Jan 9, 10 - Aix and Peyrolles

This day took us on a trip back to Aix-en-Provence to visit some more of the historical sights.  The first are some pictures of statuary in a garden dedicated, I think, to the French revolution.  Up first we have a guy that looks like Bacchus but seems to also have Noahs ark at his feet ...

 If you are a soldier (Roman?) don't go out partying with Bacchus and then pass out.  Otherwise it is Lobotomy time for you, that is a hammer she has over her head.

 The church that we went to see in Aix is Saint - Sauveur.  This church has been constructed over many years starting in the 5th century, and being completed in the 19th.  Sounds like a government job.  The picture below is from the Baptistery, dating from the 5th century.

 Picture of the columns, and their decorations, and the stained-glass windows near the main alter.

 The pipe-organ with the sun streaming through some of the upper windows.

 Detail of one of the main stained-glass windows.

 a dog-day afternoon.

 Wednesday - no school so we head off in search of interesting historic things that the girls will find interesting.  We are only partially successful. First stop is the small village of Meyrargues.  This town boasts having the largest set of remain from a Roman era aqueduct.  What they don't have is a sign or anything around it other than a fence.  If I recall this was declared a heritage site 1922, guess it takes a while to get the sign.  The other way to look at it is, there is so much history everywhere, that if you put signs on everything, you couldn't walk.  So history is just there, in field, where it has always been, deal with it. (if you can find it)

 Down the road in Peyrolles, we went looking for a castle that belonged to King Rene.  The first thing we found was the archway and clock-tower that provides the entrance to the old-city.  The clock tower is quite interesting.  The clock is a sundial somewhat hidden under the Christmas lights, but clearly a sundial.

 Rene's castle.  It is now used as  the town hall (Hotel de Ville) and tours are available of the castle like sections (I assume somewhat more up-scale than the window where you can pay your water bill).  Unfortunately access is by appointment only.  I think we'll go back to this one, as it is very close to home base.

 In the main enclosure of the castle walls you can almost see the workmen, the horses, the filth and peasants.  Ok the carriages are now the horseless kind, but the rest is the same.

 a castle-ly looking picture.

 Churchy picture.

 Sunrise from the kitchen window.

Oppidium Entremont

Today, we went to see the oppidium Entremont.  This was the early village that the Romans wiped out prior to establishing their settlement Aquae Sextiae, at the location of present day Aix-en-Provence.

The settlement is approximately 10 acres, and has the foundations of many houses, roads, etc.

 The partially re-built outer walls of the settlement.

 the foundations of the many workshops and homes.

 Build your settlement up high on a hill so you can see your enemies coming....guess that didn't fully work out...

 Sarah, coming down the steps of the Southwest entrance.

 The walls of the various houses of the settlement.

 This is actually a clay-brick oven, we are taking a picture of "baked Rachel".

 Looks a bit like a bed-pan but this rock is about 4 feet end-to-end. It is a pressing rock, used for either pressing olives for oil, or grapes for juice....and eventually wine.

A reconstruction of what they think the houses may have looked like.

Visit to Aix-en-Provence

Saturday outing for January 7th was a visit to down-town Aix-en-Provence, about 15 minutes away.  Aix is one of the older cities in France, founded by the Romans in 123BC.  They figured this was a cool place to hang out because of the hot springs, Sarah and Rachel thought this was a cool place to hang out because of the H&M.  Times change I guess.

Yes, of course they went on it.

1st house built outside of the city walls of Aix.

Looking down rue Mirabeau the main cafe / hotel / haute fashion shopping district.

This lump is actually a moss-covered fountain, this is a hot spring fountain dating from the 1600s.

Typical view down a typical street, on a typical day, with typical weather, and here is a typographical errrror

Church steeple on the east end of rue Mirabeau. We did not open the doors and see all the people.

Famous fountain (if you live in Aix) of the 4 dauphins.

Fountain de la rotonde, three statues, representing Agriculture, Arts and Justice.  Arts faces towards Avignon, Agriculture faces towards Marseilles, and Justice looks back down the rue Mirabeau at the fountain of Roi Rene.

Back at home, time to fire up the back-yard barbeque, Toulouse sausages on the menu. 

January 4th - Out and About

Big accomplishment from yesterday was getting the girls registered at city hall to go to school.  They are registered at the oldest school in the village ... ecole Maurice Plantier, which has 115 students, a lot smaller than their school at home at 850.  School runs from 8:30 -4:30, which is longer but they get a hot lunch ...actually it sounds like the best meal they are likely to have all day - and there is no school on Wednesdays.  So no school today, lets see how long it takes to walk there...about 30 min.  This is our road ...yes somehow 2 trucks can figure out how to pass each other on this cart path!

 Looking up to the haut Venelles, I thought this was a water tower, nope its a church, and right beside is the school.

 The School through the fence.

Plaque on the front of the school

 With no school today, what should we do?  Drive to the Mediterranean of course.  This is the harbour town of Cassis, which is about a 50 minute drive from the house.  The stores were doing a booming business selling down jackets 'cause it was +12C and windy...that's our child in the sun-dress.

 Ok...if you have been to Quebec, you might think the French can't drive, well not so.  Those are Quebequois, they can't drive, they think they can...they might also think they are French...anyway...I digress, the French can PARK, they ain't bad at driving, but Holy Crap can they park!

 Ok so here we are in the south of France thinking +12C is mighty nice, and we come around a corner, and Christine says "Is that an ice rink?"...must investigate.  Looks like one, kids..check.....skates....check......helmets, check...schmaltzy tree for the holidays, check...ICE....NOPE.  That's PTFE..Teflon to you and I, and yes, the kids are falling on their derrieres just like real skating.

 And the beach at Cassis.

Next up..first day of school, bank account and other fun challenges for toddlers in the French language.

The Big Travel to France update

For the lazy reader: WE MADE IT, we are fine, the weather is great and so is the villa.

For those who want the details, read on.

A bit of a timeline approach is needed

December 29, 2011 - Our departure date to France. We left Guelph at about 2 pm to drive to Pearson and catch our first of two flights.  The first flight is British Airways, from Toronto to London.  Flight departs Toronto on the 29th at 6:30pm, and arrives in London at about 6:30am on the 30th.

The line up to drop bags, was quite long and took us about 45min to get through it, however we got a nice surprise at the end ...UPGRADE ..yup to what British Airways calls "club world", whatever you call it ...the seats recline to become beds.  We didn't tell the girls about the upgrade, until we boarded, the bad news is that they now think that this mode of travel is standard cross-Atlantic accommodation.  Sorry girls at 4x the price of regular seats...hope you enjoyed the ride.

The last Tim Hortons for quite a while...boarding lounge in Toronto.

The lie-flat bed setup we had.

 Sarah at 30,000 feet, grabbin' some zzzz's

 Can you guess where we are?

 After a quick 3hr lay-over at Heathrow, where the car-seat went missing, caught our 45min flight to Paris.  The immigration process was smooth like silk, quick look at the passport, entry stamp and done, even before we got our luggage.  We needed a bite to eat at the train station in the Charles de Gaulle airport (same terminal we landed in but about 1km from where we landed), so what better choice than meat and cheese on a baguette.

 3 hours on the TGV got us from Paris to Avignon,
Now DEC 31, 2011
 and a one night stay in a VERY small hotel.  It served its purpose and we woke up fairly rested and ready to tackle the final leg of the trip.  Eric successfully phoned the Renault dealer and had the people arrive at the hotel and take us to get the Grand Scenic that will be our vehicle for the next 6 months.  |Here it is shortly after delivery (above) and below before the luggage went in.

 AFTER Luggage:

 A drive of about 1.25 hours from Avignon got us to Venelles, where we got the keys to the Villa from the Fieldmans.  Everything seems to be just fine, and we obviously got connected to the internet.  We managed a quick shopping run for wine/meat/bread/cheese/pasta/veg in Venelles proper and returned for mid afternoon snacks.  The weather was very nice, sunny and +15C....yes that is a plus sign!!

 Sunset from the poolside, looking out towards the foothills of the Alps.

 Same location looking down on the villa (that would be the east terrace in the picture).  We had a very nice new years eve, with lamb chops, harricots vert and pasta along with a nice cote du rhones red.  The 9€ bottle is much better than the 4€ bottle.  We rang in the new year with a bottle of Champagne courtesy of the Fieldmans, and then off to bed.

 

Morning of January 1, 2012 about to take our coffee on the east terrace (in T-shirts no less)

So...what is the weather like

Latest reports are that the weather is nicer.
January mean daytime HIGH : +10, Low: +01
compare that to Thunder Bay
January mean daytime HIGH: -9, Low: -21

http://www.weather.com/weather/wxclimatology/monthly/graph/FRXX0001

Current Weather:
http://www.weather.com/weather/wxdetail/FRXX5485?dayNum=1

Where is it you are going?

Venelles, is a town (8000 ppl) 10km north of Aix-en-Provence.  See the map below:

View Aix-en-Provence in a larger map


The blue pins show some interesting things we are trying to keep track of.