A date with Rafa and tennis! – 8th June 2012

Tags

16th, Carlos Moya, David Ferrer, France, market, Men's semi finals, Novak Djokovic, Paris, Parisian lift, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Roland Garros, Toni Nadal

Today was the day for men’s semi-finals!! Unlike last year, Rafa had entered the semis strongly, without having dropped a set yet! (How awesome is that?). So the four semi finalists were Rafael Nadal, David Ferrer, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic.

From experience last year, we knew that we couldn’t estimate how long the matches would take. So in order to make sure we don’t go to bed on an empty stomach, we decided to do some grocery shopping so we could make dinner that night, no matter the time! 😛

Luckily it was a Friday, the day the weekly market in the 16th is on. The best thing of all, the market was just across the street from the apartment!
The apartment we were staying at is on the 7th floor. And Parisian lifts are never in a hurry, ever. So that meant we had time to take a couple of photos.

View of the staircase

Parisian lift

Parisian lifts are very interesting. There is a gate and a door. And they are usually small. And not very fast. 🙄

Its difficult to wrap my mind around the idea that these markets are temporary ones, usually taking place once in a week. I mean, the stalls were all professionally set up, so the effort to constantly set up and remove the stalls must require quite some effort. Hence the idea of makeshift stalls doesn’t make sense to me. Nonetheless, variety of things at the market is impressive for a one-day-a-week market.

Flowers to start the market with

Have never seen this fish before

Cherries!

Vegtables with flowers. Are the flowers edible too?

Types of mushrooms

More flowers

More fishes. It looks as though the big fish is midway swallowing a smaller fish.

Gigantic vegetables

Langoustines

We were intrigued by this. I think they are not lobsters (or are they?) but not quite sure what they are. So we were having a discussion when the stall owner saw us and he was kinda ‘fascinated’ by us. I think he thought we had never seen such animals before. So he poked these “lobsters” with his stick to make them move. Well, to make him happy, I gave a small shriek, looking very excited. 😳 And he gave a satisfied smile, glad he managed to ‘spook’ me. 😆

I enjoyed myself thoroughly at the market! Loved the sights, glad to have this shopping experience. The stall owners were all very kind and patient with us 🙂 And I was very happy with the ingredients we had bought for dinner for the night.

Before we headed to Roland Garros, I remembered I had forgotten to bring sunblock for the body. Hence we dropped by the pharmacy to get sunblock. The lovely lady at the pharmacy introduced me to various types of sunblock they have and she said if its for normal sightseeing activity, a sunblock with low SPF would do. ‘Oh, but we are going to Roland Garros.’ ‘Ahhh, in that case, you would need something with a higher SPF. You are very lucky to get tickets for Roland Garros, Madame.’ Indeed, we were so lucky to get the tickets for Roland Garros.

The first semi-finals match was between Rafael Nadal and David Ferrer and it was scheduled to start at 1pm. We were about an hour early. However, along the walk from the metro to the entrance, which is a good 15 minutes walk, I realised something. I had forgotten to bring our passports or any other ID for verification!!! 😮 Identification verification is a must and our only option was to return to the apartment to get the passports. 😡 😡 😡

By the time we returned to Roland Garros, there was less than 10 minutes to the start of the match. Phew! At least we didn’t miss the entrance of the players!
Rafa’s amazing record at Roland Garros!

Rafa!!!!

I would have rooted for Daveed if it wasn’t Rafa across the net. When its Rafa at one side of the net, whoever is on the other side is the ‘enemy’. 😉

Daveed!

Delighted to see Rafa again!! Albeit at a distance away!

Rafa!

In the process of buying the tickets, I had decided to buy the tickets for the finals first. Hence I had secured excellent tickets for the finals. But that meant I had lousy seats for the semis. 😥 Still I was very lucky to get the tickets for the semis because judging from the seats we got, there weren’t many left when I was in the queue for them. 🙂
Rafa getting into his routine.

The hot pink, at the start of the tournament, brought back best forgotten memories of RG2009. Am I glad that hot pink totally worked for RG2012.



Warming up.

Rafa serve

Daveed serve

Team Nadal:


And match on!

Tour Eiffel in the background

Opposite us, we could see lots of vacant seats. A huge shame I must say! Whoever cares for those who can’t be bothered to turn up? There are lots of people who would love to fill up those seats.


It was a sometimes cloudy, sometimes sunny day. Rafa was playing well. 😎 A match I watched without much frazzling. 😛 Love hearing the sound of Rafa & Daveed sliding on clay!
Daveed changed into a bright pink shirt. And then it got really cloudy. A huge dark cloud lingered over Philippe Chatrier and refused to go away. Temperature started to drop. 😯

Daveed in his pink shirt

And the rain came! 😮


Luckily the rain delay wasn’t very long. Soon, the match resumed.


I have to admit, the crowd wasn’t very enthusiastic about this match, probably because everyone had assumed that Rafa would win. But like most Rafa fans know, the opponent could always be dangerous. So I was really happy when Rafa won! He was the first finalist through, without dropping a set at that! I’m sorry for Daveed, but Rafa was playing really really well.

Throwing his wristband to the crowd

Just another routine 🙂

Love Rafa’s voice!

Rafa’s interview

Under the towel

On his way for more interviews

Court maintenance before the next semis start.

While waiting for the next match to start, we started taking photos of each other. Turned out a Rafa fan was sitting behind us and she was curious as to where I had bought my Vamos Rafa shirt. I told her it was brought at the Nike store at Champs Elysees and she could try her luck there. I wondered if there were new designs at the Nike store.

Vamos Rafa!

This made me miss my Rafa cap which I had left at home

Soon, it was time for the other semi finals match – Roger Federer vs Novak Djokovic.

Federer

It was very cloudy at this point and rather chilly. Hence the jacket that Fed wore for the warmup.

Federer warm up

Just after the warm-up was done, it started drizzling. So a delay was called for and we left the court.
The drizzle didn’t progress into a rain so the rain delay wasn’t for very long.
Somewhere along the way to the entrance of the court, we saw Carlos Moya.

I had assumed that he was leaving after showing his support for Rafa. But I suspected that Rafa would not leave so early. And I was right! Because sometime through Federer and Djokovic match later on, I had come out to see if I could spot Rafa (I didn’t believe he would leave at the same time as Moya) and after the 3rd time of doing that, I saw Uncle Toni!! 😮 😮 There was actually a group of Rafa fans waiting all along and some in that group had spotted Rafa! The spot where we had waited last year for Rafa’s autograph was blocked with all kinds of plants, presumably to prevent us fans from doing the same thing again. 😡 There were a few cars in that area and it seemed that Rafa was in the first car whereby the newly introduced plants were. 😦 Pffftttt, how dare RG do such things to the fans. 😡 😡 😡 But that sighting allowed me to watch the rest of the match without much on my mind.

So the players had to restart the warmup. And this time round, the sun came out blazing. I was convinced the sun that came out led to sunburnt skin on my scalp. 😥

Team Federer

Oh boy, was the crowd all hyped up?! As usual, the French had adopted Federer as their tennis player while the Djokovic fans thought it was a football match going on. 🙄 As per last year, I was rooting for Federer because I wanted a Fedal finals! But very soon, it was obvious that this year was not to be a repeat of last year. Federer’s backhand was just killing him and those on his side. And Djokovic’s fans just got louder and louder. In the end, it was game, set, match Djokovic.

We had expected Federer vs Djokovic to last longer. We were both supremely disappointed! 😥 I was in two minds about Nadal vs Djokovic. It would be a great chance if Rafa could banish the losses to Djokovic for good but on the other hand, it would be disastrous if something terrible happened and Rafa couldn’t protect his Roland Garros crown. The fact that Djokovic would be going for his 4th consecutive slam was a big motivation for him. I could only take comfort in the fact that Rafa had faced Djokovic twice in the leading clay tournaments and defeated him twice. 🙂
Still I have faith in Rafa! Vamos!

Back to the apartment, we cooked and talked about mainly tennis. Golly, it was tiring to be at the tournament the whole day. But I’m not complaining. I was looking forward to the some sightseeing tomorrow and the finals the day after while hoping for the weather to hold up.

Ending this post with some photos with interesting effects.

A day of food – 7th June 2012

Tags

Avignon, Galeries Lafayette, les bistrot des Comperes, market, Paris, Provence, salmon, salt, Sushi Shop, TGV, Villeneuve-les-Avignon

Our last day in Provence!! 😥 😥 😥
The plan was to re-visit Villeneuve-les-Avignon, as we only managed to go up Tour Phillipe last year. However, we made a last minute decision to just remain in Avignon as there is the problem of having to check out of Le Colbert. So if we were to go Villeneuve-les-Avignon, it would be a mad rush as it was about 9 plus by the time we were up and about.

So I’ve been dying to visit a market in Provence. Sadly, we missed the market in Sault. Hence our only option then was the market in Avignon. This market is open daily (not sure about Sundays though).
The market was easy to find. Markets in western countries are vastly different from those in Singapore! The first western market I had visited was the one in Vancouver and I totally loved it! The markets are much cleaner than the wet markets we have in Singapore.

So I was looking forward to visiting the market in Avignon alot as it has been a long time since I’ve visited one.
Lots of cherries!!!

Why is a market interesting? Because I’ll see vegetables we don’t have in Singapore. We don’t have such gigantic vegetables in Singapore!


Stall selling a wide variety of spices and salt.

Rose salt

Of course, we bought some spices and salt. It was impossible to resist the temptation of the lovely salt on sale.

After grabbing breakfast, we headed back to the hotel to do some final packing and proceeded to checkout. We decided to put our luggage into the boot of the car which was parked at the underground garage. Although the car pack is secured, I was still worried about the car being broken into and luggage being stolen. Luckily, my worries were unfounded. So we shopped around in Avignon. Yes, there are actually quite a number of shops in Avignon. And being French, the clothes on display were well designed.

Our train was at around 1415hrs. By 12 plus, we felt hungry. I thought of having dinner at Fou de Fa Fa but it is only open for dinner. When we passed by a sushi place, we decided to have our lunch there. The set meal was about under 10 euros, so we both got the set lunch.

Oh, its called Sushi Shop. 🙂

As part of the meal, we both got rice and cucumber.

I don’t believe this is Japanese food as I’ve never had cucumber with sour cream before. 😕

I had salmon. I must say, for the amount of salmon, the price of the meal was quite worth it. The salmon was rather fresh BUT I think the quality was quite bad. Why? If you know a bit about sashimi in Jap cuisine, then you would know that the cut of the fish is very important. The orientation of the cuts makes a big difference in the quality of the fish. The cut of the salmon in Sushi Shop was horrible!! Some cuts were fine but some were totally totally wrong. I think some of the staff behind the sushi counter are Japanese but they are still not getting it right.

The husband got sushi and in his case, it was a case of way too much rice. 😯

The husband then decided we should leave for the TGV early. Am I glad he suggested that because we had a tough time locating Europcar at the TGV! The fault was totally ours. Somehow, we didn’t believe that the car rentals are located inside the car park at the TGV and we kept going round and round trying to find it. In the end, common sense hit us and we headed to the car park and viola, we finally located Europcar after like 25 mins of searching!!! Imagine if we had not left Avignon way ahead of time? We would have missed our train back to Paris!

Or maybe, what had transpired was a sign that things were not going to go smoothly on this day. I had arranged for us to meet a friend for some shopping at Galeries Lafayette followed by a dinner for which reservations were made at 9 pm. We were scheduled to arrive in Paris about 5.30pm. About 1-1.5 hours into the journey, the train stopped. It stopped for a longgggggg time!! Then a long message was broadcasted….in French. Only in French! 😯 We didn’t understand anything! And I suppose the broadcasted message stated how late the train was going to be because there were groans from the other passengers.

We decided to be patient and I started playing with my iPad. After like 15 mins, we were still stationary. So I decided to play with the French word app I had downloaded to see if I could find something in there to help in translation from English to French so that I could ask the other passengers how long we would be delayed for. But there was nothing in the app I could use and I had no wifi. And along the way, I accidentally pressed a translation for ‘Excuse me, how long would the next train arrive?’ And the volume was pretty loud and the French nearby laughed. Hmmmm 😳 I knew with our train being stalled on the track, no other trains could proceed too. Oh well, I just smiled sheepishly and placed an apologetic expression on my face for having a high volume on my iPad. FYI, the French don’t answer their phones within the confines of the carriages, they do it at the area connecting the carriages. All so that they won’t disturb other passengers.

I then made a trip to the toilet and when I emerged from the toilet, there were two men outside chatting. I couldn’t bear being in suspense and decided to interrupt them.
‘Excusez moi, parlez vous anglais?’
One guy shook his head and the other guy said ‘A little.’ 😉 Never happier to hear that!
‘Do you know what time we would reach Paris?’
‘Pffft. I don’t know.’ (Didn’t he listen to the broadcast???!! Then again, not everyone was pressed for time). Then he said ‘But wait a moment’. Then he spoke the the other French. The other French looked at his watch and replied him. ‘About 6.30pm.’ Ahhh, it was so good to have a timing! So then ‘Thank you! Merci beaucoup’. I hurried back and passed the information to the husband.

So now, having an idea of our estimated arrival time in Paris, I proceeded to text my friend on how we could meet at 7pm at the earliest. And I texted the owner of the apartment we were renting. I really didn’t want him to be waiting for us without any news from us at all. Luckily, he wasn’t in a hurry and he said he would be there waiting for us until we turn up. Phew! That was a relief! I’m glad he wasn’t offended and was generous with his timing.

So eventually the train started moving and we did reach Paris at around 6.30pm. We hailed a taxi from the taxi rank and had hoped we could reach the apartment ASAP. BUT there was the rush hour traffic! 🙄
About 25 mins later, we reached the apartment. And our host was so welcoming and was watching tennis! His place was different from last year’s! He had renovated parts of the apartment which was looking really good. He mentioned the crazy weather in Paris, said that it was raining cats and dogs for a few hours about 2 hours prior to our arrival. It was really hard to believe because the sky was blue and the pavements dry.

So after giving us an update on the apartment, we were left to our own device. We hurriedly got ready to go meet our friend.

And our meeting point? Galeries Lafayette of course!!! At the entrance of Louis Vuitton no less!! The only issue was there was a long long long queue at Louis Vuitton! And our friend was not there!!! 😕

When we eventually found each other, we only had 45 mins to walk around. So we headed to the shoe level (yes, its a shoe level, not a department!), and did some window shopping.

We took the metro to the restaurant where I had made reservations. We were going to Les Bistrot des Comperes. The metro exit brought us to a place whereby the Seine was on our right. I had marked the location of the restaurant on our book of Paris map and our smart friend then said we should use the Seine to orientate ourselves. I think my husband and I had spent too much time on the TGV which killed our brain cells. We found the restaurant easily.

Again, we decided to go for a 3 course meal. The waiter brought us the menu as follows:

Menu on a blackboard!!
I’m not an adventurous eater and I love salmon, so I got salmon again! 😳 Husband got some cheese salad (He’s so smart! where else to start the love affair with cheese than in France?) and Friend got some foie gras.



We all liked our starters alot!!! There was a side of caramelised onions on Friend’s plate and that was heavenly delicious! Whoever knew onions could be made that way to taste like that!

The reviews on Tripadvisor praised the duck confit, so I decided to have that. Friend decided on lamb chops while husband decided on steak.



The mains were not too bad but they didn’t blow us away as the starters did. And Friend who is an air stewardess and hence well travelled said the best lamb chops she has ever had so far was in Australia. Husband agreed totally.

The waiter then asked if we still had the space for dessert as he didn’t want to take orders for desserts earlier in case we were too full. Truth be told, I was really quite full. But when the company is good, and with peer pressure (since they were both game for desserts), we all ordered desserts.
I had profiteroles! I was dying to try profiteroles in France and so far, this was the only restaurant we have been to that serves it! Friend got a some coffee themed dessert while Husband got a cheesecake. I heard the cheesecake was good. I liked the profiteroles. Cleaned my plate sans the whipped cream, which I don’t take at all.



By the time we left, it was about 11pm and freezing cold!! However, the friend was fine with a thin chiffon top while I was already shivering with cold. She’s probably a more savvy traveller than me! 😛
We said goodbye at the metro and I was really happy to meet up with her and the three of us had a really enjoyable dinner and night! We don’t only meet friends at home but all over the world! How small the world has become these days! 😀

And I loved being in Paris. Again!! 🙂

A day of quiet & extreme temperature – 6th June 2012

Tags

Au Tout Petit, Avignon, blue zone, cyclists, drive, fountains, France, Gordes, Lavender, Mont Ventoux, Pernes-les-Fontaines, Provence, Roussillon, Sault, Seguret, summit, Tour de France

Planning the itinerary of this very day was a major headache for me. With Avignon as our base, we could go back to the villages in Vancluse that we had missed out last year or attempt villages even further out in the Vancluse department. I was so very tempted to visit Gordes, apparently one of the most beautiful villages in Provence ( besides Roussillon of course!), and the Village de bories. However to do so would mean passing by the villages we had passed by last year and that seemed a wee bit futile. And in doing so, we wouldn’t be able to go as far as Mont Ventoux, which was on my list last year.

However, on this very morning, I had decided that seeing Roussillon again was good enough for us. So I decided to make Mont Ventoux the highlight of today’s sightseeing.

So the route for today was: Avignon – Pernes les Fontaines – Sault (hoping for some lavender sighting) – Mont Ventoux – Seguret – Avignon. Unfortunately I don’t think we could pack in Vaison la Romaine. I had hoped to be able to visit the small villages near Seguret too.

Travel route for the day; Red for definite stops, blue for destinations we’ll go if time permits

While getting to our car, we got breakfast. By golly, it was only our 4th day in France and I’m sure I was piling on the calories rapidly. But how could one say no to breakfast like this? 😯

Donut with chocolate

So, first stop was Pernes les Fontaines. In the guidebook, this village was portrayed as a quaint village with about 40 fountains in the village. And the impression I had was there’s definitely some outstanding fountains there.

As always, when we reached Pernes les Fontaines, we looked for a car park for the car. We chanced upon a car park with a blue zone whereby the lots were colored with bordered with blue lines, similar to what we had encountered in Sainte Marie de la Mer. We decided to just park there first while we head to the tourist office adjacent to the car park.

And at the tourist office, we met a really friendly staff who provided us with loads of brochures and information on Pernes les Fontaines. She said the blue lots are available for parking but a parking disc is required. ‘Madame and Monsieur don’t have the parking disc? Its okay, I will give you one.’ She proceeded to explain how the parking disc works. There’s a ‘clock’ on the disc whereby we have to set the time at which we parked the car. The disc is valid for for one hour thereafter. She then said the parking is valid for an hour but if we park exceed the time, its okay, but the disc allows for parking for only one hour. 😕 So I was quite confused about that part. In the end, we decided that if need be, we’ll return to the car after the hour is up and just set the ‘clock’ right for the next hour. 😛 Finally when she sent us on our way to tour Pernes les Fontaines, she said the water from the fountains are potable. Okay, that was duly noted but we weren’t quite convinced our tummy would be safe. 😮 One can’t be too safe in a foreign country where language is foreign too.

Map of Pernes les Fontaines showing the locations of the fountains

In Pernes les Fontaines, the trails are marked. We just have to look out for arrow signs and follow the direction accordingly.

Arrow for the shorter red trail

So we came across quite a number of fountains. But, if you were to ask me on any memorable ones, I don’t think I’ve seen any truly outstanding ones. The thing about sightseeing is if there’s nothing truly spectacular, after a while, all the fountains look similar. This applies to everthing: greenery, Roman structures and architecture. Therein lies the risk of sightseeing fatigue.

Maybe there are truly spectacular outstanding fountains in the village but we just didn’t come across any. 😯 And so, we entered the zone of fountain sightseeing fatigue.
So we started taking in sights other than fountains. 😛

The right way to enjoying life

A small simple chapel.

This appears to be a tool that helps to tell the time

Photo opportunities!



We came across a tower and decided to see if it is accessible. It was and we climbed up as far we could.

There’s a clock on the tower but I’m not sure if it is telling the time accurately.

Views from the tower

We are always fascinated with the coloured windows and doors. 😀

A cat’s view

One last fountain and we were done!

In addition, the village is very quiet. I think we spotted only 3 or 4 pairs of tourists besides us. I like quiet but it was a bit too quiet there.

So we decided to have find lunch before heading to Sault in case we can’t find food there. At the point, I wasn’t sure if Sault is a village or is it an area where there’s just lots of lavender fields. While we were walking around looking for a place for lunch, we passed by a group of female teenagers at a square. They kept looking at us, probably they don’t see many Asians around. Then just as we were leaving the square, a girl called out ‘Hello!’ At first we didn’t respond because we weren’t sure if they were speaking to us since ‘Hello’ and ‘Allo’ sounds similar. But this was followed up with more ‘Hello!’. We were the only people around, 5 of us, me and my husband, and three local girls. We were not keen to strike up any conversation, with the place being dead quiet. But it would be totally rude not to respond. So I returned a ‘Bonjour. Au revoir’ with a quick wave and got out of there. What was funny about this encounter was the response of the girl who said ‘Hello’. She was stunned I responded in French and turned back to her friends and said something to the effect like ‘They speak French!!??!!’ We must have seemed like weird Asians to them.

Then along a small lane, there was a man enjoying time at his window from his residence and then said ‘Konichiwa.’ That’s ‘hello’ in Japanese. We had to respond ‘Konichiwa’ back and left him thinking we are Japanese. He was actually quite proud that he spoke Japanese, albeit just a word of it, because he was giving himself thumbs up sign. 😀

We were about to give up on finding a suitable place for lunch when the husband spotted a small restaurant by the road. So we headed in and got seated. We didn’t want to have a heavy lunch so the salads on the menu posted outside the restaurant had attracted us. So we decided to have the same salad each and a main to share.

First time we saw ketchup & mayo being packaged as such

The salads were huge! and Yummy! The husband accepted the praise I loaded on him in choosing the right restaurant. And for the main, we wanted to get some meat but none of the translations on my phone worked right and we chose something from the menu that was roughly translated to be meat.
So our ‘meat’ turned out to be a sausage…..of innards. And we both don’t eat innards. 😐

But if one does appreciate innards, then this sausage would be delicious.

After a satisfactory lunch, we headed to Sault, which is a long drive away. Along the way, we noted an interesting contraption used when road works were being carried out.

We do not have this in Singapore. Instead, what we have are workers standing at the road, one on each end, holding up ‘STOP/GO’ signage. Upon seeing this automated system in France, I can’t help feeling how primitive the Singapore system is.
Did I mention Sault was a long drive away? The roads seemed never ending. But we enjoyed driving on long stretches of roads, what we do not have in Singapore. 😎



Sault is an area where there is widespread cultivation of lavender. I had thought that Sault is an area and not a village and I was wrong. Sault is actually a small village.

Of course, there are plenty of shops selling lovely lavender. Wish we could buy bunches of lavender back home but they would be crushed in the luggage. We made do with packed lavender.

There is nothing much exciting in Sault except for a panoramic view of the lavender fields from the hilltop opposite the tourist centre.

Flowers here look as if painted

We went into the tourist centre in Sault and I asked about the market which was supposed to held every Wednesdays (and it was a Wednesday). ‘Ah, sorry Madame, the market had closed already. It is only in the morning’, said the pretty friendly French lady at the counter. I don’t know why people say the French are rude and unfriendly. So far, we’ve met really nice ones. 😀 Then I asked about lavender fields and she said as Sault is on elevated ground, the lavender in Sault bloom later. She did suggest some places we could go for lavender sighting but we were not going to ‘chase’ after lavender since we had seen some last year. I asked about Mont Ventoux and she gave us very clear directions. In addition, she provided us with some really nice maps which showed clearly the villages with corresponding tourist attractions in the Vancluse region. These maps would be very helpful should we decide to return again next year.

As we descended from Sault, we came across a field with what seemed like lavender!! The husband quickly pulled over and we walked towards the flowers.

At first sight, the field seemed to be a lavender field. But something about the colour did not seem quite right. Still, the way the flowers were planted were similar to the way lavender is planted, ie in rows.
Upon closer inspection, these were indeed not lavender.

This is definitely a lavender field, albeit one that has not bloomed yet.

Onwards with our journey to Mont Ventoux. The day was getting cloudy and as we inched closer to Mont Ventoux, it got even cloudier.

And alot of cyclists were heading to Mont Ventoux. Mont Ventoux is apparently a stop for Tour de France, so one could expect lots of cyclists.

We drove amongst the clouds! 😛

I really admire the will and persistence of the cyclists!! I was all tired from the drive from Sault to Mont Ventoux, and I was a passenger in the car! The road was truly long and winding and ascending! 😯
Finally, after what seemed like a very long drive, we reached the summit!

It was very cold up at the summit. It was a low single digit and we were freezing! It was 20 something degree celsius at ground level and we were not expecting the cold on at the summit. But this dog was not affected by the cold at all, it seemed. 😉


Part of the S-pin loop for ascending Mont Ventoux.

Pebble covered Mont Ventoux giving it its white appearance from far

View of Mont Ventoux from a distance.

By the time we reached Seguret, it was about 5 plus. We parked in the first car park we came across. There are actually more car parks as one head further in. Seguret and the villages nearby are all rather famous for their wine.

At first sight, Seguret seemed like a very quiet village. But we thought we would see more people when we go further into the village.


If Seguret was a bit more lively, I’m sure it would be a very charming village. However, while we were there, most of the shops were closed except for a couple of art galleries.

You can see the prettiness of Seguret in this picture. The girls were very happy to get their ice cream 🙂

We then headed up a slope where we got some really nice views. I could only imagine how spectacular the view would be on a day with clear blue skies. Pictures really doesn’t do Provence much justice.

As we headed down, we came across them. 😆 Besties, I suppose.


The scenery when we left Seguret was lovely because from the road we were on, we could see Dentelles, a range of mountains. I had hoped that we would have time to go to a village closer to the Dentelles for a better view of the mountains but it was not to be. 😦
As we had made a dinner reservation at Au Tout Petit the night before at 7.30 pm, and it was a long drive back to Avignon, we didn’t spend a lot of time in Seguret.
We were one of the early diners at Au Tout Petite and we quickly placed our order. For starters, I had salmon carpaccio. I had loads of salmon during this trip. I love salmon. 😳

Salmon carpaccio

The husband got a soup which might have contained some foie gras (I think). I forgot to ‘warn’ him that soup in France during this time of the year is usually cold. I thought his soup was quite interesting but he was not very impressed.

I remembered how good the fish was when we ate at Au Tout Petite last year and I was determined to get the fish for mains this time round.

Fish

Hmmmm, the fish wasn’t fantastic. It wasn’t very well seasoned, so it tasted a bit bland. 🙄
The husband got……turkey curry! That was a most unexpected choice! Why? Because I don’t quite trust Europeans to get the taste of curry right and whoever cooked turkey in curry??

Turkey curry

The dish didn’t turn out to be a disaster. I thought the curry wasn’t too badly done but the husband has always had high standards for curry, so he didn’t think much of the dish. Well, I didn’t rub salt into his wound by saying ‘Whadda ya expect? Curry in France?!?!’ 😈
For desserts, I got a raspberry cake while he got caramelised pineapples. I liked the raspberry cake as it wasn’t too sweet and was nicely tangy, just for my taste. The ice cream that came with the desserts were fabulous!


So while I was a bit disappointed with the meal, the husband was seriously disappointed. The food wasn’t that bad, just that we had a much better meal last year. 😕

Again, we walked back to the hotel in the dark and I couldn’t help feeling a twinge of sadness, with this being our last night in Provence, and with no plans to return in the immediate future. I do love Provence.

Horse riding in Camargue; In love again with Roussillon – 5th June 2012

Tags

Amphitheatre, Arles, Au Tout Petit, Avignon, beautiful village, car park, Domaine Ricard, Fou de Fa Fa, France, horse riding, L'epices & Love, Le Calendal, Le Colbert, Le Sentier des Ocres, Les Arenes, ochre, Provence, Roussillion, Theatre Antique

The booking for horse riding was at 9am. This meant we had to leave Arles by 8.15am as it takes about half an hour to reach Domaine Ricard. Which meant we had to wake up early! 🙂

Lots of cyclists around at this time of the year although I don’t remember seeing cyclists last year.

And we reached Domaine Ricard ahead of time. 😀

Prices

There was a family besides us who turned up for horse riding. We decided to let them speak with the staff first as we might hold them up seeing that we can’t communicate in French. However, they weren’t French. But the father of the family was able to speak basic French, which was a lot better than us.
When it was our turn, again, ‘Parlez vous anglais’? Again, ‘non’. I tried to convey that we have a booking through our hotel for two blah blah blah, but the lady didn’t seem to understand. Besides, it appeared that our booking was not noted even though I was with the receptionist at the hotel when she made the booking. No matter, at the end, we came to the understanding that we were going to do the 1-hour ride and again, only at walking pace.

At this point, the only horse ride I have ever done was when I was a kid, in a zoo with the horse being managed by a handler. So we have had no experience with horse riding whatsoever. We soon realised that for this horse riding experience, we were to be solely in charge of our horses. No one would be holding on to the reins on the horse except for ourselves. The family joining us in this trail have horse riding experience. They are Austrians and I suppose they have more opportunities for horse riding than us. The Austrian father couldn’t believe we were getting on the horse without any experience at all. He wished us good luck! 😛 Hehe, I wished us good luck too!

So the staff upon knowing that we have never rode on a horse before, got us two horses, both of which have probably very calm temperament.

Luckily, there was a cowgirl leading us on our trip. The cowgirl turned out to be the lady at the counter. And the horses were so well behaved! They simply followed the pack leader!
And we saw the enclosure the horses are being kept in on our way to the etang.


The husband’s horse was very keen to follow the pack leader very closely. And his horse was perpetually hungry!, Always walking on the side to grab grass, nibbling while working.

My horse liked to follow the husband’s horse closely! So both of our horses were walking on the edge and I wondered how did the horses know not to step beyond the edge of the path.
Initially, at the start of the trail, the cowgirl introduced a bit of the region to us. But she was speaking in French and even the French speaking ones in the group could not keep up. So eventually we succumbed to the silence of the etang. I enjoyed the silence.
We were rather unfortunate and didn’t get to see any animals at all, except for a lone flamingo far away. The view were mainly that of greenery.



The horse of the cowgirl. She had came down from the horse to open a gate for us to pass through and the clever horse then answered nature’s call.

Although we didn’t have a great adventure in the etang 😯 but I thoroughly enjoyed the horse ride. It was plenty enough for us first time riders. And very soon, the horses returned to the stable. My horse is called ‘Siffleur’; what a pretty name! And that’s the pretty cowgirl who had led the ride.

And at the washroom, there was a bunch of toddlers, who all looked so cute! They must have been at most 3 or 4 years old. Its hard to believe toddlers at that age were brought out on a field trip. I don’t think in Singapore, parents would have allowed 3 or 4 year olds to go for field trips. Or rather, the teachers wouldn’t dare to bring the little devils out. And I was really really surprised by the good behaviour of the French toddlers. They were not running around all over the place, screaming or shouting. Rather, they were obedient to their teachers who probably told them to please form lines of 2 and wait for the Petit Tren to arrive. The only time when they were not quite so obedient was when they got intrigued by horse poo. 😛 Still, even then they weren’t kicking the poo around. They were just crowding around the poo and making whispers about it. And then running back to the teachers when called.

The cutie pies

And we went back to Arles to check out of Le Calendal and tour Arles before heading to Avignon.
So the first sight we went to was the Amphitheatre. It was under renovation (for lack of a better word) and as such, the entrance fee, together with that of Theatre Antique, cost about 7 euros.

Interior of the Amphitheatre

The amphitheatre

The surroundings of the Amphitheatre:

Subsequently, we headed for Theatre Antique. The entry was through an air-conditioned room, which provided brief respite from the Provencal sun. There was nothing much in Theatre Antique as it consisted mainly of ruins. However, there were several young artists around who were drawing the carvings visible on the ruins.

The arch from which we had peered in from our first day in Arles.





Amongst the ruins, nature thrived. 🙂

With that, we ended our exploration of Arles. Time to head to Avignon.
We were happy to be back in Avignon. There’s something quite special in returning to a place that’s not home, and yet a familiar place where we have great memories of.
In Avignon, we stayed at another top rated hotel on Tripadvisor, Hotel Le Colbert.
Again, as is typical of all things Provençal, we had a cheery colourful room.

There’s a restaurant Fou de Fa Fa that I wanted to try very much as its rated top on Tripadvisor. So the hotel owner agreed to help us make reservations for dinner.
And then we went back to a kebab shop we had visited in 2011 and we ended up with panini, although we had wanted kebabs. 🙄

T’was a huge panini. Unfortunately, the standard of the food has dropped. So we won’t be going back there if we do go back to Avignon again. 😕
So the plan was to re-visit Roussillon. We went to Roussillon last year but the sentier was closed when we reached and it was drizzling, and with no umbrella with us then, we decided to return to our base.

However, on this very day, the sun was out and Roussillon took our breathe away once again. 😀
Even the dustbins in Roussillon are lovely. 😉

Dustbin found in the car park at Roussillon

The most convenient carpark in Roussillon is a small one right on the top of the village. However, we didn’t have any luck with that car park, so we had to park our car at lower ground and walked a short distance up to the village.
Ahhh, a beautiful familiar sight.

Needless to say, we headed straight for the sentier.

There are two routes that one can take. The shorter route is an easier trek and takes up to 30 mins. The longer trail would take up to an hour.

The colours of the site are amazing! And together with the blue blue sky and green green trees, every part of the sentier was picture perfect. 😎

The planks on the ground were of course also coloured by the ochre.

A peek at the village across from the sentier.


Tall trees are abound in Roussillon!


I read that iron oxide can cause a range of colours from yellow to violet…but we didn’t see any violet colours around. 😮





We enjoyed the colours in the sentier! And we finished the long trail in slightly over an hour.

Do not wear your beloved shoes into the sentier

There is a cemetery immediately on the left at the exit of the sentier. We did enter into the cemetery but we didn’t venture far. I guess its just not in our culture to go graveyard visiting (even though I did it in Prague)

View from the outside of the sentier.

This view of the perched village doesn’t ever get old!

Imagine walking along the paths in this village, surrounded by the beautiful ochre coloured buildings.

So then we explored the village of Roussillon. And what a beautiful village it is! There’s an elegant artistic flair in the buildings in Roussillon.

This is the view inside a small art gallery. How nice it would be to have a seat there, taking in the view, with a nice cup of tea. 😎

So we kept walking uphill, on wherever the paths are. From the top, we had lots of views.


I am just so in love with Roussillon. Pictures doesn’t do it much justice.

We agreed that Roussillon would be a lovely place for retirement. A great place to have a small hotel and live life the French way, no? 😛 We ended up debating the name of our future hotel…I was going along the line of Hotel Siffleur. 😉
More views and a glimpse of the winding road up to the village.

Then we proceeded downhill, hoping to reach our car while taking in more sights. Cats love cars!


In Roussillon, its a common sight to see houses built into the rocks.


I do envy the owner of this property.

All too soon, it was time to leave Roussillon. It was with a sense of sadness when we drove away as I don’t know when I’ll be back. The world is too big and travel the world I must. No matter, this image of Roussillon is now imprinted in my heart.

We parked the car in the underground secured car park in Avignon, whereby it costs a maximum of 18 euros (!) for 24 hours of parking.
When we were back in the hotel, the owner said that Fou de Fa Fa was fully booked. 😦 So we decided to just walk back to Au Tout Petit, where we had a great meal last year. Alas, Au Tout Petit was also full and they said they might have a table for us in 30 mins. Hmmm, it was around 8pm already and we were hungry. We decided not to wait and headed to L’epice & Love. On the way to L’epice & Love, we passed by Fou de Fa Fa and it was closed! A notice on the windows said that due to an accident in the kitchen, the restaurant would be closed. Just as well we didn’t manage to get reservations. How let down we would be if we did! 😮

Luckily, we managed to get the last table available at L’epice & Love. Similar to last year, the menu was handwritten in French, which the waitress kindly translated for us.
We were advised to order the first two courses first and if at the end, we still have the stomach for desserts, she would return to take orders for it.

We have a pretty good memory and when the chef came out, we knew that the chef this year was not the same as last year’s. Based on the food we had, I think this chef is better than last year’s. In fact, I think this was one of the most enjoyable meals we had in France this year.
So of course, salads to start with. I love this salad, which came with small fishes with a tangy zest. I got a seafood salad while he got a goat cheese salad.

To be honest, I didn’t know my husband could be quite an adventurous eater until this trip. We are not huge fans of cheese, and yet he went ahead to order goat’s cheese. 😯

I had pork while he had beef. Both were accompanied by rice and sides. The food was simple yet delicious and we thoroughly enjoyed it. I particularly liked the orange mash. It’s probably mashed carrots sans the raw taste of carrots


It was a lovely dinner to celebrate our return to Avignon and to end the day with. Once again, we surfaced into the night onto the familiar streets of Avignon, and enjoyed our walk back to Le Colbert. That’s all in a day of travel.

Camargue: Path of no return & back to Nature – 4th June 2012

Tags

Aigues Mortes, Arles, black bulls, Camargue, Domaine Ricard, France, horse riding, Le Calendal, Provence, ramparts, Sainte Marie de la Mer, salt, Tour de Constance, white horses

So we had slept with the windows opened as the husband insisted on doing so. However, with the windows opened, this meant the noise would filter right into our room as it was located adjacent to the roads. Its not that it was noisy but a truck at 6 am doing it rounds was very noisy for me. In addition, opened windows meant the light would flood the room as the sky turned really bright by 6 am. Sound and light do not go down well for me when I need sleep 😥 . The curtains used in hotels in Provence simply do not block light well. I suspect these curtains are used to make the tourists rise early so they would have more time to savour the delights of Provence. 😉

Luckily, we managed to return to sleep! 😉 By the time we were ready to explore Camargue, it was about 9 plus. The plan was then to grab a croissant and head to the tourist office in Arles to get some maps/ information. Took us a long time to find the tourist office as the signage was not clear enough for us. 🙄 We grabbed a nice baguette sandwich from a boulangerie near the tourist office. From the tourist office, we got maps of the Camargue detailing the attractions. I asked about horse riding and was given a few recommendations. The advice was to go there and book a slot for the day and return for the ride later in the day.

Remember the problem with the carpark we had? We took the receptionist’s word and assumed things would work normally now. However, when we inserted the ticket into the machine, again the barrier did not lift and the same error message came up. Luckily we decided to use the gantry nearer to the office and even luckier, there was a staff there. I went into the office and said the one phrase I’m getting really good at. ‘Bonjour, parlez vous anglais?’ ‘Non’, came the reply. So with the benefit of being able to show the ticket and saying ‘problem, problem’, with a french accent of course, I thought I managed to convey the problem we were having. When he replied in French and with his hand gesture, I knew he didn’t get it. From his gesture, it seemed that he thought we didn’t know we have to insert the ticket into the machine. So I said ‘Non, non. Problem, problem’, waving the ticket. So he decided to check our ticket. Ah viola!! There was a problem with the ticket. Seemed like the ticket provided by the hotel was expired, so the kind gentleman gave us a new one. Phew! 😉 And then came the other phrase I’m very good at ‘Merci, merci beaucoup’! And ended the conversation with a very cheery ‘Au revoir’. 🙂

So we decided to head to Aigues Mortes first and if we come across any stables, I had intended to persuade my husband to make a stop. You see, he was reluctant to try horse riding. 😐
There’s a lot of parking space available outside the city wall at Aigues Mortes and the town is very accessible from the car park. After we had parked the car, we decided to check first where the machine for the parking charges was located. We were glad to see it near the entrance of the car park. You see, it is important to locate the machine so we would know if the machine accepts only coins or otherwise. One is most hard pressed for a coin changing machine in France.

So immediately on our right when we walked in the town from the car park, we landed up exactly where we should start our tour. The entrance to the ramparts.

Entrance to the ramparts right at the end

This map shows depicts the entire city wall.

We decided to explore the Constance tower before tackling the ramparts. Thank goodness we did it this way!

There is a short bridge linking the Constance Tower to the main ground and there’s quite some photo opportunities on this bridge.



From this hole, we could see our white car. 😎

The interior of Tour de Constance:

Ceiling

A view to the outside world.

Stairs which bring one up/down from the tower. There’s actually a lift available for use. While all can use it to ascend the tower, all who are physically mobile have to descend using the stairs. While we were going down, there were people coming up the stairs, panting. Something tells me they were not aware there’s a lift available for use as the lift is further into the room while the stairs are immediately visible upon entry.

A tower on top of the tower?

Marvellous views from the tower.


It was a lovely spring day. Skies were lovely, wind was cool and excellent Provencal sunlight for phototaking.

When descending, visitors are allowed to access the upper level inside the tower. Nothing special in the second level but it allows one to see the tower from a slightly higher perspective.

After a short break, we entered the ramparts to start the walk.

View from the rampart at the start point.

We had no idea we were on a path of no return. What this means is to get out of the ramparts, one has to either finish walking round the entire city wall or to turn back and exit from where one came from. For the latter, it is feasible only if one has not gone too far along the walk.
So having no idea what we were in for, we took quite a number of photos at the start of the walk.

The husband is biased towards coloured windows

From a distance, the purplish water was beckoning for us.

Aigues Mortes is a very organised town. Oh, and the orangey red tiles are a feature of Provencal roofs.

And finally the pinkish purple water was in front of us. albeit separated by a field.

This, by itself, made my day! Feels like nothing short of a miracle. How beautiful nature is! 🙂

We were (still are!) so intrigued as to why the water is so colourful. Aigues Mortes means ‘dead water’, referring to the salty water in the region. I know the colours of the water must have something to do with the high salinity of the water. A quick google search shows that pink algae grows in these salty water, and with no predator living in these water, the pink algae thrives and transforms the water. It is a very pretty sight. And any guesses as to what the ‘white mountains’ are?? They are salt mounds! Camargue, being such a salty region, is of course famous for salt production. In fact, there are factories around, more in the Salin-de-Giraud area, where one could go and check out the salt factories.

To be honest, about 1/3 into the walk, I was ready to give up. It was turning out to be a very long walk. And I was getting hungry too! 😥 There seemed to be only two exit points; one at the entrance and the exit at the end of the walk. As mentioned above, to continue forward was a long way to go BUT to turn and head back to the starting point seemed like an even longer way to go! I did actually head back for a few metres before the husband called for me to continue ahead! 😐 So we walked and walked. And we were rewarded by the view of the pinkish purple waters! 😎

And after the water disappeared from sight, it was back to structures.
Definitely less interesting than Nature. 😉

Finally, after some 1.5 hours, we reached the end of the walk. By then we definitely were in need of some lunch. 😛
We got into a restaurant in the touristy area and ordered simple filling food.

A salad to share

The husband’s beef burger

Super sinful mushrooms with cheese crepe

After lunch, we walked around the nearby lanes and I quite liked what I saw. Love the variety of salt the region has, although I have no idea what exactly the different types of salt can be used for. The packaging of the products is lovely, and I’m a sucker for lovely packaging. But I managed to defeat the shopaholic in me and not buy all the salt available for sale. 😛



And there’s this huge cookies/candies store. I think it is rather famous as we saw it in Paris too. La Cure Gourmande.


The cookies and candies were nice. And I couldn’t believe we had spent more than 20 euros for some cookies and candies. 🙄
It was about about 2 plus by the time we decided to leave Aigues Mortes. The next destination was Sainte Marie’s de la Mer.
And I only remembered to take a picture of the city wall while we were driving away. 😯

City wall of Aigues Mortes

Come to think of it, the city wall of Aigues Mortes is very similar to that of Avignon. Maybe all city walls are more or less the same?
My plan was to keep a lookout for stables on our way to Sainte Marie de la Mer. I did spot some but the husband always didn’t manage to enter the stables from the road. Hmmm.
When we reach Sainte Marie de la Mer, we were very lucky to spot an empty parking lot. I noticed that the parking lot is in the blue zone and had no idea if that meant we could park there or not. In the end, we decided maybe we couldn’t park the car there as there were cars with decals that had ‘bleu’ on them.
So we drove further into the town and managed to find a lot of parking spaces in an area near a stream. Parking was free and my only worry was the car would be stolen or broken into as the place was a bit isolated.
For us, there was nothing much to do in Sainte Marie de la Mer. It was very touristy and does not really have a main attraction. There were plenty of souvenir shops around and a church. So we went into the church.

There were interesting stuff on the walls, such as drawings of women and child. I think the pictures on the walls are depicting the legend of Mary setting foot on the island. However, there was a musty smell in the church and hence we didn’t linger on.

Of course, there is an area for candles lighting.


Again, we saw salt on sale. 🙂 So if one is desperate for different kinds of salt, one knows where to head to.

After Aigues Mortes, Sainte Marie de la Mer was sort of boring for us. We decided to give the town a ‘last chance’, so to speak. So we headed to the beach.
A roundabout on our way to the beach.

The statue in the middle of the roundabout.

The beach. Hmmmm, we were not very impressed with the beach. But there were people enjoying the Provencal sun. 😉


So we left Sainte Marie de la Mer. I still remembered my aim of horseback riding and after fiddling with the GPS, I finally found Domaine Ricard, and we headed there.
When we reached Domaine Ricard, it was rather empty. It was almost close to 6pm then. So even though the Provencal sunlight is still bright and shiny at 6pm (all the way until 9 plus), businesses were already done for the day. I must admit, I was surprised that businesses didn’t seem to want to make more money with the extra hours of daylight.
Although the stable was closed, we were allowed to wander on the grounds and even head towards the etang where the marshes and wildlife are.
So before we entered the etang, we came across some animals.

I love ponies!

The entrance to the etang was easy to find. And we simply walked along the track hoping to spot some animals. Unfortunately, I think the part we were in was more ‘cultivated’ in a sense. This meant we didn’t spot the true wildlife animals. However, along the way further in, we heard the sound of hooves. I didn’t register what the sound was until the husband pointed out there were horses galloping! 😯 It turned out that we were on the walking trail and beyond this trail, there’s another trail meant for horses. And a French cowboy was leading a pack of horse. It was our first time seeing horses galloping in front of us and it was an awesome experience; to take in the sounds, sight and well, dust.





The horses were led into an enclosure where they could graze and feed and perhaps spend the night.




We saw more empty fields than fields with animals. 😦

And suddenly, we felt eyes on us. 😯

Their eyes followed us! 😮

Black bulls! 😎
It was our first time seeing black bulls too! And we were having fun taking photos and saying funny stuff about bulls. We joked about what if the bull starts making the action they do when getting ready to charge. The husband was moving about a lot and suddenly one of the bulls starting sweeping it’s leg. That was the charging action we had just joked about!! 😯

See its tongue as if getting ready to savour a meal or two??

Gosh, I was really worried that bull would come charging at us. And if it did, we would definitely make some headline news because the fence surrounding the bulls didn’t seem capable of stopping charging bulls at all. 😕 I told the husband to stop moving. As I was telling him that, I was moving away from the bulls’ enclosure. But he didn’t take me very seriously! 👿 And he continued moving as if playing with the bulls! 🙄 Anyway, I was determined not to make headline news and kept moving on. Luckily, the husband eventually caught up, without the bull in sight. Phew! 😳
After the bulls, there was nothing very interesting around except for grasses.

So we decided to head back and get back to Arles to find a place for dinner. Upon exiting the etang, we saw an enclosure with two horses. I wondered why the horses were not brought to the field with the other horses.

Back in Arles, we consulted the list of restaurants we got from the receptionist yesterday and decided to go to Restaurant Le Plaza for dinner. The receptionist kindly made a reservation for us. In addition, I showed her the brochure of Domaine Ricard and asked her to please help us make a booking for horse riding. I had wanted the 2-hour session but there were no availability for that. Luckily 1-hour slots were still available. The only condition attached to the one hour session was ‘we could only walk the horse’. Hmmm, walk the horse as in walk the dog kind of walking? The receptionist actually meant we couldn’t bring the horse to faster than walking pace. I understood the part on not bring the horse to say galloping etc but I was really intrigued how the whole thing works. Anyway, I was happy to have the booking done for the horse riding and off to dinner we went.

Some rose wine to enjoy dinner with. We are not quite into drinking and so we took the wine recommended by the waitress. Its a pity we didn’t enjoy the wine for this dinner. 😐

The start of our 3-course meal. I got some sort of mashed vegetable appetiser.



Our mains. Veal for him, fish for me.


Again, my fish was made into some mishy-mashy stuff. 😯 I had just wanted to eat a fish which looks like a fish. And we were intrigued by that little lobster lookalike.

I don’t know how to eat that and there didn’t seem to be any flesh. I wished it wasn’t on my plate. It could have been left to grow. 😳
And desserts! I had some ice cream which I couldn’t finish since I started feeling real cold after a few mouthful while darkness descended onto Arles. He had a nice chocolate pastry.


All in all, the ambience in the restaurant was nice. However, I was hoping for better food since it was recommended by the hotel.
So that’s that for day 2 and our last night in Arles. There’s something so alluring about being in the countryside.
Missing Provence already.