Wendy's Platter…travels

October 25, 2025

A little too much perusal of the U. S. news made us realize that we could not ignore voting in the California special election. But how to do it from Thiers? I had checked with the Humboldt County Office of Elections before we left, but until October 5, 2025, absentee materials were not available. We left Humboldt County on September 12, so we just had to wait and figure it out.

As we traveled, we were almost convinced that we could pass this election by, but from the news it had become clear that our conscience wouldn’t let us. We decided to call Humboldt County Office of Elections from Thiers but had to wait until the office was open Pacific Daylight Time, which for us meant sometime after 6:00 pm Thiers time.

Fortunately, the clerk who answered the phone grasped our situation, checked our status as voters (we have voted in every election for years), and said that as we were residents overseas, were currently registered and active voters, we could utilize the remote accessibility voting function. Great!…but we had to be able to print out forms and affidavits and sign them to include with our ballot.

We did not have access to a printer and despite the medieval charm of Thiers, there weren’t any business services options. We got smart and walked down to the tourism office at the bottom of our alley. She remembered us from a few days earlier and offered to print everything from her computer. One problem solved.

The next problem was finding envelopes to send the package. Our ballots had to be in separate envelopes, although we could send the two envelopes in one package. Again, we couldn’t find a store that sold envelopes. Again, our lovely, young woman at the tourism office gave us several envelopes with return addresses of the Thiers tourism office. We figured, if nothing else, Humboldt County clerks would get a chuckle out of the envelopes as they opened them.

Now we had all the pieces of the voting pie [is everything in my life measured culinarily?]. Now to mail it! The post office seemed like the simplest solution, so we gathered the papers and envelopes and headed to Clermont-Ferrand, a thirty minute drive, where Nick would replace his failing shoes and I would get a badly needed pedicure for my very active feet.

Not knowing enough about pedicures, and certainly not enough about French pedicures, I assumed I could not just walk in. Pedicures are not as popular as manicures in France, but I finally found a shop in Clermont-Ferrand. With great trepidation as it would require a dialogue in French, I called to make an appointment. Making an appointment in two foreign languages, French and pedicure, I was at a loss. I managed to get the time and day correctly and hoped that I hadn’t agreed to have my toes lopped off cosmetically.

The pedicure did not involve soaking my feet or massages, but it was gentle and did the trick.

Nick dropped me off at the shop so he could find shoes. When I walked in, it was clear to all the nail artists and their clients that I was out of my comfort zone. My clinician took me under her wing and consulted her iPhone translating function to help get me past the pedicure language problem. I managed OK with the French language part.

With my new sparkling purple nails and Nick’s new shoes, we walked to a restaurant down the street for lunch. It was packed with a large crew of workers in orange vests. We took that as a tacit four-star review (nephew Tom swears by choosing restaurants that the everyday workers choose!) and were shown to a seat. The waitress, turned to us and said she would bring us some water and “rouge”…The “rouge” was a small carafe of red wine, just a standard part of the working man’s (and yes, I was the only woman patron) lunch.

It was not only a prix fixe menu, a fixed price that includes an entrée (think starter), a main dish, a cheese plate, and a dessert, but there was only one thing on the Tuesday menu: coleslaw as the entrée, boeuf burguignon as the “plat” or main dish, a cheese plate, and a choice of three desserts, wine included. The cost was 18 euros.

Despite sharing one meal, we were well fed by the end of the meal. The top left was cole slaw with carrots. To the right, the boeuf bourguinon. Bottom is the cheese plate…help yourself, and the bottom right a raspberry clafoutis. All good stuff.

It was a great deal and a great deal of food. I wouldn’t call it “haute cuisine” but I would call it hearty and good. The experience of eating in a room full of workers who, judging from the joking with the waitresses, came in almost every day, brought the meal to another level.

It was time to head for the city center, look around a bit and find a post office. We found the main post office which looked more like a FedEx/Kinko’s than a government post office, very different from the post offices I saw in the 1970s. When we explained what we needed, the young man (I realize that pretty much every man I encounter is a young man…at least to me) replied that there were no postal relations with the United States since August. I think I know why and who created the issue. Clearly our vote was important. Now what?

Le Cathédral de Notre Dame de l’Assomption in Clermont-Ferrand has a “stupid” amount of gargoyles, everyone of them different. The cathedral was built over the 13th through 19th centuries.

The Fed Ex building is a little more modern than the cathedral and helped us actually submit our votes. Even the French clerk at the FedEx counter was happy that we were taking the time to vote.

We asked about Fed Ex and he looked it up on his phone. The next town over had a Fed Ex center. Frustrated but thanking him, we went in search of the Fed Ex center in Gerzat. It was located in the industrial area of town and although it looked empty, it filled up as soon as we arrived. After some confusion with the clerk, we understood that we would have to download the FedEx app to create a shipping label. From there she would get it out the door.

Between the slow and faulty cell coverage, we finally got the label created and, at a whopping 27 euros for standard service, were able to send off our ballots. We figured the process had taken about two days, plenty of frustration, and most of the wine that we had for lunch, but our ballots were on their way to Humboldt. It was as close as we could get to a No Kings march in Thiers.

Our civic duty done, the next day we went in search of a king and found a castle. Chateau de Murol is about an hour and a half drive from Thiers through the Auvergne countryside. Thinking that the projected rain wouldn’t really affect our “indoor” visit to a castle, we decided to take our chances.

Once again, as we drove through the French countryside we were assaulted by the strong autumn colors, dramatic storm clouds and tiny villages and farms tucked into the many hillsides. Now that we were more aware of volcanic features of Auvergne we could make out cinder cones, puys (volcanic hills) and other now familiar terrain.

Nick is looking up before our climb to the castle. There are views everywhere, a big plus if you are trying to defend your castle. Both Nick and I have fired canons before (at Fort Ross). All the necessary tools were there, except gunpowder. The Americans were not going to fire a shot.

Chateau de Murol sits high above the rest of the valley on a knoll that seemed destined to be the home of a castle. At 3,500 feet atop the valley below, it was easy to keep watch on all travelers.

The original castle was built in the 11^th century but fell into disrepair with the ravages of the 100 Year War (with the English) and the plague. In the 1400s Guillaume de Murol took over the property and was able to turn it into a going enterprise.

Above left, the bakery. On the right, the banquet room. The bottom photo is the kitchen that prepares it all.

Fast forward to the 1950s and the castle was given to the town of Murol which turned it into a living museum. The compact castle is not fully intact, but it is well-documented and allows visitors into most of the areas including the kitchen, bakery, bedrooms, accounting room, chapels, storage rooms, and of course up on the ramparts and in the towers. It is a very vertical castle built on a very vertical knob of land, which allowed for some stunning views of the countryside.

Upper left is the bedroom of the duchess. The middle top shows the ramparts and the slate roof. And just in case, on the right top is a slot if you need to shoot an arrow. On the bottom row, Nick is considering a short cut to the car. On the right, a holographic Guillaume is going over his accounts while in his study.

The castle wall, the gate, and the jousting yard where the horses were getting exercised on this rainy day. We never saw a king.

Top left is our favorite (not just because it is close) boulangerie where Nick is sitting with our coffees, a pain au raisin and a croissant. On the right top is our view from the warm seats in the boulangerie. Bottom left is a bit of autumn color and some of the market vendors. Bottom right is the town clock which is framed by a rouet, a water wheel. Although you can’t tell from the photo, water is flowing along the black wall below the clock as a fountain.

Thursday is market day in Thiers and we didn’t want to miss it, although we knew that we would be going out of town for a few days. As we were nearly out of food, we decided to have breakfast at a local café for the quintessential French breakfast of a espresso and croissant. We walked out our door and were blasted with wind. The rain was intermittent, but the wind was not. Our umbrella was inside out most of the time.

Outside our door, we found a cement truck filling forms for the foundation of the building across our street. The building takes up most of the block and has been stripped down to just a façade. Watching them pour new foundations was somewhat of a relief to us, if you ignore the sounds of construction.

The only indoor café was right across from the market, so we had a warm, dry place to observe market day. Due to the weather, there were very few vendors and even fewer customers. We decided to get something for dinner that night.

The fishmonger was there again and my eye caught the coquilles Saint Jacques looking very chic in the shell. Coquilles Saint Jacques are scallops with a thick, rich white sauce and mushrooms served in the scallop shell. If you are going to buy prepared food, might as well get something interesting!

The view from the dining room table as I write. On the right, the lunch which included cheeses we have accumulated: muenster, chantal, auvergne blue, compté, and Saint Nectare….not to mention the sausage leftover from the Loire Valley.

We spent the rest of the day catching up on writing, emails, laundry and chores. The coquilles Saint Jacques and salad were rich and delicious.

Nick is captivated by the colors of the sunset on the building being renovated across the street from us. I tried to get a better view of our sunset, so I opened our large windows, leaned over the window bars and snapped a shot of the impending sunset. Note the lumber frames in the window to maintain the structure of the building during its complete structural renovation.

Tomorrow we leave for a long weekend in Bordeaux. It is a five hour drive and we hope to get an early start.

©2025 Wendy Platt Hill

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