Sunday, February 27, 2011

From Marseille to Moscow


Happy Birthday Brother Kevin

We are home; we are tired; we are happy.  It was a swell trip and the south of France continues to draw us in. The weather was magnificent and we relished walking among the scented paths and soulful side streets of little towns and big cities. 

We started the trip in Marseille. We had never been there and will most likely not return, but it was very interesting.  Marseille is the second largest city in France and perhaps the dirtiest.  Litter is everywhere and no one makes any attempt to keep anything except the harbor area clean.  While I’ve never been to Northern Africa, it sure felt like I was there.  North Africans inhabit almost all of Marseille and they have brought their culture and costumes with them. The back alleys were just filthy and filled with either garbage or little shops and stalls selling junk. We spent most of our time near the Old Port (Vieux Port) except for a train ride around the town, and even though we were there only two days we saw all of what we went to Marseille to see.  Here are a few photos that were all taken with my iTouch since we forgot our camera.

We rented a car on Monday and placed Marseille firmly in the rear view mirror and headed north on the scenic route towards Avignon. We had been there once nearly thirty years ago and only stayed for one night so the city was really new to us.  It is a marvelously preserved walled city with some of the most beautiful old palaces and old homes in France.  For you history buffs here is some detail, but for the rest of us, just know that it was the seat of the Catholic Papacy from 1309-1377 and the popes did what popes do, built monumental structures to protect themselves. The best one is the Palais des Papes and it has 18-foot thick walls!  Here are a zillion professional photos of the city, and here are a few of ours.

We found that since we were mostly in large tourist cities we didn’t eat as well as we do in the small towns of Burgundy. However, we also discovered that many of the less expensive restaurants that we favor no longer employ French cooks with a tradition of French cooking, but rather use North Africans who for the most part can’t even do a decent omelette, as I found out much to my dismay.  We were rather disappointed in that aspect of the trip and wished we had had an apartment so we could cook since the markets, especially Les Halles in Avignon, were filled with lots and lots of great fresh ingredients.

After three lovely days in Avignon we spend a day touring old places we loved, like Les Baux which is a hilltop fortress, and St. Remy de Provence which is a lovely old city founded by the Romans and still going strong today.  We ended at the home of friends we had met in Bahrain - he French, she Norwegian - and both just charming.  Their home, Les Volets Bleus, is a 250-year-old typical Provencal place, which they have lovingly restored with the utmost elegance and good taste.  It is just delightful, as you can see from the photos above.

It is time to wrap this up since I’m pretty exhausted and haven’t even begun to prepare dinner.  More tomorrow.   Ciao, Cindy and Wm

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