Bullet Train!

I dont know if anyone is interested, but this is some video of the Provence countryside I shot on the bullet train!

The 'Mas' - - Our 4 day home in Provence

Sorry to be repetitive, but we spent the past 4 days in Provence at our friends house..

"House" is an understatement... The pope used to visit this house, and the church on the property is one of the 2 oldest in France  (Tourists were stopping by all the time to take photos) 

The church is so old, Pagan services were done there before catholicism came to that area! 

(aka - It's probably haunted)

I have talked about this house to a lot of people in the past, even though I have never been there, so I wanted to dedicate a posting to "The Mas" so everyone can see what I am talking about.

('La Mas du Chapelle St.-Sixte' is the official name of the house)

 

This is the church that sits on the Property

The church is 'La Chapelle St. Sixte'
This is the house we stayed in

Close up of the house

The oldest part of the house -

Built in 1150

Looking from the oldest part into the 'newer' section,

built in the 1600's

The Kitchen where James (our host) cooked us 3 amazing meals a day.

(He went to 'Le Cordon Bleu' and everything he cooks shows it)

Outside in the evening

Court and I with our gracious hosts

(Left to right: Court, James, Jennifer, Me)

That was QUITE a way to start our vacation. We haven't even been here a week and it feels like we have done so much!! Jennifer and James were the most gracious and generous hosts I have ever had the pleasure of staying with. I would try to describe their level of hospitality, but any attempt would not do it justice! Thank you again James and Jennifer! That was a stay Courtney and I will honestly never forget!

Aix En Provence

Yesterday we visited Aix En Provence.

Aix is a fantastic college town in Provence, and is where Court and I would have actually lived if the job had gone through.  

We weren't there very long really, just long enough to have a first class lunch at "Le Deux Garcons" and walk around a bit... It was very bittersweet. It was fun to see the town, but also kinda bummed both of us out knowing that it is what "could have been."

Here are some pics:

This is the middle of the main street. A fountain in the middle

with an umbrella of trees covering the road.

A building on the main street built in the 1600's

A HUGE fountain at the head of the main street

Close up of the lions on the fountain

Tyler messed this blog up!

Hi All!

Sorry but I screwed up a bit.. If you are reading, the 3 posts directly below this are all new, but out of order..  We have limited internet time and we have been writing posts in word, to post later...  Well, I was posting them, and I did it out of order.. I tried to label them as such...

Sorry about that!

Ill try harder in the future!

FROM THE PLANE

THIS WAS WRITTEN WHILE ON THE PLANE..

Oct 6, 2008

THE POST DIRECTLY BELOW HAS UPDATES FROM OCT 7 - 9th

_____________

Ty and I are lagging so far on this blog thing but I assure you our intention is to do much better once our trip begins which btw. is today! See, I am already keeping my promise!
I am typing this on the plane ride right now. Ty just informed me we are over the Great Lake right now. I seriously don’t know where that is but that’s ok, not all details are important.
I just want to back track a little and give you some insight as to what we were doing before we left for our adventure. We took off on the 28th of September and headed for Laguna Niguel to celebrate 2 very important birthdays! My Mom turned a young age that she probably wouldn’t appreciate me stating in the blog and my best friend, Lindsy, turned the big 3-0! Couldn’t start the trip until we helped them start of their year’s right. Also, my other best friend from high school, Vanessa, came down from Utah with her brand new baby, Chloe, who I absolutely fell in love with. I don’t know how that girl does it; 1 month later with 2 kids and still comes out to the parties, with the little one in tote. Incredible. Got to see my newlywed brother and sister in law too which was a nice surprise, they are doing great and look so happy.
But, before we came down to the OC, many of you heard us talk about the “Honeymoon Suite” we were staying in before we left. We had to sublet this gem because we rented our house out due to the job and it came down to 2 days before we had to be out of our condo and it was the only person who wrote me back on craigslist, my other option was corporate housing or a long stay hotel which would have been triple the cost. I decided we should suck it up for a month which – more Euros in the long run. You would be shocked to know what we paid for it, so I will spare you, but this was the ghetto of Mill Valley, didn’t know it had one but it did. HA!
Below are some pics, I was not kidding when I said that this place was a dump. I am only posting these because I said I would, this is not something I am proud to document by any means, but its kind of funny. Tyler would probably disagree.
Its over now and it did go by fast and forced us to do many things outdoors and enjoy the good weather. It kind of sucked while it lasted, I am not going to lie, but now that it is over, it wasn’t that bad. I have seen worse. On Cops or something.
I am currently trying this combat the jet-lag experiment that includes drinking a ton of water today, eating a light dinner and no booze last night and a light lunch. I read about it on another blog, some decorator who moved to Germany, I have never met her and I don’t even know who she is. She seemed legit, I liked her style and she said she read somewhere that this is what the celebrities do. Bingo. I am slightly kidding btw.
We boarded the plane at 4:45pm. The blog said not to eat the airplane food which I already dodged like the plague – no real loss, drink lots of water and bring your own food, I found some nut bag (not literally) at Starbucks and grabbed an apple from my Mom’s. It also says not to sleep if you can do it, so far, so good but I am fighting it, the lights are out. I need it to be like Vegas, that would help. I should push the button and ask the stewardess, I think everyone on this flight would benefit. No one sleeps in Vegas and everyone is happy. Hey, United – come on, roll the dice….
We’ll see if this works. I have a feeling the 2.5 hour layover in Germany will be rough, but we can do it, then we only have 1 more hour to Paris!
I have a ton of reading material to get through, got the 1st Chelsea Handler book that I am about to dive into. Just killed the standard airplane reading material, US Weekly. This week’s was fantastic, full of goodies, grab it if you haven’t read it already and enjoy the celebrity trash. I also grabbed Vanity Fair, a girl had got to be diversified.
Oh, and we tried to upgrade to business class by saying we were on our honeymoon. My sister in law said we had to try and she is not one to disappoint. We asked twice, the first time at the original check-in. They did humor us and look to upgrade our seats but since I have been penny pinching, my ticket was not up gradable. What’s up with that? Ty tried again at the gate but was denied. We were offered to upgrade to business class for the low cost of $800, tempting, for a second. Not even!
We are flying United for the first time; last 2 times have been Air France. So far we are very happy! No screaming kids, a little turbulence to make you feel alive and Ty enjoyed his meal!
Our plan is to arrive in Paris at the apartment at 6:30-ish, hang out with Delsa, and get some zzzzz’s, then maybe have lunch with a friend tomorrow and get to bed early to catch the bullet train at 8am to Provence with Ty’s mom to stay at one of her good friend’s house, Jennifer and James! I can’t wait to go there!! We have heard so much about it and it will be a great way to start off our adventure! Miss you all already! It was hard to say to goodbye to friends and family but I know the next time I see you, I will have some good stories and hopefully you will too! Thanks for stopping by to read our blog. Au Revoir!

Updates!!

WE HAVE BEEN AWAY FROM THE INTERNET FOR A FEW DAYS!

THESE ARE ALL DATED WHEN ORIGINALLY WRITTEN!

October 7th, 2008

We arrived here in Paris last night at 5:30pm with no trouble at all. It was amazing actually how quickly our trip went and how easy it was to get to the apartment! Our luggage was first off of the belt and we were off in a cab within 5 minutes. We sat in rush hour traffic for a bit, not bad, and then it started to rain lightly when we arrived, it was beautiful. The air smelled so fresh and the grey skies were inviting. All of the hussle and bussle of the streets as people rushed home from work was intoxicating, I wanted to get out in it!
I absolutely love this city and feel so lucky to be back for the 4th time.
Delsa greeted us with champagne, a cheese plate and cooked us a delicious pasta meal with macaroons from Laduree for dessert. If you haven’t tried a macarron from Paris, you haven’t lived, these things are heaven. I wish we could get them back at home!
We stayed up until 11pm and I couldn’t wait to wake up and start the trip in Paris.


October 8th, 2008

My method to combat the jet lag almost worked, I managed to sleep until 5:15 am as oppose to waking up at 3am as I usually do, Ty slept all through the night. We woke up and had to wait for the cable guy to show up, which he never did so at 1pm we headed out to see what was going on outside. We window shopped at stopped at another macaroon place, it has been written up a lot lately, to do an official taste test later to compare to Laduree.
Then I got a gorgoues raspberry shade travel purse that I can sling over my shoulder and keep my essentials close, I was so excited. It’s a beautiful leather and the woman in the store was hilarious. I was telling her what I carry, you know, my camera, wallet, gum and cell phone… etc. she said, “Yes, I carry my cigarettes, change, cell phone.” Funny how the French really take their cigarettes seriously and have no qualms about it. I asked her where she was from and she said, “Oh, I have lived all over, New York, Holland, but I would rather be in Paris.” To she’.
The store was called, M0851, it’s a great leather goods store.
After that, we went and met Olivier, Ty’s rents great friend, for a drink at Café de Flore. I had the best hot chocolate I have ever had and Olivier said it was the best in Paris. Its so rich and creamy, it tastes like melted chocolate, non of that watery stuff. I love the way they serve it, with a shot of water on the side.

This sent me into my afternoon nap in a heartbeat, and knew there was no fighting it. Good thing we were right across the street from the apartment, we headed back and I crashed, then we got up to head out for dinner at 7pm. The restaurant we went to didn’t even open the kitchen until 7:30, all of the restaurants were empty so we popped in at a German place for a drink where the matradee refilled our champagne glasses on the house and then we went back to our favorite Italian restaurant for dinner. I went for the fish and veggies which were to die for. Ty had a gnocchi with gorgonzola and endive and walnuts, that was delish!! Delsa had a wonderful tagliatene pasta with salmon which she generously shared with me, it melted in our mouths! Complimented with a rose wine that my little Sue would go nuts for I am sure. We had been craving this restaurant since we have been back home, it is the best Italian food by far and the owners are 2 cute young girls and a movie producer from the US who we met last time, they are very friendly and speak English and have fabulous specials every night. We are definitely going to go back there, its right around the corner too which is a treat! On the way you walk down a cobblestone road past the most beautiful flower shop that stays open late.
We made it home in time to quickly pack for Provence and get some sleep. We did the macaroon taste test which we took very seriously. Its not just all play here in Paris, we are doing some serious research that we are not taking lightly.

October 9th, 2008

I am writing from the train on our way to Provence right now. (I can’t believe I am actually saying that) We left the house at 6:45am and arrived at the station with plenty of time to catch our 8am ride. I think this thing goes 180 mph, doesn’t feel like it. This is the way to travel, seriously.

Provence!

Hi everyone. Tyler here! Sorry I haven't posted for a while....  To make up for it, this post will be huge!!

Yesterday we took the bullet train (180 mph!) from Paris to Provence, where we were met by our family friends Jennifer and James Butler. Jennifer

 and James own an amazing Mas (French term for country estate) in the town of Eygalier! This was Courtney and my first time here.. The house is indescribable..  Truly something you have to really see and study to understand. No photos could ever do it justice. 

The study was built by monks in 1150  (yes.. over 850 years ago), and the rest of the house was finished in the 17th and 18th century. There is a church on the property which is one of the oldest in France, and also dated to the 12th century.

This is the house 

Before we arrived at the house (Jennifer picked Courtney, my mom and myself up at the train station) we stopped at the sanitarium where Van Gough was hospitalized after he cut his ear off.....

Once released from the sanitarium, we stopped in the town of Remy at an amazing exhibition of Van Gough art. This wasnt just ANY exhibit however... This exhibit was in an old limestone quarry, that has been dug out, and had 2000 projectors installed. These projectors projected Van Gough art on the 30+ foot limestone walls of the quarry. The images changed every few seconds.  Again, pictures cant do it justice! (Sorry about the blur of the photos. there was no flash allowed, and it was really dark)

After the exhibit we arrived at the house. The first impression you get when pulling into the driveway is "This isn't real." The house is amazing. It's like you cant believe you have really arrived, and get to stay there for 3 nights. Honestly, I could spend a whole day just exploring the house and the grounds  (church included)

That night, Jennifer and James prepared an amazing dinner for us. An Omelet and Salad, followed by a cheese plate (James is known locally for his amazing taste in cheeses) and a trio of local ice cream flavors!

After a few bottles of vin we all went to bed. Today we awoke to another wonderful feast prepared by James. fresh pastry and bread with Jam, coffee, OJ and local apple juice, and fresh figs.

We were all surprised that we could even stand up after such a dinner and breakfast, but after we discovered that our legs were still working, we all headed down to the Eygalier farmers market. And WHAT a market......

Farmers Market Frenchie - "Asterix" - - - - 

Before leaving the market the 5 of us stopped for some wine and a few  (read:18) fresh oysters, then headed back to the house for a lunch of pork ribs with baked potatoes, salad, cheese, and a delicious tart.

After a few hours of well needed digestion, Jennifer, Courtney, my mom and I all piled in the car to drive down to the antique store laden town of Isle. Sur la Sorgue. I only got a few photos there, because my battery started to die and we still have another day and a half here!

As I am typing, James is in the kitchen  (Ill post interior pics of the house later.. this is a new definition of KITCHEN...) cooking us all a curry chicken dish!

We are having a fantastic time, and as you can tell, are being well fed.  Court and I are still a bit jetlagged.. It takes so long to get over.. I feel like we have already done so much, and we have really only been here 3 days!