A week in Provence
Trip Start
Jun 03, 2008
1
3
23
Trip End
Oct 14, 2008
Cavaillon,
Provence,
France
Friday, June 13, 2008
Monday was the palace of the pope at Avignon: impressive, period. Check it out around twilight time, a guy bellow out church music in the empty square before palace, which is really busy during day time. It gives you an entirely different perspective of the huge stone palace.
Tues brought my first encouter with the irregularity of local bus, as the locals adviced I took a bus to Cavillion, to change bus there to Gordes,the land of lavender, only to find that buses to Gordes not running for the day. That brought me to the default mode: organizing day around lunch. First a thyme icecream for breakfast-taste like thyme, then wander around town, take in the view, while searching for a good lunch spot. Since traveling solo, I try to always have a good lunch, when all the resteraunts and cafes have their tables outside, and pick a place with good view. So between bites I can people watch, scene watch, or flip through my phrase book under sunshine. Le Pantagruel probably has the best view in town, sitting at a corner of a stone court, it overlooks magnificent plane trees, a fountain, the town church and a busy preliminery school. A wonderful dessert of cherry cake with sour, cold cherries, cake that tasted like pure egg, and yellow, speckled vanilla icecream completed a perfect meal. A nap under the plane trees, and I am ready to go back to hotel at Avignon for next day's adventure.
Weds was bus hopping day, I miraculously managed to catch two buses that start from Avignon, spending morning in St Remy, in time for their justifiably famous market day, and afternoon in Isle Sougues, the town of water and watermills. St Remy has her market eachWed, and it is absolutely worth a visit, you have to catch the 7:40 bus from Avignon, but early is good, not so many shoppers/tourists yet, you see the vendors set up display their goods for the best view, great time to take pics. The early bus, and consequently no breakfast is good too: all the cheese, jam, olive, sausage samples that the vendors enthusiastically hand out will taste even better with an empty stomach, and you have apetite for more:) St Remy has a Van Gogh residence now converted to boutiques, and over all the town is pictureque, but I will always remember it for the delicous produces -intensely flavored cherries, flaming orange apricots, a surprisingly sweet, mild, rosemary wrapped tiny dome of goat cheese, curiously curly tomato, and purple, spiky local artichokes (that is right, you eat them raw, each yielding only two bites of sweet grassy meat).
I also bargained for a cute little dress at the market- clothes, brilliantly colored fabrics,local herbal products and pottery are all big parts of the market. With my 10-words vocabulary French, I managed to slash the price by one third. Other than the essential bonjour (how are you) and merci (thanks),I found the following expression in French truly useful: less (for bagaining and buying grocery), tap water please (for meal). Word of my favorite: enchante (nice to meet you)- such an enchanting little word.
Now Isle sougues- prettish little town with ancient watermills. Glistening with wet moss, the watermills tirelessly churn on top of emerald green creeks on one side of town. I had lunch by the water, overlooking tidy stone houses with pale green and sky blue colored window panels. You would think with such view food would be second thought, I thought so, and man was I wrong, mostly amazing piece of lamb I ever had, draped with honey sauce, and my French-speaking-only waitress toleranted my French with perfect patience and a cheerful smile. My after lunch stroll around town fountain brought me into conversation with this immaculously dressed madame- yes she is in her 60s, you can tell from the wrinkles, but she is still so stylish, and way more chic than me: tidy silvery hair, nice makeup, yellow little jacket over turquiose sweater, with a gigantic yellow rock ring to match, I had to tell her I wish I'd look so good at her age. We talked about her good years past in French embassy around the world, hanging out with opera singers and writers, about her 3 successive dogs of the same strain and name, her life now with books and a bright lit apartment in Provence. Firecely independent must be the perfect description for her.
Thurs, I had bus problem again. You see et (and) is different from au(to), thus my misinterpretaion of buses run from Wed to Sat, when it is acturally Wed and Sat. To summarize on bus: Avignon is a major hub for buses, but they run at
different schedule for different weekdays, and different months. Trust
no one but the madame at information office and the booklets she hand
out, brush up your French to be able to tell et from au, ask people with your broken French. Otherwise you will be like me, frantically trying to reschedule the day.By the way, the
train workers striked while I was there, so taking train is no easy
business either.-So be flexible, have a longer list of places you want to visit than you have time, and see which ones can be fitted into schedule. Since bus and train stations are always next to each other, check both.
And Friday, fun fun fun! I rented a bike from Cylix at Cavallion and cycled through Provence country side, The day was bright, cloudless, with a nice breeze. You pass through olive groves, vineyards,cherry orchards, shadows of tall oaks. Red poppies spill all over roadside, young vine leaves shine under morning sun, the red tiles of stone farmhouses dot the green fields, and within a few kms the cliff-hang medival villages that the region is famous for are visible, their churches, some in ruins, ocuppying the very top of the village hill.
After visiting market of my last village stop, Bonnieux, and and getting my usual spoil of goat cheese and cherries, it was time for lunch, this time at a Michelin two star perched on a cliff just outside Bonnieux. You see there is a slight problem here: I am not profesional outfitted for mountain biking, with loose T shirts and pants, but neither for dining at a fancy restaurant. No matter, the waiter valet parked my bike, went through the menu in half French, half English translation which allowed me to understand about two thrid of the menu, and dramatically presented the house specialty I ordered, lamb rack smoked with flowery herbs in its own little iron pot. After politely asking if I could skip dessert (to save a few euro, 28 to be exact), I recieved no fewer than 4 complimantary plates from the chef, over a dozen bite size tarts, sorbets, creme brulee and chocolate pot for tasting! SO GOOD. Magnified flavor of fruits, herbs, chocolate with the sweetness magnically substracted. You should see this crazy smile on my face.
On my way back, the breeze has intensified into the famous Provence wind. Not strong enough yet to pull off donkey's ears as the local say, but pretty bad. If you are a so-so biker like me, biking up-and-down paths for 40 miles is not trivial, and going against the wind doesn't make things easy. Let's just say I congradulated myself on making it back to Cavallion.
If you go- Signs aren't so great close to towns and villages, and I predictably got lost going through each village. Eventually I learnt to check the information boards, there is one in each village that show the paths. Also, I didn't know it and wouldn't be fit for it anyway, but if you like, you could bike around the entire luberon park in 6days, carrying the essentials in two bags on the bike, all gear can be rented from Cylix. I also found that at least in Provence you get a huge upgrade from the one star, bottom line hotels around 30 euro, to the the two star, 50 euro ones. The former may lack window, creating the sense of a confinement cell, or have crappy matress, broken shower, the list of problems goes on. For two star hotels, you get soft bath towels, a decent matress, higher ceiling, pretty worthy of the extra money in my opinion.
