each other, and glued together. And Melissa’s right, she started, I think, with tapestries, and they were gorgeous. And they would fill a wall in that building. One tapestry. They were beautiful. And modern, not so much as the more traditional looking tapestries. These were very modern looking, very nature focused. And then you kept walking through more rooms, and then there started being all of these cardboard sculptures that were like buildings in themselves. So it was really a treat. And she’s right. That is what I think made it so memorable. The combination of where you were and what you saw.
[00:17:59] Annie Sargent: Museums often have temporary exhibits like that. And it’s, I mean, unless you know the artist and you’re a follower, you wouldn’t know that it’s, you know, you wouldn’t go just on purpose. I mean, locals do, but if you’re just visiting, well, whatever’s there that month, you will enjoy and… and there’s enough of these kind of happy surprises that, you know, it makes the trip even better, I guess.
[00:18:24] Melissa Fabry: Yes, you can’t plan everything.
[00:18:25] Sandy Fabry: It sometimes ends up being the memory, too. The happy, the happy surprises.
[00:18:31] Annie Sargent: Exactly.
Compage Arles and Nîmes
[00:18:32] Annie Sargent: So you went to both Arles and Nîmes. Can you compare them, like the feel of the towns? I mean, they’re both Roman towns, but…
[00:18:42] Sandy Fabry: Yes.
[00:18:42] Annie Sargent: Compare please.
[00:18:44] Melissa Fabry: There’s a larger story involved, but I’d say just face value of the towns. Nîmes was like sparkly, very clean, looked like everything had kind of been polished. And then I think the, oh, I’m forgetting, sorry, the amphitheater, the Colosseum had recently been finished, as far as it was completely cleaned, so that was nice to see.
And the other monument, I’m forgetting now.
[00:19:06] Sandy Fabry: The Temple in Nîmes.
[00:19:08] Melissa Fabry: Thank you, yes, the temple had recently been cleaned too, so I just, that’s the impression I had, that Nîmes was just very bright and sparkly, and the marble flooring, you know, and everything. And then Arles, you know, felt more small town, kind of more original, as far as little shops and things, I guess, and Nîmes felt a little bit more commercial, like bigger luxury stores, maybe. And kind of that main hub.
About a Train Snafu
[00:19:29] Melissa Fabry: But we were, we didn’t get a ton of daylight in Arles by the time we got there. This was our train snafu day. So we didn’t get to see as much of Arles in the daylight as we had hoped.
[00:19:39] Annie Sargent: Do tell about the train snafu, I want to hear.
[00:19:42] Melissa Fabry: So we had it on, we book, we bookended it for the day, both ways were a little snafu. We took the train from Avignon and we were there on time and just waited for the train to come and it never came to our knowledge. We didn’t see it pop up on the board at all, and then it was gone. So we, you know, went and got coffee and waited for the next one type deal, and then we saw it when we came again, there was a train waiting on a further train track, that I maybe assumed was ours and we just didn’t realize they didn’t all pull through to the main portion. That’s the only thing I can think of. It never said, you know, track 1B or, you know, indicating that it was a little further. But that’s the only thing we can think of.
Because then it said later that it did go.
[00:20:30] Annie Sargent: But you didn’t see it on the boards that, like, that train number never appeared?
[00:20:35] Melissa Fabry: No, and again, maybe there was something that they announced that it wasn’t showing up, but it, you know, it wasn’t on the board but it was here. You know, that’s our lack of French, so maybe there was something there that we didn’t catch.
[00:20:46] Annie Sargent: Was that your first time using the train?
[00:20:48] Melissa Fabry: No, we both used the train in multiple countries.
That was the first time at Avignon though.
[00:20:52] Sandy Fabry: Yes, it was the first time in Avignon.
[00:20:54] Melissa Fabry: Yeah, so we just waited, I think an hour, hour and a half for the next one. So we were a little delayed in our schedule. And then coming back, so we went to Nîmes first, and then went to Arles. And then for Arles, we were taking like the last train back because we stayed and had dinner there.
And then, that train just kept getting delayed, and delayed, and delayed. There was some work in Marseille, I think, on the train tracks. And then it was cancelled.
And last train of the day. And so there were a couple other people there, including a Canadian couple who spoke French and English. And so then we worked on getting a taxi between, there was a number at the train station for a taxi that we had called, and then we also called our hotel, which is always a benefit of having a hotel that can help you. So they arranged a taxi for us. And then at that point, then the train was coming back, was going to happen. So I hadn’t seen one cancel before and then uncancel. So they kicked us out of the train station once it was cancelled. But then they let us back in once it was uncancelled.
[00:21:58] Annie Sargent: How bizarre.
[00:21:59] Melissa Fabry: Which was interesting. So it was still going to be, I think another, I think it was ended up being two or two and a half hours late. And so we just ended up taking the taxi, and we split it with the Canadian couple because they were going to Avignon as well. And they helped kind of organize everything in French, which was helpful too.
[00:22:16] Annie Sargent: Wow. Well, yeah, and I, you can’t really, I mean, if they spoke French, you can’t really blame it on the lack of French. It was just a bizarre happening.
[00:22:24] Melissa Fabry: Yeah. And it was interesting that they, you know, closed the train station because no more trains were coming, it was cancelled. And then, but he was still there, the employee, and then let us back in once it was coming at some indefinite point in time.
So it was an eventful.. you know, we were not cold, we were not wet, we were fed. It was fine.
[00:22:42] Annie Sargent: But I should say that trying to do Nîmes and Arles both on the same day is insane. You shouldn’t have tried that.
[00:22:48] Melissa Fabry: Okay. Good to know. We read it in some guidebook as it was a good day trip, but yeah. Maybe especially in the off season with schedules.
[00:22:56] Annie Sargent: Pick one or the other, and just spend the day there. Because that’s a lot, that’s a lot. And it is probably true that Nîmes is a little bit more sparkly, as you said. Although it’s… so it’s funny, because if you watch French news, there are neighborhoods in Nîmes that are quite the hell in handbasket.
And so, French people think Nîmes is worse than Arles, but as far as the tourists are concerned, Nîmes looks better, it looks more, you know, taken care of, but there are some problems in Nîmes as well, although these are neighborhoods where you would never go as a visitor, so, or me, I would never go to these neighborhoods. So, interesting.
(Mid-roll ad spot)
Jardin de la Fontaine, Nimes
[00:23:37] Annie Sargent: All right, you mentioned Jardin de la Fontaine. Was that in Nîmes?
[00:23:44] Melissa Fabry: Yes, that was in Nimes. I enjoy going to city parks and town parks. And so we walked over there in that whole… You know, everywhere we walked was well maintained and, so we walked in there and then walked up to, there’s a Roman fortress, maybe, up at the top, that we walked up to. And there was a bunch of men playing boule, so just a little, kind of, a little more local feel, getting into the parks, which I like, and a couple more ancient sites were in there too.
[00:24:09] Sandy Fabry: A temple of Diana, is that in there?
[00:24:12] Annie Sargent: That’s possible.
[00:24:13] Sandy Fabry: I’m not sure.
[00:24:14] Melissa Fabry: Yeah, that, they thought was a library perhaps, in Roman times.So all, they’re all just things you can walk right up to, there’s no line or queue.
[00:24:22] Annie Sargent: I’ve never been really a tourist in Nîmes because I have cousins in Nîmes. And so I just go visit them. I visited the temple, I visited Nîmes Arennes, but I haven’t spent much time visiting Nîmes. I should go back and spend some, some serious time there.
[00:24:37] Sandy Fabry: It was a city I thought I would like to go back to.
[00:24:40] Annie Sargent: Uh huh.
[00:24:41] Sandy Fabry: I thought I could spend more time in that area for sure.
And Arles, the one thing with Arles is there was a lot of road construction. And because we were getting there later in the day, it was also getting a little bit darker, and the road construction made it a little bit harder to walk from the train station into town. On the way back, we stopped in a wine bar, some local wine bar, that they were very gracious to us. It wasn’t really a wine bar. It was really like a bottle shop, wasn’t it, Melissa? And they were great to us. And there was this little boy who just attached himself to us. And when we would separate from each other, he’d ask the other person for money.
(laughing)
[00:25:22] Annie Sargent: How old was this boy?
[00:25:25] Melissa Fabry: We don’t have enough French for that. Eight or ten.
[00:25:29] Annie Sargent: How strange. You found the strangest people in Arlès and Nîmes.
[00:25:34] Sandy Fabry: We like it. We like it, but we’re comfortable. If we weren’t comfortable travelling like that, those things would make me very uncomfortable. The late train cancelled, taking a taxi back to a town in the dark, you know, those things would make me uncomfortable. But because I didn’t start travelling at this age, I’ve been doing it for a while, it’s just part of the experience.
[00:25:58] Annie Sargent: Yeah, you take it in stride, which is great. That is definitely great.
Uzès on Market Day. Pont du Gard
[00:26:02] Annie Sargent: Ah, so you went to Uzès on Market Day and the Pont du Gard. So I want to hear about that because that’s a day trip that I recommend. Like go to Uzès, go to Pont du Gard. If it’s Market Day, go to Uzès first and then the Pont du Gard.
You could take a hike in the afternoon, or swim, or something if you would like. So do tell about that.
[00:26:21] Sandy Fabry: My turn?
[00:26:22] Melissa Fabry: Go ahead, mom.
[00:26:23] Sandy Fabry: Okay. Okay. Let’s see. By then we had the car, so that was the first day with the car, I think. No, I guess it was the second day, but anyway, we did start with the market. It was Saturday. And we did start with the market, and we had a great time there, at the market as well as in a food store. Between where we parked the car and the market.
We found a local food store with a man who couldn’t have been more helpful to us, and even put back some things that I had picked up and said to me, no, you don’t want that, and put it back on the shelf and gave me something else. And it was just a delightful experience.
We bought local honey, we bought… oh, help me, Melissa. We bought enough for lunch. We bought some tempanades, and some bread, and cheese, so we could go to the Pont du Gard and have lunch. And so we did that. Then we drove on and that’s just such a lovely, lovely setting at the Pont du Gard. It was beautiful.
And there were no people there. You know, that’s the love of traveling this time of the year. There were no crowds. We walked all around, took some great photos, just kind of had a really relaxing day, because once you get in the car, there’s a little less relaxing to be done, if you’re the driver, you know, and you’re supposed to know where you’re going, it’s just a little less relaxing.
[00:27:56] Annie Sargent: Yeah.
[00:27:57] Sandy Fabry: But the Pont du Gard provided that. And I’m so glad we went. You could also go there by train, I guess, because we had passed on the same tracks. There was a Pont du Gard station. No, Melissa? Am I wrong?
[00:28:11] Melissa Fabry: It’s close, but I think you still have to then take a taxi or something quite a ways. It’s, I think, the closest stop.
[00:28:16] Sandy Fabry: Okay.
[00:28:17] Annie Sargent: Pont du Gard is really not that easy to get to. I mean, from Avignon, there are trains, I mean, sorry, there are buses that will take you, city buses that make a few runs throughout the day, but no train. Uzès perhaps, probably Uzès has a train station, but not, not Pont du Gard. It is probably, I don’t know, three, four kilometers away. So you could walk, but…
Goat Parade
[00:28:39] Sandy Fabry: It was there on that day, I think, that we ran into the herd of goats. That was interesting.
[00:28:45] Annie Sargent: Why, French goats are different than American goats?
[00:28:48] Melissa Fabry: They were on the road coming toward us, like 200 of them.
We don’t see the parade, the parade of goats, very often.
[00:28:57] Annie Sargent: Yes, yes, that’s true that, you know, animals, goats, cows, horses, they prefer to walk on roads than in the mud. So, if they have a choice, they’ll come on the road.
[00:29:09] Sandy Fabry: They were being guided by female, I will call them shepherds. But the interesting thing was that Melissa was following Google Maps and I was driving. And she said, Mom, I don’t know what this means, but it says we have traffic up ahead. And we were on a small French two lane road, and I thought, there is no traffic up ahead.
And she said, well, maybe it’ll be a, maybe it’ll be a track. I thought, no, maybe, I don’t know. And then all of a sudden, there they were.
[00:29:41] Annie Sargent: The goats.
[00:29:42] Sandy Fabry: And they were the trafic. Yeah, the goats.
[00:29:44] Annie Sargent: Goats creating a traffic jam in France. Goats.
[00:29:47] Sandy Fabry: And it was quite interesting. It got picked up on Google Maps. It was enough of a… cycle, I guess, is how they do it.
Driving an electric car
[00:29:55] Annie Sargent: Yeah. So tell me about this electric car that, was it your intention to rent an electric car or not?
[00:30:01] Sandy Fabry: Yes.
Go ahead, Melissa.
[00:30:03] Melissa Fabry: We both have electric cars at home, so that helped with our comfort level.
And yeah, we just figured, you know, they might as well check it out and see how it is accessibility wise. I think we lucked out with, where we rented the rental car, the man, the employee was very helpful, made sure we kind of knew, knew what we were doing, how to make some of the functions work.
[00:30:25] Annie Sargent: What car did they give you?
[00:30:26] Melissa Fabry: The electric, oh goodness, sorry, butcher the name, the Renault?
[00:30:30] Annie Sargent: The Renault?
[00:30:31] Sandy Fabry: No, it was not the Renault.
It was one I hadn’t heard of. I thought it began with an M.
[00:30:37] Melissa Fabry: I think that’s what we were supposed to get, but it was the Renault. I’m pretty sure it’s the kind of diamond symbol. Yeah.
[00:30:43] Annie Sargent: Yes, yes. So it was probably a Renault Megane, electric Megane.
Or perhaps it was a Zoe? Was it a very small car?
[00:30:51] Sandy Fabry: No.
No, it was an SUV.
[00:30:53] Annie Sargent: Okay, then a Megane, probably. Did they give you a card for your recharges, or were you like, oh, use your credit cards?
[00:31:01] Melissa Fabry: They used a card that we could use for certain chargers, but they weren’t really in the area, the areas we were going. So we charged, the hotel that we stayed in last had a charger, which we didn’t plan on, but that was good, and then we charged one other time, off the…
[00:31:21] Annie Sargent: A freeway exit, a freeway rest stop.
[00:31:25] Melissa Fabry: Yeah, the rest stop, so they all had fast chargers there, so that was very easy.
[00:31:29] Annie Sargent: And those worked with your credit card or with the card that the company gave you?
[00:31:34] Melissa Fabry: Credit card.
[00:31:35] Annie Sargent: With a credit card, okay, good. So, I think eventually we’re going to get to the point where all these highway kind of rest stop chargers will take credit cards. And then that’s it. That’s all you need.
If once they take credit cards, it’s easy. For now, we still have some that do most that don’t. And I found that the Avignon area where I also went with my electric car, they didn’t have that many chargers compared to the rest of France. They need to catch up because the rest of France has way more like grocery stores…
I see you went to L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, their grocery stores don’t have car chargers. How is that possible? Like, come on. Come on.
All the other grocery stores in France have them. Why not there? And I told them, I said, this is ridiculous. Get me a car charger in that parking lot. Because they’re… it’s perfect.
Like it, you know, they’re fast chargers. If they’re 50K or better than, I mean, if you shop for an hour, that’s it, your car’s full, you know? So anyway…
But you found it okay to have a electric car in France, it wasn’t a struggle?
[00:32:42] Melissa Fabry: I don’t think so. You just had to spend a little bit more time looking, you know, kind of planning your route or, you know, knowing how much charge you had left. But I wouldn’t say it didn’t stop us from doing anything, certainly.
[00:32:52] Annie Sargent: Right. And it helps that you know the difference between a fast charger, and a slow charger, and a medium charger, and all of that, because most people don’t understand this. And so they, they’re like, well…
[00:33:01] Sandy Fabry: It would not be the time to start having an electric car.
[00:33:05] Annie Sargent: Right.
[00:33:06] Sandy Fabry: For me. Because we already had the experiences. Yes, and because one of us doesn’t drive a stick shift, that was another reason we got an electric car.
[00:33:17] Melissa Fabry: Yes, that helped.
We didn’t have to worry about that part of it.
[00:33:21] Sandy Fabry: Her parents didn’t teach her how to drive a stick shift.
[00:33:24] Annie Sargent: Why would you, but you know, anymore in France, most people, most French people buy automatics as well. It’s not that common to rent a manual only anyway. So, I mean, it happens, but it’s not everywhere. So what electric cars do you drive at home, I’m curious? What do you drive Melissa?
Volkswagen. Both of you?
[00:33:45] Sandy Fabry: We have the same car.
[00:33:46] Annie Sargent: And it’s the ID?
[00:33:47] Melissa Fabry: The ID4.
[00:33:48] Annie Sargent: The ID4. Okay. Excellent cars.
[00:33:52] Melissa Fabry: We’re happy with that car. A little plug.
[00:33:54] Annie Sargent: Yes.
[00:33:55] Sandy Fabry: We are happy with it, and I got it six months after she got it. When they were going to do it, I thought, Oh, this is the time for me to convert to electric. I have private tutors.
[00:34:05] Annie Sargent: Yeah. Perfect.
[00:34:06] Sandy Fabry: And so they are six months ahead of us, and it’s been great.
I’ve had mine for a year now, she’s had hers for 18 months.
Yeah. We’re happy.
[00:34:14] Annie Sargent: Once, you understand how it works, honestly, it’s really easy. And in France, we have chargers everywhere. I’m going to Bordeaux on Saturday in a couple of days, and I didn’t even check, you know, and then I thought, oh, you should check, because I get a big discount on Ionity chargers.
So I’m like, Oh, I need to, because sometimes on the freeway they put a sign that says there’s car chargers here, but they don’t tell you which brand. And so if you have a discount on Ionity, you want to stop at the Ionity. Why not?
I checked it, but only so I could get the brand where I get the discount.
All right. So you also went, we need to hurry up, but you also went to L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, Eygalières… Eygalières, what is that?
[00:35:02] Sandy Fabry: A little village. Yeah, it’s a little village very close to Les Baux in Provence. That our hotel, the hotel suggested we go. Because it was on the road to something else we were going to. The young woman at the desk said, Oh, I think this is such a nice little village. You might want to just drive through there.
We did. And it was lovely. It was, I think, a Sunday afternoon. And everybody was out.
And there was a park for some sport, maybe Pétanque?
[00:35:34] Annie Sargent: Could be.
[00:35:34] Sandy Fabry: I think it was. I think it was. People were playing by timer. They were calling people up, so it was like an organized reserved park for that.
[00:35:44] Annie Sargent: Oh, they had a competition of some sort.
[00:35:46] Sandy Fabry: Yes, they were using the loudspeaker, calling people up. At least I think that’s what they were doing, you know, with such limited French, sometimes I just make things up. But that was great.
And L’Isle… L’Isle, you say it so differently, L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue?!
[00:36:01] Annie Sargent: L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue
[00:36:02] Sandy Fabry: A beautiful town, and we, again, market day, and we bought ourselves scarves, and we bought more local, we bought spiced nuts there from a man.
We just tasted our way through and came home with lots of local food from Provence, which was great fun.
[00:36:22] Annie Sargent: Yeah, and L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue has a good market. I’ve seen a lot of markets, I go through a lot of markets, but that one, I actually bought some things, which is unusual for me. I usually walk through and I don’t buy anything, and that one, I was like, oh, somehow they tempted me into buying a few things, which is good.
[00:36:39] Sandy Fabry: People are well trained at tempting you.
[00:36:41] Annie Sargent: Yes, yes, yes.
Les Carrières de Lumière
[00:36:43] Annie Sargent: And so you wrote Carrefour Lumière, but I think you meant Les Carrières de Lumière. Is that the place where they project the light and sound show?
[00:36:53] Sandy Fabry: Yes.
[00:36:53] Annie Sargent: Talk to me about this because that’s really one not to be missed in this area.
[00:36:57] Sandy Fabry: Oh, first of all, it’s in a stone quarry that is huge. So it’s like projecting it in something bigger than the Papal Palace, which is quite big.
The one we saw was Vermeer to Van Gogh.
[00:37:14] Annie Sargent: Yeah, they do different shows every year or every few months. Yeah.
[00:37:18] Sandy Fabry: And we have similar but lesser things in the United States now, but for twice the price.
[00:37:25] Annie Sargent: Right. So I went to one in Salt Lake that was supposed to be the same. It sucked. I’m sorry. I’m just sorry, because they do it in these like hangars, where the light it’s not dim enough. It’s not dark enough. It’s all wrong. Compared to Les Carrières de Lumière, it’s just wrong. Carrières de Lumière is what started this and it’s gorgeous, because it’s, like you said, it’s a quarry, they’ve excavated a lot of stone and they have these nice flat walls with these pillars, and you can walk through and as the show is going, you walk around and it’s just awe inspiring.
Yeah, if you’re going to do it somewhere, do it there because the others are like, oh, no, no. Yeah. You know, family members who had never seen it in France were like, oh, what are you complaining about? It was fine. I’m like, yes, it’s fine, but it’s not great. It’s, by comparison, it’s like, ugh!
[00:38:17] Sandy Fabry: That’s right. No, this was, we had seen a couple of other things, but this definitely was just breathtaking and amazing. And then there was a second show of a modern artist, that I don’t remember the name of, and it was equally as good. And we were probably in there for an hour, but then again, we were in there with maybe 25, or 30 people total. So we had the full experience.
[00:38:45] Annie Sargent: Right, but even if there’s a lot of people, because in that room, there’s actually places where you can sit down because depending on how they cut the stone, you might have things that are behind level.
And of course you’ll come out with your pants all white, that’s fine.
[00:39:01] Sandy Fabry: That was okay.
But that was, I was so glad we didn’t miss that, because that was one of the last things we did and we knew we just had to kind of, it was going to be a long day and we had to squeeze it in, but we were so close to it and I just really wanted to do it, and I think we were really glad we did.
It was one of the highlights for sure.
How to Make Mother-Daughter Travel a Great Experience
[00:39:19] Melissa Fabry: I think it’s great that you travel as a mother-daughter, you know, family thing. Because I’m sure you, I mean, perhaps, Melissa, you have a significant other or you, Sandy, and, but you just make, you go with just the two of you. Why do you choose that? I’m trying to remember. I think you suggested it one time and it was like, why not? But it is really nice because we make our kind of top three of each location of what she really wants to see, and what I really want to see, and sometimes they match up and sometimes they don’t, but then you’re getting to see things you wouldn’t have gone to without the other.
And rarely is anything disappointing, rarely do I think, oh, I wish we didn’t spend time on that. So it’s enriching in that way too. That’s different when we travel with our spouses.
[00:40:04] Sandy Fabry: I think the two of us tend to want to do more of the same things than either one of our spouses might want to do with each other, you know, and so that works out well for us. But the other thing is that we have our private time. We always, Melissa finds rooms now with family units, and what that means is, one of us is behind a door, a closed door with a bit, and the other one has the other part. And, you know, that makes all the difference on earth, because as much as we love each other, and as much as we like the same things, the truth is, this was a ten day trip, ten days, in close quarters with the same person is a lot.
[00:40:44] Annie Sargent: Yes. Yes.
[00:40:45] Sandy Fabry: So it’s good that we can go in at night, say good night, close the door, and have hours of private time.
And I think that’s what makes it work long term. We go home happy. We don’t go home sick of each other. And we do it again in a couple of years.
[00:41:02] Annie Sargent: That’s wonderful. I think that’s great that you do that because, yeah, you know, life being what it is, and seize the day, you know…
[00:41:11] Sandy Fabry: That’s right.
[00:41:12] Annie Sargent: …is the reality.
[00:41:14] Sandy Fabry: And do it as many times as you can.
[00:41:16] Annie Sargent: Does France make that fairly easy? Do you actually enjoy coming to France or do you just do that because it’s familiar?
[00:41:22] Sandy Fabry: I don’t know, I think Melissa makes it easy. I think going to any foreign country when you don’t speak the language is an added level of difficulty. But we’ve done it enough, we do enough research, and France is just an amazing country, Annie.
France is unlike any other country for, I think, so many different opportunities you can have in France. We might branch out, like we didn’t go to Paris this time at all. And last time we only went to Paris. So, you know, we are branching out. I think maybe the very south, on the Mediterranean, might be the next area.
[00:42:00] Annie Sargent: So Collioure, Perpignan, that kind of, almost Spain.
[00:42:03] Sandy Fabry: Yeah, we have not done that, yes.
[00:42:06] Annie Sargent: It’s much cheaper. It’s much cheaper. If you go down the coast after Montpellier, you head down the coast, it’s usually accommodations are cheaper.
[00:42:17] Sandy Fabry: Toward the West?
[00:42:18] Annie Sargent: Heading south, so Montpellier is kind of at the same level more or less as Nice, but then, as you head south towards Spain, that coast is usually cheaper.
It’s also beautiful, but in a very different way, it’s its own thing.
All right, ladies, thank you so much for talking to me. I had a great time learning about your experiences, and it sounds like even not speaking French, you did just fine.
[00:42:43] Melissa Fabry: Merci Annie, it was a great time.
[00:42:45] Annie Sargent: Merci beaucoup, and happy travels to everybody.
[00:42:48] Sandy Fabry: Merci!
[00:42:49] Annie Sargent: Au revoir.
[00:42:50] Sandy Fabry: Au revoir.
[00:42:50] Melissa Fabry:
Thank you Patrons!
[00:42:57] Annie Sargent: Again, I want to thank my patrons for giving back, and supporting the show. Patreon supporters get new episodes as soon as they are ready, and ad-free. You can be like them, follow the link in the show notes. And patrons get lots of exclusive rewards as well. You can see them at patreon.com/joinus.
A special shout out this week to our new Join Us in France champions: Densy Ruiz, Antonette Lucente and Sandra Collins. And to all my current patrons, it’s wonderful to have you on board in the community of travel enthusiasts and Francophiles who keep this podcast going.
And to support Elyse, go to patreon.com/elysart.
Zoom meetings with Patrons
[00:43:45] Annie Sargent: This week I published the dates for our monthly Zoom meeting with patrons that people who support the Accro du Podcast and higher get. It’s always fun to talk to my patrons and this month we’re going to do a Paris quiz, a Paris game together. It’ll be fun.
Reviews – Eiffel Tour on VoiceMap
[00:44:05] Annie Sargent: I want to read some reviews of my tours. About the Eiffel Tower tour:
‘Nice way to prepare us for the Eiffel Tower ascent in a relaxed way that helped us skip the lines. Good recommendations for the restaurants inside of the museum’.
Yeah, this tour is short but it does give a lot of good recommendations on where to eat around the tower, and also how to not be stuck in lines for hours, and hours, and hours.
And another person wrote: ‘This was an awesome walk’. Well, thank you very much.
Reviews – Île de la Cité
[00:44:36] Annie Sargent: About my Île de la Cité tour: ‘Clear directions, easy to walk along and listen, interesting facts and spots I had previously walked by without knowing that they were there. I enjoyed the tour’.
Yes, that’s the whole point, is to open your eyes to things that you would have otherwise missed, even if you’ve been to Paris many, many times.
One last one about the Île de la Cité tour: ‘Delightful, informative, lovely sense of humor’.
Ah, well, thank you very much. I appreciate that. Thank you very much for those reviews.
And podcast listeners get a big discount for buying these tours from my website. But if you buy directly from my website, going to: joinusinfrance.com/boutique you don’t get the codes instantaneously. You have to be a little patient because that’s a manual process. If you’re in a big hurry, just buy them directly through the VoiceMap app. Okay?
Itinerary Consultations with Annie
[00:45:30] Annie Sargent: And another thing you can do to help yourself have a better trip, and support the podcast as well, is to book an itinerary consultation.
I do two levels of consults on Zoom. It’s all explained on joinusinfrance.com/boutique, but there’s the Bonjour Service where I just chat with you for an hour and give you all my best suggestions for, you know, help you put it together, because sometimes you need a little outside help.
Itinerary Consultant Feedback
[00:45:58] Annie Sargent: And this week, I have some feedback, some audio feedback, I don’t get that very often, so thank you for sending that in, from Poppy Winingham, she did an itinerary consult with me, and found it very helpful, and here she is telling us:
[00:46:13] Poppy Winingham: Bonjour, Annie. Speaking with you this morning was incredibly helpful. I feel so much more relaxed about our upcoming trip, I cannot say that enough, you really helped narrow my focus on things that were practical and doable, and I am so excited to read the itinerary that you have put together. Thank you so much.
Merci beaucoup. Au revoir.
[00:46:37] Annie Sargent: Poppy booked the VIP Itinerary Service where I sent her an extensive witten custom travel guide.
Annie’s Holiday Plans
[00:46:42] Annie Sargent: All right, let’s talk a little bit about my plans for the next few weeks. My husband and I are going on vacation a little bit late this year, and we chose to meet some friends in New York and take a transatlantic cruise together. Now, I don’t go on very many cruises, I’ve only gone on three or four, but I really enjoy cruising.
It’s, you know, like, it’s so relaxing! There’s nothing that you have to do. There’s plenty that you could do, but nothing that you have to do. And that is just really, really relaxing.
The Norwegian cruise ship will take us to various ports and drop us off in Barcelona.
So, we’ll spend some time in New York before the cruise, then take the ship across the Atlantic, and stop in various places. Halifax. I’ve never been to Halifax.
We’ll go to the Azores, where I’ve never been either. Several stops in Spain, Motil, which is by the Alhambra. I can’t remember what else.
Anyway, we end in Barcelona, and so we’ll also go to my apartment in Villanova i la Geltru, for a few days after the cruise.
So, I won’t do any itinerary consultations during that month because I’ll have internet access, I’ll try and, you know, I’ll talk to my patrons, and things like that, but I’m not going to be doing a lot of work. So if you’re thinking of booking an itinerary, don’t put it off too much. The good news is that I will continue to publish a new episode every Sunday at 6 PM Paris time.
And I have a lot of episodes in the can. I think I’m all recorded till January at this point. But I’m always looking for good guests to come on the podcast. So if you would like to talk to me about a trip you had, reach out to me: annie@joinusinfrance.com.
Mysterious Island by Jules Verne
[00:48:33] Annie Sargent: And recently, I’ve been on a kick listening to classic science-fiction books.
I’ve talked about this, I’ve listened to a lot of Jules Verne, because, you know, we went to the north of France, where he spent a lot of time and that kind of sparked the interest. And I just really love his books. And they are written in a bit of an old style and… you know, you have to put up with… nowadays they wouldn’t write like that anymore, but it’s very well done and the stories are fantastic.
So the last one I listened to is ‘Mysterious Island’. It sounds a lot like, you know, like castaways, like, people on an island, deserted island, or is it? You know? It’s like TV show Lost, except not quite as crazy as Lost. Anyway, lovely book and the end is exciting. I’m not going to spoil it, but it’s really exciting.
The Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle
[00:49:33] Annie Sargent: And the other book that I’ve really, really enjoyed is The Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle. Now, Planet of the Apes, I had just watched the movie. I had never read the book, and I didn’t realize that the author was a French guy. He said he liked a quiet life and crazy stories going on in his head. And that’s exactly what he did. Really, really good. Now, not quite the same as the movie. The movie takes a different turn. The book is really, I think, the main theme of the book is a cry against animal experimentation. But it’s extremely well done, and that one is not difficult to read. It’s really pretty simple, pretty straightforward writing, very easy to enjoy.
If you like to listen to books, Audible or read books, perhaps you still sit and read a book, although I think podcast people listen to books. I would assume. Those books are fantastic and I really cannot recommend Planet of the Apes enough. One of these days we’ll have to do an episode, a biography about him because he had an interesting life.
And he also wrote Bridge over the River Kwai, that I didn’t read either. So I got some reading to do.
My thanks to podcast editors Anne and Cristian Cotovan who produced the transcripts.
Next Week on the Podcast
[00:50:56] Annie Sargent: Next week on the podcast, an episode with Elyse about the postman who built a palace, the story of the Palais Idéal. Ha! Have you ever heard of this guy? Well, he was a postman and he built himself a palace over his lifetime.
Incredible story. And you can visit it too, so…, I really enjoyed recording this with Elyse.
And remember patrons get an ad-free version of this episode, click on the link in the show notes to be like them.
Thank you so much for listening and I hope you join me next time so we can look around France together.
Au revoir.
Copyright
[00:51:34] Annie Sargent: The Join Us in France travel podcast is written, hosted, and produced by Annie Sargent and Copyright 2024 by AddictedToFrance. It is released under a Creative Commons, attribution, non-commercial, no derivatives license.