Our Grand Tour of Europe

November 20

We are beginning to see the stirrings of the Christmas season in Provence. This afternoon Kelly went to “un atelier” (a workshop) at the Maison du Livre et de la Culture de Bonnieux (the community center) with about twenty other village children, mostly girls. The children worked with several volunteer mothers to make a variety of Christmas craft items. Lisa Thompson and her daughter Alayna led a few of the craft projects, so Kelly was especially excited to be there. Lisa said that most of the volunteer mothers were expatriates. Kelly had a great time and wants to go back next weekend too.

In the last week we’ve noticed that Christmas decorations have been put up in the village—lights on the streetlamps and stretched across the narrow streets. One set of lights says “Joyeuse Fêtes” (Happy Holidays). All the villages seem to be putting up these lights—even the tiny hameau (hamlet) of St. Veran on the other side of Lacoste. They have just one lighted decoration on the side of a barn along the road. None of the lights are turned on yet, but all the villages are ready for the holiday season.

November 24

We made a major grocery shopping expedition into Apt today, buying everything for our American Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. The Leclerc supermarket has started stocking some items for Christmas—an aisle of Barbie dolls, games and books and also some wrapping paper and candles. I was interested to see some American games—Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit, even Rummikub—but shocked at the prices… over 50 euro! The ice cream freezer section has been rearranged to make room for some ice cream desserts called “Bûche de Noël.” These “Christmas logs” are ice cream rolls with combinations of different flavors. They look wonderful. Kelly and I think we’ll try some out over the next few weeks so we can decide which one to serve on Christmas Day.

In America it seems that the retail Christmas season now starts as soon as the Halloween candy is put away. Christmas arrives much later here in Provence. I like that.

November 25

The Widrows brought us a special gift when they came for Thanksgiving Dinner tonight—a little book called “Noëls en Provence”. Now I can learn about all the Christmas customs here. I’ll also improve my French language skills, since the book is in French! We want to participate in many of the local Christmas activities and also observe many Provençal Christmas customs in our family celebration.

I’m especially interested in the tradition of “Les Treize Desserts,” a spread of thirteen desserts and the grand finale of the family Christmas Eve meal following the midnight mass. The desserts represent Christ and his twelve apostles, and there is a specific list of desserts that should be included: fruits, nuts, certain kinds of candies, and a special kind of bread made with olive oil. I’ve seen somewhat different variations of this list, and I think there may be some regional differences. Even though it seems a rather odd combination of food, Kelly and I have decided we’re going to serve Les Treize Desserts.

November 27

Kelly went to the second “atelier” in the village today. She loves making crafts and being around the other kids, especially Alayna. All these craft projects will be sold at a Marché de Noël in the village on December 12th. Kelly wants to be sure we go early so we can buy the candle she decorated.

December 1

I talked with Mariette today and made arrangements to get our rent money to her tomorrow. We chatted a bit about Christmas. She said something about an advent calendar, and I realized it was already the first day of December. We had brought over two advent calendars from home, and I had almost missed putting them up. One of the calendars we’ve had since Kelly was very small and is reusable every year. It’s a fabric wall hanging maybe two and a half feet long. The top half is a white Christmas tree. The bottom half has little numbered pockets, each one with a little stuffed fabric ornament with a bit of velcro on the back to attach them to the tree. The second Advent calendar is more traditional; we bought it in Salzburg last Christmas to use this year. This calendar has a beautiful scene of Salzburg, topped with the castle, and little doors that open each day to show a tiny picture. Today’s door opened to a picture of Mozart.

Charley’s daughter Angie brought a suitcase of winter things for us when she visited at the end of October. For Christmas I had packed the two advent calendars, our Christmas stockings, and a box of special unbreakable tree decorations. At home I often put up Christmas decorations the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Things seem to ramp up more slowly here in Provence. I haven’t even seen Christmas trees for sale. I’ll need to ask Kevin if the French even put up Christmas trees! We’ll wait a week or so to do any other decorating.

December 3

Tomorrow—the fourth of December—is the feast day of St. Barbe, what I now know (from Mariette and my little book) is the traditional beginning of the Christmas season in Provence. Our little Christmas book also says we should plant wheat seeds in cotton and water in a saucer tomorrow… if the wheat grows well by Christmas Day, we will have great prosperity in the new year. The little packets of wheat seeds are supposedly sold at the boulangerie (bakery), with the money going to charity. Charley bought our seeds when he went to buy bread this morning and I bought a pack of cotton at Leclerc, so we’re all ready to plant our wheat tomorrow.

I noticed more Christmas displays at Leclerc today—lots of special holiday candy and champagne. I bought another advent calendar for Kelly. This one has a little chocolate treat behind each door with bits of a story in French on the back of the door. She’s definitely more excited about this calendar than the one from Salzburg!

December 4

Kelly and I planted our wheat seeds first thing this morning… three saucers of cotton, seeds and water. You’re supposed to do the saucers in multiples of three… something to do with the Father, Son and Holy Ghost?? I’m not quite sure why.

We went to Aix-en-Provence for the day… about an hour from here, on the other side of the Luberon mountains. Charley and I really enjoyed Aix when we visited a few weeks ago and were anxious for Kelly to experience it too. It’s a small city of 135,000 with a university and is quite cosmopolitan. Today we shopped at the big outdoor market that covers several squares in the town. I picked up a variety of small items for Christmas gifts. We have friends coming for Christmas—the Rohde family and Scott McDonald—and I’ve decided to put together a basket of regional food items and accessories as our “big” Christmas present for the adults. Today we bought olive oil, herbes de Provence, tapenade, and pottery garlic graters.

The Aix Christmas market started this week and will run for the entire month. There were 54 wooden booths lined in two rows along one side of the Cours Mirabeau, the beautiful and very famous tree-lined street. There are cafes along one side and several fountains in the middle. I especially like the fountains covered with moss. The booths were on the side of the street without all the cafes… mostly selling expensive artisan crafts and food delicacies.

At the end of the Cours Mirabeau, by the big fountain at the Place de la Libération, was a small carnival with kiddie rides and also a santon fair. I was looking forward to seeing the santon fair, since Kelly and I have talked for months about buying a set of santons so we could have a little crèche.

“Santons” are a very big part of the Christmas tradition in Provence. The word “santon” means “little saints.” The santons are little handmade clay figurines used in a nativity scene or crèche. Most of the churches set up a large crèche, but most families also have their own small crèche at home. Some of the santons are the traditional people and animals in the nativity story—the baby Jesus in the manger, Mary, Joseph, angels, shepherds, the three kings, camels, a donkey etc. But over the years the Provençal artistans have expanded the traditional figurines to include a whole series of Provençal villagers, all dressed in the bright native costumes: the mayor, the priest, a baker, a fisherman, musicians… even the poet Frédéric Mistral. There are about 100 “santonniers” in Provence, skilled craftsmen who each design and produce their own unique line of santons. The santons come in various sizes… most with handpainted features and clothes. I especially like the larger santons which are handpainted and then dressed in real clothes made of the bright Provençal fabrics. Santons are sold in some shops all through the year, but there’s a big emphasis at Christmas and many towns (like Aix) have a special santon fair. Families select a santonnier and build their collection over time, adding a few each year.

The Aix santon fair had maybe twenty different santonniers, each with a little booth overflowing with the figurines. Some of the booths also sold little village buildings and landscape pieces made of small stones. Kelly and I were overwhelmed… by the choices and also the prices. I had hoped to buy a Holy Family for our own crèche, with the intention of adding to it somehow over time—though I wasn’t sure how I would do this from the USA. I just couldn’t deal with the prices today. The taller santons with the clothes that I liked so much were about 40 euro each. I told Kelly we wouldn’t be doing the santons after all. We were both disappointed, but Charley was probably relieved. Although he normally supports whatever I want to do, I know he wasn’t that interested in investing in a santon collection, and we do already have a big nativity set at home.

On the way back from Aix, we detoured to the Château Val Joanis winery near Cadenet, on the southern side of the Luberon. This is one of the largest and most prestigious wineries in the Luberon, recognized for the quality of the wine and the beauty of the setting. At the Bonnieux market on Friday, someone had handed Charley a little flyer indicating there was a Christmas market at Val Joanis. The winery is out in the countryside… truly a beautiful spot. Today it was very, very crowded—lots of people must have gotten those flyers. The Christmas market was set up in several of the big winery rooms, and there were some interesting decorations and food items for sale. There were also dégustations (wine tastings) in a long tasting room at the back of the winery building. The line at the sole cash register was very long, so we decided not to buy anything or taste wine today. Instead we walked back to the extensive gardens behind the winery and wandered around for fifteen minutes. The gardens were beautiful, even in December. We want to go back in the spring.

December 5

We went to a special lunch at the Chez Bru bistro in the village of Eygalières today, the final installment of my going-away present from the ImagePoint partners. On the way back, we stopped outside the village at the Chapelle St-Sixte, a beautiful 12th century chapel in an equally beautiful setting overlooking the jagged Alpilles mountains. As we walked back to our car, I noticed people in the nearby woods, emerging with armloads of greenery with red and orange berries. Charley and Kelly went into the woods and gathered up some of the pretty greenery. We’ll use it to decorate our house.

December 8

We went to Kevin’s house today for one of our French lessons with Elisabeth. Kelly played with Thomas and the dog Onyx while Charley and I worked with Elisabeth. We’re making progress… at least I think we are. And we’re really enjoying ourselves too. Elisabeth makes the lessons a lot of fun. We’ve started with the verb “être” (to be), and she asks questions that we each have to answer. Some of the questions are about our husband or wife, and it’s funny for Charley and I to explain how we see each other. Elisabeth says this is the first time she’s taught a husband and wife together—some of her questions can be a bit awkward with the spouse sitting right there. The three of us laugh and laugh.

The Widrows now have a crèche and a Christmas tree. In the last few days several of the local stores have put up notices about “sapins” (Christmas trees). When I saw the sign at Leclerc, at first I thought it was another special meat sale—like “lapin” (rabbit)—but a sapin is a pine tree. The trees are sold at bricolage (hardware) stores and supermarchés like Leclerc. We stopped at Charley’s favorite store (Mr. Bricolage) and picked out a sapin. We also bought a can of gold spray paint (expensive!), which we’ll use to make some decorations for the house.

When we got home, Charley made a homemade stand for our tree. He’s so clever at things like that. We set the tree in the alcoved doorway in our living room. I got out our box of decorations, and Kelly and I put the garlands and ornaments on the tree. I had looked at electric lights at Leclerc and decided they were too expensive for a one-time use. Charley rigged up a little spotlight to shine on the tree instead.

Charley also made a wooden stand to hang our stockings over the dining room fireplace mantle and spray-painted it gold. Now that our “Charley,” “Kathy” and “Kelly” stockings are over the mantle, La Bastide Vieille feels even more like home. Charley and Kelly went outside and spray-painted big pinecones Kelly’s collected from our yard the past few weeks. Then Charley went out in the woods and found pine branches and holly with berries. He added that to the greenery they had gathered at St. Sixte church last weekend and decorated the dining room mantle. It looks just great!

I bought a “trial” ice cream Bûche de Noël at Leclerc today… this one was a mix of several chocolate flavors. We tried it out at dinner tonight and loved it. We’re anxious to continuing our sampling process over the next few weeks.

And our little saucers of wheat are already starting to sprout after only four days—amazing!

December 9

A box of Christmas gifts arrived from my parents today… a big box with at least twenty wrapped packages. We’ve stacked all the gifts up by the dining room fireplace. Several of the packages marked for me look and feel very much like paperback books. This is a gift I need desperately, as I’m almost out of reading material. Kelly couldn’t help herself. She went ahead and unwrapped one of the packages that she was convinced was a recorder… and of course, it was. She decided to learn to play a Christmas carol on her new recorder and accompany Charley on the piano as a surprise for our guests on Christmas Eve. She and Charley started working on Silent Night tonight.

I e-mailed my mom to let her know that the package had arrived. Since we’re having company for Christmas and will likely have a very busy Christmas morning, she’s suggested that we start opening them one a day in the week or so before Christmas. Kelly is thrilled by that idea. As my eyes are drawn to the several packages that are likely books, I’m also very happy to start opening early.

December 11

Our friend John Hoffman from Knoxville is visiting us for the weekend, a side trip following several days of business in Lyon. Charley took John with him to Bonnieux this morning on a bread run to Monsieur Henri Tomas’ boulangerie. Although his boulangerie/patisserie isn’t at all fancy, Monsieur Henri has become somewhat “famous” in this part of Provence since the well-known food critic (and cookbook writer) Patricia Wells discovered him and wrote about him in one of her books. He makes wonderful croissants, though Charley prefers the bread—and the parking arrangement—at the bakery lower in the village. A few years ago a visitor from England took one of Monsieur Henri’s famous almond gallette pastries to Tony Blair, the Prime Minister of Great Britain. Monsieur Henri received a fan letter from Tony Blair, which he has proudly shown to Charley. This morning I asked Charley to talk with Monsieur Henri about Christmas morning and whether or not he would be open. We’ll have five guests with us for Christmas and want to be sure we have great croissants for our Christmas breakfast.

Monsieur Henri told Charley he would be open on Christmas morning, and Charley went ahead and placed an order for 20 croissants and a couple of baguettes. Henri asked, “Et une bûche de Noël??” And Charley, of course, said “oui!” So it looks like we will have a Monsieur Henri bûche de Noël instead of one of the ice cream bûches from Leclerc. So much for the rest of our sampling plan!

Tonight we took John to dinner at a restaurant in Coustellet called Maison Gouin. This place was highly recommended by Cynthia and Ian and has a great environment. It’s been run by the same family since the 1920’s. They serve a set four-course meal—wonderful veal tonight—and you go down into their wine cellar to pick out your own wine. As we drove back through the countryside, we could see our villages of Bonnieux and Lacoste both illuminated on their hilltops. Kelly asked if we could drive into Bonnieux and look at all the Christmas lights. The village has maybe fifteen sets of lights crossing up over the street in various places on the little tiered streets. Some of the shops also have a few simple decorations. We’ve noticed just a few private homes in Provence with a strand or two of Christmas lights outside… nothing like the elaborate decorations of some families in the USA. Kelly was excited to see the Bonnieux lights though. “This makes me proud of my village,” she said.

December 12

It was a gorgeous day today. John was interested in going to a Catholic mass this morning, and so Charley took him to the morning mass at the beautiful Abbaye de Senanque hidden in a valley near Gordes. This is one of the most photographed spots in all of Provence, the grounds covered with lavender in the summer. We had stopped by the abbey yesterday, and I had seen a sign there yesterday indicating that their services were open to the public. When Charley and John got back to the house about 10 am, we all drove to Bonnieux for the village Marché de Noël before heading out on a day of sightseeing in Provence. Kelly wanted to get to the Christmas market early so we could be sure to get the candle she made at the atalier.

The Bonnieux Maison du Livre is a big community center next to Kelly’s school. It includes the library, a couple of meeting rooms and a big multipurpose room with a stage. I think there’s also a big kitchen. A variety of community events are held here, including occasional dances and movies. Today the big room hosted the Christmas market. Tables surrounded the walls, most of them displaying items made by local artisans. One side of the room was filled with a big booth selling the items made by the village schoolchildren (including Kelly), all beautifully displayed and really quite a variety at a reasonable cost. The money raised goes to support special programs at the school. Lisa and Alayna Thompson were running the booth when we arrived. Kelly and I bought several items—Kelly’s candle (of course), a little wreath of dried leaves and berries that Kelly helped make, and a couple of ornaments. The village had a sit-down brunch at noon, but we had decided not to participate so we could show John more of Provence.

Kelly was proud to show John her school, and he took a couple of photos of her in the schoolyard. His wife works at Kelly’s school at home, and we hope they can use the photos in a special program on France.

December 16

Kelly stayed at school today for lunch. We have asked her stay there one day a week so Charley and I have more flexibility in our schedule. She really prefers to eat at home, where she knows she can get a meal she likes. She didn’t like the main course at school today, but they had a bûche de Noël and clementines (tangerines) for dessert.

We had visitors tonight after dinner—two pompiers (firemen) selling their annual calendar. Charley chatted with them and donated five euro for the calendar. The door-to-door selling of calendars is another tradition in Provence at this time of year.

December 18

Kelly had school this morning… how strange for her to be going to school on a Saturday morning! Most of the French schools have classes on Saturday morning, but our village school voted to have fewer holidays throughout the year and not have school on Saturday. Today was one of the few exceptions. Charley and I dropped Kelly off at school a bit before 9:00 am and then drove to Apt for the big Saturday market. I really like the whole environment of this market, and we try to go a couple Saturdays a month. There must be at least 200 sellers, filling the squares and parking lots and lining the tiny streets of downtown Apt. The town is filled with people every Saturday, and the market in December is really not much different than it was when we arrived at the end of the tourist season.

We stopped at the Café du Louvre (our favorite café) for coffee, then walked up through the town. I bought a couple of gifts for the Rohdes and Scott—fabric bread baskets and potholders today. We’ve also bought Bekah Rohde several items in the bright Provençal fabrics. Today I bought Chris Rohde a Michelin map of France. He likes history, so we hope he’ll enjoy a map. We got him a knife at the market in Lourmarin a week or so ago.

Charley and I split up to do some of our shopping. I bought Charley a pair of jeans for only 15 euro. He desperately needs new jeans and has been looking around at various places the past few weeks, hesitant to make a purchase for some reason. I got the size that he had decided would work (the European sizes are different), and I decided if they don’t fit, at least I didn’t spend too much. I also found a bookstore in Apt that had a decent section of used books in English. I bought a couple of hardbacks for Charley—only three euro each. How our life has changed… I felt so proud to buy my husband a pair of no-brand jeans at a flea market and a couple of cheap used books!

I also did some windowshopping to get ideas for a couple of gifts we want to give special people here. We want to do something for Mariette, the young woman from Lacoste who helps Ian and Cynthia with the house and has been a great resource to us. We also want to give a special gift to the Widrow family—they have been so kind and such good friends. I looked in a couple of shops to try to get some ideas. In one gourmet candy shop called Bonbonnière I spotted a marzipan candy hedgehog—I bought this for Kelly to add to her extensive collection of hedgehog items. I also bought her a gourmet candy cane, the first place I’ve seen them on sale here. She has been talking a lot about candy canes lately.

Charley and I also visited the Apt Marché de Noël, which was set up in the parking lot at the far end of the town by the boules court. The Christmas market is set up in a big circus-type tent and continues for the entire week. There are about twenty stalls inside the tent selling artisan crafts, candy, foie gras, cheese, wine, and toys. In the back of the tent is a santon fair with santons from about ten sellers. I looked at the santons for a long time. I still haven’t given up the idea of starting a santon collection. I bought three things for Les Treize Desserts: fruit confits, calissons, and white nougat. Apt is the “world center” for fruit confits (pronounced “fruee confees”)… real fruits that are somehow drained of their natural liquid and then injected with sugar and dipped in syrup. We saw some enormous gift arrangements of fruit confits. They’re very expensive! Calissons are another candy-type delicacy, a specialty of Aix-en-Provence… some type of almond paste in the shape of a small football with a bit of white frosting. I just need to get some dark nougat and then I will have my four candy items for Les Treize Desserts. I have no idea what any of these things taste like or if we’ll even like them!

We picked up Kelly at school at noon. She said they really hadn’t done much that morning—much of the day involved a little party and they played games. She’s now on Christmas break until January 3rd.

December 19

I saw a sign at the Bonnieux “tabac” this week that the old Bonnieux church is now open a few hours on certain days over the next few weeks so people can see the Christmas crèche. At Christmas many of the village churches put up a special nativity scene or crèche. The old church is in Bonnieux is at the very top of the hill and was built in the 12th century. In the 19th century another church was built near the bottom of the village and this “new” church is now the official village church. Apparently it was difficult for older villagers to make the trek up the steep hill to the old church. The old church is now open only for special occasions: weddings, funerals, and Christmas.

We decided to see the Bonnieux crèche today. We had hoped to walk to the village, but the weather was a bit overcast and so we drove instead. We were excited to finally get a chance to see the interior of the old church. It was very ornate and of course very old—also very cold! The crèche was set up in one of the large side chapels. It was quite an elaborate scene with the stable and traditional nativity figures as well as various Provençal characters in a beautiful landscape that included mountains, farms and village buildings. We spoke to a nice young man who seemed to be in charge and spoke good English. He said his older brother was the artist who designed and built the crèche. A few other people came to look while we were there. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, so we’ll need to come back again before Christmas.

After we visited the church, we went for a drive—a tour of the Petit Luberon. We drove through the twisty mountain pass to Lourmarin, then along the south side of the Petit Luberon to Mérindol. We then wound our way around the west end of the Petit Luberon, passing through several old villages right at the foot of the mountain. I love pottery, and we stopped in one garden store/pottery shop where I feel certain Kelly and Charley bought me a gift. (They were whispering very mysteriously with the shop owner.) On the way back we stopped at a shop on the N100 called the Confiserie Saint Denis, a relatively new building that sells fruit confits, candy and other gift items. This turned out to be a great little shop with all kinds of things I would have loved to buy! There was a a tray of candy and fruit confit samples, and so we all took the opportunity to try a free fruit confit… perhaps a little peach, I’m not sure. It was horribly rich and sickeningly sweet. I can’t imagine that this is the most famous delicacy of Apt. It must be an acquired taste. And they are so expensive too! I couldn’t get the taste out of my mouth for a few hours. We’ll serve our fruit confits at our Treize Desserts, but I don’t plan to have another one!

Even though it was Sunday, the Bonnieux Wine Cooperative was open. Most of the villages in this area have a wine co-op. This is where the smaller local grape-growers (who don’t make their own wine) take their grapes; all these grapes are combined and made into wine, then bottled and sold through the co-op at extremely reasonable prices (abour two euro a bottle). Charley really enjoys the wine co-op. You can buy inexpensive boxes of wine or even fill up big reusable plastic jugs. The co-op must do a good business at Christmas, as several people were there this afternoon buying pre-packaged wine gifts. I saw the policeman-father from Kelly’s school bring out a dolly full of cellophane-wrapped gifts. Charley bought some boxed wine—not a gift, just for us. We’ll serve “better” wine for our special holiday meals, but we enjoy the co-op wine as our vin de maison (house wine).

December 20

We’re really enjoying opening the gifts from my parents. Kelly picks out one for each of us to open each night at dinner. (Since she doesn’t have school this week, she’s lobbying to start opening at breakfast!) My mother was an extremely thoughtful and creative shopper and sent a variety of gifts to occupy our time during our winter in Provence—a fashion design set for Kelly, sheet music for Charley, lots of books for me, a couple of games, even a Van Gogh paint-by-numbers set! We still have several gifts to open over the next few days.

December 21

I did a little inventory today of the gifts I’ve bought for Charley and Kelly. We had promised not to overdo the gifts this year, for budgetary reasons and also because it will be so difficult to get anything significant back home. We will each have a stocking and then a few gifts.

For Charley, we have the blue jeans, the two used books, a CD of French café music, a little olive wood dish, a book about England ordered from Amazon (carried over by John Hoffman) a long-underwear shirt ordered from Lands End (also carried by John), and a book in French on hiking in the Luberon. We also have all sorts of different things for his stocking including a set of matching silverware (he doesn’t like the good silverware here in the house), a jar of Skippy peanut butter (found at Leclerc), and even a pack of clothespins. The clothespins are kind of a gag gift—we need more clothespins, but this is definitely NOT a gift I would ever give Charley at home. We don’t even use clothespins at home!

I’m excited about some of the gifts we have for Kelly. We bought several ski items at markets for her upcoming “classe de neige” (school ski trip)—a hood, a headband and gloves. I have a couple of picture books in French—two about “herissons” (hedgehogs)—and a metal plaque with the famous “Chat Noir” painting. I’ve marked the plaque from our own chat noir (black cat), Chico. Juno, our little blind poodle, is giving her a handpainted bowl with Kelly’s name on it. This gift is from Juno because a few weeks ago, she jumped off the couch and knocked the pottery bowl marked Kelly (from the Dordogne) off the coffee table and it broke. I ordered Kelly two used books in English from Amazon.fr. We also have some Diddl items, a three-dimensional map of the Vaucluse, a little Monet calendar, a hedgehog hair clip, a hedgehog charm for her bracelet… and of course, candy. I think she’ll be pleased with everything.

Hmmm... we may actually have more than just a few gifts under the tree….

December 21

We all went to Kevin and Elisabeth’s this morning. Kelly played with Thomas while Charley and I had our French lesson. Then Kelly and I left Charley working with Kevin. They are laying a hardwood floor on the third floor of the house. Charley’s work on the floor is in exchange for our French lessons with Elisabeth. It’s a good trade and we enjoy being around the Widrow family. Charley has worked several days with Kevin over the past few weeks, so we’ve built up some credits for much-needed French lessons.

Kelly and I went to Apt to finish our shopping, just a ten-minute drive from Kevin and Elisabeth’s house. We went to the Marché de Noël and studied the santons. It had been very crowded when I was there on the market-day Saturday, but this morning there were just a few shoppers. A nice woman answered our questions about the santons. Between our French and her English, we communicated reasonably well. People are always impressed to know that Kelly is going to the village school, and she has become more confident in her French conversation. Her accent is much, much better than mine or Charley’s.

Kellly and I decided to go ahead and buy some santons. We decided on a 7 cm santon made by a santonnier called Arterra; these santons are also sold in a pottery shop in Apt. The woman said this was the only santon at their fair that was available year-round in Apt. Arterra also had a brochure and an e-mail address. I decided I wanted a santon “brand” that we liked, but also one that would enable us to potentially add to our collection by mail or in future visits to Provence at other times of the year. We bought baby Jesus in the manger, the Virgin Mary, St. Joseph, an angel and a sitting donkey. From another collection, we bought a tiny, tiny herisson/hedgehog. It was only three euro and of course we had to have it. The other santons were fairly expensive—11.50 euro each. This will be a major purchase from our trip. We’ll worry later how we will get these home.

We went to the wonderful confiserie (candy shop) I’d found the other day—the Bonbonnière—and worked with a nice woman to pick out a box of special chocolates for the Widrows. Kelly loved the shop and I gave her a few euros to get a bit of candy for herself. Fortunately, I was able to keep her from seeing the expensive candy canes, since I know she would have begged for those too.

We also stopped at a florist to buy a holiday centerpiece for our dining room table. Since the rug and tablecloth are kind of a burnt orange, we needed something festive that was mostly orange… not a Christmas red. We found a neat plant with pretty greenery and big orange berries. The florist said it was a “pomme d’amour” plant… love apples.

We felt good today about our interactions with the people who helped us in Apt—the woman at the santon fair, the woman at the candy shop, and the woman at the florist. We did reasonably well communicating in French, and the people were friendly and helpful. It definitely helps when you are polite, patient, and make special efforts to communicate in French.

Finally, we dashed into Leclerc to buy groceries for tonight. We’ve invited the Thompson family for dinner. Lisa’s sister is visiting from California, so there will be eight of us. I decided to fix pork tenderloin in a sour cream sauce, boursin mashed potatoes, and a vegetable medley of broccoli, cauliflower and carrots. I planned a menu that could all be made ahead of time, so that the kitchen will be clean and I can spend time with our guests. Lisa offered to bring dessert. While we were at Leclerc, we also picked up a few more items for Les Treize Desserts—the dried figs, dried dates, walnuts, and hazelnuts.

Kelly and I had an extremely busy mother-daughter afternoon. While I cooked everything for tonight and tidied the house, Kelly worked on the crèche. We decided to follow the Provençal tradition of making the stable and the scenery around the crèche using materials from the countryside, and Kelly wanted to do it all herself. She had begged to stop at Mr. Bricolage and buy some wood, but I didn’t want her sawing or hammering without Charley here. We did buy some brown paint at Leclerc. I looked out an upstairs window at one point and saw her sitting on the steps of the shed sawing what I thought was a board. My heart almost stopped. She had found some Styrofoam out in the shed and was sawing Styrofoam. She used glue and the Styrofoam pieces to make a little stable, then painted it brown and used the gold spray paint to add some accents. As we had read is tradition, she placed our three saucers of wheat around the crèche as part of the scene. The wheat is now bushy and over six inches tall, so we are expecting good things in 2005. Finally, Kelly added our few santons inside the stable with the angel on the top. We followed the Provençal tradition of not placing Baby Jesus in the manger yet—the baby Jesus is placed in the manger after midnight mass on Christmas Eve. The crèche is supposed to stay in place until February 2, a day called Le Chandeleur and the end of the holiday season. (The holiday season seems to last longer here… on January 6th is L’Epiphanie, a holiday related to the Three Kings with some special traditions. I think perhaps the Kings aren’t put in the crèche until then.)

We even had time to work on wrapping presents. I had bought a few rolls of wrapping paper and some ribbon. The wrapping paper here isn’t quite what I’m used to at home, where I’ve always bought Hallmark foil paper and fancy gift bags, normally at the day-after-Christmas sale. Most of the shops will offer to wrap a gift for you. “Cadeau?” they will ask, meaning “Is this a gift?” When you say, “oui,” they wrap the gift in a solid color heavy paper and affix a sticker for their shop. In a better shop you will also get a bit of ribbon, but it’s not gift wrapping like we are used to at home. I also haven’t seen bows like I normally buy at home, but we did just fine with the narrow shiny ribbon and used the scissors to make it curl. I bought only one set of gift tags… they were really nice but way too expensive. Kelly and I bought some Christmas stickers (“autocollants”) and used them on cut-up white card stock to make our own tags.

Kelly and I had fun doing the wrapping. We wrapped and chatted about various things until it was time to set the table for our guests, then we piled all the wrapped packages under the tree. We’d had an absolutely wonderful mother-daughter day… exactly the type of experience I’d hoped for when I decided to take a year off from working. For me, this was one of the best days of our trip.

We decorated our table with the new pomme d’amour plant, greenery, gold pinecones and candles. Although it wasn’t the traditional Christmas red and green, it all looked very festive—especially with Kelly’s crèche on the buffet.

Our evening with the Thompsons was a lot of fun too. The three kids played cards in the kitchen while the five adults visited in the living room beside a blazing fire and our pretty tree. We always enjoy being around Lisa and Craig, and it was fun to meet Lisa’s sister Janie. It turns out that she is also a Human Resources person. My meal was delicious and almost everyone had seconds. Lisa and Janie brought two wonderful desserts—brownies and pecan pie. Janie had carried over 200 pounds of luggage from America—mostly supplies of American products you can ‘t buy here… like the brownie mix and pecans.

December 22

It was another absolutely gorgeous day today, and we walked to Bonnieux for the first time. We took the shortcut through the woods behind our house and came out on the D109, walked a bit on that road and then a bit on Chemin de la Gardiol. A path cuts up from Gardiol around a couple of vineyards and orchards, through the woods, and up into the village. We came out right near Kelly’s school. We walked up the steep hill on tiny pedestrian-only streets to the old church. I had my camera this time and took a few photos of the crèche. Coming back down through the village we stopped in a couple of shops that were open for the holidays. In one of the shops I saw a vegetable cookbook (in English!) of recipes from Oustau de Baumanèire, the restaurant where we had our extravagant lunch from the ImagePoint partners. I pointed the book out to Charley… we’ll see if he got my hint! We also stopped at Henri Tomas’ patisserie. It’s a very rustic place. There are a couple of tables in front of the counter, and we ordered coffee and hot chocolate. I had café au lait, which came in a cup with no handles as big as a soup bowl. After being outside in the cold, it was soooo good. Charley and I also shared one of Monsieur Henri’s almond gallettes… just slightly warmed and wonderful.

This seems to be Monsieur Henri’s busiest time of the year. He told Charley he would be at his shop at 2 am on Christmas morning. He and Charley have a good rapport. He pronounces Charley’s name “Sharlee” with the emphasis on the last syllable. Elisabeth also pronounces it that way, and I find myself sometimes saying Sharlee too! Charley has ordered two other special items from Henri for Les Treize Desserts—two special breads called pompe d’huile… made of olive oil. One type of bread is gibassié and the other is fougasse. I have no idea what these are, but of course we want to do it right.

Kelly brought a plastic bag with her on our walk. On the way back through the woods, she gathered some moss, rocks and greenery to use in her crèche. She’s very proud of her work to make the crèche. I actually like it much more than a store-bought crèche.

December 23

Today was our final day of preparation before Christmas and our friends’ arrival tomorrow. We went to the Widrows for one last French lesson and also gave them our Christmas present. They liked the box of special candies from the Bonbonerie. We also had a special gift for our teacher Elisabeth—a little white board and marker pens to use in her lessons.

We had lunch in Apt at the Café du Louvre. The owner now knows us and is very friendly. Charley and I both ordered “menus” with an entrée, a main course and dessert. The price for the three-course meal is very reasonable. I had a turkey in a cream sauce (just wonderful) and Charley had a steak. Kelly always gets pasta carbonara, and they now know she always likes the sauce on the side.

Kelly and I were desperate to buy a few more santons, despite the price. We went to the pottery shop on the main square by the Hôtel de Ville, where the Arterra santons are sold. We’ve had some strange experiences at this shop before. There is a great assortment of pottery and kitchen items, spilling out onto the street on market Saturday. However, the owner hasn’t seemed friendly. He always wears shorts—no matter what the weather—and once barked at us for not shutting the door of his shop. Elisabeth says he’s very nice and funny, but this man had the only shop in Apt selling our santons.

The man did turn out to be nice and funny this time. Perhaps it helped that we were serious shoppers! We tried to explain in French what we were looking for. He especially responded to Kelly and her French and was interested when she said she went to the école élémentaire in Bonnieux. We looked at the various santons and decided to buy a sheep, a young shepherd (berger) holding a sheep, a sitting cow (boeuf), and a peasant woman. There was a man in a cape that I thought might be Frédérick Mistral. For some reason, I really wanted Frédérick Mistral in our crèche. He is the most famous poet of Provence who wrote in the old Provençal language. In the crèche, he is supposed to represent “le chasseur”—the hunter. The man in the cape turned out to be an old shepherd and the pottery shop man showed us the figurine that was actually Frédérick Mistral. I told Kelly we couldn’t have both, and we decided to get the old shepherd instead. As the he was adding up our purchases, the pottery shop man gave us the Frédérick Mistral santon as a gift. We had made a new friend.

We needed to stop at a special patisserie in Apt—called Bouchard—to buy a gift for Mariette and her family. We had decided to buy them an assortment of small cakes, similar to what the Widrows had brought to our house at Thanksgiving. Mariette was at our house the day after our Thanksgiving dinner, had seen the Bouchard box, and raved about how wonderful their cakes are. Since she has three children, we thought this would be a special gift her whole family could enjoy. Each little cake is maybe two or three bites… so beautiful to look at and equally delicious. Unfortunately—even at 2 pm—the patisserie was still closed with no information about their hours. We also wanted to visit a fromagerie (cheese store) recommended by Elisabeth. I plan to serve a cheese course for Christmas Eve dinner, and I’m trying to learn more about different cheeses. Elisabeth said the woman who owns the fromagerie speaks some English and could help us select a few cheeses for our friends. We found the fromagerie, but it was also closed. The hours of the French shops are a way of life, but frustrating sometimes! We decided to go to Leclerc for our major grocery shopping and return to the town center afterwards.

Two days before Christmas, Lerclerc was a madhouse—I felt like I was back at Krogers in America! Well, the crowds made me feel like it was America, but the displays of special holiday foods clearly emphasized that we were in France. In America we would see turkeys, hams, stuffing mix, cranberry sauce, cookie makings, pumpkin and pecan pies. I had picked up the Leclerc’s holiday sale brochure a week ago to learn more about the holiday food. Now I was very interested to see what a family in Provence would buy for the holiday meals. Here’s what I saw: various birds for roasting (geese, turkeys, large hens—chapons, pintades, canettes, and pintadeaus… what in the world are these??), all kinds of foie gras and special little breads, fancy charcuterie (rolls of special deli meats), all kinds of shellfish, many more cheeses than normal, an entire aisle of special champagnes and holiday wines, beautiful chocolates, and of course all the components for Les Treize Desserts. There was also a special display of flowers, many of which seemed to be tall orchids. The store was incredibly busy, and the store workers were restocking as quickly as the shoppers filled their carts.

I lingered at the dindes (turkeys), the prices now much more reasonable than what we had paid for our infamous Thanksgiving dinde. I considered getting a smaller turkey and roasting a traditional American turkey on Christmas Day. Charley wanted nothing to do with another dinde—we decided to fix beef burgundy instead.

We also got the last few items for Les Treize Desserts—apples, clementines and pears. The pears looked especially luscious.

We drove back to the centre ville of Apt to finish our errands. What a surprise—we saw Kevin doing some last minute shopping. It was fun to run into someone we knew in Apt. The fromagerie was open and the woman was very helpful, though a bit horrified at our desire to include Emmental among our purchases—it’s obviously a very pedestrian cheese. Bouchard was finally open—and very busy; everyone was ordering special cakes for Christmas. I bought a beautiful assortment of twenty small cakes for Mariette and her family. We’ll take the gift to her house in Lacoste tonight.

When we got home, Kelly finished her work on the crèche. Charley went out into the woods to bring in more greenery and then decorated the living room mantle. We have boxes and boxes of decorations at home, but I was very happy with our hand-made crèche and real greenery. The house looks wonderful. Cynthia e-mailed me that she and Ian had never had Christmas together at La Bastide Vieille, so we are glad that this special house can host a family Christmas celebration.

I finished preparing the two bedrooms and bathrooms for our guests, who arrive tomorrow—Christmas Eve! Bekah will share the room with Kelly, Craig and Becky will have the guest room, and Chris and Scott will share the attic room. We’ll have a full house! This is the first time we’ll use the small attic bedroom with the two twin beds. We have special soap and lavender sachets for each of our five visitors, and Kelly carefully arranged these by each of the beds.

December 24

When I checked my e-mail this morning, I had a disappointing message from Scott. He was supposed to leave Knoxville yesterday afternoon and arrive in Marseilles this afternoon via Amsterdam. Unfortunately, there was bad weather in the USA yesterday and after a four-hour wait at the airport, his flight from Knoxville was cancelled. Northwest couldn’t get him across the Atlantic on another flight until Christmas afternoon, arriving on the 26th. Since he had to leave on the 28th, it didn’t make sense for him to come. Fortunately, he got his money back, but we were all so disappointed that he couldn’t make the trip.

Then we got a call from Craig. He and his family have been in London for the past several days, so at least they were on this side of the Atlantic. But there was a problem with their flight over to France, and so they were delayed. Instead of arriving at 2 pm, they will now arrive at 5 pm.

This morning La Poste brought us another Christmas package—this one from my sister and her family… just in time for Christmas. Even though it was a day early, we decided to go ahead and open our gifts so we wouldn’t have so many things to open in front of our guests tomorrow. Like my mom, Debbie also sent several very thoughtful gifts, all appropriate to our stay in Europe. We love to get packages from home.

We finished our preparations for our guests and decided to take a drive on our way to the Marseilles airport to meet the Rohdes. It was another absolutely beautiful December day, perhaps in the mid 50’s. We drove east on the N100 past Apt to the village of Céreste, then crossed up over the Grand Luberon to the village of Grambois. Kevin had told Charley about a very unique crèche in Grambois. The scenery from the top of the Grand Luberon was absolutely spectacular—we could see all the way east to the Alps where there was snow on the top of the mountains.

Grambois was a pretty village with a big old church. There were quite a few visitors there on Christmas Eve to see this famous crèche, which was displayed behind glass inside the church. The crèche had maybe fifty figurines—Provençal villagers in addition to the Holy Family. Each of the villagers had a unique face and apparently were designed based on an actual person in Grambois. So, the face of the mayor was the face of the real mayor and so on. There was one character up on a hill that looked like a wizard or witch or some magical character. We wondered who that figure was modeled after!

We were so excited to see the Rohdes. We will be with them for almost ten days, since we’ll go together up to Paris for a couple of days over New Years. Craig is one of the senior managers at ImagePoint, and we worked closely together for ten years. The family goes to our church at home, and Craig and Becky were the leaders of the special program for kids Kelly’s age. Kelly really adores Becky and looks up to the two Rohde children (Chris, age 15, and Bekah, age 13). I’ve spent hundreds of hours sitting next to Craig in endless meetings—now I hadn’t seen him since June.

Lots of holiday travelers were arriving in Marseilles, and Kelly jumped up and down when she spotted the Rohdes. We helped them get their luggage and then split up into two cars for the one-hour drive from the Marseilles airport to our house. The sun was just setting over the Etang de Berre. This was their first trip to Provence and the kids’ first trip to France. Becky has decorated their house in Knoxville very much in a French country style. We knew they would all love La Bastide Vieille.

In Provence, Christmas Eve is really more important than Christmas Day itself and is filled with traditions. I decided not to follow the tradition of the “Gros Souper” (great supper) on Christmas Eve. The whole family gathers and the table is set with three special white tablecloths and a special meal is served, normally with certain kinds of vegetables and other foods. It didn’t sound like a meal our family would really enjoy. For our Christmas Eve meal I fixed two kinds of quiche, pasta (for Kelly, who doesn’t eat quiche), and a marinated tomato salad. We had good bread and then four kinds of cheese. We didn’t have dessert, since we would have Les Treize Desserts after church.

After dinner I gave Kelly and Bekah several different serving dishes and all the supplies for Les Treize Desserts. They organized a beautiful table. Our Treize Desserts ended up to be: apples clementines, pears, dates, figs, raisins, hazelnuts, walnuts, fruit confits, callissons, dark nougat, white nougat, and the special bread. While the girls worked, Becky and Craig disappeared upstairs to finish some wrapping. One big bag for Charley looked very much like it might contain several boxes of his favorite PopTarts!

About 10:15 we loaded into our two cars again and drove to the village. It’s an eight-minute drive winding through the vineyards and orchards. The night was crystal clear—almost a full moon and all the stars were visible. The crest of the Petit Luberon was illuminated behind our house. I could even see the outline of the individual cedar trees along the ridge. On a clear night like this, I feel like we’re living in a planetarium up on our hilltop vantage point. If you tilt your head back, it’s like looking up inside a planetarium… you can see every single star all around you. I don’t know the names of many of the constellations, but this is a place you could really learn them. I was so happy to be in Provence and to share this place and this experience with our special friends from home.

We parked at the bottom of the village near the new church and the boules court and walked up the steep narrow streets to the church at the top. Just beneath the church is a splendid viewpoint looking out over the entire Cavalon valley. We pointed out the villages of Goult, Gordes, Rousillion and St. Saturnin-lès-Apt to the north. It was quite a strenuous walk, but we thought this would be a great way for the Rohdes to experience our village.

The ancient church was full for the 11 pm mass. Although heaters were set up in various places, it was quite cold and just before the service started, all the power went out and the church was lit only by candles. The priest disappeared somewhere (perhaps to say a prayer?!), and fortunately the power came back on just in time.

Although we couldn’t understand much of the service, it was interesting to follow along in our bulletin and read the familiar Christmas story in French. The congregation sang several French carols, including the only French carol that I know… learned in French class over thirty years ago. “Il est né, le divine enfant.” I even sang along on that one. During the service a young girl dressed as Mary and a boy dressed as Joseph made a procession around the church with the priest, carrying a very old looking baby Jesus figurine. They arrived at the crèche and placed the baby in the manger. Some Provençal churches have much more elaborate Christmas Eve nativity plays called “des pastorales,” sometimes including live sheep.

At the end of the service the priest instructed everyone to wish each other Joyeux Noël, which we did with kisses and hugs. After the service, everyone gathered outside the church where hot wine was served, heated over a crackling fire.

Despite all the beautiful old churches and thousands of years of religious tradition, we have not found France to be a particularly Christian country. Catholicism is the dominant religion, with the number two religion now Muslim. (This presents some interesting issues in the bigger towns and cities.) It doesn’t seem that most of the French even go to church regularly. The new church in Bonnieux (a Catholic church) only has services every few weeks. There’s a schedule posted on the door that indicates Sunday services rotate between several neighboring villages.

But on this Christmas Eve night, perhaps 200 villagers seemed to be here at the 900-year old church, participating in an age-old ritual. The words may have been spoken in a different language, but the story of the baby in Bethlehem united us all. I definitely felt a spiritual connection as we celebrated the birth of Jesus Christ in Bonnieux tonight.

We headed back down to our cars and through the sparkling Provençal night to our house. Like most families in Provence, we did have Les Treize Desserts after the midnight mass. Kelly helped everyone fill their plates, and then we gathered in our cozy living room around a fire. It was an interesting combination of foods… the pear was fantastic, the special bread wasn’t too good, and I quietly passed on the fruit confits. I’m not sure what we'll do with all the leftover dried figs and dates!

Everyone opened one gift... a Wood family tradition, not a Provençal tradition). Then Charley sat at the piano and began to play Silent Night. Kelly stepped up to play along with her recorder. She had practiced for a few weeks and this was her best performance. We all hummed and sang along softly.

At 2 am, we headed off to bed saying Joyeux Noël and Merry Christmas. It was finally Christmas Day in Provence.