Provence in November, 2004
Provence in November, 2004
We flew to Nice from Vienna after our Abercrombie and Kent Tour. We arrived in Nice to retrieve our new Volvo with a wonderful GPS system and stayed for two nights at the Negresco on the Avenue along the shore, not too far from the Nice airport. The hotel was “just ok”, nothing to rave about and rather threadbare and in need of restoration (at least in our room). There was no English-speaking TV and the internet didn’t work.
We had a scarey incident there. While traveling to our hotel one block off the main Avenue, we stopped at a red light and our passenger door was opened by a frantic teenager who was trying to steal whatever he could, as fast as he could and then run away. He swiped into my lap, grabbed the only thing there, the gps remote control and ran. We were terrified, of course, and shocked. We locked our doors and went two blocks further, then it happed again, but two men this time tried to open the passenger door and the back seat door. They were locked, of course, as in “the barn door”, but we learned this is frequent behavior of the hoods near the airport. At the car rental kiosk, they warned not to leave luggage and small bags unattended, as motorcyclists swoop by and grab whatever they can and drive away.
The rental cars have a 60 at the end of the license plate which identifies for the hoods the tourists who are unwary. So beware and keep safe.
We drove to Monaco and attended a little street festival there and stopped in Villefrance for a little walk around.We did go to the market in Nice and walked the Old Town, but we were anxious to get out of there and see the small villages and towns Trish, Suzann and I had visited in the year 2000.
Our favorite then was St. Paul de Vence, the exquisite medieval village which became a popular retreat for France’s modern artists in the 1920’s. Ancient ramparts surround the 11th century village and are a marked contrast to the Maight Foundation Museum which houses Miro sculptures, Giacometti sculptures (They say he takes the fat out of his subjects and we saw his work in the Dallas Nasher Sculpture Garden.), Art, Bonnard, Braque, Calder, Chagall and Kandinsky.
So, Dennis and I returned to this little village and stayed at the Le Hotel St. Paul in a smallish standard room (all other rooms were booked) beautifully decorated and appointed in blue and white. The best view was out our window over the tiled rooftops into the village and the courtyard where the outdoor dining is enjoyed in the evenings (not in Nov.) Our two dinners here were elegant and the waiters fun and attentive. We walked the cobblestoned street, peeked into little shops we loved and bought postcards from the artist’s shop we had visited before. His specialty is heavy-thighed women is provocative poses, but light-hearted, humerous and talented he is.
Upon arrival in St. Paul de Vence, one has to drive to the entrance of the village, call on the intercom that you have arrived and have a hotel reservation and they raise the bar for you to enter. They will not allow parking except for those who have reservations or business in the village. Others have to park outside the village. We wound our way through very narrow streets to the parking area at the bottom of very steep narrow stairs leading to our hotel. We called for a bellman who scurried down the stairs and took our bags up with him. I followed. Dennis went to park and joined us in the lobby.
We had lunch at the hotel as the Colum Dor was closed for the season. It was delightful sea bass with wonderful garnishes and extras. We had room 370 in the corner overlooking the village.
Our dinner was fabulous.
The next morning we got up early and left for BIOT, stopped at McDonalds, found Biot Village and walked the little town and found a little tearoom and gift shop in the square where we had chocolate and two little puffy cookies and bought little presents for family back home. We found a garlic grater, lavender soap dishes and a little glass bird and glass candy from the glass factory in Biot. We got to watch the men blowing the glass and makine beautiful art pieces. We returned to our hotel for a rest and then for dinner.
I called and made reservations for the Europe Hotel in Avignon and called our guide, Yet, to see if she could spend a couple of days with us. Yet Rochewerger.Bernard@wanadoo.fr 000490864295 68 Rue Banastrie, 84000 Avignon, FR I remembered Yet from our prior trip and really thought she would be fun to have with us.
We visited the cemetery, took many pictures of this stay and hated to leave, but we headed up to Aix for lunch at le Pigonnet, a 4 star Relais and Chateaux Hotel. With the address of the hotel plugged in, our GPS, we nick-named the witch, guided us straight through the streets of Aix to our destination. They have a gate upon entrance and the parking here is pretty safe, so we felt ok leaving our stuff in the car.
Our lunch was heavenly (one of the best on our trip) 38 EU pp. Veal Chops cut ¾ inch thick, grilled perfectly, with a perfectly beautiful vegetable presentation, wonderful breads (fresh and many varieties). Our dessert was a molten chocolate cake which was heavenly.
I took a tour of tle Pigonette, all standard and superior rooms, nice size. They do have a 2 bedroom apartment in their new building. The garden was under renovation.
On to Avignon. Our destination was Avignon to stay in the Europe Hotel and I talked with Cecilia who assured us we would have the best room at the lowest rate possible. When we arrived using our GPS which took us right to the entrance to the courtyard, we were met by porters who took our bags and our car to go park it in the garage.
We did have a wonderful room 123 with its own private entrance off the courtyard, so we didn’t even go through the lobby or have to use elevators for our stay. The bathroom was very large and modern. The furnishings were antique furniture, rather plain bed linens and drapes, but very clean and nice. There was about 8 feet from the end of the bed to the bedroom wall. It was quite spacious.
We went for a walk and found 2 small grocery stores where we bought cheese and St.Michel crackers and cokes. It was nice to walk the main promenade. We returned to our room about 7:30 to watch the Sumo wrestlers in English. We met a lady in one of the shops who befriended us and suggested we go to St. Remy, Le Beau (Beaumarine Restaurant), Arles, Pont du Gard. Then on another day she suggested Isle Sur le Sorge, Fontain du Vaucluse, Gordes, Roussillon, Bonnieus, La Coste.
We did make contact with Yet and she picked us up at 11 and we went to Gordes, Rousillon and Isle Sur le Sorge. We had tea in Rousillon with a crepe and raspberry jam. Rousillon is a red sand city with a quarry. Very lovely sights and wonderful to walk through and take pictures.
Before we went to dinner on Tuesday evening, standing in our hotel, we met Carl and Nancy Briggs (a friend of Sherry Simmons’ in Jackson, MS). They live in Charlottsville, West VA now. They were a nice couple and are adopting a daughter from China. We had dinner with them.
Yet invited us to meet Conny and Hein Deiters-Konner, friends who own Chateau TaLaud, 20 minutes out from Avignon. We decided we loved their place so much, on a vineyard, away from the city, lovely l8th century small palace that we would move there for 3 nights before returning to Nice for our flight home.We met Yet’s grandchildren who came with us to visit for tea and we met two little charpei puppies the family had just acquired.
Isle du Sur le Sorge should be visited on Sundays for the Antique Markets. We did not, but is was pretty much abandoned. Wed. we went with Yet to the St. Remy Market. We visited Van Gough’s mental hospital (St. Paul de Maujole). Also, the Roman arch near the hospital and the mausoleum. On to Les Baux, a city on a rock quarry. We had lasagna in a little café there. Then to Arles, the Roman Coliseum, Van Gogh’s Café, the hospital where he painted. I bought a beautiful little mohair crocheted scarf which was knitted by a local artist. Then to Talaude Chateau where we checked in and Conny fixed our dinner. It was soup, lovely salmon, fresh green beans, salad and missed sherbets for dessert. Wonderful meal and we were tired from the day.
Thanksgiving Day
We had breakfast each morning at the Chateau. It was always delightful with croissants, cheeses, cereals, yogurt, lovely james and scrambled eggs. We visited the small town of Ariol, then Carpentras. In Carpentras, a lady sewed the hem of my coat which had come loose and I purchased lace for use somehow, someday. It is beautiful heavy lace.
We were very tired and we returned to our little castle, took a warm nap in our down-dressed bed and caught up from our travels a bit. We organized our travel bags and just spent some time reading. I finished Eye of the Storm.
Friday morning, we had an early breakfast and returned to Carpentras for the market and bought a red pull-on bag for our return trip. We had lunch in Avignon at a small café, just quiche and salad and returned home for the vening.
Saturday, we left our little castle, drove to Nice, stopping in Aix again, but had lunch at Rotunda, a lovely little café on the main Fountain Circle. We arrived into Nice about 6 pm, turned in our car and decided not to stay in a hotel because we would have to be at the airport the next morning at 4 AM. So we read and waited in the airport overnight and slept with our bags so we wouldn’t have to drive in Nice again, check into a hotel, take all of our luggage out of our car and then make another transfer. And, we would sleep on the plane all the way home.
Great Trip…Happy to be home in our own fluffy, warm bed again. I would love to take girls to the Chateau for cooking classes and fun excursions. Nice memories. Patty
We flew to Nice from Vienna after our Abercrombie and Kent Tour. We arrived in Nice to retrieve our new Volvo with a wonderful GPS system and stayed for two nights at the Negresco on the Avenue along the shore, not too far from the Nice airport. The hotel was “just ok”, nothing to rave about and rather threadbare and in need of restoration (at least in our room). There was no English-speaking TV and the internet didn’t work.
We had a scarey incident there. While traveling to our hotel one block off the main Avenue, we stopped at a red light and our passenger door was opened by a frantic teenager who was trying to steal whatever he could, as fast as he could and then run away. He swiped into my lap, grabbed the only thing there, the gps remote control and ran. We were terrified, of course, and shocked. We locked our doors and went two blocks further, then it happed again, but two men this time tried to open the passenger door and the back seat door. They were locked, of course, as in “the barn door”, but we learned this is frequent behavior of the hoods near the airport. At the car rental kiosk, they warned not to leave luggage and small bags unattended, as motorcyclists swoop by and grab whatever they can and drive away.
The rental cars have a 60 at the end of the license plate which identifies for the hoods the tourists who are unwary. So beware and keep safe.
We drove to Monaco and attended a little street festival there and stopped in Villefrance for a little walk around.We did go to the market in Nice and walked the Old Town, but we were anxious to get out of there and see the small villages and towns Trish, Suzann and I had visited in the year 2000.
Our favorite then was St. Paul de Vence, the exquisite medieval village which became a popular retreat for France’s modern artists in the 1920’s. Ancient ramparts surround the 11th century village and are a marked contrast to the Maight Foundation Museum which houses Miro sculptures, Giacometti sculptures (They say he takes the fat out of his subjects and we saw his work in the Dallas Nasher Sculpture Garden.), Art, Bonnard, Braque, Calder, Chagall and Kandinsky.
So, Dennis and I returned to this little village and stayed at the Le Hotel St. Paul in a smallish standard room (all other rooms were booked) beautifully decorated and appointed in blue and white. The best view was out our window over the tiled rooftops into the village and the courtyard where the outdoor dining is enjoyed in the evenings (not in Nov.) Our two dinners here were elegant and the waiters fun and attentive. We walked the cobblestoned street, peeked into little shops we loved and bought postcards from the artist’s shop we had visited before. His specialty is heavy-thighed women is provocative poses, but light-hearted, humerous and talented he is.
Upon arrival in St. Paul de Vence, one has to drive to the entrance of the village, call on the intercom that you have arrived and have a hotel reservation and they raise the bar for you to enter. They will not allow parking except for those who have reservations or business in the village. Others have to park outside the village. We wound our way through very narrow streets to the parking area at the bottom of very steep narrow stairs leading to our hotel. We called for a bellman who scurried down the stairs and took our bags up with him. I followed. Dennis went to park and joined us in the lobby.
We had lunch at the hotel as the Colum Dor was closed for the season. It was delightful sea bass with wonderful garnishes and extras. We had room 370 in the corner overlooking the village.
Our dinner was fabulous.
The next morning we got up early and left for BIOT, stopped at McDonalds, found Biot Village and walked the little town and found a little tearoom and gift shop in the square where we had chocolate and two little puffy cookies and bought little presents for family back home. We found a garlic grater, lavender soap dishes and a little glass bird and glass candy from the glass factory in Biot. We got to watch the men blowing the glass and makine beautiful art pieces. We returned to our hotel for a rest and then for dinner.
I called and made reservations for the Europe Hotel in Avignon and called our guide, Yet, to see if she could spend a couple of days with us. Yet Rochewerger.Bernard@wanadoo.fr 000490864295 68 Rue Banastrie, 84000 Avignon, FR I remembered Yet from our prior trip and really thought she would be fun to have with us.
We visited the cemetery, took many pictures of this stay and hated to leave, but we headed up to Aix for lunch at le Pigonnet, a 4 star Relais and Chateaux Hotel. With the address of the hotel plugged in, our GPS, we nick-named the witch, guided us straight through the streets of Aix to our destination. They have a gate upon entrance and the parking here is pretty safe, so we felt ok leaving our stuff in the car.
Our lunch was heavenly (one of the best on our trip) 38 EU pp. Veal Chops cut ¾ inch thick, grilled perfectly, with a perfectly beautiful vegetable presentation, wonderful breads (fresh and many varieties). Our dessert was a molten chocolate cake which was heavenly.
I took a tour of tle Pigonette, all standard and superior rooms, nice size. They do have a 2 bedroom apartment in their new building. The garden was under renovation.
On to Avignon. Our destination was Avignon to stay in the Europe Hotel and I talked with Cecilia who assured us we would have the best room at the lowest rate possible. When we arrived using our GPS which took us right to the entrance to the courtyard, we were met by porters who took our bags and our car to go park it in the garage.
We did have a wonderful room 123 with its own private entrance off the courtyard, so we didn’t even go through the lobby or have to use elevators for our stay. The bathroom was very large and modern. The furnishings were antique furniture, rather plain bed linens and drapes, but very clean and nice. There was about 8 feet from the end of the bed to the bedroom wall. It was quite spacious.
We went for a walk and found 2 small grocery stores where we bought cheese and St.Michel crackers and cokes. It was nice to walk the main promenade. We returned to our room about 7:30 to watch the Sumo wrestlers in English. We met a lady in one of the shops who befriended us and suggested we go to St. Remy, Le Beau (Beaumarine Restaurant), Arles, Pont du Gard. Then on another day she suggested Isle Sur le Sorge, Fontain du Vaucluse, Gordes, Roussillon, Bonnieus, La Coste.
We did make contact with Yet and she picked us up at 11 and we went to Gordes, Rousillon and Isle Sur le Sorge. We had tea in Rousillon with a crepe and raspberry jam. Rousillon is a red sand city with a quarry. Very lovely sights and wonderful to walk through and take pictures.
Before we went to dinner on Tuesday evening, standing in our hotel, we met Carl and Nancy Briggs (a friend of Sherry Simmons’ in Jackson, MS). They live in Charlottsville, West VA now. They were a nice couple and are adopting a daughter from China. We had dinner with them.
Yet invited us to meet Conny and Hein Deiters-Konner, friends who own Chateau TaLaud, 20 minutes out from Avignon. We decided we loved their place so much, on a vineyard, away from the city, lovely l8th century small palace that we would move there for 3 nights before returning to Nice for our flight home.We met Yet’s grandchildren who came with us to visit for tea and we met two little charpei puppies the family had just acquired.
Isle du Sur le Sorge should be visited on Sundays for the Antique Markets. We did not, but is was pretty much abandoned. Wed. we went with Yet to the St. Remy Market. We visited Van Gough’s mental hospital (St. Paul de Maujole). Also, the Roman arch near the hospital and the mausoleum. On to Les Baux, a city on a rock quarry. We had lasagna in a little café there. Then to Arles, the Roman Coliseum, Van Gogh’s Café, the hospital where he painted. I bought a beautiful little mohair crocheted scarf which was knitted by a local artist. Then to Talaude Chateau where we checked in and Conny fixed our dinner. It was soup, lovely salmon, fresh green beans, salad and missed sherbets for dessert. Wonderful meal and we were tired from the day.
Thanksgiving Day
We had breakfast each morning at the Chateau. It was always delightful with croissants, cheeses, cereals, yogurt, lovely james and scrambled eggs. We visited the small town of Ariol, then Carpentras. In Carpentras, a lady sewed the hem of my coat which had come loose and I purchased lace for use somehow, someday. It is beautiful heavy lace.
We were very tired and we returned to our little castle, took a warm nap in our down-dressed bed and caught up from our travels a bit. We organized our travel bags and just spent some time reading. I finished Eye of the Storm.
Friday morning, we had an early breakfast and returned to Carpentras for the market and bought a red pull-on bag for our return trip. We had lunch in Avignon at a small café, just quiche and salad and returned home for the vening.
Saturday, we left our little castle, drove to Nice, stopping in Aix again, but had lunch at Rotunda, a lovely little café on the main Fountain Circle. We arrived into Nice about 6 pm, turned in our car and decided not to stay in a hotel because we would have to be at the airport the next morning at 4 AM. So we read and waited in the airport overnight and slept with our bags so we wouldn’t have to drive in Nice again, check into a hotel, take all of our luggage out of our car and then make another transfer. And, we would sleep on the plane all the way home.
Great Trip…Happy to be home in our own fluffy, warm bed again. I would love to take girls to the Chateau for cooking classes and fun excursions. Nice memories. Patty
posted by Patty's Getaways @ 7:27 AM
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