Arles and Aix, and Bull Games

Arles, about 30 minutes south of Avignon, is a nice sized town in that it has most of what you want, but is very walkable besides. After driving up here from Antibes, I took a walk around the city and scoped things out. It's pretty amazing when in the space of 20 minutes you can four recognizable Van Gogh locations, a Roman theatre, and a Roman amphitheater. Arles is the town where Van Gogh settled in the south of France for almost 2 years to do some of his most famous work, including some of his self-portaits, room pictures, and Starry Night. He also cut off part of his ear here, and spent an appreciable amount of time in the hospital at St.Remy-de-Avignon, a few miles from Arles, trying to recover from the then-unknown diagnosis of being bipolar. After looking at his work again, and seeing and feeling Provence, I can sense the kind of movement of landscape and wind that he was trying to convey in some of his more famous paintings.

For Marie's birthday July 1, we drove to Aix-en-Provence, a modern town with an old center, home to 40,000 students of various nationalities. It was also where Cezanne was born and raised and spent an appreciable amount of time painting.

The main drag of Aix's center is the Cours Mirabou, a wide, tree-lined tree with numerous fountains, shops and restaurants, and on the day we were there, market day for clothes and such. In the 1800s, it was the street the rich lived on, and then, as now, it is the street to be seen on. As usual we stopped in the local bookstore, which although all the books were in French, as still pretty interesting as they had a great selection of comics. Noelle was bummed because they had all the manga comics she likes, just in French and Italian. After lunch, at Marie's birthday request, we took a long walk up to Cezanne's former workshop on a hill above the old town. Her main interest there though, was Paula, the cat she met last year who lives at the workshop. Paula did not disappoint - she was laying there on the table just waiting for scratches and pets.

Later we went back to Avignon, Marie's favorite Provencal city, for supper, and then a very cool ride on a Ferris wheel overlooking Avignon.

Today the market came to Arles, near our hotel, and I took a walk through the amazing food sellers. I can only imagine what someone who really enjoys cooking would do with such a plethora of fresh options, from spices to fresh fruits and vegetables to meats and seafood. Most most unusual (to American tastes that is) sightings were sausages made of burro and of horse. Sophie was not impressed with the skinned rabbits hanging in the butcher's stall, but they are reasonably common on menus here.

Sophie and I then did a quick tour of the church here, and took a walk around the inside of the arena. Arles was a very Roman city 2000 years ago, with a theater, a Circus (where they raced chariots ala "Ben Hur"), and the arena hosted gladiators fighting each other, as well as animals. Later, even into the 1800s, people built houses in the arena and used it like a mini-castle, for security. They are doing a fine job of restoring it, and it is actually used for events as we observed that evening.

In Arles, as in several spots in southern France, they have events called "bull games." These are different from Spanish bullfights, where the bull is ultimately killed - these bulls, it is said, ultimately die of old age (although I believe I had one for supper the other night). The object is for the razeteur, of which there are several in the ring at the same time, to grab the cocarde, which is a ribbon laced between the bull's horns. As you might expect, this puts the advantage with the bull, who has speed, size and those big pointy horns on his side. The bull game we went to was a "course de protection", which to use a baseball analogy, is your rookie league.

We filed into the ancient Roman arena, and found very nice seats only a few rows off the ring. Actually, concentric inside of the main ring, there is a red wooden wall about 5 feet tall and 4 feet inset. The essence of the action is that the razeteurs get in the ring, and and tease the bull, trying to get it chase them. They try and choose a their path so that the bull has to change direction slightly, and they reach back and attempt to hook the cocarde. Whether they are successful or not (and we only saw a few successes), they are now faced with a mad bull right on their heels. With any luck they have timed their run correctly, because they leap over the inner red wall and up, usually hanging onto the railing of the stands as they perch 5 feet off the ground, at which point they take a quick breather, and then hop back in the ring. The general idea seems to be for them to keep the bull running until it gets tired enough for them to get a really good shot and snag the cocarde. I thought it was a pretty cool spectacle, as did the girls for the first part of it, although like watching baseball, by the end (it was about 90 minutes worth) they were a little bored.

I apologize if I hit you with a lot of pictures of the bull games, but it was just quite photo-worthy.

Tomorrow we drop the car off, and then take the TGV (Train of Great Speed) to Paris for Sophie's birthday. Our time is winding down in France, and we're looking forward to seeing home again soon.



Sophie and Marie in the spot where Van Gogh painted his "Starry Night Over the Rhone" - not THE Starry Night which is his most famous, but in the same style

Dusk on the Rhone in Arles

The Cours Mirabou, the main street of old town Aix, with the trees shading the marketing tents

Marie and Paula the cat (named after Paul Cezanne) at Cezanne's workshop

Cathedral in Aix, where we got to hear their pipe organ - obviously the old-timers knew what they were doing when designed the acoutics in these large churches, because the sound of a pipe organ in a large cathedral is unforgettable. Oddly enough, in this picture, the pipe organ on the right is a fake, put in just to visually balance out the space.



Sophie on the Ferris wheel in Avignon

Pete checks out the view of Avignon from the top of the Ferris wheel there

Happy Birthday Marie! Above Avignon, with the Rhone in the background

Avignon at twilight, with the Pope's Palace watching over the old center of town

Obelisk in Arles, which used to grace the center of the chariot racing track - now it's in the main square, flanked by lions, which are Arles symbolic animal - of course lots of towns want to be symbolized by lions - I'm still looking for the chipmunk of towns...

Sophie running up the stairs in the Roman Arena in Arles

View inside of the Roman Arena, with the old building interlaced with some modern additions

Sophie inside the Arena

Just like at a baseball game, "Get your cold drinks, hats, snacks!"






Sequence of pictures showing how the bull is tempted into running after the razeteur, who then reaches back with a set of hooks he holds in his hand and tries to snag the cocarde from between the bull's horns - and then gets himself out of the ring with a flying leap



Sometimes the bull jumps out of the ring too...

...so they just let him back in, and he goes on his way madly chasing after razeteurs



Why the razeteurs jump so high even after they are out of the ring

Shot of the bull, where you can see the cocarde between the horns

Just like the 5th inning, watering down the field at halftime

This bull was so intent on staying in the ring, even after he was done, that they sent two other bulls with bells on to get him to finally pay attention and leave the ring



This bull had something personal going on with this particular razeteur and wouldn't leave the ring, so the poor guy had to throw him his sweaty shirt...

...which the bull promptly sniffed, and then stomped on, but still didn't leave...

...until the razeteur threw his grabbing hooks in too - then the bull seemed satisfied and trotted back to his pen



Market day in Arles, with spices...

...and olives...

...and garlic, and much more.

Monaco and Nice

Today we started off with a quick stop in old town Nice, taking a little look around the Promonade les anglais. People have been vacationing here from other parts of Europe since the mid 1700s. Although some of the old town looked inviting to explore, the main part of Nice oceanfront is a 4 mile long strip of hotels in front of which are crowded, rocky (no sand that I saw) beaches. None of that was as appealing as the prospect of Monaco, so we proceeded on our way.

There are three roads between Nice and Monaco - the High, Middle and Low Corniches. The High Corniche runs as you might expect along the top of the seaside cliffs, the Low Corniche mainly along shore, and like Goldilocks, we decided that the Middle Corniche was just right. Actually the Middle is billed as the most scenic, and it did not disappoint, as it wound about the seaside villages overlooking the beautiful blue of the Mediterreanean

Trish and Sophie's initial impressions of Monaco were less than they expected - there were no golden statues on every corner or polished silver streetlights. It was however, a very upscale sea town. The yachts were larger and more numerous than any I had ever seen - dozens of three story luxury ships. We overlooked the main town below from the Palace, it was exciting to see the streets that I had seen watching the Monaco Grand Prix (the most elite auto race in the world) over the years.

Trish and Sophie took a detour to visit the Palace. There were a number of rooms open for viewing, although they noticed that although many of the displays of royal gifts were behind glass, the cases were readily removed for state functions that used these rooms. Pete, Marie, and Noelle went to the Monaco Aquarium, started by King Albert I in the early 1900s, and continued by Jacque Cousteau later on. It's a nice aquarium - not huge - but good displays and a very cool place to escape the afternoon heat of the Riviera. Upstairs they still have many specimens that Albert I brought back from his trips, a hundred years old in their original glass jars.

Later that afternoon I got see my primary goal in visiting Monaco, to see city streets that make up the race course, up close. Much more elevation change than I had expected, and how these drivers go that fast on the narrow streets is beyond me. Given the glitz of the front of the Casino, I can see why watching cars blast through the famous "Casino Square" part of the track has been called something that every Formula 1 fan must see before they die. As I finished my 2 mile walk around the track streets, I met the girls for a relaxing supper in a seaside restaurant, where we watched the comings and goings on the yachts. Although we didn't get back to the hotel until almost 10 that night, Monaco was worth the long day.

Today we are off to Arles, the Provencal city where Van Gogh spent his time in the south of France.


Sophie on the Promenade des le anglais

Nice, miles of stony beachers, umbrellas and people

Sophie and Trish have found just about every Cavalier dog/puppy in France, and Nice was no exception - this was a 3 month old puppy they met in a park

Monaco - yachts and beautiful people - a very nice place to hang out

Trish in front of the Monaco Palace

Marie and Noelle in the Monaco Aquarium

Sophie and Marie in front of the Ascari statue near the start/finish line of the Monaco street race course

Pete take advantage of a Ferrari ride around the Monaco race course - I wish I could say I just struck up a conversation with this guy and got a ride, but actually there was a business there selling rides

The Casino in Monaco, truly one of the most glamorous places in the world, especially at night

One of the tight streets in Monaco - the red and white curbs are there from the race about a month ago - this corner is so tight that they have to specially engineer the front of a Formula One car just to make this particular corner

So much for the spaciousness of the villa - it's back to hotel rooms again this week

Abbey of Semaque

As much I've been enjoying and taking pictures of small little historical buildings here, I finally ran into one I didn't like.

I had been on one of my bike rides around the Luberon hills, and had spent most of the first 15 miles of my ride climbing up. Although it was getting a little hot, that was fine, because all that work would let me have a free ride to the Abbey of Semaque supposedly tucked away in a field of lavender. As I reached to the road to the abbey, I could see it was a nice descent, although oddly enough the sign seemed to indicate that the the road would discontinue in my direction in 2.5 km. I of course ignored the sign, and In my usual topgraphical unpreparedness, rode down to the abbey despite increasing visual evidence that I'd have to climb back out. As I got to the gates amidst cars and tour buses, I realized that the road continuing on was one-way the other way, and I'd have to ride back up the way I came down. This unplanned climb in the heat with short water supplies made me a grumpy, and the freakin' little abbey in the lavendar field got two quick clicks of my camera before I turned around and rode off.

After all that my ride ended with a great descent through the hill town of Gordes, ending up a great ride, and all ended well (27 miles, 2900 feet of climbing).


The blasted Abbey of Semaque - probably a wonderful tourist destination, if one wasn't facing a bike ride out of it's valley

Cassis

Our last few days in the villa we took it slow, lots of swimming and reading and generally relaxing.

Thursday we drove down to Cassis, a town east of Marseille on the Mediterranean. It's a smaller town, with a harbor and a small beach - sort of a mini-Riviera type of place. We went out there because it was projecting to be in the mid-90s in Provence, so we wanted to get out to the ocean. It was cooler there, but the salty humidity made up for it. Unlike most of the inland towns, the sea towns are more colorful, with buildings and shutters of various colors. We were far enough east that the Italian influence was kicking in, and were able to enjoy some of that fabulous gelato that we remembered from Italy a couple years ago.

The most famous physical features of Cassis are the calanques, and the Cap Canaille. A calanque is a Mediterranean version of a fijord, on a smaller scale - a bay surrounded on all sides by steep, rocky shores. Although a couple are walkable, generally people take boats into them, and then picnic, sunbathe, and swim off the shores. Some of the calanques have small beaches near the back, and all of them have beautiful blue water. Marie, Sophie and I took a boat tour of a few of the calanques, and the people hanging out in them were having enough fun that if I came back I'd definitely look into renting a kayak and going back to spend a day in one of them.

On our way out of town, we took the cliffside road along Cap Canaille, a winding Trail-Ridge-Road type of highway. As the highest maritime cliff in Europe (about 1500 feet straight down), the view from the top was spectacular.

One night we took a drive up to Gordes, only a few kilometers away, for supper. Although the mistral winds were blowing strongly that evening, we found a nice little place where I got my first taste of foie gras - a much sweeter taste than I expected, although I couldn't quite get used to the soft texture.

Every morning, Trish or Marie walked out the the boulangerie/patisserie and got us yummy baguettes, croissants and pain au chocolates, which was truly a treat.


The seaside town of Cassis - I love how the tans of the buildings inland change to more colorful buildings on the ocean

A calanque, with a beach in the back of it - looks like a great place to spend a day

Sophie going full out to enjoy a Nutella crepe

The highest maritime cliff in Europe, overlooking Cassis - the road wound above on the top of that cliff

Sophie on the cliffs overlooking Cassis

Pete and gelato "rose" in Cassis

Sophie enjoying breakfast in the villa - it was really a nice house to stay in, and we really relaxed there

The streets of Rousillon, the "Colorado of Provence", because of the ochre rocks, which is reflected in the color of the houses

The ochre cliffs of Rousillon, with the pine trees adding to the Colorado feel