I keep doing this and I don’t mean to but I leave a gap of a day between reservations so I’m left to figure out what to do for a night. Do I ask the next stop to take me earlier? Do I try to stay an extra day? Or do as I did on my way to Avignon and take the opportunity to stop in a town along the way? I chose St-Remy for its proximity to Avignon, its description in the guide book and the fact it had a hotel constructed in the modernist tradition. I find I’m much happier staying in places comprised of clean lines and little detail. This particular hotel was also a school of photography, which fed my love for pretty pictures. I managed to get a room the day of and made my getaway from Nice. For the first time, the day broke hot and sunny. There had been warm sunny days mixed with ones colder and greyer but this was the first day that you know summer is almost here. I put my luggage in the back seat so I could put the top down on the car and hit the A8, a highway that had become my home in my travels up and down the coast. For the first hour or so I listened to French radio, flipping the stations to catch a good song or try to understand the DJs. Simon and Garfunkel came on as I whipped down the highway, asking where are you now, Joe DiMaggio? And I knew the answer – he is doing commercials for Mr. Coffee. Actually he’s dead but that was the answer on my sister Penny’s road trip once upon a time, a story I always think of when I hear the song. After a time, I decided to try the old iPod/iTrip combination and voila, it worked a charm. I listened to many a good song as I exited the A8 for the A7 and headed north. The landscape was beautiful, the sun shone down on my head and body (I now have the passion of a convert on the convertible front). The drive took about two hours, certainly no issue for the US driver that I am and not even for my newly adopted slower lifestyle. I exited the A7 onto one of D roads, local two ways with a multitude of roundabouts (rond-points) that wend their way through small French towns. I found St.-Remy right where it was supposed to be and spent the usual half hour doing laps around the town trying to avoid pedestrians, read street signs and figure out where the heck I was going. Boston driving has served me well here as the street configurations are very similar – streets with one name in one place another in another and no indication that you’ve changed; one ways that twist and turn and other drivers constantly entering and exiting. Since I’m in no hurry, being lost is just part of the experience. I finally found the hotel located conveniently in the center of town and it was yet another architectural and design masterpiece. The French seemed to have reconciled traditional and modern architecture in a way the United States has not been able to do. In the US, we either regulate construction in a way that there is complete consistency and adherence with tradition or allow a complete free for all with people building gothic monstrosities abutting neo-Bauhaus eyesores in a way that upsets one’s aesthetic sensibility and does nothing for either architectural movement.
St-Remy is yet, yet, yet another Romanesque town (though this one with Greek forebears) with warm ochre brick that glows golden in the late afternoon light. It has gone from being a center for olive oil production to a gastronomic destination. It is the birthplace of Nostradamus and van Gogh lived here for two years painting some of his best known works. My room was de riguer for a modernist, minimal, warm and perfectly balanced. I envisioned myself moving in for the long haul but had only a day and a night. I wandered around town, peeking in art galleries and noting that there was a small stone trench in the middle of the walkway that seemed to go through the entire town. My friend Rob called and we traded status and love whilst I wandered. After my walkabout, I tried to capture some of the beauty of my home for the day on disk, taking advantage of the light of magic hour. I succeeded in only a small way and went in to dress for dinner. I knew full well that St-Remy was host to a multitude of fine dining establishments but my hotel had a terrace to die for and served sushi and sake. The ease of eating a few meters from my room, enjoying an unbelievable view of the gardens and the hills beyond and washing away the taste of the truly bad sake was too much for me and I succumbed. The sake was as good as I’ve ever had as was the sushi. In a nod to the region and my fondness for it, I ordered the fois gras maki. If you ever have a chance to try this, do. Don’t question it, just order it. The seaweed and sushi rice are rolled around just exactly the right amount of the smooth, rich, soft, flavorful little piece of liver and acts as the perfect foil to balance the pure fat that is fois gras. For those of you who are thinking about telling my little converted vegetarian self about the evils of the fattened geese, I don’t want to hear it. It’s just too good to give up so I’d rather remain ignorant, or at least in denial. I will ask forgiveness later.
The evening passed as most do, with flirtatious waiters and me playing my role as watcher (who is watching the watchmen?). Traveling alone, I’ve become very aware of how much you miss when you’re with other people. Granted, you gain a lot, camaraderie, expression and connection but there are literally worlds unfolding around you as you commune. Being alone, I see and hear everything. Every table holds its own small drama, I surrender myself to the environment that someone conceived of and created or that came together by default. It seems a crime to me now to be any less aware than I am when I’m alone. I talk to others as I’m completely approachable, my thoughts wander to places far beyond where they might if voiced.
The next morning awoke to yet another early summer morn and I packed up the car and headed 20 kilometers north to Avignon.
oh, maybe they were happy geese who died of old age wearing little leather boots . . . the cigarette picture is tres cool . . . love, b
Posted by: becky | May 12, 2005 at 02:23 PM