Salut tout le monde! It's hard to believe we just finished week 8 here!

Here are the highlights: Musique a la espagnol!

Responding to an article in Tuesday's "Midi Libre", our local newspaper, Les & I headed to a nearby town, Murviel-les-Beziers, to a "nuit espagnole" at the Chateau de Coujan, a lovely vineyard. The program was tapas (oysters & mussels), wine (they gave you a glass, you bought a bottle), and Spanish music performed by La Gata Negra. Carmen, the leader of the group, was a real dynamo, who sang & danced with spirit, charm, & talent, & grace. She was accompanied by a bass, a guitar, an accordeon, and a drummer, who sat on his square drum. The night was beautiful with clear skies and velvety temps. At the beginning of the concert, one of the resident peacocks flew right by us up into the air and onto the roof. To get an idea of the music, check out the video I uploaded, as well as our picture album titled "Week 8".

Wednesday took us to Beziers, so Les could go to his gym & I could check out what new bargains were available at our local "depot/vente", or resale shop. I found a nice dresser (for a big 25 euros) & Les found a golf cart (10 euros) & a nice easy chair for his terrace office room. Luckily, our rental Peugeot can be stuffed to the gills with no problem.

Aubagne & Marcel Pagnol: L'ancienne vie provencale:

As there wasn't much new going on in our area, we decided this would be a good weekend to visit Marseille & environs. So off we headed on Saturday morning, arriving in Aubagne, a small town near Marseille & the place where Marcel Pagnol was born. You may (or may not, considering your age & interests) remember one of his films called "Fanny" starring Charles Boyer & Maurice Chevalier. It's about a young girl in Marseille, who sells fish at the old port, & is in love with her childhood friend Marius. He loves her too, but he is obsessed by the sea, & wants to sign off on a boat to anywhere to escape what he considers his boring life working at the bar of his father (Cesar). The remake of 2 of the 3-story trilogy came out here in France this summer, and we saw both Marius & Fanny. So, as we were heading for Marseille anyway, we decided to stop in his home town. There we visited his "maison natale", & saw a documentary on his life & works. He was a prolific writer, playwright, & film director, & had a team of actors who produced many wonderful films about life in Provencal France in the early 1900s. He enjoyed great success in Paris & beyond, but returned to Aubagne in his later years, and wrote "Les Souvenirs d'Enfance" about his life growing up there. 2 of his films are my favorites: "La Gloire de Mon Pere" & "Le Chateau de Ma Mere". We ended up visiting the "chateau" which wasn't really his mother's--it was a chateau by which the family passed en route to their little country house. Eventually, Pagnol purchased the chateau with the idea of turning it into a studio for producing films in the south of France. WWII intervened however, & that didn't happen, but the city of Marseille bought it in 1995, renovated it, & just opened a "musee du cinema francais" inside. I've put several pictures in Week 8's album to give you an idea of the "essence" of Marcel Pagnol. It's a way of life that is totally gone now, but has a quaint provencal charm.

Cassis and its "Calanques":

Saturday evening we set off for Cassis, a lovely town on the Meditarranean Sea, which, in Marcel Pagnol's time, was a small fishing village. Like St.-Tropez, someone discovered it, and now it's quite the tourist place. Around it are a number of "calanques", limestone cliffs that are fingers into the sea, way up high. Each calanque has its particularity, whether you are seeing it by boat or walking it. We did both--by boat on Saturday evening & by foot Sunday morning. See Album Week 8 & our video to get an idea of how dramatic & beautiful this town is.

Marseille: Bouillabaisse & Art!

After our morning walk on the calanques, we headed for Marseille, where you can eat REAL bouillabaisse right on the port. We left our car at the art museum we were going to visit later that day, so arrived at the port by metro. As you ride the escalator up, the first thing you see is a huge mirror turned upside down. It reflects the water from the port, & serves as a shelter (from the sun) for people standing in line to buy tickets for a boat ride to the Chateau d'If (the Count of Monte Cristo's jail). It reminded us of Chicago's "bean", and shows off Marseille's beautiful (& very busy) port. From there, we found a waterfront restaurant, & enjoyed our bouillabaisse. You'll find pictures of it in our album. After lunch, we metroed back to the Palais Longchamps, Marseille's Museum of Fine Arts (newly renovated) for the second half of the exhibition that we viewed in Aix-en-Provence a month ago. "Le Grand Atelier du Midi" in Aix was "Cezanne to Matisse" & concentrated on form & line & explained how Impressionsim led to modern art. This half, "From Van Gogh to Bonnard" dealt with color. And of course, all the painters lived & worked here in the south of France--from Collioure (near Spain) to Nice, & thus were exposed to the extremes of color they all loved. The exhibit bgan by describing Van Gogh & Gauguin as "Two madmen in a perpetual battle over the beauty of color", & went on from there. Cezanne, Renoir, Monet, Signac, Camoin, Marquet, Derain, Maillol, Friesz,Braque, Soutine, ,Vallotan, Manguin, & of course, Matisse, & Bonnard. Whew! I've included my favorites (only 4, I think--hard to choose!) in the album.

We returned to our little house Sunday evening, happy to be back in the vineyards, and facing the fact that yes, we are now counting down to our departure in 16 days. Can't believe it!

We hope you are all happily enjoying your summer as well.

Love, Elise & Les