Mother-Daughter Trip to Lyon and Provence

Episode Transcript
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Annie Sargent (00:15):
This is Join Us in France, episode 512, cinq cent douze.
Bonjour, I'm Annie Sargent, and Join Usin France is the podcast where we take
a conversational journey through thebeauty, culture, and flavors of France.
Today, I bring you a trip report withSandy and Melissa Fabry, where we'll
embark on a journey to Lyon, and Provence,and we'll discover their favorite spots,

(00:40):
culinary adventures, and travel tips, aswell as candid travel mishaps, as usually
happens when you go on a trip anywhere.
This podcast is supported by donorsand listeners who buy my tours and
services, including my ItineraryConsult Service, my GPS self-guided
tours of Paris on the VoiceMap app,or take a day trip with me around the

(01:05):
southwest of France in my electric car.
You can browse all of that at myboutique: joinusinfrance.com/boutique.
And Patreon supporters get new episodesas soon as they are ready and ad-free.
If that sounds good to you, be likethem, follow the link in the show notes.
For the magazine part of the podcasttoday, I'll talk about some of the

(01:26):
things I'm working on, some of the thingshappening in my life, because honestly,
the news has been very, very quiet.
I mean, the Olympics are over, we are allvery sad that it's over, but life goes on.
And so I'll just share a few of the thingshappening in my personal life with you.

(01:52):
Bonjour, Sandy and Melissa, andwelcome to Join Us in France.

Melissa Fabry (01:56):
Bonjour, Annie.

Sandy Fabry (01:57):
Bonjour, Annie.

Wonderful to have you.
Today, we're going to talk aboutyour mother-daughter trip to Lyon.
Let me see.
Where...
where all did you go?
You went to Lyon?
You went to Provence?
You tell me.
Clearly, I don't know anything.

And at the very end we went, our last day on the way back to the Lyon
Airport, we went to Le Chambon-sur-Lignon.

Ah, Le Chambon-sur-Lignon.
Very nice.
Very nice.
All right.
All right.
So, I'm not sure how to do this.
Shall we just talk aboutyour favorite things first?
What inspired this trip?
Do you guys do this?
Do you take trips together?

Yeah, we do every couple years.
So we've done New York a couple times andthen we were in Paris in 2021 in the Fall,
and then wanted to see more of France.
My mom has seen more of France, butshe hadn't been to these, hadn't been
to Lyon, and hadn't been to the partsof Provence that we went to, so it was
exciting to see new things for both of us.

When did the trip take place?

November of 2023.

And it was just the two of you, right?

Yes.

How did you get around?

Everything.
Airplane to Lyon, train a bit,metro a bit, bus once, and then the
last three days we rented a car.

Oh yeah, that's right.
I saw that you rented an electric car.
So we'll mention that at somepoint, we don't have to get into
that right away, but that would beinteresting because a lot of visitors
would like to rent electric cars.
And obviously I'm a fan, but I'mnot sure if it's easy for visitors
to get the charge to start.
That's the problem typically.
At any rate, okay, so what wereyour favorites on this trip?

(03:35):
Perhaps, Melissa, you could tellus first what your favorites were.

Sure.
I liked, food is always a nice toppriority for both of us, so I enjoyed
the different food, we did a foodtour in Lyon, which was really fun.
We had a young, very energeticlocal who showed us around, and
we got a good variety of food,including the taco, the Lyon taco.

Actually, it was T-A-C-O-S.
Tacos.

Yeah, it's always tacos in French, but is it like a hot pocket
with lots of cheese, and meat in it?

Yes.

Okay, so it was a regular French tacos.

Yes, we hadn't heard of it before.
And we coming from the West,coming from the West Coast,
we thought it was like a taco.

Yeah, no, no, no, no, no.
It's not a taco at all,as a matter of fact.

Very good, of course.
Of course.

My husband likes these things.
I can't eat them.
I think it's just like...
I mean, I like to befull, but not like that.

A little goes a long way.
I don't think anyone finished theirs.

Yes, yes.
Yeah

and just, I just enjoy seeing different architecture, and
just walking around, and stopping fora coffee, and watching people go by.
Every place was beautiful.

So what sort of food tour was this?
Was it the sort of food tour where yougo to the market first thing in the
morning, and you eat as you go along?
How did it work?

This was street food and street art.
So it was a nice mix of differentcuisines, as well as a lot
of street art that's in Lyon.

What do you think, Sandy?
Do you enjoy street art as well?

No, I didn't like the street art in the beginning at all.
I was annoyed because we paidmoney for a street food tour.
And when he started, hewas all about street art.
And I thought, I amnot going to like this.
But the more he talked,the more I liked it.

(05:28):
And he was great with the food tour, too.
He said that in Lyon, theytake already good food and
elevate it to the next level.

Uh huh.

And so that's kind of the places we went.
Five or six stops.
And one stop was pizza,but really good pizza.
One stop was empanadas, withfillings like we'd never had before.
And then it ended with awonderful ice cream stop.
But in the end, I wasall into the street art.

(06:00):
So funny how it happens.

Lyon is kind of famous for street art.
They have quite a bit of it.
So they are famous for that.
And so what won you over?

The three dimensional ones, that I'm sure I've walked by a whole lot
of times and just never really looked up.

Uh huh.

Enough to see the little faces, and the little whatevers.
They were out of ceramic and affixed.
Mm hmm.
And they were very cool.

Yeah, it's very fun if you know what you're looking at.
It's very fun.
Now, that doesn't sound likea lot of French food, though.
Pizza and...

It wasn't, I guess.

I mean, most people, when they say a food tour, they think, oh,
we go to the market first thing in themorning, we purchase a few things, and
then we go to a kitchen, and we fix ittogether, and then we eat it together.
That's your typical...
Or you have other food tours where theyjust take you around, and different
vendors prepare a taste for you, ofthis, and that, and that, and that, yeah?

(07:03):
And then my food tour is more likeI just tell you about it, I tell
you the history of the food, thehistory of the area, I take you to
the places, and I say, okay, go inthe store and buy that, ask for that.
So it's more like I give you thetools to buy the stuff yourself.

Do your, do it!
Yeah.

Do your own thing.

However, I have to say, the Ice Cream Stop is a store owned by two
men who are trained French pastry chefs.
So it was definitely, and theyuse the pastry with the ice cream.

Aha, that's nice.
That's very nice.

And that was very, that was pretty French.

And so did you tell me the name of this tour?

I don't think so.
We can send you some extra.

Yes, I would like to know, because people ask, you
know, who did this tour and...

We got it online, but we'll find it.

Right, right, yeah.
You went to the Paul Bocuse, kindof food market as well, on your own.

Yes.

What did you think of that?

Yes, it was yes, it was late in the afternoon, so by the time
we got there not much was open, andit was hard to tell what had closed
for the day, or what had closed forthe season, since we were there in
November, or what just was vacant.
So, it wasn't, we weren't there very long.

Yeah, so yes, this is a beautiful place, but you have to
go, I mean, Les Halles in general,which is what this is, it's Les
Halles Paul Bocuse is what it'scalled, you have to go in the morning.
Because even if they are open in theafternoon, tradition, I mean, these
are people who work a lot, right?
They open every day of the year,say, perhaps Christmas, most of

(08:43):
them are very small businesses andso it's the same people working
there day, after day, after day.
And they get exhausted.
So they only work, they open ateight or seven sometimes and by two,
most of them are closed or gone.
But Paul Bocuse being, you know, it'sa bigger city, it's more famous, more
visitors, so they stay open longer.

(09:05):
But to get the full experience,you need to go in the morning.
So you went to Les Terrasses,that's a Michelin restaurant.

Yes, we did.
Melissa picked it.
It is next to the cathedral in Lyon,the Basilica, I guess is the right term.

Oh, so the one up...

And so the view was, yes...

Okay.
Yes.
Because there's both a Basilica upabove, and a Cathedral down below.

The Basilica, right.
It was the Basilica.
So the view was gorgeous.
The view was beautiful.
The food was amazing in so many ways, butit was a combination of the food with the
setting, with the train staff, with thewine pairing that made it so wonderful.

So Melissa, why did you pick that one?

We wanted to have, you know, one really nice dinner
experience, and that just seemedto have a nice combination.
And we both cook a fair amount, and sowe enjoy things that either we can't
get at home, or just would not tryat home, and so their menu really fit
the bill, I think, for all of that.

Was it one star, two stars, three stars?

One star.

One star.

Yeah, so that was...
that was a nice treat.

So usually starred restaurants, I mean, the flavors
are wonderful, but it's alsothe art of putting together
something that looks spectacular.
It's food and art together.
It's also the fact that they chargea little more, although if it's just
one star, probably you paid lessthan a hundred, perhaps, per person?

You know, per person, I think, maybe?
I think it was maybe 80, or something...

Right.
Right.
So they can afford to have thenicer ingredients, and they
have the trained everything.
And it's more like a theater experience.
There's a whole procession of how thingshappen in a Michelin starred restaurant.
So they will just present you.
It's like theater, it's lovely,you know, but it takes a long time.

Yeah, it took about three hours.
So it was our dinner in, dinnerand entertainment for the evening.

Yes, yes.
That's great.
You tried some bouchons in Lyon.
Sandy, do you want to explainwhat the bouchons are?

Oh, I'm not sure I can.
You tell me if I'm incorrect, butin the beginning, they started
with the silk workers, I believe,as a lunch, a way to feed them.

Yes!

In someone's home?

Yeah, so I'm not sure, I'm not sure about the history, but what I
was getting at is a bouchon is a sort ofrestaurant, just like you, you would have
a brasserie, or a fast food restaurant.
Well, a bouchon is a style of restaurant.
And it's very traditional, and typicalof Lyon and it is, it started as

(11:48):
common man lunch place kind of thing.

That's what I'm trying to say.
Yes.

And then it grew.

And it still very much is that.

I mean, most of them, you know, you can eat at a bouchon
for around 50 euros at dinner, andperhaps a little less at lunch, but
they're usually very interesting.
And a lot of them serve the same foods.
Like, they will have the Quenelle deLyon, obviously, because everybody wants
to try that, and they're delicious.
They have a lot of white sauces,they have the normal Lyon stuff.

(12:20):
Did you have a favorite food,favorite place besides the Michelin?

Oh, my favorite place.
In Lyon or on the whole trip?

On the whole trip, is there one meal that
just sticks out in your mind?
Like...
that was great!

Bouchon was a wonderful experience, without a doubt.
And the food was very reasonable andI had what was called, what translates
into brain of the silk worker.

Yes, yes.
I can't remember.
I've had this.
It's like a, you know, Cervellede Canute or something.

It's a cheese, it's a cheese dish.
That was delicious.
My favorite meal probably was theone in Avignon at the restaurant
called, I believe, Acte 2.

I agree.

Yeah?

Yes.

Okay.

Why did that stand out for you?

Man, it was every bit as good a food as the Michelin starred restaurant.
It did not have the location.
It did not have the view.
We walked to it from our hotel.
It was about three blocks into aneighborhood, a little side street.
I'm not even sure it had a sign.

(13:34):
But inside it was tiny, maybeit could seat 30, maybe?

Mm hmm.

And the wife was the front of the house.
And the husband was the chef, andwe were just treated so lovely,
and it was so easy, and so good.

Yeah.
Yeah.
One of those family restaurantsthat we are very good at in France.

Yes.
yes.
And we could just walk back to the hotel.

Oh, I think it's a fairly new restaurant.
Our hotel told us about it.
But they already had itreally well organized and run.
And we always appreciate too, how,you know, this France so well does,
you know, uses what is local, andwhat is available, and uses everything
of, you know, a chicken or whatever.
And so it's always neat to trydifferent preparations of things.

(14:21):
And mom, I think youreally enjoyed the quince.

Aha, quince!
Yes.

The quince.
The quince is my new discovery.
Interestingly enough, itgrows in my neighborhood.
And last fall, a neighbor was givingit away by the bagful, but I didn't
take any because I didn't know it,and didn't know what to do with
it, and assumed I wouldn't like it.
And then I had it three times whilewe were in France, and loved it.

So it was in the form of a jam?

No, one was kind of in a cookie.
Kind of a dessert.
It was all in dessert.
One was on a lovely sliceof cheesecake in Avignon.
And I can't remember howthe third was prepared.
Do you, Melissa?

No.

We have a thing in France called pâte de coing.
So it's like a paste of quince.
It's like a..., let's see...
pâte de coing...
I'll show you because you cansee, since we're recording this on
Zoom, you can see what I'm seeing.

Yes.

This, like that?

Oh, yes.

Yes.
You can make slices of this, or likehere, you can make cute little shapes
with it, and you can serve it with cheese,or with cheesecake or, you know, it's
like something that enhances the flavor.
It has this reallydistinctive flavor to it.
It's very nice.

It is very nice.
And now I can't wait for this fallso I can go back to that neighbor
and hopefully she'll give me quince.

Ha, ha, ha, ha.
And you'll try and cook them.
That's great.

And I'll cook them.
Yes.

That's fantastic.
So that restaurant you reallyliked was Acte 2 restaurant.
You liked the Papal Palace as well.
Maybe, Melissa, tell us why.
Because some people loveit and some people don't.
I don't understand why that is so, like...
what did you think, Melissa?

Sure, you know, the grandeur of it, obviously, is very
impressive, and I don't know howrelatively new it is now, but there you do
kind of a virtual reality tour through it,and you go at your own pace, and it just
shows you kind of how it maybe looked whenit was decorated, which was interesting.
And then you can go up on the roof, andso you get a beautiful view of Avignon.
And we went late in the day, which I thinkhelped with not being so crowded because

(16:29):
there are some tight spaces in there.
But then I think, probably whathelped us both really enjoy it was
the art exhibit that was in there atthe time, was quite impressive, too.
It was this woman who did sometapestry work, but then also did
sculptures out of stacked cardboard.
And it was fascinating.
10, 15 feet high.
Pretty impressive.
I'm sure it's gone now.

(16:49):
It was just temporary, but...
So it's neat to see that they're usingit for art space as well, because there's
certainly huge rooms that they can fill.

That's wonderful.
Yeah.
Never heard of this person.
That sounds good.

These sculptures were big enough that you could walk through.

Oh, wow.

And unless you were very close to them, you would
have no idea they were cardboard.
They were all cardboard color, butyou still wouldn't have thought
that they were, they were likecorrugated cardboard stacked on top
of each other, and glued together.
And Melissa's right, she started, I think,with tapestries, and they were gorgeous.
And they would fill awall in that building.

(17:29):
One tapestry.
They were beautiful.
And modern, not so much as the moretraditional looking tapestries.
These were very modernlooking, very nature focused.
And then you kept walking through morerooms, and then there started being
all of these cardboard sculptures thatwere like buildings in themselves.

(17:50):
So it was really a treat.
And she's right.
That is what I think made it so memorable.
The combination of whereyou were and what you saw.

Museums often have temporary exhibits like that.
And it's, I mean, unless you knowthe artist and you're a follower, you
wouldn't know that it's, you know,you wouldn't go just on purpose.
I mean, locals do, but if you'rejust visiting, well, whatever's there
that month, you will enjoy and...
and there's enough of these kind ofhappy surprises that, you know, it

(18:22):
makes the trip even better, I guess.

Yes, you can't plan everything.

It sometimes ends up being the memory, too.
The happy, the happy surprises.

Exactly.
So you went to both Arles and Nîmes.
Can you compare them, likethe feel of the towns?
I mean, they're both Roman towns, but...

Yes.

Compare please.

There's a larger story involved, but I'd say
just face value of the towns.
Nîmes was like sparkly, very clean, lookedlike everything had kind of been polished.
And then I think the, oh, I'mforgetting, sorry, the amphitheater,
the Colosseum had recently beenfinished, as far as it was completely
cleaned, so that was nice to see.
And the other monument,I'm forgetting now.

The Temple in Nîmes.

Thank you, yes, the temple had recently been cleaned too, so I just,
that's the impression I had, that Nîmeswas just very bright and sparkly, and the
marble flooring, you know, and everything.
And then Arles, you know, felt more smalltown, kind of more original, as far as
little shops and things, I guess, andNîmes felt a little bit more commercial,
like bigger luxury stores, maybe.
And kind of that main hub.

(19:29):
But we were, we didn't geta ton of daylight in Arles
by the time we got there.
This was our train snafu day.
So we didn't get to see as much ofArles in the daylight as we had hoped.

Do tell about the train snafu, I want to hear.

So we had it on, we book, we bookended it for the
day, both ways were a little snafu.
We took the train from Avignonand we were there on time and just
waited for the train to come andit never came to our knowledge.
We didn't see it pop up on theboard at all, and then it was gone.

(20:05):
So we, you know, went and got coffee andwaited for the next one type deal, and
then we saw it when we came again, therewas a train waiting on a further train
track, that I maybe assumed was oursand we just didn't realize they didn't
all pull through to the main portion.
That's the only thing I can think of.
It never said, you know, track1B or, you know, indicating

(20:25):
that it was a little further.
But that's the only thing we can think of.
Because then it said later that it did go.

But you didn't see it on the boards that, like,
that train number never appeared?

No, and again, maybe there was something that they announced that
it wasn't showing up, but it, you know,it wasn't on the board but it was here.
You know, that's our lack ofFrench, so maybe there was something
there that we didn't catch.

Was that your first time using the train?

No, we both used the train in multiple countries.
That was the first time at Avignon though.

Yes, it was the first time in Avignon.

Yeah, so we just waited, I think an hour, hour
and a half for the next one.
So we were a littledelayed in our schedule.
And then coming back, so we went toNîmes first, and then went to Arles.
And then for Arles, we were takinglike the last train back because
we stayed and had dinner there.
And then, that train just kept gettingdelayed, and delayed, and delayed.

(21:15):
There was some work in Marseille,I think, on the train tracks.
And then it was cancelled.
And last train of the day.
And so there were a couple otherpeople there, including a Canadian
couple who spoke French and English.
And so then we worked on getting ataxi between, there was a number at
the train station for a taxi that wehad called, and then we also called

(21:37):
our hotel, which is always a benefitof having a hotel that can help you.
So they arranged a taxi for us.
And then at that point, then the trainwas coming back, was going to happen.
So I hadn't seen one cancelbefore and then uncancel.
So they kicked us out of the trainstation once it was cancelled.
But then they let us backin once it was uncancelled.

How bizarre.

Which was interesting.
So it was still going to be, I thinkanother, I think it was ended up being
two or two and a half hours late.
And so we just ended up takingthe taxi, and we split it with
the Canadian couple because theywere going to Avignon as well.
And they helped kind oforganize everything in
French, which was helpful too.

Wow.
Well, yeah, and I, you can't really, Imean, if they spoke French, you can't
really blame it on the lack of French.
It was just a bizarre happening.

Yeah.
And it was interesting that they, youknow, closed the train station because no
more trains were coming, it was cancelled.
And then, but he was still there,the employee, and then let us
back in once it was coming atsome indefinite point in time.
So it was an eventful..
you know, we were not cold,we were not wet, we were fed.
It was fine.

But I should say that trying to do Nîmes and Arles
both on the same day is insane.
You shouldn't have tried that.

Okay.
Good to know.
We read it in some guidebook asit was a good day trip, but yeah.
Maybe especially in theoff season with schedules.

Pick one or the other, and just spend the day there.
Because that's a lot, that's a lot.
And it is probably true that Nîmes isa little bit more sparkly, as you said.
Although it's...
so it's funny, because if you watch Frenchnews, there are neighborhoods in Nîmes
that are quite the hell in handbasket.
And so, French people think Nîmes is worsethan Arles, but as far as the tourists

(23:22):
are concerned, Nîmes looks better, itlooks more, you know, taken care of, but
there are some problems in Nîmes as well,although these are neighborhoods where you
would never go as a visitor, so, or me,I would never go to these neighborhoods.
So, interesting.
All right, you mentionedJardin de la Fontaine.

(23:42):
Was that in Nîmes?

Yes, that was in Nimes.
I enjoy going to cityparks and town parks.
And so we walked overthere in that whole...
You know, everywhere we walked waswell maintained and, so we walked
in there and then walked up to,there's a Roman fortress, maybe, up
at the top, that we walked up to.
And there was a bunch of men playingboule, so just a little, kind of, a
little more local feel, getting intothe parks, which I like, and a couple

(24:07):
more ancient sites were in there too.

A temple of Diana, is that in there?

That's possible.

I'm not sure.

Yeah, that, they thought was a library perhaps, in Roman times.
So all, they're all justthings you can walk right up
to, there's no line or queue.

I've never been really a tourist in Nîmes
because I have cousins in Nîmes.
And so I just go visit them.
I visited the temple, I visitedNîmes Arennes, but I haven't
spent much time visiting Nîmes.
I should go back and spendsome, some serious time there.

It was a city I thought I would like to go back to.

Uh huh.

I thought I could spend more time in that area for sure.
And Arles, the one thing with Arles isthere was a lot of road construction.
And because we were getting there laterin the day, it was also getting a little
bit darker, and the road constructionmade it a little bit harder to walk
from the train station into town.
On the way back, we stopped ina wine bar, some local wine bar,

(25:04):
that they were very gracious to us.
It wasn't really a wine bar.
It was really like a bottleshop, wasn't it, Melissa?
And they were great to us.
And there was this little boywho just attached himself to us.
And when we would separatefrom each other, he'd ask
the other person for money.

How old was this boy?

We don't have enough French for that.
Eight or ten.

How strange.
You found the strangestpeople in Arlès and Nîmes.

We like it.
We like it, but we're comfortable.
If we weren't comfortable travellinglike that, those things would
make me very uncomfortable.
The late train cancelled, taking a taxiback to a town in the dark, you know,
those things would make me uncomfortable.
But because I didn't start travellingat this age, I've been doing it for a

(25:56):
while, it's just part of the experience.

Yeah, you take it in stride, which is great.
That is definitely great.
Ah, so you went to Uzès onMarket Day and the Pont du Gard.
So I want to hear about that becausethat's a day trip that I recommend.
Like go to Uzès, go to Pont du Gard.
If it's Market Day, go to Uzèsfirst and then the Pont du Gard.
You could take a hike in the afternoon,or swim, or something if you would like.

(26:20):
So do tell about that.

My turn?

Go ahead, mom.

Okay.
Okay.
Let's see.
By then we had the car, so that wasthe first day with the car, I think.
No, I guess it was the second day, butanyway, we did start with the market.
It was Saturday.
And we did start with the market,and we had a great time there, at the
market as well as in a food store.

(26:43):
Between where we parkedthe car and the market.
We found a local food store with a manwho couldn't have been more helpful to
us, and even put back some things thatI had picked up and said to me, no,
you don't want that, and put it back onthe shelf and gave me something else.
And it was just a delightful experience.

(27:06):
We bought local honey, we bought...
oh, help me, Melissa.
We bought enough for lunch.
We bought some tempanades, and somebread, and cheese, so we could go
to the Pont du Gard and have lunch.
And so we did that.
Then we drove on and that'sjust such a lovely, lovely

(27:26):
setting at the Pont du Gard.
It was beautiful.
And there were no people there.
You know, that's the love oftraveling this time of the year.
There were no crowds.
We walked all around, took some greatphotos, just kind of had a really relaxing
day, because once you get in the car,there's a little less relaxing to be

(27:49):
done, if you're the driver, you know,and you're supposed to know where you're
going, it's just a little less relaxing.

Yeah.

But the Pont du Gard provided that.
And I'm so glad we went.
You could also go there by train, I guess,because we had passed on the same tracks.
There was a Pont du Gard station.
No, Melissa?
Am I wrong?

It's close, but I think you still have to then take
a taxi or something quite a ways.
It's, I think, the closest stop.

Okay.

Pont du Gard is really not that easy to get to.
I mean, from Avignon, there are trains,I mean, sorry, there are buses that will
take you, city buses that make a fewruns throughout the day, but no train.
Uzès perhaps, probably Uzès has a trainstation, but not, not Pont du Gard.
It is probably, I don't know,three, four kilometers away.

(28:37):
So you could walk, but...

It was there on that day, I think, that we ran into the herd of goats.
That was interesting.

Why, French goats are different than American goats?

They were on the road coming toward us, like 200 of them.
We don't see the parade, theparade of goats, very often.

Yes, yes, that's true that, you know, animals,
goats, cows, horses, they preferto walk on roads than in the mud.
So, if they have a choice,they'll come on the road.

They were being guided by female, I will call them shepherds.
But the interesting thing wasthat Melissa was following
Google Maps and I was driving.
And she said, Mom, I don'tknow what this means, but it
says we have traffic up ahead.
And we were on a small Frenchtwo lane road, and I thought,

(29:30):
there is no traffic up ahead.
And she said, well, maybe it'llbe a, maybe it'll be a track.
I thought, no, maybe, I don't know.
And then all of a sudden, there they were.

The goats.

And they were the trafic.
Yeah, the goats.

Goats creating a traffic jam in France.
Goats.

And it was quite interesting.
It got picked up on Google Maps.
It was enough of a...
cycle, I guess, is how they do it.

Yeah.
So tell me about this electriccar that, was it your intention
to rent an electric car or not?

Yes.
Go ahead, Melissa.

We both have electric cars at home, so that
helped with our comfort level.
And yeah, we just figured, you know,they might as well check it out and
see how it is accessibility wise.
I think we lucked out with, where werented the rental car, the man, the
employee was very helpful, made sure wekind of knew, knew what we were doing,
how to make some of the functions work.

What car did they give you?

The electric, oh goodness, sorry, butcher the name, the Renault?

The Renault?

No, it was not the Renault.
It was one I hadn't heard of.
I thought it began with an M.

I think that's what we were supposed to get, but it was the Renault.
I'm pretty sure it's thekind of diamond symbol.
Yeah.

Yes, yes.
So it was probably a RenaultMegane, electric Megane.
Or perhaps it was a Zoe?
Was it a very small car?

No.
No, it was an SUV.

Okay, then a Megane, probably.
Did they give you a card foryour recharges, or were you
like, oh, use your credit cards?

They used a card that we could use for certain chargers,
but they weren't really in thearea, the areas we were going.
So we charged, the hotel that we stayedin last had a charger, which we didn't
plan on, but that was good, and thenwe charged one other time, off the...

A freeway exit, a freeway rest stop.

Yeah, the rest stop, so they all had fast chargers
there, so that was very easy.

And those worked with your credit card or with the
card that the company gave you?

Credit card.

With a credit card, okay, good.
So, I think eventually we're goingto get to the point where all
these highway kind of rest stopchargers will take credit cards.
And then that's it.
That's all you need.
If once they take credit cards, it's easy.
For now, we still have somethat do most that don't.
And I found that the Avignon areawhere I also went with my electric car,

(31:57):
they didn't have that many chargerscompared to the rest of France.
They need to catch up because the rest ofFrance has way more like grocery stores...
I see you went toL'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, their grocery
stores don't have car chargers.
How is that possible?
Like, come on.
Come on.
All the other grocerystores in France have them.

(32:18):
Why not there?
And I told them, I said,this is ridiculous.
Get me a car charger in that parking lot.
Because they're...
it's perfect.
Like it, you know, they're fast chargers.
If they're 50K or better than,I mean, if you shop for an hour,
that's it, your car's full, you know?
So anyway...

(32:38):
But you found it okay to have a electriccar in France, it wasn't a struggle?

I don't think so.
You just had to spend a little bitmore time looking, you know, kind
of planning your route or, you know,knowing how much charge you had left.
But I wouldn't say it didn't stopus from doing anything, certainly.

Right.
And it helps that you know thedifference between a fast charger,
and a slow charger, and a mediumcharger, and all of that, because
most people don't understand this.
And so they, they're like, well...

It would not be the time to start having an electric car.

Right.

For me.
Because we already had the experiences.
Yes, and because one of us doesn'tdrive a stick shift, that was another
reason we got an electric car.

Yes, that helped.
We didn't have to worryabout that part of it.

Her parents didn't teach her how to drive a stick shift.

Why would you, but you know, anymore in France, most people,
most French people buy automatics as well.
It's not that common torent a manual only anyway.
So, I mean, it happens,but it's not everywhere.
So what electric cars do youdrive at home, I'm curious?
What do you drive Melissa?
Volkswagen.

(33:44):
Both of you?

We have the same car.

And it's the ID?

The ID4.

The ID4.
Okay.
Excellent cars.

We're happy with that car.
A little plug.

Yes.

We are happy with it, and I got it six months after she got it.
When they were going to do it,I thought, Oh, this is the time
for me to convert to electric.
I have private tutors.

Yeah.
Perfect.

And so they are six months ahead of us, and it's been great.
I've had mine for a year now,she's had hers for 18 months.
Yeah.
We're happy.

Once, you understand how it works, honestly, it's really easy.
And in France, we havechargers everywhere.
I'm going to Bordeaux on Saturday ina couple of days, and I didn't even
check, you know, and then I thought,oh, you should check, because I get
a big discount on Ionity chargers.
So I'm like, Oh, I need to, becausesometimes on the freeway they put a sign

(34:35):
that says there's car chargers here,but they don't tell you which brand.
And so if you have a discount onIonity, you want to stop at the Ionity.
Why not?
I checked it, but only so I could getthe brand where I get the discount.
All right.
So you also went, we need tohurry up, but you also went to

(34:56):
L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, Eygalières...
Eygalières, what is that?

A little village.
Yeah, it's a little village veryclose to Les Baux in Provence.
That our hotel, the hotel suggested we go.
Because it was on the road tosomething else we were going to.
The young woman at the desk said, Oh, Ithink this is such a nice little village.
You might want to justdrive through there.

(35:23):
We did.
And it was lovely.
It was, I think, a Sunday afternoon.
And everybody was out.
And there was a park forsome sport, maybe Pétanque?

Could be.

I think it was.
I think it was.
People were playing by timer.
They were calling people up, so it waslike an organized reserved park for that.

Oh, they had a competition of some sort.

Yes, they were using the loudspeaker, calling people up.
At least I think that's what they weredoing, you know, with such limited
French, sometimes I just make things up.
But that was great.
And L'Isle...
L'Isle, you say it so differently,L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue?!

L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue

A beautiful town, and we, again, market day, and we bought ourselves
scarves, and we bought more local, webought spiced nuts there from a man.
We just tasted our way through andcame home with lots of local food
from Provence, which was great fun.

Yeah, and L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue has a good market.
I've seen a lot of markets, Igo through a lot of markets, but
that one, I actually bought somethings, which is unusual for me.
I usually walk through and I don'tbuy anything, and that one, I was
like, oh, somehow they tempted me intobuying a few things, which is good.

People are well trained at tempting you.

Yes, yes, yes.
And so you wrote Carrefour Lumière, but Ithink you meant Les Carrières de Lumière.
Is that the place where theyproject the light and sound show?

Yes.

Talk to me about this because that's really one
not to be missed in this area.

Oh, first of all, it's in a stone quarry that is huge.
So it's like projecting it insomething bigger than the Papal
Palace, which is quite big.
The one we saw was Vermeer to Van Gogh.

Yeah, they do different shows every year or every few months.
Yeah.

And we have similar but lesser things in the United
States now, but for twice the price.

Right.
So I went to one in Salt Lakethat was supposed to be the same.
It sucked.
I'm sorry.
I'm just sorry, because they doit in these like hangars, where
the light it's not dim enough.
It's not dark enough.
It's all wrong.
Compared to Les Carrièresde Lumière, it's just wrong.
Carrières de Lumière is what started thisand it's gorgeous, because it's, like you

(37:48):
said, it's a quarry, they've excavateda lot of stone and they have these nice
flat walls with these pillars, and you canwalk through and as the show is going, you
walk around and it's just awe inspiring.
Yeah, if you're going to do itsomewhere, do it there because
the others are like, oh, no, no.
Yeah.
You know, family members who hadnever seen it in France were like,

(38:09):
oh, what are you complaining about?
It was fine.
I'm like, yes, it'sfine, but it's not great.
It's, by comparison, it's like, ugh!

That's right.
No, this was, we had seen a coupleof other things, but this definitely
was just breathtaking and amazing.
And then there was a second show of amodern artist, that I don't remember
the name of, and it was equally as good.
And we were probably in there for anhour, but then again, we were in there

(38:39):
with maybe 25, or 30 people total.
So we had the full experience.

Right, but even if there's a lot of people, because in
that room, there's actually placeswhere you can sit down because depending
on how they cut the stone, you mighthave things that are behind level.
And of course you'll come out withyour pants all white, that's fine.

That was okay.
But that was, I was so glad we didn'tmiss that, because that was one of
the last things we did and we knew wejust had to kind of, it was going to
be a long day and we had to squeezeit in, but we were so close to it and
I just really wanted to do it, andI think we were really glad we did.
It was one of the highlights for sure.

I think it's great that you travel as a mother-daughter,
you know, family thing.
Because I'm sure you, I mean, perhaps,Melissa, you have a significant other
or you, Sandy, and, but you justmake, you go with just the two of you.
Why do you choose that?

I'm trying to remember.
I think you suggested it onetime and it was like, why not?
But it is really nice because we makeour kind of top three of each location
of what she really wants to see, and whatI really want to see, and sometimes they
match up and sometimes they don't, butthen you're getting to see things you
wouldn't have gone to without the other.
And rarely is anything disappointing,rarely do I think, oh, I wish

(39:57):
we didn't spend time on that.
So it's enriching in that way too.
That's different when wetravel with our spouses.

I think the two of us tend to want to do more of the same things
than either one of our spouses mightwant to do with each other, you know,
and so that works out well for us.
But the other thing is thatwe have our private time.
We always, Melissa finds rooms nowwith family units, and what that
means is, one of us is behind adoor, a closed door with a bit, and

(40:27):
the other one has the other part.
And, you know, that makes all thedifference on earth, because as much as
we love each other, and as much as welike the same things, the truth is, this
was a ten day trip, ten days, in closequarters with the same person is a lot.

Yes.
Yes.

So it's good that we can go in at night, say good night, close the
door, and have hours of private time.
And I think that's whatmakes it work long term.
We go home happy.
We don't go home sick of each other.
And we do it again in a couple of years.

That's wonderful.
I think that's great that you do thatbecause, yeah, you know, life being what
it is, and seize the day, you know...

That's right.

...is the reality.

And do it as many times as you can.

Does France make that fairly easy?
Do you actually enjoy coming to France ordo you just do that because it's familiar?

I don't know, I think Melissa makes it easy.
I think going to any foreign countrywhen you don't speak the language
is an added level of difficulty.
But we've done it enough, we doenough research, and France is
just an amazing country, Annie.
France is unlike any other countryfor, I think, so many different

(41:44):
opportunities you can have in France.
We might branch out, like we didn'tgo to Paris this time at all.
And last time we only went to Paris.
So, you know, we are branching out.
I think maybe the very south, on theMediterranean, might be the next area.

So Collioure, Perpignan, that kind of, almost Spain.

Yeah, we have not done that, yes.

It's much cheaper.
It's much cheaper.
If you go down the coast afterMontpellier, you head down the coast,
it's usually accommodations are cheaper.

Toward the West?

Heading south, so Montpellier is kind of at the same
level more or less as Nice, butthen, as you head south towards
Spain, that coast is usually cheaper.
It's also beautiful, but in a verydifferent way, it's its own thing.
All right, ladies, thank youso much for talking to me.
I had a great time learning about yourexperiences, and it sounds like even

(42:41):
not speaking French, you did just fine.

Merci Annie, it was a great time.

Merci beaucoup, and happy travels to everybody.

Merci!

Au revoir.

Au revoir.

Again, I want to thank my patrons for giving
back, and supporting the show.
Patreon supporters get new episodes assoon as they are ready, and ad-free.
You can be like them, followthe link in the show notes.
And patrons get lots ofexclusive rewards as well.
You can see them at patreon.com/joinus.

(43:20):
A special shout out this week to our newJoin Us in France champions: Densy Ruiz,
Antonette Lucente and Sandra Collins.
And to all my current patrons, it'swonderful to have you on board in the
community of travel enthusiasts andFrancophiles who keep this podcast going.

(43:40):
And to support Elyse, goto patreon.com/elysart.
This week I published the datesfor our monthly Zoom meeting with
patrons that people who support theAccro du Podcast and higher get.
It's always fun to talk to my patronsand this month we're going to do a
Paris quiz, a Paris game together.

(44:04):
It'll be fun.
I want to read some reviews of my tours.
About the Eiffel Tower tour:
'Nice way to prepare us for theEiffel Tower ascent in a relaxed
way that helped us skip the lines.
Good recommendations for therestaurants inside of the museum'.
Yeah, this tour is short but it doesgive a lot of good recommendations

(44:24):
on where to eat around the tower,and also how to not be stuck in lines
for hours, and hours, and hours.

And another person wrote: 'This was an awesome walk'. (44:31):
undefined
Well, thank you very much.

About my Île de la Cité tour (44:36):
'Clear directions, easy to walk along and
listen, interesting facts and spotsI had previously walked by without
knowing that they were there.
I enjoyed the tour'.
Yes, that's the whole point, is toopen your eyes to things that you
would have otherwise missed, even ifyou've been to Paris many, many times.

(44:58):
One last one about the Îlede la Cité tour: 'Delightful,
informative, lovely sense of humor'.
Ah, well, thank you very much.
I appreciate that.
Thank you very much for those reviews.
And podcast listeners get a big discountfor buying these tours from my website.
But if you buy directly from my website,going to: joinusinfrance.com/boutique

(45:19):
you don't get the codes instantaneously.
You have to be a little patientbecause that's a manual process.
If you're in a big hurry, just buythem directly through the VoiceMap app.
Okay?
And another thing you can do tohelp yourself have a better trip,
and support the podcast as well, isto book an itinerary consultation.
I do two levels of consults on Zoom.

(45:42):
It's all explained onjoinusinfrance.com/boutique, but there's
the Bonjour Service where I just chatwith you for an hour and give you all
my best suggestions for, you know,help you put it together, because
sometimes you need a little outside help.
And this week, I have some feedback,some audio feedback, I don't get that

(46:02):
very often, so thank you for sendingthat in, from Poppy Winingham, she did an
itinerary consult with me, and found itvery helpful, and here she is telling us:

Poppy Winingham (46:14):
Bonjour, Annie.
Speaking with you this morningwas incredibly helpful.
I feel so much more relaxed aboutour upcoming trip, I cannot say that
enough, you really helped narrow myfocus on things that were practical and
doable, and I am so excited to read theitinerary that you have put together.
Thank you so much.

(46:34):
Merci beaucoup.
Au revoir.

Poppy booked the VIP Itinerary Service where I sent her an
extensive witten custom travel guide.
All right, let's talk a little bitabout my plans for the next few weeks.
My husband and I are going on vacation alittle bit late this year, and we chose
to meet some friends in New York andtake a transatlantic cruise together.
Now, I don't go on very manycruises, I've only gone on three or

(46:59):
four, but I really enjoy cruising.
It's, you know, like, it's so relaxing!
There's nothing that you have to do.
There's plenty that you could do,but nothing that you have to do.
And that is just really, really relaxing.
The Norwegian cruise shipwill take us to various ports
and drop us off in Barcelona.

(47:19):
So, we'll spend some time in NewYork before the cruise, then take
the ship across the Atlantic,and stop in various places.
Halifax.
I've never been to Halifax.
We'll go to the Azores,where I've never been either.
Several stops in Spain, Motil,which is by the Alhambra.

(47:40):
I can't remember what else.
Anyway, we end in Barcelona, and so we'llalso go to my apartment in Villanova i la
Geltru, for a few days after the cruise.
So, I won't do any itinerary consultationsduring that month because I'll
have internet access, I'll try and,you know, I'll talk to my patrons,
and things like that, but I'm notgoing to be doing a lot of work.

(48:03):
So if you're thinking of booking anitinerary, don't put it off too much.
The good news is that I willcontinue to publish a new episode
every Sunday at 6 PM Paris time.
And I have a lot of episodes in the can.
I think I'm all recordedtill January at this point.
But I'm always looking for goodguests to come on the podcast.

(48:25):
So if you would like to talk tome about a trip you had, reach out

to me (48:29):
annie@joinusinfrance.com.
And recently, I've been ona kick listening to classic
science-fiction books.
I've talked about this, I've listenedto a lot of Jules Verne, because,
you know, we went to the north ofFrance, where he spent a lot of time
and that kind of sparked the interest.
And I just really love his books.

(48:51):
And they are written in abit of an old style and...
you know, you have to put up with...
nowadays they wouldn't write likethat anymore, but it's very well
done and the stories are fantastic.
So the last one I listenedto is 'Mysterious Island'.
It sounds a lot like, you know,like castaways, like, people on an

(49:13):
island, deserted island, or is it?
You know?
It's like TV show Lost, exceptnot quite as crazy as Lost.
Anyway, lovely book andthe end is exciting.
I'm not going to spoil it,but it's really exciting.

(49:33):
And the other book that I'vereally, really enjoyed is The
Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle.
Now, Planet of the Apes, Ihad just watched the movie.
I had never read the book, and I didn'trealize that the author was a French guy.
He said he liked a quiet life andcrazy stories going on in his head.
And that's exactly what he did.

(49:54):
Really, really good.
Now, not quite the same as the movie.
The movie takes a different turn.
The book is really, I think, themain theme of the book is a cry
against animal experimentation.
But it's extremely well done, andthat one is not difficult to read.

(50:15):
It's really pretty simple,pretty straightforward
writing, very easy to enjoy.
If you like to listen to books,Audible or read books, perhaps you
still sit and read a book, although Ithink podcast people listen to books.
I would assume.
Those books are fantasticand I really cannot recommend

(50:36):
Planet of the Apes enough.
One of these days we'll have to doan episode, a biography about him
because he had an interesting life.
And he also wrote Bridge over theRiver Kwai, that I didn't read either.
So I got some reading to do.
My thanks to podcast editorsAnne and Cristian Cotovan
who produced the transcripts.
Next week on the podcast, an episodewith Elyse about the postman who built

(51:02):
a palace, the story of the Palais Idéal.
Ha!
Have you ever heard of this guy?
Well, he was a postman and he builthimself a palace over his lifetime.
Incredible story.
And you can visit it too, so..., Ireally enjoyed recording this with Elyse.
And remember patrons get an ad-freeversion of this episode, click on the

(51:24):
link in the show notes to be like them.
Thank you so much for listening andI hope you join me next time so we
can look around France together.
Au revoir.
The Join Us in France travelpodcast is written, hosted, and
produced by Annie Sargent andCopyright 2024 by AddictedToFrance.
It is released under a CreativeCommons, attribution, non-commercial,

(51:49):
no derivatives license.

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