We had a long drive to get to our final destination in mainland Europe – Paris! Without considering stops it was a six hour trip. With this in mind we left Lyon very early. Stopping to get some supplies for the trip, we found the best cheese aisle in the supermarket – 12 fridges just of Camembert, not different types of cheese, just Camembert!!!
It was a beautiful day and the drive through this part of France was amazing. The scenery was gorgeous and with so much to look at it really didn’t feel like we were driving for so long.
On the way, we came across the vehicle below. We couldn’t believe that one truck was towing so much. It was a camping truck that was towing a camper-van, that was towing a food stall on wheels with a motor bike attached to the back! Definitely not legal back home.
We finally got to Maincy, specifically the Chateau de Vaux le Vicomte. The reason for this stop has a lot to do with the fact that we are big fans of James Bond movies. This particular Chateau was used as the Drax manor in Moonraker.
The Chateau itself is amazing and has spectacular gardens and surrounds. We had a good look at it from the outside and took lots of photos, but decided it wasn’t worth the $20 AUD each to look through on the inside. Of course, if we were going to spend the whole day here it would be worth it, but with still an hour before we got to Paris and daylight fading we were happy with an outside look.
Near the car park, across from the entrance of the Chateau, we saw the forest that surrounds the estate. Keith instantly recognised the forest from the quail hunting, doberman chasing, high drama scene in Moonraker where poor Miss Dufour meets her end. On the left is the photo Keith took, on the right the scene from the movie.
Whilst we’re comparing our photos and scenes from the movie, below is the photo we took and the second, the first glimpse of the Chateau in the movie, with Bond being flown in the helicopter. It hasn’t changed much since 1979, or 1641 for that matter.
After leaving the Chateau we steeled ourselves for the drive into Paris itself.
We are in an Air BnB property for the next four nights – a small one bedroom apartment 15 minutes from the centre of Paris by Metro. We did have to navigate through Paris traffic to be able to get there, but once there everything was so close and convenient.
We had been warned not to drive in Paris, especially the centre, so we were lucky enough to be able to skirt the city itself and kept the car garaged for most of the four days.
After meeting up with Julien, the owner of the apartment, we got settled in and explored the local area on foot. It was a busy little area, with lots of restaurants as well as shops. We had some dinner, got some supplies for the next couple of days and made our way back to the apartment. We had a lot to see and do in the next three days, so we spent some time looking into public transport and sorting out our itinerary.
We went to bed excited about the next day, so many personal bucket list items were about to be ticked off for both of us. Bec could hardly sleep she was so excited to be in Paris!
Cool Stuff We Did 