...but we did take her to Marseilles, Les Baux and Cassis. As I mentioned last time, Aja, one of our charming nieces, visited us for almost 2 weeks. She left yesterday (and arrived home safely, as we're informed by e-mail, though sans luggage, which will follow later today), but not before we dragged her across Provence from one end to the other. You know how it is - one feels a manic obligation to show visitors around to all the "sights", which works well for all concerned because you probably wouldn't ever go otherwise.
So after she returned from a short visit to Paris we spent a day in Marseilles, which was one of the places on her "must-see" list. We walked around the old port (vieux port), which is mandatory for visitors, and climbed up into a medieval fortress (St. Nicholas?) which guards the entrance to the harbor and is a perfect vantage point for the photographer.
Although Marseilles' unsavory reputation is overblown, it does still have a sort of raffish charm. It's one of the oldest cities around and has been a melting pot for a couple thousand years. We visited the Marseilles Historical Museum, which is in the basement of a fancy downtown mall!! Why a mall, you ask? Because during excavation for the first incarnation of the mall back in the '70s, a bunch of 2000-year old artifacts, like the walls in the photo and a sunken trading ship with cargo intact, were uncovered. (They sliced some of the amphorae in half and covered the cut surfaces with glass to display the contents. Our favorite is the one with 2000-year old salted mullets. The fish, not the hairdo. Although that would be interesting, too.) Apparently the original old port (the even older port) extended into and covered the area which is now dry land, and very expensive land at that. Marseilles is the second-largest city in France and you can feel that unmistakable "big city" energy, not to mention that unmistakable "big city" traffic craziness. Man, going around a traffic circle during rush hour is like being swept up into a maelstrom - it's a miracle that people survive and, even more, that they get out the right exit. I have nightmare visions of my emaciated body being discovered at the wheel of our car as it runs out of gas while going round and round and round...
And we had another in a long series of superior lunches in a brasserie across the Rue de la Republique from the museum. Aja and I sampled tarte tatin (apple tart baked upside down in caramel sauce and flipped over when served, hot, with creme fraiche and, when requested [which we do] ice cream!!) in restaurants across France, and we were never disappointed. I suppose it's theoretically possible to get a bad piece, just as it's probably theoretically possible to get a bad cup of coffee, but I haven't had one so far.
That was Friday. On Saturday we went to Les Baux, site of the 12th-century castle/fortress of the wicked lords of Les Baux! I don't know what they did that was so awful, but the legend of their iniquity has persisted through the ages. They fought the Saracens, North African Muslims who would sweep across southern France every so often, and the ruins resemble the crusader castles in Jordan or Lebanon. The castle and the village itself seem to grow right out of the rock. This is in a region called "Les Alpilles", or little Alps - appropriately so, as you can see from the panoramic vistas, even on a cloudy day. I've mentioned before how visiting popular tourist spots during the winter is so different from doing it in summer at the height of the season, and Les Baux is a perfect example. When our friends the Gaudette-Sigels were here in August, Lois and Mike brought them here and they had to park miles away and fight their way up the cobbled streets and risk being elbowed off the ramparts by the horde of tourists trying to squeeze onto the narrow, and STEEP, stone stairs. When we visited on Saturday, on the other hand, we parked right in the town and the place was virtually deserted.
The same thing was true of Cassis, our favorite beach town, where we went on Sunday. We had taken the Gaudette-Sigels there, too, during their August visit and the place was packed. The town has parking lots at the top of the hill overlooking the sea, about 2 miles away, and runs shuttle buses to the village square from morning till night during the summer, but on Sunday we once again parked in the middle of town (I hadn't thought that was actually possible) and strolled leisurely among the relatively sparse crowds. The weather was cold and rainy for most of Aja's visit but it was beautiful in Cassis. "See, Aja, the sun really does shine here!"
Mike and Aja really got along well, as is evident in the pictures. We love our nieces and I feel that Mike's lucky to have them as cousins, not least because of their civilizing influence. They don't put up with his adolescent guff - oh pardon me. "Issues", I should say - like we, as parents, do. While we're, like, all "There, there, your majesty, we know you have these feelings, and we wouldn't dream of saying anything that might impede your self-actualization, but some people might not consider it polite to break wind in a crowded Parisian restaurant," they just tell him to knock it off and punch him in the arm. I know he'll be a better man for it. We're looking forward to Kristen's visit in the spring. And maybe, if we're lucky, Micah, too. They say, don't they, that it takes a village of cousins to raise a child?
I guess that's about it for now. Aja's back home, Mike's at school, and we're settling back into our placid routine. For a few weeks, anyway, until Mike's next school break.
Until next time, Au Revoir!
Tom
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