• Home
  • Les Iris
  • Normandy in the Press
  • About
  • Rent the Cottage

chaumierelesiris

~ A fairy-tale cottage by the Seine in Normandy

chaumierelesiris

Monthly Archives: July 2012

Le cyclisme arrive!

29 Sunday Jul 2012

Posted by chaumierelesiris in France

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

cycling, France, London, Olympics, sport, Tour de France

Nothing new to say about Normandy this week as we have kept in London for the Olympics. France, of course, is a great Olympic country: not just as a competitor and five-time host, but, as I’ve noted before, because the modern Olympics exist in large part thanks to a Frenchman.

What a privilege to have world-class sport on our doorstep. A few weeks ago I lamented not being in Normandy when the Tour de France passed through. This weekend, we are lucky enough to have both the men’s and women’s road races pass minutes from our home, on their outbound and return journeys.

Cycling is one of France’s great sports, both for professional athletes and for the general population. You can barely step out of Les Iris on a sunny Sunday without a cycling club in their bright lycra speeding past along the Route des Chaumieres. Each one says hello.

“Bounjour”

“Bounjour”

“Bounjour”

“Bounjour”

“Bounjour”

Oddly, I never see groups of female road cyclists. France has three cyclists entered into the women’s road race today. And here they are, 12 minutes into today’s road race in their blue and white outfits, crossing Putney Bridge in west London. Bon chance!Women's Olympic Road Race goes over Putney Bridge, July 2012

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

Surviving Disneyland Paris in 10 Easy Steps

21 Saturday Jul 2012

Posted by chaumierelesiris in France, Things to do

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

chaumiere, Disneyland Paris, France, Paris

We were not looking forwards to it. After two years of asking, begging, nagging and demanding, the children had finally won.  We had bought the tickets. We had found someone to look after the dog. We had planned the route. We were all set for a visit to Disneyland Paris. It spread before us like some kind of punishment out of Dante.

Disneyland Paris

We had both visited Disneyworld Florida as pre-teens, and couldn’t see how Disneyland Paris would stack up. It was small! It was in France! Well, at least the food might be good.

Chaumiere, Disneyland Paris

As you may have realised by now, our expectations really were rock bottom. And perhaps that’s why, in the end, it didn’t seem quite so bad as all that. Or perhaps some of that Disney magic dust simply rubbed off on us.

Cinderella's coach, Disneyland Paris

In fact, ask us today, and we will probably recommend that you make time for Disneyland Paris. With a couple of caveats and recommendations:

  1. Bring children at the right age. Disney has focused hard on girls aged 3-8 in the last years, and that shows in the Disneyland Paris product. Fantasyland, with its focus on fairy tales and princesses, dominates the park. Space Mountain and other rides for older kids feel like afterthoughts.
  2. Don’t promise the kids that they will see the Disney characters close-up. I have this memory of meting Disney characters on the street in Florida. That didn’t happen here. To meet a Disney princess, you either had to queue up at the princess palace for about two hours, or pay Michelin prices to eat a burger with Cinderella. We weren’t willing to do either, and it made me cross. Aren’t the entrance tickets expensive enough already?
  3. Visit off-peak, or at least when not all European schoolchildren are on holiday. We went during UK school half term in June. It was packed with Brits, and no one else.
  4. Don’t expect the enthusiasm of the US Disney crews. Service on the rides was functional and professional, but never really fun or enthusiastic. It’s just not that French to get so into things, is it.
  5. Buy tickets online in advance and you can walk right in when you get there.
  6. Don’t stay overnight at one of the high-priced park hotels if you can avoid it. We are lucky to be two hours, door to door, from the park. Leave at 8 an and arrive by 10 am as the gates are opening. Leave after the parade, and you’re home before 10 pm. Disneyland Paris is small enough to cover in a day. Limit the pain.
  7. In order to cover the park in a day, plan your circuit. A quick post to Facebook and Twitter in the morning prompted fast recommendations from friends with children the same ages as ours. We made a beeline for the rides they recommended.
  8. Use FastTrack. Some of the rides – like Peter Pan and Buzz Lightyear- have the FastTrack system where you can swipe your park entry ticket and get a ticket to return to a ride at a specific time later in the day. So instead of standing in line you can try out other rides while you wait and then cut to the front of the queue at the specified time.
  9. Bring your own picnic.  Disney may have brought its magic to Paris, but hasn’t let Paris bring its food to Disney. In the land of fresh and sensitively prepared food, Disney offered little more than the kind of microwaved fast food you might find at a motorway service station, but more expensive: over-toasted ham sandwiches, wilted salad wrapped in plastic.
  10. Do stay for the parade. You’re tired, and it’s tempting to leave and avoid the crowds. But at around 7 pm each evening, Disney puts on a real spectacle. The costumes and floats are extravagant, the dance routines carefully choreographed, and the performers could be anywhere in the world. Like it or not, it’s pure on-brand Disney magic.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

Dinner by Michelin: Gill

07 Saturday Jul 2012

Posted by chaumierelesiris in Food, France, Normandy

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Food, Michelin, restaurant, Rouen

I’m delighted to welcome a guest blogger to chaumierelesiris today. You may remember that we have been sampling the Michelin restaurants of Upper Normandy. We recently shared a meal with my parents at Gill in Rouen, and I asked my mother–a veteran of many of France’s top restaurants–to review the evening.

Gill is the flagship restaurant of chef Giles Tournadre, the most famous of Normandy’s many famous chefs. Tournadre has held two Michelin stars here since 1990. In recent years has has added to his empire a less formal annexe and a bistro in Rouen, as well as a restaurant in Japan. Has he over-extended the brand, or is the quality still there two decades on? Let’s find out.

* * * * *

Those who use the Michelin red guide have an expectation that the food, service and environment of the hotel or restaurant will be as determined by its star rating and location. Extremely rarely have my husband and I been disappointed over the forty five years we have used the guides.

Gill, in the lovely city of Rouen, Normandy, is no exception. The food was delicious. My duck was sweet and so fresh, prepared in three ways, and the dessert, Millefeuille a La Minute, was a delicious contrast of textures. Others enjoyed the day’s starter, traditional escargots with garlic sauce, as well as sea bass pan-fried in cider, served with potato and onion marmalade and creamy Calvados foam, and a meringue cake desert filled with red fruit and basil sorbet.

Each course was beautifully presented, with “decoration” that enhanced the flavors of the preparation. Often the delicate placing of a small herb looked as if tweezers had been employed. There is a challenge to a home cook!

Gill has a lovely setting across the street from the Seine. Its building, however, is not particularly attractive. The interior is simply decorated with a monotone scheme, only occasionally interrupted by a small punch of strong color. Floral decoration is limited. The chairs are very comfortable.

The service is excellent. The chef went out of his way to prepare for me a simple seared foie gras rather than insisting that I try the foie gras dish that was on his menu. Whether trying to find a reservation which in our case was under a different name from the one we gave to the hostess, to advising about the menu, to crumbing the table, the staff managed everything perfectly.

There is no valet parking. The Friday night we dined, an opera was in production just down the road, and we struggled to find a spot to park the car in central Rouen (an underground municipal car park was the answer). That aside, Gill is a two starred Michelin restaurant and that says a lot. We look forward to our next meal there.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

Former Apple Product Manager’s Record-Breaking Trek Across The English Channel With Sir Richard Branson

06 Friday Jul 2012

Posted by chaumierelesiris in France

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

sport

We drive past Wimereux on the way to Les Iris from Calais. I’ve always had an idea that I’d like to try kite-surfing. Now I know where to do it.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

Tour de France 2012: Abbeville to Rouen

03 Tuesday Jul 2012

Posted by chaumierelesiris in France, Normandy

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

cycling, sport, Tour de France

On 4 July stage 4 of the 2012 Tour de France passes through our favourite parts of Normandy, taking the cyclists 214 km from Abbeville to Rouen. They will go through the charming seaside village of Varengeville-sur-Mer, home to a wonderful English-style house and garden, Les Bois des Moutiers. They will proceed along the Alabaster coast with its quaint villages and pebble beaches, turning inland just before they reach the cliffs made famous by Monet and other artists at Étretat. Then south to the banks of the Seine at Caudebec-en-Caux, and instead of crossing the magnificent Pont de Brotonne, they will head east along the north bank of the Seine through the Boucles de la Seine national park. They will pass the abbey town of St Wandrille and ride towards the famous ruins at Jumièges. They end the day in the medieval city of Rouen.

It’s a route I would love to cycle, but maybe not all in a day.

Here are some  pictures of places along or near their route through Upper Normandy, starting with the cliffs at Etretat.

Etretat, Normandy

The abbey at Jumieges.Jumieges, Normandy

Varengeville-sur-MerLes Bois Des MoutiersVieux-Port and the Seine

Vieux-Port, a village along the south bank of the Seine

Pony, Normandy
Norman pony, Boucles de la Seine national park

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

Abbey Aizier Anglo-Norman architecture Armada Art autumn Birds Books bread brocante buying a house Buying a house in France calvados Carousel chaumiere Christmas Christmas tree churches Cleres cycling decorations Easter Etretat Europe Flaubert Flowers Food France Gardens Gemma Bovery Gertrude Jekyll guests Halloween History home decor Honfleur House in France Jumieges Le Bec-Hellouin Le Havre Les Iris Le Touquet London Madame Bovary Market Michelin Monet museum Normandy Olympics oysters paintings photography pictures Pont-Audemer Pont-l'Évêque Property Recipes Renoir restaurant reviews Romanesque Rouen ruins Seine shopping shops sport St Fiacre thatched cottage Tour de France Travel Walking wild mushrooms

Twitter Updates

  • habituallychic.luxury/2020/02/tory-b… 3 months ago
  • This is a wonderful development for cyclists of all levels - and the route goes through our village! thetimes.co.uk/article/seine-… 1 year ago
Follow @lesirisnormandy

Instagram

No Instagram images were found.

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Categories

  • Culture
  • Food
  • France
  • Les Iris
  • Normandy
  • Property in France
  • Things to do
  • Travel
  • Uncategorized

Archives

  • September 2020
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • August 2018
  • May 2018
  • December 2017
  • July 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2016
  • August 2015
  • May 2015
  • September 2014
  • July 2014
  • May 2014
  • October 2013
  • August 2013
  • June 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • RSS - Posts
  • RSS - Comments

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • chaumierelesiris
    • Join 78 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • chaumierelesiris
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: