Mon deuxième voyage à la France

My second trip to France, December 15-21, 2003

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My flight left at 9PM on Saturday the 13th. It was a Virgin Atlantic flight to London, from where I would take an Air France flight to Paris. I was ticketed to go on to Montpellier, but at the last moment there was a change of plans, and the French office manager, Philippe, was going to meet me in Paris on Monday. Then we would fly back to Montpellier Tuesday night. I was on my own to find a hotel for Sunday, and had not had enough advance notice to search and make a reservation. 

I had never flown Virgin before, and it was better than most. They have a good selection of movies and everyone has their own screen. I watched “About a Boy”, with Hugh Grant. The food was very good too. I actually had a small salmon fillet for dinner. I think that is the first time that I have had salmon on a flight.

We were a little late getting into Heathrow, though, and then it seemed like we spent forever taxiing, and that really had me worried. I only had an hour and a half between flights to begin with, so when I got in the terminal I started jogging towards the flight connections counter. There you have to go through security again and then I had to take a bus from terminal 3 to 2. By the time I got to the Air France counter, they said the flight was closed, but they called and decided to issue me a boarding pass. When I got on board though, it turned out someone else already had my seat. Well, for a long time I was not sure what they would do, because economy was packed. Finally they ended up letting me sit in first class. It was not much since it was a smaller flight, but the food was better, and it is only the second time I have ever sat in first class. It was a good thing that other guy made it to seat 7A before me, otherwise he might have been the one upgraded while I was stuck back in economy.

We were late getting into Paris, too, and had no gate, so we had to wait for buses to come and take us from the plane to the terminal. By the time I got done talking to the ticket counter about changing my Montpellier flight to Tuesday night and scoping out where I was supposed to meet Philippe, it was 21:00 and I was exhausted, so I just got a room at the Sheraton that was at the airport. The cheapest one was 280 euros, or $355 a night. It was a nice room, but not worth that much.

Monday afternoon Philippe and I had our business meeting. It went until the early evening at which point we decided to stop and continue the next day. Philippe drove us down to the hotel, which I think he said was in the 8th district (across the Seine and northwest from the Eiffel Tower). We drove through the circle that is around L’Arc de Triomphe along the way. After checking in, we walked around looking for a restaurant. We found this continental place to have some real French style food. It was pretty good, and I was feeling full, but Philippe talked me into getting desert. He had this cherry dish that he had not had in a long time, and I ordered this thing called iced nougat. Well, it was quite possibly the best desert I have ever had. It was like a big chunk of the nougat from a snickers bar, only better, iced to make it like ice cream, and topped by a sweet syrup and surrounded and by colorful slices of fruits such as strawberries and kiwi. I will have to have that again someday.

Tuesday on the drive from the hotel back to our meeting I finally snapped some pictures. Here is L’Arc de Triomphe and The Grand Arch.

Tuesday we wrapped things up early and started to head to the airport. We had the 6:40 PM flight to Montpellier. Philippe was trying to change them to something earlier, but not having any luck. That is when I saw the signs mentioning St. Denis. I knew that there was a cathedral (actually it is a basilica) and had seen it on postcards, but I had not made it there on my previous visit to Paris. Well it turns out that it was not far out of our way, so we stopped and spent about an hour looking around. It seems almost as large as Notre Dame, and quite spectacular. There are very ancient vaults underneath with tombs of the early kings and queens of France and other historic figures, and then other areas above where more recent kings and queens are interred. Despite having been an architecture student for 5 years in Paris, Philippe had never been to St. Denis (and he has not been to the top of the Eiffel Tower, either).

I was trying to be artistic in the last three pictures, and capture the reflection of the Basilique in the windows of the adjacent abbey.

After we got into Montpellier Philippe invited me to a wonderful dinner with his wife Isabel and their family at their house. Montpellier is near the Mediterranean and there are several large inlets along the coast. Philippe’s house is on a narrow strip of land between one of the inlets and a canal that leads out to the sea, in a district called Carnon. They have un chien also, a gray schnauzer, which they said was not usually friendly to strangers, but he did not seem to mind me. After dinner Philippe dropped me off at my hotel, which was very close by and near the beach.

Wednesday night I had to myself. The restaurant at the hotel was closed, but there was a pizza place open across the marina. As I started over there, this large German Sheppard came up to me and then followed me for a while. I made a turn and I saw him trot off the other direction. I thought he was gone, but when I got over to the restaurant and opened the door, he ran past me into the place. The waitress seemed upset, and I was trying to tell her that it was not my dog. All I could think to say, though, was je n’ai pas un chien (I do not have a dog) rather than il n’est pas mon chien (He is not my dog). Another waitress seemed to understand and she helped coax the dog back outside. The service and food were pretty good, so after I ate I wanted to leave a tip, but there was no place to put it on the receipt (and I had not yet changed any cash). I tried to ask the waitresses, but I was not getting through. A nearby customer who spoke a little English helped to translate and I think they finally understood, but they just insisted that it was not necessary, and so I never did leave a tip. The dog was not waiting when I came out, by the way.

The next morning I asked Philippe about the tip and he said that it is included in the bill now in most all of Europe, and that you are not supposed to leave one.

Thursday Nicolas, the engineer in the Montpellier office, and I had lunch at this elevated, rotating restaurant overlooking the beaches and the sea. It was very windy and raining. There was no one on the beach and just 3 brave surfers out on the water. Thursday night Nicolas was taking me back to the hotel. I was thinking that I would just have pizza again, but he mentioned that he was going to the supermarket so I thought that I would tag along and get something there, like some baguette sandwiches, instead. Well, I did not find anything appetizing there, so I thought I would go with my original plan. But after some discussion we decided to head for the center of Montpellier and go to this fondue restaurant that Nicolas knew.

We parked the car and walked up and out into this shopping mall. Just beyond was a promenade with lots of lights and decorations. We walked through that and into a labyrinth of narrow streets with shops and restaurants on each side and many pedestrians. We came upon a church and circled it, as Nicolas tried to recall where exactly the fondue place was. Finally we found it, but it was completely packed. Unlike America, the French do not like to wait to be seated, so Nicolas said to forget that place and we went to another one close by instead. One thing about France, too, is that people like to savor the meal and socialize, so there tends to be a lot of time between courses. Nicolas and I probably sat down to eat before 9, and did not finish until just after 11. After that we went and had a pint of bitter in a nearby Irish pub.

Friday it was raining still but I checked the weather reported and it looked like it might clear up for Saturday. Philippe asked me if I had decided about what I wanted to do about Saturday, and if I wanted to rent a car. There was a tramway that ran though Montpellier, and several sites to see in the city, so I had considered going the cheap way and just staying there and using the public transportation. We checked on rental cars, too, and there was only one automatic available, and that was for 136 euros a day. Philippe showed me a picture of it. It was a sporty little thing. The manuals were around 70 euros a day for a compact, but I have never driven a stick much, and I was not sure that this was a good place to learn. Finally I made up my mind and decided to go all out and have a good time and so we reserved the sporty automatic. Philippe would take me to pick it up Saturday morning, and that way I could just drive myself to the airport and drop it off Sunday before my flight.

For Friday night then I checked into a hotel close to the office, then I got a map and I walked back to the center of the city, back to where Nicolas and I had been the night before, to take some photos. Then I had dinner at the same Indian restaurant where Philippe and I had eaten lunch. That is one tip I have about eating overseas. If you do not speak the language well, pick an Indian place, because the names of the dishes are about the same all over and the Indian waiters usually speak English anyway. Here are the photos I took Friday night:

I was planning my first stop to be Pont du Gard, the Roman aqueduct/bridge that you see in so many pictures and on TV. As I got close to that area though, there started to be patches of fog. I got off the motorway and followed the signs toward it for about 10 or 15km. I made it to the parking lot, but it was foggy there, so I decided to get back on the motorway and continue east. A brochure I had showed this ancient roman amphitheater in a city called Orange, so I went there.

When I got off of the motorway, however, I could not see any signs for the theater. I did see signs for the local Arc de Triomphe and they indicated that there was parking there so I went to it. I parked and took a couple of pictures of it and then I started walking towards what looked like the center of the city. After what I would say was at least a couple of kilometers I saw some signs to the theater, and eventually found my way there.

From Orange I decided to head to Avignon to the south. Along the way I spotted what looked like a snow capped mountain, and I took a couple of pictures of it.

Later on I realized that this was the Giant of Provence, Mount Ventoux. One of the most difficult stages of the Tour de France is the climb to its summit. There probably was not any snow on top, either. All of the trees were clear cut like a century or more ago, and nothing ever grew back.

In Avignon I visited Le Pont D’Avignon and Le Palais Des Papes (the palace of the popes). There is supposedly a famous song about the pont, but I did not recognize it. This is the bridge that they attempted to build for over 500 years, from like 1200 to the 1700’s, but it kept getting swept away by floods on the Rhone, until they finally gave up. The palace looked very impressive, too, but I decided not to go in as it was started to get late and I had several more places that I wanted to see.

I then made my way back to Pont du Gard, and by now the fog had cleared, although the sky had become overcast. I really enjoyed the location, and I climbed stairs and walked around some narrow, slippery trails on either end.

I was disappointed that you cannot park close enough to the Pont to get a picture, like that VW commercial. Instead I had to take some pictures of me and the car out in the lot. It was warm enough in the afternoon to drive with the roof retracted a little, too.

From the Pont du Gard I headed north to a town called Uzês that Philippe had mentioned as being quite beautiful. Along the way I spotted a sign for some gorges. I had seen some brochures showing some spectacular gorges, so I turned and headed that direction. The scenery that I found was not quite like in the brochures, but it was nice.

I made it to Uzês around 4 in the afternoon. It was a very picturesque little city, and the city center was quite bustling, but I decided not to stop or take any pictures. I wanted to continue on towards Nîmes. The road from Uzês to Nîmes parallelled the Gardon river for a while, and was marked on the map as a scenic route, so I wanted to travel it before it got too dark.

The first thing I came upon was Pont St-Nicholas, where it crossed the Gardon. The road was very narrow and winding on either side, with few places to stop. After the bridge the road hugged the side of the cliff for several kilometers. There was actually a lot of traffic, and trying to get these pictures was a risky endeavor.

By the time I got to Nîmes it was dark, and I spotted a sign pointing back to the A9 and I got headed towards it, but then I decided to turn around. I had seen a Roman arena on some postcards, so I thought I might try to find it. I got to the center of the city and there was a lot of traffic. Every time I saw a sign for an underground parking structure it seemed like I was in the wrong lane. So I kept circling around the city center, and I am glad I did, because I finally came across the arena, and it was all lit up. I managed to park, and on the walk towards the arena I took some other pictures of the city lights and antique buildings.

From Nîmes I got back on the A9 and headed towards Montpellier. The speed limit on the motor way is 130 km/hr, or 81 MPH, which is faster than the 75 MPH that I typically drive in CA. But a lot of traffic was doing faster than that. I started doing around 140 (88 MPH), to keep up with everyone, but occasionally another vehicle would still pass, so I since it was my last night I decide to have a little fun. I followed a couple of cars doing 150 for a little while, and then found a couple of open stretches of road, and got the car up to 160 once, going uphill, and then got it over 160 for a little while going downhill (I will let you do the conversion). I had not seen any police anywhere on the motorway, but decided I did not want to risk a ticket, and backed it down to 140. Either way, I got back to Montpellier very quickly.

Once again I walked back to the center of Montpellier. I had spotted this Mexican Tapas restaurant the night before and thought I would give it a try. I have never had tapas before but I have a friend who raves about them. When I went in, the place was only about have full, and there were several empty tables, but the host asked me right away if I had a reservation. When I said no he said nous somme compli, which I new meant they were full. I am not sure if he was serious or if he was just a snotty French guy who recognized that I was American and did not want my business, but I went to this Vietnamese restaurant next door instead. There I saw a gambas dish on the menu, and decided to order it. I had no idea what gambas was. It turned out to be a shrimp dish. It was pretty good, but the appetizer sample that I order before it was much better.

After dinner I continued walking and managed to see some sites that I had missed, including the Arc de Triomphe of Montpellier and an impressive aqueduct similar to Pont du Gard (although built in the 1700's). The aqueduct and much of the other stuff was not lit well, however, so the pictures are not very good.

I spent Saturday night writing postcards and packing, and only bothered to get about an hour of sleep, figuring that there was plenty of time to sleep on the plane. I had moved my Air France flights up so as to leave more time at Heathrow, so my first flight left Montpellier at 6:40 AM. I made it to Paris fine and then to London, where after about another hour and a half ordeal I made it to the Virgin Atlantic counter just as they announced the last call for the noon flight to LA. I was ticketed for the 3PM flight, but I was hoping to get there in time to make the noon flight. They did not let me move up however, which was a shame because about 15 minutes later a couple of guys showed up who were ticketed for the noon flight. It was too late for them to make it. Sometimes I do not understand airlines. I could have taken one of the spots that those guys missed, which would have left a spot for one of them on the 3PM flight.

The nice thing about the noon flight is that it would have gotten to LA around 4PM, which mean the whole flight would have been in daylight. One of the other times I flew back from London there were some spectacular views of the ice flows around Greenland and northern Canada, and I would have liked to get some pictures of them. Instead by leaving at 3, the sun soon set. It was a pretty and colorful sunset though, and I did take these pictures of it, which do not to it justice.

The night sky was spectacular over LA, though, as we arrived about 7 PM. The plane actually came in from the west and flew directly over downtown before making a 180 degree turn back to land at LAX. One of these days I will have the nerve to take pictures, even though they ask for all electronic devices to be turned off that close to landing. I mean, if I can drive 100 MPH in a foreign country, I should have the guts to do that, but c'est la vie.

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