Month: May 2019

May 18, 2019

We both had a little sleep-in this morning and barely made it to breakfast in time. After replenishing ourselves we checked out of the hotel, left our bags and started out to the Musée du Cinéma et de la Miniature behind the Palace of Justice.

But on the way we ran into a market! We always have to check out a market.

Endive growing in a little pot. And here are the lettuces we can’t get enough of in salads. They cut the entire heads and sell them, it keeps the greens so fresh.

We found the fresh fish stand to be pretty interesting. These fry are tiny, about 2 to 3 inches long. They must be deep fried and eaten like french fries.

OK, just one more food photo.

We finally made it over the pedestrian bridge after our market detour. The statue near the bridge is called ‘The Weight of Me’.

Suzanne and I both have a fascination with miniatures, so with our limited time in Lyon this museum is the one we decided to visit. Just to give you an idea of scale this is one of the rooms with little viewing portals of the miniature scenes. All of the scenes in this room were created by Dan Ohlmann who got into making miniatures of stage sets he had created for theater and opera.

Le Maxim’s in Paris above and the Museum of Natural History below.

Each of these scenes takes between 6 to 12 months to create. There are many other miniaturists, like this partial scene from Ronan-Jim Sevellec and Francoise Andres.

The museum also had many costumes and props from current and old films. These of course were full sized.

These are two of the sets from the movie ‘The Perfume’ which was shot in Munich.

One of my favorites, a worm from Men in Black.

There was an great lion sculpture next to the museum that you can see in the featured photo.

We stopped for lunch, meandered a bit looking at all the shops and then headed back to the hotel to pick up our luggage. There seemed to be a lot of people on the streets and bands playing in the parks and plazas, it was obvious something was up.

We made it through the throngs to the parking structure access that was down a steep flight of stairs. Suzanne lucked out and a nice man carried her bag down. It was over 40 euros for our day plus a few hours of parking in Lyon. We had Babette programmed and headed out of the garage to find that the police had closed the road we needed to take. So it was a very roundabout trip to Meursault, where we have rented a house for a week.

We found our house but couldn’t get in the gate, which was supposed to be unlocked. Pete had seen Christina and John come into work at Willamette Travel, we were texting at the time, so he went for help. For some reason our Verizon International plan wouldn’t let us call the local person listed in our information, we could only call the USA. Christina called the owner in England and we got the whole thing straightened out. The gate wasn’t locked, but you had to reach through and pull up on a lever that was invisible from the outside, who knew?

So that’s the end of todays saga….Au revoir!

May 17, 2019

We had to be out of the house by 10 am this morning, so we finished our packing and had a quick breakfast. Fabien kindly came over at 9 am to help us get our luggage downstairs to the car and we were on the road by 9:30.

Suzanne took this picture of the rock we drove under everytime we left Venasque.

There was always the feeling that we wanted to get out from under it as quickly as possible. After all a small part of the village is probably sitting on it.

In Lyon we passed the Fountaine de Jacobins which was built in 1556 and made into a fountain in1856. The square and fountain are UNESCO world heritage sites.

We lost the good weather and had an overcast drive toward Lyon with intermittent rain. The drive went smoothly until we got to our hotel. It is on a bus lane with no parking or luggage drop. We did a big circle through the Historic center of town and when we had it in sight again, Suzanne jumped out to go ask if there was a valet. In the meantime Babette and I were on our own trying to navigate back around (she doesn’t always have the up to date info). Luckily I ended up on the highway we came into town on and was able to slip into an underground parking structure we had previously passed. I called Suzanne and directed her as best I could to where the car was parked. I couldn’t leave it to find her, because rule #1 is NEVER leave anything in your unattended car. Resourceful Suzanne eventually found me and we got all the luggage out of the car and through the streets to the hotel.

As our room wasn’t yet ready, we opted to wait and have a glass of wine to steady our nerves. The photo above shows the serving cylinders of wine, which are inserted into the top of a D-Vine that aerates and brings the wine to the correct drinking temperature. I think we’re getting into serious wine country.

Once we got into our room, it was off to find something to eat…..a very late lunch at 3 pm. The restaurants were all closed, so we ended up in a little bar/cafe. The only thing they had left was Quiche Lorraine, so we each had a slice served with salad. Afterward we took a little walk though a mall that runs through 2 blocks.

Our favorite was the French cooks store.

Above is liquid chocolate, eating chocolate and cooking chocolate, with a little caramel thrown in for good measure. Below is a color of sugar for every mood or color scheme.

There were several umbrella stores (not taking that as a good sign). These umbrella’s are just so French, love them all.

There also seemed to be several shaving and fragrance shops for men.

Suzanne and I were both taken by the little figures in this shop window.

The featured photo is a window display in a women’s fragrance store. I thought it was innovative and very attractive.

A very short day in Lyon with all the driving. So it’s Au revoir, until tomorrow.

May 16, 2019

It’s Or-aahn-ge in French. Orange was about a 40 minute drive from Venasque. The main attraction being a full Roman Amphitheater and Roman Triumphal Arch. Suzanne reminded me we are here in France to sit at little tables drinking Campari Spritz’s and watching the world go by, but she was a good sport and put up with my love of culture and stair climbing. We timed our Orange trip for today, so we could also take in the weekly market. We lucked into a parking place a short distance to the market.

I really was enamored with this gentleman and his knife, scissor sharpening business run from his van. He was really nice and waved that it was OK to take his picture.

As we had done the big Isle-sur-la-Sorgue (this spelling is a correction from the previous blog) market on Sunday we didn’t spend too much time here. It was off to the main attraction depicted in the feature photo. This is one of the few intact Roman Amphitheater’s remaining in the world. It was built during the reign of Emperor Augustus in the 1st century AD.

The stage had a curtain that was raised from the floor to hide the stage from the audience. This entire facade of the stage or posteaenum is 103 meters long, 1.8 meters thick and 37 meters high (338’x5.9’x121.4′). When built the facade would be covered with mosaics and relief sculptures. All the nooks would have statues and there were originally 76 columns on the facade and stage. The large statue in the nook over the center doorway was reconstructed with fragments found in the area, it is a representation of Augustus, but in is believed to actually be a restoration of a statue of Apollo. The heads were removable to make altering the statues to new political realities easier.

These partial artworks were found in excavation under the Amphitheater and were originally part of the facade.

We went to the Orange museum of history and were able to view pieces of the Amphitheater decor, along with excavated statues, mosaic flooring, fabric printing displays and art by famous local artists.

The cyclops and sphinx statuary below was placed on tombs to frighten off thief’s.

The artwork in the museum is by Albert De Belleroche and Frank Brangwyn.

This bazaar detail of a painting in the museum shows a monkey reading a book, a painters palate next to it with a cup of tea. The book is resting on a man’s head and the cat seems to be offering the monkey it’s mouse. Somebody had quite the imagination.

We stopped for lunch at a new little cafe. My lunch was good, but Suzanne’s quiche was not. We had an excellent cucumber gazpacho and chocolate mousse. This is the first day of the trip that Suzanne wasn’t in need of her security coat. Voila!

After lunch we took a quick walk up to see the Roman Triumphal Arch. This arch was also built in the time of Emperor Augustus, around 27 BC to 14 AD. The arch is decorated with Roman battle scenes as can be seen below.

On our walk about town we ran across this beautiful old opera house.

We were ready to head home after 5 hours of sightseeing. Tonight is packing for tomorrow’s travel day to Lyon where we spend one night before heading to Burgundy.

Au revoir!

May 15, 2019

We had a quiet morning at home without having made any plans for the day. After a coffee and a couple cups of tea, we decided to drive around to a few of the surrounding villages. We generally planned to head west and then loop south to east and back to Venasque. First stop is the village of St. Didier. We thought we’d have lunch there, as we got such a late start. We ended up parking a ways out of the center and walking back. There were lots of gardens to enjoy on the way.

This large property was posted with contractor permits. The little winter greenhouse in this photo is for the potted lemon and orange trees to winter over. I had read about these structures in a book, but had never seen one before.

This overblown garden is lovely with the house set back from the street.

The little bar/cafe we found had a fixed three course lunch menu. I don’t think I can walk enough everyday to offset the quantities of food that are offered for lunch and dinner. I had the Salad de la Mer, Espadon marine and Tarte Fraise/Rhubarbe (seafood salad, swordfish and strawberry/rhubarb tart). It was all delicious for 14 euros. Suzanne had them make her a vegetarian salad and she had the tart also.

We did a little walking around after lunch. Provence is big cycling country and there were several groups stopping in St. Didier for lunch, like the group at the table in front of our little cafe.

A short way down the street we found this charming flower shop. There was an older man across the street that wanted us to come over and view the shop from there. Somehow we managed to have a little conversation with him, with a lot of sign language involved. He pointed us in a good direction for our walk.

This gateway is the entrance to the Thezan Chateau, built in the 1500’s and expanded in the 1800’s. It is currently in use as a private clinic.

This photo is of mosaics in a little courtyard we pasted by.

We noticed a couple of these fountains with large stone pools behind them. These are the wash houses that were used by the local inhabitants for laundry.

We found this floral display in a little plaza. We thought the gardening culprit might be the person with the balcony.

Back in the car to look at the map and decide which village is next on our journey. After a bit of discussion we took off for Pernes-les-Fontaines.

This village takes it’s name from the 40 fountains that can be found throughout. Once we found a parking place, it was off to look at the museum of the French Resistance. The museum was all in French, but was interesting nonetheless.

These are the famous women of the French Resistance. Josephine Baker (lower right), singer, actress and dancer was an American expatriate and naturalized French citizen. She was awarded the French military’s Croix de guerre and was named a Chevalier of the Legion d’honneur by General Charles de Gaulle. The legend is that star struck Nazi guards let Baker travel freely throughout France and Europe. Baker used this freedom to act as an informant and to carry messages in invisible ink on her sheet music for the Resistance. Charles de Gaulle generally downplayed the contributions of women to the Resistance and only 6 women were awarded metals for their bravery.

After the museum we climbed up to a scenic viewpoint on the Ferrande Tower from the 13th century.

Back to the car and on to Gordes. Gordes is the village of choice for wealthy Parisians, as it was for wealthy Romans. The hill top town is stunning as depicted in the featured photo. Our GPS, Babette had recalculated so many times and taken us on so many tiny country roads, backtracks and blocked thoroughfares, that we basically missed the entrance to the village and we waved at Gordes as we went by. We weren’t really in the mood for super expensive shops and restaurants anyway.

On to the village of Murs another tiny hilltop village. This windmill greeted us on our drive up the winding road.

We got to the top of the village, which is situated in Luberon Regional Nature Park. It is set among surrounding vineyards and cherry orchards. The village is dominated by a chateau from the 15th century that is privately owned and occupied by several generations of the same family. It is not open to the public.

Next to the chateau or castle is a Romanesque church with this impressive square clock/bell tower.

Onward towards home in Venasque. We passed by these interesting structures as we moved onto a beautiful mountain road that crosses the Plateau de Vaucluse. Then it was downhill through a steep rocky gorge with towering rock walls with caves and fantastic formations.

You can see the cut in the mountains that we drove through.

Au Revoir! Big day tomorrow….

May 14, 2019

Rather worn out by yesterdays adventure to Avignon we decided to take is a bit easier today. So after pursuing the options and being down to our last 3 cookies, we decided E.Leclerc in Carpentras looked like a shopping opportunity and a interesting bit of modern France…..a shopping mall with a large store similar to Fred Meyer at home, but way more interesting. I have never seen a deli, bread or pastry departments like these. So delicious looking, it was hard not to buy some of everything to sample.

Below is a packaged cake with fruit on top. The confections above were in the bakery case.

Here is one of the large pans of seafood paella I mentioned at the market on Sunday, as you can see it’s a big hit.

Fresh shrimp salad below. The platter below with the olives on top looked like some sort of Dagwood sandwich.

So it went on and on, we managed to make it out with about 2/3rd of a bag of groceries, including two packages of cookies to keep our strength up.

On the drive home we stopped to snap the poppies, but between dodging cars and the blowing wind the photo didn’t come out the best.

Once we got the car into a parking spot, we decided to make sure we hadn’t missed any parts of Venasque, plus we wanted to check out a little spot we’d seen on the way into town with a fruit sign out front.

Love the house above with the raven sculptures on the window sills. Had me fooled for a moment.

The little stand below is what we found behind the fruit sign and through a gate. There is a factory that makes fresh fruit juice, syrups and jam from local orchards. They also had fresh local cherries, so we snapped up a small box.

Since we were down the hill and in the area we thought we’d look at the church in the featured photo. It wasn’t open so we walked back up to our place for lunch.

Back home we made a lunch of a huge heirloom tomato on freshly baked Brioche, grilled onions, olives and of course cherries.

I had been seduced by a box of what looked like brownies at the store. They were great and went well with the cherries.

A nice walk up hill past the ramparts after lunch topped off the afternoon in Venasque.

There is a wonderful view from the top of the village of the escarpment that draws rock climbers to the area.

Au revoir! Until tomorrow’s adventure.

May 13, 2019

Last night Suzanne and I dined in and started with some local wine, tapenades, fresh goats cheese with red peppercorns and bay leaf, and baguette.

Today we were off to the famous historical city of Avignon. The Palais des Papes (Palace of the Popes) located in Avignon is the largest and one of the most important Gothic buildings in Europe. The palace was the seat of Catholic Popes during the 14th century. Six papal conclaves were held in the Palace before the Popes returned to Rome. Here is a model of the Palace, as it’s impossible to get a photo of the whole structure from the ground.

There is the old Palace of Benedict XII and the new Palace of Clement VI, the most extravagant of the Avignon Popes. The two combined palaces bring it’s size to 161,458 square feet with 25 rooms open to the public.

The Palace entrance fee includes a tablet, sort of like an iPad, that gives information on whichever room you enter. It works automatically or if you hold it over a designated spot. If you hold the tablet up in a room it shows it as it would have looked in the time of the Popes, moving as you move around the room. Very unusual, fun and interesting. This is a photo off the tablet that shows the detailing of the wall painting in the Pope’s private chambers. If you tap on the little icon, the tablet then gives you additional info on whatever is targeted.

The lower treasury room was surprisingly interesting, showing where valuables were hidden under slabs of stone flooring, with the tablet showing chests full of chalices and saints relics.

The door to the lower treasury was forced open twice by thieves, on 1360 and 1374. In 1360 they managed to enter but they were stopped before they could steal anything.

The High Grand Treasury was were the treasury staff was directed by the Chamberlain, the Pope’s right hand man. This was the finance office that collected taxes from religious institutions throughout Christendom and recorded the papal treasury’s income and expenses. These accounts now in the Vatican, are the main source of information on the Avignon papacy. The photo below shows the gigantic fireplace in the High Treasury. The man standing in the fireplace is peering up into a huge flue.

Really like this Dog’s head with long ear. Doesn’t much look like a dog to me, but I’ll take their word for it.

This is the ‘new’ kitchen flue, that vented smoke from a large central cooking pit. The adjoining Le Grand Tinel, banquet hall (below) would would seat a great number of people and the enormous cooking pit would allow large quantities for food to be prepared at once.

The Great Chapel was the site of papal coronations and funerals.

Below is a photo of the North Sacristy that has stone effigies, such as that of Louis II of Bourbon.

This is one of the main entrances to the Palace.

Here are some more photos of the palace and then we are off to explore more of the city.

The cloisters can be seen from the courtyard below.

Below is the adjacent church which is currently undergoing repairs.

The beautiful Hotel des Monnaies is right across the plaza from the Palace.

We stopped for lunch on this tiny little plaza. I had my usual salad Nicoise, it was very good.

Then on for a glacé at this little shop with the fascinating self serve ice cream machine on the sidewalk.

Saint Pierre Basilica was on our meandering route, so we took a quick look.

The city is also know for it’s Trompe l’oeil wall paintings.

On one of the main promenades we saw this double decker carousel.

Suzanne wants me to tell you that I’m doing a great job of driving through Provence. I can definitely say I was very happy to get out of the city and drive back to our little village.

I went to take the glass up to the top of the village where the recycling center is located and decided to walk over to the ramparts to take in the view.

Au revoir, until tomorrow!

May 12, 2019

Up and in our Citroen chariot to Isle-sur-la-Sorgue by 8:40 am. We have named our GPS, Babette. She has a very nice voice, not like my old Garmin, Miss Bossy Britches, that sounded very snide everytime she had to recalculate.

I wanted to get to the market early, so we could find parking. We know this market is one of the larger in the area and draws people from all over the Provence area. The photo below is of the Sorgue river that meanders through the town. If you enlarge the photo, you can see an old wooden water wheel on the right, behind the ducks.

The market has antiques, furniture, decor, hardware, clothing, linens, fresh produce and fruits, sausages and salami, rotisserie chicken, vats of paella, clothing, soaps and lavender everything. It just goes on and on…..

We had to sit and replenish ourselves after much diligent shopping. Afraid of starving today and tomorrow when many of the stores and shops are closed, we bought a huge heirloom tomato, fingerling potatoes, onions, tapanades (olive, tomato & eggplant), olives, more olives, asparagus, bananas, melon, bread and rotisserie chicken legs. I think we’ll survive the next few days.

While we were sitting a very cute dog was being walked while it’s human shopped.

Deciding to walk through the town, just to see what it is like, we popped into this Bakery for a Baguette. These Meringues were calling to me, but the temptation was fought off.

The bakery is on the church plaza, La Collegiale Notre Dame des Anges a baroque cathedral built in 1222 and renovated in the 17th century.

Expand to check out the great gargoyles in the photo below.

Found some lovely shops on our walk through town. We didn’t stay too long, as the area was becoming very crowded and the mistral was blowing about 33 miles/hour. Vendors were having to hold down their awnings and wares as sudden huge gusts of wind blew through.

I found some adorable handmade baby hats for my grand nieces in a little shop. The lady was working away on her old school sewing machine using charming French print fabrics.

We staggered to the car with our many bags of purchases.

Babette decided we needed to take a different route back to Venasque. So off we went down little narrow country roads, with the car wildly beeping at me every time I got close to the verge to let a car by from the other direction. It was a lovely drive with plenty of scenery.

Back to our little village and the walk to our temporary home.

Au revoir, until tomorrow!

May 11, 2019

We have had a total layabout today, both being tired from all the traveling and sightseeing. We did manage to make it to the little grocery store for more water, they are closed tomorrow, Sunday. While we were there we were enticed by beautiful strawberries. We all know what those are like, gorgeous looking, but with little strawberry flavor. These strawberries are some of the best I’ve ever tasted.

Last night we went to La Fontaine a restaurant next to the fountain, hence the original name. They have a fixed price three course meal for vegetarians that we both ordered.

Above is an asparagus mousse with fresh greens. The menu description of a vegetable plate didn’t do justice to this fabulous main. A mini soufflé of carrot and nutmeg, white asparagus and sauce, potatoes au gratin, puréed carrots and ratatouille, absolutely delicious.

We got to pick our dessert. I went for the chocolate mousse and Suzanne had Pavlova, strawberries and whipped cream on meringue.

Our table overlooked the fountain.

As you can see there isn’t much action in the village in the evening. The house was so quiet last night, no barking dogs, cars or people, there was no noise at all. It was so strange that I kept waking up all night, but then would go back to sleep.

Pretty much all we’ve done today is read, do laundry and eat. Brioche bread with local blackberry jam, a banana and espresso for breakfast. Tomato sandwiches for lunch with a few cookies and more expresso.

Tonight’s dinner at The Ramparts was a four course fixed price dinner. The first course pictured below was a pesto and tomato terrine. It was delicious. The second course of mushroom ravioli was swimming in cream sauce and cheese, we skipped the third cheese course and my dessert was again mostly cream. It all tastes good, but unfortunately my tummy doesn’t agree. We will be go back to the first restaurant, where the food isn’t as rich and the noise level is much lower. Tomorrow and Monday we can cook some simple food here.

Tomorrow the plan is to attend the big Sunday market in Isle-sur-la-Sorgue. Most stores and many restaurants are closed on Sunday’s and Monday’s, so we will stock up on food and wine to get us through.

Au Revoir!

May 10, 2019

The drive from Nice went smoothly except for a little oop’s at the first toll booth, where we got in the wrong lane and were stuck until a nice woman opened the toll gate for us. After that Suzanne the intrepid navigator got it figured out so there weren’t anymore embarrassing incidents. I was a little nervous at first, but driving in Europe came back to me although it had been many, many years since I drove from Zurich to Florence. The driver’s in Europe are so good, with everyone staying to the right unless they are passing. Everything just flows so well on the expressways.

This church was our first view after passing through the crumbling ramparts of Venasque.

We are in an ancient hill town perched on a rocky outcropping overlooking the Nesque valley and Carpentras plain. The region is Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur. You can see Venasque southeast of Carpentras.

The owner’s of the house sent us an instruction book for finding the property, working the locks, parking and everything we need to know to stay here for the week. As you can see from the map there are plenty of little villages and towns to explore during our stay.

The entry to the house is inside the old wooden doors to the left in the featured photo. The caretakers Fabio and Camille met us to welcome us to the village and help us with our bags up just a few stairs. The house is pretty much vertical with 4 to 5 levels depending on what you consider a level. The photo below shows the steps to the front door on the right and the steps to the upstairs bedrooms on the left. Since the bathrooms are on the second level, which has it’s own sets of stairs, we opted for that level, plus it is warmer with more sunlight.

These are the stairs to Suzanne’s bedroom and I’m hoping she can navigate the steep steps safely. Most of the house has great handrails, but not this bedroom.

This is my bedroom that only has one small step down, with it’s own tub and sinks. Suzanne gave me first choice, maybe because I got the twin bed in our Nice hotel and the stairs to her bedroom scared me off.

This is the roof terrace that overlooking the village and is a great place to hang out. The view is absolutely wonderful.

I’m not sure how old this ancient house is, but the village was established in the high Middle Ages and was the Capital of Comtat Venaissin (County of Venaissin), which became a possession of the Holy See in 1271*, when Avignon was Pope Clement V’s seat of the Papacy.

This is the living room/kitchen area of the house up the first flight of stairs. That blown out light area to the rear right is a small enclosed patio that was getting some sun.

After we got slightly settled, off we went to find a little lunch as we didn’t stop on our trip from Nice. The only thing open in the afternoon are the local bars. There appear to be two in the village. We bought blackberry jam at the bar, brioche bread at the bakery, then waited to 4:30 when the little store opened to buy milk, mayonnaise, water, mustard, tea and a huge heirloom tomato. Breakfast and lunch are covered.

Here are some more pictures of our village. The village is very small with about 1100 inhabitants.

This looked like some sort of plant shop. It was closed like almost everything else between 2:30 to 4:30 pm.

The fountain in the central plaza and the bakery (Boulangerie) in the middle/right behind. Our house down the street to the left behind the fountain.

Au Revoir, see you tomorrow.

May 9, 2019

Feeling very brave after our little city bus ride yesterday, we decided to find (with the help of the front desk) bus 400 from Nice to St. Paul de Vence. This famous little medieval, fortified hill village was home to Chagall when he was in his 80’s. The village is near Matisse’s famous Rosary Chapel in Vence.

Suzanne had engaged with a young couple that were sitting next to us at dinner our first night here. They work and live in Nice 6 months a year and told us that St. Paul is one of their favorite places to go, so this is all on Suzanne…..a good job too!

Here are Suzanne and I hanging out at the cemetery chapel.

The tomb of Chagall is here in this little cemetery that terraces down the hill at the south end of the village facing the sea.

I took this photo of the upper terrace of the cemetery from the ramparts.

My researcher and I discovered after an extensive search that the two other people in Chagall’s tomb are, Valentina (Vava) Brodsky his second wife and his brother-in-law Michel.

These types of porcelain flowers were used on many of the tombs.

Of course being a hill town, we climbed a lot of stairs in our exploration, because that’s what we do. We’ve never seen a stair that we didn’t want to climb.

The village has very interesting and clever rock paths that were laid in the 1950’s.

There are shops and art galleries everywhere. Mostly art galleries some with very expensive art by Chagall and Picasso. There are many galleries with current artists like in the photos below.

We were tempted, but managed to resist this cookie and candy store.

We climbed up to the Elise Collegiale church that was constructed between the 14th and 18th centuries, it has rich and beautiful paintings. The chapel in the first photo is dedicated to Saint Clement.

The Grand fountain in a little square at the heart of the village was redesigned in the 17th century and again in the 19th century. We had lunch on the little terrace with red umbrellas above the fountain. This square has always been the busiest part of the village.

These are some photos of a few of the quaint and charming parts of the village. The second photo down shows a house that was built over one of the village paths.

The ramparts were constructed between 1543 and 1547 forming a one kilometer perimeter. The ramparts are among the very first to be designed by a French architect, Jean de Saint-Remy. I walked the rampart from the city gate to the cemetery (about 500 meters) and tried not to look at the drop into the village. The rampart is about two and a half feet wide, which made passing people nerve wracking. I just flattened myself against the parapet and refused to step out to the edge, except in one case where a guy refused to move.

On our way out to St. Paul de Vence we passed through Cagnes sur Mer and saw this office building and restaurant an inhabited sculpture by Sosno. ‘The watchman’ in the middle of the structure stares at you, watching. I got the photo from a post on Rick Steve’s Europe, community.ricksteves.com. We went by too fast for me to get a picture.

Back to Nice and a very good meal at Mon Petit Cafe. Sea Bass for me and Cod for Suzanne. Tomorrow we pick up our car and head up into Provence wine country.

Cheers!