Avignon Luminescences

The Pope's Palace in Avignon puts on a fantastic light show from mid-August through October which takes place in the courtyard of the palace. Its a large space with high walls and open to the sky. The light show tells the history of the palace from its beginnings in 1300's through modern times and it is really pretty spectacular!
We took Maya and went over for the 9 pm show which last about an hour.

We had to wait in line and go through security and once we got into the space we could see how huge it was.

We settled in with a blanket on the ground and waited as it got darker outside. We took this selfie before the show began.

I am not going to tell the story here...you'll have to try and see it for yourselves some day...but I've taken a few photos to share with you.( I hope I'm not in trouble for this...I thought it said no photos but JC said no FLASH photos or videos and other people were taking pictures so...!!!)

This is about war and arrival of the plague:

End of plague and of a royal reign

 New things coming

Founding of the Felibrige and Frédéric Mistral

 Artworks from within the Palace. (You can see the size of this...at the bottom of the red robe there is a silhouette of a spectator.)

 Hommage to the founding of the Avignon theatre festival and Jean Vilar

 The grand finale with the name of the city in "needlepoint."

Since our time in Provence will soon be over JC and I went to the Friday market in Carpentras and took some photos to share. Here is the fountain in the newly refurbished square near the Mairie...all walking area now with no car traffic.

The lavender fields have now been harvested so you can see new lavender in bouquets. Summer clothes are on sale too even though the weather has been very hot still.

This stand in front of the cathedral usually has the "up to date" outfits. Looks like lime green still is around!!

We like to buy cheese in this shop near the Mairie. They also have a great selection of wines and other interesting food items. (The square is reflected in the window)

I loved the design on these sardine cans. The one on the right tells the tale of the sardine which blocked the harbor of Marseille...if you can enlarge it you can get the "rest of the story."

As we pack the suitcase I am thinking back to the great trip we've had this summer and I'm going to add some photos here of things that cross my mind.

This was in June in Cassis...could it already be so far away???

As you know I collect photos of my favorite little automobile...here are two more great colors spotted on the streets of Carpentras.

No stay is complete without a bit of lavender...here at the Abbaye de Senanque.

Enjoying a café in Roussillon!

A view of Venasque in early days of August.

 This poster pretty much sums up the summer for me.

Could this summer already be over???? Kids are going back to school as I write this...it is September first in France!

I'll write some more once we get home but for now its packing and spending the last few days with our family. So I'll say à la prochaine!! Thanks for joining the journey. 

Kringel and kayaks

It was time to celebrate Anton's birthday and I had an idea I would make a kringel to celebrate the event! If you know me well you know that the special birthday cake/brioche for an Estonian is a wonderful saffrony and cardamom flavored delight with dark and golden raisins and topped with almond slivers and powdered sugar. It is however, not an easy thing to make so that it is not too floury and has enough but not too much moisture in it! My first attempt, created with my Estonian "cousin" Ene was not quite perfect but not bad either. We spend the entire day in pyjamas as we labored over the kringel! What an event!!!
This time I was armed with notes from previous kringel baking (this will be my fifth kringel). Just to make sure I didn't completely ruin it I brought some Fleischmann's yeast packets from Portland and a little jar of saffron threads from Trader Joe's. The saffron was funny since we are next to Spain here and there is reasonably priced saffron everywhere...sigh!
I borrowed Emmanuelle's mixer and set to work in the tiny French kitchen.

Think about all the delicious food that comes out of these small kitchens...I felt I could do it too! I started at 8:20 am and the first kringel went into the oven at 2:40 pm. During the 3 hours rise in the middle JC took me to lunch!!! I was NOT in pyjamas by the way!
Here are the pre and post bake results:

 The taste was great but....it was hard to get the exact butter measurement (oz versus grams) so I think that's why the one on the right sort of spread out. Also, I could not make the traditional pretzel shape for this because the oven was too narrow for the larger baking pan. It tasted great however! Everyone seems to agree!

Maya and JC had a jump on the trampoline to celebrate!

Signs like this are popping up all over the place and that means...back to school...which strikes a piercing chord in every teacher's (and former teacher's) heart!!!

So...we decided we had to get some time on the river Sorgue before it was too late!

Emmanuelle reserved for us at the great Kayak Vert and we set off for two hours of pure pleasure.

Sorry...no photos of us or on the river. Just didn't want to risk dropping my phone into the water like I once did at Hood Canal and that was that!!!

The Sorgue comes shooting out of the mountainside in Fontaine de Vaucluse...a spring which is fed by the snow melt and little streams in the Vaucluse.

In hot summers, like this one, the water is like a tiny trickle coming out of the rock but in the winter its like a roaring rapids. Geologists in the area are still mystified at how even during hot,dry weather the river still flows steadily along. There is probably a secret source in there somewhere!

The town used to be a sleepy little village where they made paper, santons and where Petrarch wrote poems to Laure his true love. Today it is a bit more commercial with all kinds of "souvenir" type stalls in among the regular shops.

Here are some cute little shop windows and displays I thought were fun.

 This shop is in most of the villages around. Can you see all the lace dresses and tops???

I just loved these little deux chevaux cars on the colorful tablecloth!!

This is a type of beer but I just found the tray so pretty and provençal. This shop was closed unfortunately so one less item for the suitcase!!!

The XIth century church is St. Véran

It is very simple and Romanesque.

At the door I could not resist a photo of this sweet dog waiting outside for its owner who seemed to be the sacristan.

Leaving town we passed by the Petrarch museum ....

and these very interestingly "transformed" recycling bins!!

Next time I'll tell you about the Luminescences in Avignon! à bientôt!!