Sunday Afternoon Stroll

We took a second walk this afternoon (both to see more of the town and to encourage Vivi to take a normal-timed nap), and on the way took more photos. (Two posts in one day? Mais oui... This blog is as good a place as any for me to record my thoughts on the place as any, and why not also share these little thoughts with you?)

Today's afternoon snack: a glass of rose (chilled, of course) and crackers with Nutella. Delish.

Finn checking out a particularly curious window display, featuring a ceramic bird.

Cafe avec les fleurs.

One of the many alleyway cafes tucked away in the old town.

La pharmacie.
I love that the French are not afraid of color! This place is so bright and cheerful.

The French seem to love their motorcycles, and one has to be doubly watchful on the tiny streets of the old village, where cyclist come zooming unexpectedly--and way too fast!--around the tight corners and down the narrow cobbled alleyways. This one was safely parked outside this lovely apartment window-garden.

Part of the point of our Sunday afternoon walk was to encourage Vivi to take a nap (and so begin to get her body tuned to the new time zone). Success!

I'm finding that this particular region of France reminds me quite a bit of southern California (Santa Barbara, perhaps, or San Luis Obispo). There are trees (seen in the photo above) that might be jacarandas, though I'm not sure. As I noted in my first post, there are also succulents, giant aloe plants, orange and lemon trees, and jasmine bushes everywhere. The air smells floral and spicy-sweet, just as I remember it smelling in CA.

The town fountain -- again (it's a favorite spot with the kids).

This is a boule match (here it's called "petanque") in the park. You can't see well in this photo, but there were several older gentleman and their wives gathered to play and to watch the match.

We stumbled onto this town fair (photo of the fair above, poster advertising the fair below). I'm not sure exactly what the poster says, though the fair seemed to be a village tag sale. People had set up individual booths along a side street and were selling what were clearly used clothes and toys and other things. We stopped into an open boulangerie and bought water and what I thought was an orange soda, but what turned out to be orange juice. The store owner said he spoke a little English badly, and I said, "Alors, je parle un peu de Francais." We were happily in the same boat, and did our best to understand one another. I was relieved, I must say, to hear even his few phrases in English. What an American!

Finn, playing tour guide, pointed this out and said, "For when duty calls."

So, just for the purpose of recording them, some things I've noticed so far:

* There's an attention to details here that one doesn't see all that often in the U.S. The buildings are flourished with tile work and bricked designs. There are scallops in the stucco on the building across the street from ours, and every doorway seems to be different in either shape, color, or texture. Things are just, in general, beautiful to look at, and there's a sense that beauty is taken into consideration in all endeavors here--even, sometimes, at the cost of function. (Those lovely doorways, for instance, are all very short and difficult to open, placing the doorknob in the center of the door not necessarily the most effective placement.)

* Everything -- EVERYTHING -- is smaller here than at home. The garbage bags we bought turned out to be the size of grocery sacks at home. The cups are all demi. The juice cartons, the fridge, the jar of spaghetti sauce we bought -- all tiny in comparison to their parallels in the U.S. (The one exception: the Provencal lunch. Man, that was a big midday meal!)

* The French people we've met so far have, in general, been quite kind and very tolerant of us butchering their lovely language.

* No recycling bins in public places.

* Dog poop everywhere! (On the streets, on the sidewalks, in the park's grass. Yucks.)

* Everyone smokes. It's the stereotype, but it's true. (Though I've found the number of smokers in NY higher than elsewhere, too.)

* It's difficult to find bottled water to buy. I wanted a bottle to refill and searched high and low for a shop selling water in plastic (not glass) bottles. (Finally found one today.)

* As Finn noted, the peanut butter thing is true -- there's none to be found here. (Though Nutella is, in my book, a highly pleasing alternative. Chocolate for breakfast? Don't mind if I do!)