France&Fez Day 5, Les Baux and St. Remy

Our fifth day in France, we traveled west in Provence to the villages of Les Baux and St. Remy. The plane trees line the old roads between the farmland and the villages, and make the countryside charming and inviting.

Les Baux is both a castle built into a high limestone outcropping and a village nestled at it foot.  No longer much of a living city, these castle ruins and village streets are now full of shops and cafes, and history.  We started with a quick lunch in the village, then climbed into and around the castle ruins.

The lords of Les Baux controlled the high ground on the trade route between Aix-en-Provence and Avingnon, and built the formidable castle as their stronghold.  The castle met it formal end, however, in 1632, when a brother to King Louis the 13th decided to side with the protestants and make his stand at Les Baux.  After starving the castle and the village for some 22 days, the Kings troops won the day with a volley of cannon fire from some of the nearby Alpilles, and ended the revolt. So this was yet another site of Reformation sacrifice.

We then wandered through the lovely, medieval village, complete with renaissance glass windows, and plenty of "old stones".

As the evening descended, we drove on to the village of St. Remy, wandered those venerable old streets, and finished our day at a lovely little creperie, where we enjoyed the traditional combo of crepes sallee (savory) and sucre (sweet), accompanied by sweet hard apple cider.  Another wonderful day!

France&Fez Day 4: Marseille's Port Vieux

We awoke to a lovely, cool day in Marseille on Sept. 29.  We rode the bus and metro from J.'s condo to the old port, or Port Vieux, at the heart of Marseille.  We were in for some lovely sights and surprises.

Our first surprise was to find that Marseille had recently celebrated its 2600th anniversary as a city, tracing its foundations back to the Greeks.  Now that's old!  The famous Greek explorer and geographer, Pytheus, was born in Marseille. And then there are the Roman ruins uncovered when a downtown shopping mall was to be expanded.  Once the Roman ruins of the original old port were uncovered, they created a museum there under the shopping mall instead, and what a wonderful collection of local history from the Greeks onward it holds!

The Port Vieux area itself is a lovely mixture of sailing port, working port, old buildings, and plenty of that Cote D'Azure feel.  We went into a building that began housing galley slaves in the 1500's, and had been continuously used since.  And we happily wandered the area, and had lunch al fresco in a little cafe. The coconut and raspberry tarts were amazing!

In the afternoon, we took a ferry out to the Chateau D'If in the harbor.  This impressive fortress had been used in the 1500's to house the Hugenot prisoners who would be used to row the French galleys, and for a variety of prisoners thereafter. It was probably made most famous when the film version of The Count of Monte Cristo was set there.  It is a an amazing spot, with amazing views of the city.

  We ended our day by winding through several of the market areas of Marseille, including the North African market, on our way back to the metro and "home".  And once there, J. treated us to Moroccan meatballs. Another wonderful day!

France&Fez Day 3: Aix-en-Provence

We were up early our first full day in France, checked out of the hotel and checked our suitcases in for the day, and headed in search of a patiserie/boulangerie.  We found a delightful one, and with a yummy apricot pastry and pain au chocolat, we headed to Parc Jourdan for an al fresco breakfast.

From there, we just began aimlessly wandering this beautiful old city.  We hunted for Aix's numerous fountains, and enjoyed walking medieval streets (cobblestone with gutters in the middle) and renaissance streets (gutters at the side).  This is a town of universities and seminaries, tiny, winding streets, beautiful markets, and cafes.  Its yellow and golden architecture made me feel like I imagine Italy feels.

At lunch we began our love affair with that delightful French street food, the crepe!  That evening, Jan picked us up at the hotel, toured us through Jean Calvin Seminary, and then took us home with her to Marseille.  Aix, with its architecture and ambience, was our perfect introduction to Provence!