The Provence I imagined….but we needed a few more days to seize here!

I do this blog to create memories of our travels and so that we can remind us of what we did and how we felt about each place. I try to avoid the extraneous details and of course try to gloss over any tedium. I think this trip has created the longest list of “go back and do’s” of any trip. It’s definitely a faster form of sketching (photography), but someday I want to sit here and paint.

It was Peter Mayle’s books (one of which I have read 3x)combined with Georgeanne Brennan’s cookbooks and Alison Water’s love of France that made me want to go to Provence. My expectations were high and mainly it was what I thought it would be though even more beautiful then expected in many areas. Of course we could not have the sort of relationships described by Peter Mayle, but we did find incredible kindness and almost an insistence that they were going to figure out what we were asking and help us out. At times we avoided asking when we were in a hurry because it sometimes involved the person leaving to go find someone to talk to us in English! (I will say that in this part of Provence much more English was spoken in the more “touristy” areas—and many more menus had english, but, until we got here there was very rarely any English spoken or written). It seemed odd to finally hear other tourists speaking english. I suspect this is a much more visited part of France by the English speaking. In Reilhannette the airbnb owners told us 98 percent of their rentals was to the French. Yet people came from all over with recent renters even from Russia and Israel. Even though they are from Holland their English was excellent and they were fluent in French. I bet their Dutch is pretty good too!

So so many cheeses in France (and so reasonably priced) ! Even Brant sampled them and liked many. My favorite was a goat cheese blue cheese, but I liked the other 50 I sampled too. Fran and I decided that Saint Marcellin was brie made better than brie.

This part of the trip was just about visiting as many little towns as we could but taking time to hike (we averaged 12,000 steps a day), eat 2 big meals a day and we also became fond of European happy hour in pretty cafes. Breakfast was usually croissant and coffee (made on a multitude of different devices) or pain au chócalat. And of course some great picnics after market days…made especially nice by the purchase of a chopping block and a sharp knife. So much food, so little time!

From a distance the towns would look like some off white clutter usually close to the top of a hill. As you approached you could make out details of castle ruins etc. I really was amazed how many towns their were and it seemed each one was 30 min to an hour apart. Parking was not a problem as no town was really crowded so we would try to park just outside the town and then walk in. The hard part was picking which towns!

We could both see traveling with a backpack and spending a few days in about 4 towns using the local bus system in the middle of tourist season. And we were pleasantly surprised that each town was a little different…each had a different vibe. I hope we can do that someday.

There were restaurants on decks along the edge of the river—perfect place for Niçoise salad! (I was glad to see they do actually eat this salad in France, but while the French do seem to love their French fries..there was no French roast coffee . I finally asked someone about French Roast and they had no idea what I was talking about.

Artists say it best…. In Bonnieux we saw an art studio selling postcards of their art. We chose 6….not an easy task but tried to choose those that seemed to capture the spirit of each different town we had visited. As it turns out the cashier was also the artist of the 3 paintings on the right column. Her husband painted the 3 on the left column. SHe thought it was funny that we had happened to choose 3 of each of their paintings from the 40 or so on display. She told us that she and her husband had moved there in their 50s and began painting. They were now in their 80s and still painting. Carpe diem! The pigments and paper are ready….