Second Sister

La Roque-d'Anthéron (Week 14)

Loyal readers with good memories will recall that way back in August, there is a post called "First Sister".  Now, nine weeks later, we took Nana to see another of the "Three Sisters of Provence" Cistercian abbeys, Abbaye de Silvacane.  It was founded and built between 1175 and 1220.  As a reminder, the Cistercian order was a reaction to the excesses of certain Benedictines.  Therefore, the buildings are austere - without ornament or creature comforts.

Silvacane is no longer a functioning abbey, rather an historical site.  Thus, the church is completely empty, which makes it feel melancholy.  The stonework of the entire church complex has been restored - including the cloister, dormitory, parlour (the room where the monks were allowed to talk), etc.  Again, only the stonework is restored - there are no beds or anything in the dorm, no shelves nor books in the library, and no water running through the irrigation system.  On the plus side, it makes it easier to appreciate the minimal decorations and the construction of the complex.  Perhaps the highlight of the trip (at least for the boys) was the one functioning fountain, a long cistern containing a school of goldfish.

Two cathedrals

Aix-en-Provence and Trets (week 14)

Fans of The West Wing will appreciate that I've been itching to use this post title since I arrived.  Now I have the chance!

Trets's cathedral: cozy!

On Sunday, during our weekly trip to the Trets market to get a roast chicken (there is a particular place we go, where the boys get chocolate suckers from the proprietress), we dropped in to the Trets cathedral.  It is small and not always open for visitors, so we arrived 15 minutes before the service that morning.  Normally they have their bells pealing (quite impressive given the size), but this morning they had some sort of gathering that was being blessed by the priest (bishop?) - they were carrying banners and wearing what I assume was traditional garb.  Craig still managed to get a couple pictures of the interior, and you can see some of the group in the exterior picture.

the baptistry is the octagonal cut in the floor in the right-hand picture

Lynn/Mum/Nana arrived the day before, and was understandably tired from her trip (an overnight flight to Paris, then 2.5 hours wait, then 3-hour train trip to Aix, then 45 minutes to Puyloubier), so she didn't make it to Trets with us.  Instead, on Tuesday afternoon, she and Craig travelled to Aix to see the cathedral there.  The feature of Cathédrale Saint-Sauveur that is always mentioned in the guide books is the baptistry, the pool of which is from the 6th century (the rest of the baptistry was built later; Wikipedia suggests that the columns are from a Roman temple, which is an admirable feat of recycling, even if questionable theologically).  This is the only Catholic church I've seen with a place to do a real Baptist immersion-style baptism!

"It's the little differences"

Puyloubier (week 14)

As Vincent Vega so memorably observed, "You know what's the funniest thing about Europe?  It's the little differences."  Here is my example.

Pictured is our current cereal selection.  As you can see, the All Bran and Weetabix are identical.  The Corn Flakes are, oddly enought, not translated to "Flaçons de Mais" or whatever.  The Frosted Flakes are renamed, and the Honey-Nut Cheerios box is different but the cereal is the same.

However, this is a picture of what they call Life Cereal in France.  As you can see, it bears no vestige of similarity to the Life you get in North America.

And yes, quarter pounders are still called "Royale with cheese" (you can't get one without the cheese - another little difference).

P.A. Day! (sort of...)

Aix-en-Provence (week 13)

Monday was a P.A. Day for the boys - although P.A. days only cover half-days here, so they had to go to school in the afternoon.  To celebrate, we went to Aix, specifically to what David calls the Rue de Monoprix, or what everyone else calls the Cours Mirabeau.  In David's defense, the purpose of our visit on this day was, in fact, Monoprix.  The visit became "necessary" because Netflix just started up in France on September 15, and we've found that the laptop is not sufficient for watching movies.  The screen is the old-style with angle-viewing difficulties, and the internal speakers are tinny and very low volume.  So off to Monoprix for speakers and a VGA cord to connect to the TV!  (the mission was a success)

You may be wondering why Netflix is just now arriving in France.  Well, like Québec, France demands (and gets) a "cultural exception" from the regulatory agencies and the E.U., so Netflix's arrival was delayed for a long time in the courts as the national cable companies fought to keep it out.

This picture is jumping ahead a little, as you can see Nana is in it, and she didn't arrive until the weekend.  But it's a good picture, and almost on the Cours Mirabeau, so almost appropriate for this post!  It's actually around on the other side of the Rotonde; if you can't read the caption, this is a statue of Cézanne, Aix's favourite son.

Two churches (and an art gallery)

Aix-en-Provence and Puyloubier (weeks 12-13)

Musée Granet entrance and Eglise Saint-Jean-de-Malte

Henry Pearlman was a New York businessman who eventually collected a large and well-respected collection, now nominally housed at Princeton University.  However, the art travels a lot, and since Henry liked Aix's favourite artistic son Cézanne, his travelling exhibition was hosted by the Granet Museum over the last few months.  The Pearlman Collection was impressive, with 20+ Cézannes and samples of other great artists including van Gogh, Degas, and Renoir.  The permanent collection was perhaps less impressive, focussing on lesser-known local talent, but still an interesting mix of paintings of all sizes, sculptures, and excavated Roman antiques.  This Wednesday's trip was our first attempt at an art museum with the boys, and they did very well, probably because of the variety of media and subject matters.  Since there is no photography allowed in the museum, you'll have to click on the links to see the interior.

The museum is located in the former priory buildings of the Hospitallers in Aix, hence the Crosses of Malta adorning the building (in the above picture, you can see one in the foreground bottom-right on a fountain), and the name of the adjacent church: Eglise Saint-Jean-de-Malte.  The interior of the church is very sparse, it having been ransacked and turned into a storehouse during the Revolution.  However, it is in the process of being restored with a mix of old and new: the bells are brand new (they are sitting in a chapel by the entrance awaiting installation) and the organ was installed in 2006.  The organist was practising while we were there.  It's hard to tell the size of the bells from the picture, the middle one is ~one metre tall.

On Sunday, we were out early to take a look inside the Puyloubier church.  The parish covers churches in Peynier, Trets, and Puyloubier, so there aren't always services on Sunday, and the times can vary.  This week there was mass at 9:30 in Puyloubier, so we poked our head in.  The church is bright and airy, with minimal but interesting decoration.  Like in Canada, the number of parishioners was quite small.  Yes, this is what a church in a village of 1800 people looks like!  Because the alter is at the eastern end of the church, the sunlight coming through the windows unfortunately washes out the very nice stained-glass in this picture.

Two cars

Marignane (week 12)

The Peugeot at our place in Puyloubier (l) and the new Renault (r)

We bid a fond farewell to our Peugeot 308SW.  It took us across France and kept us supplied with food and entertained us since we arrived in July.  Due to the short-term lease system they have in France (a tax situation), we have to lease one car in Craig's name and another later in Yolanda's to cover the time we were here.  Therefore, the switch, made at the Marseille-Provence Airport.

It was a painless transition, the bulk of the time being spent by the Renault clerk explaining the features of the car (h spoke excellent English and provided what is rare in France - what we would call actual customer service!). Now we have a Renault Grand Scenic.  It is a little bigger and a little more upscale than the Peugeot, which means we'll have to get used to the new size in these small roads and parking spots (although, to be fair, it's only a few centimetres wider, much of the increased size it in its height).

The Fountains of Puyloubier

Puyloubier

One of the things we've noticed is the large number of fountains even in the small towns.  They seem to be along every few blocks.  Of course, there are famous fountain boulevards, like the Cours Mirabeau in Aix, but each little square and intersection seems to have some sort of fountain, even if just a block away from a major fountain.

By Craig's count, there are four fountains in Puyloubier, not including the various community taps (these are treated potable water taps where anyone can fill up a water bottle).  We thought doing a blog post on the fountains in town would also give a chance to give more information about the town in which we're living.

Starting from the west end of town (a few houses west of our place):

1. Place du Mairie.  This is the fountain in front of the mairie - the town hall.  The term hôtel de ville is also used in France, it seems to be regional which term is used.  Our mairie has a square in front of it with plane trees, as you can see in the picture.  In the afternoon (and evening in the summer), people play boules (lawn bowling) in this area.  There's enough room for 3 or 4 simultaneous games.  It's usually the retired men of the town, although I've seen young men and women also playing - it seems very democratic, with mixed-gender and mixed-age games commonly occurring.  The mairie building contains the town administration offices, as well as the poste and a common room where the town holds its pilates and aerobics classes.  This square is also where they set up the beer garden when the exhibition is in town, and similar social events.

Places de la Republique (l) and Damase Malet (r)

2. Place de la République.  Moving east up the Ave. Pierre Jacquemet (the road our home is on), we come to the Café Sainte Victoire.  This is the local eatery, with plats (what we would call entrees) ranging in the €8-15 range.  It has limited inside seating, so it has taken over the Place de la Republique as its outdoor seating area. In the centre of that is this fountain, which you can see is used by the café to hold up its sunshades.

3. Place Damase Malet.  Continuing east on what might be considered the same street, but with a new name (Grand Rue), we come to this fountain in a tiny square that consists of one tree and a couple of benches (and the fountain, of course).  Just a few homes downhill from here is the Festival des Pains, our usual patisserie (we go in maybe 5 times a week, which is very irregular relative to the natives, who might visit twice each day).  It is a relatively busy intersection, being a T-intersection at the end of the road to Trets.

4. Place Henri Verlaque.  Again changing its name as we move eastward (to rue Jean Jaurès), we come to the local library, which is also a museum located in a former olive oil-production facility (the moulin à huile).  As is befitting such a pedigree, there are two olive trees in the place along with this fountain against the far wall (the entrance to the bibliotheque is on the right just out of the picture).  This building and square also hosts various events such as exhibitions by local artists and, I think, can be hired for wine-and-cheese parties by local organizations.  You may be able to tell from the picture that there is no water flowing in this fountain.  Although not uncommon, far more fountains in Provence have water flowing than are dry like this one, which seems strange since it is quite an arid climate and pumping in the water might seem to be a superfluous expense, especially in a small community like Puyloubier.