Let's get this over with quickly to help you avoid the jealousy. We're in France, and our new friends are allowing us to borrow their tiny, ancient, and beautiful convertible. We've already visited a castle-view pool in La Clayette, and after a of couple days had still not satisfied the need for fresh free air flowing through our barely-existent hair.
And so our other convi trip was to a town just outside of Macon called Solutré-Pouilly, which sits just above the Beaujolais hills in the region of Burgundy. This quaint town is home to La Roche Solturé and La Roche Vergisson (roche means rock), two prehistoric limestone cliff-escarpment-things smack in the middle of wine country (FYI-we used this great website that lists hikes in the Macon area). Drink some wine, see some rocks, lay down in a field,call it a day.
The area is full of tools and fossil finds dating back to the paleolithic period, mostnotably beaucoups of horse fossils just under the cliffs (indicating some mass accidental suicides—they were probably running from some sort of Cro-Magnon hunter...or aliens).
It's an easy drive up to the base of Solutré (the most visited rock), and if you can get past the groupings of families with babies and hysteric dogs, you're on your uphill way via a short 1.5 mile option to reach the amazing view atop Solutré.
On the way down, we took a side trail that everybody else seemed to be avoiding, so we managed tack on some slight extra mileage, avoid the crowds, and have a private picnic overlooking Vergisson Rock.
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| Driving up on the Roche Solutré |
The area is full of tools and fossil finds dating back to the paleolithic period, mostnotably beaucoups of horse fossils just under the cliffs (indicating some mass accidental suicides—they were probably running from some sort of Cro-Magnon hunter...or aliens).
It's an easy drive up to the base of Solutré (the most visited rock), and if you can get past the groupings of families with babies and hysteric dogs, you're on your uphill way via a short 1.5 mile option to reach the amazing view atop Solutré.
On the way down, we took a side trail that everybody else seemed to be avoiding, so we managed tack on some slight extra mileage, avoid the crowds, and have a private picnic overlooking Vergisson Rock.
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| The quaint village nestled under la Roche Vergisson |
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| Views of La Roche Solutré |
Returning to the car, we realized that some people had tried to show our little convi up. How silly of them not to realize how terrible their “convertibles” looked next to ours.
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| Yellow license plate wins! |
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| The only meal you'll veer need: Timanoix cheese, hearty bread, and honey |
Returning home famished, we devoted an entire hour to eating a newly-discovered cheese called Timanoix.
Where to begin? Am I allowed to speak of something so foreign and inconceivably beautiful to American palates? I’ll give me permission. [Go ahead, Chowgypsy.] This little semi-soft cheese round is made by Trappist monks of the Abbaye Notre Dame de Timadeuc in Northern France. It’s rubbed with walnut liqueur and brine, creating a taste explosion that is nutty, smoky, ever-so-slightly bitter, and rich...way rich. It is probably the only thing one should eat after a day of hiking.
I then fell asleep, wrapped in the profound silence that can only be achieved after a perfectly French meal of cheese, honey, a whole grain baguette, and beer (accompaniments for which Timanoix unquestionably exists).
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