Train Kept a Rollin’

After last night’s soaking, the morning was mostly blue skies and sun and worms struggling to get off the road before they got flattened. There was no more rain, even though the forecast promised differently.

Would there be time for one more market! Bien sur! And off we went to Ste. Cecile les Vignes for a last Saturday.

For Dan and Jane, this was their first market of the year and it was great to visit the market with fresh eyes.

For lunch we picked up both paella and a tasty pasta at the paella vendor. Then we settled in on the upper front terrace at Chez Pigeon for a delightful lunch. Shortly after 2:00 pm we headed out for Orange in Peter’s Peugeot because of our obscenely fat luggage. I might note at this point that we came to France 35 pounds under weight and are returning at max. This was also an opportunity for Dan to drive a real man’s car.

Anyway, as per usual, we were a tad early at the station, but, heh, there you go. The train was on time - SURPRISE! A mere hour or so later we arrived at Vitrolles - Marseilles Provence airport and had a nice information guy call for a Navette from our hotel.

This is a very nice hotel and a stone’s throw from the airport with a free shuttle to the airport and apparently from the train station. Another bonus was that the hotel had a restaurant and after some Domaine Mourchon for aperatif, we headed to dinner.

The buffet meal here was not disappointing. We had salads and pastas and a nice Plan de Dieu Cotes du Rhones. After an obligatory poire William - I'd like to think this drink was named after me - we cashed it in and got ready for our flight home.

Last full day in Cairanne

I’ll try not to be schmalzy here, but no matter how long we stay in Cairanne, it’s always tough to realize that your visiting time is done. So we took a couple of short outings today, first a walkabout the old village and then some wine tasting at Camille Cayran and Vacqueras as we attempted to give Dan and Jane the lie of the land.

Of course the harvest is still in full swing and unfortunately as the evening approached, so did the rain. By the time we were in Le Tourne au Verre for dinner, the rain became torrential and was accompanied by a nice sound and light show. This will make it really tough to get the wagons into the fields and the ripe grapes, like the syrah, could decide to burst out of their skins, which will reduce the yield even more.

For the most part, we stayed close to home and are pretty well packed for tomorrow’s departure. We were glad to fit in one more dinner at Le Tourne au Verre and Sabrina was as accommodating as always.

So....off to Marseilles!

Orange

Our time in France must be winding down. Today we prepped for the arrival of Dan and Jane Currie, who take up residence at chez Pigeon as we depart. We have moved to the main floor bedroom to make room for them in the master.

\ We posted a letter for Margaret before heading to Orange for, guess what, another market. We slipped past the train station first to purchase tickets for Saturday’s train ride down to the airport. Then we parked close to the Theatre Antique and had a stroll through the market.

I still reflect on how much we didn’t like this market on our first visit over ten years ago. There is a large population of French north-African immigrants here and I think that initially overwhelmed us. Now, however, we are very relaxed when we visit here, although the population hasn’t changed much. It was quite entertaining watching an elderly Muslim lady going through this display.

For Brigitte, the highlight of the day was a visit to the ancient Roman Theatre. We hadn’t been here for years, so we equally enjoyed the audio tour which gave us a quick primer in Roman history and in particular what Roman life was like in Orange.

As we made our way from audio station to audio station, we were happy about the lack of crowds, which I believe the young artist below also enjoyed.

The only way to get a photo of the entire theatre because of its massive size is with a panorama.

A new feature since we last visited was a “Phantom of the Opera” display which sent us into four dark rooms/caves off the interior passage and gave us a glimpse into the history of the theatre with audiovisual presentations, some in 3D.

We saw what the theatre and Orange looked like in 1900 and saw some of the concert highlights, from rock events rivaling Woodstock in the 70’s to opera. Unfortunately, concerts only take place from June to August, so there were no events coming up. It would have been fun to see the likes of Frank Zappa performing here in ’79.

We all felt that for 9 euros, that we got our money’s worth. If we could only remember half of what we learned today! Alas “old timers disease”!

Back at Chez Pigeon, we continued to be entertained by the construction below us, as they are now tearing off the second half of the roof. We’ve already learned a lot about French construction methods - more information we’ll never use. Once Dan and Jane arrived, we settled in for an evening of food - it was raclette this evening - and drink - surprise!

Let’s Wine a Little

We mentioned that the house below us was in the throws of major roof work and we awoke to the workmen hoisting beams into place for the new roof.

After they had the beams in place they brought in a ceiling material - a drywall styrofoam combo - that neatly slotted into place beneath the beams. I’m liking these French building materials. After watching progress below us, we headed off to Rasteau to taste wine.


This was Brigitte’s first experience with wine tasting before noon but she adapted.

Next stop was Seguret. We actually set out here to find mailing tubes for posters and did succeed with some limitations - like size and length. Today there was an artist painting a section of the old village - was this a tourist plant? Am I getting totally cynical?

To further complete our wine tasting experience, we headed to Domaine Mourchon for their Wednesday English tour of the vineyards. Upon arrival, the tractors were dumping their grapes and sure enough, Walter was out there helping with the sorting.

Today’s picking was Syrah grapes and Walter gave us grapes to taste, which were very sweet and sticky while later we tasted the juice of the grapes and we found them equally sweet! Other than a Spanish couple with their two small children, the oldest of which I very quickly scared off - maybe I’m a little loud - this was pretty much a private tour.

We took the walk up to the upper Grenache vineyard and admired the 60 year old vines, intermingled with much younger ones, ate the grapes and checked out the views included Ventoux in the clouds and Walter’s house just below us.

Hugo, Walter’s son-in-law led the tour today and continued to take us into the bowels of the winery with their oak barrels. He emphasized that the oak is used, not to taste oak instead of grapes, but to allow the wine to breath as it matured. They use oak sparingly.

We finished the tour with Walter in the tasting room and walked away with wine and Walter’s wife’s products, including a confit de grenache which we used with our duck dinner tonight. WOW! The day wound down with cards, which Dawn, ungraciously continues to win. Enough said.

Vieux Vaison encore une fois!

We made our last pilgrimage into Vaison la Romaine this morning for Tuesday market. Weatherwise, it was a fabulous October 1! The girls were given free rein to wander about for a couple of hours - how brave am I? - while I set out on a quest to complete a photo essay of the ancient village. Here’s some of it.

When I made it up to the chateau, low and behold, someone was walking up the wall of the chateau. I initially thought they must be working on something, but now I’m wondering whether it was just some thrill seeker.

Having owned a Peugeot 504 and 505, I have a soft spot for the vehicle, so this vintage Peugeot - not unlike Columbo’s, except his was a ragtop - caught my fancy.

I made my last visit to see Viviane and purchase those fabulous tomatoes, one more time. She bid me farewell, shook my hand and I told her we’d be back next year. Dawn and Brigitte dropped by her stall later and she likewise bid them adieu. Hope she remembers us!

We had reservations today for lunch at Couteaux & Fourchettes just outside Cairanne, but because we were early, we made a little photographic stop in Rasteau.

Lunch was another culinary delight and for our third lunch out with Brigitte, we found that all three places had served excellent, but very different prix fixes. Here, for 23 euros, our appetizer was either crab mousse with avocado puree or a beef carpaccio wrapped around fromage blanc (kinda like pureed cottage cheese)- of course mine was the latter. We all had the same main course and if I say it was pork and beans, no one would be impressed. But that’s basically what it was and it was unlike any pork and beans I’ve ever had. Those French!

Dessert was either a plum mousse for Brigitte or the raspberry cream on a shortbread cookie and lemon sorbet, shown below for Dawn and I.

To give Brigitte a feel for the local wines, we stopped briefly into both the Coop and the Belvedere Cave. We’ll do some further exploring of these wines - a.k.a. drinking - later this week. Back at chez Pigeon we now have some entertainment as the house below us is undergoing renovation, including new beams in the roof. It’s a little noisy, but we’re out for most of the day anyway and it’s quite enlightening to see the French actually get some work done. That was not meant in a nasty way, but they have had a reputation for cafe sitting, cigarette smoking, unreliability, etc. - well you get the picture.

Les Baux-de-Provence

Today we were back to classic Provence weather . Mind you, it took a while for the mist from yesterday to lift, but the early morning views from the terrace were, once again, unique.

So, off we went to a tourist favourite, Les Baux-de-Provence. It was still a little misty when we arrived, but got beautiful really fast.

The girls took their time climbing to the upper village, sampling each of the shops. I was so happy to have the leisurely walk. Anyone note the tone of sarcasm.

To get the penultimate views, we paid the 8 euro entrance fee for the chateau visit - don’t miss this opportunity.

We weren’t overrun by tourists which was nice and the skies got bluer and bluer.

I didn’t climb to the top of the chateau this time, but still could have despite the dire sign warning.

Anyway, you didn’t have to be up any higher to love the environs.

We had never visited the Santon Museum here. Maybe it’s new. Anyway, it had vintage - 200 year old - santons, plus nice collages.

The stone - sandstone - here it a fascinating study of erosion, wind and water. One has to be reminded that even this high outcropping was once under a sea, which explains the shell imprints in the stones.

I’m doing a study of cats this time around - I think it was dogs last visit - so here’s one for the list.

After a great hike about the chateau grounds, we found a nice spot above the village for a pique nique lunch, along with the German campers.

This location also had a nice view of the former bauxite mines which are now a museum that we hoped to visit today, but alas had a “fermature exceptionale”, due to electrical problems. Another time!

Back at Chez Pigeon, we enjoyed the remainder of the day on the terrace and ended the day with Choucroute and Bill’s bullets. Woo hoo! As we enjoyed the diminishing day , we noticed clouds of bugs heading south over the vineyards. We have no idea what they were, but these photos - unaltered - may appear to have static, but in fact, that’s what we saw. Should we be worried? Yikes!