Happy New Year 2022!

 

Happy New Year, yes this is from Freiburg, I am in Sevilla at the moment.

Here's hope that 2022 is better (again).

Cheers, Bev and Lexi Cat

Merry Christmas!

 Merry Christmas Friends! 

Each barrio or city district has unique sets of lights and these are different from what I remember from previous years here.

Christmas in Positano, Italy

Stay safe and enjoy! Cheers, Bev and Lexi Cat

Hello from Sevilla

Sunday November 7 and I am back in Sevilla! Christoph drove me to Zurich airport where I had a comfortable wait of 3 hours in the business class lounge, even with a well ventilated smoking room. I flew into the sunset, it was beautiful! 

I landed to find Pepe and Marta were there to pick me up, yay! At the airport it was insane due to a health document required to enter the country, no social distancing and crossing crowds, ironic isn’t it… The flat was clean which Pepe said took a lot of effort by Rocio. Tomorrow will be the big food shop for Lexi and I. She was so very good again. Boxed up from 11 am to about 8:30 pm.

Shop done at El Cortes Englis for the basics but I didn’t buy a lot of vegetables since I am going to my local grocery tomorrow. That place is run by father and son and I was glad to see it was still there, and welcomed. Sadly the butcher is gone and replaced by one selling ham products only, another boutique type place. Went to the tobacco store and he was glad to see me. But what is happening here, the older vendors are having to sell out to newer ventures and I can only hope they make a living also. Visited the art/framing place and they were glad to see me. Coffee importer was welcoming, Chino store also. Today was a reconnection with the neighbourhood and felt very good to know people still remember me after a year and half and mask donned and greyer hair.

Of course there is no food to be had in the house and whatever I had left, like dried pasta, has expired so the first order of business is buying in food. Then unpacking, laundry, all the usual things and exploring a place I haven’t been since mid-July 2020. I’d shipped my parka and a couple of warm things to Pepe a month ago so he brought them over last Sunday when we had a chance to chat at length and catch up with our lives. I hope to visit Marta’s and his new home they had completely renovated. 

Liz is in town briefly and made time to come for lunch, I cooked tacos which I remembered was her favourite meal and one she gets very rarely. She brought her art portfolio over for me to choose a hand painted work of hers. By chance I chose the one she felt most appropriate to our friendship, one of the Museo de Bellas Artes entrance side panel of tile work, both very pleased.

I took it to our friends up the street, Curadror Decor, had it framed and this is the result, very pleased, again! Liz lives in a very comfortable RV and has done since a bit before lockdown the first time. Her jobs take her all over Spain so she gets to bring her house on wheels, perfect!

Another great happening, I had written to Peter for his birthday in September with no reply, same as last year. Bruce and I stayed at his Vienna apartment downtown in a great neighbourhood for the summer in about 2015. Bruce became very ill there and was in so much pain every minute of every day that when Peter saw it he pulled out all his medical contacts and basically gave Bruce and I another 3 years together. So this is a person to be respected and thanked. I received a letter from him this week! I was chuffed and glad to hear from him. He’s moved from the city to a ritzy neighbourhood in the hills with a view of the city and has a dog which he takes roaming over the parks and forests in the area. He sounds at peace and happy.

Two couples are coming into town for the Christmas season, Paul and Paula and Ivan and Lola I look forward to seeing them.

I went to the Picasso exhibition at the Museo de Bellas Artes and forgot not to bring my purse, had to go in a locker, but did remember my Irish passport to let me in for free. 

I had forgotten how beautiful the building is and that was a balm to how disappointed with the exhibition I was.

Maybe I missed something? But the paintings were dotted among the old masters in the building, not in one place. They are meant to showcase the masters influence on Picasso, so like paintings were hung beside each other. There were less than a dozen Picasso's to be hunted for. Honestly I found it disjointed and disappointing, again, maybe I missed the theme, oh well, I will keep going to exhibitions there because I haven’t been to many over my travels and these world wide famous artists are on my doorstep. I've been to a few cities with world famous art galleries, I.e. Louve, Paris; Van Gogh; Amsterdam, Bruce had been to before and had no interest in going back. Regretfully so, I didn’t go singly but I also have hated crowds even before Covid and those places are typically crowded with good reason.

At the back of the Museo is a hair cut place and a manicure/pedicure place, separate businesses but I have been to both shortly before lockdown March 2020. Need both services and the haircut place says come back in 45 minutes so I was surprised so soon but did. He’s scalped me using pinker scissors that thin out the hair, mine is already thin. We’ll see tomorrow the real result, also cut it dry which I’ve never had done before. Wait for tomorrow….. yup scalped, all I can say is, I’m really glad hair grows back.

You might want to know the Covid situation here, at the moment and for this past month people walk around inside and out with masks on, mostly, bars and restaurants are open, case numbers have remained low and vaccination rates are high so people think we've achieved "herd" immunity. All I and everyone can do is hope it stays that way.

All for now, Cheers, Bev and Lexi Cat who has settled in.

Tournus and Chalon-sur-Saone

We went into the Cathedral Saint Philibert Vincent which was a former Abbey and one with the zodiac signs in the floor. You can read about it's history and why it is special here https://www.tournus.fr/le-site-abbatial-de-saint-philibert

Loved this statue holding what I assume is scripture

The day was hot and muggy but carrying on north again to Chalon-sur-Saone we found a delightful town which I would go back to again. At night it is magical with the bridge lit up as per Christoph, but even in the day there are many half timbered houses and there is a charm that is difficult to describe.

Tolls on the highways, you enter a drive through booth, get a ticket and when exiting the area have to pay mostly via bank card but today a lady had her hazards on and the machine on our side only took cash. Anyway good day, hot day, had some disappointments but glad to have gone to Chalon-Sur-Saone, a find, and will return.

Saturday 14th We tried to get to Closstlouis winery but they told Christoph rather tersely that they aren’t open to the public. I read that for many wineries using distribution customers is more cost efficient than opening to the general public and now with Covid even more so. They open bottles for tasting and it is just not worth it for them any more, while I always buy, I would guess others may not so their wine and time is wasted.

We went to Chez Jeannette a restaurant in Fixin where the food is fancy French including an amuses bouche (starter from the chef). Food was good and service was better than we remembered from the time we were there before. Stopped in at the newly renovated church of l’englise de Fixey. It is quite small but very old and charmingly well taken care of. See the article https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89glise_Saint-Antoine_de_Fixey

After we carried on to La Ferme Fruirouge, the owner Sylvain Olivier is knowledgeable and friendly about the area and especially cassis products. I bought cassis mustard, vinegar and vodka (tasted the vodka and don’t particularly like it, but the mustard is yummy). I also bought some wine so we did two transactions, one for him and the cassis products, the other for his brother’s wine. The wine is made by Manuel Olivier, I bought a chardonnay, a rose and a red. If the chardonnay is anything to go by it’s wonderful!

And that was a week with Christoph driving around, he came back first week of September so there will be more posts about visits to towns around Dijon. In the meantime I've been wandering Dijon and enjoying the city.

All for now, Cheers

Jardin De Arquebus, Botanical Garden visit

Thursday August 12, we stayed in Dijon and went to Jardin de Arquebus which is a botanical garden close to the train station. They grow rows and rows of vegetables and fruits. 

There is a beautiful rose garden (roses each with a different scent that you don’t get often with cut ones) and a fountain in the middle. 

There were groups of small school kids being led by adults all over the garden and I think what a lovely learning experience for them, plus a walk in fresh air and sunshine. Trees were large and impressively leafy.

Lunch was Japanese/Chinese at Zola square, called Sushi King Dijon, the store front is not very impressive until you get inside and it looks nice. The staff were very attentive and cheerful and the food was as good as some of the top end places in Vancouver. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to have caught on with the Dijon French, we were the only ones eating there and other restaurants were filling up. Christoph wondered if it was a dinner thing for people here, hope so for Sushi King. It was a treat to get good sushi in the middle of Dijon. He walked by in the evening and confirmed very few customers. As I walk around Dijon I am noticing many more Oriental restaurants, haven’t counted or seen them all but at least five. Another thing, I don’t know if they are replacing other restaurants or are completely new installations, but the choice has certainly expanded.

We walked to Musee Des Beaux-Arts de Dijon, the arts museum and got lost going from floor to floor due to the way the building is constructed. Before when we went we toured the first floor only, the largest, but second and third floors have broken floor plans with corners not accessible from one to the other without stairs. Suppose it would have been smarter to pay more attention to the map, but oh well.

All for now, Cheers

Happy Thanksgiving!

 I went to the Freiburg Munster Markt yesterday for the first time in months. It is an outdoor market around the cathedral and is now larger with more vendors than ever. It is a treat to go, seeing the bright colours and smelling the food off the grills. Every time of year is special there but I think fall is the brightest. Here are some pictures to see on your Thanksgiving weekend!

As usual, my make-do decoration for a holiday. I'll be eating these babes over the next week.

Happy Thanksgiving! Cheers, Bev and Lexi Cat

Learning about Cassis and town of Nuits Saint George

Old advertisements

We headed for Nuits Saint George but before getting there we visited the Cassisium which is a factory making liquors and syrups from the cassis berry and other berries, entry fee is 9,50 per person. First we had to sit through a 12 minute animated film which I didn’t like but Christoph said the information was good. Then we toured through the factory and it is enormous!

Tasting was done at the last and I didn’t want the sweetness. https://www.ot-nuits-st-georges.fr/le-cassissium/ Also https://www.cassissium.fr/fr/billetterie/

Well painted van outside

Into Nuits Saint George for lunch at an Italian restaurant Christoph recommended called I Bravi Ragazzi, but had an aperitif while waiting of kir. Lunch was excellent and the service staff friendly and helpful, you really felt welcomed there. One even walked me down the long hallway to the toilette (french for WC).

There is a book about Burgundy wines in the flat that I have been reading about the different regions of wines and wineries from big to small. I had written down one that looked good in the town but it was closed so we walked half a block to another, they are thick on the ground here. It is a very small one, proprietor wasn’t in but he had a fellow to man the shop. Winery is called Domaine Alain Maurice Gavignet https://www.domaineamgavignet.fr/

No cards taken here, hand written receipt with copy in a receipt book, how many years has it been since that happened, dare not count.

Gigantic hibiscus in Nuits Sait George

Love this fountain statue

Drove through Route des Grands Crus which is along back roads through the vineyards and very pretty villages, a cycling paradise and there are many, this is a favourite route for us, more to see and more relaxed than the highway. http://grandscrus.net/routes from Google

All for now, Cheers

The Charterhouse of Champmol and the Well Of Moses

Well of Moses, covered to preserve the statues, and they are.

Tuesday and some plans got shelved, museums are closed and the botanical garden we wanted to see was also. We flipped our plans, as we do, and went to The Charterhouse of Champmol (means swampy field) & Well of Moses on the outskirts of Dijon. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champmol Now it is a hospital for psychiatric patients, in the 14th century it was the final resting place for the Dukes of Burgundy and was a Carthusian monastery. In penance Philip the Bold hired the best craftsmen from over the world to install special artworks and sculpture. Much of the works and tombs have been moved to the main Museum of Fine Arts arts in the centre of Dijon. This description is a snippet of what is really there, do go to the link to find out more, here are some pictures. The grounds of the site are magnificent in themselves with old growth trees and pathways.

Inside the structure

Inside the chapel, unusual ceiling

Grand entryway

Lunchtime and we went to Place Emile Zola at L’Emile Brochettes who required either a negative test or proof of vaccination to eat there, as do all restaurants, museums and any non-essential businesses. This ruling is the norm here and I was refused entry to the library because I had been fully vaccinated less than a week “tres desolate” the guard kept saying, but hey, I understand. There is palatable fear from some restaurant staff that if they don’t follow the rules they will be closed down by police. I don’t know how valid or possible it is but the fear is there, after all they are opening after months of closure and want to remain that way, who can blame them?

Walked around town to the Notre Dame Cathedral which is very grand, gargoyles line the roof but I read they are all fakes because a real one fell and killed a man standing underneath. I will do another post about churches here, it will be mostly pictures.

Around the corner, I'll be inserting local pictures here. This one is Place Wilson, when in the car we know we are close, around the corner from it is this lovely wall statue enhanced by the roses.

Cheers, Bev and Lexi Cat

  

A Very different view of the Basilica, Vezelay

Weather was supposed to be raining so I came prepared this time and of course didn’t need to. We drove to Avallon the town that uses frogs as indicators to explore the city same way Dijon does with owls. 

Old church there that needs maintenance, named Notre Dame-Saint Lazare. It is a pretty town with flower boxes lining the roadway and largely pedestrian downtown. 

Lunch was grilled tasty lamb at L’Horloge.

On to Vezelay to the Basilica of the Madeleine which is now very beautifully sympathetically restored. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%A9zelay_Abbey

It is situated on top of the hill, town spreads out below it, most walk up the hill but there is parking on the hill, behind the Basilica.

What was missing wasn’t replaced, just cleaned up. 

So much better than the visit in 2019 with no boring tour guide that didn’t guide through the church. http://bevbrucelexi.blogspot.com/2019/08/ . I am not a religious person, as you know, so I wondered the difference between a basilica and a cathedral, here is your answer on a rather messy website in my opinion. https://askanydifference.com/difference-between-basilica-and-cathedral/

Christoph was looking for a particular book and the store there told him to go to another church, actually working monastery so we drove over country roads for about half an hour to get there using his phone GPS otherwise we would have been easily lost. 

Getting there expecting a large old church with nothing else we encountered the monastery with quite a few others wandering around and it’s relatively modern, likely the chapel was built in the 70’s surprise to us on both accounts. http://www.apqv.fr/ 

The full name is Abbaye Sainte Marie De La Pierre Qui Vire, no wonder they shortened the web name. 

Left at 10 am back at 6 pm made for a long day of driving for him and me trying my map skills because we couldn’t get cell signal on the back roads. But, it didn’t rain! 

Countryside is green due to the rain they have had, small herds of charolaise cattle, larger ones of sheep dot the fields and large fields of sunflowers. Landscape is rolling hills with woods between fields.

Road tolls that day were 8.30 Euros total

More touring to come...

Hello Dijon, my old friend

Christoph picked me up at the flat, we stopped to get him an antigen test and we both filled in paperwork to get into France to make sure we were “legit” if we got stopped. Didn’t happen, we did go through some toll roads and stopped for a brief break and lunch. Traffic was light and we made it in about three hours. 

This greeted me in the courtyard of the flat.

Brigitte let me in with warmth, we had become friends when I was here in 2019. I settled us in and I think Lexi recognized the place because she settled in rapidly. 

August 7 - we went to the large food Les Halles market, (above picture) a favourite of mine and I shopped for basic foods like tomato, bread, cheese (herbed goats) cucumber, coffee. Lunch was superb at Le 314 where I had salmon tartare and Christoph had beef bourguignon, service was attentive and great. It rained lightly but then came down hard causing us both to purchase umbrellas, we would have been soaked through without. We stopped by Christoph’s flat which is ideally located, tiny but also very clean. They had had a water leak yesterday and were fixing it today. Christoph was delighted to meet the couples involved in fixing it and had lengthy conversations with them. Mid-afternoon we headed to the north of Dijon to a gigantic mall which held a Carrefour, French supermarket. Shopping went smoothly but it was crowded in stores and parking lot pretty much full. Saturday afternoon after all and I really dislike those situations, so many people, adults and kids, Covid-19 makes me even more so want to avoid that. I did get heavy items stocked up which is a bonus and the reason for the visit. 

August 8, Sunday. Now for the real touring.

Travelled south heading for Castle La Roche Pot here is the website The "Castle" note that they say they are open and the website shows beautifully. This what we and others found, a completely derelict site looking nothing like the website and many, many years away from doing so. Very disappointing for us and the others that had stopped by.

Before that we had left Dijon about 11:00 am so had to lunch first, it was at O’Bar@20 in Nuits St Georges the hub for the Grands des Crus Route Grands des Crus Lunch at the restaurant, a locals place with lotto outlet and several televisions on the walls was excellent. Local fish with a cooked ratatouille vegetable and rice, decorated with borage flowers, drizzles of pesto and balsamic vinegar. Portions were not overly large but sated our appetites and good bread came with.

We took the above mentioned route from Dijon along through beautiful farmland with hectares and kilometres of wine fields, many bordered by low stone walls.

We stopped in Nolay where there was an artisan market and entertainment going on. 

Glass of wine and beer were had to discuss the day and plan tomorrow around the corner at La Comedie a local’s place. 

Weather has been great the last two days, not too hot,  with the exception of heavy downpour for about half an hour when anyone in it gets soaked to the skin. If you can shelter that, great, if not, you’d best be changing clothes soonest.

Aside: Fantastic lighting show in Positano.

Positano Italy

More touring to come.