France 4 - Castles and Ochre sands-Lourmarin and Roussillon

June 2012

An hour and a half drive from Martigues, through vineyards and poppy fields, the winding roads take us via Lourmarin where we decide to stop to visit a castle close to the road. 

The castle was built in the 15th-16th century, but fell into ruins and in 1921 was bought and restaured by a rich manufacturer from Lyon - Robert Laurent-Vibert. He then died in a car accident in 1925 and the castle was donated in his will to the "Académie des Belles Lettres d'Aix", so that a cultural and artistic centre could be created.

Nowadays it can be visited daily and there are some scheduled concerts and art shows.
I was impressed that they had an English flyer to aid the visit and in each room there were also English and German explanations regarding the style and furniture in each room.
The area is knows as the home of a famous British writer - Peter Mayle.
One of his books "A year in Provence" was made into a tv series and a film. This was about a British expatriate who settled in Ménerbes (about 14km away). Another of his books "A good year" starring Russell Crowe, was also filmed nearby, and as a result these villages which were in the lesser known parts of Provence, have now became better known in the English speaking world.
This village is also part of the prettiest 200 villages in France.

Lourmarin Castle and lovely garden

The courtyard. To the left on this floor is a library

After our visit we were on our way to Roussillon, 25 km away. On the way a few fruit vendors had stands along the roads and we stopped to buy cherries! They were delicious and my daughter and I ate almost the whole container.

Who could have imagined France also had a region with red soil, just like the northern areas of Australia?
The only difference is - Australia doesn't have a cute village like Roussillon with all the old buildings and monuments.
The village of Roussillon, one of the 200 prettiest villages of France, is situated in the heart of one of the biggest ochre deposits in the world.
All around abound red cliffs in various tonalities, the houses and roofs also in the same tones. You can pay 2€ and walk around the former quarry on a short or long trail.
Then walk around the village, climb up to the walled fortress area where you can see some cute houses, plenty of restaurants and very interesting shops. If you are a painter, you can buy paint pigments in various colours made from the red earth.

The fortress walls in Roussillon

A very narrow staircase to the clock tower

A quaint shop and house within the fortress walls

View from the fortress

Certainly a worthwhile visit!
So if you are in this area of Provence take a drive to these cute villages...and if you go in summer make sure you buy some fresh cherries or strawberries from the fruit vendors, so delicious...

France 3 - Marseille

On Wednesday 6th June I was picked up by my daughter's father in law to be driven to Marseille.
We parked close to the Old Port (Vieux Port) and took a hop-on/hop-off bus tour with 13 stops. The complete tour took 1,30h, but we  didn't get off at any of the stops,  as being a week day, the bus would take 2 hours to come round the same spot, had we chosen to get off.

Old Port - (Notre dame de la Garde at the top, left)

The only place I would have liked to get out and seen in detail would have been the church "Notre dame de la Garde" which sits atop a hill, from where you can get a view of the city from above.

Notre Dame de la Garde

Fort St-Jean

Back to the base, we got on the road again to meet my daughter for lunch in a pleasant restaurant near her work place. After lunch we went to visit an art museum "The Palais des Arts" for the Joseph Garibaldi painting exhibition. Then a walk through the Park Longchamp, that used to house a zoo which was closed in 1987. The park is behind the Palais Longchamp that houses the Museum of Natural History and Fine Arts Museum.

Palais Longchamp

Rows of macaroons and other lovely French pastries

A lovely day out, but I was disappointed to note that apart from the Old Port, the city is very dirty - I came across loads of dog droppings, bits of food, paper, clothing and even an old unused pram on a sidewalk. People casually drop papers and cigarettes from their cars...

Pretty sad that this happens in this day and age in a modern European city. I do hope the city gets cleaned up, as in 2013 Marseille will be one of the European Culture capitals. 
Right now, there is new construction and renovations to cultural buildings and roads all over the town in preparation for the event.

The next post will be about another village in Provence among the 200 prettiest, and not only pretty but quite unusual too.
Hope you have been enjoying my travel updates!
                                                    

France 3 - Marseille

June 2012

On Wednesday 6th I was picked up by my daughter's father in law to be driven to Marseille.
We parked close to the Old Port (Vieux Port) and took a hop-on/hop-off bus tour with 13 stops. The complete tour took 1,30h, but we  didn´t get off at any of the stops,  as being a week day, the bus would take 2 hours to come round the same spot, had we chosen to get off.

Old Port - (Notre dame de la Garde at the top, left)

The only place I would have liked to get out and seen in detail would have been the church "Notre dame de la Garde" which sits atop a hill, from where you can get a view of the city from above.

Notre Dame de la Garde

Fort St-Jean

Back to the base, we got on the road again to meet my daughter for lunch in a pleasant restaurant near her work place. After lunch we went to visit an art museum "The Palais des Arts" for the Joseph Garibaldi painting exhibition. Then a walk through the Park Longchamp, that used to house a zoo which was closed in 1987. The park is behind the Palais Longchamp that houses the Museum of Natural History and Fine Arts Museum.

Palais Longchamp

Rows of macaroons and other lovely French pastries

A lovely day out, but I was disappointed to note that apart from the Old Port, the city is very dirty - I came across loads of dog droppings, bits of food, paper, clothing and even an old unused pram on a sidewalk. People casually drop papers and cigarettes from their cars...

Pretty sad that this happens in this day and age in a modern European city. I do hope the city gets cleaned up, as in 2013 Marseille will be one of the European Culture capitals. 
Right now, there is new construction and renovations to cultural buildings and roads all over the town in preparation for the event.

The next post will be about another village in Provence among the 200 prettiest, and not only pretty but quite unusual too.
Hope you have been enjoying my travel updates!
                                                    

France 2 - Cassis and Lenny Kravitz

"He who has seen Paris and who has not seen Cassis can say ... I have seen nothing." Frédéric Mistral (1830 - 1914)

On Tuesday 5th, my daughter was able to take half a day from work, so we had lunch at home, then drove to the village of Cassis, about 45km away from Martigues or 16km east of Marseille. (You can also take a train from Marseille).

Nestled among pine trees, terraced vineyards and white limestone cliffs, the small fishing port of Cassis in the Mediterranean is certainly worth visiting!
As the car winds down leading to the village there are vineyards and pine forests in every direction.

Cassis with castle above the village

The village centre is a charming jumble of colourful narrow houses, narrow streets and tourists and locals sitting in the cafès facing the fishing boats in the blue sea.
Cassis is protected by Cape Canaille, the highest European maritime cliff (almost 400mt above sea level), and the white limestone cliffs.

The pretty harbour and narrow houses surrounding it

The small sandy beach; castle on the hilltop

The limestone of Cassis that was quarried for centuries also made the town famous; it was used to build the ports of Alexandria, Algiers, Pireus and Marseille as well as being used to build the base of the Statue of Liberty in New York. Nowadays it's a small industry, the stone mainly used for pools and sinks. Tourism and wine are now the main money makers, and the Cassis wines were one of the first to profit from the "label of controlled origin" introduced in 1936.

Activities in the area: there are walking trails from Cassis along the coast above the cliffs (falaises) with panoramic views, or if you are an experienced rock climber the cliffs surrounding Cassis are ideal,  otherwise you can fish, kayak, dive or  just relax and enjoy the small beach by the Port.
You can visit the sheltered inlets (calanques) by doing a boat tour - that either visits 3, 5 or 8 "calanques". We opted for the 3 at a cost of 15 euro per person, which was enough to get an idea of the majestic cliffs and sheltered beaches that can only be reached by boat or via the cliffs.

Limestone cliffs

Secluded beach in one of the inlets (calanques)

We drove further to La Ciotat, 7km down the coast and just stopped for a short while to take some photos by the Port and shipyard.
Not as picturesque as Cassis, but town is known for being the setting for the first ever projected motion picture by the Lumière brothers in 1896, as well as being the place where Jules le Noir invented the game of Pétanque.

And then on to Toulon, the third biggest city in the Provence, after Marseille and Nice; but we were already in a hurry to be able to visit anything, our only aim to reach the concert hall -Zenith Omega, which has a sitting capacity of 8,800 people, where we were going to watch the "Lenny Kravitz" concert.

I was not meant to go, but my son in law insisted I take his place and enjoy the time with my daughter, and although Lenny is not on my list of favourite singers, the night was very enjoyable. The only drawbacks were - the concert hall was very hot and there was 1 hour interval between the guest singer and the Kravitz concert...

By the time it ended with him going around the bottom part of the hall and having hysterical people touch him, it was almost midnight, which meant we got home just after 1am!

But of course the whole day was a wonderful experience, from the village of Cassis to the concert, as the last time I had been to a concert was close to 4 years ago!

Lenny Kravitz on stage

Do you know this part of the world? Or have you been to Cassis? Next post will be about my tour of Marseille...

France 1 - Flight and Martigues

June 2012

I have taken a few weeks to travel overseas for a special family reunion -  my younger sister and her boys will be visiting our parents in Portugal, and since I haven't seen them for 5 years, I thought it would be a great idea to visit while she is there. But first stop will be Marseille in France, where my daughter lives.

I flew out on Saturday 2nd from Perth via Singapore to Paris. On the Singapore to Paris leg of the trip, I flew on the gigantic and very comfortable Airbus 380. Unfortunately it departed Singapore with almost 1hour delay, which meant by the time it landed at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, I had already missed boarding time for my 7,20h connecting flight to Marseille! I still ran half way across the airport, but as I looked at a big flight monitor screen, I could see the gate had closed!
I had to go to an Air France counter and I was booked in the next flight, at 8,35h.

After going through luggage control, where I had to throw out my water bottle that I had filled up on the flight, I went to the lounge leading to the departure gates, hoping to be able to get some internet time so I could email my husband to let him know I had arrived, so he could sms our daughter and let her know I would be late.

At the beautiful Singapore airport, computers linked to free internet are plentiful, and you get 10 min. free time; but at Charles De Gaulle airport, at least in the area I was in, there was a single computer... and it was out of order!

beautiful green spaces at Changi Singapore airport

After asking a staff member I was directed to a wi-fi area, but I don`t have roaming in my mobile, and I had bought a "world sim" at the Perth airport, to be able to use it in Europe but it kept on giving me a technical error message! (Two days later is now working, so it might have needed a few days to be activated?)
I then tried the public phones using my travel money card, but I was missing a number from the mobile...
With no luck reaching anyone, I boarded the flight hoping my daughter would be there to meet me... and she was!!

After a little nap, but still looking tired I was ready to meet the French "in-laws" at dinner. Conversation was stilted between us as unfortunately my school French has long been forgotten, and their English was very rusty too!
My son in law speaks fluent English and I am amazed at my daughter's fluency in French, as when she came here 3 years ago, all she knew was the basic school French, so both of them were on translation duty.

My first taste of French macaroons at dinner

Monday 4th -  armed with a printout from google maps, I walked about 40 minutes from my daughter's place into the centre of the town of Martigues - the Venice of Provence - (about 38km from Marseille). After getting a map from the Tourist office, I walked around for almost 5 hours visiting 30 out of the 38 monuments or interesting sights shown on the brochure in the 3 quarters the town is divided in: Ferrières, L'Ile and Jonquières.
My favourite was L'Ile (the Island) whose first inhabitants date back to the 5th century B.C. and where we can find picturesque narrow streets filled with colourful narrow apartment buildings with window shutters and planter boxes. Each quarter has a marina filled with fishing and recreational boats; plenty of green spaces with lots of fragant lavender, a typical plant of this area.
Being a Monday, most of the small commerce was closed, with the exception of a few restaurants, which might justify the lack of people everywhere I went.

Bronze statues - fisherman and woman mending nets - in Ferrières quarter, by bridge to "the island" quarter

At the Jonquières quarter, boats were used as planters

La Madeleine church (baroque style) - under repairs

Pink facade, blue shutters, mullioned windows

More colourful house facades and window shutters

One of the prettiest sights on the Island quarter - Mirroir aux oiseaux - Quai Brescon

The back view of previous photo

A riot of colour by the riverside restaurant in "The island"

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

After such a long walk, I was ready to get the 3p.m. bus home (the tourist office also provided me with a bus timetable) and put my feet up!

The exercise was not finished though as I had agreed to accompany my daughter to her Monday night 45 minutes "Shebam" class (type of  Zumba). It was quite enjoyable and I managed to perform well, or at least I think I did well...

Then it was time for a late dinner and early sleep!

Of course this morning I woke up totally broke - sore legs, neck and back - for an exercise avoider like me I have certainly overdone it in one single day!

Hope you enjoy the photos of my walk around Martigues.