Chateau de Tarascon (Provence)
Built in 1400, it is in remarkably good shape although it is unfurnished. In America when our kids went on a school field trip, they would visit the zoo. Here, kids meander through castles and learn about Charlemagne’s conquests.
I know, let’s take a trip!
After spending two weeks at home once we returned from Germany last month, we got antsy and decided we needed to hit the road again. So, we packed the car, plugged in the GPS and headed for a home exchange we arranged in Aix-en-Provence in the South of France for a week. Familiar with the region, we meandered the whole Provence area once again with an eye towards possible future real estate opportunities.
Our home in Aix-en-Provence
The ramparts of Aigues-Mortes
We also made time to visit Chateau d’Avignon and the enclosed medieval city of Aigues-Mortes, with over a mile (2km) of spectacular ramparts. I have written about our fondness of medieval cities before, so we made a point of returning to Carcassonne, one of the largest and most intact fortified cities in Europe with moats and a double wall enclosure.
Carcassonne
Presumably, after the enemy would take a pummeling getting over or through the outer defensive wall, he would get a chance to repeat the punishment a mere 60’ (20 M) later at a whole new interior wall. The photos are scanned from postcards as I was not able to take the aerial shots myself…yet.
A close up of Carcassonne
Then, we headed for the island of Oleron in the Bay of Biscay, in western France, for another week in a home there. Sensing that our season here was coming to a close, we packed in as many historical sites as possible. It’s what we do in Europe. OD on history, then go home to chill for 7 months.
Meshcers inhabited caves
We visited places like Meshcers with its inhabited caves along the coast. After the citadel of Chateau Oleron, we went to Brouage, hometown to Champlain, a really big dog in Canadian history. He ‘founded’ Quebec and is a renowned figure in those parts. For our Canadian friends and family, this one was for you,.. eh!
Stained glass window, a gift of Quebec city to honor Samuel De
Champlains founding of Quebec, in his hometown church of Brouage
Fort Louvois
Fort Louvois, one fort among thousands all over France and Europe that we simply can’t seem to get enough of, is reachable only a few hours a day at low tide, as you must walk the narrow 1200’ (400M) causeway from the mainland to get there.(Its underwater in the pic) Fort Vauban in Fouras was relatively small but with so many available, we are starting to get quite picky.
Fort Vauban in Fouras
The city of Cognac, where the stuff is made, was sobering. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist!) We toured Chateau Cognac which was originally built in 950 and was the birthplace of Francois 1st (one of the kings). Since 1795 it has been the Otard brand Cognac distillery and storage site for aging the spirits in its medieval cave like cellars. The tour ends with a sampling of its $170. (115 Euro) a bottle product. While a purchase will lighten your wallet, the hooch will sure put hair on your chest.
Chateau Cognac cellars
Aubeterre-Sur-Drone, classed as one of the most beautiful villages in France, is home to a large church that was carved out of rocky hillside. With the ceiling at 60’ (20 M) and adjacent rooms to boot, it is a stunning piece of work.
Aubeterre-Sur-Drone's church
carved out of a stone hillside
The French have come up with a very cool way to see the countryside. Appropriating unused rail lines, they have what they call ‘Velorails’, which are bicycle style driven train cars that run on the tracks and allow you to propel yourself down the line. Being off season, the day we were there we had the 12 miles (7km) of track to ourselves. They have these gizmos in many parts of the country.
No trip to the area would have been complete without stopping by to visit the village of LAPRADE. Named after ME, they even built a ‘monument’ in MY honor. (Janice insists it is just the local church) In fact, she says that just because it bears my name doesn’t mean that it was named after me at all. I think she is being too modest, how about you?
I don’t want to suggest that all we did was visit forts and castles all the time as we did tour cities like La Rochelle. Such places as St-Martin de Re are both. An entire town of 2700 people, are enclosed by 9 miles (14Km) of double wall fortified stone, with moats as defensive protection. Classed as a World Heritage Site, it has become the 95th such site I have visited.
St-Martin-de-Re
That about covers the highlights, skipping the lesser side trips. All in all, an easy, relaxing trip.
Maddie’s letter
Ms. Maddie
It is not every day you get a letter from your 11 year old granddaughter. Rarer still is one that requests, almost pleadingly, to come visit you. But one that offers to fly across the country to come cook, wash dishes and windows, clean house and do laundry to justify her visit, is as rare as hens teeth. Seen below (click on the image to read it) is the letter we got from our Maddie, an inquisitive, wanna-be magician.
She will follow in her big brother’s footsteps, who came out to visit us at the island two summers ago. As there are no direct flights between where she lives in Seattle Washington and our local airport, none of the airlines would agree to escort her to her connecting flight. Fortunately, her mom (daughter Amy) agreed to come along. For us, it is a two for one bonus. Other siblings will get their turns as they come of age. Needless to say we are thrilled that they will join us for a week in August to see if the river chooses them. We are told that Maddie has had her bags packed by the door for weeks.
Our little buddies
Once a year, we invite the children of friends of ours (John and Claire) to ‘party’ with us. It has become a fun little tradition, where we make pizza, bake cookies, play games and wrap it up with a house wide round of hide & go-seek. One by one, the younger ones are getting old enough to join the big kids and look forward to the ensuing mayhem.
They do things differently here
I really try to balance the positive and less positive impressions of life in France that I share with you. Europe in general and France in particular are utterly cool places to visit and spend time in but I can’t help comparing some things with the experiences and lifestyle we have at home. I don’t want to be Pollyanna-ish about life here so in the spirit of ‘keeping it real’, here are a few more in no particular order.
A large hotel in Paris recently deleted a bunch of Emails from an organization that wanted to rent a substantial block of rooms. The reason? The emails were in English and the staff only understood French.
95% of cars in Europe have manual stick shifts. About the only cars that have automatic transmissions are rentals (for American visitors) and ours. Recently, we had friends in our car that had never seen a car with an automatic before and were fascinated with how it worked. Boys and girls, we are so not in Kansas anymore.
An increasing number of packages for prescription medications here are embossed in brail for the blind. Patently obvious, after the fact, it allows for far more independence and safety. How soon before we catch up?
A number of cities in the country have paid substantial fines for not building required low income housing. They have decided that they preferred to pay the fines (and their citizens the higher taxes to cover them) than to build subsidized housing in their communities.
Cars parked on sidewalks on both sides of the street
I have written before about the rather unique ways people here park. On sidewalks, in crosswalks, on median islands between lanes, in front of fire hydrants and on and on. Nothing will assure a car being parked in an unauthorized area like one of the few ‘No Parking’ signs to be found. They seem to act as a magnet.
We have debated why the police don’t simply cite the little cheese eating violators, solve the problem and move on. The reason is that aside from the fact that many old village streets we never intended for vehicles, it simply goes against the grain of the French ‘live and let live’ mentality. Unable to bring themselves to man up, they prefer to have people drive around the inevitable chaos. When they are dead serious about not wanting cars to park in an area, they erect physical barriers as seen below. Mostly lightweight metal frames, they usually end up getting bent by sideswiping or cars backing into them.
This ‘live and let live’ mantra is fine but sometimes seems a bit much as in the case of public urination. Relax; I am not going to become a potty mouth here. Many of us (men anyway) have succumbed to the occasional need to pull over on the side of the road, climb a fence, run across a farmer’s field to a cluster of bushes to…eh…splash our boots.
Here, it is not uncommon to see someone pulled over, stand by the front or rear of his car in full glorious view and let-r-rip. Recently, we were driving in the downtown area and saw an adult bicyclist a mere 5 feet from us at a stoplight, facing the building and running a stream down the middle of the street. Crass? We report, you decide.
Finally, I have just figured out the most lucrative job in Europe. It requires no education, training, skills of any kind, investment or people skills. You can even spend all day reading the paper or a book. It is a position that is not affected by the economic downturn and like being an undertaker, will always be in demand. Your overhead is minimal but the one requirement is that you stay awake.
The job? Bathroom attendant. You might not get a lot of bragging rights, but the money keeps rolling in incessantly, albeit in small amounts. In many public places here (highway rest stops, airports, train stations, some large restaurants) you are charged from .50c to a Euro ($1.50) to use the bathroom. (At least for those who bother) I recently waited for Janice outside of one for 5 minutes and counted at least 10 people a minute going in. That works out to $300. to $900. an hour. You can hire some minimum wage worker to keep the place clean, while you ‘manage’ the operation. Short of being a brain surgeon, OJ Simpson’s lawyer or Bernie Madoff, this is serious pocket change.
Why Janice spent 5 minutes in the facility in the first place could be a subject of an in depth future Epistle article. Then again she might have just been trying to get her money’s worth.
The Transition
As we go to press, we have just transitioned from Europe to America. Ahhh, guilt free hamburgers, beverages with ice, understandable English and at $5. a gallon (.80c / Lt) gas that is all but free. Is this a great country, or what?
We flew from Paris to Los Angeles two days ago after Janice received her VERY LAST cancer treatment. She will be followed up by her doctors in New York but we expect it to be once every 3 months or so. She is now working full time at growing her hair back out.
We are currently with daughter Kami for the week end before heading to our home on the central coast. More on all that next month.
Dad and Kami
