Our week in Provence: 4/21/2015

4/21/2015:  Spent yesterday afternoon at the Musee Calvet in Avignon – mostly 18th & 19th century French paintings that didn’t do much for me.  S, of course, found a lot to look at.

Passed a Librairie on the way back, and stopped to see if there were any English books – there were maybe 15, of which 5 were copies of Coriolenus.  Bought 2 mysteries (a Reich & a Donna Leon in French.

S found a v. direct route through back streets to our restaurant – le Moutardier du Pape.  (the mustard-man?  mustard store of the Pope?  Googling, I see there’s a French expression “se croire le moutardier du Pape”, that means being v. self involved).  At dinner, I broached the idea of being like Linda & Tom & convoquing family vacations.  Of course, I should say I’m writing this in the courtyard of the Hotel Europe, sipping Chateauneuf du Pape, surrounded by wisteria & yellow ranunculus blooming, with a fountain surrounded by boxwoods behind me.

Today we went to the Pont du Gard in the AM and Baux de Provence in the PM.  Museum at Pont du Gard was vg.  It never occurred to me to wonder how the Romans surveyed.  The Pont du Gard brought water from Uzzes to Nimes – mostly for baths & fountains & other parts of the Roman version of the Good Life.  There was only a 13m difference in altitude to work w.  All we saw was a goma – a pole w/ two sticks at right angles, and 5 lead weights hanging.  Anyway, the museum had a lot about the organization for constructing the aqueduct ad for maintaining it.

Fortunately, we arrived early.  As time went on, there were more and more school groups and (although the kids were well behaved) the museum got noisier and noisier.  It was also, I thought, darker than was optimal for reading the interpretive material.  Steve really liked the museum, and wanted more and more time to peruse.

I was glad to get back outside, with lovely blue sky and relative quiet.  We walked back over the Pont (there’s an 18th century bridge that you walk on).  S hiked up to an observation point above the aqueduct and I walked a bit upstream from the Pont to a quieter observation point.  The structure was so massive & peaceful.

From there, we went to Baux de Provence.  Baux is Provencal for spur.  Up on a v steep hill in the Alpilles.  The village is all gift shops & cafes for visitors to the castle.  Most of the castle is gone, BUT there were seige engines, including France’s largest trebuchet.

At 3:30, they did re-enactments.  They chose a team of women to work the bricoleur (because women often operated it), and then a team of men for the trebuchet.  The reenactors were v. hammy – I couldn’t catch all the French.  But each machine hurled a white beachball down the field, to great applause.  The trebuchet, esp, was v. impressive to see in action, but, unfortunately by then, my camera was out of juice.

Our week in Provence: 4/23/2015

4/23/2015:  We ate Tues night at La Fourchette – vg food, but S asleep on his feet (or rather, in his seat) – he kept falling silent, closing his eyes and leaning even more right.  I keep being afraid he’d keel over sideways.  

Back in the room, I tried to register for a tour of Senanque Abbey (“floating above a sea of lavender”).  The website was v. definite they wanted 48 hrs notice and “tenue correct”  (correct dress), that the tour is given only in French,  and that people can’t join the tour late or leave early – sort of nervous-making.

OK, Wed AM we packed up and left our life of luxury and set off for Gordes, a cute little hilltop town – we arrived at the same time as a busload of Korean tourists.  Enourmous construction crane looming over a small hotel we passed on the way in.  Walked around – there the same gift shop wares you see everywhere, none the cheaper for having to be hauled up the steep hill.

We ate a quiet lunch and set off for Senanque – v. narrow road over the hills, w/ many hairpin turns.  The bus of Korean tourists arrived at the gift shop a bit after us – I can’t imagine how the bus made it over the twisty, narrow road, but left before the tour.

The abbey dates from the 12th century, and is made of grey stone – v. plain, which S liked of course.  Its use as a Cistercian abbey has been intermittent.  We didn’t actually see any monks.  Tour was given in French – the leader reminded me a bit of Tr. Jeanine – speaking clearly.  Although I could follow her words, I couldn’t remember a lot of the content afterward.  I bought some lavendin perfume & oil made by the monks at the very well stocked gift store.

We stayed in a guest house near Rousillon – v. nice.  Owner inclined to wax philosophical about how he never knew the deprivations his parents knew.  And what would come after?  He said “Apres moi, le deluge”, but didn’t know it was Louis XIV that said it (actually, now that I look it up, it’s Louis XV).  I started on a rant (in French) about how all the 17th century French classic authors like Racine go on about duty & honor, and there’s Louis XIV installing his mistress(es) at Versailles (with apartments on the same floor as his wife).  (Our host was impressed, but of course shouldn’t have been, since I was attributing the quote wrong).

In addition to us, the guest house held 3 ladies from NC (originally from NY, NJ, PA) who had come to NC to buy houses in a 55+ active living community in the center of the Raleigh Durham triangle.  One was a retired French teacher from near Altoona, one in telecom mkting, and forget what  the third one had done – teaching Soc studies?

S and I had a nice dinner at a converted schoolhouse – S. fascinated by RR maps.  I had foie gras (I kept being afraid PETAQ would be on my case) and quail, and sopped up every drop of sauce from both – they were that good.

Next day, we got & went to Rousillon (on lovely ochre cliffs), took in views, mostly passed by the mkt.  (I got 4 macarons).  S looking at the view, encountered a S African couple who made a livelihood buying and selling at mkets – w/ long camping trips through France, elsewhere in Europe, the US.

We went to the Lavender museum, which focused mostly on the difference between lavender (whose oil cures lice, anxiety,  sleeplessness, basically whatever ails you) and lavendin (a hybred, with, according to the museum, no medicinal properties).  Lavender oil costs about 4 times as much as lavendin, so of course I had to buy some.  A busload of Chinese descended on the museum shop, buying huge bags full of soap, lavender oil, shampoo, skin cream.

We had pizza for lunch.  S managed to find an unsecured wifi, figured out directions to our hotel in Arles, and then briefed me.  As usual, I found his directions cryptic and the last km or so of the way in Arles was through streets where our car barely fit.  However, we arrived and didn’t kill anyone on the way.
We tried setting the car’s GPS, but its directions made no sense, and then I couldn’t get it to suspend navigation mode and return to map mode.  v. frustrating.  However, the navigation map did alert us to one crucial turn, so a net plus in S’s opinion.  (I’d tried to download maps to my iPad, but hadn’t checked that they were actually accessible when I turned off the wifi connection).

Hotel D’arletan is downscale from the Hotel Europe, but fine.  On a v. narrow street.  We’re in an annex.

We went to a tapas place for dinner.  I keep meaning to take pictures of our lovely meals, but I keep forgetting. 

Our week in Provence: 4/24/2015

4/24/2015:   Oh dear, Blackberry charger broke.  Ridiculous that every single device should have its own unique charger.  So the bb will die in a couple days.

S got up early and went off to do laundry.  He tried to call, but my Estonian phone tells me it’s unable to connect, and the blackberry I don’t think calls non US numbers.

Fortunately, message not urgent.  S tried to demonstrate how to pick up messages on the Estonian phone, but it involved too many steps for me to remember.

It does take him longer to do things – locating the ancient clip-on sun shades and putting them over his glasses.  Putting on the boy scout backpack from 2001 that always carries is a production (it was meant for kids; the arm-loops end to high).  At mid-day, when he changes from jacket to vest-with-pockets, it’s a production to transfer everything from pockets of one to pockets of the other.  But, of course, I guess I’m slowing down, too.

The Van Gogh Foundation’s Van Gogh collection was travelling – There was one picture of a stack of French novels by Van Gogh, there were exhibits by Yan Pei-Ming and Bertrand Lavier, w/ lots of (I thought) pretentious verbiage in the brochure we were given.  

Then we went to see the famous portails of St. Trophime, but the chuch was closed 12-2 so we had lunch and went off to the Amphitheatre & Arena.  During the Middle Ages, building were built inside both, and stone was also taken for churches, then they were reconstructed during the 19th century.

After 2 PM we went back to the church and also saw the cloister—being restored—hard to know what was reconstruction and what was original.  By then we were both tired, and went back to the hotel & napped.  Aren’t we slow old people?

I keep texting L & A.  Alex got a job working for a trade economist at the Hoover Inst.  Genia bought a Prius—but insurance is expensive because she’s only had a license for a year.

My email is mostly Swarthmore Nextdoor.  Ginny Scott (A’s 9th grade English teacher, now retired) is v. active in the Swarthmore Horticultural Soc.  Whole parallel world of Women at Home.  I guess I’ll be joining it in a couple years, won’t I?  I guess I’ll volunteer somewhere in Chester & caregive, won’t I.  Who knows?  Maybe I’ll lie around & read mysteries.  Or I guess there’ll be time for both.

Our week in Provence: 4/25/2015

4/25/2015:  Cooler, grey day.  Rain in the early AM.  The hotel has foundations that go back to maybe the 4th century.  It was remodeled in the 16th.  The narrow streets of Arles – the houses & the shutters—look kind of Utrillo (I had to ask S who was the artist who did cityscapes).  

I just looked Utrillo up on Wikipedia; mother was Suzane Valadon– I hadn’t known that his mother was 18 when he was born, a model who slept with Degas & Renoir and eventually became an artist in her own right.

S commented that Utrillo pictures had wider streets.  I guess he’s right.

When we have the hotel room windows open, there’s a funny sound that must be the doves cooing.  We walked to the Antiquities museum this AM.  V. well done – nice bust of Caesar & a boat from Roman times recovered from the Rhone.  Also amphorae that the ancient purveyors labelled as preserved mackeral (2 years old) and tuna (aged 4 years).  Can you imagine??

V nice early Christian sarcophagi – I took a lot of pictures.  Seeing them alongside (so to speak) the Portail of St. Trophime makes me realize how Roman Romanesque carving is (well, duh, I guess, hence the name).  S, of course, took 2x as long as me to go through the exhibits.

Had a nice lunch at a cafe by the Espace Van Gogh (once a hospital where Van Gogh stayed), where I bought a couple of picture postcards and a magnet (not that any of the 200 paintings VG did in Arles are on exhibit here).  Went to Musee Reattu, in a house once owned by the knights of Malta.  Not that great a collection, but did include some nice Picasso sketches / ink drawings.

Reattu was the illegitimate son of Chateaufort and Catherine Raspal (sister of the painter Respal).  I liked the Raspal pictures best – they seemed naive and happy.

Then we came back to the room and I glommed onto S’s shoulder and fell fast asleep.  And now I’m having my obligatory wine in the courtyard and writing this.  What a lovely life.  Of course, tomorrow we head back.

Nimes has better Roman ruins than Arles.  Originally, we planned to go today, but I wanted to go to the Antiquities Mus, and we didn’t get to the Reattu yesterday.  So we’ll see Nimes in the ½ day before driving back to Avignon, returning the car, and taking the TGV back to Paris.   Had to happen sometime.

Our week in Provence: 4/27/2015

4/27/2015:  CDG airport.  Nimes’ arena was better preserved than Arles’; the exterior stone hadn’t been carted off for reuse.

I got spooked at the steeps steps and slanting ramps and no handrails, and didn’t go up into the structure.  S did and liked it v. much, including climbing up huge stone steps w/o railings to get views of Nimes.  The audioguide was pretty bloodthirsty – gladiators fighting lions, wild animals fighting each other, Christians being fed to the lions.

So I stood and waited a long time, and watched others climb up the steps w/o a qualm.

The Maison Carree had 15 (steep) steps and no handrails.  there was also no railing around the covered patio – maybe 20’ up—just signs between the columns to watch children.  Clearly, I’m too timid a soul.

S drove us from Nimes to Avignon TGV station w/o incident, we turned the car in unscathed, took the TGV (a double-decker, this time) to CDG airport, shuttle to the Marriott, which seemed like a little American island.  Everyone was talking English to us; Starbucks in the lobby.

Food v. expensive – breakfast (fortunately included in the room price) would have been 39 euros.  Our dinner was  100 euros (no dessert), so about 1/3 more than we’d been paying.  Don’t I sound like S?  I went to the fitness center this AM, but no TV and my iPod wasn’t charged.

Yesterday was L’s bd – he was on a hike, but talked a little w/ us.

S didn’t remember it was L’s bd – maybe because he ws preoccupied with getting us back to Paris.

Franny's adventures in Korea

12/20/2014:  Sunday -- Very comfortable flight to Seoul -- It was an Airbus 380, so the whole upper level was business class.  All cream interior with light green seats, and a bevy of young, gorgeous flight attendants in cream and light green.  They had the most adorable uniform--little scarves around their neck whose corners  stick up at jaunty angles, and loops of ribbon as a hairpiece.  I thought I'd died and gone to heaven.

they were serving a v. nice Medoc (French, red) in tiny glasses, but I drank way too many of them.  There were the usual elegant meals in tiny portions (I chose the Korean options, and practiced saying thankyou).  

I was in an interior seat, and the shades were closed a lot of the time, so couldn't see outside.  I took 1/2 an Ambien, and napped for a few hours.  Also read a Stephanie Baron (mysteries w/ Jane Austen as protagonist) and (ironically) Hand to Mouth, a screed on what it's like to be poor.

They had arranged for a car to pick me up -- v. luxurious-- but there's a bus from the hotel I'll take back to the airport. 

Had dinner at a nearby Korean BBQ place -- v. tasty, but T, my boss, and I really didn't know what to do with all the condiments and salads--there were 3 salads to share, a huge bowl of soup with what looked like chunks of liver floating in it, and a bowl of pickle-y things.  Tony got a beer that was way bigger than he expected, so we shared it.

so life is good, so far.

Monday:  We don't leave for the office (we being T & me) for an hour, so I can continue this breathless account of The Delights of Seoul.  The breakfast buffet is incl. in our room charge (good thing -- it's $40), but I've never seen such a spread.  I guess because so many nationalities stay here -- there's traditional breakfast from India, Korea, Japan, Europe (so vg smoked salmon) -- one could sit and contemplate it all day.  Pity we're have to tear ourselves away & go to the office.

The NY Times has a piteous tale of a 4 yr old Ebola orphan -- I wanted to swoop over, sweep her up in my arms, & take her home -- I and thousands of others, I'm sure.

I slept till 4 something, so not bad, went & did the treadmills for 1/2 hour (I need to work the conversions to metric for my weight & habitual 4.5 mi/hr).  Life is good.

Did I relate our file transfer woes?  The FTP site we were using got closed -- it didn't meet standards -- but no one told us, and a new one isn't opened yet.  So the files we need to send Korea traveled out on my hard drive, but to get them of has to wait until I'm approved to use a flash drive, data loss being strictly controlled.  When I last looked, it hadn't gone through.

Wednesday:  some struggles w/ jet lag -- wake up @ 3:30 or 4, and then get terribly sleepy in the afternoon.  Koreans seem to like their rooms toasty-warm--the conf room we were in the other day was heated to 28 C, which doesn't help.

It's 10F out right now, going to a high of 29F today, but tomorrow's a bit warmer, high of 39.  That's nippy, though, to my mind.  People are bundled up in winter jackets, but most don't wear hats.  T (my boss) forgot his hat & gloves on this trip, and is bald -- and he has a lined raincoat rather than a winter jacket, so gets cold.

He's pretty well read, e.g. was talking about Moby Dick at lunch (which he'd read a few years ago) and contrasting it w/ the movie w/ Gregory Peck.  He's also read Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen -- only man I've ever met who has.  

First lunch, on Monday, JS (the chief actuary) and the Controller took us out to lunch -- a seemingly infinite procession of salads and soups and then, when I thought they were done, the main course, which we were too stuffed to eat much of.

Interstellar is a hit movie here -- everyone's talking about it.  I had only a vague recollection of NPR pieces on wormholes, and A's review of it w/ Steve.

The first couple days were mostly T talking to Mi (the Korean E&Y actuary), and I must admit hard to stay awake through.  Mi is maybe late 30's or early 40's -- she's from Korea but her husband isn't -- they live in HK.  Has daughters 3 & 6, who have Philippine nannies (two) and go to Chinese school, so the daughters speak Cantonese & Mandarin.  Her husband (also an actuary?  not clear) travels a lot, and has morning phone calls w/ Europe & evening phone calls w/ the US.  So the little girls tell the parents "Shhh, I'm on a phone call" at times.  The only time everyone's together is mostly breakfast.

They speak English, not Korean, at home -- her husb not Korean--

She was in Vietnam last week, and Seoul this week, so tropical heat to sub-arctic chill.

Below the Chief Actuary (JS), all the actuaries I've been dealing w/ are women--they said women tend to gravitate to multinationals, because English is important there, and maybe also employment practices fairer?

The default lunch place is "katsu"  -- japanese style fried pork cutlet.  I've been able to avoid pork so far, but have ingested a bunch of shellfish w/o realizing -- I haven't been asking because it seemed intrusive at the first lunch, when we were being treated, and eating Korean food was a plus.   Several of the dishes at the lunch place come on little burning-stove stands -- the staff is very casual about rushing through the restaurant with a tray in each hand, stoves flaming away.

I did some worksheets that tried to replicate calculations out of their models (and didn't come terribly close) and there's been a certain amount of back and forth -- the back and forth considerably hampered by our inability to exchange large files, because MetLife's IT people cut off the FTP site we were using, and hasn't yet set up another.  

The files I downloaded to my hard drive before leaving work last Friday I have been able to give to the Korean actuaries, (that is, I have been included now in the group allowed to copy files to a flash drive, and the help desk walked me through how to answer the screens that appear when you copy to the hard drive -- I called the help desk at 3 AM one morning to do that) but the way we get access to the Wilmington servers when out of the office doesn't permit downloading files.  Or, rather, there is a way to set up a VPN, but I'm told the drives aren't mapped correctly.  V. frustrating.

Aren't you fascinated?

I'll be glad to get home.  Keep thinking that no one's lit Hanukkah candles, which makes me sad.  Want to do latkes and pot roast one night while L's home.

Thursday:  to continue this breathless travel-log, the elevators in the MetLife bldg don't talk to each other -- you press the down button on one, and the others don't notice.  On the other hand, they have fancy Japanese style toilet-seats (heated, with all kinds of unmentionable options).

Had lunch with Mi and Brian, at a place that served huge bowls of soup.  Mi's older daughter has 8 activities:  swimming, ballet, Korean lessons, Mandarin, and English--I'm forgetting the other 3.  

The three year old speaks Mandarin, Cantonese, and English, but sometimes she gets upset and won't speak (as 3 year olds are wont to do).

I skyped Steve this morning, and was too late to the gym to get one of the good treadmills.  The one I got, once I entered 64 as my age, wouldn't go faster than a walk.  I tried entering 50, 40, etc, but it saw right through my efforts.  I gave up in disgust.

Did I say that at the Korean place T & I ate in on Wed, the waitress mixed my bibimbap for me with one of the long-handled spoons Koreans use for rice, and then I thought she was going to tell me to open my mouth & spoon feed me.

My Korean is limited -- I can say hello, thank you, and I don't speak Korean and excuse me (as in getting someone's attention). I can't say please, or I'm sorry but apparently they're not used much -- people bump into each other w/o apologizing, and saying "please" sounds like you're desperate.

Tonight's Korean place was v. nice -- the waitress cooked our bbq for us & showed us how to wrap the pieces of meat in a nice green leaf, but didn't seem to think we needed to be hand-fed.  

Friday:  It's 5 PM & I'm back in my hotel room.  not a whole lot to add to the preceding.  Today's lunch was with the strategic actuarial team, which consists of 4 women and 2 men (Lena is my main contact there).  I asked Lena about the preponderance of women & she opined women were better at numbers than men.

They were shocked at the lack of Japanese female actuaries.  Maybe Japanese women aren't as good at math as Chinese & Korean?

Lunch was many, many salads (really enough to have been lunch), followed by spicy vermicelli.  I waddled out, and a couple hours later Lena appeared w/ cake & a persimmon smoothie, since the group was having treats in honor of Xmas I guess.

gym was much emptier this morning -- I got up at 5 but could have slept till 6--there were plenty of good treadmills.

I felt bad -- Lena & company stayed till 9 PM last night trying to answer why one calculation didn't match another, and what did I do today but toss more questions her way.

that's my supply of babble.  I'll be glad to get home.

Saturday:  Got up at 5 (I’d set the hotel alarm, my Galaxy 5 alarm and my blackberry alarm); the airport bus stops on the street outside the hotel and it had snowed overnight, so we had to make our way down a few slippery, slushy steps, which I was having trouble with, when the bellboy came over & grasped my arm and propelled me to the bus (I felt like such an old lady).  I was nervous on the bus – suppose we skidded?  Suppose I was on the wrong bus bound for the wrong airport?  I felt very far from home.

Of course, all was fine.  KAL business class lounge wasn’t that elegant, but I learned how to make up the spicy instant ramen that is v. popular (all the Koreans were wolfing it down), and felt much better once I’d had it and some coffee.

Flight home was fine – I wasn’t as agog at the bevy of beautiful flight attendants as before.  Read an imitation Mapp & Lucia, a Sister Frevisse, part of Castle Richmond by Trollope (I have most of him & most of Dickens on my iPad in case of emergency), watched part of the 100 foot journey (every plot turn seemed obvious) and slept some. 

INS has automatic passport reader machines – I thought they were fun—and the trip back from JFK was fine. 

Leon and Genia at Cloud Gate (Chicago)

Aaron and Alex on Christmas morning

Pictures from Party for Mom's 90th

Mom's Party was at The Modern (next to, but not affiliated with, the Mus. of Modern Art)--very small; just family and a few of Mom's friends.  Alex (Aaron's girlfriend) flew in with him for the party & seder.