mardi 29 avril 2008
Our final day in Provence. On our agenda today - two of the top 100 most beautiful villages in France (there really is an official list) - Beaux de Provence and Gordes.
We began our tour in Beaux de Provence. In all honesty, I don't think you could call it a village. Sure, it's old, it's beautiful, but I saw no sign of inhabitants, just tourism. Gordes, on the other hand, was quite nice, and indeed there were people living in this old and charming village. Another city we visited was Roussillon, which is famous for its naturally red rocks, quite similar to Sedona in Arizona.
Didier made a reservation for lunch at "Le Bistrot du Paradou, Chez Jean-Louis" one month ago. Paradou is the name of the town, and it means paradise in the old local language. I don't know if the town really is heavenly, but the food at Chez Jean-Louis came pretty close. People who have dined here inclue Nicolas Sarkozy in 2006 (before he became president of France), Sharon Stone, Tom Cruise, and now Alex Lin.
The concept is quite similar to Alice Waters' Chez Panisse. There is no selection for your meal except for the entrée. I began with the tarte aux tomates, which was absolutely delicious. I love savory pastries, and this one was done perfectly. The other choice, in case you were wondering, was escargot. The bread was house made of course, just like everything else here. The plat was gigot d'agneau (leg of lamb); the portion wasn't enough for me, but the flavor and the accompanying potato gratin were to die for. We finished our lunch with a selection of cheeses and dessert.
Cheese - something I love but don't know much about, so Didier and Alim taught me a bit about the etiquette of eating cheese. There were more than 15 types of cheese on the platter, so I stopped Didier after he named three, as I was sure I wasn't going to remember any that I didn't already know. The ones I do remember: Comté, Roquefort. Although some Americans think the Roquefort is strong, it really isn't, relatively speaking. There was a goat cheese marinated in olive oil that I caught a whiff of every now and then; I wished now and then didn't come every now and then. I did taste it. What can I say - cheese is pretty much mold. There was one that Didier warned me about - the taste wasn't too bad, but if you happen to get any of it on your finger, it would smell for days. I don't know if he was exaggerating, but I didn't want to find out; the cheese went carefully from my fork to my mouth.
And so concludes our stay in the South of France. Overall nice, even though we didn't got to Nice. Cassis is definitely my favorite town. As for the people here, they are generally more friendly and willing to engage in a conversation than Parisians, but that probably has more to do with the style of living. Here people are more relaxed, it's sunny (except when I visited Marseille), there is no hurry to do anything except taking the lunch break; so why not be nice. I was warned in advance about the dialect, and I find that the French here isn't as nasal; all the nasal vowels (four of them) have a slight, flatter twist, somewhat like the Quebecois French. Secondly, they're more relaxed with their pronunciation. Oftentimes they drop the very end of the final syllable of each word as if they were too lazy to finish it. Maybe living in this relaxed atmosphere does affect you in all aspects of life; maybe I should move here and see if it'll rub off on me.
Maybe not - I prefer the life in Paris.
