During the hike my friends taught me the expression “tire a la plus courte paille”  – this is an expression for drawing straws.  “tire a la plus courte paille” literally means pull the shortest straw.  As we approached the trail we walked along a field of wheat and used a wheat stalk to draw straws

We also hiked by a cave that would have been really neat to go spelunking in.  I happened to think as we stood in the entrance, “si c’est murs puissent parler”  – “if these walls could talk.” Because certainly they encompassed and had witnessed centuries of history.  I’m not a history buff or aficionado at all, but for a moment, history seemed alive when I wondered who had visited this cave in the past.  Brigands of robbers, gypsies? My mind flashed to ideas of Robin Hood. Certainly it’s walls had been used for taking cover, hiding, and who knows what. 

Not far from this cave was another cave – “un grotte” – where monks had built a monastery in the first millenia.  Every hour they rang bells from the chapel which was in a cliff side.  The monastery definitely had a feeling of awe to it.  It truly felt removed from the world and thereby had an out of the ordinary tranquility. I felt that everything in that place pointed one to the cross and Christ.   Though any church is liable to get sidetracked with symbolism and ritual, and I cannot be the judge of others’ hearts, I felt that this monastery was truly a setting where one would be challenged to place the gospel and the cross at the forefront of one’s mind every moment of every day.  It seemed a special place.

See pictures below in post “Catching Up”

When I now use certain words, I remember the experience that I first learned to use the word out of necessity. For example, I remember that I first learned the word for “toe” – “orteille” and for “nail” – “ongle” when I had a toe injury skiing and went to the pharmacy to ask if they had any products to help heal my toe.  

So many of my vocabulary words I’ve gained are attached to concrete experiences I’ve gone through. 

This week’s experiential lesson was less pleasant. I learned the word “damages” – “degats” -after flooding my apartment accidentally and now assessing the damage to the flooring.

The lunch was not just an hour of my time, in fact it was THE event of my day.  It was about all I did all day.  I got up in the morning in time to get ready, get dressed, and walk to the bus, take the bus and then take the metro to meet my friend at the metro where she then drove me to her apartment.  We waited around a bit for one other woman to arrive who my friend also invited.  While waiting, I looked at my friends pictures of her world travels.  She is quite extraordinary and has gone many places around the world. 

When the other woman arrived we began our meal with an aperitif, which is an appetizer course. We had champagne and olives, tomatoes with herbs de provence, toasts with salmon spread (too fishy tasting for me but I ate it so as not to be rude), and pistachio nuts.  After our aperitif which probably took about an hour or so, we installed ourselves at the table for our main meal.  My friend brought out the bouillabaisse.  Bouillabaisse is a “specialte de midi”  – a specialty of the provencial region.  bouillabaisse is a fish stew.  I know Jullia Child has translated the recipe in the “Art of Mastering French Cooking.” There are many variations too.  My friend’s bouillabaisse was excellent. I am not a fan of shell-fish, but my friends variation utilized white-meat fish and didn’t include much shellfish, though she included mussels.  bouillabaisse has a tomato-based broth. We also had potatoes to go with our stew as well as toasted baguette slices with a sauce like an aoli.  I ate so many baguette slices with aoli with my stew. I was definitely approaching the full level upon finishing my stew…..

But that is not the end of the meal in France.  Up next was a cheese course. Oh and I forgot to mention that I had my champagne glass refilled and then was served a little bit of Rose wine, but I refused to take much as I was feeling the effects of the champagne. During the cheese course you are served several types of cheeses -a blue cheese, like Roquefort, a goat cheese – chevre, a cheese like Brie or Camembert, a “Brebis” – sheep cheese.  So I took several tiny portions/sampling of a few cheeses, knowing my stomach was pushing the limits of fullness.  I tried to eat a slowly as possible too to give my stomach maximum time to digest. 

After the cheese came the dessert….Desert consisted of ice cream, and in case I wasn’t full, there was the option of fruit on the side too. It is customary to place a basket of fruit on the table with the desert course. 

After desert came tea.  One always has to end the meal with some tea or cafe.  I took some mint tea hoping it would aid my digestion…My stomach was now painfully full, I was at the level of feeling like I would burst. All I wanted to do was to lay down and fall asleep. 

After tea we sat in the living room and talked together.  My friend also offered us some “gingembre confit” – candied ginger, and “callisons” – traditional candies from the Provencial region.   By the time we left it was 6:30 p.m.  The meal was my whole day, and I definitely didn’t eat anything else the rest of the day.   And I think I was in a food coma for the rest of the evening. I was lethargic the rest of the evening….And that is how they do meals and life here in France. 

I have so much catching up to do here.  These pictures really should be part of separate post but for the sake of catching up they are all together here. They merit more time and attention to describe the stories behind them and the places behind them.  Hopefully I’ll get around to that at some point. I am saddened to have fallen out of touch writing about these places due to business of life right now.  Writing about Provence helps me to capture the experiences and savor them and to savor life.  “Tant pis”  – too bad, it’s a shame.

The pictures include several different outings in Provence.  One outing was a trip to an area called Sainte Baume, which is absolutely beautiful. I wish I could live there; it is what I picture in my mind when I read Peter Mayle’s writings on Provence.  Beautiful countryside.  I hiked with the Alpine Club to a monastery that is in a cave in a cliff-side; it is pretty spectacular. The monastery was founded in the first millenia and continues to be in use. 

Other pictures include an outting to the village of Cassis, which is only 20 minutes or so from Marseille and is a lovely town to stroll around and to go to the beach. In the same day as this outing with my group of friends from Bible study, I also went with these friends to a little “perched” village called Le Castellet. A perched village is an ancient village built on a hill top for protection from invaders in the middle ages.

Coquelicot is the name of the Poppy flower.  With the arrival of spring, they have suddenly ”poussé” (grown up)  in the cracks of the sidewalks and on the side of the roads in certain places around town. They grace the “paysage” (landscape) with a burst of red that contrasts the whites and greens and blues of the rocky landscape and perfectly complements and enhances the provencial landscape.

   While I was sitting in the park the other day, children in costumes started flooding into the park from all directions – it was a school parade and parents came to watch their children’s costume parade and to take pictures of their kids. This particular school had different themes for each class, some of the older kids -9-10 age range were dressed up in “ocean” themed costumes, most were pirates, but we also saw a ”jellyfish” - haha.  Sadly, I didn’t have my camera on hand.

For April Fool’s Day, the French idea of an April Fool’s joke is to place a fish on someone’s  back – “les poissons sur le dos.”  This is so weird. I don’t get it.