France Day 12 - TGV & 404

We left Cassis under the cover of night - okay it was about 7am - to leave plenty of time to navigate through Marseille, return the car and get on the train. We found the train station; no problem. We found out that we needed to return the car at the train station after asking a station employee; no problem. THEN we tried to find a gas station; problem. We eventually found a station and the attendant told me to close my door and beware of thieves on scooters; great addition to the mounting tension! THEN we tried to find our way back to the train station and that's where the fighting turned vicious. It was the most stressful part of the trip for all of us - the driver, the navigator and the back seat passenger who was praying we'd just find the station already!

We finally did and had some (but not much) time to spare so we got breakfast at the station. I had a cafe noisette, warm brioche and a yogurt with blackberries. Even breakfast standing train station is delicious and satisfying!

And the train ride was a blast! I've been on the Acela but compared to the high speed train, you may as well be walking! After letting RRR & Mitch make the first trip out of our train car, I eventually navigated my way to the snack car, an adventure in itself, for an espresso and a croissant. The barista was kind enough to put a cover on it for me - probably to protect the passengers I had to pass on the way back to my seat! During our trip, we had a bit of time to catch up on our travel journals and talk about what we wanted to accomplish in Paris. The last dinner pick was mine and I was getting nervous since I didn't have one selected yet - the pressure was on!

Finally got back to the Hilton and eventually made our way to Monmartre to visit the Basilique du Sacre Cour, one of Paris' best known landmarks. As expected it was overrun with tourists, but it was so beautiful I was able to look beyond it and the views from the top of the hill was breathtaking! It was lunchtime, so we navigated our way past the sidewalk artists trying to coerce tourist into paying for sketches and picked out our lunch items.

I went with a ouef (egg), jamon, fromage, and tomato crepe - it was absolutely delicious! Not quite exactly authentic street food I was hoping to find but as close as one could get in a highly trafficked tourist mecca!

We wandered through Pigalle, one of Paris' sex districts, giggled at the sex shops like we were five, and made a pit stop at Lavinia, in a wine shop that Mitch wanted to visit. We had a glass of wine there and RRR & I each purchased two half bottles to take home: a 2004 Domaine des Espiers from Gigondas and a 2005 Pierre-Marie Chermette Domaine du Vissoux from Fleurie. We didn't want to carry much more than that since liquid restrictions prevented us from carrying it on the plane and I was a bit hesitant to shove it in my suitcase. But I digress...from the main point of this entry - DINNER!

RRR's pick was tonight and she chose the North African restaurant 404. We stopped in the bar next door with Tibetan-inspired and East Village-type vibe for a super strong drink and then popped next door sat down for our meal. The decor of 404 was very "One Thousand and One Nights" with communal seating. And once again, the service was friendly and watching the chef through the open kitchen was a blast! He was even cool enough to let us take his picture, what a good sport. I think it was payback for the amusement we gave him as we gushed and analyzed all the wonderful spices, tastes and flavors of our family style meal. This is how it went down:

We chose a 1995 Chateau Tellagh Medea, an Algerian wine, and thanks to the waiter chose the following for our family style meal:

Bread: this had the texture of focaccia with a hint of corriander
Lentilles en salade a la Marocaine (lentil salad): crisp veggies, tender lentils
Tangine de Boulettes de Kefta aux ouefs: a tangine of lamb meatballs with eggs
Brochettes de Kefta Grilles: grilled lamb skewers, well-seasoned tasty meat
Couscous aux 7 Legumes: veggie couscous with cooked vegetables

For desert, I walked over to the open counter with the waiter and chose four cookies for us to sample: date pastry, an eggroll type desert with honey, rosewater wrapped in a filo pastry, a cream puff type pastry but with a bit harder crust, and an almond paste type cookie. All of this and excellent coffee, what a fantastic pick!

France Day 11 - B is for Bouillabaisse C is for Cassis

It was a sad goodbye to Marie, Claude, Romain, Heinz & Christine this morning. We promised to keep in touch, wished Marie & Claude good luck in their next place and hit the road for Aix en Provence.

Aix is considered a 'university town' and the cities seem to be the only place in France to find diversity. The main street reminded me a bit of Boston's Newberry Street and our wandering around town was more enjoyable than some other places since we were not battling the extreme heat of our other city jaunts.

As usual, after a lot of debate and indecision, we finally agreed to have a quick lunch in a cafe. We were in the midst of placing our order with our waitress when she abruptly ushered us over to a different section. Little did we know we ordered sandwiches that were considered more of a 'to-go' item than a sit down lunch. We all got steak frites on a roll with diet cokes (aka coca-cola light) and the fries were literally inside the sandwich! Lunch hit the spot regardless of the odd circumstances surrounding our service.

We left Aix and hit the road for Cassis... Mitch was driving and we found it extremely difficult to navigate through Marseille. Numerous arguments followed but eventually we made it to the tiny seashore town of Cassis, due east of Marseille.

We found our hotel, Le Jardin D'Emile, checked in, caught a bit of an old episode of Melrose Place in French and then ventured into town. We walked across the street to the ocean and watched the water crash against the rocks. It was beautiful and so serene just to sit there and enjoy the waves. There were a few brave swimmers on the rocky beach but the water seemed a bit cold and rough to me. We eventually left the water and settled into a cafe along the dock and just chilled out for the first time since we got to France!

We started chatting with our server at the cafe and asked him which of the many restaurants along the water is the best. He told us we couldn't go wrong at Nino so we walked over and made a reservation for the evening.

As usual, we were one of the first dining patrons to arrive at 8 o'clock sharp and were greeted warmly by the staff. We giggled over the fact that our waiter looked a lot like Furio from the Sopranos and at the silly sailor-boy attire the waitstaff had to wear. I get the whole seaside theme, but c'mon!

Dinner started with an apertif of kir royale (cassis w/champagne) and we shared an order of mussels with pistou for an appetizer. The mussels were outstanding! You can tell they were fresh, the texture was just right - not too chewy, not too mushy and the flavor of the pistou was the perfect buttery herbal combination of ingredients.

Determined not to leave southern France without sampling some bouillabaisse, RRR & I both ordered the house specialty and the three of us shared a bottle of 2005 Domaine de Bagnol, a rose' from Cassis. RRR broke her 'give me red until I'm dead' rule and even had a few glasses! This is a breakthrough!

When our bouillabaisse arrived, the waitress and Furio were more than happy to explain how to put the fish in the broth, identified each fish which they then deboned for us tableside, and continued to replenish the broth as we slurped it up.

The broth was tasty, the fish fresh, but again, the standout item was the mussels appetizer. What really made this meal was the jovial service. This restaurant sells itself as a family establishment and they really go the extra mile to make sure everyone is comfortable without being patronizing.

The three of us were so relaxed and finally able to take a breath and enjoy our surroundings. Of course, our peace would be temporary -- the challenge of navigating our way back to Marseille and returning our rental car with time to catch a 9am high speed train to Paris was looming.....

France Day 10 - In anticipation of Heinz

We finally found the lake! It was a good jog but so foggy around the water that RRR & I were soaked by the time we came back. We were glad we were running and proud of ourselves for finding the lake but it was getting tougher and tougher to run and we were getting slower and slower. Think it had anything to do with the ridiculous amount of food we were eating?

Over breakfast Mitch told us about how she stayed up pretty late after we had said goodnight and started chatting with Marie, Claude and their two friends from Switzerland who were also staying at the B&B. She said they were a riot but we apparently kept missing them because we were early risers and they were night owls.

We said our 'au revoirs' to Marie, Claude and the Canadians and headed off to the towns of the Luberon: Gordes, Rousillon, Bomnieux and Menerbes. We started off in Gordes a beautiful, quaint hilltop town (basically what I thought Les Baux was going to be like) and enjoyed a delicious pizza and salad at an outside cafe. A salad with goat cheese melted on crusty bread is a typical lunch item and one that we kept gravitating towards because the cheese with the crunch of the fresh bread was delicious - it just doesn't get any better than that!

Marie & Claude are actually in the process of selling their place and opening a B&B in Gordes --- now I know why they want to move here! Relaxed atmosphere, great shops, friendly people and a gorgeous view of the countryside!

Next on the list was Rousillon, a village that is covered in red dust and has been the insipiration for many artists and where pottery glazes were produced by the Romans. It was pretty wild to see and Mitch said it reminded her a bit of Arizona. Mitch and I went for a bit of a hike (RRR hung back to protect her shoes and laundry) and marveled at the natural beauty of the red clay floor. We hit a few more towns but now at a much slower pace and we decided to picnic that evening at Marie's and make a dent in our growing collection of wines versus having another three hour five course meal.

Headed back to St Remy in the late afternoon and hit the local shops for some picnic goodies. As usual arguments began on what to eat and from where but we did manage to make one of our stops at Joel Durand, a renowned chocolatier in town. The store reminded me a lot of Jacques Torres' shops here in New York, but Au Maison du Chocolat and Valrhona chocolate have Joel beat! Truth hurts but the line of people outside make me sure that my so-so review won't hurt Joel's business one bit.

We got back, cleaned up and set up shop next to the Canadians who were also enjoying dinner in Marie's backyard. RRR ripped up a rotisserie chicken and Claude took some for Romain who was happy as a clam! Can you blame her?

We started chowing down on our mushroom quiche, tomato and cheese pizza, olives, artichokes, chicken, bread, mimolette (an orange cheese), a hard chevre, goat cheese from St Remy, mushrooms with tomato sauce, tapenade, sausage and that's when things really started getting interesting!

We finally met the Swiss couple, Heinz & Christine - and with a great name like Heinz I can't make an alias! We chatted and talked about everything from world politics, US history, hip hop (Heinz, not a fan!), their teenage kids, work, love, you name it! They were adorable, smart, funny and the conversation just kept getting better. We finally convinced them to help us finish our wines and after a bit of polite hestitation even Marie joined in on the fun! By the end of the night, we were laughing, drinking and eating to our heart's content. And Heinz's demonstration of how he could do a handstand on a chair was priceless! It was such a wonderful evening and we really felt at home, making the thought of leaving even harder to imagine! When the wine was done and we were exhausted, we called it a night; thrilled to have had yet another amazing evening but a bit sad knowing that tomorrow we'd be saying goodbye to our new friends and to Provence.