March 20, 2008. We skied today and it was much colder than it has been. I’d guess around 20 degrees in the morning but warmed up to 35 of so by afternoon. The off-piste is difficult as a result of freezing and thawing so we’re on piste with some short excursions to the off-piste where it’s manageable. We did find some fine snow in a few select places and enjoyed the clear day. Tomorrow they are expecting up to half a meter (For those of you who don’t know, my new affectation is to only use the metric system).
In the evening, we went down to Meribel (about 250 meters below our town, Mottaret) for dinner and a hockey game between Meribel and Moscow. I thought it would be nice to see how Moscow teaches hockey to these French guys, who likely have day jobs. They all skated well; the Russians won 6 to 2 and were clearly more skilled. But the Meribel team did a pretty good job and were not completely overwelmed.
March 21, 2008. First day of spring, maybe, but here in Meribel it’s really snowing — as in about two or three inches per hour. They are expecting a lot by tonight and more tomorrow. Should make for a challenging drive down to Albertville. We skied two hours in very hard to see, windy and snowy conditions with good snow. That makes 17 days I’ve skied this season, probably more than many in the past. Of course, not one day cross-country, uphilling or doing anything aerobic on snow. We’re done and when we return to Barcelona, we’ll get all our ski stuff shipped back to Aspen along with everything winter. Both Anne and I like the paring down aspect and we’re leaving a lot of worn-out stuff here. Joshua lost a tooth this evening.
March 22, 2008. Off we went, down the mountain from 1,750 meters to probably about 400. I had to dig the car out of about 50 cm of snow, and then luckily was able to get it out of the snow banks and drive a way down the driveway, load the luggage and get going on the prudent and slow 15 kilometer trip out. Many people actually had chains and were putting them on, only to remove them about 4 or 5 kilometers later. I was glad to make it down without incident and then four hours later we were in Provence at L’isle sur la Sorgue where we found one of the only rooms left in a mediocre hotel. It’s Easter week-end and on top of that they have an annual antique show so you know what that means – it’s like Gay Ski Week here.
We had a fantastic meal for dinner in the town, served wonderfully and gracefully. All our meals have been wonderful in France, but this one stood out for quality, taste, and wonderful service. This part of France is just wonderful, which explains why Peter Mayle liked it so much.
March 23, 2008. We went to the L’isle sur la Sorgue fair today in town where everything was being sold from food to ceramics to antiques (which we saw yesterday). It was a lot of fun and we bought some table cloths and more.
We are glad there is finally something to buy (table cloths and napkins) but given the dollar exchange it’s the first stuff we’re buying and bringing back to the US. The wind has really picked up – it’s the Mistral, which blows from the mountains past Provence and into the sea. There are all sorts of legends about how it blows, how often, how many days, but I won’t bore you with the details.
After that we went to another popular tourist destination, Fontaine de la Vaucluse, about eight kilometers away. They have a “source” of water that is well known, an emerald-colored river and lots of old buildings and stuff. This is, I think, the source of the rivers that create an island at L’Isle sur la Sorgue, where we’re staying. It’s a big tourist destination (there were lots of Italians).
Dinner tonight was also good even wonderful in its own way — different from last night. Not as good a value, but wonderful. The desert was unbelieveable — a choclate round very rich cake made with bananas and more with a choclate cookie stuck in it and a side of ice cream — probably 2,000 calories. The strange thing is there aren’t a bunch of over weight people eating at all these places, which you’d expect given the calorie intakes. For the first time ever, I sent a bottle of wine back since it tasted terrible. It was corked as in horrible.
March 24, 2008. We left our depressing hotel today. It actually snowed this morning. At breakfast there were two pathetic people, overweight and with nothing to say to each other, who wouldn’t stop starring at us. It was just strange. The entire breakfast thing was strange, in fact. Boy were we glad to leave. It really detracted from the entire Provence experience, unfortunately.
On the drive back, through Provence, there were kilometers of tree-lines streets. Someone really thought ahead since the trees were really old.
March 25, 2008. While Rocket is still on vacation with the dog trainer, we are taking advantage of the time off to get stuff done so after both Anne and I worked out and had a Spanish lesson, and we went to the Museu Nacional D’Art de Catalunya at the Parc de Montjuic. Here are photos; we had a nice time, ate some very good food, and enjoyed the art for a few hours. It’s a huge place.
March 26, 2008. I went for a run this morning and ended up running into an acquaintence who just ran a marathon and is planning another in five weeks! We ran a hard pace (for me) for about 50 minutes — my first real run in about eight weeks or more. I immediately took some Ibuprofin on returning home in anticipation of many aches and pains.
Then I met Anne, Dan and Amy for lunch at the 4 Gats followed by an exploration of the “Call” which was the Jewish area of Barcelona until 1492. There isn’t much to see, and we’ll have to go there when stores are open so we can see a few of the hidden treasures. There were a few tourists exploring the area including one group of older Germans on a tour. The Spanish seem to have some fascination with the Jewish people, at least that’s what I get from Jose at soccer, the 70-year-old grandfather and my conversation partner at the practices and games. He’s a wonderful old guy, tells me he’s a communist and that he is very interested in Opus Dei and Masons. In fact, he thinks Opus Dei and/or Masons are behind everything bad in the world with the Church probably close behind. He may be right and we know for sure that the Church was with Franco, and when Franco governed Spain, it was a poor country considered the hillbilly of Europe. Many people refer to Africa starting at the Pyrenees. While Semana Santa (Easter) is really religious here, too much so, people here generally don’t seem that religious.
Strangely, both my hair cutter and my soccer parent friend are suspicious of Opus Dei and the Church.