On The Road To Ardèche

South to Ardèche

After our 48-hour rendez vous with J.P. and Maryse in Paris, we picked up our rental car and started heading South to Ardèche.

Villedieu-les-Poêles

We left ourselves a few days to make the trip and stop at some places of interest on the way. The first of which was a small town in Normandy called Villedieu-les-Poêles.

Mauviel and Couprinox

Our interest in this town was pretty straightforward, this is the place where they craft the famous French copper pots such as Mauviel and Couprinox. Through the 18th and 19th centuries, the copperware industry employed some 1700 workers, amazing considering they do not even mine copper here.

Sourdins

Still crafting some cookware in the same manner and incorporating new technology and materials, French copper pots have long been the Rolls Royce of pots and pans. Even today, the inhabitants of Villedieu are known as “sourdins” (meaning deaf) because the copper beaters work was so loud they would often lose their hearing.

French copper

I have been a fan of French copper for a number of years now and was eager to add an oval sauté pan to my collection. Villedieu itself was a cute little town that saw pretty good influxes of people during the day to buy copperware and take in the nearby attractions.

Mont Saint-Michel

A huge draw to the area is the Abbaye du Mont Saint-Michel on the Normandy coast in the bay of Mont Saint-Michel. This enormous castle and surrounding hamlet is perched atop a rock outcropping and is visible miles away as you drive towards the coast. We knew going in that it was a high priority tourist attraction, being the first Unesco World Heritage Site listed in France in 1979.

High and low tide

The bay itself is very shallow and has an incredibly high and low tide that moves in and out very quickly, leaving miles of mud flats at low tide and racing in, to flood out the parking lots and almost isolate the abbey at high tide.

The Abbaye

Approaching the abbey it looks like a fairytale castle and we were eager to see what lay within its walls. As we got on the two-kilometer causeway that brings you out to the Abbaye, we realized that hundreds, if not thousands, of other people, were going to be visiting with us, the parking lots were filled with cars, motorhomes and, buses.

Nose to tail

Walking from the car to the front gates, we joined hundreds of other visitors (some with pets in tow) to funnel through the front gates and into the narrow streets. Absolutely nose to tail, we shuffled along, slowly making our way up the main street of the hamlet.

Tourist shops

Tourist shop after tourist shop, selling the same old schlock, lined the street. It was starting to look like the best view of the castle was from the outside, away from the crowds. Half an hour later we retreated to a quiet vantage point outside the castle and far enough away to line up some good pictures.

Villedieu

Back in Villedieu, we enjoyed a lovely crêpe dinner of buckwheat crêpes filled with local andouille sausage and Gruyère. For dessert, we decided we could not pass up on the apple stuffed crêpe flambéed with Calvados. Calvados is a Normandy specialty that is a potent apple liqueur. It is delicious as a digestif after dinner and is also used in many classic French sauces.

Chenonceaux

The next day we were off again to the Loire valley to visit the tiny town of Chenonceaux. The Château de Chenonceau is listed by the travel guru Rick Steves as one of the top three castles to visit in France so we figured it must be worth a look. Coming in under budget on our last couple of nights accommodations we decided to check into a real gem of a hotel called Le Bon Laboureur.

The best so far

This was definitely the best hotel of the trip so far and the entire hotel was just gorgeous. The hotel has remained in the same family for five generations and their attention to detail and customer service is surely the reason why. Not wanting to leave our little piece of heaven we dragged ourselves out to visit the castle.

Castle tours

We knew there would lots of folks there because “castle tours”, via buses, are all the rage with the grey hairs these days. Surveying the parking lot, we were right because there were no less than 12 buses (and tons of cars) waiting for their passengers.

Half the price

Always looking to save a buck (half the price) and avoid the crowds, we decided to come back at night for “Chenonceau la nuit”. At night the gardens and castle are illuminated by huge spotlights and hundreds of recessed lighting.

Classical music

The effect is quite beautiful and to enhance your walkabout they pump classical music across the property.

Bourgueil

The night temperature dropped down to a chilly 12 degrees so we were glad to get back to our own little castle for the night.  We decided that we would take full advantage of the room by having yet another baguette dinner with some red pepper spread, pâté and, some garlic chèvre. We picked up a lovely bottle of 2000 Bourgueil from a local winery and soaked up the luxury, knowing the next hotel would not top this one.

Issoire

Little did we know how right we would be when we arrived in Issoire at another (Mc)Ibis hotel.  Let’s just say, the best part of the Issoire Ibis was a large shopping center across the street, (we loaded up on staples for Ardèche), free Wifi to pound out another blog post, and of course, its proximity to the highway for a quick getaway.

La Régordane

First thing the next morning we were back on the road heading toward a micro medieval village called La Garde Guérin.
Our hotel, Auberge La Régordane, is housed in a 16th-century stately residence and is quite charming although our room was tiny.

Massive gorge

The attraction to this beautifully kept ancient place is its location, perched on the edge of a massive gorge with a spectacular view.

The tower

To get an even better view I made the harrowing climb to the top of the tower that used to be part of a château that lies in ruins around it.

The ridge

The temperature soon climbed well into the 30’s as Nat and I hiked across the ridge of the gorge and out to the other side with another angle to view the town and the valley below.

Open courtyard

After an afternoon of hiking, we were looking forward to a nice dinner back at the hotel. The dining room was beautiful, set in an open courtyard.

Dinner

We both chose different prix fixe menus; mine started with a tomato and zucchini tian with fresh chèvre followed by noisettes of lamb with a vegetable fricassé and mustard seed sauce.

Lentil Du Puy

Nat’s menu started with a prune pâté with vinegar cherries and followed by local pig cheeks braised in honey on a lentil Du Puy ragout.

Cheese course

My menu also included a cheese course before dessert. Our waitress cut us huge pieces of incredible local cheeses knowing we would share. The selection included Tomme de Lozère, Pélardon made of unpasteurized goat milk, a small mildly aged crotin of chèvre, and Tomme de Laguiole (our favorite) with a strong, kind of cinnamon, flavour.

Domaine Bernard Baudry Chinon

We enjoyed all of this with a great bottle of Domaine Bernard Baudry Chinon from their wine list of which, we were told, that all of the selections were chosen through a blind tasting (so there was no bad choice).

Honey cake

For dessert, I had an organic chestnut and honey cake and Nat went with fresh cut fruit. We ended our night with some stunning star gazing and then retired to our room in perfect darkness and silence for a great night’s sleep.