we are now friend-less in Provence. It is not that we don't have friends, we just now have no friends staying with us in Provence. We had several visiting for the first week here and it was a whirl-wind of activity. Acting as a tour-guide is much effort particularly on the hot days here which seem to get even hotter. The dollar this year is exceptionally bad in the exchange rate and everything is quite expensive. So we shopped less but enjoyed other things more.
Yesterday, our friends left and we can now find the peace and quiet and get in our Provence groove. During our week of touring, we made the rounds of a few spots we have not been for two or three years. This included Isle sur la Sorgue for the antiques and provencal market on Sunday mornings. We had not been for two years and noticed that it continues to grow bigger and more crowded. We were fortunate to get there early before the temperature turned up too high, and D. got us seats at the Cafe du France right on the main square across from the church. We spent some time eating an early lunch (as we had not eaten breakfast) and watching the vendor selling fresh and dried flowers in his stall next to the Cafe. It was crowded with people of all ages, nationalities, and dogs of all shapes, sizes and kinds. Fascinating people watching.
We continued this through Eygalieres on Friday, St. Remy on Wednesday, Aix on Thursday for the beginning of the sale, Les Baux, Avignon Thursday evening for the first night of the theater festival, and a new festival - at Beaucaire each Friday evening. We enjoyed our Moules, listened to the music provided by various entertainers, watched those strolling by for the market. It was quite pleasant on the canal, and we did not have to park too far away. The St. Remy market remains as probably the most organized and most beautiful. There were new vendors and old favorites. My favorite scarf lady enjoyed some business from us, as did the spice vendors, the soap vendors, and my favorite olive oil, La Fabresse. We also spent a short time at Marius Fabre in Salon purchasing soap, especially the natural olive oil based cleaning products we anticipate we shortly will be selling via ebay.
We survived a barbecue with local friends, mostly from Germany, on Tuesday evening. Fortunately, one of our visiting US friends was a skilled grill master and managed to not burn the various meats everyone contributed to the evening.
Restaurants included Mirabu in St. Remy (fair and overpriced); Bistro des Alpilles (excellent as always), Mas du Capon (surprisingly good this year with a better menu and its always beautiful atmosphere); our favorite Vietnamese restaurant in Avignon (a solid meal), and Valruges in St. Remy after the market for a nice peaceful lunch. There was also an excellent dinner in Eygalieres but I will add the name in another post.
One of the most special activities involved a visit to the Carmague which I will write about in a separate post.
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