bloggers where are you?

Hey bloggers out there, where are you?

We're almost out of time here in Provence, packing, cleaning up and organizing today. Then Wed. will be our last day to sight see; Thurs. we fly home.

No one has commented on the title of our blog. We thought it was very clever. Maybe you weren't impressed, or thought it was a word you didn't recognize.

Tetou Plage

Tetou Plage, dining right on the beach in Golfe Juan, a little town between Antibes and Cannes. This was our day to relax and eat well. We ate beautiful salads. Marcell's had goat cheese melted on toasted bread, mine was Nicoise. Then mussels and desserts. Marcell had an apricot tart with almonds and Joey had berries. I helped myself to both. Then we sat in their beautiful lounge chairs, under stripped umbrellas and lay around all afternoon, swimming and reading. Thanks Anita!! This place came from your book on Charming French Restaurants.

jam tart

Starting my day with the perfect jam tart and cafe.

Car Food

This is only a sample of the food available in the average car rest stop on the highway/toll road. There were Doritos, but only a small quantity, while 3 refrigerated cases were devoted to fresh sandwiches, another to yogurt, fruit and salads. This country has amazing FOOD! Why do we settle for less?

Socca in Vence

We have been on the look out for Socca, the garbanzo crepes. We looked in the market in Nice, last week, but we were too late. Today we found them in Vence, a beautiful old medieval, walled, hill village. Cooked on the street in a wood burning oven with olive oil and served with salt and pepper. FANTASTIC!

FOOD

The food we had, Especially the MUSSELS, was very good. I couldn't stop eating them.
By Joey

Refuge de l'Arpont-day two

The second day's hike appeared leisurely starting with a long downhill stretch and a lot of lateral traverses. In the morning we passed ski lifts, crossed ski runs, walked on a paved road for a while, and passed glacial moraines and lakes. At times we could see the edge of the glacier high above our path and feel the cold breeze blowing down slope off the ice. On the traverses we crossed many small ice melt streams by stepping on large rocks above the water, but in the late afternoon we came to a wider, swifter stream that required fording--walking through the water! Unfortunately we then hiked the remainder of the day in wet shoes.

Every day in the late afternoon we would watch ahead for the refuge, hoping it would be close. Many abandoned rock shelters abound in this area of the Alps, and we often had to judge from a distance whether we could see the refuge or just another abandoned rock shelter. When we finally reached Refuge de l'Arpont we were really tired, hungry for the meal, and ready for sleep.

This last photo is the multinational crew we ate dinner with that night. Many non-French Europeans were hiking and the common language was often English. Table cards dictating which table we ate at were put out at every meal. It seemed that the non-French speakers were often placed the together. We shared many of our meals with a couple from the Netherlands, a couple from England, a mom and daughter, Karen and Morgan, from Florida and Andrea, a man from Italy.

Hiking the Col de la Aussois-day one

So this was the worst of it. Might as well start there. All those alpine meadow postcards, with wild flowers, they're all true. But so is this, the Col de Aussois, a saddle between two peaks, above the tree line. That's Joey in the photo. This was the highest point on our trip, 2,958 meters. It was amazing and very difficult to climb.

Our hotel host drove us to the trailhead, which saved about two hours of walking. Then we hiked 10 hours, with a few rest stops. The hike was rated very strenuous and had a place on the map where the red line became a dotted line. That signaled an even more difficult passage. That was the Col de Aussois. It was supposed to take 6 hours, but it took us 10. Many very fit people bounded past us as we lumbered along. They were very long-limbed, tan, athletic and wearing the briefest of hiking shorts. Reminded me of Karen and Mary Lynn's Dutch house guest.

Boy, were we glad to arrive at at the refuge. We arrived at 7pm as they were serving the first dinner shift. Our dinner, second shift was at 8pm. It's all true about the refuges!! They fed us a four course meal and wine. That's wine we didn't have to carry. And we bunked in a room with 7 other people. The bed was comfortable and warm. We sure did sleep. That was our first day on the trail. We hiked a 4 day loop around the Glacier de la Vanoise.

The idea for this hike started when we read about it in Classic Hikes of the World by Peter Potterfield. At first it sounded out of our class, but we did it!

Our Hiking Friends

Along the trail we met two hiking buddies Karen & Morgan who apparently were going to the same Refuges we were. This is Morgan. So we started hiking every day together until we got back to town where we met them for dinner and stayed at a hotel until the next morning we had to say Good Bye and head back to town, 6 hours away in Auribeau. But we still keep in touch by E-Mail. By Joey.

Old Auribeau

Yesterday was a flea market with vendors lining the narrow streets of the 13th century walled section of Auribeau. Our lucky day! We took time to stroll through the cobbled streets and look at the vendor’s offerings. However, an established souvenir shop was were we found linens, olive wood kitchen tools, and local honey that we purchased.

Lunch at Nossi Bé

Restaurant Nossi Bé, as recommended by Richard, our host, is the “best” place to eat in Auribeau sur la Siagne. We made 1:30 reservations for lunch, the latest time they served lunch on Sunday. Nossi Bé is on the hill in the old village. We were advised of a major activity occurring in the old village and to park at the school at the base of the hill and take the shuttle up to the restaurant.

After dressing for a fancy restaurant and the 30ºC summer heat, driving the hot car into a dead-end, going back once and losing our way twice, we parked in a large car park at what we hoped was “the school,” to wait for the shuttle bus which would take us up the hill to the old village of Auribeau sur la Siagne. We were going to be late if we didn’t get a shuttle bus soon. Or we could walk up in about 20 mins and arrive drenched in sweat. Normally being late for a reservation wouldn’t be a big deal, but after two phone calls, talking to three different people, to get our reservation, we wanted to be on time. With some trepidation we braved a conversation with the one other person waiting, a middle-aged woman dressed for the heat in pink shorts; she looked easy going. With a combination of several languages and hand signals we established that we were in the right place and that the bus would be here in 15 minutes. When her husband arrived to get her, she requested he drive us up to the restaurant in their car even though she had just descended the hill. We scooted into the car and he whisked us up the narrow roads to the top, letting us out right by our destination. The woman informed us that they were Italian tourists and wished us bonne vacation. Thus we arrived to our first meal in a fancy Provencal restaurant, on time and sans sweat. And we were seated on the terrace overlooking the valley to the north—just what we had hoped. Our meal was fantastic!!

First Night in Auribeau sur Siagne

We are now in Auribeau, France. It is remarkably like
southern California (sunny and very warm), and the
home we are in is magnificent. The living space is on the
second floor over the ground floor garage and studio
apartment From the gate a stairway leads to the front
porch. Attached is a view from the front porch
looking east down the stairs. Last night we ate dinner
after sundown on the veranda which faces east and south
off the kitchen.

Auribeau sur Siagne is originally a 13th century
village that has now suburbanized with many new homes.
However the new homes are designed to maintain the
character of early Mediterranean architecture. with
earth-tone stucco exterior, arched and shuttered
windows, and tile roofs.

Unfortunately Kathleen's luggage is lost and we are
waiting for Delta Airlines to deliver it to the house.
She will buy some lightweight clothes today to get
by, but she needs the luggage before we go hiking in
the Alps on Monday.