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!