Musings

Kinda drippy, so we drank coffee and pondered the universe, leaving just before the drippiness was predicted to end at noon. The large building on the left is the main building of the École Militaire complex, a military school for training officers, founded in 1750. Thought it appropriate that two Jeeps awaited a green for their left turns….

École Militaire is also a Metro station, one of those close to our habitation.

We took a train (no changes!) to the Bastille station, about a half-hour ride. When we emerged from the earth, the weather slowly clearing. This is the monument in the Place de la Bastille. Of course, the famous prison is long gone. It initially was built mostly in the late 1300s as a fort to reinforce the east side of Paris and to protect the adjacent city gate, Porte Saint-Antoine, with its drawbridges; the building was modified over subsequent centuries. Within decades, the fortress was sometimes used to hold prisoners; by the mid-1400s, it was the state prison used by the king, who also hosted dignitaries there—a multifunction complex…. Anyway, that’s an older version of the prison that became the symbol for the revolution in July 1789. By November of that year, the prison was mostly destroyed. By 1792, the area was a square honoring liberty, with a central fountain added in 1793.

The name bastille is probably rooted in bastide, a medieval term for a fortress. I don’t know if the term was attached to this fortress from the beginning, or the name came later….

Part of the ditch that fortified the Bastille is now the Bassin de l’Arsenal, mostly used by houseboats—some quite commodious. It was a commercial port until 1983. That boat on the left is named Ypie, I’m thinking the pronunciation is yippee.

We followed the lock (écluse) to the Seine and turned downstream toward the famous islands. This was in the upstream park on Île Saint-Louis. Pretty!

At the other end of the island, we lunched at a brasserie we’ve visited several times before. We discovered it was unusually jammed by many tables of rugby fans, in Paris for the national playoff (I think). Rah!

The Guru had a ham and cheese omelette with fries; I had a pork shank, roasted with homemade applesauce. I took a gamble on my dish, not even looking up jarret de port grillé before ordering. Sometimes you have to live on the wild side (even if it’s a limited wild side).

After escaping the sweat-inducing heat of the dining room, we headed on to the Île de la Cité, arriving on the “back side” of the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris. The building was once painted, and not the stained browns it is now; I have no idea what colors/patterns. I wonder if it’d be safe to assume that most of the exterior was in the cheapest colors; some paint pigments (pigments de peinture) were quite dear in older times.

We crossed a bridge and began to work our way along the south bank, periodically looking back at the stubby towers of the cathedral. Even stubby, they’re pretty darned tall! By the way, the cathedral’s bells (cloches) are named—mostly with male names, but not exclusively.

Many boats (bateaux) passing by, many large and packed with tourists either on a tour or using them as a taxi between places of interest. This one was an unusual cargo vessel, even transporting a car.

This is the third gal we’ve seen in bridal gear being photographed (bride is mariée). She looks quite happy. Behind the photo crew were several women in jewel colored gowns—emerald, royal blue—and one in black. I assume they were the bride’s attendants.

I got out the macro lens and looked at mosses that have taken up residence on the railing above the river next to the sidewalk. They are slowly breaking down the stone/concrete. Moss is mousse, which is also the word for foam on top of a latte (latté).

We made quick groc-shopping stops just before heading in for the night (tired feet! happy tourists!). This was in the window of the bakery…pain bio means organic bread.

Posted at 2:47 PM | Comments Off on Water-centric exploring

We set off for the southeast quadrant of the city—inside the walls, of course. Somewhere central to the old city, I found this gnarly garden peeking over the second-story wall. Wonder how mossy it is inside.

A bit farther, we found this looming belltower, with the “teeth” detail on the spire. If I were a better historic preservationist, I would know the real name for those zipper-teeth features.

We finally reached the street of the dyers, which has a creek running alongside it. This chapel has its own footbridge for worshippers to cross into it.

They have left a few waterwheels intact in the creek, and they slowly turn turn turn. In the walls, we could see the sockets for the axles of missing ones. Not sure what the waterwheel power was used for; the adjacent buildings are mostly residences, with a few converted(?) into offices. Nothing looks like the workplace of dyers.

We lunched at the restaurant under the curved awning around the curve in the rear-ground.

I had the veg lunch: hot leek puree soup, a quiche of onion with sweet potato chunks on top, and a salad with assorted veg, including raw bicolor beets.

From there, we went to the south city wall, crossed outside briefly, then made our way north, toward the river, staying east of the ex-pope-complex.

We crossed outside the wall, and managed to dash across several lanes of traffic (when the traffic wasn’t there), to walk along the river. I wondered how close the water was to the city walls in medieval times.

We wandered west along the water, saw a free pedestrian ferry that crosses to the island, back and forth. It doesn’t look like an island because it’s a big one. We watched the ferry get caught in the swift current, and maneuver against the river’s force.

One of the tourist spots of Avignon is this bridge stub, originally built between 1177 and 1185. It was the downstream-most bridge of the river, and I imagine toll collection was a fierce business. The bridge was destroyed and rebuilt in the 1200s, and these arches are often dated to the 1340s. The bridge was abandoned in the mid-1600s. The bridge went across the island and a second branch of the Rhône, so it was much longer than it looks here. [Note dandelions flourishing in the lawn.]

We crossed back through the wall, re-entering the old city. As near as I can tell, nowhere along the wall can tourists access the top. The walls seem narrow, but high. Now, anyway.

We took a break, then went out for a hot meal. This is my plate, sea bream with assorted veg, including yellow potatoes, purple potatoes, roasted tomatoes orange and red, roasted sweet orange pepper, fresh pea shoots and alfalfa sprouts, with a bit of tasty gravy and fresh bread.

I’ve been craving veg, and I got them today!

Posted at 3:50 PM | Comments Off on Upward views, but not only upward

We packed and cleaned up, then left our temporary home, and walked to the regional bus station. No problem getting a ticket, and not a long wait for our (fast) bus—great!

For us, the bus ride was an urban escape. We saw geological formations.

We saw row crops and farm buildings

We saw grape vines. (Duh. France.)

We spotted a rail bridge crossing a river.

And when we spotted familiar city walls, we knew we’d reached Avignon. When we were here before, we never entered the walls. That’s why Avignon is on our itinerary.

Making our way north from the bus station, we found carousel broncos…two stories!

We checked in our new housing, and found out our space is multi-level. We enter at street level, go down about a half story, enter our quarters (well, the zone we inhabit), then up one level to the living room/kitchen, up an additional half-level to the bathroom and toilet off the landing (large shower; claw-foot tub), and up another half-level to the generous bedroom/private sitting room. The main rooms look out onto the owner’s private garden, so lovely, although many of his potted plants got zapped by the cold temps a week ago. He has ancient pittosporums, if I understood him correctly. Something for me to look up!

Our next stop: food—a hot lunch. This is the Guru’s roast chicken and veg and mashed.

Off exploring we went up and up, to an elevated garden between the pope buildings and the water. Apparently it is above a huge cistern that supplied the city’s water at one time. We found gardeners busy.

We also found excellent views of the city, and beyond. The river splits upstream of Avignon. This landform is an island…look carefully in the background, center for the other branch of the river. Downstream—and the Mediterranean—is to the left.

Later, we were out and about again, and the late-day sun lit up the archives (left third) and papal palace (center and right).

We feel like we have a sense of the flavor of the city from today’s brief explorations, leaving plenty to investigate over the next two days! For now, rest!

Posted at 2:08 PM | Comments Off on Moving day

…trust I won’t be boaring boring today.

Flat dogs only?

Fountain of the brass lions.

Typical bicycle parking.

Atypical bicycle parking.

Street activities and overcast over clock tower.

Below street activities aka archaeologists in trenches.

Church dome.

Bread of life pitch.

Simple salad side, came with my moussaka.

Many of our paths in old Aix. Wiggles and irregularities mostly due to narrowness of streets combined with height of buildings.

Posted at 3:57 PM | 1 Comment »

Not much vegetation other than trees and weeds…but we did find this blooming shrub…apple relative?

Around the corner, a nice web of vines, leafless, and a juniper(?).

Found a book market, with a few browsers and very little selling/buying.

Strange look on the lion’s face…winsome?

Interesting split shutters, I theorized to keep the line of sight from below into the room truncated.

Love the dangling foot outside this pediment…don’t know the story being told. She’s got a crown with a castle atop it and he’s dumping out the wine(?) jug…perhaps harvest symbolism in wheat, sunrays, and veggie pile.

Never seen a lock like this….

Today’s hood-photo: burger night for the Guru. Burger in elegant bun with pink mayo sauce, fries, wine, and a side of salmon-avocado sushi. Of course.

Posted at 2:12 PM | Comments Off on Sunday stroll

Rainy early, so we got going late—no reason not to! As the skies cleared and the streets were still wet, we headed out for a wander, with no other destination than a meal when we became hungry.

Soon, the sun gave us light and shadow art.

And on a plaza, too.

Note the plane (sycamore-ish) trees…detest the severe pruning that makes them all knotty and knobbly.

We stumbled into this curving section of what is billed as a stretch of the medieval wall—the inside was to the right.

And, just down the way, this wall and tower, which must be from a later wall that enclosed a bit more real estate.

Note plane tree far right….

A street veg display. Most species are from France.

And, on that same corner, a lovely old sign above…. Your chemiserie destination.

Under the sign a mini-minibus waits for the bollard to descend and permit passage.

In the next block, a pawn-bollard was down. Love the paving-stone pattern.

The face fountain…I only gave you a face yesterday.

More plane trees….

On the other side of the same square, a human figure behind a pigeon screen, below a day-of-the-month device that’s way off.

Lunch break! This is my chicken breast stuffed with crayfish, sides of mashed potatoes and poêlée de champignons—which turns out to be fried/sauteed mushrooms. Yum. And a wine from this area, from a town a mere 17km from central Aix.

Full, we wandered apartment-ward, passing by this plaza undergoing rebuilding…in the process revealing the bases of old walls/foundations…apparently of the palace of the town’s count. Didn’t catch the date—17th, maybe 18th century?

After a siesta-like downtime, we headed back out to see the city under lights. Nice night!

Discovered that some plane trees are afflicted with a fungus tree types call canker (chancre coloré here), and soon will be cut down. That is a big problem in this town of many, but not exclusively, plane trees.

Yawn…tomorrow!

Posted at 2:57 PM | Comments Off on Street adventures

Under overcast skies, we boarded a train to our new temporary domicile. We got good wishes on our way out of the train station.

I seem to forget how much infrastructure it takes to serve several tracks of electrified trains.

There’s pretty much our final sea view…bye-bye, Mediterranean.

After getting settled (2nd floor, whew, last place was on 4th, pant pant), we headed out for a bite. The real restaurants are closed this time of day, so we found a bistro. I decided to try a pastis 51 beverage. Yup, fennel/licorice-y; I’m guessing it will destroy bad breath! Loved the wax mountains on the base of the candle-stick.

We must have been craving a bit of veg; we each got the chef salad, I guess you could call it. Yum! That’s parmesan, warm chicken and lardon bits. And maize kernels. Plus plus.

Happily filled, we headed out to the groc store. Found a fountain with four faces, eyes left on one, right on the next, spouts in mouths. No water at the moment, however.

Found a worker winding up his day having gotten these cobblestones set for mortar, perhaps tomorrow? We leave nearby and can check….

On our way back with our new grocery bag, not terribly loaded but with important goodies like cheese and milk (Kuerig-like coffee pods supplied in apartment), we found this charming square…somewhat more interesting than the one our apartment overlooks, but strangely nearly unused. Look at all that grass/weeds! And no benches.

Are we settling in for a quiet evening, or will we head out again after the “real” restaurants open at seven or seven-thirty? I’m giving the edge to inertia….

Posted at 12:27 PM | Comments Off on Moving “house”

We went to bed early last night, thoroughly pooped. My eyes were closed by 8pm after a longlonglong travel day. We slept and slept. We finally got up just before 11am. [Have I slept that long since I was an infant?] We were thoroughly rejuvenated (no surprise!), especially after the pot of coffee the Guru made…coffee and milk thoughtfully stocked in our apartment!

We set off to explore the harbor. Marseille’s harbor is a rectangular U with the opening to the west. We live in the old town, on the north side. There’s a fort on each side of the harbor opening. This photo is from the north fort toward the south fort. Also, the southern skyline is dominated by the Basilique Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde, high on a rocky outcrop. Although it looks older, it was built in the late mid-1800s. If you get closer or have a big lens, you can see the glinting, gilded statue of the Virgin atop the belltower.

Down at the harbor, you can see that what was once a working harbor used by fisherman, traders, and pirates navies, there’s still a bit of evidence of fishing, but mostly the harbor is full of moored pleasure boats, both sailing and motoring.

I was quite interested in these boat supports/jacks, for the endlessly necessary work on hull cleaning and maintenance.

The many docks radiating out from the wide apron around the water are all protected by gates; this one even had barbed wire. As near as we could tell, each dock was controlled by a different group, usually named a Society of Somethingorother.

Tourists did the usual lots of phone checking, pictures, music, whatever….

Oddly, I noticed no selfie-sticks. Wha? Bring a friend instead?

The base of the U has an artistic high reflective…roof(?), creating probably highly appreciated shade in the summer heat. Today, not so much. Note winter coats.

We took the obligatory close-up shots. Here’s a fine one showing complex anchor engineering.

We also took, uhem, I took many mast-reflection shots. Here’s only one, Lucky You.

We finally got around to the south end of the U, and looked back across the harbor mouth at the northern harbor-protecting fort.

Along the way, we stopped for a big seafood lunch. Big. Mine was a bowl of mixed species. I could not identify the flavors in the broth, quite tasty, but I’m pretty sure it was thickened with bread crumbs. It was served with a small bowl of grated hard cheese, and a small bowl of mustard with garlic and I don’t know what else. I wasn’t sure what to do with them, so after I’d gotten some of the shells out of the way (mmmmm), I stirred them both in. The broth was good both before and after the additions.

The Guru had moules frites, which is mussels with a side of fries. The mussels had marsala (pretty sure) and garlic (definitely) in the steaming/boiling liquid/broth; also yummmmm.

After our lovely, sun-drenched walking tour of the harbor (we missed the cross-harbor pedestrian ferry (1€ for two people), and so walked around the east end of the harbor, then cut north and west finally getting into the narrow streets of our neighborhood. There’s plenty of elevation change, and some sections are all steps.

We had such fun, and took hundreds of photos; I only include the merest sample, chosen to include the highlights—boats, buildings, sunlight. Also, see the moon!? Time to head to the bakery for some take-home quiche for tonight and pain au chocolat for breakfast. Our world is pretty darned fine.

Oops. I almost forgot to add that out our kitchen window I can see this headless Barbie on the tile roof across the street. Abandoned art, or art by abandonment?

Posted at 2:42 PM | Comments Off on Harbor day

My valentine and I are both mushroom fans. So I created this menu: big mushroom sauté, marinated baked chicken, pot of rice vaguely pilafed, radish side.

Here’s the marinade for the chicken: chopped garlic and mint, lemon zest, fresh-ground black pepper, olive oil, lemon juice, sea salt. Also spooned it over the chicken while it was baking (twice). Put the marinated chicken on halved green onions (more fussy than my usual cooking style), with a few mint leaves—both to flavor the meat from below. Added the lemon slices a third of the way through the baking.

The mushrooms…sliced, sautéed in butter with a bit of salt—oh so simple. Added some chopped garlic and a few of the cooked mushies (and salt, duh) to the rice as it cooked. Added sliced green onion tops to the rice a minute before it was ready—and let it steam for a few minutes after the fire was off. Just put the salted, halved radishes in the microwave for a bit, presto!

Happy Val-Day!

Yes, it was yummy. Yes, there are leftovers for tomorrow. Chef is smiling for two lovely reasons!

Posted at 8:37 PM | Comments Off on So French, my Valentine commented

Martini-lunch day…

…celebrating my FIL’s 92nd birthday.

Posted at 6:59 PM | Comments Off on Salud!