Marseilles
Thursday and Friday of the end of the first week of October left us feeling a little lazy... especially since we knew that we had a 6 hour drive ahead of us to our next rental in Sarlat, in the Dordogne region. We are basically driving from Southeast France to the other side of the country, and through a rather remote area with few major roadways connecting the towns that we are traveling between. But ah, well... nothing like being on a family car trip to bring everyone closer!
So Thursday Bubbe and Fabienne offered to hang out with the kids while Sven & I went to Marseilles to see Benoit of the Musee d'Art Africain Oceanien Amerindien, who was the original person to catalogue the Pinart catalog (in his first-ever job as a curator). It was not super informative, but nonetheless interesting, and you could tell that Benoit had a soft spot in his heart for the Pinart collection. He did bring us into the American collection of the museum at one point and we were floored by the spooky collection of Vanuatu shrunken heads (of which the hair of some of them is made out of spider webs!) and to make things even more interesting we got locked in for about 15 minutes.
Marseilles was.... big. Neither Sven or myself bothered to read up on it and we were both surprised to find out that it is the 2nd biggest city in France and a hugely thriving fishing port for the region (it was good to smell the fresh fish). Glad we didn't bring the kids. After seeing Benoit we had a really nice lunch, went to an art museum, stopped for coffee and apple pie, then drove up to the amazing Basilica Notre-Dame de la Garde which overlooks the city of Marseilles and is topped with a huge gold statue of the Virgin Mary holding baby Jesus (his wrist is over 1 meter wide!). Inside we were floored by the gold frescoes- humbled by the amount of work that must have gone into the structure. It was as awe-inspiring as Venice's St. Mark's Cathedral, and visually similar. The main difference: Marseilles basilica was designed and created for the fishermen. Mary blesses those who come into the harbor and the church is hung with model boats, paintings of shipwrecks are crammed onto the busy walls, and plaques everywhere commemorate shipwrecks where lives were spared. But Marseilles was big, noisy and overwhelming. We were glad to come home.Fabienne made crepes for all of us and we had savory ones (filled with steamed green beans and cheese) and sweet ones (filled with nutella and raspberries). Yum!
Thursday and Friday of the end of the first week of October left us feeling a little lazy... especially since we knew that we had a 6 hour drive ahead of us to our next rental in Sarlat, in the Dordogne region. We are basically driving from Southeast France to the other side of the country, and through a rather remote area with few major roadways connecting the towns that we are traveling between. But ah, well... nothing like being on a family car trip to bring everyone closer!
So Thursday Bubbe and Fabienne offered to hang out with the kids while Sven & I went to Marseilles to see Benoit of the Musee d'Art Africain Oceanien Amerindien, who was the original person to catalogue the Pinart catalog (in his first-ever job as a curator). It was not super informative, but nonetheless interesting, and you could tell that Benoit had a soft spot in his heart for the Pinart collection. He did bring us into the American collection of the museum at one point and we were floored by the spooky collection of Vanuatu shrunken heads (of which the hair of some of them is made out of spider webs!) and to make things even more interesting we got locked in for about 15 minutes.
Marseilles was.... big. Neither Sven or myself bothered to read up on it and we were both surprised to find out that it is the 2nd biggest city in France and a hugely thriving fishing port for the region (it was good to smell the fresh fish). Glad we didn't bring the kids. After seeing Benoit we had a really nice lunch, went to an art museum, stopped for coffee and apple pie, then drove up to the amazing Basilica Notre-Dame de la Garde which overlooks the city of Marseilles and is topped with a huge gold statue of the Virgin Mary holding baby Jesus (his wrist is over 1 meter wide!). Inside we were floored by the gold frescoes- humbled by the amount of work that must have gone into the structure. It was as awe-inspiring as Venice's St. Mark's Cathedral, and visually similar. The main difference: Marseilles basilica was designed and created for the fishermen. Mary blesses those who come into the harbor and the church is hung with model boats, paintings of shipwrecks are crammed onto the busy walls, and plaques everywhere commemorate shipwrecks where lives were spared. But Marseilles was big, noisy and overwhelming. We were glad to come home.Fabienne made crepes for all of us and we had savory ones (filled with steamed green beans and cheese) and sweet ones (filled with nutella and raspberries). Yum!
The museum complex.
Notre Dame de la Garde
model boats
Loumarin
Friday was market day in the nearby town of Loumarin so we headed out to look for a few things. Many of the vendors we had seen earlier in the week at the antique market and it was good to recognize items and faces. We walked around for an hour or so enjoying the sights and the smells then got an over-priced and mediocre (yet oddly satisfying) lunch. I think eating outside fixes the quality issue somehow. And everything tastes better followed by ice cream and coffee.
Bonnieux
We weren't quite ready to go home so almost as an after-thought we drove through Bonnieux and walked around for a bit. We were amazed that even this little town that was not on our radar and didn't have any major tourist sights (except for the Musee Boulangerie which I regret not going to) was so picturesque. Lovely area. The evening involved eating left-overs, packing and the girls chasing Fabienne around the house.
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