Perouges on the Way to Geneva Day 20

We checked out of the hotel and headed out around 9:30. It took us until 5 to get to Geneva. We stopped for lunch in another medieval village that Werner and Susan had visited on another trip. You would think that if you saw one medieval village you'd seen them all but this one was smaller with it's own charm. It is closer to Switzerland so you can see the Swiss chalet like design in the buildings using more wood. I never quite found the age of the village but the streets were totally cobblestone which made walking difficult but added to the ambiance.

We're now at the hotel near the Geneva airport and ready to go to bed to await our 6am wake-up call. Susan and Werner have gone on to Switzerland for another 5 days of travel.

Over dinner, Rick and I talked about the trip trying to figure out the best parts. We decided that they were all best parts! We both also realize how lucky we are that we have had the opportunity to experience what we have. I've made a point of appreciating every moment and it has been one of the easiest things I have ever done. I hope this appreciation will continue when I am home. I know I'm not one to be fully in the moment. Now that I've experienced it, it is my hope that I will be able to pull it off in the real world.

Thank you for joining me on the trip. I probably would have never kept up this record of what we did if I didn't have you to read it. I've delighted in your comments and in sharing this with you. I close with a photo of a beautiful rose I saw today in Perouges. Another time I wish that we could digitize fragrance too.

Avoir, my loved ones. Talk to you after we cross the sea!

Les Baux Catch Up Day 19

Yesterday I didn't have good internet so couldn't post but since this is as much a journal for me to reflect on later, I'll tell you what we did and include some photos.

First since we had to move rooms, I took some photos of the private garden in our first room in Les Baux. I didn't know it was private until the morning when I went out to explore and wasted it since I insisted that we keep the curtains drawn for privacy the day before!

We then went up to the Medieval town of Le Baux which is totally touristy and full of shops but still has charm because it is so ancient. It was crowded but was fun for a couple of hours. We had lunch and then headed back down to our hotel.

They had changed our room and while this one had no private garden it was very beautiful. With a huge fireplace as you can see!

After a rest we went to the pool and since it was so hot, I even went swimming. Then I did some exploring around the grounds and found some beautiful, private places. I think the hotel caters to the jet set as I also found the heliport.

After drinks at the pool we went back up to the village for dinner.

What a day, what a fabulous hotel experience, what a way to spend the last day of our trip!

Les Baux, Provence Day 18

Well we definitely saved the best hotel for last! We left this morning after breakfast and drove west again, back to Provence. Arrived here around here around 3 and after check in drove to St. Remy.

Back to the hotel, it is totally fancy schmancy. Even has air conditioning. We have to switch rooms tomorrow because we booked late (like the beginning of March so our room is taken the second night and we have to switch to a different one). We're about 1 kilometer down the road from the main bldg. where Werner and Susan are. These are the gardens in front of our little building.

Once we checked in, we drove to St. Remy. I've really been looking forward to this since we went to the Van Gogh exhibit in Amsterdam. St. Remy is where Van Gogh was hospitalized after cutting off his ear lobe. He spent more than a year there and did a lot of his most famous paintings. They have a walk that supposedly takes you to the different locations of the paintings.

After ensconsing Werner on a bench, we headed out on the walk. My goal was to get to the place where he painted Starry Night. So two miles and a lot of painting later, we get to the display board of Starry Night which was right in front of the Visitor's Center. It did not look like the location of the painting so we went in and asked where the location was. The woman there shakes her head and says, "Eet's in hez imagination." Oy vey. I know that he set up his easel and painted at the scene which is what it said when we saw the painting at the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam but I didn't want to argue and we were sweating like pigs so I called an end to my Van Gogh mission and we headed back to the mental hospital, St. Paul's (still being used as a center for art therapy). They had beautiful cloisters.

We then drove back to the hotel, cooled down, and went to our 8pm dinner reservation in the hotel's restaurant. I have no photos because it was so hotsy totsy I thought I'd be kicked out. We ate outside on the most gorgeous terrace with the most gorgeous people. Each table seemed to have 4 or 5 wait staff. I barely could understand the maiter'd tell me about the menu in English so I ended up getting the Prix Fixe vegetarian dinner. Oh, I also hadn't eaten anything since breakfast so two cosmo's later I was practically conversing in French and having to hold in giggles. It was a fabulous meal that took 3 hours. The women's menus did have prices on them so I'm not even going to think about what it cost.

Tomorrow Susan and Werner are going to hang out at the hotel. Rick and I plan to visit Arles and the village of Les Baux. One more day of real vacation before we head to Geneva and our flight home Tuesday. Here's one more shot I took on the way to Les Baux. As you may notice, I think I have the camera fixed.

Trigance and the Gorges du Verdon Day 17

The room in the chateau that has internet is kind of mildewy smelling (apparently most castles have that problem!) so I'm going to make this short.

Today we breakfasted on the panoramic deck and then went to explore the village of Trigance. It is much smaller than our last village but very pretty and much less touristy. Here are a few photos.

Susan and I drove Werner down and Rick took the 75 steps down to the village. Susan and I walked the road back. It was pretty steep but absolutely beautiful to see the views at a walking pace. We were also able to see the wildflowers close up. It is natural rock garden here nicer than any person made one I've seen.

After we met at the top, we left for the Gorges du Verdon (the Grand Canyon). Was it ever grand! I've never seen the American one but the views of this were dizzying and awe-inspiring. The color of the water in the river that made the canyon is the same color of glaciers. My camera has been taking photos that are very overexposed (hopefully we fixed that tonight) so I doubt you'll see the true color.

Another dinner in the chateau/castle and then tomorrow it's back to Provence to a little village called Les Baux which is between Arles and St. Remy.

On to Trigance Day 16

Another travel day. This time we traveled east to Trigance which is a little village at one end of the Le Grand Canyon du Verdon. Saying goodbye to Vaison la Romaine was hard. After breakfast I started snapping pictures as fast as I could. These are steps in the hotel in Vaison la Romaine. I don’t want to forget a single thing.

The ride here took about four hours. We didn’t take any highways just winding roads in the country side. We drove mostly through mountains that rivaled the Rockies in beauty. We stopped in a little village that was having a humongous flea market. Werner loves these things and we spent about 2 hours puttering around and having lunch.

I don’t know how I can describe where we are staying for the next two nights. It’s a completely rebuilt ancient fortress of meditation built by the monks of the Abbey of St. Victor de Marseille in the 9th century. It was occupied by different families until the French revolution when the chateau was destroyed. In 1961, a couple fell in love with the ruins and decided to rebuild it. The work to rebuild has continued until now. It’s a mixture of kitsch and comfort.

Werner was here in the late 60’s and saw it at the beginning of the rebuilding. He’s so excited about being back and seeing how it has changed.

I’ll take some photos inside tomorrow but here are some photos done today when we arrived. We had the best meal of our trip tonight in the dining room with the other quests.

Tomorrow we plan to relax on the panoramic deck and maybe do some exploring of the village. We’ll see the Grand Canyon on Saturday when we make our way back west for our final stop.

I’m beginning to feel tinges of homesickness but I don’t want to not enjoy a single moment of this magical trip.

Roman Ruins and a Road Trip Day 15

I'm tired so I won't write much today. I did want to post some photos of the ruins we saw. Again, it is awe-inspiring to think that this stuff was built so very long ago.

We then did another Rick Steves suggestion (if I haven't mentioned this before, anyone contemplating a trip to Europe should not do it without a Rick Steves book for your particular area. He hasn't let us down once from activity, restaurant, hotel, and even laundry suggestions!)

The Provencal Loop took us into olive groves, vineyard, and lavender country. Unfortunately the lavender isn't in bloom yet but the scenery was phenomenal. Susan drove us up into the mountains, through tiny villages, hairpin turns, and roads that only could handle once car at a time. Not a trip for someone who gets car sick or doesn't like heights. I don't get car sick but I find heights dizzying. It was so beautiful, I didn't even notice how far up we were. Here are some photos so you can hopefully see the experience we had. Actually, my photos don't do the scenery justice.

I'll close with a photo from our hotel room window. What a delight it has been to be here. We're off tomorrow to Trigance, a village near the "Grand Canyon" of France. It should take us three hours to drive but the drives are so delightful that it usually takes us double the time the GPS says it will.

Market Day in Vaison la Romaine - Day 14

Today was supposed to be a relaxing day but as I review what we did, it doesn't sound so relaxing. Our little village is supposed to have one of the biggest and best market days in France. It has been going on here since the 1400's. It lasts from 8am-12noon. Rick and I arrived at 9 and it was crowded and immense. Like in endless. Parts of it reminded me of the flea market my mom took me to in Florida with discount clothing, purses, cologne, etc. There were literally at least a hundred booths with fabrics and lavender from Provence. Sausage booths. Cheese booths. Crap booths. You name it. We think there at least 500 booths all together. Just as we were heading back, we ran into Susan and Werner. We didn't think Werner would last long but we ended up staying until after 12 when they were closing it down.

There was a wonderful Gypsy Jazz band that was playing at the market. We thought of Katie's boyfriend, Robert when we heard them.

We had bought baguettes, cheese, olives, and strawberries and had a picnic in the hotel gardens. Those of you who know me pretty well will be surprised to hear that I'm enjoying the different kinds of olives here...one area that I'm being adventurous.

We separated and each relaxed in our own way. I sat in the garden listening to my IPod book.

Then Susan and I went for a swim and then a walk. We walked through and around the old village. We found a little road that took us up around the top where the "chateau" is. I think I was mistaken thinking it was a Roman ruin. The chateau was built upon the Roman ruins. You can see what I think is part of a Roman viaduct in this photo.

We saw a woman walking down a little path into the woods and we decided to try it. It took us from the very top down to the river. It was pretty steep but once we headed down there was no turning back. It was worth it. Here are a few things we saw.

Had a lovely dinner tonight. We are usually dining from 7:30-9:30. Susan has been picking the restaurants and while sometimes challenging to find something I'll eat. Tonight was great!

One last photo of the hotel sitting room where I can get internet service. It's lovely! A lot different than Rick's office at home!

Provence OMG!

We left mid-morning for Provence after one last look at the Cote d'Azur out our hotel room window (the pirate ship and yacht left sometime before we woke up). The drive took about three hours but went quickly because the scenery was so interesting. I still can't believe I'm here after all the years of dreaming about coming here ever since reading A Year in Provence for the first time. I've read all of Peter Mayle's books but never imagined the real thing.

We didn't make it during lavender season but the wildflowers are incredible. Bright red poppies, and lots of yellow, pink and white ones. We saw snow capped mountains in the distance and lots of high hills with several different colors of dirt ranging from white to ochre to orange.

We are staying in an ancient village called Vaison la Romaine. It was built by the Romans and has been inhabited every since. There is an old village and a new one. We are in the old one and the only people who can take cars into are people staying in our hotel.

I have no words for what this village is like. At the very top are the Roman ruins. Each generation must have started building down the high hill. We set out walking and I shot a ton of photos. People actually live here and there are lots of art galleries. Not tacky/touristy like Eze. Mostly almost sacred feeling because it is so old. You can see electric wires and little satellite dishes but from certain angles you feel like you are in the 16th and 17th century when most of the buildings were built. Our hotel is comprised of a couple of buildings that were built in the 1500's. It's been modernized so the bathroom is great but the floors are tile and the doors appear to be original or at least very, very old.

I'm going to just throw some pictures on the blog tonight since I'm in the lobby of the hotel and it's time to go to sleep. Tomorrow is the weekly market day and it's supposed to be fabulous. I'll let you know. For now, I'm here living my dream...

A Day With the Rothschilds

After a leisurely breakfast at the hotel we explored the little village of St-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, the location of our hotel. It’s less touristy than other villages we’ve visited. We discovered the harbor well beneath us as we are perched on the hillside. We scoped out a restaurant for dinner.

We spent the next several hours exploring the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild. It was built in 1905 by Beatrice, Baroness de Rothschild. She collected incredible antiques and works of art and decorated this ode to conspicuous consumption almost entirely in pink. After touring the villa, we had lunch in the cafe, and then explored the gardens which were the highlight of the visit. I think I will give you a sample of each of the gardens, in the order shown: Spanish, Florentine, Stone, Asian, Rose, and Exotique (cacti and succulents). The photos don't do it justice without the breeze, the fragrances, and always the views of the sea.

We then spent a couple of hours relaxing on the balcony looking at the sea and while Rick slept I alternated between listening to music and a book on my IPod.

Dinner was at the pier at a wonderful, outdoor, Italian restaurant. As the sun went down, the sky turned pink, the gentle breeze was a perfect temperature and we had a lovely ending to our days and evenings on the Cote d'Azur. Tomorrow we're off to Provence!