July 22, 1998 Laruns, France - {Hotel D'Ossau} R80G/S 45039 R100GS 33687 Michelin maps highlight scenic drives in green. Examining the map, we looked for the twistiest road with the most green highlight passing through the Pyrenees. What we ended up on was awesome. It was without a doubt, the most scenic we had been on in Europe this trip. However it was not unknown to tourists and locals alike. Being high tourist season, mostly French and Spanish tourists where also driving this pass through the Pyrenees. Not to mention the Tour de France bicycle race just passed through yesterday, closing off several of the roads, and bringing in hordes of spectators. Sharon stopped at a lake to take some pictures. Later, after crossing into the French side of the Pyrenees, Sharon pulled over along the side of the road. I drove up to her to see what was going on and she said, "I just want to say France is kick butt beautiful!" The twisty road we were on was surrounded by mountains on all sides. A river flowed near the road we were on. Further up the mountain where the lack of trees gave way to grass pastures, sheep and cows dotted the landscape. Sharon stopped at a shaded round-about intersection with signs pointing in several directions. One said it was closed July 21st (yesterday) for the Tour de France. We stopped in Laruns after a long day of scenic driving. I could see spending a week or two driving through all the various mountain passes in the Pyrenees. However I think it would be most enjoyable done off season as there are a lot of tourists on the roads. July 23, 1998 Mauvezin, France - {Auberge Cheval de Noir} R100GS 33839 R80G/S 45191 The drive leaving Laruns up to near Loudres was even more spectacular than yesterday. Even the hordes of vacationers on the road didn't detract from the views. It was a nice paved twisty mountain road perfect for motorcycling, however we had to ride well on the conservative side since around every corner there seemed to be some bicyclist huffing and puffing, fatigue long since haven drawn out most care of being splattered by on coming traffic. Some looked like being splattered would be a blessing... In the Pyrenees, the specialty was mountain cheeses that the locals produce and sell. Between Loudres and Auch, every couple of kilometers, we drove by home made signs in front of farms advertising foie gras, and sometimes duck sausage for sale. While, we are well equipped with good port wine carried from Oporto to have with the foie gras, I don't feel like I would know how to prepare it using our camp stove. Yesterday, we thought we escaped the annoying siesta thing of Spain. Not true. In France, they take their two hours off for lunch just as seriously, even closing down most of the restaurants. Hot, tired, irritable and hungry, we decided we would have to take precautions in the future to prevent being stranded without lunch at lunch time. We found an Inn (Auberge) in a small town on the way to Mauvezin, called the Black Horse Inn. We went looking for a restaurant. Sharon joked, I have to order French fries since we're in France... While Sharon ate her delicious greek salad made with herb and olive oil marinated goat cheese, I watched since I wasn't hungry. I was willing to have some foie gras since it's so available in this area, but being so late (9:45pm), the restaurants I wanted to eat it at were closed. Instead I ordered an Armagnac, primarily because they had so many in the liquor store, and I had forgotten it was a brandy. Brought out in a brandy snifter I remembered it's a brandy from the Armagnac region. This was smooth with a lot of vanilla, and hints of banana, and carrots. --------------------- July 24, 1998 Montlaur, France - {camped} We drove East to Roquefort, and went spelunking in the caves of Roquefort. Two of the 15? producers of Roquefort cheese give tours of their caves and describe how they make Roquefort cheese. Societe accounts for 81% of all Roquefort cheese, and Papillon accounts for 11%. We toured both of these cheese houses, accounting for 92% of all Roquefort produced in the world. Some tidbits picked up from the caves: The French pronounce the town "Row-kay-four" There's evidence that Roquefort cheese has been made from ewe's milk since 3500BC. It takes 12 liters of milk to make one round (loaf) of cheese (2.7kg) The sheep milk is collected, poured into a vat, heated to 32 degrees centigrade, and then spores of penicillium Roqueforti is sprinkled in. Penicillium Roqueforti is a very distant variety of penicillium from Penicillium notatum which penicillin is derived. It does not have any antibiotic properties. If it did it would destroy the starters in the rennet essential for curdling the milk. The two different cheese houses have different methods for making this mold, however both come from a rye wheat bread. Societe sticks a couple small baguette size breads into a glass bottle, moisten them, and stop the bottle up with a cotton cork which is then placed in the cave. After a while the bread goes moldy and will eventually disintegrate into the mold powder (spores). Papillon bakes a loaf of rye bread at high temperature, sets the baked loaf in the cave, and in a few weeks retrieves the bread, digging out the green center for sporing their cheese. 1 gram contains approximately 25 billion spores. In the vat of milk and spores, some animal rennet is added. Within 2-3 hours the milk is curdled. The curdled milk is then cut into cubes about the size of sugar cubes. This cutting allows the whey to better separate from the curds. The curds are strained, and then loaded into a round cheese loaf container. For two days, the cheese is turned over and drained meanwhile being stored at 18 degrees celsius. For the next couple of days, the cheese is salted by rubbing salt on the outside of the loaf. After 7 days, 1 for manufacture, 2 for draining, 5 for salting (3 on one side, and 2 on the other), the cheese is transferred to the caves for aging. Note: 'rennet' defined in my Webster dictionary as "lining membrane of calf's fourth stomach; preparation from this membrane for curdling milk" Both cheese houses we toured make a big deal about the caves and the Fleurines, I suppose since that's the only thing they have that's different from the rest of the world. The fleurine, is a French euphemism which means to flower, but refers to the cave vents. They naturally regulate the humidity and temperature of the caves. The cheese are punctured with needles to allow the loaves to later breathe and give off carbonic gas as they ferment. The cheese is stored for 3-4 weeks, and then wrapped in tinfoil so as to slow down the fermentation. After four months, the outside of the cheese round is scraped clean of the skin (or reverum), and it is ready to be eaten. We sampled three Societe cheeses, and bought more for later sampling. Of the three Societe cheese, only the cheese from the Abeille cave is exported from France. We also sampled cheeses from the Baragnaudes cave and the Templiers caves. I was surprised to find such a noticeable difference among the three. Of the three the Abeille was Sharon's and my favorite. The other two depended on what we were eating it with. The Baragnaudes was the strongest of the three while the Templiers was the most mild in flavor. In Papillon, the cheese was served on rye bread, which was good, but made it difficult to appreciate on it's own. 80% of Societe which holds 81% of the market is consumed in France. Of the remaining 20% which is exported, the US is the largest consumer. ------- We had a difficult time leaving Roquefort as the roads leading to this town were blocked off for a car race. We ended up driving far out of our way not knowing how to get around it as detour signs didn't exist. It was a strange annoyance, that apparently the locals must not mind. The roads become more dangerous, noise increases, and the crowds of people block off the area. As we drove through the detour to avoid the area, sponsor decorated race cars would pass us. Apparently it's a race course timing, as the contestants that passed us seemed to do so to get back to the beginning of the course. In St. Afrique, we bought some gas... 57 liters cost us $60. The hotels in this town were full likely due to the race.... We drove out of town a ways, and were later glad we did. We camped along a nice river near a scenic stone bridge that crossed over to a small old quiet town called Montlaur. The town looked as though it could have been in existence over a thousand years, but during that time never grew more than several hundred people in size. As a result, it retained old charm but was well established with old stone buildings. I went into town to pick up some bread, wine and water. Sharon made a wonderful very spicy red sauce for our pasta. For desert we had our cheese course or roquefort tasting of the three kinds of roquefort cheese that we hand carried from the caves of Roquefort. With that we had our 20 year Tawny Noval port hand carried from Oporto, and English walnuts that we picked up in Spain just for the port. For the first time,we used the Portuguese olive oil purchased in Portugal... it was excellent, rich in olive flavor, and very cheap. July 25, 1998 Polminhac, France - {Les Parasols} R80G/S 45480 R100GS 34124 We had a beautiful drive through hills and forests along river banks through beautiful little towns where the buildings are built of stones, doors and windows are built from thick wood and wrought iron and the roofs are layered with schist rock. Colorful flowers are planted everywhere. We stopped in a small town of Lancou just South of Requista which is 50km South of Rodez. population 30. old tiny town on the Tarn river. The tombstones in the cemetery go back to 12th century. Beautiful old church built on the hill. The beautiful houses have been built from stone. Not much to do in this town but make your house look beautiful, and plant flowers. A local artisan showed us his gallery which holds works from 37 other French artists. He also showed us the restoration of buildings he was doing, and the turret he was building. The R100GS fell over it's kickstand twice today. Other than some minor scrapes, the left front turn signal which is already on it's third fix was the only thing damaged. I'll need to buy some more super glue. Seven hours after we departed this morning, we had only driven 130 miles. Our route for the day: >From Montlour (West of St Afrique, near Roquefort). We turned North just West of St Sermin S-R on D33 driving through beautiful little towns and the wonderful landscape heading towards Requista. This stretch the highlight of the day. From Requista we drove on to Rodez and then on N140 to the industrial town of Decazeville, to the tourist town of Maurs, past Aurillac continuing on N122 to Polminhac with a cool chateau overlooking the old town. We had dinner at the Le Berganty at Place de L'Eglise. It was one of only a few places in town to have dinner, and turned out to be very nice. There were two choices... the menu of the day and the small menu of the day. The menu of the day consisted of roasted chicken, a potato cheese and garlic dish loaded with cheese and garlic cloves, green salad, pate, cheese plate, and desert. This was considered by the restaurant to be regional French food. With a bottle of regional red wine, it was delicious, however it certainly wasn't the French food I was use to from French restaurants outside of France. I discovered holes in my pants which I assume may be related to the recent handling of the R100GS battery. they appear to be from battery acid since the edges of the rip are gone. July 26-27, 1998 Oulon, France - {Viejo Chateau Ferme Auberge (Old Castle Farm Inn)} R80G/S 45625 R100GS 34269 We bought some more gas today. US$50 for 51 liters. About 20 miles out, we started to follow signs leading us to an Inn. As we came closer, the same style signs turned into colorful paintings of sunflowers with arrows pointing us the way to this little farm village in the middle of nowhere. We turned into the Inn, and it appeared we had just entered a several century old farm complex. with huge ancient barns built of meter thick or more stone and ceramic tiled roofs. The farm house, or now main lodge had a round steeple crowned tower stair case leading to the reception on the second floor, all built out of stone as if it were a farm castle. Expecting an inexpensive rural inn, I was surprised to find a Jaguar, Mercedes, and Alpha Romeo convertible parked inside obviously belonging to guests parked in the complex. I was further surprised to find such a remote place so well inhabited. They have 8? rooms, five of which were now full. This later I found out because their place is listed in several Bed and Breakfast brochures and books. This place has the rustic charm and romance of a European movie set in an old farm town. A wonderful place to hang out and do nothing. In fact, the farm itself reminds me by it's looks of the Dutch movie set around WWII called -------. The town fits the stereotype I have of a rustic Irish farm town, with it's moss covered stone fences, and stone walled farm houses, with ivy and flowers highlighting the homes and sheep constantly going "bahahaha". The old farm village has a church at it's center with a tree next to it that looks like it's been kept pruned over the past half millennium. The church plays a single note with it's one bell. However it has a pleasant timbre which someone rings at 7am, noon and 6pm. The waist high stone fences encircle gardens, and sometimes flocks of sheep. Across the street from the farm/resident/ranch we're staying at there is a beautiful field of sunflowers at their peak in full bloom. The dinners that are served at our place of stay are wonderful. Our meal started with a before dinner aperitif of kir, Champagne, or other. Green herb salad, toasted goat cheese on toast, a sort of delicious pate. and a zuchini gratin. Main course was a wonderful roasted chicken. We had a cheese plate course which consisted of 6 different sheep cheeses. followed by desert which consisted of 6 choices, three of which we tried including cafe creme brule, cassis mouse and cassis tart. We stayed a second night, meanwhile doing just about nothing. We took some pictures in the afternoon, read a news magazine, and I worked on my journal. The second night's dinner: vin du noir.... most like a port, but distinctly different. foie gras on toast with apricot bottle of red wine. a baked sheep cheese tarte salad mutton potato au gratin cheese platter fromage blanc cafe creme brule and a coffee apricot custard. July 28-29, 1998 Plancy-L'Abbaye, France - {Mme } R100GS 34484 R80G/S 45844 As we were leaving, we talked with two other guests who were staying at this bed and breakfast. The first couple had arrived in their right side driving jaguar that had a 'GB' sticker on the back indicating that they had driven from Great Britain. The guy spoke with a Scottish accent who sounded like talking to James Bond (Connery). They asked about our touring Europe and how we got our motorcycles over. They suggested it would be a pity to miss the best part of Europe and not tour Scotland, however this year they said they are having the worst weather so far. The best time to visit Scotland he said was in September. Later we met another family that sounded English by their accent. They said they had been recently living in Scotland though. They suggested touring the West side of Scotland, in particular the islands. They like to tour the French countryside and stay at B&B's. They gave us a suggestion of a B&B along our route that they had stayed at last year and had thought it very nice. Even though it was only about a 130 miles away, half the distance we wanted to cover, we wrote down the information. As it turned out, driving was so cold, we were worn out after that distance and ended up staying there. We paid our bill, and the madame of the Inn asked about our travels. They were excited to have guests from Chicago, although I have no idea why. When it came time to pay, they seemed to say "Americans?, oh then you probably be paying by credit card." She pulled out a neat little hand held device that scanned the magnetic strip of the card, had a numeric key pad to type in the amount, worked off batteries, and had wireless modem connection up to the telephone, and printed a receipt for signing after authorization. Before we could leave, she handed me a polo shirt and Sharon a T-shirt with the name of the Inn printed on the breast. Great timing, since both Sharon and I hadn't done laundry for a while. We rode through rolling hills of farms that were harvesting hay. huge rolls of hay lay throughout the cut fields waiting to be collected. Today was overcast, and we became chilled despite wearing our liners, and turning on the heated handgrips. I think if I wore two liners, or plugged one of them in, I would have been fine. We turned off N77 heading West from Aceris for 13km along a nice farm road that followed the Aube river. We passed through a forested area, and then into the town of Plancy-L'Abbaye. We had some difficulty finding the not so well marked bed and breakfast, which in France they call Chambres d'Hotes. I asked one man with a bicycle where the Chambres d'Hotes was located. He hopped on his bicycle and rode to it 500 meters away as we followed him on our motorcycles. He rang the doorbell, and was off. Patricia the owner greeted us, and told us she did have a room. She went around to the side and opened two huge doors which allowed us to drive our motorcycles into the back near her large shaded and flowered walk in garden along the shore of the Aube river. From the front the building had looked like nothing special. >From the back, in the garden, the house resembled a small chateaux and was built in the 17th century. She asked us to wait in the garden while she prepared the room. Later a maid showed us up to our room which was nicely decorated with antique furniture, and had the appearance of a recently renovated room however with preservation of antique style. Downstairs there was a nice kitchen for us to cook our own dinner should we choose. We decided to take advantage of this, and went grocery shopping. Sharon made, while I helped, pork tenderloin cooked with onions, mushrooms garlic and wine. Sharon made a potato graten covered with Ementhal. We made a Tomato salad with our Portuguese Olive oil, basil, shredded Ementhal, and onions. We picked up a nice Bordeaux wine with the name of this town, which both of us really enjoyed. I could see just making a two week or more trip of just driving around the French country side staying at Chambres d'Hotes (B&Bs), sampling food and wine of each area... The past couple of nights have been really nice. ...Wednesday, the sky was misting horizontal rain. I could see the fine mist eddying around the trees, and protrusions of the house. The air smelled fresh, and it's coolness reminded me of autumn. Sharon and I long decided that on mornings that it's raining, we will stay where we are. It's difficult to get the motivation to go anywhere on the bike when the roads are wet, and it's cold and rainy. Besides, the zipper on Sharon's black leather Harley boot has given out which would mean a soggy foot in no time, or else an attractive plastic grocery bag rubber banded around the ankle. It wasn't hard deciding to spend another day at this beautiful French B&B. The skies would occasionally clear up in the afternoon... walking around town... These last three little French villages have had a timelessness... as if nothing changes over time. I can sit on a street corner and few people will go by... It could be 2am, except the sun is in the sky, so it must be 2pm. However, homes are neatly maintained. Flower beds are planted in neat rows and in full bloom. streets and sidewalks are clean. Old homes are carefully maintained and show evidence of recent maintenance keeping up it's old facade. We talked with an older French couple that were staying there. They would speak slow and simple for us to understand their French. They asked about our trip. They were surprised we had been travelling for so long in Europe. They asked how far we had travelled. I blurted out 30,000km. which was closer to the distance of our entire trip. The look I got back was of surprise. Already straining my French to the limits, rather than explain, and get into a conversation about South and Central America which I had neglected to mention, I let it go with them thinking that I didn't know my French numbers. July 30, 1998 Annevoie, Belgium - {Hotel La Belle Vue} R80G/S 45976 R100GS 34613 Sharon's battery (R80G/S) was dead this morning. Coincidentally it happened within a week of the R100GS battery's death. We rolled the bike out onto the street and then push started the bike. Our entrance into Belgium was stunning. I can't imagine a more scenic drive through Belgium, which later appeared as one great suburbia. We drove along the fortress trail lined with green forested cliffs, following a scenic river which was divided by many locks, some of which were hand operated. We passed beautiful old Belgian homes, and old well kept up polished wood boats. Floating down the river and into the locks were small polished wood barges which doubled as homes. Some would have 1 meter satellite dishes, and a car parked on top. We passed through the scenic town of Dinar? with it's church and bridge, and fortress over looking a sort of gorge. We checked into a nice Inn called Hotel La Belle Vue. The hotel clerks speak French here which was good since our Flemish is nil. The window to our room overlooks the river. We have a chair that was obviously invented before bathrooms were in use. It has a slide out woven cane seat that allows access to a wood plug which once removed looks like a toilet. I assume one puts their bedpan inside the chair, and can access it by removing the cane and plug. Since it's not tied down, one would want to be careful moving this chair once it's been used. In this little town, we stopped in the grocery store and picked up some Belgian beers to do a little beer tasting. We brought them back to our room and stuck them in the fridge. We spent the evening watching TV, sampling Belgian beers and eating potato chips and cheese. Belgian bear sampling --------------------- Belle-Vue Framboise - excellent Lambic Belle-Vue Kriek - excellent Lambic Hoegaarden Witbier - excellent wheat bear. complex phenols can compete with any Bavarian wheat. Ciney Brune/Bruin - dark, sweet, caramel, full bodied John Martin's Trappistes Rochefort #8 beer. Vieux Temps I forgot to write some notes down for the last three. ciney's is probably the only one I wouldn't buy again. All the others, I really enjoyed. About 1:30am, I called my sister up to say Happy Birthday. July 31, 1998 Baarle-Nassau-Hertog, Belgium/Netherlands - {camped} We sent off some e-mail We had lunch at our hotel and then left after 2:00pm Occasionally we drove through scattered showers. Belgium is just one great suburbia. I predict in 100 years, there will be no fields left. The country will be one huge sprawling neighborhood and industrial park. Despite our attempts to cross Belgium taking the more rural roads, it certainly wasn't as attractive as Yesterday, or our crossing of France. We left the French area entering the Flemish side. The name of towns, streets, etc. all seem more Germanic. Deciphering a menu over dinner was a challenge. Sharon borrowed from her classroom German to figure out some words, while other things we were clue-less. Sharon went safe and ordered spaghetti. I ended up with a ham and cheese and chicken croquette with a lot of chicken with a nice sauce on top. Good, but not exactly what I expected. One orders a Kriek lambic beer by just saying "kriek". We ordered Belgian waffles for desert. What came was a freshly made to order 4x8x1" large hole waffle sprinkled lightly with powder sugar topped with a dollop of whip cream, and two scoops of vanilla ice cream. Since Sharon had ordered strawberry, there was piled on one end, sliced strawberries. I ordered warm cherry, and received a pile of warm canned and pitless cherries that were delicious. We stayed at a camp ground in the Netherlands, just over the border. It would be more accurate to describe it as a trailer park. with a little grassy plot for tent campers. We were frustrated having had some difficulty finding a hotel or nice camp ground this late. This trailer park is one of the nicest I've ever seen. People make the most beautiful little plots, with gorges decks that softly light up at night. There are many attractive little homes with nice gardens, obviously permanent. They appear to be kept year round as weekend getaway homes. This is a strange area in that the town is split between Belgium and Holland by small land properties. One house might be Belgian, while the neighbors might be Dutch. The house numbers usually have a small flag indicating of what nationality it belongs. When we thought we were in Holland stopping at a gas station, the price rang up in Belgium francs. They let me pay in Dutch guilders though. A Dutch gas station would have a tough time competing here since the tax on gasoline is significantly higher in the Netherlands. August 1, 1998 Bodegraven, The Netherlands - {Thomas' & Katja's house) R80G/S 46270 R100GS 34901 We arrived at Katja & Thomas's place... friends we had met in Puerto Natales, Chile while they were on their honeymoon in Patagonia on two Honda TransAlps. Like two people very experienced with taking in travellers. Within 5 minutes of greeting us, Katja asked if we had any clothes we wanted to wash, and then asked if we wanted to take a shower. I believe it wasn't our appearance that hinted at this, but rather an empathy or experience of having motorcycle travellers over. She then said, well I'll leave you for an hour to make yourselves more comfortable. Katja's parents were over and we all dined together as Thomas cooked on the grill having what they called a BBQ.... huge feast that lasted late into the night. pasta with clams garlic, thyme, oregano. delicious. white Argentinian wine of Mendoza ... in honor of the area where we met. grilled sardines (5" long) coated in sea salt and then roasted over a hot fire. Sharon and I enjoyed these. We had commonly seen them sold on the streets of Oporto. grilled pork strips they called 'speck'. they look like bacon, however four times thicker, and not cured or salted, but tasting more like a pork chop. They used mustard as a condiment, however I prefered them plain especially with the fat carbonized. Red Mouton Cadet corn on the cob... Knowing we were from the corn Mecca, where our home town even throws a sweet corn festival every year. they seemed a little hesitant to serve us this. ribeye steak cooked rare Some fabulous local Dutch cheeses. new, old, and very old from farmer Brahms. They could be differentiated by their hardness. The old and very old cheese had flavor crystals similar to Parmesan Reggiano. I enjoyed the very old cheese more than I do real Parmesan Reggiano. Obviously the Dutch keep their best cheeses for themselves i.e. not exported. Crepe flambe... crepes with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top and a amaretto which has been flambeyed and poured on top. The Amaretto is what makes the dish. We started and finished off a bottle of Taylor's 10 year port. ---- Dave Thompson thompson@pdnt.com www - http://sdg.ncsa.uiuc.edu/~mag/Thompson Net-Tamer V 1.09 Palm Top - Registered