Trip to West of France (part 1)

24 Mars 2011 - Nantes

For a period of time we were avid voucher buyers from online merchant Groupon. As such, we bought 3 seemingly value-for-money hotel accommodations in the region West of France. And that became the starting point of this trip (since we had never quite considered visiting this part of the country before) without knowing what it might bring us. Here's a map of our driving routes (courtesy of Google Maps).

First stop - Best Western hôtel de La Régate. 3.5-hour drive from Paris. It is located 25mins from a city called Nantes, which is the 6th biggest city in France and situated on the Loire River. The hotel is simple yet modern and there's a trail at the back leading to a river. It was nice standing there admiring the view. The tranquility and peacefulness of the surroundings made me feel so relaxed.. I'm sure Tasha was happy as well. Macro shot of the spider web was meant to show off the 500D's ability :)

That's my friend Hongxi, Tasha's new best friend and nanny. Ha ha. She visited us last week with her bf Clarence and Tash loved playing with them. They followed us to Nantes on the first day and took a train back in the evening. All the effort for her Hermès quest! And thus we were led to a charming lil shopping mall called Passage Pommeraye. I really love the interiors of this quaint building, which is also lined with several interesting shops.

The next day, S and I returned to the city again to visit the Château des ducs de Bretagne (Castle of the dukes of Brittany).To know more about it, you can go to the official website here. Unfortunately, we couldn't enter the castle because of Tasha, which was ok since we were contented to admire from the outside. There's the grass patch where people sat around having picnics and sunning themselves, the courtyard view, the side entrance and finally the main entrance to the castle.

3D2N Geneva, Switzerland - Day 2 (part2)

After a good 4 hours at the Motor Show, all the cars started to look similar! That was when we decided we'd seen enough and it was time to go. Despite our wobbly legs and blistered feet, we made a trip to the city center to source out smth Switzerland is famous for - chocolates. I had the best chocolate in my life when I was in Lucerne 2 decembers ago. Unfortunately, I came to learn that I'll never taste a choc that good again (especially after this trip), because nothing came close to it even after patronizing 4 stores here. Perhaps it's just my delusional memory of the particular choc! Anyhow, we still found some pretty good ones :)

1) Auer Chocolatier - go for a coffee in their charming lil' cafe next door
2) La Bonbonnière - cute fishy storefront display
3) Globus  - not a choc store but a delicacy supermarket where they allow you to taste samples of ham, cheese etc.
4) Confiserie Rohr - check out the Motor Show-themed chocolate cars!

Done with shopping, on to scenery. This is the L'Horloge Fleurie. According to mapsofworld.com, 'the clock stands over an area covering 6500 plants', and 'features a second hand that holds the reputation of being the longest in this planet'. Pretty? It's much smaller than it looks. Our legs finally couldn't take it and we hopped onto one of those touristic trains. I can't tell you what an excellent impromptu decision it was! The train took us on a 30-min ride around Geneva's famous Lake Léman. Hmm.. the photos look unimpressive probably due to the cloudy weather. Here's a daytime view of the Jet d'Eau which I've previously mentioned.

This marks the end of our trip. Had a simple dinner near our hotel and set off early the next day to avoid crazy traffic back to Paris.

3D2N Geneva, Switzerland - Day 2 (part1)

81st International Motor Show

Held at the GENEVA PALEXPO exhibition halls, more than 160 world, European and Swiss premieres were showcased at the event. And to quote from The Motor Show Magazine,

"To qualify as a premiere, the product must be an entirely new model or markedly different from the standard model. Furthermore, it must not have been presented to the public before or be on sale in the world, European or Swiss markets respectively. The press may, however, have been informed by it."

Unfortunately, not all of them will go into production eventually and hence the term "concept". Nevertheless, the number/variety of green cars offered is also what sets this show apart. From electric sports cars to futuristic urban vehicles, I must say it's rather exciting to learn of the viability of these (some funny & weird-looking) cars!

Best decision we made was to head to the show first thing in the morning. It became far too crowded and uncomfortable/annoying in the afternoon. Nonetheless we still weren't the earliest and it took us significant effort to grab a photo or two of the popular cars. I hardly think the late-comers were able to take any good photos or even catch a glimpse at all given all the squeezing and pushing around!

Here comes the pretty cars....

Porsche 918 RSR Hybrid Racer (combination between the 911 GT3 R hybrid and the design of the 918 Spyder) ;
Ferrari FF "For Four" (one of the fastest four-seaters in the world)

Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4 in a stunning matte white & a bright orange (their 5th generation V12 supercar *slurps*)

Alfa Romeo 4C Concept (we absolutely fell in love with the matte red which actually carries a tinge of pink.. swell)

Renault DeZir Concept (an electric coupé.. so OTT!) ;
BMW Vision ConnectedDrive Concept (a super futuristic concept roadster)

Mini Rocketman Concept (an urban-oriented mini MINI which has an interesting two-part boot with the upper section a typical upward-swing hatch while the bottom part a pull-out drawer) ;
Mercedes SLK (the new 3rd-gen SLK. According to autoblog uk, "The highlight of the design is the optional panoramic roof which can be switched from near-transparent to opaque at the touch of a button.")

Okay, enough of the muscles. Let's look at some green cars coming our way..

Nissan Leaf (the first all-electric car to be voted European Car of the Year 2011) ;
Smart Forspeed Electric Concept ;
Sbarro TwoFor100 (as the name suggests, it consumes an average of 2L per 100km. is this the most economical car or what? the capsule shape really makes it look like a cute toy car) ;
Tilter (100% electric. presented to the public for the first time. an obvious cross between a motorcycle and a car!)

Here's a few more to end this post. I know my descriptions are really short but there's just too many cars and I've had to select them from the 350 photos I took at the show. Hard work! At least you can google the car models if you'd like to know more details. :)

Mazda Shinari Concept ;
Toyota FT-86 II Concept ;
Fiat 500 by Gucci ;
Bentley Continental GT

3D2N Geneva, Switzerland - Day 1

S read about the 81st International Motor Show on IHT a couple of weeks back and we immediately decided to head over. Such is the luxury of staying here! The ease of traveling within Europe is simply remarkable.

We left Tasha at the "nanny's" and set out at noon for the 5-hour drive. Not long after, it was time for lunch and we stopped over at a charming little town called Barbizon (near Fontainebleau) which is supposed to be known for its food and more importantly its popularity among artists in the 1800s. Extremely quiet & empty on a Friday afternoon but scenic with a quaint grocery shop, ice-cream parlor and a few art galleries. Some mosaic art works were also spotted on the streets.

What was meant to be quick lunch turned out to be a rather long 3-course meal at a hotel restaurant. I really can't run away from my greed can I? Spent a good 1.5h there but it was well worth the time. We were the only ones throughout the entire meal so it felt quite exclusive. Food (especially the canard entrée) and wine (they only serve by the bottle) were good. Yet again, my apologies for missing out the mains.

Name: La Clé d'Or

Location: 73 Grand Rue, 77630 Barbizon

Expenditure: 97,50€ incl. 1 bottle of white (lunch menu @ 32€ pp)

By the time we reached our hotel in Annemasse which is still in the French region just outside Geneva, it was about 8pm. Drove into the city centre of Geneva just to stroll along the streets and take in the night view. We were a little disappointed crossing the border as we were expecting a Switzerland stamp or somethin! But no, there was nobody at the booths and we drove right in as you would a normal road. You can get in and out as freely as you wish.. pfft.

Found ourselves at the Place du Molard where you can find several restaurants and a departmental store called Globus. The ground was interestingly lit up by little squares with wordings in different languages - something you'll never notice in the day!

Then, large groups of people started appearing and they seemed to be walking from somewhere so we decided to check out what could be so attractive/happening in this otherwise quiet place. Followed the trail up a steep slope which led us to the St. Peter's Cathedral! I suppose a Friday mass just ended. In my itinerary we were supposed to tour the cathedral, go up the north/south tower for a bird's eye view of Geneva, and visit the archaeological museum. Didn't do any of them in the end..

Thanks to our heavy lunch, we settled for a light dinner at a touristic Italian restaurant at the Place du Molard. Also managed to catch a glimpse of the iconic Jet d'Eau (a water jet that can push the water up to a height of 140m). More info @ wiki.