KJ is the woman who got me started cycling and introduced me to many wonderful people on a 9 day bike ride down the Natchez Trace (444 miles) to celebrate her 80th birthday. The year prior to this 80th birthday ride, she had broken both of her legs skiing. She returned to skiing and cycling. A year and a half after the bike ride she broke both of her legs again and returned to skiing. In there somewhere she broke her wrist. This past January she had a bizarre accident when a gate raised so she could ride through it came down on top of her head, breaking her helmet, hip and many teeth. I visited her yesterday on my way from Spartanburg to Nashville. We took a 1.5 mile walk including a steep descent and ascent after to walk around a small lake, She does not have a limp. I was stunned when I saw her walking without a limp. She says her limp went away when she got her Hoka shoes. She has resumed cycling although she used a different route that does not involve passing through the gates. We are celebrating her 85th birthday in October with a bike ride near Grand Junction Colorado.
The drive through the Smokies yesterday was the most beautiful it has ever been. The various shades of green on the trees was stunning. This was the first time I have made the trip where there has not been a major traffic slow down between Asheville and Knoxville.
Brady and Carli were very happy to see me and after giving me lots of kisses promptly pinned me down. I had fortunately went home to unload the car, unpack and start laundry before I went to pick up my little “couch magnet”.
I am already thinking about another trip to Provence in June 2024 during lavender and sunflower season – before it gets too hot.
Kay lives down the street from Willy Tacos. A understated exterior with great food and outdoor seating. I had wanted to go there to eat before we went to Provence but that didn’t work out so I thought we would go there today for lunch before I left Spartanburg. Well, Willy Tacos is closed on Monday. So she suggested Papas and Beer which is on the other side of Spartanburg, but near the freeway that would take me to Columbus NC for my last stop on my return to Nashville. As I was driving up and I saw the purple on the building, I knew this was the right place for today and then when I saw these musicians out front, I knew it was a photo op that could not be missed. The perfect end to our adventure in Provence. If you are very observant, you might notice that the height differential between Kay and I is less than normal. She stood on her tip toes so I crouched a bit. I think Mexican food on Memorial Day will be a new tradition.
I was awake at 7 AM and didn’t really have any sense of fatigue today. We took a 3 mile walk this morning. I used a homeopathic remedy “No Jet Lag” lag on the way home and I think it does help. I slept completely lying down last night to help get rid of the swelling in my ankles from flying and woke up with pain in my right hand. While I can’t explain it, lying down does make it worse. The pain was not as severe and did not last as long. Tonight I will sleep propped up by pillows and see what happens.
It is so great to see Katherine and Jack. Katherine was in a severe cycling accident in January with dental injuries and a broken hip. She is walking without the slightest limp and back to cycling. Totally amazing. She highly recommends Hoka shoes – her limp went away when she started wearing them..
When I was young I remember getting fake poppies every Memorial Day. I have not seen them for decades. There were lots of fields of poppies in Provence while were there which triggered the memory of past Memorial Day. Provence was did not have significant damage in the WW. Francois, our wine tour guide, thought to thank the us as US citizens for saving the area during WWII. This was unexpected.
I am grateful to all those who died in service to this country which is struggling to live up to core principles.
We got up at 230 AM with plan to leave at 330 AM with goal of being at Marseilles Airport at 430 AM for 645 AM flight. We successfully drove our SUV onto the narrow street for easy loading of luggage. While we were very quiet, a neighbor woman seemed disturbed that we had the car there. Both flights were on time. Madrid is a huge airport and the walk was much longer carrying all of my purchases in my carry-on bags. The flight from Madrid landed nearly an hour early and fortunately we did not have to wait to long for the gate to be available for us.
Tomorrow I will visit a friend north of Spartanburg and I will arrive back in Nashville Tuesday afternoon. Back to really life. I am so glad I did not let the episode of pain stop me from going on this adventure. I did not have any significant pain while I was gone – just intermittent numbness. I am looking forward to the carpal tunnel surgery one week from tomorrow.
Alarm is set for 230 AM so se can be on there road by 339 AM for an hour drive to Marseilles for a 645 AM flight. I will be driving. I have taken a small amount of sleeping pill as it is not yet sunset to help be get to sleep. I enjoyed some lovely red wine on our terrace with bread and cheese and a tiny bit of salad. A lovely last meal.We are all most packed except for final things after sleeping and getting ready.
Kay and I drove about 45 minutes to see an old friend in her home in another part of France. We shared a lovely meal; reminisced a bit but we were very interested in hearing about her decision to become an expat. She left the US on election eve 2016 and even though she is a US citizen, she has no interest in returning. She has built a lovely life for herself here.
I hope to come back and visit her again. We barely scratched the surface of all of the wonderful places to visit and there are are so many areas for cycling
A fabulous trip with wonderful friends is coming to an end. Hopefully the flights will be smooth and the luggage will make it with us.
I am looking forward to getting back for a couple of days of Habitat before having my carpal tunnel surgery which will sideline me for a bit.
Yesterday was a beautiful day. We thought we had signed up for a bike/wine tour, but we signed up to rent e-bikes for the day and a self-guided tour (it was in the small print). I downloaded their app with the map of our 30 mile course and hoped my phone battery would last.
Fortunately I thought to get a paper map before we left because my phone battery ran out about half way through the trip. Our first stop was Le Beaux – am amazing castle on the top of a mountain. We didn’t go to the castle itself but did see – From Vermeer to Van Gogh | Carrières des Lumières (similar to the Van Gogh immersion light show that is circulating in the states. Here, the images are projected on the cavern walls under the castle. The effect was amazing.
To show the scale of these caverns, Kay is posing – doing her best to be tall. It looked like the Castle was carved out of the mountain top (below).
We stopped for lunch in Eygalieres (or the E-town) where we were told Hugh Grant has a home. We looked but did not see him. Their market was just shutting down. You could spend every day at a market without driving more than 30 minutes. They all have some unique vendors. I had hoped to be able to charge my phone while we ate, but no luck.
An aperol spritz was a nice accompaniment to our cheese pizza.
The beauty of the countryside is impossible to capture.
We wandered our way through St. Remy and accidentally ended up coming in very near the place we rented the bikes. I was impressed by how gradually graded the majority of the roads were through the mountains. I would like to think that had this not been my first ride of the season, I might have been able to do the ride without an e-bike. But it made it much more relaxing to know that I could get assistance when I needed it.
We ended the day with a seafood dinner. For different health related reasons each of us had considered NOT going on this trip. We all agree that would have been a mistake. Today is our last day and the weather will be fabulous again.
My loyal readers know that I am interested in public toilets. Today in Cassis, a lovely coastal village south of Marseilles I discovered a public toilet that disinfected itself between every user. It was a bit confusing for those of us who didn’t understand the concept. Our initial encounter with one, we held the door open for each other between uses. Each of us came out and apologetically said, I couldn’t figure out how to flush the toilet. I was the last and sheepishly left without flushing the toilet after trying everything I could think of. There was simply no way to do it. On our second encounter when the door was allowed to close between one user and the next, we discovered that there was a period of time when the door was locked even though there was no one in there. There were sounds inside of water circulating and then the green light went on and you could enter.
It is a stainless steel chamber that makes you feel a bit claustrophobic on the inside. the toilet paper is above and behind the toilet. The sink and hand dryer are to the right of the toilet. Notice the floor and walls are shiny as they are wet from the cleaning process.
When you enter, the green light becomes yellow and says occupied. After you leave, the light again goes yellow and the door will not open while it goes through its cleaning process which includes flushing the toilet. Once the cleaning is done, the light becomes green and the next person can enter. The cleaning takes about 30-45 seconds. The only real problem is that you have to know to take your toilet paper before you sit down because once you are sitting, it is hard to reach above and behind you. I guess if the toilet paper were our in an exposed place as it usually is, it would get wet in the cleaning process. It was the highlight of the day for one of us (and surprisingly it was not me).
Cassis is about an hour and a half drive from St. Remy. It was raining as we drove down. We had a leisurely morning and arrived around noon when the rain was predicted to be over and it was lovely when we arrived.
This is our view as we ate lunch – wonderful seafood – shrimp, calamari, salmon and mussels with yummy bread.
Above where we were sitting was this old castle on the cliff.
The harbor was lined with restaurants and the next block were quiet streets.
We took a one hour boat tour of the “creeks” just north of Cassis. The first “creek” was a small, sheltered marina; the second was a protected swimming area accessed by hiking in surrounded by rocks; the third had a sandy beach but accessible only by hiking in.
The country side driving home was stunningly beautiful – hard to capture on the camera. Blue skies with puffy clouds and lush green all around. We took the freeways on this adventure and there were tolls on some roads. It seemed a bit random as to what segments were toll but it was pretty easy to figure out. We discovered that the French drivers tend to cut in as soon as they have passed you rather than waiting until they can see you in the rear view mirror as we were all taught. It took a bit to get used to.
Tomorrow is our last day for the 4 of us. Two are doing a cooking class and two of us are doing a biking tour with wine tasting. Mary leaves early Saturday morning. The rest of us will visit a old friend of mine in a village about 45 minutes west of here. She has a French mother and American father.She grew up in France; did medical school in Spain and urology residency in the US which is how we became friends. She worked in the US and retired to Provence. Lucky woman.
Today was a laid-back quiet day in St. Remy. There did not seem to be too many of the same vendors as the weekend market. There was on that was the same and it still didn’t have the jacket in the right size for me – too bad because I would have bought it. There was a very charming man with lovely silk wool scarves. I said I was not interested as I did not need another scarf, We had asked him to help pick out a scarf to go with my friends new dress. He tied the scarf in a new way and he wanted to pick out one for me. He immediately picked out one for me and tied it around my neck. I did love it and bought it. I asked him how often that worked for him and he said almost always.
The streets are so charming. Flowers everywhere. We had a lovely evening of wine and snacks on the terrace, followed by a salad and sautéed vegetables for dinner on the terrace until 10 PM. The latest we have been up so far. It was lovely. Somehow the song Amazing Grace came into the conversation giving me an opportunity to share my daughter in law singing a wonderful rendition of Amazing Grace at sunset.
I have not had any pain at all, only some mild numbness in the morning so I am going to try sleeping lying down tonight. I have used my topical diclofenac and taken torodol. I have also been avoiding playing Soduku on my phone so I hope I will not trigger the pain. Fingers crossed.
Tomorrow we will venture south of Marseilles to the coastal village of Cassis. It is amazing how quickly the time is going.
We left at 830 AM for an all day Wine Tasting with Francois, the owner of Avignon Wine Tour. We drove an hour or so to tour 4 wineries north of Avignon. We had lunch and he drove us through a few of the old villages. Francois wore a bright orange/red suit and had a lot of personality. Prior to starting his wine tour company 18 years ago, he was a maitre-de for nearly 20 years. He changed careers because being on his feet 14 hours a day was not sustainable. He knew food, wines and Provence so it seems to be a good fit.
We spent an hour at the first winery going carefully through the steps of wine tasting: Color, first nose, second nose, legs, taste and 3rd nose. There are 7 categories of smells/tastes: flowers, fruits, food sensation, soil, spices, leather/oak and animal. There are 85 individual scents. People who can identify all 85 are called “noses” and there are about 100 “noses” in the world.
There was one major rule – use glasses with stems and never hold the wine by the glass – always the stem so you do not transfer body heat to the wine. When it is warm outside, always do small pours so wine can stay cool in the bottle. Screw tops are fine for white and rose but they only keep wine good for about 3 years. Red should have cork. We learned how to guess the vintage by the color – ❤ years, 3-9 years and > 9 years.
Francois took notes as he was teaching us and he gave us the notes at the end.
The day was warm and sunny and the countryside was gorgeous.
One of the wine tasting places was an old home that was converted maintaining elements of her grandmothers kitchen.
When we returned home, we were finally about to sit out on our little terrace for more wine and snacks.
I was unleashed on this market today. Two of my fellow travelers are shoppers and love to buy things. I generally get a bit bored with their back and forth about whether they should get this or that. Of course they don’t NEED anything. So today I announced I did not thing I would buy more than a couple of souvenirs. WRONG. I walked away with more than anyone. It was an awesome market. Half of what I got was gifts but close to half was not. I had a great time. I think my shopping for the trip is over.
After two days here I already understand why Kay’s friend has come back yearly. I am sure there are many places in Europe that would have a similar feel, but this area is very enjoyable. There is only one more rainy day left – tomorrow and it has not rained hard so getting out is not a problem. Tomorrow we are headed for Port du Gard where there is a Roman aquaduct. There are too many “must see” things to do here for this to be the only trip to Provence. Deb – when do you want to go with me?
Below are pictures from the market – a Great day!! I got some of the Paella for dinner – while I did not exactly taste it, it was good none-the-less.
My friends who did NOT sleep on the plane across the Atlantic slept until 1230 today. I was awake at 6 for a few hours and went back to sleep for a couple of hours. The first task was to move the car before the time expired. We easily found the free public parking. At the entrance to the parking lot there was a sign for a toilette and urinal The toilette was behind a door but the urinals were just in the side of the building.
We snacked on bread and cheese with our coffee and then 3 of us went out for coffee at a sidewalk cafe. It had been easy to get a cappuccino with soy milk in Madrid and Marseilles but I could not communicate it to my waiter (garçon – one of the French words I remember) today. I ended up with an espresso with steamed mild and whipped cream on the side. It was lovely and you never feel rushed at a French bistro.
We went back to the grocery store for more wine and paper products and did a little shopping. Nothing really tempted me thus far. Truffles are very big as they are harvested in this area. There are 2 shops for just truffle products within block of where we are staying.
We had a spirited cocktail hour with the 4 of us and Carolyn and her daughter. Carolyn comes here every year for cooking lessons so she is very familiar with St. Remy. Starting tomorrow, they will be staying in the apartment next to ours.
After cocktails we went in search of an ATM with a “red bird” near the carousel that did not charge such a high percentage for the conversion. I don’t think we found the right place but we all got the Euros we needed to pay the Airbnb owner in cash.
We walked by the pink pig again so I got a picture of her face. I felt bad about just photographing her backside yesterday.
We decided to eat at a restaurant that had an item with Thai sauce in hopes I could taste the sauce. We did not have a reservation. It was completely full indoors and so we took a table outside under an umbrella in case it rained. They appeared to have 2 waitresses for25-30 tables.
We waited a long time to get a menu and a long time to order; the food did not take that long to arrive. We thoroughly enjoyed our meals and then we waited and waited and waited for the check. The waitresses spoke minimal English. I thought I had seen one of the waitresses bring a check out to one of the tables but in retrospect that may not have been so. We eventually went inside after waiting nearly an hour for the check. It seems the expectation was that we went inside to pay. I am not sure if that is the same for all restaurants or if that was because they were short-staffed.
I lasted the Thai sauce that came with the salmon tartare and ate too much bread making sure I tasted every last bit of it.
Tamara Unleashed 