Bonnie & Joel's Excellent Adventures

On the agenda for today, visit four different villages in Provence, all walled ancient cities within a 20 mile radius. The weather was perfect, sunny and cool enough for a jacket but warm enough to shed the jacket in the afternoon sun.

The first one, Menerbes, had a market day and a very fine Boulanger. We picked up the makings for the best part of the day, our picnic. We bought our cheese from a young farmer who had spent her winter holiday in NYC and described how in France they are encouraged to be conservative in their use of electricity, she was impressed with how little conservation there was in Times Square.

Second village was Bonnieux. Here Bon started to get pretty artsy with the photos.

Between village 2 & 3 we found a great place for a quick picnic stop, food porn to follow. Amazing artisan sausage with pistachio excellent cheese from the temporary New Yorker the only thing missing was wine. We had more driving to do and did I mention that these roads are very very narrow. It’s a holiday so there are more Euro RVs on the go than normal. Yes their RVs are like their cars, slightly smaller than their American counterparts and cooler looking, but still a camper headed towards you on a narrow road.

Roussillon, looks like an European village built in Sedona, AZ. Red soil, Ochre, just pops up all of a sudden out the green farmland. Amazing.

Saved the most picturesque for last, Gordes. Of course this is where Bon’s camera ran out of battery and the backup was back in the room. The whole city looks like it was carved out of a mountain.

Yesterday we packed up the Renault and headed out of Avignon towards our next B&B outside Eze. About a three hour drive we did in 10 hours. Due to culture stops in Aix-en-Provence for a little Vasarely (also a market stop because we left our cheese in our first room, can’t travel in France without cheese) and then a second stop outside Saint Paul de Vence for a whole lot of Miro, Chagall, Leger and Calder in somebody’s formally private home. We paid 5 euro to take photos at the Foundation Maeght, so you are getting an eyeful.

After so much culture, we headed up A8 through Nice and at exit 57 we pulled onto the Grand Corniche for the final leg to Domaine Pins Paul home for the next 4 nights. High above the medieval village of Eze. There will be drinking each night as the driveway to D.P.P is one of the worst stretches of driving I have come across. Each successful access needs to be followed by at least one glass if not a bottle…the first night was a bottle of red from the wine cooler right outside our door. Paul has thought of everything. Heck of a view and a liquor store on premise.

Breakfast Saturday overlooks the Mediterranean and the cities of Eze and Cap Ferrat where we think Bono of U2 has a house. After discussion with Paul over croissants, we changed our plan from driving to Cassis, to spending the day in Vence, Saint Paul de Vence and Eze.

We found the Matisse Chapelle, which Matisse designed for his nurse turned nun friend and model then headed to Saint Paul. We were able to snag a reservation at La Colombe D’Or very posh, almost too posh to let us in. We rambled around art galleries and shops for an hour, then had a wonderful lunch watching the beautiful people amidst incredible art. This was followed by more wandering and ice cream and a graveyard.

Chagall’ Grave

On to Eze. Galleries, shops winding steep paths and uneven stairs. Drinks on a terrace overlooking Cap Ferrat and dinner of pate onion soup lamb chops and risotto…..Sounds like Barbara’s kind of meal.

Then navigating from Eze to D.P.P. In the dark with a little rain. Red wine was applied for medicinal purpose once we made it to our room.

Tomorrow off to Nice for Matisse, hey that rhymes, along with more Chagall and a Flower Show at Villa Rothchild.

Beautiful sunny day starts cool in the high 50s and warms to the mid70s. Perfect day to go visit a garden at the Rothchild’s Villa in Cap Ferrat. They have an annual two day garden show and we loves us a garden.

After touring the garden and Villa with a view, we head to Nice for the Matisse and Chagall Museums. Our GPS has been acting up, so a 20 minute drive becomes 45 and some driving through “interesting” neighborhoods and some turnaround/backing out maneuvers that would be hilarious set to music. Oh and thanks to a Fete de Mai around the Matisse Museum, parking was not to be found. So about four blocks from the Chagall we found a piece of the curb right in front of the no parking symbol with a picture of a tow truck on it, then after a few hours gazing at the masters, involving a 25 minute walk between museums, we walked past our car to an empty spot where we thought we parked….and thought we were towed….but nope as we were starting the trek back up the street Bon found our little Renault still in the correct spot. We breathed a big sigh of relief that we were not going to deal with an impoundment and headed back to the D.P.P. Then dinner at a Corsican cafe in town.

Oh and Bonnie is trying out her film making again, hoping this short makes it to Canne.

At breakfast, Phillipe, the George Clooney of D.P.P., suggested an alternate itinerary to our plan of a museum in Biot and then a drive to Monte Carlo. His suggestion, which we took, was a scenic drive up to a mountain village, then cross country towards Menton, the last French city before Italy, on the sea shore. Walk along the beach (all rocks by the way) then head north via Italy and back into the mountain to a scenic ancient village called Soarge. Then end our day with the beautiful people of Monte Carlo. Whew, three countries in a day.

The first leg was a bit of a wild ride. As always we missed a turn and ended up winding around a mountain first on a narrow two lane “road” then after heading through one lane tunnels literally carved from the stone, the road gave up the pretense of being two lane and became a one lane with occasional wide spots. Finally we found a spot to turn around and took the ride again, only reversed. We got on the correct crazy road towards St. Agnes. This was our waypoint to Menton. How there was no car sickness on this was a mystery, perhaps white knuckles and navigation responsibilities wards off motion sickness in Bon. Also I need to give props to navi-Bon as she was going old school with a Michelin paper map today. Our Garmin still was on strike, how very French. And we had not figured out yet why our car navi system would not work…..more on that later.

Menton was the typical French Rivera city. Lots of vacationers strolling along the “beach”. No sand just large stones to the waters edge. Absolutely gorgeous water, but those rocks have to be murder to sit and walk on. Since it is France there was of course topless sunbathers, more from the “what were they thinking” category than the “ooh-la-la”. We caught a few rays (fully clothed thank you very much) had a bite and cappuccino and headed out for the next leg of our day’s adventure.

A few kilometers down the road we crossed from France to Italy, just like going from Southlake to Grapevine. We headed north, climbing along the river Roy or Royal, depending on whether we were on the French or Italian side of route 20. But up was the consistent direction towards Soarge. A place Phillipe said gets very few tourists, but is ancient and very pretty, plus the ride is scenic. It should have been clear by now that scenic is Phillipe’s code word for holding your breath if you meet oncoming traffic and your reflexes are about to be tested. Bonnie’s hands were cramping from clenching the dashboard and if there had been a brake on her side it would have been through the floor. I was thankful for renting an automatic very compact car. When we decided that we could not squeeze through any further on Mainstreet Soarge (in all fairness it was beautiful between swear words) we executed the longest turnaround procedure in our history. Wedged between a parked car and a concrete planter, Bonnie was out of the car assisting with the keep coming wave and STOP shout. Six inches at a time for at least seven iterations we maneuvered our little Renault into a 180. Then we stopped for some photos.

Back the way we came through Italy, back through Menton and on our way to Monaco. Country number three of the day. We wanted to see the huge yachts, fancy hotels and casino, the setup for the Monte Carlo Grand Prix. Country driving is much more conducive to old school map navigating than cities. So we resuscitated our Garmin for entry into Monte Carlo. Very crowded, lots of traffic confused Garmin. Thank goodness they get the concept of parking garages in the Principality of Monaco. Southern France – not so much. We found a spot and walked on down to the marina to gape at the humongous hunks of boats docked. A few Russian and Saudi billionaires were in the house, and it looked like Mark Cuban’s boat might have made its way from St. Thomas. We were thirsty, so we headed over to the Bar Americain in the Hotel de Paris. Not Bonnie’s first visit, or attempted visit. She and Barbara were turned away by security about 15 years ago. Evidently they have relaxed their standards now, we had no problem getting in and they were very happy to take our 40 Euros for a cocktail and cup of coffee. BTW when I say relaxed their standards, I mean they even let the canine crowd in now, so no telling why the B&B duo were not allowed in back in the day. Although Bonnie did, ahem “borrow” the little linen bar napkin embroidered with Hotel De Paris, (soon to be on permanent display at the Hacienda’s guest bathroom wall) so maybe they WERE on to something back in the day!

We hung with the beautiful people and a French Bulldog for a bit and then found our way back to the D.P.P. for a quick break before dinner. Since we were leaving early the next morning, Bon documented our humble Eze abode with photos and I drank some Rose, when Provençal….