romatherapy

Five days and 1200 kilometers later...

We left Wednesday morning on a 'Romahome to the Rescue' mission: to deliver our friend, Charlotte, and her paintings to the Sevenne, a department about four hours from the Lot.  Then to drive to le Gorge de Verdon, France's Grand Canyon. This is something Jim has been wanting to do since our first trip in 2001, and we figured the first week in July was our last chance for a trip before the tourist season arrives.  We were right.  If you want to come to France, come for the first two weeks of July and you will be just ahead of the crowd.

Charlotte is an American and has been living in France, married to a French man, Alain, for 30 years.  Both are artists.

 We drove over the famous Viaduct de Millau, which spans the Gorge de Tarn and is the tallest bridge in the world.  The tallest part is the same height as the Effel tower.

Arriving in Colignac, our first destination.

 The town consists of a church, the Marie (where the mayor has his office) and a single cafe.  

Alex met us in town.  She organized the show and had the keys to the church where we dropped off the art.  

Jim and Charlotte are celebrating with a glass of rose.

We followed Alex out of town, then left the Romahome at the bottom of their driveway, and got into the Landrover. Alex and her husband, Jeremy, live with their three children, in an exceptionally isolated and magnificent location, in an old stone home which they are restoring.  

Alex drove up the long steep road for twenty minutes, never getting out of first gear.  She showed us the spot where her father-in-law almost went over the cliff the week before.  You could still see the wheel marks.  Later Jeremy told us that he was too scared to get into the teetering car as they tried to pull it of the edge of the cliff.  The man with the truck and cable wouldn't get in it either.  So it was Alex who got in and drove it out.  You've got to be tough to live this way.  In the winter, when it snows, the road is not traversable so the car is left at the bottom and they have to walk down the road.  

When they bought the house it was a ruin, and had been for sale for 30 years.

HISTORY OF THE HOUSE:

Because of the isolated location, the 22 room house was used as the headquarters for the local Maqui, the French Resistance.  The germans knew that there was a headquarters near the town and gathered all the men in the town and told them that they would kill each one until someone told them of the location of the Maqui. A young man stepped forward, knowing that they would be seen coming, and the Maquis would have time to escape into the hills.  

Originally the word Maquis came from the kind of terrain in which the armed resistance groups hid, the type of high ground in southeastern France covered with scrub growth.  Although strictly meaning thicket, maquis could be translated as "the bush".  Members of these bands of resistance fighters were called Maquisards.

When the Germans arrived at the house a fire was still burning and a piece of coal from the fire was used to write on the wall, "We will see you in Berlin".  The Germans burned the house down and on the way back down the hill killed the young man.  A memorial to him is on the mountainside, where he was killed.  He was 20 years old. 

They live completely off the grid.  This is their outhouse.

View from the outhouse.  

After dinner Alex drove us back down the road (twenty minutes down and another 20 minutes back).  We slept in the Romahome and took off early to try to beat the heat of the day.  

Our first stop  was the lovely medieval village of Sauve. We were hoping to bump into the cartoon artist, R. Crum, who lives in this village, but had to be satisfied with a freshly mounted poster that Jim pulled off a wall.  

We absolutely loved Sauve and walked up to a terrace for a view and a drink. 

I give this town 5 stars, for beauty, charm, hipness, friendliness, views, architecture ...... Yes, I'd live there too!

Just about when I got to the point where I was starting to totally loose it from the long hot drive, we arrived at lake Saint Croix, situated at the mouth of the Gorge de Verdon.  

A word on camping in France:  Camping is a national pastime.  Every level of camping exists with each camp sight being rated up to 4 stars.  And if you can't find camping, just pull over and park you car.  No one will bother if it's just for a night and you are passing through.  

These people even brought a fan with them.

No motor boats are allowed.  We saw trout that measured a meter long and were told that they average 22 pounds.  

It was great getting in the water.  

Snow caped mountains in the distance. 

Driving to get to the other side of the lake and the mouth of the gorge, we went past some pretty spectacular scenery. 

This is where Lake Saint Croix joins the Gorge de Verdon.  

This is where the mountain run-off meets the fresh water lake.

From there we drove to an area east of Aix-en-Provence, to Mont Sainte-Victoire,  the mountain Cezanne painted.

Under the grey rock is red soil.

We pulled off at a parking lot for a trailhead and spent the night.  

After dinner, when the day had finally cooled down, we went for a hike.  

Saturday morning we were in Arles by 10 am for the Market.  We have visited to Arles twice before and love it for too many reasons to list, not the least of which is the Saturday market.


For our picnic of oysters and olives from Arls, we parked our Romahome on a dry part of a river bed below the medieval village of Sommiers.  

We walked into town to explore and have a coffee.   It's a lovely medieval town.  

We arrived at the Church in the afternoon, as everyone was freaking out about last minute adjustments for the show.  Charlotte needed her price list translated - and no one had a computer or printer.  The other problem was the Tango dance, as part of the spectacle / performance, and the head of the church said they couldn't dance the tango in the church. Jeremy explained that it was a protistant church and the head of the church was a communist. So?  

A word about separation of church and state:  

Since the French revolution there exists as strict  separation of Church and state (something the USA might consider).  The one place where there is overlap is with the buildings themselves.  The churches are considered historic buildings, they are owned and maintained by the state, and thus they are also used for cultural events.

The theme of the show was family, so the pews were removed and the space was decorated with furniture creating 'rooms'. The show included poetry readings, and the formentioned tango, which, at the last minute, was moved to the local cafe.

Jeremy and Jim with one of Charlottes paintings.

Alex reading a poem.

Tango dancing at the cafe.

I do want to tell a funny story here.  Jim left the church and was walking to join me at the cafe when he saw a woman crouched down looking into the grass.  Assuming she had lost something, he approached her and knelt down to help her look just as she stood up, pulling up her pants. 

We headed home on Sunday.

Stopped for lunch at another lovely village, Meyrueis.

We drove through another canyon called Gorges de La Jonte.