5. MARKET and CRASH day

Night BEFORE market day: we just finished eating by the river

Night BEFORE market day: Lynn in front of river and beautiful crescent moon

This is Sunday, and that means the BIG market day in Isle sur la Sorgue. The town is literally taken over by the market: vendor stalls, trucks, and supplies are everywhere, up and down almost every street in the old town, so you cannot walk anywhere without encountering shoppers, vendors, or big crowds. You can buy ANYTHING: food, clothes, soap, oil, and on the Sunday market all kinds of antiques and junk. It’s a madness that ends promptly at noon, so everyone comes early and buys fast. We bought some fantastic fresh peaches, cheese (beaufort!), melon and bananas (without Chiquita labels), so lunch was  a treat. No Cokes today, we used the wonderful white wine our landlords gave us as a welcoming present. By the time we finished lunch at our apartment, the market was shutting down. 

After lunch and relaxing from marketing, I tackled reassembling my bicycle. Lynn took some pics from our 3rd floor apartment, reminiscent of the same pics she took 3 years ago from our Dinan, FR apartment. The bike is ready  and so am I: tomorrow I’ll figure how to get out off this town and into the countryside, with ultimate destination being the nearby spring which is the source of the Sorgue River. Anyhow, after the bike was all set to go, we crashed for a nap…hey, it’s vacation! 

River Sorgue on one side of town...it flows EVERYWHERE, around and through town 

Lynn with one of the town's waterwheels

Can't get more French Market-looking than this, huh? 

Bike case opened, nothing damaged in transit

1 hour later, voila! Assembled ready-to-ride bike, with first trip set tomorrow.

We strolled the town about 8:00pm for dinner, and found a riverfront place for a pizza and salad. Lynn got to have some long conversations in French with a Belgian couple who sat near us. She’s happy folks here haven’t immediately pegged us for Americans, so has been able to practice French with a variety of people. Good trip so far!  

LINK TO all the photos we took so far, if you'd like to see more stuff:

https://picasaweb.google.com/104261232464745572476/ProvencePhotos?authuser=0&feat=directlink

4. ST. REMY DE PROVENCE, GORDES, AND ISLE SUR LA SORGUE

The trip is starting to come together great: Lynn’s planning the past 1 1/2 years was worth it! After a spectacular French breakfast at Hotel de France in Aix, in probably the prettiest dining room we’ve ever seen at any hotel, we hit the road in our rental car, bound for St. Remy de Provence. About an hour or so later we found it (well, the GPS navigation device found it!), and drove a couple of circles around the centre villa…NO PARKING spots to be found anywhere, as it was market day. People come from miles around on market day at these small towns, to get their fresh produce, meat, and all kinds of other stuff like clothes, gifts, tools, etc. Hard to describe a market day, there’s not an equivalent in the USA. Anyhow, on market day, cars are parked EVERYWHERE, almost like a hurricane had blown them into every open crack and crevice. We were getting frustrated not being able to park our car to explore…so we gave up and headed on down the road to Gordes. What a road! It was lined for miles with big ancient Plane trees, making a shady covered arch for our drive. These tree-lined roads define the perfect French roads for me.

Gordes is an incredible sight from afar: an ancient stone city sitting high on a stone precipice overlooking  the gently-rolling Provence lowlands. Spectacular site, which is up a long steep road. You have to park your car partway down the hill, and walk into town: almost no place to park up there!  It was a beautiful walk, the scenery and weather were ideal, so we climbed up and down and all over every nook and cranny we could find. We ran across a cafe where Lynn had eaten lunch with her school buddies 20+ years ago - and it still looked exactly the same. There were a fair amount of tourists walking around town…but we stumbled across the most tranquil and deserted beautifully-tended public garden at an old church/retirement home at the top of the town. What a wonderful place to relax and recharge. Then, a sidewalk cafe sandwich, and we hiked back down. There were LOTS of cyclists conquering the ride up to Gordes…I’ll keep this as a future possible destination for a day ride.

GORDES

  

Lynn with the valleys of Provence below in the distance

Finally we headed for Isle sur la Sorgue, only about 15 km. away. Beautiful drive, and we used our navigation system to guide us exactly to our rental apartment. Man, what an adventure: it is buried in a nest of narrow winding streets between old historic 3-4 story buildings, that were probably designed for donkey carts, not autos! So THIS is why Europeans drive such little cars…nothing else will fit! We made it, parked in a lucky spot a block away from the apt., and dragged our stuff inside with the landlords leading the way. Delightful people, with some limited English, so Lynn got lots of French-speaking practice  with Clair the landlady, while her husband and I talked with our hands about “le velo” (bicycles)…he’s a rider too.

They left, and we headed out the door to explore. Town center  is only a few blocks away, with an ancient church and town hall fronting a square with cafes and shops scattered all around. We got a drink at Cafe France, took in some people-watching and ambiance, then kept going. On the other side of this small island, about 5 minutes from our place, is the most beautiful little riverfront promenade you could ever imagine: restaurants, shops, cafes, etc., all with this peaceful  clear river flowing by the tables and sidewalks. We tried some Vietnamese food for supper, solely because they had the best waterside seats available. It was a good choice. We explored some more after eating, and headed home about 10 p.m. just as all the cool kids were coming out to party!

We made it to Isle sur la Sorgue, time to relax

Tomorrow is the BIG market day in this town, it’s supposed to be huge. Will let you know. 

LINK TO all the photos we took so far, if you'd like to see more stuff:

https://picasaweb.google.com/104261232464745572476/ProvencePhotos?authuser=0&feat=directlink

3. AIRPLANE, RENTAL CAR, AIX en PROVENCE

We made it to MIA airport, ditched our rental car, checked bags and hoofed it to our gate well ahead of time…had to kill 2 hours before plane departed for JFK in New York. We made it to New York, waited 3 hours for the plane to Nice, FR, then waited another 2 hours IN THE PLANE before takeoff, while they fixed an electrical problem. Bummer, except Lynn made friends with the guy sitting next to her, who talked to us through the whole 10 hour trip to Nice. He’d never flown in Coach Class before (always flown First Class), so we taught him how to handle the shabby food, lack of amenities, and non-reclining sleeping technique! Turns out the guy is a Lord of some part of Scotland, which he earned by buying a large parcel of land there. Ex-polo player, car racer, athlete and bon vivant…interesting trip companion!

We made it to Nice, which was nice…get it? (Thanks Art for that one)   An unexpected nice thing happened at the airport: we got a surprise upgrade on our rental car, courtesy of our French friend who owns the franchise there. We’re driving a Citroen C4, roughly the same size and performance as a Ford Focus…which is a big car over here. It has an automatic transmission, a real rarity among rentals here. We drove down the A8 along the Mediterranean coast, then headed inland to Aix en Provence for Friday night. We were ready for a nap, been traveling about 30 hours, so wonderful time and place for a break.

Lynn studied French at a university in Aix en Provence for a month or so,  about 20 years ago, so she knows her way around the town a bit. However, neither of us had ever driven a car there, and that was a fun experience! Our hotel is jammed into an alley-sized road lined on all sides by bistros, bars, cafes, and restaurants. No parking; we were farmed out to an underground facility a few blocks away. Good thing the car wasn't any larger, it was a close fit into the garage and the parking spaces.

 A short nap, a shower, and change of clothes = renewed energy and drive. We headed out to walk Lynn’s old favorite streets and find a place to have a drink, eat some food and do some serious people watching. The best street was Cour Mirabeau, where we also found a perfect sidewalk cafe, beer, wine, and good food. These things were apparent: SHORT Daisy Duke shorts are really popular for young ladies here, jeans are OK too, and people are generally a little more colorful here than Brittany or Paris. We made a night of it, then walked all over the streets around our hotel, teeming with college students and tourists.  This is the way to go, lots of walking to really get the feel of the place, and to work off the food and drink! 

Tomorrow we head for our “home” in Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, with some exploring on the way. Will let you know how that works out. Thanks for reading along. 

Place DeGaulle Aix en Provence

our Hotel de France - right in the middle of the old town

Hotel is just to the right of Lynn - street full of party and students

Lynn at carousel on Cours Mirabeau

Cours Mirabeau at dusk

Cors Mirabeau after people watching for an hour or so

2. PACKING; HEAD OUT THE DOOR

Well, everything is done here in Florida; we’re packed, prepared, and ready to GO. So we did. We decided to drive down to Miami International Airport in a rental car, rather than take the TriRail train,  and it worked out GREAT! There are beautiful, spacious, clean new rental car return facilities at MIA. We dumped the car and caught a shuttle train to the Miami airport with hardly any delay. As long as we can get cheap car rentals, this is a good way to go.

We’re hanging at a QUIZNO’s sub shop next to our gate, waiting for our plane to New York. Not too much travel gear here with us. I’m always proud of the way Lynn packs: MINIMALIST!  We have one regular-size suitcase and my bicycle-in-a-suitcase which we checked through to Nice, FR. Each of us has a small carry-on bag, and I have my computer, electronics and books in a small backpack. For us, the perfect trip is where we use everything single item we packed, and bring nothing back that wasn’t needed. We learned years ago that taking LESS stuff is the way to go! If we forgot something, we can buy it or do without. This will be all we need for a 30 day trip.

Some of my bike buddies have never seen my bike torn down and packed in a suitcase. I’ll include some pics of the packing process here for them. Basically, I unscrew the two frame couplers, which allows the frame to come apart (the couplers were the expensive part of the conversion of my titanium frame bike to a suitcase bike). Then, I take off the brake calipers, unscrew the shift cable couplers, remove the wheels, the handlebar and seat post. Next step: wrap each component with the padded nylon protection sleeves, then CAREFULLY pack each bike component into the suitcase. You can’t hurry this in my experience…each piece has to be finessed into the right spot so the case will close without damaging anything! The most fun is packing the wheels. They both fit perfectly, without even 1/8” to spare, after the tires are deflated. After all parts are in place, I packed my bike clothes and shoes, water bottles, tools and spare tubes into all the small empty spaces. Then, close and lock the case. It’s the maximum size suitcase the airlines will allow. We checked in with no problems!

Enough about my bike. Lynn is reading up on Rick Steve’s (our favorite travel author) Provence recommendations, and making sure we have lots of books loaded onto the Kindle. Flying time for us the rest of today and tonight. We’ll be in Nice tomorrow, about 11:00 a.m. their time. More later! 

1. FIRST POST, PRE-TRIP

Mont Ventoux, visible all over Provence. We WILL go to the top this trip! 

We are finishing our plans, and packing for our trip to Provence in the south of France, beginning August 28, 2014. Part of the plan is setting up this blog page, for anyone who is interested in our trip. Let's see if I can remember how to post a picture...

Itinerary is pretty simple: fly into Nice, FR, rent a car and drive to Aix-en-Provence for the first night, then on to our apartment rental in  L'Isle-Sur-la-Sorgue the next day. We will stay in that town for three weeks, and explore all over Provence by foot, car, train, bus, and bicycle. No firm plans or schedules. I WILL ride my bike up the "Giant of Provence": Mont Ventoux, a famous grueling mountain climb often used in the Tour de France. There are hundreds of miles of other fantastic cycling opportunities in this region, so I can't wait to check them out. Lynn is excited that we are staying in the antiques capital of France, and that she kind of knows this area already. She spent a whole summer in Aix about 20 years ago, studying with a college group. That background should give us some good ideas for exploring once we get situated in L'Isle-Sur-la-Sorgue.  The most fun part of traveling for us is to just show up, and see what happens. We'll let you know how this works out!

P.S. See the tower at the tip-top of the mountain at the top of the page? That's the top of Mt. Ventoux!