Door. Mirmande.

We're just coming back from a lovely week end in La Drôme. Beautiful area. Sam's sister lives in Crest with her family. We stayed with them and discovered small medieval villages. This picture is taken in Mirmande with Charles. And I added two pictures below stolen on the internet to give you a better idea of Mirmande.

And just in case you want to know where La Drôme is in France.

Cherry picking in Vic Sainte Anastasie

This past week end, we stayed with Sam's friend in Vic Sainte Anastasie. It was just pure pleasure to walk around these narrow streets and pick some cherries for the train ride back to Marseille.

Click on the picture and you'll feel like you're walking with us!

Arles. Breakfast at La place du Forum.

Café Terrace at Night. 1888

This week end, we took the train from Marseilles and went to Arles. 

Arles, once an important Roman city, was where Vincent Van Gogh lived and worked for more than a year from February 1888, producing more than 200 paintings and drawings. 

We got there early and enjoyed la Place du Forum without the tourists. But just like them, I had to have a picture of Van Gogh's café...

Still on the same place, the Grand-Hôtel Nord-Pinus with a  bohemian past during the fifties, when bullfighters and artists such as Picasso and Ernest Hemingway were entertained by its charismatic owners, a cabaret dancer and a tightrope-walking clown.

Doors. Arles.

Well... I hadn't posted any doors for a while.

Arles. Bull fighting.

"...Over 3000 years of history reside upon this rocky rise just north of the Mediterranean Sea on the Rhône River. Part of ancient Liguria, the site later became a city, Arlate, named by the Celts as the village amidst the marshes. After the Celts came the Greeks who made good use of this easily accessed inland port. The Greeks were displaced by the Romans and with Caesar's defeat of the Phoenicians at Massalia (Marseille) with the help of nearly 20 battle ships built by the Arlesians, Arles became the Roman capitol of Provincia Romana..."

"...Bull fighting is a major spectators sport in Arles, France and the first bull fighting event took place in this arena in 1853.

Arles, France has a school for young students who want to learn the basic techniques of bull fighting and about thirty students attend each year. If youngsters want to learn the basics of the Camargue bull games, Arles also has a school for them.

Arles, France has three major bull fighting events each year that attracts approximately 500,000 visitors to France and the arenas are completely full for each event..."

Louis Pasteur's house. Arbois. Jura.

Louis Pasteur (December 27, 1822 – September 28, 1895) was a French chemist and microbiologist born in Dole, Jura. He then grew up in Arbois and ended up living in this littl town part of his adulthood. 

Sam and I went to visit his house transformed now in a museum. I couldn't take pictures inside but I really liked the tulips that day in Arbois. Arbois is just 35 minutes away from where our parents live in le Jura. 

"...Pasteur is best known for his remarkable breakthroughs in the causes and prevention of disease. His experiments supported the germ theory of disease, also reducing mortality from puerperal fever (childbed), and he created the first vaccine for rabies. He was best known to the general public for inventing a method to stop milk and wine from causing sickness - this process came to be called Paseurization. He is buried beneath the Institute Pasteur, a rare honor in France, where being buried in a cemetery is mandatory save for the fewer than 300 "Great Men" who are entombed in the Panthéon in Paris..."

Looking for a private beach in Marseille...

I'm looking for a private beach around here. Since last week end, it's summer here in the South of France. And with the sun, comes the crowd. Not sure I like it...

Quick trip to Luxembourg... one stop in Colmar.

Last week I went to Luxembourg for a job interview. Couldn't believe it. I would have worked with a lady who spent 15 years in Eugene, OR. She even worked 5 years in Lebanon... I had knots in my stomach today when I decline their offer. 

Luxembourg is just way to far from home. On my long train ride, I had to stop for a couple of hours in Colmar a little town in the North East of France. The old center of this little town is lovely.  Interviews are a great way to rediscover the Old Continent!

Quick trip to London...

A week and a half ago, I spent about 24 hours in London. A job interview right between Victoria and Picadilly Circus. No worries though, my next job is in Switzerland, not Great Britain. I was in London in 1987 with Sam during our last year of Middle School. A school trip to discover the city. I really want to go back with him and explore all the great museums.

Thomas Dutronc. Concert in Marseille.

Three weeks ago, we watched and listened to Thomas Dutronc. Son of French icons Jacques Dutronc and Françoise Hardy, Thomas Dutronc fell in love with Gypsy jazz music during his teenage years, starting with Django Reinhardt's works. 

Gifted with impressive learning capacities, he began studying Gypsy guitar at the age of 18 and has since collaborated with a wide range of artists, from the jazz community with the likes of Bireli Lagrene but also including his father, mother, and Henri Salvador from the pop world.

Here is a video of him in the train with his musicians.

Happy May 1st!

May 1st is a special day in France. It's Labor Day, or "Laborer's Day," and so - ironically, in my opinion - it's a holiday, a day off from work for everyone, with one major exception: florists. May 1st is also Lily of the Valley Day, and it's traditional to offer one's loved ones a sprig of lily of the valley, symbol of spring and of good luck, especially if the sprig has 13 bellflowers. And florists are very lucky because on this day they have the right to sell lily of the valley tax-free. I took this picture at the train station in Lyon coming back from a job interview in Lausanne.