Parting thoughts and observations from my two weeks in France

I found France to be a wonderful mixture of gritty, dirty, delightful, friendly, full of divine sights, scents and tastes. It is a country full of senses – lovers kissing in the parks by the score, many people looking as if they have smoked far too many cigarettes and had plenty to drink, a country of strong traditions coupled with non-conformists, delightful smells and foul odors, and lots of dog merde on the streets. Hygiene is not a strong suit, and yet this is part of what makes it all so, well, French.
Slow, local, and fresh foods are intrinsic to the French Culture – not a fad or trend. Some of the most delicious food can be found here. I am told that children start to be taught about nutrition in the first grade where they learn not about food pyramids, but tastes and quality. Stores close for a 1 to 3-hour lunch break, and people take this time to share a meal and recharge. Sundays stores are closed completely, so this makes for excellent down time (that is the idea after all). Monday mornings are virtually dead, even most of the cafes are closed.
Hard to believe, but wine consumption is down in France and some of the smaller vineyards are struggling. I was told that teens are drinking soda and beer instead of wine, and at the nightclubs they drink hard liquor instead of wine. Fathers have historically been in charge of instructing their children in the ways of wine and since the divorce rate has climbed, this tradition has been diminishing. Also France has cracked down on drinking and driving, curtailing wine drinking at lunch. All of these factors have greatly affected the wine industry forcing France to take some drastic steps including taking 400,000 hectares of vineyards out of production, making France now second to Italy in worldwide wine production. All of this said, there seemed to be a bounty of French wine available.
While I observed many differences, I observed far more similarities: men stand and watch construction sites, parents love their children, people want to enjoy life and be at peace in the world, people complain about taxes and the government, laugh and cry, starve and feast.
On a quiet Monday morning when all else was closed I stopped at the old synagogue at Place Jerusalem in Avignon. A sweet Rabbi greeted me at the door and showed me in to the rather small synagogue, lit from above by the rotunda, unusual for a synagogue. On one of the walls was a list of the Avignon Jews sent to Aushwitz. My eyes immediately welled up with tears, but fortunately for me the thickly accented Rabbi did not notice. How would I explain my CMS (Constant Menopausal Syndrome) to him? He was very gracious and the visit only took minutes. It revived my recurring thoughts about World War II, its current implications in these European countries I am visiting and how it informs each culture. Here was the old synagogue where Jews being persecuted in France, thought to be the cause of the Black Plague in the mid 1300s, were offered protection by the Pope. Six hundred years later, with the protection of the Pope long gone, descendants of protected Jews were sent to Aushwitz from here in the madness of World War II. How do we reconcile our tormented history and our inhumanity to ourselves? The rabbi said, “Shalom” as we parted, and I thought of Thich Nhat Hanh’s book Being Peace, wishing we could all be more peace, so that we could breathe it into the world. Wishing we could love and accept ourselves, as well as others.
Shalom. Love Yourself and pass it on.

Roussillon Ochre Photographs

Here are photographs from Mont Rouge and Roussillon. I have far too many to post, but will try to give a good sampling - enjoy!

Rouge Earth

My angel Francois was the Avignon Wine Tour man who just happened on this sunny last day of January to be offering a special tour to Roussillon instead of one of his usual wine tours, and just happened to be at the Tourist Office when I was there inquiring about how I could possibly get to the ochre hills of Roussillon. Francois had one other taker for his special tour, a woman on vacation from Taiwan who spoke some English. I had noticed in every tour information flyer that the minimum number of people was two and I had thought this was just an economic decision on the tour operator’s part, but Francois explained that the laws are strict about taxis versus tour guides and you must have a taxi license to carry only one person, and have a tour guide license for two or more people.
Cameras at the ready, we set off for our tour – first stop was the village of Gordes (see pictures in this post), a beautiful, old, stone, hill village used in the shooting of the film, A Good Year. The second stop was my grail – Roussillon – site of the world’s largest ochre deposits – and the third and last stop was Menerbes, another stone hill village, famous for truffles and wine.
Gordes was pretty well shut up for the winter, but we could still see its magnificence and capture some views including the trademark blue shutters of Provence, which Francois explained repels flies and bees, but not mosquitos.
Roussillon is a photographer’s heaven, especially in the late afternoon when we were there. The deep blue of the sky juxtaposed with the red and orange buildings was magnificent. Francois let me and my tour compatriot loose with our cameras, waiting very patiently for us while we circled the village stopping every two feet to take yet another picture.
The village of Roussillon, filled with various shades of red and orange houses, sits on Mont Rouge and was the center of ochre production until World War II. At the bottom of the village there are walking paths through the ochre cliffs – le sentier des ocres – which are only open during the weekends this time of year (in high season they are open all week), but we could sneak a peek of some of the cliffs and get some pictures. Roussillon is unique in the world and this was surely a peak experience – not to be missed, and I was so glad I did not have to miss it, thanks to my angel.
Fortunately for me, and as it turns out – for Francois and my tour mate - I had done my homework for my Traveling Naturally Guide to France, so I knew there was also a Conservatory of Ochre. Francois was most agreeable and we went looking for it with the map I had from the back of a brochure. We found it about 3km down the road from the village and it was open! The first building in the complex has an extensive bookstore and is where classes are held year round in painting and special ochre applications.
Below and behind the bookstore is the L’ancienne usine Mathieu – a series of museum displays of an old ochre processing factory. We had missed the scheduled guided tour, but were free to explore on our own. Another building in the complex houses the pigment and art supply store – a painter and artist's dream land. Walls lined with jars of natural and synthetic pigments made a colorful and inspiring display. Neither Francois nor my tour mate were painters or had any knowledge about ochre other than the house exteriors we had just toured, so they admired the array of colors and delighted at this discovery.
The conservatory ships the natural powdered pigments to artists and artist supply stores around the world. I got two little bags of the natural ochre and some pastels of the same. The colors range from muted yellows to reds and browns. I confirmed with the salesperson that ochre is no longer mined at Roussillon. The sole remaining ochre mine is in a neighboring village, Gargas.
Ochre is stunning as I hope some of the pictures will illustrate. It has also been used for millennia. Some of the earliest known cave art was drawn with charcoal and ochre and the Australian Aborigines have used it in their art forever. Much of their new art is painted with synthetic ochre colors. I have read that they use the natural ochre for the work that they keep as they consider natural ochre to be sacred, which it surely is.
After our high of Roussillon, we continued to our final village stop, Menerbes. On the way we passed countless vineyards, olive and fruit groves, and some patches of grey lavender, resting until June. We drove through the village of Lacoste, known for its castle that was once owned by the Marquis de Sade and is now owned by Pierre Cardin.
Menerbes is another beautiful, stone hill town. Francois knew it well as it is a regular stop on his wine tours. Menerbes, like Gordes, was pretty well closed up for the season, but the views from the top of the village were magnificent, and we got to peek at the Maison de la Truffe et du Vin for truffle and wine connoisseurs.
The car was pretty quiet on the return drive to Avignon, each of us absorbing the wonder of the afternoon, and the joy of the experience. It was an absolutely perfect final day to a glorious ten days in Provence. I look forward to a return trip when the lavender is blooming, my other grail that I knew could not be realized in this season.
Au revoir Provence.

Conservatoire des Ocres et Pigments Appliqués: www.okhra.com
Angel Francois is available at: www.avignon-wine-tour.com. He is extremely informative, courteous, flexible and good-natured and not pushy or overbearing at all – really the perfect combination for a tour guide. If you are traveling to Avignon or any of the nearby towns I highly recommend a tour with Francois. His wine tours motto is, “You drink, I drive” – how perfect is that.

French Body Care - Part One of a Perfect Day

My last day of adventuring in the Avignon area began in the most delightful way. I had an appointment at the Kan Day Spa, a bit of a hidden treasure, in a small storefront I found one day when I was out exploring. Their flyer offered a variety of options at affordable prices and since I hadn’t been able to do anything but sponge bath (my hotel room is sans shower) for over a week I thought I would take advantage of the Hammam (steam bath) and spa (Jacuzzi) combination package offered with a short massage. Not only did I get squeaky clean, but I had one of the best body care experiences of my life. The beauty was really in the simplicity of it all.
The Hammam is downstairs, in the rear of a beautiful treatment room with bathroom, Hammam and attached shower for alternating the Hammam with cool showers, the spa (Jacuzzi) and a massage table. The Hammam is the heat, and the effects of alternating the steam room with the cool shower provide excellent stimulation for the circulation and lymph systems.
Let me tell you that this is not for the modest as, remember, we are in France. I was directed (all in French) into the bathroom where I was to emerge with only a disposable thong, shower cap, and pair of slippers – no towels, no robes – just me in my middle-aged glory and the very scanty disposables merely there for some hint of hygiene, certainly not for hiding anything. From there I went into the Hammam which was a completely tiled, large sauna-sized room with two levels of tiled benches to lie or sit on. The steam was augmented with some aromatherapy and was not too hot, but hot enough. The adjacent shower was a step through the glass door, where I could adjust the water temperature from cold to warm. I went back and forth a few times, and while showering, used the exfoliating scrub available. After about 20-30 minutes of this alternating treatment, my therapist checked on me and prepared the Jacuzzi. I was given a hand-towel to dry myself enough to walk across the floor and get into the spa.
The Jacuzzi spa part of the therapy is not for heat like a hot tub, but rather more for the relaxing and massaging effects of the jets. The water is at a comfortable 35ºC (95ºF) so you stay warm but don’t overheat. I was in the spa for about 30 minutes – I think it was two 15-minute timed sessions as she came and checked on me and turned it on a second time. My darling little French therapist had dimmed the lights and the spa was really a pre-massage. I thought – how clever they are, letting the Hammam and the spa do so much of the work for them! By the time I emerged from the Jacuzzi I was very relaxed and used the same hand-towel to mop off a little, again merely to get me across to the massage table which had a towel on it.
I was instructed to lie down on my stomach. My therapist dried me off some more with another towel and then asked me if I wanted scented or unscented oil (all in French). She let me sniff the three scented options and I chose the Jasmine. She then slathered me with the oil – no sheet or towel over me – just me and my thong. She did a simple and yet wonderful Esalen-style massage (a northern California massage spa known for its naked massages with long, sweeping massaging), first along the left side of my body, and then the right, with a bit extra on my back, but it was feet to neck for about twenty minutes. I have never been so relaxed during a massage.
And it was fine when it was over as well – no longing for it to continue. I was satiated. I slowly rose and went to get dressed while my therapist made me a cup of green tea. I was there a total of almost one hour and 45 minutes, and the whole thing was 65 Euros – a deal by any standards.
I went out into the sun of the day – now almost noon – and sat in the main square with sun at my face and relished the deep, warm, satisfied feeling. I hadn’t eaten much, but wasn’t even hungry. I wrote a little and watched the teens come out for their lunch break. A man was teaching his young daughter to ride a bike in the square and she was squealing with delight. I savored it all. Finally, the cement I was sitting on got the better of me and I moved on to find delicious Provence pears at the bio market.
The thought of leaving Provence without seeing the orange-red ochre hills in the town of Roussillon was bothering me, but there were no buses or trains to Roussillon and renting a car was ridiculously expensive – 125 euros a day for the smallest car on the planet (that’s almost $190 a day with the exchange rate!). I headed to the Tourist Office to see if they had any other suggestions of how to get to the rouge hills. This is where I found my angel Francois. I will describe this adventure in another post.

K•an Day Spa, rue Favart, Avignon in old part; Tel: 0490 85 2692, www.kan-spa.fr; Open Mon-Sat 10-7pm.