Table of Contents for this Episode
Categories: Family Travel, Travel with Mobility Issues
539 Celebrating 75 years with Vanessa Christman (April 6)
Introduction and Welcome
[00:00:15] Annie: This is Join Us in France, episode 539, cinq cent trente-neuf.
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
[00:00:32] Annie: Today, I bring you a conversation with Vanessa Christman about her incredible journey through France celebrating her mother’s 75th birthday. From exploring historic abbeys and charming medieval towns, to indulging in some wine, wine tastings, and creating custom perfumes in Grasse, Vanessa shares all the details of their road trip.
This episode is packed with travel tips, heartfelt moments, and practical advice for anyone planning a similar adventure or just wants the inspiration, especially when traveling with elderly family members.
Podcast supporters
[00:01:10] Annie: 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 and my boutique: joinusinfrance.com/boutique.
And remember, Patreon supporters get the podcast ad-free and as soon as it’s ready. Click on the link in the show notes to enjoy this Patreon reward today.
The Magazine segment
[00:01:41] Annie: For the magazine part of the podcast, after my chat with Vanessa, I’ll discuss some restaurant experiences I had while in Paris, including one that was entirely new to me. It was very strange. I also want to tell you about my new VoiceMap tour, because it’s very cool. And a bit of a rant about the state of tours in Paris.
Celebrating 75 Years with a French Road Trip
[00:02:13] Annie: Bonjour, Vanessa Christman and welcome to Join us in France!
[00:02:17] Vanessa: Bonjour Annie. I am really excited to be here.
[00:02:20] Annie: Thank you so much. So you had a trip in France, with your family, and your trip took place June 5th through June 18th, 2024. Right?
[00:02:32] Vanessa: That is correct. Yes.
Okay, and when I asked you for a good title, you said ‘Celebrating 75 years with a French road trip’. So that sounds lovely. Who was turning 75? You were not, clearly!
My mother. My mother was turning 75. She actually turned 75 in January of this past year, and she had never been out of the country before.
[00:02:58] Annie: Oh.
[00:02:58] Vanessa: She’s been a Francophile for most of her life and had read about it when she was a child, and still read pretty much any historical book you can find about France. She will read and so, her kind of pitch to me was if you help do the planning and drive me around, I will help make a trip to France happen because I’ve always wanted to go.
[00:03:22] Annie: Oh, that’s wonderful.
[00:03:23] Vanessa: I seized that opportunity.
[00:03:26] Annie: That’s really truly wonderful.
Travel Companions and Planning
[00:03:28] Annie: So, it was just you and your mother and a friend as well.
[00:03:32] Vanessa: Yes, I had a friend ask if she could join the trip, about kind of midway into the planning process. She’s a long time family friend who’s my best friend and my mom’s other daughter. So it was so wonderful to have her along.
[00:03:46] Annie: Fantastic. That’s great. I have one daughter and one of her friends is also, feels like a, you know, not quite a daughter, but I have a lot of affection for her, for sure.
Absolutely. And it worked out well because we learned that we travel extremely well together. And so, future trips, she’s invited by default.
Fantastic. So what, where did you go? I want to get into that first and also how did you plan this trip? What did you do to plan this trip?
[00:04:14] Vanessa: Well, where we went, it’s really hard to kind of describe it quickly. It’s, we kind of planned it around the areas where my mom most wanted to see, and kind of pit stops in between those areas. Just because we weren’t, we didn’t want to be stuck in a car. You know, we’re Californian, so we’re going to drive everywhere. I tried to pitch public transportation, but my mom was a bit nervous. She was most interested in seeing Provence, the Mediterranean, and Loire Valley. Those were her three must-see destinations.
Journey Begins: From CDG to Burgundy
[00:04:44] Vanessa: And so, we flew into Charles de Gaulle, rented a car, did a pit stop in Burgundy, which is an area I wanted to see, and it worked out well. Spent some days in the Mediterranean, and in Provence, and then drove all the way to the Loire Valley and spent some time there.
We just, we ping ponged around pretty much, a lot, a huge chunk of France, actually, around 2000 miles in total.
[00:05:07] Annie: Wow. Yeah, that’s quite a bit. So, you rented your car right from CDG.
[00:05:14] Vanessa: Yes.
[00:05:15] Annie: Right, from landing from California.
Jet lag, app for astronauts
[00:05:18] Vanessa: Well, we did spend an overnight next to the hotel just to decompress, and then the next morning we rented our car.
[00:05:24] Annie: Okay, so you spent one night near the airport before you set off.
[00:05:28] Vanessa: Yes.
[00:05:29] Annie: Because that’s a, I mean, from California, that’s a lot.
App to Help with Jet Lag
[00:05:32] Annie: Jet lag really hits you, right?
[00:05:34] Vanessa: It does. I have a really nice little app that I found that, I don’t want to go in too much of a tangent of it, but it is used, it was developed for astronauts, actually. So, you kind of put in your flight times and it tells you a few days before when to go to sleep, and when to wake up to try to like permute you to the new time zone.
[00:05:53] Annie: Oh.
[00:05:53] Vanessa: I’ve done it in a few trips to France and it works pretty well. I was strict on my travel companions. And jet lag wasn’t too much of an issue, but still wanted to have that rest day.
[00:06:03] Annie: That’s cool. So first question is, what’s the name of the app? And second question is, how many trips to France have you had?
[00:06:10] Vanessa: The name of the app is Time Shifter. Highly recommended. And you don’t even have to be too strict to adhere to their time recommendations, but it’s been helpful. I’ve been to France twice before. One was like a short trip up from above Barcelona and the cost area, the Costa Brava. We wanted, we went into see Carcassonne, and a town whose name I can’t remember, I wanted to see the Cathar Castles in that area. I’m kind of a history and archeology nerd.
[00:06:39] Annie: Okay.
[00:06:39] Vanessa: I love anything to do with that. So, we went and traveled up there, and then I had been to the Loire Valley a few years after that, it was in November, it was during our Thanksgiving break, and it was with my kids and we had a wonderful time.
But, yeah, Loire Valley, it reminded me of where I lived, in November, which was very pastoral, but also misty. And you, you really miss something, not seeing all the gardens in bloom, so…
[00:07:04] Annie: That’s true.
[00:07:05] Vanessa: Was still a great trip. We went to the city of Nantes, which I love Nantes. It’s a fantastic city, and the kids loved it too.
[00:07:13] Annie: How many kids do you have?
[00:07:14] Vanessa: I have two kids. I have one who is now 17, which is really hard for me to believe, and I have a 11-year-old. He was, I think six at the time.
[00:07:26] Annie: Okay.
[00:07:27] Vanessa: And he was a hit. He was a hit. We had him go in front of us and say the bonjour to everybody. We called him our Bonjour ambassador. And he just, the French loved him. He helped us get a fantastic reception. I remember being in France and a waitress, like, gave him her phone number. He went down to meet the chef. I mean, he had the red carpet rolled out for him. So, he loves France too.
[00:07:51] Annie: Fantastic. All right, so you had one night’s sleep near the airport, near CDG.
[00:07:57] Vanessa: Correct.
[00:07:57] Annie: What was the name of the hotel? People are going to ask these sorts of questions.
[00:08:02] Vanessa: The Ibis styles.
[00:08:03] Annie: Alright.
[00:08:04] Vanessa: Across the way it’s, I think has some sort of a vague Star Wars theme. We’ve stayed there before, it’s perfectly fine.
[00:08:11] Annie: Yeah, so you just walked to that.
[00:08:13] Vanessa: We took the shuttle.
[00:08:15] Annie: You took a shuttle, okay.
[00:08:16] Vanessa: A very fast shuttle, but it was good to get a little adrenaline rush right after the flight.
[00:08:23] Annie: So you took the shuttle, you had a night’s sleep, then the next morning you picked up your car and left. Excellent. Okay. And you made your way to Burgundy. So I don’t know, shall we take this in the order you did it or by your favorites?
[00:08:38] Vanessa: Do it in the order, I think that type of road trip order might be helpful.
[00:08:44] Annie: So, let’s do it that way. Tell me about the first place you visited.
Exploring Burgundy: Tournus and Beyond
[00:08:49] Vanessa: So we first visited the town of Tournus which was kind of our pit stop. It’s in southern Burgundy, I would say about 30 minutes north of Macôn. The reason we stopped there wasn’t necessarily, it was really just logistical, I had to think about how many hours I thought my mom could really sit in the car after a long trip and if she’s too overtired. But then again, the next day we were headed down to the Mediterranean and so I didn’t want a huge chunk of time the next day.
So, you know I really wanted to stay in Dijon.
But it still would’ve been too long of a drive down to the Mediterranean. So, it’s like, let’s pick some place in between that seems still interesting, at least has some sort of tourism infrastructure.
[00:09:33] Annie: Right, so Tournus is T-O-U-R-N-U-S.
[00:09:38] Vanessa: Yes.
[00:09:39] Annie: Not a town I visited, so you have to tell me what it’s like.
[00:09:42] Vanessa: Okay, I loved it. I felt pretty proud of myself for finding this place. It’s known amongst just regional tourists, apparently, for a really beautiful abbey that I believe, and I can check my notes, first built in the 10th century, it was built around some pilgrims from the, or some monks from the north of France who came down brought the relics of Saint-Philibert, and I don’t know my saints very well, so I don’t…
[00:10:12] Annie: Me neither.
[00:10:13] Vanessa: That Saint was particularly known for, but they were fleeing viking invasions.
And so they came down to Tournus, I believe. The King of France at the time, gave them some land, next to the Saône river. And they built an Abbey to house these relics and it became kind of one of the pilgrimage destinations. I think the town itself to renew was a Roman town right along the river.
It was shipping outpost. It had a lot of prehistory in the area. And so the monks built this beautiful stone abbey, and the town kind of really developed alongside it.
I have never been to Burgundy before, but in my head, this is kind of what a Burgundian town looks like.
On Saturday, the day we woke up, there was a market day that kind of wound through the streets. The Abbey was almost that kind of a, it was like a bit of a hill, and the abbey is of course at the top of the hill. And it just, it does have some tourism infrastructure. I know some of the river tours stopped there. It’s a port. But it still seemed pretty residential as well. So it was a very, very good mix of a few tourists, but also just life. Life was happening.
[00:11:24] Annie: Yeah.
[00:11:24] Vanessa: We kind of walk through the streets, there was, I can’t remember what it’s called, but it’s one of those medieval hospitals, that I know they have in Beaune.
And yeah, you know, it’s really hard for me to describe it. It was a little bit of a blur. We rented an Airbnb, which was lovely though, that was my first experience in, and two steep stairs for my mom. But we made it work.
We really just kind of used that as a recovery day. We walked around the town, we went to the main square and ate at a cafe.
The locals were very, very friendly, very, you know, reserved, but also very polite and very helpful. And the next morning before we left, we got up and we went to the abbey, which was, I’ve been to my fair share of abbeys and churches, and this was just really unique. I mean, you could tell the construction was old. It was, you know, in multiple phases it was preserved. A lot of the stained glass was, I won’t say primitive looking, but you know, it didn’t have the ornate scenes, but it was still just really beautiful. It’s also known for having a very atmospheric crypt underneath.
And that was kind of a, one of the… my mother didn’t go just because of the stairs, but my friend Jamie and I went. And we were really excited and taking videos and then just the lights went out and so she screamed a little. It became a little bit out of like a Halloween movie a bit, but they came back on and we felt a little bit better.
But it was another way to get the adrenaline pumping for a long road trip is getting yourself locked in a dark crypt underneath the atmospheric abbey.
It was just, you know, I really recommended. Before we actually went into Tournus, there was a, I don’t know if you want to call it a wine store, but maybe it’s a co-op where a lot of the producers from Southern Burgundy have their cellar wines.
And so we did a tasting there, too. And I really like those, I mean, come on, it’s Burgundian wine, so I’m going to find something to like, even though I’m from California. It was fantastic. It was a highlight. And it was a really interesting town. Not totally overrun, but just beautiful.
[00:13:31] Annie: Pretty nice. And the wine, the prices of the wine? Do you remember, was it reasonable compared to California?
[00:13:37] Vanessa: Yeah. You know, my friend Jamie, she and her husband belonged to a number of wine clubs in Napa Valley and Sonoma Valley, and they spoil me. But it was extremely reasonable in terms of, you know, $15, $20, fantastic bottles of wine. You know, reds, sparklings, the whites I really liked, very kind of minerally, but I like that.
So, yeah, I enjoyed it, very reasonable, friendly folks. We had an issue with the rental car, and we had somebody in… just an old man in the streets of Burgundy flag us and we thought he was going to yell at us for parking in the wrong spot, but he was just trying to point out that we needed to be careful with our radiator.
And he was very, just almost kind of like a old grandfather looking out for us. It was a very, very lovely feeling.
[00:14:24] Annie: Yeah. So was there something wrong with your radiator?
[00:14:27] Vanessa: It just, I think it was the condensation from the air conditioning, so…
[00:14:30] Annie: Ah!
[00:14:31] Vanessa: Just be careful, and we were trying to do Google Translate and he was trying to speak in broken English. And it was a cultural experience, but we felt cared for. You know, we thought it was a really lovely cultural exchange.
[00:14:44] Annie: Yes, yes. But in the end the car was fine. That’s good.
[00:14:47] Vanessa: Yeah. And we put it to its paces afterwards, so it was, it was fun.
[00:14:51] Annie: Yes. All right. So, the next morning, after visiting the Abbey, you set off to go south, I suppose.
Heading South: Provence and the Mediterranean
[00:14:59] Vanessa: We did. We got up, we went through the farmer’s market, we went to the Abbey, and then we headed south. This was a little bit of a divergence from my initial plans, because I wanted to stay in Provence, but Jamie and my mother, they had never seen the Mediterranean before, you know?
And they had that kind of sentimental, you know, we want to stay by the sea. Since Provence was also a lot of our destination still, the compromise was trying to find a place that was, you know, close to Marseille, while not being in Marseille, because I was a little worried about overwhelming my mom with a bigger city. And so we stayed in a town called, well, it’s Martigues is the town, but the little community is called the Carro. And it’s on something called the Côte Bleue.
[00:15:48] Annie: Yeah. La Côte Bleue. Yeah.
[00:15:50] Vanessa: The Blue Coast, right next to, what would you say? It’s on the, the western side of Marseille.
[00:15:57] Annie: And I really just found an Airbnb there that I liked, that I felt met our needs for four or five days, and the host was lovely. And it was right next to a beautiful little cove, a beach for where the towns folk were there swimming and having a blast. It was a great home base.
Right, so June, the water was probably still a little bit cool.
[00:16:20] Vanessa: Jamie and I, we were going to swim regardless, but that first day it was a rude awakening. I knew it was going to happen, but it was still cold.
[00:16:27] Annie: Yes. Was it a rocky beach or sandy beach?
[00:16:30] Vanessa: It was actually a sandy beach.
[00:16:32] Annie: Ah!
[00:16:32] Vanessa: A little pebbly, it was just, you know, the series of coves. I wouldn’t call it a calanques by any stretch of the imagination, but it was like a micro calanques or something. It was very small, sandy, kind of covey, gentle sloped. It was nice.
[00:16:48] Annie: My daughter is actually down in this area today. Just earlier today, she sent me a photo of a little beach where she is, and it’s little pebbles. So in that area you have both, pebbles and sandy, it just depends on exactly where you are. Huh? So you just need to look it up if that matters to you.
[00:17:08] Vanessa: Yes. Yeah, I did. For my day job, I’m a librarian and I’m a researcher and I do extensive research on these types of things. So I wasn’t just, you know, this looks nice, it was like doing the Google Street view and making little custom maps and doing a lot of different things to.
You can plan a lot and you just don’t know until you get there. But I was, you know, since I had some folks, I wanted to make sure they had a good time, especially my mom, I put a lot of effort into to trying to find the right locations.
[00:17:36] Annie: Yeah, and you know, you can find out a lot about, looking at Google Street view.
[00:17:42] Vanessa: Oh, absolutely.
[00:17:43] Annie: It’s totally worth doing, even if, and I’m sure a lot of people are nodding their heads, they are also hyper planners or they wouldn’t be listening to this podcast.
[00:17:53] Vanessa: Absolutely. Well, I do the street view, I learned a trick where, you know, I had somebody say I read on a forum that, you think about the destinations you most want to visit, you know, essentially do like a custom map around those areas to make sure, to help you kind of map your trip.
I read reviews of destinations nearby, and I make sure to sort by French because I want to see, even then I translate the reviews, but I want to see the perspective of the French tourists, the local tourists, because I feel like they just have a better sense of, you know, what is good service or what to expect versus other folks who might not be as realistic.
[00:18:32] Annie: Right. And people, French people are demanding in a French way. They don’t have the same expectations as Americans. That’s an important thing to do if you can. All right, but you also went into Vaison-la-Romaine, Carpentras, Gigondas.
[00:18:49] Vanessa: Yes. We gave my mom a rest day, just because I knew I wanted to set her up in a place where I knew she would feel comfortable just watching TV and sleeping in.
Provincial Markets and Wine Tasting
[00:18:59] Vanessa: And so, Jamie and I, I’ve always wanted to go. I’ve never been to Provence. I’ve never been to the southern part of France.
And so, kind of the romance of it in my head and I wanted to see some of the attractions that most interested me. And so I’ve always wanted to go to a provincial, market, flea market or antique market. I’m more of a low end shopper than I am a high end shopper. So, I wanted to, I looked up Sunday markets.
I know there’s the very famous Sunday market in the multi hyphenated town that I’m not… L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue. Yes. Thank you. Thank you for saying it so I didn’t have to. And so, it’s like I thought, you know, and I had read the review saying it’s lovely, but it’s also on for the Sunday market days, it could be really overrun with turists.
[00:19:44] Annie: It is. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
[00:19:45] Vanessa: And, you know, I’m one of those obnoxious tourists where I’m like, oh, other tourists, I don’t want to be around other tourists. But then again, I am still a tourist and I think it’s important to be where there is some tourism infrastructure.
[00:19:57] Annie: Yeah.
[00:19:58] Vanessa: I read about Carpentras and I read that they have a nice little bit more low key Sunday market, which it definitely was.
It wasn’t, you know, I thought it was going to be bigger. It pretty much was the size of, I’d say like two thirds of the town parking lot. And the vendors were all local kind of antique vendors. There were some really interesting vendors, but it wasn’t super overwhelming. And we found a parking spot really quickly, which was surprising.
[00:20:28] Annie: Yeah.
[00:20:28] Vanessa: We just kind of had a stroll around the markets. Got a few little vintage postcards. We just wanted to have a stroll and look at the wares, and so we did.
[00:20:38] Annie: Mm-hmm.
Didn’t have to take our entire day like I thought maybe the other market would. Because Jamie is very interested in wine, my friend, and her husband in particular loves like the big, bold red wines from California, which, you know, in that region of France it’s not necessarily known for. Right.
[00:20:56] Vanessa: We, I looked up a place called which isn’t too far from there, it’s kind of up the mountain, and we made it up, we walked into the local wine tasting room, wine store. I think what I had read is that Gigondas is very similar to Châteauneuf-du-Pape, in terms of like the, not, maybe, not necessarily the quality, but like the style of wine.
[00:21:20] Annie: Mm-hmm.
[00:21:20] Vanessa: And, you know, Châteauneuf-du-Pape seemed, seemed a little expensive for my tastes.
[00:21:25] Annie: Yeah.
[00:21:26] Vanessa: And Gigondas seemed like a very good alternative. And we drove up to the town. We had, you know, went to a cafe and had lunch, just Jamie and I. We went wine tasting, they were fantastic.They were just bold and smooth and the person giving us pours, explained about the terroir.
And, he bonded with Jamie, because Jamie has a French last name because she married into a French Canadian family. And so I think, the person’s husband that was his wife’s last name, and so we’re like, oh, well, we’re cousins, I guess. Yeah, and so we ordered some wines to be shipped to us.
[00:22:02] Annie: Oh!
Shipping Wine from the US to France
[00:22:03] Vanessa: They don’t ship them until the weather gets cooler.
So, around Thanksgiving time, we’re going to be breaking open some new Gigondas bottles of wine.
[00:22:12] Annie: Was that expensive to get it shipped?
[00:22:14] Vanessa: It was pretty expensive, you know, Jamie’s more of the wine aficionado, so we, it wasn’t expensive when you split the cost of it. The bottles themselves were anywhere from $10 to $25 to maybe $30 at most, but when you’re shipping them, you’re adding in the shipping cost, it was around like $45 a bottle, which, you know is still pricey, but we’re splitting it and it’s for a special occasion.
[00:22:39] Annie: Right. So there are people who bring an extra suitcase. There are actually wine suit… Okay? There are wine suitcases you can buy that are made for that. I saw one. I was surprised. I was like… our friends came to visit and they brought an extra suitcase that was made for wine. I was like, oh, I’ve never seen anything like this.
Interesting.
[00:22:59] Vanessa: Jamie brought one. Jamie brought one specifically for wine as well, because she loves wine. And I ended up taking some of the room for… I’m more of a honey and an oil fan, so I took some of the room up for honey and olive oil, but it came in handy.
[00:23:14] Annie: Yeah. Yeah. Fantastic. So you had, I mean, just to touch up on what you said, the Châteauneuf-du-Pape, I haven’t had extensive tastings, but the one place we went, the last place we went, I didn’t think it was all that, it wasn’t worth, I didn’t think it was worth the price. I mean, whenever we go wine tasting anywhere we stop somewhere, we just always buy six bottles.
[00:23:39] Vanessa: Okay.
[00:23:39] Annie: We did this just recently in Sancerre, we found a shop that was open, we bought six bottles, put it in the car, drove off. I never go anywhere and buy fewer than six bottles in Châteauneuf-du-Pape I just bought the one, because I was like… I mean, I don’t like it that much, you know? So, yeah.
[00:23:57] Vanessa: You know, I, and I was afraid that was going to happen in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, I mean, my mom was very interested in it. It’s very fun to say from an English speaker perspective. So that’s, I think part of like, oh, Châteauneuf-du-Pape, …
[00:24:08] Annie: Yeah.
[00:24:08] Vanessa: Everybody loves to say it. You know, what I had done before is I had gone to some wine stores here in California, thought about the regions we were going to visit, tried to get, buy some bottles in advance to see what we liked and we didn’t like. And the one bottle I could not bring myself to buy was a Châteauneuf-du-Pape, just because with import fees, even in California, it was punishingly expensive. And it’s like, I don’t, if I love it, I don’t want to be stuck of buying it all the time.
[00:24:35] Annie: That is a good point.
[00:24:37] Vanessa: Yes. So I, and I think Gigondas, I did some additional research and so, if you like it in theory, but you don’t like the price, I would love to recommend Gigondas. And it’s just a really picturesque spot. It’s a small town, it’s perched up on the hill. You could see all the valley below, some great places to eat there. I think it’s a good, happy medium where you get some of that quality, some, a little bit bolder of a red than you would find in Burgundy or Bordeaux. And the price is right.
[00:25:09] Annie: Excellent. (Mid-roll ad spot)
Then you went toGrass and Saint Maxim.
[00:25:15] Vanessa: Yes. Well, at the end of that day, we went toVaison-la-Romaine.
[00:25:20] Annie: Oh yeah, Vaison-la-Romaine, yes.
Archaeological Adventures and Unsettled Weather
[00:25:21] Vanessa: Like I said, I’m an archeology fan and so I wanted to see the ruins there. The most interesting part of that is, the weather was really unsettled, that’s the one thing of French folks talked to us about the entire time.
It’s like, oh, you came on a terrible time, the weather is so unsettled. You know, it was nice coming from the heat of California to have some rain in and some overcast days, so it didn’t bother us. But we understood what they meant that day, because we got caught in a very ferocious hailstorm right in the middle of the archeological park. It was shocking to see just storm clouds roll over, like mount vent to and just all of a sudden unleash a hailstorm on us. And so we were running around with our shoes off, trying to find shelter. Some of the workers there thought we were absolutely hilarious for trying to, you know, put bags over our head and run around. And they were very entertained by our antics, which I appreciated. At one time we were like stooped under a tree, trying to take a video, and then some car rolls by and completely like splashes me and…
[00:26:24] Annie: Ooh.
[00:26:25] Vanessa: Jamie’s laughing hysterically in the background. It was an experience, it was an adventure.
[00:26:29] Annie: Alright.
[00:26:30] Vanessa:
The Experience of Maing Perfume in Grasse
[00:26:30] Vanessa: And so the next day we, well, I don’t know the next day, but we went up and we went to to Grasse. It was a just a wonderful experience making perfume.
[00:26:38] Annie: Mm-hmm.
I think that’s what you listed as your top activity.
[00:26:43] Vanessa: Absolutely.
[00:26:44] Annie: Yeah.
[00:26:44] Vanessa: It was one where we were all in agreement that we liked the best.
[00:26:47] Annie: Both myself, my mom, and Jamie love perfumes and cosmetics. I saw this workshop, there’s a number of them in that town, this one just worked out timing wise. It was a drive from where we were on the other side of Marseille, but it was worth it. Yeah, because you were doing this as day trips.
[00:27:06] Vanessa: Yeah. That, in retrospect, I probably would’ve stationed myself a little bit closer to that.
Road Trip Games and Roundabouts
[00:27:11] Annie: Easier to do it from Nice.
[00:27:13] Vanessa: Absolutely. As the crow flies, it doesn’t look so bad distance wise.
[00:27:17] Annie: Uhhuh, but those roads…
[00:27:18] Vanessa: Hills and roads and it was…
[00:27:21] Annie: And those freeways are so busy. Oh, so busy.
California busy.
[00:27:26] Vanessa: California busy. We were prepared for the freeways. We weren’t necessarily prepared for the tiny winding roads up the hill, speed bumps in the middle of nowhere. We actually started a game of like trying to guess how many, we were betting on how many roundabouts we would hit. It’s like, well, on this stretch we’re going to hit 25. Yeah, we had a little road games we invented, so…
[00:27:46] Annie: Did you get to like them in the end?
[00:27:48] Vanessa: Yes, I mean, I love roundabouts.
I think they are a revelation for traffic.
[00:27:52] Annie: Alright, that’s good.
If You Have a Handicaped Placard You Can Use it in France
[00:27:54] Annie: So the speed bumps in the middle of nowhere, on the other hand, that’s pretty jarring, literally and figuratively.
[00:28:00] Vanessa: So, we went to Grasse, we was at Molinard Fragrances. It was a bit of a challenge for my mom just because it was up on the side of a hill. Even their handicap parking, which we used her handicap placard, which worked really well throughout France.
[00:28:15] Annie: Mm-hmm.
[00:28:16] Vanessa: It was still a bit of a difficult walk up to the hill. My mom still said it was worth it, more than worth it. And yeah, we sat, they explained kind of the fragrance pyramid and base notes and top notes, and had us go through a perfumers organ.
It was really interesting because they would have you smell the caps of the fragrances that you like the most, and then you would kind of pull those out, dip a little piece of paper into the fragrance. And so essentially they had a “nez”, or I don’t know if she was in training, she was amazing.
And so she basically took all the scents that we had labeled and dipped, rearranged them, kind of fanned them in front of our face. To say like, do you like the way that smells? Do you like the way that smells would kind of reconfigure it based on what we liked and then just would kind of smell it herself and say like, okay, well if you want to make this into a perfume, you need to add this, this, this, and this.
We did that. It was a little kind of like a little chemistry experiment, where we had the droppers in there. She actually, my mom loved this, because she smelled what my mom had kind of picked out and was like, this is absolutely perfect. You don’t need to add anything to this. Which she was the only person in the entire class where that happened to, so…
[00:29:28] Annie: That’s good.Your mom has a nose.
[00:29:32] Vanessa: Exactly right. We made all of our perfumes and I’m sure if any of you have, you know, if you’ve attended one of those, they kind of label your creation and then you could always order it from that perfume house, and as long, they said, as long as you’re alive, you can order it from us.
[00:29:47] Annie: Wow. That’s great.
[00:29:50] Vanessa: Which was great. And we all had something that smelled a little bit different. My mom’s was very fresh. Mine ended up smelling like peach Coca-Cola in some strange way, but it still works. And Jamie’s was very kind of bold and instinctual. We spent some time on the road trying to invent names for our perfumes because we spent a lot of time in the car. So that just, we all loved it, we all created something. My mom got that extra boost from participating in that.
Exploring the French Countryside
[00:30:18] Vanessa: And then we went to the coast to have lunch, St. Maxim, which it was also another sandy beach.
[00:30:25] Annie: Mm-hmm.
[00:30:27] Vanessa: And highly recommended. It’s beautiful.
[00:30:29] Annie: Yeah.
[00:30:30] Vanessa: We drove home and it was a day that exhausted us, but it was worth it.
[00:30:34] Annie: Wonderful. All right. We got to move on because we don’t have a lot of time left.
Ardèche. Okay. This is one place that we don’t talk about very much on the podcast.
[00:30:42] Vanessa: You did an overnight at Charmes-sur-Rhône.
Michelin Star Dining Experience
[00:30:45] Vanessa: That was one of the ones where we were trying to have a stop in between the Mediterranean and Loir, but we didn’t want to just go back to Burgundy. I picked the hotel based on the fact that it had a Michelin starred restaurant and got very good reviews. We wanted to try it. We hadn’t really tried a Michelin star restaurant before. I thought, you know, when in France, why not?
[00:31:05] Annie: Yeah.
[00:31:06] Vanessa: And I picked one that looked a little bit more down to earth, but still an amazing mind blowing experience. But, while we were traveling up there, we just discovered what an absolutely stunning area this is, right?
[00:31:19] Annie: Yeah.
[00:31:20] Vanessa: Kind of along the Rhône River Valley, seeing the big river, you know, I’m not a cruise person, but I did see some of those riverboat cruises, and I thought, okay, there might be something to that.
[00:31:31] Annie: Yes, there is something to that. Yes, yes.
[00:31:34] Vanessa: And so it was just kind of a stay along the river in, in the Charmes-sur-Rhône. And the hotel that we stayed at, which I probably can’t pronounce very well, Le Carré d’Alethius, so it’s based off there was a Roman senator, apparently his tomb is in the city hall. You can go see it. And it’s based on that roman senator, is the name of the hotel slash Michelin starred restaurant. It’s a very small hotel, humble, it’s lovely, well thought out. But the restaurant was so good. It was an amazing experience.
[00:32:10] Annie: So that’s called Le Carré
[00:32:11] Vanessa: d’Aléthius,
Thank you.
[00:32:13] Annie: And I will have all of that in the show notes for people who want to…
[00:32:17] Vanessa: Get the cheese board. The cheese board’s incredible. I’ve never seen anything in it. I don’t want to sound too, yeah, I’m hokey like, oh, I’ve never seen a cheeses board in my life, but it is just next level.
[00:32:28] Annie: Very good. Fantastic. And that was just for one overnight.
[00:32:33] Vanessa: One overnight.
The Loire
[00:32:34] Annie: And then you moved on to the Loire.
[00:32:37] Vanessa: We did. We drove through an area near Saint-Étienne. And I, even before I knew, I said, this looks like Pennsylvania, it’s like we’re going through the Allegheny’s and Coal country and I guess it is coal country.
[00:32:50] Annie: Sure enough, sure enough, it is.
[00:32:51] Vanessa: We had a short stop in a town called Roanne.
[00:32:55] Annie: Yep.
[00:32:56] Vanessa:
Wine Tasting and French Tacos
[00:32:56] Vanessa: We stopped there just for a pit stop.
I wanted to try French tacos. And I regretted it. I’m sorry. Apologies to the French gourmands…
[00:33:05] Annie: It is awful.
[00:33:07] Vanessa: It’s, wow, there’s so many layers of goo.
[00:33:10] Annie: Yes.
[00:33:10] Vanessa: I don’t even know how you guys deal with it.
[00:33:12] Annie: Yes, yes, yes.
I had my first French taco this week, by the way, and never again. My first, yes. I have seen my husband eat them and I always thought, I’m not having that.
This time I thought, I was very hungry and I thought, okay, this is probably a million calories and I’m hungry. So I had it. And yes, I ate it, but never again. It doesn’t even taste that great.
And it’s layers of goo, like you said.
[00:33:38] Vanessa: Layers of goo. Never have I seen this much goo crammed into one vessel.
[00:33:44] Annie: Yes.
[00:33:45] Vanessa: Beware. Nothing like tacos, nothing like a gyro or anything. Okay.
[00:33:49] Annie: No.
[00:33:49] Vanessa: That’s a separate podcast of me complaining about French tacos. So yeah, we did that. We also stopped, it’s supposed to be an up and coming wine region, and we stopped at a, a wine cave and we got a couple of bottles.
And, I know you’re okay with us talking about terrible things on this podcast, but I don’t know if necessarily if the wine was terrible, but there was something wrong with it. We ended up not even bringing it back because it’s like, I think it was corked.
[00:34:13] Annie: Ah.
[00:34:14] Vanessa: And because it just, the cork crumbled, it tasted like vinegar.
[00:34:18] Annie: Oh.
[00:34:18] Vanessa: Maybe this needs a few days to breathe.
[00:34:20] Annie: No, no, no, no.
[00:34:22] Vanessa: It was bad. So, I’m hoping that was just a fluke because the area of these beautiful rolling hills and, and it was nice.
[00:34:29] Annie: So this is wine you bought in Roanne.
[00:34:31] Vanessa: Yeah. Yeah. I don’t think it … camp,
[00:34:34] Annie: Was it a wine shop?
[00:34:35] Vanessa: It’s a wine shop, and he was very, you know, we talked to him, it’s like most typical of this region, and he knew exactly what he wanted.
I don’t know if he was like, let’s get these busted bottles of wine and pawn them off on these tourists…
[00:34:48] Annie: Could be.
[00:34:48] Vanessa: He didn’t seem like it, but…
[00:34:50] Annie: You never know.
[00:34:51] Vanessa: It was, I don’t know. It was supposed to be like Beaujolais based, so it’s like I know Beaujolais enough to know what it should taste like, and it should not taste like red wine vinegar.
[00:34:59] Annie: So if the Roanne Tourism Board wants to sponsor me to come back and try more, I’m definitely up for it.
But otherwise, no.
[00:35:05] Vanessa: Otherwise, yeah, but it’s a beautiful area.
[00:35:08] Annie: Yeah.
[00:35:09] Vanessa: So we went kind of on the other side, and kind of worked our way back up to the Loire Valley and that area, I mean, it’s very pastoral and very hilly. It reminds me of the Sierra Nevada foothills here in California. It’s just stunning. It’s so beautiful. France in general is beautiful, but that area was kind of took me by surprise.
Charming B&B Stay
[00:35:27] Vanessa: And so we went to a B&B outside of Chamonix and that was one of our highlights.
It was such a fantastic place.
[00:35:36] Annie: So B&B. So what was the name of the B&B? Let’s see. Did you write it down?
And I’m going to butcher it. Domaine de la Rabouillere B&B.
[00:35:46] Vanessa: Yes, and I think I looked up Rabouillere which doesn’t have a lot of English translation.
No, it doesn’t mean anything.
It’s a rabbit sworn. It’s apparently where female rabbits go to give birth.
[00:35:57] Annie: That’s a new one on me.
[00:35:58] Vanessa: The researcher come through. It’s like, I will find the definition of this word.
[00:36:02] Annie: Well, good for you. I would, I mean, I look at this, Rabouillere, okay, whatever, but it’s just a name to me. It’s all good. Good, good.
[00:36:10] Vanessa: Okay. And there were some giant rabbits around there, so…
[00:36:13] Annie: Ah, well.
[00:36:14] Vanessa: So, we did that. And we used that as a home base for the next five days. We had some must sees that my mother absolutely had to see. One of her obsessions from reading all those books about France was Eleanor of Aquitaine.
[00:36:27] Annie: Yes, of course.
[00:36:27] Vanessa: I had listened to podcasts and done my research enough to know that we definitely had to go to the Fontevrault Abbey.
[00:36:37] Annie: Yes.
[00:36:37] Vanessa: It was a little disappointing for her, just because it just, you know, it was a prison right? And they stripped everything… and, but it still was a lovely experience.
We ate at the restaurant there, we ended up going, thinking it was just, we booked a restaurant, apparently was a tasting experience.
[00:36:54] Annie: Uhhuh.
[00:36:56] Vanessa: And it was a little bit, it was beautiful, and it was wonderful, and it was just a little esoteric. It was like we’re basing this meal off the monk who would steal down from the hills to steal things from the garden, and he had very expensive taste.
This hermit, who would, you know, come down and steal our stuff. And so we were inspired by his expensive tastes in his thievery. And so we created this tasting menu to honor him.
And than they had like a map of all the places he would steal from. And it was it, you know, and he clearly, the meal really proved that he did have some really exceptional tastes.
The thieving hermit of the Abbey. But it was great. It was beautiful. It was, I think I’m addicted to high-end dining experiences now thanks to this. But the Abbey was a beautiful, Chenonceau she had to see because she had read all about that as well.
[00:37:51] Annie: Sure.
[00:37:52] Vanessa: We did the boat tour of kind of going up and under, then kind of walked around and I had a much more down to earth dining experience at that cafeteria. Which that was great.
[00:38:04] Annie: Yeah, I want to highlight the fact that you really, really liked thisB&B, near Cheverny. Which makes it very good, I mean, it’s a good place to, a lot of people ask me where to base yourself out of when you’re visiting the Loire Valley. It’s a hard question to answer because it really depends, I mean, it’s a river, it’s long.
[00:38:24] Vanessa: Yes.
[00:38:24] Annie: So, it’s great that you recommend this place. You say the breakfast was good, very kind owners, charming dog, comfortable beds. Define comfortable bed.
[00:38:36] Vanessa: I think it, it struck the right balance between a very firm mattress and very comfortable bedding. We had been to some places before where the mattresses were exceptionally firm.
[00:38:48] Annie: Yeah.
[00:38:49] Vanessa: Is good for your back, but it’s not exactly something that you could snuggle into after a long day.
[00:38:54] Annie: Yes. Yes.
[00:38:55] Vanessa: So it was, yeah, the linens were high quality, everything was…
[00:38:59] Annie: Not too hard.
[00:39:00] Vanessa: Not too hard not to soft, the kind of the Goldilocks zone.
[00:39:03] Annie: Excellent.
[00:39:03] Vanessa: And it was like a separate, almost like gîte, or a small cottage on the property. And usually when you rent the small gîtes on the B&B properties, you don’t get breakfast, or you have to pay extra a bit.
But this was included and, you know, we didn’t even have to leave. He would bring it in and set it up for us. And we’d just call him to come take it. His English, he was very insecure about his English. Although, like most French people, when they’re insecure about their English, it’s pretty much flawless. But he, they grew honey on the property, not grew honey, they produced honey on the property. He included it in the breakfast. It was mind blowingly good, and he was just so charming and sweet. He kind of gave off like dad energy because he was always like… he wanted to check in. We took a day trip to Paris from there and he, my mom stayed and so he checked in with my mom, like, are the girls back yet? Have they made it? Is everything okay? It was very attentive, caring service in a beautiful family run property. I would go just to stay there and go nowhere.
[00:40:05] Annie: Mm. So day trip to Paris, you drove into Paris?
[00:40:09] Vanessa: We actually, no, we drove into Orleans to the train station there and tooka train there.
I didn’t want to deal with driving anywhere near Paris.
[00:40:16] Annie: Okay. Okay.
[00:40:17] Vanessa: And so yeah, it was great because my friend had never been to Paris before and she just wanted to tick that off her box. Although, you know, she went to the Louvre and was completely overwhelmed by the crowds. I wanted no part of that, you know, just had to check it off her list and so…
[00:40:32] Annie: Yeah. And then the last place you stayed was in Chantilly.
[00:40:38] Vanessa: Yes. It’s a beautiful town, the chateau itself. We were a little chateau out by this point. We had been to quite a few, and so we did kind of, we walked around the grounds, didn’t really go in there but it, yeah, wow, it’s beautiful.
[00:40:53] Annie: Stunning. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:40:55] Vanessa: Wow. I don’t know why more people don’t visit it.
[00:40:57] Annie: it’s very nice.
[00:40:58] Vanessa: It’s, you know, it stood up to anything in the Loire Valley. I mean, it was beautiful.
[00:41:02] Annie: And, you stayed there because you wanted to be close to your CDG departure the next morning.
[00:41:09] Vanessa: I think they had started, we looked at the, some of the airports hotels and the prices, and they’d all of a sudden gone berserk, and it’s like, I’m wondering, well, is this like the lead up to the Olympics where they’re just going to start, you know, so…
[00:41:24] Annie: Right?
[00:41:25] Vanessa: You know, just 10 miles up the road in Chantilly, everything was really reasonable and we’re next to a beautiful chateau.
[00:41:31] Annie: Okay. That sounds good.
[00:41:34] Vanessa: Check, check.
[00:41:35] Annie: Very good. Alright, so we have been talking a long time. We need to stop.
But your notes were excellent as well, for researchers, so I will post those linked through the main episode page for this, for this episode.
Travel Tips for Reduced Mobility
[00:41:51] Annie: And overall, do you have any advice for people who want to do a trip like this with their mother or with an elderly relative?
[00:42:00] Vanessa: Yes, I do have some advice and I’ll try to make it brief as I can manage. One thing that I didn’t really convey very well throughout this is that my mom has reduced mobility. Not, you know, complete no mobility, but had a stroke, is a very slow walker unsteady on her feet.
[00:42:18] Annie: Mm-hmm.
[00:42:19] Vanessa: I, you know, wanted to stay close to city centers and atmospheric locations. And one thing that I didn’t do is do my due diligence as much as I should in terms of verifying staircases and things that, you know, don’t make a difference to me, but somebody with limited mobility, they do.
And you know, all of our hosts were wonderful, welcoming, if I would’ve just called or sent them an email in advance, I’m sure they would’ve given me more of a heads up.
Personne à Mobilité Réduite – PMR Room
[00:42:46] Vanessa: So my recommendation is maybe to think more about staying in the hotels as much as it pains me to say, you know, staying in a chain hotel or something where maybe there’s that legal governmental requirement to, if you’re going to say this is accessible, it’s going to be an accessible room.
[00:43:05] Annie: Right, so accessible room in French, you ask for a PMR room, which means ‘Personne à Mobilité Réduite.
[00:43:14] Vanessa: Sure.
[00:43:14] Annie: So if the room is labeled PMR, it has to be accessible for a wheelchair user, which means that there’s going to be a, you know, either an easy ramp or an elevator, or no stairs.
[00:43:30] Vanessa: Exactly. I think, when you look at the description and it says only one staircase, because my mom said, I can go up a staircase as long as it has a rail. Well, great. Most of those places have a staircase, but there are steps to even get to the staircase.
[00:43:43] Annie: Yes.
[00:43:43] Vanessa: Steps up and down. We kind of joke like ‘these are the hidden stairs’.
There’s always hidden stairs or hidden hills or hidden obstructions, and so, I would recommend going for the surety of more of a chain or at least just taking that extra step to reach out to folks about it.
[00:44:00] Annie: Yes.
[00:44:01] Vanessa: That was the one thing I could have done differently. And that’s the advice to give to somebody.
It’s doable, especially with extensive research, but just be on the safe side with your accommodations.
[00:44:11] Annie: Right, and also realize that very often in France, the bathrooms are in the basement.
[00:44:17] Vanessa: Yes.
[00:44:18] Annie: So you go use the bathroom in a restaurant, and at least half of the time it’s in the basement.
[00:44:25] Vanessa: And with restaurants too, you know, I love family, I like to keep the money that I’m spending in the communities and family run restaurants. And my mom made it, but there was some where it was just like, oh, well we have your table, it’s at the top of the spiral staircase, in the attic.
[00:44:40] Annie: Mm.
[00:44:41] Vanessa: It’s, well, yeah, okay, either we can’t do it or she’s really going to have to dig deep for this. And so we had a few of those experiences. It didn’t take away from the overall experience…
[00:44:54] Annie: But these are difficulties that pile up.
[00:44:58] Vanessa: Absolutely.
A 40-year-old who doesn’t have these challenges, I don’t necessarily think of that.
But if you’re planning for somebody with limited mobility, I would definitely do not hesitate to reach out and ask about, you know, logistics or go with a safer bet.
[00:45:14] Annie: Vanessa, thank you so much for talking to me. I’m sure it’s going to be very helpful to people who are planning trips with their family members, especially elderly family members, because you got to make the most of the time you have on earth. And having a trip to France once in a while makes life better.
[00:45:31] Vanessa: Absolutely. She wants to go again already, and it’s like, well, let’s see what my brother’s doing. He can take you next.
[00:45:38] Annie: Wonderful.
[00:45:40] Vanessa: All right, Merci. Thank you.
Au revoir!
Thank You Patrons
[00:45:49] Annie: Again, I want to thank my patrons for giving back and supporting the show. Patrons get several exclusive rewards for doing so, you can see them at patreon.com/JoinUs.
And a special shout out this week to my new Join us in France champions Josh Stewart, Mike Carter, Jody Flood, Christine Cunningham and Neva.
And thank you Gregg Rudder for upgrading your membership to yearly support. Would you join them too? You can do it for as little as $3 a month, but if you can afford it, I would love to have you pledge more so you can have access to more of the rewards. And of course when you join at the one of the higher tiers, you also have access to lots and lots of previous rewards. I have worked on this for years now. Go to patreon.com/joinus. And to support Elyse go to patreon.com/ElysArt.
This Week
[00:46:57] Annie: This week I published details of a great walk in Paris between the Moulin Rouge and Passage Jouffroy, with some descriptions, and a short video, and things like that.
It’s always good to have a plan for a fun walk in Paris.
Paris’s Gothic Jewels: New VoiceMap Tour
[00:47:11] Annie: And this week I also published my new Paris Tour on the VoiceMap app, which have called Paris’s Gothic Jewels: Notre Dame Cathedral, Saint Chappelle, and the Conciergerie.
Now, this is a tour that takes you both inside and out of these three monuments.
It’s very, very well crafted, and this is probably the last Paris VoiceMap tour I’m going to write because this is a huge undertaking. It took me 10 full days of doing nothing else from 9:00 AM until 7:00 PM. Every detail is examined about the path I take you on, the stories I share, the audio because unlike the podcast, the tours have sound effects and musical bits to enhance the experience.
There are photos to help you find your way, and also help you see things that are hard to see. In the Saint Chappelle, trust me, there are a lot of things that are hard to see.
I mean, these VoiceMap tours are a full immersive experience, and these are great because you can take them at your own pace without needing to make a reservation. They don’t cost very much. They are just awesome, and I love them, but it’s so much work. I think I might be done.
Live Guides
[00:48:29] Annie: Many of you have never tried one, and you might be hesitant, I understand. You might think, oh, let’s try to join a group, have a live guide, and while there are some great live guides, most of them are not that great.
First of all, in this gig economy, the guides you find on the big platforms that you’ve heard of are mostly very young. They’re not French originally. There is a huge demand for guides who can speak English for a few months, and then it all dries up. The platforms take huge commissions, these guys don’t get paid that much.
Lots of these young people do the job for one season, if they last that long, and then they find something more stable, you know, more rewarding, less difficult. Because sometimes dealing with tourists is not the easiest thing in the world. You’ll find some seasoned guides in Paris, but they mostly have full-time employment in museums.
So just know that booking a live tour in Paris is not always a guarantee. In my opinion, there are more downsides than upsides. And the price of these live tours is another problem. You know, they cost minimum 50 bucks per person. And you’ll pay the same amount for a great guide as you will for a mediocre one, and you really don’t know what you’re going to get.
So, if you enjoy the work that I do, if you like my style, if you think I know France and Paris pretty well, then try one of my tours. It’s literally taking me in your pocket. Make me happy and get my new baby. Paris’ Gothic Jewels, Notre Dame Cathedral, Sainte Chappelle, and The Conciergerie. And podcast listeners get a big discount for buying these tours from my website.
It is wonderful because the cost is really, really great, but only do that if you’re not in a big hurry. It might take a few hours, perhaps a few days for you to get the codes.
And please, please, please, if you take my latest tour Paris’s Gothic Jewels, leave a review because it’s impossible to sell digital products that don’t have dozens of reviews. That’s how the world works these days. So yeah, I would love it if you would try it, and you can actually do it from home because this is one where there are several photos at every stop, and so you could just listen to it at home.
Restaurant Recommendations
[00:50:51] Annie: People ask me for restaurant recommendations all the time, and I sometimes hesitate to give any unless I’ve been there and I can tell you that it’s legit, you know? So, while in Paris, I tried some new restaurants. I also went to some old ones again, but there were four new restaurants that I want to tell you about.
Le Petit Chatelet on 39 Rue de la Bûcherie
[00:51:10] Annie: Le Petit Chatelet on 39 Rue de la Bûcherie is right by Shakespeare and company, and if you get the table upstairs, by the window, you get a great view of Notre Dame. I was there with my sister-in-law, Stephanie. And she really, really loved it. I let her have the view. The only place you can have a view like that is if you go to La Tour d’Argent and, uh, you know, that’s expensive.
Le Bistrot des Victoires
[00:51:38] Annie: Another place we went to with Stephanie was Le Bistrot des Victoires. That’s on 6 Rue de la Vrillière. In the first arrondissement, it’s near the Palais Royal. This is one that was recommended by a friend of my daughter’s. She works at the Ministère de la Culture at the Palais Royal, her name is Amber and because I know she works there and I’ve, you know, she comes home once in a while, we live in the same village, literally a stones throw away from my place. I asked her for inexpensive places for lunch right around where she works. Because this is an area that has a lot of restaurants, but some of them are pretty pricey. She gave me a list and her list included a lot of Asian places.
She’s very interested in Japan and she speaks Japanese very well.
So one of them though, she knows me, she knows I like to eat, so she recommended one place, this one Le Bistrot des Victoires, it’s not a boullion per se, but it’s that sort of restaurant. It’s old style. It’s very full, people enjoy just the same dishes over and over again, and it was really inexpensive for the food we got. It was just, everything they served us was perfectly executed. It was not fancy looking, but it was just great. And the wait staff was lovely. I really had a good laugh with a waitress who was taking care of us. She had a great sense of humor.
And of course, because I was there with my sister-in-law, I didn’t say any words in English, right? I was just speaking French with her. And so it was a very different feel. It’s interesting, when I’m with other people, because I am French all the time, but if I’m with other people who I speak English with, they just assume I’m an American.
And the treatment is different. If they don’t hear me speak any English, they just, oh, French person. And the banter and the conversations are different. Let’s put it this way. At this Bistrot des Victoires you need to get there by noon, or it’ll be full. They might do a second service starting at 1:00 or 1:15 or 1:30 but I’m not certain.
It’s not huge, but it’s definitely worth a try.
Bouillon Chartier Grands Boulevards
[00:53:52] Annie: Another place, and this is the one that was very strange, was Bouillon Chartier Grands Boulevards. Alright, so this one is right, it’s on 7 Rue du Faubourg Montmartre. It’s right by the Passage Jouffroy. And I walk in, and I was by myself, it was right around 12:30 or something.
And the guy takes me to a table and says: ‘Right here’, and there was already a woman sitting there, and these are not big tables, okay? These are really, really small tables, like my knees, my knees could touch hers once I sat and I was like, you want me to sit with madame, Je m’assoie avec Madame? Il me dit oui. Yeah. He says, yeah, that’s where you going to sit.
I was so surprised that had never happened to me before. Now at a bar, like if you’re at a bar and you’re eating at the bar, you can be side by side with other people, but face to face with someone you don’t know was very strange.
I just thought, okay, what do I do? And so I got the menu, and I was looking at the menu thinking, and then I look at her, of course, I had said Bonjour before I sat down, okay, with this lady. Bonjour Madame and she responded, and she was a little older than me, but you know, about the same age. I sit down and I don’t say much. I’m looking at my menu thinking, oh, what the hell? And she was eating her food, she wasn’t paying any attention to me really.
So I thought, okay, I’m going to ask her you know, what’s good here, like an ice breaker.
And so she told me that she had been there 50 years ago, and she pointed at a table, with her husband. And I was like, oh, wow. So immediately I’m thinking, okay, what happened to the husband? But, I mean, I don’t know this woman. I don’t want to ask her what happened to your husband?
So I just said, oh, oh, how cool. Yes, that’s great.
So what’s good to eat? And she told me what she tried, and I, she didn’t really know what was good to eat, but I picked something that was actually very plain. It was good, but you know, it wasn’t anything to write home about. The food was fine.
Very fast service and friendly, I suppose. And so with this lady, we chatted for about 20 minutes. She had her dessert while I was having my main dish. And then she left by the time I was having my dessert, but it was the really strange thing and she asked me what I was doing in Paris.
So I told her about the podcast and I realized just now she might be listening because I gave her my card. And if you are my dear lady, don’t be mad at me, I didn’t know what to say about your husband. That was the part that kind of threw me off. But I am glad we got to sit and enjoy a meal together, because you were lovely.
So you never know who you’re going to meet in Paris, right? Especially if you eat by yourself. It’s kind of interesting.
Le Saint-Regis
[00:56:48] Annie: I also went back to the Le Saint-Regis restaurant, by the Cathedral, by Notre Dame. And I met a lady who had been on a tour with me years ago that said she was in Paris, and we said Hi, and it was lovely seeing her and her friend that she was visiting.
L’Auberge des Deux Ponts
[00:57:04] Annie: And I also went back to L’Auberge des Deux Ponts, also near Notre Dame where my favorite soup Nazi works. I don’t know if I told you about this one. This guy is, he’s, you never know if he’s going to serve you or not. So while I was there this time, I got there like at 12:15 and I was the only person in the restaurant at that point.
Two people came and asked for a table. I had, okay, I should say I had called him. I didn’t, you don’t show up at this place, you call to make sure it’s okay. I called and I said, I’m coming, it’s just me, is that okay? Yes, it’s fine. Come. Okay.
And then, while I was sitting there considering what I was going to have, two people came and asked for a table and he turned them both away, but he didn’t have anybody else to serve until I was ready to leave, because I was the only one, I was the only person he was serving, so it went pretty fast.
He’s the cook and the waiter. It’s kind of interesting. And by the time I was having my dessert, a big table of six arrived and then a big table of four arrived. And it’s true that they had reserved and he couldn’t… but I mean, if he had hurried these two people there, he could have served them quickly, and, you know, rush them out’s door to have room for the big table. I don’t know it, it’s a tiny little restaurant. It’s very quirky, but he’s a good cook. So what can I tell you? I’m a sucker for a good cook.
My thanks to podcast editors Anne and Christian Cotovan, who produce the transcripts and make it sound good.
Next week on the podcast
[00:58:46] Annie: Next week on the podcast an episode with Elyse about the Marvelous Cézanne. Now, there’s going to be a lot of Cézanne stuff happening in France this year, and you don’t want to miss this one. Thank you so much for listening, and I hope you join me next time so we can look around France together. Au revoir.
Copyright
[00:59:07] Annie: The Join Us in France travel podcast is written, hosted, and produced by Annie Sargent, and Copyright 2025 by AddictedToFrance. It is released under a Creative Commons attribution, non-commercial, no derivatives license.
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Episode Page Guest NotesCategories: Family Travel, Travel with Mobility Issues