Paris is our favorite city, yes it even beats out New York, and Provence is an area we hold special in our hearts - two places we return to as often as we can. The beauty of each is breathtaking and the light is indescribable. The only other place we've found light comparable to the south of France is here in the Hamptons, perhaps it's the combination of sea air and a lush landscape.
Here is the second part of our trip summary from 2006. This should, in fact, have been the first installment, but I've reversed them here. Enjoy the trip!
Our Trip to France in a Very Large Nutshell
Our two week trip to
France was wonderful - so many memories, so many beautiful places, such good
food and fabulous wine!
Paris was
heavenly! We stayed at the Hôtel
de Lutèce on the Île St. Louis which was ideally located in the center of
Paris, on an island in the middle of the Seine – neither right bank nor left
bank, we had our choice.
It’s
charming and quiet, residential at its core, with picture-perfect cafes at its
west end, facing the flying buttresses of Notre Dame on the Ile de la
Cité.
We walked and walked, with
no destinations in mind, enjoying the beauty of a city so much older than ours.
Walking along the banks of
the Seine at night, with the muffled city-sounds above us and then eating
dinner at 10:30 p.m. in a restaurant, on a barge, rafted to the left bank,
watching all the river traffic passing Notre Dame and listening to a young
chanteuse sing La Vie en Rose …
that memory is ours for our lifetime.
The train trip south
from Paris to Nice was a pleasure as soon after leaving the city limits and for
the next five hours our views were of the rolling hills, plains and finally the
coastline of France. The TGV is a
high-speed train that is comfortable, clean and quiet. Traveling at over 180mph, the only
interruption to our napping reverie was the occasional seconds-long “whomp” of
another TGV passing in the opposite direction at speeds equaling our own.
Our destination was the
village of Eze, just east of Nice.
The Château Eza, perched over 1300 feet above the Mediterranean, was
magnificent and breathtaking in all of its medieval and natural splendor - in
the hazy sun or in the clouds.
Above the Château,
there’s a “Jardin Exotique” (exotic garden) to stroll through with beautiful
statues of young girls sculpted from stone that matched the mountain in color,
if not texture. Looking at the
faces of several brought the word siren to mind - a young woman who would sing
with enchanting sweetness luring us, this time, back to land.
This was and is a photographer’s dream!
Swimming in the
Mediterranean at Eze Bord de la Mer was also one of the trip’s highlights.
The air at the sea was dry and warm,
the sea was refreshingly cool and blue, and the sun was shining brightly.
From the water, we could look straight
up and clearly see the Château perched above all else and when we looked again,
it was lost in the clouds. For
both of us, we savor the memory of our lunch – cold sweet melon, salty ham and
chilled Chablis – all taken under the sun by the sea!
Memorable as well,
albeit vividly different for each of us, was the trip down to the sea and the
trip back up! Did you ever see the
movie “It Takes a Thief” with Grace Kelly and Cary Grant? It has a scene in which Kelly and Grant
are being chased on a road that is clinging to the side of the mountain, with
no guard rails and hairpin turns every 800 yards. Well, Peter liked emulating those driving skills and speeds
in our 5 speed stick-shift Renault Laguna, forgetting that their scene was done
safely on a blue screen in a studio in Hollywood. As I’m “here to tell”, you know the end to our story.
The Mas des Carassins
is a former farmhouse and where we stayed in St. Remy de Provence. It’s charming and has a simple but
delightful garden where we took breakfast each morning and enjoyed wonderful
dinners, by candlelight, at night.
It’s also well situated to explore the area which we did two of the
three days we were there.
We visited the Popes’ Palace in Avignon, where
the Popes lived for most of the 14th century, and walked the famous
Pont d’Avignon, which in fact is the remaining half of a bridge.
Another day, we drove to Gordes, a
pretty village on the southern edge of the Vaucluse plateau, photographed the
nearby picture-perfect Abbaye de Senanque, and walked through the restored
Village of the Bories, a group of stone dwellings assembled with no
mortar. People lived in these tiny
structures between 2000 B.C. and the 18th century!
Our last stop of the day was Les Baux,
a medieval, fortified town just south of St. Remy. Les Baux lies on a plateau which was raised from the sea by
the combined pressures of the Alps, to the east, and the Pyrenees, to the west;
we even saw impressions of seashells in some of the walkways and stairs! The views from the castle, out over the
valley filled with olive groves and cypress trees were spectacular, but it was
also hot. Sightseeing is
work. So we concluded the
sightseeing segment of our trip and hurried back to the Mas to do what we’ve
come to love – relax.
A quick dip
in the pool in the garden and a nap, poolside, under the Provencal sun, with a
warm breeze passing over us returned us to a blissful state and is one of our
enduring memories.
Of all the medieval
villages we saw or stayed in, we liked Vaison la Romaine the best as it’s more
an active village than a tourist attraction.
The old village on the hill overlooks the new village in the
valley below and beyond is a small range of mountains behind which the sun set
each evening. We stayed in a Bed
& Breakfast, called l’Evêché, in the old village and that was the view from
our bedroom window.
The house
fascinated me with its small rooms, quiet courtyard and compact stairways all
connected with a labyrinth of narrow halls. Every wall was covered tastefully, ceiling to floor, with
books, museum posters and original art – I could have lost myself there for
days just taking it all in. But we were here for something special - a
week-long cooking class with Patricia Wells.
If any of you are planning trips to Paris or Provence you might also like to check out French-Word-A-Day, Kristin has posts with comments on what to do in Paris as well as Aix-en-Provence. Additionally, The Provence Post is chock-o-block full of information and suggestions about every aspect of Provence. À toute à l'heure!