Day 1 (June 17) Tuesday
Up at 3:30 a.m. for our 5:30 a.m. flight from Moscow to Chicago - via Boise and Minneapolis. The Air France flight to Paris took about 7 hours. The people in front of us were also from Moscow - Russia that is - and they managed to consume enormous amounts of Vodka during the flight. We did not get much sleep on this flight - - too excited.
Day 2 (June 18) Wednesday
The flight from Paris to Marseilles took about 45 minutes and we had a good view of Mount Blanc and of course the area that we would be living in for the next two weeks just below us as we approached Marseilles. We arrived at 2:00 p.m. and were warmly greeted by Max Tomlinson, our UnTour contact person in France. Other UnTourists gathered and soon we were on a bus headed for the Avignon airport where we picked up our bright red 1997 Opel diesel power 2-door car. We carefully followed Max’s instructions and within a half-hour we were at his house ready to meet Madame Besnard who led us to our wonderful cottage outside of Isle-sur-la-Sorgue. We were two dead tired American tourists trying to understand her instructions about the cottage which she was giving in French. Fortunately her husband arrived - he speaks English very well - to fill in the gaps and complete the cottage orientation. The Besnards had provided us with wine, cheese, bread, ham and other goodies - the bread - as it was everywhere we went - was “to die for.” We supplemented this a bit later with supplies from a rather large shopping mall (the Intermarche) about 1 km away. Pete started fooling around with electricity and managed to blow the fuse on one of our power converters, so we decided to go to sleep before he burned the cottage down.
Day 3 (June 19) Thursday
This is orientation morning. We awake to rain showers but the sun broke through by mid-morning. We thought that we had solved the electrical problem but only managed to melt - yes melt - Maggie’s hair curler. So we will just stick to the hair dryer provided with the cottage. We ate breakfast on our vine covered patio. About 50 yards away is a stream (the petite Sorgue) and what is left of a very old water wheel. All is quiet except for the birds and the wind in the trees. Orientation takes place at Max’s house in St. Antoine, which is just north of Isle-sur-la-Sorgue and perhaps less that a kilometer east of our cottage. Here we meet the rest of the group, many of whom are former or current educators. Our major orientation lesson is that we should approach the French people using their language first - inquiring if they speak ours - “Parlez-vous anglais? S’il vous plait!” We found this to be very good advice. After orientation the group went to the “White Horse Pizzeria” just down the street for a “fixed price” menu de jour lunch of lamb, potatoes and some out of this world seasoned green beans. After lunch we explored Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, which is a town of about 13,000 people. It is surrounded by the Sorgue river which splits and runs around each side of the town thus creating the “island” which is basically the old part of the town. It has an old church and of course many many shops and restaurants. Water wheels covered with green moss are located in several places. These wheels used to turn the machinery of farming and industry in this city. It is a charming place and the people are very friendly. You are always greeted on the street and when you go in stores with “Bon jour” and when you leave “Avrevoir”
Day 4 (June 20) Friday
We were lazy and thus had a late start - after 10 this morning. Pete drove to Village des Bories. Our first experience with the French drivers was all that we had heard about. They do tailgate you and will pass you and others at the very least hint of an open space. We followed Max’s wise advice. Let them do their thing and you do yours - though sometimes it seemed prudent to pull over now and again and let them pass - especially large trucks stuck on your bumper. We parked where the tour buses and some other cars had parked and walked and walked and walked to the village. We could have driven in but didn’t realize it - not too good at reading the French signs yet! The village features houses made from stone without mortar (200-500 years old) and walls that are made from the same stone, but the last row has the rocks standing on end. We continued on up the road to Gordes - a spectacular city built on a hill and everything made of stone. You come around a curve in the road and there it is before you seemingly hanging from the side of the rocky cliffs. We had a marvelous lunch (perhaps our best meal in France) at the Cafe Provencal. Pete lamb chops and Maggie chicken flavored with lavender. We tired to find the Vasarely art exhibit - but we were not communicating too well yet and all we could figure out was that the exhibit was gone - - which of course it wasn’t - - but more on that later. We drove on to Roussillon with a stop to take pictures of a beautiful field of lavender. Roussillon is another hill top city sitting on ochre rock (16 different shades from yellow to red). Took a walk to the “needles” - Senterie des Ochre - jagged rust red cliffs with green trees that had leaves that looked blue. Had some ice cream and bought a newspaper and then Pete raced all the French drivers back to our cottage. Our evening ritual is the Herald Tribune newspaper, wine, crackers and cheese - and in the background French music on the radio. We noted that the French people are very friendly, helpful and always seem to be laughing. They like smoking and bringing their dogs with them everywhere (you must look where you are walking) and of course driving very fast.
Day 5 (June 21) Saturday
Rain showers in the night. We slept late again and after breakfast put on long pants and a dress (the weather is very cool for this time of year) and headed for Avignon. Our next lesson in map and sign reading came this morning. We thought that we had a good plan for getting there but ended up adding a half-hour as we seemed to keep heading every place except Avignon. Remembering Max’s wise advice again - remember that you are on vacation! We slowly figured out where we were and enjoyed the new villages we encountered along the way. Following the blue signs led us to the underground parking and signs led us to the Palace des Papes. Here we discovered that Pete’s advanced age gave him special admission rates. We took a self guided (aided by our “Green Book”) tour of the Palace. A lot of rooms seemed to be devoted to either the hiding (in hidey holes) or counting of money. We had lunch atop one of the many towers of the Palace. Then we went to the Petit Palace which had 19 rooms set aside as galleries - most of them devoted to paintings of the Virgin Mother and Child - by Gallery #10 you had the idea - - -Also at the Petit Palace was a special showing of tapestries “Histoires Tissees” that had 500 year old paintings and along side samples of the garments or curtains shown in the paintings, plus other special religious tapestries. We went to look at the unfinished Roman bridge of St. Benezet, but decided not to pay the tariff and instead climbed up the hill behind for a better view of the city. Several cars passed by well below us adorned with flowers - wedding parties.
Day 6 (June 22) Sunday
Slept late - a storm last night - thunder and lightning. Much cooler this morning. This is market day in Isle-sur-la-Sorgue. And we are talking about a BIG market teaming with vendors selling food and other merchandise. We did our best to help the local economy buying food and gifts - plus a soon to be famous round of cheese. Back at the cottage we lunched on ham and eggs and bread - plus those luscious melons. We figured out how to use the clothes washer with the help of UnTourists living next door and then put our wash on the line to dry, after the 2 hour machine cycle. Mr/Ms Besnard came by for a visit in the late afternoon and we got a further tour of the grounds. He has great lawn of bent grass that they use on golf greens and he mows it every other day with the kind of mowers that golf courses use.
Day 7 (June 23) Monday
We found comforters in the loft - it was down-right cold last night! Off to an early start and another lesson in driving in France. Carpentras was our bugaboo! We drove around the city 4 times trying to find the highway we wanted going north. Finally had to stop at the tourist office and get another map and instructions. We decided not to go to Mount Ventoux because of the clouds and went on the Vaison-la Romaine and the Roman ruins. It was most impressive. The ruins cover 35 acres and are from the 1st and 2nd century. The theater there is very well preserved - they could seat 6,000. The museum was also good with statues, artifacts of the time, mosaic floors, funeral boxes of stone, etc. We were just ahead of several groups of school children, who were noisy but very well behaved. We had our picnic lunch on a bench overlooking a Roman village (everything closes from noon to 2 or 3 in the afternoon) and then bought, wrote, and mailed postcards. Entering the village it felt strange to be walking on stone streets that Romans walked on 2,000 years ago. We then went to a park and watched a group of men and one woman playing the game with the metal balls. We also visited the cloisters and then the famous Roman bridge that has stood for 2000 years and survived the great 1993 flood which took out all the modern bridges. The Besnard’s had recommended a visit to Seguret so we made a side trip. It is high on a hill with tiny walkways in stone - very picturesque. We tasted several of the local wines and walked the narrow streets to the top of the village. On a whim we decided to go to Mount Ventoux. The roads are hairpin as you get to the top with no side rails - very scary! It was tres cold and very windy on the top, but a spectacular view of the area that we were living in. On the way back home we stopped at a winery and tasted the reds again. Once again Carpentras got us going around in circles, but this time we just went with the flow and found a different way back home. There always seems to be about 5 or 6 ways to get to where you want to go. That evening we ate at a restaurant downtown (a sidewalk cafe). Pete’s was very good but Maggie’s squid was just so so - but the melon and the chocolate mousse made up for it. An exhausting day.
Day 8 ( June 24) Tuesday
Slept late - this is getting to be a habit now! Put gasoil in the car for the first time - - 20 liters for the 400 kilometers we had driven which works out to about 50 mpg. Gasoil sells for FF4.09 per liter and gas for FF6.50. We had lunch at the White Horse Pizzeria with about a dozen other UnTourist and exchanged stories about places to go over a two hour lunch. We went to Fontaine-de-Vaucluse, which is only about 15 minutes away from our cottage. Ah, but the famous waters were not flowing out of the caves - must be only in the spring. We toured a paper mill that still had a water wheel driving some of its machinery. Then we drove north to Pernes les Fontaines, a walled city, where we took a long walk up narrow streets and saw lots of fountains. A more relaxing day ending with ham and eggs and a good book.
Day 9 (June 25) Wednesday
Today we headed south and west to St. Remy-de-Provence. The drive down was one of our favorites as the highway for much of the way is covered by a canopy of plane trees. It was market day and the traffic was terrific. Stopped at the visitors office and then headed for the St. Paul Asylum where Van Gogh lived from 1889-1890. He took his life only three months after leaving St. Remy. We walked to seven sites of his paintings. There would be a sign with the picture and then you could look out on the same scene today (The Poppy Field, Olive Trees, The Quarry). It was very moving and inspirational. They have now named the clinic after Van Gogh. Across the road were Roman monuments - one arch 60 feet high dating from about 30 B.C. We drove on to Les Baux-de-Provence, another beautiful village built into the rock. One of the streets is actually carved out of the rock. The high point here was visiting the Yves Brayer Art Museum. He used a great variety of media and painted scenes around the world - even Arizona!. But his scenes of Les Baux were his best. We also visited the main church and a smaller chapel. We enjoyed a lovely salad lunch in a patio cafe. We enjoyed crepes in Isle-sur-la-Sorgue that evening.
Day 10 (June 26) Thursday
Off today for the Camargue, which is a grand nature preserve in the salt marshes in south central France. Maggie got her full share of driving the French roads today. We are still amazed at the driving skills of the French - - matched only by their skill at parking their car in interesting ways. We went to the bird sanctuary and got our money’s worth with an almost 2 hour walking tour. There were thousands of pink (and other colors too) Flamingos and they were fascinating to watch as they seem to glide as they walk in the water and walk when they come in for a landing. There were a great variety of other birds from ducks to heron. We also saw the famous white horses (Blanc Chevals) of the Camargue. We then drove further south for our first visit to the Mediterranean Sea at St. Maries-de-la-Mer. We enjoyed a leisurely lunch at a sidewalk cafe and collected sea shells as we walked along the shore. To cool for swimming. Then we drove around the entire preserve to the furthermost point south on the beach at Piage de Piemanson. You can drive out on the beach and there were large encampments of tents, trailers and campers. Walked the beach again and then on the way out stopped at a large salt dredging operation. We stopped north of Arles to photograph a whole field of Sunflowers - what a sight!
Day 11 (June 27) Friday
We woke to rain but could see that the weather might clear off later in the morning. Today we did some more visiting in the Luberon region just east of where we are staying. Our first stop was Bonnieux where we made the long walk up to the old church and then returned to buy some picnic items at the street market. Then off on narrow back roads to Menerbes, which is the town that Peter Mayle wrote about and although he is long gone you don’t mention his name around here - - he brought too many tourist to the area the locals think. We walked the streets here but found nothing to hold us for lunch so we moved on to Oppede-le-Vieux (old town and new), which is where Irene stayed last year. The village is overlooked by a 13th century church and the ruins of a 15th century castle of the Counts of Toulouse. We paid our FF10 to a picturesque Frenchman in a car park and hiked up to the very top. We were rewarded with a fantastic view of the valley and mountains, plus a flat grassy spot to have our lunch. We then decided to go back to Gordes and try once again to find the Vasareley gallery. This time we were rewarded by our ability to communicate and found his three-dimensional art work in a gallery above the honey store. We returned to our cottage by 4:30 and hung our wash in the sunshine and had some wine and cheese. Tonight the whole UnTour group gathered at the Hotel Araxe for dinner and conversation. It was great fun seeing everyone and exchanging stories. One couple had taken our picture in Seguret and we didn’t even recognize them as being a part of our group. We also met Dodge, who was our contact person in the USA for setting up our trip.
Day 12 (June 28) Saturday
Back to the Mediterranean today. We picked up the toll road outside of Cavaillon and drove it to the port city of Cassis in only 90 minutes. They drive 80 mph plus on these roads and it seems mighty fast in our little red car. We drove right onto the waterfront - - but decided that we really weren’t supposed to be there and drove on to a parking garage. This city is our idea of what a Mediterranean city should look like. The water was blue-green and the happy people were strolling arm in arm around the beach front and sitting at the sidewalk cafes. The beach was rocky and had course sand and felt rather cold despite the posted temperature of 60. We had lunch at La Sol (recommended by others) which was topped off with a wonderful Creme-de-Carmel. We shopped and sat on the beach and then in a park watching the teenagers puffing away on smokes and kissing cheeks as each new teen joined the group. Lots of motor scooters. Later we watched people playing games of Boules but the rain caught up with us again around 3:30 and so we headed back to the toll road and drove home in pouring rain.
Day 13 (June 29) Sunday
It rained most of the night. It’s market day again in Isle-sur-la-Sorgue and we made our way once again through the hordes of people picking up items for our supper. This time we discovered that the outer streets were lined with antique dealers. Lots of stuff to pick over and high prices. We drove back to Fontaine-de-Vaucluse for our second visit. We had a very nice lunch, some very rich ice cream and of course a half pitcher of rouge. We came back to see the “Musee D’History 1939-1945 - The Call to Liberty” which tells the history of WWII in this area of France and the resistance movement. It was a most interesting museum and a moving experience. We then spent a good deal of the afternoon people and dog watching sitting by a water wheel by the river. Time is running short now and thoughts of home creep into our minds from time to time. Even starting to think about our next adventure in Europe.
Day 14 (June 30) Monday
This will be our last day in this part of France. Today we headed for Orange and had no problems driving through Carpentras this morning. Seems like just when you have caught on to all the skills that you need it is time to pack up for home! The Roman theater in Orange is simply spectacular! It is one of the best preserved theaters in the Roman Empire and seats 9,000 people and is currently being used for opera and other events. We tried to imagine what it would be like to see and hear an opera here - well we do know that we would need cushions for those stone seats! 76 columns once graced the stage area and an 11 foot statue of Augustus in one of porticos above the stage. One could almost sense the roar of the Roman crowd at an event in this theater. We also visited the museum across the street which showed the history of the area and the production of fabrics (using women and child labor). We had another lovely lunch on a busy street corner with the owner serving us the main course. We then headed south to the famous wine country of Chateauneuf des Papes. We stopped at only two caves and tasted at only one. They were very pricey even for France. The bottle we bought needs to age another three years. We returned to our cottage via a new route and stopped off for our last baguette (40 cents) and another bottle of wine to take home. We had bought a fairly expensive round of cheese at the market two weeks ago but then learned that it would not make it through customs - so we left it as a gift to the Besnard’s. Ces la vie!!
Day 15 (July 1) Tuesday
Our last day in Isle-sur-la-Sorgue. We packed our bags and cleaned the cottage. Then downtown to browse through the shops once again - back to the cottage for a lunch of left-overs and then off to Marseilles at noon. We checked into the Primotel and found the room comfortable and our first TV in 2 weeks. Took the car back to the rental agency at the airport and caught a bus for downtown Marseilles. We got maps at St. Charles train station and took a long walk down to the old port. And of course ran into 4 UnTourists and sat down at a sidewalk cafe for a drink with them. Marseilles is a noisy and big city and such a contrast to where we had been. We had a nice supper at the motel that night with about a dozen others of our group. A nice end to our trip.
Day 16 (July 2) Wednesday and Day 17 (July 3) Thursday
Awoke early and restless and had a snack in our motel room. Off to Paris at 10:30 where it is raining hard. Flight to Chicago was almost 9 hours and then we overnighted in Chicago and got home to Moscow at 2:00 p.m. Jet lag for sure, but both agreeing that we had a lovely vacation in France. We will miss Isle-sur-la-Sorgue
