We stopped along the way to the Saturday morning market in Arles to take photographs and walk around the grounds of part of the Montmajour Monastery, parts of which go back to the 10th century. Our guest Tom Novasic takes a photo of the ancient chapel above. The simple 12th century cemetery chapel of Saint-Croix […]
Postcard from France
Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Provence
Pont du Gard
OK, I’ve seen my share of Roman stuff in the last 18 years. The Colisseum, the Pantheon, Roman gates in Italy and in Germany, the baths at Bath, and on and on and on. Clients ask me, “Aren’t you sick and tired of Roman ruins?” Never, I reply. I can marvel at these architectural wonders […]
The Old Port of Marseille
We visited the Vieux Port of Marseille on Thursday the 14th. We were on our way to the port of Cassis, which with its sleepy feel and million dollar bungalows seems a world away from the bustling, crowded port of Marseille. Marseille is the second largest city in France with more than 800,000 (registered) inhabitants. […]
Tale from the Past No. 2
The first time Jim ever went to France was on assignment for the European Stars and Stripes newspaper. He drove around the Alsace and into the Vosges Mountains and then, near the end of a long day, was on his way back to Darmstadt, Germany and homebase for the paper. The only problem was, Jim […]
Where the Mistral is a Stonemason
Maybe you’ve heard of the Mistral wind, that howling, horrific atmospheric anomaly that comes out of the north and down the valley of the Rhone in the wintertime in Provence. Today I saw evidence of its power at the Chateau of Les-Baux-de- Provence, first stop after picking up our guests at the Avignon train station. […]
Another Grand Adventure Begins today
Jenean and I met our new guests today at the TGV station in Avignon, France. We were totally impressed with this new and beautiful station. Our guests arrived exactly on time at 12:57 from Paris. Comments we heard were “that was a better trip than our plane ride over the Atlantic,” and “why can’t America […]
Cassis
We found another piece of paradise in Provence on Monday the 11th when we drove down to Cassis. We took a rather ugly route down from Arles to Marseille, passing many factories and urban housing developments. However, upon arriving in Marseille at the Vieux Port (the old harbor), we were immediately charmed by this city […]