After Barcelona, Southern France, and Back

Six-Four-Les-Plages

Three days in Barcelona (see last post) is not nearly enough time to explore such a city, but we wanted to visit my cousin Michelle and family, in France. So, we drove about 6 hours up the Mediteranean coast to Toulon. Toulon did not make it on this map, but it is just east of Marseille.

Our destination was the house of my cousin Michelle, husband Remy and their two boys, Gaell and Dima. They live just outside of Toulons in a little village by the name of Six-Fours-Les-Plages. A typically long and elaborate European place name, clearly derived before television and computers diminished humans' memories and attention spans.

Like the region around the Mediteranean in Spain, this area has been settled, unsettled and resettled many times over many thousands of years, most notably within textbook history, by the Phonecians and Romans. The area is not quite mountainous, more like dramatically hilly, offering spectacular views over the sea. Six-Four refers to six lighthouses or look out positions from whence the dominating tribe could survey and control the sea traffic.

Les-Plages means beaches, and they have lovely ones. Here is one we went to. You can see in the distance some of those dramatic hills.

Here we all are the day we went to explore two medieval villages.

The first that we visited was very small and perched at the top of a rocky promontory among the mountains. It seemed to have grown out of the mountain.

There was not much space in this village for the living or the dead. This is a view from above of their grave yard.

And one of many glorious views from the village.

 

Probably the main attraction in this village is the Romanesque church that dates from the 1100's. (In case I got anything wrong here, stay tuned for Remy and Michelle's comments!)

We all liked the interior of this church. I felt immediately a calming presence. The children lit candles: Gaell and Dima for grandparents, and Iris for great grandparents.

From this lovely little village we went on to the larger and more commercialized

 Le Castellet:

Like most self-respecting medieval villages, you enter through an incredibly thick stone wall.

There were lots of quaint shops catering to the tourists, but this one particularly took our fancy with its many glass containers of concoctions from the region.

There is no end to the variety of olive oil that can be purchased.

These syrups are used to flavor drinks. They include rose, lavendar and fig.

Un déjeuner français

After a consideration of all the restaurants in the village, most of which catered to the tourists with simple items, Michelle found one that served a genuine french mid-day meal for a genuine french family (and cousins).

Here Gaell is mimicing the statue that demonstrates the rather odd name of the establishment "Pied de Nez", or "Foot of Nose"

Below: Not a fabulous picture of me and Matt, but I wanted to show the view from the restaurant which looked out over the valley. Over the hills and bit to the right would be the Mediteranean. Down there somewhere is  a vineyard that Matt and Remy visited the day before. Stay tuned for a guest post from Matt on that.

Here you have the menu:

Every french meal must include bread and, if after midday, red wine.

This was not on the menu, but we each were given this lovely little starter. I think it was an asparagus mousse.



 I had the most decorative first course, with layers of vegtables and a light creamy - something. Don't really know what!

But Matt had the most interesting. True to type, he ordered the chef's choice which started with fois gras with figs and confiture of onions. He regreted that later, but enjoyed it at the time.

Then came his main course. What is this called? It is a raw egg on top of beef that is "cooked" in, I think it is lime juice.



Remy had the fish

Between the raw meat and the eyes on the fish, our American girls might have left the table, if they hadn't been hungry and thouroughly enjoyed their steak and potatoes, which is what all the children had.


For dessert, the Chef's Choice was goat cheese with some very bitter greans and a mixture of figs and onions.



 Once again, the children did not eye Matt's meal with envy. They were delighted with their choclate mousse.

A hike along the Mediteranean.

Another highlight of our stay for me and Matt was a hike that we took with Remy on a steep hillside along the coast. This picture does not convey the perspective well. The water is many of hundreds of feet below.

Looking towards Six-Fours.

The wild flowers were fantastic.



Our destination was this ancient church overlooking the sea.



This St. Mary was one of my favorites, from a land with many, many St. Marys!

Vilanova, Spain

or, the dangers of not knowing Catalan

Sadly, we had to leave our cousins and make our way back to Madrid.Driving directly from Toulons would have taken about 15 hours, so we broke up the trip by staying for 2 nights in a little town on the coast south of Barcelona, Vilanova.

Vilanova is in the Catalonian region, where the local laguage is Catalonian, not exactly Spanish. Also, the town is not a major tourist destination for foreigners and they don't tend to know English well.

It is pretty much all about the beach in Vilanova.

It was a little cold for swimming, but Adele, Iris and I enjoyed an afternoon wandering about on the very wide beach. We made our way out to a breakwater where we were amused to read this sign. The first language is Catalan:

We got a good laugh from  THE DANGER IS THAT SUPPOSED PROHIBITED FROM PULLED THE BREAKWATERS.

Perhaps I ought to have given some thought to what that was actually supposed to mean. But no, I was much more interested in the odd, but impressive statue of a - guess it is a cow as it has an udder, but those horns do seem bull like.

I am not really sure what I think of this woman who seems to be washing her hair inside the cow, but it is very well exectuted.

I was also trying to get the perfect photo of Adele and Iris on the breakwater:

which Adele thought a bore and made faces at me until,

she noticed what seemed like a strangely large bump appoaching in the water

which suddenly became an extremely large wave, about to crash on Mom.

When I registered the expression on Iris's face, I turned and leaned toward the shore, or might have surely been FROM PULLED THE BREAKWATERS!! As it was, I was only soaked, and laughing hysterically from the shock, and the delight of not having been smashed and pulled into the sea.

Our second adventure was also due to the language gap. We went looking for a place to eat dinner, always a challange as Adele and Iris are not fond of the typical Spanish food, and the Spanish are not typically interested in other's food. Also, the restaurants open SO LATE! Usually 8:30 or 9:00. So, after considering the menus of every other restaurant we could find, we ended up at a place we had rejected because it was pretty expensive. But they did have a few things the girls might eat, and a lovely place with comfy chairs to sit while we waited for the dining room to open, at 9:00. Meanwhile we had some appetizers. By the time we went into the dining room, we were not terribly hungry and planned to order a light meal.

We decided to order a second course for each of us and just one first course, a variety of seafoods that the girls were not likely to even try. The waiter was unsure of our order. We thought because we were ordering just one first course. We assured him that yes indeed, that was all we wanted. Well the dishes just kept coming and coming. One serving was like this:



Bits of fried white fish, anchovies, calamarie, something like big crayfish,  and something we could not identify.





 But we had ordered 4! Mon Dieu! We were totally overwhelmed.  

Iris is surveying her portion.

Matt and I were too proud to send back empty plates, so I personally ate more calamary, anchovies and unidentified seafood than I thought I would eat - well, ever actually.




Matt and I were too proud to send back empty plates. So, I personally ate more anchovies, calamary and unidentified marine creatures than I thought I would - well, ever really.



We found ourselves making a lot of jokes about how much helpful it would be to have our cats back about then.

Matt managed to be philosophical about the fact that we were spending more on the first course than we normally would on an entire meal for the 4 of us.

And there you have it. The dangers of traveling in a country you don't know the language of. Or, perhaps worse, think you do know.

As always, if inspired, please leave a comment or send me a note: margotkimball@gmail.com



Barcelona

Adele and Iris have this week off from school, so we met up with Matt's brother and niece in Barcelona.


Matt and Ted at a beach just outside Barcelona.

Iris, cousin Alexia and Adele, posing somewhat reluctantly on the tortoise at the Aquarium.

Alexia and Iris posing much more enthusiastically as shark victims.

We also made plans to see my cousin Michelle and family in southern France, so we had just two full days to look about. Mostly enough time to figure out what we want to come back to see.

I will start with the very least impressive part of our Barcelona experience: our apartment.
Barcelona is known as a destination for young people of all nationalities to come to party. Matt and I should have kept that fact more firmly in mind when we made what turned out not to be one of our more brilliant internet reservations. We thought we were getting a good, cheap deal. Only cheap as it turned out: saturated in cigarette smoke, with just two windows that recieved light, and those in the bedrooms. It was described as "architect designed". Maybe they meant this one-of-a-kind light fixture, made from the the bottom of a plastic jug, with painted sponges hanging on ropes?

Or the kitchen table that was a narrow, panelled door, painted a glossy, bright red?

A sign on the door warned us that we would be fined by the police if we make noise after 11:00, and another by the stove implored us to not throw garbage out the window. That sort of place.

But no matter, we came to enjoy our relatives and the city.

The most impressive part of Barcelona, in my opinion, is Antoni Gaudi. His cathedral, the Sagrada Familia is fascinating in its uniqueness.

It is a strange combination of modern and medieval, and just dripping with symbolic imagery.
The towers are all ready massive, yet his original plan calls for a even bigger building

There are plans to complete it by 2026.

Sadly, we were only there for the weekend, and the lines to get inside were just too long. Here is an image of the interior which I did not get to see.

I was also thwarted by long lines from going into another of his buildings,the Casa Mila.

And look at this interior!

Blast those long lines!

Gaudi was just as iconoclastic and bizarre as his art work. As an student of architecture, he was not distinguished and even failed some courses, but he had his supporters among the faculty. According to Wikipedia, when handing him his diploma, the director of the school said, "We have given this academic title to either a fool or a genius, only time will tell."

As well as architecture, he studied iron working, ceramics, glass making and carpentry. He could actually execute the work that he designed and he worked closely with the crafts people who carried it out. The most stupendous example of his ceramic work we were able to get into, as you just walk in with the rest of the crowd. The Park Guell.

This is the sort of image that I had seen of the parc. The incredible benches. Gaudi developed and perfected this technique of covering large surfaces with broken ceramic. He made the overall design and oversaw the making, molding and painting of the ceramic pieces.

When we were there, it was actually hard to get a good glimpse of the ceramics because of all the people.

The Parc is much more than the benches, and it has a wonderful view of the city and the Mediteranean.

Below the square with the benches are many collums and balconies. In the middle of this staircase are several lizards.

Gaudi's work is imbued with symbology, often quite obscure. These forms refer to the trunks and legs of elephants, which held significance for him, and to waves rolling back at the parting of the Red Sea.

MARLOWE, these are for you. A few examples of ceramic designs in the Parc

Gaudi became increasingly religious and reclusive as he aged. He also became a vegan and was given to fasting. At the end of his life, though plied with offers, he refused all commissions so that he could devote himself to the cathedral, though it was a struggle to raise money for it.

 But, enough about Gaudi. 

I felt I understood Madrid better by seeing it in comparison to Barcelona. You may know that many in Catalonia, of which Barcelona is the capital, have aspriations to be independent. Barcelona certainly feels like it could be a capital to rival Madrid.

It gets more sun and it is designed to soak it up, with wide streets and many large squares. There are more wide boulevards with people strolling along, shopping or just enjoying the sites, the stores, the fountains, the museums. Compared to Madrid, Barcelona is definitely the more charismatic sibling: handsome, gregarious, basking in the sun and welcoming others to join in.

The view from the Catalonian National Museum.

Madrid's location was chosen purely on the basis of being the power base of the Iberian peninsula, equidistant from every coast. The weather is pleasant enough when you arrive from the sweltering humidity, or the freezing depths of New England's summer and winter, but by most standards, and certainly those of Spain, Madrid actually has lousy weather, with many cold, cloudy days, and punishingly hot ones in the summer. The surrounding landscape has little to recommend it, being semi-desert but quite flat and without the dramatic colors or formations that you find in the desserts of New Mexico and Arizona.
I am sounding terribly uncharitable toward my adopted city. I should mention that I love Madrid. It is a great place to live or to visit, but it has to be tough having such a charasmatic sibling.

Madrid has expended a lot of energy over the centuries pursuading the rest of Spain of its importance.  The statues are a good example the cities' characters. The statues in Madrid usually have a clear political motive, glorifying whatever regime was in power or whatever history they considered to legitimize them. The one just below our apartment is a great (or terrible) example. Queen Isabel II is looking smug while a peasant woman offers her flowers and a minor noble beseaches the onlookers to wonder at her greatness.

Horrible statues, not even well executed!

In Barcelona, the statues glorify art, not politicians. I don't think there is anything in Madrid to rival the statues at the Catalonian National Museum.

I don't actually know if it was meant to have this effect, but The Museum of Catalonian Art looks like a palace:

But once again, I was not able to go in. The museum had just closed when I got there!

Oh well, happily, for now, we live just 5-6 hours away.


Hasta Luego! Margot