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 :)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment