A Visit to Provence

This is part two of our South of France adventure — Provence!

 

Sunday

• As mentioned, we checked out of our hotel in Nice, had breakfast at Le Kineret, and walked to the train station for our train to Marseille. This was a TGV (high speed intercity train), so there were assigned seats and everything. We bought our tickets on Motzoei Shabbos, it’s possible that if booked further in advance they would be cheaper.
• The ride was just under 3 hrs. There were some very pretty Mediterranean beach views along the way — colorful umbrellas, rocky outcroppings, sailboats! At one point the woman in the row in front of us unceremoniously lowered our shared shade with a thonk, but we continued to peer out through the exposed space. I did realize later that the train car doors had nice big windows if I had wanted to stand.
• From Marseille St. Charles station, we took the metro, which was easy to figure out, to our hotel. This was a modern and clean hotel with fun decor! It was also within walking distance of several kosher restaurants, a kosher store called Super K, and the metro.
• I should note here then when we mentioned that we would be staying in Marseille for part of our trip, people seemed concerned about safety. But we never felt unsafe. It seems the main tourist neighborhoods are fine and the issues are more in the housing projects. (Obviously, exercise normal precautions etc.) There is a large Muslim population in Marseille which I think adds to some people’s wariness but this is just a part of the city’s flavor (i.e., “gateway to North Africa”). I would not caution anyone against staying in Marseille for these reasons. That being said, it’s not a particularly charming place but it worked for us as a base because of the availability of kosher food.
• We had pizza and pasta for lunch at Casa Gennaro. Something we noted: many restaurants are closed midday (from about 2:30-7:30). So we would advise others to check and plan accordingly, and probably have a backup option in mind as well.
• After lunch, we took the metro to Rue Canabiere, which is a nice boulevard leading down to the Old Port. Obviously, I had Rick Steves to guide me — although I got smart and started taking pictures of a few pages at a time instead of toting the book everywhere.
• We had plenty of time to spare, but eventually, boarded the boat for our calanques tour. The calanques are inlets among rocky limestone cliffs along the coastline near Marseille, and the boat took us close up to a few of them. It truly was a beautiful ride. The weather (our whole trip long) was very hot, but there was a refreshing breeze on the water. And we got very beautiful pictures of the cliffs and small boats (it did take about an hour to start seeing the nicest views, and narration was in French only, so I admit I wondered for a bit what was supposedly so great about this boat ride. But then it was amazing!).
• After the boat ride, we took the metro back to our neighborhood and had schnitzel salads for supper at Motsi.

 

Monday

• I walked to Cafe Noilly and had breakfast. 
• From there, I walked to the train station for the bus to Aix-en-Provence. (My cousin did the same a bit later and we met in Aix around 12:30). This was easy to figure out and the bus to Aix is very frequent (every 10 minutes) and you simply pay by tapping your card. So that was a relief.
• Aix is a very pretty city. It has a quiet elegance and charm. I enjoyed walking around and reading about it. If arranging food wasn’t a hassle, I’d say this would be a great base for Provence (vs. Marseille). My cousin pointed out that it is so simple to move between them (about 30-35 minute express bus ride) that you could stay in Aix and have dinner in Marseille. True!
• At 1, we met our tour guide for a pre-booked guided tour of the Luberon (mountain) villages. The tour took us to Lourmarin (had an hour to walk around), Roussillon (an hour), and Gordes (45 minutes). We also stopped at a lavender field(!) in bloom and at two pretty viewpoints. It was all delightfully charming and picturesque. My favorite was Roussillon, which is all orange because of the ochre deposit in the area. (I would love to visit other Luberon villages too, including Bonnieux (which we passed through), Menerbes, Lacoste, and L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue — just as a note!)
• Our tour dropped us back off in Aix, we took the bus back to Marseille, and had supper at Casa Gennaro.

 

Tuesday

• I woke up feeling wiped (for a change) and had a slow morning with my cousin. We Ubered to Maison Annette, a lovely bakery, for a late breakfast. 
• It wasn’t far from a public beach, so I decided to go for a bit. I sat/stood (lol) on the beach for awhile, which was so peaceful, but unfortunately had my only creepy experience of the trip. After some time at the beach I realized that I was being stared at, unrelentingly, so I moved down the beach, and noticed the man resituated himself to keep staring. Then I left the beach, and he left too, then he caught up with me on the sidewalk while I was waiting for my Uber and asked me for my number (there was a bit of a language barrier but he interestingly did not seem to have a problem with that…) I told him I would not be giving him my number and thankfully he walked off. Then I called my cousin and stayed on the phone with her until I got into my Uber as I felt quite vulnerable standing alone on the sidewalk. Yuck.
• But after that, I rested some more in our hotel room and then we went to Cafe Noilly for a late lunch (in my case, spinach ricotta quiche). We also bought food to take on our sunset lavender tour.
• We met up for our sunset lavender tour at 3:15, at a pick-up point near the Old Port. The tour included a visit to a farm store where (some of) our group sampled various olive oils and other farm-produced treats, also the village of Valensole, and (I believe) five lavender fields. What I can tell you is, we highly recommend doing a sunset (i.e., “golden hours”) visit to the lavender fields. The lighting was beautiful and this was such a special experience. In all transparency, it was pretty overcast in the area when we started out, and at first we thought our lavender experience would be a bust. I tried to make peace with that even though my heart hurt a little. But as it approached evening, the sky cleared up a bit, the light changed, and it ended up being a complete dream bH. People have asked us if our pictures of the fields were produced with AI – seriously! There was one rolling field that was particularly photogenic — I felt completely astonished to be able to stand in it. And, kudos to our tour guide for choosing stops based on the direction of the sun, etc. We also got to see some early sunflower fields in bloom which I unexpectedly fell in love with and added to my garden (a sunflower field, specifically).
• There was some roadwork coming back to Marseille that added some time to the drive, and our guide dropped us off near our hotel around 11:15 pm. When we pulled up, an outdoor café was hopping and we realized that France was playing Sweden in the World Cup so everyone was going to be up awhile. It was fun to see a crowd glued to the screen and cheering in unison when France blocked a goal. And then we went to bed!

 

Wednesday

• I had pancakes and orange juice at Cafe Noilly, and walked to the station for the train to Avignon. (This was pre-booked as well, as I wanted to take the TGV. This train drops off outside Avignon, and there is a transfer to another train for a short ride into Avignon.)
• Avignon was a nice slow outing as there wasn’t anything in particular I wanted to do except walk around a bit and visit the famous bridge (I won’t link a song because it’s the Three Weeks, but you can eventually search “Sur l’pont d’Avignon”). There is a lot of medieval Jewish history in Avignon and the area. I admittedly did minimal research but I would imagine you can get a tour guide to show you what there is to see in that regard. I simply enjoyed walking around with Rick as my guide. Avignon is quite elegant and pretty as well. (Also, this hat store looks like a fun place to stop; I had read about it but simply forgot.)
• I took the train back to Marseille, and walked down Rue Canabiere to buy some authentic “savon de Marseille” which I had read about as well. FYI — the original soap comes in two varieties: green for people and white for laundry. They also have other versions with scents – these were so fun to look at and smell (but I bought the original version – for people – enough for me and gifts for my family).
• I also walked by the North African market, a produce market where you will hear a lot of Arabic in addition to French! In that area, the bakery Le Carthage was nice to stop and look at – there was a wide variety of beautiful Tunisian treats in the window that reminded me of my grandmother. 
• I also walked around the old neighborhood Le Panier but this was skippable – lots of graffiti etc.
• Finally, I headed back to the hotel, and then my cousin I went to Brothers, a nicer tapas place near our hotel, for supper. We were the first ones there when it opened for the evening, but around an hour later it got quite busy. It seems to be a popular place and have live music some nights. We got (since I seem to be doing this) beer-battered cod, a pareve grilled vegetable pizza, and truffle fries, and finally these yummy parfait desserts (lemon curd for me, chocolate mousse for my cousin). It was a little end-of-trip gratitude celebration.
• And then we had to head back to our hotel (and while my cousin was showering I realized I had left my bag in the restaurant and went dashing back and they had it at the counter but whew — always check under the table before you leave a restaurant!). We packed and set our alarms for a few hours later because we had a really early (6 am) flight out… 
• I shall leave it at that (brief stopover in Lisbon, I did not do much as I was attempting – short-lived – to fast and I realized that Lisbon just doesn’t vibe with me in any event)…but I do have overall trip reflections and learnings to share that will be”H wait for another post!

 

Thank you for reading!!! I am so happy to answer any specific questions you may have!

 

(Photo credit: Geert Willemarck/Pexels. A view of Gordes!)