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The True Van Gogh Country

Lisa / July 23, 2009 / Concerts, France, Miscellany, Travel

For our third wedding anniversary, we decided to spend the day immersed in Van Gogh. We set out for Arles and St. Remy de Provence, the former being the place where he lived and shared an apartment with Gaugin before famously losing his ear, and the second being the site of the mental hospital where he spent a very productive year after the incident in Arles. Arles and St. Remy are the places where most of his best-known and most beloved works were painted. Van Gogh painted 187 paintings while in Arles and 142 paintings in the year he was at St. Remy.

We went first to St. Remy to visit the sanitarium at St. Paul de Mausole, which is just outside the center of St. Remy and is still a mental institution, now known as the Van Gogh Institute. Here in a separate part of the complex they have kept and preserved Van Gogh’s room as it was when he stayed here. They have hanging on the walls several of Van Gogh’s letters written to his brother Theo describing his surroundings. Judging from his writings, it actually seems he was very happy there.

View from Van Gogh's bedroom - at least as it looks today

Out in the gardens - now you can see why sunflowers were the subject of so many of his paintings!

Outside of the building that holds Van Gogh’s room are the gardens hung with blown up reproductions of Van Gogh’s paintings created at St. Remy, hung in the spots where they were created. For those who love Van Gogh’s work, as we do, it is almost a sacred experience. Ostensibly his most famous painting (and my personal favorite), Starry Night, was painted at St. Remy.

One of the many paintings he did in the gardens at St. Remy

My favorite self portrait - done while at St. Remy

Once he left St. Remy, he went to live just outside of Paris, near a doctor who was treating him, where he then shot himself in the chest in a field. The initial shot didn’t kill him – he wandered back to the auberge where he was staying and died two days later in his brother Theo’s arms. His last words to his beloved brother were “La tristesse durera toujours” – “The sadness will last forever”. In a sad footnote, Theo, his closest confidant and friend in life, died of what one can only describe as heartbreak six months later. They are now buried side by side just outside of Paris. Van Gogh did not even begin his career as an artist until he was 27. He was 37 years old when he died. Imagine what he could have done had he lived a full life.

We followed up St. Remy with a visit to Arles, where Van Gogh lived with Paul Gaugin and painted many of his best-known works. At the tourist office they have mapped a ‘Van Gogh Route’ that you can follow to visit all of the spots frequented or made famous by Van Gogh. Unfortunately the house he lived in, Maison Jaune or Yellow House, was destroyed during World War II.

We also visited the Roman coliseum at Arles, built in during the first century. Unfortunately we could not go inside as they were busy holding a bullfight, which they do every Wednesday during the month of July. It was not a tempting activity for us.

La Cafe de la Nuit in Arles - subject of some of Van Gogh's paintings

Part of the remains of an old Roman bridge in Arles

We returned back to the town of St. Remy for dinner, stopping to visit the birthplace of Nostradamus while we wandered the streets looking for a restaurant.

This little guy left the bar where he was spending his evening to come and say hello to Larry. He then returned to his post and assumed his seat. Hilarious.

Vaison la Romaine; Seat of the Papacy

Lisa / July 22, 2009 / France, Travel

We began a recent Tuesday morning with a trip to the north to nearby Vaison-la-Romaine to attend its weekly market and check out the many Roman ruins present in that city. Vaison-la-Romaine’s weekly market is second in size only to Carpentras, where we are staying.

Towns always get very crowded on market days

At the fish monger stand. That sure looks like a shark to me.

You can get some idea from this just how vast these ruins are.

I'm sure this guy has some stories to tell

Though we had been in and around Avignon in the car many times when we went to church or were on our way to other spots, we had yet to stop and visit the city and the Palais des Papes. We spent a sweltering afternoon walking through the crowded streets of Avignon (especially crowded due to the annual Avignon theater festival which takes place during the month of July) and walking in the steps of the Popes of the 14th century. The Palais des Papes is a considered one of the most important medieval Gothic buildings in existence. Unfortunately once the Popes abandoned Avignon and returned to Rome, it was poorly kept and then completely ransacked during the French Revolution. Still, it is an impressive, massive building.

Another view of the outside from one of the towers

The annual theatre festival brought a lot of visitors and street performers to the city.

Every lamp post and street corner was covered with posters

Performers trying to drum up publicity for their show

We even caught a view of the famed Pont d’Avignon on our way into town. We meant to go back after the Palace of the Popes but by then we were too hot and tired.

Paris of the South and Tchaikovsky in a Roman Theatre

Lisa / July 20, 2009 / France, Travel

We found a good excuse to explore Aix-en-Provence, about an hour away from us, one day when we discovered that the only English-language Harry Potter showing was in Aix. We had been meaning to go and here was the perfect excuse. It is a fairly large city (population ~140,000) closer to the coast, near Marseille, and has the reputation of being the Paris of the South, both for its sophistication and its beauty.

We spent our entire time in the old town, which is as beautiful as expected. There is a main tree-lined street full of restaurants and businesses, Cours Mirabeau. It is a beautiful street bordered on one end by open-air markets selling books, CD’s, DVD’s and other trinkets, a beautiful traditional carousel, and carts selling “un vrai hot dog de New York”. (We tried one just to test their marketing claim – not a bad approximation of a New York food cart hot dog. Not Gray’s Papaya, to be sure, but not bad). The street is laid with small stones and punctuated at every intersection with a moss-covered fountain. One side of the street (the shady side) is full of restaurants and cafes with large sidewalk terraces – the other is full of businesses and stores. We had a great time exploring that street and other back streets and squares within the city before heading to our movie.

Fountain at one end of the Cours Mirabeau

Paul Cezanne spent much of his life at Aix

A few days later, we decided to head about 1/2 hour north to the city or Orange, most famous for its Roman ruins, including a spectacular open air theatre dating from before the birth of Christ. It is considered the best-preserved Roman antiquity in Europe, and is the only Roman theatre to retain its original 12-foot statue of Caesar Augustus. It boasts a complete stage wall with seats built into the side of the hill – holding 7,000 spectators. Orange also has a famed arc de triomphe dating from about 25 A.D.

We first spent some time up on a hill overlooking the city, just above the Roman theatre.

Looking down on the Roman theatre at Oranges

Locals dancing at a restaurant on top of the hill

We noticed that they were preparing for an orchestral concert – like many cities in Europe in the summertime, Orange has its own music festival called the Chorégies. The Chorégies have been celebrated each summer for over 100 years. We drove back down the hill and parked the car to find dinner, but decided to walk by the theatre to see if we could find out something about the concert. We were called to from across the street by an usher who offered us free tickets to the orchestral concert inside. Apparently they had empty seats and wanted to fill them. It wasn’t a tough decision to endure our empty stomachs for a couple more hours so that we could listen to beautiful music in such a setting. Because nearly the entire stage wall of the theatre is still in tact, the acoustics are impeccable. One can hear whispering on the stage from even the highest seats in the house. The concert started with a beautiful piece by Tchaikovsky with some incredible violin solos, followed by Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique.

We finished the night with dinner at a bistro across the street from the theatre. The arc de triomphe would have to wait for another visit.

Lavender Valley, Lacoste, and the Marquis

Lisa / July 18, 2009 / France, Travel

Larry and I spent more time exploring the Luberon region the past couple of weeks. Last week our excursion got off to a late start due to our car being towed on account of the traveling carnival for Bastille Day (see Larry’s Bastille Day post). I will say this – the local Carpentras police were very kind and helpful, even giving us a ride to the impound lot so we could pay out the nose to spring our little Pierre (that’s his name) from prison. They even chased us down as we were leaving the local supermarket the next day to tell us that Larry left his international drivers license at the station.

We had decided to take the scenic (and very windy) route up through the Luberon mountain range on our way to check out some of the other Luberon region towns and track down a couple of the filming locations for A Good Year just for kicks, since we both love that movie. It’s a good thing both of us have stomachs of steel because if you are prone to car sickness, this is not the route for you. Especially with Larry driving.

Interesting rock formations along the road

While up in the mountains we saw one of the easily recognized historical marker signs, this one labeled “Abbaye Notre Dame de Sénanque”. While neither of us had heard of it, we decided to follow the road to see where it led. This is what I love about our travel style: we do a lot of research but don’t overdo it or don’t overschedule, we’re curious and spontaneous, and we end up discovering little treasures that we may not have otherwise found.

The Abbaye is a 12th century abbey surrounded by lavender fields, nestled in an isolated valley between mountain peaks. We were both thrilled with the sight. Unfortunately because of our aforesaid late start, the valley was already in shadow. We vowed to come back another day, earlier in the day, to check it out and get some proper pictures.

We continued down the road to the outskirts of Bonnieux to Chateau La Canorgue, the vineyard where the majority of A Good Year was filmed. Unfortunately the chateau used as the main house in the movie is behind a locked gate and you can’t really get a good view. So – we moved on to Gordes, another beautiful hilltop town and another filming location (location of Fanny Chenal’s bistro, for those of you who have seen the movie).

After driving through there, we drove on through Rousillon, Menerbes, then on to Lacoste where we discovered a haunting and beautiful ruined castle at the top of the mountain. We got out and hiked around a bit, before we noticed a strange modern sculpture of a head enclosed in a cage, surrounded by oversized arms and hands. The sculpture was labeled “Marquis de Sade”. Larry instantly interpreted it to mean that although his body was in prison, his arms and hands (writings) were more powerful, and reached outside the cage in which his body was enclosed. My husband is smart. A quick Wikipedia search when we got home confirmed that (when he wasn’t in prison, or in an insane asylum) this was once the home of the infamous Marquis de Sade. It was purchased by Pierre Cardin in the 1920’s and now they hold an arts festival there every summer.

Lacoste: the Marquis' chateau is at the top

Looking across the valley from the chateau at Lacoste

The Marquis de Sade outside his former home

By the time we left Lacoste, the sun had set, so we started making our way back home, with a quick stop to admire the beauty of Gordes illuminated at night.

Return to the Abbaye, Exploring Menerbes

Lisa / July 14, 2009 / France, Travel

One day last week we decided to return to the Abbaye Notre Dame de Sénanque in proper daylight to explore the abbey and the lavender fields surrounding it.

The smell of lavender . . . — One of the small lavender fields next to the abbey

We weren't the only ones enjoying the lavender

Another one of Larry's brilliant hand-held self portraits

After leaving the Abbaye, we made a quick stop at Chateau La Canorgue (known as Chateau La Siroque in A Good Year) to try to get a better view. Not much luck. We were amused by the “Beware of Serpents” sign though.

The best shot we could get of the chateau

The actual 'cav' where Chateau La Canorgue sells its 'bio' (organic) wines

We drove through some other nearby towns before stopping to explore Menerbes. Menerbes became the most famous of all Luberon towns the minute Peter Mayle published his book. It’s the town he lives near and wrote extensively about.

It’s yet another gorgeous hilltop town, complete with colorful residents of both the people and animal variety. As we were walking up the road towards the 12th century church, we were greeted enthusiastically by a Jack Russell terrier who took it upon himself to be our personal tour guide up the road, constantly looking back at us to make sure we were still following him, until he had to stop for more pressing business – to have an argument with a nearby shrub. Apparently they had quite a history, and he lost this battle, as he gave the bush a piece of his mind with several growls, and then scuttled back down the road.