The Events of Monday, March 28, 2011

                As we drove from Italy to France yesterday, European Daylight Savings Time stole an hour from us. Since that didn’t really change any of our habits or activities, it was a little disconcerting to wake up this morning to darkness outside. This quaint little home in the country is very dark and very quiet. There are no curtains on the windows, just shutters to be closed, and these block out almost all the light. Downstairs, there is a nifty metal screen that rolls down with the push of a button to cover the sliding glass door. Lying there on the very comfortable mattress with my interesting pillow rigged by Jim, it took me a moment to remember where I was. It is Monday, so we must be in France.

                Jim was already downstairs, working away at the computer. We are so grateful to have internet again, and he is taking full advantage of the connection to continue making arrangements for our European housing needs. The kids slumbered on, oblivious to the time change. I decided to take advantage of the quiet and try out the shower. Jim mentioned in his blog that we had to ask for towels. Well, perhaps we should have asked for a shower curtain as well. The shower is basically an alcove in the wall. The shower head cannot be fixed overhead and must be handheld. That is probably just as well, as there is a better chance of keeping the water in the small shower if one is mindful of the direction of the flow. After a bit of maneuvering, I figured out a system and enjoyed a nice hot shower with good water pressure. I was pleased to find that I kept most of the water inside the shower area, despite the missing shower curtain.

                Soon everyone was up, dressed, and breakfasted, and we were ready for our adventure in Les Baux de Provence. Lindsey is “in charge” of France. (Each of us is “responsible” for three countries. Except for me; I am only responsible for two countries, as, of course, I am responsible for organizing our movement between countries as well, making sure we leave and arrive with all our possessions in hand.) As our French connection, Lindsey is working on learning the language and planning our itinerary. So, her plan for today was to visit the castle ruins of Les Baux. It was an excellent choice, and the day she planned came off fantastically. It was a bit of a drive from our home in Aubagne to Les Baux, but it was a picturesque drive through the French countryside, surrounded by the Alpilles Mountains. Blindly led by our two GPS systems, we found ourselves climbing, climbing, climbing, until, suddenly, we had arrived. The parking lot system would not issue us a ticket, but, driving on, we found free parking a few hundred yards from the entrance. Grabbing our lunch and layers of clothing, we headed toward the entrance.

                The first stop was the WCs (or toilets, for you Americans). Utilizing a restroom, a standard necessity of a day, has been an eye-opening, surprising adventure that we had not quite anticipated when we were planning the European portion of our trip. We had finally adjusted to the fact that Italian toilets come without seats. We had resigned ourselves to that fact and had learned to be grateful when the toilet had some sort of commode instead of the “footplate and squat” alternative. So far, the French toilets seemed to have seats and an abundance of toilet paper, but the toilets we visited today were an adventure in their own right. These fully automated systems are austere-looking, and, at first glance, all the buttons and lights make you think that you need to purchase your toilet time. However, that is not the case. Upon entering the stall, the first thing you notice is that everything, walls, toilet, and floor, is covered with a sheen of water. After closing the door behind you, you must push the button with a picture of a door on it to lock the door. The seat is there, but it is raised and it takes a bit of muscle to bring it back down into place. There are no paper seat covers, and utilizing toilet paper is futile, due to the general wetness of the room. To wash up, there is a rectangular hole in the wall with pictures above. The first picture has a droplet coming from a spigot. Placing your hands in the portion of the hole, under the picture, gets you soap. The next picture is several droplets under a faucet, which is clearer. This is where the water comes out. The final picture is wavy lines. Placing your hands here activates blowing warm air and a blue light. Why a blue light? I don’t know ― maybe it is ultra radiation to kill germs. Then you must push another button by the door to open the door to exit. After exiting, the door automatically closes behind you and locks while a cleaning process occurs. From the water residue, it is assumed that the entire room is being hosed down.

                With that part of the adventure over, we ventured inside the little town to the tourist office. Lindsey made a good attempt to ask questions in French, but the woman assisting her answered in clear English. We needed to make our way through the quaint town of Les Baux, uphill, and would find the castle ruins on the other end. The journey through the town was enjoyable. Old stone houses lined the narrow cobblestone streets. There were a variety of shops, crepe restaurants, cafes and souvenir shops. Passing the crepe shop reminded Lindsey that the crepes of France were not to be missed. Jim hinted at the possibility of checking out the crepe shop later on our return through the town, and the kids were happy to continue up hill.

                The Citadelle des Baux is now composed of ruins carved into and out of and on top of two-hundred-meter-high rock. Entering, we purchased our tickets and retrieved the audio wands that were part of the ticket price. Exiting the ticket office, we found ourselves in a courtyard just outside a cemetery. Placed there for our enjoyment were two small tables and six chairs. Perfect! We arranged the tables and chairs closer together and enjoyed our picnic lunch under clear blue skies. After lunch, we made our way over to a small chapel, La Chapelle des Penitents Blancs (White Penitent’s Chapel), built in 1632 and enlarged in 1653. This chapel has been turned into a miniature movie theatre, and we were treated to a fly-over view of the entire Provencal area accompanied by a Mozart piano concerto. The movie ended with a brief video advertisement for a festival, featuring reenactments of knights, ladies, falcons, rearing horses, jousting, and the weapon of mass destruction of the Middle Ages – the catapult. It appears that the area offers yearly reenactments of knights storming castles, much like the Civil War and Revolutionary War reenactments we saw and heard about during the U.S. portion of our trip.

                The rest of the afternoon was spent exploring the site and listening to the audio wands to learn the history and significance of the area and the castle. We learned that the knights of Baux (bau in Provencal means escarpment) claim to be descendents of one of the three wise men, King Balthazar. King Balthazar, supposedly upon passing through the area, liked what he saw and decided to settle there. His descendents took the star of Bethlehem as their emblem. From these fierce warriors came the troubadour Courts of Love and the poetry and songs to woo the noble ladies.

                We ventured out to the tip of the plateau and were awarded with a fantastic panoramic view of the entire countryside. Below us in every direction stretched miles of olive orchards and vineyards. From our audio guide, we learned of the different olive types that combine to form the famous area olive oil and the exact combination of grapes that made the award winning wines as well.

                We viewed full size replicas of catapults, trebuchets, ballistas and covered battering rams. The role of each in siege warfare was duly explained, and Ben, our engineer, enjoyed figuring out the mechanics of each. Then it was on to explore the castle. We were led into the depths of the keep and the lower rooms. We saw the water reservoir and the elaborate system for collecting rain water, as there was no water to be had on this rocky mountain top.

                We climbed to the top of the three towers, la Tour des Bannes, la Tour Paravelle, and la Tour Sarrasine. These climbs reminded me of our hike on the Precipice Trail in Maine. The steps were stones, worn and warped with time, unevenly spaced and almost non-existent in places. Iron rails lined thin precipice passageways high above the stone courtyards below. However, the rewards of the climb were well worth the risk. Despite some storm clouds passing over the mountains, the view was clear and unspoiled. The wind was brisk, but not the dreaded Mistral wind, which we gathered is like a Nor’easter. After twenty-seven stops on the tour and a few optional in-depth analyses as well, we completed the tour. After touring the cemetery, we turned in our audio equipment and headed back down through the town.

                As promised, Jim stopped at the crepe shop that advertised crepes “on the go” for a cheaper price than sitting in the restaurant to enjoy the crepes. More stairs had to be climbed to enter this tiny, corner stone archaic building. Inside, we were greeted cordially and placed our orders. Abby and I ordered chocolate crepes, while Jim had his with whipped cream. Caitlin just randomly picked out a French phrase on the menu and ended up with something that tasted like apples and cinnamon, while Lindsey did the same and discovered that she had ordered a blueberry crepe. Poor Ben, once again, decided to be a bit adventurous and ordered a crepe with orange marmalade. However, the marmalade was bitter, not sweet, and he needed a mint to make the aftertaste disappear.

                For the rest of us, fortunately, these crepes were heavenly. Just nibbling on the warm outer crust was pure joy. During our visit to the French section of Disney’s Epcot Center in Florida, I had insisted on trying a chocolate crepe. It was nothing like the real thing‼ So the six of us sat on stairs and curbs lining the narrow streets and munched our crepes. We must have been good advertisement for the people walking by, because many stopped, stared and ascended the stairs to crepe heaven.

                As we exited the city, there was one more stop at the WC as we had a long drive ahead of us. Just as Jim and Abby came to the front of the line, a bus tour group of Americans also descended on these high-tech toilets. Abby soon became the unofficial tour guide of the toilets, as she patiently explained the buttons and procedures to one befuddled older tourist after another. Laughingly, I told her she should charge for the tutorial, and, finally, we were able to pull her away. Returning to our car, we decided to ignore our GPS’s advice and head off across the countryside that we had viewed from on high. Initially, it was quite beautiful, but soon we realized that we were driving along a glorified frontage road that paralleled the toll way. So we submitted to the GPS’s directions and headed home.

                Despite the late hour, we needed to stop and pick up some groceries. We really didn’t need much. However, again, it took over an hour to purchase a few basic food items. Just as we had figured out what “non-fat” milk looked like in Italian, here we were in France trying to figure it out all over again. Jim, Lindsey, and Ben did a fabulous job, and soon we were home. Dinner was to be leftovers, but it took us some time to figure out how to operate the combination microwave/convection oven, as the directions came in French, Danish, German, Spanish or Italian, but not in English. Google-Translate came to the rescue once again. After dinner, Lindsey and Jim used the internet to finalize our plans for tomorrow, while the rest of us cleaned up and hustled off to bed. Soon it was once again dark and quiet, and all were asleep.