Heather and Russell recently planned a long road trip around western Europe. Aside from a start and finish at the Munich airport, not much else was planned for the two weeks in between. You will have to ask them for details of their visits to Switzerland, Italy, Monte Carlo, France, Spain, back to France, Belgium, and back to Germany.
Erin and I were only able to join them for a weekend so we flew to the very tiny, sparse Grenoble airport (GNB) from Gatwick on the EasyJet. We obtained our mini Chevy wind-up car from the Hertz kiosk in the middle of the parking lot and started off into the French country side. With 12 weeks of French classes under her belt, Erin’s ability to decipher and read-out the road signs had increased tenfold since our trip to Le Touquet last spring.
Anyway, the drive from Grenoble toward Valence couldn’t have looked more French. Green grass, dairy farms, old stone and stucco farm houses with wooden shudders lining the road. The highway offers significantly less scenery. The back roads were the way to go.
We arrived in Tournon-sur-Rhone about 11:30, scouted our hotel and L’office de tourisme to pick up some walking maps and ideas for how to occupy our time in this rural medieval town. Tournon’s original castle was built in the 10th century and some of the surrounding town has survived pretty well. How did we pick this place? Basically we were looking for a place to meet Heather and Russell that would work for their trip and I found this write-up online. So many thanks Mr. Martin – we followed your advice closely and we were not disappointed.
As it turned out, we would not see Heather and Russell until Sunday so we had the day to ourselves. Any guesses about what we did for lunch? Loyal WW readers might have guessed that we fell back on old faithful picnic of a baguette, goat cheese, and strawberries. (No chocolate bar this time.) We ate overlooking Tournon near the Tour L’Hopital, one of three 16th century stone lookout towers on the hills about the city. After lunch we took a long hike up to a lookout point on top of the hill. We finished our tour at the third of three towers and then made our way to our Hotel Amandiers. It was a nice enough place and reasonably spacious; perfect for a 3 hour nap.
At night we wandered the streets a bit more before settling in for dinner at La Chaumiere. Again, thanks James. The courtesy-of-the-chef, sliced pigs-in-a-blanket were a bit weird but hey, free is free we were starving by that point. We’ve gotten to the point where we can pick the foods we like out of a French menu. For Erin, chevre (goat cheese) is a necessity. For me, champignons (mushrooms) and anything vin-related tends to arrive quickly. I had a fish soup with (what I later learned was) paprika mayo…surprisingly fantastic. Erin’s warm goat cheese came on a heap of pickled/shredded carrots, beets, and greens of some kind. Odd combo but the cheese rocked. My chicken fricassee was equally outstanding, much better than Erin’s steak a poivre - proof that not even a French chef can salvage a steak ordered well done. Once we had worked though the remaining local wines, port (also supposedly local, suspiciously), ice cream, and coffee, it was bed time. Our walk back to the hotel was lengthened slightly by a bad direction call on my part. Regardless, Tournon looks pretty impressive at night outlined softly by the delicately lit pedestrian bridge, castle, and towers.The next morning we got up and went for a jog along the river and through town. The croissant we had might have been the best ever, but we say that frequently. I don’t know the name of the bakery, but there was a small model windmill on the awning. If you’re ever in Tournon…
After our long, slow coffee and croissant, we walked around a bit more, crossing the Rhone to visit Tain l’Hermitage. It’s a relatively well-known appelation, but we could not for the life of us find an open tasting room. Granted it was Sunday, but come on! It’s not like we know wines well, but it just felt strange not to be able to sample the local delicacy.
We then drove to the top of the hills on the east side of the river through Crozes-Hermitage for a view of Tournon looking back across the Rhone. Beautiful.
Finally, we finally got what we came for in the first place….Heather and Russell arrived!! It had been since Christmas that we saw them so we were excited to spend the afternoon with them. Most of the restaurants were closed by the time they arrived, so we made due with an outdoor table at an Italian joint on the main strip in town. We then re-walked up to each of the three towers before hitting the road back to Lyon to catch a flight home. We would have preferred to tag along for the rest of Heather & Russell's adventure. By the time they got to us they had already covered a lot of ground and they still had a week left after that. Unfortunately the call of the office was too hard to resist so it was back to London for Erin and me.
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