Category: Europe 2019

The last two years, Janeen has spent her birthday in Macomb Illinois – first for her dad’s 100^th birthday and the following year for his 101^st. When asked where she wanted to be in 2019, she chose the Violet Festival in the south of France. Early spring seemed a nice remembrance of Dad Harold. As reported in prior posts, we are in the village of Vence about 14 miles from Nice. So to celebrate her birthday I found a lovely 2-star Michelin restaurant in Nice called Flaveur.

Flaveur is really a story of passion and family. Gaël and Mickaël Tourteaux, two brothers, share the kitchen and create wonderful foods.

They are both different and yet complementary bringing different approaches to the kitchen. We left Vence with lots of time to find the restaurant and find parking. After we spotted the location, and got ourselves parked, we found the street of the restaurant to be filled with construction equipment.

Across the street from the restaurant is a major construction project but access was still possible to the restaurant. Arriving for at 12:45 for our 1:00 reservation, we found a small room decorated with figurative wooden sculptures, reminiscent of fish shapes, chic table art with beautiful glasses and a relatively camouflaged bar area behind which we surmise is the micro kitchen.

The menu had two options – the first was a menu that included starter and main or main and dessert or a tasting menu that covered a 6 or 7 different dishes. We opted for the all inclusive lunch menu.

The pictures tell the story of the meal – so I won’t speak too much about them expect to say it was wonderful. I would say, however, that the number of amuse bouche was amazing. There must have been 6 or 7 different little bites that were where served before the first course.   Very nice.

 

We were in the restaurant for almost 4 hours! Certainly not rushed and the pace of presentation of the various things was relaxed and quite enjoyable.

Our waiter guided us on what we had and suggested an approach to eating them when there where multiple items at the same time.

At the end of the meal we asked to have a picture taken with the Chefs’ who joined our gallery of gourmand. All in all Janeen had a wonderful birthday in Nice.

The Violet Festival has taken place in Tourrettes-sur-Loup since 1952. Violet production became this village’s main agricultural activity in 1880. Today, only the Victoria variety is cultivated in Tourrettes-sur-Loup.

Every year in March, the Violet Festival rounds off the violet season and celebrates spring. The village streets are full of activity from in the mid morning with serenades and local dances. The whole village is full of flowers and the sweet scent of early spring. A Floral Procession starts in the early afternoon. This is why we came to this part of France – to see and be part of the celebration of violets in this little village.

Tourrettes-sur-Loup is small with only about 4,000 folks.

Many of these have come to be part of the artisan community – potters, weavers, wood carvers, jewelers, painters, and sculptors – lots of people creating interesting things through the town. In fact, the City Council has encouraged artist by providing work areas within the old city.

We visited on a couple of days – just prior to the actual festival and again over the weekend during the actual event. On our first day it was quiet with little activity throughout the area. On Saturday, the first day of the festival, it was much busier with tents set up in the parking lot, musicians performing,

strolling groups of performers Rose, Violet and Lily of the Valley dancers on stilts, and flower bedecked music float. While Violets are the reason, flower decoration was happening in several areas using local flowers. It reminded me of float building for the Rose Parade.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OK, not so much as what happens in Pasadena on New Years Day but people decorating structures with pretty flowers was nice to see.

The tents had various vendors showing off their wares and selling stuff, including a contingent from Japan. We picked up some local olive oil and balsamic both of which are lovely. When we first got into town on Saturday it wasn’t all that busy yet so we stopped at the boulangerie for a Coffee Long and a taste treat.

When we came back on Sunday, admittedly it was later in the day and Sunday was the “big day”, the place was mobbed!

The decorations around the square where beautiful, the stilt walkers were doing great and other musicians were pleasing the crowds.

On Monday we went back to this little village for lunch at Clovis. To say the place was quiet would be an understatement for sure. Many shops were closed, no crowds, all the tents in the parking lot had been removed and most of the flower decorations had been removed. However, our lunch at Clovis was wonderful.

Chef Julien Bousseau, opened the restaurant in February 2012, dedicated to a creative, fresh and tasty cuisine. All the products he uses are chosen with the utmost care. They work as much as possible with local producers and our fruits and vegetables are largely from organic farming. The wine list was a surprise with some local and little known wonders and will also with renowned big estates.

 

The menu is created on a two-week cycle to be able to capture all the seasonal variations that occur during the year. This is a Michelin 1-star restaurant and has been on the list for the last 7 years.   We had a delightful lunch and would certainly consider returning for another menu.

Vence is our home village for our stay for the next couple of weeks.  Located about 14 miles from Nice in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region in southeastern France Vence is home to about 19,000 folks.  The history of the place goes back to a Roman settlement of Vintium and subsequently became the bishopric and domain of the Villeneuve family.  The remnants of a Roman triumphal arch still remain including several “Marsellais Columns”

Within the historic village, a medieval walled village, there are numerous interesting sights and monuments.

The Peyra Gate was remodeled in 1810. The fountain was rebuilt in 1822 replacing an older one dating from 1578.   Strolling through the area are various courtyards, dining areas and art displays.

 The castle is today the Fondation Èmile Hugues,  a modern and contemporary art museum.

The cathedral was built in the 4th century on the site of a Roman temple. The stone of the western façade dates from 239. Another, on the right, was engraved in December 220. Other stones in the external walls represent funerary dedications.

Also on the western side of the church, the Pierre du Tauroble evokes the cult of Cybele  and also the Great mother of the Gods of Mount Ido.  A chapel in the cathedral has a mosaic by Marc Chagall, dated 1911.

The rue des Portiques is a section of the old Roman road.

After our stroll, we stopped for lunch across from the Plaza du Grand Jardin.  This Plaza is where the local markets are held plus various events.  Surrounding the Plaza are a number of restaurants and shops – well mostly restaurants actually.  Sitting on a wide sidewalk enjoying the afternoon sun was a treat.  After our lunch we headed back to the apartment to drop off the car and walk to the Chapel of the Rosary.

The Chapel of the Rosary, or also know as Chapel Matisse is a small place just a 5 minute walk from our apartment. 

After major surgery in 1942, Henri Matisse went too Nice to recover.  During his recovery he met Monique Bourgeois who was his night nurse.  During his recovery they became quite close and she modeled for Matisse on several occasions.  However, she felt the calling and entered the convent and became Sister Jacques-Marie. 

Once she took her vows, she and Matisse continued to communicate and when she came to Vence he visited often.  During one of his visits he learned the sisters were beginning the design for a chapel – a small chapel due to the facilities available.  Matisse offered to help design the interior and he was granted the commission.  Over the next four years of intensive and exclusive work in collaboration wit the Dominican community a final design was created and built.  Henri Matisse is quoted as saying “Despite all of its imperfections, I see it (the chapel) as my masterpiece…It is the result of a life devoted to seeking the truth”…”What I have done in the chapel is create a religious space…To take an enclosed space of very reduced proportions and give it, solely by the play of cloys and lines, the dimensions of infinity.”

The Chapel is quite small and he created a space filled with light and color. 

In addition to the Chapel there is a small museum of his work – many sketches for the Chapel as well as other subjects.

The entire day was relaxing and filled with new sights and sounds.  All in all another wonderful day in the South of France.

About 6 months ago, I asked Janeen where in the world she wanted to be for her birthday. After careful thought, she came up with Tourrettes-sur-Loup France. It seems that every year they have a harvest festival in March for the end of the Violet season. This has been going on for some time – with Tourrettes-sur-Loup being the center of the activities. Originally the festival had floats and parades but all of that has been scaled back in the last few years. The festival is first weekend in March (the violet’s growing season ends in early March) and includes various events including a conference on making perfumes, musical events, displays and lots of interesting activities.

Once we knew where we were going I started looking for a place to stay ending up at a Vacation Rental by Owner in the village of Vence (about 2km from Tourrettes-sur-Loup). The apartment is nice – 2 bedroom, living room, full kitchen all the things you need for an extended stay. After arriving in Marseille, we picked up our rental car and headed out. In hindsight, it would have been better to fly into Nice but I wasn’t thinking straight when I made the reservations. A little over 2 ½ hours after leaving the airport we found our way to the apartment.

Prior to arriving we had stopped at the market to pick up some essentials but really all we wanted was a place to settle in and recover from the flights (Dulles to Charles de Gaulle and then to Marseille). After a quiet dinner of cheese, fruit and beverages we hit the bed for the night.

The following day we headed out to Tourrettes-sur-Loup to check out the place and figure out parking and all the other stuff related to visiting a small village (maybe 4,000 residents) on a busy day.   Well, on Thursday it was quiet – a bit chilly and without anybody around! A tasty meal of lamb and frites, was prepared by a French Vietnamese chef and staff and topped off with espresso.

We stopped at the Tourist Office and got all the necessary maps and schedules and then spent some time wandering around the old section of town.   As you can imagine, it’s OLD with all the things that go with Medieval – cobble stone streets, old buildings, winding narrow passages and lots of great views of the Valley.

The City Council has made an effort to encourage artisans to create a workshop and sales space within the old section. This results in some interesting places – olive wood, pottery, metal work, sculpture and other shops are scattered among the more traditional gift shops

and restaurants. We had a very pleasant conversation with a jeweler (from Mexico) who is one of the craft people along the way. He recommended a restaurant (Bistrot Gourmand Clovis – a Michelin star restaurant) we are going to check out next week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After walking around a bit, we went to the Bastide aux Violettes – the museum of the history of Violets. Along the way we stopped in to a little chapel – very small with very modern art on the walls.

After stopping for a few minutes, we continued on to the Violet Museum.

This is much more than a museum; this space is a really meeting place with past traditions and culture of the violet “Victoria”, cultivated in the village since 1880. The museum covers the history of growing and cultivation of the violet

and gives insight into the use of violets (primarily for perfume). There is also a green house where they grow them but only during the October to March growing season.

More about the Violet Festival, Tourrettes-sur-Loup and Vence as we continue our exploration of the area.

This is the start of almost 3 months in Europe. We start in the South of France, head to Bordeaux, Belgium, Amsterdam (two river cruises start in Amsterdam) ending in Switzerland (after a 10 day tour) before heading back to Paris and flying home on May 15^th. So there will be a lot to see and report. Stay tuned for more as we progress along this European adventure.