J'ai Quarante!!! RJ's Adventures in France

Burgundy -Bourgogne

As folks might know I turned 40 on September 30 (yeah you probably do know cuz I talked about it incessantly). I had visualized an extended vacation oversees for many many years. At some time I read the short story, A Month by the Lake by E. H. Bates and envisioned a sojourn as described in the book at Lake Como, Italy. When places weren't materializing that I liked, I recalled my friend Gail's daughter had a home in France. Fortunately after calls and emails, we secured the 15th century 11-bedroom Chateau in Bourgogne France (Burgundy) about 2.5 hours outside of Paris. The tiny village of Saint Andeux (population reportedly of 128) west of Dijon welcomed us:

Chateau St. Andeux, built in 1478
Guardian at the Gate of Chateau St. Andeux
"Hang in there Jesus" was irreverently called to him each morning.

And to answer the question, yes we had the entire Le Maison to ourselves. It had 11-bedrooms with bathrooms, a billiard room and antechamber office that I used for writing, formal living room, sitting room, dining room, large kitchen and TV room. So much happened during our very low-key, relaxing sojourn in the heart of France. We toured various villages including where they filmed the movie Chocolat in Flavigny-sur-Ozerain, the heart of the mustard craze-Dijon, a center of vines--Beaune, plus small medieval villages including our 'cyber' stop in Semur-en-Axois where I spotted a home that i'd love to own! It leads to a medieval bridge and the fortress in Semur and to the boulangerie (bread bread bread!), the cyber cafe and the spa!

We even took a day trip to Versailles outside Paris.


Versailles garden at left
Hall in the Grand Trianon at right











In all these travels were were aided by a device I recommend to everyone and anyone traveling in a foreign country--a GPS unit in the car! We named ours Geraldine (after Geraldine McEwan an English actress who starred in a BBC show called Mulberry that I now enjoy way too much, I actually bought the two DVDs--see photo at right). It was so enjoyable to be told in a nice British accent to 'bear left at the fork' or 'at the circle, take the third exit' or when a mishap occurred, 'if its convenient, make a U-turn' . . .So rather than anyone having to chart driving/mapping, constant calls of "where the hell are we?" accompanied by meltdowns, Geraldine guided us to each destination with elan. And just to note, if your gonna get one, apparently Geraldine is much more pleasant than the female American GPS unit, so make sure to ask for the British female voice, she was quite nice and rather supportive.

The Left Bank of Paris

After 2 1/2 weeks in the countryside where I accomplished a great deal of writing, my pals Gail and Chen accompanied me to Paris for my last three nights. Chen took off for the Chunnel and London, Gail and I stayed at the Hotel De Louisiane. From the chateau we graduated to a small hotel room that IS smaller than my New York apartment but it was on the Left Bank at the intersection of the Rue de Seine and Buci--very convenient to all the major sight seeing items.

A stormy sky above the entrance to the Louvre

We could walk to the Louvre, Notre Dam, the Ille de la Cite (where Marie Antoinette spent her last days), wonderful patisseries, boulangeries and restaurants, etc. On the first full day, Gail and I decided we needed to recharge our supply of reading materials and decided to head out to the legendary English language bookstore, Shakespeare and Co. En route to the bookstore we approached a visage...I saw two eyes on a building that rang familiar. . Andy Warhol? No. .we inched closer to the building to see the following (below):

The bar Polly Maggoo, named after the 1965 William Klein film, Qui etes-vous Polly Maggoo
which co-stared Grayson Hall.RJ points to Grayson's name on the movie poster.

Polly Maggoo was a French film Grayson Hall made in the mid-1960s. She portrayed a thinly veiled Diana Vreeland-type (legendary fashion editor) named Miss Maxwell. Gail and I ventured inside, had a drink and spoke with a manager about the film-based bar. After we got across that I'd written a book about one of the films stars he told us to take as many photos as we liked (no free wine though?) What a trip! I had no idea the place existed.

The last few days went quickly with good food and friendly people all about us. We did a lot of cafe gazing on the streets of Paris. Our smatterings of French got us all by and all incoming and outgoing flights/trains etc worked amazingly well. I returned to New York on October 17 and collapsed for that night then was up at 7:00 a.m. scrubbing my bathroom floor... ahh to return home. But i do already miss the place and will certainly return again.

Photos Photos Photos

Below are lots of photos. Brent's are quite good, but he went to Turkey first, so hit the link and go to photo 103 to start France. Robin's also are artistically inclined. Nancy's is a thorough documentation of our trip. Mine, well, my eye ain't so great but I tried.

Brent's photos (start at 103)__Click here
Robin's 75 photos can be viewed by clicking here
My 100+ photos can be viewed by clicking here
Nancy's 157 photos can be viewed by clicking here