today we drove out the the Camarge, and visited the nature preserve there. It was a nice little nature walk, a fairly remote outpost of the France park system it would appear, perhaps three or four cars in the parking lot and an equal number stopped along the road at water's edge. Mostly a place for bird watchers.
We met on the trail a German couple who alerted us to the nearby green lizards (which we then photo'd with some difficulty). THe man was making bird calls with his hands, but he didn't get a bird to come after him, only to call back. We never saw the bird in question.
We saw mostly ducks, heron, and flamingos (from a distance). Also the white Camargue horses.
We learned that the delta of the Rhone has been transformed by man over the centuries. There are channels and the runoff from rice farming irrigation has to be drained to keep the estuary from over filling. It is a tricky situation where everything is not "natural" but they can't put it back the way it was, either, so they try to keep the status quo.
In Arles we went to the coliseum, which is still in use, but opted not to do a tour, we just walked a bit, had delicious sandwiches, and walked some more.
On the way back we found a grocery store open on a holiday Monday -- it was jammed because everything else was closed. Just a big smitty's style grocery store, France style, but with Corsican ("Corse") specialties rather than Hispanic. Then we drove home and had a big picnic in the lawn beside our hotel. Wine and baguette and a three cheese sampler and the rest of the first C. Reynon sausage. Yum.
Tuesday, May 22, 2018
22 May - Aix en Provence
This morning we went to the Vasarely museum (foundation Vasarely). It was inside a cool building designed by the artist, with hexagonal modules (rooms) linked together, each with a geodesic style skylight. The works were monumental -- taking up entire walls. In the last room a group of students appeared to be rehearsing a high school play. A teacher sat at the center of the room occasionally giving notes.
Then we drove into Aix centre-ville and tried to park near L'Unic where we would meet Bruce Aiken later. Foolishly I followed GOogle's navigation into the old town with its impossibly narrow streets. Yikes. But we made it out and parked on the main boulevard.
We walked around and eventually found the Saint-Saveur church. Very interesting with Romanesque, Gothic, and Baroque elements. A remnant of the fifth-century baptistry.
After, it was raining hard and we waited for a while, then braved it, hopping from store to store under the awnings. Found a bar and took a table next to a German couple (Lydia and (H?)Einar. They were enthusiastic hikers and we talked about GC and the Camino de Santiago, and shared photos etc. I gave them my GCHBA card and said they must get in touch if they are coming to Grand Canyon.
Then we went to L'Unic which turned out to be only one block away at that point, and had coffee and hot chocolate while waiting for bruce. Then a bottle of Coteux d/Aix rouge, with Bruce, then dinner at the nearby restaurant. Delightful conversation. Bruce is here teaching an NAU workshop to students 18-22, not all artists, only a couple art students. Afterwards he is going down the coast of Italy, then to Crete ,then to Istanbul, and finally returning to Marseille by train. He flies home from Marseille.
Another good day despite the rain.
Then we drove into Aix centre-ville and tried to park near L'Unic where we would meet Bruce Aiken later. Foolishly I followed GOogle's navigation into the old town with its impossibly narrow streets. Yikes. But we made it out and parked on the main boulevard.
We walked around and eventually found the Saint-Saveur church. Very interesting with Romanesque, Gothic, and Baroque elements. A remnant of the fifth-century baptistry.
After, it was raining hard and we waited for a while, then braved it, hopping from store to store under the awnings. Found a bar and took a table next to a German couple (Lydia and (H?)Einar. They were enthusiastic hikers and we talked about GC and the Camino de Santiago, and shared photos etc. I gave them my GCHBA card and said they must get in touch if they are coming to Grand Canyon.
Then we went to L'Unic which turned out to be only one block away at that point, and had coffee and hot chocolate while waiting for bruce. Then a bottle of Coteux d/Aix rouge, with Bruce, then dinner at the nearby restaurant. Delightful conversation. Bruce is here teaching an NAU workshop to students 18-22, not all artists, only a couple art students. Afterwards he is going down the coast of Italy, then to Crete ,then to Istanbul, and finally returning to Marseille by train. He flies home from Marseille.
Another good day despite the rain.
Saturday, May 19, 2018
19 May 2018 -- Orange, Pont du Gard
Today we started with breakfast in the Ibis hotel. Surprising hearty. Rhonda saw a guy making his lunch out of a baguette and the cold cuts and cheese from the breakfast buffet.
We drove into Orange to see the Roman Theater. Lots of photos, n.b. It was cool and the audio guide was very useful. The stage was being set up for some kind of concert and the sound check, and a pianist getting the grand piano ready, showed that the acoustics of the theater were as great as has been said. I notice the wood floor of the stage was covered with some kind of flooring, looked to me like rolled out black rubber mats, presumably to prevent noise when performers walked on the stage. A woman was busy cleaning each chair, which looked set up for an orchestra. On each side of the stage there was a tan wall of plywood concealing black-roofed shade tents -- I guess this would serve as the "green room" for the night's performers.
From the top of the amphitheater you could see Mont Ventoux in the far distance.
Then we went across the street to the Museum depite our expectations of just seeing Roman stones. Indeed they were there but also, fragments of pretty good mosaic -- we learned that Orange had some of the best mosaic makers in Roman times. More amazing were the stone carved land ownership maps. The Romans had a system much like ours that created a grid. Rhonda noted that the top of the stone map wasn't north! but I bet she can't tell me which direction up was. (east)
The museum also had a couple rooms dedicated to the cotton print fabric trade (Denim = de Nimes) which was exemplified by a Swiss owned factory (Wellen) that was shown in precise technical detail every stage of the industrial process from raw materials through printing to drying. Very interesting. One mural depicted a room full of many (hundreds?) of women painting designs on cloth. From the audio guide I learned that they were painting the blue parts of the design. Other colors could be printed but blue for some reason couldnt be. The printing was done with stone carved patterns that were inked and hammered onto the smoothed (pre-smoothed in a roller) cloth. Then they were hung up to dry.
THere was also a couple rooms to the artist Bethancourt (english, lived in Paris). He was known as the one who painted women with messy hair. Some good paintings and also lithos downstairs.
We found a boulangerie on the way back to the car and picked up sandwiches and a palmiere (my favorite pastry of the moment). We drove to Pont du Gard and had to choose Rive Gauche or Rive Droite. For no special reason other than Google versus MB, or actually because it looked like the south side would be better light for photos, we chose rive droite (south). We walked along a newly laid path from the parking lot to the bridge never passing a ticket booth. On the way we saw a big festival of some sort with fantastical animals like winged golden bull and three headed monster, that looked like they had been part of a parade. THere was singing and music and what appeared to be chants by groups perhaps representing their individual villages.
We then walked across the bridge and up to the rive gauche viewpoint. It was OK there. Chris helped a group of French speakers by taking their group photo. Rhonda and Chris then walked to the museum on that side, and made our way to the ticket booth (we were already inside the ticket perimeter but wanted to be honest). The tickets let us into the museum which showed how amazing the Romans were at engineering these water systems. Not just the construction of the stone aqueducts but the whole thing (lead pipe, closed aqueducts -- the Nimes aqueduct was 90% enclosed -- and the engineering of hydraulics like overflow basins, access ports, shutoff diversions etc.). Then a silly movie with video of the pont du gard and some history.
Then we walked back across and went to the view point on the rive droite. We saw some of the festival people including the three headed monster, making their way out, but the other creatures and groups could still be seen parading and partying on the river right side, not far from where we had seen them. We crossed the bridge and found the path to the view overlook. The path lead to the very end of the top level of the bridge and we could see the tunnel where the water would have continued its way towards Nimes. THen to the photo observation spot ("belvedere" in French). THen the path continued to more photo spots and eventually to the river bank for more photos.
On the way back we stopped to listen to a band (guitars, string bass, drum) playing and singing in spanish (Catalan?). Seemed to be related to some regional festival. I bought Rhonda a beer, which we shared, and it came in a cup with a logo and web site for the upcoming "Chick Pea Festival" in a town about 10 miles away.
On the drive home we stopped at one shop but they were closed (Saturday 740pm) but a few miles later an E.Clerc was still open (8:17pm, open till 8:30) so we were able to hurry in and buy wine, a knife, apricots, a cutting board, cheese, and pringles). Like other places, they started shooing customers out before closing time -- we were told to "take it to the front" at least twice, and despite ignoring the pleas, we were still actually out by 8:28pm. "It's so French!!!"
We drove back by way of Avignon, without getting out of the car, but taking some very narrow and circuitous streets... so we've "seen" Avignon. Very impressive city wall which we drove along (twice).
Back at the hotel we enjoyed some of our C. Reynon sausage, our cheese, wine, and apricots, with three rolls leftover from breakfast which seemed like an entire baguette after RHonda sliced them.
It was a good day!!!
We drove into Orange to see the Roman Theater. Lots of photos, n.b. It was cool and the audio guide was very useful. The stage was being set up for some kind of concert and the sound check, and a pianist getting the grand piano ready, showed that the acoustics of the theater were as great as has been said. I notice the wood floor of the stage was covered with some kind of flooring, looked to me like rolled out black rubber mats, presumably to prevent noise when performers walked on the stage. A woman was busy cleaning each chair, which looked set up for an orchestra. On each side of the stage there was a tan wall of plywood concealing black-roofed shade tents -- I guess this would serve as the "green room" for the night's performers.
From the top of the amphitheater you could see Mont Ventoux in the far distance.
Then we went across the street to the Museum depite our expectations of just seeing Roman stones. Indeed they were there but also, fragments of pretty good mosaic -- we learned that Orange had some of the best mosaic makers in Roman times. More amazing were the stone carved land ownership maps. The Romans had a system much like ours that created a grid. Rhonda noted that the top of the stone map wasn't north! but I bet she can't tell me which direction up was. (east)
The museum also had a couple rooms dedicated to the cotton print fabric trade (Denim = de Nimes) which was exemplified by a Swiss owned factory (Wellen) that was shown in precise technical detail every stage of the industrial process from raw materials through printing to drying. Very interesting. One mural depicted a room full of many (hundreds?) of women painting designs on cloth. From the audio guide I learned that they were painting the blue parts of the design. Other colors could be printed but blue for some reason couldnt be. The printing was done with stone carved patterns that were inked and hammered onto the smoothed (pre-smoothed in a roller) cloth. Then they were hung up to dry.
THere was also a couple rooms to the artist Bethancourt (english, lived in Paris). He was known as the one who painted women with messy hair. Some good paintings and also lithos downstairs.
We found a boulangerie on the way back to the car and picked up sandwiches and a palmiere (my favorite pastry of the moment). We drove to Pont du Gard and had to choose Rive Gauche or Rive Droite. For no special reason other than Google versus MB, or actually because it looked like the south side would be better light for photos, we chose rive droite (south). We walked along a newly laid path from the parking lot to the bridge never passing a ticket booth. On the way we saw a big festival of some sort with fantastical animals like winged golden bull and three headed monster, that looked like they had been part of a parade. THere was singing and music and what appeared to be chants by groups perhaps representing their individual villages.
We then walked across the bridge and up to the rive gauche viewpoint. It was OK there. Chris helped a group of French speakers by taking their group photo. Rhonda and Chris then walked to the museum on that side, and made our way to the ticket booth (we were already inside the ticket perimeter but wanted to be honest). The tickets let us into the museum which showed how amazing the Romans were at engineering these water systems. Not just the construction of the stone aqueducts but the whole thing (lead pipe, closed aqueducts -- the Nimes aqueduct was 90% enclosed -- and the engineering of hydraulics like overflow basins, access ports, shutoff diversions etc.). Then a silly movie with video of the pont du gard and some history.
Then we walked back across and went to the view point on the rive droite. We saw some of the festival people including the three headed monster, making their way out, but the other creatures and groups could still be seen parading and partying on the river right side, not far from where we had seen them. We crossed the bridge and found the path to the view overlook. The path lead to the very end of the top level of the bridge and we could see the tunnel where the water would have continued its way towards Nimes. THen to the photo observation spot ("belvedere" in French). THen the path continued to more photo spots and eventually to the river bank for more photos.
On the way back we stopped to listen to a band (guitars, string bass, drum) playing and singing in spanish (Catalan?). Seemed to be related to some regional festival. I bought Rhonda a beer, which we shared, and it came in a cup with a logo and web site for the upcoming "Chick Pea Festival" in a town about 10 miles away.
On the drive home we stopped at one shop but they were closed (Saturday 740pm) but a few miles later an E.Clerc was still open (8:17pm, open till 8:30) so we were able to hurry in and buy wine, a knife, apricots, a cutting board, cheese, and pringles). Like other places, they started shooing customers out before closing time -- we were told to "take it to the front" at least twice, and despite ignoring the pleas, we were still actually out by 8:28pm. "It's so French!!!"
We drove back by way of Avignon, without getting out of the car, but taking some very narrow and circuitous streets... so we've "seen" Avignon. Very impressive city wall which we drove along (twice).
Back at the hotel we enjoyed some of our C. Reynon sausage, our cheese, wine, and apricots, with three rolls leftover from breakfast which seemed like an entire baguette after RHonda sliced them.
It was a good day!!!
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