A long Weekend in LA

December 8-12, 2011 This posting is a little late, but here it is! We'd never been to LA before in December, so since Betty and Gary's latest home project was complete, off we went. We flew American Airlines through Chicago to LA on Thursday December 8 and landed around dinner time. We had some great catch up time that evening with a pasta dinner Betty prepared. On Friday, we did some shopping for some of those excellent California Chardonnays and then went up view the new house at 1244 BelAir Terrace. When we were here last March, the main structure was up and the house showed promise, but in it's finished state, it is simply stunning. It didn't hurt that on this day, the LA skies were brilliant blue.

The house had just gone on the real estate market at a cool $6 million and so far TV personality Cat Deeley was the most promising client.

Before returning to their Brentwood apartment, we did some grocery shopping at both Trader Joes and Gelsons for the makings for a surf and turf dinner this evening. Gelsons actually cooked the two lobsters we selected from the tank and cracked them ready for consumption. On Saturday, we went back to the BelAir house to prep it for an open house tomorrow. Since we did In'n Out yesterday for lunch we tried the Five Guys burger joint today.

In the afternoon Dawn and Betty visited the Beverly Hills Hilton for a charity organized shopping excursion. Meanwhile, Gary and I went first to his office which happens to be adjacent Spago where he collected his mail. As I waited in the car for him, I watched Ted Danson leave Spago and get into his new Rolls convertible. The two of us then proceeded to the bar at the Beverly Wilshire - movie location for Pretty Woman - to be later joined by Dawn and Betty.

After a quick rest back at the apartment, we headed back to Beverly Hills for dinner and Bouchons, the French restaurant in the Montage hotel. Dinner began with an Alsace cremant while I had sweetbreads and the rest had salads. Main course for Betty and Gary was chicken, while Dawn had monkfish, mussels and shrimp and I had a seared duck breast all accompanied by a Cairanne red from Catherine de Goeuil. I was on my own for dessert with a dark chocolate mousse. Consensus was that dinner was fabulous and we rounded off the day with a rousing game of Bite Me. Sunday, Dawn and I were on our own, since Betty and Gary were busy with their open house. We headed up the valley to a large shopping outlet called Camarillo Premium Outlets, where we wandered and shopped until lunch at Johnny Rocket's. Then we headed back for some more shopping until we were pooched - at least I was - by mid-afternoon and headed back to LA. This night we were eating in again, so picked up some salmon and salads at Whole Foods before returning to the apartment. There is no question that this is the best - aka healthiest - place to gather some prepared foods for a meal and we walked away with a Miso salmon and a variety of lentil/bean/orzo salads. Betty and Gary returned from a successful open house which did not involve a visit from Cat Deeley. Dinner was easy and delicious and we continued our "Research!" of California Chardonnays. Monday was to be a day off for Betty & Gary and since it ended up being a soggy one, we opted first for a late morning showing of the movie The Descendants with George Clooney. We had all agreed that we didn't want to see War Horse due to its inevitable sadness, but this movie wasn't much happier. At this point Gary left us for a meeting with his boss at Caldwell Banker, Betty & Dawn set out on some shopping and headed out for home via the Wine House - clearly our research was not yet complete. When I got to the Wine House my phone rang and it was Gary wanting Betty to head up to BelAir to meet Cat at the house. Since Betty had temporarily misplaced her phone and Dawn's was turned off, Gary was on his own. I continued my walk back to the apartment and was joined late afternoon by the shoppers. Gary apparently managed fine on his own prepping the house and his hottest prospect got a third viewing. Dinner tonight was back in Beverly Hills at Crustacean, a very cool Asian-styled restaurant with a glass covered stream filled with giant koi flowing through it.

We all shared a tapas selection of crab puff, cocoanut shrimp, beef satay and a chicken dumpling. For main course Betty had salmon, Gary had scampi, Dawn had a lobster/shrimp/mussels combo while I had a whole dungeness crab. Their garlic noodles were enjoyed by all. Wine tonight was a 2008 Auxey Durress white which was very fine and a nice comparison to the Californian chardonnays we'd been sampling. It actually came across as having a great deal more finesse than new world chardonnays and although oaked, that wasn't the only thing you tasted. Tuesday came pretty quickly and we were off to the airport to come home. Our plane had a malfunction in one wing sensor so we ended up leaving 2 hours late and thus arrived home late. It was good to be home, but our supercharged weekend was certainly a blast!

Last Day in France for 2011

I may have set a record today for the number of photos in one post. Sorry, it was a photogenic day!
The day started off benign enough. We set out to get Cairanne ready for the next renters. Margaret’s cleaning lady had flown the coup and with an uncertain stand-in in the wings, it was the least we could do.
Anyway, we completed our clean-up and were on our way to Marseilles by 11:30.

Now I know there is a school of thought that feels Marseilles is still an unsavory place full of thieves and fraud. Although that element might exist, I certainly don’t feel it is either dominant or even noticeable. In fact, I love this place!

We’re trying a new hotel this year – The Park Suites Confort Inn (spelled correctly, by the way). We found it around 12:30 with help from the GPS and discovered we couldn’t check in until 3:00. C’est la France! We managed to get them to store our luggage in the breakfast room and then headed to the airport.
Because Dawn & I booked flights in a different manner this time – ie Dawn was free – we wanted to see if we could get seats together on the Marseilles to Paris flight tomorrow. It turned out to be no problem and we got our boarding passes for both flights to boot. Then we were off to Marseilles.

The Old Port is the centre of all tourism and since we booked a cruise today into the callanques, which is translated creeks, but is actually more like mini fiords, this was where we started.
We hit a port side café for lunch and Dawn had one more kick at Moules frites while I had the following.

Yes, that’s right. I had sardine doughnuts! They were actually just sardines deep-fried, but heh, if they say doughnut, I’m in.
We figured we were in lots of time before our cruise, but headed to boarding area anyway. Low and behold, the cruise had been bumped up by a half hour and we arrived just in time. They apologized for not knowing how to contact us about the change, but the bottom line was that if we’d arrived at the given hour, we would have missed the boat – literally.



Anyway, we set out on a three-hour cruise up the coast from Marseilles to visit all of the callanques between Marseilles and Cassis. These callanques are not something you can visit on roads. There aren’t any. That doesn’t mean there aren’t settlements in several of the callanques. It just means you’ve got to have a boat and a flashlight, because no hydro services the callanques.
The limestone geology of the coastline is striking, to say the least. Thank God for the digital age because I was snapping pictures for the whole cruise and although I ended up uploading over 200, I’d already gleaned many more.
You wouldn't know this was the 4th of October. There were bikini babes abounding, mostly in private craft.


At one point in the cruise we came upon a cliff diver. I thought initially he was set to jump and thought about the importance of protecting his balls. But he ended up diving and I captured the entire span, but will only bore you with three pics here, entitled Going…going…gone!



By the time we made the return journey to Marseilles, the sun was significantly lower, making for some pretty striking photos.







Although most of the coastline is limestone, when you get past Cassis, you encounter the highest cliffs in Europe – over 400 metres. They have a significant amount of iron and/or ochre in them as you can see. At the beginning of this trip, we drove across the top of these cliffs from La Ciotat to Cassis. Apparently the road we drove on is often closed due to high winds.


Following the cruise, we got back to out hotel and finally got to check in. It did take a while to find the keys to get our luggage out of hock, but finally we had a room.
Following the advice of our hotel staff, we opted for a drive to Martiques for dinner. This place is a good 20 minutes from the airport, but off we went.
Because we were unfamiliar with the area and the sun had already set, we missed finding the really touristy area, but had a nice final meal anyway at this place.

Back at the hotel, it took forever to catalogue pictures and get some of them internet ready.
But sleep can come tomorrow on the plane, right? Maybe!
In any case, this will be my last entry for this trip. See you in 6 months in Rio!

Dick & Jane go to France

Look Dick!
See the bird!
He talks to us every morning!
Jane says shut up bird!

See the store!
Look at Jane shop!
Look at her go!

See Dick and Jane!
See them hide!
If they hide, why do we see them?

Dick sees a mountain!
Jane sees a church!
Dick sees no grapes!

Look Jane.
Dick, see the pretty vines!
Jane says they are red!
They are red because they are dead!

Look Dick!
See the church!
The church is in old town!
Jane says the old town is still all gravel!

Look Jane!
See the terrace!
It is pretty!
It is the place to be!
But, where is Dick?
Dick is on the computer!
Jane says don't be dick and get out here!

Jane says run.
Run, Dick and get in the photo!

Look!
See Jane!
See Jane stay cool!
See Jane drink wine!
See Jane stay cool!

Cairanne's Vide Grenier - Finally!

Finally, a Sunday to be proud of weather-wise! And thank goodness for the sake of Cairanne that today continued to be sunny and hot. They finally held their annual community garage sale – Vide Grenier – that had been postponed from the beginning of September.

We browsed the rows of interesting junk. Yeh I know, one man’s junk is another man’s treasure. But I’m not sure they were selling much at any of the stalls. The event was, however, extremely well attended; due to in part I’m sure, to the fabulous weather.

The butcher had the BBQ fired up and there was a party atmosphere throughout the streets.
If we had extensive packing capabilities, they were a few things that we might have considered, like this set of matching porcelain containers.

But of course, we have no empty space in our bags, so we walked away empty-handed.
We had lunch reservations today at a fairly new restaurant, in Tulette, called L’Atelier du 4. When we arrived, we found a Fermature Exceptionelle sign in the door.
These "Unusual Closing" signs are not new to us. So, on to plan B. We quickly consulted Margaret’s book, which we’ve been carrying in the car for occasions just like this. Then I phoned La Détente, which was about 15 minutes down the road on the way to Nyons. Yes, they had room, so off we went.
The restaurant doesn’t look like much from the road, but as usual, looks here are usually deceiving. They have a beautifully shaded patio with a nice outlook onto the surrounding hills.

Dawn and I opted for different menus today. She chose Le Menu Envie for 23 Euros, while I had Le Menu Seduction for 28 Euros. Couldn’t resist it!

Dawn started with a farandole of grilled peppers with a Nyons olive tapenade, which she followed with fillets of fish in puff pastry with a tomato confit and finished with a fig mousse. Although the farandole is generally considered to be a lively Provence dance, I'm pretty sure they were using the word to describe the way the peppers were laid out on the plate in a circular wheel fashion.
I had a foie gras salad with raspberry vinagerette first and for main course I had duck breast with a honey and sweet Rasteau wine reduction. My dessert was crème brulee, of which I never seem to get enough. With this we had a Vinsobres rose that we both found a little different from other roses, but enjoyed none the less. I think it was more syrah and less grenache.
The food was excellent, but more worthy of note was that the portions were extremely generous. Translated, that means we ate way too much! Light meal tonight for sure!
Inside a tightly closed up house, we escaped the heat for the remainder of the afternoon.
We had a phone call from Aaron last night saying he had arrived in Barcelona and that he and his friends were already into the paella and sangria.
Tonight we heard from the other side of the family with a Skype call to the White household. After the call we realized that we were quite content to be packing to go home. It would be nice to be able to take the weather with us - and maybe a bit of the wine.

A Last Visit to Ste. Ceceile les Vignes

I know, I know! This blog needs another sunset picture like France needs more wine. This one however, I’ve included for a different reason.

As we’ve said goodbye to September, we’ve also said goodbye to this year’s vendage. There may be still some pockets of vineyards yet to be picked, but generally only at higher altitudes. And, as the vines are now barren of grapes, they have started to change colour. This is the only time that we non-grape farmers have an opportunity to see how many different grape varieties might be found in one field, since each varietal does have a different appearance as they change colour. Thus, the sunset picture in which you can see a variety of colours in the fields.
We made a final visit to the market in Ste. Cecile this morning. We were looking for figs that I guess we’ve said goodbye to as well, since they were not to be found. We did buy some veggies at this vendor. Notice the ladies with their plastic bowls full of produce waiting for a weigh-in.


I’ve also included a couple of other Ste. Cecile shots, one of the plane tree lined main street, one of the chapel with startlingly blue skies and one of the mayor's office.


After both lunch and dinner out yesterday, we humbly ate in today. It's now time to empty the larder. We've done a prepack and have determined that we're good without additional mailings. This is a good thing!

Around The Mountain We Go

Immediately after shipping a box of mainly clothing back to Canada, we headed up into the valley east of Cairanne. Our plan was to trace a circle around Mt. Ventoux without actually ascending it.
Shortly after leaving Vaison la Romaine and branching off towards Sault, we discovered that traveling through the foothills surrounding the ever-present Ventoux did not mean a flat drive.

Our route took us through many ancient villages perched at the heights of everything around them. Entrechaux, shown above, was the first of these.
After winding further around the summit, we discovered Reilhanette, shown below. We came upon it just before we made our first stop at the Plus Beaux Village of Montbrun les Bains.


We had a nice stroll up to the chateau at the top of the village. This chateau is still a ruin, but is now under serious renovation. I’m guessing it’s to be a private residence, but time will tell.

This charming village, like many of those before it, had many photogenic alleys and corners. In one cobble-stoned lane, we noted a scooter sitting against the wall. This has got to be a tough place to learn to ride a scooter!

Following Montbrun, we continued on towards Sault and made a lunch stop at a roadside restaurant in Aurel. This might be the only restaurant in Aurel. A blue and white plastic tent for protection from the sun covered the restaurant.

Dawn had an amazing salad with chunks of terrine, tomatoes, grapes, olives, apples and lettuce. I had the 16 Euro three-course menu which started with a terrine salad, followed by pork tenderloin, petit epautre and risotto. We shared my apple tarte dessert much to the glee of the waitress who presented the dessert to Dawn and presented me with a spoon. The photo below shows the village of Aurel with our restaurant peaking out in the bottom left corner.

Our drive to Sault continued on the edge of a cliff that overlooked the valley east of Ventoux.
Sault came and went quickly and before we knew it we were zipping through the lavender fields towards Carpentras. This is a much better road, so we made pretty good time and quickly by-passed Carpentras, stopped in Sarrians for fuel and stopped again in Orange for some “looky” shopping. Having already shipped one box back I’m pretty sure we shouldn’t be adding to our load.
On the spur of the moment we headed out for dinner this evening to the Coteaux & Fourchette with Jim & Lynda Gardner. They were packed up and felt a last night out was in order, despite their 2:30 a.m. start tomorrow for Marseilles.
This was our second visit to this restaurant, our first being at lunch. They have a Coteaux and a Fourchette menu. That, by the way is a play on words en francais. It is not knives and forks, but rather hills and forks.
We all opted for the Coteaux menu. I started with a foie gras pate, while Jim & Dawn had a squash soup with scallops and Lynda had a rabbit starter. Mains were the same for all of us, lamb shoulder on risotto. Three of us had chocolate molten cakes with fruit innards, while Lynda had a grapefruit gratin. With a bottle of Seguret rose and a bottle of Domaine Alary Cairanne red, our bills were in the hundred bucks per couple range. Given the excellent service and pleasant ambience, I think everyone agreed that we had extremely good value for our money. And, needless to say, a good time was had by all!