VirtualTourist Member edwis
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| Page Views: 123 | France 2006 - PROVENCE area by edwis - last update: Jun 12, 2008 |
Arriving at Bed & Breakfast | breakfast in the garden, so peaceful and fresh |
We went to Provence in the south of France after leaving Dubrovnik, Croatia. We took a British Airways flight to London, then connected on a flight to Marseille Fr. Our destination was a booked online Bed and Breakfast in a little village of about 50 people called “St Etienne du Gres”. St. Etienne is about 1 hour north of Marseille, but of course it took us about 3 ½ hours driving the backcountry roads which we did by choice. We wanted to avoid the “A-7”.
Driving out of Marseille very cautiously and being glued to our map, we came across a little town named Miramas, which was having their market day. We parked in the main town area and then followed all local town ladies walking in one direction carrying empty baskets. This took us to the main plaza / market site. What a site! At 1030 am, I had my first fish soup (bouillabaisse) from a street vendor, and a cold beer to start my day off. Joan declined and stuck with bread and cheese from the market stands. We then sat in an outdoor café (men’s bar) and enjoyed our food and people watching.
We finished the local market in Miramas, and headed for the B&B which was about 8 minutes outside of St Remy. San Remy became our favorite and unplanned base town. Getting to Marie Chantal’s B&B can be quite a challenge. She doesn’t really have an address and we had some directions that went like – “go past the 2nd Le Rond-Pont (roundabout) and then come back again to find a dirt alleyway about 50 meters from Le Rond-Pont on the other side”. We truly asked directions 3 different times as we were getting closer and closer. Finally the local pizza shop owner came out into the roadway and said he knew of it, and then asked me if we going there “to pray or to sleep”. Oh he had a big laugh. A couple of times while we were there, Marie went out in her car and brought back some new incoming guests who were obviously lost.
“Le Presbytere” Bed & Breakfast in St. Etienne du Gres,
Provence, France; Hostess Marie Chantal.
Marie was sooo nice and accommodating, always being at attention to any of our needs. Each day when we returned to our B&B from the day’s activities, there would be fresh wild flowers and lavender sachets in our room. Even the lace curtains have little pockets sewn in so that lavender bags could be place there. Breakfast and any evening refreshment were taken in the le jardin (outside garden area) under umbrellas, porch swings and tables. The old house dog ‘Balou’ was always at our side and was fun to mess around with. Breakfast was served at any time you sat down in the garden each morning. There was always fresh orange juice, coffees, fresh fruit, baguette, croissants, chocolate rolls, cantaloupe, and many jars of homemade preserves; fig, prune, raisin (which we call grape), peach, and some fresh honey flavored with lavender. Peaches were growing on the trees and Joan picked some which were the juiciest and flavorful we’ve had. If you wanted cream with your coffee, you got a little pitcher of warmed milk served.
Marie showed us where ‘le frigidaire’ was located in the chapel where we could keep cool our bottles of water, “coke light” and fruit. It was connected with a long extension cord running to the house. She always dressed in French country skirts and was in the window waving goodbye to us each time we left for some day’s adventure. It was such a comfortable pleasant place it never felt like a hotel stay at all. One night she mentioned that some fellow Americans have close by estates, only 2 kilometers away, just down the road – Bill Gates and the head of USA Coca Cola. |
| popes palace in Avignon, great place to visit |
|  | Avignon Our morning exercise walks were on country roads with no car traffic at all. One morning Joan came back rather quickly stating that some guys are shooting guns in the field. Marie smiled and explained that today was the first day of rabbit hunting season and we heard gun pops frequently. Later on, we notice several rabbit dishes were on the menus in town, like a ‘roasted rabbit leg with side of tagliatelles with rosemary’. I was tempted.
While we had temperatures in the 80’s the previous week in Croatia, we now enjoyed temperatures in the upper 60s and low70s in Provence having no use for air conditioning. We slept with open windows each night.
Our first evening there after we settled in, Marie brought out to the garden area for our delight and pleasure, a 2004 silver medal winning local ‘Cotes de Rhone’, which we all enjoyed. The three of us chatted for quite a while, which was truly amazing for Marie’s use of English was about as bad as our French language skills… we each knew a couple of key words, but somehow we talked pleasurably for a couple of hours. It was probably the wine. Marie looked over my planned list of sites to visit during the next few days, and kept saying “no, no, no”; then she gave us a 4 foot x 4 foot map of Provence, laid out on a table, and started circling different day trips we should follow. I threw out my original plans and then we went with hers, which of course was just perfect. Along the way we learned that it takes a lot longer to visit each area than we imagined, so our original planned route was way too ambitious anyways.
We ended up exploring and falling in love with the following places while in Provence:
Avignon: Overlooking the Rhone River, there is the spectacular ‘Palais des Papes’ (Palace of the Popes) – home of the eight popes who lived there during the great schism (1300’s) from Rome. This complex is one of the largest Medieval Gothic buildings in Europe. Close by we found the famous le Pont d’Avignon – partial bridge across the Rhone connecting to the Castle, and then a wonderful hilltop park with great views. I remember the long climb up and up to the top. With a lunch, some people watching around a grand plaza with many tent shops, street musicians, mimes, bistros, plus a little shopping, we easily spent most of a day here. Oh my god, this city dates to 4000 BC! |
Eygalieres / Gordes is a small calm village only about 10 minutes Saint Remy. The village is surrounded by the superb landscapes of the Alpilles, with olive groves, green valleys and vine fields. In this top of hill village we found tastefully restored residences, quaint and quiet streets, and a ‘classier’ level of people (Lacoste shirts, sweaters tied around necks etc). We had a very nice outdoor café lunch, sitting amongst a movie director and his crew, accompanied by various dogs. We took a stroll up and down some hills, visited an old hill top church and cemetery. The views looking over the valley for miles were spectacular. Close by we found the old chapel of St. Sixte high up on a desolate hill, the place looked like the surface of the moon, but with a great old chapel plunked right in the middle of it. This site was another recommendation of Marie Chantal.
Gordes:
Gordes is a very beautiful old village, perched on the southern edge of a high plateau. The stone buildings built in tight against the base of the cliffs and those perched on the rocks above, including the 12th-century castle, are made of an beige stone that glows orange in the morning sun. This was the steepest hillside village amidst straight down cliffs we have ever seen. Amazing how it was ever built. The view from the village is a panorama out across fields and forests and the small villages du Luberon.
However, we found it way too pricey, and then not much to see there other than the old church of St Fermin, where plaster fell on Joan’s head after she was pushing on some ancient balcony piece. We were later told that Gordes is a popular summer residence for artists and film people from Paris. We did note a pretty fancy 4-star spa overlooking the valley.
Coustellet: Besides being famous for the “Lavender Museum” and beautiful fields of lavender, this is the little place where I left behind my travel ‘man-purse’. Of course it contained most of our money, cameras, documents and travel notes. After taking a short refreshment stop at a funky but too loud music café in the center of town, we had made it almost all the way back to the St. Remy area when I discovered that my bag is missing. Panic and disaster sets in. I made a desperate 30 kilometer drive back on narrow country roads after leaving Joan at some unknown roadside café in the St Remy area. I had to stop for directions only once, and I did finally rescue my bag, which they had kindly locked up. But they were only about 5 minutes away from closing time when I finally got there. Oh, such a relief to find my bag and head back to San Remy for Joan. Upon my return after driving another 30 kilometers back, I discover that Joan isn’t around anywhere the café/bar where I left her…more panic sets in… I start walking around not knowing what the heck I am going to do now, and I find Joan sitting out in the back yard of the café with a family playing Sunday afternoon bocce ball. What a horrible emotional roller-coaster adventure that afternoon was. | | |
| coliseum in Arles - home to rock concerts now |
| | Arles / Marseille Arles:
As crazy as it sounds, (even to me) Arles was our least favorite stop. The little city has a preserved and very nice old Roman Coliseum and Arena complex. Today it is still active for cultural events, like bullfights & rock concerts. We had one of our best dinners here which was served by a young lesbian Laotian lady, who spoke perfect English to us, perfect Italian to others, and still perfect French to others. The restaurant had an open-air ceiling courtyard area set amongst ancient stone-walls in the middle of it.
Arles is also the city where Vincent Van Gogh did some of his paintings including ‘Starry Night” and his famous ‘little yellow house’ is there fully preserved. We got mixed up with directions and headed to the river. We thought that it got a little too trashy down by the river, and we were quite lost not knowing which direction we parked the car. We then had to walk way too far without knowing if it was the correct direction. Now if it was daytime, sunny, it probably would have been one of our most favorite cities to explore, who knows????
Marseille:
We stopped here for this was our airport gateway city to Provence. While it is quite exotic, cosmopolitan and lively, it does have a reputation for corruption and drug trafficking! But that didn’t slow us down at all. We found Marseille to be very welcoming and friendly towards all. Since it is a gateway for immigrants, you can’t help but notice the variety of peoples, clothing, and groups. This produces a very exotic feeling.
We climbed to the highest point of the city all the way up to the Notre Dame de la Garde, and saw the beautiful church and then the views overlooking the harbor of Marseille. Marseille has many narrow stepped streets, quiet squares and fine 18th-century façades that contrast with the ‘la Cité Radieuse’, a postwar radical housing complex. A striking new landmark is the l'Hôtel du Département, the local government headquarters which is a bright blue structure on stilts.
The Old Harbor (Vieux Port) now only handles small boats and is quite jammed up, but its daily fish market is still pretty renowned. We understand that most gourmets agree that the ‘bouillabaisse’ is very authentic here. |
Our week at this B&B was a slice of paradise. The house is from the 14th Century and is attached to a chapel that was built over 1000 years ago.
(see my Travel Pages for ST.ETIENNE, France for the full story on this fantastic B&B) | | | our 12th century Bed and Breakfast Chapel |
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| tree lined roads near San Remy du Provence |
| | San Remy de Provence: San Remy de Provence:
This turned out to be our comfortable ‘base town’ just to hang out in. The city has a giant one-way traffic flow circle around it. The center of the circle has all the old town stuff, about 4 blocks wide in all directions, with many alleyways and mostly no cars allowed. We easily used the circle to give us a parking reference; like it is ‘near the fountain’ or ‘near the carousel plaza’. I ordered a pizza – ‘house special’ - one night, and it was very nice for it included a semi-cooked egg right in the middle of it. Near St. Remy we found the ancient settlement of “Glanum”, a ancient Roman ruins site. They said it is one of the four most famous monuments in all of France (we guessed that they’ve never been to Paris). Still intact are a very large and impressive “Triumphal Arch” and the “Julius Mausoleum” tower. Across the roadway is the old mental sanitarium hospital where Van Gogh spent some time trying to get his head screwed on straight. We did a self guided tour finding his tiny room that has been preserved. This is also where he painted the famous sunflowers and fields of lavender. In St Remy one evening, we came across some kind of veteran’s ceremony, where the classic old-time mayor with a red-white –blue French banner across his chest read some proclamation and a drummer and horn player provided the music to a crowd of about 20. |
Les Baux: Les-Baux-de-Provence is an extremely picturesque village that is now more of a tourist site rather than actual living village. The highlight has to be the 12th Century ancient ruins of a complete chateau / fortress community. These ruins are high atop the beauty of the cobblestone village and set in the surrounding Alpilles. Close by we found the ‘Caves of Serragan; which is an active wine vineyard, and we walked deep and darkly into a mountain cave with little lighting, to see the tasting and actual wine storage rooms. Yikes, these caves were a little too scary for me. | | |
| L’Isle Sur La Sorgue - canoe race on market day |
| | L’Isle Sur La Sorgue: Marie told us to be sure to come here on a Sunday for the town’s market day. Oh my god, the whole town was a giant street market. Parking was about 5 blocks away and Joan creatively parked our little car up on a sidewalk, perpendicular to the street. We then wandered around amongst some very large crowds, but loved it all. There are little streams running all throughout this village complete with a green moss covered working water-wheel. On some back neighborhood streets, we found some type of local event using 2-man boat race in canoes circling the town, going under some very low bridges. The racers actually had to lie down in the canoe as they went under some bridges. The crowds were cheering the teams from the bridges and side walks. Eventually, everyone fell into the stream one way or another and ended up drinking beer at the finish line standing in the waist deep water. What a kick that was! |
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 Comments for edwis about World | | | | |
LKM1018 Thu Sep 11, 2008 10:31 UTC
Happy Birthday Ed! Have a great time celebrating your special day!! | johngayton Thu Sep 11, 2008 00:33 UTC
Hi there Ed and a very Happy Birthday to you. I have a glass in my hand as I type (good job I can type one-handed) and so Cheers! John. | Beausoleil Sat Sep 6, 2008 01:02 UTC
Hope you have a terrific birthday this month. You are one year better! Happy Birthday. | gildapaolina Wed Jul 16, 2008 16:52 UTC
Hi Ed, very nice to meet you! Great Europe pages! Cheers. Gilda |
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