J'adore faire du ski!

One of the fabulous things about living in Aix-en-Provence is probably something you'd never think of as one of the many reasons to visit, let alone live, here. It's for the skiing! It's amazing to find that even though we are a mere 30 minutes from the Mediterranean Sea, we also have many ski areas in our not too distant backyard. Being a passionate skier that is indeed good news!

One day last month, our international hiking group went skiing, instead of hiking. We went to Mont Serein, the closest of these ski stations(as they are called here) only about 1 1/2 hour drive west of Aix. This tiny resort has only 12 kilometers of slopes and not one chair lift. It really reminded me of some of the small resorts I skied as a child in New England. Mont Serein is located on the north side of Mont Ventoux, the highest elevation in the entire region at 1,912m/6273ft. Mt Ventoux' summit actually looks snow-capped all year round due to the white limestone on the mountain's barren peak. The day we were there, we had lousy ski conditions....low visibility and lots of ice... but we had a good time together on the slopes!

Always up for an adventure, my friends, Fiona and Hilary, and I went for a day trip to St Jean Monclar. This ski station is just shy of a two hour's drive north of Aix. This mountain village lies between the Northern Alps and Provence in the heart of the sunny side of the Alpine range. This was the first time either Hilary or I had skied at St Jean, but our faithful guide, Fiona, had already been here once this winter so we happily followed her all over the mountain!



The two slopes of the skiing area offer 45 kilometers of runs so we had plenty of mountain to explore and the scenery was spectacular!!










Fiona and I keeping warm in the sun and close to each other as we pause to enjoy the scenery...




On yet another sunny day, Sarah and our friends, Teal and Olivia Rapp, went to Les Orres, just up the road from St Jean Monclar, for a mother/daughter-father/daughter day trip. We had a blast-even if the girls didn't want to ski with the "grown ups" most of the day.



Well, that's all for now.... à la prochaine!!

La Fete du Citron

Over the weekend, we went to the 76th annual Citrus Festival in Menton, France. This city of around 28,000, is located on the French Riviera, right on the Franco-Italian border. The gardens of Menton are known throughout Europe and in 1929 , when it was the leading supplier of lemons in Europe, this festival began.

Lasting for two weeks, people visit the Jardins Biovès daily to view the iconic visual images from around the world rendered with oranges, lemons and flowers. It is truly a sight to behold! We happened to be here on the last weekend of this extraordinary, unique festival. You might have read about Menton one of my recent entries when we were just passing through. On that trip there was hardly a person around....this time it was packed! What a difference some citrus fruits can make!!!






Singing in the rain??













Despite the inclement weather, we still enjoyed our visit and left with visions of oranges and lemons dancing in our heads. A la prochiane!

Petit Sejour a Ventimiglia et San Remo, Italie

This weekend, Nick, Sarah and I went to Ventimiglia, Italy. We arrived on Saturday morning at our hotel, Sole Mare, where we met up with Gary, Fiona and Ellie Katzler who'd arrived the night before. The 6 of us squeezed into our Peugeot for the 18km drive east to San Remo. It was market day in San Remo and we were headed there to check out their big Italian market. We didn't realize how big a city San Remo is until we were actually driving through it. With a population nearing 60,000, this was no sleeping, coastal Italian village! There was quite a bit of traffic on the main road and we kept stopping along the way to ask pedestrians directions to the market. Finally, Nick spoke to a friendly, Italian gentleman who basically said "You're close, just park the car and walk up the hill, you'll find it". So we followed his advice and sure enough, his theory was right on. Here are some shots walking through the town to the market...










We've decided every town in Europe has a mime...





At this time of year, it's mimosa time all along the Mediterranean Coast. By the highways, in the hills and in the towns the willowy trees are in full bloom painting everything a brilliant yellow. The flower markets are full of boughs of the yellow flowers as well as many other spring flowers...



The cyclamen and primroses were gorgeous...







As it turned out, we weren't all that impressed with the San Remo market. Having quite a nice one in Aix may have spoiled us, but we felt the quality of most of the wares being offered for sale was low and the presence of many North African men selling fake designer handbags, watches and sunglasses was also a real turn off.

Not being much of a shopper anyway, it wasn't long before Nick was wondering if it was time for lunch...



He got no resistance from our crew and we walked back through the town to the waterfront and found a nice outdoor cafe, Lella's Place, where we enjoyed a yummy, relaxing lunch. Nothing like parma ham wrapped around melon, gnocchi with pesto, spaghetti alla fruite de mare, fried calamari, grilled gambas, insalata mixte and a pichet de rose to cheer up a group!



After lunch, we went for a stroll on the jetty alongside the harbor. Sarah and Ellie really enjoyed climbing on the rocks...





Back in Ventimiglia, we all took a little siesta before going out for a walk. Our cheap and cheerful hotel was located right on the beach...






A five minute walk brought us to the bridge that crosses over the Roia River to the main part of town...




We had dinner at a wonderful, family-owned and run restaurant, La Vecchia Napoli, located right at the bridge. The Katlers had eaten there the night before and liked the food and the atmosphere so much they wanted to repeat the experience with us. We were not disappointed! The owner, Senor Frederico, was the most animated, jovial restaurant owner we've ever experienced. He clearly loved everything about his job; especially mingling with the customers!




Tomorrow's destination is La Fete du Citron in Menton, France en route to visit some friends in Nice. Arrivederci!!



More info:
Hotel Sole Mare, http://www.hotelsolemare.it/
La Vecchia Napoli, Vico Passerella, 2 Ang. Via Trossarelli, 18039 Ventimiglia, Italy 0184/352471