On Friday we took the train to Avignon (a mere 40 minutes from Marseille), and hired our people mover- which we were delighted to find was, contrary to French hire car custom, automatic transmission. The French do have somewhat diminutive ideas about how much space rear passengers need, especially if they come bearing luggage.
Our drive into the Parc d'Alpilles went smoothly to lunch at a peaceful restaurant we had pre-booked. (Recommended- La Cabro d'Or at hotel Beaumanière.) But après-midi left us with much time to spare, and we found that we couldn't find the house- it is named in Google maps but in the wrong spot by a few hundred metres and a different fork in the road! Our hosts rescued us after a phone call.
The district has also been the location for the films
Jean de Florette : our landscape is easily identifiable in this poster-
J downloaded and showed this film to 8 year old Xanthe on his laptop. She says she thinks it is sad.
Tourist promotion quote: "But as you approach the village of Le Beaux, the landscape gives way to huge rock shapes carved out by erosion and wind. Legend has it that sorcerers and evil spirits inhabit the caves and crevices. Known as the Valley of Hell, this dramatic, bleak and jagged mineral world is said to have inspired the poet Dante's vision of the same in his Divine Comedy.
The composer Charles Gounod wrote and set part of his 1863 opera Mireille there. The writer/film-maker Jean Cocteau shot Le Testament d'Orphée in the Valley of Hell in 1959 and described the eerie landscape as "a zone between life and death"."
 |
| Lunch à la maison |
The house has lovely views into the rugged limestone of Les Alpilles, especially at sunset, and plenty of room for the six of us. The grandchildren are beside themselves with the pool, trampoline and swing. Since the neighbouring village, St Remy was a place where Van Gogh painted for a while, I am trying a photographic still life that might have impressed the artist, or perhaps not.
No comments:
Post a Comment