#The Sahara-like heat this summer not only made Germans break out in sweat it also inspired Alessandro Taccini. The producer and DJ came up w

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Chapter 56. EuRoad Trip, pt 1

What an extremely unusual trip for Chelsay and I.  TWO STRAIGHT weeks travelling.  

We normally prefer short, quick trips every few weeks, which is why we live in London: it’s convenient. Paris is just a train ride away. The Sahara is a couple hours by air. You can easily explore somewhere new every month. Unfortunately, lockdown disrupted these plans – six months of potential weekend trips were made impossible.

In a way though, lockdown also enabled this EuRoad Trip. Chelsay & I had to condense a year’s worth of travel into five months, and we had a ton of destination on our list. We were able to work from wherever given our companies were now comfortable with remote arrangements. Finally, we still weren’t comfortable flying yet.

A few weeks on the open road was an obvious choice.  

The idea for the EuRoad Trip was solidified during our preceding Scottish adventure. It proved escape was possible during Covid provided you’re safe, avoid crowds, drive, and potentially work along the way to allow for an extended trip.

Beyond being the only feasible option, driving also had its advantages.  First, we could bring Indy. Second, it allowed us to explore small towns and settings inaccessible by flight.

I spent weeks mapping out our drive, adding and deleting potential destinations, before finally settling on a three-phase itinerary:

Beauty & the Beast phase – drive south through France’s Loire Valley, stopping at chateaus, provincial hamlets, and the charming fishing village of Cassis.

Summer Chic phase – hot temps along the ritzy Riviera, with stops in Nice and Portofino. Eat all the pasta.

Fall phase – Pass through the jagged Dolomites landscape, returning home past the fairy tale castles of Bavaria and the German Black Forest.

In total, we’d cover six countries over two weeks. 2500 miles. Also, driving in late September between the Cote d’Azur and Bavaria, we’d be covering two distinct seasons: summer to fall.

The logistics were daunting, but distance wasn’t actually the biggest challenge. London to Skye is a total of 12 hours driving and we did it in two days. Shockingly, London to Cassis is nearly identical and we’d spread it over four days.

The real complexity was the dog. First, finding pet-friendly hotels. This was solve-able because we were driving – I just had to find one pet-friendly accommodation within 50 miles of our intended route. Booking.com makes this easy.

The second and more challenging complexity was getting Indy across the English Channel. There are normally four options: fly, ferry, train, or drive. The only flight we’ll ever put him on is the one back to the US. The ferry allows dogs if you have a car (which we don’t). The cross-border train doesn’t allow dogs …even though both the UK and France allow dogs on their domestic trains.

We could’ve rented a car in London then driven the Chunnel, but didn’t want a UK car on European roads for two weeks.

That left us with only one option. Yes, there was only ONE way we could get Indy across the Channel, and it’s kind of ridiculous. Chelsay, Indy, and I would take a taxi to France.

Even that was complicated though, and I was worried about this first day of the journey: taking a cab from our house to St Pancras, train from London to Folkestone, then taxiing cross-border to Calais. That’s a lot of transportation... and a lot of luggage movement.

Indy’s crate is also HUGE, but this turned out to be an advantage: we could fit all our bags inside.  Over two weeks, we’d stay in NINE hotels, so this consolidation made frequent moving feasible.

This crate strategy also made the trip from London to Calais shockingly easy, even with all the transport transfers. The train to Folkestone was a breeze and our pleasant taxi driver, Gary, provided white-glove service as we crossed the border.

Everything went so smoothly that we arrived at that night’s hotel two hours earlier than I expected! We had plenty of time to walk the grounds of the neighboring Chateau de Chantilly, a pleasant welcome to this first phase of the trip: Loire Valley chateaus and small provincial villages. Or as Chelsay referred to it: Beauty & the Beast places.  

The next day, Chelsay & I began what would become an ongoing commitment over the next 14 days. We were driving through the northern French fields surrounding Paris, and realized these were the same fields the Nazi’s first unveiled the striking power of the blitzkrieg. 80 years ago, panzer tanks stormed through these very fields, crippling one of the world’s foremost armies in just ONE week.

We decided to listen to something World War II, preferably a podcast on the Fall of France. We browsed our options and Google’s recommendations, eventually settling on “The History of World War II Podcast with Ray Harris Jr”.

At the time, we had no idea what we were getting into. We were just looking for something relevant to the current setting, but would eventually move back to our normal road trip go-to: murder podcasts.

Ultimately, we listened to this podcast almost every time we got in the car. I wouldn’t say it was a particularly crisp production – Ray would openly admit not knowing how to pronounce European names & towns – but the unbelievable detail kept us engaged.

He’s chronicled every facet of every side, recording hundreds of episodes since 2012. To give you a sense of how deep Ray dives, he’s been recording for eight years and is BARELY INTO 1942!  He’s only halfway through the war!

Regardless, we thoroughly enjoyed the podcast and, over the next two weeks, learned about the Fall of France, Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain, a Winston Churchill profile, Japan’s campaign through China, and finally, Pearl Harbor. All in excruciating detail.

The podcast easily passed the time, so before we knew it, we’d arrived at Chateau du Chambord, one of the most impressive palaces in the world.

A few things immediately impressed us: first, the enormous castle, the largest in the Loire Valley, was constructed in the 1500s. Not only is the scale of construction remarkable for that time, but the profile was completed with near perfect symmetry. Not bad for a society I dismiss as ‘mostly illiterate’. Second impression: yes, this was the inspiration for Beast’s castle.

Indy played the role of our little Beast, darting from tree to tree to avoid the 94 degree heat. We eventually settled down for a picturesque picnic in the gardens. Fun fact: French picnics are hand’s down the best picnics. Baguettes, saucisson, chevre, pickles. Even Indy enjoyed his French sticks over the unpalatable British twigs.

We’d intentionally pegged the next two days of our trip for work. We didn’t want to sink too many vacation days into one trip, so we decided we’d work the first couple days and relax the rest of the journey. That said, we were still able to enjoy a few charming provincial towns while making our way to the French Riviera.

First, we stopped in Souvigny, a medieval commune with less than 2000 residents.  It was such a charming town, and a place we’d never be able to visit outside of a road trip. I distinctly remember saying “This is real” as we were pulling in – I was intending it both as a question and a statement. We spent the night in unique accommodation, the former gatehouse, and explored the quiet town between work calls.

Our second work day was in Cliousclat, an even SMALLER medieval commune: this one with only 600 residents. We again enjoyed brief strolls through the town’s tiny footpaths to burn off some of Indy’s energy.

Both of these villages were pretty, but they were essentially stopovers on our way down to the ritzy Riviera. Before arriving in Nice though, we had one last town on our ‘rustic’ leg of the trip: Cassis.

Cassis is technically part of the Riviera, but being two hours east of the Big Three (Nice, Cannes, and Monaco), it attracts fewer visitors and therefore maintains some of its fishing village charm. It was still hot – nearly 85 – so we slowly shuffled through the town’s small alleys.

After lunch by the beach, we set out for Cassis’ main attraction: the nearby calanques.  Calanques are narrow inlets along the Mediterranean, characterized by bright blue waters and steep surrounding limestone.

The prettiest calanque is only accessible through a 5 mile hike … so I felt terrible for Indy. A black dog, covered in fur, on an 85-degree day? Luckily there was a beach at the end to cool down.  

The walk started easy enough: Indy darted from shade-to-shade, having no idea what he was in for. It was a simple walk in a picturesque Mediterranean setting: highlighter blue water ways and white chalk cliffs coated in bright green pine trees. We reached our first views of Calanque d’en-Vau hardly breaking a sweat.

…That’s when the terrain turned into Vertical Limit. Chelsay & I covered 90% of the distance in about 30 minutes, then last 10% took an hour. It was essentially straight down – so steep in spots that I had to carry Indy while trying to keep my own balance. Now I was dealing with his black fur in 85 degree heat!  Were these rocks slippery or is it just sweat seeping through my socks and shoes?

We eventually made it to the beach – thank god. It was strange being on a pebbly beach (especially after Australia), but we were in the water so fast that it didn’t matter.

Once in, Indy put on a show for the rest of the beachgoers. This was the deepest Indy had ever swam. Sure, he fetched a stick from a pond before, but never really swam. He loved it though. Took to the water like a fish to… uh, water.  

He’d paddle out 10m in random directions, chasing someone he thought might be Chelsay or I even though we were beside him. He looked like a crocodile with his head barely above water and long body slowly trailing behind.

A few times, Indy would sit upright, so his paddling created splashes. This caused a new excitement, and he’d try to bite the water coming from his own splashes. Chelsay and I could hear laughter coming from the beach.

The sweaty hike back to Cassis wrapped up this first phase of the EuRoad Trip. It provided exactly what we were hoping for (Beauty and the Beast settings).

After Loire Valley chateaus, provincial villages, World War II podcasts, and rustic French countryside experiences, Chelsay and I were ready to clean ourselves up for our next destination: the ritzy French & Italian Riviera.