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