needles & vectors

After Venice, we traveled to Florence and Milan where I took exactly 3 photos. Three photos of the artists painting in the courtyard behind the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. And two are blurry beyond recognition. Here it is: my photo evidence of this part of the trip. You’ll be stuck with just my rambling to fill in the rest.

See, we’d been to Florence before. Last time, I wanted to move there – now downgraded to spending our next Italian trip with Florence as our homebase. I’d already seen the Duomo and other churches, toured the Uffizi and Academia, and spent hours on the banks of the Arno, trying to get that perfect. This time: eh. I just wanted to go shopping and relax (and Matt wanted only to eat well and revisit the Uffizi for the third time).

We did, indeed, shop and eat well. We returned to Mario’s for excellent steak (a whole kilo of it, split between us – and this was after a first course of veggie soup and shrimp pasta). We split 3 sandwiches from the excellent sandwich shop. We picked up a hand-painted ceremic bowl from the same shop we got the coordinating plate last time. I hemed and hawed over buying a leather bag and decided, instead, that I’d probably never use it, anyway.

We also just did a whole lot of sitting and relaxing, rather tired of being tourists.

In Milan, we visited the overpriced but beautiful shopping mall and the cathedral, saw the Last Supper (much bigger than you’d think – it takes up a whole wall), and did more I’m-burned-out-from-traveling sitting and relaxing, this time mostly at our hotel. I didn’t even consider taking photos there, I was so tired of being on the go (and, well, there wasn’t a ton which I wish I’d catpured).

So, yeah, that’s the last part of our visit to Europe. I’m glad to be back home, to my own life though I look forward to our next European trip - a week in Spain with my parents during their Spring Break in 2013.

Despite the fact we were only there for thee nights, I took more photos in Venice than anywhere else besdies the Sagara Familia in Barcelona which was, by far, my favorite place we visited.

Before I looked through my photos, I had the following opinion of Venice: little bit cool with the canals and boats-for-everything-including-garbage-and-UPS and excellent seafood but, eh, too touristy for me. I have no reason to ever go back; it’s expensive, crowded, and seems too much like a run-down Disney World.

After my photos: Oooh! It was so calm and peaceful and beautiful in its own way. Sure, the tourists were annoying but they were easy to get away from. When can we go back?

I think you’ll see why.

Our first full day in L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, we decided to take a train to Niemmes. We looked up train schedules and made our way to the train station around 8 am. The SNRF woman took awhile looking at piles of paper and consulting computer screens and finally explained to us that there were no trains to Niemmes but a bus from Avignon.

We should have realized something was up. See, Niemmes is a rather large town. There are typically 10 trains a day running from L’Isle there. But, on this random weekday, there were none.

But, we were adapatable. We would go to Avignon, instead. Famous bridge, Palace of the Popes, more than enough to keep us busy for a day.

While witing the 20 minutes for our train, we saw that the earlier train to Avignon (and another in the opposite direction) never arrived. No problem, we thought, some sort of an accident causing a delay.

Again, we should have realized something was up.

But, we made it to Avignon on a train full of high school students and enjoyed a rather lovely day there.

We saw the famous bridge, no longer connected to the other bank due to a large flood hundreds of years ago (though we were far too cheap to pay to walk along it).

We went and saw the Palace of the Popes. Longest. Audioguide. EVER. But, still, it’s worth a visit if you can get there on a less tour group-overun day than we did. Again, no photos allowed so, instead, here’s a photo of Mary atop the cathedral next door.

And a bonus cathedral photo.

Again, rather lovely day for a visit. Winds were very strong but we’d worn long-sleeve shirts and Matt hadn’t worn his contacts (wind tends to blow sand into them which is rather painful). We even had a very lovely three course lunch.

Then, the trouble came. We were trying to make the 13:57 train and got in line to buy tickets (silly machines not accepting actual cash) about 25 minutes beforehand. Eventually, Matt and I separated – he went to find out about buses and I waited in line for an English-speaking SNCF employee. Come to find out that, oh, they had no trains running and didn’t anticipate having any at all until at least 10 pm.

Quick text message to Matt to tell him this – and that we should head over to the bus station under the Ibis Hotel. We met up halfway there then ran together to try to catch a random bus he’d seen that displayed L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue as its final destination. We thought we’d missed it but I saw the sign out of the corner of my eye and we managed to be the last two people on board before it left. Despite my panic, we made it back to L’Isle 30 minutes later.

Right after we got back, we picked up the car and drove to St Remi and wandered around its very Provencal streets (this is where we got the fresh pasta). Our day probably would have been ruined had we not had that visit. It let us calm down the insanity of almost geting stuck in Avignon*.

We eventually found out why all of the issues with the trains: ticket takers were on strike following the stabbing of a ticket taker on an overnight train.

* Okay, we didn’t almsot get stuck. I just paniced. No trains. No way to really find out the bus schedule – there didn’t seem to be any sort of information kiosk. But, really, we could have always paid for a taxi ride back. It would have been expensive, but we were not really stranded, just delayed. The bus actually cost us five Euros less than the return train trip and only took a few minutes longer.

We spent five days in Provence, renting an apartment just oustide L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, a medium-sized village. The apartment was well-appointed with a kitchen (important to Matt) and high speed Internet (important to me). The kitchen gave us the ability to cook dinners from ingredients purchased as the large Intermarche grocery store, farmer’s market, or local shops. We ate very well – favorite meal of mine was on our anniversary: fresh ravioli with ham and cheese from the butcher shop of all places in a simple butter sauce. We drank the wines we’d picked up wine tasting one day and enjoyed getting to splurge at lunchtime due to our much cheaper dinners.

It’s important to note that the temperature was in the upper 60s and we had clear, bright blue skies though there was one weather downside: the mistral. It’s a wind that whips to the Northwest and is strong enough at times to make you feel like you’re goint to get knocked over. Thankfully, we both had wind-resistant jackets but, man, without it – it was freezing! I loved Provence but was more than a little happy to leave the mistral behind when we left.

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I feel horrible lumping all of our five day visit to Provence into a single post but, well, I’ve got a problem. I made notes on which towns we visited each day, sure, but which photos go with which town, umm, well, not so much. So, I’ll simply tell you that the photos below come from one of the towns in Provence, the Luberon, or Cote de Rhone. Helpful, huh? You’ll have to come visit, yourself, to do real town identification.

Note: Avignon will get its own post because I know, for sure, which photos were taken there.

(Also, I have a feeling I have a different memory card with more photos on it – that or I was so distracted by the beauty of this region to take any more photos than this. Thse are just the highlights but, still, I must have taken more than 10 photos a day.)

On the way from Carcasonne to L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, we stopped at the Pont du Gard, the largest remaining section of a Roman acqueduct. You pay 15 Euros to park your car, but that not only gives you access to the aquaduct but a very lovely museum, nice picnic areas – which must be a zoo in the summer, and several short walking trails. A bit pricey for us but perfect for a family with little kids interested in Roman history.

We walked up one of the trails to where you are high enough up that yuo’re aligned with the top of the structure, although you’re no longer allowed to walk where the water once ran. Also visited the museum which, for a museum all about the importance of water in ancient Rome, was quite interesting and very well done in terms of the incoporation of photos and sound.

It was a really fun little side trip – I liked the pretty views and the ability to walk around and it gave Matt both a driving break and a chance to learn some more Roman history.

Matt’s review of Carcasonne: “I’m surprised Disney hasn’t offered to buy up the entire town and run it.” This very touristy city, known for its town walls, was just plain corny. I was quite happy that we arrived just before dinner and left after breakfast the next morning. The best thing about our visit was the nightime walk between the inner and outer walls. Cool place to visit with small children, but definately worth skipping for grown adults.

And, yes, had we been there when stores were actually open, I would have looked to see if any of them sold the town’s famous board (or is it a card?) game.

On our way from Beynac to Carcasonne, we made three stops: Cahors to see an ancient bridge, St Cirque, and Albi (no photos). Somewhere between Albi and Carcasonne (I think), the road signs pointed one way to Carcasonne and our GPS, another. The signs seemed to take us East to go South while the GPS, hey, it was going direct – don’t quote me on the directions, but you get the idea. We decided to follow the GPS route.

Yeah, it took us through a wilderness preserve / national forest in the Black Mountains. Over 20 kilometers of hairpin turns which took you from light-blocking forests to open passages where the sunlight would suddenly blind you. Oh, and the speed limit – 90 kph (55 mph). Thankfully, Matt’s an amazing driver and we passed almost no one going on the opposite direction on this road which was really only wide enough for 1.5 cars. We survived – Matt just complained of shin pain the rest of the day from all that shifting.

We stopped in Cohors not to view the not-exciting modern town but its famous ancient bridge. We had a bit of trouble figuring out if it was actually walkable from our randomly-selected parking space (it was, about 2 km away from where we parked) but eventually found it a little ways past the train station. I can’t say it was a favorite attraction but, hey, a quick and worthwhile stop on our long trip that day.

Matt says his favorite small town we visited our entire time in France is St Cirq and I’d have to agree. Little shops on steep passageways and gorgeous views of the land below.

The other place we visited that day was Albi, specifically to visit a very old gothic cathedral – perhaps the oldest in France but maybe I’m getting my churches mixed up. We weren’t allowed to take photos so you’ll have to believe me when I say it had some nice paintings and a rather ornamental choir.

We spent three nights in the Dordogne, specifically sleeping in the town of Beynac-et-Cazernac. The region is named after the Dordogne River which runs through it. We stayed at this great place called Le Petitee Versailles which, I’m pretty, sure we had the best room – when the large, wooden shutters were open, we had an excellent view of the countryside. Add to that the fact that one of the owners, Francoise, is an amazing chef and we’ll be going back there anytime we plan to be within 100 miles of the place. We’ll be talking about her breakfasts for years! (And, she made a beet soup that I actually ate, if you can believe it.) But, as usual, I forgot to take a photo of where we stayed. I blame it on the good food and the company of fellow English-speaking travelers at our hotel ( including Andrew, one of the best storytellers ever, and his very patient English, French, Italian, and Portugese-speaking wife).

Outside of the hotel, we also enjoyed the quiet calm of the region. After the insanity of Barcelona, we were happy to have a place without a long list of must-see sights, though we did have a general “see as many of the protecting castles as possible” mantra.

First, there’s Beynac, where we stayed and ate dinner our first night in town.

A view of the Dordogne, provided to us on a visit to Castle Nord.

I don’t really have photos of the castle itself, so here’s one of a group of French schoolchildren on a field trip. Never once did a fieldtrip include a castle visit when I was growing up!

The castle had its own little medeival village, mostly set up now to feed tourists and give them places to buy sourveniers. Visiting out of season meant only the museum shop and a single cafe was open.

Following a tip from our guidebook, we stopped just outside of town and got this excellent view of the Montefort Castle.

The largest town in the area was Sarlat, which we visited several times to have meals and attend the town-engulfing Saturday market.

I really enjoyed sitting on the Sarlat town square and people-watching.

We decided to partake in a super-touristy but much recommended boat tour down the Dordogne. I’m quite glad we did. This woman provided the French-speaking visitors an audio commentary where non-French speakers had an excellent audioguide provided via headphones.

Where our tour left from, La Roque-Gigac. The whole town is composed of a single street, facing the river.

We also visited Chateau Beynac but no photos were allowed (quite sad, really, it was my favorite castle – it felt very castle-like with no fancy exhibits).

I’d really recommend a visit to the Dordogne. It’s similar to Provence in its small town charm and yet not as touristed and absolutely beautiful. And, hey, it’s in the Perigord, so you’re bound to find menus full of duck and goose-based dishes like duck confit and foi gras (but no corn, locals think it’s crazy to give humans duck and goose-feed).

After visited Barcelona, we hopped on one of those discount European airlines to fly to Bordeaux where we (after some confusion about where to go) picked up a rental car that we kept our entire time in France. We wanted to stop on the way to our destination, Beynac, to visit the small, wine-loving Bordeaux town of St. Emilion.

Too bad our GPS decided, despite having European maps, that it didn’t want to accept addresses. Plus, the fact that you’re never quite sure how to enter in a town name like St. Emilion. Was it Sainte or Saint or St or St.? Also, Emilion has that pesky accent (which I am too lazy to type here) over it’s E. How exactly do you make that accent on an American GPS keyboard? Do you switch into French?

We gave up on visiting St. Emilion. We typed in the GPS coordinates for our hotel in Beynac (thank heavens they were provided) and went on our way. Then, we saw this little sign pointing the way to St. Emilion and decided to follow it. After a nerve-wrenching parking job involving a steep incline with an Aston Martin parked behind us and a tiny parking space, we went off to enjoy the town.

It had a lot in common with many of the towns we’d visit in France: small, on the side of a hill, and filled with shops for tourists.

We took the little walking tour in our guidebook which lead us to an overlook where we saw some amazing views. This one’s of an area just off the town square.

I really enjoyed the small, side lanes.

We went into a randomly selected wine store where we tasted two reds, only one of which we could afford and picked up a bottle to enjoy later in our trip. The gentleman pouring spoke perfect English and was excited to ask us for recommendations for wineries to visit in California. We gave him the name of three favorites near Santa Barbara (Lucas and Lewellan, Palmina, Brewer Clifton).

I’m glad that little sign pointed us the way. It provided a great introduction to small town France (and gave Matt a driving break in the middle of the 3 or so hour trip).