Ou Revoir Paris - Bonjour Moulins et Montpellier!

Oct 3, 2005

We planned to checkout of our hotel by noon and head south out of Paris. We would stay overnight, somewhere, and reach our destination, the Mediterranean town of Montpellier in Langudeoc-Rousillon, on the following day.

Well, not so easy. Stacey thought that somehow we had not visited every last sight in Paris. Shouldn't we arise early and spend a few hours visting Sainte Chapelle, the other exquisite cathedral on the Ile de la Cite (besides Notre Dame). It's known for its magnificent stained glass windows (our friend, Murray, brought this to our attention in a comment on an earlier post). Well, time doesn't always cooperate so neatly. We got on line at La Chapelle, but it was already 10:30. It had been brought to our attention that the car rental office closes (as do most businesses) from 12 to 2. We started to do the math (working backwards from 12 noon) to realize that we were not going to make the cqr pickup on time. Stacey and I decided that, since we were returning to Paris at the end of the trip, we could miss La Chapelle for now. We left the kids to take the tour, ran to the Metro and headed to the rental office on the Right Bank. Of course, when your'e in a hurry, nothing and nobody cooperates. And the office was several blocks, uphill, from the metro station. Good thing we're fit (all those gym visits). We literally ran up the hill for those several blocks and burst into the office at 11:50 - only 10 minutes to spare.

Our car was to be a Citroen Picasso. But the contract from Europe Car also said "or other." And we got the other to rent: a Ford C-Max. We turned up our noses. I really wanted the Citroen. When in France, drive a French car. But it was not to be. The car turned out fine in any case - spacious as European cars go, a diesel - so fuel was less expensive and very comfortable for the four of us with our luggage, cameras, knapsacks, etc.

Stacey and I are veteran travelers - we don't get lost, we're very able with map and directions , we're comfortable on local mass transit and we feel at home just about anywhere we go. We quickly drove to meet the kids back where we left them near the Seine, then back to the hotel to check out and claim our bags, then to some local stores for picnic stuff and then finally, finally the four us headed out of Paris. Hey! Not so easy. One just doesn't drive out of Paris - one takes very clogged streets until one can reach the autoroute several miles beyond the periphery of the city. Construction added to what should have been a short trip to the outer ring. It was a good hour before we reached the outskirts of the city and real highways that would lead us away from the city. We finally found ourselves on tnhe N10 that would connect to the Autoroute that would take us to parts south.


A picnic on the autoroute - we leave Paris, headed south.


Our Ford C-Max van -- courtesy of Euope Car rentals.

Because of all the delays in getting started, we didn't make it very far south as we had planed. Using our guide books, we tried to decide on a good stopping place for the evening. We came up with Moulins, a medieval town in the Auverne region of France. Frommer recommended the Hotel de Paris and we drove up to it and booked a room. It's quite nice travelling in October as rooms were easily available and the concierge was even in a bargaining mood. She reduced the price of one of the rooms from 100 Euros to 79 (the other room was already priced at 79) and we unpacked and set out for dinner.


Our three-star Hotel in Mouin - Hotel de Paris -- yes!

The concierge recommended the Restaurant des Cours, a few blocks away. We walked there, through deserted streets - this was 9:30 on a Monday night an the Moulins-ers were home and ready for the next work day. But the restaurant was charming and sophisticated and other diners were in evidence as well. A delicious meal. Mike was most impressed by the cheese cart brought around at the end of dinner and the friendly young waiter who was eager to practice his English with some Americans passing through his town. He admitted, when queried, that the town doesn't get a lot of tourists from the States.


The hotel recommended this restaurant and it was just lovely!

The next morning we woke to a drizzly and cold day. We took a quick walk around town and found a wonderful chocolatier. The storefront and interior was from 1838 and chocolate had been made there since 1898! It was a gem of turn-of-the-century (19th to 20th, that is)architecture. The chocolate was heavenly as well. Once offered some free samples, well, we were hooked.


Our hotel in Moulins. Cloudy and drizzly ... brrr.


A view of Moulins - cathedral in back, chocolate (blue), in front.


The store is from 1838 - the detail, inside and out, was spectacular.


What a lovely old store. A work of art with gilded ceiling and mural.


The chocolates of B. Serardy, Moulins, France.

We checked out of the hotel and then continued our way down south. It was foggy and misty the whole way down and that prevented us from getting a view of the region - the Auvergne - said to be the wildest and most mysterious in all of France. Consisting of mountains and ancient volcanoes with valleys of lush farmland and tiny, remote villages, it has not been developed to any great extent and is very attractive to outdoor activities - hiking, climbing and exploring nature. The fog, in places, was so thick that it was a little frightening to drive down the high-speed autoroute.

As we drove around a turn in the highway, a sight of the new (and world's highest)bridge at Millau, literally took our breath away. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to stop along the road to take photos, but I have to say that it looked unreal and ethereal in the distance, sitting above the clouds and fog that filled the valley below. It's ultra modern design with thin suspension towers and cables stretch up to the heavens. Words cannot describe it. Take a look at some of these other photos of the bridge at this link on Google and I think you'll agree.

We drove on and passed through a tunnel. At the exit, it was as if we had entered a different land altogether. We were descending from the mountains of the Auvergne, the sun was shining and the sky was a brilliant blue. Looking behind, from where we'd come, were the mountain, the dark-grey clouds and the heavy fog. In front of us were wide plains and the road, stretching on to our destination - Montpellier and the Mediterranean.