We got quite lost trying to find her and ended up at the family winery/vineyards, Chateau Brandeau, where her son Antony redirected us to the woods and her home. Oh my! There is nothing else to say except that it is magic...almost like driving up to a Brigadoon dwelling...a thin veil that you must walk through to open a quaint stick gate, and cross a stream on a skinny wooden bridge, walk by the mill ponds on your right and the old stone mill building on your left, which has been very carefully and minimally altered to become her's, and late husband Peter's, comfy home...still retaining the early stone built feel. Knock, knock on the door in the evening and welcoming us is a woman with long grey hair pulled up in a knot on the back of her head, of course with a few strands straying. She wears long French blue socks stuck into her favorite slip on shoes, a lovely woven dirndle skirt, blue V-neck sweater with white collar peaking out. She has a dark blue shawl thrown perfectly around her shoulders, and later puts a sweater-jacket on over it all. And she has a lovely smile. She gives us a tour outside and in. It is truly an exercise in making a place comfortable but keeping the country feel of an old working mill. Copper pots hang on shiny blue tiles. Gas stove for cooking and wood stove which goes constantly on these cold spring days. And sometimes for added warmth and ambiance, she lights the big kitchen fire place. This is where we spend most of our time, chatting about places to go, places she has been...and what she knows about their histories. Her love is the art of churches, paintings, icons, sculpture and architecture. We were kept busy writing and pin-pointing places on our maps. We had meals together which she insisted upon cooking. It was very hard to say goodbye to her this morning.
At Fox's encouragement we made our way to Saint-Emillion's pottery museum. (Eric, if you have not seen this you must come back!) The owner of the museum greeted us, probably his only customers that day. A man so passionate about his collections of pottery, over a thousand pieces spanning 20 centuries. His chosen site is a lit underground quarry dating from the 12th and 13th centuries which produced the stones to build the town center Chateau de Roy and the town ramparts. It seems impossible that he was able to collect so many examples. Also, the museum carries pottery from local artists, in the same setting. Most of these pieces relate to the collection in some way. It was truly magnificent to walk though. He warned us that if we got lost in the caverns that we should listen for the trickle of water that is part of a small pottery display and head toward it. It worked. One could get lost in this underground wonder. As we talked it was uncovered that he had made a success of a local Chateau vineyard/winery with the help of his father and his own family. He made a very good living and started to work on the museum when he was tired of letting the winery take over his life. (Alphonse, his personality reminded me very much of you.) David and I had just done some wine tasting where we had tried some red wine that had never been in barrels. We were surprised to hear that. This particular bottle of wine was not good. But we had tried some of Fox's son's wine who makes his red wine this way and found it to be quite good. Well, our pottery museum fellow got passionate about this subject. He said that most Bordeaux wines are made this way and that oak is not needed if you know what you are doing!? (What do you think about that Alphonse?)
March 23 We started driving toward the wine area of Medoc and decided that a change of scenery was in order so we switched directions and headed to the coast. And here we found ourselves driving through forests...but they were managed forests as far as we could see. Pine. All lined up in rows. There were stacks of logs all cut the same length (as usual in France), too short to use for building as we would. I have not found out why and what the wood is used for. As I said before, houses are not built of wood. We did find out that the pine forests are sick with that same little pest, the pine beetle and also that they have not had enough rain in the past two years to keep the trees healthy. A research company is working on developing a pine that is not susceptible to this insect. Well this scene of man-made perfect forests soon got tiresome, but we reached the coastal sand dunes that are like our Oregon dunes. While David hiked around the side of the dune to get photos, I had fun watching all the kids playing in it climbing to the top and coming down running or tumbling or diving. (No sand boards or plastic sleds like we saw in California.) The area is quite like California vegetation...and so are the towns more spread out and modern. It was a bit strange. This was a different France than we had been wandering through. A few more visits to more beaches and we headed inland and find ourselves parked on the city ramparts in a most private place with a park on the other side of us. There are cars speeding around on a Friday night just like home. A city that feels about as large as Spokane, Mont-de-Marsan,but again there are wonderful old parts of it. I guess we like the dreamy old medieval architecture that takes us away to a place we cannot find in America. This seems a lively place, very full of activity. It just feels good.
Oh, yes, but I forgot.....we were stopped again by a gendarme group, this time they wanted to see car registration, license etc. Well we had all our papers but the officer couldn't read them anyway. We ended up having a friendly talk. It seems that most police have never seen a US license plate in their country and have no idea what the rules might be for such a car, but we are prepared! David remarked to me that it is not at all scary to be stopped by the French police.... ah, but you should see him when he spots a cop in the States!
And we got our taxes taken care of today! (Thanks to Donna!)
There is a Sculpture Museum in the old stone buildings next to us. We have never come across that many pieces in one place. The permanent collection took up four floors up, new acquisitions...one floor down, and the rest outside in lovely settings. They were all representing the human figure in free standing or relief. Also, there were many life drawings and preparation pieces, done before the final work. The human being simplified and silent. And beautiful.
In the evening, back to the central square for a couple of beers and people watching.
Thoughts and observations:
> There were four elderly women sitting on a bench behind us in the park, dressed well, laughing a lot. David remarked, “There's the Joanna Chapter!”
> While lying on the blanket looking up at the sky, a sky-jumper parachute came down toward me. We were under a Linden tree and a spinning double seed pod came down from a high branch to the ground beside me. What a show! Really, isn't nature miraculous?
2:00 am March 27
Here I sit in the middle of the night with my headlamp on. Can't sleep. Too much good red Bordeaux wine with Antoinette this evening. She lives in the house above where are car is parked for the night in the foothills of the Pyrenees. Antoinette saw the Canadian flag on our car and came to ask if by chance we were Canadian. She is from Ontario but lives here as a resident for the past 20 years. I can see why. This place is truly amazing.
From Mont de Marsan we made our way to the city of Pau (po like so). Another really lovely city (where Henry the lV was born and laid in a tortoise shell...just for your information). It faces the Pyrenees which stretch for as far as we can see. Big craggy mountains with lots of snow still on them. We spent a pleasant summery day. As usual we walked the streets of the old section and found two most beautiful churches that were painted inside not only with murals but with all sorts of decoration. Yummy! We both love this stuff though David is always fascinated with the architecture also. Then we took in an exhibition of really good (1400) tapestries and illustrated inked manuscripts. Shopping is good in this city. High end clothing stores. The women here know just what to do with those clothes on their slim bodies along with their good haircuts.
We left Pau in the late afternoon with a plan to start heading toward the mountains. We always choose small towns, small roads and this one was a humdinger! One of the most beautiful places I have ever been in my life. Steep hills of green pastures and animals and farms and small forested areas in between... and always the mountains. The view is all open without obstruction. Then you drive through a small village down it's skinny streets hoping a car isn't coming...and we arrive here at Antoinette's. A very Canadian personality, which she is but has lived here 20 years. She saw the Canadian flag on our car and invited us in for wine. She loves it in this mountain valley. The view is stunning...craggy snow topped mountains and the town of Arudy below. She is a dancer. Her passion is the Argentinian Tango which she does a couple of times a week. She showed us all her different dancing shoes...spiked heels and sexy. She also spent time with suggestions of where to go next, what to eat etc. We will soon be in the Basque country!
Now, maybe I can sleep! We'll see. The wind is raging outside!
MARCH 28
Morning market in Arudy so we stocked up on fruit and vegetables, a baguette and some Basque cheese. In front of the cheese stand there was a Basque costumed couple painted on a board...Yes, with two holes to put our heads in for photos. David and I were laughing so hard and when we turned to look the cheese lady was laughing with us. She offered to take pictures of us together. It was all very fun, she speaking French and us English...the laughter was the same language. We left for the Pyrenees...for a mountain pass (col) Vallee de l'Ouzom. First through farming villages and pastures and sheep and cows and goats. The the hills started turning into mountains. I am not sure that I can tell you the difference between our mountains in Washington and here. It is the openess I think. From the road you can see all over, there are no giant evergreen trees blocking your few. What there are, but fewer of are shorter pines and deciduous trees which are not yet in leaf. And there are no tourists in weather like summer. So we were pretty much awed most of the way. We reached a large basin at the summit...the beginnings of the Ouzom river starting with streams into streams into streams, building the river. There was still snow and a few climbers, sledders and cross country skiers. You can walk over the mountain grass and snow up into the the highest peak, Pic du Midi ( 8000 ft. +) or up a pass to ski down. (Hal and Carol you would love this!) So I put on my boots and wool sweater and we went for a hike. It was wonderful to be out there.
Time to be on our way and find a place to park the night. We crossed over into Spain and were surprised to find huge resorts, one after the other. Making a loop to go back through the Pyrenees on a different pass, we went through Jaca...a beautiful thriving city. So far, the economic trouble they are in is not evident. We found a quiet spot in a small town with some rocky snowless mountains above...topped by a large knob, circled in rock cliffs. A natural walled fortress. Anxious to see more mountain beauty, we started back to France toward Vallee d'Aspe. We could not read the Spanish and before we knew it we were in long straight tunnel through the mountains...about a 15 minute drive! We saw only trucks, no cars. We were sure that we would be charged a large amount when we reached the other end...and scolded for going through a truck tunnel, but no, it didn't happen. We were now in the high French mountains again and decided to take a some “white” roads. We came back down into the foothills and stopped at a butcher shop to buy some yummy sausages and pates and a jambon pastry then made our way mostly uphill on winding thin roads. Not much traffic, we did see a couple of cars. The view again was breathtaking and we were in high sheep country. The places people live! On the steep side of mountain hills covered in natural pasture for their sheep. Some of the buildings and huts were probably summer places for the shepherds. We saw mountain sheep dotting high places several times. All over the people were burning. There were low fires spreading everywhere. We are not sure about the reason. Maybe as our farmers burn their fields for stronger crops? (in this case grass?) Or there seemed to be a shrubby weed that burned easily. Perhaps they were trying to get rid of that. Anyway, it is a tradition here in the spring. We drove very far and came to a road barrier! Oh no. We don't want to go back! Maybe there are fires? A short distance back there were a couple of men burning and watching their fires so we went to ask them. Of course no English but it is getting so it does not matter. What we understood was...Oh go ahead, the road is good, you'll make it! So we did, but not easily. I get that “queazy” feeling that we are going over the edge. David is such a gauker! Once I had to get out while he made one of the corners! He is a good driver I have to say. He manages to see everything and stay on the road. Tonight we are in a mountain village but sit high above it by the old church and churchyard with all the old family marble graves. The names are strange to us, but it is a good feeling to see the care of these old family roots. The church clock strikes the time twice each hour and it is up to 10. And they are loud and real bells that clang. But I will go to bed and hope not to notice!
THOUGHTS AND OBSERVATIONS:
> We see fly fishermen in the many streams and rivers. David noticed one man studying the insects that were over the fishing hole to choose which fly from his box that he would tie on his line.
> David loves each and every city, town or village tourist office. Always the question, “Do we need anything at the tourist office?”
> Mireille, can you imagine all the French music CDs you gave us in these high mountain roads? It's the best!
> There are large birds soaring around us. One a white falcon, There is a very large bird with a split tail. Don't know what it is but Lonely Planet says there are golden eagles, griffon and bearded vultures, booted eagles and buzzards.
> There were numerous brown bears here at one time but are now very scarce.
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