The south of France
Mausanne Les Alpilles, Provence, France
After saying goodbye to the Dankowski’s in Paris, we met up with our son, Greg, daughter-in-law, April, granddaughter Sydney and grandson Ethan and took a high speed train to Provence, a region in the south of France. We had rented the same home we rented three years ago with Betty, Linda and Mary anticipating that our son Aaron and daughter-in-law Nozomi would join us from Japan but no such luck. The house is known as a “mas” in French. It is a several centuries old, two-story stone house in a town of 2,000 called Maussane les Alpilles. This particular house has a huge kitchen with a large wooden farm table, a huge living room-dining room, a laundry room and four bedrooms. (Not to mention two huge bathrooms upstairs and a small one down.) Despite its age, the house has been modernized and has very modern plumbing.
Despite its size (population 2,000), Maussane contains a fruit and vegetable store (right next door to us – heaven!), two small convenience grocery stores, a butcher/cheese shop, three bakeries and I can’t say how many restaurants but at least ten...and they are quite good. There are many public fountains and “washing tubs” including one from the time of Napoleon III. It is most famous for producing the best olive oil in France.
The Alpilles, which means “the little Alps” can be seen from Mausanne. A fortress town, Les Baux, sits atop a nearby mountain. It is a charming old town with all stone buildings. It began life as a Roman fortress (very few of the older towns in this part of the world did not begin life as such) and many of the buildings contain fragments of the old Roman town, such as a doorway or window frame. The town climbs towards the top of the mountain. At the very top, there are the ruins of an old fortress-castle. Because the streets are narrow and winding, cars must park at the town gates. With no traffic, the town has an even more ancient flavor.
We have visited the nearby towns of Arles, Aix en Provence, Avignon and Saint Remy. Van Gogh lived in Arles and was institutionalized there for a while. It contains ruins of a Roman amphitheater and coliseum, both in good enough condition that they can be used today for theatrical performances, etc. Saint Remy contains the institution to which Van Gogh requested to move after Arles. His room can be visited and I found it very moving to read about his psychiatric condition in a brochure written by a physician who runs the institution and to stand in the room in which Van Gogh lived. The physician believes Van Gogh was manic-depressive and suffered from epilepsy. The institution was fairly enlightened, for its day. It allowed him to paint and to leave the grounds to do so. However, it did also follow many of the treatments prevalent in that time, such as immersing in ice cold baths, bleeding and medications that we now know to be poisonous. Afterwards, I followed a self-guided tour and saw many of the places he painted.
Avignon was the home of the popes during a period in the 1300s. Apparently, this caused quite a schism in the church and the seat of the papacy was eventually returned to Rome but Avignon contains a papal palace and many other glorious buildings from the 1300s through the 1700s. Its main square is closed to traffic, surrounded by small cafes and has an old-fashioned carousel.
Aix is one of the larger towns in France. The majority of it is modern and we did not care for it as much as the other places.
We also visited the nearby mountain region known as the Luberon, made famous by Peter Mayle’s series beginning with “A Year in Provence.” The area is more mountainous than Les Alpilles and is known for its “perched” villages, Gordes, Roussilon and Bonneaux. We passed bright yellow fields of sunflowers and purple fields of lavender. The lavender is almost ready to harvest and I am glad to have seen it. One of the major tourist products is “stuff” made out of lavender, including sachet.
We drove to the Camargue, an area on the Mediterranean where there are thousands of flamingoes and (at least there used to be) wild white horses. We took a boat trip up the river to catch sight of the birds and horses, wild black French Bulls (their horns are straight up as opposed to Spanish Bulls whose horns point forward) which showed up dutifully on command!
Greg, April, Syd and Ethan leave on Friday. Syd and Ethan have, of course, charmed everyone by saying “Bon Jour” and “Merci Beaucoup.”
On Saturday, we will meet old friends Fay and Tom Cook and leave for a mountainous area northwest of Provence.
The only shortcoming has been the heat which has stubbornly hung in the 90s with little relief at night. The house has no air conditioning and no screens so we have the choice of open windows with fans and bugs or closed windows, no bugs and incredible heat.
Hopefully, it will be a wee bit cooler in the mountains....or perhaps the bugs can’t climb that high. (Fat chance, right?)
After saying goodbye to the Dankowski’s in Paris, we met up with our son, Greg, daughter-in-law, April, granddaughter Sydney and grandson Ethan and took a high speed train to Provence, a region in the south of France. We had rented the same home we rented three years ago with Betty, Linda and Mary anticipating that our son Aaron and daughter-in-law Nozomi would join us from Japan but no such luck. The house is known as a “mas” in French. It is a several centuries old, two-story stone house in a town of 2,000 called Maussane les Alpilles. This particular house has a huge kitchen with a large wooden farm table, a huge living room-dining room, a laundry room and four bedrooms. (Not to mention two huge bathrooms upstairs and a small one down.) Despite its age, the house has been modernized and has very modern plumbing.
Despite its size (population 2,000), Maussane contains a fruit and vegetable store (right next door to us – heaven!), two small convenience grocery stores, a butcher/cheese shop, three bakeries and I can’t say how many restaurants but at least ten...and they are quite good. There are many public fountains and “washing tubs” including one from the time of Napoleon III. It is most famous for producing the best olive oil in France.
The Alpilles, which means “the little Alps” can be seen from Mausanne. A fortress town, Les Baux, sits atop a nearby mountain. It is a charming old town with all stone buildings. It began life as a Roman fortress (very few of the older towns in this part of the world did not begin life as such) and many of the buildings contain fragments of the old Roman town, such as a doorway or window frame. The town climbs towards the top of the mountain. At the very top, there are the ruins of an old fortress-castle. Because the streets are narrow and winding, cars must park at the town gates. With no traffic, the town has an even more ancient flavor.
We have visited the nearby towns of Arles, Aix en Provence, Avignon and Saint Remy. Van Gogh lived in Arles and was institutionalized there for a while. It contains ruins of a Roman amphitheater and coliseum, both in good enough condition that they can be used today for theatrical performances, etc. Saint Remy contains the institution to which Van Gogh requested to move after Arles. His room can be visited and I found it very moving to read about his psychiatric condition in a brochure written by a physician who runs the institution and to stand in the room in which Van Gogh lived. The physician believes Van Gogh was manic-depressive and suffered from epilepsy. The institution was fairly enlightened, for its day. It allowed him to paint and to leave the grounds to do so. However, it did also follow many of the treatments prevalent in that time, such as immersing in ice cold baths, bleeding and medications that we now know to be poisonous. Afterwards, I followed a self-guided tour and saw many of the places he painted.
Avignon was the home of the popes during a period in the 1300s. Apparently, this caused quite a schism in the church and the seat of the papacy was eventually returned to Rome but Avignon contains a papal palace and many other glorious buildings from the 1300s through the 1700s. Its main square is closed to traffic, surrounded by small cafes and has an old-fashioned carousel.
Aix is one of the larger towns in France. The majority of it is modern and we did not care for it as much as the other places.
We also visited the nearby mountain region known as the Luberon, made famous by Peter Mayle’s series beginning with “A Year in Provence.” The area is more mountainous than Les Alpilles and is known for its “perched” villages, Gordes, Roussilon and Bonneaux. We passed bright yellow fields of sunflowers and purple fields of lavender. The lavender is almost ready to harvest and I am glad to have seen it. One of the major tourist products is “stuff” made out of lavender, including sachet.
We drove to the Camargue, an area on the Mediterranean where there are thousands of flamingoes and (at least there used to be) wild white horses. We took a boat trip up the river to catch sight of the birds and horses, wild black French Bulls (their horns are straight up as opposed to Spanish Bulls whose horns point forward) which showed up dutifully on command!
Greg, April, Syd and Ethan leave on Friday. Syd and Ethan have, of course, charmed everyone by saying “Bon Jour” and “Merci Beaucoup.”
On Saturday, we will meet old friends Fay and Tom Cook and leave for a mountainous area northwest of Provence.
The only shortcoming has been the heat which has stubbornly hung in the 90s with little relief at night. The house has no air conditioning and no screens so we have the choice of open windows with fans and bugs or closed windows, no bugs and incredible heat.
Hopefully, it will be a wee bit cooler in the mountains....or perhaps the bugs can’t climb that high. (Fat chance, right?)
posted by Mel and Janet Muchnik | 9:28 AM
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