We’ll be spending three weeks in France in late May/early June. I’m hoping the weather there warms up, from all reports it’s been a dismal Spring there as well as here.
I scored ff tickets for direct flights Bos-Paris last summer, hooray. Our favorite little Paris rental in the 14th was already booked, so I was looking around for other options. Through a friend of a friend, we arranged to borrow a British couple’s lovely looking place near the rue Daguerre market street in the 14th, a neighborhood we enjoy. The owners use it frequently, so we were thrilled to be able to work things out so we can use it during our stay. It’s a duplex with a huge, well-equipped kitchen, large dining area and living room, bedroom, bathroom and office. It even has a clothes dryer–unheard of. We’ll be there for nine days.
We’ll pick up a car and drive southwest to the Charente. “Where?” everyone is saying. I’d never heard of it either. Over the past few years we’ve become somewhat obsessed with finding the little Romanesque churches in Europe. As I was researching, I learned that a very high concentration of these buildings is in the Charente. It’s an area that seems popular with French and Brits largely looking for seaside vacations, with a long coast on the Atlantic and the interesting town La Rochelle. It’s also Cognac territory inland, has a lot of natural areas of rivers and marshland, and is a bit more than an hour’s drive to the Bordeaux wine region. Why not? After Paris’s museums and urban enjoyments, some quiet country drives sounded good.
I booked an appealing looking gite a 10 minute drive from Cognac that looks amazingly comfortable and has fantastic reviews. I put together a detailed Google map–we’ll likely only hit 10% of what’s on it, I suspect there will be afternoons of lazing around the pool watching the grapes grow while drinking Pineau de Charente and eating chevre and cherries. Le Cerisier
After our nine days there, we’ll drive up to Giverney, spend two days in that area, and then overnight near CDG before heading home. Hopefully we’ll avoid rabid footie fans in town for the European Championship games.
Arriving in Paris two weeks from today!
Destination Anywhere 