They say the French are arrogant, conceited, and self-centered. Not individually but nationally. I haven’t experienced any of this personally. In fact, the friends that I’ve made and the strangers that I run into, all make an effort to understand my “franglais” and gently correct my faux pas. Sure, some people break into a broad smile but I am sure they are thinking that I am a great guy for making an effort to speak French and not what a freaking moron I am…..I could be wrong.
But to my point. Unlike the British, the French haven’t realized that the sun has set on their empire. So it is no wonder that the only thing that seems to make the news or TV, is French-centric items…almost to the exclusion of anything else. You have to be an extraordinary person to make the French news for more than one day. For example, we had the 60th anniversary of the D-Day. Dignitaries and world leaders from everywhere attended. But the only sound bites or photo-ops that made the papers or TV were of Obama [yes, he is extraordinary over here], but always include Sarkozy, in one form or another. Which is amazing since the French don’t like Sarkozy.
First of all, he married a very pretty singer-model from Italy, Carla Bruni. Second of all, they both don’t drink wine!! Sacrilegious. Apparently, they prefer coke [the white powdery kind]. Third, the State dinners and the French art of food and eating, has been reduced to a 45 minute affair instead of the generous 3 hour ordeals the French are famous for. A quick Sarkozy toast [with club soda], followed by 8 courses in 45 minutes, and a closing toast [again with club soda], the dinner is over and don’t let the door hit you in your bum on the way out. Presumably, the Sarkozy’s need a few more lines….
And of course, Michael Jackson dominated both sides of the Atlantic for weeks but did anybody expect anything less? So let me continue. Two weeks before Wimbledon; perhaps the most famous tennis tournament in the world, there was the French Open. There was 24-7 coverage of it. Every serve, volley, game, set, and match, was televised. I mean, there were some people playing that I swear, I could beat [okay, maybe that is an exaggeration]. But every men’s and women’s singles, doubles, and mixed doubles match was televised. Two week later, comes Wimbledon. All I got on TV was a 30 second chart of the day’s results.
Want more? Okay. Five weeks ago, Air France 447 goes down with all aboard off the coast of Brazil. 24-7 coverage ensued. Even today, we still get updates. But Yemini flight 626 crashes off the coast of Grand Comore with all 153 people dying save one 14 year old girl….and nothing except for 1 day of news. And this flight originated from Paris [with an aircraft change in Yemin] and all the people on the plane were French or at least, French speaking.
Now we have the Tour de France. Every race, every kilometer, from the race’s start until the last man crosses the finish line is televised. Six to 9 hours of road racing every day and then the highlights! Anybody ever hear of the Tour d’Italie? It was run in May. Or the Tour de Belgique? Not even a mention of who won!!
More? British Open. Not a peep. US Open. Tiger Woods. Not even a highlight. My feeling is that if I was lucky [or unlucky] to have been here for the Olympics, I would have thought it was a France-only tournament. And you want to hear a real prediction? I bet that when Jerry Lewis dies, he will garner almost as much press as Michael Jackson! They love him here. I went by a puppet/doll shop very close to Notre Dame. Guess what? Sure they had dolls of Snow White, the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, but Jerry Lewis?!?!?
Oh well, maybe this is more of a rant than an eJournal. At least the French know how to make wine. They can be as arrogant about that as they want….until I learn enough French to talk about California wines…
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
July 6, 2009 - Gordes
Well, my; birthday week is almost ending. Today we begin the last leg with a visit to Gordes. We leave our villa in Masmolene and drive east, through Avignon to Gordes. It’s a simple drive. Wendy gave Katherine very explicit directions. Katherine has it all sewn up. I just follow orders. And that right turn to Isle-sur-la Sorgue really didn’t make that much difference. So it was another wee road, white knuckle drive but we made good time [maybe that’s why it was white knuckle?]. And the drive gave Katherine time to explain to me where we’re going and what we we’re going to do.
Gordes it seems is listed as “one of the most beautiful villages of France”. It has bee
n the city where many movies stars and artists have their homes. It was where “A Good Year” with Russell Crowe and Marion Cotillard was made…..a movie that we watched that night in our hotel room. It’s an old city. Katherine tells me that Gordes is a very beautiful old village, perched on the southern edge of the high Plateau de Vaucluse. The stone buildings built in tight against the base of the cliffs and those perched on t
he rocks above, including the 12th-century castle, are made of a beige stone that glows orange in the morning sun. She tells me Gordes is in a region of the Vaucluse with many of the interesting dry-stone buildings called Bories and that the 4-star hotel we are going to stay in is called Hotel les Bories and Spa. I am starting to get excited.
But not as excited [scared?] as I was when we actually turned the corner on this tiny road and saw Gordes for the first time. As I am trying to keep from falling off this mountain, there, on the other side of the valley, is Gordes. It is even prettier than the pictures. You wonder how the heck they even built it. It sits right on the side of the mountain! But we’re still not there. Another turn onto another wee road, a down-shift into 1st gear, and we’re crawling up the final wee road to our hotel. By this time I am hot and sweaty and all I am hoping for is a room with AC and an ice-cold beer.
And Katherine’s hotel didn’t disappoint. The room was immaculate and cool. But the best thing, at that time, was the pool. I didn’t wait to get unpacked. I needed a swim. After my swim, we decided to walk into town.
I wasn’t looking forward to the walk…..back. Our hotel is about 400 meters higher than the town. But the hotel had limo service so we arranged for the limo to pick us up and bring us back; which in hindsight, was the smartest thing to do. They said that it was only a 20 minute walk…that was true for the downhill part ‘cause there was no way we could have walked back in even an hour and 20 minutes. So we walked around Gordes. Saw the castle, church, restaurant where “A Good Year” was filmed and even made a reservation for dinner for the next night. But tonight was dinner at the Hotel.
The limo picked us up, right on time. We put one of the two bottles of local rosé we had just purchased on ice, slid the DVD in the player, and began to watch “A Good Year” [to any of you who come to visit Provence, especially Gordes, Katherine states that this a mandatory film, as is Peter Mayle’s book, “A Year in Provence”….which I still haven’t read…]. At 8 pm we go down to dinner. Without doubt and without going into details, this dinner is in my top 10 of all time.
The next day, we went to the Gordes market. It’s only open one day a week. It was packed. It was much like all the other wonderful markets we’ve been to except there was an abundance of lavender. As I was later to learn, this is the production center of lavender. After a quick nibble or two from the market we were off to Roussillon.
Situated
in the heart of one of the biggest ochre deposits in the world, Roussillon is famous for its magnificent red cliffs and ochre quarries. The red, yellow and brown shades of the earth form a striking contrast with the lush green pine trees. The vivid blue of the Provençal sky and the exceptional quality of light make this a magical site. It is like an artist's pallet, with colors varying from yellow to purple with all the shades of pink and red in between. We parked the car and walked through Roussillon to the ochre quarries. They have a park where you can take either a short or long walk through the quarry. We opted for the long walk; it was worth it. The geology is incredible. The plaques, in French of course, do a fine job explaining what you are looking at. The ochre that we were walking on is so fine that all you need to do is add water and you have watercolor paint. We took a good hour to walk through the quarry, working up an appetite.
So as we walked back into town, we sat in the town square with a delicious pizza between us. As we started back to the car; all the time looking up and down the picturesque maze of streets and squares, Katherine insisted on going up a very steep, narrow staircase. And voila, quite by chance, there was the actual town center which we almost missed. The ochre façades of the houses are magnificent... shades vary subtly from light yellow to dark red, set off by the brightly painted shutters and doors. From the base of the village to the summit of the hill and its splendid view, Roussillon is a delightful place to visit!
But it was time for us to return to the Hotel, have dinner, and prepare to return tomorrow to Paris. Fortunately, Katherine had booked a late TGV, 4:30pm, so we still had time to take in a few more sights and sounds of Provence and Gordes. As a quick aside, our dinner on our last evening at Le Renaissance in town was underwhelming, so we don’t recommend it, although we do recommend taking either coffee or an apero there, because the restaurant courtyard, looking out onto the Gordes town square is a beautiful location. And, despite the meal, we recognized our waitress from the movie! She was very young and absolutely charming. It seems everyone loved Russell Crowe – they all said he was very charming!
We woke up late but managed to pack quickly because there were a few things on Katherine’s “must see/must do” list. Notre Dame de Senanque Abbey is one of them. This is a beautiful and still-working 12th century abbey, tucked into an isolated valley just 5 minutes north of Gordes. We missed the Gregorian chanting by minutes. But it was my first real introduction to the lavender of Provence. These fields are incredible. Protected by law, it is illegal to pick flowers from these fields.
The second thing on Katherine’s list was the Musée de la Lavande. The museum is on the way back to Avignon and our train. We had plenty of time. We got to the museum and took the self-guided pre-recorded tour. Who knew there’s so much to know about lavender, it’s cultivation and distillation? Not to belabor the point, there is lavande and lavendin; the latter is the real McCoy which only grows at altitudes above 800 meters [kinda puts Gordes and the Abbey into perspective, huh?]. Lavande has medicinal properties and highly-valued oil for expensive perfumes. One hundred kilos of lavande produces 1 liter of oil. Lavendin, on the other hand, yields 5 liters of oil per hundred kilos and is used in cheaper soaps and detergents. Needless to say, I loaded up on the lavande oil, tea, body cream and honey….I smell marvelous!
But we had over-stayed our time. We now had to rush back to Avignon to make our train. And, of course, we hit traffic, got lost [or thought we got lost], made a few questionable turns but got to the station with enough time to take in the incredible purpose-built TGV station. And the TGV was right on time. With no stops between Avignon and Paris, we made the journey in 2 hours 15 minutes. The perfect end to a perfect birthday week.
Gordes it seems is listed as “one of the most beautiful villages of France”. It has bee
n the city where many movies stars and artists have their homes. It was where “A Good Year” with Russell Crowe and Marion Cotillard was made…..a movie that we watched that night in our hotel room. It’s an old city. Katherine tells me that Gordes is a very beautiful old village, perched on the southern edge of the high Plateau de Vaucluse. The stone buildings built in tight against the base of the cliffs and those perched on t
he rocks above, including the 12th-century castle, are made of a beige stone that glows orange in the morning sun. She tells me Gordes is in a region of the Vaucluse with many of the interesting dry-stone buildings called Bories and that the 4-star hotel we are going to stay in is called Hotel les Bories and Spa. I am starting to get excited.But not as excited [scared?] as I was when we actually turned the corner on this tiny road and saw Gordes for the first time. As I am trying to keep from falling off this mountain, there, on the other side of the valley, is Gordes. It is even prettier than the pictures. You wonder how the heck they even built it. It sits right on the side of the mountain! But we’re still not there. Another turn onto another wee road, a down-shift into 1st gear, and we’re crawling up the final wee road to our hotel. By this time I am hot and sweaty and all I am hoping for is a room with AC and an ice-cold beer.
And Katherine’s hotel didn’t disappoint. The room was immaculate and cool. But the best thing, at that time, was the pool. I didn’t wait to get unpacked. I needed a swim. After my swim, we decided to walk into town.
I wasn’t looking forward to the walk…..back. Our hotel is about 400 meters higher than the town. But the hotel had limo service so we arranged for the limo to pick us up and bring us back; which in hindsight, was the smartest thing to do. They said that it was only a 20 minute walk…that was true for the downhill part ‘cause there was no way we could have walked back in even an hour and 20 minutes. So we walked around Gordes. Saw the castle, church, restaurant where “A Good Year” was filmed and even made a reservation for dinner for the next night. But tonight was dinner at the Hotel.
The limo picked us up, right on time. We put one of the two bottles of local rosé we had just purchased on ice, slid the DVD in the player, and began to watch “A Good Year” [to any of you who come to visit Provence, especially Gordes, Katherine states that this a mandatory film, as is Peter Mayle’s book, “A Year in Provence”….which I still haven’t read…]. At 8 pm we go down to dinner. Without doubt and without going into details, this dinner is in my top 10 of all time.
The next day, we went to the Gordes market. It’s only open one day a week. It was packed. It was much like all the other wonderful markets we’ve been to except there was an abundance of lavender. As I was later to learn, this is the production center of lavender. After a quick nibble or two from the market we were off to Roussillon.
Situated
in the heart of one of the biggest ochre deposits in the world, Roussillon is famous for its magnificent red cliffs and ochre quarries. The red, yellow and brown shades of the earth form a striking contrast with the lush green pine trees. The vivid blue of the Provençal sky and the exceptional quality of light make this a magical site. It is like an artist's pallet, with colors varying from yellow to purple with all the shades of pink and red in between. We parked the car and walked through Roussillon to the ochre quarries. They have a park where you can take either a short or long walk through the quarry. We opted for the long walk; it was worth it. The geology is incredible. The plaques, in French of course, do a fine job explaining what you are looking at. The ochre that we were walking on is so fine that all you need to do is add water and you have watercolor paint. We took a good hour to walk through the quarry, working up an appetite.
So as we walked back into town, we sat in the town square with a delicious pizza between us. As we started back to the car; all the time looking up and down the picturesque maze of streets and squares, Katherine insisted on going up a very steep, narrow staircase. And voila, quite by chance, there was the actual town center which we almost missed. The ochre façades of the houses are magnificent... shades vary subtly from light yellow to dark red, set off by the brightly painted shutters and doors. From the base of the village to the summit of the hill and its splendid view, Roussillon is a delightful place to visit!
But it was time for us to return to the Hotel, have dinner, and prepare to return tomorrow to Paris. Fortunately, Katherine had booked a late TGV, 4:30pm, so we still had time to take in a few more sights and sounds of Provence and Gordes. As a quick aside, our dinner on our last evening at Le Renaissance in town was underwhelming, so we don’t recommend it, although we do recommend taking either coffee or an apero there, because the restaurant courtyard, looking out onto the Gordes town square is a beautiful location. And, despite the meal, we recognized our waitress from the movie! She was very young and absolutely charming. It seems everyone loved Russell Crowe – they all said he was very charming!
We woke up late but managed to pack quickly because there were a few things on Katherine’s “must see/must do” list. Notre Dame de Senanque Abbey is one of them. This is a beautiful and still-working 12th century abbey, tucked into an isolated valley just 5 minutes north of Gordes. We missed the Gregorian chanting by minutes. But it was my first real introduction to the lavender of Provence. These fields are incredible. Protected by law, it is illegal to pick flowers from these fields.
The second thing on Katherine’s list was the Musée de la Lavande. The museum is on the way back to Avignon and our train. We had plenty of time. We got to the museum and took the self-guided pre-recorded tour. Who knew there’s so much to know about lavender, it’s cultivation and distillation? Not to belabor the point, there is lavande and lavendin; the latter is the real McCoy which only grows at altitudes above 800 meters [kinda puts Gordes and the Abbey into perspective, huh?]. Lavande has medicinal properties and highly-valued oil for expensive perfumes. One hundred kilos of lavande produces 1 liter of oil. Lavendin, on the other hand, yields 5 liters of oil per hundred kilos and is used in cheaper soaps and detergents. Needless to say, I loaded up on the lavande oil, tea, body cream and honey….I smell marvelous!
But we had over-stayed our time. We now had to rush back to Avignon to make our train. And, of course, we hit traffic, got lost [or thought we got lost], made a few questionable turns but got to the station with enough time to take in the incredible purpose-built TGV station. And the TGV was right on time. With no stops between Avignon and Paris, we made the journey in 2 hours 15 minutes. The perfect end to a perfect birthday week.
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