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RWC Cup France 2023

September - October 2023
We return to France 16 years after we last went there for a Rugby World Cup. Not sure what the rugby has in store but we intend to enjoy Burgundy, Beaujolais, The French Alps, Normandy and the Northern battlefields. Read more
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  • TravelerRWC Cup France 2023
    Day 13

    Beaujolais

    September 19, 2023 in France ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    We put the disappointment of St Etienne behind us yesterday and set off to the Beaujolais region - our base for the next four days. We entered from the southern end visiting a few hillside villages in the area of “Golden Stones” - a reference to the deep golden colour of the local rock which you will see in the photos. Being Monday most shops are shut in small villages but we lucked on an boulangerie/patisserie in Oingt that had just brought out a fresh tray of eclairs of all flavours - I had the pistachio while Vanessa had coffee.
    We then moved to the northern end - the region is 55 km in length, 11 to 14 kms wide and 44,000 acres of vineyards! It is 99% Gamay grapes to make the relative light Beaujolais wines that are drunk young - not a problem for us! We are staying at Chateau Bonnet in a renovated section of the main house which is a 16th C Alderman’s lodge - great to have space to spread out and a washing machine! This is a working winery where they just finished harvesting and are now processing the grapes. Over the last two days we have seen the workers picking grapes on the steep hillsides by hand and putting the grapes into large open packs on their backs which they then walk over to a open top steel container behind a tractor and go up a ladder on the side and just lean over and tip the grapes in. We have encountered numerous tractors taking their full trailers along streets and narrow roads to the coops and wineries.
    Today we drove up to a small mount winding our way amongst acres of vines and pickers to a panoramic viewpoint over the valley - on a clear day you can see Mt Blanc apparently.
    We were unsuccessful dropping into a few restaurants and things were looking grim until we lucked onto a lovely Auberge set amongst a vineyard which was a new fine dining establishment. Entrees of snail,mushroom and fig tartlet for me and frog’s leg with ginger and sorrel emulsion for Jane - may as well while we are here! The main was salmon for Jane with a green tea gel and sauce while I had veal liver sautéed with baby beets and mash - scrumptious! Then eclairs again for dessert.
    Obviously wine tasting is the major activity here and we are doing our best - we even have a stocked cellar in our apartment of the Chateau wines!    Read more

  • TravelerRWC Cup France 2023
    Day 14

    Beaujolais Day 3

    September 20, 2023 in France ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    We had a rather deflating start to the day when our host Julien pointed out the flat rear tyre on our car to us in the morning - particularly when we found the empty spare tyre compartment! However from the time we rang the Sixt help line to having the car towed to garage, tyre repaired and back to us it was only 2 1/2 hours - a dream run.
    So we had a late start to Macon which is north of Beaujolais which is a provincial capital - nothing too interesting so we moved on further north to Chateau Cormatin - built in 1658 on the foundations of an 11th C castle. It has the grandest Louis XIII apartments remaining in France. Surrounded by a moat and gardens with topiary and box hedge mazes. I will let the pictures tell the story. Finished off the day with a game of Finska before heading off soon to the local village restaurant.    Read more

  • TravelerRWC Cup France 2023
    Day 15

    Chateau Bonnet and Roche de Solutre

    September 21, 2023 in France ⋅ 🌧 17 °C

    We have been staying at Chateau Bonnet vineyard - initially built in 1630 by Claude Bonnet, an alderman of the city of Macon as a holiday house. The Perrachon family - vignerons since 1830 - bought it in 1950 and now the third generation of the family run it. Julien the youngest son has been our host and we are lucky that they just picked the grapes last week and so are macerating the red wines in the vats now. Today we spent 2 1/2 hours with Julien going through the vineyards and then the winery being educated in the vinification process - his sister Charlotte is the current winemaker and she spent time at Brockenwood in the Hunter Valley. Afterwards we had the obligatory tasting of every wine they make and I have a new respect for Beaujolais (Gamay) wine - they do make a very small parcel of Chardonnay as well which is delicious.
    Then after lunch we ventured out to La Roche de Solutre - a rocky outcrop which provides a panoramic view of the region. The weather was very windy with rain squalls so quite bracing to say the least. Also I decided to use an alternative route via a gate that said in French “only for fit walkers” - unfortunately my French is crap and it actually said “reserved access for rock climbers”! So when Pete and I had scrambled up to the base of a cliff face with the track leading to a rocky ravine we retreated back through the brambles and found our way back onto the spur of the mount and back on the main track to the summit. As you will see and hear the wind was gusting but the view was worth it.
    On the way down we had a great view of the grapepickers harvesting Chardonnay grapes - in the video you will see there are three men with large white packs on their backs that the pickers put the grapes in and then they walk down to the trailers, walk up a ladder and tip the grapes in.
    Settling in now with cheese and pate and wines from the estate - tomorrow we move onto Lyon.    Read more

  • TravelerRWC Cup France 2023
    Day 16

    Lyon

    September 22, 2023 in France ⋅ 🌩️ 19 °C

    We left Beaujolais and drove to Lyon today. We booked rooms in an old lodge in the Vieux Lyon - the old city. The house we are in was built between 1500-1600 and still has original walls and timber ceilings. Up until thirty or so years ago this was the “bad” area of Lyon - home to gangsters and down and outs. So much so the Mayor wanted to tear it down for a motorway but the Lyonnaise (inhabitants of Lyon) protested and it became a UNESCO heritage site. Now it is cleaned up and full bouchons ( Lyon bistros) for which it is famous - needless to say we are booked in one tonight! Lyon was also the centre for silk weaving in the Middle Ages and it is still a major industry here - lots of tempting shops for Jane!
    We just took the furnicular up atop the big hill above the old city to a magnificent basilica but thunderstorms have rolled in so we have retreated home until dinner - Bonsoir.
    I haven’t taken many pictures today so have added a few random ones of interest from last week.    Read more

  • TravelerRWC Cup France 2023
    Day 16

    Lyon at night

    September 22, 2023 in France ⋅ 🌙 14 °C

    I always love walking around cities at night as the lights give a new perspective to the urban landscape and actually accentuate the beauty of the buildings and structures.

  • TravelerRWC Cup France 2023
    Day 18

    Lyon Game Day!

    September 24, 2023 in France ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    The two days there has been a steadily increasing number of Wallaby and Welsh supporters in town - plus the odd bunch of kilt wearing Scots, All Blacks and Poms.
    We did a walking trip which provided a lot of interesting historical and current facts:
    The city has 400 “traboules” which are corridors built through houses, connecting common courtyards, that allows people to move quickly up and down the city without going along the streets in the open. This was initially down by the Romans (Lyon is on the site of Lugdunum the Roman capital of Gaul empire) to allow easy access from the high hills to the Rivers Saone and Rhone. They were continued in the Middle Ages by the canuts - the silk weavers - to allow the moving of their expensive silks without getting exposed to the elements. They remain to this day and were of great use during WWII for the resistance to move secretly around the city whilst under Nazi rule. Most are now private - such as the entrance to our lodge - but there are public ones you can enter.
    The city has a lot of street art - in particular small sculptures on buildings around the place. The artists are celebrities here - one started doing tile mosaics in holes in building walls or pavements - the city now pays him to do it!
    Every street seems to have two or three patisseries! I’ve never seen or eaten so many amazing treats in my life.
    The Art Museum here has a fine collection of antiquities plus of course paintings from all eras (including a Brett Whiteley) - you’ll see in the pictures the scale of some the old canvases.
    So now it’s do or die for the Wallabies - nothing but a win is sufficient so the tension is building. The French have been openly hostile to the Wallabies in both matches so far - booing us and cheering our opposition. I think a lot of it is due to Eddie Jones who apparently insulted the French when he was England’s coach - or maybe it was Scott Morrison and the submarine debacle! And of course any England fans hate him as well so we are up against it!
    Anyway we are hoping for a turnaround tonight - stay tuned!    Read more

  • TravelerRWC Cup France 2023
    Day 19

    Lyon Disaster

    September 25, 2023 in France ⋅ 🌙 13 °C

    What can I say - except I felt very sorry for this young inexperienced team Eddie Jones threw to the wolves - he will have done enormous damage to their confidence in the future. Leaving players like Foley and Hooper behind was inexplicable.
    At least the Welsh fans were decent afterwards - most were shocked at the way we folded and all said why did we take Eddie back!
    So looks like I’m getting a Fiji jumper for the quarterfinals!    Read more

  • TravelerRWC Cup France 2023
    1
    Day 20

    Annecy

    September 26, 2023 in France ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    We left Lyon heading to the French Alps. We drove via Chambery, an historical city with medieval architecture from the Savoy rulers that ruled as far as Turin in Italy - it has been in and out of French rule until finally in 1860 it was ceded to France. We then travelled across to Le Bourget-du-Lac, the biggest Alpine lake in France and passed Aix-Des-Bains where the Romans first built thermal baths - the town is still a spa resort. We drove up a switchback road to Col de la Chambotte - at 650m you can see all the lake below.
    Then onto to Annecy. It was Peter and Vanessa’s wedding anniversary so we had booked into a Paul Becuse restaurant by the water - it didn’t disappoint.
    Annecy is called the Venice of the Alps because it is built at the end of the lake that feeds into the River Thiou and has built canals through the old city - the canals have flower windowboxes hung on the fences all along them so very pretty. It was market day in the old city so always good to try out the cheeses and saucissons available for tasting plus finally got a real latte coffee! All the time weaving in and out of narrow cobblestone streets with overhanging wooden and stone lintels, and interconnecting alleyways leading to footbridges over the canals.
    We finished the day with a boat cruise of the lake - lots of little settlements along the shores - a fairytale chateau that allegedly inspired Walt Disney’s Sleeping Beauty - jagged granite mountain ridges up air with paragliders galore - we counted over 80 in the air!
    Then a classic Savoire dish - fondue! But with white wine, garlic and onion here plus we added mushrooms. A stroll back home among the spot lit building - tomorrow Mt Blanc!
    P.S. In many cities and towns there are buildings with “fake” windows - that is windows that have been bricked up and painted over to look like real windows in a trompe-l'œil fashion. That is because in France ( and England and Scotland) from the 1600’s until 1926 there was a tax based on how many windows you had! So to avoid tax people bricked up the windows but to avoid looking ugly they painted facsimile windows over them! I have put a picture of a particularly cute one we saw.    Read more

  • TravelerRWC Cup France 2023
    Day 21

    Annecy to Chamonix

    September 27, 2023 in France ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    We drove from Annecy today heading into the French Alps - the horizon changing into towering valley sides of high peaks topped with snow. Not far from Chamonix we sidetracked to a small village called St-Gervais-Des -Bains to catch the Tramway du Mount Blanc - France’s highest train. A 45 minute ride on a cog wheel tram to a height of 2115m near the glacier flowing down from Mount Blanc - a steep, winding and beautiful trip starting in pine forests before rising out into open alpine terrain with awe inspiring views of the mountains. Mount Blanc itself is a rather subdued dome shaped peak compared with those below it but nonetheless a titan of a mountain.
    Of interest is the dome shaped climbers refuge on the ridge below the final summit called Refuge de Gouter at 3835m! (the peak is 4810m) - It is ovoid in shape, distinguished by its stainless steel coating and has four levels. Unbelievable to think they constructed that up there. You can see it in the picture on the ridge to the left in some of the pictures.
    We settled into our chalet apartment here in Chamonix afterwards and our view is the other side of Mount Blanc - tomorrow we head up the cable car to do some hiking.    Read more

  • TravelerRWC Cup France 2023
    Day 23

    Chamonix Day 1

    September 29, 2023 in France ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    Chamonix is a ski resort town in a valley surrounded by high peaks (including Mount Blanc). We headed up on the cable car to Auguille du Midi ( augille is a sharp pinnacle of rock in a mountain range and this place is full of them - more on that tomorrow) getting off at the halfway point at 2317m to commence the Grand Balcon Nord walk (grand northern balcony) which goes for 7km traversing the northern side of the valley crossing old glacial moraine and mountain streams with a never ending jagged soaring peaks above you. The end point was the Mer de Glacé - river of ice - France’s longest glacier - now only 7km in length but once was double that.
    The pictures tell the story.    Read more

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