It’s hard to believe that two weeks have gone by since we arrived in Provence! What an experience it has been. It has dispelled some previously held myths re – the people, food… We will cherish our memories for a very long time.
After a coffee and some hard work in town we’ve headed back for lunch – purchased from the boulangerie, of course.
This afternoon, after the washing has dried, we’ll begin packing.
Tomorrow morning we head off to La Grande Motte, in Languedoc, to stay in Dawn and Mandy’s apartment. We haven’t seen Dawn since we were in England in 2002, so we are excited to catch up with her again.
We may find it a little difficult to work on the net there, so blogs may not appear as regularly as they have in the past.
It is always lovely to walk into our cool cottage, out of the heat of the midday sun.
Going to Trets became more and more difficult to plan, so this morning we decided to explore our own medieval village. After parking in our usual car park (thank goodness most people drive grey Renault Clios) we walked into town along the road.
When we got to the bank Gray decided to change some money as he only had large notes in his wallet and we needed a coffee. So into our bank we strode, but where were the tellers? This bank has a hole in the wall and people who arrange bank loans etc, but no tellers. As soon as Gray explained to the woman, we needed smaller denominations in order to buy much needed coffees, she sprang into action,
She rushed outside to the hole in the wall, withdrew money from her account then she and Gray swapped notes! We have been overwhelmed by the kindness and friendliness of the people here.
So off to our coffee place, then we planned our trip through the streets. Both of us snapped madly, our biggest challenge to get good images minus power lines! I guess there will be a bit of Photoshopping when we get home.
On our travels we found another boulangerie, so bought lunch. However, the biggest find was a wine shop that only sells wine from local growers. They, themselves make wine. We bought a rose – thanks Becs and Liam for introducing rose to us.
We walked back to the car along the pathway along the river and took more photos.
This afternoon is working on more stuff for Liam – after a Nana nap!
We’ve not long been home from a busy day in Marseille. This time we did manage to get further than the railway station.
We headed down to the old port and quickly came across the Miramar restaurant that serves the best bouillabaisse according to my little book about Provence at home. We’d checked its website before we left to be horrified that for the privilege it’d cost $100 per person. So only a photo!
However, we did find the Marsellais where as a lunch option, I was able to have it at a more reasonable cost – and it was amazing!!! Super yum.
The port was an interesting place with the usual tourist tours being offered alongside the locals buying their fish. There are no modern high rise building blotting the landscape.
We did lots of shopping, enjoying the lovely small shops and the larger department stores.
It was a lovely sunny day and we really enjoyed the city.
A quiet night at home, tonight. We have some Marcel Pagnol DVDs here, but we are far too tired to cope with translating tonight. We’d been quite excited when we saw that they had subtitles – but in French!!
In future I’m not going to announce our plans for tomorrow, for invariably we change our minds!
This morning, after a fairly wakeful night, we decided that instead of driving to Trets we’d bus and train to Aix en Provence. It was a beautiful day, so we enjoyed the views and took a more relaxed approach to our travels.
Look, we found a park!!! We then had time to call in for a noisette and espresso! Crazy what these Claytons find to celebrate.
Aix is a bustling, but very pretty place. Gaugin was born there, where his father was a local hatmaker – as I’m sure you already knew! There is a large exhibition of Gaugin’s work starting tomorrow!
We lunched under the trees, then headed to a cafe for coffees.
We got back to Aubagne right on 4pm, so had the delight of sharing our ride to Auriol with about 100 school kids! We could have been in any country. The teenage boys were showing off with their poorly developed macho ways and the girls shrieked and giggled! We did manage to get seats for about half the trip.
As we arrived in Auriol, we spotted some boules teams playing in the town square (where the markets are) and we wondered if it is a regular occurrence. The men were playing, very seriously, and families were scattered around the cafe, watching.
We collected our beautifully parked car, and both confessed to each other that we had worried if we’d been there too long and would therefore be clamped etc, but all was well.
A quick trip to the supermarket to buy some duck and cognac – I’m attempting magret du canard tomorrow! Just a ham and vege omelette tonight to use up the scraps. Plus a good chateau picon!
The countryside is very dry and dusty so when we awoke to rain this morning we were not upset. We’d planned to drive to Trets for a photo day. When we first started talking about our 2 weeks in Provence, we discovered this medieval village called Trets, that really appealed to us. However, we were unable to find any cottages for rent so expanded our search out a little further thus ending up in Auriol.
With the poor weather and light, we thought we’d head into Aubagne and try to find some wifi, so I could download some apps onto my iPad.
First Rae, remember the iPad!!!
Oh well, another day!
There was a huge market in Aubagne, so we wandered around, buying some more yummy ham from Josy. The lady at the information centre was really helpful re- the wifi places. She didn’t speak a word of English. Gray speaks French like a native and I’m amazed how much I am understanding.
We found a little cafe for lunch. My salmon salad was lovely, Gray’s chicken and chips significantly less impressive.
Whilst we were eating we could hear a parade with a band approaching. They are celebrating the feast of St John and I gather have been doing so for the past 80 years. There were not many of them, parading but it was different from eating lunch on a Sunday in a cafe in Hamilton or Cambridge.
Since we’ve been home Gray has been trying to work out train timetables as we are quite keen to head back to Marseille for a really good look round, out of the railway station!
So hopefully Trets tomorrow and Marseille, Tuesday.
This morning we headed into town for the Saturday market, parked at the super market and walked into town. I think that everyone in town goes to this market. The atmosphere was great and the produce is much better than in Aubagne. There were fruit, vegetables, flowers, cheeses, meats, seafood, clothes, bags, toys etc, etc.
But first it was coffee in the cafe next to the market. The smokers sit outside, so we headed inside only to see the pre-match build up on the big screen. The local old guys looked at me with great disdain when I enthused over Dan Carter!
We devised our plan for the market……
1. A general recce
2. Gray take photos whilst Rae has a more serious look
3. Shop together
It worked a treat. By the time we met up again, I’d planned the next few meals, seen a cardy I wanted from a lady with whom I’d had a very successful conversation with my pidgen French and her pidgen English and lots of gesturing and giggles.
Laden down with our purchases we walked back to the supermarket and headed home for a simple lunch of fresh bread, ham, tomatoes and yummy cheese. And a ripe, juicy peach.
We awoke this morning feeling quite flat and tired so decided to have an ‘at home’ day. Gray had the accounts etc to do ( yes, we still have wages to pay etc) and I can always find washing to do – how I long for a washing machine!
A quick trip into the supermarche before lunch, then as the light was beginning to soften in the mid/late afternoon, we popped out for a walk. The local dogs were quite surprised to find people walking down the road, so everyone set off into vigorous barking and leaping about.
I cooked pork sausages provencal for dinner. They were good, tasty but definitely not the refined texture of sausages from home! The local Pinot blanc wasn’t too bad either.
Tomorrow is Auriol market so we’ll head off early for coffees and shopping.
Now that we feel we are well and truly ensconced into Auriol//Aubagne way of life, we feel relaxed enough to have a wee giggle every now and then about our escapades. At home we take everyday life so much for granted, so it throws you rather when everyday life makes you go, Oh,OK!
We are doing quite a few, Oh, OKs!
We wanted to go into the market in Aubagne today, but parking is still a HUGE issue for us. We’d heard that inter town and around town buses are free, so decided to get up early, drive into Auriol, when surely there’d be some parks left, hop onto a bus into Aubagne for the market.
You’ve guessed it, no parks to be found, so being ‘ignorant’ tourists we headed for the supermarket and parked in a not so conspicuous park. The bus stop was just down the road, so caught the bus into Aubagne, arriving nice and early to check out what we wanted to buy. Of course cafe noisette before any serious shopping!
We walked around finding some really cute shops and making a few purchases.
We’d planned to have lunch in town, but once we’d bought our provisions from the market we were keen to head home with them. We bought the usual ‘legumes et fruites’ as well as some interesting ham, pork sausages and pork pate from a very friendly stall holder. She offered us tastes before we made our purchases. On the way back to the bus we bought some more goodies from a boulangerie.
We knew that we had to fill the car with diesel when we got back. There is a service station in the supermarket car park. It is nothing like buying petrol at home!!! However, the lady in the pay booth was very helpful.
The car full we headed home to lunch on the goodies we’d just bought.
Surely not buying clothes!
Did some more washing, had a nana nap, did some work for Liam and now we are eating pork pate on crackers before I cook dinner.
Life is so grim!
Tomorrow we are off to Avignon – free bus and then train.
The weather is still bright and warm so we are making the most of it.
Last night we headed into Auriol for dinner at Auberge Provencal. We found a park nearby and headed for the cafe. People were drinking wine and coffee at tables across the road and some were inside. We sat down outside, ordered our dinner from the waitress only to find that the kitchen was closed and just the bar was operating. She suggested another place over the bridge where her friend works. I finished my wine and we wandered to the next place.
Gray had beouf entrecote and I had l’agneau. To the non-appreciative we had very ordinary steak and lamb chops, but the meals were far from ordinary – tres yummy!!
We set off to Aubagne this morning, parked in a carpark building (well done, that man!) and caught a train to Marseille. We needed to reserve our tickets to Geneva, Innsbruck and Vienna and we also wanted to know where we had to return our car before heading out of the country.
Aubagne station
At Aubagne I tried cafe noisette, as Sime had suggested – oh yes!!!
We arrived at the station in Marseille at midday, looked at the queues for booking tickets and headed off to find a cafe for lunch. We had planned to have lunch down at the old port, but we couldn’t find it. Our map wasn’t as detailed as we needed.
We found a little cafe that specialised in sandwiches chaud, so we ordered jambon, tomate et chevre fromage. They were made from a shortish bagette, split, fillings added, then flattened and toasted in a panini maker – so yum!
Marseille
We wandered back to the station, joined a very long queue to book our tickets. Finally at 2pm we walked out of the station and spotted the Europecar place.
We ran to catch the 2.35 train back to Aubagne. On the way back Gray said, I wonder if we could have booked our tickets from Aubagne!!!! BUT we really did need to find the car place. All trip advisory people say, “DON’T drive in Marseille!”
So what was Marseille like? We haven’t a clue, but the Gare St Charles is very big and busy!!
Tonight, we are eating in and hope to be up early in the morning to make it to the market at Aubagne to fill up on fresh produce and to soak up the atmosphere of the market itself.
It is still quite warm; more comfortable than in Italy where the temperatures were in the 30s everyday. People are very courteous and friendly and encourage our clumsy francais.
I guess my lit. team are ensconced in meetings at the moment – I do think of you!
Tuesday is one of Aubagne’s market days, so we had planned to head off early this morning for the market. Well, we slept in and by the time we’d had breakfast, we decided that we would go into Aubagne after lunch.
The market is obviously only in the morning!
However, we looked about and spotted some interesting eating places for our next visit. We also successfully parked the car in a carpark – having done the necessary research. It is a much bigger town than we had first thought, but it is still quite pretty.
Aubagne is the home town of the film maker, Marcel Pagnol. Gloire de mon Pere, Le Chateau de ma Mere, Jean de Florette, and Manon des Sources are films you’ve either seen or heard about. Driving down the motorway you can see the bare hills where some of the filming took place.
On our way back through Auriol, we looked about for parking spaces for when we pop out for dinner tonight.
The roads in and around Auriol are very narrow and quite windy, so when we head out to other villages or towns, we prefer to pay the toll and go on the motorway. Gray says he’s still terrified driving, but I think he’s getting much better!!
