Trip Report - France 2011 - October 2nd - Arles

After breakfast we left the boat (still docked at Port St. Louis) and got on the bus. The bus would take us to Arles, and the boat would sail up the Rhone without us, and meet us in Arles.


Arles is an ancient city: it has been inhabited by Ligurians, Celts, Greek, and Romans. It was a port for the Phoenicians, and has been invaded by Saracen Muslims, the Franks, and the Vikings. Today the old part of the city is a patchwork of history. Most recently it was the city where the painter Van Gogh produced over 300 works. I find it hard to keep all this history in my head.

Reproduced "Bridge at Arles" - I photoshopped this to make it bluer

The yellow house that Van Gogh made famous is gone, but the Langlois Bridge at Arles has been reconstructed, and the bus stopped so we could visit it. In Arles the driver let us off by the spot where our boat would be docked when it arrived, and we walked through the old town and visited the ruins of the Amphitheatre and the Roman Theater.

Amphitheater at Arles - view from a tower

The Roman Amphitheater in Arles is smaller than the Colosseum in Rome. It was constructed to hold only about 20,000 people, while it is estimated the Colosseum held 45,000 to 55,000.  It is still impressive, even though it has lost its top tier and much of its marble.  During Rome's administration of Arles it was nicknamed  "Little Rome". After the fall of the Empire, around the 5th century, the amphitheater sheltered the much reduced population of the area. Four towers were built to make the Amphitheater into a fortress, and a small town with houses and two chapels filled the interior. Outside the Amphitheater at that time most of the city was deserted and ruined.  Later these buildings were removed but some medieval traces remain.

The Mistral, the Royal Rhone, and the Swiss Pearl

At some point my Vox box (a wireless instrument enabling us to hear the guide more easily) had stopped working and I decided to wait until later to see if it could be fixed. (Turned out both sets of batteries were dead.) Harry and I returned to the dock in time to see our ship, the Mistral, coming in. Here we first witnessed  the phenomenon of boats docked side by side so that you have to walk over the nearer ones to get to the farther ones. There are many cruise boats on this route, and we got to see and compare the other cruise ships ("Hey look, they have cookies in the lobby!")

After lunch we did exploring on our own,  visiting the Thermes de Constantin and meandering down to Boulevard de Lices and around past parts of the old ramparts. We followed part of the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela. When we got back to the dock the boats had changed position and the sign telling us that had blown over, so we were stumped for a moment, but we found it.

All on board, at 5:30 we left Arles to sail to Avignon. It was our first time to be on the boat while it was sailing, and it was very nice. At Avignon the ship approached the famous bridge and we heard the song "The Bridge of Avignon". After dinner the ship had a pair of gypsy entertainers in the lounge, but I was too tired to stay up. We slept that night looking towards Avignon.

Long view from the boat

France 2011 - The Camargue - October 1st

This morning we brought all our luggage out to the bus and prepared for a full day of sightseeing before boarding our boat for the cruise up the Rhone.

Flamingos

I think this is a nutria

The Camargue is a large delta area, laced with bodies of brine (etangs) and marshland. It is west of Marseille and south of Arles. Much of it has been set aside as a wildlife preserve, but you still find the French cowboys (gardians) there with their white horses and black bulls.

Our first stop is a bird sanctuary at Pont de Gau  four kilometers from Les Saintes Maries de la Mer.  It had several miles of walking trails but our group did the short loop around the Marais A. Lamaroux. We saw quite a few flamingos, which either had not yet migrated or had decided to stay on.  On the way back I noticed a nutria by the side of the path and tried to sneak up and get a picture. Turned out he was not a bit frightened of me, but the arrival of a small boisterous French child scared him away. I wish I had taken the Wikipedia article on the Camargue more to heart, because when it states that the Camarge is known for some of the most ferocious mosquitos in France, it is not kidding!


Next stop was the small town of Saintes Maries de la Mer with its pilgrimage church. This is supposed to be a city of gypsies, but all I saw of this were the good luck medals being sold along with the religious medals. First we walked to the beach so that Harry could get his feet wet in the Mediterranean, then we walked back to the church. That day a local couple had gotten married in the City Hall and then had proceeded to the church to have a religious ceremony. We never saw the couple, but there was an escort of the Camargue "gardians" on their white horses waiting outside the church.

Harry

Religious medals and charms

Young gardian

We stopped for lunch at Manade Blanc, where they raise bulls for the course. They train the young bulls to be brave and aggressive, but in the camargue they are not killed in the bullfights. At the manade (or ranch) we were served lunch, followed by a wonderful assortment of cheeses. After lunch we got onto a open wagon pulled by a tractor and were taken out to the fields and given a demonstration of bull training.

Young bulls to be tested

Remains of the cheese tray

Bull handlers

Salt being dumped

On the way to our boat we take a short stop at a salt flat. Since Roman times, the salty water has been put into shallow ponds and allowed to evaporate.  Only the finest is hand-raked and harvested for home use, the rest is just scooped up and deposited in these large piles for other uses.

Finally, we boarded our boat at Port St. Louis.  Our cabin was small, but adequate. I was expecting to set sail immediately, but we stayed on the boat overnight while it was docked.  The Mistral is one of the CroisiEurope fleet. On this voyage there were two other "package tour" groups besides our Road Scholar Group, and about five independent travellers.  The first night's dinner was, like all the meals on the ship to follow, excellent!

Our cabin

Our loo

A simple dessert, beautifully presented

Trip Report - France - September 30th: Cassis

Cassis harbor

View seaward from the Calanque

In the morning our intrepid bus driver, Nick, drove us to the coastal village of Cassis. We took a tourist trolley down to the docks, and boarded a small boat for a tour of some of the calanques, or deep narrow bays, (think fijords) near there.

Cheese from Chez Thierry

Afterwards we had free time to explore the small town and the shops and stalls. Our guide  told us that tonight's meal is not included, so we bought some cheese.

Tourists on the scenic crest

View of Cassis from the crest

Afterwards we had lunch at a restaurant called "Large Grand" with a great view of the bay, then back to the hotel by another route for more spectacular vistas.

Back in town we explored a neighborhood near the hotel and bought some bread, wine, chocolate and yogurt to complete dinner. This was our last night in Aix-en-Provence.

Trip Report: France 2011, September 29 - Aix-En-Provence

We stayed at the Aquabella Hotel in Aix-En-Provence. It is a modern hotel, but it is surrounded by remains of the past.  The one quirk in our room is that the toilet is in a small closet, separate from the shower and sink. At one side the Tourreluque Tower and part of a 14th Century wall bracket the swimming pool, and the ruins of the old Roman Baths, Thermes Sextius, can be viewed through a window on the side of the hotel.

Tourreluque Tower

Thermius Sextius, through glass

We start the day with a buffet breakfast at the hotel. It is typical of all the breakfast buffets that are to follow, in a trip that I end up dubbing "The Trip With Too Much Food"*. There is a good array of fresh (ripe!) fruit, some dried fruit, dry cereals including muesli, several kinds of yogurt, lunch meat, cheeses, spreads, nut and fruit butters, jam, jelly, marmalade, honey, several types of dairy butter, juice, scrambled eggs, sausage and/or ham and/or bacon, a selection of breads (wonderful croissants), etc...  One appliance mystifies me - a square vat of hot water with handles coming out of it. It turns out to be an egg cooker. You select a raw egg, put it in the wire scoop at the end of the handle, and immerse it in water until it is cooked exactly like you like it. (Or not, my one try resulted in a mess.)

Egg cooker

In the morning our group does a walking tour of Aix-En-Provence, ending up near the Cours Mirabeau. We pass historic buildings and monuments, flower markets and flea markets. Afterwards we go our separate ways until lunch at a local cafe, Chez Laurette, near the town hall.  In different parts of the old town the pavement is marked with plaques or studs indicating Cezanne's footsteps.  A free map indicates 36 places in Aix-En-Provence associated with this famous artist.

Mount Sainte Victoire and snails

After lunch we re-group and take a bus to visit the L'Atelier De Cezanne where Cezanne set up his studio. The house and grounds are filled with tourists, and we have to wait to climb the stairs for a quick peek.  The top floor space is large, and is filled with Cezanne's personal effects, but it is dry and dusty.  There are a few spots of color in the pottery and a bowl of fruit set up as if it were going to be the subject of a painting. A slideshow of his work in one corner seems out of place.  We are asked not to take pictures. Then we take a bus to view Mount Sainte Victoire, often painted by Cezanne. The field from which we view the mountain seems to be filled with small white flowers - on closer observation I see that they are snails!

Dinner with the group in La Crep' Sautiere.

*We usually travel quite frugally, picking up snacks from local markets and very occasionally having a meal in a restaurant.  This trip gave me a new admiration for French cooking.

Trip Report: France 2011, September 27th to 28th

After a leisurely drive to Los Angeles, we left our car at a "Park and Fly" hotel and took their shuttle to LAX. In the afternoon we boarded Air France for a non-stop flight to Paris. I amused myself watching videos on the seat-back entertainment system, and later tried to sleep as we flew and flew and flew.......

The next day we arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport, where we were to transfer to another flight to Marseille to join the Road Scholar (Elderhostel) group. Unfortunately my husband had lost our tickets and travel documents at some point and we went everywhere in the terminal looking for them. Finally we were told to "Go to the Lost and Found." The Lost and Found was at the other end of the airport. The Lost and Found had gone to lunch by the time we got there, and when they came back they told us it was "too early".   We went back to the Air France ticket desk in the public area and were given duplicate tickets and told that we might be able to get on the  original flight if we hurried. Unfortunately, we were held up going through security and the plane left without us. We went back to the Air France booth in the passenger area and, while we were getting tickets for the next flight, found that the documents had been located. Apparently they had been paging us, but we had been at the other end of the airport waiting for the Lost and Found to open.

While we were waiting for the next flight I called the hotel to leave a message for the group leader explaining what had happened.  She never got the message, but luckily two other members of the group had arrived late because of a delayed flight and we were able to share a cab to Aix-en-Provence with them.

After checking into the hotel we joined the group for orientation and introductions. We were already famous - "Oh, you're the couple that lost all your documents."

Treasures of the Gypsy Challenge Doll Finished

Gypsy Maiden with Baby Unicorn

Finally! Got my entry mailed off yesterday, and now I'm in the middle of cleaning up all the bits of material and thread that have somehow gotten all over the house. Fortunately it is a small house.

The doll was made from a simplified version of a Joanne Pinto pattern with some Mimi Winer-inspired face modeling. The unicorn was reduced from a pattern by Lois Boncer. This was a good learning experience. I used minke, lame, and velvet for the first time, and learned I could mend a paperclay horn and make tiny hooves with plaster cloth, and that I could tea-dye three different kinds of lace so that they didn't contrast too much.

Until the next challenge!

Prototype Doll Finished

I finished the first draft of the doll for the Treasures of the Gypsy Challenge. I am learning a lot about what works and what doesn't work.  I hope on my second run-through I can avoid making some of the same mistakes.

Felt unicorn from pattern by Lois Boncer

Body from pattern by Joann Pinto