Le Tour de France

The "POOF" (AKA pouffe or two giant coconut dusted meringues stuck together)
Upside down, Joy and I frown at the forbidden "Love Gardens" - scandalous!
Carcassonne at night! Yes, we stayed in a walled fortress...Our gustatory pleasures...and our first French wine!
Le Bolero (citrone et fraise) avec La Symphonie (chocolate et noissettes)

Bonjour mes amies! Don't get too excited, I missed the Tour in Monpellier by a day! Oh what a week! We leave France tomorrow; luckily Joy assures me that Vienna has delectable and enticing patisserie, as well (plus Swiss chocolate is next)! So what craziness have we been up to?

Tours was our nstop - cute town along the Loire River. The first day wasn't too exciting, wandering around gardens, a museum, and cathedral. The evening involved bag pipes, accordions, and lively dancing. Joy, no surprise there, was thrilled to join the riverside gathering of merry locals.

Our big bike adventure too place the next day. About 21 km and a handful of Mirabelles (mini plums we found on the side of the trail) into the morning, we reached Villandry - one of the hundreds of Chateaux dotting the Loire Valley. We skipped the house itself in favor of meandering through the expansive gardens, which included the biggest veggie garden I have ever seen! We finished off our jaunt with a picnic lunch of classic baguette, avocado, tomato, and our POOF (see picture for more details), before heading back to Tours on our bikes...amidst an afternoon downpour.

The 24 ensuing hours we had in Carcassonne were well spent. After a long day of train travel, we stayed in Ye Olde Youth Hostel in a medieval cite - yes, you heard me correctly. We squeezed in some modern entertainment with an outdoor concert by a French pop star "Gregoire" before hitting up the older sites. The next morn we wandered this fantastic specimen of 12th century architecture - scaling stone walls, keeping watch on the ramparts, and marvelling at an 800 year old church.

Carcassonne was pretty awesome, but it left us in the awkward position of arriving after hours in Nice...the staff was not pleased. I felt bad, but there was nothing we could do about the delayed 6 hour train! Our leisurely days at the beach included less beach time than I had hoped for, but much wandering around the San Diego-esque waterfront and smaller, quainter town of Antibes. Our cullinary creation the first evening: tomato basil crepes and fig crepes with market produce, took the cake in this city. Last night we ate dinner and drank wine on the roof of our hostel looking out over what Joy terms the "million dollar view!"

Yesterday on the train to Lyon, we broke our four day pastry drought (though we did buy chocolate in Nice...) with the most beautiful delicacies. In a Lyon internet cafe :)