The Rhone Valley

We had a lovely, but very quiet Christmas, so we decided to go on a little trip and we headed north to the Rhone valley to Lyon for a few days. We have just spent today wandering around the old and new parts of the city of Lyon. This city, second only to Paris, is the undisputed centre of gastronomy in France and full of history. It was founded in 44 BC by Julius Caesar as the ancient Roman capital of Gaul so it goes back over two thousand years. It is at a very strategic position between the Rhone and the Saone rivers and is a lovely city to explore. There is a delightful old section of town with little cobblestone streets and alleyways built right next to two roman ampitheatres that are still used to house summer concerts. We had another glorious day, beautiful sunshine and mild temperatures (around 14 degrees).

Tonight we are celebrating the New Year very quietly in a little apartment just outside of the city. We have a television (a huge novelty!! - though we had trouble with Who wants to be a Millionaire in french as we couldn't figure out the questions, let alone the answers) and tomorrow we will explore some of the countryside north of here and will also treat ourselves to a little of the famous 'gastronomy' that we will tell you about later.

Our Christmas

Thank you all for your warm wishes to us on Christmas, we had a really lovely day!

Our celebration started Christmas Eve when we went to mass in the old church in the village. There was supposed to have been a candlelight parade through the village but it was so windy that the angels would not have needed their wings to fly and so the pre-mass celebration was moved to the village hall. Mass was a little strange, both the rituals and the language were hard to understand but it was nice to see the church packed with standing room only. The hardest part of Christmas was walking out of the church and passing homes full of lights and people as we made our way back up the hill to our little house, but once there we started our own "gros souper" and were too busy eating to be sad anymore. We had a modified version of the traditional meal but I still served the "thirteen desserts" for just the two of us!

On Christmas morning we got up a little earlier than usual and drove about an hour to a little town to start our hike. It was a beautiful drive through rolling green hills and farmland along a narrow tree-lined road. The sky was a glorious blue with hardly a cloud and it was warm, about 12 degrees. We hiked up a rocky path/stream until we came to a meadow at the top of the hill and there we had our lunch with an amazing view down to the valley below. The only person we passed on the way was a shepherd moving his flock of sheep and goats and as we sat down to lunch we could still hear the distant goat bells. After lunch we read through the Christmas story from Luke and could so easily imagine the shepherds sitting on a similar hill to ours, surrounded with a great light as we were with the glorious sunshine, then making their way down a similar rocky path to the little town below. It was a wonderful moment.

When we got home from our sunny outing we joined (through the wonder of skype) Gus and Claire in their living room for their present opening, joined Mum & Dad, Steve and family at Penny and Wayman's breakfast table, Allison and Jody and his family around the tree in Pennsylvania, Mom Taylor and family in Calgary and a couple of other calls with friends as well. Really we had the best Christmas ever because we got to be part of so many celebrations. We had a delicious Christmas dinner, that hadn't taken me all day to prepare and sat quietly in front of the fire. The day was so peaceful and really very special and while we were alone, we felt very loved. Thank you all!

Disappionting News

A couple of hours ago we received the news that Claire and Gus and their kids would not be able to join us for Christmas. While we have been preparing for this possibility for the past couple of days, the reality is a little hard to take. I can't quite believe that we will be on our own for Christmas. I know that we are in a beautiful part of the world and that we have each other but just for Christmas at least, we could use a little family. We really miss all our family and friends but never more than at this time. We are trying to come up with a list of wonderful reasons for being on our own right now but so far the list is yet to reach number one.

We are going to celebrate anyway, in a way that we never have before and never will again. I am not sure what it will entail but one thing is for sure, we will take the time to sit by the fire, to count our blessings, for all the goodness that God has poured out on us, and we will wait with expectant hearts for Immanuel, God with us, to join with us at our quiet Christmas celebration.

Le Gros Souper

As one would expect in this land that is totally concerned with all things gastronomic, there are two big feasts at Christmas. On Christmas Day the traditional turkey with chestnut stuffing is expected, as well as pate de foie, oysters and escargot, but the bigger event is 'Le gros souper' which is held on Christmas Eve.

The table is set with three white cloths, one over the other to symbolize the trinity and the corners are tied so that the evil spirits cannot climb up the draping cloth onto the table. These cloths are to be left on for the three days of feasting. There will be three white candles, again for the trinity, and there is always an extra place at the table for the absent family member, whether living or dead.

The evening starts with the oldest member and the youngest together putting a large log from a fruit tree on the unlit fire, and then starting it, while they recite some incantation. (The google translation of this was so absurd it sounded as if I had translated it myself, so I will leave it to your imagination.) The fire is then to be kept burning for the next seven days so that the family will have good luck in the following year.

The meal is traditionally meatless, but the table is laden with seven seafood and vegetable dishes, served with seven different wines. Before the guests start on the desserts, they stagger down to the local church to attend midnight mass and then return home for the rest. Now they are served an anchoiade, a anchovy dip served with raw vegetables and prepare themselves for 'the thirteen desserts'. The dishes vary somewhat from region to region but these are the ones consistently mentioned: dates, dried apricots, raisins, hazelnuts, almonds, candied fruits, black and white nougat, wafers, marzipan candies, oranges, grapes, and a christmas log cake. It is considered bad luck not to taste all the different sweets. The desserts have to be placed on the table all at the same time and they are not to be removed for three days but left out for other spirits (I guess the good ones that are allowed on the table) to partake of while the family is asleep......I am not making this stuff up... I have been doing my research! I am not sure when the table is left unattended because the party, also known as 'reveillon' from verb meaning to wake up, goes on all night.

At some point the participants collapse into bed only to get up late on Christmas morning in time to get ready to consume the Christmas dinner, all washed down with copious amounts of champagne. The feasting goes on for three days but I guess they eat leftovers, and the remainder of the 'thirteen desserts' because I did not find out anything about day three.

There are now only four days left to prepare for the next reveillon, called 'Saint-Sylvestre', on New Year's Eve.

I am determined to make a modified 'gros souper' but as I have a tiny kitchen and only a portable microwave/convection oven it will be a double challenge; for me to cook it, and for Gord to eat it. But we are up to the challenge!

Carols and the Bagpipes

It is still really cold here but we are encouraged that the locals all say that this is surprisingly cool weather, and the forecast is for highs in the mid teens next week. This afternoon the village was invited to a lovely festival of carols and readings in the old church, half of which was in English! We had six traditional English carols and three french ones. The latter had a much more enthusiastic response. The English readers all had very posh British accents and I understand that these participants were just here for their holidays. After the service we followed the congregants, almost entirely French speaking, to a large room in the village where we were treated to a concert with ten musicians who played traditional provencal music. Five of the musicians played a small wooden recorder with their left hand; they held the instrument between the third and fourth fingers and used their thumbs and first two fingers to make all the sounds. It was amazing the range of sound that they got from just three holes. As well as the recorder, they had a large drum that they had strapped over their left arm and they played it with their right hand. Also in the band were a contemporary drummer, a couple of guitarists, a man on keyboard and a fellow who played the bagpipes. Apparently the Scots got the bagpipes from the French! The bagpipe fellow was a real character and mesmerizing to watch. At various times they also used tambourines, a mouth organ and a pair of wooden spoons. We thoroughly enjoyed the concert.

It was followed by the traditional Christmas feast of "Anchoiade and the thirteen desserts". I will tell you more about these later when I describe the Christmas Eve dinner but suffice to say it is bad luck not to try all 13 'desserts' and far be it from us to bring bad luck on this charming place! As the room eventually cleared out, and we were thinking about leaving, the group spontaneously started up again and lots of the local folk started dancing. We certainly could have joined in because there did not seem to be much pattern to it but we had more fun watching the musicians. It was a wonderful, cultural experience that left a big smile on our faces as we hurried up the icy hill to our little home.

Christmas in Goult

Well, despite being an extreme optimist, I have to tell you that I can't change the weather. So today we are sitting in front of this lovely fire in our living room, with a great cup of French coffee, listening to Handel's Messiah, and watching the snow fall outside! Yes, I never wanted to see it but it is snowing in our village. It is just hovering around the freezing mark and, as we are quite high up, I suspect that if we went down the hill we would find it was raining, but up here we have snow. We are going to get our boots on and go and take some pictures because I hope that we never again see the village looking like this, but you never know. Ah, well, it adds to the feeling of Christmas.

We have had fun getting ready for Claire, Gus and their kids who arrive (Air Canada willing) next Wednesday. We have been out in the woods gathering greens and berries to decorate the place inside and out and we have put up a little Christmas tree. We bought a few decorations and one string of lights in Italy and for the rest we have used red berries and a red pashmina for the tree skirt. We bought a little nativity scene, which sits on the window ledge surrounded by greens and we have ikea candles in little glass dishes everywhere. The place really looks quite festive, even on a shoestring budget.

The village is all dressed up too, there are lights everywhere. People don't seem to decorate their houses as much as in N. America, but the villages and towns more than make up for it. There are lights strung across the little roads, trees lit up and even a lovely shooting star effect on the archway up to our house. The company that does all the illumination for the Eiffel tower and the Champs Elysee in Paris is based in the town of Apt just 10 minutes away and that town is spectacular! The big cities are even more elaborate but we have lots to look at around here.

There are no boxes of Christmas cards here though. This year we finally have the leisure to write cards and there is hardly one to be found and certainly not one with anything spiritual on it. The French do not send cards at Christmas but rather in January they may send out cards with a New Year greeting. (So that is our excuse for not sending cards this year - next year we will have the resources and hopefully the time too... wherever we may be!)

We are getting ready to have a French Christmas feast on Christmas Eve and the shops and markets are filled with specialty items for 'le gros souper'. I will tell you more about that later because the sun has come out again and I need to go play in the snow before it disappears. That's life in Provence, if ever I get a little discouraged, the sun always seems to appear and the sky is royal blue again and I forget whatever it was that bothered me in the first place.

The view so far

It has been two and a half months since we got her so we thought that we would tell you some of the things that have surprised us. These are reactions from both of us, but I won't tell you whose is whose, you will probably be able to guess! So, in no particular order, we are surprised at...

• that there is so much to see and do in such close proximity to our home
• that the surrounding countryside and villages are so lovely
• that after all this time we are no closer to becoming fluent
• that I am encouraged by how much we understand of the language
• that we have not really got to know any people in the village
• that I don't miss my work one tiny bit
• that I still think about my work a lot
• that we have not found a church to go to
• that it is so cold here now
• that we haven't even noticed the dreaded "mistral" winds
• that I have been so restrained with all the delightful market shopping
• that I have not been bored even once
• that my spouse has not been bored even once
• that the food is so amazing even in the grocery store
• that the hiking around here is so wonderful
• that I am enjoying the exercise so much
• that we have read so little as the days have been so full
• that we have managed to live with so much less, but are so very grateful for what we have, especially the technical stuff, internet, telephone, ipod, great car etc
• that we have not even put on the television once
• that we haven't had an accident on the narrow, twisty roads
• that we have been side by side for 24 hours a day and are still loving every moment!

I don't "carrot" all what we eat......... by Gord

Yesterday Lydele asked if I would take a turn at writing the blog. Up until that moment I really have been having a great time here. But then I thought, "if she can make a blog about taking out the garbage interesting enough to get return comments then I could tell about seeing a carrot on the road".

Today we went for one of our walks along a country road not too far from where we are living. As we walked along the side of the road we began to notice the odd carrot at the side of the road. I eventually told Lydele that the only possible explanation was that a mom had found a great deal on carrots at the outdoor market and obviously her young son in the back seat, who hated carrots, was slowly dealing with what he foresaw as a culinary problem by sneaking the rear window down enough to start throwing carrots out. As we went farther and farther down the road I eventually realized that, not only had he opened both rear windows, but he also had a pretty good left arm because both sides now had carrots. Eventually the road straightened enough for us to see that both sides of the road ahead were becoming a mass of orange. I began to wonder how any mother could FAIL TO NOTICE that her son had now opened both rear doors and was pushing carrots out with both hands and feet when the penny dropped: it was not a mom and her son, he was with his dad!

Lydele's theory was that because this is an agricultural community, maybe a farmer had a wagon that was overloaded and was dropping carrots as he left his farm. Whatever the answer, I just smiled quietly to myself during dinner (which I prepared) when Lydele said ...."good carrots".

Hiking the Cinque Terre

Wow, what a great day! The Cinque Terre means five lands and the hike is between five little towns perched on the side of the sea. We started in Monterosso and went to Vernazza as that is the hardest section, and we wanted to get the toughest over with first. We left the town and quickly climbed (well the path was straight up anyway) to about 1500' and we had a panoramic view of the little town. The weather was gorgeous and we did not meet another person until we were an hour and a half into the hike! The views all along the way were wonderful but the hike was a challenge. Several times we thought that we were at the summit only to turn the corner and see another path straight up. At times the path was little more than 12" wide with a fair drop off to the side but most tricky places had guardrails that one was tempted to put more faith in than they probably merited. As the town of Vernazza was on the water we had a steep descent, knowing all along that we had to go up again! The town was charming and so worth the visit and this picture is taken from the far side as we began the ascent to the next town, Corniglia. This section was only listed as "hard" as opposed to the first one which was "tough". It was lovely too and again we climbed to almost 1500' but the views were not quite as stunning as the first. Corniglia sits about above the water so the descent was not so bad but once we left this town and were on our way to Manarola we went down 382 stairs to the water before we started to climb back up once again. This was the easiest section so far and we started to meet more and more people. On the final section to Riomaggiore, really just a pleasant stroll, it was almost crowded as many Italians were out for a weekend walk. By the time we reached the last town we had only covered 11 kilometres but they were not exactly level! We had ascended to 1500' on two occasions with many more ups and downs between. We had also explored all the towns with their little harbors and intriguing steep lanes. From Riomaggiore we took the train back along the water to our first town, Monterosso. We walked back to the car (Gord did offer a piggy-back but I still had a little dignity even if I could not feel my toes) as the sun started to set on the lovely Mediterannean. No sooner were we in the car than the skies opened unexpectedly and we had a heavy rainfall, the timing was perfect. Now we just had the 30 minute drive up to the Autostrada. It was on a very, very twisty road that was now slick with rain and it was either fun or terrifying depending on your point of view! Gord said "You know the curves are tight when you have to look out of your side window to see the road ahead." Gord loves these twisty Italian roads, the one to our little hotel here is like a slalom course. I guess he misses the thrill of flying so I just sit with my eyes closed and wait till its over. After hiking for 6 hours I was happy of any excuse to close my eyes, tired yes, but oh so satisfying!

La Dolce Vita

One of the reasons that I keep adding pictures to our blog is because sometimes I can't really believe we are here and I guess the picture proves it. Most days Gord and I finish the end of the day by saying, "now THAT was a good day...." and then the next is just as wonderful! We are having such an amazing time over here and we feel so very fortunate to be able to spend the time this way.

This is a picture of the lovely town of Portofino on the Italian Riviera. We were enjoying our trip so much that we decided not to rush home right away and so we are spending a couple of days in the area, exploring this beautiful part of Italy. We are staying in a little hotel on the ridge of a mountain with spectacular views from all rooms of the Meditteranean on one side, with the little town of Sestri Levante perched on the edge, and the valleys below on the other side. It is a lovely spot, and while still a luxury, we are enjoying the off season rates! Tomorrow we are going to hike the five towns of the Cinque Terre so I need to get a good sleep. We will let you know how it goes.

Tuscany

We had a delightful day yesterday driving around the Tuscan countryside with its undulating green hills and little golden farmhouses tucked behind rows of spiky cedars. We visited San Gimignano, Siena, Montalcino, Pienza and Montepulciano, all wonderfully free of tourists! It was such a treat to be able to walk and park anywhere and not be fighting the tour buses and crowds of people. Although it was cool, there was a beautiful blue sky and, once again, we decided that there is a lot of merit in touring in the off season. As before, we found that we were drawn to the out of the way, smaller towns and we both felt that Pienza was our favourite spot. It was a charming small town with lots of interesting Renaissance architecture and stunning views of the valley below. (This picture is of some Italian women out for their afternoon stroll in Pienza.) This is the area of Italy that we had also considered renting in and not only is Italy chaotic as I described in the last blog, but also the towns in this area are so far apart and the driving is difficult on narrow twisty roads. We feel even more grateful to be in Provence as I think we would feel very isolated in this area if we were here for several months. Italy is fun to flirt with but I am glad to have a long term relationship with Provence!

The lovely city of Florence

Aaahhh Italy! This place is disorganized, untidy, and generally chaotic, but there is a certain charm to the country. We are having a wonderful visit here but we are so thankful to be renting in France, rather than Tuscany, as we had once been thinking of. I think that the chaos would have quickly driven me crazy, (okay, even more crazy then!) The driving for example is just nuts, and Gord constantly reminds me that it is a lot more orderly here than in Rome or further south. Even the GPS has a hard time keeping up as roads are suddenly diverted or traffic patterns changed. I am so thankful for Gord's excellent driving enabling me to be the navigator and second set of eyes for wild vespas which appear out of nowhere.

We have been blessed with cool but sunny days here and we had a wonderful day yesterday just walking around the beautiful city of Florence. There had been a public holiday in Italy for the previous four days and on Tuesday the city had been packed, but yesterday we had the place to ourselves, no line-ups and hungry market vendors which made shopping quite fun! We found a self-directed waking tour on line which was most interesting and took us to some out of the way places that we would not have found ourselves including a lovely trattoria for lunch and supposedly the best gelato shop in the city. (Sorry Allison, it was not "ours" but it was fantastic. Your dad even wanted to go right back when we had finished and get another but we restrained.) The art, both inside the buildings and outside is just amazing. I have never seen so many beautiful buildings in one small space, and there is a new treasure around each corner. It is quite magical!

*For those non-techie people, like myself, if you double click on any picture on the blog you can get it much larger.

A Treasure in Florence

Buon giorno! We are now in Italy. We decided last week that there was time to do a little traveling before our next guests arrived so we headed to Florence. We had two nights and a wonderful day walking the streets of old Nice on the way, then had a night in Lucca (Italy) where we rode bikes all around the city walls and generally made a nuisance of ourselves on the very crowded old town streets. Then today we drove through the Italian countryside and arrived in Florence in time for a wonderful afternoon walk through the streets and across the picturesque bridges. The real treat so far though was dinner tonight. We have just got back from a little restaurant that we walked into a few blocks from our hotel. It was very crowded and the man serving tried to tell us that they had no room (at least we think that is what he said) but a lady intervened and told us to wait a few minutes and they would try to help us. It quickly became clear that this was a totally family run restaurant. The old father made the pizza, Mama in her kerchief did the pasta and the brother and sister (late 30's perhaps) did the rest when they were not waiting tables. Everyone that came in was greeted by name and the busier it got the more the brother shouted, and the more the rest of the family all shouted back and waved their arms wildly. It was all so very entertaining. We finally were given a seat and we both sat on the same side of the table to watch the goings on in the kitchen. We asked them to bring us a selection to share so we got Mama's home made pasta, Papa's pizza, and a veal and potato dish. The food was so delicious and plentiful. Mama had no English at all but she kept smiling at us and chatting away in Italian anyway as we made a lot of sign language to show how much we appreciated the meal. The daughter offered us dessert which we declined but Mama told us we had to have it and brought it to us anyway, as a gift from her, and it was truly wonderful! By the time we left we had really made friends with them all. Mama and Papa came out of the kitchen to wave and say "ciao" and the originally unfriendly brother even came and held the door for us as he thanked us for coming. It was a wonderful gastronomic and cultural experience, and we are planning to go back again tomorrow!

Between a rock and a hard place

Okay, if I am honest, I do seem to have a bit of a problem here. As I have told you the hiking here is wonderful and we are getting lots of exercise on our daily sprees but the food here is even more amazing and quite honestly the pounds are just not falling off. Something has to change and as the food is too good to give up we decided to step it up a notch with the exercise. Now we have a book on hikes in the area, but of course, it is written in French. Even with my limited language skills I could still read that the hike we were about to undertake, a modest 2.5 hr, 6 km stroll, was rated medium difficulty. The hazards on the route were dizzying corniches, (a path hanging on to the mountain) overhanging rocks and, oh yes, a little surprise when we were descending.... and still we decided to go. We drove to the start of the hike in a neighboring village and we set off at a good pace, the air was cool and the sky was a beautiful blue. Before too long, as we started our ascent, we had stripped off jackets and were down to t-shirts. About a quarter of our way in, as we were starting to climb, we noticed that the rock formation was in very interesting ledges running diagonally up the side of the mountain... then we realized that the path that we were on actually ran up one of these ledges. (That little speck on the ledge is me!) As we walked in the cleft of the rock with hundreds of feet of overhanging rock I tried not to let my imagination run away with me. It was an amazing climb, or should I say scramble, for what I lack in finesse I make up for in enthusiasm. In places the path was so narrow and the drop off to the right so steep that I could not look down but just concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other. The view just kept getting better and better and I needed to stop frequently to fully appreciate the view! We eventually made it to the summit and then we had the descent. Again the scramble mode was in place, with places where I went down on my rear as it was so steep. We ended up following a dry river canyon which was so cool and part way down we even had to take a ladder that was attached to the side of the canyon wall, that was the fun surprise. I really felt like a true hiker and wished that my brother-in-law Gary could have been with us. It was an exhilarating but exhausting hike, and now I am so hungry after all that work... oh, well!