France - Five, becomes Eight, Days in the Saddle

After our soft landing in Toulouse, we were on the road for the next while, sleeping in a new place every night for the next eight nights. 

We had booked a six night bike trip, including pre-booked hotels, starting in Carcassonne and ending in Sete from a tour company based out of Beziers, a town at the midpoint of the tour. we began the bike tour at famous Carcassonne, about a 1.5 hour train ride from Toulouse. 

It was a hot Friday of a holiday long weekend in France when we arrived in Carcassonne and the place was a zoo!  

Carcassonne is a popular day spot for French (and other) families to visit and a holiday weekend in June apparently makes it even more so! 

The quaint medieval streets of the small town were jammed with people of all ages and after a cursory tour we retreated to our hotel and then dinner at a restaurant outside the old town. 

That evening we went back to the old town and it was magical to wander the now mostly deserted streets (the majority of families apparently being day trippers) under a clear sky. 

We stumbled upon a walled in enclosure hosting an after hours party and quickly hurried on, preferring a cold drink in the shadows alone on the outer battlements watching the occasional wandering tourist down below on the paths in and out of the town.

With drinks done, we returned to our small hotel just on the cusp of the old city and squeezed into bed. 

The next morning we met the new owners of the Bike Tour company and they gave us our bikes. We chatted briefly and exchanged pleasantries before heading off to ride the Canal-Du-Midi until its terminus in the Etang de Thau. 

Bike riding along the route of the canal is magical. The path is clearly marked, car free and generally flat. Most of the time the canal itself is on one side of you as you ride under the cover of ancient oak trees (planted before Canada was a country) that serve as a guide to the canal's path. 

Many leisure craft, from live aboard house barges to smaller power boats, float languidly along the canal's calm waters and are only occasionally spurred into a frenzy of action when it is time to use one of the many locks which are the foundation for the canal's placid waters. 

We rode along the canal for about 40km until reaching the quaint canal-side village of Homps in the early afternoon. 

After a cold beverage in the local bar (the Rive Gauche) we wandered about for a bit and then relaxed at the wonderful B&B the tour company had booked for us. 

That evening we went to Le Foudre, the local restaurant, for the first of many steak & frites dinners which were good but certainly not cheap at 32 euro each!

After a good night's sleep and a decent breakfast the next morning we hopped on our bikes for the next stop, the small city of Narbonne. Narbonne is an ancient city and possesses quite a wonderful medieval core of castle and cathedral built adjoining each other.

It happened to be the first Sunday in June when we arrived in Narbonne during the late afternoon and as such the museums were, apparently by French custom related to primary Sundays, open! 

How lovely for us as we visited the very cool Horreum, a series of underground chambers linked together by several tunnels built during the Roman era as storage areas and forgotten about for many centuries.

After the Horreum we visited the local Cathedral which, in addition to housing a small episcopal museum (again free!) and a cool chamber of whispers, has the unusual aspect of having not been completed due to changes in the city's fortunes during the Middle Ages. 

While the museums were free, it being Sunday also meant that some restaurants and stores were closed so our experience of the city was a bit muted. Dinner was at a good restaurant near the cathedral. 

Our third stop on the bike trip was the charming little city of Beziers, the hometown of Paul Riquet architect of the Canal Du Midi, where we stayed the night on the main street (allee Paul Riquet) at the decent if unassuming Imperator Hotel. It was a holiday Monday, so even more quiet than a Sunday, and we wandered the shuttered streets and opted to do some much needed laundry. Dinner was at the wonderful Spanish tapas restaurant Pica-Pica. Nice to have a non-French meal and the food was top notch.

Our final day along the canal was a ride to Marseillan, a fishing town on the Etang Du Thau. Once more a glorious day's ride along the canal. We stayed at a lovely bed and breakfast with a charming garden hidden behind an unassuming street door not far from the port but were disappointed in dinner that night as there seemed to be no seafood restaurants open yet. 

Perhaps we were a bit early in the season or perhaps we did not look hard enough but we did find a closed oyster bar and closed fish restaurant ... 

In any case we tried the local oysters at "Le Moment Gourmand" and sadly were disappointed given our oyster snobbery. 

Mediterranean oysters simply lack the gravitas of Atlantic ones. We moved on to dinner at a traditional French place and it was decent if not overwhelming.

Technically had only one day's ride left (to Sete) but Christos had a chat the prior day with the new owners of the bike tour company and they quickly agreed to an extension of our rental by three days for a mere 100 euros. 

As such, they agreed to pick up our bags in Marseillan and we would ride on to Sete, Meze, Pezenas and back to Beziers to drop off the bikes, living out of panniers for the next few days. 

Christos had tried to negotiate a similar deal with the original owners of the company but as they were trying to sell the company, they were not interested in selling off menu items. We were fortunately the first clients of the new owners and they were happy to have one day's less work, a little extra cash and happy clients. 

So off we went from Marseillan with panniers attached towards the coastal town of Sete. We had a lovely ride along the causeway of beaches that forms the barrier between the Etang Du Thau and the Mediterranean before arriving in the "Venice of Languedoc" in the late afternoon and checking in at the Grand Hotel de Sete. 

We meandered over to Les Halles where Christos purchased a seafood platter and Lisa procured the drinks for a late lunch. After lunch we toured the lovely city for quite some time before taking a break back at the hotel for a couple hours. 

Christos spied a local t-shirt company called Bad Georges across from our hotel and purchased a t-shirt.  After talking with the proprietor he visited a local chandlery the next morning where he purchased a custom made Bad Georges shirt for the Setois Marina. 

Dinner was a poor choice by Christos as we wandered for a bit but did not find anything we liked; so Christos settled on a local bar and their mediocre mussels. Ah well, they can't all be winners. We had a couple drinks after dinner and wandered along the main canal before heading to bed.

After our night in Sete we were no longer on the original bike trail but the way to our next stop, Meze, was pretty simple and bike friendly. We followed the inner coast of the Etang Du Thau until we reached Balaruc-Le-Vieux where we stopped for lunch at the absolutely wonderful Chifoumi. 

Lunch was a sublime tabouli to start (we both thought it the best tabouli we had ever had, perfectly balanced and seasoned) followed by a steak tataki served on top of a sweet potato mash. Not too French, quite simple and marvellous. One of the top three lunches of our lives! 

After lunch we continued on towards Meze with a brief wrong turn taking us down to the waterfront. 

The waterfront path turned at some point into an inland bike trail and we arrived in Meze around 3PM, finding the B&B we were staying at to be without hosts so after a brief chat with the owner on the phone we headed back to visit a roman villa/farm near Loupian that had some wonderful mosaics as well as a good overview of the ancient settlement. 

We got back to our B&B around 5ish, checked in and then headed down to the port to look around. We made a reservation at a fish restaurant on the water and headed back to the B&B to relax before dinner.

In the early evening we headed down to the port for a sublime fish dinner at Le Bistro del Mar  while watching the sunset. 

After dinner we wandered around the old town for a bit, looking at cats and buildings when Christos noticed some music coming from the open door of a large building. 

Ever adventurous, we decided to find out what it was and to our great amazement it was the local (mostly seniors) tango club practicing a night of dancing! 

One of the members invited us in to watch and soon Lisa was swept up by the president of the club who insisted he teach Lisa the tango. In the meantime, the lovely widow Genevieve made small talk with Christos that only later was determined to be of possible propositional intent! 

This particular day, with a great ride, Chifoumi, Bistro del Mar, a wonderful sunset and the Tango encounter was probably our favourite day of the trip. It also happened to be Baba's 86th birthday. 

Our penultimate day of riding was next with a turn away from the water inland towards the town of Pezenas. 

On the way to Pezenas we stopped at Valmagne Abbey, a lovely medieval space that was saved from complete destruction (although it did suffer somewhat) during the Revolution when it became storage for wine. 

The abbey also produced its own wine and had a restaurant serving food from the gardens on-site as well as hosting an intriguing photography exhibit of abandoned places with derelict pianos. All very cool. 

After touring the abbey, we opted to skip lunch at the abbey restaurant as it was not quite noon, preferring to head out to Pezenas via the back roads of farmers' fields with the goal of lunching there. 

We arrived in Pezenas after a fair bit of meandering through countryside in the mid afternoon and  checked in at our hotel located just across a dry canal from medieval Pezenas. 

With bikes and bags stowed we crossed the dry canal into the heart of the town and soon found a lovely spot for a lunch of quiche and assorted side salads. 

Pezenas has a charming medieval centre and the old buildings are filled with artists' boutiques, cafes etc. It is a popular vacation spot for the French and other Europeans but not really on the radar of North Americans. 

We found the studio of the artist whose works were at Valmagne and purchased a smaller one (8.5 by 11) of his prints. 

Friday night dinner was a French classic, steak frites at a lovely local place called Aux Bon Vivants. 

Our final day in the saddle was a return to Beziers once more through the back roads of farmer's fields and other small paths. 

We dropped the bikes off at the tour company's office and checked into the wonderful Hotel Particulier for Saturday and Sunday nights. 

Dinner Saturday was once more at Pica Pica and sadly we did not enjoy it as much as we had previously as the service was a bit off but the Patatas Bravas and Pimiento De Padron were still super tasty. 

Sunday was of course sleepy but we had a wonderful brunch at the nearby Arlett Cafe Cycliste followed by a slow day wandering in the town with occasional breaks back at the hotel until dinner at the lovely Maison Carne which pretty much specialized in one thing; steak! 

They also had an interesting method of serving wine; from a large bottle at your table and by the inch/glass!

Monday morning we picked up our rental car, after a brief wait as it was not yet ready, down at the train station and hopped in for the next leg of our adventure ... The Road Trip!

France - The Landing

Our trip to France started with a bit of a bump. A few hours before our flight was set to depart, we received a call from Air Canada informing us that the (direct to CDG) flight had been cancelled and that we could either fly via Montreal that day or fly the next day direct from Toronto. As the Montreal option also included a credit and got us there at the right arrival time for our connection to Toulouse we jumped at it! The flight was a bit discombobulating with the three hour layover in Montreal and a late meal service which meant not a lot of sleep. 

In any case, we arrived at CDG the next morning slightly rumpled but otherwise fine. A two hour wait and then on to the next flight, arriving in Toulouse around 4ish. 

We took a cab to our modest downtown hotel and after dropping off our bags opted for a stroll about town with a visit to the Cathedral and the University district as well as the river side. After a break back at the hotel, Lisa opted for an early night in bed and a skipped supper as the flight had weakened her while Christos went out for a quick dinner of cassoulet at a local restaurant.

The next day, after croissants and coffee, was a wander through Toulouse complete with small purchases such as socks for the upcoming ride, cards and stickers for the craft pack and a stop at the Barbour shop where Christos procured an excellent summer travel hat. A wander through the lovely Jardin des Plantes was also accomplished. We tried in vain to sell some gold at a local dealer, he wanted a 15% discount as it was not a coin/ingot he usually dealt in! I suppose Bitcoin truly is the future! Dinner that evening was at a restaurant on the crowded Place St. Georges. So far neither of our dinners had been what we were hoping for. After dinner we wandered around a bit before having a few drinks at Place St. Georges which provided excellent people watching opportunities.

The next day we wandered the city, watched a parade and visited the wonderful Capitole. For our third and final night in Toulouse we stumbled upon the restaurant Terra Tolosa, just around the corner from our hotel but missed for the last two nights, in the afternoon and came back in the evening for a lovely dinner. Finally a decent French meal!

While we enjoyed seeing a new city and being in France, the heat (around 30 degrees Celsius at the end of May) was a bit much and we were anxious to start the less urban part of our adventure. On Saturday morning it was on the train to Carcassonne and the next leg of our French adventure!

Costa Rica - Four Days and Five Nights on the Green Mountain!

 As is now policy if possible, a holiday for Lisa's birthday was arranged and while New Orleans was on the radar (loved it last year, short flight, English spoken), this year our destination ended up being Costa Rica as we were able to book flights on points! 

We opted for a week in country, arriving late at night and staying at the airport hotel and leaving early in the morning, facilitating another night at the airport hotel, with five amazing nights at El Sol near Monteverde! 

The flight down was on Rouge with five and a half hours of uneventful travel and us opting for boxed dinners from home (sandwiches and other cold snacks) rather than take the risk with airplane food. 

The next morning after a short adventure finding our rental car we were on the road before noon and off on the three hour drive to Monteverde. 

We arrived in the mid afternoon and checked in at El Sol before heading in to the nearby town of Santa Elena. 

Our cabin at El Sol was amazing! Down a gravel path from the parking lot to a secluded spot, the cabin consisted of a large bedroom and kitchenette, a wonderful bathroom with a shower that had views down the valley and a deck with a small hot-tup and large netting from which to relax and enjoy the view and the sunset.

The town of Santa Elena is about a half hour drive down a road of variable quality, with some parts fully paved and lit while other patches were gravel bathed in darkness (of course much more relevant at night).

We parked in one side of the triangle that makes up the three main roads of the downtown and wandered about a bit and after a little provisioning it was back to El Sol for dinner and relaxation. 

Dinner the first night was steak at the cabin, cooked by the young owner Javier. We had asked for a large salad and he did not disappoint. 

We watched the sun set, sipped wine spritzers and listened to the jungle before it was time for bed with a little TV first.

The next day was our first full day in Monteverde and we awoke to a blue sky, a green vista and a full sun. 

After a wonderful breakfast in bed (sausage and egg for Lisa, egg and bean like the locals for Ctos), we lazed about a bit enjoying the space, Lisa particularly loving the giant hammock off the deck, before heading into town for a bit of sight seeing.

This time we went past "downtown" and visited a local coffee shop, Stella's, a bit further down the road. The coffee was excellent (far better than the drip coffee at our cabin) and the setting very pleasant. 

After that it was off by foot to the adjacent Bat Jungle for the short but well worth the US$5 each visit. 

Where else can one listen through ears to hear like a bat and see so many bats up close from behind glass in the darkened bat cavern? 

We were treated to the bizarre but wonderful experience of watching an upside down bat relieve itself via two successive giant arcs of projected waste product! 

Then it was off to the local brew pub for lunch and a sampler of the local beers. All quite palatable and Ctos considered a beer shirt purchase before being reminded by Lisa that he has far too many t-shirts already. 

While out driving we saw a group of excited tourists by the road who were watching some capuchin monkeys in the trees. We stopped and excitedly watched them too. 

We made it back to El Sol in the late afternoon for a little relaxation and a wonderful sunset before a 7:30PM dinner at a local hot spot whose name escapes me. 

Dinner was mediocre and expensive. A tour group had been seated just prior to our arrival and we were overlooked for most of the evening. Ah well, they can't all be winners. Then it was back to El Sol for a nightcap and some deck TV before bed.

For our second full day we had a morning tour scheduled at the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve so we were up early and at the meeting point by 9AM. We were both excited to be there and well prepared with binoculars and rain jackets. After meeting our guide and a few other tourists off we went for the two and a half hour tour. While it was enjoyable, we barely saw any wildlife other than a Tarantula that had been living in the same cave for several years and a Blue Throated Toucanet high in a tree. 

It was a walk through a wonderful locale in a light rain and we stopped often for our guide to extol the virtues of the Costa Rican approach to environmental stewardship while describing a local plant or tree.

After the tour we went to the local cafe just outside the Reserve for a refreshment and where a hummingbird area has been set-up with feeders to attract them. 

Very cool with masses of different kinds of hummingbirds darting too and fro. We also spotted what appeared to be a kinkajou as it darted off into the woods. 

After the refreshments the tour was done but Lisa and I were not so we headed back into the reserve for a wander along the various trails for a few hours. 

We didn't see much wildlife but we love a wilderness wander and the forest itself is beautiful. By mid afternoon it was time to head back to El Sol with a brief stop to provision. 

This evening we ventured into town to another restaurant, "Morpho's" which was decent local fare if unexciting. Food options in Santa Elena are limited.  

After dinner and the drive back to El Sol, we spent some time on the deck watching a little TV on the laptop and once more enjoying late night wine spritzers before bed.

Our third full day started with another glorious breakfast in bed looking down the valley which led to us taking it easy for much of the day relaxing at El Sol. 

A brief drive into town to get bread and good coffee from Stella's where we saw a lovely motmot as well as visits to local artisans (we bought nothing) ensued but we were back at El Sol by mid-afternoon and otherwise it was very low key day. 

For the evening we opted for a 6pm to 8pm "Night Walk" through another Reserve on the mountain. We arrived to find that it was a very busy affair with several five or more tourists in a group led by a local guide. Unfortunately, our group was us and a family from France so our guide, while bilingual, tended to explain in many words of French and few of English. We muddled through.

Nonetheless it was a wonderful evening walk through the woods with the highlight being the sighting of a sloth and her baby moving through the forest canopy.  

We made it back to El Sol around 8:30pm for a lovely chicken dinner prepared by Javier. Our best meals at Monteverde definitely came from El Sol's kitchen. 

Our fourth and final full day had absolutely glorious weather and after another wonderful breakfast (this time pancakes for Ctos) we decided to visit the Curicancha Reserve during the late morning and afternoon for a long unguided stroll along its various paths. This day was our best for animal spotting with an encounter with a group of white nosed coati at the park entrance!

During our three hour wander through the park we saw quite a few birds including more lovely blue motmots, a glimpse of a large crested guan and another toucanet, this one less than 2 metres away!

By 3PM we were back at El Sol and ready for more relaxation. We were gifted with a wonderful afternoon (shorts and t-shirts, well in our case mumus) and an amazing sunset shortly before dinner served again by Javier (back to steak and salad). 

The next day was the day of departure but after another amazing breakfast we lingered until early afternoon, with Javier's permission as he had no turnover that day, enjoying more beautiful weather before hopping in the car for the three hour drive to the capital, San Jose. 

We arrived in the early afternoon and after dropping the car off and checking in to the  airport Hilton, we wandered to the Alajuela neighbourhood nearby where we stopped for a lovely late lunch of octopus and tuna carpaccio and mixed seafood ceviche. 

The seafood was amazing and we decided to come back for dinner in a few hours. On the twenty minute walk back to the Hilton, we provisioned some lovely bananas for the next day's flight at a cost of a dime each! 

After a rest, we strolled back to the seafood restaurant for dinner and as there was only one other table taken it was quite a romantic atmosphere. We both opted for octopus (done different ways) and it was freshly delicious! Our only regret was we could not eat more! 

After a nightcap at a practically deserted local bar we made it back to the hotel for a good night's sleep prior to our 9AM flight back to Toronto.

We loved Costa Rica and El Sol was truly amazing but the overall pricing in country was expensive and the food at Monteverde was lacking.