In September 2001 we went to Provence for a two-week stay. Our friend Sue from California went with us. We arrived on September 10. We had rented a gîte near Cavaillon. We wanted to see all the hilltop villages in the area, as well as nearby cities including Avignon and Aix-en-Provence. The weather was clear and sunny — and very windy.
The picture above left shows what the gîte looked like. It was a very big house with two bathrooms and two or three bedrooms. It was close to the center of Cavaillon. We could walk into town.
One of the first places we went to see was the village called Bonnieux. That's it on the right. Walt and I had spent two weeks in Provence in 1993 to celebrate our 10th anniversary together. I don't think Sue had been there before. I had spent six months in Aix in 1970, when I was a student.
We did a lot of driving, but we also took time to cook nice dinners for ourselves. The kitchen and dining room made that possible. We didn't have to be out driving around in the dark.
That gite had a great kitchen. We didn't know about renting gites until the mid-nineties. Our first rental was on an eggplant farm near St Remy.
ReplyDeleteEvelyn
I think the first time Walt and I stayed in a rental apartment in Paris was in 1994. We had rented a gîte in Provence in 1993. Before that, we stayed in hotels starting in 1988, both in Paris and elsewhere.
DeleteI've always wanted to go to Aix, but haven't made it yet. That's so pleasant to be able to cook a dinner back at the gite - like being at home.
ReplyDeleteAix is worth a visit, for sure. I loved the semester I spent there in 1970 as a student.
DeleteOh, that looks like a nice trip :) I'm wondering if Sue's return home flights were affected by the events that occurred the following day... 9-11-2001. I guess if she was staying for a month or something, it wouldn't have. Betsy and Doug were in Zurich when it happened, and scheduled to fly home from London, but everything to the U.S. was grounded for at least a week... they had to ask to stay with some friends in Zurich that they didn't even know that well!
ReplyDeleteWe arrived in Provence on the 10th. We were pretty shocked when we learned what had happened the next day in NYC and DC. We couldn't call anybody in the U.S., and we had rented the gîte for two weeks, I believe. I'm sure I've written about it on the blog before.
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