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
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