Toulouse and Brussels 31 - Mai 2009

Sunday 31 Mai

Today Bonnie and Marge flew home at a very early hour.

Michael wanted to sleep in, our flight on to Brussels is not until 5pm today.

So I decided to walk around a bit and see more of Toulouse.

All the locals seemed to be heading towards the big church, Sainte Sernin, and they were dressed down which made me guess it was a flea market. I was right, the market is huge and stretches all the way around the church. A lot of new crap and typical flea market wares, but on the north side of it there were just tatty suitcases opened up with house hold junk from mostly North Africans. This serves a purpose for this group, additional income. I usually have my best luck from these searches, but not today. I walked out empty handed.
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I could compare this to the flea markets around the North and East of Paris where the same thing happens. All of a sudden you will have 50-100 men dressed in traditional Arab "dishdasha" or "Thobe" (a long dress that covers the whole body with big pockets in the front). The start calling out for people to buy their crap and the next thing you know they are surrounding you and you are basically in a mosh pit trying to figure out what the hell is going on. I always feel like I should hold on to my wallet, at least my private parts, for fear of hands grabbing. But every time this has happened as fast as it starts it ends... One time in Paris the police would come in blowing whistles every time and break it up, very strange....

Anyway after the market I sat on the main square and had some lunch. We checked out about 2pm and headed out to the airport for our 1 hour flight to Brussels.

If you have not flown Brussels Air, you need to! First off, all the seats are the same, first, business or coach. This put me off, until I found out that in first (the first few rows) they guarantee that you will have open seats next to you, so on a 3-3 configuration Michael and I sat with one empty seat between us. Once seated the flight attendant kept offering booze and food the whole way, for a 1 hour flight! First class in the US is crap, they don't even feed you unless it is more than a 3 hour flight now a days. The attendants were super nice, and seriously, 3 course meal, coursed out! Wine with each course, Cognac and coffee at the end. All this for a 1 hour flight!

We got into Brussels found our hotel and settled in.

I will write more about Brussels next...

Toulouse 30 - Mai 2009

Saturday 30 Mai

So today we left our house in Provence and headed into Toulouse for the weekend.
We had all fallen asleep the night before hearing the carnival as they called out winners of games and made announcements, it was very sad to not experience it, next time...

In Toulouse we are staying at the Crowne Plaza on Place du Capitole.
The hotel is centrally located and is really very nice with big bathrooms.

The drive back was uneventful, everyone slept while I drove the 200 miles!
Some traffic but pretty easy all in all.

I dropped them off at the hotel as the Saturday market was just ending, and then I headed back to the airport to drop the Volvo off at Avis. All went well; the airport is only about 20 minutes from downtown, a 28 euro cab ride back, no trains...

The four of us walked out and got lunch right on the Plaza at one of the many outdoor cafes, nothing special, but nothing bad, just a nice lunch. Afterwards we walked around Toulouse looking at some of the churches and streets. The place is packed with students, very different than Bordeaux, which is much statelier. But the energy here is amazing. While we were getting up for lunch we noticed moving trucks placing chairs all over the plaza, more on this to follow…
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We walked over to the big church in town, the Basilica of St. Sernin. As we walked up we noticed people very well dressed heading in. A wedding! Now I am not a fan of weddings, but we crashed it! I will have the video up in a few days, but we sat in the back and watched as the bride came in and then the start. She had the big organ playing for her march and then an opera singer belting out a tune for the mass part, sounded so crazy soundtrack-ish, almost fake, beautiful! Click Link Here

After the wedding we walked some more streets, Marge was interested in picking up a CD of Charles Trenet, an Olde Time French singer I turned her on to. I love his music!

After a short rest we headed off to dinner at a place on Place Wilson, Le Bon Vivre. Great place for a taste of the Southwest of France, we had a great dinner with lots of fun. We did try Floc de Gascone blanc, a local aperitif, too sweet for us all.
Click Link Here
After dinner we walked back to the hotel, when we got to our square we noticed all the chairs that were delivered earlier were set up like living room furniture, hundreds of old tatty lounge chairs, leather chairs, kitchen chairs, etc. Students were sitting in them reading poetry, playing guitar, break dancing, stilt walking, banjo playing, etc, etc… too long to list them all. We sat and watched a few groups including one group that was doing interpretive dance ala Audrey Hepburn in Funny Face.

Saignon 29 - Mai 2009

Friday 29th Mai

Today I got up pretty early and decided to head down to Apt for coffee. Apt as I have mentioned is a pretty big town about 10 minutes down the mountain from us. I must say that I have not been impressed by it, always traffic, always hot and a bit run down on the edges. Well once again I am proven wrong. Once you get out of your car and move to the center of town it is adorable. The buildings are pretty, the shady pedestrian streets, etc. I found a place, up to the bar for a coffee and pain-o and then went as fast as I could up the hill to get the group. We had been avoiding this town all week, only to find that it was in fact, very nice indeed.

We decided to come down for lunch, a walk and some shopping. Now of course we were heading down as the entire town was setting up for the yearly festival, parade, carnival rides, games, etc. Very 1950s looking set up, but the main road was shut down. Luckily I was able to find a sidewalk to drive onto and park (very French indeed).

After a short walk we found the rental manager's pick, Thym te Voila. This place is a gem! On a tiny courtyard, not heavily touristed as it is hard to find, but well worth it. Everyone agreed not to drink as that is all we have been doing, I did not however... So after I ordered a bottle of Champagne, the others well... they all fell in line with me. The food is "world fusion" which means not totally French, but with all local ingredients. I would highly recommend this place: CLICK LINK HERE FOR WEBSITE

OK so now a bit buzzed, we walk. The city is not big but it does have many curving alley like walking streets, a great church (many actually but one really nice one), and lots of shops. We started off at the Cathedral Sainte-Anne d'Apt. A gorgeous old church with a kid practicing the organ with his elderly teacher and my favorite part, a crypt way in the down in the belly. I actually was able to get Michael's mom to head down there which is a feat, she is very claustrophobic! This picture says it all, the walls were tights, the ceiling low, the stone was cold and dark.
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After the crypt, I mean Cathedral, we walked the town, I bought some pottery for the house, which the area is known for. Marge and Bonnie bought napkins and linen, also anther Provencal find.
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I have not mentioned this but I will say, the funniest thing I have found in this area is that no matter which town, village, city you are in they have the usual bikini clad girls on postcards that make no sense, but even more funny they have dogs on hammocks and kittens in lounge chairs. Makes no sense what so ever, and is actually more grotesque than cute... I had to take some photos of these two sets.
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OK... so we dropped off Bonnie and Marge at the house so they could lay by the pool and come down from the champagne, Michael and I headed up to the town of Bonnieux. Another village over the hill from us about 6 miles. Very cute, we walked to the top of the hill to the cathedral on top to get a view. Weird but here in this part of France most smaller churches are locked up during the day, unlike the rest of France where you can get in any time of the day, there is usually someone there paid to keep it open for worship.

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Oh, one last thing about this village. So Michael is the only one who did not drink at lunch, I had but hours earlier and just sips... I decided to turn up an alley to park the car and almost got the Volvo stuck in this arch way! It looked like it would fit... Imagine, Michael screaming, "Mirror-MIRROR!" as his mirror was about to touch one side of the wall, while mine was busy about to touch the other! I actually made it trough without touching either, a job well done, right?

Saignon 28 - Mai 2009

Thursday Mai 28

I will start with yesterday. We decided to take a drive down the coast. France has a great road system, very easy to navigate, well marked and well serviced. You can take an A marked Route, aka Autoroute - major freeway and almost always a toll road; Great way to move distance fast, non stop, gas stations on road, misses towns. Or a N route, part of the National Highway system, free and slow with lots of round abouts, but you get to drive through every town along the way. D routes are even smaller, they are slow and free but go through little villages. And then the smaller routes, no need to say anything but, "really 2 lanes, REALLY?"

OK so we headed off on the major autoroute and shot right up to Monaco. We stopped in the town just south called Eze for lunch. The village is perched high over the sea and it is quite picturesque. Pretty much a tourist trap but our lunch was nice. Now I forget how much I do not like Monaco, it reminds me of Beverly Hills on the beach. Sure the palais is nice, the old town is nice, the casino is nice, but really... every car is a bentley and there is a Dior store on every corner. It is too crowded, etc.
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We did stop and see the resting places of Grace and Reiner in the chapel they were married in. The Monte Carlo Grand Prix was the weekend before so the whole town was drapped in metal grand stands and metal grates protecting the flowers. We left Monaco and drove up to the next town of Menton, a town I think Monaco might have looked like 50 years ago. It is the last town before Italy so we decided to drive into Italy a small way. The flowers and houses change fast, very pretty, but also so do the signs and I do not read Italian so we headed back to Fance.
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Every one was beat from the heat so I high tailed it on the Autoroute down to St. Tropez for dinner. I have never been there before and was interested in seeing it. The Germans and USA bombed the hell out of it in the war but it was rebuilt in the same style to keep it "real". We passed trough the town of Sainte Maxime. We should have stopped there for dinner, it looked very cute with lots of cafes on the water and a pedestrian walkway up the center. But alas we went on to St Tropez, which was like Monaco, too glitzy, big yachts, big boobs, not very "real". The cafes were over priced and playing sports on LCD TVs. We ended up eating at a tiny pizza place in the center of the city. Small and not made for dine in, we loved it, we ordered 2 pies, a bottle of local Rose and then ice cram to go after. Seemed odd for us to do this, but the owner was fab and the pizza was great.

We got home at midnight, we all slept in the next day.

I tried to rally the trops the next morning to go the 3/4 mile up the hill to our village, Saignon, for lunch, no takers... So I ended up eating lunch on my own and what a lunch. We had tried all the places in the town and they were all just OK, however the last place to try was called Le Baladin.

To me it looked too touristy as it was too cute. Patio terrace over looking the town square, grapes growing on the arbor overhead, ivy growing on the walls, a fountain in the court, etc.
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Was I wrong... Started with a glass of champagne, ordered a pitcher 50cl of local rose, a stared of cod brandade, a main of grilled steak with a leek pudding, a coffee and then a Mirabelle, which is a plum brandy from the Loraine area of France. All this for about 30 euros, and it was delightful. I sat near these two local farmers right out of the fields who said this was the best cafe around, dirt under finger nails et al. The sun was shining but I was in the shade, the birds were chirping and every 15 minutes the church bell across the way would bong with a loud vibration, this is France to me. After I walked the little village and then headed down the hill 2 miles to the bigger town of Apt to buy some items.

On the way home I filmed the drive up the road, yes this is a 2 lane road, luckily no cars were coming down, they drive FAST...

Saignon 26 - Mai 2009

Tuesday 26 Mai

I have not been writting much or taking a lot of photos, Provence is much more like California so it slows me down. The plants, the coastal mountians, the weather, etc. They do have 1000 year + old things, Calif does not have that…

So our village is perched in a national forest called the Luberon. We are high above; and if you come, you should too, the area below is hot, dusty and CROWDED. Our village has tiny roads that tour buses cannot get up, you should also make sure of that when you come, otherwise, lots of tourist you will find.

We went hiking at the fountaine-de-Vaucluse, which is this cool space with a massive spring that comes up from no where, they cannot locate the source, in fact Jacques Cousteau lost a bathescape trying to find it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fontaine-de-Vaucluse. The town is cute for lunch or a drink and the fountaine is at best an oddity, but a pretty one at that. We did stop in L'isle sur La Sorge before for a bite, cute town lots of antiques, worth a stop, but maybe just for coffee. The canals that run all over the town are feed by the fountaine so the water is crystal clear and cold.
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The town of Apt is close to us, too big, too low, too run down, but there is something ou should try to see... The northern side of Apt near the lake in a very ware-house-y area you will find the Chabaud Brothers place. It is a giant sprall of pieces of castles and chateaux just for you to pack up and take home. I was trying to figure out how to get this gate in my suitecase...
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After going to a local food market as a group Michael and I decided to go over our hill 25 miles to the town of Aix. Now Aix is big and crowded and hard to park a car in, but you need to go if you are in Provence. We took the smaller D roads on the back roads. Very naroow, lots of trucks and fast cars, but lots of trees, mountains, views and cute tiny villages. One stop we did was the town of Lourmarin. Very cute, a bit Disney-esque but cute with lots of shops and cafes. A nice place for lunch if it is not crowded with no parking, we lucked out.
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Aix was crowded, after circling for a while I decided to park in a pay lot, always a better idea as you never know how long you may be, and pay lots are usually underground and usually not too expensive. We had a VERY unforgetable meal, we did not plan ahead and ended up at a touristy place that was not good, so we drank alot of wine, it was a cheap meal at least.
We ended up finding a cute out of the way cafe and drank some Pastis, the local licorice flavoured drink. Then we walked the massive pedestrian zone CUTE, and I ended up buying a hat, the same hat I left on the plane two weeks ago...
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After our Pastis and shopping tour we headed back home. On the way we found this field, among many, of poppies in bloom, we had been drinking so of course photos followed....

Saignon 24 - Mai 2009

Sunday 24 Mai

We were very sad to leave our manor home in Lavardac (Lot et Geronne) but it was Provence for the next destination. So we said good bye to Christiane and Michel. They were nice enough to drive Gillian back to Bordeaux to catch her flight to Berlin to see friends, coming from New Zealand where they drive on the "wrong" side she was not to happy with the thought of driving on the right side of the road here in France. She really lucked out, we are sure many French drivers signed relief as well, once again, the kindness of our hosts was amazing, Bordeaux is over an hour each way! We were driving the other way, through Toulouse and then Carcassonne before hitting the coast and driving into the Lubeon valley via Avignon.

We had plenty of time to talk in the car, Michael's mom said the one thing that struck her, first time in France, was how nice everyone was. At lunch the other day in Nerac a man in his late 80s came to the table, said he fought in WW2 with American soldiers and loves all Americans. I actually saw her tear up!

Anyway back to Provence. We had to stop in Carcassonne, it is very VERY touristy, but if you have never seen it you should at least once. We planned to park, go in, have lunch and get out fast! We got there right before the lunch bread. Everyone in the car was blown away as we drove up. I purposely drove in the truck route around the city versus the car route through the center of the city. Doing this way allows you to see the old City without building blocking the view. For those that do not know, Carcassonne is an a medieval walled city that is intact and everything Disneyland wants to be except made of stone a thousand years ago, not Plastic in the 1950s. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carcassonne
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We found easy, paid, secured, outdoor parking right in front. Walked into the city, went to the main square. We wanted to sit and eat before the lunch rush so we sat at a very VERY touristy Cafe right on the square. It was empty but one other table. We sat and ordered, almost all had Cassoulet http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassoulet This is the dish of the region made usually of duck confit, sausage and white beans. It was in a tour trap and was 11 euro and was AMAZING! We were very happy. By the time our food arrived the place was sat full, we were happy we beat the crowd.

We parted ways here, Dennis, Shirley and Joanna went on their way and we got back into the Volvo and drove on. Everyone slept while I drove the rest of the way. Arriving in Apt, the next biggest town we began to be nervous, our village was near and it seemed low in the valley and also kind of run down. As we turned out of the city we began to climb, up, up, up into the hills. The scenery changed right away. Very green, fields of lavender and cherries. Cute homes and garden walls of stone. We got into the village of Saignon and over to the house. Wow amazing again. Not as stately as the last house but a charmer none the less.
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Now this house is owned by an Australian. We were meeting the care taker, Joelle, who is French. She was very helpful, showed us around, etc. I mentioned I wanted a Sunday flea market and she said she did not think there was one. She left and we set up the house and went to the stores for some wine, cheese and bread. At about 7pm Joelle called to say that the locals were in fact having a market in our village the next day, what luck! The others arrived shortly and we all sat on the back patio over looking the valley eating and drinking into the night. It got dark about 10:30pm.
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Sunday we woke up had our coffee and tea and then set out to walk up the hill to the village, about 10 min walk. The village of Saignon is cute CUTE! The roads are too narrow for the buses to drive so it is not too touristy as many in this area are. We walked those winding roads that could barely handle a small fiat and a pedestrian! Once on the hill we were happy to see every house was selling. Bonnie bought a pair of leather boots for 5 euro, I bought a Suze pitcher for 2, Marge bought a picture for 10, Michael bought a 1920s 3 ceramic tray set for developing photos with the French words on the side for 8!
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We sat and had coffee and then walked back home through the lavender fields stopping to pick cherries in the orchard on the front lawn. The cherries taste so good off the trees!
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