Trip to West of France (part 3)

26 Mars 2011 - Roiffé

3 hours east and we reached somewhere in the middle of nowhere - Domaine Saint-Hilaire hotel which is right beside a 18-hole golf course. There are also other sport facilities and outdoor activities you can do at and around the hotel. According to their website, the hotel has "eight detached stone-built houses in the typical Loire Valley Style of the early 19th century and contains 64** rooms." We were a lil worried when we arrived as the houses looked really old, but the rooms turned out surprisingly pleasant save for a dusty floor. Regrettably, we did not bring our golf clubs so we ventured out to a wine chateau recommended by the hotel.

Le Château de Targé wasn't easy to find but we still managed after a few u-turns. Charming place up a small slope. The wine tasting room can be found on the 2nd level up the stairs as u can see in the photo below. We met an interesting Parisian couple who had also driven out for a weekend vacation. After the session, our friendly host showed us to a room (we were led through a cave-hole!) that he had done up for rent. It was lovely with an awesome view at only 300€ a week! But we figured there aren't many things you can do there to make up a week's stay.

27 Mars 2011 - Roiffé

The Parisian couple whom we met suggested that we visit the Abbaye de Fontevraud in the town center. We were surprised to know that it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site which was founded in 1100! You can read more about it here (in French). There's apparently a very good restaurant in the hotel called Le Saint-Lazare.

1) View from the outside
2) Cloister of the Grand Moûtier
3) Nave of the Abbey church
4) Royal tombs
5) Random exhibitions can be found throughout the Abbey
6) Small museum dedicated to a time when the Abbey was transformed to a prison
7) The Romanesque kitchens
8) View from the backyard

Trip to West of France (part 2)

25 Mars 2011 - La Baule

Drove further west to a seaside place at the southern edge of Brittany. According to wiki, La Baule "boasts a 12 km-long beach which is the longest in Europe". Cool. We reached the Hôtel Saint Christophe first which is further inland, then walked out to the beach from there. When you don't expect anything and something like that greets you, you can't help but feel that it is vastly beautiful.. The weather was almost summer-like which explains the sunny photos. T'was cold still but I think the French take to it very well; just look at them sunning themselves on the beach!

Strolled along the sidewalk and veered towards the town center halfway through. Couldn't possibly walk all 12 km :) Pleasant-looking town which we felt resembles Deauville, another seaside place up north. A little touristic (by that I mean the French themselves as tourists instead of people of other nationalities) save for a number of local designer boutiques which we always prefer to the good ol' brands..

Went back to the hotel to bring Tasha for another stroll in the other direction. Then we started spotting weird old skinny houses squashed between big squarish buildings like the one in the photo!

Here's our charming hotel and the church opposite which looks good lighted up even though it's under renovation.

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