(Vitré, Brittany, France)
Jumping back to Vitré, before returning to Paris…
A few posts ago, I mentioned my concern about having enough to do in Vitré: we were going to be in this small town from Friday noon until mid-afternoon on a Sunday. That turned out to be the least of our worries!
Vitré is an appealing place, but it is also some distance from both the English Channel and the Atlantic Ocean. As a result, the summer days can get VERY hot and humid. Our biggest concern quickly shifted from (a) having enough to do, to (b) trying to stay cool. Our hotel was characterful and ideally located but, alas, lacked air conditioning.
Not too many restaurants were air conditioned either, so we found a large and shady civic garden complex and had a picnic for Saturday’s lunch. It was very peaceful and we managed to forget about the heat for as long as we were there.
Trying to stay in the shade also found us wandering off the beaten path in a riverside park. We came much closer than expected to various cows and goats, as the town quickly turned into farmland. There also seemed to be some kind of gathering for tough-looking characters in the park, but they were deeply engrossed in conversation and had no interest in hassling tourists.
Later in the evening, we saw part of the ongoing Bastille Day celebrations on television. We saw virtually every French music legend…and, if Johnny Hallyday were still alive, I’m sure he would have been there too. Much to our surprise, Patrick “Born to be Alive” Hernandez turned out to be French as well! He performed his big hit, of course. Could he possibly have imagined, when he first released the song in 1979, that he would still be singing it in 2018? Or that one of his background dancers (none other than Madonna!) would be the one to go on to sustained global superstardom?
The castle in Vitré was naturally also not air conditioned, but the relative lack of windows in the stone structure kept the internal temperatures down. Some of the online reviewers were not too impressed with it as a museum, but it more than fit the bill as a place for us to escape the heat on Sunday. Too bad that only about 8 rooms were open to the public!
Most importantly, however, we ensured that we knew the locations of Vitré’s gelato vendors. We might not have it that often at home, but it is a decadent way to beat the heat when we’re on the road! This being Brittany, they even had apple cider gelato.
Stay tuned for more on…Paris!