Home at Last

After 5 weeks of travel we are finally home.  What a great trip, but man we are glad to be back in our house at last. 

Came home to a dead fridge and a ton of travel laundry.  All in all, totally worth it.

We will post a lot more pics in the coming days as we wrap up this blog. 

Thanks to everyone who came along on the trip and those who held down the fort at home.  Love ya!

Marseille - Bad First Impression

Getting to Marseille was a bit of an adventure.  We checked out at a decent enough time, and were looking at a two and a half hour long wait for our train at the central Avignon station.  We opted to take the long way to the station, avoiding the gravel and steps of the little park we usually strolled through.

Did I mention our bags are HEAVY?  Like over 60lbs heavy?  Even with wheels this was not going to be a pretty walk.  Our plan was to make it to the train station and then hang out at the café and enjoy some coffee and pastries.  About half way to the station, Francois pulled up in his mini van!  He had the morning off and was headed to our local coffee shop to see if we were there.  He graciously swooped us up, took us to his house for refreshments and generally made our last hours in Avignon special before dropping us at the door of the train terminal.

From there the story gets… icky.  We enjoyed the train ride to the airport, where we hired a taxi to take us to the fisherman’s shack we rented.  At least that was the plan.  All of the drivers except one threw up their hands and refused to take us.  The one driver who was willing, loaded us into his smoking sweet Mercedes(no sarcasm, it was Transporter nice) and started off.  50 feet later he told us his fare computer was not working correctly.  My initial thought was to get out, he was trying to rip us off, but the price he quoted us was within 5euro of what another driver had quoted so I assumed this guy was honest enough.

Off we went into the worst traffic snarl I have seen in years.  What was normally a 20 min drive was a 90 minute horrific car chase in a parking lot.  We went from 15 minute dead stand stills to tearing through downtown Marseille at over 60mph.  No joke, Nita and I were both terrified.  Damn that guy was good tho!  He went through gaps that had less than 4 inches of clearance.  Really.  No exaggeration. 

We drove through some really bad areas.  Bad enough we both quietly discussed having him turn back and leaving us at the airport.  Price be dammed, we wanted out.   

We hated this city on sight.

 After getting to the shack, things took a turn for the better.  The harbor is absolutely charming.  Our apartment is tiny, about 150 square feet.  A sleeper sofa, small cooktop, decent bathroom with a great shower and a fridge, everything we need for a few days unwinding.

Our shack is down the little passage in the middle, through the blue gate in front of the aqua blue boat.

From our gate back toward the pizza joint

We took a walk out to look at the ocean, (its less than 50 feet from our door) and dammit, it’s all magical.  Soft blue surf, rolling breakers, fishing boats swaying in the wind, peaceful and pretty, just as advertised.  Exhausted, we went to bed at 8pm after a 30 minute hike to the small market for food and drink.

Friday we did a little more exploring in the area.  Not impressed, its rough around here.  Some interesting seaside stuff, but off the sea view road it’s a lot like the ickier parts of LA.  Not my bag at all.  We had a tasty lunch at the pizza and steak house in the harbor(Very Good!) and went off for a nap.  In the evening we opted to go back to the same place, as the 2 Michelin Star restaurants in the harbour were fully booked for the next 3 months.  Oops…  

Our dinnertime view.  Yes, that's a bride.  One of 3 weddings we saw in the harbour

 Dinner for me was a steak and fries.  Boring right?  But wait!  The sauce for the fries was a 4” section of beef marrow bone roasted with rock salt.  Pretty sure I’m buying my cardiologist a pool with that dinner.  Nita had a whole grilled fish that was pretty damn amazing.  We saw the boats that catch them daily, that’s kinda cool.  We sat at the dinner table for 3 hours and change, enjoying the sunset and generally having a relaxed meal. 

Our favorite place for pizza, rose and bride watching.

Reconditioned 1930's boat we saw folks working on every morning.

 Saturday morning we got up late, had some breakfast and jumped on board a open top bus that tours the city.  We bought all day tickets that allowed us to hop on and off whenever and wherever we wanted.  For hours we rode, just taking in the city.  Boy, were we wrong.  While it’s damn big, this really is a nice city.  Like any other, there are places you really should not go, but mostly it’s pretty charming.  More or less what you see in the movies.

At 1pm or so the driver stopped in the Old Port section of Marseille and dumped everyone out.  There is a half hour break at that point for the driver to regain his sanity and we opted to run across the street for lunch. 

Wow!  We ate at a tourist trap craphole seaside place overlooking the sailboats and had a really nice meal.  Finally, we both ate bouillabaisse on the docks or Marseille.  As food nuts, that was high on our list of things to do.   A gigantic soup basin of whole fish, mussles, half a lobster, clams, cod, potato, carrots, and a broth thick enough to float a brick on.  Not a hint of fishy smell or taste, it was unbelievably good.  All for under 30euro a plate too!  If this was ordinary bouillabaisse, I’m dying to try the fancy 120euro a dinner version.

 

 So now we are back at the apartment, hanging out and debating packing weight and distribution.  Our driver picks us up sometime early Monday morning for our 6:15 flight.  Ack!

 As soon as we get home I will post our end of trip thoughts.  This has been one hell of a trip.  Cant wait to do it again!

Big Mother Clucker!

 This is our new fried Mr Cluckers, or as he prefers to be called, Big Mother Clucker.  We met him at the now famous butcher stall in Les Halles.  He seemed a cultured chap, complete with jaunty sportswear and a fetching silver band on his wrist telling us the name of the individual farmer he had previously lived with and were the farm was located.  BMC is what's known as a "Bress Chicken", highly regarded as the best tasting chicken in France.  Given the food we have eaten here, that is quite a statement.  Such a nice guy, we invited him home for dinner...

 BMC looked a tad tired from all his travel so we gave him a chance to nap while we hurried about preparing dinner.  At some point BMC stripped naked and embarrassingly lost his head, jumping into the completely innocent roasted vegetable dish I had worked so hard on for hours.  We busted out the wine and the evening went on.

An hour and a half later, he was completely baked!  Ah well, we decided to have him for dinner anyway, seemed cruel to toss him out on the curb in his condition.

 He did seems to appreciate the well laid table we present here in Lower Froglandia!

In all seriousness, that really was one of the best roast chickens I have ever done.  The meat pretty much tasted like chicken, yet with the "chickeny" dial turned up to 200%.  It was tasty and amazing.  I would also point out that the killer caprese salad Nita made was hand made mozzarella from the market that morning and tomatoes so sweet they are like eating candy.  A damn fine meal all around and the culmination of a food geek thing I have wanted to do for 2 years.  Not a bad vacation.

 Wait, what the hell is that thing Audie has?  Artichokes don't grow that big!!

Tonight we are having artichokes from the stall across the street.  These are by far the biggest and best arties I have ever seen.  It's kinda humbling that the tiny, hole in the wall market on the street sells a better quality of produce than the most high end, snooty markets back home.  At least in regard to certain things, we do have something yet to learn from the Frogs.

As usual, we had a fantastic weekend here in Lower Froglandia.  Francois took us on yet another adventure through the countryside, hither and yon.  I suspect his wife is getting cranky with us, this week's tour to the south of Avignon lasted a little over 9 hours instead of the usual 6.  Next year when we see him, I'm bringing a damn sleeping bad and my toothbrush.

A wine filling station.  Wine is sold by the litre like gas. 

 We visited several amazing wineries and ended up in Les Baux de Provence.  Previously I had taken a glance at the tourist info for this little town, but had no freaking idea of just what it truly was.  Built on a high hilltop, surrounded by ancient Roman limestone mines, the town is a masterpiece of perched village construction.  Its breath taking in every way.  Ok, its touristy as hell as well, but what isn't here?

Les Baux de Provence from a overlook drive.

Winery Entrance

Les Bauc de Provence from below.  I ain't attacking that.

Francois allowed us a little while to mooch around the village before heading off to the final winery.  It left a strong impression on me, and I think everyone else too.  I know I am looking for a chance to come back and explore more.

The Girls(tm) took off to Hampsterdammit on the TGV early Sunday morning.  A little confusion with the train stations, but one or two Amazing Race moments later they apparently made it.  Not that I know for sure, they never call anymore...

So now its just Us and The Girl Child rambling around this giant freaking apartment.  Its quiet, almost too quiet.  Luckily the trance/electro music from the store downstairs keeps us company.  Lucky, lucky, us!

 This morning Niters reminded me about this whole blog thing, so I guess I really should post something...

Tuesday we hopped a train over to Aix en Provence for some walking around time.  Mom, Lorraine and Felicia booked a short tour of the city and markets, we opted to mooch around to see what kinda stuff we could get into.

On the whole, Aix didn't do much for me.  Looks pretty much like Avignon with more tourists, more cruise ship day trippers, more cars and larger streets.  Felt a lot more commercialized and tourist related to me.

What they did have, was an amazing Tuesday market.  We spent the morning digging through antique vendors, garage sale crap vendors and cheap watch merchants, picking up a few nifty things along the way.  Then we hit the fresh market.  Holy crap!

 

Dozens of vendors with fresh fruit and vegetables, prepared foods from all over the region(one guy doing Chinese from a truck) and more variations on local themes than i have ever seen.

 Freshly ground and whole spices from Morocco!  Some I have only seen in books or online.  The smell of the owner grinding the spices nearly made me pass out.

 Perfect little tomatoes so sweet they taste of candy sugar.

 There was a freaking 28 foot long WALL of asparagus 2 foot high.  You would think stone would be a better building material, but hey its a local thing I guess.  There was the beginnings of a second wall behind it to, I am assuming in case the vegetarian zombies get over the first one...

As usual, a cheese and cured meats vendor selling stuff from all over the southern half of France.  Many where their own products, including some exceptional soft cheeses.  We bough a nice hunk of brie with a large center layer of truffle slices. 


In the early afternoon we hopped taxis back to the high speed train for the 20 minute ride back to Avignon.  Later that night we had dinner at Le Bain Marie as a send off and as usual it was amazingly good food.  Its nice to see a small neighborhood place is still kicking the pants off the tourist-centric places in town.

Wednesday morning I took the Folks to the airport and picked up Audie and The Girls(tm).  No issues, no great delays.  While I was off in Marseilles, Lorraine and Felicia hopped the TGV for Paris for their 4 days of fun.  Good luck guys!

Lots of fun, getting kinda tired at last.  This has been one hell of a trip!

A Francois in his natural habitat

Saturday morning bright and early, Francois picked us up for our tour of the Luberon, an area south east of  Avignon considered some of the most picturesque territory in Provence.  If you think of a picture of Provence, this is it.  No secret why after Peter Mayle published "A Year in Provence", property prices sky-rocketed and the celebrities of the world(Ridley Scott, Pierre Cardin, etc) flocked to this amazing place.

Domaine de la Citadelle

We began our day at a splendid winery in Menerbes, Domaine de la Citadelle.  As usual Francois instructed our guests as to how properly taste wines with humor and information.  The wines were amazing, although Im willing to bet tasting in the renovated 17th century under croft had something to do with it...

 

We even visited a small, but fascinating museum dedicated to the history of the corkscrew.  No really, a museum of cork screws, including some that were personal possessions of Marie Antoinette.  No way should it have been that interesting, but god help me it was.  (sorry, no pics allowed)

From Domaine de la Citadelle, we headed up to the 13th century hill town just above the winery to visit Domaine de Marie ou la Maison de la Truffe et du vin.(Professionally translated by me as "big ass house with enough truffles and wine to put all your kids through colledge...twice)

Again, the wines were good but we got so captivated by the vistas from the city walls we lost track of time.  On the down side, with the sun in our face I could not shoot good pictures of the town itself, but I did get some shots of both valleys from the town itself.

Following a brilliant lunch at a small bistro in Bonnieux, we headed off for a drive through the countryside for an hour.  This area is so different and breathtaking compared to around Avignon, its hard to put into words.  Pics don't do it much justice, but we tried.  I shot over 600 pics that day.

Lourmarin

We ended up in Lourmarin for coffee and shopping.  This may be the quintessential Provencal village.  Small, scenic, tiny streets and alleys, we expected a quiet cup of espresso and some relaxing in the sun.

Nope, sorry!

In the town square, which was heaving with people, we watched a loud argument between a loud Spanish tourist and a local grumpy old man who just wanted to doze in the sun and not listed to the tourists extremely loud cell phone conversations.  The argument was priceless, with much shouting, hand waving, bread throwing and general grins and laughs from the other locals.  It was pretty damn funny at the time.

After coffee, it should have been a quiet stroll through town to the car and off to our next winery.

NOPE! 

We blundered into a Easter Carnivalle right through the middle of town!  Loud music, kids and adults all dressed up, the local winery tractors all fancied up.

 

Franncois looked pretty damn chagrined, but quietly leaned over and assured me, "No extra charge"  On the down side we spent so much time caught in the village we missed our appointment at the next winery, so we headed off to the village of Cucuron for photos and more sightseeing.  It was well worth it!

 

Cucuron Church Yard

Cucuron Town Square

 From Cucuron we drove to a lovely winery located in an 19th century laboratory glass factory.  Chateau la Verrerie Puget-sur-Durance produced some of the best wines we had this trip, we ended up stocking on their excellent whites and roses.

All in all, this was a tremendous day for us.  Best scenery by far of any of the areas we have toured, and by far the most interesting day.  How often do you walk into a parade while on vacation?

A very good day.

Yesterday morning we headed up to Les Halles to grab some much needed emergency supplies of cheese, pate, sausage, etc and ran into an incredible incident.  Walking around a corner of the cheese counters, we saw a cloud of white chicken feathers and a pack of laughing kids... that can't be good.

What we witnessed was something that would have had Americans calling in trauma counselors, medics, law enforcement, calls for federal food handling reforms, jail time, and repeated appearances of "experts" on CNN and MSNBC offering their dubious opinions.

We saw, live and in colour, children learning about where food comes from!  A group of little kiddos(6 or 7 year olds) was gathered around the central butcher stall as the meat cutter was grabbing different critters out of the meat case and asked them what they were and what noises they make.  Keep in mind when you buy poultry and small animals(rabbits, etc) they all come head on and guts intact so its really onvious what you are getting and how fresh it is.  The kids were laughing and making chicken, duck, goose noises as the butcher showed them the animals, pulled feathers and blew them into the air over the kids heads and generally put on a hilarious educational show for the them.

Its worth noting this is the same butcher that gravely disagreed with my learned opinion that his rabbits looked wonderful, he staunchly insisted that they are were, in fact, very small kangaroos.

Amazing!

No tears, no worries, just kids learning the real source of their food in a way that would have had American kiddos in therapy for decades after the lawsuits were over.

A fun morning.