Le Jour Une et Deux – Provence. August 18-19, 2015

August 19, 2015; 7:30 pm in Cairanne, France (10:30 am in Oakland California). From SFO to Paris to Avignon and on to Cairanne.

Bon Soir..

As most of you know, we headed to France on Monday afternoon (August 17) because Mike’s niece (his brother’s younger daughter) is getting married on Friday evening….

We left Oakland earlier than usual, by BART to SFO — given the 4.0 earthquake early that morning (which woke everyone up I’m sure) — because we were a little worried there might still be lingering delays. Anyway, other than an unusually bumpy flight over the Atlantic and inoperative reading lights at our seats (Business Class no less!) all was good. Arrived slightly earlier than expected in Paris/CDG …. spent about an hour in the lounge, and then headed to the intra terminal train to get to Terminal 2 where we would catch the train (TGV) directly from the Airport to Avignon. How civil! Train (TGV – their Amtrak) literally stops at the airport where there is a full train station from which you can go everywhere…

Three hours to Avignon… great views through vineyards.. Mike fell asleep soon after we got on the train and he was blissfully happy. Good idea to catch some zzzs since the flight was about 11 hours and we both had been working 14 hour days… and weekends, so the departure wasn’t particularly “restful”..

Arrived at the Avignon Train Station — and literally walked out the door to the car rental place, but then encountered the rather typical French countryside “speed” (or lack thereof). Took about 30 minutes to process the car rental (even though it was completely reserved and all the paperwork seemed to already have been done and in the little folder. Anyway, we walked to the car and it was huge! So we went back to remind them that we requested a small car… but alas, no more cars until the next day (today).. so we drove off with the giant Skoda.. black… meandering around Avignon to get to the hotel in the old medieval section of town where streets can barely take a little Fiat..

But we did it. Got to Le Cloitre — an old monastery that trained Jesuit priests — converted to a wonderful hotel some years ago.. I’ve stayed at that hotel about four times, but still got a little lost trying to find the parking lot which requires entry from a different street. Settled in, showered and went off to a wonderful dinner in a little square (more like a triangle) just a few blocks from the hotel. — L’Agape.

I had actually read about the restaurant in the NYTimes about a week ago — in an article about Avignon. The restaurant was great.. In typical fashion, there are about 8 tiny restaurants huddled on this little street and they all share that triangle to be able to have tables outdoors. It had been pretty hot when we arrived in the afternoon.. maybe 85 or 90, but it really cooled down at night and eventually we moved indoors to finish our meal (the typically slow French meal.. that even though it’s a casual place takes two hours.. with lots of waiting (digesting) in between courses. For the foodies.. It was a prix fixe meal with three courses.. there were two choices for each course.. so Mike had one and I had the other, so we actually had everything on the menu.. Started with some kind of pork and mushroom thing which was fantastic, with the pork wrapped in what I think was a paper thin slice of eggplant, but I could be wrong; a great seafood tartar accompanied by thinly sliced fruits, some mustard and a mild wasabi; followed by duck with apricots and veggies and a fresh water fish that was served with peaches and a citron sauce. Desserts were obscenely delicious. Strolled back to the hotel and zonked.

Woke up this morning in Avignon (the wedding is in Cairanne — about 35 miles north and slightly west), and strolled toward Avignon’s version of Les Halles… which is much nicer than the mess that Paris made of their Les Halles. The building covers an entire block and inside are amazing stalls of foods, spices, breads, cakes, etc. Along the way we stopped for a simple French breakfast, except that neither of us drink coffee. Then we strolled around Avignon — agreeing to meet up around 2 pm for a simple lunch before the drive to Cairanne (and to exchange the car for a smaller one — which could happen at 3 pm).. Given that we’ve both been to Avignon many times, we didn’t need to visit any of the monuments or museums or churches.. so we each strolled our own paths. I’ve decided that Avignon is a really wonderful small city.. situated well and hmmmm maybe I could see myself here (but probably I’d get bored fast).. prices for real estate are really cheap compared to the Bay Area.. about $300K Euros for a nice two bedroom place.. Met up for lunch — great curried chicken salad with apricots (clearly they are in season here) — served in a large drinking glass — and surrounded by couscous, more apricots, tomatoes, lentils, and a great green salad with a lot of mache. OK.. finished lunch.. and headed back to the car rental to get our new, supposedly smaller car — which is about 6″ smaller than the huge car. This time it’s a Mercedes!! We tried to explain about the size, but finally just gave up and headed out.

Our only funny adventure was at the toll both on the road to Cairanne. The car has some kind of electronic emergency brake and it somehow went on when we stopped at the automatic pay machine exiting the toll road (with cars behind us).. and we didn’t know how to unlock the brake.. As we drove out of the car rental, Mike had said that he didn’t unlock the emergency brake.. it didn’t seem to be on.. which was true.. But as we were driving he said he couldn’t figure out where the emergency brake was.. I tried to read the manual, but my French is not very good.. I figured out how to say “emergency brake” in French (with the help of the iPhone Translator) and found the pages that explained.. but no picture.. and all I could understand was that there was a “red P” somewhere… anyway, we saw a P on the monitor but it wasn’t red, so we drove on.. When the electronic brake locked.. the P on the dashboard turned red! But we had no idea how to turn it off..

OK.. we figured it out.. Now we know how to turn the red P off, but not how to turn it on so we cannot use the emergency brake … hopefully we won’t park in any precarious locations.

Anyway, we got to Cairanne.. We are staying at a place called Le Vieux Platane..

We’ve stayed in Cairanne many times.. and I think we’ve tried every decent B&B and small inn in the region.. and none are very good… and so we’ve never stayed anywhere twice. So.. Le Vieux Platane — is just outside of Cairanne.. or maybe it is inside the town limits but outside the medieval wall…   It’s down a long country road.. a house with about 5 rooms that are the “hotel” and the area that is occupied by the innkeeper family… a swimming pool (which we didn’t know about and don’t have bathing suits)… The couple who own and run the place are fairly young.. with a 20-month old child and a dog named Geisha. The guy is tattooed everywhere and the wife is pregnant. They seem sweet but Mike was a bit put off by all the tattoos, the dreadlocks, the Dali-esque moustache, and what Mike called his Charles Manson gauntness… I figure it goes with the age.

We settled in to our room which is heavily decorated in red and black.. and has lots of “things” everywhere. And then we headed out for dinner.. with Mike’s family.. the bride, her sister, her parents (Mike’s brother and sister-in-law).. to Coteaux et Fourchettes.. just down the road.. Dinner was quite wonderful.. starting with the amuse buche.. a tomato foam on top of a very fine pate; followed by a ceviche salad; followed by either a wonderful trout or pigeon.. (Mike had one and I had the other and we split so we had both); followed by what the French call tiramisu.. but it’s really mostly cream with a small amount of chocolate cake with sorbet on top…

Drove back to our little place.. and now I’m calling it a day.

Fern