Hats Off to Avignon

Tourist Tip: You can grab a beer in the cathedral gift shop. 

 

Climb the summit of Avignon to the Cathedral Notre Dame Des Doms. It is situated above the Palace of the Popes, at the top of the stairs. Two popes are entombed there. You can even find their sepulchers if you persist in poking into every side-pocket chapel to read the signs.  

It’s a hot slog climbing those stairs on a sunny day. I could have used some thirst quenching. 

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I took a quick scan of merchandise for sale in the gift shop. Beer. Wine. Lavender sachets. Oh and some religious trinkets are shelved on the side wall. The church showcases what sells well. Hats off to the church. 

About the hats: they are suspended over Rue Des Fourbisseurs, a random walking street in the ancient part of Avignon. Just for fun, apparently. 

Abandoned Quarry Makes for Amazing Art Experience in Les Baux

In Les Baux de Provence, an abandoned quarry is the venue for a surround digital projection. It’s in the same vein as the traveling Van Gogh exhibit shown in large-space venues around the world. Les Baux’s one-hour exhibition has two elements: Yves Klein Infinite Bleu and Venice, La Serenissime. It’s a fantastic experience. 

After the group of time-ticketed visitors enters the space, the entry door is closed, the lights are extinguished and the show begins. 

The first program is Infinite Blue. It’s a series of images, each melting into the subsequent one, accompanied by rousing music. 

The colors are brilliant and move across the pillars in various ways, so that no matter where you position yourself in the cavernous space you will see a thrilling display.

 Infinite Blue lasts for about 10 minutes. After its credits roll, the Venice program begins. It runs for the rest of the hour. It’s a series of paintings and drawings of Venice in its Renaissance heyday, animated so that gondolas seem to detach from the paintings and glide along the water’s surface. The animation is pretty cool. 

Then it becomes a bit repetitive - could be shorter. But overall, it is eye-candy. I felt like I was in an IMAX theater except I wasn’t stuck in a seat. Definitely worth doing.

Cheap Shot in Gordes

Gordes is a gorgeous hill town in Provence. It's classified as one of the "most beautiful villages of France." The buildings are nestled into the rocks and the winding cobblestones streets echo the Middle Ages. The town was decimated by the Germans in World War II and many of the buildings were destroyed.  After the war, artists began to inhabit it. Marc Chagall was a notable. I read that at the end of the 1960s, painter Victor Vasarely bought the hilltop 16th century castle for one franc and restored it, launching a rebirth of the town. In the last decade or so, real estate has been snapped up by well-to-do Parisians and foreigners. It has been fixed up so that every house, stone wall and boutique is tastefully gorgeous. 

We approached the town on the only road in and pulled off onto the wide shoulder for a vista of the town. I noticed an information plaque perched on the wall with a photo of the town’s WWII wreckage.  It explained the bombing on August 22, 1944. Challenging myself in French I read the brief text. A bit shocked by the message, I continued on and read the English translation to make sure that I understood correctly what I was reading. 

Same message in French. Four sentences summarized the town’s fate at the hands of the Germans. The thing I couldn’t believe was that the author used the final sentence to take a cheap shot at one of the victims. She or he (I’m guessing that the author was a he -- taking a cheap shot of my own) wrote: “Most of the inhabitants fled, those who remained protected themselves as well as they could, but a careless man, Francois Brunei, was shot at his window by a German marksman waiting in ambush.”  

Jeepers! The poor guy Brunei was slaughtered by a German soldier, but the author blames the victim. 

Really? In so few words allotted to describe the destruction of the village, that’s what the author decided was most important for the world to know?

How many people worked on that plaque and let it slip through? What did that poor guy Francois Brunei do besides be stupid to look out the window during a war? 

Early bird Catches the Mint

I received a promotional email from Jet Blue announcing the launch of service from Boston to Heathrow. The prices were tantalizingly low. Mint class had fallen below splurge levels. I couldn’t click onto the reservation page fast enough. I snagged two seats in Mint class from Boston to London Heathrow. 

Let me just say that the flight felt too short. I could have put up with the pampering for at least a few more hours. It started with a choice of welcome drink. With my elderberry syrup, did I want champagne or sparkling water? I took the sparkling water on the hunch that there was more to come.  Indeed, the cocktail card included suggestions like old fashioned or dirty martini.  Say no more. The flight attendant arrived, entering my cabin with drink in outstretched hand, jiggling four olives stuffed with blue cheese on a spear. She laid down a cocktail napkin and then placed the drink on one of my tables. She took my dinner order and then oriented me to my digs. The table to my left was a phone charger surface. The control panel for the seat recliner offered lots of comfy options between upright and fully flat bed. While I ate my decent dinner, I watched an excellent movie, “Belfast”. I chose it from the curated list of short movies for short flights. The moment the movie ended and credits started rolling, I pressed the recline setting, then the dimmer on my edgy-styled halogen lamp. I spread the soft comfy comforter over me and fell fast asleep. Before I knew it (probably 3.5 hours later), a cheery flight attendant knocked on the door to my cabin and placed a delicious tray of strawberries with a rich Greek yogurt. I’m betting that it was not the fat free type I often eat. But hey! Starting a vacation by traveling in style. 

Thank you Jet Blue for serving up Mint just when I needed to buy a transatlantic flight. Mint is sweet.