Tour de France 5: Le Mans

We headed straight for the Le Mans, the circuit used for the famous 24 hour race. Part of the race is on the Bugatti track and part on the public roads of the village of le Mans. The first French Grand Prix took place here in 1906.

When we arrived and bought our ticket to enter, the guard said that we could go anywhere we want on the grounds (not on the track, but, hey, he said it in French, so we didn't understand him). Here is Sterling standing in the pit stop!!!

I'm not sure what spot this is, but it looks really important!

The size of the thing is truly impressive--it is hard to know what it might be like, packed with a million or so fans and overwhelmed with the engine noise!

That day, there was a corporate thing going on for Audi. So, naturally, there were lots of Audi's all over the place, including this 100,000 euro Audi R8:

No one was looking, according to Sterling at the window, so we let ourselves in and sat down. But we took of our shoes first!

E "I got news for you: the seat in this Audi is made for an Italian butt!!"

So, there we are, minding our own business, and up drive TWO MORE R8's. It seems that the corporate big shots were letting their underlings drive these cars about.

You can't quite see it, but there are two 50,000 euro Audi SUV's behind the R8's and two really pretty Audi TT convertables behind that. Wow!

We love this snapshot of E. Click on it--you should be able to make out that this is a photo of a mirror that is engraved with names of past Le Mans winners.

Oops! Found another R8! The final count was five Audi R8's that day.

The entrance to the gift shop had this lovely display of models of past Le Mans winners.

All in all, a really nice pit stop on our Tour de France.

Tour de France 6: Amboise

The city of Amboise has more to do than we had time to do it. The Château d'Amboise was grand, and boasts a secret subterranian passage to da Vinci's Château du Clos Lucé, which was our destination.

Le Clos Lucé is where Leonardo da Vinci spent the last three years of his life from 1516, bringing with him the Mona Lisa, painting and working at his thousand passions.


He died here on 2nd May 1519, in his bedchamber. (Note, photos are forbiddend so the follwoing three images were captured off the web)


Da Vinci's dining room.



Unavailable is a full photo of the kitchen, but it was a large room with a correspondingly huge fireplace rigged with every possible and imaginable pulley and engineering gadget to make the cooking more efficient. Gleeming pots and pans.....


Leonardo da Vinci understood everything by observing nature. His inventions landscape the park of Le Clos Lucé, such as this whirlygig, complete with Sterling's ghost. How'd he do that?
The gardens are, as one might expect, a masterpiece of beauty and serenity.

We stayed until closing, partly because we wanted every moment possible, but we had learned from our experience at Omaha Beach that sometimes there are amazing things that happen late in the day. Seeing le Château du Clos Lucé lit up was the reward!

However, the skies opened up on our way to find our B&B. It was a very dark and rainy night. We had entered all the information in our GPS, but some of the addresses did not include street numbers so we knew we were approximating. Thankfully, just as our host had promised, there were signs leading the way, and we found le Demeure de L'Hommelaye, which was so quaint, clean and darling that we feel into the inviting bed sleeping peacefully until the roosters called in the morning.

Tour De France 7: Dordogne

We had a perfectly lovely B & B that was actually featured in the NY Times in 2002. This became relevant as our host asked me to try to find a copy of the issue with the article in it for their family. I am working on it.


La Ferme des Veyssières has exceptional food, real regional cuisine. As you shall see, we were in nut and goose country.


The Saturday market in the nearby village of Sarlat is known for its foie gras. This stall is actually the neighbor's of our B&B.

I learned alot about foie gras in the kitchen of our host, how the liver is naturally enlarged by the bird's heavy feeding before migration and this is a sign of good health where as an enlarged liver is usually a sign of serious illness. The farmers do not try to hide the practice of force feeding to mimick the premigration feeding behavior, and they are mystified why it is thought to be cruel. As the French say, alot, to each his own.

These birds were also our neighbors, and were fat and waddled around their huge yards freely. They particularly celebrated sunrise. And we celebrated them at dinner with a fabulous confit!

We went for an evening stroll through a grove of already harveste walnut trees. We soon realized that we were crunching the strays under our feet so we picked them up. A good cleaning and light roasting and they are delicious.

The Dordogne region i know for its caves. We visited the Gouffre de Padirac. The enormous chasm at Padirac is about 99 metres around the rim. We descended 75 metres to enter the cave and then had a boat trip along a subterranean stream, and then passed through various underground caverns full of extraordinary rock formations.

Some of the foramtions are calcifications and the water is green because of the lime. There are no fish because there is no light and therefore no photosynthesis to create the necessary oxygen to sustain life.

Grapes

Ripe grapes on a vine are more beautiful and temping than photos, especially of this size, can allow, but we will try.


The aroma of the sun on the grapes was intoxicating. Some were transluscent,

those in the shadows were cool and inviting,
and some seemed to know there destiny and just sparkled.The signs of autumn are the vines themselves.

It was an incredibly fun day, crisp and clear, and the breeze kept the bees at bay. Walking the village vineyards seemed like the perfect Swiss thing to do.
Actually, the Swiss do not export any wine; we are told there is not enough. With vines in every nook and cranny in our part of the country, this cannot seem possible, but it is. Happily, this leaves the world market to the French who seem to be able to make enough wine for us all.

Bois de Chêne: The Birch forest in its autumn splendor

These woods are lovely, dark and deep.

They hold treasures that can only be discovered on a quiet walk...




Most of which, according to my research, are pretty deadly,

all of which were left undisturbed.
And with one last bloom of summer color.