Dorothy was RIGHT --

There is NO place like home!

Other than the fact that the ambulance company picked us up 20 MINUTES late this morning (and the Montpellier/Paris flight had already closed)...but they let us on...EVERYTHING else went absolutely flawlessly. Our sincere thanks to HTH International for their concern and fantastic care and arrangements.

Our neighbor Thatcher picked us up this afternoon at the Tucson airport, and his lovely wife Amy had dinner waiting for us when we got here -- plus treats, which is WONDERFUL!

So -- Thank you EVERYBODY for all your support. Your emails and phone calls made ALL the difference in the world to both of us!

I may post a post-op picture of R's bruise, and I definitely want to post a picture of him and one of the firemen on top of the wall...

More later, and lots of love!!
m
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The Plan is in Place!!

Good afternoon, Folks!

We have a plan in place to leave the hospital at 5:45 a.m. in the morning, via ambulance, to Montpellier Airport. Then the rest of the flights as I listed yesterday, with the proposal of getting us into Tucson TOMORROW (Wednesday) at 4:50 p.m.

We simply cannot believe it!! The hospital has been wonderful. The Physical Therapist brought the hospital's crutches (they call them canes) for Robert to try this morning, and I got a prescription shortly thereafter and went out and got his own set for him! I also have two doses of Lovenox in my possession, which is the andi-blood-clotting medication, which I can give to him if necessary.

Steward Lacasce has been wonderful about contacting R's primary care physician in Tucson, so we are hopeful of seeing Dr. Roy on Friday, or at least being able to get an additional Lovenox prescription to take him through to next week.

R has a bruise the size of Texas on his hip/leg, and it is truly an assortment of the most amazing colors! He also has what looks to be something like 20 staples in his incision. But it is closing well; no signs of infection or problem, and for that we are very thankful! R was able to shower (except for his right hip!) this afternoon, and dressed in clean clothes, he says he feels like a new man! (Although I kind of liked the old one!)

I took the car over to return it to Avis, hoping against hope for the best, as I hadn't been able to reach anybody there to talk to, and got no answer to the email I sent a couple of days ago. Got there, and the place was shut up tight! Then I realized that it was 1:45 p.m. -- closed for lunch! It was back open by 2 p.m. and I was able to turn the car in. The folks were truly terrific. We had been concerned about some horrendous drop charge for not taking it back to Frankfurt, but they were incredibly understanding, and the bill isn't bad at all! What wonderful people! I then took a cab back to the hospital, and then it was just a case of waiting...and waiting...we're both going STIR CRAZY!!

I'm about to head out for my evening visit to the hospital. May try and sneak a cafe baguette in, as food pretty bad. Haven't had the camera ready, though, so probably no proof!!

I will post again tomorrow, hopefully from the U.S. to let everybody know if/when we arrived home. Thanks SO much to EVERYBODY for all their prayers, thoughts, and helpful suggestions! We will be thanking you all individually once we're home, for sure!

Much love,
m
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Wow!

I have just heard from the insurance people, and they have a plan in place for Wednesday. Now we just have to find out if R can be checked out of the hospital in time to make an early flight out of Montpellier! If it doesn't work for Wednesday, then I'm REALLY hoping we can make it work for Thursday!!

So far, we'll be transported from Nimes to Montpellier, where we take an Air France plane to Paris. At Paris we take American from CDG to Dallas, and from Dallas, another American flight right to TUCSON! SO hard to believe...so...will post again when I know more about the hospital's plans!!

Much love,
m
xxxxxxxxxxxx

And he's up and WALKING!!!

Good afternoon!

Well, another truly incredible day for Robert! His physical therapist came in around 10 with his walker -- and he is up and away!! He has been for several fairly long walks, and can now get himself up out of chair or bed, into the bathroom and back -- all without help! Additionally, the therapist said that the surgeon is very insistent that Robert walk on both legs -- NOW! That was SO good to hear! So, walker today, and the therapist will be back tomorrow with his crutches! They are, fortunately, not the under-the-arm kind, but rather the around the wrist kind. He continues to take oral medication for pain, but reports that he is pretty-much pain free, even when he walks! For this we are particularly thankful!

On the other side, I got a message that I was needed somewhere "above" in administration. Sat down with a gal whose English was not as good as my French -- but fortunately, right at that moment, another patient -- a gal from Belgium -- showed up at the door -- and she spoke fluent English!

Turns out that I needed to pay the $50 deductible to the hospital (which I did) and the insurance company had only authorized a certain amount of money for R's care, and if he is not released until Wednesday, he will be over that -- and how would we pay? Apparently they have had some problems in the past with American insurance. I explained to my new Belgian friend that this was supplemental special travel insurance, and that they would cover everything. At this, the administrator called the insurance company, and I spoke with them -- all is fine; they will be faxing an updated amount to the hospital today. These insurance folks are AMAZING!

I brought the computer up to the hospital -- short walk, but heavy computer! -- and Robert was able to get a couple hours of Caltech work done, which I have since transmitted to Caltech. Made SUCH a difference, having something to do! I'd love to rent some videos for him to watch on the computer, but not sure what if anything I could get that he'd understand!! We debated while packing if we should bring any videos, and decided against it ... bad decision! I did find that I could stream ESPN radio right into my room, and that helps a lot! Even listening to goofy commercials -- anything familiar -- works for me!

So -- that is the latest from the south of France as of this moment. Again, I'd like to thank everyone who has written and/or called -- it makes such an incredible difference!!

Lots of love,
m

Progress of sorts!

Good afternoon!

First, a brief update on Robert. He passed a good night, and when I got there this morning, he had been totally disconnected from any and all tubes and bits that they tend to go in for in hospitals. His doctor came in around 9:30 a.m. and said he is very pleased with R's progress. If all goes well with the incision (no bleeding) and pain (at a minimum) the plan is to release Robert on Wednesday, which would be terrific!

After the doctor left, Robert was finally able to get out of bed and into a chair. He is not able to put any weight at all yet on his right leg; that will take time, but he reports that sitting causes absolutely no pain or problems, so we're encouraged!! Because it is a Sunday, the folks from rehab have not yet been around, but are scheduled to visit him tomorrow. I believe that this will be the crutches lesson; hope so, at any rate!

He is now absolutely and totally bored, and just wants to go home. I'm with him there! Fortunately, we still have some reading material for him (difficult finding things in English here!) and he knows that being patient and following the doctor's guidelines are the most important things.

My mission for today was to do laundry, as R desperately wanted out of that hospital gown and into a T-shirt. Unfortunately, all his t-shirts were dirty...hence, my mission. Started out early, to find the closest laundromat -- no luck -- it had been closed down...BUT, try the Carrefour! So, got directions to the Carrefour, and made it over there -- VERY big shopping center -- but guess what?! Ferme on Sunday!! (That means CLOSED!) -- ALL day!!

Back to the hotel, and finally to an address in the yellow pages. Turns out to be a combination gas station/laundromat!! And the most popular place in town! Seems that today must be the requisite day for EVERYONE in Nimes to wash their duvets!! And only one large machine! Fortunately, I didn't need a large machine -- and not too many people here ever use dryers. So, got the laundry washed, and into dryers -- and then it really got exciting! One of the washing machines wasn't working, and as everything is controlled from a central coin-operated location -- put the coins in, then press the machine you want -- the lady trying to use the non-working machine started POUNDING on the controller to get her money back! And that screwed things up for the entire place!! (All of 6 washers and 4 dryers...) Could have KILLED her!! However, after stopping everything for a few minutes (and of course no one around to help...) things seemed to reset, which meant that I threw the half-dried mostly still-wet clothes back into the dryer...grrrr....and, eventually, voila -- clean and mostly dry clothes!

Also, found the local McDonald's on the way back from the laundromat, and had my first hot meal since Thursday--can always use a Big Mac & Fries, especially when FAR away from home!!

High-tailed it back to the hotel and assembled a kit for Robert -- and now that he has some clothes on of his own, he says he's feeling more and more like his usual self. ALWAYS a good thing!

Am back at the hotel now, for a brief nap, then I'll head back up to the hospital again for my evening visit!

He does have his phone on, and his number is 001-520-204-6655 if anyone is interested!

Take care; much love!!
m
x

We're making progress!!!

First of all, I want to thank EVERYONE of you who emailed and/or called me. I cannot tell you, during some rather bleak hours, how much your friendly voices and reassurances meant to me! Katy Zappala, a very wise woman, suggested that I continue to blog, to keep everyone up to date on what's happening with us. So...
here it comes!

When I talked to R this morning about 7:30 a.m., he said that he hadn't been given any breakfast, and that they'd come in to shave his leg -- all good signs! -- but that he didn't know when his surgery would be. I got there about 9 a.m. and they were in for him before 9:30! I was able to walk with him to the operating "bloc" door, which was good for both of us, and an absolutely brilliant nurse told me where to sit; to go get food and come back; she was, like everyone there, wonderful!

First off, it was very strangely quiet at the hospital. I have no way of knowing if this is always like this -- but you just don't see a whole lot of people around most times! So, first I had to find my way to the cafe -- really challenging, as the hospital is on both positive and negative levels -- R's room, for instance, is on -4and the guest parking is also on -4, but another building, and of course they don't connect! I was able to find, however, the main entrance, and judged everything from there. The main thing is that I can find his room on a regular basis; that's all I need!

Very quiet waiting, but finally, around 1:30 the nurse and the anesthesiologist came out together, told me he was in recovery, that all had gone well, and even let me wave to him and he waved back! GREAT progress!! From recovery they had to take him to x-ray, and he finally got back to his room about 3:30 p.m. Boy, was I glad to see him! He looks GREAT, and he feels really. I saw the x-ray -- boy, he is NEVER going to be able to get through an airport ever again!

First off, there is a plate in the leg held in by 3 screws. Then there is one VERY long screw just above this. It's truly amazing! R is just SO thankful that it is over, because he was having a very difficult time NOT moving, and with his break where it was, there was no way he could move at all! So!!

The doctor says that he will be in hospital for the next 3-4 (possibly 5) days; they will get him up tomorrow, and we'll see how it goes. The doctor wants him medically evacuated, but I've told him that I will get R back either business or 1st class, so that he can lie flat -- that's important! Also, we've got to take it in segments, with no one segment over 8 hours long. So...I'm going to call the airlines tonight, or early tomorrow morning (I'm EXHAUSTED...) As we're traveling on miles, I've got no idea what they'll do! However, I have great faith that all will work out, and that I'll be able to bring Robert back to the United States this coming weekend.

We've had wonderful offers of help once he is in CA, and our plan is now to head to Arthur & Anne's for a day or two of rest, before I drive him back to Tucson.

As for me, I had originally found a Best Western that I thought was fairly close to the hospital .... WRONG! It turned out to be MILES away! They were really wonderful, though -- when I explained the situation, they actually called the Vatel Hotel (4***!) and got me a room! -- which is amazing, because it's the fair in Nimes, and the town is packed with people! But the truly amazing thing is that the hotel has a special rate of 89 Euros/night for people needing to be close to the hospital -- and that, dear friends, is the best news -- R can see my hotel from his room, and it takes all of 4-5 minutes to walk UP the hill to see him! Wow! I am so thankful; it's a truly wonderful arrangement!

So...that's the plan, everybody! And I promise, I will keep posting and in touch!

Thanks again to everybody -- I can't tell you how much a friendly voice matters right about now!!

Much love,
m
x

End of an adventure...beginning of another!

Hello, Friends, Family & Folks -

I regret to have to tell you that Robert fell today, and broke his leg. We were on top of the ramparts in Aigues-Mortes, and enjoying a lovely day; peaceful walk -- when BAM...he was looking up to take a picture of a tower, and stepped sideways where he thought there was pavement ... and there wasn't. Instead, he slipped into an opening for arrows and down he went. It took probably close to an hour (although it seemed like longer...) for the ambulance to get there -- but it had to come from Nimes, 55 km away! Additionally, it was not possible for three guys to get Robert down from the top ... it took two additional ambulances and 9 firemen total to ease him down the long flight of steps to the bottom, but they did a TERRIFIC job! Off they went to the University of Nimes hospital, with me following closely behind in the car. X-rays -- and yup, it's a clean break all right -- right up at the top of the femur, near his hip. The good news is, no cast ... the bad news is, surgery, which is scheduled for tomorrow, and probably five days in the hospital.

After they took him to his room, I was able to find my way back to Aigues-Mortes (sans the GPS or map!)to pick up books, shaver, toothbrush, and cell phone charger and get those back to him -- with nothing to read, I knew he'd be going crazy! He is not in any pain at all -- as long as he doesn't move, and as the hospital is a teaching hospital, it seems like the people there really know what they're doing...let's hope! We're both just a little antsy, though, and I won't be able to find out about getting him home until we know when he can leave the hospital! Our plan is to leave for home as soon as possible.

Oh well!! I won't be doing any more blogging, unless I do something when we do get back to the States. Thanks everybody for all your comments ... take care, and watch where you're walking!

Love,
m
x

A few pictures from Aigues-Mortes ...

From Cassis to the Camargue

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Bonjour!

Well, I think we’ve definitely found the HIGH point of our accommodations so far – La Villa Mazarin, in Aigues-Mortes. However, before I tell you about that, let me go back and recap the fairly lazy day we’ve had!

Up to a sunny, spectacular day on the Cassis coast; down to breakfast by 8, and in the car and heading out by 9. Rather a funky kind of place, but very comfortable overall; certainly more of a B&B than a hotel. From there, we first wanted to explore the cape – huge, rocky area – to the east of Cassis. Climbed up a VERY high mountain to reach the top, and had wonderful views all around. (Except that the view looking eastward included La Ciotat, which turns out to be another BIG port city!) Wound up, around and then down, stopping and taking pictures as we went. From La Ciotat (where, by the way, they have a LAVARIE AUTOMATIQUE!!!) headed to the peage toward Aix-en-Provence … which is where we stopped…a TERRIBLE traffic jam (called in French “bouchon” – after a wine cork!); completely stopped, all three lanes. Took us quite a while; probably half-hour or longer – to work our way through to the accident site, and by that time, voila! The accident was finally cleared! Wow! As R points out, the limited access roads can be terrific for getting places – but also, VERY hard to get out of if something goes wrong!!
Got off right after the accident, and started circling to the north of Marseilles; preferred NOT to go through the center of town once again, if we could help it! Drove through some beautiful areas, heading again toward Arles, which we needed to actually go through, to get on the other side of the Rhone, and to the Camargue.
The Camargue, for anyone not familiar with the area, is basically the huge estuary between branches of the Rhone River, as it comes out to the Mediterranean. We had visited several years ago, but decided that we couldn’t take the horsey smell of our inn – so we jumped ship and high-tailed it to Avignon! The Camargue is famous for having 400 species of birds, including 160 migratory, with their star attraction being the pink flamingo; black bulls that are used for Camargue bull-fights (NO killing!!), and small white horses. This time, however, we figured that we’d pass through it, on the way to Aigues-Mortes, a small, fortified city right on the coast to the west of the Camargue.

Drove first to Stes. Maries de la Mer, the largest town in the Camargue, where we found lunch. R had a large pile of Moules a la Provencal – (but not as good as last night’s at Nino’s!) and I had a wonderful tomato and mozzarella salad – served with RED salt! Very odd, but fun and tasty!

From Stes. Maries we decided to push on to Aigues-Mortes, a 13 century, walled city we’ve passed several times – once by car and once by train. This time, we made it inside the city walls, and found our hotel, La Villa Mazarin. So … now is definitely the time for superlatives! They have their own parking garage, a block away from their entrance, but upon entering, there is an elevator which brings you up right on the hotel grounds! Only 20 rooms; it’s not a HUGE place, but WOW is the only word for it! We are in room #16, on the second floor – in fact, in our building, there are only four rooms in total! Our view looks out over the courtyard and actually into the indoor swimming pool and Jacuzzi! Would LOVE to go in, but R reluctant…will decide if I want to go in later!!

Settled in for a few minutes, then headed out for our walk around the walls. However, found that by the time we got to the entry, that the wall walk was closing shortly, so we decided to delay our walk until tomorrow morning, and then do some sightseeing on the Camargue after that. Figure that regardless of the weather, we can still walk the walls! We then walked around town – and guess what?! Would you believe that we’re now wonderfully ensconced in the ONLY town in France WITHOUT a Laverie Automatique??? NO washing machines?! What kind of place is this? Our wonderful hotel has offered to do laundry for us, for not too much $$, but still…will have to ponder my next washing move…don’t really need to do anything until probably Sunday or Monday, but prefer not to cut it that close!!

So…back to walking around the town. Beautiful little place; took pictures and walked through shops. Not sure what we’ll do for dinner, as I don’t think either of us is up to a big gourmet affair tonight … is that a pizza calling my name?? Wandered back to the hotel where we had glasses of Chardonnay on the patio in the courtyard … this is definitely the way to live!

More later!
Lots of love!
m

Some shots from our hotel & Cassis!

Oh What A Night!

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Bonjour!

Oh my! Where to begin?! I guess I should first quote the Frankie Valli song “Oh What A Night…Late September back in ..2009” It rained all the way through dinner, and every time we thought it was as hard as it could get, it got HARDER! And went ALL NIGHT! Talk about TORRENTIAL! Whew! When we woke up this morning, we found that there had been a leak in the bathroom, and that our beautiful private terrace was afloat in 4” of water…which was starting to drip into the reception area downstairs! Tried to log in, and couldn’t … R went downstairs to tell them about what he dubbed “Lac Marguerite” and found that half of the inn was without power!! Fortunately, our power was on and we were nice and toasty warm in our room – not so for some others, I’m sure!! Additionally, something drastic must have happened to our patio umbrella! It was down, of course – but one minute I’m looking at it, and when I came back three or four minutes later, it was GONE! NO idea at all what happened to it – decided it was better to “don’t ask don’t tell” – as R said, it could have been half-way to Sardinia by then! The wind was also gusting something fierce, driving the waves up against the shoreline ---what a time!
Had breakfast in the dark on the enclosed patio, and then headed out to Glanum (near St Remy) in search of Roman ruins. Quite the drive – some period of heavy rain; other periods of gusty wind; other periods with no rain and some blue sky peeking out! Truly amazing!

Made it to Glanum and parked between the two sights – one, featuring two beautifully preserved antiquities, a cenotaph and the other, the arc municipal; both beautiful in spite of the DRIVING rain! Then we crossed the road to sight number two, which was the excavation of the town of Glanum. Very, very well done; some beautiful things uncovered; incredibly interesting -- even more so, as we were two of only 6 people on the site – and one of the couples (from Porter Ranch, Southern CA, in fact!) had had enough of the rain and were moving on out! Talk about having the place to yourself…Have to admit that we were more than a tad wet by this time, but I was thankful that we decided to wear shorts instead of wearing jeans – it wasn’t really cold, and skin dries off a whole lot quicker than blue jeans, that’s for sure!
From Glanum, we headed to Arles via Les Baux, where we’ve been before. By this time, the rain had basically stopped! However, before hitting Arles, R found yet another aqueduct for us to see! Just amazing! The ruins must go on for miles, heading toward Arles – through farmers fields and across roads – in fact, when we eventually headed the car towards Arles, we came upon the same aqueduct on the approach into town – this time rather well cleaned and preserved, as a matter of fact!

Found a parking spot in downtown Arles right next to the amphitheatre! Difficult to get into, but with R guiding me, no problem at all! We first toured the amphitheatre, which is a little too dressed up for our taste. It holds 20,000 people and is still in use to this day. In fact, they were preparing for a bull fight (the bulls do NOT get hurt in French bull fighting in the Camargue!) which they have ever year in conjunction with the Rice Festival. Who knew?! Unfortunately, somewhere in the Middle Ages, some barbarians built towers right into the Roman amphitheatre, which really spoils the sight lines across the city. Oh well! From there we next toured the Theatre next door. Quite a lovely space; some beautiful carved columns and stones.

From there we got some sandwiches at a local spot – it was rather late, and we didn’t want to spoil our appetites for our return trip to Nino’s. R and Emily did an amazing job of navigation, as we cut right through the center of Marseille and were out the other side and back to Cassis in no time at all!

Our “Lac” had been cleared and it was such an incredibly beautiful afternoon, that I persuaded R to take a walk with me. The beach is directly across the street, and we were able to walk to the beach and then via a pathway around the corner to see the whole Bay of Cassis stretched out in front of us! Had no idea it was that close, as we’d only seen it in driving rain!

Back to the hotel for a quick bath, rest and back into the town center for dinner. Had a little walk around – Cassis is really attractive! – and then to our reserved corner/harbor view table for two!

Tonight we both had moules a la provencal – Mussels, for starters. Then, in discussion with Nino about what to order for dinner, he suggested the two-person Gigot de Lotte (monk fish). It was steamed and then served with a creamy butter white sauce – just incredible! Best fish I’ve ever eaten! Actually tasted like lobster instead of fish! Would LOVE to have that again! For dessert I again had the crème brullee with pistachios, and this time R had the crepe “Nino” – two crepes with a custard in between, crowned with Grand Marnier and a big letter “N” in the middle! Very cute, and REALLY good! All washed down with yet another bottle of local Cassis white wine…GREAT!

Then back to the hotel, where I’ve been complaining that I need to do the blog earlier, if possible, as I’m SO tired when we get back from dinner! So – that’s the summary of our incredibly rain-logged day!

Take care; more later!
Much love,
m

Food from Cassis...

La Trophee d'August and other things...

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Bonjour!

Dinner last night was our first French picnic this trip! We walked a couple of blocks from our hotel to the local Casino market – which was open at 7:10 p.m.! Picked up baguette, Comte cheese, ham and salami, along with a nice bottle of Sancere wine and some water, and took it back to the hotel. Made wonderful sandwiches which we ate on our balcony overlooking the garden! Very fun, and just precisely the right amount of food – in fact, have a bit of leftovers, which we will probably dispose of tomorrow!

Woke to a cloudy, overcast day, but fortunately no rain as of yet (hear it’s coming…) Checked out of the hotel, loaded up the car, and headed east along the peage toward Nice and La Turbie. Found la Trophee des Alpes perched HIGH on top of La Turbie in the center of town! La Turbie is a very, very cute village, which looks to border Monaco on one side. Parked at the Trophee and went into the park surrounding it. WONDERFUL view of Monaco and its harbor – cruise ship in the bay and all!

The Trophy of Augustus was built in 7-6 B.C. to commemorate the victory of Augustus, the Roman Emperor, over the people of the Alps (45 tribes) who were finally subjugated. Over the years it was attacked several times, and finally made into a fortress of sorts in the middle ages! By the 19th century the ruins were actually used as a quarry for building materials for the town surrounding it. Some restoration work was finally carried out in the late 1920’s. The Trophy (trophee in French) is really HUGE; can only imagine what it must have looked like when it was in its original condition! There is a very small museum there, with an interesting video in French about the site, as well as a very conscientious caretaker who speaks a little English.

From there, (SO close to Italy we could have walked there, as well as to Monaco, where we’d have been had we fallen off the hill at La Turbie…) we turned west, for the drive to our final destination of Cassis, about 25 km east of Marseilles.
The rain finally caught us up, so we didn’t get as good a drive as we’d been hoping for, along the coast.

We initially took the peage back from La Turbie, to just past Frejus, where we exited. Headed coast-ward toward St. Tropez, and ran into some incredible TRAFFIC! In some places completely stopped; nobody moving anywhere! Finally were able to leave the St. Tropez area (WHERE were all those people going??) and head across the mountains along the coast road. Lovely drive, but views partially obscured by weather. Oh well! Still beautiful, and thankfully, traffic moving well. Went through Hyeres and Toulon (BIG city; French Naval base) and popped out again at Cassis, where we’ll stay for the next couple of nights.

Found Le Jardin d’Emile (Emile’s garden) at the far end of town, right on the main road, but overlooking the beautiful bay. We’re in room 1, with a lovely terrace overlooking the bay. Nice sized room, old tiles, new plumbing – the best of both worlds! Supposedly they have wifi only in the lobby, but – surprise! – we’ve got it in our room! Unfortunately, their restaurant is closed both tonight and tomorrow night, so we’re heading into town soon to look for food.

Tomorrow, we’ve decided to take our umbrellas and head to St. Remy le Provence, which is north of here and supposedly chock full of Roman ruins!
Will finish today’s blog with our dinner adventure!

More later!

Love,

m

I’m BACK! Oh my! What a meal!! Went to Nino’s at the harbor front in Cassis. First of all, Cassis is an absolutely LOVELY little town! Parked without a problem in the town center parking lot, and headed to the restaurant. It was absolutely POURING – and it only got worse! (Understand from Nino that it has not rained here in 3½ months, and they’re very thankful for every drop they can get!) Looked at the menu before going in – being on the waterfront, guess what? They have FISH! And you KNOW how I feel about fish…however…sat down, and the owner, Nino, came over to talk about the menu. He had one question for me: Is it FISH I don’t like, or the BONES? Boy, did he hit it right on the head there! Confessed that it was more the bones than the fish – and he suggested either the Turbot or the St. Pierre (AKA John Dory in the U.K. and States). Decided to take my courage in both hands – channeling Julia all the way! And ordered appetizer of the day – prawns in saffron – for starters, followed by turbot with moreilles (a kind of mushroom) and gnocchi. R ordered the Moules a la Provencal (mussels) with St. Pierre for a main course.
Well…WOW! Everything was fantastique! And NO bones!! (for me, at least, which is what matters!) All this was washed down by a bottle of local Cassis dry white wine -- amazing! Even had a bit of room for dessert – R had three sorbets – mango, lemon & raspberry, and I had Pistacchio crème brulee! WOW! Sorry…I already said that…

Let’s end this by saying, we’ve reserved for tomorrow night for dinner!! (Note: came home to find the Champions League soccer on TV, Olympique Marseilles vs. A.C. Milan! What a great way to end the day!)

m

From lunch to ice machines!

In search of Roman ruins...

Monday, September 14, 2009

Bonjour!

Wow! What a marvelous day! Roman ruins and beautiful scenery combined – couldn’t ask for more than that! Having discovered that MANY things are closed in France on Monday (including in La Turbie, where we’d planned to start…) we decided to head to Frejus, down the coast about 40 km, to see what ruins there were to see, as Frejus started life as a Roman port city. Took the peage (toll-way) for most of the way, and arrived around 9:30 a.m. at the outskirts of town and the amphitheatre. Again, just amazing how everything is closed on Monday! The amphitheatre was (as was the archeological museum!) but fortunately, as with a good many Roman ruins, you can see most of all you need to see from the outside!! So, we circled around the grounds, which are not really in very good condition, unfortunately. There is supposedly a re-construction taking place, which should last for the next three years, but it didn’t look like much progress had been made as of yet!

From there, we headed to the port of Frejus, looking for Augustine’s lighthouse – of which there not only wasn’t a trace, but NOBODY, even at the Tourist Office, had ever heard of it! We did have a nice walk along both the beach and the harbor – hundreds and hundreds of beautiful boats, all bobbing up and down in the water – a lovely sight! By this point, we were rather hungry (as we’d gone off without breakfast) so we stopped at an outdoor café for drinks and croissants.

From there, we stopped at the Tourist Office for better maps of Frejus and Saint-Rafael, and did some wandering along the coast next to the beach. Sunny, hot day, with lots of people on the beach and in the water; just beautiful!
Finally, finding that the museum was also closed on Monday, we decided to try to find what traces of the Roman aqueduct were left. At this we had much better success – found it (and as it’s out in an open field, rather hard to close THAT on Monday!) walked around it, and then across the street into a small public park that contained some remnants of the ramparts that the Romans had built to originally fortify the city. (Editor’s note!! R just FOUND Augustine’s lantern on one of the maps he picked up – boy, were we off! Don’t know why we thought his “lighthouse” would be by the water, but it certainly wasn’t! Oh well!)

By this time, we were both a bit tired of the hectic beach scene, so we headed inland, toward Fayence, before starting to work our way back to Vence.

Talk about hitting the jackpot! As we climbed up and away from the coast, we hit a beautiful forested area, popping out very high up on the hill, into one of the villes perches (perched towns) – and perched they certainly are! Looked rather like some Italian hill-top towns we’ve visited! Fayence is really lovely. Lots of flowers everywhere, and some lovely sidewalk cafes – although I felt rather “mountain-goatish” as my chair was definitely on the downhill slant! Found an outside table in the center of town, and had lunch. R had duck breast, served rare, with French fries and salad, and I had Entrecote, again served rare, with potatoes Dauphinoise and salad. Washed things down with a bottle of sparkling water and a half-bottle of local white wine. GREAT!

Did a bit of walking through town after that (or waddling, as the case may be…) and finally, regretfully, back into the car, D-O-W-N a VERY winding road and toward Vence. We also passed through Grasse – the perfume capital of the WORLD! Just a lovely, lovely city – and should we ever pass this way again, I’d really like to stay there for a day or two…although the air around town is just filled with perfume smells – you can smell them everywhere! Lots of perfume houses (Fragonard, etc.) hosting free perfume tours; lots of stores selling all kinds of products – very Belle Epoque and fun!!

Fortunately, we both love to drive, and between R and Emily, their directions are superb, and we can wind around back roads for hours at a time without being the least bit bored! MUCH prefer that to the toll-road, that’s for sure! Did find a place to gas up, which also included a restorative Magnum Classic for me! AND – Ta Da! The gas station actually had A COOLER HOLDING ICE!!!!! This is for sure a FIRST for us! When we were doing the Tour-de-France, we looked EVERYWHERE, and NOBODY knew what we were even TALKING about; they kept taking us to the ice cream cooler, or to trays of blue ice which we had nowhere to freeze!! And now at least ONE place in France has an ice machine!!

Got back to our room at La Floreal about 4:30…we both took naps, and are now contemplating what, if anything, we’re doing to do for dinner! R says he is full and done for the night…I’m not so sure … although it’s definitely possible I’m through too!

Tomorrow, on to Cassis, which is right on the coast, about 50 km east of Marseilles!!

More later!
m

So many things to see...

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Bonjour!

We’re back in France once more! First, dinner last night … to catch up. We made a reservation at the ONLY place in Chambons, a supposedly well-renown pizzeria – all of a 45 second walk from the B&B. Arrived promptly at 7:30 and were seated in a very nice, albeit rustic room. We both ordered bresaola with rocket lettuce and parmesan to start with; it was FABULOUS; possibly the best bresaola salad I’ve ever had! That was followed by pizza – plain “Marguerita” for Robert, with melanzane (egg plant) for me. Very, very good – but the salad was better! For dessert, I had profiteroles (3 of them) covered by chocolate sauce – YUM! Staggered back to the B&B for a very good night’s sleep!

Up about 7 and showered, dressed and repacked by 8, when we went down for breakfast. Breads, cereals and juice, like before. Paid Kent, said good bye; promised to return! And headed out the door by about 8:30 a.m.

Absolutely marvelous drive – hours of it! First, back through Sestriere toward Briancon, where we crossed back into France. To say that we took little, tiny roads is perhaps an understatement! We took a very circuitous route that led us first toward Gap, then followed a HUGE lake I’d never heard of before (Lac de Serra Poncon) and finally headed to Digne les Bains. (Editor’s note here: As we were coming into Digne, we saw a “Laverie Automatique” sign – and it was OPEN! A Laundromat open on SUNDAY! How could I NOT stop?? … but I didn’t…) (Editor's note number 2: VERY curvy, windy roads -- Mom, you would have HATED it!) We did stop in Digne, however, and found an open brasserie – Le Grand Café! – both of us were hungry, and had Entrecote (steak) with frites and salade. Very good, actually – and I re-discovered how much I like French mustard (Amora) with French fries!

Back in the car, and headed first toward Grasse, and then, finally, to Vence, where our hotel, Le Floreal, is located, about 3:30 p.m. Our room wasn’t quite ready, so we had a glass of local white wine as we waited. People here VERY nice! Room 107 (on the American 2nd floor) has a very nice king-size bed with a balcony overlooking the garden and the pool. Also, AIR CONDITIONING, which comes in handy, as well as free wi-fi! Always a plus!

Settled in, and then decided to see if we could find a laverie automatique of our very own – and we did! I always think about doing laundry first-thing in the morning, which invariably takes up half a day! But R suggested doing laundry then, and it was a GREAT idea! Walked about 6 minutes from the hotel (after one false start…teach me to listen to directions!) and found it. Not great; we’ve certainly seen better/cleaner places, but nobody was there, and the machines were ready to go. So…did laundry, and now can forget about it for another week or so!! YEA!! Back to the hotel about 6:30, and a little rest before heading out to look for dinner.

So…Sunday night (when most places are closed), strange city, in the dark, and it’s starting to rain…lovely! R suggested using Emily (our GPS), so, as we were feeling pasta-ish, he asked for an Italian restaurant…oh my! Not sure what route she was following, but we drove (again, in the dark and the rain) ALL over Hell and half of Georgia, looking for someplace! Kept missing turns; she kept recalculating – and it seemed like the closer we’d get, the farther away we were according to the GPS! She finally took us to a town called Cagnes sur Mer – where, guess what?! An Italian restaurant! (Not, by the way, the one she was looking for…)

Very, very nice place – called Zio’s. R started with a mixed salad, and I started with an ensalada caprese – one of the BEST salads I’ve ever had! (Had pesto in it, which may explain it…) The R had ravioli with Arrabiata (spicy) sauce. I had spaghetti bolognaise. Both of us were VERY happy!

Rolled out into the rainy night, and magically, it took us less than HALF the time to get home than it had taken to get there! Who knew?!

Are now settled back into our room. Patio door open, and it’s lovely and cool out! Had planned to find the Truphee d’August a La Turbie tomorrow, but of course, being a Monday, it’s CLOSED! So! Will have to figure out a Plan B – but later….

Night to all!
Much love,
m

More Fenestrelle...

In the first pictures posted of Fenestrelle, the very first one is a long-distance shot of the Fort. The lumps on either end -- with the BIG space in beween, are the beginnings and endings of the Fort!

The second photo shows a little more detail of the kind of construction running up the hill. It is basically all granite construction, with slate tiles on the roof -- so that you can walk internally up or down, completely covered, the entire side of the mountain! All those stairs ... and there are thousands of them...

Not sure I'll ever want to make it up another flight of stairs! While we were walking, I kept thinking of the line in "Strictly Ballroom" ... NO NEW STEPS!

Love,
m