Alone again...good or bad?

There are moments when we wonder what we are doing here and yesterday was one of those. We said goodbye to Steve and Christy after a wonderful, very full week together. It was a double luxury to have them both, for not only did we get them all to ourselves without any other distractions, but also we had all the time in the world for them as we were not trying to juggle work and other responsibilities. It was even more fun to have them both as soon as they were officially engaged so that we could join in all the excitement of wedding planning with them. The house feels a little quiet and empty now without them. It is a moments like these that we wonder what this grand adventure is all about. The dictionary defines adventure as a "bold, usually risky undertaking; a hazardous journey with uncertain outcome". We would tend to agree with this, we are not climbing Mt Everest but this year feels a bit like our Everest. In preparation for coming away we spent a lot of energy lightening our loads, we just brought the basic minimum of clothes, books and comforts. Now that we are here it sometimes feels like the load is a little too light, we miss our family, friends and the comforts of home (I really like comfort!) We are left with the bare necessities: our home is simple, yet we have all we need, we have each other and we have our faith. We are daily aware that we are foreigners in a strange land. It is hard for me not to be able to just pick up the phone and fix any problem but have to rely on the kindness of strangers for help and translation! I like feeling capable, and here I am definitely out of my depth. (My sister Penny says that it took getting me to a foreign country to get to this place, and it is good for me!) While I really miss family, especially at this time, our friends and all the familiarity of Vancouver, this is a very good place for us to be, for in all the rush of our lives back home I rarely took the time to just be. When all the familiar 'stuff', the people and even our professions are gone we look to see what is left. Gord and I have each other and we have never been happier together, we are so enjoying the luxury of the gift of time to be together, and we have the time to read and study. There is nothing in the word adventure that implies safety or familiarity and so it is with our time here. Having Steve and Christy felt normal and so with them gone we feel once again the strangeness in our surroundings. (Learning French is a lot of fun but every now and then I still turn the package around hoping to find the English written on the other side!) So we will continue on our great adventure and like any adventure we will spend our days exploring. Gord and I just love driving around the countryside to the endless supply of new little villages for us to visit, or walking a different path in the woods, following the yellow guidelines. We will also continue to explore what it means to "just be" in the quietness, when all the familiar is gone. We will continue to rejoice in the wonderful companionship of just being together. This time and place is such a gift, and we are so very grateful for it. We do not yet know the "uncertain outcome" and are in fact giving ourselves permission to not even think about what next year will look like yet, we are living in the moment, and mostly, the moment here is very good, it certainly is an adventure!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Well Provence may be settling in for the winter hibernation but everywhere people are getting ready for one final burst of enthusiasm before lying low for a couple of months. In every village, no matter how small, there are unlit Christmas lights strung up; most that make a picture or spell our words such as joyeux noel, or bon annee. The lights go across the street from one side to the other so that we will be walking or driving through archways of lights. In the towns they are even more impressive; there are hundreds of lights, Christmas balls and stars and in Monte Carlo even huge fake "diamonds". Even an area of garbage cans has a santa scene in lights all ready to go. It is tantalising though because none of these lights have yet been turned on and some have been up for a couple of weeks or more. I think that they are waiting for Dec. 4th which is St. Barbe's day and the official start of the season, but I shall let you know. (I haven't been able to find out what St. Barbe's Day is except that we are supposed to plant a plate of wheatgerm on that day and if it grows straight, then we will have a prosperous year.) One of the silliest sights we saw was in Nice where there are huge evergreens covered in fake snow on the walkways by the Mediterranean. They look quite incongruous with the flowers and the palm trees. So far I have seen no decorations on homes, though we received a letter from our town office to encourage us to decorate a window, doorway or balcony for the enjoyment of the village, but I presume that also will not be done before the 4th. Another fun aspect of the season are the Christmas markets that are springing up all over. These are held in town squares and consist of a number of log cabin like structures that house little shops selling gifts, gourmet foods of the season (I shall tell you more about these in another blog) and wonderful stalls that sell crepes, waffles or hot mulled wine.

Another tradition typical of this area is the setting up of village/nativity scenes. A local art is the making of 'santons' (little saints) which are made our of clay and then painted. These can be just lovely and families (as well as municipalities and churches on a larger scale) set these up in their homes. The scene is furnished with little old houses, usually a windmill, a stable scene but also little characters representative of all the village folk, the old couples, the baker, the washerwoman etc. We were is a village yesterday that has set up a life-size scene in an old quarry right in the heart of the village, it is delightful.

This year we finally have the time to write Christmas cards and there are none to be found! The French do not send Christmas cards, some send New Year cards that can be mailed anytime up until the end of January, but we cannot find a box of cards anywhere. We can get the odd single card in a shop, with a kitten or bowl of flowers, but it is impossible to find any meaningful card anywhere. So this year we will finally have a good excuse for not sending out our Christmas cards, we will have to think up another way to send warm wishes.

Friends, Romans and Countrymen

Well we haven't made any friends here yet, the countrymen are lovely but we really haven't got to know any of them yet either, but we are surrounded by the Romans, or at least evidence of them having been in existence here! There is so much history within just an hour of our home here. About 5 kms away is Pont Julien which was built around 100AD and until about 8 years ago was in continuous use. A new bridge has been recently added for cars but cyclists and walkers still use the original one regularly. With Steve and Christy we have been to Arles to see the amazing amphitheatre which is being restored but looks much as it did 2000 years ago and is used for concerts and bullfights in the summer. There is also another almost perfect amphitheatre in Nimes, both are in much better shape than the Coliseum in Rome. Yesterday in Orange we visited the Arc de Triomphe (photo on the top) with its beautiful relief carvings of Roman victories. It now just sits in the middle of a roundabout and has not seen a chariot through it for a long time! We also visited the theatre in Orange which is the best preserved in existence and the only one in Europe with its acoustic wall still standing. It is still used for opera and both Pavorotti and Il Divo have recorded here. From here we drove to the Pont du Gard (photo on bottom) which was an aqueduct that was also built during the first century and is an engineering marvel, and still one of the top attractions in the country. It is the second highest roman structure (just 6' short of the coliseum in Rome). The bridge is exceptional because it contains the largest arch the Romans ever built and the bridge was originally about 1100' feet long, although only 790'remain. It is possible to arrange to crawl through the top water tunnel but as I have no death wish, I think we will leave that for other brave(??) souls.

We are also about an hour from the early settlement of Glanum which is pre-roman as the earliest town dates from about 7BC. There is so much history here that you could clamber around ancient monuments for days, it makes us feel that we are living in a very modern house as it is only 300 years old.

Preparing for Winter

Provence is settling down into a period of hibernation for the next few months, as all around the country is going to sleep. (What are we in for?!?) Three out of the four restaurants in our village have closed until the beginning of March and the bakery and one of the butchers have taken their annual vacation. There is construction work on several of the houses in the village, taking advantage of the quiet season to get some needed repairs done. The house across our little road is having some major work done on it, it is gutted at the moment to the point where even the roof is gone and all that is left are a couple of ceiling beams. Yesterday we got two 'steirs' of wood delivered, one steir is a square meter. We had Christy and Steve help us stack it under the house in the old ovens so that we will be able to keep our little home cosy for the winter. My neighbour, Marie-Johanna told me that the winter is lovely because "we get rid of all the summer tourists and we just have the real people left" whatever that means! Although we are told that the wild mistral winds are a factor here, apart from one day, we have not had any experience of this yet. (Just writing this I can almost hear my neighbour saying 'just you wait!') While I am surprised and a little disappointed that so much is closing, I am loving going to places and not having crowds to contend with. I will happily take the quiet for the lack of the summer mobs! We can drive down village main streets that are generally closed to traffic and where I can imagine hardly finding the space to walk, much less drive, we can visit castles and old roman bridges and have the place to ourselves. We were in a medieval village the other day with S & C and Steve pointed out that you could really imagine yourself there in the middle ages; the buildings have not changed and because there were no tourists to contend with we could pretend that we were seeing it as it was. The days are still beautiful, sunny and blue skies, if a little cooler. We are having to make do with temperatures in the mid to high teens instead of low twenties, so for the end of November it is not too bad so far. I think that we will be ready to take what comes.

Monte Carlo

Gord and I have enjoyed all the little villages in our area so much more than the cities that we are wondering if we truly are country people at heart. However, all that changes when we go to Monaco because we love Monte Carlo and you can not get much more constrast than Goult and MC! The whole principality is only 1.9 sq kms, smaller than Central Park in New York but despite its dense population, it is a little jewel, perched on the edge of the Mediterranean. Its residents have the highest per capita income in the world as it is somewhat of a tax haven. I love all the beautiful hotels and apartments buildings with gorgeous wrought iron balconies and railings and colourful gardens. Gord is definitely most intrigued by the cars! On our recent visit we saw Bentleys, Rolls Royces, several Ferrarris, three Lotus in a row, Mazeratis, Porsches and more, and they all look brand new! Stephen kindly pointed out that even if his parents had been wearing their finest clothes they would still never fit in here. I don't think that I want to "fit in" but it is fun to visit. We had plenty of time to walk around the palace area and then down to visit the casino (outside only!) and the gardens. The whole place is impeccably clean and I have never seen so many city workers. They even had a couple of trucks that went around broadcasting a horrible squawking sound to discourage birds from defiling the area. There were also beautifully dressed palace guards everywhere controlling traffic and discouraging the riff-raff (us!) from parking next to the Rolls Royces. We walked past all the beautiful people at the outside cafes and I wished that I knew some of their stories. We were not really tempted to eat there, one restaurant advertised that the lunch menu started at about $120 a head! Our timing was such that we walked until the lights came on on all of the buildings and it was magnificent to see them highlighted, a perfect ending to a lovely visit!

They are engaged!

Steve and Christy arrived to visit us last Saturday evening. They had come from Vancouver and had had all day in Paris. Steve proposed to Christy in Paris on a bridge by the Eiffel Tower. Christy said yes! So Steve gave her a lovely diamond engagement ring. This picture was taken as they arrived in Marseille airport after having had about 4 hours sleep in the last 48 hours, very tired but very excited! They are planning to get married next summer sometime, the date and all other relevant details have yet to be decided but Gord and I are just thrilled at the prospect of having Christy in our family and I think that Allison, like a true big sister, thinks that this is by far the smartest, if not the only, really great decision that Steve has made! It has been fun to be part of the excitement as Christy and Steve have been phoning family to tell them the news. Gord and I have so enjoyed being with them as we will miss so much of the planning in the next few months. We are delighted to have them here to show them around and to introduce them to a part of the world that we are loving more each day.

Follow the yellow stone road

I have told you before about the wonderful walking/hiking trails that we are surrounded by. They are maintained by the local authorities and they are marked with yellow signposts at intersections of the trails and then all along the trail at various intervals we look for a yellow stripe. If there is a question as to where the trail goes then you may see a yellow X which tells you not to take that route. It really is like having a whole countryside specially prepared like a giant scavenger hunt (Allison's father in law Charlie would just love this!) After spending a few days in the car we were really ready to have a long walk today, though it turned out to be quite a bit longer than we planned. We set off down our hill as usual, through the woods with white oak trees, along a very rocky path that is now thick with oak leaves and lovely crunchy acorns. At the bottom of the hill we took a new route. We decided to go along the track to a little village that was 3.9 kms away and then we would come back by the road. We started down the new path and we quickly thought that we had come to a dead end because the path led to a fast moving stream. We noticed yellow lines on either side of the stream so we realized that we had to cross it! First we collected rocks to throw in the stream to make stepping stones, then with the help of a big stick we gingerly ventured across it. We thought that was the hard part but we were wrong. Once over the stream we found that the path led straight up the steep hill on the other side. We slogged our way to the top (it is going to make climbing the Grouse Grind when we get home a piece of cake!) and continued on. We found a couple more signposts early on to encourage us that we were on the right path. Eventually, when we had been walking for almost two hours we found another signpost to the village and this one informed us that we still had 3kms to go!! We obviously had missed a significant turn somewhere. We decided to take another route home but we still had 4.5kms to go before we got back to our village and of course living at the top of a hill, the last bit is always a steep incline. We made it home (via the bakery for sustenance!) tired and never having reached the village that we set out for but then it didn't really matter, after all we can always try again tomorrow, well maybe the day after!

Medieval villages and more.

After we left Bordeaux we drove through the southwest through Aquitaine through some of the loveliest country that we have yet seen, I quite ran out of adjectives! The drive started to get interesting when we drove along the Dordogne river from Bergerac to the lovely medieval town of Sarlat. Along the way we passed villages more wonderful than the previous that were too numerous to be listed in our guide books. We came to the village of Begnac, where this picture is taken, and it was just like being in a fairy tale! It was a near perfect collection of medieval stone houses with cobblestone streets perched on the side of the hill with the river running in the valley below. We were quite enchanted with the whole area and were having such a good time that we decided to take an extra day on our drive home (oh, what a luxury to be able to just decide to do that!) We drove south from Sarlat to Rocamadour, another medieval village hanging off the side of the cliff and followed the river to Cahors. If I had managed to get Gord to stop every time I wanted to take a picture we would never have got home. We had left the wine country for now and besides the lovely villages this is farming country and the specialty for this region is the perigord geese from which they make the famous fois gras. We decided that we definitely want to spend more time in this region in the future. When we got to Cahors, it was starting to get dark and we tried to find a suitable place to stay but nothing was inspiring us so we pulled into the back of a so-so hotel and 'borrowed' their internet and found a very interesting looking inn about 30 kms away in the country so we booked on line and set off for it. By the time we left the city it was now quite dark and we followed along (thanks again for the GPS, we would never have found it without that indispensible little tool) a very, very , dark and winding road until we came to a darkened village. We turned off on a gravel road and drove for another 3kms and I was sure that we were on a wild goose chase, this being the region for geese after all. Eventually we went down a long drive and came to a really lovely country inn. We had booked the cheapest room but they gave us a wonderful one with a balcony that overlooked the infinity pool, the terraces and the gardens and the whole valley! Then they offered us dinner which we gratefully accepted. We sat in an old stone dining room next to a big fire and they proceeded to serve us an amazing four course meal that was absolutely exquisite! We noticed that it was very quiet and were told that actually we were the only guests checked in for the night. It was such a wonderful and unexpected end to a near perfect day! It was a bit of a stretch for us as they spoke no english and our french still just does the very basic facts but I think we managed to convey our delight in the first class service. The next day, after an equally lavish breakfast we set off for home, again taking our time along the way to enjoy the countryside and finally made it back for a late dinner, tired but having had a wonderful few days away.

French wine!

In order to do a proper job reporting to you all back home Gord and I have been doing our research! No, nothing has changed and Gord is not joining me yet in actually drinking the wine, but he is not stopping me from enjoying it myself and even spent a morning in wine school with me in Bordeaux. We have learnt a lot but will continue to enjoy educating ourselves as the year progresses! The first thing that we learned is that french wine does not go by the grape, ie there is not a merlot or savignon blanc as all french wine is blended so that there could be an 80% merlot and then another grape for the remaining 20%. The wine is known by the region that has a specific characteristic, and, according to the Bordelaise, there is no finer wine than a Bordeaux Superior! There are three important ingredients to make a fine wine: the climatic conditions and the soil contribute to the "terroir" that makes the wine unique., the skill of the "vigneron" (the guy who tends the vines and oversees all of the production process) and the exact process of the blending of the different grapes. It is a very exacting process that is passed on from generation to generation. Around Bordeaux there are about five thousand "chateau", which really means a vineyard with a country house, from humble to very grand, and an ability to produce wine on site. Gord says that you don't want to know all the details, just that the process is complicated and takes quite a while and obviously the competition for the best wines is very fierce. So after all the work in tending the vines, harvesting the grapes and making the best wines with the perfect blend, what are you going to pay for this lovely bottle of 2005 from the Chateau Les Vergnes? Oh, about $6.00!

I had expected that the wines would be wonderful, varied and inexpensive, but what I had not expected were the amazing array of aperitif wines that are also available and these I am really enjoying. I had a glass of something the other day that was just delicious called pineau, it tasted a little like a sherry but I later learned that it was a blend of grape juice and cognac. Apparently though it is very regional and I just found out that it is difficult to get beyond the Bordeaux region. This is another thing that we are surprised at, the big differences in cuisine from one region to another, very unlike what we have in Canada where you can basically get the same food right across the country. It just makes traveling around that much more interesting so we will keep on going!

Our visit to Bordeaux

France is shaped somewhat like a hexagon and it is bordered by six countries. We spent the best part of Friday traveling across the bottom right side of the hexagon and are now on the left side of the country, facing the Atlantic. We travelled to Bordeaux on the well maintained auto routes of France, (they should be well maintained as we paid over $75.00 for six hours of driving!) Bordeaux sits on a bend in the river Garonne and is about 50 miles inland but is a major sea port because of its location on the river. It is also the absolute centre of the premier wine production in the country. (We will tell you more about the wine in another blog.) It is a beautiful city and we have quite fallen in love with it. As Gord says it is the first city in this country that we have not been desperate to get out of. There are beautiful buildings and wonderful open public spaces, magnificent fountains and quite the loveliest public garden that I have ever seen. We spent all day Saturday walking the city, I think that we did about 10 miles, but just loved our day. On Sunday we travelled north through some of the chateau country. We visited a lovely little village just hanging on the banks of the river. Actually, most of it is still there, but half of the nave of the church fell into the river in the 15th century so the village is well fortified with good strong walls since that time. We also saw several towns that have been through the wars and have not fared well, given their strategic position on the coast. (We are glad to be obviously Canadian in these towns!) In one they still have the huge chain that they used to row across the river and attach to a fort on the other side to keep the English out! We went to the lovely town of Royan which has beautiful sandy beaches and absolutely gorgeous beachfront homes, really little chateaux. We were really happy to not have the summer crowds but we weren't even tempted to dip a toe in the Atlantic. We ended back up in Bordeaux at our hotel, the Victoria Garden Suite Hotel. I have not met Victoria, there is no garden unless you count the dandelion in the parking lot next to the car and as for suite, well there is a tiny sink and fridge and the facility for making a cup of coffee, which is unusual for a french hotel, but there is no place to sit but on the bed. The hotel part is accurate but here we are learning that in France you don't usually get what you pay for as most things are so much more expensive than at home. The food in Bordeaux is another story, we have had some fabulous meals and a lot more reasonable than in Provence. We have enjoyed the local seafood and a delicious pastry that we do not get called 'chouettes' which look a little like timbits but taste a thousand times better. Tomorrow I will tell you about the wine!

Joining up

While we were home several people told me that they were enjoying the blog but wanted to make comments and were having difficulty. In order to do that you must first click on "follow" and then follow the prompts. You have to join google or something but it is free and as far as I can see it does nothing more than give you access to the blog. Once you are a follower then you can click on "sign in" and you will be free to make a comment. I get very excited when I see that I have a new follower! It is nice to know that someone other than Mum is reading this but Mum if it were just for you then it would all be worthwhile. So, join up, I can take the comments, both the good ones and the ones that I get from my brother correcting my spelling and other faux pas that I make, after all he is my big brother and he was here first!!

We are back!

For those of you who did not know, Gord and I have been in Vancouver for a whirlwind few days celebrating the wedding of our niece Amanda. We were delighted to meet up with family and a few friends, but the time went by so quickly and the days were very full so we are sorry that we did not see more of you. The wedding was lovely and a truly first class affair and it was wonderful to meet up with family from across Canada, especially to see Allison and Jordan. We will not see them now until they come to visit in February. While it was strange to not be at our house, we were thoroughly spoilt staying with Penny and Wayman. Although we were delighted to be "home" and would have not missed the wedding for anything, we really felt that we were not yet ready to return to Vancouver and are very happy to be back in our little home here in France. We had a smooth trip back today, business all the way to Paris, and then a very tight connection to Marseille. The French efficiency was in full play when after having five phone calls made on our behalf, and telling us that we had a 50/50 chance of having bags when we arrived, we were delighted to find that they had indeed come with us. The only hitch was that, as Gord pointed out, apparently here in France you have to do some serious making out before you are allowed to take your bags off the carousel, at least that is what it certainly looked like! (I guess they are not worried about the H1N1 here.) We were picked up at the airport and taken to pick up our new leased car. It is a comfortable Peugeot, four doors to accommodate our visitors and the whole of the top of the car is glass which makes it nice and bright. It had only 27 kilometres on it so it has that lovely new car smell! It will be interesting to see how many miles we put on it before we return it next year.

It was very cool when we got into our little house and we are wishing that we could get the the fire going. Apparently the insurance is not valid here unless you have an annual chimney cleaning and we are having trouble getting the work done. When there are three hour lunch breaks and long stops to chat and kiss everyone, (every time they meet the Provencals kiss three times, both men and women) there does not leave much time in the day for actual work and getting any work done around here is difficult. Add to that the near impossibility of communicating our needs, especially when the said workmen don't wish to do the work, and you have a somewhat tricky situation. Today is Remembrance Day and we understand that absolutely everything is closed in France, so it will be another day before we can talk to a different chimney sweep and to order some wood. Ah well, the bed is cosy and warm and my husband has just delivered me my morning coffee, so I will make the best of it and stay warm right here... after all, it is just another day wide open with possibilities and free of responsibilities... ahhhhhhh, c'est la vie!