La Vie est Belle!

Wow....I'm sorry to say, I may never come home!
My second trip to the South of France in the last year and a half - and it was just as grand as the first.

We arrived in Avignon on the 25th. Half of Christian's family are French - and so we stayed with his aunt and uncle, Francoise and Bernard, just outside of Avignon. A big treat for us was that Le Festival Off was in full swing when we arrived. It's the French equivalent to the Fringe Festival - though this Festival seems to attract a majority of professional companies and only a small contingent of amateurs. I think it's safe to say that street performers are the same the world over - lots of jugglers, musicians, mimes....but we also saw a few "experimental" things, like a girl in a white mask, dancing in the dirt. We managed to take in three indoor shows - traditional Indian dancers ( amazing!), the French translation of The Cmplt Wrks of Wm Shkspr ( Christian has been doing this show in the West end for 2 years...and I did an all female production in Edmonton....and the French version was NOT at ALL like the original - but still well done and fun)...and a translation of an American play by Israel Horowitz called "The First" ( also very well done)....the French seem more able to get away with broad, physical acting than we English.

As for life in Avignon - we could all take a page out of that book. The best of all was the time that we took in eating. There is still ritual around it for the French. Christian's uncle comes home from work for lunch everyday....and a meal takes at least two hours. His aunt takes care to set out a table cloth and cloth napkins....Bernard usually takes care of setting out an incredible variety of beverages - red wine, white wine, rose, sparkling water, spring water....but the glasses are small ( unlike our North American fish bowls!)....the portions are small...and it's really more about tasting a variety of lovely flavours in small quantity than stuffing yourself for the sake of feeling full and rushing back to the office!

Our last night we went out for dinner with some of Christian's cousins and I had: Pop Soup ( which was a cold soup with popcorn and raw ham in it), la Dorade ( sea brine? some sort of fish)..which came with the head and tail intact ( thought of Christy Bruce while I tried not to look into its' eye) and for dessert: THREE types of creme brule...one with thyme, one rosemary and the other lavender ( the herbs of Provence). WOW!

Avignon itself is amazingly beautiful! It's rare in that its' ramparts ( walls around the city) are still entirely intact. Many of the streets are cobbled stone, and some of them so narrow that we had to press ourselves against the buildings when a car came by. Avignon was once the home to the Pope, way back when, and so Palais des Pape seems to be the centre of town....It has a massive square out front where many of the street performers did their thing. ( If you've ever flipped through a coffee table book of pics of Provence you will have seen Palais des Papes)...and for a town of 100 000...it seems there is a church around every corner. I went into one which was just as much of a museum as a church...There are paintings and tapestries still hanging there that date back to the 1500's!!!

We did make an effort to go to the beach...It was a gorgeous, HOT day...but as we drove down to Carry le Roche we encountered a micro-climate. There had been a LOT of wind the few days we were there - and so the surface temperature of the water had dropped - which, in combination with the hot air above it resulted in: ( any guesses?) FOG...FOG, FOG...so much fog!!! We couldn't see the ocean until we were standing right on the beach. It was like standing in a cloud - we could feel the mist condensating as it hit us. Still - the beach was packed with kids and families and topless women, all sitting in the fog and looking 12 feet out, which was as far as you could see.....We skipped it and had Fanny take us on a bit of a joy ride through the country side.

anyhow....that's the update for now....I'm back in London for a bit. Soon I will head up to Milton Keynes to visit my Auntie Maureen ( whom I'm named after...middle name) and my Uncle Bob.
This trip has been great - but I'm definitely starting to get home-sick. It will pass...and I will be home soon, back at the grind....

later....

R