Late summer in Provence Verte with a few days in the Drome - A trip report
Sep 19th, 2008, 05:54 AM
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Late summer in Provence Verte with a few days in the Drome - A trip report
Each year we return to France at least twice and some years, more often. We rented a gite last fall for this trip, deciding to stay in a new area for us, Provence Verte. This area includes the land between Aix-en-Provence and Nice. We’ve been to Provence and the Cote d’ Azur in the past, not this area in between for a stay. We stayed north of Brignoles, near the small village of Correns. This area is so beautiful with gorges and the river in the Vallon Sourn. Rock climbing and floating down the river are great activities. Yes, this is the same Correns which Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have just bought their chateau! This excited the village a lot at the time, but their arrival has had no effect on the town! Well, there is a small change, when their helicopter flies directly over the village, and our gite. Correns boasts it has about 800 villagers. The only time it seemed busy was in the mornings when parents walked their children to school. All the children and teens go to the same school building and have school on Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday is an off day, and they return on Thursday and Friday. Saturday school is no longer held. They have very long school days, leaving around 4:30 p.m.
Each morning my husband walked to the boulangerie for the best raison brioche which was filled with some cream. The second morning they were short on raison brioche, but soon the baker knew to expect our order each morning and had enough from that time on! Wednesday, when school was closed, the boulangerie was also closed.
Friday was market day, but a very small market of organic produce. We were surprised at the arrival of the Cheval Meat truck. Yes, that’s horse meat. Not only was it sold from the traveling truck, but also in the Champion Food Market in Brignoles. Wednesday and Saturday evenings the Pizza truck would arrive, with over a dozen choices of pizzas available to order. Just put your order in and then go to the bar for a drink as it cooks! This village is the first Bio village in France with 97% organic farming, including organic wine. We visited the Domaine des Aspras which is just up the hill from the village. Their best wines are white. A wonderful place to buy the wines for this area is at the Correns cooperative building, which is actually at the entrance of La Val.
One other note on this village is the location of Auberge du Parc hotel, and the restaurant attached, which has a great reputation. We walked into it the first day we arrived, and enjoyed the atmosphere of the outdoor terrace. We didn’t see one person in this Hotel the following 2 weeks. It was not tourist season here.
Our trip didn’t start in Correns though, we began in the Drome. My trip report will follow!
Each morning my husband walked to the boulangerie for the best raison brioche which was filled with some cream. The second morning they were short on raison brioche, but soon the baker knew to expect our order each morning and had enough from that time on! Wednesday, when school was closed, the boulangerie was also closed.
Friday was market day, but a very small market of organic produce. We were surprised at the arrival of the Cheval Meat truck. Yes, that’s horse meat. Not only was it sold from the traveling truck, but also in the Champion Food Market in Brignoles. Wednesday and Saturday evenings the Pizza truck would arrive, with over a dozen choices of pizzas available to order. Just put your order in and then go to the bar for a drink as it cooks! This village is the first Bio village in France with 97% organic farming, including organic wine. We visited the Domaine des Aspras which is just up the hill from the village. Their best wines are white. A wonderful place to buy the wines for this area is at the Correns cooperative building, which is actually at the entrance of La Val.
One other note on this village is the location of Auberge du Parc hotel, and the restaurant attached, which has a great reputation. We walked into it the first day we arrived, and enjoyed the atmosphere of the outdoor terrace. We didn’t see one person in this Hotel the following 2 weeks. It was not tourist season here.
Our trip didn’t start in Correns though, we began in the Drome. My trip report will follow!
Sep 19th, 2008, 07:04 AM
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Our Delta flight from Cincinnati to Paris was on time with no problems! What a blessing. We transferred to Air France for our flight to Marseille, waiting in a very, very hot terminal. On arrival we picked up our rental car at Europcar which we had prepaid through Kemwel, I think on their UK site for $647 for a 19 day rental. The car had several scratches and a couple of small dents, but was fairly new and drove just fine. It’s really best to have a scratched up car, in case you get in a tight situation yourself! What’s one more small scratch… Europcar had us sign paperwork noting that if the car was totaled, we were responsible for $15,500. We were using our CC insurance. This caused quite a bit of anguish for another American couple who was renting in the office. We signed and left.
Our destination was Le Poet Laval and the lovely B&B Mas Alibeaux. Salon-en-Provence was on the way, so we stopped for a bit in the Old Provence town with lovely tall plane trees, and muted shuttered buildings. We were back in Provence! Stopping in at Nostradamus’s home, walking up to the Castle & it’s courtyard with garden honoring Nostradamus, and taking photos of the moss fountain, filled our short stay.
Continuing up A7 past all the towns we’d previously been, was like coming back home. Tired and hungry, we arrived at Mas Alibeaux. I found this B&B on the gites-de-france web site, and at that time they required us to sign a gite rental contract for our 3 night stay. This wasn’t new to us, so we did, and paid our deposit into their bank account while in France last March. I spoke to Virginie about the situation and how most Americans wouldn’t feel comfortable with this procedure. She’s agreed to have you e-mail her instead with a deposit with your CC. They do take Credit Cards.
We had no idea what a delight this B&B would be. They don’t speak English, but guests did. It’s such a beautiful location, not in the village of Le Poet Laval, but at the base, and across the road, down a tiny lane. The view is remarkable, with large green hills at every turn. Virginie and Jean-Francois are exceptionally wonderful hosts. They bought this property just 5 years ago, and with an architect have designed an beautiful large Mas. Previously they lived in the north of France and this venture is a true delight for them. Dinner is served each evening, around a family table with aperitifs at 7:45. Syop d’epices was added to the wine, yummm! Dinner, including aperitifs and drinks at dinner is only 23€ per person, our room 68€. It’s excellent and delightful visiting with the other guests. Dinner was over at 11:45. Our room was large, beautifully decorated had a wall of windows which we kept open during the night. There is a large yard with loungers available, no pool. Extremely peaceful and we highly recommend it. http://www.masdesalibeaux.com/welcome.php
5 minutes from this Mas Poterie Mont Rachas is located, on the main road, D540, not in the village. http://www.poteriemontrachas.com/blabla2 This was our favorite pottery of our trip, we bought several pieces. Later in the trip, further south, when we could find this pottery, it was always more expensive. Buy here for a fabulous selection. They’re open every day from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Our destination was Le Poet Laval and the lovely B&B Mas Alibeaux. Salon-en-Provence was on the way, so we stopped for a bit in the Old Provence town with lovely tall plane trees, and muted shuttered buildings. We were back in Provence! Stopping in at Nostradamus’s home, walking up to the Castle & it’s courtyard with garden honoring Nostradamus, and taking photos of the moss fountain, filled our short stay.
Continuing up A7 past all the towns we’d previously been, was like coming back home. Tired and hungry, we arrived at Mas Alibeaux. I found this B&B on the gites-de-france web site, and at that time they required us to sign a gite rental contract for our 3 night stay. This wasn’t new to us, so we did, and paid our deposit into their bank account while in France last March. I spoke to Virginie about the situation and how most Americans wouldn’t feel comfortable with this procedure. She’s agreed to have you e-mail her instead with a deposit with your CC. They do take Credit Cards.
We had no idea what a delight this B&B would be. They don’t speak English, but guests did. It’s such a beautiful location, not in the village of Le Poet Laval, but at the base, and across the road, down a tiny lane. The view is remarkable, with large green hills at every turn. Virginie and Jean-Francois are exceptionally wonderful hosts. They bought this property just 5 years ago, and with an architect have designed an beautiful large Mas. Previously they lived in the north of France and this venture is a true delight for them. Dinner is served each evening, around a family table with aperitifs at 7:45. Syop d’epices was added to the wine, yummm! Dinner, including aperitifs and drinks at dinner is only 23€ per person, our room 68€. It’s excellent and delightful visiting with the other guests. Dinner was over at 11:45. Our room was large, beautifully decorated had a wall of windows which we kept open during the night. There is a large yard with loungers available, no pool. Extremely peaceful and we highly recommend it. http://www.masdesalibeaux.com/welcome.php
5 minutes from this Mas Poterie Mont Rachas is located, on the main road, D540, not in the village. http://www.poteriemontrachas.com/blabla2 This was our favorite pottery of our trip, we bought several pieces. Later in the trip, further south, when we could find this pottery, it was always more expensive. Buy here for a fabulous selection. They’re open every day from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Sep 19th, 2008, 09:39 AM
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Underhill,
We walked through the village of Le Poet Laval one late afternoon and enjoyed it. The wind was blowing at the top, but calm below. The hotel you love there has a magnificent location! We considered dining there, but chose a festival in Vinsobres instead. It's described in my next report!
We walked through the village of Le Poet Laval one late afternoon and enjoyed it. The wind was blowing at the top, but calm below. The hotel you love there has a magnificent location! We considered dining there, but chose a festival in Vinsobres instead. It's described in my next report!
Sep 19th, 2008, 09:45 AM
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Friday, August 29
Dieulefit was having a small market today, but it’s not a good market. Some local pottery set up in front of the church. No food, but a few pottery shops were open. The best shop was Yves de Provence on the main thoroughfare, which had a large variety of pottery, representing 17 artists, including some Mont Rachas. Dieulefit is known for picodon cheese and they have a display of iron goats representing their cheese at the roundabout going into town. We didn’t think much of Dieulefit. There is a large, free parking lot as you enter town though.
Chateau Grignan in Grignan has a fascinating history. Madame de Sévigné letters to her daughter , from Paris, who moved here after married, are remembered for describing day to day life in the 17th century. The outdoor gardens and terrace are free to visit, but go indoors for access. Guided tours of the Chateau are available also. The Chapel on the grounds contains the body of Françoise-Marguerite de Sévigné, her daughter.
We had contacted Oliver at www.wine-uncovered.com previous to our departure, but he was already booked for the day. We decided to stop in at some vineyards on our own in the Rhone. We loved the villages of Seguret, Sablet and Gigondas and had visited them in the past. We also signed up for the Fete in Gigondas next week, an aioli lunch to celebrate before the vendange. Gigondas was having a small art show, where I bought a lovely platter. The main plaza here is the site for L'Oustalet, an excellent restaurant. We drove up to Les Florets to see the restaurant there. It’s in a nice location with excellent views of the Dentelles.
In Seguret we thought of taking a hike described in the excellent book Walking And Eating In Provence, published by Moon. It was so hot 32C that we only walked a bit of the hike, then returned to town.
We bought Mourchon Rose and Saint Gayan red wine. At the Saint Gayan vineyard we were welcomed by Martine Meffre, owner. She speaks some English and graciously answered our questions and poured several samples of their excellent wine. http://www.saintgayan.com/ We bought some Rasteau Red and enjoyed comparing notes on our grown families.
Down the same road was Chateau Trignon, with beautiful grounds, but not quite so friendly welcome. The more we spoke with the woman here, the more she warmed up, answering more questions. They make white wine here because the consumer wants it, but she really didn’t care for it. We purchased red Gigondas and white Viognier.
Vacqueyras was our next stop but we didn’t care for the town then onto Beaumes de Venise and it’s sweet wines. Up to the beautiful area around Suzette. The roads are tiny here, and some turn to gravel. We had no time for Le Barroux, but it looked like it’d be wonderful to stop here.
Before we left on this trip I noticed that Vinsobres was having its Ban de Vendange today. This is a festival starting with the pressing of the first grapes, wine tastings from area growers and a community dinner, with music and dancing! What fun! We signed up, on line, not knowing what to expect. We were able to pay for the dinner when we arrived. 16€ each for an evening of fun, excellent dinner and good wine!
We arrived to find the pressing of the grapes almost over. We received our sample of the juice, WOW, is that delicious! Wish we could buy a bottle of this! Some village children were in Provencal costume and held baskets of grapes. A great crowd had gathered, and some children were enjoying horse and buggy rides through the small center. Next several vineyard owners were pouring samples of their wines, and little samples of food were available for tasting. This was great! We tried several, some better than others. No bottles were available for sale here.
A band was setting up under the big plane trees and sampling some of their music. It was a great village gathering. At 8 p.m. dinner started with everyone seated at long tables, just outside their fete hall, lights strung among the trees. Babies to Great Grandparents were here, all joining together. We sat at a long table, not knowing what to expect. Then, I heard some English! It turns out that we sat next to a couple from Paris, who previously lived in Lyon, and spoke English. This was their holiday. They were fascinated that we were Americans, visiting this small village, and more surprised at the extent we had visited France. Next to them were several couples who have retired to this village from Holland, Britian and Belgium. They really try to speak French while living in France, but gladly spoke to us, welcoming us kindly. We told them of our love of France and of our desire to live here someday, part time. They loved living in this village, and the sense of community here. We were encouraged to choose Vinsobres when we decided to move! We were even told of McCain’s choice of Sara Palin for VP. No one knew who she was, including us!
Excellent French food followed. A large charcuterie plate, duck slices, guina fowl, stuffed with olives, olive tapenade bread, groseille dessert, foamy and very fruity with a wafer, excellent cheese plate and 1 bottle of wine for every 4 people. More bottles were available for a low price. After dinner was the Latin music with dancing. The French know how to party!
We had a 45 minute drive back in the dark to Mas Alibeaux, which was dark when we arrived. We said goodnight to Virginie and slept well.
Dieulefit was having a small market today, but it’s not a good market. Some local pottery set up in front of the church. No food, but a few pottery shops were open. The best shop was Yves de Provence on the main thoroughfare, which had a large variety of pottery, representing 17 artists, including some Mont Rachas. Dieulefit is known for picodon cheese and they have a display of iron goats representing their cheese at the roundabout going into town. We didn’t think much of Dieulefit. There is a large, free parking lot as you enter town though.
Chateau Grignan in Grignan has a fascinating history. Madame de Sévigné letters to her daughter , from Paris, who moved here after married, are remembered for describing day to day life in the 17th century. The outdoor gardens and terrace are free to visit, but go indoors for access. Guided tours of the Chateau are available also. The Chapel on the grounds contains the body of Françoise-Marguerite de Sévigné, her daughter.
We had contacted Oliver at www.wine-uncovered.com previous to our departure, but he was already booked for the day. We decided to stop in at some vineyards on our own in the Rhone. We loved the villages of Seguret, Sablet and Gigondas and had visited them in the past. We also signed up for the Fete in Gigondas next week, an aioli lunch to celebrate before the vendange. Gigondas was having a small art show, where I bought a lovely platter. The main plaza here is the site for L'Oustalet, an excellent restaurant. We drove up to Les Florets to see the restaurant there. It’s in a nice location with excellent views of the Dentelles.
In Seguret we thought of taking a hike described in the excellent book Walking And Eating In Provence, published by Moon. It was so hot 32C that we only walked a bit of the hike, then returned to town.
We bought Mourchon Rose and Saint Gayan red wine. At the Saint Gayan vineyard we were welcomed by Martine Meffre, owner. She speaks some English and graciously answered our questions and poured several samples of their excellent wine. http://www.saintgayan.com/ We bought some Rasteau Red and enjoyed comparing notes on our grown families.
Down the same road was Chateau Trignon, with beautiful grounds, but not quite so friendly welcome. The more we spoke with the woman here, the more she warmed up, answering more questions. They make white wine here because the consumer wants it, but she really didn’t care for it. We purchased red Gigondas and white Viognier.
Vacqueyras was our next stop but we didn’t care for the town then onto Beaumes de Venise and it’s sweet wines. Up to the beautiful area around Suzette. The roads are tiny here, and some turn to gravel. We had no time for Le Barroux, but it looked like it’d be wonderful to stop here.
Before we left on this trip I noticed that Vinsobres was having its Ban de Vendange today. This is a festival starting with the pressing of the first grapes, wine tastings from area growers and a community dinner, with music and dancing! What fun! We signed up, on line, not knowing what to expect. We were able to pay for the dinner when we arrived. 16€ each for an evening of fun, excellent dinner and good wine!
We arrived to find the pressing of the grapes almost over. We received our sample of the juice, WOW, is that delicious! Wish we could buy a bottle of this! Some village children were in Provencal costume and held baskets of grapes. A great crowd had gathered, and some children were enjoying horse and buggy rides through the small center. Next several vineyard owners were pouring samples of their wines, and little samples of food were available for tasting. This was great! We tried several, some better than others. No bottles were available for sale here.
A band was setting up under the big plane trees and sampling some of their music. It was a great village gathering. At 8 p.m. dinner started with everyone seated at long tables, just outside their fete hall, lights strung among the trees. Babies to Great Grandparents were here, all joining together. We sat at a long table, not knowing what to expect. Then, I heard some English! It turns out that we sat next to a couple from Paris, who previously lived in Lyon, and spoke English. This was their holiday. They were fascinated that we were Americans, visiting this small village, and more surprised at the extent we had visited France. Next to them were several couples who have retired to this village from Holland, Britian and Belgium. They really try to speak French while living in France, but gladly spoke to us, welcoming us kindly. We told them of our love of France and of our desire to live here someday, part time. They loved living in this village, and the sense of community here. We were encouraged to choose Vinsobres when we decided to move! We were even told of McCain’s choice of Sara Palin for VP. No one knew who she was, including us!
Excellent French food followed. A large charcuterie plate, duck slices, guina fowl, stuffed with olives, olive tapenade bread, groseille dessert, foamy and very fruity with a wafer, excellent cheese plate and 1 bottle of wine for every 4 people. More bottles were available for a low price. After dinner was the Latin music with dancing. The French know how to party!
We had a 45 minute drive back in the dark to Mas Alibeaux, which was dark when we arrived. We said goodnight to Virginie and slept well.
Sep 19th, 2008, 05:12 PM
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I thought I was about the only person in the world who had been to the fascinating Chateau Grignan! Thanks for reminding me what an amazing place it was, and how cool Madame de Sevigne was.
It was so windy the day we were there, I was almost blown off the belvedere!
Did you notice the structures on top of the houses/buildings to measure the wind?
It was so windy the day we were there, I was almost blown off the belvedere!
Did you notice the structures on top of the houses/buildings to measure the wind?
Sep 20th, 2008, 04:12 AM
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We had no wind the day we were there, thankfully. We did buy the French version of the letters from the gift shop, but I just ordered the English version!
Saturday, August 30
An interesting fact we learned in Vinsobres was the meaning of the Ban de Vendange. When a couple wants to get married in France, they must go to the Marie, City Hall and register their marriage. The Ban de Vendange is the official “registering” of the date you may start harvesting the grapes!
It was hard to say goodbye at Mas Alibeaux, after another good breakfast. We had trained our ear to French again, successfully, and even began speaking a bit. I told Virginie we’ll return again, someday. She thought I said well return again next week, opps.
Tonight we were going to go to the Marseille football game. It’s going to be a long day.
The A7 and A8 would have been a quick drive to our gite, but we wanted to see the scenery. From Nyons we took the D94 east through the Gorges, the area around Remuzat is wonderful. The Mountains de Maraysse close to Ribeyret is another highlight. At Serres we took D1075 south and found a traffic jam around Laragne Monteglin. School was starting for all students in France on September 2, les vacances are over, everyone is returning home! Apricot trees lined this area.
Sisteron is built at a narrow rock gap, or clue. Arriving from the north we found the free parking, overlooking the river. There is a great view of the “clues” across the river. To the left you can walk through the tunnel, on a walkway right through the mountain, into town. The Saturday morning market is located where the tunnel empties into town. A beautiful church, fountains and old town are in this area. We choose to walk to the right, up the steep hill, to the Citadel. More parking is available up here, along the road. There is an adventure course set among the trees along the steep path up to the citadel. We had no time to go into the Citadel, so walked on into town. The market had lots of fruit and vegetables, and was about to close, so we hurriedly bought more food to stock our gite.
Finding internet was so difficult on this trip. There is internet available in a Café across from the Sat. market area. It’s actually a laptop they plug in when you request it!
Heading south on the A51 highway we drove to Greoux-les-Bains looking for the crèche museum and shop. Not finding it , I asked the TI of it’s location. The woman who does the work, moved this museum north to Valensole this past March. No mention of this on the web site.
Taking D952 we drove onto Riez. This town is attractive, the Saturday market was over, but we parked where we were sure the fish stall had been. The distinct smell remained, although the parking area was hosed down. After calling the owner of our gite, and arranging our meeting time with her, we quickly walked through the village before our drive south.
This was the third time we’ve rented a gite in France. This gite was located at the end of the village, Correns. It was the perfect size for us, 2 bedrooms, 1 bath and a good sized yard. I loved the structure, the stone and open beams, but it wasn’t well stocked. The kitchen only had a small refrigerator, and the pots and pans, and silverware were very old. If the owner would update her kitchenware the gite would feel much better. It needed TLC. I could turn this gite into a wonderful home! Sure wish I could buy it and take good care of it. We rented sheets and towels for our stay. The sheets were fine, the towels not great, but we survived. I loved the huge windows and shutters. We slept with the windows open, it was so peaceful.
There is a good market in Brignoles, just 15 minutes away, but also a small market here in town, along with an excellent boulangerie and a tabac. Every other Saturday p.m. they had “movie night” for the village. Driving into Correns from the north, turning off D554 at Chateauvert on D45, the road goes along a canyon wall where rock climbing is popular. At the bottom is the river Argens. It’s quite beautiful and unlike the roads through the vineyards and olive trees in the area.
Before leaving for France we bought Marseille football tickets from their official website. We had an email confirming our purchase. We were to exchange this email for tickets at the stadium. Parking in the city, at Castellane, we took the metro to the stadium so we didn’t have to contend with all the traffic with parking at the stadium. Following the crowds to the stadium, we found that our seats were on the far side of the stadium. If you don’t have season tickets, this is where you sit. They don’t let you into the stadium gates, but require you to walk all around the outside of the stadium, a real hike of at least 30 minutes, to the gates we could enter. We almost missed the start. There was no box office to exchange our e-mail for tickets. It was a bit of a problem, but the gate manager read our e-mail and let us inside, thankfully. I guess we should have arrived 3 hours before the match to pick up tickets.
You can’t bring water into the stadium, and you are briefly searched before entering. The crowd was well behaved. There was a moment of silence for the fans that had died the previous week, when their bus crashed on the way to Paris to see a match. It was a great game, Marseille vs Sochaux, Marseille 2, Sochaux 1. I enjoyed watching the fan zones!
Saturday, August 30
An interesting fact we learned in Vinsobres was the meaning of the Ban de Vendange. When a couple wants to get married in France, they must go to the Marie, City Hall and register their marriage. The Ban de Vendange is the official “registering” of the date you may start harvesting the grapes!
It was hard to say goodbye at Mas Alibeaux, after another good breakfast. We had trained our ear to French again, successfully, and even began speaking a bit. I told Virginie we’ll return again, someday. She thought I said well return again next week, opps.
Tonight we were going to go to the Marseille football game. It’s going to be a long day.
The A7 and A8 would have been a quick drive to our gite, but we wanted to see the scenery. From Nyons we took the D94 east through the Gorges, the area around Remuzat is wonderful. The Mountains de Maraysse close to Ribeyret is another highlight. At Serres we took D1075 south and found a traffic jam around Laragne Monteglin. School was starting for all students in France on September 2, les vacances are over, everyone is returning home! Apricot trees lined this area.
Sisteron is built at a narrow rock gap, or clue. Arriving from the north we found the free parking, overlooking the river. There is a great view of the “clues” across the river. To the left you can walk through the tunnel, on a walkway right through the mountain, into town. The Saturday morning market is located where the tunnel empties into town. A beautiful church, fountains and old town are in this area. We choose to walk to the right, up the steep hill, to the Citadel. More parking is available up here, along the road. There is an adventure course set among the trees along the steep path up to the citadel. We had no time to go into the Citadel, so walked on into town. The market had lots of fruit and vegetables, and was about to close, so we hurriedly bought more food to stock our gite.
Finding internet was so difficult on this trip. There is internet available in a Café across from the Sat. market area. It’s actually a laptop they plug in when you request it!
Heading south on the A51 highway we drove to Greoux-les-Bains looking for the crèche museum and shop. Not finding it , I asked the TI of it’s location. The woman who does the work, moved this museum north to Valensole this past March. No mention of this on the web site.
Taking D952 we drove onto Riez. This town is attractive, the Saturday market was over, but we parked where we were sure the fish stall had been. The distinct smell remained, although the parking area was hosed down. After calling the owner of our gite, and arranging our meeting time with her, we quickly walked through the village before our drive south.
This was the third time we’ve rented a gite in France. This gite was located at the end of the village, Correns. It was the perfect size for us, 2 bedrooms, 1 bath and a good sized yard. I loved the structure, the stone and open beams, but it wasn’t well stocked. The kitchen only had a small refrigerator, and the pots and pans, and silverware were very old. If the owner would update her kitchenware the gite would feel much better. It needed TLC. I could turn this gite into a wonderful home! Sure wish I could buy it and take good care of it. We rented sheets and towels for our stay. The sheets were fine, the towels not great, but we survived. I loved the huge windows and shutters. We slept with the windows open, it was so peaceful.
There is a good market in Brignoles, just 15 minutes away, but also a small market here in town, along with an excellent boulangerie and a tabac. Every other Saturday p.m. they had “movie night” for the village. Driving into Correns from the north, turning off D554 at Chateauvert on D45, the road goes along a canyon wall where rock climbing is popular. At the bottom is the river Argens. It’s quite beautiful and unlike the roads through the vineyards and olive trees in the area.
Before leaving for France we bought Marseille football tickets from their official website. We had an email confirming our purchase. We were to exchange this email for tickets at the stadium. Parking in the city, at Castellane, we took the metro to the stadium so we didn’t have to contend with all the traffic with parking at the stadium. Following the crowds to the stadium, we found that our seats were on the far side of the stadium. If you don’t have season tickets, this is where you sit. They don’t let you into the stadium gates, but require you to walk all around the outside of the stadium, a real hike of at least 30 minutes, to the gates we could enter. We almost missed the start. There was no box office to exchange our e-mail for tickets. It was a bit of a problem, but the gate manager read our e-mail and let us inside, thankfully. I guess we should have arrived 3 hours before the match to pick up tickets.
You can’t bring water into the stadium, and you are briefly searched before entering. The crowd was well behaved. There was a moment of silence for the fans that had died the previous week, when their bus crashed on the way to Paris to see a match. It was a great game, Marseille vs Sochaux, Marseille 2, Sochaux 1. I enjoyed watching the fan zones!
Sep 20th, 2008, 05:16 AM
#10
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Sunday, August 31
Correns is in such a wonderful location, only 15 minutes north of A8. The area is beautiful, and it’s easy to access wonderful parts of France in every direction. Diesel is expensive though, and the tolls can add up fast.
Today was so much fun! We went biking on the Isle of Porquerolles. I used the book 26 Gorgeous Hikes on the Western Cote d’Azur by Florence Chatzigianis for ideas of hikes in the area around Hyeres, St.Tropez, the Esterel Mountains and the Maures Mountains. There were suggestions for the Isles also.
Driving down the D43, an easy drive, to D14/ D12 to Hyeres then taking D42 past the airport, we arrived at the Presqu’ile de Giens at la Tour-Fondue. There are 2 large parking areas here where you can leave your car and take the ferry over to the Ile de Porquerolles, not far from the coast. The ferry ride is about 20 minutes and 16€ round trip. They leave every 30 minutes this time of year. The schedule is on the net. The price is steep but the island is wonderful! Many people come over and stay for their vacation. We rented bikes at the harbor for 13€ each for the day and took off. There are several trails along the coasts, and through the island. The TI has a map for 2€ if you want to buy one. There are posts scattered around the island pointing to different locations. I hate to bike hills, but these mountain bikes did a good job, and it wasn’t too hard. Much of the island is flat. Most surfaces are hard packed dirt, with rocks sprinkled in. Some sand, which bogs down the bike!
We first biked to Plage de Notre-Dame, about a 25 min. ride, locked up the bikes along the posts that line the road. Everyone does this, it’s safe to leave the bikes. This is a sandy beach but with a rocky entry into the water but then the sea bottom is totally sandy. The water is very clear with no fish and is shallow. Many boats are anchored further out. It’s beautiful. The beach is a narrow band of sand and not too crowded, it’s very long. We spent over an hour here.
We rode down this road a bit more, and then turned around. The lanes are lined in trees which provide great shade much of the time. It was 33C today, so when we biked through the vineyards of white grapes in the center of the island it was quite hot. You can buy wine from the Domains’ here. Deciding to bike the other direction, we rode through the village center which has market stalls set up with fresh fruit and vegetables, ice cream shops, and more. It’s also very attractive.
Taking the long way to Plage d’Argent was so, so beautiful. Large parasol pine trees overhead. It was quite downhill though. This beach is larger, very wide, and has a terrace restaurant, as well as a bar and simple tables with very affordable food. It’s a very, very nice beach with afternoon shade. It’s also more crowded because it’s closer to town and you can easily walk to it. Families crowded the beach, but I actually liked this beach better. The approach into the sea is sandy, but one in it can be mossy and has large rocks on the bottom. We had only a short time here, before we biked the short way back to town, turned in our bikes and took the ferry back to the port. There are 2 other islands you can ferry to from this location.
The Giens Peninsula is very attractive, also in this area. We drove to the small center of Giens, and enjoyed a pitcher of wine with view of the sea. There is an overlook of the whole area here, and small outdoor TI with information. Giens Peninsula was very, very crowded, along the coast. The book I mentioned has great information on hikes here, and I very much wanted to return another day to hike the coastline, but we never had time to return.
We drove through the center of Hyeres on our return home, but the town didn’t appeal to us. We did return another day to see the old center.
Hoping to have dinner tonight in Cotignac, 15 minutes to the north of Correns, we drove in only to find a kiddy festival had taken over the whole village. We turned around, drove back to our gite and cooked a fine meal in our kitchen!
Correns is in such a wonderful location, only 15 minutes north of A8. The area is beautiful, and it’s easy to access wonderful parts of France in every direction. Diesel is expensive though, and the tolls can add up fast.
Today was so much fun! We went biking on the Isle of Porquerolles. I used the book 26 Gorgeous Hikes on the Western Cote d’Azur by Florence Chatzigianis for ideas of hikes in the area around Hyeres, St.Tropez, the Esterel Mountains and the Maures Mountains. There were suggestions for the Isles also.
Driving down the D43, an easy drive, to D14/ D12 to Hyeres then taking D42 past the airport, we arrived at the Presqu’ile de Giens at la Tour-Fondue. There are 2 large parking areas here where you can leave your car and take the ferry over to the Ile de Porquerolles, not far from the coast. The ferry ride is about 20 minutes and 16€ round trip. They leave every 30 minutes this time of year. The schedule is on the net. The price is steep but the island is wonderful! Many people come over and stay for their vacation. We rented bikes at the harbor for 13€ each for the day and took off. There are several trails along the coasts, and through the island. The TI has a map for 2€ if you want to buy one. There are posts scattered around the island pointing to different locations. I hate to bike hills, but these mountain bikes did a good job, and it wasn’t too hard. Much of the island is flat. Most surfaces are hard packed dirt, with rocks sprinkled in. Some sand, which bogs down the bike!
We first biked to Plage de Notre-Dame, about a 25 min. ride, locked up the bikes along the posts that line the road. Everyone does this, it’s safe to leave the bikes. This is a sandy beach but with a rocky entry into the water but then the sea bottom is totally sandy. The water is very clear with no fish and is shallow. Many boats are anchored further out. It’s beautiful. The beach is a narrow band of sand and not too crowded, it’s very long. We spent over an hour here.
We rode down this road a bit more, and then turned around. The lanes are lined in trees which provide great shade much of the time. It was 33C today, so when we biked through the vineyards of white grapes in the center of the island it was quite hot. You can buy wine from the Domains’ here. Deciding to bike the other direction, we rode through the village center which has market stalls set up with fresh fruit and vegetables, ice cream shops, and more. It’s also very attractive.
Taking the long way to Plage d’Argent was so, so beautiful. Large parasol pine trees overhead. It was quite downhill though. This beach is larger, very wide, and has a terrace restaurant, as well as a bar and simple tables with very affordable food. It’s a very, very nice beach with afternoon shade. It’s also more crowded because it’s closer to town and you can easily walk to it. Families crowded the beach, but I actually liked this beach better. The approach into the sea is sandy, but one in it can be mossy and has large rocks on the bottom. We had only a short time here, before we biked the short way back to town, turned in our bikes and took the ferry back to the port. There are 2 other islands you can ferry to from this location.
The Giens Peninsula is very attractive, also in this area. We drove to the small center of Giens, and enjoyed a pitcher of wine with view of the sea. There is an overlook of the whole area here, and small outdoor TI with information. Giens Peninsula was very, very crowded, along the coast. The book I mentioned has great information on hikes here, and I very much wanted to return another day to hike the coastline, but we never had time to return.
We drove through the center of Hyeres on our return home, but the town didn’t appeal to us. We did return another day to see the old center.
Hoping to have dinner tonight in Cotignac, 15 minutes to the north of Correns, we drove in only to find a kiddy festival had taken over the whole village. We turned around, drove back to our gite and cooked a fine meal in our kitchen!
Sep 20th, 2008, 08:29 AM
#11
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Monday, September 1
Marseille, the port and Calanques
Driving the hour back to Marseille, we accidently took Exit 2b which went through a long tunnel and cost 2.60€ for the privilege. I thought we should get off at exit 1 instead. This turned into a good thing though, since an exit out of this tunnel went directly to the old port. We parked here, but that was a mistake. Parking was so much more expensive than in town, 8.40€ for 4 hours. We walked along the pretty port, where there is an official Marseille football store (had to shop here) and an internet café. These are close to the fish market, which sets up each morning. We liked seeing the sword fish heads the fishermen stored!
I wanted to find the FNAC music store, but couldn’t find it on my Google map of directions. Finally after asking for help, I learned you don’t say the initials F N A C, but f nac, as if it’s a word! This was a really valuable lesson!!! The large store was in a huge shopping center by the Bourse. I bought more French CD’s to update my large collection! There’s an area of books and DVD’s here also.
Marseille was mostly a shopping stop; we didn’t care for the town much. There is an area of fabric stores I liked, and bought some fabric for new tablecloths for our gite, which I took home.
Wanting to hike to Calanque Morgiou, we asked the TI how to drive to the parking area. They have a great map there and can give directions. We needed it. You drive east along the coast, towards Stade Velodrome. Rond Point is on the signs then follow the signs to Limouz. This is the location of the parking lot, or street parking for the hike into the Calanques. A bus also makes this trip, I think Bus 21.
It’s a pretty, but long hike just to the start of the hike to Morgiou. It was 33C again. Very hot in the sun. We decided upon arriving, that the hike down to Morgiou or Sugiton was going to take a very long time. Instead we hiked to the viewpoint. This was still at least 45 minutes or a hour one way with spectacular views! We were thrilled with the views and it turned out to be the right choice for us. Others were walking, even one couple pushing a stroller, down the very, very long downhill walkway to a calanque. It would be a long, steep walk back up. I’m not sure which calanque was which. If anyone here knows, I’d love to get it clarified, since one day we may try again, but when it’s cooler. Is the uphill path on the right to Morgiou and the long downhill path to Sugiton?
Since we didn’t spend the afternoon at a calanque, we drove to Cassis. We’ve been here before. We checked the TI about hiking the Cassis calanques, and it was limited to hiking between 6 – 11 a.m. The fire hazard was to high. They have a phone number to call for current conditions. These hikes are probably better done in October. Prices for food here were so high we just ordered a Croque Monsieur from a stand across from Amoretto’s ice cream shop. Cassis is a very delightful town with a great beach, a great place to stay. The traffic wasn’t as bad as when we stayed here in June one year.
This evening we returned to Cotignac for dinner in the pretty square. The carnival was gone, with school starting tomorrow. We ate at La Fountaine de la Terrace. Dinners are 21€ for 2 courses and 25 or 26€ for 3 courses. The portions are very large and excellent. The peach soup came with a large pile of blue cotton candy on the top. Very strange indeed!
Marseille, the port and Calanques
Driving the hour back to Marseille, we accidently took Exit 2b which went through a long tunnel and cost 2.60€ for the privilege. I thought we should get off at exit 1 instead. This turned into a good thing though, since an exit out of this tunnel went directly to the old port. We parked here, but that was a mistake. Parking was so much more expensive than in town, 8.40€ for 4 hours. We walked along the pretty port, where there is an official Marseille football store (had to shop here) and an internet café. These are close to the fish market, which sets up each morning. We liked seeing the sword fish heads the fishermen stored!
I wanted to find the FNAC music store, but couldn’t find it on my Google map of directions. Finally after asking for help, I learned you don’t say the initials F N A C, but f nac, as if it’s a word! This was a really valuable lesson!!! The large store was in a huge shopping center by the Bourse. I bought more French CD’s to update my large collection! There’s an area of books and DVD’s here also.
Marseille was mostly a shopping stop; we didn’t care for the town much. There is an area of fabric stores I liked, and bought some fabric for new tablecloths for our gite, which I took home.
Wanting to hike to Calanque Morgiou, we asked the TI how to drive to the parking area. They have a great map there and can give directions. We needed it. You drive east along the coast, towards Stade Velodrome. Rond Point is on the signs then follow the signs to Limouz. This is the location of the parking lot, or street parking for the hike into the Calanques. A bus also makes this trip, I think Bus 21.
It’s a pretty, but long hike just to the start of the hike to Morgiou. It was 33C again. Very hot in the sun. We decided upon arriving, that the hike down to Morgiou or Sugiton was going to take a very long time. Instead we hiked to the viewpoint. This was still at least 45 minutes or a hour one way with spectacular views! We were thrilled with the views and it turned out to be the right choice for us. Others were walking, even one couple pushing a stroller, down the very, very long downhill walkway to a calanque. It would be a long, steep walk back up. I’m not sure which calanque was which. If anyone here knows, I’d love to get it clarified, since one day we may try again, but when it’s cooler. Is the uphill path on the right to Morgiou and the long downhill path to Sugiton?
Since we didn’t spend the afternoon at a calanque, we drove to Cassis. We’ve been here before. We checked the TI about hiking the Cassis calanques, and it was limited to hiking between 6 – 11 a.m. The fire hazard was to high. They have a phone number to call for current conditions. These hikes are probably better done in October. Prices for food here were so high we just ordered a Croque Monsieur from a stand across from Amoretto’s ice cream shop. Cassis is a very delightful town with a great beach, a great place to stay. The traffic wasn’t as bad as when we stayed here in June one year.
This evening we returned to Cotignac for dinner in the pretty square. The carnival was gone, with school starting tomorrow. We ate at La Fountaine de la Terrace. Dinners are 21€ for 2 courses and 25 or 26€ for 3 courses. The portions are very large and excellent. The peach soup came with a large pile of blue cotton candy on the top. Very strange indeed!
Sep 23rd, 2008, 03:52 AM
#13
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Thanks Cobbie, Here's more:
Tuesday September 2
Market Day in St. Tropez!! Our challenge was how to arrive without horrible traffic. Unfortunately this meant leaving at 7:45 a.m. Maybe we’ll nap on a beach! We took the very twisty D558 through la Garde-Freinet and Grimaud down to St. Tropez. You can’t pass any cars along this road without risking death. It was Ok to drive occasionally, but I’m so happy we didn’t stay in a gite here. It would be much to difficult to drive it every day. It’s a pretty drive. Having no problem arriving, we parked at Place des Lices, arriving at 9:20. This was the perfect spot to park because it exits right by the huge market. The prices are expensive, again 8.40€ for 4 hours.
The Tuesday market in St. Tropez was the best market I’ve ever seen. I think I’ve been to most in Provence and this was my favorite. The booths were so varied, not only in Provence products, of good quality, but also the food booths had things I’ve never seen in the market before. Such a good variety, but things sold out, so don’t wait until later in the day to buy.
If you want a newspaper, they are selling them in the row of shops backing the cafes that face the harbor. Somehow we missed this and walked the whole town looking for a Journal shop. Internet is here, but expensive. There weren’t as many yachts here as I remember from past trips. 2 Marinette shops are in town. This is an excellent home linens and quilt shop. The shops were crowded with good reason. After spending all morning here, we love Saint Tropez, we drove on to the beaches.
Pampelonne beach we had spent time at in the past, so we decided to try the Plage de l’Escalet area. Today we made the mistake of parking in the free lot here, hiking along the coastal trail the Sentier du Littoral, which is off to the right, described in 26 Gorgeous Hikes on the Western Cote d’Azur. This is to difficult to hike weighted down with beach towels, lunch, etc. But still, we arrived at the beautiful coves, each one tiny, strung along the coastline like jewels. We chose one, all sandy with easy walk in access to an incredibly beautiful cove. The water was clear, we spent a lovely afternoon here before hiking back. Later we learned we didn’t even have to hike back.
The key to these coves is this: Drive down to Plage de l’Escalet where you’ll see the free parking lot. Go ahead and park in it, or if you want, turn right and very close by there is a 4€ pay lot. This lot is tiny, but you drive about ½ mile down to the few parking spaces. You can just as easily walk into the pay lot, and walk the nice, flat road to where there is easy access to the walkway which hangs above all the tiny coves. This is what we did the 2nd time we went to the coves here. It’s a jewel of an area. A lot of Germans were spending their day here, as well as a couple who rowed in a kayak from their yacht which had anchored off shore.
Driving back to Correns we took the road through Ramatuelle, having no traffic problems. Later, we made another mistake, as we drove by the Pampelonne beaches, to see if they had changed, and up D93 to return home. Of course, we got stuck in the huge traffic mess caused by the intersection of D93 and D98. NEVER do this around 4:30 – 5:00. You’ll sit as only 2 cars at a time can get through the intersection, and there is almost total gridlock leaving the St. Tropez area.
Cooking with the food we bought at the morning market, we ended our day with aperitifs on our patio, and a nice dinner watching the 8:00 TF1 news we enjoy. We brought our ipod full of French CD’s and small speakers, so each evening we could listen to French music.
Tuesday September 2
Market Day in St. Tropez!! Our challenge was how to arrive without horrible traffic. Unfortunately this meant leaving at 7:45 a.m. Maybe we’ll nap on a beach! We took the very twisty D558 through la Garde-Freinet and Grimaud down to St. Tropez. You can’t pass any cars along this road without risking death. It was Ok to drive occasionally, but I’m so happy we didn’t stay in a gite here. It would be much to difficult to drive it every day. It’s a pretty drive. Having no problem arriving, we parked at Place des Lices, arriving at 9:20. This was the perfect spot to park because it exits right by the huge market. The prices are expensive, again 8.40€ for 4 hours.
The Tuesday market in St. Tropez was the best market I’ve ever seen. I think I’ve been to most in Provence and this was my favorite. The booths were so varied, not only in Provence products, of good quality, but also the food booths had things I’ve never seen in the market before. Such a good variety, but things sold out, so don’t wait until later in the day to buy.
If you want a newspaper, they are selling them in the row of shops backing the cafes that face the harbor. Somehow we missed this and walked the whole town looking for a Journal shop. Internet is here, but expensive. There weren’t as many yachts here as I remember from past trips. 2 Marinette shops are in town. This is an excellent home linens and quilt shop. The shops were crowded with good reason. After spending all morning here, we love Saint Tropez, we drove on to the beaches.
Pampelonne beach we had spent time at in the past, so we decided to try the Plage de l’Escalet area. Today we made the mistake of parking in the free lot here, hiking along the coastal trail the Sentier du Littoral, which is off to the right, described in 26 Gorgeous Hikes on the Western Cote d’Azur. This is to difficult to hike weighted down with beach towels, lunch, etc. But still, we arrived at the beautiful coves, each one tiny, strung along the coastline like jewels. We chose one, all sandy with easy walk in access to an incredibly beautiful cove. The water was clear, we spent a lovely afternoon here before hiking back. Later we learned we didn’t even have to hike back.
The key to these coves is this: Drive down to Plage de l’Escalet where you’ll see the free parking lot. Go ahead and park in it, or if you want, turn right and very close by there is a 4€ pay lot. This lot is tiny, but you drive about ½ mile down to the few parking spaces. You can just as easily walk into the pay lot, and walk the nice, flat road to where there is easy access to the walkway which hangs above all the tiny coves. This is what we did the 2nd time we went to the coves here. It’s a jewel of an area. A lot of Germans were spending their day here, as well as a couple who rowed in a kayak from their yacht which had anchored off shore.
Driving back to Correns we took the road through Ramatuelle, having no traffic problems. Later, we made another mistake, as we drove by the Pampelonne beaches, to see if they had changed, and up D93 to return home. Of course, we got stuck in the huge traffic mess caused by the intersection of D93 and D98. NEVER do this around 4:30 – 5:00. You’ll sit as only 2 cars at a time can get through the intersection, and there is almost total gridlock leaving the St. Tropez area.
Cooking with the food we bought at the morning market, we ended our day with aperitifs on our patio, and a nice dinner watching the 8:00 TF1 news we enjoy. We brought our ipod full of French CD’s and small speakers, so each evening we could listen to French music.
Sep 23rd, 2008, 04:11 AM
#14
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Wednesday, September 3
Today we stayed in the area northeast of Correns, stopping in Cotignac, Salernes, Aups, Tourtour, Chateaudouble, Bargemon, Seillans and Fayence. Most of these are tiny villages, requiring little time. If you want to hike in this area, again, the book Walking and Eating in Provence offers suggestions. We need to return and focus on hiking, since each of these takes a few hours. Our rental car needed oil. The oil is filthy, looks like they’ve never changed the oil in the car. It has 6,000 miles on it.
We liked Cotignac a lot. It’s a mid sized village, with a pretty square with several cafes to choose from. A good Journal shop, post office, small grocery, decorating shop, honey shop, and numerous realtors. We actually stopped into one and discussed the process of buying a home in France. Still. the prices are very expensive for the home you get here. The notary process takes 3 months after you’ve decided on the home to purchase. When a home is put up for sale, it’s not limited to one agency. Several agencies list the same property and can have slightly different pictures and price for the same property. The agency fee is high and is the notary fees, which the buyer pays. Taxes are determined by the age and size of the property and the income of the buyer. I think our dream needs a stronger dollar!
The market in Salernes was poor, and the town uninteresting. We did stop by the Pierre Basset tile store, a bit outside of the village. They have a large showroom. I enjoyed looking at the traditional and modern tiles they make here. I asked to buy 2 samples and they just let me have them! Salernes is known for the small, hexagonal floor tiles made here.
The road between Salernes and Aups was full of trees with orange dots painted on their trunks. They were logging here, cutting them down. I didn’t like seeing the damage.
Aups is a delightful town. The market today was very good. Lots of variety and good food choices. Tourist market also. There are good village shops here and plenty of restaurants. If this town wasn’t so far from A8, it’d be a great place to stay. It’s not far from Lac de St.Croix and the Verdon canyon.
Tourtour is very picture some. We parked up close to the church. Don’t go into the parking area off to the right here, close to the church. Drive straight ahead where the parking is easier. There was a large, French towel, quilt and tablecloth vendor set up right next to the center, downhill from the church, even though it was lunch time, they didn’t close their outdoor shop. Notices were posted by the church about the pope’s visit to Paris and Lourdes.
We stopped into the boulangerie and bought some slices of anchovie and onion pizza for lunch. Walking past the lavoir, uphill, there is a bench with a wonderful view over Tourtour and the countryside. It was a nice site to relax and picnic. There was a hiking trail starting here.
The roads in this area are very twisty. It’s very isolated. We wouldn’t want to rent a gite here, as cute as this village is.
Ampus – Nothing here, move on. There is a hike from my book that starts here.
Chateaudouble – I really wanted to like this village, but didn’t. The area is beautiful to drive through, but the town was shut up tight. Boring. The café at the overlook had all the chairs on top of the tables. It’s only September 3, the return was just yesterday. I had to use the public WC, never a good thing. It was disgusting. I don’t think there is any excuse for this. Do the French really want their wives and daughters using these things??
From here we should have just taken the D955 down toward Les Arcs, but instead we drove onto Bargeman, Seillans then Fayence. We didn’t find it interesting. Fayence was average, with several shops. We did stop in the fabric store here. It’s unusual because it has many bolts of Provencal fabric lined up just as in an American fabric shop. The difference is that the owner won’t allow you to touch any of the fabric. Don’t you dare take a bolt down. If you want to see it, ask him to show it to you. Then decide quickly if you want some or not. He’s not patient. After trying to look for about 10 minutes, we left the shop. I was very stressed by the situation. I did want some fabric though. We returned, when I decided to buy ½ meter of a few bolts. I love to quilt, so thought some fabrics would be nice to add to my collection. Well, when I requested ½ meter he got angry with me. NO, no, that’s not possible. 1 meter minimum he insisted. I didn’t want to leave again. My husband interjected, asking him how to say a few things in French. He liked that. Finally we convinced him I would buy ½ meters of several different fabrics. He wasn’t pleased but gave in.
Then he disagreed with my choices. If I bought one fabric, I should buy the “matching” 2nd fabric. No, I didn’t want that bolt. He was pretty unhappy with me, but we finally did leave with 5 ½ meter lengths of fabric! I’ll not return to his shop.
Between Correns and Carces on D562 is a shop selling foie gras. There is a sign showing the direction. The shop was closing when we arrived, but kindly reopened for our purchase. Trying to open that jar was almost impossible though! We enjoyed it, along with other French delights with our aperitifs outdoors, and cooked dinner in this evening. I brought some of my recipes with us from French cookbooks at home, and really enjoyed cooking them while in France!
Today we stayed in the area northeast of Correns, stopping in Cotignac, Salernes, Aups, Tourtour, Chateaudouble, Bargemon, Seillans and Fayence. Most of these are tiny villages, requiring little time. If you want to hike in this area, again, the book Walking and Eating in Provence offers suggestions. We need to return and focus on hiking, since each of these takes a few hours. Our rental car needed oil. The oil is filthy, looks like they’ve never changed the oil in the car. It has 6,000 miles on it.
We liked Cotignac a lot. It’s a mid sized village, with a pretty square with several cafes to choose from. A good Journal shop, post office, small grocery, decorating shop, honey shop, and numerous realtors. We actually stopped into one and discussed the process of buying a home in France. Still. the prices are very expensive for the home you get here. The notary process takes 3 months after you’ve decided on the home to purchase. When a home is put up for sale, it’s not limited to one agency. Several agencies list the same property and can have slightly different pictures and price for the same property. The agency fee is high and is the notary fees, which the buyer pays. Taxes are determined by the age and size of the property and the income of the buyer. I think our dream needs a stronger dollar!
The market in Salernes was poor, and the town uninteresting. We did stop by the Pierre Basset tile store, a bit outside of the village. They have a large showroom. I enjoyed looking at the traditional and modern tiles they make here. I asked to buy 2 samples and they just let me have them! Salernes is known for the small, hexagonal floor tiles made here.
The road between Salernes and Aups was full of trees with orange dots painted on their trunks. They were logging here, cutting them down. I didn’t like seeing the damage.
Aups is a delightful town. The market today was very good. Lots of variety and good food choices. Tourist market also. There are good village shops here and plenty of restaurants. If this town wasn’t so far from A8, it’d be a great place to stay. It’s not far from Lac de St.Croix and the Verdon canyon.
Tourtour is very picture some. We parked up close to the church. Don’t go into the parking area off to the right here, close to the church. Drive straight ahead where the parking is easier. There was a large, French towel, quilt and tablecloth vendor set up right next to the center, downhill from the church, even though it was lunch time, they didn’t close their outdoor shop. Notices were posted by the church about the pope’s visit to Paris and Lourdes.
We stopped into the boulangerie and bought some slices of anchovie and onion pizza for lunch. Walking past the lavoir, uphill, there is a bench with a wonderful view over Tourtour and the countryside. It was a nice site to relax and picnic. There was a hiking trail starting here.
The roads in this area are very twisty. It’s very isolated. We wouldn’t want to rent a gite here, as cute as this village is.
Ampus – Nothing here, move on. There is a hike from my book that starts here.
Chateaudouble – I really wanted to like this village, but didn’t. The area is beautiful to drive through, but the town was shut up tight. Boring. The café at the overlook had all the chairs on top of the tables. It’s only September 3, the return was just yesterday. I had to use the public WC, never a good thing. It was disgusting. I don’t think there is any excuse for this. Do the French really want their wives and daughters using these things??
From here we should have just taken the D955 down toward Les Arcs, but instead we drove onto Bargeman, Seillans then Fayence. We didn’t find it interesting. Fayence was average, with several shops. We did stop in the fabric store here. It’s unusual because it has many bolts of Provencal fabric lined up just as in an American fabric shop. The difference is that the owner won’t allow you to touch any of the fabric. Don’t you dare take a bolt down. If you want to see it, ask him to show it to you. Then decide quickly if you want some or not. He’s not patient. After trying to look for about 10 minutes, we left the shop. I was very stressed by the situation. I did want some fabric though. We returned, when I decided to buy ½ meter of a few bolts. I love to quilt, so thought some fabrics would be nice to add to my collection. Well, when I requested ½ meter he got angry with me. NO, no, that’s not possible. 1 meter minimum he insisted. I didn’t want to leave again. My husband interjected, asking him how to say a few things in French. He liked that. Finally we convinced him I would buy ½ meters of several different fabrics. He wasn’t pleased but gave in.
Then he disagreed with my choices. If I bought one fabric, I should buy the “matching” 2nd fabric. No, I didn’t want that bolt. He was pretty unhappy with me, but we finally did leave with 5 ½ meter lengths of fabric! I’ll not return to his shop.
Between Correns and Carces on D562 is a shop selling foie gras. There is a sign showing the direction. The shop was closing when we arrived, but kindly reopened for our purchase. Trying to open that jar was almost impossible though! We enjoyed it, along with other French delights with our aperitifs outdoors, and cooked dinner in this evening. I brought some of my recipes with us from French cookbooks at home, and really enjoyed cooking them while in France!
Sep 23rd, 2008, 04:55 AM
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Thanks for the delightful on-going trip report, images2. My husband and I were in this area, Provence Verte, this past summer and have visited most of the villages in your report. At one point, we were running out of time and have to choose between Salernes and Cotignac, and while trying to decide on a small street in Villecroze which to visit,a Frenchman came upon us and told us to choose Cotignac. He was right. The town was really charming!! I actually visited it again a couple of weeks later by myself only, as I remained in France waiting for my teen to finish summer language school.Also I really liked Villecroze rather than Tourtour, as well as Aups and the markets in Carces and Entrecasteaux.
Sep 23rd, 2008, 05:37 AM
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Hi Joy,
Lucky you, spending so much time here. I agree Cotignac is so charming. I'd love to live in this area. A lot of English are living here, they'd surface on market day! We also bumped into an American couple in the decor shop in Cotignac who rented a house there for 7 months. They were preparing their return to the
U.S. but will return, hoping to find a larger town next time. They found Cotignac to small to live in year around. In the winter it closes down.
Looking at my map, I know we drove through Villecroze, but I can't remember it. What did you like about that village? We bought some wine from Chateau Thuerry, I believe it's around Villecroze.
What a great opportunity for your teen to go to French language school. Where was the school?
Lucky you, spending so much time here. I agree Cotignac is so charming. I'd love to live in this area. A lot of English are living here, they'd surface on market day! We also bumped into an American couple in the decor shop in Cotignac who rented a house there for 7 months. They were preparing their return to the
U.S. but will return, hoping to find a larger town next time. They found Cotignac to small to live in year around. In the winter it closes down.
Looking at my map, I know we drove through Villecroze, but I can't remember it. What did you like about that village? We bought some wine from Chateau Thuerry, I believe it's around Villecroze.
What a great opportunity for your teen to go to French language school. Where was the school?
Sep 23rd, 2008, 07:29 AM
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Thursday, September 4
Aix -en -Provence
Having spent the night in Aix once, but not really exploring the city I was anxious to return. This is a beautiful city, full of large, leafy trees. I used Stu’s parking directions when we arrived. Exit A8 at Exit 30. I printed out directions from ViaMichelin.com to help with the traffic circles. This helped a lot. The parking garage is now accessed on the right side of the road, before you reach the huge fountain. It’s very easy to enter and has 900 spaces. No need to circle the fountain and head back the opposite direction. If you do this, you won’t find a parking garage at all. We arrived in Aix at 9:45 and had no problem with traffic. The market on Cours Mirabeau wasn’t to interesting, but the road was beautiful with its mossy fountains. The year we stayed overnight here, all of Cours Mirabeau was torn up. It was a construction zone. Today we found it much more appealing. There were several markets scattered throughout the city today, all very good. A flower market was located outside of Hotel de Ville.
We wanted to find a Credit Agricole bank here and try and open a bank account. We contacted them before we left to find out what documentation they required. Although almost every other bank in France is located in Aix on Cours Mirabeau, Credit Agricole wasn’t. We asked at Hotel de Ville where to find one, and made our way there. We requested a meeting with a bank employee so we could try to open this account. We were warmly greeted and felt prepared. The employee listened to our reasons for wanting an account, we spoke with some French, some English. He then told us he didn’t think this was the bank for us. What??? It’s one of the largest in the world. Why wouldn’t it be adequate for our needs? He said that the banks are localized into specific areas, and since we traveled all over France we should set up our account at a different bank. We disagreed, but what could we do. Finally he called a colleague who “spoke better English”. She was at their office in Marseille. She told us she’d call us again, in a few days. A week later she did return our call, informing us, that yes, we could open an account. Could we please come to Marseille to do this. We couldn’t open it at any other branch in our area. Well, since we were to leave this area in 2 days (once she called) we couldn’t arrange a time to meet. I guess we’ll try again while in Paris.
For lunch we bought food from the markets, wonderful cooked shrimp, olive bread etc. Lunch at Deux Garcons is 18.50€ so we passed, and picnicked instead. Internet was affordable here so we caught up with news from home (sports) and e-mails.
After lunch we drove north of town to find the Atelier Cezanne at 9, ave. Paul Cezanne. The TI in Aix is large and has maps. There is no street parking here, so we drove past it and found a side street with parking. If you walk here it’s a very long, uphill hike. Bus #1 or #21 stop here also. The Atelier reopened at 2 p.m. after its lunch break. Entry is 7€ for the 1 room studio and small garden area. Cezanne painted some of his greatest still life’s here, and the objects he used are still found in this studio.
If you drive North up ave.Paul Cezanne a bit, you can spot Mt. St. Victory to the east. It appears in many of Cezanne’s paintings. We want to drive through this area, and tried finding a way from Aix. It was to difficult to find the right road. We should have driven back to A8, then exit at Exit #32 for a much easier way to approach the area.
Aix -en -Provence
Having spent the night in Aix once, but not really exploring the city I was anxious to return. This is a beautiful city, full of large, leafy trees. I used Stu’s parking directions when we arrived. Exit A8 at Exit 30. I printed out directions from ViaMichelin.com to help with the traffic circles. This helped a lot. The parking garage is now accessed on the right side of the road, before you reach the huge fountain. It’s very easy to enter and has 900 spaces. No need to circle the fountain and head back the opposite direction. If you do this, you won’t find a parking garage at all. We arrived in Aix at 9:45 and had no problem with traffic. The market on Cours Mirabeau wasn’t to interesting, but the road was beautiful with its mossy fountains. The year we stayed overnight here, all of Cours Mirabeau was torn up. It was a construction zone. Today we found it much more appealing. There were several markets scattered throughout the city today, all very good. A flower market was located outside of Hotel de Ville.
We wanted to find a Credit Agricole bank here and try and open a bank account. We contacted them before we left to find out what documentation they required. Although almost every other bank in France is located in Aix on Cours Mirabeau, Credit Agricole wasn’t. We asked at Hotel de Ville where to find one, and made our way there. We requested a meeting with a bank employee so we could try to open this account. We were warmly greeted and felt prepared. The employee listened to our reasons for wanting an account, we spoke with some French, some English. He then told us he didn’t think this was the bank for us. What??? It’s one of the largest in the world. Why wouldn’t it be adequate for our needs? He said that the banks are localized into specific areas, and since we traveled all over France we should set up our account at a different bank. We disagreed, but what could we do. Finally he called a colleague who “spoke better English”. She was at their office in Marseille. She told us she’d call us again, in a few days. A week later she did return our call, informing us, that yes, we could open an account. Could we please come to Marseille to do this. We couldn’t open it at any other branch in our area. Well, since we were to leave this area in 2 days (once she called) we couldn’t arrange a time to meet. I guess we’ll try again while in Paris.
For lunch we bought food from the markets, wonderful cooked shrimp, olive bread etc. Lunch at Deux Garcons is 18.50€ so we passed, and picnicked instead. Internet was affordable here so we caught up with news from home (sports) and e-mails.
After lunch we drove north of town to find the Atelier Cezanne at 9, ave. Paul Cezanne. The TI in Aix is large and has maps. There is no street parking here, so we drove past it and found a side street with parking. If you walk here it’s a very long, uphill hike. Bus #1 or #21 stop here also. The Atelier reopened at 2 p.m. after its lunch break. Entry is 7€ for the 1 room studio and small garden area. Cezanne painted some of his greatest still life’s here, and the objects he used are still found in this studio.
If you drive North up ave.Paul Cezanne a bit, you can spot Mt. St. Victory to the east. It appears in many of Cezanne’s paintings. We want to drive through this area, and tried finding a way from Aix. It was to difficult to find the right road. We should have driven back to A8, then exit at Exit #32 for a much easier way to approach the area.
Sep 24th, 2008, 05:04 AM
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Friday, September 5
Moustires-Ste.Marie and Lac de St. Croix
This morning was market day in our village. Since Correns is a Bio village, we had a Bio fruit and vegetable market. It was only one market stall! One meat van and one horse meat van also arrived. We thought a fish van was going to be coming also, but if it did, it was after we left town for the morning.
It’s an easy drive north to Moustiers-St-Marie, the beautiful village on one side of the Grand Canyon du Verdon. Driving up D957 through les Salles-s-Verdon, we noticed kayaks on the banks of the lake. Several people were standing on the bridge looking down. There is a pull out off the road just past this bridge so we pulled over and went to look with the others. The kayakers, who started at the opposite bank, were going under the bridge, then up the river, through the gorge with its high rock walls. It was so, so beautiful. We thought of coming back here after town.
Of course we chose Friday to drive here since it’s market day. See a pattern here! The market is strung along the narrow road, and is quite good. We bought some delicious Rebochon cheese, a huge chunk for just 3,50€, more olive bread and other picnic items for our lunch today. We visited this town once before, just a quick stop, after driving the canyon, and I think going on market day was much more interesting. The shops are still open, and the market didn’t distract from the beautiful location of this village. It wasn’t overcrowded either. Don’t miss the square, uphill, just past the TI. Go under the arch and up. Somehow we missed this pretty area on our last visit here.
Hiking up to the church is steep, but not to difficult. The difficult part is walking back down. Those stones are so very slippery, rubbed slick with years. There is a hand rail to hold onto which is of help. The views from above are wonderful!
Since we’d driven the gorge in the past, I didn’t need to drive it again today. Instead we decided to spend some time at Lac de St. Croix. The wind had started, strongly, so we decided not to kayak. Instead we left Moustiers going west on the tiny white road, I think it’s the C3 of the Michelin map. It’s an easy drive, and all along it were row after row of lavender. I had no idea there was so much lavender in this area. Most of it was cut back, since it’s early September, but in early July it would have been spectacular. Driving through the tiny village of St. Croix-de-Verdon, we turned off and took the road down to the lake. There are rental boats here also, pedal boats and electric boats, along with kayaks. It was so windy, no one was renting them. If you want to kayak, the location at les-Salles-s-Verdon would be much better, and in the morning there was no wind. A few picnic tables were scattered along the beach. We picnicked with food we bought at the morning market, read, and slept on the banks of the lake. It was so relaxing, not crowed. The sides of the lake here were a bit stony and had some grass.
On our return we stopped in the tiny village of Sillans-la-Cascade, and hiked to the waterfall. It’s a pretty walk, but hot is the hot afternoon sun. A couple of classes of French students were returning from the hike with an assignment on their experience. The Hotel-Restaurant "des Pins" sits right in front of the village with a nice view of the chapel. It’s an attractive location, but we never ate here.
This evening we went out to dinner!! Le Clos des Vignes is located in the vineyards, on D22. We passed it each time we drove north to Cotignac. It seemed quiet, had 2 menus, one 28€ and the other 37€, with an outdoor terrace that looked onto the vineyards. We chose a bottle of red wine from Saint Janet in Cotignac for 26€. Their phone is 04 94 04 72 19 http://www.guidegantie.com/fr/restau...all=1&sm=1
When we arrived at 8 p.m. we were the only table seated. For 45 minutes, we dined alone, on the outdoor terrace, right next to the vineyard, enjoying excellent food, and nice music, as the sun set. It was as if we had rented the whole restaurant for the evening! 3 other tables arrived close to 9 p.m., but no others all evening. I hope they do a lot more business in the summer. If you’re in this area, you must eat here!
Moustires-Ste.Marie and Lac de St. Croix
This morning was market day in our village. Since Correns is a Bio village, we had a Bio fruit and vegetable market. It was only one market stall! One meat van and one horse meat van also arrived. We thought a fish van was going to be coming also, but if it did, it was after we left town for the morning.
It’s an easy drive north to Moustiers-St-Marie, the beautiful village on one side of the Grand Canyon du Verdon. Driving up D957 through les Salles-s-Verdon, we noticed kayaks on the banks of the lake. Several people were standing on the bridge looking down. There is a pull out off the road just past this bridge so we pulled over and went to look with the others. The kayakers, who started at the opposite bank, were going under the bridge, then up the river, through the gorge with its high rock walls. It was so, so beautiful. We thought of coming back here after town.
Of course we chose Friday to drive here since it’s market day. See a pattern here! The market is strung along the narrow road, and is quite good. We bought some delicious Rebochon cheese, a huge chunk for just 3,50€, more olive bread and other picnic items for our lunch today. We visited this town once before, just a quick stop, after driving the canyon, and I think going on market day was much more interesting. The shops are still open, and the market didn’t distract from the beautiful location of this village. It wasn’t overcrowded either. Don’t miss the square, uphill, just past the TI. Go under the arch and up. Somehow we missed this pretty area on our last visit here.
Hiking up to the church is steep, but not to difficult. The difficult part is walking back down. Those stones are so very slippery, rubbed slick with years. There is a hand rail to hold onto which is of help. The views from above are wonderful!
Since we’d driven the gorge in the past, I didn’t need to drive it again today. Instead we decided to spend some time at Lac de St. Croix. The wind had started, strongly, so we decided not to kayak. Instead we left Moustiers going west on the tiny white road, I think it’s the C3 of the Michelin map. It’s an easy drive, and all along it were row after row of lavender. I had no idea there was so much lavender in this area. Most of it was cut back, since it’s early September, but in early July it would have been spectacular. Driving through the tiny village of St. Croix-de-Verdon, we turned off and took the road down to the lake. There are rental boats here also, pedal boats and electric boats, along with kayaks. It was so windy, no one was renting them. If you want to kayak, the location at les-Salles-s-Verdon would be much better, and in the morning there was no wind. A few picnic tables were scattered along the beach. We picnicked with food we bought at the morning market, read, and slept on the banks of the lake. It was so relaxing, not crowed. The sides of the lake here were a bit stony and had some grass.
On our return we stopped in the tiny village of Sillans-la-Cascade, and hiked to the waterfall. It’s a pretty walk, but hot is the hot afternoon sun. A couple of classes of French students were returning from the hike with an assignment on their experience. The Hotel-Restaurant "des Pins" sits right in front of the village with a nice view of the chapel. It’s an attractive location, but we never ate here.
This evening we went out to dinner!! Le Clos des Vignes is located in the vineyards, on D22. We passed it each time we drove north to Cotignac. It seemed quiet, had 2 menus, one 28€ and the other 37€, with an outdoor terrace that looked onto the vineyards. We chose a bottle of red wine from Saint Janet in Cotignac for 26€. Their phone is 04 94 04 72 19 http://www.guidegantie.com/fr/restau...all=1&sm=1
When we arrived at 8 p.m. we were the only table seated. For 45 minutes, we dined alone, on the outdoor terrace, right next to the vineyard, enjoying excellent food, and nice music, as the sun set. It was as if we had rented the whole restaurant for the evening! 3 other tables arrived close to 9 p.m., but no others all evening. I hope they do a lot more business in the summer. If you’re in this area, you must eat here!
Sep 24th, 2008, 05:39 AM
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Thanks so much for this report - we are leaving in 3 weeks to explore parts of Provence that we were not able to explore last year. I particularly appreciate the "heads up" about the fabric shop in Fayence. I quilt too and was hoping to purchase some fabric from this well known shop. The shop owner would be very intimidating to me - I try to use as much French as I possibly can (which is very little) whenever I interact with the French people but having to deal with someone as persnickety as this fellow would probably prompt a meltdown for me! 
I'll most likely stick to the fabrics in the markets even though they are not equal in quality.
Good to hear lovely reports on Tourtour and Aups and Contignac - I can hardly wait to visit personally.
I'll most likely stick to the fabrics in the markets even though they are not equal in quality.
Good to hear lovely reports on Tourtour and Aups and Contignac - I can hardly wait to visit personally.
Sep 24th, 2008, 07:50 AM
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Caroltis,
I wish I could return with you! You'll love this area. It isn't tourisy, it feels like a place that would be wonderful to live in. Cotignac is made for relaxing, take your time. The antique shop was closed each day we went, as well as other "tourist" shops. You can walk to the top of the village and see the "houses" built into the stone. The current issue of France magazine (November)
has a couple pictures of this area. Where are you staying?
Maybe someone else will be working in the fabric shop the day you want to go. That man really shook me up. I wanted some fabric, so we returned. It was still really unpleasant though. If you want less than 1 meter per bolt, don't bother, and don't touch
You'll have a wonderful time!
I wish I could return with you! You'll love this area. It isn't tourisy, it feels like a place that would be wonderful to live in. Cotignac is made for relaxing, take your time. The antique shop was closed each day we went, as well as other "tourist" shops. You can walk to the top of the village and see the "houses" built into the stone. The current issue of France magazine (November)
has a couple pictures of this area. Where are you staying?
Maybe someone else will be working in the fabric shop the day you want to go. That man really shook me up. I wanted some fabric, so we returned. It was still really unpleasant though. If you want less than 1 meter per bolt, don't bother, and don't touch
You'll have a wonderful time!
