Seven Days in Provence

Arles – St Remy de Provence – La Verdiere, France

I’m pretty sure that the wind is always at your back in Provence. 

I guess I had heard of this place before. But I never really knew where it was. In my mind it was somehow associated with one of those Hallmark-y books or movies by Nicholas Sparks. Maybe One Hundred Days in Provence – or something like that. 

Diana rolled her eyes when I told her this. 

“That’s not Nicholas Sparks at all,” she told me. 

It’s some other author. Diana told me who it was, but I don’t remember the name now . . .

And I think I have the name of the book wrong as well . . . 

But that’s not the point. The point is that in my mind, Provence was one of those perfect places, with perfect weather, perfect people, and perfect food – where maybe the rich and famous go to meet their summer lovers or something . . . while they’re renting an old chateau that was, at one time, owned by Louis the Fourteenth. Or maybe it was Marie Antoinette’s summer cottage? 

Something like that . . .

And the thing is, I may have stumbled on the name of the book or the movie, but otherwise I think I was spot on: It is a perfect place. 

We met our friends and Diana’s cousin, Scott and Sabrina, and their friends, Egon and Kristy, in St Remy de Provence yesterday. Beautiful place filled with beautiful people. It was fun to wander the streets, chat, and have dinner and ice cream along the way. We almost felt like normal expats. 

Egon and Kristy actually are real expats. They moved to Paris a few months ago. Egon’s originally from Austria, but has been in the States for something like 30 years. They seem to love living in France. Kristy talked about how the French seem to be more attuned to their friends and neighbors lives than we are in the U.S. – talking for hours as they sip wine or coffee at some cafe . . . Kristy and Egon also love all the little shops: the boulangerie, the patisserie, the fruit and vegetable shop, etc. 

It would be difficult to disagree with this assessment. It’s just so darn pleasant to go to the patisserie/ boulangerie, buy a few pain au chocolate (which are a significant part of my diet these days) and a baguette, wander over to the boucherie and purchase a French sausage and some fromage, then stop by the perfectly manicured fruit stand and pick up some pears or apples and a tomato and avocado for lunch. 

It’s interesting for me – because, I’ll admit, I haven’t always been that much of a French-o-phile. I think I was pretty scarred by our first trip to France – way back when we were in college. I think I’ve covered this ground before – but the basic problem was that we were super tired and jet-lagged, and the Parisians that we encountered were, in our eyes, quite mean to us. 

But whatever I have thought in the past, I have to admit that on this trip the French have been super pleasant. The countryside is beautiful. And, as Diana commented – everything is just so darn tasteful. Especially in Provence. 

And here’s one more small item that we’ve noticed. There are little free library type things all over the place. Hotels and coffee shops – and even the campgrounds – seem to have books on every shelf. And we’ve actually seen people reading real books for hours on end.

Put it all together and there is a lot to recommend about France these days. People seem to know and understand what is truly important in life. Social time with family and friends. Reading. Gardening. Beauty. Good food and drink.

And now, after spending a few days in Provence, my sense is that this may be the epicenter of the “perfect” French life. Of course, the perfect life is much easier when you have the means to be perfect . . . And that seems to be the case in Provence. 

Three other points here . . .

First, I’m pretty sure that France is not uniformly perfect like this. Wasn’t too long ago that we biked with the kids through far-Northern France. I remember feeling like there were some industrial areas that were pretty rough; maybe lacking in that “tastefulness” that can only really come with money. 

Second, reinforcing that this is one of THE places in France, we ran into an American biker this morning. Liz. She’s on one of those all-inclusive cycling tours where you fly over, they provide the bikes, they plan the itineraries, and the (four star) hotels and stuff, and they shuttle your gear from place to place. She was on the last day of a ten day trip through Provence. I mention this because they don’t do those types of tours in yucky places. They’re here because here is a pretty nice place . . .

Third – and this is kind of breaking news – as I have been typing away, Diana has been researching our next few days. What she found is that the neighboring IT area – the French Riviera – Cannes, Nice and Monaco (which isn’t France but is, in my mind, still in the French Riviera) – is crazy expensive right now. Like $500 – $1300 plus per night expensive. (I guess the Cannes Film Festival – complete with Tom Cruise – is happening right now.) And what campgrounds that exist cost like $80/night – with a three-night minimum. 

Upshot is that we just called an audible. Still might change course, but our “new” current plan is to bike toward Nice tomorrow, camp tomorrow night, and then take a short ride to Nice on Saturday. Enjoy Nice for the day and then take a ferry to the French island of Corsica on Saturday night. Then bike across Corsica and take another ferry to the Tuscany region of Italy. Finally, bike through Florence on our way across Italy, and then hop another ferry to Croatia. Got that? There will be a quiz – and half your grade depends upon it . . . 

This plan has numerous benefits. We skip the insanely expensive French Riviera area. We get to explore Corsica – which is supposed to be super nice, and where Napoleon is from – and we gain some time that will allow us to explore Turkey and points east without being in too big of a rush. (We are meeting our girls in Budapest in mid-July for a mini-tour of the Danube region – which I know is a long ways out – but there are like a dozen countries and a lot of miles before then . . .).

We’ll sleep on it tonight, and we would love some quick feedback if you have some thoughts – but that’s our latest and greatest.

Oh, today . . . Spectacular day of biking. Seriously, the wind was at our back all day – and when the wind is at your back everything is nice.

But, as I noted, we were also in Provence – which, wind or no wind, is really pretty. The nice thing about our route today was that it was relatively flat but we had mountain views – with castles and stuff – basically all day. 

We landed at a really nice campground as well. Spacious tent pitches with plenty of lush grass.

And the couple that own the campground are very helpful and friendly. Matthieu and his wife just had a baby girl – Adele. (I love the name Adele – mostly because I am a huge fan of the British singer . . .). Oh, and the campground had a nice grill – so we made a very good dinner. 

All around amazing day. We may not know where we’re going tomorrow, but we sure are enjoying today . . .

I guess it is like a Hallmark movie . . . complete with friends and family and everything.