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| The Breakfast room at the Monte Carlo Hotel in Paris. Even though it's more expensive to have breakfast in the hotel we prefer it. We like to have our coffee (and lots of it) first thing in the morning. |
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| Paris hotel rooms are tiny - especially if they're not expensive, although that's relative |
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| Boulangerie's are a traveler's best friend, but not a diet's (whose on a diet in Europe?) |
A good discovery was Le Fourchette (lefourchette.com or thefork.com in English) a website that allows you to make reservations at restaurants often with big discounts. The earlier you make reservations at hotels or restaurants the better deals you get in Paris.
At the end of the trip we spent one more night in Paris and didn't do anything until a week before. We stayed at Hotel Vielle France near the Gare Nord and it was pretty shabby. And it cost just about the same amount of money. We were stuck as we needed to be near the railway station for our trip to London. We do not recommend it.
As I mentioned in an earlier entry we leased our car from Renault Eurodrive (1-888-532-1221) and we were very happy with them. Our Renault Clio was brand new 90 hp Diesel with GPS. It was easy to pick it up and drop it off. We had it from 9/22 to 11/9 and it cost about $2,000. This was with all inclusive insurance with no deductible. We loved the car and it was fun to drive a manual again.
We had dinner at Le Bouillion Chartier down the street with mixed results. I thought my food was pretty poor but Scott's was better. It was very popular with a line forming early. Diners sit together and there were a lot of English speaking people there.
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| A small cheese selection! Since we didn't know the name of most of the cheese, we just pointed. |
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| Fresh fruit is sold everywhere and makes a great accompaniment to your cheese and bread |
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| A fantastic recommendation late at night in Toulouse - La Pergoda, just outside the city |
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| The master griller serves up the steaks at La Pergoda |
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| French fast food - preprepared sandwiches, casseroles, and salads. They'll heat up things up for you if you want. |
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| A row of restaurants line the main square in Toulouse, one of which we had lunch in. |
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| McDonald's, America's fast food, has invaded France and it seems very popular. But it serves better food than in the US and has free WIFI. |
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| Outside the cities the rooms are much bigger and nicer for the price. This is our lovely place in Prades - Villa du Parc |
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| We had two meals at Villa du Parc's great restaurant |
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| The entrance to the compound. We were in a separate building with 4 or 5 rooms. |
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| The artisan baker we found in |
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| We stopped at several "wine tastings". This was our favorite. |
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| Busy farmer's markets are a huge help to the picnic basket and many serve lunch as well.. |
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| A typical picnic - bread, fruit, cheese, pate, mustard and wine. We brought two plates, silverware, a sharp knife and glasses with us. |
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| The beautifully composed appetizer (entre) at "Augerge Aux Remp'Arts" in Elne. This was a Catalan specialty with marinated anchovies |
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| It was worth driving to Spain for the paella in Llanca |
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| Our large bedroom with balcony at Le Grand Bassin in Castelnaudry |
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| Of course we had cassoulet in it's birthplace - Castelnaudry |
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| Every morning started with fresh croissants |
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| In the land of gelato - here as in Italy, it was strange to see Vermont's Ben and Jerry's! |
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| The fanciest and most expensive restaurant of our trip - Chef Jean-Luc Rabanel's "A Cote" in Arles |
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| My dessert - manufique! |
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| Expressions aside, these were good sandwiches. Ethnic restaurants offer good value (and taste). |
The next day we had lunch at the Ca D'Oro on Rue d'Arbre off Rue de Tripoli, right near the Louvre. It's a small Italian place with a few outside tables and we had a very good meal for a reasonable price (15 euros, 3 courses with a 10 euro half litre of wine). That night we had dinner in our room, feasting on fresh fruit, pate, cheese, bread and wine.
We brought 2 plates, silverware, sharp knife and 2 good plastic glasses with us for these occasions and we used them a lot. We often had one meal at a restaurant and one as a picnic.
In Toulouse we stayed for 2 nights at the Residence Thibaud, 9 Rue Colomies, Toulouse 31100 (booking.com) This was an interesting place - located in an industrial park area of the city (you'd need a car) with fifty of so studio apartments of 2 stories around a courtyard. Downstairs bath, kitchenette with table and chairs and upstairs in a loft, a double bed. You need to be agile to get in and out of the bed. It worked well for us and the manager Charlotte was very nice. They serve a good petit dejeuner in the pleasant office with tables and comfortable chairs. The price was right, 49 euros a night and 6 euros for breakfast.
We had dinner our first night at La Pergoda, 262 Ave. De Lardenne 31100 about 20 minutes away - very pretty and good food.
One problem emerged as we left Toulouse, none of the gas stations we tried accepted our credit card. Europeans have a chip in their credit cards and many places won't accept cards without it. We had to go on the toll Motorway and use a gas station on it.
Our next destination was Prades, southeast of Toulouse. We stayed at the Villa du Parc, 49 Route de Ria, 66500. We booked this direct with them on their website (villa-du-parc.com) Our hostess Mineike is German, speaks excellent English and is delightful. This was the nicest place we stayed and for 78 euros per night, a great deal. We ate 2 dinners there and the food and atmosphere was terrific. We would have liked to have at least one dinner out but we were there over a holiday weekend and nothing was open (except thank goodness our hotel.
The third night we were exhausted from a long day sightseeing, hiking and driving and bought some great salads/cheese/meat/bread at a good supermarket in Prades and ate in our room. The breakfast here was worth the price with lots of cheese, meat, many kinds of breads and even soft boiled eggs.
The next 2 nights were at Hotel Auberge du Roua, 46 Chemin du Roua, Argeles-sur-Mer (Expedia.com) 69 euros a night. This was a really elegant small hotel with a very expensive but well reviewed restaurant. We were surprised our room was so cheap - it was small. They had a pretty pool which Scott managed to swim in - it was pretty cold. The breakfast was 11 euros so we walked into town and ate twice in nice cafes near the main square (about 15 min. walk).
Our first night we had a really good dinner at the Auberge Aux Ramp'Arts in Elne. Very nice service and excellent food in this walled medieval looking village. Not much else was going on in the town but we enjoyed our walk around after dinner.
The second night we had a stellar meal and experience at the very friendly "The Flowers" restaurant and we got a 30% discount through The Fork!
During the day we drove down to Spain along the coast enjoying the beautiful small towns and ate some wonderful paella
Our next 2 night were in Castelnaudry at Le Grand Bassin, Quai Edmund Combes, 11400 (booked through legrandbassin.com website. This is a lovely bed and breakfast with delightful host Giles Avinzac and his wife, located right on the Canal de Midi. We met our friends there and we all had big attractive rooms. The patio outside was a great place to sit and drink/eat. This was 65 euros a night with breakfast - our best deal. Our first night we had pizza downtown at La Gondolier - pretty good and the second night Giles make reservations for us to have cassoulet at a nearby very casual restaurant. It was inexpensive and good.
Our boat trip is covered in other entries. We had a great meal out in Carcassonne but I forgot to note the name. Walking around at night in this ancient city is a very special experience. We cooked almost all our meals on the boat. Shopping for food is so much fun in France and we are all great cooks.
We rented a terrific place for six days in Raphele-les-Arles, only 10 minutes out of Arles, with 3 bedrooms and 1 and 1/2 baths, a large well equipped kitchen, dining room and comfortable living room. It had a large terrace and a small swimming pool in a greenhouse type structure. I need to find the details on this and will post them soon. It was only 500 euros total for 5 nights. We had a very memorable luncheon at Chef Jean-Luc Rabanel's restaurant A Cote, 21 Rue des Carmes (+33490476113) in Arles. We paid $150 for a 6 course (some were small) meal with coffee and a good bottle of wine. (37 euro menu). The wait staff was rushed as is discussed in the reviews but we didn't feel a lack of service and they were friendly. In Avignon we had a picnic in the lovely park on a ancient hill next to the Cathedral and in Aix-en-Provence you can see the photo of Walt and Honoree eating chicken kabob sandwiches at a ?Turkish cafe (good). As usual we all took turns cooking in the house and had wonderful dinners.
After this we were off to Italy and I'll cover the gory details later in another entry.
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| We didn't often splurge on dessert. But when we did, it was worth it. This is a Sainte-Honore cake. |
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