On getting to the Tour de France

…or on almost getting there, having to avoid Liège because of a huge amount of cars trying to do the same thing as us, making aU-turn into about 45 minutes of traffic and knowing it was useless to try to then going on a little Belgian adventure instead.

It was a gorgeous day, so we drove around aimlessly —as we are wont to do in trying to discover new areas— made a few stops, saw some stuff, walked around the completely unexpected pleasantness of Visé and I ate some remarkable ice cream that reminded me of a perfume I loved from my childhood.

This is the traffic we encountered on our way to Liège to check out the Tour de France. And this is also as close as we got. Too much mayhem.

Bridges on the way to Liège

Dam just outside Liège

Burned out old mansion in Belgium.

Gate at old burned out mansion in Belgium.

Machiel found this at one of our random stop-walk-around spots.

Visé, BE

Tour de France, Visé

Visé, BE

Visé along the river Maas

Violette ijs in Visé, BE

Door in Visé, BE

Vine-covered alley in Visé, BE

In trying to find the Tour de France festivities

There was SO much traffic on the way to Liège we decided to abort the mission and head off to a new direction away from the hubbub. I love it when we just say, “go left!” or “let’s try this way”. It always ends up with some type of reward: Be it a spectacular view, delicious food, strange encounters and always some pleasant surprises.

We drove around the hilly bits between Liège and Visé and made a few stops along the way. Visé was one of those nice surprises…very pretty town and it was all decked out in Tour de France trappings with a lot of people and cyclists spread throughout the streets. We even caught a glimpse of a TDF cycling team on the road as we were leaving. So, we did get a bit of the TDF spirit without actually getting to our original destination!

We grabbed some ice cream too and I was completely knocked over by the rush of memories I had after tasting my violette-flavoured ice cream [pictured below]. When I was quite young, the Calgary Stampede had a small section just for kids —with rides and games. After winning so many points from the games you could go into this big tent and spend your points. I bought a tiny bottle of purple perfume. I was so enchanted by the smell that I kept the perfume ~sparingly~ for many, many years so I could dab it on or pass the open bottle under my nose to take in the mysterious smells. I think I had the bottle until my 20s. I had taken it to perfume counters a few times to find out what it was, without ever getting any clues. Until I had this ice cream! The flavour tasted like the perfume smelled!! The olfactory senses sure are intense!!! Crazy. Needless to say, I tried to find some parfum or essential oils of violette online when we got home. I’m still searching. But if we had ended up going to Liège, I never would have discovered that elusive childhood memory (and smell!).

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