Provence

Although we had planned on climbing for a third day today, our bodies and fingertips had other ideas. Therefore, when we woke up to weeping, bruised fingertips and painfully sore backs (yes, we are getting old), we decided that a little touring would be more enjoyable.

We started by driving through the upper reaches of the Verdon, past the big lake near St. Julien-du-Verdun

and on along the D952 through Castellane and the charming little village of La Palud and through the gorges. The trees in the Gorges were just starting to turn and a dense but fast moving fog brought in some dramatic lighting. Unfortunately, I only had my digital camera with me but took some decent shots:


Further down along a hairpin turn, we saw a sign for an overlook, which we walked up to


Because of the fog and many years of people walking up the limestone slabs, the going was very tricky, and a field of maybe twenty people (mostly pensioners) was quickly thinned out to only a handful. Somehow everyone managed to escape landing on their backs on the way down.


By chance, we happened upon another of the "most beautiful villages in France" called Moustiers St. Marie, which was indeed beautiful



and hidden at a notch in the impressive limestone cliffs. We bought a tablecloth and a few olive oil dispensers and wandered around town, over the bridges and through the small alleys.




I was a little surprised to find a store called "SARL MUFRAGGI", which sells Japanese swords!

Moustiers is one of several places in France which are known for Faience, so we looked at several of the stores to see their wares. It's an impressive technique, but not really my style, and outrageously expensive. Additionally, many of the store owners were so uptight that they didn't even allow pictures to be taken in their stores.

We had a quick and nasty sandwich lunch, and then continued south and stumbled upon the oddly named Allemagne-en-Provence. It has an impressive castle


which is also a four star hotel with very reasonable prices (80 euro for the smallest room).

The gates were locked, so we kept driving along the D952, past the CEA Cardarache. The CEA (Commisariat a l'Energie Atomique) is one of the major scientific funding agencies in France, and happens to be my former employer. It is the very worst that you could imagine a French Bureaucracy could be: lumbering, tedious, full of dead wood and backwards. It's a wonder that any scientist can survive in that environment, and its a true testament to the aptitude of French Scientists that many of them still manage to produce world class science. Case in point: the CEA Cardarache is the future site of a highly sought after international nuclear fusion project called ITER. After extensive bidding by several host nations, the CEA won the contract in june 2005. Anyway, I don't have my hard won CEA badge anymore (This included a criminal background check in the US!), so we couldn't go in. Instead, we continued on to Cadanet, but were very disappointed and got back in our car after about five minutes of wandering around. From Cadanet, we drove to St. Remy-de-Provence for an ice cream break

and walked through the narrow streets

where we found an excellent pottery store called Terre e Provence. Pottery in Provence is a funny thing: everything seems to be of decent quality, but it's rare (at least for me) to find something that I really like. Too often the designs are overly busy, with terrible brush work and poor craftsmanship. At this store however, everything was beautiful, and we bought a few espresso cups and a lovely olive oil jug.
On the way out of town, I pointed out the Glanum and we drove up the road, under the stunted evergreens and exposed limestone slabs and down into the valley of Les Baux de Provence: our only preconceived goal of the day. Why les Baux? In this valley overlooked by a medieval fort are century old olive groves which make the best olive oil I have ever tasted (and I have tasted quite a few olive oils). The brand is called Castelas

and you can drive right up to the same building where they mill the olives. There's a small storefront inside the building, where my mom and her childhood friend Shelly and I first discovered the oil a year and a half ago (purely by chance of course!).

We bought enough olive oil for a long time (3 litres for 50 euro, compared with $32 for 500 mL in the states). In a funny coincidence, as we were paying for the olive oil, one of the olive oil guys poked his head out of the production room and asked how many cases Williams Sonoma had ordered! It turns out that they had ordered a few palettes of Castelas over the past few weeks.

We drove away and blew kisses at the fantastic olive trees


Outside of St. Remy, I took Chloe to the mental hospital (Monastiere Saint-Paul) which housed Van Gogh from 1888 to 1889, during which time he painted The Starry Night, Irises, Olive Trees with Yellow Sky and Sun, A famous self portrait and many others. Now, there is a absolutely ridiculous sculpture of him, complete with bas relief van gogh "brushstrokes", holding a cluster of sunflowers!

We walked into the beautiful atrium


and then headed back onto the country roads and onto the autoroute back to Grenoble.

It was a great day, and watching it all fade away into the distance of the autoroute put me into that unique state of mind that you get when you know that you're about to leave. It's a strange mix of candor and emotion that isn't present in everyday life because it would drive you crazy. All the things that you put up with or take for granted are suddenly laid bare, because you know that they will be gone in a month: the asshole who smokes in the elevator, the old ladies who let their dogs defecate on the sidewalk, the motorcycles on the bike path, the guys trying to cut you off at every intersection, the poltroons who burn their trash on windless days next to the highway, $50 to fill your microcars gas tank, the beautiful villages that you just stumble upon randomly, century old olive groves, no traffic tickets, fantastic rock climbing, unpasteurized cheeses, wine without all of the yuppie snobbery. Inevitably you start trying to add it all up, but its a fruitless and impossible exercise. You are left with the obvious and unsatisfying fact that you be more than a little relieved to get on that plane in Lyon on November 12th, but at the same time will miss France terribly.

Annot 2

Today we headed up to the Rue de Plaisir Sector, right near Paf le Chien, which we had visited last year. Most of the problems have unprintable names, but they are quite varied in both difficulty and angle. After warming up on the B3 to the right of princess tam-tam, 37.2 le matin and the b4 to the right of it, Chloe and I started working on, and eventually sent poker d'ass, b7.




It was Chloes first climb of the grade, and a had very cool, highly technical movements over small holds. I was so proud and happy for her when she stuck that ending hold!! After a few more easy fun problems like the tall and juggy smartiesb4 and some othe runnamed things, I threw myself at the very tall rue de plaisir. Just getting into the sidepull undercling was very strenuous, and the blind slaps to the arete were scary as hell. After several tries and the prospect of leaving unfinished business, I made it to the ending jugs without pitching off. It was a proud send, and I was very happy to end what is likely to be our last Annot trip in a very long time on such a fine note. After good sends all around, Dave, Sandy, Dylan, Mark and Amy left for Grenoble.

Chloe and I showered up, went for a tea and coffee at the cafe de commerce, and then took a short walk around the vieux village to kill time. We saw the restored communal bread oven ,
and then walked down to the hotel Grac. A few years ago, we were surprised to hear american english being spoken and what looked like college students running around near the Hotel Grac. Upon closer inspection we discovered that the University of Charleston had a European Campus in a converted part of the Grac! If you haven't been to Annot, you won't understand the surreal idea of housing college students from South Carolina in what is essentially a forgotton, insular and not exactly stranger welcoming part of france. This is the France of LePen, Wild Boar hunters, diesel four by fours and Pastis, and would be one of the last places I would have expected to find a european campus of any american college. I found a news clipping in French regarding the installation of the campus:


Des étudiants américains dès cet été à Annot

A l'occasion de l'arrivée à Annot, le 6 juin prochain, d'une vingtaine d'étudiants nord américains et de leurs professeurs de l'Université de Charleston (Caroline du Sud), une réunion d'information a eu lieu à la mairie. Cette réunion avait été organisée à l'intention des volontaires ayant manifesté leur intention d'héberger ces jeunes chez eux. La réunion a été animée par le docteur Yves Bono maire d'Annot et par Mme Roux coordinatrice de l'opération qui ont fourni des précisions et répondu aux diverses questions concernant l'accueil dans ces familles.

L'Université de Charleston a été fondée en 1740, bien avant donc la Guerre de sécession. Cette université à pour particularité d'être libre, municipale et laïque et en outre très ouverte à l'humanisme et aux sciences humaines. On y étudie la littérature classique (latin et grec) la philosophie, la psychologie et la musique baroque. On y trouve même un département d'études méditerranéennes délivrant un diplôme.

Avec Annot, le contact a été établi avec cette université depuis quelques années, par la fondation Fabri de Peiresc lors de la venue dans notre région du groupe musical dirigé par le professeur Rosenberg qui avait donné alors quelques concerts.

En ce début d'année 2000, la fondation Fabri de Peiresc a acheté une partie de l'hôtel Grac d'Annot. Cette partie de l'édifice sera surélevée, tout en conservant le style architecturale, afin d'y aménager des locaux de travail, lui permettant de devenir un centre d'études annexe de l'université de Charleston, qui s'est engagée, par contrat, pour une décennie.

En majorité
des jeunes filles

Parmi les étudiants de ce premier contingent, en majorité des jeunes filles de 19 à 25 ans et quelques garçons, trois d'entre eux étudient actuellement à Sophia Antipolis Leur séjour durera cinq semaines jusqu'au 15 juillet. Ultérieurement, si cette période de rodage s'avère satisfaisante, les séjours d'études seront portés à six mois.

Les étudiants qui ont choisi de venir à Annot sont motivés par la découverte de la culture française dans la richesse de ses diversités et particularismes régionaux. Ils suivront des cours de 9 à 16 heures du lundi au jeudi et seront libres les trois derniers jours.

Pour loger tout ce monde, la commune recherche encore 4 foyers d'hébergement Le maire a rappelé que les familles d'accueil recevraient une indemnité journalière de 150 F pour fournir l'hébergement, le repas du soir, le petit-déjeuner et l'entretien du linge

Les personnes désireuses d'héberger un étudiant sont priées de se faire connaître auprès de Mme Marie Thérèse Roux, au clo de Platel Tel 04.92.83.22.58 ou à l'office de tourisme Tel 04.92.83.23.03.

Ce qui est certain c'est que la qualité de l'accueil fourni à ce premier contingent sera déterminante pour le succès de l'expérience à suivre.
Le maire avant de clôturer la réunion a indiqué que le 6 juin prochain une manifestation de sympathie sera organisée pour accueillir ce premier groupe.

I won't translate it all, but the funny parts are the sub-heading "The Majority will be Young Women", and that they are searching for families to welcome these fine young Virginian girls into their homes. When I read this PR, I picture a little bit of 'The Simple life' a la Paris Hilton in hilariously convervative and incongruous surroundings, and a little bit of 'Girls gone Wild'. But maybe that's just me. I also found this bit of PR:

Think back to those endless high school history classes, where you would flip through your book while trying to stay awake, occasionally eyeing that oh-so-cute quarterback in the back of the room. Your teacher's voice would slowly turn into a mumble, some kind of strange foreign language that just didn't make any sense to you and you wonder why in the world you should care about history anyway.

Now think about today, when you might actually be interested in visiting a place that looks like those pictures in your old history book. A place where the mumble in the back that sounds incomprehensible is in fact a foreign language, French to be precise.

This is what your life could look like pretty soon if you should decide to be among the first C of C students to go to class on the new campus to be opened next Fall in the small town of Annot in the southeast of France. Located 65 miles from Nice, with population of roughly 1,500, the place looks like time stopped at some point a few centuries ago.

This is not just another summer language program at the college. Of course French classes will be offered, but the idea is to have all five schools give all kinds of classes just like those offered in Charleston.

The director of this project, professor Abdellatif Attafi, likes to call it "a miniature C of C" that will work year round and will have up to 100 students at a time.

Building of the facilities is scheduled to start next week. Apart from the classrooms, there will be dorms and faculty housing on campus. But don't pack your mini-fridge just yet, because French majors who go to Annot will be required to live in French homes.

"We are looking for total immersion," said Attafi, "and there is already a network of local families who will be offering housing for C of C students."

Some professors will travel to Annot for a semester at a time, and some will be there for just three weeks to teach express courses. There will probably be one or two class options from each school every semester, with French being offered at all times.

The town is small and it is not a tourist spot at all. There are no major highways across it, so it's not disrupted by passersby. Attafi explains that the reason Annot was chosen was that the college was looking for authenticity, which is a big part of what the place is about. The buildings and the environment are practically intact, and the region is a protected zone, where 80 percent of all European vegetation is represented.

The area also provides the opportunity to engage in various sports, such as sailing and skiing. Also, there is a possibility to visit other parts of Europe conveniently because distances are so short. Nice is only an hour and a half away, and Italy is close enough for a weekend escapade.

"It's always challenging to move to a place where you don't have any references, but that stimulates you to work hard and find new ones," said Attafi.


Strangely enough, on subsequent trips we discovered that the very official University of Virginia brass plaque had been removed, and there was no sign of the gaggle of southern college women! I assumed that there must have been some kind of scandal which forced the University packing, never again to do business in the not-as-picturesque-as-they-thought south of France, but it turns out that it was simply a question of finances(or so they SAY!).

Dinner was an excellent scallop and risotto followed by filet de boeuf with a nice 2003 bordeaux.

Annot

We got up early today and I made some onigiri, the unbeatable japanese travelling food:

for breakfast and the car. As we got closer to the valley under the Mont Aiguille, we were greeted by beatuful views of mist and fog carpeting the valley floor


and then perfect blue skies above the mont aiguille itself.

We met Amy, Mark, Dave and Sandy (Actually just Sandy because everyine else were off trying to find the boulders) at the Requiem for a Bloc sector in Annot at a little before noon. After the usual stumbling through underbrush, we found the boulders and had a full day of sliding off the perfect sandstone slopers and sanding the skin on our fingertips down. I tried the 'Requiem for a Bloc' (b9) problem, but didn't get very far. I also struggled pretty hard to get Connerie divine b6. Next, we walked over to Place Vendome, which had a boulder with a very unique undulating texture, and a lot of really high stuff as well. Dave experienced the joys of highballing on an unnamed B4 with a heart-in-the-mouth topout. Shortly after, I had my own "don't fall moment" on a
tall B7 on an arete with a nasty landing.

We had a nice dinner at L'Avenue of crustillant de Rouget followed by a daube, and then fell asleep at 10 pm.

HAPPY BRACE OFF CHRISTA!!!!!

yaaaay!

FREEZING

it snowed today at higher altitude.

Berkeley: entertainment capital of the USA?

After discovering that the guys from the 'Bu are from Berkeley, I started thinking about how there are actually quite a few kids from my middle school, neighborhood and high school who have gone on to become entertainers: Lyrics Born, AKA Tom Shimura lived down the street from me and we used to skateboard together. Adam Sessler and I went to the same middle school and was the first of our friends to have a nintendo. Oh yeah and Rebecca Romjin went to Berkeley high when i was there, but I couldn't find any links to her.

Chamomile, Mutha#%#a!

Even though I'm physically feeling a bit worse now, I'm in much better spirits after finding The Lonely Island. I watched all nine The 'Bu episodes and pretty much everything else on their site, including the pilot for Awesometown.
I came across their site from a link at BoingBoing about how they had become popular through their creative commons released material, and how they were all going to be working for Saturday Night Live this season! On their contact/about web page (thats Brooke Shields in bed with them), it turns out that they grew up in berkeley! I think they're a little young to have overlapped at Berkeley Heigh (if that's where they went to HS), but maybe not. Anyway, one of my favorite things from their web site is this rap song and is the soruce of the title of this post.

sick

Even though I should be at work trying to finish things up, I'm home sick with a cold/flu which is just getting worse! I made myself some udon soup with crispy rice to ease my burning throat

Jambon/Brocante

We went to the Jambon Brocante (Ham and Antiques) experience today, which Chloe had fortuitously seen the sign for yesterday as we came back from Ombleze. It was quite nice, with a lot of deals to be had, just like the last one that we went to. There some really nice armoires and bonnetiers for not too much money. Here's chloe gazing longingly at one

There was also the normal selection of random and inexplicable things like tortoise shells

rodents with glasses

and creepy mannequins


But there were also some great food stands with Jambon (duh!), olives and bread


I'm going to miss all of this.

There was one stand which had an impressive selection of old french tools, and... duck decoy heads?!

We bought a cool pair of old scissors at this stand. Also, after circling back twice, we decided to buy this beautiful walnut coffee table

for 530 euro, delivered. Its a beautiful table, and even has a drawer on one end.
On our way back home, we stumbled on a pottery installation, which was mostly uninteresting, except for a demonstration on how they make big clay jugs

Ombleze

we went to Ombleze with mark and amy today; I'm really going to miss this place! Afterwards we had drinks at the excellent Moulin de la Pipe. We had hoped to eat dinner and stay the night there, but it was completely booked.

Pata Negra

My friend Carlos brought us back some special ham from Spain called Pata Negra, which I have heard a lot about from my friend Francois and from Carlos as well. Its a special ham made from a special breed of pig which is fed oak acorns.

Carlos told me to slice it as thin as possible which meant that it was time to re-sharpen my yanagi and aritsugu paring knife

We harvested some of the beautiful tomatos from our terrace

and made a cheese plate with some three year old Comte de Montagne, "VSOP" Gouda that I bought at Schipol during my layover, some Tomme Crayeuse and some real Bufala mozarella

I found that the ham wasn't easy to cut into the large slices that they sell at the grocery store without making them too thick, so I just made small paper thin slices.

The ham was better than any prosciutto or french ham that I have ever had. In particular, the lightly marbled section of it was sweet and delicious. Hopefully we'll be able to find this in the states!

We also went to Caro de Lyon today with Mark and Amy. It was fantastic as usual, and my favorite part of the meal was the lobster farfalle: perfect.