Burgundy, Champagne, and Geneva for lunch

Le Vieux Chateau

No, I didn't get that round the wrong way - it's where we've been, not what we've been drinking.
Our first week is spent in France, with a quick crossing into Geneva to visit friends Ben and Cam, now living and working there. We travel rather more than is our custom, with only one two-night stay in Dijon. Our little Eurodrive Renault Captur is great, and churns through the kms with amazing economy. Itinerary: Paris, Maçon, Geneva, Dijon, Reims, Liège (Belgium).

High spots of our week:

• having the first croissant and espresse breakfast, even if it is in the shuttle station near the Ibis Hotel at Charles de Gaulle airport. And then similar breakfasts all week but in better surroundings
• staying in Le Vieux Chateau, which is just that, on a hilltop overlooking vineyards in the Maçon area. Our chambre d'hôte is on two levels - the bed upstairs is in an alcove, rather like sleeping on Nahani. And there is a very friendly cat. We vow to return one day for a longer stay.
• sunshine and warmth after wintry Melbourne. It is low to mid-twenties, perfect for city strolling
• lunching with Ben and Cam, talking music and politics, and the politics of international music

Paddle steamer on Lake Leman, Geneva

• zipping back and forth on Lake Leman in Geneva via mouette, little ferries that are part of their public transport system
• crossing the Jura, on some very Tour de France roads. I enjoy this more than Peter, who is doing the driving and therefore can't look at the view much

• eating French food, best meal so far at Pourquoi Pas? in Dijon
• staying in a converted monastery in Dijon, another mezzanine room with bed upstairs



Dijon Carousel

• serendipitous moments in Dijon:

1. in the cathedral, woman in her sixties goes and stands directly under the crossing of nave and transept, sings the Bach Gounod Ave Maria unaccompanied, pitch perfect, beautifully expressive, with a second Amen pitched for maximum echo. Stunned tourists like us wanting to applaud at the end, but would not have been right. Singer rejoins husband and goes on walking round cathedral
2. as we walk across one of the squares in Dijon, we stop because some people are doing something odd with a half constructed barrel and some bits of wood. We ask what is going on, helpful person explains that in France they award gold medals to the no 1 master in various creative arts and crafts. This is a meeting of all of them (almost every neck we can see has a tricolour ribbon and medal) to honour one woman who is France's no 1 flower arranger (she recently spent 8 days in Dubai doing flowers for some prince's wedding). We watch as a figure is constructed with the barrel as a skirt (staves open at the bottom) wooden legs and feet, a steel mesh torso, tubular steel arms, steel frame head and beaten metal hat. The florist and assistant then decorate hat and body with flowers until "Caroline" is complete. By then the charming woman who has explained the whole proceedings has to go, and we have had enough of standing in the sun, so we don't wait to see "her" carried off in triumph

• finding that Reims Cathedral still gives me goosebumps and that Peter thinks it amazing too (he hasn't been before). Admiring wonderful new stained glass by a German artist, complements the Chagall window beautifully.

Low spots

• accidental abandonment of clothing, pajamas in Paris (his), shirt in Dijon (hers)
• accidental laundering of passport (his), retrieved before too wet and dried out successfully
• accidental acquisition of key to Belgian hotel - will have to post back
• finding Satnav not as good as Google maps - being led up windy narrow roads all around the vineyards, and being badly misdirected on to the wrong motorway where there has been recent road rearrangement. Takes a tense 20 mins getting back on course.
• paying 32 Swiss francs (more than $50) for parking behind Hotel in Geneva, when there was a public car park 50m down the road. Somewhat compensated by getting free parking in Dijon as payment machine was out of order and we were let out gratis by a disembodied voice, after 15 mins of struggle with machine and search for an attendant.

General impressions

We love the look of France, green fields, little bosky woods, consistent architecture, buildings ageing but still attractive, people with style. Hotel standards have gone up and we were getting last minute bookings for €88 for really good accommodation.

We have walked and walked, length of Geneva on both sides of the lake, from red light district to posh shopping, round and round Dijon following Parcours de la Chouette - little brass arrows with a owl on that guide you round all the points of interest. And all round Reims, more spacious, less mediaeval (probably because of wartime bombing) and to us less charming. Passers by not as charming, and some were seriously fat, which we hadn't seen in Dijon.

But overall, le ciel et bleu, les bois sont verts, et la vie est en rose.

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