Les Goudes et Callelongue. Marseille

Today, we took the bus 83, transfered to the 19 and then 20 to end up 50 minutes later where the road stops in Callelongue. Few kilometers away from Marseille but still along the sea. 

As you can imagine by looking at the rocks in the background, we just add to go for a quick hike hoping to avoid the storm.

We quickly climbed up...

We found an old military tower at the top. Got a great 360° panoramic view.

Because of the weather, we didn't spent a lot of time in this area today. We need to come back this winter or spring before the crowd invades. This a beautiful spot commonly called les Calanques.

A calanque is a deep valley with steep sides and it's partially submerged by the sea. It's like a Mediterranean fjord. The best known examples of this formation can be found in the Massif des Calanques. This range extends for 20 kms long and 4 kms in width along the coast between Marseille and Cassis. 

Sometime in April or May when the weather is nicer, starting in Callelongue, we want to hike all day to reach Cassis before the end of the day and ride the train back to Marseille. Can't wait! 

Paris, Je t'aime. To add to your list...

I had seen this movie a while a ago. And a couple of friends reminded me of it last week. You can now rent it in the US.  The official website is http://www.firstlookstudios.com/pjt/. 

The new york times review is not encouraging but I would recommend it anyway. I thought it was fascinating. Twenty one highly talented directors producing eighteen short films about love, relationships and of course Paris. To add to that there was a host of top rated acting talent lined up for the film.

Vitrail. Pannessières. Jura

I was walking by the church in Pannessières.

Baumes les Messieurs. Jura

Last Saturday, Sam and I went for a hike around Baumes les Messieurs. 

We parked by the church and started to hike up to get away from the fog.

As we left the trail, we met a special guide who actually seemed kind of lost. We were trying to find a cave called the Swedish cave. Many moons ago the Swedish had invaded this area. 

Once we found a way to climb the cliff and got to the top, we had a great view of the valley. 

We were hoping for a locally made organic beer or apple juice in this little shop but they were closed.

Back down, we walked through l'Abbaye. Sam knows this place really well. He used to come and visit with a painter, Josette Coras, who lived in a portion of the Abbaye. I added a picture below stolen from the web to give a better idea.

Château du Pin. Jura.

Last Tuesday, mum and I walked from L'Etoile, our village, to Pannessières, Sam's village. The hike took us through Le Pin and I couldn't help taking some shots of this middle age castle. The owners have restored it well enough so that they can host people with horses as there are miles of horse trails around.

Same castle the next afternoon! I was driving by that day.

Pannessières. Jura

We just spent a week in le Jura where our parents live. Sam bought an old house last year in Pannessières where he grew up and it needs a lot of work before he can rent it. We helped his dad this week. It's not easy to renovate old farms but they are so charming, it's worth all the trouble.

Fish Market en Noir et Blanc. Marseille.

Two things on my list.

We met with Sam's friends on Thursday at La Part des Anges, neat restaurant/wine bar located in our street. They have a cool website. It's good to meet people from the area. We came out with a list of local restaurants to try.

From our conversation that night, I also decided that I needed to go to a corrida once in my life. I have some issues with the concept but I need to see it once. They only happen in the South of France (and Spain of course). I did Las Vegas for the first time this summer. I can do a corrida! 

On my list too is to go to a soccer game. Even if you're not a sports fan but you're french, you know l'OM, Marseille's soccer team. Their fans are completely crazy and the excitement during the games is unique. Unlike american football, at least here I understand the rules...

Morning walk. Downtown Marseille.

Pictures taken on my route back from accompanying Sam to work this morning.

Les Baux-de-Provence

In the previous post, I was telling you about our wet outing to the Maussane et Les Baux-de-Provence. We didn't take any pictures of Les Baux and we found the village completely taken over by tourist shops. 

It is one of the most visited villages in Provence. It might be the second most visited village in France after Mont Saint Michel. The permanent population of the village is only 458 whereas the average number of visitors per year is more than 1.5 million. The village is dominated by a huge citadel which we didn't get to visit. We had to run away, chased by the storm. Here again I stole the picture from the web to give you an idea. 

Hiden in the village, we did find an authentic little print shop. Sam took a pic of the interior. This shop was Louis Jou's, of Catalan origin, he worked with Apolliniaire, Picasso and Cocteau. He bought and restored a Renaissance hotel in Les Baux, where he settled in 1939. We were impressed by the old equipment of typography and lithography.

American presidential elections. Nov 4th.

The weather is not good today. I'm cooking dinner for a little party tonight and listening to France Inter, the french NPR. And except for the fact that it's in french, it's all about the elections in the US. It's non stop. Today I wish I could be in the US. My thoughts are going to the friends who have devoted their time to incite people to vote. To everyone else in the US, I'm sure you are looking forward for this campaign to be over! 

Maussane les Alpilles. South of France.

This picture taken by Sam is from Sunday. We decided to go explore the countryside close to the Baux de Provence. We drove to Maussane les Alpilles and walked by this old charming place. We didn't take a lot of pictures, the light wasn't good. We even got caught in a major storm. Lightening, thunder, pooring down rain. We got completely drenched to the point that we couldn't wear our soaked pants in the car on the way back... Stopping at the self service gas station was rather interesting!

I'm adding this picture stolen from the web to give you any idea of where we went. We saw a lot of orchards with olive trees. There are 37,000 olive trees around Maussane. They supposedly make really good olive oil. Have you ever tried to bite a fresh olive? I did and will never try it again.

Another Marseille. Khamsa.

We watched a beautiful movie filmed in Marseille. Khamsa. Disturbing and moving for us especially as we live in the same town. It might make it to the US since there is a trailer with english subtitles.

La Vieille Charité. Marseille.

A picture I took last Sunday as we were walking in Marseille. It's in the same street where I took the cloth lines and within 15 minutes from the appartment.

According to Wikipedia, it was constructed between 1671 and 1749. It has four ranges of arcaded galleries in three storeys surrounding a space with a central chapel surmounted by an ovoid dome. It was first used as an almshouse (new word for me!).

In the seventeenth century the repression of beggars was conducted with great brutality in France. Guards called Chasse-gueux ("beggar-hunters") had the task of rounding up beggars: non-residents among them were expelled from Marseille, and natives of Marseille were shut up in prison. Often the crowd would take the side of the beggars during such arrests. The almshouses served as workhouses for the beggars. Children were found jobs as domestic servants, cabin boys or apprentices with seamstresses or bakers.

Today La Vieille Charité houses a couple of museums, a library and a school of advanced studies in social sciences.