A Drive In The Hills

With Claude and Carole tucked snuggly into their Newmarket home, we set out the restock the larder for the next visitors - Jackie and Tony. We have decided that we prefer the slightly longer, one euro thirty, autoroute cost to shop at the Auchan at Pontet (Avignon Nord). We are starting to know our way around this store, which makes it a little quicker, but when it comes to us and a French grocery store, quick is not in our vocabulary. So, after a couple of hours we relied on our GPS (Emily) to get us to Tissus Gregoire - more shopping - this of a fabric kind. We are constantly on the lookout for new fabric for our dining room chairs, once the room undergoes its makeover. This year we think we found a suitable replacement - no more information pending, except a second box home may be required. Once our shopping was complete, with Emily's help once again, we headed over the fields, through Carpentras and into the foothills of Mt. Ventoux and through the village of Barroux with its impressive chateau.

Then we continued on through Malaucene, bike staging town for a gruelling climb to the summit of Ventoux, and stopped in Entrechaux, where there was restaurant recommended by Margaret called St. Hubert. We thought this might be a nice destination after a market this week, but alas, they had closed up shop for holidays.

Fortunately, Dawn had brought Margaret's binder with its wealth of information with us, so we continued on to check out another restuarant nearby, La Fleure Blanc, just outside the mediaeval perched village of Crestet.

Strike Two - on holidays. We had already noted on the weekend that a newer restaurant in Ste. Cecile called FX was closed for holidays, so we determined that this could be a difficult time to get into one's restaurant of choice. Take note, travellers! The vendage is complete or almost, so I guess a vacation is in order. Undaunted, we continued our journey through this very picturesque countryside.

At our next destination, the village of Puymeras, which shares the same wine designation as Cairanne, we sought out the restaurant Girocendre. Even though we were arriving on a Monday which is their regular closing day, it appeared that they were not on holidays, so this could be a possible stop for later in the week.

Girocendre, by the way, is located immediately to the bottom right of the photo above. We got back to Cairanne at around 4:30, unpacked and as I worked on this, Dawn kept busy downstairs - she loves gardening and ironing - crazy eh? For dinner tonight, it was Charcroute Garni, courtesy of the man with his market hat working at a paella style pan in the meat section of Auchan. This is always one of our and Dawn's in particular, favourites. It wasn't quite as warm today, but the week promises to continually warm up, as we creep further into the fall with its cooler evenings and shorter days.

To Marseilles and back

Not much to report today. Got up early and Cairanne was still in night mode with the passage way into the walled village still looking like this. The message here was that we should still be in bed.

But, we breakfasted, loaded the car and headed to Marseilles to deliver Claude and Carole to the airport. It was an uneventful trip both ways as we sent Carole and Claude home after their two week French vacation. Although rain had been forecast for today, it ended up being another pretty nice and mostly sunny day with slightly lowered temperatures. We had a pretty slow remainder of the day, me working on my first book of the trip and watching the monster bees feed on the morning glorys and Dawn continuing her gardening.

The sun is going down way too early now, so by 7:00 we headed in doors after a fabulous lasagna meal courtesy of the Ste. Cecile market on the terrace. We Facetimed tonight with the Whites and it seems to be a little superior to Skype with fewer disruptions and pixelating. I'm thinking tomorrow might be a little slow again.

Market and Lunch

This was our last full day with Carole and Claude, so Claude and I headed out before breakfast to grab those fabulous "perfect light" photos of Cairanne from the east of town.

It doesn't matter how many times we - I, anyway - do this, it's always a thrill to see how great Cairanne looks as it wakes up.

Following breakfast, Carole, Claude and I took a wander about the vieux village and of course found some more photographable moments. Dawn, in the meantime was practising her green thumb at Chez Pigeon.

Later, shortly before noon, we headed to the market in Ste. Cecile les Vignes and meandered down its congested course. I think this the first time I've seen someone selling fresh frog's legs - grenouille.

All Provencal markets have a unique flavour and this one seemed well adorned with well-healed woman. It also, according to our ladies, has the best selection of clothing.

We dallied in Ste. Cecile until it was time for our lunch reservations at Coteaux & Fourchette. It was another delighful day, so of course we sat on the terrace in the shade. We all opted for three courses, Carole, Claude and I starting with foie gras and Dawn, a mousse of smoked salmon. For main course, Carole, Claude and Dawn had the half pigeon on a bed of red cabbage with butternut squash pudding, while I had braised veal on a tart of girolles mushrooms with a morel sauce - both shown below.

We were drinking a nice light rose from Domaine de Couranconne, just across the road from the restaurant. Dessert was a very unusual olive clafouti - olives washed many times to shed the brine and sweetened - for Claude and Dawn, while Carole and I had a Brittany layered tart, a specialty of the north, from whence cometh the chef.

We have been, as usual, blessed with perfect weather so it was back to the ranch, for some terrace and packing time. We've had a wonderful two weeks with Carole and Claude - boy that sure went fast! - and we finished the day with cards, local beverages and a late cheese course, ready for an early trip tomorrow morning to Marseilles..

The Med.

Today we arose early and departed for the Mediterranean well before 9:00. It was another fabulous day in paradise and although it appears on the map like a long trip to Aigues Mortes and the Mediterranean, we were in the heart of Aigues Mortes before the town had even awakened. They were preparing for a special festival this weekend, including a circus.

There were, as a result, not the parking spots on the outside of town we were used to, so into the heart of the old town we went to find parking.

The other special event setting up here today, was a running of the bulls and cowboys through the heart of town. There were serious metal barricades set up through the running route to protect buildings and people from the bulls.

I don't think we would have even gotten close to this place on the weekend, so it's fortunate that we chose today to visit. After our leisurely walk, we headed down the coast past the salt flats and flamingoes and through the bull and Camargue horse pastures.

After a short drive through La Grande Motte with its most unique architecture, we stopped at the beaches and had a short walk on the fine sand of the Camargue beaches. As usual, at this time of year, the beach restaurants and cabanas had been dismantled and the beach was pretty barren, with the exception of some shore fishermen.

So, as not to disappoint my faithful readers, there may have been some degree of undress on the beach, despite the fact that it was the 3rd of October.

Around noon hour, we were already heading back to Cairanne, but stopped at a great picnic spot on the A-9 autoroute for lunch. Once we got back to our Orange turn off, we gased up and headed for Chateauneuf du Papes for another look see. There was a lot of hand picking still going on the vineyards of Chateuneuf and we drove through the heart of the best Cotes du Rhones wines appreciating the views.

Back at the ranch we played cards - Claude won tonight - and had another fabulous duck dinner.

Orange

On a Thursday, we would typically be at a Provencal market and usually it would be Nyons - where Vivian might be? - but because Claude and Carole needed to experience the Roman Theatre in Orange, it was a no brainer. I reflect to the first time we came to a market in Orange and how we were intimidated by the ethnicity of this market and how now, we think nothing of it.

We didn't exactly get going quickly today, so by the time we hit Orange, many vendors were already starting to pack up. Given that, we still found lots of nice produce - fabulous field strawberries - and other potential lunch items. The temperature, by the time we left the market was at 29 degrees celsius, so it was a pretty nice day to be wandering about.

After out market meander, we left Claude and Carole at the entrance to the Roman Theatre for a tour. We gave them a couple of hours and then drove to the Carrefour, just south of the downtown for essentials. They toured the theatre and we walked the aisles of Carrefour in the same time. Interesting!

By the time we returned to downtown, C&C had just ensconced themselves at a brasserie opposite the theatre, so we joined them for Affligems and Ricards.

As a little side bar, we parked at the place with this VW. This is the name the French give the VW Beetle. It's so much more civilized.

Instead of returning directly to Chez Pigeon, we stopped for a tasting at the Palais du Vins, at the major roundabout to the A7 autoroute. This place represents 120 domaines with 600 different wines. Two hours later we tasted 4 whites and 7 reds from the Cotes du Rhone, with a very helpful young lady, who used her best English to help us out. From this, we discoverd some new best wine friends and returned to Cairanne with yet more wine.

Back at the ranch, we enjoyed a light snack on the terrace, while playing cards and then had steak frites for dinner, which was the best beef we've had in France. I'm not embarrassed to say that I won both games today, because tomorrow could be total annihilation. Tomorrow, by the way, will be on the Med.

Les Baux de Provence

This morning we got our primer in French medicine. We called yesterday and inquired about an appointment to deal with Carole's burst blood vessels in her eye. We were told to show up after 9:30 for the walk in clinic. The doctor finally showed at ten minutes before 10:00. There were three people before Carole. We had appeared at the clinic at 9:20 and left at 11:30. The doctor was extremely thorough, which is good, but it was brutally slow. The end result was drops for her eye and spray for her nose, both of which we immediately acquired in Ste. Cecile les Vignes at the Pharmacie, for a fraction of what those drugs would have cost in Canada. While at the clinic in Cairanne, I had this NEW view of Cairanne.

After picking up the drugs we lunched at Chez Pigeon and then headed off for a visit to Les Baux de Provence. When you go on the autoroute it's a pretty quick trip, but the Route Nationale with the tree lined roads was a tad slow.

Our first order of operations was to do the chateau tour.

Despite the fact that it was Oct. 1, this place was still crawling with tourists - and for good reason.

We did the chateau tour once again and I have to say, we love this every time we come here.

Today we were trying - in an afternoon - to visit both the chateau and quarry sites. That actually worked out just fine.

As Claude and I walked the site, we quickly discovered that we wanted to get atop the chateau - "Warning do not go here , but if you do we have no responsibility."

It was a little windy up top, thus the pics.

Next we visited the bauxite mines shown above. Some of the displays looked like this, but the rest was a fabulous Son et Lumiere on the walls of the mine with the art work of Klimt.

This show was, after Chartres, the most impressive multi-media presentation we had ever seen. We expected static photos, but this was a dynamic changing video.

Even taking a pic of myself in the reflection was fun. We returned to Cairanne by 6:00 and were on the terrace and had a fabulus dinner of duck breast with a fig chutney found in the fridge with arugala salad and home fries. We forgot dessert and cashed it in after Dawn won one game of Bite Me.