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!

Soggy Sunday

At around three o’clock this morning, the wind picked up and it sounded like the terrace furniture might be launched elsewhere. Then the rain came and it was torrential, as forecasted. Fortunately, the house is nicely water tight and there was no flooding. It was good to see that front terrace is now draining as it should. But, when we awoke and as the rain continued, we had a much different view of the Rhone Valley than usual.

We had planned nothing for the morning, so it was good time to get further into our books. For the third week in a row and with yet different company, we returned to La Tuilerie.

Due to the dampness, we ate indoors today. It was quite delightful, as we were previously unaware of the view that they had of the Dentelles de Montmirail.

Seven courses and three hours later - veal stew today for the main course - we came away once again totally satisfied with our choice of lunch destination. The restaurant cats continued to be climbing between diners legs during the meal and scooting in and out of the kitchen. We reflected on the kind of health violation they would present back in Canada.

The weather had dramatically improved and by the time we got back to Chez Pigeon, we were quickly back into shorts and enjoying the sun - not for long. As forecasted, the cool wind and rain returned but now is hopefully behind us .

Le Shopping

Today was a fairly low key day, as the weather took us us away from the Provencal blue skies and sun. There’s no rain yet, but it would appear that tomorrow could be a little soggy.

We started off with a walk through the market in Ste. Cecile. This is always an easy market to circumnavigate, which for most people is perfect.

From Ste. Cecile, we drove via Rochgude which has a four star hotel in its chateau and a very nice restaurant,to the SNCF train station in Orange to check out train times for next Saturday’s journey to the airport,. Then we jumped on the autoroute and did a last visit to Auchan in Avignon - always entertaining for us. Crazy, I know!

We were back a chez Pigeon for lunch, enjoyed a quiet afternoon and had a great late dinner of lamb ribs a la Provencale that we purchased at Intermarche yesterday. This was a first for us and we cooked them on the BBQ. I would have to say that they were a fabulous find! We finished the day with cards and as usual had the cuddling kitties to entertain us.

Gigondas Gastronomy at L’Oustalet

Today’s posting will be heavy on the gastronomy of France. So what’s new? Brigitte is having a bit of trouble adjusting to French time - no surprise - so we had a slow morning and then headed over to Gigondas for lunch.

It’s only a 15 minute trip from Cairanne so we arrived too early and thus took Brigitte on THE walk up to the church and chateau. Everyone we’ve taken on this walk is amazed by the lack of signs of life and how quiet it was. Today was no exception.

Once again, we were the first to arrive at the our restaurant of choice today, L’Oustalet. We’ve been here many times and the cuisine has received raves. Their ownership changed hands four years ago and the prix fixe is a little more costly now at 32 euros for two courses and 39 euros for three courses, but the cuisine was as fabulous as ever.

As we sat on the patio under the plane trees, we drank a very nice Gigondas rose from Domaine les Teysonnieres and had both aperitif nibblies and an amuse bouche of raw oysters - not a real hit with this crowd - before the entre arrived. Don’t ask me what was in the little glasses with the bread sticks, but it was really good!

Dawn and I had a tartare of tomatoes and eggplant in olive oil with fresh herbs and the only photo we neglected to take was Brigitte’s lemon risotto with an emulsion of black pepper and parmesan.

The main course for Brigitte and I was a saffron free range chicken from the Ardeche with roquette and a fricassee of artichokes and potatoes.

Dawn had three morsels of three different local fish done in a bouillabaisse-type sauce with potatoes and aioli.

For dessert, Dawn had roasted figs smothered in licorice honey with the most divine chocolate mousse/sorbet.

Brigitte and I had raspberry macaroon with raspberry sorbet and a little pot of “baies” - blueberries, currants and raspberries in a violet syrup.

We left our table with many marvelous flavours lingering on our palates, then headed back to Cairanne for slow time. Today’s drive was a constant game of “Dodge the grape wagon” as vendange is now in full swing. They are actually forecasting torrential rain for this Sunday, so they may be hustling to get in as much of the ripe harvest as they can before some potential rain damage. Behind the Cairanne co-op we caught this farmer transferring his load to a larger wagon.

One would think that we would never be hungry again, but not so. Therefore chef Guillaume took to the kitchen with fresh girolles (mushrooms) and saucisse de Toulouse with shallot sauce and made dinner. Accompanied by Dawn’s fresh tomato and mozzarella salad with her special Nyons olive oil dressing, it was magnificent! We’ll show those guys at L’Oustalet. Not! But OK!

Back to Nyons

Today started off overcast but that was intended to throw us off our game, because by the time we rolled into Nyons for their market it was stinking hot and sunny and nobody was prepared for it. And I'm complaining because? Heh, it's the 26th of September and we're happy that summer is not retreating.

We barely got into the market before Brigitte and Dawn got into the good stuff. Dawn actually bought a winter coat - the one in her hand. What? Brigitte almost bought another. What? Today was the furthest thought from winter.

The girls DID enjoy their shopping, with promises of many purchases next week.

We got started on this market a little late this morning, but then Brigitte was still suffering jet lag. So we abbreviated our visit and made sure that the last purchase of the day was olives and tomatoes from Viviane. Please note that I had the wrong spelling for her name. We exchanged pleasantries - "Bonjour Viviane. C'est va?" "Bonjour William. C'est va bien!" We bid adieu with olives Provencales and of course sun dried tomatoes, promising to see her on Tuesday in Vaison la Romaine.

Today we semed to be stalked by helicopters, first in Nyons and then with the military choppers off the terrace.

We had an extended lunch back at Chez Pigeon that pretty much blended into dinner. I did take Brigitte on the 75 cent tour of the old village of Cairanne, but then it was time for cocktails and then a lamb dinner. C'est la vie!

Out and In

Today witnessed the departure of Carole and Claude as they took their journey to Scotland and the arrival of Brigitte from Canada. Prior to all of this happening, I took a trip to the garbage dumpsters in the centre of the village and had to fend off the cats to dump anything. Although only three show up in this photo, there were no less than 7 carousing cats, which begs the question, “Does a village of this size have any animal control?”

As we were driving to Marseilles, we got a call from Brigitte saying she had missed her connecting flight in Munich. Since I booked her flight, I felt a little responsible and had warned her about the tight turn-around in Munich. Anyway, she gave us her later flight time and that created a window of opportunity for Carole and Claude to visit old Marseilles.

So we parked in our usual Marseilles City Hall parking garage and walked around the harbour. There were a lot of new displays in this year of Marseilles as the European tour destination, including these funky sculptures of travelers with body parts missing.

We also experienced a fisherman’s market at the end of the harbour, where the fishermen pulled their boats in and sold their product, right on the dock. Cool! and Fresh! You want fresh fish, octopus, eel - you got it!

We continued our walk, enjoying the ambience.

Then we selected this restaurant for lunch that featured moules frites and grilled sardines, so it was a no brainer.

Following our fabulously brief visit to Marseilles we drove Carole and Claude to the airport, had a short wait before they could check in and then finally bid them farewell and excellent Scotch in Scotland. We had another short wait and then Brigitte arrived in pretty good spirits considering her adventures in Munich. Back at Chez Pigeon, we enjoyed the late day terrace and wine and had a casual snack of cheese and crackers for dinner.