De la Madeleine à Croquemitoufle, or from Atlanta to Aix

It is just over a year since we left Atlanta, Georgia and moved to Aix-en-Provence. It was a change on many levels: from the USA to France, from work to retirement, from house to apartment, from a huge metropolis to a small city of 140,000 people, from family and friends to an unknown environment.

In Atlanta, one of our key activities was the Saturday morning French conversation group at la Madeleine cafe in Dunwoody. When we first heard of this group, it was a casual get-together once a month for people who wanted to practice their French.
As the group gathered momentum, it became not only a weekly event for Americans struggling with a foreign language but also a mecca for French speakers living in the city. Turn up, order a coffee, find a seat and the morning sped by in a blur of conversation, questions and new contacts. For us, it became an anchor event, without which weekends were not the same. How would we manage in a new environment without this wonderful network of French speakers?

One of our first steps upon moving to Aix was to join a group called the Anglo-American Group of Provence. Later we'll tell you much more about this group, with its huge range of activities, but for us as newcomers, we were thrilled to find out about the conversation group, a mirror image of La Madeleine. Every Thursday and Saturday morning a group of people get together in a cafe and speak English. Not very interesting, you might think, but you'd be mistaken.

The cafe is a tiny building in a side street just off le cours Mirabeau, the main avenue of Aix. It is called Croquemitoufle, which has many associations rather than a specific meaning. Croquer in French means to bite. Food which is crispy or crunchy is described as croquant. You may have heard of a croque-monsieur, a delicious toasted ham and cheese sandwich, or a croque-madame, the same sandwich topped with a fried egg. Croquemitoufle was also the title of a song written in 1958 by Gilbert Bécaud to describe his love for Brigitte Bardot, where it seems to have the sense of curling up cosily at home.

We meet in the back "room", actually a courtyard area open and hot in summer, closed-in but chilly in the winter. The proprietor is Annie, an unpretentious, down-to-earth lady in late middle age. No charge, but each person who attends is expected to purchase a drink to defray the cost. We meet at 10, and by 11.30 it is time to finish up and pay so that Annie can concentrate on the lunch service.

First of all, it's a brilliant way to meet French people. Those who come along want to practice their English skills, and are keen to find out about life on the other side of the channel or the Atlantic. No membership, no commitment, so as with La Madeleine, we simply turn up, order a coffee, and enjoy the company.

And what mixed company it is! The "doyenne" is Helen, an American hailing originally from Wisconsin. At the age of twenty she married a Frenchman and moved to France. Finding herself with a baby and a husband often absent for work, she was happy to meet up with a Dutch lady who spoke English. Thus the AAGP group was born. As Helen recently celebrated her 80th birthday, you might appreciate how much she has contributed to the group. She still comes faithfully twice a week, armed with leaflets from the tourist office to keep us up to date with cultural events. Totally bilingual, she offers short lessons and little challenges for speakers of both languages. Armed with a simple school exercise book, she records the names of everyone who joins, and has records going back for years. This is real community history!

Through the conversation group we have met many wonderful people: Robert, retired pharmacist, passionate about literature, politics and philosophy. He regularly shares his magazines, and no sooner do I mention the name of a new author or interesting book than I find a package at my place next time, a gift of the book. After a recent vacation to "son pays", a term used by the French to designate their region of origin, he brought us back a bottle of olive oil produced from trees in the grounds of the chateau of one of his cousins.

There is Guy, retired cancer surgeon, Suzie who worked for Club Med and lived for years in Mexico. Lisa was an English teacher, Jacqueline has children in London and Hong Kong, Jeanine with her black-rimmed glasses and beret, Marc, a fireman in Marseille, Daniel ex-army officer and school principal, Hélène with a daughter and grandchildren in New Zealand, Paul, whose family were all traditional fishermen around the Mediterranean, Mohammed, recently back from the USA where he and his wife had their dream wedding in Las Vegas. We are English, American, Swedish, Irish, Dutch, Algerian, French.... We speak English or French according to our mood. An hour and a half flies by. In this little backroom of Croquemitoufle, with its rickety metal tables and plastic covers, we could not have wished for a nicer welcome to Aix. It's a long way from La Madeleine, but what a journey of discovery it has been.

 

© 2012 Trevor and Valerie White

les fruits d’automne

Vais-je tomber, ne pas tomber?
Se disait la dernière pomme.
(La Dernière Pomme, by Maurice Câreme)

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness!

(Autumn, by John Keats)

Autumn is a rich season in Provence. This despite the low rainfall and thin, chalky soil of the rocky massifs surrounding Aix.

You've probably all seen acorns on oak trees. But have you ever seen them on a holly bush? Not really, of course, it just seems like it. The scrubby countryside of the garrigue is home to a short, bushy variety of oak with prickly leaves, known as chêne kermès.
You would be forgiven for taking them for holly, but they are oaks, and are weighed down with acorns at this time of year.

Shiny horse chestnuts lie on the ground, already popped out of their prickly shells. These are the conkers which we always collected and polished for games in England. Chestnuts can be known as châtaignes or marrons, and although we have noticed that the words seem to be interchangeable in everyday speech, in fact there are differences, since marrons are edible while châtaignes are not. Marrons are used in stuffings and sauces, or glazed to produce the prized delicacy of marrons glaçés, especially popular at Christmas.


The grape harvest is almost done, and it is time for the first olive harvest. Most local growers take their olives to a local press to be made into olive oil: they are part of a cooperative, and receive oil according to how many olives were contributed.

You don't have to be a professional to do this. Growers with a larger amount can have a special pressing and produce their own label of oil. The majority of olives grown in Provence are harvested while the fruits are still green. We even have our own small olive tree on the balcony.Olives can also be preserved as a confit, a lovely accompaniment to cheese or charcuterie, or made into tapenade to be spread on bread or toast.

While walking in the Massif de la Sainte Victoire, we came across blackberries (brambles), which are great to eat raw or cooked in a pie with apples. There is also an abundance of rosehips. These fruits of the wild rose or dog rose can be made into jellies and jams.
When we were young we collected and sold rosehips to be made into delicious syrup, an important source of vitamin C in post-war England.

One of the fruits we have especially enjoyed recently is figs. They are mouth-watering when eaten fresh or added to a salad of roquette (arugula) with goats' cheese. Friends brought us a jar of fig jam, and on a recent dinner out I could not resist the fig tart served with fresh cream.

Here is some of the autumn vocabulary. French usually makes a distinction between the name of the fruit and that of the tree.

une olive = an olive
un olivier = an olive tree
une oliveraie = an olive grove
une châtaigne or un marron = a chestnut
un châtaignier or un marronnier = a chestnut tree
une figue = a fig
un figuier = a fig tree
un cynorhodon (also known as gratte-cul because of the hairy seeds inside which act like an itching powder) = rose hip
un églantier = wild rose or dog rose bush which produces rose hips.
un gland = an acorn
un chêne = an oak tree
un chêne kermès = short, prickly variety of evergreen oak

Happy harvesting!

 

© 2012 Trevor and Valerie White

 

La saison du vin

The nights are drawing in and there is a definite chill in the air. I'm already missing those long summer evenings and the certainty of hot, sunny days. But most of our French friends love this time of year. Why? One of the reasons is wine.

September is the season of La Vendange, the wine harvest. On a recent visit to a vineyard or domaine, the proprietor explained the process of harvesting the grapes and beginning to create wine. Rosé, highly priced in Provence, is particularly delicate. It needs to remain as cool as possible for the best flavour. So for rosé, most of the work is done at night, often by machine to expedite the process. The grapes are picked, cleaned, crushed and put into large vats in one night.

It's also the time of year when supermarkets hold their "foires à vins" or wine fairs.

Leaflets arrive in the mailbox advertising tastings and special offers.

We see our neighbours unloading the car: three trips to unload several cases of wine to go in the cave.

Trevor lingers over the selections. Valerie has no idea about buying wine.

But never fear, once again, modern technology comes to the rescue.

At Carrefour, a well-known supermarket chain, you can summon the help of Max le sommelier. Un sommelier in French is one of those often snooty wine waiters that you find in expensive restaurants. Max is not exactly that. He’s smartly turned out and sports an engaging smile, but he's a robot.

Type in a food, and he makes recommendations for a wine to accompany the dish. You can select by region, colour, price, or just let Max make a free choice. Makes shopping a bit more fun!

Another aspect of shopping at this store which we appreciate is self scanning. This is not just a rapid self checkout. It is a huge timesaver, as you only handle the goods twice, once when you pull them off the shelves, and afterwards when you load your car. Here's how it works.

On entering the store, you scan your fidelity card and pick up a hand scanner, called une scannette. Then as you shop, you scan each item as you put it into the shopping cart. The scannette tracks the number of items as well as a running total. Change your mind? No problem, you can remove an item from your total and return it to the shelf. At the checkout, you simply scan the scanner and pay.

Of course, there are random checks. For example, one day we were selected for a control and the machine told the employee to select three items at random from our cart to see if we had registered them.

It's still much quicker than emptying all the items to be scanned by a cashier, and then repacked by the customer.

Despite all these modern conveniences, shopping is still a chore. So after arriving home and unloading the wine, we lug the boxes into our cave in the basement of the apartment building. That should keep us going for a few weeks.

Now, to get over all the effort, of course, a glass of wine. And to be politically correct, any mention of alcohol on TV these days is accompanied by the warning " à consommer avec modération." to which the animateur of our favorite quiz show always adds " .... et avec délectation."

Cheers, Bottoms up, Sláinte or Santé to you all.

 

© 2012 Trevor and Valerie White

Vive les Vacances . . . et la Rentrée !

Martigues

The French really take their vacations seriously.  They understand how important vacation can be to our general health, and that a relaxing break is a necessary part of a balanced lifestyle. Not for them the few days squeezed in around July 4, or that trip to the beach where everyone is still tied to the office by computer or cell phone.

Traditionally, many French people take off for the whole month of August.  Even the most junior salaried employees are entitled to five weeks of annual vacation, in addition to national or bank holidays. When we worked in Paris 20 years ago, the rule was that you got extra vacation days if you did NOT take your main vacation in August. Nevertheless beaches on the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts are crowded in August. Color-coded traffic warnings are issued for weekends all summer long. The middle of August is un weekend rouge, with early birds returning home while others are just setting out on their summer trip.

Along with summer vacations come summer fashions. You probably already know le bermuda and le capri, but here is some French vocabulary which I only just learned this year:

• Le pantalon corsaire : fitted pants knee length or just below
• Le pantacourt : just as it sounds, un pantalon court, pants that finish above the ankle
• Le marcel : sleeveless T shirt, commonly-known in US as a wife-beater, also called un débardeur
• La tropézienne : sandal style made famous by Brigitte Bardot in the 60s
• L'espadrille : rope soled shoes or sandals
• Des tongs : yes, a corruption of thong, but flip-flop sandals rather than a sexy piece of underwear.

With the summer heat here in Provence, life slows down, and we adopt that wonderful Mediterranean habit, la sieste. Brightly-colored swim towels adorn the balconies and the neighborhood is in festive mood.

Frédérique, our neighbor across the hall, or voisine de palier, appears at our door with a plant. She is leaving to spend the whole summer in Corsica, and wants us to take care of a beautiful Asian lily she was given on the last day of school.

Vacation even trumps that other French staple, la baguette. Our local bakery is closed for le congé annuel, and neighbors are forced to drive to get their daily bread. Even the local church closes its doors for eight weeks.

Summer is also time for great sales in the stores. Clothes, beachwear, shoes, towels and household linens, the savings are tremendous. I pick up sandals for 7€, T shirts for 2€ each. Bargain-hunters should look out for the many different words:

Soldes : sales

Remise : discount

Braderie : sell-off

Rabais : discount, reduction

Promo / promotion : special offer, e.g. maillots de bain en promo

Prix bas : low prices

Dernière démarque : last mark-down.

 

But all good things come to an end. It's now late August, and while afternoon temperatures are still in the 30s (around 90F) suddenly the sale racks have disappeared and the shops are full of sweaters, long pants, scarves and winter jackets. C'est la rentrée!

La rentrée des classes is back to school. Long before classrooms open their doors there is a flurry of activity all over town.  Supermarkets have aisles full of school materials (fournitures scolaires). Gone are the bikinis and beach towels, to be replaced by exercise books and backpacks. Some stores try to combine vacation and la rentrée. Give us your list of fournitures scolaires and we will prepare everything while you go happily on vacation, they offer. Our neighbor Frédérique returns to reclaim her Asian lily and prepare for her job as a primary school teacher.

La rentrée marks the return to work, to the serious, to real life, the beginning of a new season for the French. It is a popular time to release new books and films. In Aix there is a foire des associations, a kind of city-wide club fair, where you can browse stands and join up for a wide range of associations, from cycling club to choirs. Most of the subscriptions run for a year starting in September.

So, even those of us who don’t work anymore are looking forward to a host of new activities in the fall. Summer may be drawing to a close, but Vive la Rentrée!

© 2012 Trevor and Valerie White

All The World’s A Stage

Summer is well and truly here, and summer in Provence means festivals. We've already written a little about the renowned  Festival d'Art Lyrique d'Aix-en-Provence, which showers festival-goers with an abundance of music and opera. But those of you who know us well will remember that our real passion is theatre. And in Provence in the summer, there is one venue absolutely not to be missed, the world famous Festival d'Avignon.

le palais des Papes

All the world's a stage, said Shakespeare in As You Like It and for three weeks of the Avignon festival, the whole of the city and much more becomes one huge, exciting performance area. The festival began in 1947, when Jean Vilar was asked to put on a play in Avignon. He chose T.S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral, performed in the courtyard of Le Palais des Papes, the Popes' palace, and the rest, as they say, is history.

The Festival today is a huge event. There is the official programme, with over 30 shows, many of them French premieres. The official event attracts about 3,500 arts professionals and will sell roughly 150,000 tickets this year.  In addition, there is the "0ff," where hundreds of groups come to present their plays in the hope of recognition and an official engagement at a theatre somewhere in France in the future.

Competition is fierce. The "off" is so huge it now has its own management board, a bit of a contradiction in terms. This year, 2012, it consists of 1161 different shows, with companies from 25 countries playing at 117 different venues.

So we decide to take a break from the humdrum business of plumbing leaks and cleaning, and spend a day at the Avignon festival. And what a break! The atmosphere is electric! Every lamppost and every fence is covered with posters. Every street corner has an artist handing out publicity leaflets, and every performance space is utilized at all hours of the day and night. The programme just for the off festival runs to 396 pages. Where to begin?

Technology to the rescue. You can download an iPhone application which contains the entire programme. This allows you to search by any category you care to name - by type of show, by date you will be in town, by troupe if you have favorite artists, by performance space if you are limited geographically, even by time of day or shows suitable for different age groups.

We search by theatre and date, but even with these parameters we are still overwhelmed by what is available. So we scan, waiting for something to catch our eye. The first we settle for is a play in English, The Servant of Two Masters by Goldoni, translated from Italian and presented jointly by Compagnie Bacchus and James Madison University in Virginia. We call to reserve.

What else? We plan to go to Avignon for the day, so we need to catch at least one more show. We continue to leaf through the programme, and here it is: Être ou ne pas être, To Be or Not to Be. Scenario, an actor longs to perform ten of the great soliloquys from Shakespeare, in French. As both Shakespeare buffs and French speakers, how can we resist?

The drive to Avignon from Aix is just over an hour on well-maintained autoroutes with tolls or péage. First challenge on arriving, find a parking space. Last time we visited, there were excellent out-of-town parking sites with free shuttle busses to town. But for all its 396 pages of programming, the iPhone application mentions not one word about parking. We try sites we know first, around the ramparts or walls of the historic city centre. Not a hope. So we move gradually further out, trying every side street and every public parking area. Still nothing. The situation is becoming urgent. We turn down one particularly narrow side street, and spot a space. Well, a kind of space, on a central reservation. After much delicate manoeuvering, we manage to get the car off the road and jammed between a signpost and a plane tree.

And set off to walk.... and walk....and walk some more, with temperatures of over 90F at midday. We make it to the theatre, three stages, a different play in each space every two hours. We secure our tickets and sit down for a welcome break in - yes! - an air-conditioned space with bar and clean toilets!

It's time for the show. We file in to the tiny theatre, with fewer than 50 seats and the magic begins. This is a one-man show, but what a man and what a show! Luca Franceschi plays the role of an actor whose dream is to present the great speeches from Shakespeare. A stage actor in French is a comédien, the word acteur being reserved for a film actor. He gives us To Be or Not to Be in grand style. But he decides he needs help, and so creates a character (un personnage) to help him with the performance. He switches masterfully between his role as grand actor and his role as character. But wait! The character begins to take over! Can the character exist without the actor? Clearly not. But can the actor exist without the character? Yes, you might say, but ponder a little. If he is not playing the role of a character, is an actor still an actor? The margins blur, the personalities blend, and little by little the character hijacks the performance. The play is in French, but the strength of the performance is such that we are carried along by the body-language and emotions, and have no problems with the French. An absolutely first-class performance by Luca Franceschi.

Time for lunch. We wander along the eclectic Rue des Teinturiers which we remember fondly, but decide this is a little too bohemian for our ageing tastes and make out way to the Place de l'Horloge. At three in the afternoon we have lots of choice, no pressure, no rush, and we settle for a couscous restaurant. Lunch is punctuated by lines of costumed actors, personal appeals by hopeful thespians, handouts for every type of show imaginable, from Feydeau to Sophocles to Woody Allen, from circus to poetry to flamenco dance.

It's five o'clock now, just time to make our way back to the car and drive to a nearby village. The Servant of Two Masters is presented in la cité médiévale at Montfavet, in the courtyard of a church and monastery, where the white plastic chairs contrast strangely with the solid stone walls and cobbled paving.
It's the perfect setting for this play, performed in Commedia dell’arte style complete with masks. We allow ourselves to be beguiled by the comic world of disappointed lovers, missing siblings, women dressed as men and a poor servant trying to earn an honest (well almost) crust. This is a comedy, so of course the wily servant prevails, the disguised woman sheds her masculine attire, the young lovers are united, and all ends happily.

Two shows, one in English, one in French, are our limit for the day.
So we are stunned to hear of a friend who made it to six shows in a day, and is going back for more.

That’s Avignon for you. For theatre buffs, there is no such word as "enough."

© 2012 Trevor and Valerie White

You know the score !

Aix-en-Provence is famous for its annual summer music festival, the renowned Festival d'Art Lyrique. But long before this event, the city springs to life with music for all tastes and budgets.

Pierre et le Loup

The fun begins in the last weekend of May with a local event called C'est Sud (it's a southern thing!). From a range of events, we choose a free Sunday afternoon concert at a beautiful outdoor performance space created in the courtyard of the former Archbishops' Palace. The local Harmonie Municipale is an amateur wind, brass and percussion orchestra. They play selections from the film music of Marcel Pagnol's autobiographical films set in this area, la Gloire de mon Père and le Château de ma Mère. They are followed by the orchestra of the local music school, le conservatoire Darius Milhaud, who play some introductory Bach, then a splendid performance of Tchaikovsky's Peter and the Wolf. Perfect for a Sunday afternoon.

Dancing to le Big Band

Just time to dash home for a light meal before joining the evening crowds on the cours Mirabeau, Aix's main street, where a full stage has been set up, along with rows of gradins, or bleachers. A big band plays classics from the swing era and dancers crowd the tiny dance floor. It's wonderful to see so many people just having a good time.
Before we know it, it is time for La Fête de la Musique on June 21, the official start of summer, the longest day of the year. All over France, music-lovers of all types from heavy metal to classical opera are encouraged to perform in public, in parks and on the streets. This all-day and all-night celebration began in 1982 and thirty years later it is still a regular midsummer event and has even spread to over 100 countries worldwide.

Every tiny street and square has been commandeered as a performance space.  For those of you keen to improve your French vocabulary, here are some of the types of music listed in the programme issued by La Mairie (City Hall): le funk, le hip-hop, le rap, l'indie pop (honestly!), le reggae, le rock punck (sic). And whatever combinations of the above you care to make. More mature citizens might prefer: le blues, le jazz, le Big Band, l'orphéon (male voice choir), or the orchestra of the local conservatoire (music school).

Rock music on the cours Mirabeau

We opt for a concert in a normally quiet, shady square near the cathedral. A stage with light and sound systems has been set up, and the Orchestre Philharmonique plays Beethoven's Coriolan Overture and la Symphonie Fantastique by Berlioz.  We meet friends and settle comfortably at a table, only to discover that the competition from a nearby rock concert makes it almost impossible to hear. Nice idea but ...

So we saunter slowly down to the cours Mirabeau, the famous-tree-lined avenue, where several performance spaces have been set up. Same problem, a bit too loud for us old fogies. So we settle at a cafe with a glass of wine and enjoy the view. As often with performance art, the "off" programme is just as interesting as the official planned events - two harmonica players passing one microphone between them in a tiny backstreet, a guitar-steeldrum combination in the square, people-watching from the cafe terrace. La Fête de la Musique is a time to enjoy and encourage all musical tastes.

Festival warm-up

For many the musical high spot of the summer is the world-famous Festival d'Art Lyrique. Ticket prices for opera performances range from 30 - 240€ for Le Nozze di Figaro conducted by Jérémie Rhorer and needless to say the cheap tickets usually sell out on the first day of sales. The London Symphony Orchestra is here, as is the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and the world-renowned soprano Renée Fleming.

Locals can buy a 15€ pass which gives entry to rehearsals and master classes. But go early, there are no reservations, and spaces fill up quickly. The main festival week launches with another free concert, as the cours Mirabeau is again transformed into a magical performance space, complete with stage, orchestra and rows of free seating for the public. We are treated to a selection of famous arias from Mozart operas Le Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni and La Flûte Enchantée. It is wonderful to see how many children and families take advantage of this musical feast.

Enjoying the show!

Latest of our musical treats is a live projection in the park of Le Nozze di Figaro, direct from the Théâtre de l’Archevêché. The hillside is packed as dusk falls and the performance begins at about 9.30pm. The opera is sung in Italian with French subtitles on screen. The crowd thins out as the evening grows chill, the ground gets harder, and you realize at 11.45pm that there are still two acts to go...... We join the slackers and go home to watch the rest on TV. I loved this production featuring Kate Lindsey singing Cherubino, Kyle Ketelson as Figaro, Petricia Petibon as a red-headed Suzanna, a beautiful set designed by Richard Brunel and even a well-trained gray pointer as the count’s hunting dog.

So we have already enjoyed a truly eclectic range of music in Aix this summer, from grand opera to indie rock, from formal theatre to street corner. As the French say, on connaît la musique!

© 2012 Valerie and Trevor White

A Walk in la Garrigue

The city of Aix-en-Provence is in the department of Les Bouches-du-Rhône, and offers a wealth of beautiful walks outside the town.  The area is very dry with chalky soil, giving rise to a typical vegetation of pine trees, twisty, wind-blown olives and spikey undergrowth. This kind of heath, known as la garrigue, will be familiar to those of you who have seen the famous movies by Marcel Pagnol, La Gloire de Mon Père (My Father’s Glory) and Le Château de Ma Mère (My Mother’s Castle). There are tiny, prickly oaks (which Pagnol calls Chêne kermès, but which are perhaps better known as holly oaks), wild juniper (le genévrier), rosemary (le romarin) and thyme (le thym).

Setting off in la garrigue

Our Anglo-American group organizes guided family rambles once per month, and the June walk was a particularly rich experience.  It was a busy Sunday, with Father’s Day as well as the second round of legislative elections. But a small group of members met in the village of Cornillon-Confoux, whose name means “crossroads.” It is an ancient settlement site boasting many beautiful stone-built houses and a château , with lovely views of Les Arpilles mountain range to the north and l’Etang de Berre, a huge lake to the south-west.

The châteaufort itself was probably built in the XVIIth century, with a Roman style chapel thought to date from the XIIIth. It is not open to the public, having been restored and remodeled as private homes. We enjoyed the views from the road as we ambled by, and were startled to happen upon a huge classical-style bronze sculpture on a grassy knoll. It is the work of Igor Mitorag (or Mitoraj), an internationally renowned sculptor of Polish origin who now lives in the area.

Borie

Leaving the village by an easy, level path we soon came upon several bories. These are round shelters of dry-stone construction, traditionally used by shepherds, and as many as fifty can be seen in this area, including one covering a well. From the bories we headed off into the garrigue, at this time of year peppered with glorious displays of scarlet poppies, yellow broom and pinky-mauve cistus. Our French friend Annie gave us an impromptu French vocabulary lesson as we came upon a growth of bulrushes, explaining the difference between jonc (bulrush) and ajonc (gorse) as well as the Provençal word bancao for a low, dry-stone wall. In addition to the scent of rosemary in the warm air was the pungent aniseed smell of wild fennel growing along the roadside.

mur à abeilles

Lunch was a welcome break in the shade as temperatures soared to 32C. It was so tempting to laze away the whole afternoon listening to the cicadas, and it took a little cajoling from our guide Gilbert to get us back on track. Our route back took us on a section of the ancient Roman road la Voie Aurélienne. We made a five-minute detour to visit the mur à abeilles, a 60m long stone wall with alcoves for bee hives, probably hosting up to 200 swarms in its heyday. The area at one time had a thriving honey and wax industry. Another happy discovery, a nèflier tree, apparently in English a medlar. The yellow fruits (les nèfles) are small and fleshy, rather like a small apricot, and once peeled, offer a succulent, tangy fruit.

OK, so at 32C it was a bit hot for walking, but what a great day we had. Group leaders Annie and Gilbert very kindly invited us afterwards for cold drinks in their garden to cool off. Take the basic ingredients of beautiful countryside, add a good helping of conversation, a healthy dose of fresh air and exercise, a soupçon of vocabulary, a slice of local history, and the result is a recipe for a delicious day out.

© 2012 Text and Images Valerie and Trevor White