Provence travel log 2006-12-26

[All of today’s pictures thanks to Lauren. I left my camera at the house! Wish I could take pictures as well and as frequently as she does. –Will]

I woke late this morning to find everyone else already up and about. Lauren was very kind and had a cup of tea and a bit of pain chocolat ready (it’s a croissant-like pastry with a little bit of chocolate in the bottom). As I hopped in the shower and got ready to go, Nathan dutifully scraped all the car windows clear of ice.

After a brief drive through some villages nearby, we made our way to our first stop, Les Baux. The tiny, stone town’s population is numbered in the hundreds. Lunch was the first order of business, and we had savory crepes and café au lait at Sux Santons de Provence, just inside the city walls. Then it was time to explore in earnest.

Les Baux is the area that gives bauxite its name, although all the bauxite mines are history now. History is everywhere aboveground as well, and we spent most of the morning wandering the narrow lanes of the old citadel atop the hill. Lauren, Sam, and I also took an audio tour that had us looking over the breathtaking countryside below and learning all about life in Ancient Les Baux, Very Old Les Baux, Slightly Elderly Les Baux, and Hardy Middle-Aged Les Baux. The bottom line is that the area has been a beautiful, fertile, and eminently defensible place to live for thousands of years, and as a result the hills and valleys were steeped in history.

We were bummed to only get halfway through the audio tour before we had to meet up with the rest of our group at 2pm.

Les Baux was nice, but the Medieval ruins apparently weren’t old enough for Dad. We thus traveled to nearby Arles to take in the really old stuff – ruins of the Roman arena and amphitheatre. Very reminiscent of the coliseum and forum in Rome. Really had a feeling that we were walking in the middle of history; after all, a provincial sandal once trod on the very same stones beneath our feet today. Arena had a wonderful city view from the top, to boot.

(Arles also gave me a great opportunity to practice my pirate accent. Try it… Arrrrles!)

After the ruins, we spent an hour so chatting in a coffeeshop – my favorite French activity. Then it was a brief stop into a church and square before dinner time.

We drove to a Michelin-starred restaurant in nearby Eygalieres, only to find it closed for renovations through May of 2007. Luckily, Provence has more picturesque little olive-producing villages than Carter has pills, so it was one hop over to Saint Remy. The Michelin-recommended Alain Assaud was serving dinner, but not until 7:30, so it was another hour in another coffeeshop in another village, which was just fine with me.

Dinner was very tasty, very authentic, tres French. A tiny place, about the size of St. Sevy near home in Woodside, CA. But on this night at least, it had only one waitress out front and two chefs in back, which was a stretch even for a small place like Alain Assaud. Still, food was excellent, if a bit long in arriving, and the goat cheese was so tasty and so plentiful that Sam was actually refusing it by the end of the meal, something I never thought I’d see.

The late dinner made this our wildest night out as a group, putting us back home in Alleins just after 11pm. Many people are coming down with colds, so we’ll try to get a good rest tonight before journeying southward to Marseilles and its surrounds tomorrow.