Boîtes aux Lettres vs. Mailboxes

Mailboxes by the Arceneaux. Marseille. 12/04/08

Mailboxes in Utah. August 08.

Chocolate, Banana and Chestnuts...

I've made this decadent dessert twice now... Well, it's decadent only if you like bananas and dark chocolate. I found the recipe on a french food blog and stole her picture just to give you an idea. I used chestnut spread instead of hazelnuts. Still works just fine! If you're dying to know the recipe in english, just let me know...

L'Hydroptère. Marseille

As we walked by the Old Harbor when I first arrived in October, Sam showed me l'Hydroptère. I went back yesterday and took some pics.

This trimaran has set two world speed records. I found a picture on the net while it's sailing... or flying!

Les Navettes. Marseille

Opened since 1781, the Four des Navettes, is again right next to our appartment. Rue Sainte. It's famous for its speciality biscuits called Navettes They are some kind of cookies flavoured with orange flower and they keep for up to a year. They are really dry and I can only eat them dipped in a cup of tea!

Paul Valery's house. Marseille.

A picture I took yesterday. This house used to be owned by Paul Valéry. It's right next to Saint Victor's Abbey and 100 meters from our appartment. Paul Valéry (1871 - 1945) was a French poet, essayist and philsopher. He is known for his poems le Cimetière Marin et La Jeune Parque. His poem Palme inspired James Merrill's poem Lost in Translation in 1974.

Saint Victor Abbey. Marseille

We live 30 seconds from l'Abbaye Saint Victor. I just stopped by and took a few pictures.

St. victor’s Abbey is a late Roman former monastic foundation, named after the local soldier saint and martyr, Saint Victor.

Saint Victor is said to have been a Roman army officer in Marseilles, who publicly denounced the worship of idols. For that, he was brought before the Roman prefects, Asterius and Eutychius, who later sent him to the Emperor Maximian. He was then racked, beaten, dragged through the streets, and thrown into prison, where he converted three other Roman soldiers. The three were beheaded, and St Victor himself was crushed under a millstone and then beheaded, after refusing to offer incense to the Roman god Jupiter. You just couldn't think out of the box back then or else...

In the 4^th century, Saint John Cassian built this monastery over the site where the bodies had been buried in a cave.

The belts were ringing so I had to zoom on them...

This is the view standing in front of l'Abbaye Saint Victor, le vieux port.

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.