Leaving Provence

I finally got the photos of the Calanques to download so I will post some here. We really had such a great time on the beach before we discovered the smashed car window.
Overlooking the beach is a tiny hotel and café/restaurant. We stopped there to get a cool drink halfway up the hill so here are some photos...this is the way down to the beach. You can see the people in that tiny space near the water.

Here is the beach early in the day...

and later in the afternoon just before we left. That is a huge fig tree on the left...another prime spot to sit in. I thought the rock formations down on the water looked like Woody Woodpecker's head. There were rock climbers scaling the side while we were swimming.

We have just stopped for a Perrier menthe to cool off. The beach is down below...looks almost like a tropical island!

Yesterday as we were driving home we came around a rond point (round about) and I saw the first sunflowers that had begun to bloom in a field of green leaves and stems.

This field was located along the side of a busy road and trucks were zooming by as I took the pictures! 

This is a different rond point coming into Pernes les Fontaines...beautifully planted with lavender, Russian sage, santolina and other fragrant plants.

And here is the blooming lavender near the beehives across from the rond point.

Sunflowers and lavender are really the symbols I think of Provence and tomorrow we will leave them all behind for this year.

It has been quite a fantastic time for us with such excitement with the arrival of our new family member Oscar. I am going to miss the everyday little things we got to do. Many good memories.

Trying to do it all

Happy Summer solstice!! It is amazing to realize that our stay in Provence is coming to an end! This coming Friday we drive north to Bourgogne where we are looking forward to seeing our friends Carolyn and Laurent....see you soon!!!

Recently we have been filling our days with "things we thought we'd do but didn't get around to doing YET" and one of those things was a visit to Marseille and the new (to us) MuCEM as well as Les Terrasses du Port (a rather upscale shopping center).
The MuCEM in my mind, is on a par architecturally with the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris.

It is one of the buildings in a complex which includes the ancient Fort St. Jean on the edge of the Mediterranean Sea with beautiful vistas. Fort St. Jean is on the left; the black "bar" is actually a passageway from the MuCEM to the fort.

As you can see it is a "lacy" structure which looks a bit like it is floating. It makes me think of the window covering in a Moroccan palace...it lets in enough light, you can see out, but it keeps the place cool in the heat.

 This photo is looking out at the fort from inside.

We happened to go on a windy day so the sky was magnificent. That is the cathedral La Major in the background.

The exhibit we saw was called "Shared Sacred Places" and it addressed the similarities of religious places and beliefs of the peoples of the Mediterranean. It was very informative and I wonder how come the world still cannot get this straight????!!!!
Anyway, the museum was filled with school children on class trips and after about an hour we decided we would return next trip and do it at another time!! Yes, I have taken students to visit museums so I understand, but in my day (!!!) I think it was not quite as noisy!! Could be the architecture of the building too though.
 This photo is the  structure around the outer ramps which wound around the building like a square snail shell. Can you see the people at the far end of the middle ramp?

We also went to the very classy shopping center Les Terraces du Port. (Took this picture from a poster).

There is a Monoprix there (hurray...love that store) and here is a picture of the "rosé" section! If you can't find what you want here it might not exist!

The terraces of this center are fabulous even on a windy day. They are wide and created so that you feel like you are on a cruise ship complete with ship's railing.

For me, this is the best way to "cruise"...I'm not too good on a boat in deep sea. The Chateau d'If (the prison of Monte Cristo) is off there in the distance behind the two cranes.

Nearby you can see docked the overnight ferries to Corsica.

We brought along a picnic lunch and ate it "on the deck" along with many people. Then we had coffee in a café nearby.

Here are some views of the inside. That is a glass sculpture in white in the distance behind the blue sign.

Of course they have a Nike store but I was drawn in by how cheerful this Brazilian sport shoe shop looked. I would really like to have one of almost each pair!

Yesterday, on our last Saturday, we went to La Ciotat to the calanques on the Mediterranean to swim. Oscar stayed home with granny Catherine and we packed lunch, towels, swimwear, water to drink and to spray on the face and sun hats and umbrella and we were off.
The calanques are small inlets of wonderful sea with small beaches surrounded by hills and pine trees (have you seen "Two For the Road" with Audrey Hepburn??). You can reach them by boat or...hike. We did the steep hike (thankfully there were stairs) down to the beach and we got there early enough to get a prize spot under a pine tree! Here is a shot of the beach when we arrived. Unfortunately my photos are not downloading from my phone today so I cannot show you more of the beauty of this area.

The beach was one with small rocks like in Nice but we had our padded cushions and our meduses (water shoes) and it was glorious! Ready for the water...and any possible fish we might net.

The water is still pretty cool (cold) so it takes a moment or two (well a little more than that to be honest) to get used to it but then.....wonderful!!! Maya and JC spent the most time swimming. Check out the turquoise sea!

As we did the breast stroke Maya told me to lap the water "Its salty like a cornichon (pickle)!" It was a really nice day. Unfortunately, some creep smashed the small side window at the front of the car so Monday means a visit to the police station to make a declaration etc. etc. Not the perfect ending to a perfect day. Sigh. Well...my mother used to say "Scherben bringen glück" (Shards bring luck and happiness) so maybe it was the perfect ending. Who doesn't want luck and happiness?!

Un méli mélo

The past week here has been filled with noisy, thunderous rainstorms that seem to come out of nowhere. Sudden downpours so heavy it was difficult to see across the yard.

One of the rainiest days fell on a Sunday which meant it was not a day to go visit a fun outdoor market. Everything in this part of France is closed usually by 12:300 on Sunday so....the long afternoon stretches out before you! No new movies to see (we've seen all of the good ones) so I am sorry not to have much to show you which is more recent.

Sometime earlier though we went over to Villeneuve lez Avignon, a city across the Rhone from Avignon which some of you know. It is a very pretty town so come and look around. Some shots of the cloister...I love the soft color of the stone and that fresh little patch of grass.

I like the studs in this doorway and the beautiful arch around it. See the smaller door within the larger?

and this combination of stone and wood.

These green shutters with the inner "mini-shutter" appealed to me for their color and design. This is a hotel and has an interior garden.

Speaking of color, we came around the corner to see this fellow painting a window frame. Don't you love how the clothes he is wearing somehow make a perfect palette with the paint he is using?

We walked up along the small streets past the square Jean Jaures here

up to this gate which opens into the large park of the Chartreuse Pontificale du Val-de-Bénédiction.

The mâchicoulis you can see in the gateway above is part of the Fort St. André on the hillside here. You can see the entire fortress from the Rocher in Avignon next to the Palais des Papes. We did not go any further up since the day we were there was getting very hot.

JC and I also took the autoroute over to Aix-en-Provence where I studied for a year long ago. Côté Sud magazine (I love this gorgeous publication) puts on a home and garden show there every year and this was the first time we were able to go see it.
Aix is such a wonderful city and everyone really looks so great. The home and garden show was set up in Parc Jourdan. I used to walk through this park every day on my way to class at the Faculté de lettres. Very attractive white tents were set up throughout...it looked more like a resort than a trade show!

This is the display for Marius Fabre...this is all Marseille olive oil soap, the only kind I use for felting. Don't you love the beautiful "jelly rolls" of soap drying on the rack?!

I did not see one sloppily dressed person there. It was a bit like being at a runway show. I tried to photograph people but only got a good shot of this woman when we were in line.

I saw white, orange, lime green and navy linen shift dresses (similar to these) and beautifully cut linen shirts and blouses. Denim things in all variations, many put together with lace, silk and chiffon (see the photo above) Denim mini skirts, shirt dresses and sundresses too.

Big linen sun hats and narrower fedora style straw hats (I got one at the local supermarket)...Maya is wearing it here...

Aix was a feast for a fashion lover's eyes as were the shop windows in town.

A friend of JC's builds wood houses (something quite unique and new in France). He took us to see some he has built near Orange. I love how they look and how they really compliment beautifully the Provençal stone Mas.

These chickens were clucking about as we toured!

Then on Saturday June 13th it was time to celebrate JC's birthday....yum, his favorite cake and gift bearer!

A positive note is that on these stormy days we often get a very beautiful sunset.