More villages, a hoiday market, and Boujolais Nouveau.

One of the things that we like about France is that the cold weather never seems to slow anybody down.  We see families out walking with little kids all bundled up.  Everyone wears a scarf…except for Leon.  Even though I made him bring one, he has forgotten it every day except one.  I told him I was going to buy him a purple one with yellow paisleys on it like Bernard’s if he doesn’t start wearing his plain grey one.  We looked out the front window this morning, and there were some of the locals sitting outside with gloves and scarves and heavy coats on as they talked and drank their coffee.  

After breakfast, we headed out to the east to see some more of the local villages.  The first one we came to was Vaugines.  It is a tidy little town where many of the homes belong to well-to-do folks who work in Aix or are second homes for wealthy Parisians.  

In the center of town is the Place de la Mairie (Mayor’s Office) and in front of that is a centuries old fountain.  There is a high concentration of limestone in the water here, and the water is so diverted by the accretion of limestone that it simply drips from the huge concentration of moss growing on it.  It almost looks like a tree with water spouting up from the top and running down the branches.

The next village we came to was Cucuron, only about 2 km east of Vaugines.  The center of town is around a large pond (l’etang) that is spring fed and surrounded by huge plane trees.

Leon liked this town because of a sign we saw hanging outside a restaurant.

We knew there was supposed to be an interesting 13^th century church somewhere and drove all over looking for it.  We kept seeing signs pointing toward the “Eglise” and finally realized that there was a little person painted on the sign. We determined that this meant that we had to walk to the church.

We drove up tiny narrow streets and found a parking place so we could get out and explore the town.  This town was originally a Roman settlement and remnants of Roman villas have been found in the fields around the town.  

The church was at the end of a pedestrian street/town square.  It sits right on the top of the hill, and is beautiful on the inside.  There were intricately carved wooden backdrops for statues,

beautiful paintings, 

and some of the little side chapels had centuries old paintings on the walls that were in remarkably good shape.  

 There were some small stained glass windows.

The floor had beautiful designs on the tiles.

One of the interesting things we noticed was that the huge “marble” columns on either side of the back doors were really wood painted to look like marble.  We had seen “marble” behind the altar and wondered if it had been painted wood, too.

There was a big organ in the balcony at the back.  

Outside the church was a great view over the tiled roofs of the village

 and part of the original rampart walls.

Somehow I am always dismayed to see contemporary Christmas decorations hanging over the streets of these ancient villages.  It just seems so very out of place.

As we walked back down to the car, we saw this grape vine covered with ripe grapes outside one of the little houses.

Of course, I always have to take photos of windows and doors.

The next town was Ansouis, another town officially classified as a “Beau Villages.”  It was a Catholic town that was spared during the religious wars of the 16^th century, unlike our town of Lourmarin, a Protestant town, that was destroyed and then rebuilt in the 17^th century.  There is a chateau in Ansouis that was owned by the same family for 800 years, but sold to someone else in 2008.  

The Chateau was supposed to be open for tours, but was closed when we were there.  I figure that there are not enough tourists in these little villages in the winter months to keep things open.  

Built in the castle walls is a Romanesque church that originally was a Court of Justice where the lords of the castle fulfilled their judicial function as part of their feudal duties.  The church was open and very interesting.

The next town we visited was Grambois.  As we got closer to this town, we noticed snow on the sides of the road and on rooftops.

There is a town square at the top, and we could see piles of snow on the edges.  There was a church on top, but it was closed.  The view from the top showed quite a bit of snow still on shady spots.

As we walked back to the car, we heard what sounded like a bunch of people softly talking.  We looked up and saw that pigeons were making homes in cracks in the stone walls and were cooing.

We had not packed any lunch today because we didn’t eat our picnic from yesterday, so we decided we would just stop somewhere and get something to eat along the way.  Walter had warned us that except for Lourmarin that all the other little villages of the area were sort of closed during the winters.  We did not believe him that they were literally closed, but I promise they were all like nobody lived there.  We saw lots of cars parked, but no restaurants, no grocery stores, no boulangeries, not even people walking around.  We walked up and down streets and drove up and down narrow streets and never found anyplace open at all.  We decided that we would just come back to the apartment.

Since we had taken little back roads to these villages, we decided to go on some larger roads to make the way faster.  As we drove through one town, we noticed that there were lots of people out walking on the sidewalks.  The main street through town had been blocked off (Helen was not happy about that!), and there were lots of cars all turning into a big dirt parking lot.  We decided to stop and see what was going on.

The first thing we noticed was a huge ruin.  The town is called La Tour d’Aigues and the ruin is what is left of the castle destroyed during the French Revolution.  The town was founded by the Romans and was a viable village until it was almost wiped out by the plague in the 1200s.  It was brought back to life and passed through several noble hands until 1719 when it was bought by an unpopular rich merchant family from Marseilles.  This family undertook significant work around the castle gardens and flowerbeds.  They built an orangery, greenhouses, a menagerie, and dug a large canal in the park. However, they caused tension in the town by raising taxes and limiting access to water.  The castle was partially burned in an accidental fire in 1780  and became the target of Revolutionaries who burned and looted it in 1792.  The castle was never rebuilt and is now a historical monument.  It must have been amazing when it was in its heyday.

There was obviously something going on in the town, so after we walked around inside the ruins, we walked over and discovered a market going on.  It was Saturday afternoon, and the main streets were blocked off for this market.  We decided that they were being politically correct since all the signs we saw said “Joyeaux Fete.” There was a Santa Claus walking around, lots of booths selling foods, jewelry, clothing, and food. 

 We were so excited to see this many people.  Everyone was bundled up for the cold.  We thought surely we could get something to eat and find a restroom here.  We stopped in at a restaurant, but they said they were not serving food any longer (it was about 3:00).  The guy in there said we could get a sandwich farther down the street.  We walked on through all the booths…face painting was popular…and I saw a bar that had lots of tables out front, and it looked like people were sitting inside.  

 We walked in and asked if we could get a sandwich, and they said oui.  We ordered coffee and tea and sandwiches.  Dad said he was going to go see if they had a restroom, so he left.  One of the ladies behind the bar came over and asked me if we wanted some Boujolais Nouveau.  She had a big smile on her face and seemed so excited about it.  I said that would be great, so she brought out two glasses.  She even showed me the bottle.  

Leon came back, and we drank our wine and then they brought our sandwiches.  Leon got ham and butter, and I got pate.  They were on half baguettes, so were huge.  We had just read about Thursday being the first day that Boujolais Nouveau could be sold.  That is the new young wine that is only aged 6-8 weeks.  It is mandated by law that it cannot be sold until the 3^rd Thursday in November, so the bars open at midnight that morning and everyone drinks the new wine until the sun comes up.  We loved the wine.  Caroline, it reminded me of the new wine we had in Spain, except this is red and not sparkling.  Anyway, we spoke no French and these folks spoke no English, but it was such a family atmosphere place…packed with people of all ages from pensioners to babies in strollers.  All the tables outside were filled with people, so they were doing a brisk business.  We just can’t get over how the French sit outside in freezing weather just like it is a spring day.  They are bundled up head to foot and it does not seem to bother them at all.  Americans would never sit out in the cold except at a football game!
There were festive garlands up inside and decorations on the windows.  

 One of the ladies working there was pregnant, and there was a painting of a pregnant woman in a Santa suit on the window, and a skinny Santa painted on the door.  Leon asked the lady if that was a picture of her.  She laughed and nodded, then pointed to a man we assume was her husband and pointed to the skinny Santa.  We then noticed that the Santa had a hairline just like the man behind the bar.  When we left, everyone called to us just like we were regular patrons.  

 Sometimes our most memorable times are just the serendipity ones.
We stopped by the Super U on the way home to get some milk and coffee for Leon.  They had coffee from all over the world, so Leon decided to try some from Cuba since he knew he would never get any of that in the USA.  We also bought some of the new wine to have with our dinner.

We came home and I started on supper.  We had bought some salmon and had not cooked it yet.  I cut some potatoes in half, smeared the cut side with butter and baked it in the oven, then cooked the salmon while I made a big salad.  We had some of the new wine with it and stuffed ourselves.  It was really good.

More adventures tomorrow.