France (Provence) 2018

17-NOV-2018

Arrival on time in Marseille after fast-walking connection at Heathrow.  Already it begins with a disaffected youth swearing at the bus driver for taking off without it, and vocabulary of French swear words comes in handy.  Navette direct bus to the airport is 8.30 Euros.

About a mile walk to the StayCity Vieux Port Hotel.  The hotel is excellent with great service, clean and comfortable rooms, and convenient location within easy walking distance of the main sites.  Definitely not a neighborhood for everyone – pretty filthy with dog mess and garbage everywhere and not a safe feeling.  Walk around the historic Le Painer district and stop at a few shops, taste olive oil chocolate shaped like olives and leaves (very good) and taste some terrible gelato called Vanilla Noir (where the signature flavor is black vanilla that is very sugary and very bad).

Looking for food, we stumble into one of the only open shops, an Italian goods shop called Pasta Di Lala  We chat in Italian with the owner, get 6 slices of prosciutto, one mozzarella di buffalo, some fresh ricotta and taralli. He throws in a couple of stale/rotten cannoli for “free.”  Nice, right?  Until he totally robbed us for 22 Euros and we were too exhausted to think about it until later.  Disgusting.  Down some steps towards the port, and we see a prostitute negotiating in French with 2 men from her car.

Along the port we stop for dinner at La Cigale restaurant:  delicious gnocchi with fois gras and truffles and a plate of mixed seafood (shrimp very good, octopus tough).

At Le Licor (Unicorn) we buy a fragrant bar of lavender soap that lasts all week and pick up a bottle of Pastis (the local anis drink, which they mix with water for a milky colored drink).

18-Nov-2018

We try the Global Greeter Network service for the first time.  We get disoriented with the map and have trouble finding the guide because of a poor description of the meeting place.  She is friendly but not knowledgeable of history and though she does this as a volunteer we feel we didn’t see anything unique or learn anything we didn’t already read in Lonely Planet.  She takes us to MUCEM, the museum in the old fortress with a modern extension.  Since the weather is good lots of people are out.

Back alongside the port there are many people in their Provencal costumes, probably getting ready to perform song and dance somewhere.  Christmas stalls line the port with traditional santons for the nativity scenes.

We’ve booked an Airbnb experience of a Cabaret show, which turns out to be one of the best parts of our whole trip.  At door of the address, we are staring at a large old oak door and 10 door bells and plaques.  Half of them don’t have a name or the name is faded.  We ring one, someone from first floor opens door and offers to use his phone to call the host.  You would think the hosts would have a labeled door bell.  Soon after, we are greeted by the host, who hears our chatter, and we walk into this huge studio apartment, which was her mother’s atelier for theater and opera costumes.  There are books, antiques, dresses, everywhere.  Story is that in this area was a jail for ship workers, and the roof that is mostly long, round, pieces of wood are old ship masts.

On the big farm table are a cutting board of slices dried sausage, some wine, and a black / white cat.  We sit, show starts, thin man in black goes to the piano and starts playing a song.  5 minutes later, the energetic host / entertainer comes out.  He looks an awful lot like Billy Zane.  Wearing a white large brim, the host bursts into old time, 1920-30s French songs for the next hour.   He speaks English and Italian to us, asks us to interact and sing along.  During one song, a tortoise colored cat jumps from a tall chair into the shadows.  Jean-Christophe, the singer-host went to school in Wisconsin for a year.  The piano player is Romanian and spent the last 17 years in Morocco, most of those years playing piano at Rick’s Cafe in Casablanca.

Dinner just down the street at Les Sens des Mestiers.   We order yummy pumpkin/squash soup with roasted seeds and chorizo croutons as well as as “assiette de cochonaille,” which I supposed translates to “dish of pork things.”  Main courses are a fried fish without skin and an assembly of other starters, including supions (little squid) and a camembert melted with honey on top.  Dessert was chocolate lava cake.   Talked to an Italian family from Sicily traveling with their teen.

19-NOV-2018

Super ripe persimmons for breakfast, among other things.

We have an Airbnb Experience with tour guide Mathias, who tells us the Immigrant History and walks us through different neighborhoods.  He shows us Rue de Aubagne, where a tragedy occurred a couple of weeks ago when a building collapsed and killed 8 people, injuring others and displacing many.

We did around the street with markets, colorful spices, Turkish delight, ready made food and bread.  Marseilles Emporium is a cool antique market that sells old time gadgets and soap and things.  Another stop is Maison Blaize, an old herbal market with 6 generations of history before it was sold to an outside person.   We tasted flavored tea and smelled some others.  We stop for drinks with the group before we hobble off to hotel for our luggage.

We stop at a run down restaurant manned by someone who looked north African and kabob plate.  Some guy who was there pointed to skewers in the fridge and said they were good, so we got that meat.  It was dark colored, and we thought it was beef. Well, when the man got his sandwich, he sniffed it, said something to the man about “bad” left on counter and stormed away, which was not a good.  At first taste, we realized it was liver, which we tried to smother with the tomato and onions and lettuce salad, olives and lots of french fries.  At the train station we drowned out the bad taste at McDonald’s for McFlurries to take the taste from out mouth.  KitKat balls and Speculoos are the local flavors.

The TGV takes only 30 minutes to Avignon and we wait about 15 minutes for the 5 minute transfer to the central station and then a 10 minute walk to our apartment.  Our airbnb host is waiting for us to give us the keys to the apartment.  She tells us about a temporary market of local products in the main square, Place d’Horloge, which is just a couple of minutes walk.  We go and load up on cheese, jam, charcuterie, and wine, and we come back for a picnic dinner in the apartment.

We would have gotten a crepe, but the lady would not less us mix chocolate with fruit since that would “not be good” so we kept our Euros to ourselves.  Love the European “the customer is always wrong” attitude.

20 Nov-2018

Morning is brisk as we walk to the Palais des Papes and to the famous Pont d’Avignon.  We see a poster about free museums, so we jump into a Tourist Office and confirm that now all the city’s municipal museums are free.  The girl in the office is very friendly and helpful and circles all the free museums on the map.  We stop at a boulangerie for pissaladiere (like a pizza with onions and anchovy paste) and then eat our eggs with cheese and arugula.

We get a banana and nutella crepe where the girl tells us we can’t take a friggin photo of their   chain store crepe machine, like it’s some trade secret.  Tried to visit the museum with theatrical costumes, but “exceptional” closing for today (except when we come back tomorrow it’s also mostly closed).

Visit the Palais de Roure (small house museum).  Really enjoy the Musee Lapidaire, a church converted into museum of classical statues (lots of Green and Roman items as some Egyptian).Monoprix to find Paw Patrol chocolate advent calendars. 90 minute nap then back out for more sightseeing.

Dinner is at 6:30 at Fou de Fafa, which is great not only because it is open at 6:30 but also because of the food. Very nice, hostess extremely nice, who allows my wife to speak French.

Appetizer was squash and pumpkin soup with chorizo croutons and pumpkin seeds as well as pear / roquefort , candied walnut salad, amuse bouche was cold tomato soup, main dish was duck breast in berry and orange sauce, and pork loin with cooked apple on top.  Dessert was marscapone ice cream for one serving and small portion of banoffee pie.

21-NOV-2018

Hacked off slices of the delicious cured pork shoulder, it is so lean, served with fried eggs, soft cheese, and day old bread with prune jam.

First museum is the Petit Palais.  Lots of 14^th – 15^th century paintings, antiquity stone carvings, juxtaposed with some new types of art.  I liked a carved stone statue of a decomposed Cardinal , bones showing through the skin.  Highlights here are the Botticellis, a few are on loan to Louvre.

Leave that place and visit Le Halle indoor stall / market.  A few dozen stalls sell bread, peking duck, cheese, tapenade, sausage, candied fruit, etc.  Vendors are breaking down because who wants to sell food at lunch time????

We walk to museum of Monte, which is history of pawn shops in Avignon, and it had just closed at 12 PM. So, we walk around wonky streets to Restaurant Au Périgord Gourmand, Rue du Vieux Sextier, Avignon.  They are advertising 14 Euro 2 part lunch, so we bite.  Inside is nice, busy with locals.  We order one entree, fois gras on soft gingerbread, that was delicious. Steak and pasta are both terrible. Dessert was yellow generic ice cream with syrup and apple tart.  The tart was super sugary, jello like, apple, crust was thin and okay.  Ice cream was generic grocery store low end. At least the bread was good.  As often happens in Europe, the credit card machine all of a sudden doesn’t work.  We had to go to across street to get euros out of the banc-o-mat.  To punish their ineptitude we paid with a 50 Euro note.

Walk back to Pawn shop museum.  Turns out Monte means collaborative, and a church order from the north of Italy started a collaborative to honestly help people with pawning.  Also, silk trading.  This small place was a silk manufacture company and pawn shop.  They went into silk trade later to increase resources.  Silk can weigh more with water and dishonest sellers add water and buyer can tell and get more money for weight.  This was also a place of 1968 uprising, something happened here.  Lots of posters on the outside.  Inside is a presentation of struggle.  Inside also had large enameled barrels where silk was dried.

Next stop the Musee Calvert.  Very large and cool, long, lots of art. Dinner tonight was all the cheese , bread, cakes, yogurts from today.  Very good.

22-Nov-2018

Thanksgiving Day and the highlight day of the trip.

Walk to Tourist Center for 8:30 tour with Provence Reservation.  We talk to 2 Australian women from Queensland, who live in northern France during their winter. Driver/guide Julien pulls up and is driving a Vito Mercedes van.

Nice ride to country side and first stop in Rousillon at a shop called 1830, which is a small chain store but this one is unique in that it has homemade gelato, hazelnut and Aix cookie, both among the best we’ve ever had.  We make another stop in the town of Gordes.

Stop along the river at Fontaine la Vaucluse, which is lovely and peaceful since it’s mostly shut down for winter.

St. Remy and a visit to the mental hospital and cloister where Van Gogh was housed for a year.  Cleverly they have replicas of his paintings in front of the locations that inspired them.

 

An off-tour request stop to a defunct quarry that projects art along the walls with piped in music – an extraordinary experiences, Carrieres de Lumieres.

 

Final stop at the UNESCO site, the massive aqueduct at Pont de Garde.

23-Nov-2018

TGV to Marseille.  Walked downhill while avoiding people and dog mess to StayCity Hotel.

Mistake to go to lunch at a restaurant in the Panier district recommended by our Greeter on the 2^nd day.  Flavorless fish and bad spaghetti with clams.  Overpriced and awful.  Good service by French standards.  Day saved by excellent olive oil hot chocolate.

We use the Metro for the first time to get to La Cite Radieuse, designed by Le Corbusier and now condos but the tourist board retains one apartment for tours.  Tours are French only (there are some English tours on weekends) and must be reserved through the Marseille Tourist Board.  Guide is very good and it’s fascinating.

In the mall near the metro we shop at Auchon supermarket in basement. We get several kinds of raw milk cheese, persimmons, yogurt, prosciutto, quince jam, chocolate, wine.

24-Nov-2018

Day trip to Aix-Provence for its weekly market.  Lots of construction,  sidewalks torn up.  Good amount of tents and tables here, selling fruit, fish, soap, even cat-nip.  an old man with white beard selling honey, an Italian customer tells  his son it is Santa Claus.  We walk around and taste bread, we purchase goat yogurt, unflavored.  Eventually we purchase 3 dry figs.  Wow, long line of people getting apples and pears and other fruits, with spots, must be from a farm.

We pop into a Quebec style bakery and get a choco-smile, which is a long bread in shape of smile with chocolate inside.

We check our iPhone and discover Le Bistro is open and 4.5 stars.  Cute little place, a 100 meters off main strip by itself.  We order braised duck leg with sliced potatoes and mimma orders special of day which is 4 lamb chops with rosemary and ide of potatoes dauphinois,  all very good.

At the museum we had to check our bags with dangerous baguettes and water bottles. Of course, the sculpture exhibit is closed, but we saw many works of art.  Lots of Picasso, Cezanne, Giacometti.  A guide was discussing an enormous 15 foot tall painting with mythical figures and naked.  Outside this, we had to walk 300 meters down a street to the museum extension.  In this chapel converted to a museum, we see The Only Van Gogh in a Provence public collection and lots more Picasso drawings and painting.

We walk back to the train station, passing through the Christmas markets and get (2) bottles of Noir beer.  We spy a Magic Show tent where a line of people are crowding to play some form of 3 card monti.

25-Nov-2018

Waste the entire day to get to the airport early and avoid the protestors and their road closures only to have our flight delayed by British Airways incompetence and miss our dinner reservation in London.  The concierge takes pity and gives us a free drink coupon so we enjoy a dinner in the Sheraton Grand’s Palm Court restaurant, which is not bad.

26 November

Breakfast at The Wolsely and then a stop at the Natural History Museum before flying home from London.