The Trail's Our Thing

Tonight was one of our special dinners out for this trip. We went to L’Arôme, a restaurant in Bonnieux that just opened this spring. Charley and I ate there in May and really, really liked it. It's special. There was actually something on the menu that we thought Kelly would like too. We called our new Slow Travel friends Doug and Carol and invited them to join us. Doug and Charley didn't wear their Tilley hats this time!

L’Arôme is located on a tiny, tiny street called the Rue Lucien Blanc, which stretches between the Rue Victor Hugo and the Place Gambetta. It is owned by a couple, Clara and Jean-Michel. Jean-Michel is the chef and Clara manages the service. We were attended by Clara, a woman (who may have been Clara's mother, and a young man. The service was attentive and helpful. We interacted in French, so I'm not sure about English... though I believe they may have English menus available.

Outside the L’Arôme

The setting is quite special-- built into the hillside in two adjoining caves of beautiful limestone. There are three intimate and very attractive dining rooms and two small terraces out on the street for outdoor dining. The kitchen is open to one of the dining rooms.

Our family time in Provence this summer is coming to an end, Kelly and I take the train to Paris on Thursday morning, so we have less than a week to go. I keep reminding myself that many people come here and just spend a week, but for me, a month really isn't enough. I'm not ready to go yet!!!

We've laid out a plan for the days in this final week, going back to review the list we made when we first arrived. We've eliminated several items (we'll check out Carpentras some other time) and tried to make sure that the priorities for each of us are included.

My personal priorities are hiking, eating, and some down time as a family. This has been a leisurely summer for us, and I don't want to rush around too much the last several days. Also, we're all sensitive that we won't be together as a family again until September 30. Charley is staying in Europe when Kelly and I go home, and I'll meet him back here for The Luberon Experience trips in mid-September. But he and Kelly will be apart for about seven weeks-- by far the longest they've ever been separated. Yesterday they made a Father-Daughter trip to Marseille, mainly to visit the Chateau d'If. (I was in Marseille for a Luberon Experience day trip in May, so I stayed at home to catch up on some projects.) Charley says he will write a little something about their experience in Marseille, and Kelly has some great photos.

This morning we did a hike that was on my list-- from Bonnieux up the Petit Luberon and then back down another route. This is actually only the third time we've hiked up the Petit Luberon, though we've done a lot of hiking on and around it. Somehow-- looking up at the mountain-- I find it intimidating to think about going from the bottom straight up to the top, but today we found it wasn't really all that difficult. The Petit Luberon isn't a huge mountain-- only 2358 feet at the peak-- but it's just the idea of it! The spectacular vistas make it well-worth the effort.

On the way back down to Bonnieux

Friday is market day in Bonnieux, and after our hike we went up to do some shopping. We had invited our new friends Doug and Carol to come to our house for lunch after the market, and we needed to buy our provisions. We told them we'd meet them at 12 noon in front of Le Terrail, and then we'd drive together down to the house.

The Bonnieux market isn't big like Apt or L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, but we're partial to it because it's our village and it's convenient and it's festive. Most of the market takes place on the Place Gambetta (where Le Terrail and several other restaurants are located), but it also spills down several smaller streets. There's always a couple singing in front of Le Terrail, which makes it fun, and we always see sellers we know and friends from the village. The first person Kelly and I saw was our waiter friend Michel, and then we saw Doug and Carol. This was their first market in Provence, and they were having a great time.

I think a market picnic is just about the best lunch you can have in Provence... a casual meal that requires very little work, with everything bought fresh that morning. Charley parked the car, went to the boulangerie, and then had a coffee at Le Terrail where he ran into our friend Janice. Kelly and I did the more serious shopping, making the rounds of our usual stands.

Our market picnic on the terrace: Kelly, Carol, Doug and Charley

Our family has been in Provence now for about four weeks: housesitting, hiking, sightseeing, visiting with friends, and enjoying the rustic Provençal food and wine. Our summer idyll is coming to an end, though, with Kathy and Kelly returning home to America for the start of a new school year for both—Kelly the student and Kathy the professor.

Since they have planned a mother-daughter foray into Paris on the way home—and the fact that I wouldn’t see Kelly for about seven weeks, it seemed a good idea to have a father-daughter time, at least a day, before they departed.

One of Kelly’s eighth grade English assignments was to read Alexander Dumas’ “The Count of Monte Cristo.” She loved the book and convinced me that I should also read it. It’s wonderful. It’s quite obvious why books like this are called “classics.” A crucial part of the plot is centered in Marseille and its island prison, the Château d’If.

So Marseille and the Château d’If it was. A visit to France’s oldest and second-largest city; combined with a literary element, seemed the ideal father-daughter outing. The fact that Marseille is a beautiful city on the stunning Mediterranean Sea made it all the better.

The Château d’If

Our family really enjoys the outdoor Provençal markets, an important part of the cultural experience in this area. When you are living here for a period of time or have a vacation rental, you're not just shopping for tablecloths or pottery or soap to take home... you're buying cheese, tomatoes, potatoes, maybe even a potato peeler.

Our favorite market is the Saturday morning market in the nearby town of Apt, considered one of the best markets in all of France. In 2005 I wrote a piece about the Apt market for the Slow Travel website. This was based on our experiences at the market from October until mid-April, the off-season. Now I'll tell the summer story...

The Apt market is busy and active year-round because it's the major market town for this area of the Luberon. But in the summer the market is much larger: more sellers, more shoppers, more traffic, more street performers... and more heat. The local shoppers may be outnumbered by the tourists, and they even run shuttle buses from remote parking at the old train station. Despite the crowds and the heat, we went to the Apt market all four Saturdays of this summer's stay in Provence.

Summer shoppers at the Apt market

We always seem to have an active social life when we come to Provence... actually much busier than our social calendar at home in Tennessee. We've made quite a few local friends-- some are French, some are expatriates who live here permanently, and some are regular visitors like us.

Sometimes we connect with friends at a restaurant, or we meet for a hike. We've been invited to friends' homes, and we also like to invite people here. This summer we decided we wanted to invite several of our local friends here for dinner, a way to thank them for everything they've done for us. We decided to do small dinners instead of mixing people up. This has been another high point of our summer in the Luberon.

It's an interesting challenge to prepare and host a meal for French friends or even for expats who have socialized to the French lifestyle. What to fix? The French truly are a culture that cares about food and doing things right, and it's easy for a relative newcomer like me to be intimidated. Although I feel very comfortable cooking French dishes for my American friends at home, I sure didn't want to flub a meal for our French friends by trying too hard to "be" French. Instead I decided that for each dinner I would prepare a more typical American meal but following the French pattern for a meal: aperitif, entree, main course, cheese, and dessert. Kelly was my assistant chef and handled the desserts on her own. I brought over a secret ingredient-- a big bottle of barbeque sauce-- that I planned to use in at least a few meals, creating a bit of a southern flair.

Our first visitors were Henri Tomas, his wife Rosa, and Rosa's sister Sylvia, visiting from Argentina. We had been invited to their home last summer. for a very special evening. This was an interesting multi-cultural experience because Henri doesn't speak really any English, Rosa speaks just a little English, and Sylvia speaks quite good English-- but no French... oh, and then our family's French is of varying proficiency. There was not one common language for all, so we conversed in a mix of French, English and Spanish.

Far beyond the language challenges, this meal ended up having the most challenges. It was too cool to eat outside, at the last minute the grill didn't work... and then we learned that Henri couldn't eat spicy food since it impacted his ability to taste the sweet delicacies in his patisserie. Fortunately I hadn't yet covered all the chicken in barbeque sauce and was able to saute two breasts in olive oil with some herbes de Provence. The rest of the chicken I ended up panfrying in olive oil and then sauteeing in barbeque sauce... quite an interesting variation actually. Henri then decided he could probably eat the barbeque sauce after all, mixed it with creme fraiche and poured it on his herbes de Provence chicken. We also had baked beans (not very good... difficult with the local ingredients) and corn-on-the cob. Henri and Rosa brought a tart for dessert, and Kelly served fresh fruit.

Henri, Sylvia, Rosa and Kelly

We had some great plans for our last couple of days in the Luberon: dinner with Doug and Carol at Domaine de Layaude Basse, another hike, a day trip to the Ardeche.

Unfortunately, I was sick the last three days. We had company for dinner Sunday and Monday, and I got sick during the dinner on Monday. After our trip to the Coustellet market on Sunday morning, I didn't leave the house until we left for the train station on Thursday morning! On Tuesday I barely even left the bedroom.

I did read one very good book (Almost French: Love and a New Life in Paris by Sarah Turnbull), but other than that, my last several days are a blur.

This was definitely a disappointing way to end my summer in Provence. I'm almost never sick!! And I really wanted to go to the Ardeche! Charley and Kelly ran a few errands in the village and got some medicine for me at the pharmacy. I felt badly that my problems impacted their last couple of days too. I had a little rice for dinner on Tuesday and some chicken on Wednesday... and I slowly started to feel better. I was worried at one point that I wouldn't be able to make the trip up to Paris, but on Thursday morning I was feeling better. Not great, but well enough.

The Mistral wind returned this week, bringing with it very clear crisp skies and cooler temperatures. On Tuesday night I looked up out the bedroom window and saw this beautiful sunset. I called Kelly to come take some pictures. It was one of the best sunsets we've seen. On Wednesday afternoon we even had some very heavy rain. The weather has been very different this summer.

Beautiful sunset on Tuesday night (photo by Kelly)

Kelly and I took the 10:09 TGV train from Avignon to Paris. We were excited about having a couple of days in Paris before heading home, and I was looking forward to our first-ever Mother-Daughter overnight trip. But it was sad to say goodbye to Charley and leave him there on the train platform as the doors closed and we started on our way. I won't see him for five weeks, and he and Kelly will be apart for seven weeks. Suddenly that seems a very long time.

I also left my digital camera with Charley, so he can take pictures during his travels. Kelly became the official photographer for our trip to Paris, and as you'll see in these entries, she did a wonderful job. This is the first time I've ever traveled without a camera, and it was a very strange feeling-- I felt empty and a little bit powerless!

The sun was shining in Provence, but as we sped north to Paris, the world outside us changed and the sun disappeared behind us. We arrived in Paris to overcast skies and cool temperatures-- in the upper 60's and low 70's. I was nervous about my wardrobe. I had packed only for summer and hadn't planned for the possibility of this type of weather. I only had cropped pants and open toed sandals and only a few things for days like this: a long-sleeved hiking shirt (that I've been using as a robe), a raggy-looking black sweater, a multi-purpose wrap, and two scarves. You could tell who the locals were on the streets because they were properly dressed. Some people were wearing heavy jackets! I thought I might have to buy some other shoes and a jacket.

We took a taxi from the Gare de Lyon to L'Hôtel des Grandes Écoles . I was very pleased with my choice of a hotel-- it was convenient, economical, interesting, and in a very good location in the Latin Quarter. We really liked the arrangement of the hotel-- almost on its own private street with a pretty courtyard and lots of flowers. We were five minutes from the busy Rue Mouffetard, a street full of shops and restaurants that Kelly found especially appealing.

The pretty courtyard at L'Hôtel des Grandes Écoles (photo by Kelly)

Despite the strange weather, it was great to be in Paris again. This was my sixth trip to Paris: three days in 1991 with two girlfriends (six months before Charley and I got married); a week in 1994 when Kelly was 14 months old; four days in 1999/2000 for the big millennium celebration; two weeks in 2004 during our long trip; and four days in 2004/2005 (also during our long trip) when we came up from Provence for another New Years. I know this city, and I like it. I've forgotten how very much I like it. But I have to say that it was culture shock to arrive in the midst of Paris after our month in the quiet Luberon countryside.

It was another cool and overcast day in Paris. Can it really be August? I wore my black sweater and my blue knit wrap (along with my capri pants and sandals) and hoped I didn't look too much like a bag lady.

We decided to have breakfast at a cafe instead of at the hotel and walked up the street to the place de la Contrescarpe, a tiny park in the center of a traffic circle surrounded by cafes.... a really delightful spot. It was too cool to eat outside, and our croissants and hot drink turned out to be much more expensive than I expected. We will eat at the hotel tomorrow. I'm drinking tea right now instead of coffee... at least until my stomach is back to normal.

After breakfast we headed down Rue Mouffetard once again. The street is really a bit touristy, but Kelly loves it. This has been a very good choice of location for her. At the bottom of the hill there are beautiful fish stands, butcher shops and cheese shops. (If we had an apartment, I would love to shop here.) We caught the Metro at Censier-Daubenton and ended up across the river at Sully Morland, right next to the Pavillon de l'Arsenal, the architecture museum. We discovered this museum on our last trip to Paris, and Kelly has been intent on visiting again. We thought we would have time to visit the museum before meeting Dave at the Place de la Bastille at 11 am.

Unfortunately the museum didn't open until 10:30, so we shifted plans and decided to go there after our get-together with Dave. With some extra time, we wandered down the street and discovered a beautiful old church, St. Gervais et St. Protais. This was a lovely very medieval area of Paris, and the church was magnificent. It seemed almost undiscovered-- just a few people inside praying and a man sleeping on a pew.

The St. Gervais et St. Protais church (photo by Kelly)

On Saturday morning Kelly and I found ourselves at the Champ de Mars, a large and very green park that extends from the Ecole Militaire to the Eiffel Tower. This area brought back some very special memories.

In September 1994 we visited Paris for the first time as a family. Charley and I had only been married a little over two years, and Kelly was 14 months old. We weren't experienced European travelers at all-- I had been on a whirlwind two-week trip a few years before with two girlfriends (including three days in Paris), and we had honeymooned in London. We rented a studio apartment for a week on a tiny side street (Rue Herold) near the famous market street Rue Montorgueil. I didn't know it at the time, but this was our first experience with Slow Travel! It was really a wonderful week, and we saw so much of Paris... mostly on foot, pushing Kelly in a large stroller or carrying her in a backpack. We had no idea that this would be the beginning of our love affair with Europe and that we would end up so connected with France.

On that trip we also found ourselves one morning on the Champ de Mars. There was a little playground, and Kelly had great fun there. She had just begun to walk, and she was so cute in a little hat we bought for her at a department store.

I spotted the same little playground on this morning. And I think we even found the same helicopter bouncy-thing... just painted different colors. So here's my beautiful daughter in that Paris playground then and now: 14 months and now 14 years.

Kelly in Paris (14 months old - September 1994)

Kelly in Paris (14 years old - August 2007)

We're enjoying this little trip to Paris very much. Paris is familiar and comfortable to us, but there's always so much more to discover. We've visited pretty much all the "first tier" tourist destinations before-- in fact, we've visited most of them more than once. We visited the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, the Arc de Triomphe, and the Champs d'Elysées on our earlier trips when Kelly was small. But then she didn't remember them, so we did it them all again when we were here for two weeks three years ago. We've visited the Musee d'Orsay five times, I think. I never tire of the Impressionist painters. Kelly and I talked about going to the d'Orsay again this trip, but we decided to focus on places we haven't been before, take it easy, and experience another layer of Paris.

We had breakfast this morning in the little breakfast room at the hotel. Unfortunately, it was just too cool to eat outside in the pretty garden, which would be a lovely way to start the day. The breakfast was simple: a hot drink, a croissant, a baguette with butter and jam. We really didn't need anything more. Then we were off, again to catch the Metro.

We decided to begin our day at the Hôtel des Invalides, a large military-related complex that includes several museums and Napoleon's tomb. This is a new place for us, and I was sorry Charley wasn't here, because he has a very strong interest in Napoleon.

We didn't plan our Metro route well, and we ended up getting off at a stop closer to the Ecole Militaire and had to walk several blocks to Les Invalides. This was a wonderful mistake though, since it took us right by the Champ de Mars, the large park leading up to the Eiffel Tower. We probably spent half an hour taking pictures of the Eiffel Tower, and we even re-visited the park where Kelly had played as a toddler almost 13 years ago. If the day had been clear, we would have gone to the top of the Eiffel Tower-- I've been, but Kelly's only been to the second level.

An interesting view of the Eiffel Tower (photo by Kelly)

I had booked our flight home at 1:40 on Sunday afternoon so we wouldn't be too rushed leaving Paris in the morning. We had breakfast at the hotel and then took a cab from the hotel over to the Opera House. Paris was very quiet on a Sunday morning, and the weather was still overcast and cool. It would have been a great time to go for a walk or take some photos without hundreds of other tourists in them. And actually, we would have had plenty of time to go for a walk. We could have left the hotel at 10:30 and still had plenty of time. Well, now we know for next time.

A quiet Sunday morning at the Louvre

I was proud that my luggage was still very manageable, though I did leave a few things in Provence. Kelly and I also shipped two small boxes home from Provence. Kelly's bag was huge, too big. She says she's really learned the importance of packing light and beginning with a smaller suitcase. When your suitcase is too big, you just keep filling it with stuff. On the other hand, she's had lots of different clothes, plenty of reading material, and was better prepared for the cooler weather in Paris. After two months I am really, really tired of my four pairs of capri pants, five sleeveless tops, four shirts, and two pairs of sandals.