FRANCE August 21-24 . 2009: Americans in France – Day One

Hi to everyone from the south of France.

It’s been a busy few days; feels like I’ve already been gone a week … We arrived in Frankfurt on Friday morning and then had the usually “delightful” experience of sitting in the Frankfurt Airport for 6 hours before boarding the flight to Marseilles. We knew this in advance, so it wasn’t a surprise…

Anyway, flew to Marseilles, got the car and drove rather uneventfully to Violes where we are staying and then on (about 4 kilometers only) to Cairanne for dinner (rather late — fashionably European dining time at about 10 pm) with Mike’s brother and sister-in-law, at their house which is quite wonderful — situated in the medieval wall of the town — at the ring of the town circle at the top of the hill.. overlooking vineyards and beautiful French countryside..

On Saturday, we started out fairly early and explored a bunch of other medieval towns and villages — most notably Vaison and Sablet (although the others weren’t too shabby either)… eventually looping back to Cairanne for dinner at the house again… Today (Sunday) we explored the area with them more and drove south to Provence to see the Pont du Gard — an extremely long Roman bridge from the Roman era — that is now preserved as an international landmark… We walked around the area which has been turned into a park and there is now swimming in the Rive Gardon… Then we headed to Ouzes — yet another medieval town where we had a wonderful lunch in the patio near the town square, sitting under a Romanesque roof structure…

Tonight we are headed back to Cairanne for dinner with family and some neighbors…

Our hotel is tiny — cute — and no one speaks any English, so we are getting by on my high school French. The rooms are fairly basic, but the setting is nice and we have breakfast each morning out on the patio…

1 a.m.

Just returned from dinner where we were joined by another American couple who live in Cairanne 6 months of the year and 6 months in DC.. and two British couples.. One is a dancer and choreographer but they both turned to video and had some pieces in the Venice Biennale; the other couple are artists who work in some program in the schools (sounds a little like Oakland’s MOCHA).. 5 hours of chat chat.. American politics, global politics, 9/11, Obama’s current situation, and of course the daily shenanigans of the British Royal family.. which is always a topic of conversation with Brits.. So, all in all, lots of gossip.

I’m tired; will pack now so we can head to Besancon early tomorrow.. hope to be on the road by 8:30…

Best —
Fern