Le Tour of France and the Canards of Oregon

Anya and I are freshly back from our Tour de France with my dad and stepmom. Despite global reports of massive strikes, protests and near-riots, we saw almost zero signs of problems until near our last day in the country. We were 4 days in Paris and 5 in the Dordogne valley in the south.

Fancy soccer skills at Sacre Coeur

Anya's sky-high expectations of Paris were met in full as we wandered old streets, butchered the French language and guzzled wine like we had livers of stainless steal.

I'm le grand artiste, as you can see

The weather was cold, but sunny enough and thankfully the tourist levels were reasonable, which reinforced my love of traveling in the off or shoulder season. 

Not at all being above such things, we followed Rick Steve's advice on our hotel and it was great. We stayed in the area of the Eiffel Tower, right off Rue Cler, a small street lined with specialist food and wine shops of all sorts. We tried to counter the city's high prices by gathering together our own picnics - not a bad way to go at all and kind of a tourist adventure in itself.

 Escaping the city, we flew to Toulouse and rented a car for the 2 hour drive north into the Dordogne Valley. We rented a small cottage on an old 16th century farm with a great view and, while continuing to chug great wine, added goose and duck liver pate to the mix - a regional specialty.

We fell in love with the fact that your typical French workers (such as construction workers) enjoy a 2 hour 4-5 course meal, with wine, on a typical work day. "Enjoy the wine? Back to the scaffolds now, Pierre!" The mid day menu (again, 4-5 courses and wine) would run 12 euro! Amazingly good value.

Having explored the castles and villages of the valley, we had one night in Toulouse (a lively and historical city and worth a day) and back to London. I was happy to note that coming back into London felt a good bit like coming home...and fortunately the weather wasn't bad at all.

Sunday was spent watching the mighty Ducks of Oregon kick ass against USC.

LACHEZ PAS CANARDS!