Day 1: Hello, Connaux!

We have arrived! After three airplanes, one train ride, and one car ride, we’ve hit our final destination.

Spot the (blurred) Eiffel Tower!

3 hour train from CDG to Valence

Our SCNF TGV Train route from Paris CDG to Valence,
and reference to where Connaux is located

We are grateful for a very smooth trip! No delays, no lost luggage, no ticket or transfer errors. And the moment we stepped onto the train station’s waiting area, in walks James to pick us up and take us to Connaux, the small town/municipality where he and Caroline have built their home. Connaux is about 700 km south of Paris, so we are in the south of France, where the current temperature (1^st week of September) is pleasant for our sun-resistant Filipino skins.

The first agenda? Do some climbing, of course! It turns out that Caro was climbing somewhere 15 minutes from Connaux, so we just dumped our luggage in their house to head for our first French rock, in a small crag called Gargantua.

A small crag, but a spicy one! Its arching roof apparently calls for a lot of pulling power, but its flatter, vertical walls have an equal demand for proper body positioning to avoid peeling off the hard-to-find crimps.

It was on these limestone faces that we stretched our travel-laid bones and muscles, before having our first dinner at La Winstub (their home was a former restaurant before they bought it). Caro prepared a dish from her hometown of La Reunion called Rougail Saucisse, a hearty stew of tomatoes, onion, ginger and sausages.

"La Winstub"

Apart from Day 1 of climbing, it was also Day 1 of wine education – a curriculum that one can never expect to complete on a single trip to France, nor even after ten trips, for that matter (there is just FAR too much grape and wine and methods to store in the head)! But we must start somewhere, and tonight, the education began in their living room, with potato chips and the warmest welcome of friends.