But Where’s the Crème Brûlée?

With our trip now completed, here are a few random observations on our experience in Provence and the French Riviera.

--There seem to be many more chiens (dogs) in France than chats (cats). People bring their dogs with them everywhere, including to restaurants. We did have a “shop cat” in our hotel at Avignon; it often slept on one of the sofas across from the registration desk. It was jet-black and so was the sofa, so it was always a good idea to look before you sat down.

--People wondered if we’d get to see Provence’s famous lavender fields in bloom. As it turns out, that doesn’t happen until late June. We did see some pretty impressive fields of poppies, though.

--Our trip director from Alumni Holidays, Fred Burke, was endlessly helpful to the travelers, and a fascinating guy to boot. Born in the U.S., he has worked all over the world, and now lives in Normandy with his French-born wife. He taught himself French and is now fluent in it. He also worked on the production of the movie Winged Migration, helping to raise and train some of the birds used in the film.

--A good expression to know in France is a simple one: “C’est bon,” meaning “It’s good.” Whenever we’d re-board the bus after a photo stop, for example, Fred would count heads and then call up to the driver, “C’est bon!” -- and off we’d go.

--For those of us who remember almost none of their high school French, another useful expression is “Où est…” -- pronounced “oo-ay” -- which means “Where is…?” We also quickly caught onto the fact that a “boulangerie” is a bakery, of which there are many in France. And if you need a beer, that’s “bière.”

--The phrase I said more than any other on the trip was, “Un verre de Coca Light avec des glaçons, s’il vous plait”: A glass of Coke Light with ice cubes, please.

--Fred would post the meal menus for the day on an easel near the hotel’s front desk, and a hobby for many of us was trying to decipher the French so we could figure out what’s for dinner. The main course one night, for example, was “joue de loup et son tajine de legumes au miel.” Anybody? Anybody?

--We ate many of the foods you might expect on a trip to France: Croissants were omnipresent at the breakfast buffet, and French bread was served at every single meal. Main courses featured fish, poultry, or occasionally lamb or veal. Wine was served not only at dinner, but at lunch too.

--We had French fries once.

--Several of the travelers had a hankering for bouillabaisse, which apparently has its origins in Marseille. As for me, I kept waiting for the crème brûlée. Alas, no bouillabaisse or crème brûlée ever materialized. Next trip!

--The French presidential election was a common topic of conversation on the tour bus. Fred told us that if you ask his daughter, who is 3, who won the election, she will declare, “Nicolas Sarkozy is the President of the Republic!”

--A piece of trivia: Pablo Picasso often gambled at the casino at Monte Carlo.

--Everyone got home safe and sound, albeit a little tired from our 12 days of adventures. We all have pictures to show off, stories to tell, and dreams of going back there someday. C’est bon.

Photos

In France, lots of people bring their dog to lunch or dinner with them.

With the French presidential election taking place on May 6, political signs for the two candidates could be found everywhere.

Fred Burke, our travel director from Alumni Holidays, handled all of the trip logistics and was on top of every detail.

Our meals and desserts were always artfully presented.

Perfume Lessons in Grasse

The abundance of flowers in Provence -- especially in the area around Grasse -- led to its development as a perfume center several centuries ago. In the Middle Ages the town of Grasse was centered on leather-tanning, but that process made the town pretty stinky. Catherine de Medici gets credit for coming up with the solution -- de Medici, who came to France from Italy in the 1500s to marry Henry II, got the idea to perfume leather gloves to cover up the smell. A perfume industry eventually developed, and it remained long after the leather industry faded away.

Our group visited one of the three major perfumeries in Grasse: Fragonard, which has been around since 1926. We learned that although the flowers for the Grasse perfume factories once came from the surrounding countryside (lavender, for example, is especially big in Provence), nowadays development has eaten up that countryside, and today it’s cheaper to import the flowers from Egypt, India, and other countries. The job of the perfumeries in Grasse is to process the blossoms here and extract the essence, or what they call the “absolut.” It takes on ton of flowers to get a about a quart of absolut. Each perfumery has a head honcho who creates the perfumes and has an especially well-cultivated sense of smell; he or she is called “the nose.”

At Fragonard we attended a class where we sniffed little sticks scented with perfumes, trying to name the components. We learned that perfumes are classified into categories like woody, oriental, spicy, flowery, and so on. We also learned (or tried to learn) to distinguish a perfume’s “top,” “middle,” and “base” notes. Top notes are scents like citrus and fresh-cut grass; middle notes evoke flowers and spices; and bass notes include amber and wood. It felt a little like the wine tasting of a week earlier: The instructor described Shalimar, for example, as “vanilla with a powdery note.”

One of the Penn Staters, Marilynne Stout, proved to be especially good at picking up on all of these nuances, so we took to calling her “the nose.”

After our tour of the factory -- and some time in the gift shop -- the Penn Staters in the group had a very special treat. A bus took us to the town of Valbonne, where a Penn State alumna and her husband hosted a reception for us at their home. Aimee Rusinko Kakos ’69 H&HD and husband Michael Kakos live in the U.S. most of the year but have a summer home in the south of France, and when they heard that a Penn State tour group would be in the area, they offered to have the travelers over for wine and snacks. It was a lovely late-afternoon gathering, and the alumni from Cornell (the other school represented on this trip) were a little envious of our bonus excursion. Later, many of the Penn State travelers said that the Kakos’ generosity and the chance to meet Penn Staters living in France was one of the highlights of the trip.

Tomorrow we’ll spend a day in Nice, visiting the Chagall Museum and a picturesque Russian Orthodox church, and taking in the beauty of the Mediterranean. I’ll write about Nice next.

Photos

Members of our group took in a class on perfume-making at the Fragonard perfumery in Grasse.

The Penn Staters learned how to distinguish the various components of perfumes during their visit to the Fragonard perfumery.

A tile painting at the Parfumerie Fragonard in Grasse captures the long tradition of perfume-making.

A special treat on the trip was a reception at the home of Penn State alumna Aimee Kakos and her husband, Michael (at right), who own a summer home in Valbonne, not far from Nice.

The Penn State travelers posed for a group shot at the Kakos home. Standing in the front row, from left: Jerry and Joady Gorelick, Pat Levin, Dot Kracht, Marilynne Stout, Jackie and Jerry Grossman. Second row: Jan Meyer, Alvin Levin, Aimee Kakos, Bob and Donna Nicely. Back row: Michael Kakos, Bill Kracht, Ned and Relda Newlin. Seated in front: Tina Hay.

Wandering the Outdoor Markets in Isle-Sur-La-Sorgue

Among the charms of Provence are the local products -- from fabrics to foods -- and a good place to see them all on display is the town of Isle-Sur-La-Sorgue. As its name might suggest, it’s on the Sorgue River, and the town center is surrounded by canals, leading to its reputation as “The Venice of Provence.” On Sundays the town is dominated by an open-air market, where we had an opportunity to browse, take photos of, and in some cases purchase, the local products.

Isle-Sur-La-Sorgue is about a half-hour bus ride from our hotel in Avignon, and on the ride we learned about the town’s history. It was one of three towns in Provence that were owned by the Catholic Church in the 14th century, when the papacy was based in Avignon instead of Rome. Long ago, Isle-Sur-La-Sorgue had about 70 wooden water wheels, used for wool, silk, and paper making. Nine of the original water wheels are still there. The town also has a 17th-century church, the Notre-Dame-des-Anges, which was designed in the Baroque style and which has 222 representations of angels throughout.

On the way to Isle-Sur-La-Sorgue we passed through the village of Le Thor, where American Pierre Salinger made his home in his later years. Salinger, you may remember, was White House press secretary under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, and later was a correspondent for ABC News. His mother was French, and Salinger lived in France several times during his life; in 2000 he moved to Le Thor, and for the next several years he was a popular news analyst on French TV. He died here in 2004, and the village now has a museum in his honor.

Farther down the road is Luberon, the home of Peter Mayle, the British-born author who wrote the bestseller A Year in Provence, along with A Good Year and a number of other books. There was a time when tour buses would regularly go out of their way to go past his house, but he didn’t appreciate that, as you can imagine. So now the buses stay away.

In Isle-Sur-La-Sorgue itself, after visiting the church, the Penn State travelers wandered the outdoor markets. You could do your grocery shopping here, if only taking it back in your luggage wouldn’t be so messy: Strawberries are in season, as are radishes and white asparagus, all artfully presented in photogenic displays. There also are stands displaying olives, sausages, fish, cheeses, melons, and Clementine oranges, among other foods. Sachets of lavender are everywhere, as are antiques, pottery, colorful fabrics, and fragrant and colorful soaps. A few of the Penn State travelers bought olive oils or tapenades to take home as gifts; others bought posters, art prints, or postcards.

In the afternoon we’ll have some free time in Avignon -- our last day here -- and then after that we travel to Nice, along the French Riviera, where we’ll be based for the last five days of the trip. On the way to Nice we’ll visit the town of Aix-en-Provence, which will be the subject of my next post.

Photos

Penn State traveler Jan Meyer checks out the soaps for sale at the market in Isle-Sur-La-Sorgue. The most common soap by far in Provence is lavender, but there's also cannelle orange ("cannelle" is the French word for cinnamon), lemon, almond, verbena, rose, and many others.

In the town of Isle-Sur-La-Sorgue, in Provence, a weekly market draws people shopping for everything from antiques to textiles to food. This particular stand was one of several offering fresh olives for sale.

Colorful pottery is everywhere in Provence, as evidenced by this stand at the market in Isle-Sur-La-Sorgue.

A floral shop in the lovely town of Isle-Sur-La-Sorgue.

In Provence, the Romans Were Everywhere

One of the best-preserved Roman theatres anywhere in Europe is in the town of Orange, in the Provence region of France. Orange was a Roman colony in the first century B.C., around the height of the Roman empire, and a huge piece of evidence of that is the amphitheatre, called Theatre d’Orange. It’s one of several UNESCO World Heritage Sites we have visited on this Penn State Alumni Association trip. The amphitheatre is huge -- the stage and the stone wall behind it are both enormous -- and, in case you have any doubts about the origins of the place, the wall includes a bust of Augustus Caesar. The fact that the wall has lasted 2,000 years is pretty amazing. The theatre is still used today -- there’s an opera festival there every summer, among other events.

Also in Orange is an Arc de Triomphe, or triumphal arch, which the Romans built over a five-year period, from 22 to 27 A.D. (I would love to know how historians can narrow such things down to the exact year.) The arch commemorates the conquering of Gaul about 100 years earlier; the Romans had a way of erecting huge monuments to let you know exactly who was in control. The arch is ornately decorated with images reflecting war themes. Today it’s in the middle of a traffic roundabout or rotary, so as you admire it, the cars and motor scooters are whizzing by all around you.

An ancient Roman necropolis, or cemetery, has also been found near Orange.

After we visited Orange, we paid a visit to another UNESCO World Heritage site, and one of France’s top five tourist sites: Pont du Gard. By now I have figured out that “pont” means bridge, and sure enough, Pont du Gard is so named because it serves as a bridge over the river Gardon. Pont du Gard was an aqueduct, originally 30 miles long, and was designed to channel water from springs in the mountains to the town of Nimes, where it provided water to fountains, public baths, and even houses. The Romans were unbelievably advanced -- historians and engineers marvel today at the fact that some houses in ancient Rome had running water, considering that it wouldn’t be until the 19th century, almost 2,000 years later, before other societies would figure out how to do that.

Coming up in the next dispatch: Wandering the markets of the lovely town of Isle-sur-la-Sorgue.

Photos

This immense and extremely well-preserved theatre in the town of Orange is still used today, for concerts ranging from opera to rock.

This museum is across from Theatre Antique d’Orange, the ancient Roman theatre in the town of Orange. We didn’t visit the museum, but it was so beautiful we couldn’t help taking pictures of it.

One of the most visited sites in the south of France is the ancient Roman aqueduct Pont du Gard; Built 2,000 years ago, it represented extremely advanced engineering know-how and once extended 30 miles.

Penn State travelers Jerry and Jackie Grossman at the ancient Roman Arc de Triomphe in Orange, France.

Penn Staters Jerry and Joady Gorelick at Pont du Gard, an ancient Roman aqueduct over the Gardon River. Two thousand years ago it supplied water to the town of Nimes; today it's a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Arles: Land of the Romans—and Van Gogh

The Romans established quite a few colonies in the south of France during the first century B.C., and there’s plenty of evidence still available today to prove it. Lots of well-preserved Roman ruins have been found throughout Provence: temples, theatres, amphitheatres, public baths, triumphal arches, an aqueduct, and necropolises (cemeteries). They’re constantly finding Roman ruins throughout Provence, even today.

One ancient Roman colony, originally known as Arelate, eventually became the modern-day town of Arles. Even as a Roman settlement 2,000 years ago, it was sizeable: 25,000 people lived here.

More recently, Arles (which I’ve heard pronounced as either “Arl” or “Ar-leh”) is known as the place where Vincent Van Gogh spent a year of his life and painted about 200 paintings. He spent another year of his life not far from here in St-Rémy—more about that later. Our group of Penn State travelers saw the site that inspired his painting “The Yellow House” (1888), but the yellow house itself is no longer standing; that’s because it was in an area that was bombed in World War II—specifically June 1944, during the liberation of Arles.

We also saw the very café that Van Gogh painted in “Café at Night, Place du Forum, Arles” (1888)—it’s still standing. And we saw the hospital/sanitorium where he spent some time after he cut off part of his ear. He didn’t stop painting while hospitalized; in fact, two of his paintings from this period were “The Garden of the Arles Sanitorium” and “Hospital Room at Arles.”

Also in Arles, we saw a 12th century church called Eglise St-Trophime, named for the man who was the first bishop of Arles. The church is one of several UNESCO World Heritage Sites that the Penn State travelers have visited. The church is known for its collection of religious relics, which at one time supposedly included a portion of the skull of St. Stephen.

Arles has several impressive Roman ruins, including an outdoor theatre that dates to the first century B.C. and that held 10,000 spectators in its day. Better yet is the amphitheatre, which was modeled after the Roman coliseum and which seated 25,000 spectators for gladiator fights. It’s almost entirely intact today, which is pretty amazing. Our trip director from Alumni Holidays, Fred Burke, pointed out how its design is essentially identical to our modern-day stadiums; the approach hasn’t changed much in 2,000 years.

The amphitheatre has been used off and on over those 2,000 years, including throughout medieval times and in the 17th century. Today it’s still used on occasion for bullfights—not the Spanish kind, called corridas, but a local version called Camargue games, where the bull isn’;t killed. Instead the bulls have various trinkets dangling from their horns, and the toreadors have to retrieve the trinkets without getting gored.

Day 3 of the Penn State trip also includes a visit to the “perched village” of Les Baux and a stop at a second hospital where Vincent Van Gogh spent a year, near St-Rémy. More on those excursions in future dispatches.

Photos

This archway is on a 12th century church called Eglise St-Trophime. It’s named for the man who was the first bishop of Arles. The church is one of several UNESCO World Heritage Site the Penn State travelers have visited.

A resident of Arles has decorated her windows in a rather entertaining way.

This hotel entrance in Arles is typical of the charm of Provence.

A climb to the top of the ancient Roman amphitheatre in Arles rewards visitors with this view of the city.

The group’s guide shows the Penn State travelers the cafe in Arles where Van Gogh painted “Cafe du Soir.” In the 15 months he lived in Arles, Van Gogh did 300 paintings, but interestingly, the town has none of them today—they're all in museums and private collections elsewhere around the world.

The ancient Roman arena in Arles, Les Arenes, seated 20,000 people when it was built for gladiator fights 2,000 years ago.

Exploring Avignon

On our second day in Provence, our group of Penn State travelers learned about the time when the popes were based in Avignon, not Rome. There was a period starting in the early 14th century when the Catholic church, wanting to escape the unrest in Italy and set up camp here in Avignon. As a result, there were seven straight French-born popes, with names like Gregoire XI, Clement V, Jean XXII, Benoit XII (the French version of the name Benedict), and Urbain V.

Actually, some would say there were actually nine French popes. In the late 14th century, the Vatican moved its base of operations back to Rome and an Italian-born pope was elected, but the French were still electing French popes, so they had had dueling popes for a while. That’s what you call a schism. So the last two French popes are sometimes called "anti-popes" or "schismatic popes."

The result of the popes’ presence in Avignon is a massive and wondrous palace called “Palais des Papes, or Palace of the Popes, which is a five-minute walk from our hotel. We toured it yesterday, checking out its immense rooms, its original 14th-century wall paintings, and beautiful tiles.

We also learned more about the famed Pont d’Avignon bridge, which got its start in 1177. Legend has it that the idea started with a shepherd boy named Bénézet: Supposedly an angel came to him and told him to build the bridge, which spans the Rhône River. There’s a two-story chapel on the bridge; St-Bénézet is buried in the lower chapel. The upper chapel is named for Saint Nicholas, the patron saint of Rhône river bargemen. (Who knew that bargemen had a patron saint?)

We took a tram tour of old-town Avignon, through the grounds of the palace, through the main square—called the Place de l’Horlogue after the clock tower above the town hall, and through the narrow streets that are lined with upscale boutiques. A very charismatic town. It would be even more picturesque if the sun would only come out! We’ve been experiencing all-day rains, but we’re told that the weather is expected to improve on the day that we leave.

Today’s cool French phrase is the word for appetizers or finger food: amuse-bouches. Literally translated, it means “fun for your mouth.”

Tomorrow we’re off to the town of Arles, where Van Gogh spent two years and did many of his paintings, as well as the “perched village” of Les Baux.

Photos

The 14th-century Palais des Papes served as the home for nine French-born popes during the time that Avignon served as the world headquarters of the Catholic Church.

Many buildings in Provence are colorfully decorated, including this one, whose painted windows advertise a festival in Avignon.

This fanciful balcony sculpture features a man and a woman who seem to be heckling the tourists on the street below. It’s in Place de l’Horloge, the town center of Avignon.

Most of the cars in France are on the small side—in part because Europeans tend to make gas mileage a higher priority than we do, and in part because the streets are too narrow to accommodate larger cars. This Smart Car is common in Europe and will be introduced to the U.S. in 2008.

The best view of the famed bridge Pont d'Avignon is from a windy overlook on the grounds of the Palace of the Popes. The bridge once had 22 arches, extending over the Rhône River, over the island on the right-hand side of the photo, and over another branch of the Rhone not shown here. Today just four arches remain.

Visitors can stroll on the Pont d’Avignon and walk right up to the point where the bridge abruptly ends.

Bonjour from Avignon

Greetings from Avignon, France, where many of us Penn State travelers are wishing we had paid a little more attention in high-school French class. My entire French vocabulary consists of “bonjour,” “merci,” and “crème brulée.” That might not be quite enough to get me through the next 10 days.

We’re just beginning an Alumni Association-sponsored tour of southern France—the first half in Provence and the second half along the French Riviera, also known as the Côte d’Azur. Our home for the first half is Avignon, where our hotel is tucked just inside the walls of the “old city.” One of Avignon’s claims to fame is that, during the 14th century, it was the capital of Christianity. That’s when the Vatican moved its base of operations to Avignon and a series of seven popes ruled the church from the “Palais des Papes,” a massive palace just 50 yards or so from our hotel. We’ll visit that later today, so I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow.

Also just a short walk from our hotel is the famous 13th-century bridge Pont d’Avignon, sometimes called Pont St-Benezet. It spans—or used to span—the Rhône River. I say “used to” because floods have damaged the bridge over the years, and now the bridge goes only partway across the water. Luckily it was abandoned in the 17th century, or else that drop-off could be quite a surprise to an unsuspecting motorist.

The bridge is the subject of a nursery rhyme that is famous the world over:

Sur le pont d'Avignon
On y danse, on y danse
Sur le pont d'Avignon
On y danse tout en rond.

I mentioned that we’re in the old city. There is a lengthy stone wall that encloses that part of Avignon, and it has several stone arches that serve as gates into it. It sounds quaint, and it is, but in reality cars and buses can drive into the old city through the arches, and inside, it’s a mix of old and new, with stone buildings from medieval times sharing space with cafés, department stores, souvenir shops, even a McDonald’s.

Next on the agenda for us: a talk by our local guide on the popes of Avignon, a visit to the Palace of the Popes, and a lunch cruise on the Rhône River.

Photos

Nice-looking bridge, huh? Except there’s a little problem with it. See the next photo!

This is the famed Pont d’Avignon bridge—or what’s left of it. Originally built in the 12th century, destroyed during one of the Crusades in the 13th century, rebuilt, and then heavily damaged by floods in the 17th century. It’s on the Rhône River in Avignon, France. The structure on the right-hand side is a chapel.

One of the many charismatic old buildings in Avignon, this building is still an active theatre.

The Provence region is famous for its fragrances. Later in the trip we’ll visit Grasse, a major site in the perfume industry. Most likely we’ll have plenty of opportunities to buy soaps like these.