Month: March 2018

This morning Clay and Allan picked up Brenda and Rick from their overnight stay in Avignon and brought them to the villa to unpack a bit before our drive to the Eygalieres market.  It is one of our favorites–snakes through the streets at the bottom of the hill and proceeds to the top of the hill in the center of town.  This market is where Clay historically buys ladles and spoons made of horn.  We all shopped (and bought) here before ducking in to Gilles for a tasty lunch of pizza (Italian with a French twist–goat cheese and jambon, for example) and a bottle of wine.

We dropped Connie at the villa to wait for Charlie and Patti, arriving from Marseilles around 4 PM.  And, the five of us drove to Arles for the Course de Carmarguaise (a sporting match between two teams (8 men each) of people, all working to remove ribbons from a small, sturdy,  fast bull’s horns.  We watched 7 bulls compete. The competition takes place in the Arles Coliseum, built by the Romans in 90 A.D., this and others throughout Europe are clearly the model for our modern sporting venues.  Pageantry introduces the games, but we didn’t understand French well enough to know who was presented to us.  The beautiful Camargue horses (herds of them run wild in the Rhone Delta called the Camargue) strutted and carried this year’s royalty.

As in all of the games associated with bullfighting, this one doesn’t seem fair to the bull.  There are 16 people that the bull has to deal with and he is teased and bothered by them throughout his 15 minutes in the ring.  The men work hard using a claw-shaped metal instrument called a raset  in their hands to get two white rosettes off of the horns and a red rosette from between the horns before removing the twine wrapped around each horn, and all while the bull charges them.  Two men on each team are the teasers and the other six are the raseteurs.

When the men are chased by a charging bull, they step on a white step at the bottom of the red fence, tap the top of the fence and fly over, grabbing a metal bar and dropping to the ground safely behind the red fence.  Often the bull runs around the entire ring, sending all 16 men scrambling over the fence.

The Arles Coliseum and the historic town of Arles are beautiful and I couldn’t resist a few photos as we walked through the town to our car.

Dinner included all 8 of us, Charlie and Patti arrived safely from Marseilles.  We ate at home again, sure that our newest arrivals would be exhausted from their travels.  Happy hour was happy;  supper was super; and the bed was quite welcome.

 

The market today (Thursday) was in Maussane so we took our time and walked from our villa, down the street, across the small brook and were there in less than 5 minutes.  This market feels more local in the small village of Maussane.  The vendors who attend every market were not there and the crowd seemed to be mostly local people purchasing their fruit, vegetables and cheese.  Allan and I walked quickly around the area and decided to head to our favorite boulangerie for a sacristain. The market is behind a big school and the children exploring, running and (especially) laughing brought big smiles to our faces.

Connie and Clay were at the market when we returned.  It really is amazing to think of these markets. Early today vendors came in vans, trucks and cars with their wares loaded inside.  They set up their spaces with display cases, tables, tents and umbrellas before carefully arranging all of the things they were trying to sell.  You have to imagine…the fish store was here with fresh seafood on ice; the fruit and vegetable vendors brought strawberries; clementines, kiwis, pears, apples, pumpkins (sold by the slice), lettuces, green and white asparagus, peppers, avocados, carrots, cabbage, leeks, tomatoes, and more–all bright and colorful; soap vendors brought bars of soap, hand lotion, liquid soap; there was a booth with a huge rotisserie that was roasting chickens and potatoes; there were clothing vendors; a shoe vendor;  a wine and local jams vendor and many other small entrepreneurs.  And this was a very small market!

Clay checked out the wine as he does at each place we visit.

We bought a chicken to have for dinner, took our purchases home and loaded up the car for a ride to one of our favorite wineries, Clos du Caillou.  It took us awhile to get there but the trip was well worth it, Clay sent a case of wine home to New Orleans and we bought a few bottles to have at our evening happy hours.

After Caillou, we went to an olive farm that was rumored (from one of Clay’s sources) to have olive oil that tasted like pure gold…we will see.  The first half of the drive from Caillou was on a tolled highway, which we have learned over the years to navigate pretty well.  The last half was on long, narrow and winding roads through a forest with rocky terrain.  Mas de Gourgonnier was on its own long and winding road with grey-green olive trees, bare grape vines, and almond trees just beginning to bloom on either side.  We each bought the olive oil–who wouldn’t want to taste “pure gold” olive oil! And, Clay bought some wine.

Dinner tonight was a smorgasbord–raw oysters, roasted chicken, salad, asparagus, roasted potatoes and, of course, a baguette and salted butter.

 

Since we’ve been coming to Provence, I’ve collected a set of places I’d like to visit…St. Paul de Vence is at the top of my list so we hired Christophe to drive us there–it is a long way from Maussane.

Christophe picked us up in his 9-passenger van at 9AM for our day-long trip to St. Paul de Vence and other places along the way.  Just outside of St. Remy we rode through Mouriés, the town that produces the most olives in France.  In that area there were small olive groves and big estates everywhere.  We moved on from quaint villages to a tolled highway, green tree covered mountains and the outskirts of Aix en Provence.  One of the important and obvious sites near here is Mount Saint Victore which Cezanne painted often, at least once in every season. As we drove to the other side of Aix, vineyards became more prevalent than olive groves.  The vines are still leafless this early in spring so they look like big forked sticks in the ground.  There is more varied elevation here, and many of the higher mountains are treeless. Past Aix we entered a densely forested area with small cleared horse farms and vineyards.  The houses in all of Provence are roofed in terra cotta tile and the outside walls are plastered. The color of the plaster varies from very light earthy pink to yellow ocher to various shades of terra cotta.  Years ago the colors were created from the rocks and minerals found nearby but today, I’m sure, they come from a place like Sherwin Williams. Because the plaster colors are from nature, the houses often form a lovely backdrop to the surrounding vineyards, groves and forests.

We reached the Listerelle mountains–tiny villages, no farms of anything, only forests.  We crested a hill and Cannes appeared–a big modern city with high rise apartment buildings and a view of the Bay of Cannes.  In a few minutes we could see snow covered alps!  We continued through a highly populated area between Cannes and Nice with the Mediterranean to our right and the Alps in front of us.  Even in this densely populated area most of the housing high rises are painted the same yellow ochre to terra cotta hues.  Finally, we spotted the medieval village of St. Paul de Vence high on a hill to our right.

We loved walking up to and through the oldest medieval village along the Coast of France.  The village was filled with interesting albeit expensive art.  And most of the art we loved was too big to carry home!  

As is typical of these towns, St. Paul de Vence is at the top of the highest hill around, so the view from the far end of the town is glorious!  We didn’t go through the cemetery we saw but Marc Chagall was buried there.  In fact, it was a very frequented area for artists of his time.  Our lunch spot, Colombe d’Or, is a hotel/restaurant where artists traded their art work for food or lodging.  Picasso, Magritte, Miro and Calder painted some of the art we saw inside of the hotel.

Across from the hotel was a pétanque field and a game was going on as we walked past.  The pétanque ball sculpture is on the other end of the field.  Unfortunately we only had two hours in the town and we could have stayed there for an entire day!  We left there and drove through Nice (the harbor), Eze (way up on a hill)  and Monaco (couldn’t get recognizable photos of anything!) and although we saw them from the car window as we sped along, we did see the “must see” sites.

Except for the detour along the beautiful Mediterranean, the drive home was mostly a repeat of the drive over.  We returned to our villa at nearly 7:30, shared happy hour, ate another tasty salad and retired.  Another beautiful day in our Provencale Paradise!

This church steeple in the center of St. Remy is what I think of when I think of St. Remy (sorry, I couldn’t remove the electric wire) and Van Gogh included it in his paintings of the village.  We stayed in the Blue Villa in St. Remy for the last two years,  so it feels like home in Provence.  We know the market vendors, the restaurants we like and our favorite boulangerie.  The Blue Villa was not available this year so we are learning about Maussane–the market vendors, the restaurants we like and we already have a favorite boulangerie.

We left Maussane early this morning to get a good parking spot at the market in St. Remy.  As soon as we arrived Clay began gathering the vegetables he needed for a superb salad and the oysters he needed for a robust oyster stew.  Allan and I took our time and had a café before we started shopping.  The fruit and vegetables here are so colorful, this pumpkin,  the leeks, and the cabbages are about as perfect as can be.

Clay and Connie left after he purchased his produce and bought an Ecuadorian panama hat.  They were on a mission to get tickets to the ribbon pulling bullfight in Arles Friday afternoon.  Allan and I stayed in St. Remy, did some shopping (he did purchase his duck confit this time), ate lunch at La Fountaine, had café at MichelMarshall and just wandered aimlessly through the lovely little town.

We left St. Remy and drove along D5 in search of olive processors.  We found beautiful sites that reminded us of Provence but were mostly unsuccessful in search of olives.

Until…in the town of Mouriés we did find the Moulin Cooperatif de Mouriés (it is the town where the most olives were sold in France) and shopped a little more!

After returning to Maussane, Connie and Clay walked down to the local Pétanque field where there was apparently a tournament in progress.  They enjoyed watching the 7 or more teams compete.  Our happy hour was outside this evening because the weather was so beautiful, but it cools down when the sun sets so we ate dinner inside.  Could we possibly have better weather?

Today dawned clear and col and we breakfasted on the outside patio with sacrosaints, our favorite Provencale pastry–sweet, light, with a crispy outside, sprinkled with toasted almonds and powered sugar–and coffee.  A great start to our day!  First drive of the day was over and through the Alpilles to a grower/processor/seller of all things olive called Moulin Calanquet.  Last year we had a tour there that taught us a lot about olives.  This producer uses every part of the olive tree for something so they sell spoons and bowls made from olive wood, olive tapenade, olive soap and of course, olive oil.  The “olive season” begins next week so the processor was short-handed today and could not fulfill Clay’s needs.  We moved on to Moulin CastelaS and found what we needed.  Generally, this area of France is the most prolific producer of olives in France.  The groves are extensive and many of the trees are  very old.

The two olive producers we visited are on either side of Les Baux so we rode over and took this opportunity to walk (way) up into the town of Les Baux, shop a little (Allan bought soap), and have lunch outside at a small spot tucked into the rock.

Final stop for the day was the Carriere de Lumiere in a cavernous limestone theater of lights and music.  This is our third year of visiting the Lumiere and we found it just as amazing as our other two visits.  This show was twofold–Picasso and other Spanish artists of the time with beautiful music and 70’s era music with a psychedelic light show.  The cave is multi-faceted with openings between pillars of stone.  The light show projects the paintings onto all surfaces and sometimes turns still-life into moving pictures.  It is a must-see in the South of France.  I liked the 70’s show best.

Because of our not-so-light lunch, Allan and Clay produced an inspired salad and purchased baguettes for dinner.  After our happy hour(s) we ate and retired for the night.

The Sorgue is a clear river that runs through this village and divides the small village into several iles, thus the name.  The river has historically been of huge importance to the village.  According to Wikipedia, “As early as the 12th century, the river served defensively as a moat around ramparts which surrounded the town until 1795. The river also served as a source of food and industry: fishing and artisan mills for oil, wheat, silk, paper, woolenry, rugs and dyeing. A busy commerce developed until there were two annual fairs and two weekly markets. The current Sunday open-air market originated on 9 November 1596. ”  Now, the town is famous for its many antique shops and hosts antique markets most Sundays. Along the river many attractive water wheels throughout the town are still in working order.  We returned to this village to visit the Sunday antique market, but we arrived a little early so we visited many antique stores as well as local establishments.  I found the perfect round, cotton Provencale (traditional Farandole pattern) table cloth for the table in the Vendome patio and Connie found olive-related gifts.  No one bought antiques, but all of us were tempted by something we saw.  Lunch was at an outdoor cafe named La Cabane Restaurant where we all had fresh salads and Connie and I split a cafe gourmand for dessert.  If you’ve never had cafe gourmand, you are missing a treat–a small cup of espresso coffee and small portions of very chocolate mousse, tiramisu, and Victorian cream–yum!

On our drive home we had a beautiful view of Les Baux and the Alpilles mountains behind a vineyard between St. Remy and Maussane a little before sunset. As seems to be the usual here in Provence, it was a beautiful day.

Clay made asparagus soup for dinner so after our nightly wine (and vodka for some) we had asparagus soup complete with fresh asparagus and a baguette…good night!

From Paris to Avignon…a smooth fast ride in a coach with plenty of legroom, a built in footrest for short people, the perfect angle of recline in the seat, and big windows to see beautiful bright green hills punctuated by  small villages with highly pitched stone roofed houses and always a church in the center; small forests of indistinct trees still leafless even in late March; John Deere green tractors, recently tilled plots and silver silos; giant modern windmills generating clean power; all under Robin’s egg blue skies with soft fluffy clouds.

Closer to Avignon the hills are bigger; there are mountains in the close distance, some covered with snow; there is less room between houses and more roads; the same vibrant green fields, woven with pink blossomed orchards and white blossomed orchards  Ten minutes out there are small factories, sawmills, a nuclear power plant, more windmills, a big river, small vineyards, bigger highways and plane trees lining the roads.

Allan and I went to purchase our return ticket from Avignon to Paris and were told there is a train workers strike on April 4 (our departure date) so, instead, we rented a car for the 7 hour drive from Avignon to Paris.  I think I’m for whatever the train workers need; it will be a long tiring drive.

Our villa in Maussane des Alpilles is luxurious and gorgeous.  These three photographs are of the living room (feels like a garden because of the 15’x15′ windows on either side); the pool area and one of the outdoor rooms (there are at least 4 of these).  The weather here is much milder than Paris and the sun is (sort of) shining. Before dinner we walked through the small village looking for a Nespresso machine (no success).  We stopped about halfway back to watch two groups of people playing pétanque and one group invited us to play with them.  We did and it was such fun!  We are by no means good enough to play with them but we weren’t embarrassed and can safely say we’ve played Petanque! We continued our walk and returned here for wine and cheese.  Dinner was at Le Bistro du Paradou about 4 minutes by car from this villa.  There is one menu and one serving each night with an endless bottle of wine on each table.  Tonight’s menu was a choice of escargot in butter or giant asparagus in a scrumptious olive oil mixture, roasted chicken with mashed potatoes and vegetables, a grand cheese tray and optional dessert (Connie and I had creme brûlée, Allan had café ice cream and Clay has pistachio ice cream).  It was an interesting way to run a restaurant, but quite successful and we enjoyed it.

The Louvre is such an impressive museum.  First, it is huge!  After we entered (we had a pass so there was very little line), there were four choices for exploration and we chose the Denon wing to see Spanish paintings.  First we strolled through Greek and Egyptian artifacts; went up a floor and saw the Winged Victory; marveled at decorative arts from many different centuries–delicate etched vases, heavy pottery and beautiful pieces of jewelry; and finally found the Italian paintings (never did come across Spanish paintings).  The room where the Mona Lisa is behind glass and a throng of people is our favorite room.  Paintings by Titian and his contemporaries abound.  We found it interesting that the same dogs are in many of the paintings by several artists; they must have shared the spaces and models.  I have several favorites in this room, but today I found a new favorite; Titian’s painting titled, “Man with a Glove” is so realistic.  I could see the veins and small muscles and tendons in the ungloved hand.  The glare was awkward in a photo of this painting but I’ll post what I have.  Photographs never capture the true beauty of anything and this painting is widely considered on of the best renaissance portraits of the day. 

We strolled through the Italian paintings in this wing of the museum and decided to seek a late lunch before returning to the hotel.  It was a bitter cold day; obvious by this photo of the Seine from the Pont du Neuf with the Eiffel Tower barely visible in the distance.

Wandering through Paris as we’ve done for these past few days made me more aware of the similarities and differences between Paris and New Orleans.  The Seine and the Mississippi are vastly different, but their respective roles in the success of the cities are much the same.  Some of the streets in both New Orleans and Paris follow the river, many are one way, and even some of the names are the same in Paris as in New Orleans.  Where I find New Orleans beautiful sometimes, the parts of Paris where I’ve been are all beautiful and interesting.

Dinner tonight was at  Au Bon Actueil (a good reception), a small very French restaurant near the foot of the Eiffel Tower.  The food was superb, the service excellent and the view entering and exiting (lit up!) the restaurant of the Eiffel Tower was a treat!

We walked as close as we could get to the Tower, watched the sightseeing cars go up and down, and waited for the lights to twinkle.  It was really awesome.

Our last beautiful day and evening in Paris for awhile…

The flight to Paris was uneventful and we landed in Paris Wednesday at 1:30 feeling pretty good. After arriving at the Hotel Perle, we unpacked a bit and refreshed ourselves. Connie and Clay met us at our hotel (their apartment is a block away on Princesse Street and we strolled around our neighborhood before cocktail hour at the Irish Pub near their apartment. Allan and Clay enjoyed their beer!. Cocktail hour was followed by an early dinner at La Cuisine de Philippe which was so French! I started with an Emmental Cheese Soufflé, moved on to fresh seafood ravioli, and ended with a salted caramel soufflé. All of us had something wonderful and Philippe, complete with his chef’s hat, greeted us before we finished dessert. We all went straight to our homes in Paris and Allan and I didn’t leave the hotel again until close to 10 AM Thursday.

Coffee and croissants began our Thursday and then we wandered from our hotel on Cannetta Street through lovely little Parisian streets to the Seine, along the Seine, and across the Pont de Arts to the Louvre. After a little more strolling and some discussion (the line was quite long), we continued our wandering to the D’Orsay Museum and spent the next 3+ hours looking (mostly) at Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art. This pointillist photo, Man At The Helm by Theo van Rysselberghe is one of my favoritess.Allan takes photos of the pictures that we like most and plays them in a continual slide show on the kitchen computer. We have lots of favorites in these eras.

Next stop was the Rodin Museum, down Rue de Bak to Rue de Varenna and the museum. We also love this museum, both outdoors which looked like winter is still here and indoors which was warm, cozy and beautiful. We rented headsets and listened to explanations of the whys and hows of the sculptures. We learned a lot about Rodin’s trials and tribulations and his love life…a great visit. Lunch was at the museum’s café. One of my favorite things about many of his sculptures is that the feet and hands always seem too big.

We wandered around for at least an hour but eventually returned to our hotel for a juicy pear and happy hour before meeting Clay and Connie for an interesting one man play in the 9th arrondisement. Olivier Giraud at the Theater des Nouveautes taught us “How to become Parisian in one hour.” It was quite funny and at dinner we recognized the Parisian waiter and our American responses and laughed about how true Parisians would have handled him. Dinner at La Boussole (the compass) was long but good. I had duck with a sweet wine sauce.

Tired and anxious to get to this blog…we parted ways with the Williams and went back to the Hotel Perle.