The Blog that Just STOPPED!

Well,it has been well over a year since Melissa and I left Saint Raphael quite abruptly! We went over to Monaco for three delightful nights in one of the cleanest places I've ever seen! Then we spent the rest of our time in Nice. It was not how we had planned our trip to end, but we both needed some peace from our experience in Saint-Raphael.
Nonetheless, the experience did not sour me on either Vacation Home Exchanges or travel, so "the beat goes on....!"

Back from Field Trip to Arles and Avignon....

Alors, mes amis, we have now added the words for tire (pneu) and blowout(èclatement d'un pneu) to our French, but I jump ahead; let me tell you first what a delightful dinner we had with Elisabeth's neighbors last Friday night! They all speak better English than our Italian, so it was good to visit with all of them! Anna served very tasty penne pasta with zucchini, shallot, basil, olive oil, yum! Then Bruno bbqued various meats on skewers including blood pudding or some such which we both tried!!! This was all served with tasty wines and Italian appetizers(stuffed mini peppers red and orange with anchoivies and tapenade)! A Provencal desert similar to Boston Cream pie hit the spot to end a lovely meal and delightful visit!

So we headed off about 9:30AM Sat. We got on the autoroute and off to Arles with everyone else on holiday! (What was I thinking?) The steering wheel was shimmying at 80-90km, so we got off to find place to add air to tires. Back on the highway and not too long after that-with masses of cars and many miles of bumper to bumper traffic, there was a HORRIFIC NOICE, so we stopped to discover a VERY FLAT TIRE-really a blowout!
Several HOURS later and two calls to 17, the police emergency number, a garage truck stopped to change the tire. Elisabeth had told me that there is a yellow vest to wear for emergencies, so I was wearing that for a new fashion statement! (The tow truck was carrying a family with some sort of Chevvy van on it!) And thus, 168euros (x1.5 for $s!) cash, thank you very much, we were off to Arles. A maybe 3 hour trip took 7+ hours.

We stayed at Hotel Regence in Arles inside the Town wall, recommended by Rich Steves, which was overlooking the Rhone and CLOSE to everything. This worked fine! That night we ate at a Frommer recommended restaurant. I had a delicious cold tomato soup with goatcheese followed by Cheek of Beef (reminded me of braised beef) with carmelized onion tart; Melissa had ravioli with basil, with a cream sauce which was almost like soup, but very tasty. (MC -- which was good b/c the cheek of beef did not look appetizing at all! :)

The tire matter hung over our stay in Arles, but we did get off to Fontvielle Sunday AM and then on to Les Baux en Provence. This is a fascinating medieval village and ancient fortress high on a windswept plateau as Frommer puts it. MC -- the views were absolutely spectacular and I managed to pick up a few souvenirs from our trip! (I am now trying to remember unsuccessfully what the US keyboard is like, so please bear with the typos.) We toured St. Remy en Provence, where Van Gogh painted 150 paintings. On our way out of town, we stopped at Monastre de St Paul de Mausolee, the asylum where he stayed. It is still a psychiatric hospital where he stayed while there. (He next went to Owers sur Oise near Paris, which I had visited during my cat-sitting stay in 2005. That is where he committed suicide.) Schweitzer also stayed here during WW1, becuse he was German. MC - very interesting place, nice and tranquil. Saw a bird's nest that had been built inside the building, into a wall of rocks.... Kind of cool.

Monday morning I knew we needed to solve the no-spare tire dilemma. So we headed off to Avignon in search of someplace; all of a sudden we saw no tire stores anywhere! However, once in Avignon, we headed off in search of yet another Carrefour, as I figured it had to be near a tire place; sure enough there was a Delko right next door! We were told that they had to order a new tire from Marseille, and it would arrive the next day? (But that wasn't all; in France you have to put on a pair of new tires, so the wonderful new Dunlop tire that was put on yesterday PM had to be the spare!)

For Monday and Tuesday nights in Avignon, Elisabeth had booked us a room just outside the city walls at a delightful old Hotel St. Roch. After we checked in, we took the little tram around the city for an overview; the super-helpful and friendly pharmacist (who also spoke English) recommended a small restaurant for dinner, Nini's, where we ate outside and enjoyed great salads and live music. My dinner also included a tomato tart filled with coucous, which was great. MC -- This, so far, has been the best meal yet! Suz/AH -- yes, she is taking pictures of all that she eats....

The hotel was a 10 minute walk to the Palais des Papes, an amazing old huge structure that we toured yesteday AM before we walked out on the FAMOUS bridge of the song, "Sur le pont d'Avignon", etc! Today we left after casual breakfast in their garden terrace. Avoiding the highway - in case of any more tire issues, we took a slower, but more scenic ride.We drove through Aix-en-Provnce, but opted not to stop, as Elisabeth had warned us that thefts are high in summer, and we had our bags not hidden in her Honda CRV. The scenery was pretty spectacular with various mountain ranges and fascinating rock formations! We pulled in to a wayside restaurant where everyone was sitting outside eating. They only served a type of hearty tomato-based vegetable soup with zucchini, dried beans, green beans, and pasta with French bread and your choice of fresh fruit which they also sold there in a stand out front. We arrived back at 135 impasse du Calme about 4PM where Kiki the cat greeted us back to our "home away from home"!

MC -- my poor mother. Too stressed, cannot enjoy even the beach! Who knew that she could not enjoy the beach?? Geesh. Although I, too, got really bored today.... We're off now (it's now Thursday) to get tickets to the boat to St Tropez -- I'm really looking forward to going there, it seems so glam! Another day trip to Cannes is in our immediate future (Sunday? Monday?) and then we are off to Nice for four nights before heading home. Mom is so over blogging, but maybe I'll be back later. Have a good day :)

Totally into the South of France....

which means that so far we are just enjoying being here and rushing NOWHERE-what a huge treat that is! However, that will change! Yesterday we drove from along the Esterel Gap (Frommer gives it 3 stars) spectacular views of the Massif (dictionary defines as clump of trees). This goes from Frejus to Cannes, although we headed back on the coast from La Napoule to Boulouris; think Pacific Highway in CA driving down the coast to Monterey Peninsula or Colorado Rocky Mountains, only one lane each way with bikers and scooters to make it fun! We didn't look down much! We saw some of those spectacular yachts reported to be to the French Riviera.
Last night we met Elisabeth's delightful next door neighbors, who arrived yesterday from their home in Torin/Turino, Italy for the rest of the month. They were kind enough to invite us to use their pool, which we did this afternoon, and tonight we are going for dinner. They are Anna, Bruno, and their 15 year old son Andrei who has a 2 handicap! They have a ton of company coming tomorrow for 10 days, including 2 doctors who studied in Boston, and it sounds like we'll be meeting them next week.
Tomorow we head off for two nights each in Arles and Avignon; both places have plenty to see so we'll have to pick and choose. I've made a few dinner reservations, so if you think I've given up my foodie reports, guess again! And, of course, tonight's dinner will be a real treat! Sorry we haven't had more pictures, but maybe we can download some in Arles or Avignon. Otherwise, we'll add some when we get home!

Settling in....

Still wondering if jetlag is haunting us or____? In any case, weather has been traditional and glorious-especially compared to the non-summer in Boston we experienced before we left! So yesterday we set off for our first beach excursion - we are beach people, as well as committed tourists, after all! There is a delightful, albeit Mediterran rocky, beach de la Tortue (turtle) 15 minutes away just beyond the train station. So we spent 3 hours there enjoying the ambiance and just being there/here in la belle France! Water was perfect temperature to give us some good water time, even though the tide was going out.

Today we started out early to Santa Lucia, where we thought we would find sandy beach - wrong! But that was okay, as after a 15 minute walk into an enclave of very high-end homes(once a realtor....) we found a secluded cove with great swimming albeit it was still pretty rocky. Swimmers were diving off wonderful rocks, etc! (We have some pretty fancy beach shoes we brought with us to set the fashion police en gard!) Still grand enough to keep us for 3 hours....

However, because we LIKE beach chairs, not towels on the ground-rocky or not- we decided to go find a place to BUY same! (At many beaches you can rent beach chairs for 15+ euros!) So yet another adventure, (Melissa did add, "Ok, kids, Big Ben on the left, Tower on London on your right", as we "whipped" around trying to find our destination!), and we did find the Carrefours in Frejus (a huge discount store), where we were DELIGHTED to find two chairs which we QUICKLY took right over to the sandy beach at Frejus, which was wall-to-wall, but we loved it!!!! We were astounded that even at 6 when we left, not many had left.

We came back to enjoy the very tasty rabbit which Elizsabeth had left in her freezer for us, as we regrouped for another day. The water is SO clear and pristine and perfect temperature! As we drive we see the distant Esterel mountains in the distance that remind me a bit of California. It is a beautful place!

La Vie chez Elisabeth....

Well, tonight is our second night here at 135 Impasse du Calme in Boulouris, Saint-Raphael with the wonderful moon (full or new?) out the 8' window in the living room! It's truly Mediterrean living with no screens and all windows and doors wide open!

We got caught up in terrible east coast weather last Friday - spent NINE hours at Logan, but did get out uneventfully on Saturday! (Never mind the fact that the taxi we were riding in was hit by an unisured driver on our way back to Melissa's place in Charlestown that sent us to the ER at MGH.... We both felt the impact, but LUCKILY xrays showed nothing. It's a longer story than that - saved for another time!) We took the train from Nice to the Boulouris station in Sainte Raphael; what should have been a 15-minute walk to her place, took us 30 minutes... with all of our bags and no exact address! :((

M. Roger David (who lives across the street should we need any other help!) stopped to offer help, and he called Elisabeth's mother, M. Odette Beaumont, who came right over and let us in. I DID have a detailed map and street, but not exact number!

Elisabeth's comfortable home is as pictured on http://www.homeforexchange.com/, and (normally) a 15 minute walk to the beach. Today we started to get acclimated - including driving her Honda SUV AND remembering the nuances of driving a car with a manual shift, finding the grocery store, and exploring the area a bit - St. Raphael, Frejus! The grocery store was like the Cape on Saturday when everyone has come in for a week of fun and sun!!!!! CRAZY! Today was not such a beach day- a bit overcast. TOMORROW promises to be good beach day, so that may be part of our activity for tomorrow. We have plenty of time for some SERIOUS tourist visits!

Elisabeth and Linda Meet!

July 26th-Well, Elisabeth has arrived and is getting acclimated to being in the States, and seeing some of the many differences! So far we have travelled only locally, although yesterday we did get to Wellesley where we met Melissa for lunch. Elisabeth is a very warm and charming woman with an enviable grasp of the English language!
Definitely the most exciting thing to report at this point is that on Saturday she finally met her “penwriter”, Linda Doucette, with whom her correspondence started when she was 12! While they lost touch for ten years, that means they have known each other for forty-six years plus or minus! They have much to catch up on, and have various outings planned while Elisabeth is here. She also met Roseanne; both mother and daughter were thrilled to finally meet Elisabeth, as she and her family have a special place in the lives of Linda and Roseanne. In fact, Roseanne had saved the letters which Elisabeth’s grandmother had written over the years to her and her husband; she gave them to Elisabeth on Saturday! It turns out that Elisabeth’s father had invited Linda’s father to go home with him was because he spoke French, as his parents had emigrated to the US from Canada. Elisabeth’s delightful grandmother was so gracious that she insisted on doing Linda’s father’s laundry, when he came to visit!

Countdown to Elisabeth's Arrival...

July 21, 2009-Well, after weeks of preparations and more emails than we could have imagined, Elisabeth will be arriving at Logan at 8PM the day after tomorrow! She’ll be here for a week before we leave, so we will have some outings as well as getting to know each other.
The following are on our calendar at this point....
Saturday afternoon-Elisabeth and Linda and her mother will FINALLY meet here. Linda wrote, “I think it is such a wonderful, amazing 'small-world story!' Finally meeting Elisabeth on Saturday will be such a high point in my life -- we are all eagerly anticipating the day!”
Next Monday, we are taking a day trip up to southern Maine with Ogunquit as our destination. Walking the famous Marginal Way with the quintessential vista of the coast of Maine has been a treat for me, since I was 6, so it will be fun to revisit it with Elisabeth. We’re stopping in Newburyport to pick up Joan (Havey Denning) and Jean (Havey Sweeney) of Arlington, VA to join in the adventure! They are twin sisters and high school friends of mine; Jean and I were at UMass together.
Tuesday we’ll drive over to Concord-great local museum, Orchard House, Louisa May Alcott’s home, the Old Manse, and, of course, the Battlefield- and Lexington, where there is Visitors’ Center which shows an interesting video about Paul Revere and the Revolutionary War.
Wednesday we’ll head down to Jamestown, Rhode Island, to visit Anne Lane, another UMass friend. We’ll have a myriad of “entertainment” options-sailing on the Fast Lane, visiting the Newport mansions, visit Beavertail on Jamestown, a wonderful park overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.
In between all of these fun outings, I’ll introduce her to Weston, the Town Pool, the landfill, etc. Elisabeth is not the “typical” tourist, as she wrote,”I'm not interested in touristic places and events. I want to go to true American events and places.” Too bad I couldn’t get her tickets to see the Red Sox!
Friday Elisabeth will leave Melissa and me at Logan, as we head to France and her home in Saint-Raphael, while she returns to Chez 56 to plan what she wants to do for the next three weeks. (She is very kindly leaving us some wonderful French goodies in her freezer...ratatouille and rabbit in white wine which she made for us! YUM!!) She’ll visit with Linda, who will, of course, have some great outings planned-Rockport is one I know of! In addition, she has a great weekend trip to New York City scheduled. (Understandably NYC is big feature of the French guide books-not so much about Boston!)