6/23 - PARIS IMAGES

I'm played out, so this will be brief.

I have had the most glorious two weeks I can remember. Ginny and Gay have been my personal tour guides, caretakers, food suppliers, drinking buds, and over-all most wonderful friends in the world.

I have worn out three pair of shoes and hardened my calves with all the walking, returned to my former ability to consume numerous libations every day, eaten everything and anything my heart desires (and only gained two pounds!), dunked myself in the Med. more times than I can count, and slept hard every night. Now I have to leave!

Attached are some photos taken in Paris. There is too much more to write, so I will just stop.

Au revoir,

Roxanne

6/21 - 6/23 PARIS!

6/21 - Paris Hotel and Music?

Ginny took her Vanderbilt students to Paris for a week. As usual, Gay and I got to go along! The students stayed in a very nice youth hostel with gardens and courtyards. We stayed in a cool, little French hotel in the Marais district, a great location within walking distance of Notre Dame. The hotel, "Caron de Beaumarchais", is named after the boisterous 18th century playwright who wrote the "Marriage of Figaro" later adapted to opera by Mozart. The hotel is a narrow structure with three rooms on each floor, decorated with period pieces. Interestingly enough, it has an elevator and air conditioning! Website: http://www.carondebeaumarchais.com/

When we arrived on Saturday, the city was packed with people. Walking the streets felt a bit like swimming upstream. Little did we know.....Paris was in the middle of a giant music festival! The music was loud, wild, and not so great. The city was flooded with young people bent on having a great time. One venue sported an obviously very popular rapper with thousands of adoring fans. All I could think of was Snoop Dog on steroids singing gangster rap in French while wearing the top half of a Chicago Bulls uniform. Very bizarre!

The following day, the music improved...thank goodness! The streets had been cleaned up by a huge number of sanitation workers who literally shoveled the foot-deep broken glass and trash into garbage trucks and then hosed down the streets and sidewalks. By 8:00 a.m. you would never know there had been a party.

Sunday was a beautiful day. We strolled along the Seine listening to jazz musicians do their thing on the bridges We took a boat ride, ate sweet crepes, and languished in the atmosphere. It was the Paris one dreams of!

Best of all was a Vivaldi concert in the evening at La Sainte Chappelle...violins, cello, base, and harpsichord.

6/20 - Wine, Wine, Wine... and More Wine!

TASTING BANDOL WINES....Are you a wine drinker who swirls your wine, lifts your glass to the light, and comments on its "nice legs" as the liquid slides down the sides of the glass? The French call this the "tears of the wine".... as if it weeps. What an image!

We spent a whole day in the Bandol wine region at the Chateau Pibarnon perched on the shoulder of "Telegraph Hill" in La Cadiere d'Azur. This was the location of the old optical telegraph that linked Toulon and Paris. We walked through the vineyards with our guide on a beautiful, sun-drenched day atop a hillside along the Mediterranean. (There's that ocean again...damn, its gorgeous!) We also learned that some years ago ALL of the grape vines in France were destroyed by an insect that attacked the root systems. A disease resistant vine was brought over from America, and the French vines were grafted onto them. As long as the vines do not touch the ground sending out roots, they are protected and France is in the wine business again. We all felt pretty cool about America saving the French vineyards until we found out that the insect came from the US in the first place. Guess this one's a wash!

Photos are of our wine expert, us tasting many wines, and lunch (with more wine, of course).

6/16 Cezanne's Mountain and Picasso's Demise

Sometime this week we took a hike up Sainte Victoire, the mountain Cezanne painted so many times. We did not go to the top, but two of the Vanderbilt people did. One of them is about 60 and the other is probably 70 years old at least. Very brave!!! Anyway, this is the mountain we can see from Ginny's balcony. It is breathing to look at especially in the evening when the sun goes down which is, by the way, not until about 10:30 p.m. Dawn is around 6:00 a.m., so the days are long. The dam is below the mountain, and the castle is where Picasso is burried in the little town of Vauvenargues. Not bad for a buriel plot!

6/17 & 6/18 The French Riviera

6/17 CASSIS is only about a 45 min. drive from Aix. So far, it is one of my favorite places along with Marseille. Could it be that both are on the Mediterranean? The water is stunningly beautiful. I guess they don't call it the Cote d'Azur for nothing! We took another boat ride. This time through the calanques which look like fjords. The water is surrounded by very tall, white limestone cliffs. We did not jump in the water, and we kept our clothes on the whole time. "Lunch" was another four course meal at an outdoor restaurant near the water. We had: Kir, tepenade, soup du poissons, grilled (very recently caught) sea bass with crab and mussels, pear tart and cafe....and, of course, much wine. Photo is one of our servers cutting the fish for lunch. It was more than delicious!

6/18 NICE......OK, so one more stop on the French Riviera. We went by bus to Nice with all of the alumni people as well as Ginny's fifteen French students. It was quite a crowd. We stopped at a museum in the perched town of St. Paul de Vence along the way. In Nice, we girls decided to forgo the shopping and sight-seeing and instead had another fabulous lunch at an outdoor cafe (with much wine of course). We rented cabana chairs at the beach. As you can see, the garcon kept us well watered with tall, frosty beers. Maite was kind enough to bring along a swimsuit for me. We settled right in for an afternoon of sunning ourselves. We felt like we really belonged there until we looked around and noticed that most of the women were topless. The water was freezing cold, but we jumped right in. It was grand!

6/14 & 6/15 - Road Trip

6/14 - "Research" hmmm......Gay has rented a car for three days (compliments of Vanderbilt), so she can gather information on interesting eco initiatives in France. Ginny drove us all around Provence in a cool little car. We travelled up a winding and extremely picturesque road to the town of Jouques where her friend, Alice, lives. Alice grew up in Palo Alto, CA. She came to Provence after college, fell in love with a Frenchman, and the rest is history. Photo is of the four of us drinking our second bottle of Rose on Alice's patio. Alice is surely one of us!

Ginny's alumni reunion group arrives today. She is hosting a week for Vanderbilt grads who were in the Vanderbilt-in-France program years ago. Most of the attendees will be around our age, so it should be kind of fun. We will join a big, swanky, outdoor reception tonight at Le Pigonnet Hotel where they are all staying. Gay and I are official photographers for the event and get to drink free champagne and eat all the fab food that will be laid out. What a deal!

6/15 - We drove south today through the beautiful hills and farmlands to look at Correns, the best eco village in all of France. It also just happens to be where Brad and Angelina have bought a villa and are hold up awaiting the birth of their twins. No....we weren't invited over for wine. Their loss! On to Montfort where you will see photos of us eating lunch (again) which always seems to be a four course meal with at least two bottles of wine. So much for eco "research"!

(P.S. I have also discovered if you click on a photo that captures your fancy, you will get a larger view. Therefore, I will publish the rest in small mode.)

6/ 13 - Attention All Foodies

6/13 Le Marche

We needed to do a little grocery shopping today, so we walked down to the market. Although they have small food stores in Aix, THIS is where one buys one's produce, spices, cheese, meats, etc. for cooking at home. Again....what is wrong with us? I was in foodie heaven!

After food shopping we went to the place where Ginny and Gay buy their wine, "Cave du Pallette." We took a jug (about a gallon size) that looks a bit like a white plastic gas can. I was kind of clueless as to why. You can see in the photo that once you have tasted and decided on the wine you want to buy, the wine man takes out a hoze with a nozzle that looks just like the one at a gas station and fills your container. The total came to about four euros or around $6. I love this place!

6/12/08 - First day in Marseille

6/12/08 Can you even believe this?

Today we went sailing on the Mediterranean off the coast of Marseille on a 35 foot sailboat!! We had a very sweet captain (Arnaud) who required that we help sail. It was interesting! The skies were sunny and the seas were calm...fortunately! We sailed around beautiful islands and anchored in a cove. It was more beautiful than I could even believe! Gin Gin and I were so wild about the whole thing, we took our clothes off and jumped into the ocean with just our underwear on. (No they were not sexy ones.) It was not a pretty sight for the onlookers, but we were ecstatic!!! Not very glamorous photos attached. More later...fully clothed!

6/8/08 - France '08 - The Big SIX-OHHHH!

6/8/08 - I am going to France for two weeks to celebrate turning 60. My two buddies, Virginia Scott and Gay Welch, are in Aix en Provence for the entire summer and have graciously invited me to to stay with them. I will attempt to write about my trip every couple of days if the wine drinking doesn't interfere too much. For those of you who are interested in reading about our escapades, I have attempted to create a blog....might not work...but I will try. Photos will be attached...I hope! I leave tomorrow 6/9.

6/10/08, 6:30 AM...I have awoken in the most wonderful of places. I am more than happy! Finally in Aix en Provence with Ginny and Gay at their third-story apartment owned by Vanderbilt University where they both work. They have been here for some weeks. Ginny is teaching her American students in the French program. Gay is keeping house and doing eco work for her research projects. My sense is they do work while here but do a good bit of playing as well. The French work day does not appear to start until 9:00 a.m.. There is a two-hour lunch break at which everything shuts down and everyone eats....out, I might add! They return to work around 2:00 p.m. and leave for home around 4:30. What is wrong with us??

This morning, I am sitting on the balcony of the apartment with a hot, steaming cup of black tea with soy...my absolute favorite next to a red Cotes Du Rhone which I had last night...my first night here which I DO remember after a harrowing train trek across France. The sun is streaming into the apartment, the sky is blue, and the village is waking. I am very happy!

The trip over was NOT pleasant to say the least, and I will keep the recap short. Bradenton had an overpass collapse due to a tanker truck full of fuel exploding which re-routed traffic dictating an earlier than usual departure for the airport. Many hours of layovers and NO sleep what-so-ever landed me at Charles De Gaulle airport and a train strike. No trains to Aix! I spent the entire day riding various trains around Paris by myself not speaking but the tiniest bit of French until I found a TGV station in Gare du Lyon with a train to Aix leaving in three minutes. My newly turned 60-year old self ran with back pack and a 40-pound suitcase down the corridor just in time to get on. Gin Gin and Gay were stressed when I didn't show at the bus station in Aix at the appointed time. Gin called Jack. Jack called Zack. Gay called Gin (when I finally arrived). Jack called Zack back... and all was well finally after 30 hours of traveling. We had dinner that night at a wonderful outdoor cafe with plenty of wine and fabulous French food. I slept well! And so here I am.....we'll see what happens today.

(Photos are of Gay & Ginny and the view from their balcony.)

R