Turin: a sudden sweet Surprise!








To be honest - I only booked us a room in Turin because it was so conveniently between menton and Lake Maggiore. What a sweet surprise it turned out to be. The old town is really pretty (when the clean up the marketplace that is... ;-) )
Lots of pretty (old and small) specialty shops, galleries and authentic restaurants to be found. Every corner brings a new square it seems. We spend time in Italy's National Cinema Museum in the landmark "Mole Antonelliana" building. A huge building with a must see exhibition - very nice designed. A "free hanging" exhilaration elevator through the dome of the building brings you 100m up to the panorama deck where you have a stunning view over Turin and the valley. All with all something we didn't expect and Turin is a place to remember and to visit again in the future for sure.
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Col de Tende

 
Many, many hair pin curves took us over the French / Italian Alps and over the Col de Tende to Turin.
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The best village of the the Côte d'Azur?

As we where having dinner on the beach in Menton with a view of the Village I thought that this must be the best place on the whole Côte d'Azur. Just small/big enough - not to many people, not so ugly like Cannes/Nice/Monaco. Excellent actually!
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The end of the N7

 
We have reached the end of the N7. It brought us through endless villages, beautiful towns, over hills and mountains, through forests and countless fields. It was great experience to ride south on the N7, slowly, without trucks or many traffic. To stop where ever we liked to and to really enjoy France from top to bottom... Now in Menton at the Italian border our N7 adventure stops and we continue north north/west home.
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Salade Nicoise in Nice

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New (moto)shirt :-)

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Guess who will get a new iPhone in August....

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The Provence



Riding on the N7 south (and now also east) is the perfect way to come along the villages and landscape of the provence. The road is not busy (most trucks and using the highway) and the N7 still goes through the heart of the towns. As usual between 12:00 - 14:30 life comes to a complete stop in these places and no one is outside except for the terraces where people are having lunch (and so do we).
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The Jean Cocteau Chapel in Frejus


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Petanque


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Avignon: the city of the popes (and now us...)






Via Orange (with its nice Roman gate) we are now in Avignon: the old Medieval town where once the pope fled to when Rome was under siege. It hasn't changed much - except for the tons of tourists of course. That's also the downside: although pretty in some places it has been overrun with the tourist industry and it actually is a sort of medieval Disney world. Luckily we stayed in a very nice cloister turned hotel. The not so nice thing was however that it was scorching hot and that the airco couldn't cope with that and the mosquito's took advantage of our open windows in the night :-(
Hurray for our Swedish Lapland mosquito bite tonic lotion - which soften the itching and swelling.
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From Roanne to Valence






We got up very late because of the very extensive and late dinner we had the evening before at Troisgros. First stop is the Couvent de la Tourelle, a convent masterpiece by the architect Le Corbusier for the Dominican order. It is being restored right now, so we couldn't visit the complex itself. The setting on a hill is beautiful - the "rooms" for the monks very, very small and simple...
Via Vienne (with its great Roman Temple) and Lyon we rode along the Rhône to Valence were we stay at Michel Chabran. (a few stars less - but very nice as well we hope...)
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Le Midi

Le midi is the marker for the halfway point between the North Pole and the Equitar. It's on 45˚ at Pont De L'Isere.
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Sweet! III

Les Verites De La Palisse, Bonbons Fourres.
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Through the Auvergne





 
An other beautiful day in the south of France. We rode through a hilly sunny landscape over the Route Bleu to Roanne. On our way we visited the Chateau of Palisse and Le Château de la Roche at St-Priest-la-Roche which due to a dam lies now in the middle of water.
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At Troisgros in Roanne














 
How much food can you eat? How many dishes in one menu? It seems the more stars restaurants have - the more you have to get. Well at Troisgros they have 3 stars for more then 40 years now and the food is more then enough... :-) - they have about 20 chefs in the kitchen so staff to prepare it all.
Luckily it is immense tasteful and while we celebrated Eddie's birthday it was very suitable as well!
As usual whenever we riding our motorbikes we have plenty of people addressing us about the bikes - Michel Troisgros was no exception and he proved to be an passionate bike rider.
This is what we had (pardon my french ;-) ):
Menu de Printemps
  •  Asperge landaise, ivre de vin
  • Gnochettis d'artichaut à la sadine fumée
  • Mezzalune de petits pois et amandes fraîches
  • Cuisses de grenouilles poêlées, un satay d'épices
  • Sole à la cioulette
  • Homard bleu rivière de janvier
  • Canette de Challans caramélisée aux cerises
  • La tradion de fromages fermiers, frais & affinés
  • Douceur de lait et caramel, gelée de casis
  • Tarte sublime au chocolat, à la poire
  • Rhubarbe et fraises des bois a l'estragon
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Cute (gay) Mc Donald's ad in France: Venez comme vous êtes...

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Sommerset Maughan revisited

Selina Hastings (who wrote earlier about Mitford and Waugh) wrote a new biography, “The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham”which is available on the kindle (and so iPad). As I like reading books more in de kindle app then in de the iBooks app (better usability, better selection and... lower prices...). Strangely enough not many people read Maugham books or plays anymore and that while he was for much of his (very long) life “the most famous writer in the world.” - and one of the best selling.
So while I am am reading Selina's book I am planning to reread “Of Human Bondage," and “The Moon and Sixpence” both published in early part of the twentieth century. Let's see if Sommerset stands the attack of time.
PS If you were wondering what the secret life of Sommerset was all about: he was married but spend most of his time with young guys at his estate in the Provence ;-)
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