South of France - Part I
2/3/05 12:40 am
After three days of sleeping on the floor, waking up at 7:30h to go skiing and after a long drive from the Alps to Aix en Provence, we had a long and desserved sleep in a warm and comfortable bed. Next morning Marjolaine, Angelique’s sister, and Karim, her boyfriend, left early to go to the university. Karim was free in the afternoon and took us to a tour in Aix en Provence which is a Universitary city. It is made of little streets where a small car can barely fit. There are plenty of little restaurants, bakeries in every other corner and dog's shit everywhere, yep, there is dog's shit everywhere, you always have to be alert not to step in one, but even though, soon or later it will happen...
2/4/05 1:48 pm
The visiting marathon starts. On that day, we stopped by the University to read our emails. Curious enough is that the University does not check if the ones using the computers in their labs are actually students! Anyway, that done we left for a very small village named Vauvenargues where Picasso's house is. It is a private property today and it has a 'kind' sign by the gate saying that it is not open for visits and it also has a reminder that the museum is in Paris.
After that, we went for a little hike in the Reserve de Sainte Victoire.
We got the wrong path and ended up in the middle of nowhere. To make the way back, we walked through the fields that were nicely smelling the herbs de Provence, not a good place to hike if you're hungry and carry no food with you. Also, in this reserve, there is a refuge used by Cezanne, but we didn't get to see it.
We passed through the Barrage de Bimont which is a very small hydroelectric dam that must not produce much electricity, but right from the top of it you can see a smoking nuclear power plant, Gardanne. It does not feel quite good to hike so close to it. But to compensate there was, on the other side, the nice Ste Victoire mount under a blue sky. On the way back we stopped to buy ingredients for Karim, which is from Tunisia, to cook an authentic Tunisian Couscous for us. It took a long time to be ready but it was delicious, we had also Alsatian white wine, Riesling, Chinese hot souce an a weird Tunisian hot sauce that comes in a tube just like a tooth paste!
2/5/05 9:37 am
Next day we went to see Le village Des Bories, a sheperd village made of stone huts. The first ones are believed to settle there around 400 B.C. The houses are made purely of piled stones and the ones that where still standing there date from the Middle Age, 1200 to 1500. Some houses are accomodations, some are bakeries, some for producing wine with still some tools left.
From there we went to Gordes, another town with more then 2000 years of history with a castle, also from the Middle Age, that belonged to the same family for more then 700 years. The city was hit by the German army in 1944. It is open for tourism since 1960. It is considered one of the 7 most beautiful villages in France and it really is! The yellowish houses are blended in to the colour of the mountain. From far away it just seems like a simple mount.
From there we went to Roussillon, another cute village on the top of a hill. Here the rocks are redish and so the whole village is redish too.
Enough of villages! We then went to see the Cistercian Abbey of Senanque, also built in the 12th century. The Abbey is surrounded by Lavanda fields which is today the main source of income for the monks living there.
The Cistercian is a branch of the Christian church which believes that the rich details and decoratian of churches would drift the thoughts of the monks and keep them away from their pourpose which is to reflect about God, so the Abbey is made of raw stones, no decorations at all. You can even see the signatures of the workers from the Middle Age that were constructing the walls of the church. By their signatures on the stones (a simple sign) they could track how much each worker did and pay them accordingly. In the other churches you cannot see it, because the stones are covered with paintings and decors, but it is there.
2/6/05 9:37 am
On the way to the Gorges du Verdon we stoped by Ste-Croix Lac, a breath taking view of a green lake with the mountains in the back. From this view point, there is a map indicating all the sports you can do around here. Biking, canoying, rock climbing, jogging, rafting, hiking, parapent and even doing nothing, just looking, relaxing and appreciating, which is what we were doing there.
We followed the road in the direction of the Gorges du Verdon, which was the big thing of the day, a canyon with a unbelievable green water at the bottom, the Verdon river.
The road is somewhat impressive, with several sections barely wide enough for one car, not to mention that it is at the edge of a huge cliff. It was freezing, completely empty and quiet up there.
After going all around the Gorges, we went to a medieval village, Trigance, from year 400 B.C. It is so small that it might have not more then 300 people, all houses are made of rocks and there is not a single straight wall in the whole village, everything is bending to one side or another. We visited another two other villages, Rougon and Moustier and many others tiny villages that we passed through and there is no way I will remember all the names, but one interesting thing is that all these little villages have a memorial at the entrance for the soldiers killed in the first world war.
That same night, we left Aix en Provence and went to Sausset les Pins, more south and closer to Marseille.
After three days of sleeping on the floor, waking up at 7:30h to go skiing and after a long drive from the Alps to Aix en Provence, we had a long and desserved sleep in a warm and comfortable bed. Next morning Marjolaine, Angelique’s sister, and Karim, her boyfriend, left early to go to the university. Karim was free in the afternoon and took us to a tour in Aix en Provence which is a Universitary city. It is made of little streets where a small car can barely fit. There are plenty of little restaurants, bakeries in every other corner and dog's shit everywhere, yep, there is dog's shit everywhere, you always have to be alert not to step in one, but even though, soon or later it will happen...
2/4/05 1:48 pm
The visiting marathon starts. On that day, we stopped by the University to read our emails. Curious enough is that the University does not check if the ones using the computers in their labs are actually students! Anyway, that done we left for a very small village named Vauvenargues where Picasso's house is. It is a private property today and it has a 'kind' sign by the gate saying that it is not open for visits and it also has a reminder that the museum is in Paris.
After that, we went for a little hike in the Reserve de Sainte Victoire.
We got the wrong path and ended up in the middle of nowhere. To make the way back, we walked through the fields that were nicely smelling the herbs de Provence, not a good place to hike if you're hungry and carry no food with you. Also, in this reserve, there is a refuge used by Cezanne, but we didn't get to see it.
We passed through the Barrage de Bimont which is a very small hydroelectric dam that must not produce much electricity, but right from the top of it you can see a smoking nuclear power plant, Gardanne. It does not feel quite good to hike so close to it. But to compensate there was, on the other side, the nice Ste Victoire mount under a blue sky. On the way back we stopped to buy ingredients for Karim, which is from Tunisia, to cook an authentic Tunisian Couscous for us. It took a long time to be ready but it was delicious, we had also Alsatian white wine, Riesling, Chinese hot souce an a weird Tunisian hot sauce that comes in a tube just like a tooth paste!
2/5/05 9:37 am
Next day we went to see Le village Des Bories, a sheperd village made of stone huts. The first ones are believed to settle there around 400 B.C. The houses are made purely of piled stones and the ones that where still standing there date from the Middle Age, 1200 to 1500. Some houses are accomodations, some are bakeries, some for producing wine with still some tools left.
From there we went to Gordes, another town with more then 2000 years of history with a castle, also from the Middle Age, that belonged to the same family for more then 700 years. The city was hit by the German army in 1944. It is open for tourism since 1960. It is considered one of the 7 most beautiful villages in France and it really is! The yellowish houses are blended in to the colour of the mountain. From far away it just seems like a simple mount.
From there we went to Roussillon, another cute village on the top of a hill. Here the rocks are redish and so the whole village is redish too.
Enough of villages! We then went to see the Cistercian Abbey of Senanque, also built in the 12th century. The Abbey is surrounded by Lavanda fields which is today the main source of income for the monks living there.
The Cistercian is a branch of the Christian church which believes that the rich details and decoratian of churches would drift the thoughts of the monks and keep them away from their pourpose which is to reflect about God, so the Abbey is made of raw stones, no decorations at all. You can even see the signatures of the workers from the Middle Age that were constructing the walls of the church. By their signatures on the stones (a simple sign) they could track how much each worker did and pay them accordingly. In the other churches you cannot see it, because the stones are covered with paintings and decors, but it is there.
2/6/05 9:37 am
On the way to the Gorges du Verdon we stoped by Ste-Croix Lac, a breath taking view of a green lake with the mountains in the back. From this view point, there is a map indicating all the sports you can do around here. Biking, canoying, rock climbing, jogging, rafting, hiking, parapent and even doing nothing, just looking, relaxing and appreciating, which is what we were doing there.
We followed the road in the direction of the Gorges du Verdon, which was the big thing of the day, a canyon with a unbelievable green water at the bottom, the Verdon river.
The road is somewhat impressive, with several sections barely wide enough for one car, not to mention that it is at the edge of a huge cliff. It was freezing, completely empty and quiet up there.
After going all around the Gorges, we went to a medieval village, Trigance, from year 400 B.C. It is so small that it might have not more then 300 people, all houses are made of rocks and there is not a single straight wall in the whole village, everything is bending to one side or another. We visited another two other villages, Rougon and Moustier and many others tiny villages that we passed through and there is no way I will remember all the names, but one interesting thing is that all these little villages have a memorial at the entrance for the soldiers killed in the first world war.
That same night, we left Aix en Provence and went to Sausset les Pins, more south and closer to Marseille.
posted by Adriano and Angie | 1:34 PM
1 Comments:
This is a totally awesome blog! Very nice pictures!
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