Our Latest Adventures...

This weekend Ed’s parents were visiting, so we rented a minivan and took off for the hills.  We wanted to take Barb and Irv off to the perched villages in the Luberon, but I also wanted the boys to have some excitement to look forward to.  So, on Saturday, these were our adventures:

Piling into the car just after ten, we headed off to Cavaillon.  It was the most straightforward of drives, primarily on the main highways.  We found the tourist center and asked for the directions to the synagogue.  As we prepared to head off we heard the (ahem!) dulcet sounds of a bagpipe, signaling the start of the procession.  You see, this weekend turned out to be the Jours du Patrimonie, where most of France seems to celebrate all that is, and was, French.  All of the museums opened their doors to the public for no charge, and there were many public performances, exhibitions, etc. 

So, back to the bagpipes.  As the bagpipes began to wail the kids decided to go over to check things out.  There were about fifty people all attired in medieval dress, gathering together.  There were knights with swords, shields, bows and arrows, horns, flags, etc.  There were men, women, children and even babes dressed for the occasion.  After a few more, um, songs there was a demonstration of archery (aimed straight for the shield of another – quite dramatic).  And then they all started to process through the town. 

As the synagogue was a way off, we followed the parade for a good long while until we cut off down into the Jewish quarter.  It turns out that the Jews were given Papal protection during a time when all others were persecuting Jews.  There was a gate at the mouth of the Jewish quarter that was locked nightly, and guarded on each side by a Catholic on one side (paid by the Jewish community) and a Jew on the other.  On Catholic holidays the gates could be closed for up to a week. 

The synagogue itself held the entire Jewish community of about 200 people. The décor is sparse, but what décor there is is in the Christian style of the area.  There was an amazing miniature chair for Elijah, propped up about twenty feet over everyone’s heads, next to a small door which was left open for the prophet.  There was even a small lantern to show the Prophet the way through the evenings.  The women would worship in the basement, in a room with a bread oven. 

After a lovely picnic in the park, we hopped in the car again to head off to Oppede-le-Vieux.  This was a small perched village that went through several migrations in and out of the city and which, in 1910, was abandoned for the more fertile valley below.  There are a small number of people who have moved back, artists and romantic souls, who have refurbished a handful of homes, and there is a small restaurant and bar there as well.  But then there are the ruins.  There are so many crumbling homes, with broken staircases, plants overgrown through the floors, and so much to fuel the imagination of what life here must have been like.  The boys hiked up to the very top, where there is a restored cathedral just beneath the majestic fallen ramparts.  And signs indicating that boys could tumble if they got too close to the edge… Climbing back into the car an hour or so later, three sweaty boys were dreaming of what was to come…

We drove Barb and Irv up to the city of Gordes, just to show how dramatic the hillside really is.  And then we set off for the real reason for the whole outing.  There was rumoured to be an artisan ice cream store in the hilltops near Ansouis.  We found Ansouis on the map, found a website for L’Arts Glacier and discovered a mini-map on the site.  And a phone number. 

Well, we wound our way through many other perched villages including Bonieux and luckily avoiding Cadenet, and found ourselves in the southern part of the Luberon, primed to find our ice cream.  Well, let’s just say that this trip was reminiscent of several others, where we turned the car around on what seems to be a one-lane road, wondering how soon the next car will barrel around the corner.  After much discussion about what constitutes a road, how far is a kilometer, was the place actually ON a hilltop or simply looking at one, we remembered the phone number.  However, we were still in the middle of nowhere, with no discernable landmarks.  So the new plan was to get to a landmark of sorts and then try to describe in French our whereabouts and see if we could get directions.  And just as we neared our potential landmark, there was a petite sign.  Handwritten, with an arrow pointing in a nebulous direction, but  sign none-the-less.  We pulled off, climbing through empty meadows, winding our way up the hill until, lo and behold, we found a parking lot.  With a LOT of cars in it!  L’Arts Glacier!

We parked, walked around the building and found a beautiful terrace, overlooking the valley.  Lots of umbrellas for shade, lots of contended faces.  And lots of stunning looking creations on the tables.  As in, lots of stunning ice cream creations on each table.  We look around and realize that this is a sit-down affair and have menus brought to us after a few moments.  And oh boy, what choices!  The initial plan of enjoying a cone, or sharing a single dessert among the family, was long forgotten.  We ordered 5 enormous creations among the seven of us, and there was not a drop left at the end of the outing. 

And what did we each have, you might ask.  Mine was a base of cocoa ice cream and chocolate ice cream, with a caramel sauce, chocolate sauce and whipped cream.  You then got to choose two extra flavours, of which I chose caramel beurre sale and basilic.  But when it showed up it also had four pieces of nut brittle, a meringue and these little green leaf-looking creations made of ice cream cone material.  A thing of beauty.  A thing of sheer delight.  The basil ice cream, maybe it didn’t quite match with the other flavours, but I’m still glad I tried it.  Maybe the ratatouille would have gone better?!

Ed’s parents got several scoops of their choice.  And the kids?  Well, here they are in their own words…

Noah: Remember that thing I got out of my ice cream?  You know, the sparkly thing?

Micah: My treat was a banana split and it was vanilla ice cream for most of it, except on the center of the outside it was chocolate and strawberry, one on each side.  There were two bananas cut in half around it.  It had chocolate sauce all over it and there was a meringue and a strawberry on top.  There was a fake palm tree in the middle and the branches were made out of pipe cleaners.  It tasted great!  All I know about the ice cream place is that they make their ice cream by hand and that in all of them they give you something special like a mini-flag, or a stick with sparkles on the end. 

Julian: Continuing what Mama said, we went to an ice cream shop with Grandpa and Grandma last weekend.  It was a very fancy ice cream shop (no wonder it was called L’Art Glacier!) so I got a special ice cream display called “Mandarin.” It included three scoops of ice cream: mango, mandarin orange and raspberry, as well there were real lychee fruit on top.  Then there were several meringues and a layer of whipped cream on top.  There were also orange slices, banana slices, and a couple of raspberries.  It was extremely tasty.  I would definitely go back there, whether I got that ice cream display, or another one.  Ending on what Noah would say, “My ice cream came with a dragon!”

With full bellies and happy hearts we drove back home. 

The next morning we awoke, less ready to jump into the car, but knowing that we had the car for another day.  And it was rainy!  I think it has rained only three or four times since we have been here.  So a day stuck indoors was not an appetizing prospect. 

We headed off to the Pont du Gard for our Sunday outing.  Now, the Pont du Gard was a place that I had told myself, and my family, that more than anything else I wanted to see.  It is one of the best preserved Roman aquaducts there is. 

I was stunned.  It is even larger than I had imagined, and the amount of (albeit slave) labour it must have taken to construct just baffles the mind.  However, my family did not agree.  It was wet, so no one wanted to be outdoors.  And the museum indoors had lots to offer, but not the sheer awesomeness that I had craved.  So we all got a bit of what we wanted, but no one seemed fully satisfied.  I may try to coerce some hapless visitor into experiencing the awesomeness with me!  (You can even take a tour across the top layer of the aquaduct, people!)

And thus, the adventures for the weekend ended!  Until next time, au revoir!