NOVEMBER 25

Well, the winds have died down from 100 km/h to only about 25 to 30, enough so that one person can open the door now, so we have ventured out. 

 

But first some very tragic news.  The very image of France, the French Cafe, is dying.  In 1960 there where over 200,000 and today there are just over 41,000 with 2 a day shutting down.  The number of closings this year has increased dramatically.  The blame is placed everywhere; the new no smoking law, the economy, the americans (just kidding about that one); but probably, they say, it is just a changing culture.  The bar in the cafe is where you go in the morning to have your espresso or shot of favorite pick me up, the latest news, and then went to work. You have it at the bar because it is cheaper there than if served at a table. It is where you met your friends in the evening and discussed politics, sports and the world in general.  They have all the newspapers for you to read and some of the weekly news magazines. Sort of the image of the corner bar in the big city in the States. It is mainly a male domain(at the bar). It is also where you set on the sidewalk in Paris and watch the world go by.  Someone gave me some great advice when I was complaining of paying $5 for a  cup of coffee.  He said you need to look at it differently.  Look at it like you are renting one of the most expensive pieces of real estate in the world for the day for $5, because once you buy your coffee or beer you can set there all day, read a book, write emails, whatever. They do not care and will not bother you.  With that new approach I have had some marvelous afternoons setting outside at the cafe.  As he said, though, choice your real estate wisely.   (This may be old news to you, as I see it has hit the US press)

 

 

 Of course, the open urinal on the street is almost extinct now.  But do not worry, women's and men's bathrooms are still in the same room with an open urinal. And Boule is still going strong.  I have seen no young men playing, so it may get beat out by computer games, but they have let women join in now.

And setting in the sun will always be in style!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I got so bored I went to a museum this week.  Not really, but we did go to an art museum.  We where the only people in building and where out numbered by guards 4 to 1. This out of season travel my be cold or wet or windy, but it is not crowded and there is no problem finding a parking spot. And you can stand in the middle of the street to take your photos.

 

 

The city of Nabronne is a nice city but I do not like it as much as Arel which was the big city near the farm.  We went to a great little cafe for lunch, the french couple at the table next to us asked, in english, if we would mind if they smoked.  Amazing! And they fine you $128 if you do not pick up your dog poop and they mean it.

 

On the Canal Midi, be sure and check your tide tables before you leave your boat for the winter!

(They actually drained it for the winter to do maintenance)

 

Sunday we decided to ride down the beaches in the direction Perpignan a ways and then pop up into the hills and follow yet another "route the Vin". I may have mentioned that most of the beach towns in this area are not very exciting as they a modern villages designed just for the beach goer. First stop was in a "real town", Leucate, at a parking lot flea market.  Two guys keep trying to get me to join them in some rum, but 10am was a little early for me.  On down the road there was a sign for "naturist pleage" and Vicki said we should go visit it.  It took me a little while to realize that she did not understand it meant "naked beach" and not "nature beach".  When we followed the signs into the Aphrodite subdivision, she finally caught on.

 

 

 

  

Two roads diverged in a woods, and I --/ I took the one less traveled by,/ And that has made all the difference.

--Robert Frost

 

 

 

PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTIONS

This is my philosophical answer to two questions we are repeatedly asked. 

 

(feel free to hit the delete button now.  While we are on that, I you do not wish to receive the travelogue or any of my diatribe, just let me know and I will take you off the list.)

 

1. Ken, why to you to leave your home all the time?   This is usually from someone who has been in the same place all their lives.  I usually I start with the easy explanation.  If you lived an the same house all your life and never went outside, got all your information about the outside of you house from TV and newspaper, and they told you your house was pink and the neighborhood was dangerous, then that is what you believed.   Then one day you adventured out and found that your house is really blue and the neighborhood is very friendly.  That is what leaving my home is about.  Until you can get out and see the rest of the world, you really can not understand how your neighborhood looks and compares to the rest of the world. Some times that explanitation works, some times it doesn't.  Some people don't care. The problem with a lot people is they are scared.  If you do not look like me, talk like me, eat like me and believe like me then you are not comfortable and can actually be scared or intimidated by something different.  I find that more Americans fall in this category than the rest of the world as the rest of the world is not as isolated from "different" people as we are.  People are afraid that they may "get me", or laugh at me, or I will embarrass myself.  These are the barriers that you have to break through to really enjoy the rest of America and the world.  Yes they laugh at you, yes they talk about you and yes you can not understand.  But it is not in malaise and I have never had a situation where some one did not try and help. I know a guy who have traveled by local bus, you know the ones you see on the Nat Geo channels with chickens and stuff, through back roads of Syria, of all places, and no one was ever mean or threatening.  In fact, the more rural the place, the more people wanted to talk to him.  He said no one believed he was an American traveling alone through Syria.  So, if you are so inclined, break through the barriers, climb on the bus and travel.  There is no right answer or wrong.  Just because you are not like us and want to stay home is the reason you are my friend, because you are different from me !!

 

2. What do you do all day and don't you get bored? (the 2 in one question) This is the one I get from my Momma the most and all this wonder lust is her fault.  She is the one that dragged me back and forth across the ocean starting when I was just 6 months old.  I will answer the easy part first.  Yes, we get bored.  But, I get bored at home and probably so do you.  In fact I am more bored at home than traveling.  Now the hard part.  First you have to realize our adventures are not "vacations" as most Americans think of anything that takes them away from home.  Travel is a life event for us.  We go some place and try to stay long periods to understand the people and the culture  just a little bit.  We do not feel you can do this by seeing 15 cities in 10 days. In fact, we try to avoid the high spots and look for the more normal things.  As you know from the travelogues, some days we take trips to big cities and touristy places, but just as often we find small things to go and see them.

So here was a typical day in St. Raphael, France:

I get up a 6 am'ish, watch a little of French news on the channel that has the news "crawl" across the bottom.  What I don't get listening a french, I pick up a little more understanding from the crawl.  I make a cup of tea and read or study until it is light, then I go out and clean up all the olives and grapes that have fallen over night and feed the fish.  Around 8am most days, I walk down to water front, turn right and head for the next town of Frejus and the Palmerias Hotel's side walk cafe with internet connection.  There I visit with the owner and waitress and occasionally a guest or two and do all the computer stuff and send you these diatribes.  After a stroll back along the beach front, I go by my favorite baker and get the daily baguette. I get home about 9:30.  Vicki and I visit and talk about her dreams that she has almost every night and decide what to do.  Today we are off to the military cemetery for the soldiers from South East Asia. To get there we walk for a little over an hour taking roads we have not walked before. There is always something to see that is new, flowers, birds, dogs, houses, people, etc.  You have to open your eyes and look and never be in a hurry.  At the cemetery we set on the bench and take it all in.  It has a lovely garden.  The French lost only a little over 3,000 soldiers from 1914, I think, until 1957 compared to our 50,000+ from '61 to '75.  Lots of interesting things to note while we are here...many Vietnamese and North Africans are buried here.  About an hour later we head into the town of Frejus, about a 45 minute walk.  Once again there are things that are to us interesting along the way, Budist monestary, roman ruins, monuments, etc.  In Frejust we go to the Vietnamese restaurant, keeping with the theme of the day.  It is a little more than a hole in the wall on a small small alley off the main small street in old town. The owner, a non-english speaker, is very helpful.  He shows a new way to eat springs rolls, the small Vietnamese/Thai type, not those big honkin' Chinese things.  You wrap lettuce around the spring role.  It was excellent as was the main course. This is accompanied with beer and espresso afterward as is required by law. We stroll through old Frejus looking at art and some of the shops.  Then we head for the water front and walk back home, about an hour and ten minutes.  After a rest of about an hour, Vicki goes to the market to get fresh things for dinner.  We set on the patio under the grape vines looking out at the flowers and fruit and olive trees and have glass of wine.  After dinner we read or plan the next day or write emails or sort photo's or watch "mon oncle charlie" ("my uncle charlie" or as you know it "2 and half men").  And that is an average day.

Now, if we were at home it would probably go like this:  Get up at 6, make coffee and do the internet, get in the car and drive to the cemetery, have lunch, stop at Publix's and then home.  All of that would probably take 2 hours.  There are just as interesting things to do in the States, just that in the States we and many others do not take the time.  We need the instant everything.  Most of the rest of the world moves at a much slower pace and you really, really get to see more. But you have to hurry because it is changing.

 

Again, this type of travel or travel at all, is not for everyone.  Each person in the world is different.  And that is why we enjoy meeting them so much !!

 

3. Yea, but I don't have time or money?  That question is for another day.

 

Ken Wilson, traveler

 

 "Certainly, travel is more than seeing of sights, it is a change that goes on deep and permanent, in the ideas of living."

NOVEMBER 14

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.)

NOVEMBER 11

Today we picked up our car.....  and we are moving on.  No more bus torture of us!!  We packed up and headed west bound for the Camargue and our home on the farm south of Arles http://antonelle.net/.

 

Eight weeks in San Raphael and Frejus has been great.  We have met many people, had great experiences,meals and made new friends.  "It is very curious no?", as my french teacher Eric would say in trying to explain some french grammar thing, that about week 5, everyone that I had nodded to or maybe said "bonjour" began to stop me, shake hands and talk for awhile.  The french, like many cultures are very reserved and many Americans mistake that as dislike or contempt for them individually.  In fact it is just the opposite, they do not want to intrude on you. Anyway, the 5th week  seemed to put me into a new category.  Just on our alley alone there where be 3 or 4 people that began to stop me an talk.  The election was always part of the discussion, but the rest was all over the spectrum. 

Our neighbor Christy is a hockey fanatic and wanted to talk all about that.  Her daughter is married to an American and we talked about that.  She is the keeper of the animals, "Mekat", "Negro" the cats and "Kaline" the dog. It is interesting that none of these ever warmed up to Vicki but "Negro" and "Kaline" became my friends. (Don't feel bad for her though, the fish in the pond at the apartment liked her....if she fed them.) In all honesty my french is so bad and she talked to fast I was lucky to get 10% of what she said. (Just realized I have no picture of her and they have gone out of town for the weekend)

 

Next on the alley is the Renault repair shop.  The boys started coming out and we talked cars, especially those gas guzzling American things, engine changes they where doing, the election and the weather.  Nice guys.

There was the baguette lady at the Intermarche, the lady at the tourist office, the lady at the bus station and a few people that I had just passed regularly.  Oh yea, and those guys  at the Kabeb shop. They were great, funny and very very busy.

 

The school,  France Langue & Culture, was great and I can highly recommend the school and all the teachers individually, Annie, Eric, Pierre and the owner.  They were great teachers and great friends and continued to help us after the school was finished.  We appreciate all they did for us and the other people they introduced us to.

 

 

I knew it was getting time to leave when my favorite morning spot where I had coffee and wi-fi informed me they were closing for the season.  I had praticed my french on them until we became friends and then they used their perfect English to better communicate the more serious topics we had moved on to. I can highly recommend the Hotel Les Palmiers (hotellespalmiers.fr ).  The owner, Emmanuel Quarterone a third generation, is an excellent person and his hotel is right on the water.  If you are really lucky maybe Sandrina will still be working there, but she has decided it is time to get a real job. 

 

And last but not least Jean-Pierre Meiffert our landlord of St. Tropez.  What a prince of a guy and his little garden apartments in the middle of town where great.  We have had many a fine landlord and they have left a bottle of wine, but never 6 bottles of wine and a bottle of champaign. I highly recommend  his apartments. (I just discovered that he is another person we have no picture of)

 

 

So, if you come this way stop and spend a night or two.  Or better yet, skip the big cities of Nice and Cannes and make Saint Raphael or Frejus your base and venture out from here via bus, train or car. Just never ever do it in August.

 

 

Travel has a way of stretching the mind. The stretch comes not from travel's immediate rewards, the inevitable myriad new sights, smells and sounds, but with experiencing firsthand how others do differently what we believed to be the right and only way.

--Ralph Crawshaw

 

NOVEMBER 7

Thursday we hopped the #27 bus from St. Raphael to Draguignan under sunny skies that would turn overcast as the day went on.  All we knew was that there was a bus to there, a prison, American cemetery, and was in the hills.  We have no idea what the scenery on the ride was like because Vicki went into a big trance and my head blow up about 30 minutes into the 1 hour 15 minute ride.  The driver subjected us to the political torture we came here to avoid.  He had a talk radio show on the speakers at double the volume and the subject was comparing Sarkozy to Obama with the usual talking heads talking over each other and best I could tell no one saying anything worth listening to!!!  TORTURE!!!!!!

 

The town was  disappointing.  The old town was totally abandoned and the town overall was decorated with graffiti. We saw the cemetery and walked around town and caught the next bus, without a radio, out of town. 

 

Interesting that most French people we talk to our age and older will guite often say they owe their freedom to the USA and are very thankful.  Never heard the young say that, but never heard the young in the USA talk about it either.

 

 

To compensate for the day of torture we found a nice bottle of champaign from the landlord, Jean Pierre, at the door when we got home.

 

 

I have wandered all my life, and I have traveled; the difference between the two is this -- we wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment.

--Hilaire Belloc

 

 

NOVEMBER 5

Election Day.  We have vowed no TV today as even the French are now having almost non-stop coverage.  Tonight they have Dan Rather coverage all night!!!  There is great interest in this election and the world seems to holding it's breath to see what the Americans do this time.

 

I was in the process of ordering plans for an Ark when the sun broke through.  Decided to postpone that order.  Off to the Park Kennedy bus stop to catch the #104 St. Raphael/ St Tropez bus to St. Algay and their  market.  Waiting for the bus we met a very nice man and he started the conversation.  He is French, but anxious to get back to California, though he did not say how many years he has been away.  He had retired 10 years ago from UTA (now part of Air France) as a flight engineer.  We had a nice chat about "how it used to be" in the airline business and how it had changed all over the world.  We both got off at the same stop and he was off to visit his friend and we to the market.

 

 

 

Last week this had been a huge market as we passed in the bus.  This week it was about a third the size. As usual in France, there were dogs helping to owners to sell their wares.  Did not take long to do the market and as St. Algay is a rather new town there was no old town to explore, so we headed to the sea.

 

 

The sea was mad today.  There is a small path/sidewalk along the edge of the water, so we headed off to the west.  Crossing some of the little indentations we got a little wet. Ultimately we had to turn around and retrace our steps as we came to a point that to continue meant getting in the water.  On the return trip we met a Frenchman and exchanged "Bonjours".  He later stopped as he passed us on the way back and we talked in broken English and French for awhile.  We pretty much agreed that all politicians in any country were after the money.  He was concerned that we where in St. Algay and not voting in such an important election.  We assured him that we had voted by mail and he seemed to be relieved.  I did not mention that I was a "disenfranchised" voter.  Later we saw him in town and as we walked on down the street he hurried after us to introduce his family to us and we had a nice visit. His son spoke english well.  It is amazing how friendly people really are.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our intent to walk at least part of the way home was ended as the dark colds started to roll in, so we stopped in a Brasserie and had coffee and a beer and caught the bus back home.

 

The world is a book, and those who do not travel, read only a page. --Saint Augustine