Dear readers,
Since some of you are new here, Welcome! I know there are a zillion substacks out there so I’m honored that you’re reading mine. You can check out some of the stories behind a Good Vintage here and here, and all the posts are available at this link. I recommend reading with a nice chilled glass of Champagne.
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P.P.S. Reach out if you want any recommendations for Paris, Tours or Rennes!
It’s Sunday and hot as hell here in Arlington. Yes, welcome to summer in the swamp. We’ve been back from France for about 10 days and I’m missing those fresh warm baguettes and insanely good butter like nobody’s business. The hard truth is that the only things I truly missed were our friends and family. Well, that’s not entirely true. I also missed ice cubes, bookstores with books in English, air-conditioning, Fresca, decent Mexican food, and being able to pet dogs and interact with their owners without fear of reprisal.
There’s also the comfort of being in a place that I know well and where I can speak the language. Not being able to say more than a few basic sentences in French was perhaps the most challenging part of being away, and I’m determined to get better so that I’m not an embarrassment to myself or Jason.
But oh, France was glorious. Five weeks in Paris was enough time to settle in, find our favorite spots, and never feel like we had to rush to do all the things we wanted to do. And I would stay in the 16th arrondissement again, no matter what people say. Yes, it may be bougie and quiet, but at my age, I’m not looking for the hottest up-and-coming neighborhood filled with bars and clubs. Give me La Grande Epicerie and Monoprix a few blocks away, the green peacefulness of the Bois de Boulogne, excellent boulangeries, decent cafes, beautiful Haussmannian buildings, a good night’s sleep, and I’m in.
After Paris, we took a TGV to the Loire Valley and based ourselves in Tours, the largest city in the Loire Valley and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A busy university town, Tours is filled with young people, lots of art and culture, nice shops, and plenty of wine bars and restaurants. It is a city poised for growth.
Our charming Airbnb was on the top floor of an old building that overlooked the Tours Cathedral. In the evenings, we would often hear choirs practicing from below. I’m not religious—heck, I’m not even Christian—but there was something comforting about their voices wafting through the night air.
We spent our days visiting small villages and marveling at several chateaus, including Château de Villandry and The Royal Château of Amboise. As I mentioned in an earlier post, one of my favorite experiences was meeting up with a group of ex-pats in Amboise. We gathered around a large outdoor table at Le Shaker, a bustling bar on the river bank across from the Château, and watched as the sun slowly made its descent. Our new friend Philippe, a French man who had spent many years in the Bay area and now lives in Amboise, remarked how the light had gone from bright yellow to deep orange, sweeping across the Château. It was magical.
After Tours, we took a train to Rennes, the capital of Brittany. Maybe it was the gloomy weather or the graffiti everywhere, or maybe it was the unrest and demonstrations after the recent French election and the rise of the far-right National Rally, but the energy there made me a little uneasy. It also didn’t help that Jason got food poisoning on our second night there.
There were some highlights including meeting Theresa Conroy who writes the Yo, France! substack (along with her husband, Don), having drinks on a boat docked on the canal that runs through Rennes, walks through pretty parks, and finding the best pain au chocolat of our trip. We also took a day trip to Saint-Malo, a delightful walled city and seaside town, where we stopped for crepes and cider, and discovered that rosé cider is quite excellent and low in alcohol. We also picked up a Gâteau Nantais, a soft round pound cake made with flour, sugar, salted butter, eggs, almond meal, and rum syrup, and topped with lemon-flavored icing. The pastries alone were worth the trip to Brittany.
We were supposed to go to Dinard and Dinan after Rennes but decided that we’d had enough schlepping around (poor Jason had to lug our huge suitcases on and off trains, up flights of stairs, and across cities). So, we cut our trip short by about a week and will put the money we saved towards our next trip, which will be sometime this fall. For now, we’re looking into long-term visas, the next step on our way to la vie Française.
Beautiful photos and your accompanying text so descriptive I actually could recall my years of French classes beyond the language lessons ! Thank you🙏
I used to live near Tours and loved it, but we had toddlers and didn't take advantage of it as much as we could have.