Slip Into Azur Blue: The First Couple Days....

Several of you have repeatedly asked me... “how can you stay just there that long” or “what do you do there every day” ?
I guess I’ve never really thought about it much, you know, I just do it.
But, OK, let’s give it a go. I’ll try and describe for you a bit of what it’s like for us here.
No...no, I’m not going to do a day by day diary sort of thing, don’t think I’m up to that, and anyway... you’d be bored to tears. No, I’d be. Maybe just some of the more interesting bits.

Let’s see... arrived a couple of days ago, Friday, 7AM Charles de Gaulle Airport... “yawn”, immediately hopped on the 8:30AM TGV, the high speed train, bound to Marseille. Bombing along at about 200mph, Marseille was only about 3.5 hours to the south. What a great and, effortless way to travel. Even managed to catch a nap along the way. Yawn.... Arrive Marseille station about lunchtime, change trains to the slower “milk-run” between Marseille and Toulon. It’s just so easy... really! About 30 minutes, and viola! We’re there. Our tres-sympa (charming) landlord comes to the station to meet and collect us. How nice is that?

Arrive at the apartment, and..... bonjour, bonjour. Kiss-kisses (bisous) on both cheeks. Everybody is excited to see everybody. Monsieur and Madam Landlord, Sandy and myself. Almost like family.. A bit of catching up, settling in, and.... god, I’ve gotta crash. I’m pretty wiped out.
My prescription for jet-lag... a couple of hours nap and a warm shower afterwards. Yeah... much better. At least I feel alive again.

Now... I don’t try to set the world on fire just after my arrival. You know... unpack and settle the contents into there now familiar places. Bring some of our personal possessions out of Winter storage and put them too into their now familiar places. In other words... we settle in.
Once again, with ease, I begin to feel that I am a part of this place and it me. Aaaaaah. C’est bonne!
I don’t try and stock the kitchen today. Momentarily revived, I realize that this feeling won’t last. No, a nice simple meal out this evening. Comfort food. So... about 7:30, my default here, “La Provencal” a small family run affair with simple, well prepared food of the area. And.... tonight... special of the day (le plat de jour) is a grilled dorade, a local fish grilled with olive oil and local herbs. Accompanied by a lovely bit of rice, oven roasted fresh carrots and a petite green salad. Add a ½ litre carafe of local rose wine... just about perfect.
Totter-off back home, and... around 9:30PM, drift off into about the sweetest, deepest sleep you can imagine. Wake up around 9AM the following morning, yeah... you heard that right, and... I’m as good as new.
Well now. That was all very exciting wasn’t it?

Saturday
Today... feeling fresh... and here.... and at the “crack o’ nine”, time to get about the business.
So... nothing much in the old kitchen this morning... not a problem.! A quick stop by Suirrery’s bakery and, “deux croissant sil-vous-plait”. Couple of doors down the street to La Bar Marine, and... bonjour, bonjour... ca va?... ca va! Once again, everybody’s glad to see everybody.
I have to say, the familiarity of it all here... it’s just, you know.... so nice!
“Deux café-au-laits, sil-vous-plait”. Out come two awesome cups of warm milk with a pinch of espresso... devine! And.. Suirrery’s croissants.... oh my! And, no.... the bar doesn’t care if you bring your own, even though they do sell them. How cool is that?

So...first, a market visit, of course! Now I won’t re-hash the first market visit story, see my earlier post if you wish, but suffice to say, it is a time of great excitement for me. I’m “really here” now. First day or so, I load us up with lotsa fresh green salads. Easy to do when the lettuce comes from less than 5 miles away, and the carrots and the radishes. Add some wonderful Provencal tomatoes and cucumbers. And... how about some French Gruyere-style cheese from Savoie, and some thinly sliced smoked French ham. Meanwhile, Sandy pick’s up some flowers to plant, red and purple verbena, some orange and fuschia rose-moss, and... a gorgeous hot pink new guinea Impatiens. We both love flowers and the color they bring to life. I think These allow her to express herself, perhaps they help build a sense of place..
Oh yeah... that’ll do. Now, pick up a fresh, still warm baguette from Suirrery’s bakery...
Better stop by my butchers for some meat, he’s closed on Mondays and I would like to grill dinner Monday night. Sandy waits outside. Bonjour, bonjour monsieur. Really, it’s just so great to be recognized. A bit of a wait, maybe 3, 4 people in front of me . Oui monseiur, deux cote-du-porc (pork chops) sil-vous-plait. Chop-chop, wrap-wrap, c’est-tu? No monsieur, deaux saussicon (pork sausages) sil-vous-plait. C’est-tu? Oui monsieur. All neatly wrapped and presented to his lovely wife who carries the package over to the cash register. She recognizes me too. Oui, ce-va, ce-va? 8 euro 50 in just 20 minutes.
Oh... and.... almost forgot. A stop by the Agricultural Co-operative. I want a bottle of local olive oil. A young man here, who, speaks wonderful English, suggest an organic unfiltered oil. It is cloudy with a bright green color. Excellant!!
Whoa, almost too much stuff.... back to the house. Stash the perishables in the fridge... whew!

A few years back I hit upon the idea of an “Initial Shopping List” to stock my pantry. Without this, I found that I just “twirled around”, often forgetting many essential items. So now, with my list, and with my rolling Victorinox travel suitcase to act as a shopping cart, looking perhaps a bit odd, off and down the hill to the nearby (really nearby), Casino Grocery. All the essentials.... milk, butter, eggs, Pastis, beer, coke.....etc. About an hour later, and about 85 euros later... all packed into my rolling bag and, one Harris-Teeter cloth grocery bag... off and... up the hill we go. Top of the hill and... huff-puff, back down the “plongee” the plunge of our little street. I’m still not sure why I have to go up to go down... but hey... the price for the view. Whew... that’s about enough of that. Again, everything gets put away and ... time for lunch... well perhaps a cold Stella first
Oh... and some of those fennel or nicoise olives and the yummy black olive tapanede we got at the market this morning and... don’t forget the still warm baguette from Suirrery’s.. And well... Stella’s all gone... maybe the first Pastis of the season. Oh yeah....
After a while.... to the cuisine., I mean kitchen! Chop-chop-chop. Build the salads.
Encore... another Stella, more Suirrery’s baguette and my masterpiece of a salad. Out on the patio... with the view! The village and the bay spreading out before me. Munch, munch.... oh yeah!
Perfect!!
Some fresh local sweet cherries for dessert. C’est bonne!
Nap time. Yep! The concept of the siesta is well known in these parts. Good idea that! One which we quickly adopt.

Later..... pull the rest of the stuff from storage (a note here, our landlord’s have been great about letting us keep some stuff here from year to year), and put it away.
Pull out the velos, bicycles, clean and oil them up, oh...and... pump up the tires. Lotta fun with one of those little clip-on bicycle pumps. Whew!!
While I play at bicycle mechanic, Sandy busies herself potting her new charges. They look just lovely.
And....
3PM... Victorinox trailing behind, two empty 3 litre “barrels” inside... off, and down the hill (of course) to the Cave, the local Wine Coooperative (closed from 1-3 daily) where the local farmers bring their grapes to be turned into wine. “Gas pump“ wine, about 1.90 euros per litre (cheaper than gasoline) and really not that bad a rose wine, is pumped into my “barrels”. This will be our “house wine” . A few extra bottles of “the good stuff” and Kevin’s little wine cellar is nearly stocked for the season. Well.. for a little while at least.
Back home...now... about that wine..... pour-off about a litre and... well.... have a sip, or two....
Awakening from yet another nap.... wow, didn’t realize how tired I really was... or perhaps it was the rose....
8PM... I’m hungry again. Another favorite... Chez Mico, been here for decades but still referred to as Sicilian (the grandparents who started it were Sicilian). Well known as a one of the best pizzarias in town, they also have an extensive menu, sorry that’s la carte here. Not really in a pizza mood, thought I’d try something off the menu, sorry, la carte, this evening. I love kabobs, so... brochettes Mico sounded just about right. Thin strips of pork loin wrapped around a piece of Gruyere cheese and flame grilled. Served with Lebanese rice, a wonderfully seasoned pilaf with toasted pine nuts, roasted red peppers and what I believe were prunes. Washed down with a demi-bottle of rose from less than 10 miles away. Oh yeah... Kevin’s happy! But.... Sicilian, Provencal... no, I would expect these kabobs in, maybe, Alsace or Switzerland. And the Lebanese rice? And we (I) thought this odd sort of thing only went on in the States.
Totter-off on back home, and.... by now not so wacked... how about a movie? When I’m home in Carolina and the Winter’s crap... I record movies onto a little hard-drive which I take with us and we can then watch on the computer whenever we want. It’s nice because it’s in English and , well, again, we watch what we want when we want. Perhaps I should add here... that there’s an awesome little Art-Deco movie theater here in town, but guess what, the movies are usually in French and no they don’t have English subtitles. Can you imagine that?
I’m gettin’ on local time now... movies ended, check e-mail, Facebook and...off to bed about 11:30 .
Cool evenings, about 55-60, we sleep like babies.

Sunday
Ah... Sunday morning. Market visit... market’s a bit weak on Mondays, so I'll go today, and... well, as you may have heard, yes we do go to the market every day or two here.. Need some fresh veg to go with the lovely cote-du-porc (pork chops), I picked up yesterday at my butchers. Maybe some squash, onions and fennel to go with that sausage. Some more local strawberries and cherries. Et voila!!
Today, one... no two of the vendors at the market recognize me. It was very busy yesterday, too many tourist! But...bonjour “caroline du nord”, my blonde market-seller calls out. She always seems to be happy to greet me at the beginning of the season.
Bonjour madam, ca-va? Ca-va. I love it!!
Sundays here are special. They almost always seem to be beautiful, sunny days.... really!
Like many around here, Kevin gives himself a day-off from the kitchen on Sundays. Sunday for us can only mean one thing... Quai 16, a lovely little outdoor café restaurant right on the harbor, ancient fishing boats bobbing out front and quite possibly the best Sunday lunch going anywhere. Again, bonjour-bonjour, ca-va, ca-va.
Aaah. Fresh loup, (whole sea bass), grilled simply and served with a pesto sauce, some petite fresh potatoes dressed with olive oil , a halved and stuffed-grilled tomato, and... of course, a bit of fresh salad. Accompany that with a carafe of local rose and it’s just this side of paradise! Great food, well prepared, awesome views and the nicest people you could meet. There’s just no way to improve upon this experience. C’est Bonne monseiur?.... Oui...c’est tres bonne!
Totter off up the hill again and...........

A’bientot