03-01-19 South of France was Calling

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.

A nice lunch – really wasn’t a busy spot.

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.

Shops and apartments along the path.
I wouldn’t want to have to walk these every day – particularly in the rain!
The cat isn’t anyone’s in particular, it just lives in the area and poses for pictures.

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

One of the gift shops along the way.

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.

Olive wood bowls, platters and lots of other things. Great prices!
Need a wooden spoon and fork?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

The chapel along the way.
A modern take on an alter scene.
A neat depiction of the flood and Noah.

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

The Violet Museum
Cute artwork!
These had a number of these “planters” arranged around the outside of the museum. Very cute.

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

Early violet production tools.
More displays

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.

The Green House with my love looking at me.
The end of the growing season, sadly.
Proof positive we are both in the greenhouse.

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 15th. So there will be a lot to see and report. Stay tuned for more as we progress along this European adventure.

 

 

1-23-19 Why Swirl a Glass of Wine

OK, it’s true we love wine. And yes, there are a variety of traditions and rituals we seem to follow from time to time. I was thinking about this recently when I ran across a blog on this very subject – and as I am not one to pass up good information I have borrowed liberally from it for this update to our Blog.

Tasting wine with friends is always a treat. Here we are with our besties Jessie and Phil.

Wine lovers develop certain habits that may seem strange in polite company. These customs and rituals are part of wine appreciation that you pick up as you progress through your wine education. They are also easy to ridicule, and become the essence of wine snobbery to the uninitiated. Yet they (almost always) serve a role in enhancing our enjoyment of the wine.

Drinking Pinot Noir with the winemaker is always a treat. This time Stoller Vineyards with winemaker Melissa

Did you know that we hold our glass up to the light and gaze intently at the liquid within as if it holds the secret of life? In truth, it may only hold the secret of the next few minutes, but this visual inspection allows us to evaluate the wine’s clarity. Similarly, by tilting the glass against a white background, we can see the wine’s color and discern a clue to its age and condition.  The color of the wine around the rim changes with age, and if the wine (white or red) seems murky, it may be over the hill or have been stored improperly and exposed to heat.

Janeen with a bottle of Native9. Winemaker James Ontiveros’s a night generation farmer in California and celebrates his heritage with the wine he makes from his family’s 8-acre Rancho Ontiveros Vineyard

 

This visual inspection is also why we hold the glass by the stem; fingerprints on the bowl are unsightly, and our hands may warm the wine. True wine geeks will hold the glass by its foot, with or without the pinky extended. This shows sophistication but requires care in performing the next tasting ritual – The Swirl. Swirling the glass becomes second nature to wine lovers – we’ve been spotted swirling water glasses, juice drinks and the occasional cocktail in unguarded moments. Yet it serves two purposes. First, it completes our visual appreciation as we note how the wine cascades down the side of the glass. Try this experiment: Take two identical wine glasses and fill one with water no more than a quarter to the top. Then pour an equal amount of red wine into the second glass. Swirl each glass. The water will simply fall back to the bottom, but the wine should form rivulets that flow more slowly, as if clinging to the side of the glass. These rivulets are called “legs” or “tears,” depending on whether you’re feeling sexist or emotional. A wine that has “nice legs” will have good body and will taste richer, perhaps with more alcohol, than one that leaves little to behold after a good swirl.

I really am of the opinion that lots of glasses on the table is a good thing.

 

The swirl’s second purpose is to release the wine’s aromas into the bowl of the glass so we can perform the next step: Stick our nose in the glass and inhale deeply. (Swirling and sticking one’s proboscis below the rim are two very good reasons not to fill the glass too high!)

Champagne – Always an enjoyable beverage

Finally, after all this rigmarole, we actually put the wine into our mouth. But we don’t swallow it at first. Rather, we gargle it or swish it around the inside of our mouth. By aerating the wine and swishing it noisily around our gums, we theoretically release more of the wine’s flavors. We certainly annoy anyone around us.

Even after we swallow (or spit if we’re at a wine tasting and have a LOT to taste), we’re not done. There’s still the “Oooh – ahh” of sucking in air to enjoy the wine’s leftover flavors that linger in the mouth. This is yet another way of accentuating the wine’s flavors.

And then, maybe we’ll smile. But there’s still one more ritual: We pull out our smartphones and post a photo of the wine on social media. Facebook and apps like Delectable or Vivino make it easy to catalog and brag about the wines we drink. For what’s the point of enjoying a wine if we can’t share it?

From time to time it is a treat to open a BIG bottle. In this case it’s a 1995 magnum of Sparkling wine from Argyle.

 

12-31-18 New Years Eve Recap

We ended last year in Paris and will do the same thing again this year. Needless to say, the time in between our two visits to Paris

Chris, David, janeen and Ryan celebrating on the last night in Paris 2018.

has been FILLED with travel, family, joy and some sadness. What has been planned as a “gap year” of travel has continued a second year. Using our son’s home in Springfield VA as our base, we traveled up and down the east coast of the US and Canada, back and forth to Macomb Illinois and across country twice – once by plane and once by car.

The first several months of 2018 were spent caring for Janeen’s dad in Macomb Illinois.

Harold and his great grad daughter

After living in a Senior Independent Living situation for 10 years or so, it was time to move into assisted living care. He spent his 101st birthday

Janeen and her dad on his 101st birthday.

(March 5th) in Wesley Village surrounded by friends.   Janeen got to spend her birthday in Macomb too (March 6th) where we had a celebration at the local Mexican restaurant and a Margarita (no salt, over ice please).

Janeen with her birthday drink!

After celebrating birthdays, we were back in Springfield for a brief visit and a flight to California.

A second birthday dinner for Janeen was held once we were back in Virginia.

We had planned on returning to CA to visit our various doctors and getting checked up to make sure all systems were continuing to operate as designed. While there we visited with close friends, ate great foods and visited the Huntington Gardens.

We returned to Virginia in time for D.C. Cherry Blossom time.

Cherry Blossom time at the Tidal Basin

It seems the day we decided to go to the Tidal Basin was ideal – blossoms floating in the air, nice breeze and a beautiful day. We didn’t stay in VA long as we head back to Macomb to check on Janeen’s dad before turning South towards Savannah Georgia. Stops along the way included Cincinnati Ohio, Maysville Kentucky, Bourbon country, Nashville TN

The Ryman Auditorium, the original home of the “Grand Ole Opry” in Nashville

and Savannah Georgia. Coming back north we stopped in Charleston, and Asheville NC before getting back to Virginia.

After getting our clothes clean, the car washed and helping Jason (our son) do a batch of home brew beer, we packed up again and headed north. This time through Pennsylvania stopping at Longwood Gardens

The Italian fountains at Longwood Gardens

and Bethlehem before continuing on to the Finger Lakes of NY. I admit to not being impressed with the wines we tasted in the Finger Lakes but it was beautiful all the same.

Finger Lake wine tasting

Next stop Niagara Falls.

Boy, that’s a lot of water falling over the edge around Horseshoe Falls!

The Falls

We spent a couple of days on the Canadian side of the Falls and had a enjoyable time. From there a stop in Quebec City (it was hot which seemed to surprise the locals) and then a long drive to Prince Edward Island.This is the local of Anne of Green Gables – we didn’t actually make it to the “spot” but we certainly saw a lot of the countryside and they do raise a LOT of potatoes!

Winding our way south through Saint John New Brunswick and into Portland Maine we stopped in Boxford Mass to visit with friends then

Joel and Wendy, our hosts in Boxford Mass

found our selves back in Virginia in time for Hamilton the Musical at the Kennedy Center. I’m really glad we had listened to the sound track a couple of times as it really helped to hear what was happening on the stage. The soundtrack includes virtually all the songs and dialogue of the entire play so following along wasn’t  difficult as we had heard the songs previously. Some lines made more sense after reading the book, as well.

Business  accomplished in VA, we turned around again and headed to Macomb. We were there for the better part of July leaving the first week of August. We had things to get done in California and needed to be moving along. Traveling along route 66 for most of the way was interesting – sites you see from various commercials and movies would flash by from time to time.

While we overnighted with friends in Chandler AZ, we received word that Janeen’s dad had passed. Yes, it was sad news but not unexpected.

California called us.. When we arrived, the goal was to complete the removal of all our household possessions from the home we had owned for 40 years. We kept only those items that mean something – artwork, pieces of solid wood furniture, kitchen items to set up a working kitchen, a few tools but nothing we couldn’t easily replace.

All our stuff in the moving van ready to go to storage

After  a quick trip to Santa Barbara for the Carnesale wedding,

here we are having an afternoon refreshment in Santa Barbara

we got back in time to meet the movers to have all our stuff placed in storage. The house sold at the end of November – we are OFFICIALLY Houseless.

Jessie and Phil – our good buds in Pasadena.

Our trusty Mercedes Benz (MerCBlu) continued to provide us with our transport as we headed to Northern California and visited with friends of 50 years in the Bay Area prior to pointing it East ;back to Illinois for an October memorial service  for Janeen’s dad. Our entire family was present which was a great comfort.

The Family at Harold’s Memorial

Continuing to Virginia, we once again got all our clothes clean, packed our bags and flew to Paris for the month of December.

Beth joined us for a tour at Mont Saint Michel – France

So this year (2018) started in Paris and will end in Paris. We are here with our entire family to enjoy being in the City of Lights with all that means. As for celebrating the New Year? Who knows. It’s only 3:30 on the 31st as I write this so the plans for this evening are not yet set.

This “gap year” that started so long ago (we started on this adventure in June of 2017) seems to be continuing. We return to Virginia in a week but come back to Southern France in March and have two different river cruises (Holland at TulipTime and The Remarkable Rhine) in April returning back stateside the middle of May.

From us to you – Bonne Année – The Lee Blog Continues in to the new year of 2019.

 

12-23-18 Bastille Marché

One of the joys of visiting in Paris for an extended time is the ability to go to the local markets to stock the apartment with food. The Paris Bastille Market comes alive with brightly colored stalls and enticing food displays. This Marché (Market) has been around for a very long time – taking over the Boulevard Richard Lenoir twice a week – Sundays and Thursdays.

Need a new purse? Maybe a backpack?
Well, oysters, fresh and at least 6 different kinds!

There are three pathways through the market where vendors are engaging with shoppers and calling out their specials for the day. We spent the better part of several hours doing our shopping for the next several days but it’s hard to not be amazed with the stuff that are being sold. We arrived via the metro coming up at one end of the market – a booth of hats, gloves and lots of fresh shellfish. As we walked down the way there were booths of organic eggs, flowers, cheese, bread and piping hot ready to eat meals.

Tomatoes – nicely boxed
Lots of fresh vegies
Household items – wrapping paper, storage containers, hats…

Ryan had a menu he was working on for our Christmas dinner – chicken, fresh vegetables, green apples and other ingredients to make our traditional Rice and Curry. We also picked up cheese, some marinated olives, some nuts and lots of other delicious treats.

Ryan and Janeen checking out a spot.
Another big booth!
Oranges, pineapples and fruit.
Ryan picking out some sausages for later.

 

12-18-18 Paris – Musée d’Orsay

Paris, the City of Lights, and Museums! We have visited several museums during our various visits to this lovely city – The Louvre, Carnavalet Museum, Musée Rodin, Musée de Cluny and the Musée d’Orsay.

The view of the Musée d’Orsay.

All of these museums are wonderful and have a different focus or approach. Janeen particularly likes Carnavalet Museum as it represented the History of Paris through the years but unfortunately it is under renovation until 2020. A visit to the Louvre is certainly an enjoyable time but it is HUGE and crowded particularly when you want to see the Mona Lisa (I can pass on that, been there done that) and we decided a repeat visit to Musée d’Orsay would be on our list of places this trip.

The Musée d’Orsay is located on the Left Bank of the Seine and is housed in the former Gare d’Orsay – a Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French art dating from 1848 to 1914 including paintings, sculptures, furniture and photography.

The overlook from the end of the museum.

The museum houses the largest collection of impressionist and post-impressionist masterpieces in the world. Paintings by Monet, Manet, Degas, Renoir, Cézanne, Gauguin and Van Gogh provide a fantastic snapshot of this style of painting.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir- Bal du moulin de la Galette, 1876. Yes please, I’d like this on my wall.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir- Bal du moulin de la Galette, 1876
Édouard Manet, Olympia, 1863
Claude Monet – La Rue Montogueil, Féte du 30 juin 1878. Now this could certainly be in my living room.

The original railway station, Gare d’Orsay, was constructed in time to be part of the 1900 Exposition and provided rail service throughout southwestern France until 1939. At that time, the short platforms had become unsuitable for the longer trains and the station stopped long distance service but continued with more suburban services. It has been used in several films over the years and was set to be demolished starting in 1970 but nothing happened and eventually the Directorate of the Museums of France had the idea of turning it into a museum that would bridge the gap between the Louvre and other museums of Paris. After much work and renovation the new museum was ready to receive art in 1986 where it has continued to provide a wonderful place to view art in Paris.

The interior of the building is huge with exhibits on several levels. After purchasing our tickets we entered on the main floor that overlooks the entire space. The main floor has early 19th century art: Conservative on the right, Realism on the left.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir- Bal du moulin de la Galette, 1876

Wandering among the main floor’s gallery of gleaming white statues is a joy. At the end of the first floor is a scale model of the Garnier Opéra House – this cross section lets you see the complexities of all the stage areas and gives you a good idea of the size of the place.

The front of the Opera house and cut away.
The cut away of the Opera House.

Upstairs is where the impressionist and post-impressionist – well presented and amazing. I could certainly have one or more of these on the wall in my house!

Beth, Janeen and David outside the Musée d’Orsay

All in all David was in the d’Orsay about 4 hours while Janeen and Beth had previously spent a few hours it was not nearly enough time to really see everything – David missed all the furniture, photography and the special Picasso exhibits. Most likely we will back during this trip.