All Saints Day and Halloween is coming up rapidly, which means school holidays ;-). This time we decided to head to the west of France, to visit Francoise and Joel, and visit a bit of Brittany as well. Angers is a bit tricky to get to from this part of the world, so once more we decided to drive down there. As it’s a bit of a long trek to do in one day (it’s about 9 hours of driving altogether…), we decided to do a stopover in Vienne. After a good 4 hour drive (including a stop for dinner at Hippopotamus – yippii), we arrived in Vienne, just in time to hit the sack at our less-than-glamorous Etap hotel.
Vienne (not Vienna :-) ) is located just south of Lyon, located in the Isère department. Vienne has some of the most well-known Roman sites (or at least some of the most impressive ones) in all of France. After a quick brekkie at out hotel (which was actually quite decent, considering Etap isn’t exactly a high-class hotel), we headed out to explore the Roman treasures of the town. We started by checking out the Roman theatre, the most impressive of the Roman remains. It certainly is the most impressive Roman theatre I’ve seen in France (certainly much more so than the one in Arles), although I’ve not been to Orange. It makes good use of the local scenery, being built onto the slope of the hills overlooking Vienne. Apparently it could welcome 13,000 spectators in its heyday – and the place is still being put to good use, as this is where the Vienne jazz festival is held each summer.
We then crossed town, and the Rhone river, into the Rhone department, where the other main Roman site of the city is located, Saint-Roman-en-Gal. In Roman days, this was a big residential quarter in what was then the biggest city in Gaul. Only the foundations of most buildings remain, but the place is still well worth a visit. The relative vastness of the place gives a pretty good idea of the layout of the city, and there are enough foundations remaining of some of the bigger villas to imagine how splendid the place must’ve been in its day. The archaeological museum located next to the site was pretty interesting too – especially the mosaics on display were really impressive.
We still had time for a walk in the old town – where we came across the 3rd famous Roman site of the city – the Temple of Augustus and Livia, located on one of the main squares in Vienne. Quite unusual to see a temple preserved in the middle of the heart of a city like that – Nimes is the only other example of it in France which comes to mind. Unfortunately we couldn’t visit the place since it was under renovation. We did pay a quick visit to the rather impressive Romanesque cathedral. Then, after a quick Moroccan snack lunch at the local market, it was time to carry on…
We arrived in Anger just in time for dinner – I’m pretty good at timing sometimes ;-). We were quite happy to see the sun out gloriously on Sunday, after the rather chilly and overcast weather we had experienced in Vienne. So after a delicious Sunday lunch, we decided to go for a walk around the lac de Maine – no reason not to, really. It gave me a good opportunity to put my new zoom lens to good use – plenty of birds to snap shots of. The lake was very beautiful indeed, surrounded by trees with autumn coloured leaves – it very much reminded me of the Finnish Ruska actually.
All in all, we spent a couple of very chilled out days in Angers, chatting away with Joel and Francoise, playing Hanafuda and other games, eating as well as always, you know, family stuff. As we often do in Angers, we checked out a film at the excellent 400 Coups cinema – Social Network (very good actually, as one can expect from David Fincher). And of course we did our traditional jogging tour around the lake. And I spent a couple of energetic hours sawing up some old furniture as firewood for Francoise (ah, reminds me of my youth in Finland…)
On Monday (after a tasty lunch, of course) it was then time to make our way to the next destination on our trip – Nantes. No touristy visit this time, rather we had a rather busy social schedule to adhere to. First, we paid a visit to Herquise, who had moved into her own flat recently. After a quick coffee and apple pie there (yummie), ‘twas time to make our way across Nantes to Aude’s and Magaye’s place for an aperitif (unfortunately they couldn’t join us for dinner, since Aude’s dad was visiting.
Great to catch up with them – I’ve not seen them for absolute ages… Looking very much forward to visiting the house they just bought… And then it was time to head into the centre of Nantes, where we were meeting up with Patrick and Nathalie for dinner. They have also moved recently, into a house they are in the process of building, so probably appreciated a break from the « building site ». We opted for a restaurant with some local cuisine (well Angevine – not sure that counts as local in Nantes ?) – a good choice indeed. Good food, good wine, good company, what else does one need ?
We then made our way back to their house just north of Nantes. We were very impressed indeed with their building project. It’s a « nearly passive » house, so basically doesn’t require any heating or aircon. And I can testify it works pretty well – the temperature outside was pretty close to zero overnight, but we certainly didn’t freeze that night. Very impressive stuff indeed. After a brief but sweet visit, it was time for us to carry on towards Brittany. A pity I wasn’t able to meet up with my godson Florian this time – oh well, next time then !
Vienne (not Vienna :-) ) is located just south of Lyon, located in the Isère department. Vienne has some of the most well-known Roman sites (or at least some of the most impressive ones) in all of France. After a quick brekkie at out hotel (which was actually quite decent, considering Etap isn’t exactly a high-class hotel), we headed out to explore the Roman treasures of the town. We started by checking out the Roman theatre, the most impressive of the Roman remains. It certainly is the most impressive Roman theatre I’ve seen in France (certainly much more so than the one in Arles), although I’ve not been to Orange. It makes good use of the local scenery, being built onto the slope of the hills overlooking Vienne. Apparently it could welcome 13,000 spectators in its heyday – and the place is still being put to good use, as this is where the Vienne jazz festival is held each summer.
We then crossed town, and the Rhone river, into the Rhone department, where the other main Roman site of the city is located, Saint-Roman-en-Gal. In Roman days, this was a big residential quarter in what was then the biggest city in Gaul. Only the foundations of most buildings remain, but the place is still well worth a visit. The relative vastness of the place gives a pretty good idea of the layout of the city, and there are enough foundations remaining of some of the bigger villas to imagine how splendid the place must’ve been in its day. The archaeological museum located next to the site was pretty interesting too – especially the mosaics on display were really impressive. We still had time for a walk in the old town – where we came across the 3rd famous Roman site of the city – the Temple of Augustus and Livia, located on one of the main squares in Vienne. Quite unusual to see a temple preserved in the middle of the heart of a city like that – Nimes is the only other example of it in France which comes to mind. Unfortunately we couldn’t visit the place since it was under renovation. We did pay a quick visit to the rather impressive Romanesque cathedral. Then, after a quick Moroccan snack lunch at the local market, it was time to carry on…
We arrived in Anger just in time for dinner – I’m pretty good at timing sometimes ;-). We were quite happy to see the sun out gloriously on Sunday, after the rather chilly and overcast weather we had experienced in Vienne. So after a delicious Sunday lunch, we decided to go for a walk around the lac de Maine – no reason not to, really. It gave me a good opportunity to put my new zoom lens to good use – plenty of birds to snap shots of. The lake was very beautiful indeed, surrounded by trees with autumn coloured leaves – it very much reminded me of the Finnish Ruska actually. 
All in all, we spent a couple of very chilled out days in Angers, chatting away with Joel and Francoise, playing Hanafuda and other games, eating as well as always, you know, family stuff. As we often do in Angers, we checked out a film at the excellent 400 Coups cinema – Social Network (very good actually, as one can expect from David Fincher). And of course we did our traditional jogging tour around the lake. And I spent a couple of energetic hours sawing up some old furniture as firewood for Francoise (ah, reminds me of my youth in Finland…)
On Monday (after a tasty lunch, of course) it was then time to make our way to the next destination on our trip – Nantes. No touristy visit this time, rather we had a rather busy social schedule to adhere to. First, we paid a visit to Herquise, who had moved into her own flat recently. After a quick coffee and apple pie there (yummie), ‘twas time to make our way across Nantes to Aude’s and Magaye’s place for an aperitif (unfortunately they couldn’t join us for dinner, since Aude’s dad was visiting. 
Great to catch up with them – I’ve not seen them for absolute ages… Looking very much forward to visiting the house they just bought… And then it was time to head into the centre of Nantes, where we were meeting up with Patrick and Nathalie for dinner. They have also moved recently, into a house they are in the process of building, so probably appreciated a break from the « building site ». We opted for a restaurant with some local cuisine (well Angevine – not sure that counts as local in Nantes ?) – a good choice indeed. Good food, good wine, good company, what else does one need ? 
We then made our way back to their house just north of Nantes. We were very impressed indeed with their building project. It’s a « nearly passive » house, so basically doesn’t require any heating or aircon. And I can testify it works pretty well – the temperature outside was pretty close to zero overnight, but we certainly didn’t freeze that night. Very impressive stuff indeed. After a brief but sweet visit, it was time for us to carry on towards Brittany. A pity I wasn’t able to meet up with my godson Florian this time – oh well, next time then !
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