Olargues

The affiche notifying us of the chestnut festival was a welcome sight. What fun... there we were, watching chestnuts being roasted, buying roasted chestnuts, eating crepes made from chestnut flour, singing along with the town officials (for some reason the tunes were familiar) and watching, of all things, Eccosaise - Scottish musicians. It was an odd sight for us, in the hills of the Rouission. I've always seen chestnuts called marron in French but I learned that they are also called chataigne. We had such a good time in Olargues. There was a flea, craft, and food market going on at the same time.

Trip to the country

On the Sunday we spent with our friends in Beziers, they suggested a trip to the country side. Off we went in their little van, dog included, to the little village of Roque Brun. We saw our first live olive tree, some feral cats, and lovely views. A poster about a chestnut festival sent us off to our next stop, Olargues.

more Beziers

We'd gotten the name of a restaurant in Beziers from a Suisse guy named Jaap, at the Cite. Our friends weren't familiar with it, but on our last night in Beziers, our friend said he wanted to try this little restaurant he'd seen while parking his car in the area. And guess what? It was the restaurant Jaap recommended! And was it ever good. I missed taking a photo of the main course, which was a salmon filet wrapped around some whipped potatoes in a creme sauce. Yum!! But you can see from the salad how lovingly they plated the food. The dessert was creme catalan, which had a slightly flowery taste. We loved the decor and the atmosphere, which included, yet again, old American music playing in the kitchen while the chef worked his culinary magic.

Beziers

After NICE, we took the train to Beziers to stay with our dear friends who moved there from the U.S.of A. The city is near the Pyrenees and if the air is just right, you can see them from the top of the hill. They live in the old town, which has winding little streets and a church and a cemetery on the hill top. Pizza made a nice dinner for Chuck one night. I think I had linguine but dug in with no thoughts for a photo of it. We enjoyed walking around the old section and ventured into the other area a bit, too. It's a very nice small city with it's own little Galleries Lafayette and Monoprix. The park that leads up from the train station to the old town is filled with statues of poets and a big impressive, slightly scary satute by a famous area sculptor.

Grasse

Another of our day trips from NICE was to Grasse. This is the village where the perfumes comes from, or a lot of perfumes, or the start of perfumes, well, you get the idea. Fragonard, Molinard, etc, have factories there but we went to just walk around the village. it was empty! No quaint little galleries or shops in the old section, very little open, but then it was autumn and the flowering fields weren't flowering. We enjoyed the little streets and the views from top. We had a great lunch at a little place open for locals. The chef and a friend, and us, and some good Motown music. When we left I said--"le musique de notre jeunesse!" and he said, "oui, moi aussi." There was a public toilette that looked kind of quaint, with a somewhat rustic door, however, inside was a large room, all metal, complete with toilet, sink, mirror, hand drier, but when you exited and the door shut, the entire room got sanitized! It was totally wet when I stepped in and wondered "why is this room all wet?" On our bus ride back to NICE, a group of little children, maybe 7 years old, and their teachers got on at a stop in the country side. They'd been on a field trip and were all sweaty smelling. They were very good, spoke quietly. We were so amazed that they used public transportation rather than school buses, but then we never did see any school buses anywhere. In Paris, we'd see entire classes of children on the Metro with their teachers going on field trips. Ah, I get it. That's how those kids get so savvy about manuevering on public transport!!

more St. Paul

This studio belonged to an artist whose work was the best we'd seen in the village. We had a nice chat with her. For lunch we went into a tea shop and had "club" sandwiches, delicate white bread with thin layers of cucumbers, boursin, hard boiled egg, and the music playing was the sound track from the film Himalaya. Very peaceful. Also peaceful was the little cemetery where Chagall is buried. (at least, I think he is, I didn't walk down to check on it.) Outside the walled area of the village is a restaurant where locals play boules. The view from the ramparts above the cemetery was so beautiful. There was no way that I could capture it in my photos, rolling hillside, tile rooftops, very picturesque.

St Paul de Vence

One of our day trips from NICE, taking advantage of the 1,30 euro bus fares, was to the little village of St. Paul de Vence. Chagall, among others. worked there, and it's been transformed into a tourist destination in a major way. Lots of commercial galleries and shops are in the nooks and crannies of the winding streets. It's all cleaned up and filled with tourists from all over, though my photos somehow managed to make it look deserted. Don't know how I did that! Hah! Still, it was worth the trip. Here are some views of the ville so you can see why we liked it.