Places to visit Archives - Oui Love France

Lac Peirou and Les Alpilles

October 20, 2014 by Sarah Trivuncic Leave a Comment

To the south of St Remy and signposted from Avenue Van Gogh down Avenue Antoine de la Salle is the barrage lac Peirou also known as the Glanum Dam.

Manmade on the site of a dam originally for Roman Glanum, it’s a leafy spot easily reached on foot and perfect for picnics.

Should you be more ambitious in your rambling or cycling expeditions, why not take a climb into Les Alpilles, the small mountain chain that cuts across the landscape horizontally between St Remy and Les Baux.

Do you know this spot? Have you walked in the Alpilles?

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Les Antiques and Glanum St Remy de Provence

October 20, 2014 by Sarah Trivuncic Leave a Comment

Still a gateway to St Remy today, these Roman remains known as Les Antiques can be seen from the main road upon entering the town from Les Baux.

Around 1km to the south of St Remy, they are key parts of one of the best preserved ancient sites in Provence.

Opposite this arch and mausoleum are the Pompeii-like ruins of Glanum, a fortified town deserted since 260 AD.

Glanum was first founded by Celto-Ligurian tribes before being taken over by the Romans in 27 AD. There were baths and a forum but not arenas like those seen in nearby Arles and Nimes.

There are many Roman sites in Provence, notably at Arles and Orange.

Have you visited any Roman sites in Provence?

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Shopping in St Remy de Provence

October 20, 2014 by Sarah Trivuncic Leave a Comment

St Remy boasts a window shopper’s feast balanced between local services and products to tempt the tourists.

The southern half of the boulevard contains most shops although the ever enduring popularity of St Remy means business premises are increasing popping around the previously quieter northern perimeter.

Don’t miss Florame with organic soaps and toiletries or the biscuits and nougat at Au Petit Duc. To do the shops in St Remy justice, visit them at a different time to the Wednesday morning St Remy market.

I will be adding a list of recommended St Remy shops as I feature them on this site.

Can you recommend any favourite shops in St Remy de Provence and surrounding area?

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Eurocamp Loix Ile de Re holiday review

December 17, 2013 by Sarah Trivuncic Leave a Comment

This post originally featured on Maison Cupcake.com.

L’Ile de Ré is a thin sliver of land off the west coast of France near La Rochelle. Accessible only by an expensive toll bridge, the island is a popular place for holiday makers as well as for Parisians, French celebrities and politicians to buy second homes.

Ré vie (translation: Ré life) is very close to rêvie, the French for “dream”. This is highly appropriate….

The view from Mont Ventoux

December 17, 2013 by Sarah Trivuncic Leave a Comment

Mont Ventoux is the highest point in Provence and quite possibly the highest place, bar a skiing trip to Meribel, that I have been. Situated 20km north east of Carpentras in the Vaucluse département, it was a little way off from our usual stamping grounds of St-Remy-de-Provence and The Camargue and it took six or seven trips to the area before we visited.

1912 metres at the peak, Mistral wind speeds of 200mph have been recorded there, hence the name Ventoux which means “windy” in French. Locally nicknamed “The Bald Mountain”, the bare terrain is a memorable stage in the annual Tour de France cycle race. A website showing daily webcam conditions of the area is called Cycling on the moon.

We cheated and drove up there. Although a very pleasant September day, it was very cold at the top and during winter would often be covered in snow. Mont Ventoux is geologically part of the Alps but has no similar size peaks around it and stands alone. The view, it goes without saying, is breathtaking.

Cucuron and the outdoor cinema scene from A Good Year

December 17, 2013 by Sarah Trivuncic Leave a Comment

This post was previously published on Maison Cupcake.

Whether it’s on TV or film, every now and again, the glimpse of somewhere I’ve been before pictured on screen fills me with excitement. Daniel Craig walking down the street where I used to work in Layer Cake. An obscure Tim Roth movie filmed in and around Southgate tube station. Borough Market in Bridget Jones’ Diary.

Sometimes it’s the other way round. I see somewhere on screen and am determined to seek it out and go there myself to feel a little of the magic I felt when watching. Working out which French beach featured the wooden chalets on stilts in Betty Blue with no internet took some detective work I can tell you. (It’s Gruissan near Narbonne in the Languedoc region)

About 4 years ago, in the closing titles of 80s detective series Bergerac on UK Gold, I saw a picture of the plane tree lined pool shown below. Not many people remember that the closing series relocated to Provence rather than its usual Jersey. I have holidayed in Provence many times and was intrigued by this pool which was shown at the very end of each episode. How come I’d never seen it in a tourist guide or on my travels? Where on earth was it?

I was determined to find it, not because Bergerac, my pregnancy craving at the time (others dip Cheerios in ketchup; I watched endless episodes of Bergerac and did 3 Sudoku puzzles per day but have done neither before or since, honest) had been filmed there but out of my quest to know every corner of Provence.

Shortly afterwards I saw my Provencal pool onscreen once more. It was featured in what was to become my favourite film ever, Ridley Scott’s romantic comedy A Good Year starring Russell Crowe and Marion Cottilard. Now this film did not go down well with critics and you’ll probably find more people admitting to liking Bergarac than the film but I know from conversations on Twitter that at least three people, including Juls share my love of it.

Image via bastidequest.wordpress.com

Even freakier, Max (Russell Crowe) has inherited Jim Bergerac’s new house, this gorgeous bastide – Chateau la Canorgue in the Luberon. That’s just spooky.

Happily, locations in the film are much easier to research than a random film still in one series of Bergerac‘s closing titles and I soon deduce that the Provencal pool is in Cucuron, an understated village north of Aix en Provence with no other claim to fame. I conspired to visit during my weekend in St Remy de Provence. We drove there on the Sunday after visiting the busy brocante at L’Isle sur la Sorgue.

We drove to Cucuron and discovered the sleepiest of Provencal villages. Streets were deserted. Saucepans belonging to vielle madames clattered as we passed kitchen windows. Cats barely lifted eyelids to look at us. There was no sign of a square with this huge pool centre stage which had accommodated an orchestra and outdoor cinema showing clips like Charles Trenet singing Boum where Max and Fanny kiss after everyone else has bolted in the rain storm.

Eventually, on the point of giving up, we found a map marking L’Etang and tucked away in a corner we found the pool with a couple of cafes and sat down for our less romantic glass of Sprite and an ice cream next to the local fire station (odd… they disguised this in the film).

Sadly I can’t find clips to embed due to copyright… You can pick up copies of A Good Year for £3.99 on dvd. If you like France, you will enjoy it.

From La Coupole to St Germain: existential Paris

December 17, 2013 by Sarah Trivuncic Leave a Comment

This post was previously published on Maison Cupcake.

This is part two of my three part series about my too-long-unblogged Easter trip to Paris in 2011. Check out part one with my Laduree in Paris visit.

Away from my blog, one of my passions is literature and history of the first half of the twentieth century. I love books, film adaptations and documentaries especially those covering from 1920 to the 1950s.

On my trip to Paris I explored some of the haunts of two of my favourite French writers, Simone de Beauvoir and Jean Paul Sartre.

Simone de Beauvoir and John Paul Sartre were amongst a group of Parisian intellectuals known as the Existentialists who found literary recognition from the 1940s onwards.

From our Montparnasse hotel, The Pullman, we were well placed to explore their left bank neighbourhood.

Dining at La Coupole

La Coupole on the Boulevard Montparnasse is one of Paris’s most famous brasseries. With the original Art Deco interior intact it has changed little since de Beauvoir’s time.

From Josephine Baker to Jane Birkin, French celebrities have long frequented La Coupole, the restaurant website even has a list of celebrities at La Coupole saying who used to order what and sometimes which were their favourite tables!

Our corner was an ideal people watching spot. According to La Coupole’s website we were close to de Beauvoir and Sartre’s favourite table 149, sat at the same angle but in the next block. Sartre apparently enjoyed watching the ladies tending the cloakroom from his table.

Simone would order a hot chocolate and sit on the terrace at La Coupole whilst working. In keeping with this, our dining neighbours were single diners engrossed in their laptops (one having a Skype chat whilst he ate).

To review the food this far on would be absurd – as you can see we enjoyed a traditional French brasserie set menu of pate, steak tartare and Iles Flottantes for around 33 euros. All good.

A la carte main dishes cost up to 36 euros and seafood platters costing over 100 euros are available. However the greatest draw at La Coupole is the atmosphere. We secured a table late on a Wednesday without booking – although it was very busy.

Le Jardin du Luxembourg

De Beauvoir and Sartre walked frequently in Le Jardin du Luxembourg. Similar in size to Kensington Gardens, Parisians with young children can enjoy a series of adventure playgrounds. We were (briefly) wistful that Ted wasn’t with us.

Like the beach at Cannes, painted metal framed chairs are dotted around to sit on. It’s like being able to move a park bench to sit wherever you wish! Radio controlled boats buzz on the pond in front of the Palais du Luxembourg.

St Germain de Pres

Within walking distance is St Germain de Pres. The main square is named after de Beauvoir and Sartre in tribute to times they spent at nearby Cafe de Flore and Les Deux Magots.

Regrettably we didn’t have time to stop here as we were on a mission to visit Laduree!

La Rotonde, Montparnasse

La Rotonde, Boulevard Montparnasse lies below Simone de Beauvoir’s childhood flat. She used to hide there when playing truant from school!

On scarlet banquette seating, we enjoyed hustle and bustle through open windows onto the street. Despite enjoying our meal immensely, the happy memories are sadly eclipsed by us both being horribly ill during the following twelve hours. I will spare you the details but just say it was a huge pity to lose the middle day of our trip stuck in our hotel room.

Visiting Montparnasse Cemetery

Finally, in the Cimitiere Montparnasse we paid our respects at the joint grave of de Beauvoir and Sarte. Never married, not always partners in the sexual sense, they were soul mates until their twilight years. Simone outlived Sartre by around six years and was distraught by his absence. They were reunited when Simone died in 1986.

Also at Montparnasse, a decorated shrine around the grave of Serge Gainsbourg was as much a focus here as Jim Morrison’s grave is at Pere Lachaise. Tucked away against the outer walls close to the entrance, de Beauvoir and Sartre’s memorial is clearly visited by many with posies of flowers and lit candles but less of a spectacle.

Simone de Beauvoir – recommended reading

Simone de Beauvoir is best known for her feminist work The Second Sex however I preferred her novels and autobiographies. There also exists volumes of letters between herself and Sartre although I’ve not read these.

Having written my university thesis on Simone de Beauvoir I read most of her books 20 years ago but my recommended reading would be:
She Came to Stay – semi autobiographical novel based on Sartre and de Beauvoir’s love triangle with a female student.
Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter and The Prime of Life – parts 1 and 2 of de Beauvoir’s 4 part autobiography.
The Woman Destroyed – a trilogy of novellas in one volume each exploring the lives of three middle aged women who find themselves in crisis for various reasons.
A Very Easy Death – a short volume about de Beauvoir’s experience caring for her dying mother.

If you’d like to read something with the same feel but less philosophical, I heartily recommend Suite Francais by Irene Nemirovsky, a fictitious account of several households of Parisians fleeing the city as the Nazis take control.

Maison Cupcake in Paris Part 1: Laduree
Maison Cupcake in Paris Part 3: (to follow) – The Paris of Amelie Poulain

Amelie’s Paris: from Canal St Martin to Montmarte

December 17, 2013 by Sarah Trivuncic Leave a Comment

This post was previously published at Maison Cupcake. This is the last of my three part series about last year’s spring trip to Paris. After viewing Paris through the eyes of Simone de Beauvoir last week, today it is the turn of Amelie’s Paris, Amelie Poulain as in Le Fableux Destin de Amelie Poulain – to give Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s film comedy its full title!

At the time of filming, the Canal St Martin in north east Paris was a fairly dingy area however it’s now smarter and artier a la Portobello or Hoxton.

French canals are over twice the width of those in the UK and the banks were lined with office workers eating their lunch in the leafy surroundings. Barge trips sail up and down although there is a tunnel close to where this photo was taken preventing them going any further south.

The Metro features frequently in Amelie. There are many differences between the Paris Metro and London’s Underground; stations are closer together and often only just below the surface (like the Circle Line); platforms face each other rather than having their backs to each other meaning you can see people on the platforms opposite and it’s less closed in.

The passageways of the Metro are echoey and like Amelie, you often hear music from buskers coming from far away.

We took the metro from Canal St Martin to below Sacre Coeur; scene in the film where Amelie arranges to meet Nino but only communicates with him via public telephone boxes.

A funicular railway transports you from this level to the top where it’s a short walk to Montmarte.

Montmartre is like a village on a hill. It feels separate from Paris yet is quintessentially Parisian at the same time. On such a sunny day, lighting was very harsh to take pictures from our cafe and I must confess I was wilting somewhat in 27c heat. (I would be hopeless anywhere hotter).

I had hoped to walk to the Moulin Rouge or better still, photograph it at night but alas, with sore feet we consoled ourselves with this windmill, one of several which used to dot the Montmartre hill.

This Amelie pilgrimage was impromptu, hence I had not researched where the famous bar was located. This grocery store however featured prominently in the film and even displays an Amelie poster on the corner!

Small pleasures in life are a recurring theme in Amelie, the crack of caramel on a brulee, plunging a hand into a sack of lentils.

Our small pleasure in Montmartre was watching crepes being cooked on this iron.

I’m struggling to think of an equivalent fast food in the UK which would be served with liqueur such as Grand Marnier. Ideas welcome below…

Un fableux ice cream parlour!

Having walked from Montparnasse to Montmarte with only a brief 4 stop hop on the Metro, we crawled down Montmarte to our final Amelie moment of the day.

Abbesses Metro station is one of only a few retaining its original Art Nouveau canopy. It’s also the station to which Amelie escorts the blind man in the film. Being built into the side of the hill, it’s a rarity in Paris that you have to descend deep to the platform.

Never had I been so glad to sit down! Exploring cities in hot weather is thirsty work.

Maison Cupcake in Paris Part One: Laduree
Maison Cupcake in Paris Part Two: La Coupole and La Rotonde