Road trip

I must have written about my Aussie-ness fostered by Emus and Red Kangaroos somewhere, but when I drive, I am the TomTom and I hate going backwards after taking the wrong route. The question is, should I change my approach as we are now paying by mileage?

Our road trip to Evian included a short visit to a medieval port town of Yvoire. It is on the Lake Léman, established around 1300. In February, our Lyonnaise friends took us to Pérouge (1200~), and we have been fascinated by small fortified towns, preserved as a national heritage and inhabited by ordinary citizens! Yvoire was rather touristy, probably more than Pérouges, but they did have a great seafood (lakefood?) restaurant. Nathan had local perch and I had a fera fish, apparently extinct but delicious.

Instead of staying at a hotel, we chose a chambre d'hôte (B&B) in a small town called Margencel for our accomodation. We had a lovely room only 1.5 years old with lovely decoration, in the building which used to be a barn established more than 150 years ago. The lady who ran the chambre d'hôte was so welcoming and lovely, and spoke with us in French even though she spoke fluent English! It was such a warm experience, and I would love to go back again.

On the following day, after tasting a delicious cheese called Abondance, we were on the cheese hunt. The lady of the chambre d'hôte gave us some info, and here we were on the country road looking for cheese. After driving through some nice woods, we finally found the sign and really shabby building as described by the lady. Given all three cheese we bought were great, (Tomme, Reblochon, Abondance), it is proven that you don't need a nice house to make good cheese.

We were in a hurry back to Grenoble as the car started smelling delicious with cheese warming up. However, this is France. When you are on the road, random views of castles capture your eyes. We drove up a random path in the vineyard (Chignin), and found the castle which is a private residence and the remains of seven towers of the castle wall.

For our next road trip, we do not need a destination. It is truly "yours to discover" :).