Caught in Collioure

From Nimes we took our last drive south to Collioure--about a 2.5 hour drive on the EU tollways. The Camargue is just south of Nimes.

These freeways are everybit as modern as our own. It is impressive to see trucks from all over the EU on these roads. This is quite a powerful union! We left the tollway at Perpignan and drove a very nice road to Collioure--about 20 more minutes down the road. I dropped Leticia off at the hotel and took the rental car to turn it in back in Perpignan. I point this out because it brought out just what a vibrant transporation system exists in Europe. The road was a great well surfaced road--much of it 4 lanes. But i didn't have to catch a bus or taxi to get back--I caught a train! A very powerful and robust multimodal system.











Here is beautiful Collioure. We had hoped to take a few days in a small mediterranean beach town before heading down to Barcelona--but the weather wouldn't collaborate! Cold and drizzly again. We had about one good morning (when we took this picture). This is French Catalonia. Perpignan is its capital (Perpinà to them). Catalan culture very much in evidence everywhere. The red and yellow vertical stripes of their flag is present, but not quite as common as in Barcelona.

As always--wonderful little plazas everywhere!

The train station at Port Bou, Spain, where we had to change trains. This is the train that took us into Barcelona--about the same as the one that brought us from Collioure to this point. (Notice that is is electric--it merges in with the Barcelona metro much as the French RER in Paris).

Nimes is Nice!

Nimes was one of the real revelations of the trip. A town of about 130,000 with the charm of Paris as well as the medieval city. It is on the edge of Provence--some guides don't include in in the area. Rick Steves doesn't even list it in his book for France. Thats unbelievable. But the Michelin guidebook for Provence lists is as a 3-star area--and well deserved. One of the best remaining Roman arenas in all the world and a wonderful city! An interesting mix of cultures--Provence, the Camargue, and some Arab and Spanish influences as well. Bull fights are a big deal here--those cowboys from the Camargue!

Wonderful, walkable streets in the old city with architecture reminisence of Paris. Lots of restaurants, lots of shopping.

As with the other cities we have visited--many wonderful squares and plazas. A great intersection of private "3rd places" with the public realm. I did not calculate the frequency of these plazas, but they are everywhere in the old city. No more than a 2 minute walk between any 2 plazas--some larger and smaller, of course.

I took this shot of the bus routes on a bus stop in the old city. Amazing coverage for a city of 130,000! Bryan-College Station just a little bit smaller--a system like this is unimaginable in a Texas city of this size. You have to have density to support something like this.

As most cities in this area, Nimes has a wonderful covered market. But couldn't they have done something more interesting with that facade?? Right in the heart of the old city--what an architectural violation. But inside--its another story!

The stalls are very much as we have shown for the other cities. But look at these chickens--obviously very fresh. The interesting thing is the different varieties of chickens offered. No such offerings in our industrial supermarkets.

This covered market merges into a shopping mall very similar in many respects to our own shopping malls--with some important exceptions, like this jack of all trades repair shop. The gentleman is working on a pair of shoes in this picture but you can see that he also works on bicycle tires among other things. A great example of the way small local businesses seem to survive a bit better in France.

A view from Nimes signature large park above the city. Notice the very sharp edge of the city in the background with local farmland and countryside. It would not be hard to go from a very urbane vibrant environment directly into a bucolic landscape. You can see the large arena just beyond the treed boulevard. Our hotel faced the Arena.

But even Nimes doesn't get it all right. This is the main avenue coming off of the wonderful central park. Hardly any sidewalks! All the space is given to cars. So even when you have the model right in front of you, it is sometimes hard to resist the siren song of private mobility at the expense of community structure.

Luberon Hill Towns to the Camargue

From Vaisson we cruised some Luberon hill towns. This landscape shows the "garrigue" of the hills. This road is way steeper than it looks. Like the Texas hill country--just steeper!

This is Gordes, a typical hill town. As explained earlier, hill towns were built as fortified refuges after the fall of Rome. The towns on the plains built walls and were thus fortified as well, but there was a real difference in terms of public space between this hill towns and the towns of the plains. Vaisson also had an older hill town adjacent to it. My understanding is that is was basically abandoned until fairly recently. I think Gordes is mainly occupied by second home folks, hotels, and those who serve them. I don't know if all the hill towns of the Luberon are like this, but this seems to be the case for Gordes and a few others we saw.




Hill towns like Gordes are full of fun little nooks and crannies. But not sure just a liveable such a place really is. These kinds of towns appear to have been abandoned as soon as things stabilized.




From the hills we drove to Marseille for the adventure already described. After the night in Arles, we went to the Camargue, supposedly the largest complex of wetlands in France, on the delta of the Rhone. It is a reserve and there is a visitor center, but not much considering the importance of this region. There is a whole lifeway centered in the Camargue wetlands--a kind of southern france wetland Cowboy-torero culture, mixed in with rice cultivation. The cowboys have their own unique style and rituals.





The Camargue wetlands are pretty wet--as you might expect. There are a whole range of wetland types that we were able to observe on our drive through the Camargue. This area feels very much like the Texas coastal prairie--and I have seen the Camarge referred as the French Texas.





We ran across this major reed harvesting operation.




Tourist images of the Camargue show white horses running through the water. Didn't catch a glimpse of that--but did see the horses. There are specialty hotels in the are that provide rides etc.



Les Stes Maries de la Mer is a very interesting little town on the ocean edge of the Camargue. Great little squares and parks and perfect pedestrian scale. This was on a late Wednesday afternoon in the main square--a leisurely game that appears to be a cross between bowling, croquet, and marbles. Both men and women were playing, and of various ages. I believe this game is played in other parts of France as well but I don't know the name. A venue for real social capital to develop!

Vaisson La Romaine

After Avignon, we rented a car for a 4 days of touring in Provence. This map shows the start of this route, with a little half day loop.

Here is the nice little Fiat we rented--a Punto. Handled great and got good mileage--diesel. The model was extra!

First thing I noticed about this landscape was just a similar it is to the Texas Hill Country--with the exception of the ancient olive trees of course. White and red oaks, yaupon-like hollies, etc etc. The Garrigue is the local name for the shrub-scrub landscape that has resulted from milenia of human management.

Our first stop was at a very impressive 2000 year old very large Roman aqueduct. But the high point of that park was a large "landscape" park recreating the ancient landscape and lifeways. Lots of wonderful live exhibits like this olive orchard. Even full scale soil profiles on stella-like monuments. Another wonderful conversation with French guides about landscape management. A quick check of the dictionary for how to say "fire on purpose"--le feu expres. Definitely a part of landscape management for milenia but rarely used now.

Paris and just about every little French towns love their Plane trees (similar to the Sycamore). But they also love to butcher them. We were there at the height of the butchering/pruning season apparently. Similar to our fixation with pruning crepe myrtles, I guess.

Vaission is said to have one of the better market towns of Provence--probably true. I don't think my photos quite capture the vitality of this market. I described this market in an earlier post so won't add much here. Lots of tourists at this market--but it is not held for tourists by any stretch of the imagination. A few squares and many side streets feel up with everything from the sublime to the mundane.

Here is a local guy selling hams and sausages. He cures the meat as well as raises the pigs. He is from a village in the region and he visits several markets a week. A very pleasant fellow. Let me say here that we found the French to be a very warm and pleasant people. We have read and have been told by many how rude the French can be. Certainly we encountered a few idiots along the way, but most were quite charming. We did try our best at speaking French, so maybe that helped. We read that most people would be able to speak English--not really true, especially outside of Paris. We found more people that could speak a little spanish then english--but many that could only do French. Invariably, people were more than happy to struggle along with us in our very halting French. This fellow provided way more explanation about his operation than I could undersand--but he encouraged my questions.

This fellow's food is not cheap. But you are getting real quality. The people who are buying from him are not wealthy--probably on the average less income per capita than a similar sized texas town. But you are not just buying a ham here--you are buying into a way of life.

Food in general in France is not very cheap. We learned to save by buying hams and sausage from guys like this, some bread from a local boulangerie, some cheese and that would do for breakfast and even lunch, so that we could enjoy some splurges on great meals (and we had several of those!). McDonalds and Burger king are doing well in places like Paris and even Nimes. Nowhere else can you get a burger for 2-3 bucks. A homemade burger at a local joint will cost at least 7-8 bucks. You have to decide where you want efficiency or stable local economies--a decision that France and other members of the European Union are struggling with. So far they seem to be making better choices than we are.

We had to buy an extra basket to handle all the loot--mainly irresistable local food stuffs.


The view from our room in Vaisson on market day morning. Below are butchered plane trees and market stalls. Above is the old walled town and the castle or chateaux.

Avignon

I am going to post travelogues by sequence--so even though we say we are back in the last post, I am going back to Provence and then forward.

Just for context--the road to Avignon via TGV--the super high speed train I already wrote about. We are way to the south now.

_________________________________________________________________

This is our hotel in Avignon. The little window by the narrow cedar tree is our bathroom. We looked out onto this nice little park. Notice the lack of grass --very common in all the parks we have been seeing. Just a gravel surface. Seems to work just fine for them!

Here is a nice aerial that shows up on windows live local. The arrow shows our hotel and you can see the little park.

This is the covered market (less Halles) on the Sunday morning we were there. This aint no Walmart, folks. Local people selling local goods! A real smorgasboard of good stuff. And lots of local interaction going on as well.

Typical market stall. Oranges obviously not local (from Spain), but there was abundance of good local stuff--strawberries, for example. I am probably trying to figure out how to ask about local apples or something as I peruse my French dictionary!

Leticia just outside the market in one of the many squares that dot Avignon. No lack of public civic space!

How about this for a wonderful square with lots of great public activity. A good example of the way public spaces intersect with what some urbanists call "third places"--the bars and restaurants that are so important to civic life. It is all together right here. As in much of France--the thing to do is to sit with your drink and food and watch people.

A windows live local view of the same shot from above, showing location and direction. Could there be a better demonstration of how density helps make a place?

This is a small square just off of one of the "main" squares of Avignon. When you see kids playing in the square (there is a soccer ball in there somewhere!), you know the design is right!

All is not perfect in Avignon of course. Outside the old walls things go downhill pretty quick in some directions. There is a whole lot of development that is just as car dependent as anything in Houston. This picture shows low income housing not too far from the old walls. Mainly inhabited by Muslims as far as we could tell, mainly middle eastern but some African (Algerian?) as well. Not too happy of a place. Could the public realm been designed a bit better here?? Many of the riots that occured a few years ago in Paris were likely in neighborhoods like this.

There is no subway in Avignon--too small for that (about 90k people), but it does appear to have a very good bus system. We met a couple of Peruvians selling jewelry on one of the squares. How do you guys get around we asked--do you take the bus? Not us--we drive! they said. The allure of the car...

Back from Barcelona! (Montmarte)

We are back! And looks like we brought the cold weather with us. This is about like a lot of the weather we in Paris and our last day in France. We had a lot of rain in Barcelona, but at least it was in the low 60s. We got back last night (Friday 7th) about 7:30--about 15 hours or so in transit--a 2 hour layover in Newark.

It was great to get to Barcelona. Now we were in a place where we did not completely have to depend on the kindness of strangers. A lot easier to ask for directions!! (but we still depended greatly on the kindness of many people). Barcelona of course is Catalunya--and it is impressive how much Catalan is in use. This is not just a secondary langauge for these folks--by law all signs must be in Catalan (and also usually in Spanish). So in some ways still a foreign language place for us, but Spanish in such common use that we were never at a disadvantage. In spite of all our travel over the years, this trip was really the first time we have been in a place where we understand so very little of what is going on. That was an education in and of itself! As Leticia will tell you, I am one to ask lots of questions--in France we would always get back a lot more in answers than we could understand. I think I mentioned the sewer tour in Paris and my questions of the guides--after a lot of talk of "melange" (I was wondering about the mixing of rain water and sewer water), the guide asks me if I understand--vou comprenez? A peu, I said. I think you got it, he said....(my best shot at a bilingual french-english joke!).


To bring this record to a close, I am going to post a few photos and the rest of the travelog.

Montmarte was one Paris neighborhood I want to mention. We saw this on our last day in Paris after we abruptly decided to head south, in the morning before heading out on the train to Avignon. A rainy Saturday morning--in the 40s--and yet full of people. But as in so many of the places we went--not just tourists. This is a real neighborhood with real folks going about their business--and thats part of what makes it so interesting. As always full of interesting little parks everywhere.

JJ and a great little street in Montmarte neighborhood in Paris. A cold day--notice the gloves and scarf! Sidewalks are too small--but street is pretty narrow too, so it works out.

Here is a great little park in Montmarte. Not very large at all--but just the right size for neighborhood use. These are all over the place in Paris!

Street in the heart of Montmarte on a cold Saturday morning. Lots of tourist shops to be sure, but also shops selling cloth, hardware, etc--and full of regular folks. And who is that lady in the brown beret that keeps showing up in my photos??

Barcelona day one

Just got into Barcelona yesterday. The first place with a decent internet connection and a US style keyboard. What a difference that makes!

I am not sure we have give a very coherent story since Paris. I did tell you that Avignon was our next stop. About the best medieval city around, I think. As with all the medieval cities the streets are very small and tortous. In one sense that makes it very walkable, but on the other hand most of the sidewalks are very tiny! So it is always a battle with the cars. There are small and large plazas everywhere in this town. Would like to post some pictures here, but I don´t see a way to upload anything on this computer--and it is all self service!

>We found a great little place to stay just inside the old city walls. About 42E. We did 2 nights in Avignon. Main day there was last Sunday. THe weather had definintely turned better--low 60s and sunny. Avignon is the start of Provence--so a way different feel than Paris. Everything looks and feels Mediterranean now---must be because it is!

The coverered market on Sunday in Avignon was a wonderful experience. They apparently have this market everyday. The stalls are formal places with the same shops everyday. I had a great time trying to talk to folks about where their produce or cheese or ham came from, how it was grown etc. My French was starting to come along pretty well--sort of! With english and spanish, their are a whole lot of words you can understand if people talk very slowly and you know what the context is. I had a very interesting conversation with one of the guides in the Paris sewer tour (yes, they have a tour! If you remember, the sewers played a very important part in Victor Hugo´s Les Miserables). You can imagine how that conversation might have gone! Anyway, it is great to see local producers and merchants so active in a town this size.

Monday morning we rented a nice little Fiat from Avis in Avignon. It was a Punto. Don´t know if I have seen this kind of car in the US. It was a diesel and handled very nicely, and got great mileage. It is very easy to rent cars in France based on our experience.

We followed the advice of the sage tourist advisor and decided to just tour the region. The Frecnh are very cognizant of their regions. Provence of course you have heard of. There are subregions as well that they are very tuned into. We were mainly in Provence, but we also skirted the Luberon and the Gard. Producers in each region make a big deal about their cheese or turnips or whatever.

We staayed 2 nights in Vaisson La Romain, a little place that started out as a celtic village and became a roman town, and is now a center for agricultural activity in its own little region. It was reputed to have one of the best street markets in Provence, and it lived up to its reputation. Towns this size (maybe 8k?) have market days one or two days a week--just like Guatemalan highland towns! I think I might have described some of what we saw--a mix of flea market and epicurean delights. This is obviously a social occaision for the town as well. ANd everyone was more than happy to explain just how and where there stuff was made. We got a five minute exegesis on tomatoe juice that we understood maybe 1/4 of. But that was some of the best tomatoe juice I have every had. Last seasons obviously, but still great.

From Vaisson we headed south, taking in several more hill towns. Probably don´t need to see any more of those!
Leticia decided she wanted to see the famed Marseille--so we drove there in the late afternoon. Got to the old port and had some great buolliabaise (sp??)--thats what you have to do in Marseille! Could not find a room however! Some kind of a big convention going on. We drove back to Arles--all of Rick Steve´s budget places locked up tight (it was now 1130PM). Fortunately, there were some freeway type motels on the edge of town--had to try three before getting a room though! So lesson learned is get a hotel early! (so planning can help, Rhonda!). We are not traveling completely without reseervations--we did have our room reserved here in Barcelona, which was wise indeed because we are now in Semana Santa (holy week)--THE spring break week for Europe.

I will pick up the travelogue in Arles next time. We are going to finish up our trip here in Barcelona. It is well worth a week--maybe even two. We have already walked the famous Ramblas. This is a great city, but I think Paris is still number one in terms of pedestrian scale.

More tomorrow--unless dancing or something gets in the way!