My Travels And A Little Bit of This And That: On the road to Nimes - France Blog. no. 4

My Travels And A Little Bit of This And That: On the road to Nimes - France Blog. no. 4: Nimes is the capital of the Languedoc-Roussillon and an important tourist destination.  I had never traveled there but knew that it was the ...

On the road to Nimes - France Blog. no. 4

Nimes is the capital of the Languedoc-Roussillon and an important tourist destination.  I had never traveled there but knew that it was the repository of very important Roman ruins.  The first monument we visited was the Roman amphitheater built around 1st. or 2nd. century A.D. It's been renovated by the French government at considerable expense but it's a splendid example of Roman architecture with its classical elliptical design and is well known as the best preserved amphitheater in France, possibly even the best outside of the Coliseum in Rome which is, of course, much bigger.  This building is still used for corridas where, unfortunately, they do end up killing the bulls.  In Portugal and Mexico they stage corridas too but the bulls are spared the ignominious death which is a much better outcome for both bull and spectators.  The interesting thing about Nimes is that it was built at the crossroads of the Via Domitia built by the Romans to connect Italy to Spain.  The second most historical building is the Maison Carree which literally means Squared House, it is also known as one of the best example of this type of architecture found anywhere in the territory of what constituted the Roman Empire.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/10/MaisonCarr%C3%A9e.jpeg/220px-MaisonCarr%C3%A9e.jpeg

Hopefully this link will work and give you an idea of how beautiful this building is. Of course it too underwent extensive renovations but one has to admire the French government's dedication to the preservation of its most historical buildings.  Sure it costs a lot of money but it's definitely worth it.  It attracts a lot of tourist dollars and supports building trades, artists and artisans whose special skills might otherwise be lost.

We meandered through the streets of Nimes, the downtown core is quite compact, free of cars and only open to pedestrian traffic which is wonderful.  All this walking gave us a good appetite. We stopped in a little restaurant which had the obligatory sidewalk terrace where we had a very leisurely lunch.  I had an appetizer of thinly sliced raw beef topped with slices of mozzarella and tomatoes (it's called carpaccio in Italian).  This was followed by tagliatella noodles with crispy fingers of duck and a little salad, no desert, some wine+coffee. It was most delectable.  We continued on to the gardens and the fountains in the center of the city.

Leaving Nimes we made our way to Aigues Mortes which is a walled medieval city built by King St. Louis who was very big into crusades, not a good thing in my book but apparently he is revered in France as one of the just kings (there were quite a few who weren't that great if you know a little about French history). Aigues Mortes in addition to being walled also had a tower where protestant women were sent to atone for the fact that they had chosen the wrong religion.  These women were of noble birth, of course, other protestant women were summarily executed and not quite as "lucky".  Along the way we also discovered that the source of Perrier water is in a little town called Vergeze. Originally the water was naturally carbonated but now the carbonation is added to the water to get that perfect Perrier mix of water and bubbles.  It's also dispiriting to learn that what was once owned by the French and is so distinctively thought of as French is now owned by Nestle.  Regardless it's pretty amazing to think of all those millions of bottles of Perrier circling the globe coming from this one source.

This post was not meant to be an exhaustive blow by blow of all the spots we visited in great accurate detail, if you want that there are plenty of guide books around and the ever ubiquitous Wikipedia always willing to inform you.   Hopefully it might have given you a little taste and maybe even a desire to visit that part of France.

Direction La Grande Motte - Post no. 3 from France

The sun was shining bright and early, actually not too early since we were still a little confused sleep wise, maybe about 9:00 a.m. It takes a little time for the body to adjust+we're not as young as we used to be the end result being everything takes longer.  A brisk shower to wake up and then off for breakfast.  I enjoy French breakfasts a lot, they remind me of my childhood.  There was a lovely little dining room, outside patio was also a possibility but I wanted it a tiny bit warmer.  Fresh croissants and baguettes sliced down the middle were on offer which is pretty much standard.  Nevertheless in concession to more Continental tastes most hotels now offer cereals, milk, yogurt  ham and cheese.  There were also bowls of fresh fruits and fruit salad cups.  I love that when you ask for cafe au lait, they bring each of you a pot of steaming coffee and a separate steaming pot of milk.  Also love those delightful little jam jars, so pretty, have never seen those anywhere else but perhaps they're common in other European hotels.

We really enjoyed Hotel Les Bastides, I highly recommend it if you ever end up around this part of France.
We packed the car with the two heavy suitcases and off we went.  I had asked for directions previously but we only had a very rudimentary map and no GPS nevertheless we didn't get lost once.  The directions are very well indicated, unlike those in Mexico. The only thing which confused us a bit were the "postes de peage" on the autoroute.  Some booths are prepaid but it's hard to know which ones.  The first one we encountered in Nice we had to pay directly with coins into a machine.  We didn't have enough coins and had to stop the traffic behind us.  I had to get out of the car and go look for someone who was working there, it was a bit stressful with all the honking of irritated and impatient drivers.  They do so love to lean on that horn.
These "postes de peage" along the highway were much more impressive in terms of size. They're about 12 feet deep and you literally don't know where to go, they have huge T's meaning tickets written on top.  Somehow the first few we had to pay directly into the machine, I had made some change in anticipation so that was cool.  For the next ones you had to grab a ticket and off you went.  Some kilometers later is where you pay depending on the distance you covered and where you took your ticket.  The machine would not accept my Visa card and this time it was too much money and I didn't have enough coins. One guy showed up so was able to pay cash with bills.  That was handy.  We had figured out the system.  Tickets first, slot it in at next stop and pay.  It's a hassle when they only want Carte bleue.  What's also freaky is the merging of 12 lanes of traffic into 3 or 4 lanes after you've passed the "postes".  It all seems quite random but with a purpose. With no lines on the ground to guide you you just aim in one general direction and hope for the best.  French drivers are generally good drivers.  It takes a long time to get your driver's license here and many people fail and have to go for numerous trials again and again.  I would have probably failed.

Got to La Grande Motte literally The big Lump.  It's a little town that grew near Montpellier and is now quite big.  It's mostly a tourist destination filled with lovely villas, there's a huge golf course, a yacht club, a very long beach and a cool downtown with distinctive pyramid shaped buildings.  It's a pretty uppity place but we have relatives here and that's where we were headed.  It's nice when you haven't seen relatives in a long long time you can expect a little TLC.  We couldn't find the place though so had to stop at a bar to make a phone call and the relative came to get us.  We're pretty much settled in. It's a very big house, there's an outdoor pool been in quite a few times.  We also do a little back and forth between this house and another, which is even bigger, where relatives have gone and dogs have to be taken care of, a shar pei dog with no folds and the biggest Newfoundland dog I have ever seen, about 87 kilos.  Cool thing about this house there's an indoor swimming pool and the temperature is at a balmy 31 degrees. We've been swimming there every evening before dinner which is stylishly French late, around 8:00 p.m.

Look for my next blog on our excursion to Nimes.  I had read somewhere that there are more Roman ruins to be found in France than in Italy, it might be true because the South of France is filled with well preserved temples, statues, aqueducts,amphitheaters and Roman arenas, till then.

Saint Paul de Vence - France no. 2

We visited the beautiful Medieval town of St. Paul de Vence, one of the jewels of France, so exquisitely well preserved.  It's situated up high on a hill which dominates the valley with breathtaking views of the mountains and the villages below.  Again we we were surprised at how green and lush everything was.  Parking is a bit of a problem as it is in all these types of locale which are strictly pedestrian.  The parking was situated below ground, quite a few levels, with hairpin turns since there's really not much room to build and space is at a premium.  The parking was almost full, again very surprising, this being early May I didn't think there would already be so many travelers in France.  Many of the tourists were French and Italian.  At the exit of the parking you wind your way through the predictable boutiques selling herbs of Provence and various soaps from the region+ lavender.  Ever since I've been made aware that these so-called herbs of Provence are often grown and shipped from Romania I've been reluctant to plunk down some euros never sure of the actual provenance.  It's sad but everything is made elsewhere now even France isn't immune to that virus.  I think I would rather go into the hills and pick the herbs myself, they're quite plentiful there.
The village itself is made up of narrow streets with huge cobblestones, some streets are not only narrow but steep, only one person can get through with another following behind.  There are a lot of beautiful art galleries  some well known artists who spent time here were Paul Cezanne and Marc Chagall who actually died in Saint Paul, we visited his rather modest tomb in the local cemetery.  Various visitors have started placing rocks on the tomb, one rock per visitor, a little sign of acknowledgement and respect for the great artistic visionary Chagall was.  We meandered among the many side streets, lovely little plazas await in unexpected places, went up on the palisades and took what I hope will be decent pictures.  I'm not a great photographer by any stretch of the imagination.  The air was redolent with lovely flower smells like you find in the South of France.  It's easy to see why many would want to retire here, I certainly wouldn't mind if money were not a consideration. We shared an Italian ice cream, returned to the car and wound our way back to our hotel, Les Bastides de Provence but first made a little pit stop to grab something to eat.  We weren't very hungry and starting to feel quite tired and jet lagged at this point.  We needed some rest.  We were driving to La Grande Motte (near Montpellier) the next day.  Driving can sometimes be a stressful and difficult experience in another country.  As it turns out it wasn't too bad except for the "Postes de peage"  where you have to pay but that's a whole other blog.  Enjoy this one.

Bonjour de Nice, France no. 1 - First post from France


The plane ride was uneventful, flying has become so boring and pedestrian,know I sound like a snob when I say that but years ago, you could smoke, you could drink and you could even meet someone in the bathroom for a little nukkie, yes these things did happen.  It was the thrill of the unexpected, the romance of flying has just flown out the window.  I was seated beside a very nice woman. They were traveling to Italy for 2 weeks, the Amalfi Coast which always brings to mind that wonderful film The Talented Mr. Ripley, the version with Jude Lawe and Matt Damon.  The setting was glorious and the topic suitably enigmatic to engage my film lover's interest.  There was an earlier French version called Plein Soleil with a beautiful, resplendent Alain Delon.  Not quite as polished as the American version (more bucks in that one) but still worth a look for its locale.  This version was filmed in the South of France which is a nice segue to talk about where we are right now.

Note:  If you don't enjoy these mini digressions of mine just skip them.  

We arrived at the airport ready to pick up our car.  The airport is much bigger than it originally appears. There are two terminals and terminal two is where all car pickups are done.  Had to hop on a bus to get to it.  We directed ourselves to the Avis counter where a problem immediately surfaced.  The person who paid with Visa is the person who's name should appear as the primary conductor and that wasn't the case.  It seemed a fairly simple problem to remedy, change the name but the person we were dealing with was being a b&*^% and totally uncooperative, hate it when that happens.  Of course it was middle of the night in Canada so good luck trying to get anybody on the phone to make a change, it just wasn't going to happen.  I made a half hearted attempt did get somebody at Air Transat but that's as far as it got.  My partner was not being supportive of my efforts, ie: should have done a better job of organizing that leg of the trip but that's a whole other blog.  Moving on, I started to get a little angry, went to what appeared to be an empty counter and loudly demanded that somebody help me. After all we had already paid for the lease in full. I explained the problem to a young man (the manager apparently) who took it upon himself to do what I had suggested in the first place....great minds and all that.  We just had to pay extra for the secondary driver, no biggie. 

Finding the car a totally brand new Clio/Renault super cute was fine, getting it started was another question altogether.  There was no key, just one of those push button things to get your car opened from a distance.  We had no idea and didn't want to just stick it in anywhere.  Luckily I found a most helpful guy who came over and showed us where to put it and how to get it started. The thing just purrs, total charm.  Why don't they sell Renault in Canada I would buy one.

Had a bit of a time finding the hotel Les Bastides which I did see out of the corner of my eye but wasn't sure because it didn't say Saint Paul de Vence anywhere.  We went all the way up to Vence, bigger town, lovely views, so green and lush with the mountains in the distance and those distinctive deep green elongated cedars against the clear blue of the sky, those always remind me of the South of France.  Thanks to all the roundabouts, France has to be the King Kong of roundabouts you can get turned around and turned around which is sometimes a very good thing.
Found the hotel, a 3 stars, totally adorable setting.  We have a nice big room, with our own private veranda overlooking the garden, there's a pool, too cold to swim yesterday.  The toilet is separate from the washroom, first time this has happened in an hotel although it's common in most French houses. It's a great idea because if your having a lovely leisurely bath and partner wants to excrete some noxious fecal matter, well you get the picture. Next blog tomorrow.

Pilote's travel blog. no. 9 - Final thoughts on Cuba

I’m really not being fair to Cuba in my partial assessment after all we’ve only explored a tiny fraction of what Cuba has to offer since most of our time was spent in an extremely touristy area.  Regardless I would like to offer a few parting thoughts on the country.  We ended up not liking it as much as we would have wanted to.  I feel that the all inclusive format doesn’t work well for us, it’s limiting in terms of food options, people one associates with, activities etc… I felt marooned there and if I were to consider the all inclusive again it would be for one week and a place where there’s still some freedom of movement.  Varadero doesn’t offer a lot of options in terms of dining or shopping. Never even noticed a grocery store there, still not sure how people get their drinking water, never saw any delivery of water.  To buy it in bottle format was quite expensive even for us, I can’t see Cubans doing that on a regular basis would be too costly unless they drink the regular tap water which I’m assuming a lot of them do.  We started off brushing our teeth with bottled water but gave that up pretty quickly, just too much of a bother, never did it before not even in South America.

Getting back to my rudimentary assessment in point form.

-Nobody’s starving in Cuba, even if food options are limited, also one doesn’t see the extremes of wealth and poverty prevalent in so many other countries.

-There’s very little begging, only witnessed it in Havana which predictably being a big city of 3 millions it would have its share of.

-People will forgo a career in a chosen field to work in tourism simply because it gives you access to those valuable Cuban convertible pesos.

-If you work with tourists you live better than the average Cuban who must deal with a paltry monthly wage.

-The infrastructure needs a lot of work - Many of Havana’s heritage buildings are in need of repair and according to our guide it’s not getting done.  She’s seen repair structures go up but 5 years later it’s still the same.

-The Cubans we met we’re not unhappy although they would like more freedom in terms of purchasing power especially.  There really isn’t that much to buy even when you have the money.  The U.S. embargo which has been going on for so long really limit’s the flow of goods and technology.

-The fact that there is so little internet available is a deal breaker for me in terms of going there again.  Even 5 star hotels have limited capabilities. 

-They don’t seem to grow any avocados or mangos even though they have the perfect climate to grow them, that’s just weird.

-They don’t spice their food at all, pepper is very hard to find, one pepper shaker for the entire dining room, you had to seek it out and “steal” it from other tables.

-Che Guevara is as popular as ever and so is Fidel Castro. Their images are everywhere. The song Commandante Che Guevara is well known and sung everywhere,must really learn the lyrics by hard, file that under things to do when I get back home.

-Crime is mostly of a petty nature, you don’t feel threatened at all and the no guns law has of course a lot to do with that.

-Cubans have learned to be inventive in finding ways to skirt the system, they’re particularly ingenious when it comes to repairs of those old cars which seem to all work very well for the most part.

-Only saw a few gas stations, not sure where most Cubans get their gas, then again very few actually own vehicles, they travel in groups, get picked up and dropped off at work mostly by buses or camions.

-With a little tweaking and the allowance of more free enterprise Cuba would not be such a bad place to live - Something more balanced like what they have in the Scandinavian countries might work really well here, a sensible mix of government involvement with some free enterprise.

-It’s nice to not have an endless barrage of advertisement either on t.v. in the newspaper or on the side of the roads.  That’s truly refreshing, we forget how bombarded we are with ads from everywhere back home where free enterprise reigns supreme.

Hope you enjoyed reading my travel posts, know I can get a little professorial at times, legacy of many years of teaching.

Adios Cuba.

Pilote's Blog. no. 8 - A little digression about beach reading

Beach and reading seem to go hand in hand.  Nobody can stay on a beach waiting to be fried to a crisp without a book, preferably a good one.  This trip was not successful in that department.  I should have really downloaded some good books on my Kobo but have been weirdly resistant to that technology, not usually so squeamish.  I guess I’m more of an old fashioned paper and ink girl, must get over that and fast.

Back to reading, finished Carol O’Connell’s The Chalk Girl, never read this author and would not recommend her.  I had to force myself to finish the book.  The heroine she created, Kate Mallory, has been favourably compared to Lisbeth Salinger, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  It’s a totally unjustified comparison.  Mallory is dead on the page, the author never succeeds in bringing her to life and takes great pains insisting on how weird and fierce she is but it never ignites,telling is not feeling. 

When we were in Havana I was able to score a book by Jeffry Deaver, The Twelfth Card, only picked that one because it was the biggest one on the shelf.  Read it, was not impressed. Totally preposterous beginning and it didn’t get much better the further along one got in the book. One thing which bugged me about the Deaver book.  In it he describes one of the characters as being Woody Allen like, therefore no great beauty.  Nevertheless, the author takes great pains to tell us, looks can be deceiving since this nebish looking man has been going out with a curvaceous, leggy bombshell blond.  I've read statements like that in far too many books. For men intelligence trumps everything else even bad breath and crappy looks (remember Jean-Paul Sartre, he was an ugly bastard if ever there was one).  I don't really care about that what I do care about is reading a sentence where a perfectly ordinary, plain but intellectually gifted woman, snags the male babe, I don't remember reading about that ever happening, silly I know but rubs me the wrong way.

 Lastly was stuck with Patricia Cornwell’s Southern Cross.  I can deal with this author when her stories feature Scarpetta, unfortunately this one did not.  Every single character screams STUPID on a big scale, including the chief of police.  Richmond, Virginia looks like a city inhabited by morons where nobody, it seems, has a credible name.  Most of the names were in this vein:  Bubba, Smoke, Weed, Muskrat,  Jeb, Roop, Twister (thankfully dead character), Smudge, Miss Sink and on and on it goes.  It’s meant to be satirical but satire is a hard genre to master, it requires subtlety and intelligence.  This author’s attempt just strikes me as dumb and boring, not a great addition to the literature “cannon”.   

Do remember a few great books from travel past in particular one called Mountains of the Moon about the great British explorer Sir Richard Burton, not to be confused with actor of the same name.  Bought the book in Panajachel, Guatemala, it was tattered and torn but turned out to be a phenomenal read so good in fact I wouldn’t mind reading it again.

This little digression was meant to impress upon future travelers the importance of good reading material.  I’m not going to get caught again, next time I’ll be more prepared.