La bastide de Cabries

... it doesn't matter with the wide range of accents our country has anyway (scowne or scon? It's only scon once you've eaten it...). I'm finding Contemporary French History really interesting, especially as, for once, it's not about the French Revolution. The seminars should really help my written French too, but unfortunately us 'étrangers' stick out like a sore thumb when she calls out the register : Sharrlot Tooowinszend. And I know what you're thinking, a register ...

Bonjour avec Aix-en-Provence Cherie
Since the last news we have visited the Cote D'Azur spending time at Monte Carlo and Antibes. We stayed near Antibes at a place called Biot and at night you could hear the seals at nearby Marineland - very strange. It was still quite hot and stickey with more mozzies. Monte Carlo was wall to wall money with billions of dollars in boats and cars. Antibes was similar but it had a lovely old town as well.
We arrived ...

... I don’t know if the DNA of pizza got transferred to the Arabs from Rome and then re-introduced to French via the Jews or what, but they’ve just about got it down, plentiful and cheap. The real meal deal is three full pies for €10, but the best buy for me is a quarter pie for about a single €, depending on toppings. One or two of those will pretty much fill you up, though I’ve resolved to ...

... the buildings in French. Lucy followed along interestedly. I looked for mason's marks on the blocks because I don't speak French. Ironically, the one place we went where we could not get a tour in English was the one that was the least interesting be be on a tour in without hearing the tour guide. In any other place one could entertain oneself by looking at paintings or sculptures or architectural features. Not here ...

Lucy and I thought the impressionist paintings of Provence were just stylized to have those eye-popping ochre colors. Not true in Roussillon! Ochre from the red soil and rocks has been used in the stucco on the buildings in this village to gorgeous effect. They use contrasting paint colors on shutters, doors and other fixtures to gorgeous affect. If I come back, I ...

... The cobblestone walkways are narrow and steep, but fun to walk. We twisted and turned about and kept arriving at new views of the valley or new shops to explore. Unfortunately, one of the sites of the city, the Chateau, was not open while we were there, so we gave it a miss to head on to Roussillon.

Lunch in Gordes: Croissant with ham, cheese and I believe a bechamel sauce.

... helped pioneer modern western art. I found it so interesting that I really didn't miss not seeing the originals. The museum also had marble sculptures. Most of them were busts of important men or Greek or Roman figures, but the two I enjoyed most were one of a shepherd who was distressed by the loss of his bees and a marble relief of a modestly dressed woman nursing a chubby baby by Charpentier (I think that's the spelling). One was funny and the other was beautiful ...

... where Africa meets Europe, but indeed where Saharan Africa meets sub-Saharan Africa. If the Arab is the main foreign influence, still you’re as likely to encounter a black African in traditional dress here as you are in many parts of Africa, and that makes it pretty special, many varied peoples bound by the French language, and others by Islamic culture. All I need is some WiFi and you can count me in, for a week at least. (to be continued...)

... sun! This might sound weird, but yesterday the sun in Pisa gave me a bad sunburn on my chest. Today during lunch in the outdoor café, there was ONE seat in the sun. This was not obvious until after the clouds parted and I had sat down! More sunburn for me! (I am beginning to look a bit like a lobster!) Steph's Daily Recap Highlights: Ah, free time to look around. We've hardly had any! Lowlights: There was a ...

... same thing as us minus the fish chunks. On the way back to our hostel which was away from the centre of town, we missed the last bus and ended up walking with a Romanian couple. Interestingly, we learned from them that Romanians can understand French because Romanian is also a Latin based language. Surprising because the country is surrounded by Slovak and Germanic languages in Eastern Europe. We exchange contact information and hopefully I can meet up with them when I get to Romania.