We left St. Raphael about mid-morning, with clear blue skies, in our Citroen Picasso, a quite fitting name for a artsy guy like me. The rental car agent had upgraded us from a convertible, not much use this time a year, gas car to what is considered mid-sized diesel car. Diesel, unlike at home, is much cheaper than gas at the pump here.
We could make our destination in 2 hours on the auto-route but for us the journey is usually more important than the destination, so we took N7 the old main road. Besides, you had to pay to use the auto-route. The first part was pretty non-descript but after awhile we got into the Cote's de Provence wine region and it got more interesting. Many winery's where closed for the season and not being sure exactly how much time it would take to get Antolle we did not stop at any and if you seen one, you have seen the all. We did stop at our usual restaurant, "Chez Vicki" for lunch. We skirted the edge of the cites Aixe-en-Provence and Arles as we would be back to them later.
The Camargue is a large wetlands area where they grow rice, farm salt, and a large nature preserve with lots of birds and flocks and flocks of Flamingo's. So, finding Antonelle in the Caamargue was no problem as there was nothing else around. Just fields of rize and wetlands.
We were later to learn that that makes it is very dark at night. The French are very chency with electricity. They have motion sensor out side lights, but they are set for about 5 seconds, so we learned to move fast. They have the cheapest electricity in Europe, I believe, because they embraced nuclear power a long time ago, but they are facing a 15% increase to upgrade their system.
Sunday we roamed through the wetlands to Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mar (they sure can stretch out a name). We had driven through it on a previous trip and marked it as "cute" on the map and it was. Until about 1pm when it was over run with people. Amazing, no one at 11am and flooded at 1. I guess a nice sunny day this time of year was not to be wasted. One comment we often make to each other is "glad we are never here in the season" and we said it again today. New map note, "cute on a weekday".
Traveling by car now gave us a new freedom. I kind of miss the bus/train travel. With the bus you had to plan ahead and was a little bit of a challenge and you meet more people. With the car the day is your own. We always set out with a schedule but never keep it. Something will always divert us.
Like today. Had a plan but when we drove through a town that had a big christmas market we got diverted and then there was a fork in the road and I liked the left better than the right, the scheduled route. Each method of transportation has plus's and minus. Out here in the country it is all plus's with the car.
While we are talking cars.....this thing has a automatic parking brake. It took 3 days to figure out how it worked and I ain't real sure I have got. It sets when you turn the car off. When you start up and do something, yet determined, it releases. I hit everything from the brake pedal to the overhead light and eventually it lets go. I also filled up this "compact" the bill was $60us.
Roaming Provence we had been told to go to the Cathedral de Images. It is an old rock quarry cave cut into the side of the mountain. They have a music and slide show of a different artist every year and it is a major production. You walk around the inside of the quarry, in the mountain, and they continuously project paintings on all the walls, columns, and the floor accompanied with surround sound music. This year the program is Van Gogh. It is one of the most incredible things I have ever seen. They will show photos of something he painted and then fade into the painting. Everywhere you look in this huge cavern are paintings. Sometimes the same one on all the surfaces and some times a variety. We spent a long time in the mountain. Next year is Picasso and I would come back to France just for this one event. It is much darker than the pictures portray.
November 11th is Armistice day here. It is a celebration to all those who died in WW I. Since everything is closed for the holiday we were off for Arel to see the parade and the laying of the wreath. Almost every town in France has a ceremony of some size. We have seen large ones with big name speakers and small ones with a handful of people. They honor the American dead also. There are still WW I American cemeteries here and each grave gets a flag and flowers. It is quite a moving sight. I was never a big war buff, but we were near Verdun where the trench warfare was once, so we took the tour. It was so moving, I read a few books and saw some programs on TV. What an unbelievable waste of human lives. 10% of the population of France was killed. To compare that to something you can get a grip on, that is equal to 30,000,000 (thirty million) people being killed in the U.S. today. The large majority where the young and middle age men. Even more were wounded. Sadly these memorial events are no better attended by the public here than at home.
The week has been a winter to fall mix of weather, gray days with light rain and some sunny days. The sunny days are winning.
Cruising through the hills we came upon a large group of cars lined up on the side of the road. Stopped to investigate and found a olive cooperative and each little car was bringing their boxes of olives. Some had one box and some cars where packed to the gills with olives. Further down the road we found a family picking their olives. The mother had brought fast get away car she said so she could get to the beer first when they were done.
Wednesday was a cold, wet fall almost winter day. Not a fun day to walk around in so we decided to explore along coast from the Rhone River to Marseille. There was only one or two "original" towns. One,
Carro, we found a "Chez Vicki" restaurant and had olive oil, tomato and onion sandwiches on "country" bread. The rest where modern, but nicely done, new towns with only one high rise. Unfortunately, lurking over the hill was always a big industrial complex; oil refineries, cement, and chemical plants. Somewhere before Marseille we decided we had enough of the weather and this area and headed for the farm.
Thursday morning we were awakened by the "mistral" that had blown in. We had experienced it before but not like this. In the morning winds where blowing about 20mph and built to 35mph by mid-day. The good thing is this brings clear and sunny skies. Driving off the farm about 8am right in line with the drive was a big full moon. For lunch we decided to eat out and headed for Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mar figuring how many people could be there now. We were right, no people and no shop keepers. They had pretty much shut down for the season after the big weekend. We found a nice place and had paella, normally thought of as Spanish but very popular on all the Med coast. Almost every night we have driven down to the coast to try and Today we caught them after lunch closer to the road.
After a sunny and windy day again, I talked to the farm boys for a few minutes. They say they very rarely see an American here. (old stuff and pictures of the farm)
So the sun sets on the Camargue and we are out of here. A few more pictures of interest.
"Too often travel, instead of broadening the mind, merely lengthens the conversations".
--Elizabeth Drew
(If true let me know and I will cut down on content.)
