Wednesday 28 & Thursday 29 July 2010
After staying the Tuesday night in a Paris hotel after seeing Eily off on the Eurostar, we set off on a train to visit an old friend named Robbie Marmottan (Jewson) who was a childhood neighbour and friend and a particularly good friend of my sister. Robbie married a Frenchman (Eric) and settled in France.
Actually, a train is not a good description. A bullet is more like it. You pass trucks on the motorway as if they are parked. The trip between Paris and Lyon, a distance of some 460 km, was completed in under two hours and the train is very slow getting out of the city of Paris but when it gets to the countryside, much of the nearby scenery turns to a blur.
We arrived at the station at Chambery to be greeted by Robbie and Eric and set off to discover the local countryside after a terrific lunch at a local restaurant. This meal was our first in a French restauarant, although to be truthful it was more of a cafe. Australian food it is not - the flavours and textures are completely different.
This area is a very beautiful part of France - towering mountains, huge lakes, trees and green grass everywhere. We inspected the town of Annercy - if you get the chance, do a Google search for Lac Annercy or Lake Annercy and see if you can find some photos of the place. Robbie says it's the best part of France and she may well be right.
After arriving at Robbie and Eric's house and dumping our luggage, we returned to Chambery for an open air concert before returning back to their house to drink too many reds and reminice.
The home is very interesting - it is straight from a fairy tale. It is a couple of hundred years old and is made of stone that has been plastered over. The walls are a foot or more thick. It was a small house with an attached barn - the barn has been renovated to make the house much much larger. Both Gloria and I loved it.
The next morning was spent doing a little more touring of the local area before boarding another train to head back to Paris.
Having not seen Robbie for 3 years, the visit was far too short and the next one will be much longer......
