Our Grand Tour of Europe

We wanted visitors, but at the same time we weren’t able to extend an open invitation to everyone we knew. So before we even told Kelly about the trip, Charley and I made a small list of special people we definitely wanted to invite to Provence: my sister and her family, Charley’s daughter Angie, our friends Jeanne and Fred, the Rohde family, Kelly’s best friend Allison and her mom Cynthia. (We also had hoped my parents might be able to visit us in connection with one of their international mission trips, but unfortunately the scheduling just didn’t work out.) Later we added a few other special friends to our guest list: Becky Verastegui and Sherry Kirchoff (who left last Monday after eight wonderful days) and John Hoffman (who was able to spend a weekend with us following a business trip in Lyon).

We extended a few other spontaneous invitations along the way, with no other takers. However, other than my parents, everyone on our initial guest list has or will visit us here in Provence—the first visit to France for some and the first trip to Provence for all. My sister and her family will make their very first trip to Europe at the end of March, combining a visit to Provence with several days in Paris. We love knowing that we’ve introduced people we really care about to a place we really care about. In many ways, this experience has shifted our own role from “visitor” to “resident,” especially as we’ve put down roots and increased our own knowledge of the area.

When we arrived in Bonnieux, we told our first local friend Janice that we were planning to have lots of company. In fact, we told her as we talked over coffee our first Friday in Provence, we had company arriving that very afternoon. “But if you spend all your time with people from home,” Janice said somewhat in horror, “how will you ever meet any French people!?” She was also quite surprised that we would take so much of our vacation time to entertain guests.

We had five sets of company from October 8 through February 28, and have two more sets of company coming in March. This has been just about perfect: time to share with friends and family, but also plenty of time on our own. We have greeted each set of visitors with genuine excitement, never feeling “invaded” as Peter Mayle described. Our guests have definitely been wanted.

We still feel badly about the friend who almost came. Scott McDonald, a former co-worker of mine from Knoxville, was supposed to join us here for Christmas along with the Rohde family, who (fortunately) were spending the first few days of their vacation in London. Scott was to share the small attic bedroom with Chris Rohde. His bed was made, his lavender sachet and soap on his pillow, his presents under the tree. He was coming just for a short visit—leaving America on December 23, arriving here the afternoon of Christmas Eve, and departing early the morning of December 28. We awoke on Christmas Eve, excited about the arrival of five friends for Christmas—our first full house. I checked the e-mail and found a message from Scott. There had been bad weather in the Midwest, and he had waited at the Knoxville airport for four hours before his flight was finally cancelled. The airline couldn’t get him on another flight across the Atlantic until December 26th, which of course made no sense for such a short visit. We toasted Scott’s Christmas Eve birthday that night and sent his gifts home with the Rohdes. We still hope to connect with him in Europe sometime during our trip.

La Bastide Vieille (our home in Provence) is a wonderful place for hosting friends. Our situation at the foot of the Petit Luberon is so beautiful and so unlike anything our friends have ever experienced at home. They’re amazed at the mountains, the vineyards, the old bories and stone terraces, the spectacular views of Lacoste and Mont Ventoux from the back of the house. Our 17th century house is also a marvel—to us now it is now our home, but to our friends it is something from a storybook… an old stone farmhouse with various rooms tucked here and there, the big yellow kitchen, the vibrant guest room with its picture-perfect view of the Luberon. Our friends wander the house and the property snapping photos, realizing they have lucked into a wonderful B&B… complete with their own private tour guides… and a price tag that can’t be beat!

Everyone arrives bearing gifts though, and of this we are deeply appreciative. They e-mail us asking “What can we bring?” And we’re not shy to provide them with a small list of items we need or simply crave from home: brown sugar and cinnamon pop tarts, ramen noodle soup, refried beans, old Time and NewsWeek magazines, books, new underwear, toiletries, measuring spoons, prescriptions. I place internet orders with Amazon and Lands End and have the packages shipped to our visitors’ homes so they can bring our purchases across the ocean. (At least it allows empty space in their suitcase on the return trip for everything they will want to buy in Provence!) The Rohdes were especially thoughtful and arrived loaded with Christmas presents. We’re always excited to see our friends, but I have to confess we’re excited to see what surprises they have tucked in their suitcases.

Kelly and I enjoy the preparations for our guests. We set aside the best bedroom—the Poppy Room—as our main guest room. It’s in a private area of the house with its own bath and is beautifully decorated in bright colors. Before guests arrive, Kelly and I set out the fluffy towels that coordinate with the bathroom. We have lavender sachets and olive oil soaps, which Kelly arranges as welcome gifts. We usually splurge on fresh flowers for the kitchen table.

We meet all our guests at the airport or the train station, even if they’ve rented a car. I’ve always loved being met at the airport, and I hate the thought of someone traveling overnight, arriving in a strange country and then getting lost on the tiny country roads on their way to our house. We all enjoy the excitement of waiting for our friends at the airport or train station. Kelly is normally the tour guide on the way, pointing out the sights on the way to the Luberon and then introducing them to La Bastide Vieille. Charley worries that she wears people out, especially when they’ve just arrived from across the Atlantic—but it’s hard not to be infected by her enthusiasm and her extensive knowledge. She’s so excited to share all this with others.

Our first afternoon is normally quiet—a jet lag recovery day—usually involving a drive. I fix a light French meal the night of arrival—quiche lorraine, a tomato salad, fresh bread, and cheese for dessert. Charley is responsible for our daily “bread run,” and the next morning he always invites our friends to go with him into Bonnieux to one of the two local boulangeries. This is a unique experience for Americans who are used to big grocery stores and a different kind of relationship with bread.

We consider food a very important part of our visitors’ experience—because food is a very important part of living in France. When we have company, we eat out most of our lunches but usually only one dinner. We rely heavily on our few favorite places where we know the owners and know we’ll have an authentic and good meal. But we’ve also had some very good lunches at restaurants we’ve visited with friends for the very first time—in Arles, L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, Aix-en-Provence, and Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer.

The first breakfast is always a special one: hot coffee, juices, fresh fruit, a heaping basket of fresh breads (croissants, pain du chocolat, baguette, maybe even brioche), an assortment of jams and cheese spreads, and usually a big slice of brie cheese. We know this is more breakfast than the French really eat, but we want to serve at least one substantial breakfast for our friends. Kelly and I set the table with the pretty blue and yellow dishes and napkins, which coordinate with the happy yellow kitchen. If we’re lucky, the beautiful Provençal morning sun will shine across the Petit Luberon and flood our kitchen with light. When our friends come down for that first breakfast, recovered from jet lag and ready for their first full day in Provence, we welcome them to our special world.

I love to cook for our visitors and try to serve mostly French dishes (and an occasional pasta bolognaise), though I have learned the hard way that it’s important to ask about dietary preferences or restrictions. Our second set of visitors—arriving on October 30—was Charley’s 34-year old daughter Angie and her housemate, also named Kelly. They came for a week, rented a car, and did a lot of exploring on their own. We knew Angie’s friend Kelly but hadn’t spent much time with her. She’s a career-waitress at one of the fanciest restaurants in Knoxville, so we made the assumption that she was a “food person” and would enjoy eating French food and sampling different local wines. The day before their visit, Charley and I made a major shopping trip to Leclerc in Apt, loading up the refrigerator with supplies for the week’s meals. This was before I developed my own quiche-making skills, and Charley had ordered an expensive quiche for our first night from Monsieur Henri Tomas in Bonnieux. We put out ham, chicken and cheese for sandwiches when they arrived early that afternoon. Angie ate heartily, but Kelly said she wasn’t very hungry. I realized she was very, very thin. At dinnertime I started assembling everything for their first French meal.

“I hope quiche is okay,” I said to our two guests. “And would you like a glass of white wine?”

“Um, what kind of quiche,” asked the other Kelly.

It was quiche lorraine.

“No thank you,” she said politely. “And I don’t really drink.”

I had a sinking feeling. “Are you a vegetarian?” I asked. Oh yes, she was. Charley and I looked at each other in shock. In our efforts to be the perfect hosts, why didn’t we know this? Why didn’t one of us ask Angie a very simple question before their visit, the question I now ask everyone coming to stay with us. That evening Charley and I scrambled around, rethinking the meals we’d planned for the week, putting most of the meat we’d bought away in the freezer, shifting our plans for our Kelly’s favorite pasta bolognaise to pasta with sautéed vegetables. We also scrapped our idea of taking Angie and her friend on a tour of several local wineries.

It’s interesting learning what our friends will eat—and won’t eat. Some people are adventurous and enjoy trying new foods. Others (much like our own Kelly) stick to very safe choices in restaurants—pizzas, pasta, sandwiches—food very similar to what they might eat at home. Fifteen-year old Chris Rohde really impressed us. At various meals during the Rohdes’ stay with us at Christmas, he ordered duck, veal, lamb and finally rabbit—and enjoyed them all. One of our last visitors—Becky Verastegui—was also a dining companion who was open to try just about anything. She also took photos of most of the food on the table. (French food is usually beautifully presented.) We definitely ate well while Becky and Sherry were here.

We took our first visitors—our friends Jeanne and Fred—to an interesting restaurant called the Auberge de la Loube in the tiny hidden village of Buoux. This restaurant is known for serving an extensive tray of appetizers, most of them unidentifiable to a typical American. Jeanne was one of our adventurous visitors: she tried every one of the 18 items served on our big tray, even a tiny quail egg. Fred, however, wasn’t at all comfortable with the tray of French delicacies. He tried two or three things and did say he liked one of the vegetables. Fortunately, he enjoyed his lamb main course.

Our friend John Hoffman said he’d be open to eat just about anything—except perhaps brussels sprouts. He was such an enthusiastic guest, I know he would have managed to eat brussels sprouts with a smile if I had somehow decided to serve them for the first time in my life. I did cook a Patricia Wells’ recipe for roast lamb one night during John’s visit, which I know some of our other American visitors wouldn’t be comfortable with.

I’m still scratching my head over the e-mail message I received from our friend Cynthia, who will be here with her daughter Allison in about two weeks. “I don’t eat any red meat,” she wrote. “And Allison eats only steak.” I wrote back asking for clarification. “Will you both eat quiche lorraine?” I asked, hoping I could at least figure out the first night’s meal. “What about chicken or pasta?”

We love to take our visitors to our favorite places and especially to our favorite eating places. Our friends have an entree to a different Provençal dining experience when they go with us to a restaurant or café where a proprietor we know greets us enthusiastically. Our agenda now always includes a lunch at our little café in Bonnieux (Le Terrail), with the simple menu and the friendly manager/waiter Michel. We’ve taken three sets of visitors to the Maison Gouin in Coustellet—in fact, we took Becky and Sherry there twice… once for lunch and once for dinner. Charley and I now have a kiss-kiss-kiss relationship with Madame Gouin and her assistant. The young waitress kiss-kiss-kissed Becky and Sherry too. They thought that was pretty neat.

We’ve gotten very proficient in interpreting French menus, and we can effectively handle a conversation with a French waiter or waitress concerning almost any aspect of our meal. While Charley and I still struggle with daily French conversation, we do know our food! Some restaurants have an English menu or an English-speaking staff, but many do not and we prefer to try to operate in French. We’re able to help our visitors work their way through the menu options, understand the concept of the plat du jour and formula menu, make decisions about wine, place an order, and finally ask for “l’addition” (the bill).

We definitely want all our visitors to experience one of the big Provençal markets. People who are serious shoppers—like Becky and Bekah Rohde, Becky Verastegui and Sherry Kirchoff—usually want to visit more than one market, and we’re happy to oblige. Kelly and I enjoy showing friends the best place to buy a brightly-colored tablecloth, the stall or shop with the wonderful pottery, a good seller of herbes de Provence. So what if my own straw basket holds only mushrooms, asparagus and potatoes while my friends load up on fun things like tablecloths, soaps, olive wood cutting boards, and pottery jugs? I take great pleasure in watching these first-time visitors to Provence make their purchases and experience the Provençal marketplace we enjoy so much.

We’ve decided Kelly may have a future in sales. As she shows off the various wares of Provence, we wonder if she is perhaps getting a commission from the Provence chamber of commerce! Her French language skills continue to improve, and she likes helping our friends communicate with the French sellers. She’s also very aggressive. She negotiated the Rohdes a discount at a fabric shop and just recently negotiated an excellent deal for Sherry and Becky on two large paintings.

Becky Verastegui wins our award for the greatest impact on the French economy. It was unusual for her to leave a shop without something in a bag. She’s also a generous gift-giver, and her friends and family at home will also now enjoy a taste of Provence! She bought seven tablecloths, 36 napkins, dish towels, aprons, potholders, herbs, soaps, lavender sachets, herb grinders, pottery, wine, a painting, and I’m sure there was more! On the last night, we had Becky put all her purchases out on the bed and took a photo. Then she packed up a box to ship home and began to tackle packing her two pieces of luggage. (Since she was traveling standby, she was limited to carry-on luggage.) She ended up leaving us several bottles of wine that didn’t make it into her carry-on bags, a pair of sneakers, and most of her sweaters!

If visitors are with us on a Saturday morning, we definitely head to the Apt market, our favorite in all of Provence. Our day at the Apt market is always followed by lunch at our favorite Café du Louvre. We’ve taken several friends down to Aix, a one hour drive over the Luberon from our house… a much larger town with a beautiful tree-lined street, lots of restaurants, great shopping, and an extensive market three days a week. L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue is a good market destination on a Sunday morning.

We take every visitor on a walking tour of our village of Bonnieux, walking up the twisty little village streets, stopping at the table d’orientation to admire the view across the valley (and catch our breath) and then up the steep steps to the old church at the top of the hill. Everyone likes seeing Kelly’s little school in Bonnieux. Becky and Sherry especially liked waiting with us at the school gate to meet Kelly each afternoon. By the end of the week, they’d gotten to know several of the other English-speaking parents. When Kelly’s friend Allison visits, she’s going to school with Kelly one day—we’re looking forward to her reaction. It’s very different from the school Kelly and Allison attend in America.

We take everyone to the quiet old village of Saignon, where our love affair with Provence began when we rented a cottage there for a week in 2003. We always show where we lived that week—the Rose Cottage on the tiny square with the spring-fed fountain. The walk through Saignon and up to the belvedere on the top of the rock is a memorable experience—the view is absolutely phenomenal.

We don’t seem to run out of places where we can show our friends a memorable view. We especially like to drive up along the crest of the Petit Luberon into the Fôret de Cedres above Bonnieux. From the right spot at the top of the mountain we can see Bonnieux far down below and a panoramic view of other Luberon villages spread out before us. By the time they leave, our friends can easily recognize Bonnieux, Lacoste, Gordes, Goult and Roussillon. If the day is clear, we can see all the way to the edge of the Alps, covered in snow… to Mont St. Victoire and sometimes even to the Mediterranean Sea. Best of all, we can point out our house just below the mountain.

We now to try to include a walk in the itinerary for our visitors, even if we just walk a mile or two from our house to Bonnieux or Lacoste. Charley and I have done at least fifteen hikes in various parts of the Vaucluse, and we feel strongly that walking is the best way to see the real Provence… you experience areas of the countryside that typical tourists never see.

Our friend John Hoffman asked about the possibility of going to a Sunday Catholic mass during his weekend visit in December. We checked the schedule at the church in Bonnieux, only to find that mass was held there only every few weeks; the priest rotated each Sunday between several neighboring villages. On Saturday afternoon we took John to the beautiful Abbaye de Sénanque outside of Gordes, one of the most photographed spots in all of Provence. I happened to see a schedule posted of daily services, most of which were open to the public. The next morning Charley and John went to morning mass at this 850-year old abbey… still a working monastery. Last week Charley took Becky and Sherry to Sénanque for another Sunday morning mass.

We have very special memories of our Christmas with the Rohde family. Our two families went together to Christmas Eve midnight mass at the old Bonnieux church, built in the 12th century, experiencing a village tradition that goes back hundreds of years. Then we came home to share the Provençal tradition of the Treize (thirteen) Desserts, which Kelly and Bekah Rohde had beautifully arranged before we left for mass.

Perhaps our most unusual experience with guests happened with Angie and her friend Kelly. One morning while our Kelly was at school, we took them into Bonnieux and then across the Claparèdes Plateau to Saignon. There was a “déviation” on one of the little roads on the plateau, and we noticed an army tank on the side of the road. When we arrived in Saignon, we saw other army vehicles and men in combat dress in the parking lot. We tried to reassure Angie and Kelly that this was not typical! We then headed to Apt for lunch. As we walked down the tiny pedestrian street (very quiet on a non-market day), we saw many more soldiers… wearing helmets and camouflage paint… and carrying guns. Suddenly there was a shot! The soldiers crouched against the shops on both sides of the narrow street, their guns ready for action. The shoppers with their shopping baskets seemed oblivious to what was going on, continuing on their normal business. We tried to act as if this was normal to us too, but we quickened our step away from the action. I asked a woman in a shop what was happening. “Maneuvers,” she said, shrugging her shoulders. Later I learned from our friend Kevin that this was a military exercise, preparing for the potential “liberation of Apt”.

We love sharing Provence with our family and friends. We love knowing we’ve introduced them to a totally new part of the world, perhaps a place they’ll want to visit again and again. We’ve definitely gotten much closer to everyone who’s stayed with us, most of whom we’ve known for a long time. Becky Verastegui and I have been friends for 25 years, but I’ve spent more time with her in France this year than I have in all those other years. John Hoffman and I worked together for seven years and have known each other for 18 years, but now he’s spent a weekend with my family. Craig Rohde and I worked together for ten years, sitting next to each other in hundreds of hours of lunch meetings—now our families have spent nine days together in France, including celebrating Christmas together. I’m especially looking forward to spending five days with my sister, her husband and their two teenage daughters. We haven’t seen each other for a year and a half. Now they’ll experience Europe… experience France and our beloved Provence… with us for their very first time.

At home, we spend a few hours here and there with our friends—a shared meal, a party, maybe occasionally a hike in the mountains. Sharing living space, meals, conversation and the experience of a foreign country for several days creates a much different intimacy. This has been an unexpected pleasure of our time in Provence. Our visitors have enriched our family’s experience here far beyond the gifts they’ve brought us from home, We’ve had seven visits to anticipate and savor, visits that have connected our lives in Provence to our lives at home, visits that have greatly added to the memories we’ll take home with us, memories we’ll share with these special people for years to come.

Five Days in Provence by Jeanne Draughn (special guest!)

Jeanne Draughn and Fred Jones were our first visitors to La Bastide Vieille, arriving just six days after we did. We had five wonderful days with them, enjoying beautiful early-October weather before they headed on to Germany and Switzerland. A few weeks later, Jeanne sent me a “trip report” she had written about their time with us. I appreciate her letting me share it here.

Our grand European adventure began when we arrived at the Paris Charles de Gaulle airport on Friday morning, October 8, after a long, uneventful flight across the North Atlantic. After passing through immigration and collecting our bags, we found our way to the high-speed train (TGV) station also housed in the CDG airport. Here we experienced our first confusion with the language. We quickly learned that “nord” means north and “sud” means south. Knowing that we were headed south from Paris, our confusion was compounded when we learned that the train we were supposed to take was on a “nord” track. A very patient clerk at the information counter assured us that the train was on the right track.

We boarded the train, stowed all the luggage and settled into large and very comfortable seats for the three-hour ride to Avignon, where our friends, the Woods, would meet us. Fred went off to the bar car to get us our first glass of French wine, which was a burgundy and very good. We spent the time watching the countryside flash by (at 180 mph!), listening to the other passengers converse in French and hoping no one would ask us a question we couldn’t understand or could respond to just by smiling and nodding.

When we arrived in Avignon and stepped off the train, the first sight we saw was Kelly, Kathy and Charley’s 11-year-old daughter, running to greet us. How wonderful it was to see our friends after such a long time. The rental car agency was just outside the train station, and after obtaining our Ford Focus (instead of the Renault Laguna we thought we were getting), Charley, Kelly and I headed off in one car with Kathy and Fred in the Focus.

Shortly after leaving Avignon, the landscape began to change to valley farmland with mountains in the background. After driving about 25 minutes farther, we came to the tiny “perched” town of Lacoste, and Charley drove me through the village streets, at one point with only a couple of inches to spare on either side of the car’s rearview mirrors! Just a couple of miles beyond Lacoste we turned off the main road onto a gravel road winding through vineyards and orchards of cherry and olive trees. Just a short distance down this road was the driveway to La Bastide Vieille, the farmhouse where the Woods will be living for the next several months. In the distance, Bonnieux, another hilltop town, was visible, the town’s church a prominent landmark. LaBastide Vieille sits about halfway between the two towns. Kathy and Fred had arrived ahead of us, and Kelly was anxious to show us around.

La Bastide Vieille is everything a French country farmhouse should be, complete with a resident cat named Chico. Double doors open to the spacious kitchen from the terrace. The lower floor also has a large dining room and comfortable living room, complete with player piano! The upper floor is divided into two separate areas; on one side are the bedrooms and baths for the Woods and on the other is the lovely “Poppy” bedroom and bath for guests. The wonderful scent of lavender greeted us as we entered our suite, thoughtfully placed there by our hosts. Kelly had also made us a “welcome” card.

After we got settled in, Kelly gave us the grand tour of the house and property. The house is surrounded by vineyards, olive groves, and cherry orchards, and neighboring stone houses can be seen nearby. On the upper side of the farmhouse, the towns of Lacoste and Bonnieux are both visible and are an especially beautiful sight at night when the towns are lighted.

We sat on the terrace enjoying a glass of local wine, eating almonds gathered from a tree in the yard, and listening to Kathy and Charley tell about their walk across England and places they had been since then. Kathy prepared a wonderful dinner and we retired early, exhausted after the long trip and excited about being in such a beautiful place. Fred quickly learned to duck when passing through the low door to our bathroom (and also the door leading from the kitchen where Kelly had thoughtfully placed a reminder). Charley’s head bore the marks of several encounters with the low passage.

By the time we arose on Saturday, Charley had already been to the boulangerie (bakery) to get fresh croissants, a delicious chocolate pastry and other breads, which Kathy served with wonderful marmalades and cheeses. After breakfast, we took off to explore Bonnieux, where we climbed steps to the top of the town to see the church and have a great view of the valley. We then went over to Lacoste where we had lunch in a small café also overlooking the valley. Lacoste’s most prominent landmark is the ruins of the chateau where the infamous Marquis de Sade lived in the 18th century.

Saturday evening, we drove to a nearby town, St. Saturnin-lès-Apt, to meet people Kathy has been corresponding with on the SlowTravel Website. Kevin Widrow, an ex-patriate from Connecticut, his wife Elisabeth, a native Parisian, and their son Thomas (about 7) live in a villa in the middle of vineyards and orchards. They have extensively remodeled the villa and began operating it as a B&B, called “Le Mas Perreal,” in the spring. Another couple, Pauline and Steve, joined us too. Pauline operates the SlowTravel website, and she and Steve live in Santa Fe when they aren’t traveling, which is most of the time. The villa and five guest rooms were beautifully decorated, and Elisabeth seemed pleased to show them to us, especially the very large kitchen. (Pauline posted a photo of our group on the SlowTravel website the following day!)

Kelly was glad to have another child to play with, and loved playing with the Widrow’s very big dog too. Kevin and Elisabeth served hors d’oeuvres and drinks on the terrace, freshly squeezed grape juice (delicious!) and wine, as well as a favorite local drink, called pastis, which I tried but can’t recommend unless you like licorice. The sun was setting beyond the vineyards just outside the courtyard gate, creating one of the most beautiful scenes imaginable. We were getting off to a delightful start!

We rose early on Sunday morning to go the market in Isle-sur-la-Sorgue just north of Bonnieux. What a feast for all the senses! The colors and smells of Provence were everywhere. Spices, lavender, vendors cooking all kinds of good things, chickens roasting, fresh fruits and vegetables, clothing, linens in all the Provencal patterns, wonderful soaps, pottery, antiques (which interested Fred)…you name it, it was there! I spent lots of euros at this market. The vendors’ stalls seemed to go on and on. We bought roasted chickens for lunch.

After lunch back at La Bastide Vieille, we drove to the nearby villages of Roussillon, famous for its ochre soil and gorgeous scenery, Saignon, which sits atop a cliff and overlooks the town of Apt, and Gordes, another perched hilltop village. Visible to the north from every vantage point is the white limestone cap of 6200-foot Mont Ventoux, the highest point west of the Alps. Just before Gordes is the Abbaye Notre-Dame Sènanque, built in 1148 and still a functioning Cistercian monastery. Large fields of lavender surround the Abbey and it is a must-see in the spring and early summer when the lavender blooms. On the way back to Bonnieux, Charley drove us across the Pont St. Julien, a 215-foot triple-arch bridge built by the Romans in 3 B.C. The narrow bridge is today used for traffic although a new bridge is being built adjacent to it and traffic will be diverted to the new one soon.

Sunday evening, Kathy prepared a special dinner, pasta Bolognese, served with a fresh baguette and salad. Kelly wanted to be in charge of dessert, and surprised us with ice cream topped with chocolate, fresh almonds and whipped cream. Yum!

On Monday, Kelly was starting her first day of school in Bonnieux and was a little anxious. Kathy and Charley, naturally, wanted to be at home to retrieve her for lunch and then be there when her first day ended. So Fred and I headed out on our own. After a short stop in Avignon at the car rental office, we drove south on the N570 toward Arles, the town of Stes. Maries de le Mer in the Camargue our destination. Since we had discovered that a day trip to the Cote d’Azur (Cannes, Monaco) was out of the way and would have required more than a day, we compromised so that I could see the Mediterranean Sea. The drive through farmland was scenic. The farmers were burning their fields and the air was thick with smoke. We arrived in Stes. Maries de la Mer in time for lunch at an outdoor café overlooking the sea. The small town is very commercialized and its biggest attraction is the beachfront promenade. The Camargue is a wetlands delta and is famous for pink flamingos and white horses, both of which we saw in large numbers.

On the drive back to Bonnieux, we took the D99 to St. Remy where we stopped and had drinks at another outdoor cafe. We were impressed by the stately plane trees that lined both sides of the road approaching and leaving the town. Plane trees are fast-growing hybrids of the Asian and American sycamores and are common all over France.

We arrived back at La Bastide Vieille in late afternoon. Kelly’s first day of school had gone well and she was looking forward to the next day. Kathy prepared a delicious dinner and we sat around the kitchen table planning the next day’s activities. We had another ice cream dessert à la Kelly.

On Tuesday after delivering Kelly to school, Kathy, Charley, Fred and I headed back to St. Remy. Charley wanted us to see the Roman ruins of Glanum, and I wanted to visit the clinic where Van Gogh, one of my favorite artists, was sent after slicing off his ear. Glanum is a Gallo-Roman settlement originally built in the third century A.D.; excavation of the 100-acre site was begun in 1921. Fred especially enjoyed seeing the architecture of the ancient ruins.

We briefly toured the Clinique St. Paul, the still-functioning asylum where Van Gogh was treated. The fields surrounding the clinic inspired him to paint some of his most beautiful landscapes, and he produced 150 of his paintings in the 53 weeks he was there in 1889 and 1890. We walked through St. Remy and found the Café de Nuit, the subject of one of Van Gogh’s most famous works, where we had lunch. St. Remy is the birthplace of Nostradamus, the famous 16th century astrologer.

That evening, we drove to the nearby hill town of Buoux to have dinner at Auberge de la Loube (Restaurant of the Wolf). The Woods had dined here on their visit to Provence last year and wanted us to experience this famous restaurant’s authentic French cuisine. A most interesting menu feature was an 18-item appetizer tray that offered some very unusual delicacies, such as boiled quail eggs, a delicious tapenade, assorted relishes and marinated artichokes. I had to sample everything, but Fred was reluctant to try most of these unusual items. Fortunately for him, the entrees included lamb, which he really likes. I had fish, which was perfectly prepared and tasted wonderful.

The next morning, Wednesday, October 13, Fred and I loaded up the Ford Focus, said goodbye to the Woods, and headed toward the Swiss border to begin the next weeks of our adventure. These five days in the south of France are ones we will always remember. The weather was fantastic, the scenery and sites were postcard perfect, and the hospitality of the Woods unequaled. They went to great lengths to make sure we saw and experienced all that Provence has to offer. Thank you, Charley, Kathy and Kelly, for inviting us to share this beautiful place and for making this wonderful time truly special.