Saturday 13th September Outing from Avignon

 Saturday 13th 

First stop on today’s outing was the quarry at Les Baux de Provence. Baux is where they get the word bauxite from. Here we saw the a light show of Le Petit Prince, are story we read in French classes. I still have the book and must read it again. Written by Antoine de Saint Exupery, who was a pilot sadly lost in WWII. It is noted as a poetical and philosophical work. A quote from him “All grown-ups were once children… but only a few remember it” pretty much sums it up.

Usually the light show is Monet or Rousseau which would have been great, but as it was a Saturday< Le Petit Prince was on for the children, or the adults who remember being a child!

We then stopped to admire the view 




We walked up to what was once the Chateau des Bax-de- Provence, stopped to visit a shop where the third generation owner, makes and paints nativity figures which turm out to be figures from a whole village. Making this village is a tradition Constance got from her Provençal Grandmother, and buys a couple of figures each time she visits. 




A lovely little village with pretty little shops, and not too many tourists, although there was a wedding part way up, Constance told us it you marry in a church you also have to have like a registry office wedding first. Up to the top we went and saw the view again.



Sean, moi and Constance sitting at the top. By the Cyprus tree.



Down again and to an olive oil farm, an explanation of the process and a tasting - more survive able than the one I did in Spain, just some different flavours. You can see that the sky has been grey today, well we were supposed to have a picnic here but the heavens opened and we ate inside.

It quietened down when we got to St Remy and the Monastery of Saint-Paul -de-Mausole where Vincent convalesced after his major breakdown. Also where he completed a lot of his famous paintings, Starry night, irises etc.


It is an interesting place, and was indeed a sanctuary for Vincent, He had a bedroom and a studio, whilst other patients were in a dormitory. There are also different diagnostics for his condition, including carbon monoxide poisoning from gs lighting, manic depression, epilepsy and mal nutrition. So sad for such a brilliant artist. 

The Monastery garden , including persimmon trees.



We walked to the town of St Remy, along the way they had reproductions of his paintings in the probable site of their creation 



When we made it to the town, the heavens opened so we spent our time in a cafe, drinking teas and hot chocolates.





the gargoyles working in St Remy and the freshly cleaned cobblestones back in Avignon at the end of the day.



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