April 7, 2019: Immersive Art at Carrières et Lumières and a Ruined Castle at Les Baux de Provence

Today was amazing! Paulette had read about a Van Gogh exhibit on-going at a place called Carrières et Lumières (Stone quarry and light). Carrières is located at Les Baux-de-Provence, an ancient town on the peaks of the Alpilles about 50 km (just over 30 miles) from here.

our destination today

First, we needed food for dinner, so we walked over to the Sarrian market on the Place Jean Jaures. (Well, the group walked and I drove my mobility scooter. Worked great!) It's small this Sunday morning, but there is one producer who has all the veggies and fruits we need, including the famous "fraises de Carpentras".

Dan in front of produce stall

fraises de carpentras

There's also a vendor who has some meats, cheeses, and eggs. We buy a bit of cheese and 2 rotisserie chickens for an easy dinner  to go with the salad things and cauliflower we plan to roast.

Home in less than an hour, we put away our purchases and made sandwiches for the road. We have tickets (purchased online last night) for the 1:30 entrance to the exhibition of "Van Gogh, la nuit étoilée" (Starry night). Paulette had read about this immersive art and music experience which is held in an old stone quarry in Les Baux-de-Provence. So this is our destination for the day.

With 7 people, we took 2 cars for the half hour drive through the Provençal countryside. The day is sunny with fluffy clouds, comfortably warm when the sun is shining on you, but with a cool wind when the sun goes behind a cloud. Most of the way is flat farmland - olive trees, vineyards, fruit trees, the hedgerows of what look to be bamboo and of course, the trees we see in Van Gogh paintings of cypress trees.

A Van Gogh cypress

As we get close to Les Baux, the countryside changes dramatically and becomes dotted with rugged sedimentary rocks through which the road twists and turns.

Rock outcropping in les Alpilles

Reminiscent of the Tour de France, our cars must avoid serious bicyclists, dressed in cycling uniforms, who are climbing the same road we are. These low mountains of rock are called "Les Alpilles"  - the little Alps - and they are impressive in their solidity which contrasts with huge holes where the weather has worn away the limestone.

At a pull-off, we get our first glance of Les Baux-de-Provence, a fortified site for more than 1,000 years. It's strategic advantage is immediately noticeable perched as it is on a craggy mini-Alp.

Les Baux-de-Provence

We continued the windy road into les Baux and find cars parked along the roadside a long distance from the entrance to Les Carrières de Lumières. We drove around a few streets before Dan and Dave eventually found parking places. We perched on quarried stones in the parking area to eat our sandwiches.

The entrance to the exhibit is a 20 foot high by 15 foot wide rectangularly quarried hole into the rocky mountainside. (OK, I have no sense of height - this is way bigger than I described.)

Carrières et lumières

Once inside, the history of this site is clear: it was a stone quarry in a former life (in fact, until 1935 when other building materials like steel and cement made quarrying this stone too expensive to turn a profit and the quarry was closed). Huge rectangular pillars hold up the 20 foot roof of this interior space. The floor is covered in stone dust and occasional outcroppings of bench shaped rock allow about 50 people to sit against the rock walls.

the interior of the stone quarry

And then it begins - each of the pillars, each wall, and at times the ceiling and floor are splashed with images of Van Gogh paintings. But the paintings have elements that move, grow, and morph into other images.

Music in a variety of formats from Janis Joplin to classical sets a mood for each set of images which are themed only by color and subject matter. The effect is magical and transports me outside myself, puts me into the middle of these images. I've never experienced anything like this.

There are hundreds of people in the quarry with us, but somehow, their presence enhances rather than detracts from the effect of this 21st century "son et lumière" (sound and light) show. They are reminders of the scale of the art we are viewing. It takes about 1 hour to view experience the entire set of images, but you feel like you could stay all day. As you wander about the vast interior space, all of which is plastered with these images, you get different perspectives of the artwork.

When we were in Angers in 2017, I visited the Apocalypse Tapestry multiple times, each time soaking in a different part. This is, for me, the 2019 version of the Apocalypse Tapestry. I can't wait to go back again. (Cost is 12 Euros, but I think I'll ask about a pass....)

Once we all met outside the quarry, we drove up the hill to the town of Les Baux. As you may imagine, this site has been used since pre-history due to its advantageous location making it easy to defend.

It was part of the lands owned by the Baux family, who claim to be descendants of Blathazar, one of the Wise Men of Bethlehem. Their symbol is the 6 pointed star of Balthazar. The castle was torn down several times in the middle ages depending on who won the war and who was in power, but in the Renaissance, the town grew and added buildings to shelter about 3,000 townspeople.

remains of the fortress that once crowned the highest point in town

In 1642, the town was given as a thank you for friendship to the Grimaldi family of Monaco. To this day, the title, Count of Baux is given to an heir to the Monaco throne even though the town is entirely on French soil. Today only about 400 people live in the old town and tourism is its only well-deserved industry. Well that, and bauxite - the mineral discovered in 1821 and named after the town.

Cobblestone streets

Place St. Vincent with church behind cross and chapel of the white penitents on the left

the medieval town is now full of tourist shops

upper town Les Baux-de-Provence

It is well-deserving of its status as a Most Beautiful Village of France.

We will surely visit it again. And lessons learned today regarding the scooter: It needs help getting up steep grades and it rattles your teeth over the cobblestones and isn't happy in gravel larger than pea-size. But it worked as it should - I went all the way to the castle at the top of the town and back down again with out any bumps and bruises.  And only a few odd looks. But I was able to visit a medieval village perched on top of a craggy mountain top and it was wonderful.

Clark inspecting a city map

the fantastically carved sedimentary rocks of les Alpilles at the top of Les Baux

Les Alpilles 

We're home now, it's midnight. Once more we had a long, leisurely French dinner, filled with wonderful conversation. So I didn't start this post until after 11. I need to go to bed. Will add photos tomorrow and post.

April 6, 2019 A quiet recovery day, chores in Sarrians

We expect our friends, Dan and Paulette, from Brussels today - in time for dinner. So we had already planned to stay close to home. However, the weather is very uncooperative - totally grey skies, some rain and a cold wind. Not a day for outside adventures. So everyone's catching up on email, tracking expenses, and puttering around the house. Dave is planning our next adventures via the Green Guide.

Janis and I did some cooking - turkey fillets for sandwiches at lunch in our now-working oven. Followed by a ratatouille to accompany our grilled steaks for dinner. We have grilled out every night here and it's such a treat to have both the indoor and outdoor cook's kitchens. Our owner, Astrid, has thought of everything and it is such a pleasure to cook in her kitchen.

Along with our turkey sandwiches for lunch, we are eating the strawberries we bought yesterday at market.

From the Michelin Green Guide to Provence: "Few parts of Provence can claim to be so blessed with outstanding produce. If strawberries top the list (the "Fraises de Carpentras" which brighten markets from early spring are eagerly sought all over France), they have plenty of other locally grown fruits for company. No wonder Carpentras became a key centre for "fruits confits" heartstoppingly sweet candied fruits." We haven't bought any candied fruits yet, but the strawberries look beautiful. We'll let you know after we try these sweet beauties for lunch. (Note: they were every bit as sweet and ripe as they look.)

Fraises de Carpentras

In case you need a ratatouille recipe, it's simple and, of course, best with the freshest of ingredients. I make it by prepping in a saute pan then finishing in the oven. With some olive oil in the bottom of the pan, I add sliced onions followed by diced garlic, then red and green peppers, followed by zucchini and eggplant slices that have been sweated. Finally, I add chopped fresh tomatoes. I'm salivating thinking about it.

prepping the ratatouille

ratatouille out of the oven

Dave and Janis explored our local Intermarché. We had bought laundry soap rather than dishwasher soap the other day, so we remedied that problem. They also scoped out a bakery for tomorrow since the one Dave has been walking to is closed on Sunday. One has to pay attention to these things here. Store hours matter. Many local stores close for 2-3 hours at lunch and then again by 6 pm. Sunday hours are rare for local merchants, although larger grocery stores like Intermarché are open until 1 pm on Sundays.

Off now to try out the washer and dryer. It's a lazy day, but it feels like home.

April 5, 2019: Marché au Carpentras & Gigondas

Another lovely sleep with a morning reward of lots of hot water in the showers. Now that we've figured out the rain head from the spa jets from the hand-held spray, we are putting much less water on the rug outside the shower. Dave walked into town to buy our morning croissants at "Au Feu du Bois," a traditional style boulangerie. They were 7 inches long and light and airy as a good croissant should be.

Once back, the rest of us made our leisurely way out from our rooms to the smell of coffee followed by breakfast of scrambled eggs and croissants. Another full day planned, although in a loosey-goosey sort of way. First order of business was the Carpentras market. (We learned you pronounce it Carpentra). This market is listed in the guide books as being really good. What we learned is that it's really BIG and you can't get within a half mile to park. After driving in circles for half hour, Dave squeezed into a place (remember we have a large SUV this time) that required him to exit via the lift gate in back. We're just glad the folks on either side didn't come back before us because they could not have gotten into their cars either.

Carpentras market - lots of people going every which way

Carpentras market

Dave buying cheeses at Carpentras market

the cheese vendor at Carpentras

I used my mobility scooter which worked really well, all things considered (that is, people going every which direction at every opportunity. We weren't impressed with the amount of produce, but there were endless stalls of every household good imaginable - leather goods, clothes, table linens, olive wood, shoes..... Our take away - 1. Go early if you want to park somewhere within walking distance of the market. 2. Not our kind of market. Try the Sarrians market next.

Back home for lunch on the patio which finished off our last rosé (deliciously, I might say). The weather has warmed considerably since our arrival and we were able to eat outside while making plans to do some wine-tasting in the afternoon.

A short drive to the wine town of Gigondas provided views of a cool town under the shadow of "Les Dentelles de Montmirail" - some sharp peaks sticking up off the top of the "mountain" like teeth.

Gigondas

We were looking for the Domaine de Cayron winery in Gigondas. We had read that the owners (3 sisters) were very friendly and made a very traditional Gigondas.  Check their website here:  http://www.domaineducayron.com/en/domain.php

Domaine de Cayron

Delphine helping us understand their wine

And true to form, we drove into the courtyard of Domaine de Cayron and there was no indication of where to sample the wine ("dégustation"). After wandering a bit aimlessly in the courtyard, a woman (Delphine, one of  the three sister-owners) came out and took us down a flight of stairs to their shipping room with a stand-up bar where we tasted the one and only wine made by this winery. Always the same proportions, variation only occurring due to the happenstance of weather. The winery was begun in 1840 and Delphine and her sisters are the 5th generation to own/run it. They do ship to the US - mostly the coasts - as well as Europe, Australia and ????  We left with 6 bottles of their 2016 vintage.

US label - left; rest of the world label - right

With a bit of time to kill, we wandered by car up the gravel mountainside road toward the Dentelles. While they look a bit like teeth, "dentelles" is actually the word for lace in French. These craggy, thin limestone peaks were forced up millions of years ago when Africa was bumping into Europe folding the crust into the peaks that would become the Alps. Fabulous hiking opportunities, hint, hint, Katie and Christie. Beautiful scenery. Vineyards up a long ways on the hills. Lovely gravel paths for basic hikers. And lots of French out enjoying the day.

Les Dentelles

Lynn, les Dentelles, and a Gigondas vineyard

Heading home, we must pass through Vacqueryas, another village with its own AOC in the region. It's only 4 pm and the local wine coop is open until 6. So wine-tasting it is. A couple rosés, several reds, a sparkling and a dessert wine later, and we left the coop with 13 bottles of wine and a promise to be back.

Vacquéras-Beaumes-les-Venise wine coop

Janis with some of the wines we tasted

tasting wine at the Vacquéras coop - our wine guide on the left -
Clark, Nancy, Janis, and Lynn. And some of the wines we tasted.

Luckily, the drive is less than 10 miles so we still have time for aperos on the pool deck. The cloud-filtered sun required that we wear jackets, but that wasn't a hardship. We had lucious cheeses, olives, local dried sausages and a local white wine to keep us warm.

And now Dave is grilling sausages for dinner to be accompanied by French green beans (those little ones that are so sweet) and a large salad. Life is good here in Provence, even if not yet as warm as we'd like it to be.

A bientôt. (See you soon.)

April 4, 2019 Uh-oh. Adventures - Alarming the house and shopping in Carpentras

After a yummy breakfast of eggs, croissants, and coffee, we got ourselves organized for the day. The beds were comfy for all and we all slept wonderfully well in the dark and quiet of our rooms. We woke refreshed and ready for the challenges of the day. Good thing because we had challenges. Dumb Americans.....

First, there was the fiasco of the croissants. When we have to buy croissants ahead of breakfast, we freeze them and reheat them in the oven the next morning to restore their flakiness. Only we couldn't get the oven to heat no matter what combination of buttons and dials we pushed. But the toaster worked well. We were just grateful to have these available from Martine and Monique as part of our breakfast fare.

Then, there was the visit from the electrician - our gate has remote controlled opening and closing and the remotes were not working, so the electrician arrived around 12:30 to see what needed to be done. We didn't know the where the remotes were (the electrician showed us they were on the key fobs we are now carrying around. Sigh.) Turns out the remotes may need new boards and the electrician's son will call me to set an appointment. Needless to say, conversations with electricians haven't made it into the vocabulary and grammar of my basic French. My brain hurts.

By now, it was past lunch time, so we headed into town to eat at "Le Pressoir" a brasserie in downtown Sarrians. A brasserie features both a restaurant and a bar. The place was lively with locals eating outside as well as inside. Janis and I had chicken caesar salads, Clark had a burger with "the best French fries he's had in 2 years" [correction: that is 62 years - not since Little League, Clark tells me.] and Dave had the "plat du midi" - the lunch special - a steak frites with salad. And glasses of local rosé and red wines. So satisfying.

Brasserie Le Pressoir in Sarrians

lunch at Le Pressoir

Next adventure was our trip to Carpentras for a major grocery shopping. Just 15 minutes from Sarrians, this largish town sports a LeClerc - basically a super Walmart or super Target type store. You can buy just about anything here. But the size of the store is intimidating and it takes a lot of time to negotiate the aisles filled with people going every which direction. And don't forget to have the lady weigh and label your produce or you'll be sent away from the cash register - do not pass GO, do not pay your $200. We need lots of basics - paper and plastic supplies, some seasonings, oil, balsamic, pork to grill for dinner, and of course some cheeses, sausages, olives, and baguette for aperos. The boys may have found a few bottles of wine.

View of Mont Ventoux on our way to/from Carpentras

A planned quick stop at home is needed to empty the groceries before sending Dave and Clark off to the Avignon train station to pick up our first house guest - my sister Nancy, whose arrival by TGV (train de grand vitesse - France's fast train system) is expected at Avignon at 5 pm.

Arriving at the gate of our house, Clark unlocked the pedestrian gate and went up to the house to unlock the door and disarm the security system before opening the car gate for the rest of us to enter. That's when the big OOPS happened. Clark keyed in the wrong code and the system started chirping in a most annoying way. When we arrived at the door, the correct code was entered and the chirping stopped. BUT.....an hour later, a security man arrived at our gate and for the second time today, my French was stressed as I tried to explain our "bêtise" (stupidity). He was most friendly, but we're not sure how much he will cost us for the "social" call. And now the security company has both my name and Janis'. And once more my conversational French was challenged by technologies I don't understand in English.

A final challenge was the wait for Nancy and the boys to arrive from the train station. They were caught in a traffic accident back up that involved 2 ambulances and tow trucks. It took an extra hour, but the appetizers were served on our pool patio in the waning sun of the day. We are so lucky to be here.

Gotta run. Dave's just brought the pork steaks in from the grill. Janis has a great salad and asparagus to accompany. and the wine steward has placed a lovely Côtes du Rhône - Village on the table.

dinner in the kitchen

A demain. (Til tomorrow)

April 3, 2019: 138 Impasse des Merle

We are living in Sarrians, a smallish village near Avignon with a population of just under 6,000 people. It has all the necessities - weekly market, supermarket, butcher and baker. Our house is on the edge of the village and feels like we are out in the countryside, but within walking distance to the town center.

When we arrived yesterday, it was gray and rainy (what? in Provence?) and a chilly 50 degrees. But today as the skies have cleared, we can see how this house is set up to take advantage of the sun and heat of Provence. Dave counted at least 6 outdoor tables and chairs for dozens.

stairs access second floor rooms and balcony directly

The front of the  house has a covered entry and porch that extends the entire length of the front with a sunny second floor balcony above. It's clear that a balance of sun and shade will be required in this part of France. When the sun is beating down on you, it's really warm, but if it goes behind a cloud, the temperature of the air is cool. Aaaaahhhh. The best of both worlds.

front porch - breakfast nook

front covered porch

The side yard is primarily taken by a swimming pool, which we won't open as the weather won't be that warm while we're here. However, the whole side of the house provides abundant spaces for  outdoor eating and relaxing. An outdoor kitchen complete with charcoal and gas grills and a bar seating area is tucked into a covered shelter that enters into the utility room behind the kitchen.

side yard

pool deck

Outdoor kitchen

the pool is covered

our side yard - door leads into the kitchen

Inside the main floor is spacious with a formal dining area - not likely to be used, given the outdoor spaces - a comfy seating area and an amazing cook's kitchen with all the modern conveniences including a breakfast table overlooking the pool.

This kitchen is outfitted with everything we could need and then some. Gas range with electric oven (which we discovered this morning isn't working right now, but Martine will see it gets looked at. Could be operator error as well.) Refrigerator drawers, small appliances, microwave, freezer, you name it, it's here. UPDATE: Yep, operator error - after stumbling through the French directions in the house book, we were able to get the oven to heat. We're still not sure how to run it, but we've made progress.

Also on the main floor is a bedroom wing which Dave and I are using to avoid my having to use the spiral staircase to the second floor bedrooms. Our bathroom has a jetted tub and separate shower and there is the usual "toilette" - a small room with just a toilet and sink - for everyone's use. There's ample storage everywhere, so it has been easy to move our things in and out of the way.

our bedroom

our bathroom

our shower with lots of spray options

"la toilette"

Behind the kitchen is a utility room with two washers and a dryer, a wine frig, folding table, and storage for cleaning supplies. A back door goes to our garage and a door opposite gives access to the outdoor kitchen.

Clearly this house, which Martine estimates was built in the 60s, has been totally re-done and outfitted for every visitor's comfort.

Then there's the upstairs - two bedrooms and two bathrooms each of which lead out to our sunny balcony patio. In addition, there is a one bedroom studio apartment with separate balcony entrance that can be accessed from the outside stairs to the second floor.

guest bedroom 1

Janis and Clark's room

The upper balcony - each room has French doors opening onto the balcony

The studio apartment

amenities in studio apartment

Studio apartment

All this behind a locked gate with ample parking. What a joyful place to be.

More later. We need to get provisions.

April 3, 2019: Sarrians. We've arrived!!!

We've been "up" for more than 24 hours now but are catching our second wind. It's almost 10 pm here (2:45 Central time) and we've had olives, ham and bread open face sandwiches and a lovely Côtes du Rhone wine at the kitchen table in our home away from home. Yum!

This will be short and no photos, as it's pitch dark now. But suffice it to say, this place is sumptuous. Photos tomorrow - after we hit the marché in Orange for fresh foods, the supermarket and butcher in town, and finally unpack and settle into a routine.

We met Monique and Martine who showed us all the workings of our house. It turns out Monique who distributes wine via a wine truck left us a gift from Astrid, -6 bottles of the local wines - we're in heaven! We can already tell that this is going to be a good place to be!

Our car this time is a big and boxy Peugeot SUV, but it transported our bags and my scooter with no problem and we still had a seat to spare. The car is comfortable for those in front, and reasonably comfortable for those in the rear seats - except when the ride is 8.5 hours from Paris. Nothing can fix that.

Taking the mobility scooter has already paid off in ease of travel. It worked well in Chicago, was easily gate checked and allowed me to pass through security via a special line. Once landed in France, the most helpful staff members made sure we made our way easily through the maze of Terminal 1 and onto the shuttle train that took us to our hotel meeting point with Janis and Clark. It worked just as we imagined and after arriving at 9 am Paris time, we were on the road in our leased car by 11 am.

More tomorrow. For now, bed is calling.