Around the World with Marsha & Joel

It’s our last day in France. Tomorrow we get up early, transfer to Marseille airport, fly to Heathrow, change planes, and arrive in Philadelphia in the evening.

So we decided to pack everything we could do into the day.

We walked off the boat early to spend the morning exploring behind the walls of the City of Avignon. Seven Popes lived here between 1309 and 1377. It’s high above the Rhone, and still has it’s medieval cobblestone streets and passageways. It’s also a trove of architectural treasures.

The gothic palace of the popes is an historical and architectural wonder. We climbed hundreds of steps to the grand halls, football field-sized dining room, kitchen and pope’s quarters. A setting fit for a…Pope.

From the Place de l’Horloge, the bustling city square full of locals, tourists, bars and restaurants, you can look up and see the famous clock with moving figures that revolve to the tune of Frere Jacques (Dormez-vous ?). We all started laughing simultaneously when Steve said, “remember Sid Caesar’s (Your Show of Shows) famous Bavarian clock routine – where the figures go absolutely haywire). As an aside, here’s a link to the original if you don’t mind falling down, laughing: Bavarian Clock

If you’ve recovered enough, let’s continue.

As you walk around the square and adjacent streets, and look up, you see the evidence that these old buildings once housed the local, specialty markets. Above you can see the original sign for the herb market. There were also signs for bread (pain), meat, and more. We also checked out the gothic Church of Saint-Pierre with it’s ornately carved entrance, and the synagogue for Avignon’s once thriving Jewish community. Check out the original mezuzah on the doorpost.

On the way back for a quick lunch, a reminder that we were in the heart of magnificent Provence. The aroma amazing.

A view from the coach as we made our way to Chateauneuf du Pape wine country of what’s left of the Pont d’Avignon — the medieval bridge that inspired the 15th century French folk song, “Sur le Pont d’Avignon” (“On the Bridge of Avignon”), still sung by kids all over the world. I didn’t know the lyrics, but the whole bus broke into song.

The rocky soil above the Rhone that produces the very special grenache grapes that become Chateauneuf du Pape wines. We made sure to get here as an homage to Marsha’s father who loved wines from this region.

The tasting was a special treat (for those of us who love the rich, earthy taste of these wines). We even tasted a limited white Chateauneuf du Pape that is not exported. The views, the charming little town crammed with wine shops, and the afterglow of the tasting put a huge exclamation point on our spectacular trip.

It was tough to say goodbye to this special corner of the world, but the memories, the tastes, the feelings, the fun we had together will stay with us always.

We are really happy we could share our adventure with you, and look forward to the next!

The day we’ve been waiting for (among many others) to truly get an impression (pun intended) of Vincent’s life and struggles while in and near Arles.

Of course we knew the full day was headed in the right direction when the mural on the walkway from the boat presented Marsha’s favorite bird.

We hopped on the coach and headed to Arles where the footsteps weren’t too difficult to find, as you can see.

But, before you can understand Vincent’s life, you must understand his art! We were treated to an actual painting class, hosted by local professional teachers and artists. We were all pretty intimidated by Marsha’s presence. However, everyone participated and really held their own. We started by examining some of his works up close, and painted tiny canvases getting a feel for his brush strokes. We then moved on to color, mixing acrylics to imitate or compliment Van Gogh’s color sense. Finally to a larger canvas to combine what we had learned The results were formidable, well, interesting.

Marsha’s easily captured his genius. In about 45 minutes she managed to impress the teachers and artists, made friends with them, shared websites and emails. Later, in an unrelated discussion about flowers with one of our terrific fellow travelers, Barb mentioned how much she loved peonies. So Marsha gave her the painting. On the other hand…

I apparently best captured his later mental state…at the asylum, where we would later follow him. No one asked to have my “work”, or ask for my email address. But, I think I’ll keep my ear anyway. Bonnie and Steve did some very nice work, but it was much better than mine so I didn’t put it in…

We washed up and continued through Arles.

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…Where the exact locations that inspired his paintings were pointed out. Having seen these painting in so many places; museums and books, it was exciting and a little disorienting.

We moved on to the Foundation Vincent Van Gogh Arles where there were large exhibitions by several other artists (with some intellectual’s obscure link to Vincent’s work) that were kind of non-descript, and only one room with real Van Goghs. It was a very well-designed building/gallery space, and we did like the site-specific fountain out front.

A very contemporary building with beautiful views of Arles from the roof.

It was time for lunch, but we passed this lovely cafe that Vincent must have painted, and this beautiful paella (we are in the south of France) for the Jules Caesar hotel and a much more formal fish dinner with wine. So, a bit of a rest was necessary before starting off again.

The architectural styles of the area scan the ages

Next stop was after a short bus ride to the hospital (asylum) where Vincent spent his remaining years deeply depressed, isolated, self-destructive, and prolific.

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Though living quarters (and care) at the “hospital” were abysmal, the gardens were beautiful. The memorial for the female inmates and their place of burial was purposefully remote from the hospital grounds.

After a conflicted day immersed in the genius of Van Gogh, and delving into his blackest depths, we headed back to the boat climbing back into our moment.

We were at the southernmost part of our trip at Arles, so we reversed course that evening to head for Avignon from our dock at Tarascon. The next day, in Avignon, would be the last full day of our trip. We would explore the town in the morning and end the day with a wine tasting at Chateauneuf du Pape, the wines Marsha’s father loved. Join us there.

We’ve been packing away vast quantities of (really spectacular) food for the past week. But, even though we’ve been averaging over 20,000 steps a day, they just haven’t been strenuous enough to expend the number of calories taken in.

So we were very glad that we had arranged a pretty active Rhône Valley Vineyard Hike for that morning. We were in the northern Rhône Valley and had to explore the local landscape, culture, and wine culture of the area.

We drove a winding mountain road through hectares and hectares of old and new Syrah grapes most of the way to the top of the highest hill in Tain-l’Hermitage and climbed the rest of the way to the Chapel of St. Christophe.

If you believe the legend, Knight Gaspard de Sterimberg build the chapel in 1224 where he spend the rest of his life as a hermit after the Crusades.

From the entire boat, Bonnie and Steve, Marsha and I were the only ones to book this hike. I guess the other passengers are not into things too physical. Good for us though as we then had our own private guide, who happened to be wonderful by the way. She provided us walking sticks to help keep our feet from sliding on the steep gravel path.

Besides the vines, beautiful wildflowers were blooming everywhere. Some of the hillside was blazing in red with poppies. The rose bushes above are planted for a very specific reason. The growers watch them for signs of fungus that will mean they have to spray the vines with specific (organic) substances to keep the fungus off the fruit.

Now on down to taste the world famous Hermitage wines. It was a pretty long step away from the gamay of Beaujolais with deeper ruby colors and more depth and earthiness. Chocolate samples were offered while we tasted the reds, that foreshadowed our next stop as we walked toward the boat.

Tournon is the home for Valrhona chocolate. Well, you know how kids are in a candy shop. Substituting old(er) people doesn’t make much difference. Samples were everywhere; chocolates from every country, in every different format imaginable, chunks, coating things, even samples of hot chocolate. If you were to watch from a distance we probably looked like ricocheting balls in a pin-ball machine. Needless to say, we bought lots of chocolate.

On our continuing walk back we crossed the pedestrian footbridge built by Marc Seguin, the inventor of the suspension bridge. It was commemorated by the bridge itself and a statue nearby.

A view from the bridge towards our riverboat in the distance. We walked through a local Saturday flea market and back to the boat for lunch and an afternoon cruise from Tournon sur Rhone toward Viviers.

Here’s a sample of our daily menus. This one is Dinner, but lunch is almost the same. Again, walking won’t do it.

Dinner on deck.

Before the day ended, we had a night time walking tour of Viviers, a charming, idyllic, riverside village. We’ve never been in a quieter, darker, sleepier place. We found the oldest house in town and the smallest cathedral in France, the 11th century St. Vincent Cathedral in the town square. It was really too dark for photos, but imagine the most incredible movie set you’ve ever seen. I just can’t believe no production company has discovered this place yet.

Off to Arles tomorrow where we’ll spend the entire day following in van Gogh’s footsteps, even taking a painting class. From wine to turpentine, exchanging one palette for another.