Scenic route

We had another very attractive drive from Aix to Spencer's third mission area in St. Etienne, just to the west of Lyon. As we went north the traffic increased, and the internet sent us on an alternative route along the D-820.

Very attractive became quite something else during this always to be remembered little stretch of road, as we made our way through the Mont Pilat range, and the Pilat Regional Natural Park, at the eastern marches of the Massif Central.

Amateurs madly and vainly snapping pictures out of car windows don't do justice to this kind of thing. This one image does give some sense of it, though. Lovely!

Subject, rendering

Aix-en-Provence, pt. 2

We visited Paul Cezanne's last home, which includes his studio, its amazing window, and these peaceful and very beautiful gardens.

Does it seem strange to say? Something of the sacred here.

Aix-en-Provence, pt. 1

First, the B&B. Sufficient, but maybe not quite convenient.

Somehow, we survived. On, then.

The rumours are true. Picturesque!

Mono-tales

Claire, continued. Here she is, looking all tip-top, still trying to have fun with her friends despite the fact that she has a serious communicable disease.

Her friends don't exactly look like they want to have fun with her ...

This was taken some time ago, by the way, and things are looking up.

Meanwhile ...

You might be wondering, with all this French nonsense. Don't you guys have anything else to think about? Don't you have any other kids?

Why, yes! For instance, this isn't a picture of Patrick Star's head, but rather of Claire's leg (and knee, of course), broken out in a monumental rash that was spread over numerous elsewheres and turned out to be a manifestation of mononucleosis.

Congratulations, Claire!

The Mediterranean

It seems that the Riviera gets all of the press, or is all that people know about. You can see why. We too have seen Hitchcock's To Catch a Thief, Varda's Du Côté de la Côte, Rouch and Gorin's Chronique d'une Eté, and Demy's Baie des Anges.

Who can resist any of that?

And yet, there is also the Languedoc-Roussillon region! 

Administratively it is gone, though not forgotten. Geo-topographically, the movies might just as well have been made here! We have time for or knowledge of just a very little bit. But then there's all the rest that's in heaven and earth, and a lot of it is really cool!

Perpignan is about as south as France can get. Except that Collioure is even more south than that! And on the storied Mediterranean, of course.  Here's us, getting our first glimpse of the water, at the which all hearts quicken, much like in that miraculous moment at the beginning of Tati's Les Vacances de Monsier Hulot. 

In coming to Collioure Spencer was revisiting a scene of past missionary exploits. It was part of his district, or close enough to it, anyway. It was the site of some occasional P-day unwinding. Later, he and the office lads snuck off here for a brief breather during a long and rigourous road trip. 

We, we were tagging along as usual, admiring the vineyards that rise up behind the village, and the Pyrenees that rise up above that.

Here's what Créme de Languedoc, a private sector website dedicated to ranking the area's beaches, had to say about it.

“Collioure is gorgeous, with its ancient ramparts spilling into the sea, and its Italian Rivera-esque storefront restaurants and bars. The beach ... is just okay, a nice place to sit after a lunch on the promenade. Ultimately, however, Collioure just isn't about beaches. It's about sipping a good rosé while the sun sets and soaking up the sophisticated atmosphere.”

We don't know about that. We did eat lunch here though. We were trying to get a picture of the generous size of these portions, except that it turned out that Mum's hand was bigger than those, put together. 

Here's what we were looking at, while we were eating.

That echoes the website after all, doesn't it? We had a very nice time of it. We hiked quite a little bit. We were happy to find a shop with some locally manufactured espadrilles. Sarah and Claire, we thought! Turned out that those shoes didn't even close to fit. We were excited for a minute though, and maybe the thought counts for something.

Anyway, some of the sights ...

Perpignan

Eastward, ho. What a drive! Through Tolouse, past Carcassonne, turning downward toward Perpignan and, seemingly, even palpably, Spain. This was Spencer's first area. We got a wonderful sense of the hard work and happy communion that occurred all through his time there.

We were most hospitably welcomed by the great Benedetti family, led by Jerome and Isabelle. One is thankful for those who care for and about one's children! And who are so faithfully, cheerfully, continually dedicated to a good cause.

Here is their compound, their main house, and the guest quarters.

Here are they.

Evidence. Signs clearly indicate that we are driving into this very town!

Where the elders lived. A little more prepossessing than Lormont!

We got a nice walking tour of the town centre, w' historical and anecdotal annotations.

How can you adequately render these life-changing experiences in this electronical medium? How can you even communicate what it is to hear the faithful and hopeful and still hard-working account, in the very places where it all happened?

Well. I guess it all felt just about like this:

Arcachon

It was time to head east. But we had undertaken to cross the entirety of this country, from stem to stern! So we slipped over to the Atlantic coast and dipped a toe.

Now, onward!

Lormont

This is what UNESCO's website has to say about Bordeaux.

“The Port of the Moon, port city of Bordeaux in south-west France, is inscribed as an inhabited historic city, an outstanding urban and architectural ensemble, created in the age of the Enlightenment, whose values continued up to the first half of the 20th century, with more protected buildings than any other French city except Paris. It is also recognized for its historic role as a place of exchange of cultural values over more than 2,000 years, particularly since the 12th century due to commercial links with Britain and the Low Lands. Urban plans and architectural ensembles of the early 18th century onwards place the city as an outstanding example of innovative classical and neoclassical trends and give it an exceptional urban and architectural unity and coherence. Its urban form represents the success of philosophers who wanted to make towns into melting pots of humanism, universality and culture.”

Spencer's area, Lormont, where he served with and rendered needful service to Elder Utia, is not really any of those grand things. It is across the river and up in those hills, and it is both much more recently built, and plainer. 

Just as historic to our family though! Here's where those young men lived during that tough and transformative time.