Dining in Orvieto

While walking around Orvieto enjoying the many vistas, the historical architecture and churches, as well as getting in some quality art time, one of the great pleasures to be found there lies in exploring the many dining establishments, which range from ristorantes, trattorias, osterias, pizzerias, to enotecas and wine bars (in descending order of formality, see this site for more details on different types of restaurants in Italy). Each place we sampled was excellent within its range and served a wide variety of delectable meals. Those of you who have followed this blog since its inception may remember our friend, Vitopaolo – from North Italia in Tucson – gave us a list of his favorite establishments in Orvieto before we left on our trip. We managed to hit three of the four suggestions and went by the fourth one (Trattoria del Moro) several times, but it was closed each time. The other three were great, so we are sorry we missed the Trattoria del Moro, but it gives us something to look forward to when we come back to Orvieto on our next trip to Italy.

Now for some specific meals that we enjoyed in Orvieto. These repasts included quick breakfasts at Mantanucci’s, leisurely coffee breaks at the Caffè del Teatro (at the Teatro Mancinelli), convenient lunches at the Bar Duomo, La Piazzeta Wine Bar, and Bistrotters, and more formal dinners at the Ristorante dell’Ancora, La Pergola, La Palomba, and Le Grotto di Funaro. The manager of our flat was Sabrina, she was very helpful and gave us some great advice on places to go as well. She also works at the Teatro Mancinelli, but her family owns Bottega Vèra, which is on the way to the Duomo. Her family also owns the deli right next door, which is a great place to pick up some excellent cheese, prosciutto, and other treats. We stopped by there several times for wine tasting and to pick up a bottle or two to take back to Casa Otello with us.

Pointing the Way to Fine Dining
Ristorante dell’ Ancora	Trattoria La Pergola
Le Grotte del Funaro	Caffé at Teatro Mancinelli
Fine Wines from Bottega Vera	Dining in Le Grotte

We managed to cover the gamut of dining here in Orvieto from pizza to salcicca to plenty of good home-made pastas to some great dishes Miss Cyd prepared at Casa Otello from delicacies she would pick up at the Farmer’s Market in the Piazza di Popolo and delis.

Sample Dishes
Veal Saltimbocca	Grilled Salcicca
Prosciutto and Melon	Treats di Casa Otello

All-in-all, our time in Orvieto was productive and entertaining. We enjoyed our stay in Casa Otello and would definitely rent this flat again when we return to Orvieto. It was a primo location with great views right out the door and easy access to everything in Orvieto. We got our daily steps in and worked off all these excellent meals every day as we strolled around Orvieto and took in all the sights. Our plan next time is to stay din Orvieto longer and rent a car at the train station for day trips around Tuscany and Umbria.

The Views around Casa Otello

Next up is our trip north to Florence.

Happy Traveling,

Joe and Cyd

Arrival in Orvieto

Well, we were in Orvieto for a week, but I was quite remiss on keeping the blog updated as there is so much to see and do, as well as places to wine and dine in Orvieto. I’m actually writing this from Florence since the regional train up from Orvieto was not conducive to working on my laptop (no tables at our seats and the ride was pretty rough compared to our normal bullet trains. Oh well, better late than never, so here goes.

We arrived in Orvieto on 3 May and unloaded at the train station. Imagine our thoughts as we walked out from the station, looked up the steep incline to the top of the volcanic plug where Orvieto sits, and gazed at an empty taxi stand. Hmmm, we were not hauling our luggage up the hill, so we waited for a taxi. Federico arrived shortly and carried us right to the door of Casa Otello (which I also captured in the abstract on Stella’s postcard from Orvieto, see below). Sabrina, the manager of the flat, arrived on time and gave us an introduction to the flat and the surrounding neighborhood. Sabrina was very helpful when we contacted her later in the week for more information. She works at the Teatro Mancinelli, which also has an excellent café (the Caffé del Teatro) that we visited for coffee and cappuccino several times during our stay.

Sabrina’s family owns the Bottega Vera near the Duomo, where we bought some very nice local wines including a couple of bottles from Tenuta Le Velette, the vineyard we visited in 2013 where we first decided we must return for a stay in Orvieto. There is another local vineyard with excellent wines that we tried during our stay here. Barberani produces an excellent white (Castagnolo Bianci) and a very good red (Foresco Rosso) that complements the Italian cuisine to a tee. The Castagnolo paired well with appetizers, pizzas, and pasta dishes, while the Foresco stood up very nicely to the heavier cinghiale (wild boar), salcicca (local sausage), vitello (veal), and agnello (lamb) dishes.

There was just so much to see and do from a historical perspective that my art efforts suffered a bit. I managed a few good sketches and Miss Cyd took some great photos that I can use later. Cyd and I walked out to the western point of the city to Chiesa San Giovenale, which is one of the oldest churches in Orvieto (circa 1100s), one evening for sunset. I returned there the next day to paint the church, but rain was imminent. The light had totally shifted, but I managed to block in the bell tower and the chapel before it started to rain. Since I am using Golden Open acrylics and the humidity was up a bit, the paint took a couple of days to dry completely, so I’ll have to finish this when I get back home, but at least I got the basic drawing completed and the initial painting blocked in. I think I will use the photos that Cyd took to place it at sunset when I finish it. I did several sketches while in Orvieto that I liked, one of which is included below of Via di Piazza del Popolo. Along with Vitopaolo’s recommendations of Orvieto restaurants and wine bars, one of the better restaurants we visited was Ristorante Dell’Ancora, which sits in the curve of this street just before the Grand Hotel Italia. There was so much good food that I think I’ll have to do a blog dedicated just to wining and dining, so more about that in a later post.

Three Art Modalities in Orvieto
Painting	Drawing	Sketching
Chiesa San Giovenale	Stella’s Orvieto Postcard	Via di Piazza del Popolo

Speaking of art, while I enjoy painting en plein air, from a logistical standpoint it is just a pain to pack all of my painting equipment around. I think on future trips to Europe, I may just bring my sketching materials, some good paper blocks, and my Derwent Inktense pencils. The quality of the photos that Miss Cyd takes is so high, I believe I can produce better work if I focus on drawing shapes and work on the paintings themselves en atelier back home. This is a bit of a paradigm shift for me, but life is (or should be) a constant struggle of learning, growing, and taking new directions. I am starting to get much more comfortable with the Derwents and at ease in developing drawings from my sketches and paintings from my drawings. En plein air painting will always have a place in my creative life, but domestic road trips are more conducive to the production of quality paintings than overseas travel. If I decide that I simply must do a painting when in Europe next time, which could certainly happen, there are ample art stores where I can buy a small set of paints and a canvas without packing everything around all the time.

We walked quite a bit during our week in Orvieto and there were incredible buildings and street scenes around every curve. Here are just a sampling of the streets and buildings:

Street Scenes in Orvieto
Flyover Apartment	Bell Tower	Outside Casa Otello
Approaching The Duomo	Arch near Casa Otello	Many Lanes Like This
Orvieto in the Rain	Great Street Lights	Near San Giovenale

I would estimate between the two of us, we took hundreds of photos on this trip, but there is just so much to see and do. One of the highlights of our week was walking around the Duomo di Orvieto Cattedrale. This is a beautiful building and has a great pipe organ. It is one of the largest in Europe with around 5,500 pipes. On Sunday, we attended Mass and got to hear the choir and the organ. The sound was amazing and complemented the service well.

No photo shoot from Orvieto should miss the panoramic scenery from the four sides of the town. The terrain around Orvieto is beautiful and provides much creative inspiration. There are numerous spots along the wall to see the valleys below and the opposite hills. Although much of this has been developed, particularly down around the train station, there is still plenty of space dedicated to vineyards and olive groves:

Gazing in Four Directions from the Orvieto Plateau
North	East
South	West

A week in Orvieto is hardly sufficient time to explore the whole area. We had planned to rent a car for a day or two and make trips to other towns in Umbria and Tuscany, but found we just didn’t have time to do that. Oh well, another trip for another day. I’m going to close this opening blog with a brief note of a spectacular that we will miss due to our short stay. Andrea Bocelli will be singing at the Duomo on July 4th as part of the Orvieto 4ever event, which I am sure will be another stellar performance by Bocelli in a great setting. I envy those who are fortunate enough to be in town for that show.

Enough for the intro to Orvieto, my next blog will focus on the fine cuisine aspect of our stay here as we worked our way through a list of ristorantes, trattorias, bottegas, and enotecas in this fair hilltop town.

Ciao,

Joe and Cyd

Rainy Days in Milano!

The morning dawned cold and grey when we awoke on our first day in Milan (or Milano, as it is called in Italy). The forecast called for rain all day and into the night, but we are here and plan to make the best of the situation. The AC Boscolo does not have a concierge lounge, so we received complementary access to breakfast at the Oltremare Ristorante on the ground floor (the Terrazza Dama Ristorazione is only open in the evenings). No matter, the buffet selections were excellent and Miss Cyd’s morning cappuccinos and my café Americanos were prepared and brought to the table by the friendly staff. There is a lot to be said for having Marriott’s Platinum Premier Elite status in their European properties. The staff just seems to recognize and appreciate it a bit more than those at domestic Marriotts. As I mentioned in the previous blog, Miss Cyd convinced me not to leave my Marmot and sweater at the St. Pancras to await our return to London like I initially planned, so after a good breakfast, we were both prepared to venture out into the rain.

It got rather chilly as the wind picked up more and more during the day. Miss Cyd was warm and toasty in her hand-knitted scarf, so I stopped by a men’s store on the way to the Duomo Cathédrale to pick up a linen escarpe to keep the wind and rain off my neck. Even though Cyd had to give me a quick lesson on the sidewalk outside the store on how to wear it, I think it looks rather dashing and fits me well – in a Continental sort of way – like the fashionista that I never will be ;-). The scarf (l’Escarpe in Italian, le Foulard in French) certainly kept me warmer for the rest of the cold rainy day. The lines were way too long to stand in the rain for the Duomo Cathédrale, so we bagged that for the day and went over to the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II to stroll through the shops and do some people-watching. The Galleria is laid out in a cross pattern with Prada holding down two valuable central corner locations diagonally across from each other, while Versace and Louis Vuitton are on the other two prime corners. Each corner also has an excellent fresco at the top over the storefront:

Frescos over the Anchor Stores at the Galleria Vittorio Emmanuele II
NW Corner – Prada	NE Corner – Louis Vuitton
SW Corner – Versace	SE Corner – Prada

This link provides some information about the recent renovation of what is touted as one of the oldest shopping malls, although some historical pundits may point to Trajan’s Markets in Rome as having the distinction as a much older, and perhaps the first mall, so let’s just call the Galleria the first modern mall. It was also interesting to note that Louis Vuitton is not above co-opting famous artists for ideas for new products. Vuitton collaborated with Jeff Koons to design the Masters collection line of bags:

Window Displays: Art Bags at Louis Vuitton

Ferrari also has a store just outside the eastern gallery. There is an actual Formula One car inside the store, but there are also driving simulators in the basement where you can sit inside a car and drive an actual race on the screen in front of you. I thought about doing that, but the lines were clear back up the stairs, so I passed and we opted to head over to Teatro Alla Scala (aka La Scala) to see what was on this week. La Scala and the other notable locations like the Santa Maria delle Grazie, where l’Ultima Cena (the Last Supper) is located, are all closed on Mondays, so after wandering around in the rain a bit more, we headed back to the hotel to have some café and dry out a bit. I completed Stella’s postcard from Milano for her. I bought a nice educational postcard with l’Ultima Cena and the Apostles’ names in Italian on the front and drew the Castello Sforzesco (Sforza Castle) on it. I tried something new with this drawing and outlined the primary elements in pen. Although I liked the initial drawing, I’m not a huge fan of the end result, as I think it looks a bit like a cartoon. However, I also think creativity is all about experimentation and discovery. Sometimes I discover I like a new style and sometimes I don’t, but at least I am trying to learn something new every day on this trip.

Stella’s Post Card from Milano
The Initial Drawing	The End Result

On Tuesday, we were a bit disappointed that, although we were in the midst of the Italian textile industry, we spent most of the day in one long line after another, buying tickets, waiting to get into the Duomo Cathédrale, waiting to get into the lift to go up to the terrace on top of the Duomo. As a result, Miss Cyd did not get an opportunity to explore the textile element of Milano in more depth while we were here. We did take a break from standing in all those lines in the middle of the day and had an excellent lunch at the Maio Ristorante, which is on top of the Reniscente Building across the street from the Duomo.

What a Difference a Day Makes!
Warning: Slick when Wet!	View from the Top!

Although the weather was much better in the morning of our second day, the Duomo was magnificent, and the view from the top was great, it started raining again in the afternoon. I was glad to get to the top of the Duomo in dry weather. All that sloping marble would have been incredibly slippery in yesterday’s rain, so it was good we bagged it then and did not try to go up there yesterday. After the rain started falling again today, we headed back to the hotel for dinner and to pack up for Orvieto.

Speaking of learning something new, I must confess that I did not plan the Milan segment of our trip very well. Since we were only here for two days, I didn’t give it a lot of forethought. I did not realize that Italy pretty much shuts down on May 1 (the Italian Labor Day) and most museums are closed on Mondays anyway. The Last Supper has limited accessibility by timed entry and it was sold out for Tuesday. Rossini’s La Gazza Ladra (The Thieving Magpie), which premiered at La Scala 200 years ago, was also playing Tuesday night. There were a few tickets available, but we had to catch an early train to Bologna on our way to Orvieto on Wednesday morning, so we opted not to go. [Note to Self: If and when we return to Milan, plan better and buy tickets well in advance to avoid future sold-out situations and schedule the stay to have sufficient time to get around town.]

I’d have to grade Milano as one of the weaker stops in our trip so far, but that is probably more my fault for poor planning, than the fault of the weather. Two days was not really enough time to see very much in a city this large. No matter, we are here in Italy, the hotel and staff were very good, we had some great meals in Milano, and we are packed up and ready to head to Orvieto in the morning for a week at Casa Otello. All-in-all, that’s a hard combination to beat, even if we didn’t get around to everything we wanted to see here in Milan. I am looking forward to some good art time in Orvieto, so enough looking back.

Buona Sera, gotta take that morning train and move along on our own little Eurotrip.

Happy Traveling,

Joe and Cyd

On to Italia!

Sunday is here, final packing has been completed and now we are on our way to Italy. Jean-Philippe picked us up at La Méjanes and drove us to Marseilles Saint-Charles to catch our Thello Eurocity train (#145) to Milano Centrale. It was a pleasant drive, we discussed the adventures we’ve had, how much we enjoyed our visit and thanked him for his hospitality and kindness. Giving him and Elise our warmest regards, we took our leave at the train station. We had about an hour to wait before catching our train, so we enjoyed a nice cup of Illy espresso to help make the mental shift between France and Italy. Miss Cyd took a stroll outside on the portico to take some pictures of Marseilles from the perspective of the train station, while we waited.

Views from Marseilles Saint-Charles Train Station

Several people in Aix warned us of the civil unrest and other dangers of Marseilles, but fortunately, we did not see any evidence of it as we did not venture into the city on our way to Gare de Marseille Saint-Charles. Speaking of civil unrest, the current presidential election between Le Pen and Marcon has turned rather ugly, sparking several demonstrations in Paris and other large cities. This is reminiscent of the 2016 U. S. election between Trump and Clinton and its aftermath, as right-wing and left-wing ideologies are also clashing here in France. Once again, we were fortunate not to get caught up in any of that during our travels through France and our very pleasant stay in Aix-en-Provence.

Our Thello EuroCity train finally pulled in on platform A and we boarded for our trip east along the Mediterranean and south to Milan. The train ride was about seven hours and stopped in several locations including Cannes, Nice, Antibes, and Monaco among other notable locations on the Cote d’Azur, before we heading southeast down along the Ligurian Sea into Italy to Genoa, then inland to Milan. Fortunately, we had excellent seats facing each other to enjoy the ride and relax. I got in some work, but mainly we kicked back and checked out the passing views. Although we were zipping along the coast, Miss Cyd got some good pictures of the seascapes along the way, that she will post to her Photo Stream.

Scenes of the Cote d’Azur

We pulled into Milano Centrale around 1930 CEST and caught a taxi over to the AC Boscolo hotel. This is a Marriott property, centered in the midst of the historic center of Milano. We were pretty beat from our travels and did not feel like venturing very far afield for dinner, so we asked the concierge to make us reservations at the Ristorazione Dama restaurant on the Terrazzo at the top of the hotel. The view of the Duomo
Cathédrale was incredible at night, although the plastic sheeting that closed off the terrace against the chill that night made it a bit difficult to take a good picture, but the food was exquisite. Our first meal in Milan consisted of a salmon starter the chef sent out as a welcoming gift, then Miss Cyd had a lobster dish, while I had shrimp tartare. For our main courses, Cyd enjoyed veal and I had a mixed seafood grill that was undoubtedly one of the best I have ever had. The octopus tentacles were unlike any others I’ve had (tasty without being rubbery like most presentations of calamari), the shrimp was prepared with olive oil, and the two fish selections were cooked to perfection and quite savory. A bottle of Vino Nobile de Montapulciano was the perfect complement to this first meal in Italy.

Our First Meal in Milano
A Gift from the Chef	Lobster Tails	Shrimp Tartare
Filleto di Vitello	Composizione di Pesce	A Great Vino Rosso

After dinner, we made our way back to the room for a well-deserved rest. We are only in Milano for two days before we head to Casa Otello in Orvieto on Wednesday for a week, so we want to make the most of our stay here in Milano. However, the weather forecast calls for rain and colder temperature tomorrow, so it’s a good thing we brought our rain gear from London.

Ciao,

Joe and Cyd

Farewell to Aix

Winding down our visits to Aix is always bittersweet. We so enjoy our time here. While we look forward to the next steps in our travels, it is always difficult to leave La Méjanes. This time was no different. Even though we did not keep a frenetic tourista pace on this trip, we were able to accomplish most of our art goals and a good many of our goals to enjoy some fine wine and soft cheeses.

As I mentioned in my closing comments in the last blog, the time we spent here seemed to flow by far too quickly, although we have thoroughly enjoyed our stay. Miss Cyd and I met a gentleman at O’Sullivan’s on Friday who teaches French here, and who was kind enough to take our picture with Anaïs, who along with Sidney, provided such excellent service to us during our sojourn here in Aix. Anaïs also loves to travel and was telling us about her recent trip to Thailand and Cambodia with her boyfriend.

We are thinking that perhaps a month in Aix taking French lessons might be in our future travel plans, but for now, we must close this chapter of our travels on the continent and prepare to head south on the Thello Eurocity Train #145 on Sunday from Marseilles Saint Charles to Milano Centrale. However, we spent a couple of great final days here in Aix that I should relate before we move along to our time in Italy.

Friday was still a bit windy, but warmer and clear. We made another trip up to the Créative Grafic art supply store, so Miss Cyd could pick up some more Schmincke Aquarell watercolor pans, as the pans are very difficult to find back home. She selected a nice palette for Italy – including a wealth of yellows – and will break them in there, although she was not able to resist unpacking them in the flat and working up a color key in her atelier space.

Gotta Love those Schminke Watercolours in a Brand New Box
The New Collection	Must Unwrap Them Now	A Color Key for Italy

I packed my painting of Mont Sainte-Victoire (which finally dried) carefully and sandwiched it between two blank canvases. I plan to obtain more canvases in Italy, but for now I didn’t want my painting to get damaged in shipping. We loaded the international Colissimo XL box with the painting, souvenirs, and other small items to maximize the flat rate of €55 for a 7kg box. I took it down to La Poste on Saturday and sent it away on its journey to Kentucky to Matt’s house where we will pick it up on our return.

Saturday morning, we also stopped by Michel’s hardware store to have a last cup of espresso with him and thank him for his kindness during our stay. His father, Roland, wants to come to the U.S., rent a Harley in Chicago, and ride Route 66 all the way west to the Pacific Ocean. I told him to let me know when he is coming and I’ll meet him in Chicago and take the ride with him. That would be a great trip, even if Route 66 still only exists in short stretches. Roland told me of this aspiration when I met him on our last trip to Aix at Michel’s as he sat astride his Road King, so I brought Roland a patch for his vest from Route 66
Harley Davidson in Tulsa.  We also brought Michel a Ford Mustang Parking Only sign for his 1968 Mustang Fastback, which is painted in the classic Bullitt Green. He just put a new Windsor 351 engine in it and showed us a movie clip of the car being cranked for the first time after the installation. What a great sound from a classic engine.

As pictured above, we also spent some quality time at O’Sullivan’s having a cold Kilkenny and chatting with Anäis and Sidney. With a good vantage point at our table, I finalized my sketch of what I call “La Madonna de Place des Augustins” that will surely make its appearance as a larger studio painting one day. There are many buildings in Aix that have small sculptures such as this on one or more corners and I found them all very interesting as both art and architectural elements.

Our host, Jean-Philippe, was kind enough to help us set up the grand finale of our stay in Aix. We asked him to recommend a good authentic French restaurant and he far exceeded our expectations. He made us a reservation at a small restaurant near La Méjanes called Le 18. This restaurant is owned and operated by a French family and is very reminiscent of the ones cited by M. F. K. Fisher and Julia Childs in their writings on French restaurants. Seating is by reservation only (due to the small size and huge popularity) and the menu is limited to a few selections proudly explained in detail from a handwritten little chalkboard menu. The restaurateur was very friendly and explained each of the choices in detail. Between our limited French and his limited Anglais, we managed to decide on some superb dishes. I am taking the liberty to include several pictures of this repast, including the exceptional bottle of wine (a 1998 Château Cantenac Brown Margaux, which is a classic Bordeaux) that Jean-Philippe provided from his own wine cellar for our dining delight. The restaurateur provided us with a complementary aperitif of sparkling rosé and a small confit de legumes. For starters, we both chose the grilled asparagus and fresh mozzarella. For dinner, Miss Cyd chose a veal dish with young snow peas, while I had a papilotte du saumon au bacon with a green salad (still watching my blood sugar in anticipation of dessert). For dessert, we could not decide between the three choices: a) chocolate mousse, b) rice pudding with caramel topping, or c) custard with raspberry syrup, so the restaurateur said, “Why choose? Try them all!” so we chose the café au gourmand, which provided a sampling of each delicacy along with a savory demitasse of freshly brewed espresso. What a meal, now this was the French food we have been waiting for and Le 18 is certainly on the list for our next trip to Aix!

Dining at Le 18
Enjoying an Apertif	Asperge avec Mozzarella	Cyd’s Veal and Peas
Joe’s Saumon Papillote	Served with a Great Red	Café au Gourmand

Thanks to Jean-Philippe for his kindness and generosity to us, not only in setting up this meal, but in general for being so attentive to our needs, finding drivers on short notice, and for checking in on us periodically. For anyone interested in visiting Aix, you can find La Méjanes on VRBO.

Saturday has wound down now; we shipped our box back to the States, and did some preliminary packing to get ahead of the curve for our departure tomorrow. It is getting late and we must catch our train to Milano early tomorrow. It has been a marvelous experience here, but it is now time to set our sights on Italy and the adventures to be had in Milan, Orvieto, Florence, and Venice.

Happy Traveling, Adieu á Aix

Joe and Cyd

Provençal Markets

When last we met on Tuesday evening, rain was beginning to fall as we left Château La Coste. It continued to rain throughout the night and well into Wednesday. Although we are very familiar with the brilliant blue Provençal skies, we put on our raincoats and ventured out to see what Aix looks like under a more forbidding sky. It’s easy to see why the Impressionists kept painting when the skies turned grey, as both rural and urban scenes – albeit perpetually churning and changing under the varying light of inclement conditions – remain as constant inspiration and balm for the creative soul. Rainy days here are amazing; grey and a bit gloomy. The sky is heavily laden with clouds that roil and undulate in the wind, evoking comparisons with Van Gogh’s skies. The wet stucco surfaces take on new intense colors against the gray, centuries-old stone shiny with moisture. There just isn’t a time where the scenery, no matter how mundane, fails to inspire.

Another delightful aspect of Aix-en-Provence is the delightful surprise of temporary markets that spring up at 7am and are totally gone by 2pm. There are farmers markets, flower markets, fish markets, clothing markets, antique book markets, swap meets, and you-name-it markets. Since we have a full kitchen in La Méjanes (including TWO oyster shuckers!), delicacies at the market, like the saucisson et fromage de chèvre pictured here, a fresh baguette of bread and a bottle of good wine makes for an excellent meal on the nights when we do not feel like venturing back out from the flat after a busy day. I’ve posted a few pictures of the markets, but since it rained all day on Wednesday, I thought we would get a few more as we strolled through the wet and chilly streets of Aix.

Glad that we brought our raincoats, we bundled up and headed out. The farmers market nearest La Méjanes is protected by a giant boar outside. As you can see, his snout has been rubbed for good luck over his many years of service. This bronze fountain is reminiscent of the boar we saw in the Florence markets in 2013 on our trip to that fair city of art and science. I’ll try to get another picture of that one when we get to Florence so I can compare the two statues. Just across the plaza from the boar is Le Pain Quotidiene, which provided us with a hearty petit dejeuner et café. In this picture, I am enjoying a cocotte of scrambled eggs, served with sliced ham, robust Swiss cheese, and a mesclun salade. Miss Cyd opted for a toasted brioche with fresh cream cheese with saumon fumé. We ordered a grande café and a cappuccino, which were quite a bit larger than we anticipated with no handles, but both were quite tasty and warm on a cold rainy day. After breakfast, we wandered back out into the rain and strolled through the markets.

Provençal Market Scenes
Walking to Market	Flower Market	Fresh Seafood
More Fresh Fish	Apples	Spices
Monsieur Saucisson	Picking up Veggies	Mmmm, More Veggies

We also tried to visit the Granet Museum to get out of the rain, but they were closed for renovation through Saturday, so we will not get to visit their collections, which include quite a few Flemish paintings and some Impressionists on this trip. We went back to La Méjanes to catch up on some documentation, like the blog and Miss Cyd’s travel journal and PhotoStream and wait the rain out.

The Mistral awoke us on Thursday morning, blowing cold air from the north, but chasing the clouds and rain away. The temperature dropped about 5 degrees Celsius, but the chill did not deter us from visiting the Caumont Art Centre, where we walked through the Marilyn Monroe retrospective. It’s hard to believe she has been gone 55 years, but the photos and commentaries were still fresh albeit in French. My ability to read French – at least to some degree – is getting better, so I actually was able to follow along with the didactic labeling, although I still struggled with the audio segments. We had a fabulous lunch in the Grande Galerie that was a pleasant dining experience in the midst of a windy day. Cyd had the Don Giovanni salad, while I opted for the Les Noces de Figaro plate. Both selections were delicious, so we shared tastes of each plate.

Lunch at the Caumont Art Centre
Menu	Salon de Chinoise	Grande Galerie
Salon de Rosé	Cyd’s Lunch	Joe’s Lunch

The Caumont is a privately owned facility that was renovated at great expense, but it is undoubtedly well worth the time to visit. We just missed a Sisley exhibition that is following the Monroe retrospective in early June. I am sure that exhibition will be spectacular, as well. During our visit here, we also viewed an informative and well-made film in the auditorium exploring the life of Paul Cézanne in Provence, which covered his early life at Jas de Bouffan  through his Parisian years, his return to Aix, and eventual death while painting his beloved muse, Montagne Sainte-Victoire.

Alas, we are now down to our last couple of days in Aix. It has been a great stay this year, but the time seemed to pass far too quickly. We will spend Friday and Saturday packing a Colissimo XL box for shipping from La Poste back to the States with some of our souvenirs and and then make the rounds saying goodbye to some of the kind folks we have met here, like Michel at the hardware store and the girls down at O’Sullivan’s pub. However, I must close this blog for now, but we will have one final chapter to post on our closing adventures in Aix as we prepare to move on to the Italian segment of our trip. Stay tuned!

Happy Traveling,

Joe and Cyd.

 

Château La Coste: Redux 2017

Tuesday morning dawned with a clear blue sky and our host, Jean-Philippe, had arranged for a driver to take us to Château La Coste. We visited this vineyard and art center in 2015 on our last trip to Aix-en-Provence and thoroughly enjoyed the artwork and the dining experiences to be found here. Our driver, Pascal, also drove us to the Château in 2015, but his English was much better this time around. We had a good chat about his trip to Florida since we had seen him last and his future travel plans to visit New York. Once we arrived at the Château, we walked around the older buildings on the grounds a bit taking some pictures and I got in a quick sketch of the Accuiel Secretariat building that may end up as a painting later on. Miss Cyd took some great photographs that I can use later on to capture the color and the shrubbery around this great old building.

After we checked in at the Tadao Ando building, we decided to have a bit of lunch on the patio overlooking the Mathematical Model sculpture (#4 [on the map below]: Hiroshi Sugimoto) before following the uphill path on the walking tour of the site-specific artworks. The Ménu du Moment looked interesting, so we each had different selections from it: For starters, Cyd had the duo de magret de canard (sliced duck) salad, while I enjoyed the filet de rouget (fish). We both chose the filet mignon de porc main, which came with a tapenade of mushrooms and hazelnuts that was superb with the fresh baked bread. For dessert, Cyd opted for a lemon cream dish with pieces of meringue and cake, while I tried to be mindful of my blood sugar and selected the duo de fromages (French cheese selections) We also had a bottle of Les Pentes Douces Blanc from the Château La Coste cellars with lunch. We enjoyed the wine so much, at the end of the day we picked up a few more bottles to take back to La Méjanes to savor later in the week.

Feasting at Château La Coste
Le Ménu	Our Friendly Server	Cyd’s Salade de Canard
Filet de Rouget	Filet Mignon de Porc	Dessert – not mine ;-(

While enjoying this excellent lunch and a couple of cups de café, we made our plan to visit the art and architecture installations. After lunch, I took a picture of Cyd sitting under the Crouching Spider (#3: Louise Bourgeois) in the pool south of the Ando building before we headed up the hill on our trek to the Tadao Ando (#15) chapel at the top of the hill. Unlike our first trip here in 2015, when we made a conscious decision to visit each piece in sequence, we elected this time to take a more direct stroll up the hill, stopping by a few of our favorite pieces along the way, like the Donegal bridge set (#6: Larry Nufeld), the ponds and red bridge in the central watershed (between #8 and #19), and the seven Foxes (#16: Michael Stipe).

Once we got to the summit, we took a little break to relax at the Ando chapel (#15) and enjoyed the vistas from the chapel courtyard. The clouds were beginning to build up, the sky darkened, and it looked like rain, so we took the westernmost path down the hill to visit the newest piece, Ruyi Path (Ai Weiwei, see brackets drawn on left side of map, as it was too new to make the last map printing). Ai Weiwei currently has an exhibition of his work on display at the Château called Mountains and Seas. After that side trip, we took the southern route down the hill, stopping by the three balancing pieces called Tunga (#9: Psicopompos). The folks at the desk said these pieces were “fragile” so do not try to swing them. They looked pretty sturdy to me, but we took them at their word and just admired them from the path.

When we reached the bottom of the hill, we turned left and skirted the field of Cabernet Sauvignon vines, checked out the new hotel, Villa La Coste, and walked around to the “Bean” formally known as Drop (#23, Tom Shannon). By the time we got back to the buildings, the sky had taken on a Van Gogh look and rain was imminent. After picking up some wine for the rest of the week in La Méjanes, we sat out on the terrace until our driver arrived at 1800 for the trip back to Aix. It rained a bit while we waited, but we were sheltered to some degree; thus we enjoyed the rainfall and the contrast between the turbulent sky and the classic winery buildings. That’s an image just begging to emerge from the canvas!

The day was well spent, we had an excellent dining experience, I did a bit of sketching that may turn in future paintings, and Miss Cyd took a series of excellent photographs. Our driver showed up right on time and returned us to Aix just ahead of the rain that hovered over us all day on Wednesday, but that is all fodder for my next post, “Provençal Markets.” Stay tuned for that blog.

Happy hiking through the hills, combined with great art and pleasant surroundings, it’s all good for the soul,

Joe and Cyd.

Back in Aix-en-Provence

“It was different with Beard. He and M. F. had found themselves momentarily liberated, immersed in the innate beauty and inspired artwork of southern France. And wasn’t that, as much as the food and wine they both so loved, why they came here again and again? The French dedication to pleasure, in all its various forms, was what spoke to both of them” (Barr, 2013, p. 115).

Although Barr was writing of James Beard and Mary Frances Kennedy [M. F. K.] Fisher, two American culinary giants of the mid to late 20th century, this passage could just as well speak to Miss Cyd’s and my interests in the south of France. We thoroughly enjoy our immersion in the beauty, artwork, food, and wine that we find when we arrive in Aix-en-Provence, and indeed, the entire Provençal department. This blog and at least one or two more will describe our experiences in Aix. So much to do here, and so little time.

We thought ten days in Aix would be plenty before we embarked on the Italian segment of our trip, but we find ourselves on a rare rainy day sitting in atelier contemplating half of our stay is irretrievably gone. On the bright side, we have had some excellent art time, along with many good meals, and we got in a side trip to Château La Coste yesterday as the weather turned foul later in the day. I was able to do some quick sketches on site and Miss Cyd got a great series of photographs that we may be able to turn into paintings later on.  But I get ahead of myself, so back to the beginning of our stay in Aix and our adventures of the weekend.

As I mentioned in my last blog, our host, Jean-Philippe, picked us up at Marseilles Saint-Charles train station and drove us to our flat at La Méjanes. Arriving here was literally like coming home again. We unpacked and walked down the street, took a right turn on rue Espariat, and headed for a nice meal and a bottle of wine at the Tapas Café across the Place des Augustins from our favorite Irish bar in Aix, O’Sullivan’s. We enjoyed patatas bravas, gambas al ajillo, costillas caramelizadas, el pollo de la abuella, among other delicacies. We washed it all down with a good bottle of Sangre de Toro. One might well ask, what happened to the good French food and the wine part of the trip? Part of the charm of Aix is the strong Mediterranean influence that mixes many different flavors from around the region. Never fear, we will address some French cuisine before this week is over. 

After dinner, we walked across the Place to O’Sullivan’s to indulge in a couple of cold Kilkenny draughts and enjoy some excellent people-watching as the Friday night crowds flowed past our table. As many times as we have been there, I never noticed the small statue on the corner of the convent at rue Espariat and Place des Augustins. Perhaps, the blue coloring has been added since our last trip or perhaps it was just because of my vantage point at the corner of the patio, but we got a few good pictures that I may turn into a painting later on. The juxtaposition of light and shadow with the Madonna as the sun set on a long day of traveling was very interesting.

Saturday morning dawned with a bright blue Provençal sky and warmer temperatures. As one of my art goals on this trip was to capture images of la Fontaine des Quatre Dauphins, after we had a cappuccino and an Americano to get a jumpstart on the day, we walked south down rue du 4 Septembre to the Place des Quatre-Dauphins in the Mazarine Quarter to take a few photos and start an initial sketch. To force myself to pay strict attention to perspective in a constrained space, I elected to draw the initial sketch on one of Stella’s postcards. I took a good picture of the view I wanted and started to work. I finished the drawing with my Derwent pencils back at the flat on Sunday morning and mailed it off to her on Monday from La Poste down by the tourism office.

La Fontaine des Quatre Dauphins
The View I Wanted	The Initial Sketch	The Final Drawing

As you can tell, I had to compress the scene a bit to fit it on the postcard, but I think Stella will like it. I would like to do a painting of this scene when I get back home, but there are other things I want to paint on this trip, as well, so one art goal down, more to go. After the sketching, we spent the rest of the day of wandering around Aix. We stopped at the Église Saint-Jean-de-Malta to see how the bell replacement project was going. The bell tower was wrapped in scaffolding and the bells were no longer inside, so we assumed they are in the process of being hung now.

We also went to the Cathédrale Saint-Sauveur to see if the Burning Bush triptych (Nicolas Froment, circa 15th century) was on display for the Easter season. It was indeed opened for viewing and looking magnificent after being restored a couple of years ago. The chapel has also been recently restored and is in marked contrast to the other chapels along the central nave.

On our way back from the Créative Grafic art store on Saturday, where we picked up a couple of canvases and other art supplies, we found an Italian deli (L’Italien) near the Cathédrale and picked up some delicacies to prepare back at the flat. Miss Cyd made a very artistic antipasti plate for dinner on Saturday night that we had with a very good Cote Du Rhone. The mound in the middle of this image is an incredible parmesan-truffle dip that is so good with the bread sticks. We also picked up some lasagna and had that for dinner on Sunday with a Cabernet Sauvignon.  It is very convenient to have a full kitchen here at La Méjanes to take a break once in awhile from eating in restaurants.

Monday was an art day for us both. The weather was looking bleak while I hiked back up the hill to Le Terrain des Peintres (see also my 2015 blog “Channeling Cézanne – Part Deux“) to paint another view of Mont Sainte-Victoire. Miss Cyd stayed back at the flat and worked on some watercolors. She did a fun rendition of a old Citroen (called a Souris in French for mouse) in a French street scene on a blank postcard, while I set up at the top level of des Peintres in the midst of a crowd of tourists, who disappeared as rapidly as they arrived and left me in peace to paint. I used Golden Open acrylics in an impasto style to quickly block out the stormy sky and the mountain, as it appeared a storm was about to move in and block my view of the mountain, as well as drop some rain on my head. While I was happy with the way the blocking turned out, I need to let the background dry before I add the foreground details, which I did not have time to do en plein air. The weather is calling for rain on Wednesday and Thursday, so those are probably going to be studio days anyway.

Blocking out Mont Sainte-Victoire
Impending Storm	Working Quickly	Wet Paint

In addition, I realized that I neglected to take into account how long it takes the Golden Open paints to dry. There I stood, all packed up and ready to go with a very wet canvas, no holder, a few scattered rain drops falling, and a four-kilometre hike back to La Méjanes. Not to worry, though, I found a dry forked stick, pulled a couple of small bungee cords from my backpack, lashed it all together, and away down the hill I went carrying the painting in my hand. No muss, no fuss, and not much rain once I got off the hill. I even had time to stop at the wineshop on the way home and pick up a good Bordeaux for dinner.

Monday was a great art day for both of us. Cyd worked with her watercolors and caught up on her PhotoStream project, as well as her Midori travel journal. I did the background painting of Mont Sainte-Victoire that I wanted (one more art goal achieved) and plan to finish the foreground later this week.

L’Atelier de Cyd en La Méjanes
Cyd’s Art Materials	Midori Entries So Far	Slaving Away

All-in-all, it was a good opening weekend for our stay in Aix, but now we are moving forward. Tuesday, we are spending the day at the Château La Coste. We went there the last time we were here, but it is certainly worth a return trip. However, that is a lengthy topic for its own blog. So, adieu from Provence for now, it’s time for another excellent meal.

Happy traveling.

Joe and Cyd

References

Barr, L. (2013). Provence, 1970: M. F. K. Fisher, Julia Child, James Beard, and the Reinvention of American Taste. New York NY: Clarkson Potter.

A Pleasant Week in London – Part 2

Certainly, London is not all museums and great art, there is also some good shopping and dining to be had. Miss Cyd and I made some time to visit our two favorite art supply
stores in London: the London Graphic Centre and CassArt, both of which are in the theater district near the National Gallery. We also visited the Gudrun Sjödén store near London Graphics. I enjoyed some tea and caught up on some emails, while Miss Cyd shopped. We visited one of our favorite pubs, the Porterhouse Grill, on each of our trips to the Theater District to the arts supply stores and museums and enjoyed some excellent house-brewed Porterhouse Reds with some fish and chips. Taking full advantage of our Oyster Cards, we made a complete circle back to the St. Pancras one day and took the Northern line to Angel Station, so Miss Cyd could stop by The Loop to check out their current stock and chat with her colleagues.

 

We also found an excellent coffee shop, Costa Coffee, near the Covent Gardens Tube station. The coffee is very tasty and is a pleasant break from Starbucks. The baristas are amazing to watch and very adept with the high-end Italian espresso machine. They were cranking the coffees, lattes, and cappuccinos out while we were there during rush hour.

Taking a Break at Costa Coffee
Coffee and Cappucino	Now That’s a Cup o’ Joe!	A well-made Cappuccino

Although we mostly dined at the St. Pancras, we had a few good snacks, drinks, and lunches at various establishments around town. On our way back to the hotel from the British Museum, we stopped at the Norfolk Arms in Bloomsbury for a Ploughmans Platter and some draught ale. We stopped at this pub on our last visit to London, as well, so we made a special detour to get there. I mentioned the Porterhouse Grill above, which is also in Covent Garden. This may be the largest bar in London (according to the website), but we always sit in a cozy nook and enjoy a nice break from a busy day. The bartender told us they have to polish the copper fittings at the bar every night and the entire place gets its copper polished once a year. They have to shut down and bring in scaffolding to polish the large ductwork that is two stories above the main hall. It looks very nice, but sounds like a major effort.

 

Whenever we go to the Theater District, we also like to pay homage to the Agatha Christie sculpture that commemorates her two famous detectives, Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple. This trip to see the sculpture has special significance for us, since we will be returning to London from Venice on the Orient Express – hopefully, there will be no Murder on the Orient Express on that journey. However, we are still about a month away from that leg of our trip. We packed a suit, black tie, and Miss Cyd’s outfit for this trip just to dress in style for dinner on the VSOE Orient Express. I’ll be sure to dedicate a blog page to that adventure and post plenty of pictures.

Well, it hardly seems that seven days could fly by so fast, yet there we were early on Friday morning, waiting at the St. Pancras station for the Eurostar to sweep us away to Marseilles. Although we have enjoyed our stay in London, it is time to move on to the Continent. 

We had an excellent trip on the Eurostar. I booked us in Club Duo seats (Car 7, seats 11 and 15), so we had single seats facing each other over a table. Miss Cyd’s seat faced forward so she could take pictures throughout the journey, while I caught up on some emails, responded to some of my students in MGT/711, napped, and read a bit from my seat facing backwards. Although we did not have to make a connection on this leg, the train stopped in Ashford England, as well as in Lille, Lyon, and Avignon in France, as we rocketed south to Marseilles. This gave us several good opportunities to get up and stretch our legs during the stops. We also had our first French meal on the train, which was quite tasty, and served with a nice red Bergerac from the Dijon department.

We have been looking forward to our return to Aix for two years now. I plan to do some sketching and painting while we are here. My two main art goals in Aix are to sketch Le Fontaine de Quatre Dauphins (I’m thinking about doing a preliminary sketch on Stella’s postcard from Aix) and hike back up to the Jardin des Peintres to do another painting of Mont Saint Victoire, while we are here. Miss Cyd took a good picture of our first sighting of the mountain from the Eurostar as we rolled past Aix to the east on our way south to Marseilles.  This is almost the same angle of the mountain that we see from the Jardin, perhaps just a bit further south.
Just as a side note, it is not easy taking good pictures when you are rolling along at 200 kilometres per hour, but Cyd got some great photos for her PhotoStream of the trip. Of course, I glommed on to some of them for the blog, since she is a much better photographer than me.

 

Six and a half hours after leaving St. Pancras International, we arrived at Marseilles Saint-Charles, where our landlord, Jean-Philippe, picked us up at the station and drove us to our home away from home in Aix-en-Provence: La Méjanes. The first London segment of our trip is over, now we are set for some pleasant experiences in the South of France.

Happy traveling,

Joe and Cyd

 

 

 

 

A Pleasant Week in London – Part 1

We spent a lovely week in London after our arrival. The weather could not have been
better, no rain and blue skies. Our driver picked us up at Heathrow and dropped us off at the St. Pancras. Unfortunately, Jamil was ill that day and could not meet us, but he made arrangements for one of his partners to pick us up when we arrived. As I mentioned in the last blog, we caught earlier flights from LEX and ATL, so we got into LHR earlier than anticipated. One of the great things about using the Marriott app is the ability to check in online and change the arrival time to earlier or later. I notified the St. Pancras of our early arrival via the app from ATL before we boarded. Not only did they have our room ready at 0900, but gave us a complementary upgrade to a Premier King in the Barlow wing. It pays to be a Platinum member as we also got free access to the Chambers Club for breakfast, High tea, and evening drinks. During our stay, the hotel remodeled the Chambers Club, so they moved the entire operation to the Royal Suite sitting room for the remainder of our stay, where we had breakfast with the Queen (well, with her picture, at least) every day . The staff members of the club are very pleasant and gave us some great tips on places to go during our stay in London. Our discussions with several of the staff revealed Marriott’s commitment to staff development. Several of the staff had started in housecleaning at various Marriott properties around the world and were working in the Chambers Club, while attending classes here to earn degrees in Hotel Management. One of the staff (Domenic), who is currently in the Hotel Management program, is married to a young lady who went through the program in India and is now a manager in a hotel in Oman. He is working to get her a spousal visa to transfer to London and we wished him well in that endeavor.

On Sunday, we attended Easter mass at the St. Pancras Anglican Church, just a couple of blocks down from the hotel. This is a historical church, so we  got there early to walk around and take a few pictures before the service. The choir and the organist were very nice, and the vicar even invited the children in attendance to hunt for Easter Eggs during the service. Miss Cyd got a knitted duck (who we named Turner, after J.M.W. Turner, one of our favorite British painters) from one of the readers after the service. After mass, we headed over to the British Museum, since that is also an easy walk from the hotel. It is always good to visit the antiquities section to see the Elgin Marbles, the Rosetta Stone, and notable statuary and relics from numerous bygone kingdoms. I perused the Metopes from the South Wall of the Parthenon and thought about sketching one of them, but there was nowhere to sit down, Sadly, laziness got the better of me and I strolled on to check more of them out. Fortunately, Miss Cyd took a picture of me contemplating the battle between the Lapiths and the Centaurs as I ambled down the line of metopes, so maybe I can sketch it later. In this particular one, the Lapith was broken off due to the extreme high relief of the carving. If you look carefully at the upper right corner of the metope, you can see where the sculpture was attached. In addition, the head of the Centaur is in Copenhagen, as are many of the other heads  missing from the metopes. Sort of makes one wonder why the Danish ended up with just the heads. Perhaps some adventurer scaled the walls and lifted the heads and took them back to Denmark?

Over the ensuing days, we did quite a bit of walking through Central London. We visited several other museums, including the Michelangelo and Sebastiano exhibition at the National Gallery. We went early and stayed afterwards to go visit our favorite Impressionists paintings. The Turners, Memlings, and Vermeers that
were out on loan when we stopped by in 2015 were back in residency. We enjoyed seeing them, as well as some pieces by van Gogh and Cézanne, among other Impressionists. After all, we are making a stop in Aix-en-Provence, where I plan to do at least a couple of paintings and several sketches. These three Cézannes depict scenes in and near Aix, so we will visit them, although the Jas de Bouffon is currently closed for renovation, so we will not be able to get on the grounds of that estate. I plan to take another stroll up the hill to Le Terrain des Peintres to render another view of Mont Sainte-Victoire on this trip and do some sketching around town. In particular, I want to sketch (and maybe paint) Le Fontaine des Quatre-Dauphins in the Mazari
ne Quarter. However, I must now leave Provence for a future blog.

We stopped by Westminster Abbey and were in time to take in another Easter communion service. Pictures were not allowed inside the abbey, but it was an interesting, albeit rather somber, walk through history with all the tombs and memorial plaques. Cyd took some great pictures outside on the grounds, however, as we hit another perfect weather day for strolling around London.

During our stays in London, we ride the Tube extensively to get around town, which is very convenient due to the St. Pancras sitting right over the St. Pancras International and King’s Cross stations. This time, we got the Oyster cards, which was a great deal. Instead of paying £4.90 per trip ticket, we prepaid the card for £30. Trip fares on the Oyster
card were £2.40 with a daily cap of £6.80, which we hit on a couple of days, so we still have funds on the cards for our return trip to London in May, but can reload them, as needed. If you are planning to visit London for several days, this is the way to get around town relatively inexpensively.

After our daily jaunts around town, we found the Chambers was also a very pleasant place to relax, have a glass of wine, and get caught up with some communiques, like this postcard for Sweet Stella Jane. I like to send her postcards from our trips with locally significant drawings on them. This one from London depicts Big Ben, although in this picture, it looks a bit like the leaning tower of Big Ben. I swear I sketched it on a straight vertical line, but the watercolors warped the card a bit and then there is the whole camera parallax thing to consider. Oh well, Sara should be able to press it flat, but if not, the curvature just adds a bit of local color to a well-known landmark. I think Stella will like it either way.

Well, this London blog is getting a bit lengthy, so it is time to post and start working on Part 2.

Happy Traveling

Joe and Cyd