France, part II

I think I mentioned that, while in France, we ate a great deal of bread. I don't know why bread made in France us superior to bread made in the US of A, but it definitely is. Especially baguettes--although I think I've been through this with you already so I will move on.  Reluctantly.

The soup is pretty wonderful as well, and the fruits and vegetables, and the fish, and they do stuff to meat that makes everything taste--luscious!  Even the junk food tasted great in France (Dunc, do you remember those French cookies with the chocolate inside?  We ate several packages of them on our various TGV train rides.)  But enough about the food...

On this trip we were able to visit and sit inside of Sacre Coeur again--one of my all time favorite churches.  Getting there is a big hike, but it's well worth the effort.

We visited a winery and an olive oil producer.  Below is the valley where the grapes are grown and the beujolais is made.  I wasn't crazy about the wine, but the location was stunning.  Pretty much everyone on the trip agreed that we could easily live in this valley, especially if someone were to deed us a vineyard.  Anyone?  Anyone?

And where else in the world can you buy stuff like this?  An Eiffel Tower with Cognac inside?  Life just doesn't get any better, I'm telling you.

We were impressed by the pride French businesspeople took in their work, particularly the Chateau Virant (the fancy olive oil producer) and the Beaujolais DePeuble winery.  The olive oil producer and winery owner were both women!  Some of these businesses have been in the family for 500+ years, and I guess it's assumed that family members will grow up to work in the winery.

The history associated with these places is amazing.  At Chateau Virant, the proprietress told us that they were clearning some acreage at the farm and found this:  A huge stone bowl that was used to separate oil and water when making olive oil...by the ancient ROMANS. When we dig in our back yard, we find deteriorating plastic army guys from the 1960s.  Geeze.

Bob mentioned the market at Aix in his blog, and this was one of my favorite things we did on our trip.  We gave groups of students money and a food assignment (cheese, bread, salami/meat, fruits and veggies, etc.) and asked them to go to the market and find the most interesting food item they could find in their category, and then we met up to discuss it and then eat it.   It was great fun, and they came back with things like this huge slab swiss cheese.

If you go to France, I highly recommend spending a couple of days in Aix.  It is filled with history, and whenever you look up, you see things like scary gargoyles and naked women with their legs dangling over the roofline.  Incredible structures are everywhere--very inspiring.

And then there was Marseille.  Marseille reminded me a little bit of Asbury Park, New Jersey.  When you go there, you can see that it was once a grand city, but I thought it was dirty and the streets were lined with people begging for money--kinda weird for an economically strong country like France.  One of our students had her purse snatched during lunch; a guy approached her group with some stuff to sell, apparently to distract them, while someone else took the purse.  This was a real bummer, because her purse contained her camera, cell phone, passport, credit cards, etc.  She had to stay an extra day to visit the embassy and get a new passport. 

The Marseille train station was amazing, however, like most of the train stations in Europe.  When I'm in them I imagine young soldiers greeting their families after returning from the wars.

And when you exit the train station in Marseille, you are greeted by statues like this--as testament to the grandeur of the city at one time.

And finally, I leave you with a photo of Baptiste, Meredith and Colette (aka Coco) who were our tour guides for the trip.  (Meredith's family came to France with her and took care of Coco while Meredith was showing us the Louvre and getting us into and out of Marseille.  Coco is Riley's age.)  I was enormously impressed by their knowledge and professionalism as they took us around the country.  Baptiste is proud of his heritage, and he should be.

All in all, a great trip.

Did I mention how fabulous the bread was?  I love bread.  Sigh.