Sunday, May 1, 2011 - For this trip to Europe, we were determined to overcome jet-lag earlier.
We started this process in San Francisco four days before we left for New York, gradually getting up earlier and earlier to get us onto Eastern Time. It worked suprisingly well... since we got up at 4 am on Friday, April 29, 2011 for our flight to JFK, we were tired in the early evening after arriving in New York at 3 pm, and became East Coast time-types immediately. But the five additional hours of time change for London was not quite as easy.
After two days of nice visits and excursions with our daughters and their families in New York, we headed off to JFK on Sunday to catch a 7:30 pm departure to London on British Airways.
We used American Airlines frequent flyer miles to book our Business Class travel roundtrip to Europe and we were suprised to learn that our early evening flight to Heathrow was labeled as "Sleeper Service." It's billed as a way for travellers to get some extra sleep, since the business class seats recline to a complete flat bed, albeit a bit narrow. To allow more time for shut-eye, British Air has a large lounge at JFK airport that includes a buffet-style restaurant for those of us on the "Sleeper" flights. Although it sounded like a neat idea, in practice it was pretty lame. The buffet line included some tired salads and a Pho soup station where an over-taxed chef made custom bowls of Asian soup with your choice of ingredients. It was a very time-consuming routine, and I waited for at least 20 minutes to get our bowls of Pho. By the time we ate our soup it was time to board, so we really didn't eat enough to sustain us through to London.
The "Sleeper Service" could also be a way for British Air to save money. They clearly had fewer flight attendants than normal in our upper level business class area, and they were definitely saving money on food expenses, since all you could eat on board was a bad chicken salad or some dried-out ravioli. But after a couple of drinks, we both got a little sleep and were soon being asked if we wanted a light breakfast. As we approached Heathrow, our flight attendant informed us that the Captain had told him that Osama Bin Laden had been killed and that news spread throughout the cabin very quickly.
Monday, May 2, 2011 - We didn't notice any increase in security at Heathrow, which was surprising. Our bags arrived relatively promptly and our travel consultant had arranged for a driver who was already at the airport with his "Grosvenor Car Service" sign.
We arrived at our "jet lag stop" hotel, The Academy, in a great area of London just blocks from the St. Pancras train station where the next day we would be boarding the Eurostar for our trip to Lyon via Lille, France. The Academy Hotel is a small boutique property with our room costing only 139 Euros--a very low rate for London. On prior trips to Europe, we typically arrive early in the morning and have to kill time at the hotel bar or lunch room waiting for our room to become available, since most of these places have an "official" check-in time of 3 pm. This time, we decided to spring for paying for two nights, even though we would really only be sleeping in the hotel room one night. So when we arrived at the hotel, we could go to our room straight-away... take a little nap and be ready for an nice evening in London.
We decided to slum-it with pub food for dinner, and we shared an "English Pie Assortment" of doughy, British concoctions which made us pretty ill by the time we finished it all off! But the Jack Horner Pub, was a friendly place with Peroni beer on tap, which was great! We went to bed relatively early, in anticipation of our train voyage to France the next day.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011 - We had high hopes about using Europe's high-speed rail network. And the Eurostar portion through the "chunnel" from London to Lille did not disappoint. Our first class seats included a nice lunch with wine, lots of free magazines and very comfortable seats. The only down-side to this idea was the problem of "schlepping" your own luggage onto and off the train. No porters, like in the old days. They have luggage racks right by the doors of each car, but people are trying to get to their seats or store their own bags, and it was a bit of a fight to get our two medium cases, and two smaller bags onto the rack. But it worked out, and in less than 90 minutes, we were in Lille France, having zipped across England, the English Channel and Northern France at 185 miles per hour.
The transfer from the British Eurostar to the French TGV train was relatively painless, but again a hassle trying to roll our bags up and down escalators. When you arrive, you go to a waiting area where at exactly 20 minutes before your train departs, the track on which it will leave is flashed on a schedule monitor. Everyone then made a mad dash to Track 46 to catch our TGV double-decker train No. 5022 which would go to Lyon, Provence and all the way to Marsailles.
Unfortunately, TGV was nothing like the Eurostar. Unbeknownst to us, we had bad pre-reserved seats facing another couple and had to play footsie with them for most of the trip. Even more annoying there was zero food or beverage service. The bar car was closed tight, and when I asked a French train dude why it was closed, he pointed to a TGV notebook that said "Bar Car Closed for Reasons Beyond Our Control." Labor strife? Mechanical problems? Who knows. Bottom line is not even a bottle of water was available for our 3 hour excursion through France.
We read our e-book readers, and watched the countryside zip by at incredible speed, but it was hardly enjoyable, and definitely not "first class." But in about the same time as it would take to get to an airport in London, go thru security lines, wait for your flight, then arrive and wait for baggage, we got to Lyon on the trains pretty much on time at 7: 15 pm. Total travel time, about 4 and a half hours. But we've now been there, and done that, and probably won't repeat the train experiment again, unless we are travelling extremely lightly.
Our destination was Bagnols... a small village about 45 minutes northwest of Lyon. The Chateau de Bagnols had arranged for taxi service to meet us in Lyon, and the driver was inside the train terminal with his "Chateau de Bagnols" sign when we arrived.
At about 8:15 we got to the Chateau... a 13th century French castle that has been lovingly restored to its original grandeur by Lady Hamlyn in 1987. Renaissance walls were uncovered, antique furnishings installed, and 12 unique guest quarters were created inside the various levels of the castle. The grounds and the views are absolutely stupendous.
We got upgraded into the Gaspard Dugue Junior Suite--a very large apartment with a 17th century four poster bed that has been placed in the alcove of the former location of the chapel of the castle. A big living rooms adjoins the bedroom and we also have a large bath and a walk-in closet. All the furniture is period. I'm typing this sitting on a chair and desk both from the 18th century! The original 400-year old lea
ther seat and back shows cracking and age, but is totally intact and useable! I'm afraid of sitting too hard on it, for fear of breaking a piece of furniture that might be worth $100,000! All the accessories in the room are of the highest quality, and of course available for purchase. The cute little silver wine "beakers" that accompanied our "Welcome" carafe of vino are available for just 400 Euros ($600) each. The menu of accessory prices is also a subtle way of telling guests, "Don't steal this stuff or you will be billed for it!"
One of the most unusual aspects of the bathrooms in the Chateau's accommodations are the toilets. They are hidden in wooden "thrones" that might have been church pew seats at some point in history. The wooden top seat lifts to expose another wooden level with a large hole to sit over. That also lifts up for "stand-up" uses by males. But the location of the hole makes lengthy sitting on these commodes less than ideal. In addition, our room just had a bath with a hand-held shower. I'm not big on these, and so after our first night here, we inquired whether all the rooms had these strange toilets and if any had showers. All but one room has these "thrones" and only one small room has a regular stand-up shower... so after looking at our other possible choices, we decided to stick with our "Gaspard Dugue" suite. The size of the suite and the views both to the Valley below on one side, and into the courtyard on the other side, made it worth putting up with the funky plumbing.
We had arranged to have room service dining on our first night because of our somewhat late arrival time. Ronna had a chicken dish and I had beef and they were quite good, but of course shockingly expensive. We knew things would be pricey, and with the dollar so low against the Euro, it gives you some serious "sticker shock" when you order a small chicken dish that runs 42 Euros ($63 dollars.) Add some soup and a dessert to share and you've blown about $250 on your in-room dinner. But alas, you only have a 30th Anniversary once... I think!
Wednesday, May 4, 2011 - We slept in a bit and called for our room service Continental Breakfast, which was included in our room package. Good strong coffee, cereal, fruit, a huge roll and croissant basket... all excellent.
We then took a stroll through the cute little Bagnols village. It's comprised of a few shops, which were closed more often than open, a post office and a nice Pizza bar-restaurant, which was also closing up for mid-day break when we sauntered by. But we took some marvelous photos, with the amazing European light and fabulous colors of the stone work. Bagnols is famous for two things... wine-making (Beaujolais) and stone and tile masonry. Both are evident everywhere.
We went back to our Chateau and spent some time in the hotel's Lounge room, another amazingly restored period place with an enormous Renaissance fireplace and fabulous furnishings. We also enjoyed a glass of wine on the outdoor terrace. There are not many guests at Chateau de Bagnols at any one time... I think they make their living primarily on groups and special events, like weddings.
We returned to the Lounge to wait for our 8 pm dinner reservation time and ended up meeting a charming couple about our age from the UK. We chatted and moved on to the dining room together.
We had reserved a spot for dinner in the Michelin-rated Chateau Restaurant, Salles des Gardes, which boasts the largest Gothic fireplace in all Europe. It was a spectacular space. Our new friends, Sue and John from Manchester, joined us for dinner and we enchanged plenty of interesting conversation over our five course tasting menu dinner. One of the best bargains on the wine list is of course Beaujolais wine... made right around the Chateau. But beyond the Beaujolais, the wine list prices were heart-stopping. Nothing less than $200 a bottle, and most well into quardruple digits! There must be some very rich people around!
We learned that Sue and John owned five automobiles ranging from Bentleys to Porsches, and he made his fortune creating chefs' coats and linens for restaurants! He has a plant in England that with automation, can make chef's coats cheaper and faster than even a Chinese factory. He provides these garments to restaurants all over Europe and the Middle East. It always amazes me how many ways there are to earn a good living in this world!
We left the dining room close to midnight and finally went to sleep without the aid of "Simply Sleep" or Ambien. A wonderful day!
Thursday, May 5, 2011 - Up earlier today... 8:45 and we wandered down for our Continental Breakfast in the fancy Dining Room.... where we met again with Sue and John. They were driving on to the South of France in their Bentley, and we wished them well on their journey.
Part of the benefits of booking our trip through Travel Consultant Kittina Powers, is the fact that we get "Virtuoso" benefits at each hotel. At Chateau de Bagnols we got free breakfasts, plus a tour of a local winery. We scheduled that for 2 pm this day, and a car from the Chateau drove us about ten minutes away to a lovely nearby village, Le Bois d'Oingt. We met a charming lady, Mdme. Durdilly, who's husband and son are the winemakers for their brand of Beaujolais wine... Domaine Durdilly. She showed us the whole winemaking process and we compared our experiences in the Napa and Sonoma Valleys with hers, and it was very interesting. We of course had a thorough wine-tasting of all of Durdilly's offerings... from a very limited production Chardonnay to their various forms of Beaujolais... including some heavy oak-tinged offerings. Amazingly, you could buy her wine right there for between 5 and 7 Euros a bottle... the same wine we saw on the Chateau wine list for 32 Euros!
Other interesting insights from Mdme. Durdilly: She employs about 30 seasonal workers during fall grape harvest, all retired folks or young students. She has to pay them 100 Euros a day ($150) plus provide them with room and board! She says vineyard workers in Chili earn 1 Euro a day, by comparison.
The winery visit was very fun and she gave us a great recommendation for dinner in her little village... L'Restaurant Auberge Gourmande. So when we got back to our hotel, we had the concierge make us a reservation and set up a ride from the Chateau to the restaurant and back with the in-house driver.
It was nice to have classic French food, but not quite so fussy and fancy as the prior night in the hotel. The owner/server did her best to accommodate us with her limited English and there was no "French attitude" of any sort... she was so friendly and caring, maybe because we were staying at Chateau de Bagnols!
We said goodnight after another wonderful day in France
Our Photos of Bagnols
We started this process in San Francisco four days before we left for New York, gradually getting up earlier and earlier to get us onto Eastern Time. It worked suprisingly well... since we got up at 4 am on Friday, April 29, 2011 for our flight to JFK, we were tired in the early evening after arriving in New York at 3 pm, and became East Coast time-types immediately. But the five additional hours of time change for London was not quite as easy.
After two days of nice visits and excursions with our daughters and their families in New York, we headed off to JFK on Sunday to catch a 7:30 pm departure to London on British Airways.
We used American Airlines frequent flyer miles to book our Business Class travel roundtrip to Europe and we were suprised to learn that our early evening flight to Heathrow was labeled as "Sleeper Service." It's billed as a way for travellers to get some extra sleep, since the business class seats recline to a complete flat bed, albeit a bit narrow. To allow more time for shut-eye, British Air has a large lounge at JFK airport that includes a buffet-style restaurant for those of us on the "Sleeper" flights. Although it sounded like a neat idea, in practice it was pretty lame. The buffet line included some tired salads and a Pho soup station where an over-taxed chef made custom bowls of Asian soup with your choice of ingredients. It was a very time-consuming routine, and I waited for at least 20 minutes to get our bowls of Pho. By the time we ate our soup it was time to board, so we really didn't eat enough to sustain us through to London.
The "Sleeper Service" could also be a way for British Air to save money. They clearly had fewer flight attendants than normal in our upper level business class area, and they were definitely saving money on food expenses, since all you could eat on board was a bad chicken salad or some dried-out ravioli. But after a couple of drinks, we both got a little sleep and were soon being asked if we wanted a light breakfast. As we approached Heathrow, our flight attendant informed us that the Captain had told him that Osama Bin Laden had been killed and that news spread throughout the cabin very quickly.
Monday, May 2, 2011 - We didn't notice any increase in security at Heathrow, which was surprising. Our bags arrived relatively promptly and our travel consultant had arranged for a driver who was already at the airport with his "Grosvenor Car Service" sign.
We arrived at our "jet lag stop" hotel, The Academy, in a great area of London just blocks from the St. Pancras train station where the next day we would be boarding the Eurostar for our trip to Lyon via Lille, France. The Academy Hotel is a small boutique property with our room costing only 139 Euros--a very low rate for London. On prior trips to Europe, we typically arrive early in the morning and have to kill time at the hotel bar or lunch room waiting for our room to become available, since most of these places have an "official" check-in time of 3 pm. This time, we decided to spring for paying for two nights, even though we would really only be sleeping in the hotel room one night. So when we arrived at the hotel, we could go to our room straight-away... take a little nap and be ready for an nice evening in London.
We decided to slum-it with pub food for dinner, and we shared an "English Pie Assortment" of doughy, British concoctions which made us pretty ill by the time we finished it all off! But the Jack Horner Pub, was a friendly place with Peroni beer on tap, which was great! We went to bed relatively early, in anticipation of our train voyage to France the next day.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011 - We had high hopes about using Europe's high-speed rail network. And the Eurostar portion through the "chunnel" from London to Lille did not disappoint. Our first class seats included a nice lunch with wine, lots of free magazines and very comfortable seats. The only down-side to this idea was the problem of "schlepping" your own luggage onto and off the train. No porters, like in the old days. They have luggage racks right by the doors of each car, but people are trying to get to their seats or store their own bags, and it was a bit of a fight to get our two medium cases, and two smaller bags onto the rack. But it worked out, and in less than 90 minutes, we were in Lille France, having zipped across England, the English Channel and Northern France at 185 miles per hour.
The transfer from the British Eurostar to the French TGV train was relatively painless, but again a hassle trying to roll our bags up and down escalators. When you arrive, you go to a waiting area where at exactly 20 minutes before your train departs, the track on which it will leave is flashed on a schedule monitor. Everyone then made a mad dash to Track 46 to catch our TGV double-decker train No. 5022 which would go to Lyon, Provence and all the way to Marsailles.
Unfortunately, TGV was nothing like the Eurostar. Unbeknownst to us, we had bad pre-reserved seats facing another couple and had to play footsie with them for most of the trip. Even more annoying there was zero food or beverage service. The bar car was closed tight, and when I asked a French train dude why it was closed, he pointed to a TGV notebook that said "Bar Car Closed for Reasons Beyond Our Control." Labor strife? Mechanical problems? Who knows. Bottom line is not even a bottle of water was available for our 3 hour excursion through France.
We read our e-book readers, and watched the countryside zip by at incredible speed, but it was hardly enjoyable, and definitely not "first class." But in about the same time as it would take to get to an airport in London, go thru security lines, wait for your flight, then arrive and wait for baggage, we got to Lyon on the trains pretty much on time at 7: 15 pm. Total travel time, about 4 and a half hours. But we've now been there, and done that, and probably won't repeat the train experiment again, unless we are travelling extremely lightly.
Our destination was Bagnols... a small village about 45 minutes northwest of Lyon. The Chateau de Bagnols had arranged for taxi service to meet us in Lyon, and the driver was inside the train terminal with his "Chateau de Bagnols" sign when we arrived.
At about 8:15 we got to the Chateau... a 13th century French castle that has been lovingly restored to its original grandeur by Lady Hamlyn in 1987. Renaissance walls were uncovered, antique furnishings installed, and 12 unique guest quarters were created inside the various levels of the castle. The grounds and the views are absolutely stupendous.
We got upgraded into the Gaspard Dugue Junior Suite--a very large apartment with a 17th century four poster bed that has been placed in the alcove of the former location of the chapel of the castle. A big living rooms adjoins the bedroom and we also have a large bath and a walk-in closet. All the furniture is period. I'm typing this sitting on a chair and desk both from the 18th century! The original 400-year old lea
ther seat and back shows cracking and age, but is totally intact and useable! I'm afraid of sitting too hard on it, for fear of breaking a piece of furniture that might be worth $100,000! All the accessories in the room are of the highest quality, and of course available for purchase. The cute little silver wine "beakers" that accompanied our "Welcome" carafe of vino are available for just 400 Euros ($600) each. The menu of accessory prices is also a subtle way of telling guests, "Don't steal this stuff or you will be billed for it!"One of the most unusual aspects of the bathrooms in the Chateau's accommodations are the toilets. They are hidden in wooden "thrones" that might have been church pew seats at some point in history. The wooden top seat lifts to expose another wooden level with a large hole to sit over. That also lifts up for "stand-up" uses by males. But the location of the hole makes lengthy sitting on these commodes less than ideal. In addition, our room just had a bath with a hand-held shower. I'm not big on these, and so after our first night here, we inquired whether all the rooms had these strange toilets and if any had showers. All but one room has these "thrones" and only one small room has a regular stand-up shower... so after looking at our other possible choices, we decided to stick with our "Gaspard Dugue" suite. The size of the suite and the views both to the Valley below on one side, and into the courtyard on the other side, made it worth putting up with the funky plumbing.
We had arranged to have room service dining on our first night because of our somewhat late arrival time. Ronna had a chicken dish and I had beef and they were quite good, but of course shockingly expensive. We knew things would be pricey, and with the dollar so low against the Euro, it gives you some serious "sticker shock" when you order a small chicken dish that runs 42 Euros ($63 dollars.) Add some soup and a dessert to share and you've blown about $250 on your in-room dinner. But alas, you only have a 30th Anniversary once... I think!
Wednesday, May 4, 2011 - We slept in a bit and called for our room service Continental Breakfast, which was included in our room package. Good strong coffee, cereal, fruit, a huge roll and croissant basket... all excellent.
We then took a stroll through the cute little Bagnols village. It's comprised of a few shops, which were closed more often than open, a post office and a nice Pizza bar-restaurant, which was also closing up for mid-day break when we sauntered by. But we took some marvelous photos, with the amazing European light and fabulous colors of the stone work. Bagnols is famous for two things... wine-making (Beaujolais) and stone and tile masonry. Both are evident everywhere.
We went back to our Chateau and spent some time in the hotel's Lounge room, another amazingly restored period place with an enormous Renaissance fireplace and fabulous furnishings. We also enjoyed a glass of wine on the outdoor terrace. There are not many guests at Chateau de Bagnols at any one time... I think they make their living primarily on groups and special events, like weddings.
We returned to the Lounge to wait for our 8 pm dinner reservation time and ended up meeting a charming couple about our age from the UK. We chatted and moved on to the dining room together.
We had reserved a spot for dinner in the Michelin-rated Chateau Restaurant, Salles des Gardes, which boasts the largest Gothic fireplace in all Europe. It was a spectacular space. Our new friends, Sue and John from Manchester, joined us for dinner and we enchanged plenty of interesting conversation over our five course tasting menu dinner. One of the best bargains on the wine list is of course Beaujolais wine... made right around the Chateau. But beyond the Beaujolais, the wine list prices were heart-stopping. Nothing less than $200 a bottle, and most well into quardruple digits! There must be some very rich people around!
We learned that Sue and John owned five automobiles ranging from Bentleys to Porsches, and he made his fortune creating chefs' coats and linens for restaurants! He has a plant in England that with automation, can make chef's coats cheaper and faster than even a Chinese factory. He provides these garments to restaurants all over Europe and the Middle East. It always amazes me how many ways there are to earn a good living in this world!
We left the dining room close to midnight and finally went to sleep without the aid of "Simply Sleep" or Ambien. A wonderful day!
Thursday, May 5, 2011 - Up earlier today... 8:45 and we wandered down for our Continental Breakfast in the fancy Dining Room.... where we met again with Sue and John. They were driving on to the South of France in their Bentley, and we wished them well on their journey.
Part of the benefits of booking our trip through Travel Consultant Kittina Powers, is the fact that we get "Virtuoso" benefits at each hotel. At Chateau de Bagnols we got free breakfasts, plus a tour of a local winery. We scheduled that for 2 pm this day, and a car from the Chateau drove us about ten minutes away to a lovely nearby village, Le Bois d'Oingt. We met a charming lady, Mdme. Durdilly, who's husband and son are the winemakers for their brand of Beaujolais wine... Domaine Durdilly. She showed us the whole winemaking process and we compared our experiences in the Napa and Sonoma Valleys with hers, and it was very interesting. We of course had a thorough wine-tasting of all of Durdilly's offerings... from a very limited production Chardonnay to their various forms of Beaujolais... including some heavy oak-tinged offerings. Amazingly, you could buy her wine right there for between 5 and 7 Euros a bottle... the same wine we saw on the Chateau wine list for 32 Euros!
Other interesting insights from Mdme. Durdilly: She employs about 30 seasonal workers during fall grape harvest, all retired folks or young students. She has to pay them 100 Euros a day ($150) plus provide them with room and board! She says vineyard workers in Chili earn 1 Euro a day, by comparison.
The winery visit was very fun and she gave us a great recommendation for dinner in her little village... L'Restaurant Auberge Gourmande. So when we got back to our hotel, we had the concierge make us a reservation and set up a ride from the Chateau to the restaurant and back with the in-house driver.
It was nice to have classic French food, but not quite so fussy and fancy as the prior night in the hotel. The owner/server did her best to accommodate us with her limited English and there was no "French attitude" of any sort... she was so friendly and caring, maybe because we were staying at Chateau de Bagnols!
We said goodnight after another wonderful day in France
Our Photos of Bagnols
No comments:
Post a Comment