Provence with Steve Smith

foreign [Music] on tonight's Monday night travel we are headed to Southern France as we explore Provence with our longtime friend Steve Smith among other Gems we'll visit the French Rome of neem Marvel at the medieval walls of Avignon and appreciate the cultural Powerhouse of Exxon Provence thanks for joining us good evening everyone and welcome to Monday night travel with Rich Steve zero I'm Lisa friend and I'm delighted to be your host this evening as we explore the beauties of Provence so put your travel dreams in the upright and locked position as we jet off to France deep in the south of France Provence offers a rich palette of travel experiences Scenic historic and cultural it's the ideal region to immerse yourself in the good life of France and you may just come up a Francophile [Music] a Francophile he said everybody here's our favorite Francophile Steve Smith good evening everybody welcome Steve uh let's see I just have some notes um our format's a little bit different tonight uh we're going to use Rick's episode as a frame to show you lovely pictures of Provence but really it's going to be a lot of information verbally from our friend Steve because I know he wants to share all of the recent information you got because you got back from France Monday night Monday a week ago right so you missed last Monday night travel sorry I was on the airplane you can watch it online they are not showing it yet on the Delta flight that's too bad um so uh besides talking we're gonna actually we've cut out the whole portion of Rich where Rick where he does his wine tasting in Provence and we're gonna do our own wine tasting live and in person so I hope that you can join us for that and then before we go back to the video I just wanted to say Steve a Francophile someone who loves France and all things French how did you become a Francophile it started um against my better wishes when I was eight years old my parents made me move to the French part of Belgium um where I was sent to Catholic school in French so we did one of these my sister and I did one of these berlitz uh classes my dad was an English Professor uh teaching the grad students on the Fulbright program back in the early 60s seven days myself and and um and then and we lived there for a year and a half then and then in the southwest part of France for a year and I was forced to speak French and to adjust and you do at that age you know it's it's funny I boy I remember missing my baseball glove baseball bat and trading it for soccer ball right yeah and training also American friends for French friends that kept my language alive when we moved back to the States because I think I was 10 when we moved back fourth or fifth grade whatever that was and they kept coming to visit because we lived in Southern California and the Frenchies wanted to see Hollywood oh yeah the beach Malibu all that stuff and so I kept uh being host uh and translating for Mom and Dad when the adults and the kids would come to visit and it just kept going from there so when did your dad learn to speak French he didn't well he did when we bought the house in burgundy 35 years ago uh dad is a um he's got a good mind and uh he practiced any self-taught yeah and he does well even that he's still alive at almost 98 he's still there with me uh when we're there and he does really reason really remarkably well that's fantastic so we will be coming at this show tonight from the Viewpoint of a Francophile affluent French speaker the man who knows everything and my food French is fluent but the rest of my French is not so we're also going to be coming at it from an English speaker and how that will translate to the folks in our audience who don't speak French and you've been a Francophile I know because I've known you a long time so you've got good knowledge too I want to hear about it too okay all right well let's start this show and we'll be back in just a few minutes will Marvel at an ancient Aqueduct Savor kote Duron wine in its birthplace experience that quintessential Provencal Market play a little Bool follow in the footsteps of Van Gogh and Dodge Bulls in a 2000 year old arena France is nearly as big as Texas the region of Provence stretches from the Mediterranean Coast up the Rhone River Valley we'll cross the Punta guard sip our way through the koteron wine region and explore the cities of neem ARL Avignon and Exxon Provence well at cities are packed with important sites prevents all life feels rooted in its Countryside small towns and vibrant markets its famous fields of lavender and sunflowers Inspire painters it's howling Mistral Wind can as they say blow the ears off a donkey and it's coveted kotron wines showcase this Region's confident Mastery of good living and around here good living is never far from nature where else can you canoe through such Charming scenery and then under a nearly 2 000 year old aqueduct this Region's evocative Roman ruins Make History part of the picnic part of the picnic okay this is I mean I told you we weren't gonna get too far into the episode um so I did this with my family um I know you've done this many times it's very easy to be in the outdoors in France I think oh yeah when we talk about France you know so many of us just think of Paris and to me France is the most outdoorsy country in western Europe you're a big Outdoors person yeah it's my France is where the Europeans go I mean it's the most common place to go for your white water rafting kayaking um the highest mountain peaks in Europe are in Western Europe that is I've learned uh are in France and and there's lots of open space and the the nature is phenomenal there's in this in Provence which we're not going to see on the video tonight but is uh the hilltop town of Russian and right next to or part of Russian is where they mined ocher before World War II and so you can walk into it's a park right yeah it is yeah you can walk into this park and be completely surrounded by these ocher Cliffs it's just gorgeous and it looks a little bit like a favorite place of yours in the U.S it does Southern Utah yeah good call Lisa yes it is it's very yeah there's a familiar color and feel to it it it is Francis it's a good point you make I hadn't thought of that um more than a great country for cities and Villages and Roman monuments and great art impression to start gothic art Romanesque Gardens tops in France but it's also a place where people really go to seek nature there's so many hiking trails that cross the country the Grand rondone and the Britain love that kind of thing Walk Village to Village they'll cross the whole country commonly yeah in two weeks or anyway it's a popular place to be outdoors just as you say and I just wanted to note that we were showing in the video the canoeing under the pondigar and I did this with my family with my daughter she was eight at the time yeah she was she was seven actually she was seven at the time another family so we had kids seven nine eleven and twelve and I don't I mean I told you that I don't speak much French and I had to call and make the reservation I only had to call one day before is that still the truth can you call the day before and get a canoe rental absolutely yeah yeah yeah yeah and in fact the same thing by the way I'll take this a big deal one thing that Rick and I realized we were 10 days to get our eight days together on the Riviera but it applies elsewhere in France too is calling a day ahead for lots of things yeah and a restaurant in particular so many of the restaurants that are really good that we recommend now are small places and because of covet I think in part they're really limiting the number of people but if you just show up call or walk by the day before even the afternoon of if they're open still make a reservation it's it's almost anywhere you can get it so we're so we're going to talk about this more in depth too about how hotels can really help with this but it was very interesting since you brought this up I was traveling around with some friends earlier this year and they're very curious interested people and so we would go past the restaurant and they'd say how what do we do how do we get in so if you my answer is if you walk up to a restaurant you sort of stand if it's an outdoor Cafe you stand near the aisle um if it's an indoor you go and sort of stand near the door and you wait to be acknowledged right and ask if there's a table does that is that the truth in France how do you do it absolutely yeah yeah and uh if there's a few people in front of you you do it the same as in the United States really the first thing you do though is the book by law the menu has to be posted outside so always look for the menu and make sure the price range and try to see the wine list too if you can but generally the wine price is relate or corresponding to the price of the food and make sure it's what you want what's on the menu good this is also happening in France a lot more this year and I think it's a post covered thing too more limited selection menus are smaller tighter so you may have two or three choices for starter and Main Course whereas before it may have been five or six or seven or eight whatever so make sure that they have what what's on the menu tonight is what you want and then yes stand in line and they may say we're full of days all day sorry we're full and you would say ah but by the way no matter what you do everybody out there any conversation with any Frenchman start with bonjour madame or bonjour Monsieur or at least bonjour I don't care if it's nighttime that still works you can say bonsoir if you want to be sophisticated but just acknowledging that is so important to the French um and I'll do that sometimes have I talked about this Lisa I'll I'll go up to somebody and ask for directions without saying Bolger first and they'll look at me and I'll say bonjour oh yeah and it's sort of like oh sorry I should know better yeah I should know better so anyway I tell my tour members that you know we as Americans we like to get down to business we don't want to waste anybody exactly so we're very you know quick but when you're speaking to a French person you must always acknowledge them as a human before you get down to business and I don't need to sound preachy but just you know you know Bossier Mission and then may I ask you a question or do you speak English but I'll say two of Lisa that part of this is in the South and we are in the South tonight in Provost it's more laid back so if you're going to Provost uh it it's compared to Paris it's not night and day but it won't be quite so um you know a reaction you might get that you would get in the North and a few things that French people are not friendly you're just wrong I'm sorry I'm sorry your neighbor had a bad experience with the waiter in Paris once but the French are delightful you just you just have to know the differences sometimes our cultural differences are sort of diametrically opposed but the franco-american love affair is Alive and Well I can tell that by the bagel shops what Americans need to know two things that I think are important first of all they're three things they're formal they're quieter right they they don't walk down the street saying hi to people they don't know that used to be the first sign of similar in France was talking out loud to people you didn't know and Americans of course were famous for that they find Americans like have a nice day a little bit superficial which it is it and and it's but it's less like that now um but they love the American accent on their language did you know that who said I did no and I think I want you guys to think it's true we love a French accent exactly like inspector cluzo it's similar now they don't like it German accent or the Dutch Accent on their uh language but the American accent I think they I know they think it's cute um anyway there you go so don't be fearful of trying no madam I um I just got back because you know from three months and I spent several days in their Grand Canyon of Virgin and it's just spectacular and it's on the edge of Palms it really connects the provence with the rear viewer it's the greatest way to run between those two or link those two areas is through the gorge the Verdun this is this is where I'm going to try it have you done this before no okay you drive along part of the girls that's a girl to go between Provence and the Riviera yeah that's and that's outlined in the book which you co-authored tour guide and co-author Steve I know what I was going to say to you part I hope this is okay that I'm I did two tours this year for the first time in a long time and lovely people on these tour groups just and really good people and um I wanted to know how they were treated everybody I think every stop along the way it was they were like updators for me on on the book stuff just how are you get how is is this what i is what I think true and I think we have 24 people on each tour or something and to a person that they had good experiences with the French on a daily basis that makes me feel good it's not just me you know no that's true and but I assume that you would etiquette yeah yeah the French aren't perfect by any means either you can run into anybody with a bad word of course okay let's get back to Rick and then we will stop and go up somewhere I think they're getting the gist of how much we're gonna stop right that's great the Punta guard reminds us that throughout the ancient world aqueducts were Stone Flags heralding the greatness of Rome they still proclaim the wonders of that age this perfectly preserved Roman Bridge supported a canal or Aqueduct on the very top it was a critical link helping keep a steady River of water flowing cross-country to neem one of the Roman Empire's largest cities remarkably the water dropped only one inch for every 350 feet let's go inside [Music] this is what Roman aqueducts were all about this is part of a 30 mile long Channel a man-made River flowed through this for 400 years you can still see the original Stones I'm going to stop it for just one second you can't still do this Steve you can the only way you do it now in 10 years ago whatever 15 years ago was open to anybody now you have to sign up for a tour okay and it's an hour-long tour and it's worth doing even if it's in French just for the opportunity to walk through the channel to walk inside the 2000 year old Aqueduct otherwise you won't get inside you can't even peek inside if you don't make your reservation it's on their website and it's in our book okay fantastic thank you a thin layer of mortar that waterproof the channel and after centuries of use a thick mineral buildup the pump to guard's main Arch is the largest the Romans ever built 80 feet across the bridge itself has no mortar just ingeniously stacked Stones taking full advantage of the round Arch the Romans invented it's made Strong by gravity [Music] the Punta guard Museum shows that a steady supply of water was an essential part of the Roman art of living you'll see some very old Plumbing walk through a rock quarry and learn how they moved those huge blocks into place and constructed those massive arches all this work was designed to bring water into the still Grand Roman city of need the water finally gushed out here into this modest looking distribution tank from where it served that thirsty City's needs [Music] imagine the Jubilation on that day in 80 50 when suddenly the system was operational this is the very end of the aqueduct and water would tumble out of this hole and fill this pool now the system was designed to prioritize according to how much water was available if the water level was high these holes would send water to the homes of the wealthy to decorative fountains and to public baths but if the water level was very low well these holes would still send water to the essential neighborhood Wells today the town's many Roman ruins testified to neem's former importance the Maison career Rivals Rome's Pantheon as the most complete building surviving from the Roman Empire [Music] Temple survived in part because it's been in constant use for the last Thousand Years the lettering across the front is long gone but the remaining nail holes presented archaeologists with a fun challenge match the pattern of the nail holes to the letter it once helped thank you and they solved the puzzle they determined that the temple was built to honor Caius and Lucius the grandsons of Emperor Augustus and from that information they dated the temple to the year 4 A.D I know I had a break here for you to talk about me but you're just twitching what what do you want to say you were just there yeah I was and I think I've always thought this but but I spent more time there than usual this year and I think neem is one of the great undiscovered cities in France also by the way I think Strasbourg I mean certain places just jump out at me when I go and they're and less obvious to a lot of Americans but just brilliant and it's interesting looking at those images from an old TV show those Roman buildings are bright white now they have been cleaned off beautifully and that it's so weird to see them looking so um dark and you know and grimy the the amazing and the arena in neem phenomenal and all over France and particularly in or monuments like this they have come up with they're using technology now these fancy little Vizio guides where you can you know point it out and they'll recreate in three dimensions sometimes it works well and sometimes it's a little hokey but what they've done a neem at those those two monuments is really pretty good is this where you just wear virtual reality sometimes it depends where you are I did I'm glad you did it yeah I got the word out um I think Virginia my research assistant discovered that um that's amazing that's the best there is in Paris people should know about that yeah okay so for those of you that are interested in your going to Paris I know we're talking about Provence but I I was blown away by how much I liked this so it's uh is it Eternal yeah Notre Dame Eternal which would be Eternal Notre Dame right in front of the cathedral look around for blue banners about 100 yards in front of the cathedrals you'd face it it's in an old up it's in a parking lot a garage down below that they've they've renovated into this amazing 3D really and I'm skeptical of that stuff I bet you are too yeah this is stunningly good you wear a backpack with the battery and you have the full and I've only done virtual reality adding starts they're very good they do it it's in English it's all plentiful there's a locker for you to put your things in and you go inside and the first thing you do is you walk into the Medieval World of the cathedral being built and yeah I did I got tears in my eyes because the cathedral is an old friend who a lot of US tour guides and to see it again although the friend of Notre Dame still looks really you know what you can see of it still looks really good it's the back end their goal I mean I think people want to know this their goal is to have here's what Steve thinks they're no their President says by sure by the time the Olympics start in 2024 which is the summer of 2024 next year it will be completed I won't the people in the know say no but they'll probably be able to walk in a bit you know sort of peek in the main entry maybe walk in 20 feet who knows really but uh they are if you walk by it now there's cranes everywhere and they are uh the full court pressing it to get that as much done as possible by the Olympics by the way neem um n-i-m-e-s the name comes from it's kind of fun to know um uh these in the 1800s they ship this cloth this blue dyed cloth to the United States and other parts of the world called denim denim is De neem or from neem that's how we get our denim name I bet you knew that already because the way you're smiling but it's you know it's more and there's a little Museum that I just love there I love these little um and throughout and Rick and I were both sort of Enchanted by these lesser museums because a lot of the big museums are so busy now with post-covered um but in recall it he called it um Revenge travel but boy there's lovely like a neem as a whole Revenge I mean an overlooked City and it's 25 minutes to the Pontoon guard uh anyway um the biggest thing though guys about neem is the new romanity Museum it is the greatest and there are great museums of Roman history in France throughout southern France but boy the one in neem I gave it three stars and we rarely are three triangles in our books that it takes that's an Eiffel Tower a Louvre Museum Versailles level uh because I don't miss it is a whatever you do don't miss it it's worth and you don't you can day trip neem by the way from Ireland Avenue perfectly well I love spending the night there because it's it's such an you will see very few Americans there um and the Roman Museum there is absolutely stunning in every way it combines brilliant artifacts that they've found over five thousand just in the city of neem and Rick was showing us on that video and it's such a cool spot where the water landed from the pontugar 44 million gallons a day 2 000 years ago and where it was distributed right yeah and so all that stuff is there within the city and then they've packaged all a lot of the artifacts that you can put it together in the Roman Museum brilliant ones and that is called and they call it the romanity museum it just you the Museum of Roman history I like the one in RL too by the way that's another great one of Roman history and I will just say um having only mentioned him once um but it's interesting to me because you have the mizunkare which Rick just said in the video is one of the best preserved Roman buildings anywhere you know outside of the pantheon which you know just last month you started to need a reservation to get into Maison Perry you can walk right in and there's a Roman Theater which right the arena the arena the arena yeah okay where's the theater oh that's an orange you're not going to talk about in the video so it's worth mentioning I have an image of it I can't we can't don't stop oh that's right but there is a romance theater and the great Roman Theater in Orange and such Roman monuments were left untouched in part because they were just too big to take down and use to re you know to Quarry really in the Middle Ages when people were building uh Scavenging Stones as you know Lisa from Roman monuments but these are just too big so thank God there's many of them in southern France that are left pretty much intact the best place to see Roman ruins is Southern France and there and there are great Roman museums and I love it when they put it together for me yeah look at that I don't think you knew my voice but it is beautifully white now that's great that's great and you have to imagine these buildings also faced with marble back two thousand years ago neems Arena which is still in use is considered the best preserved from ancient Rome it's another fine example of Roman engineering and Roman propaganda in the spirit of give the masses bread and circuses admission was free the emperor's agenda was to create a populace that was thoroughly Roman enjoying the same activities in the same entertainment all thinking as one many Travelers visit neem only for its famous Roman sites and are pleasantly surprised by the rest of the Town inviting pedestrian streets and Cafe filled squares give it a relaxing charm a foundation of names affluence was denim a fabric that seems as American as apple pie but the word denim actually means from neem danim in the early 1700s neem had a thriving textile industry and it needed a reliable source of water to power its Mills and help dye its famous fabric to support its denim producers the City built an extensive system of industrial canals which was ornamented with a lavish Versailles height Park the this happened just 50 years after the construction of the king's palace at Versailles and to the French this people's place has a special significance these were the first Grand Gardens designed not for royalty but for the public neem is an hour's drive from the sunny koturon region here you'll follow one of France's favorite wine roads weaving through a rustic landscape carpeted with vines and peppered with warm Stone villages oh the lovingly tended Vines of the Cote Duron grown on the coat or hillsides of the Rhone River Valley make wines that are delightful on your palate yet easy on your pocketbook traveling in may we see the selection of just the best spring shoots on these gnarly old Vines this region was first planted with grapes by the Greeks around 600 BC Romans built upon what the Greeks started realizing even back then that here in Provence the Stony soil mild Winters and long hot summers were ideal for producing great wine now we get to the good part are you ready future wine glass actually do a wine tasting not just a drinking so we have we I put this list on the Facebook page and Gabe is putting it in the um chat okay you want to talk about that so uh the culture I mean it was in the last five six seven years the code to Rhone area has become much better respected towards white ones that's why we wanted to start with guys the this is a region thank you um and I used I used to say in the book I just drink Rose instead of white wine and ProBox and that still works because it's usually warmer drier down there and Rose is a lovely wine to have when it's warm outside but boy their whites have become really really lovely and they're always a blend um and the in unlike in burgundy or in alzas where the wine is 100 of that great you know that uh in in Provost they commonly use anywhere up to 13 or 14 different grapes they can choose from 31 different grapes I was told when I was there but usually there's they choose five or six different grapes for uh for many most of these ones and they're Blends and then in other words here I'm going to give you this because so what is the first thing we do when we taste a wine we look at it we raise it up and you want it you want to see that it you can tell if a wine is turned a white wine in particular because it'll have sort of a gold and a burned look to it okay and I just had a bunch in myself her in burgundy that had turned during covet because you can't keep a white wine very long and these were 2015 or 16s and and it's a disappointing but you could just tell by the color okay and it wasn't even worth tasting right okay and I always grab it by the stem it's sort of a personal thing of mine my true members know this because you'll warm the glass up by holding it like this which may not be the end of the world view but you also smudge it so it just doesn't look this nice and it's easier to swirl like this too okay so I'm going to swirl um you can do it that way because I want to get that tornado of flavor-headed go girl the tornado and you really do want to aerate it there's there's a guy I worked with in in this this was in the South who suggested opening a red wine in the morning because you want to create oxygen you want to expose the wine to oxygen right and and for dinner it's important glass that's new to me but it shows you how important it is to oxygenate to get oxygen in the water and then ah it's the nose a really good wine you don't even have to drink it then if the nose is lovely it's just delightful just this is nice too don't you think you think I do it's a little Floral the the the first lesson in giving somebody a wine tasting or that I learned from somebody in the states really is nobody can tell you what you like yes and it's you don't have to like red wine you don't have to or you don't have to like this grape find the grape combination you like and the lovely thing about France is it varies by every region you will not find many burgundy Wines in Bordeaux or Bordeaux wines and burgundy in restaurants of course you can find them in wine stores but but they you drink locally it's just that is just without question assumed right and anyway and so we got the we swirl we oxygenated get a sense of the nose it's like a preview I do and also people use all of these really fancy words to describe I said oh it's a little floral yeah I could have easily have just said mmm it smells like white flowers or I get a little pear um yeah it's it's like art I agree with you on the pair by the way that's good color and a little Peach and that's common in a provincial wine and a wine from the the Coter room um yeah but it's you know it's it's about hokey sometimes I mean but I it's fun yeah you don't have to take yourself hopefully seriously or the next person but what and it's when somebody does a relaxed wine tasting you can you can learn oh yeah that's true I I get the almonds or I get whatever and that's just I mean you're you're you're tasting something that's going in your mouth it's nice to know more about it yeah so shall we yeah Okay so we've we've done this and then you just want to just take a little sip and you want it just through the front of your mouth [Music] I didn't do it very well either it's a little bit like gargling but just a little bit and you want to just kind of do and just feel it really in the front of your mouth mostly because that's where most of your apparently I'm talking as if I really am an expert that's why I brought you here I know what I like uh yeah okay we have more wines to taste so okay we like shut up Steve no well okay so you swirl it to aerate it you sniff it to preview it and then you taste it and you want you're talking about having it on the front of your mouth you can do this um the air rating in your mouth the slurping um but one of the things we were talking about before is I asked you if I get a bottle of wine at a restaurant should I go through this whole thing and you had a definitive answer on that everything but the slurping part okay because you're doing that in part because mostly we don't have a crochet here or something to spit into because you do that kind of gross thing or funny thing and then you spit it out um to really get a system you've never done that all right I've heard about that but in a restaurant you would want to look at the wine make sure the color is okay and um and usually you're gonna like the wine but I wanna sort of um encourage people is that the word liberate people too if you don't like it particularly the waiter recommended it um if it doesn't suit your taste or you think it's bad don't hesitate to say that's not good the same thing in the state same thing anywhere you are generally that's not the case and we're intimidated to say anything anyway but yeah don't suffer in silence there there are wines that are that that I've had that a waiter recommended and I and and they're cool about it they get it they actually respect you more that isn't what I was waiting you don't see the Wine's bad that you you can say it in English too because you're this is too complicated in French obviously um this is what I was thinking or what I was hoping for okay that's and that's why France was the language of of diplomacy for hundreds of years it wasn't what I was expecting that's so much more polite than I don't know can I say uh I I just so much I love when I sit down for dinner and and the the first thing that the waiter or waitress the server will say to you is here what would make you what would please you isn't that a lovely way to introduce yourself what will make you happy what will give you pleasure thought Rams yeah it's just so lovely but so you know I listen and I by myself in these restaurants right Lisa and I and I and I know more the Americans when the waiter waitress says this to them they don't understand it but it's such a lovely thing it's a shame to be missed by the way listen Florida we have another we have two more wives after this so when you Provence is a great place to wine taste by the way it's a fun place it's relaxed generally they're free in the Northern and burgundy and Bordeaux forget free probably but that's okay it's almost easier I think when they charge for then you don't feel guilty but you can't buy 10 bottles or whatever it is that you that would make them feel like they're times worth it but um in Provence it's very they make a lot of wine improvals it's a huge wine producing area and so they're trying to get the name known and so buy free tastings that's a way of doing so we have our first question since we're um talking about this um and I'm just gonna since it was just a few days ago what do you do to celebrate Bastille Day well so I I was on an airplane I was virtually just back yeah yeah so my Village um in celebrating Bastille Day they have a little Festival in our village and so we're in a valley of about five or six seven different Villages and there'll be one every year that does the party for the battle and it starts or I mean they start setting up the night before and it's cute they have a little fishing contests out but the old the the medieval wash basins where the women fill them with trout little baby trout I remember my son caught one there he was so excited and then and then it they have games that are played for the kids in the day and then at night it turns into a disco and if your house is right on the little square like ours as you're staying up with the Disco people so and and they do fireworks too they did phenomenal fireworks across the canal from our house in cities like in Paris it's a huge deal of course I mean people hey go to the Eiffel Tower for the fireworks of course but there are dances the night before commonly the big deal about the fourth of July's and 13th did you know that you were waiting for me to say that yeah well yeah who throws these these balls Steve the firemen the fire departments yes you have to be in a big enough City we don't have a fire department in our village yeah so it's it is a uh and the French aren't Rowdy that much but boy they they can get that way at those balls and it's good fun it's a release you know okay let's turn the video back on for a few minutes and then we will get under our next one and then we'll have our next one yeah the French eat long and well especially here in the South relaxed tree shaded lunches long dinners and lazy afternoons at outdoor cafes are the norm the French have a legislated 35-hour work week and it seems a self-imposed 30-hour eat week Provence has been called France's Garden Market salads are popular Provencal Cuisine loves garlic olive oil and herbs order anything a La Provencal and you'll be well rewarded laid-back lunches often come with a chilled Rose the blush wines are considered refreshing they can be very good and are respected here along with whites and reds Rose now this Provence is the home of Rose it is right sort of Ground Zero part yep yeah so I got some Rose I gotta get us something oh you just finished yours okay yeah well you know not very polite I'm not driving the ferry home tonight everybody else is doing that for me okay so this was um this is a wine it's made by a wine we call Dune and it's called gree g-r-i-s which means great that's right but it's sabla de camarg and the camarg is a beautiful interesting marshy land in the south of Provence where they have real cowboys and mosquitoes that should be lassoed and put away um so we are gonna have this this Rose and it is really so the rose is really from pearlance it's where when you're talking about drinking a rose if you're in another part of France you're gonna buy a rose from per Watson is that right well every region makes a rose now even in the AL zastas two in the north and even even in Champaign they make a Rose champagne right yeah and blueberry makes a rose yeah a bit but but uh it is the um sort of quintessential place to start and the thing about rose wines Americans I think are getting I think at least in Seattle it's becoming uh popular too here to drink Rose in the summer when it's warm and they're dry not sweet but usually dry they can be sweet but the good ones are dry I think and they there's a trend to make them almost colorless have you noticed this at least in France it is and it's they can put as much color as they want into it it doesn't affect the taste it depends but um I like it like this color I like to see the rose color it's just perfect it's blush okay and I'm not gonna pour such a big for this that was maybe a mistake um one when you're at a restaurant and you're ordering something you can ask the weight of their opinion of what wine they would suggest and not not so much it doesn't mean would it be red white or uh rose and a lot of times in Provence they'll suggest a rose with a meat chorus why not yeah because some of the Roses are more substantial I was going to say something but now I've lost it so okay um yeah no well we do we wanted to also let you know that we brought out some food so we have the oh I know what it was the quintessential baguette right which if you remember the other show that we did on France when poor Steve could not be with us um on the door down Julianne taught us how to cut it on its side like that so the bread doesn't get squished so we have baguette and then we have a tapenade right so a chopped olives and little peppers and other things anchovy seriously oh I love it yeah oh yeah that's oh yeah oh yeah well I'm not a post dancer because I didn't know um normally you might also you will also see this in Provence in a Black Version just made with difference they made with Denise olives they're just yeah it's called the tashral of an official then you know those are the two main all effects yeah okay um and we have some goat cheese which um is important Steve told me what because he sent me to the store to buy all these things um as my guest I was happy to do that for him and so he said get a goat cheese because goat cheese is the most proven it's all but don't get a squishy young goat cheese the creamy one yeah don't get a a more aged one and the reason I said that is because that's they use Pro balls because we're talking Pro balls tonight the the it's a it's a drier aged goat cheese that they like that goes better with herbs and the uh traditional cuisine meditating do you have the red picks yes so we have some cheese we can do that yes yes and cheese and I know what it was I wanted to ask so did you notice how effectively I opened this bottle of wine a screw top wine is now not an indication of poor quality it's very practical and so you'll see that more and more but Steve also wanted to talk about the proper equipment that you would need if it was not a screw top this is a real wine pool a good one um a heavy this one's made in France but it doesn't have to be like they make um looks like leguio they make knives most most commonly but but a a a a a wine pole like this that has a cut so you can get rid of the uh the um covering over the top of the wine what's that called there's a name for that yeah yeah it'll come to me too uh get rid of that and then a good foil foil that's it thank you a good wine pole with two levels to pull from that really allows you because some lines are tough to pull out and the bat wings well okay no those are horrible I'm not a big fan they work no the ones but these are it's a funny thing it's just a better feeling this is a series anyway a good this shape of a wine cork yes yeah and there's fancy ones too but the I wanted to say so I wanted to talk about the screw top also when you're in Provence um you might actually be served your rose with a little bit of ice on the side because I know some of our friends out there are suffering with the heat um so I wanted to talk about temperature and wine because it's not unusual or bad to put a glass a a cube or two of ice in your rose the other thing is now you don't necessarily um need to bring your red wine to complete room temperature because when the room temperature rule came to being everybody's houses were a bit cooler so room temperature was more like 68 69 and now a lot of our houses are 73 and so you can chill your red wine just a little bit but then Steve was also mentioning about his friend the steward who opens his red wine in the morning unless it sit out all day well not in summer temperatures yeah that's that's it by the way the one tour the one tour I did was almost a wine tasting tour from North we were started in Champaign and ended in one of our brick Steve's tours I love that tour uh we ended in the improvals uh and we tasted in um champagne we tasted the nalzas we tasted him burgundy oh did we taste the burgundy and we tasted in Provost and to a person the big deal is global warming things are changing in the wine world and that's like the canary I think in the mine shaft as if as if we needed it right but boy I our um our things are great choices changing in areas you talked about terroir before you know the notion of terroira is what grows the soil it's all about the soil the land that the French venerate whether it's with wine whether I mean there's a whole system of of wine Appalachian controller and now it's called protege because it's the European Union it doesn't matter yeah anyway um that the government can inspect and know that certain Norms are being held adhered to this is done with cheese this is done with all sorts of other Foods as well as and it's all to so that the customer can be assured that they are has that label of approval um now why did I tell you that there was a reason for that global warming yes and so yes and matching thank you I'm here for you man God bless you I think I need you on my Twitter uh matching um the the so one one of our uh winemakers said it's the the the best burgundy wines they're going up the slopes so the better Vineyards are growing growing up going further up where it's cooler right where the the higher slopes to to balance off with the dry dry heat uh warmer summer longer summers so we're so when you are talking about um okay we're all over France even though we're supposed to be talking about prom so in burgundy you have the coat or the slope of the Hillside and are you telling it and there's a more prestigious part of the slope are you telling me it was at the bottom and now it's moving towards the time so the the commonly the greatest play I mean it varies by wine region but is right in the saddle right not in the flat part but just as it slopes up just a little bit but that's moving up that's what I'm telling you to you could say higher most steep slopes but I think mostly for uh changing climate more than anything else The terroir Remains the Same the soil but the temperature and the climate is a little bit enough different that that's um everywhere they're talking about this they're making champagne in England now the the champagne people were saying and uh uh and they should be yeah so okay this is the Rose I poured you a very teeny bit thank you I'm swirling oh I didn't look okay we saw the beautiful blush color in the bottle it looks a little bit paler in the glass um what are we talking about when we're talking about this term legs I've heard people talk about legs yeah what does that mean that's if you if I'm looking at your legs right that sounds funny I'm looking at the legs in your wine glass right now um and um and it's it's it it helps you judge the alcohol percentage of the wine the slower and the more distinct they are the more the heavier the alcohol percentage and the French like a lighter alcoholic wine 13 would be Max maybe 13.5 for the French you'll see a lot of 12 12 and a half percent whereas in the states in Napa Valley or in Australian particular places like that it's 14 15. yeah baby yeah yeah um and so that's the legs are a way of judging the this is almost no nose and you can't irrigate in France except for the first couple years when you're planting new Vines you can't now that they say that may be changing now with the change in climate but that's a big deal and then part of it is the wine great grapes that are grown for table wine for wine reach very far down on the soil and get their nourishment from very far down so and so generally you don't have to worry about it okay all right let's get let's drink our rainbow let's get back to the video showing those pretty things Exxon ProBox is the historic capital of the region for a tourist X is delightfully free of must-see museums or ancient ruins it's simply a wealthy town it's people known for living well and looking good Texas University gives the city a youthful energy centuries ago the king made X the district's administrative Center Noble French families moved in kicking off the city's beautiful age or Bella book they lined the streets with private Mansions giving exits classy appearance [Music] X thrived thanks to its aristocratic population but when the revolution came and the bust of the King on the city hall was replaced by Marianne the lady of the Republic suddenly it became dangerous to be an aristocrat the wealthy fled the city and X slumbered through most of the 1800s but today once again it's resumed its trendy ways the main Boulevard core maribo is designed for the Rich and Famous to strut their fancy stuff it survives much as it was narrow for traffic and very wide for pedestrians who would Promenade under their elegant mansions yeah I stopped but I just wanted to add that street is now completely pedestrian only and it is incredibly wide and no cars and that's how you're welcome and that's happening and it's made and it it's happening everywhere in France where they're expanding on petition only zones and boy next on Provence that's almost the whole city it's pedestrian only Remains the place for tundas that's trendiness the French are world-class people Watchers enjoy the show inex's Old Town inviting pedestrian streets hum with activity towns are particularly Lively on Market Days good guidebooks list Market Days and travelers who plan well enjoy the most Vivid experience X's Farmers Market is a classic Provencal scene rustic Farmers selling fresh produce under the shade of graceful plane trees freshness is everything in the problem style cooking here's your garlic can cook without it no way and you have your herbs of Provence you have your dried Sage thyme Rosemary we all set for cooking [Music] this is Gucci design Provence we have goat cheese not cows cheese huh and it's not so strong it is very good delicious it goes from mild to stronger in taste with age and just beyond any Market you're likely to find the local gang playing pool is the Horseshoes of Southern France it's played in every village on Gravelly courts kept just for this purpose every French boy grows up playing bull it's entertaining to watch especially if you understand the rules rule is played with heavy metal bulbs or bull and a tiny Target ball whoever gets their bull closest to the Target ball scores uh we there are two on a team one lobs the ball as close to the Target as he can the other tries to knock away the opponent's pool once all the balls have been launched and the attempted blasting is over measurements are made whoever ends up with the ball closest to the Target receives one point first to reach 13 wins between rounds players are happy to let curious Travelers give it a try okay here we go ready here we go like like so [Music] the nearby city of I just want to pause for one second um and I wanted to say uh two things one they are they have little cloths in their hand because what they're playing on is Dusty so you shine your your Bool every time and I also wanted to point out that um you obviously have spent a lot more time in Exxon performance than I have but one of the things I think is particularly great about X in relation to all of these other proven style cities is that X has different markets different days of the week so it's not just all Food Markets there's book markets and cloth markets and and house good markets and I mean that's important because unless you're in an apartment a food market is just pretty but not super practical so but we're going to talk about that don't jump ahead we're going to talk about renting apartments a little bit later you want to talk about Avignon is famous for its papal Palace and its broken bridge contemporary Avignon prospers behind its Mighty medieval walls with its large student population and fashionable shops Avignon is an intriguing blend of youthful spirit and sophistication it's foreboding papal Palace dominates the Old Town through most of the 14th century the Catholic church was run from here in Avignon in 1309 the french-born Pope Clement V decided to move the papacy from Rome to Avignon all of Europe recognized Clement as the legitimate Pope during that period Avignon Grew From a quiet Village to a powerful City the church basically bought up the town and made it Europe's largest construction zone it built its wall mansions for Cardinals residences for the entire Vatican bureaucracy vast public squares and the Pope's towering Palace after about seven years a later Pope moved the papacy back to Rome but Avignon installed its own rival Pope and for about 40 years there were two disputed popes one in Rome and one in Avignon finally in 1417 a church-wide council affirmed the Roman Pope Avignon dropped his claim and what was called the great schism was over this bridge is the pontavignon made famous by the 15th century folk song known to all French school kids [Music] avignon's famous bridge was vital for trade in the Middle Ages while only a few arches survived the bridge was huge extending all the way to the lonely Tower of Philip the fair which marked the beginning of France um but I I don't feel like that story goes far enough so I wanted to ask you is why is there a song about it and is that bridge important because it straddled the border of France well it did it was a border in the sense that um it left the Catholic Enclave that the popes ran for about 100 years or close to it into the rest of France if you want to say that no the biggest part of that bridge was a rare Crossing Over the Rhone river okay it was that's the bigger deal and in the 1100s that was an accomplishment and it's hard to tell by the images but that's an island in the middle and then there's in the river the road is huge and and the um the the flow of it varies so much depending on the season right if it's melt off time and that bridge had to be strong to withstand the flow of the Rome river which it wasn't strong enough obviously when it the last they would rebuild it and they'd rebuild it again I think the early 1600s was when they said the heck with this we're done rebuilding this thing oh really but the Strategic Advantage just a crossing for Avenue partly the the Pope's uh the importance of the popes area that they controlled just the city of Avignon up to pop it was just this little area that they the folks control that you can call the Vatican of Southern France um it the importance was more for trade because that allowed that that's what really Avignon was not particularly important compared to oral or neem during the Roman era but it certainly became important thanks to the bridge in part in the Middle Ages so I just want to finish up I really like this Rose it has right it's nice not much of a not much of a nose but it's very dry it has a good flavor but you need to finish yours because we have to do one more wine before we finish tonight one thing about proboscell wines too it's astonishing when you go in a store and you should if you're traveling to Provence go to a market and for three or four Euros you can find a perfectly good I'm serious red or white wine or Rose now double that and you'll do a lot better but still and don't be surprised if it's a really light colored Rose because they are it's sort of a trend now okay okay under red is that what you want we're going to get there we're gonna do a little bit more video like neem Industrial Avenue was thoroughly water powered its River was split into canals to drive water wheels which powered the town's 19th century factories and textile mills this street of the Dyers is Charming it's Limestone car barriers are carved whimsically by amateur sculptures Avignon retains its quaint Industrial Age souvenirs but its Sleek new train station which welcomes France's bullet train is a good example of how France is embracing modern technology and investing in public transportation the 180 mile an hour tgv trains now put the south of France less than three hours from Paris no I'm gonna talk about Steve oh I I we both were just like itching because this is such a good tip um Avignon like Exxon Provence has have tgv stations that are outside of the centers of town so they're a fantastic place to pick up or drop off a car so you're not driving into the city I almost got divorced once driving into Avenue and proper um I still to this day have not seen parts of Avignon because if you haven't seen your husband no we said no to avignona yes to the marriage but it was iffy for a few minutes um going around those narrow streets so and when we turned in our car on a different trip in uh at the Avenue and tgb station it was the friendliest uh business exchange I've ever had with a French person and it was so easy so you really do want a car for Provence if you don't you want to base yourself in Avenue because that's where all the good day trip companies are out of generally you'll tell me if I'm wrong and I would never tell you wrong I uh for day tripping um Avignon is probably the single best face because of public transit too it's it's the best from Avignon but also I what I want to say about those trains the tgv trains to our viewers book it early get on the sncf connect website it's easy to do the fares are really reasonable and if you're 60 or older you get a you can and if you're traveling it's better than a Euro pass now this is the big news and a lot of our Travelers are 60 or over um you pay 44 euros and anybody's qual anybody qualifies you don't have to be a European and you get a senior card and that gives you 50 about 50 off 30 to 50 on any train trip so if you're doing several train trips it takes one train trip to save that the 44 Euros you paid for and it's valid a year so it's a swinging deal so what's it called in French the cart Advantage seniors in the book okay the new book the book oh we're gonna talk about that and but probably for most people more importantly book that tgv party the the local trades you don't have to worry about like Boy book that tgv trip early I Concur and I'm less a fan of rail passes I don't know about you Lisa you know much about that because they the the French Rail Pass limits the reservations for rail pass users where I can get a tgb seat and you can't if you have a rail pass and I don't that's just rude so true but anyway yes so I uh also concur that um the advanced purchase discounts for tgb for high speed trains you know you buy it 30 60 days in advance you'll really save some money very good call too and if for some reason they're traveling in a group of eight or more if you have two families traveling together you can get a group rate and I think that I paid no this was 2016 when I did this with two families but we paid with kids something like 18 euro per person to go from Avignon to Paris and if we had walked up and bought a single ticket we've been a 180 something like that so we really saved a lot of money okay you're gonna pour the chico oh baby okay and the freeways are doing their best to keep up the pace in France like almost anywhere in Europe the fastest way from A to B is the auto route or freeway French auto routes come with tools but if you're in a hurry they easily save enough time to justify the expense but of course slow roads come with more memories to be all alone with your own personal Roman ruin take a quick detour to the aqueduct of barbagall these are the scant remains of an ancient Roman power station channeling a river to turn their Mills the Romans ingeniously harnessed maximum power from the water flow they built a series of terraced pools allowing the water to Cascade down powering eight separate grinding Mills Romans grew wheat on these vast fields and brought the grain here to the mega water mill cutting through this Bluff the water from this Aqueduct provided power to produce enough flour each day to feed 12 000 hungry Romans the mill served the nearby Roman town of Arnold and that's where we're heading not yet we're going to talk about you want to talk about the aqueductive carpetgal I love that site I love it as much as the Ponte bar oh because nobody's there and you crawl over the ruins of an aqueduct and you saw the channel at the end it is I love them first of all that's uh show my cards I love evocative ruins I love seeing the bone to guard obviously but seeing that barbacoled Aqueduct um and you can walk into field you walk through it you walk up and climb up top of it uh it's very um well evocative and I yeah it's easy to get to it's just outside of our and off the beaten path and indeed it's between Ireland labo so most people are going from oral to label oh the Hilltown maybe we'll talk about that we could talk about it now we don't have any video but I haven't play Bo is one of my favorite places it's a hill town outside of of auro and it's the it's it's popular place so go early or go late and the aqueduct is halfway there it's right on your way and if it's hot out there is an Old Quarry where they used to mine bauxite that which they get the name labo b-a-u-x boxite um that every year they take a theme an art theme and they project art all over the ceiling and the floor and the walls because it's all this white Quarry and honestly if you go in the summer it's fabulous because it's always about 58 62 degrees in there naturally air-conditioned and they have music with it and that's the one year I went with the families that we're talking about was Italian Renaissance Masters so I could see the Sistine Chapel ceiling only 10 feet above me and projected hugely was just fabulous these are vast quarries though a lot of the rooms are 50 60 70 feet high and the the theme of the show varies every year changes every year so maybe it's Van Gogh one year in my teeth whatever uh it's worth knowing what's going on there too and what what did the fox say lead to oh I don't know aluminum that's where aluminum comes from yes yes how do you mean can you extrapolate it out of no I'm not out of the mineral of oxide we got aluminum I hope I'm right about that I've been around tell us in the comments uh okay so we talked about labo and we wanted to you talked about Barbie doll I love that yeah and it's right on the way to Lebo and labo again one more time it is we do it I was happy with the walking tour we do so many we go to a lot of effort in these books to to put you in the place of turn left here and turn right here and it's up to you to do what you want but to give you good Insight tips on visiting this these places and I think we do the the one in labo our tour works really well and it's a great place to go early or late in the day that it's slammed in the midpink yeah so you could go if you went there midday you could do the bauxite Quarry where it's cool and then segue into the open air museum it's called yeah know what's the thing with the the stocks where they lived you can explain that better the castle in the top of the hill yes yeah the old the dead City they call it oh The Old City at the top of the hill yeah that's interesting oh it's amazing it is also in many of these places when you go to these places by the way particularly in Providence really more so there than there wear good shoes and don't expect to be warned of slippery or uneven footing you know if you fall at your own damn fault according to French law right and boy as I get I get older I am evaluating sites much more based on on how uneven the footing is and I see people struggling a little bit and not just Americans by any means so that's one place to pay attention Okay you want to try the wine really quick no this is so this is she going this um this is the most revered of the areas it's a village it's a lovely Village in Provence it's it's and as a shelter if the puppet I actually prefer the village of vegica on this and it makes so in red wines in kotorum which is really what they're most famous for I mean 90 of our the children of the pop is about red wine sure they make a white wine they even make a rose but it's about their red wines and the three most I mean if you're a hip American it's all about GSM you're going to hear this at this expression GSM it's Grenache oh and and people yeah I think they're cool using those three letters but you'll hear GSM GSM a lot maybe in the states too I I'm not much tasting so those are the three principal grapes that they'll use in in a coderone red wine okay so uh and so tell me the nose oh that's it because the color is beautiful the color is dark and consistent and some wines aren't filters or less filtered that's okay but you definitely don't want a lot of sediment in your wine and you it's good to look at it through a light like the light that's above us we didn't do this earlier if you're doing this at home in the comments along with us let us know and look look now you can see my legs running down this is a bigger one can you you can you can see no our viewers can't see this but it's kind of fun to pay attention you have to get it oh yeah boy all that voice okay I'm not getting too much now get your nose in there so I would say this right correct a weak nose yep there are probably more um substantial serious oh but it's classical drone I mean it is I don't mind it it just smells it doesn't have a strong baby Blackberry all right dark fruits they'd say very dark and when you taste this do that okay boy do you get the the tannins that's a finish and the tannins uh yep that's one reason you would open it earlier and aerate it longer than we have we've had this open for over two hours but not in the glasses yeah and helps it helps open the bottle but decanting it if it's a big one as a jigon dust is um it's not a bad idea if you can't and so it has more chance Dairy but this is why we have to have the tapenade and the cheese and the bread for me because I think that this is the type of wine that deserves a pairing with some food all right that's my opinion the French generally don't judge a wine except to judge it by what this this would be good with this food this would be good with that food if they don't if they can't find a food that would be good with that means they don't like the one then it's a bad one yeah all right on with the show by helping Julius Caesar defeat Marseille the people of our learned the Imperial nod and their city was made an important river port with its strategic Bridge Over the Rhone river are always a key stop on the Roman Road from Italy to Spain foreign Center for centuries zaro became a sleepy town of little importance in the 1700s Allied bombs destroyed much of the city in World War II but today ARL thrives again this compact city is alive with Roman ruins an Eclectic assortment of museums and welcoming pedestrian zones it's my favorite home base from which to explore France's Provence region twice a week arl's Ring Road erupts into an open-air Market of flowers ready for Ratatouille baskets of produce and everything but car traffic join in try the arms sniff that lavender of pro bombs the beauty of this Market is its International flavor reflecting how Provence remains at Crossroads of Mediterranean cultures paella from Spain fragrant mint leaves for tea spices from North Africa the market feels a little like a Bazaar thanks to the many algerians and Moroccans who call aural home throughout France but especially here in the South Muslim North Africans from France's former colonies have come to pick olives Harvest fruit and so on while they are integrating France is dealing with the friction any country has when immigrant laborers do its lowliest jobs [Music] The Forum square is named for the Roman Forum that once stood right here this Square was the political and religious Center of Roman arm still lively it's just the place for epestis this is the traditional operative here in Provence it's a mix or blend of anise and other herbs and you cut it dilute it according to taste they serve it with a carafe of water it's almost a tradition here before meal to get together with good friends and enjoy a pastis [Music] we're staying at hotel colandal the friendly staff speaks English Not Unusual here in Provence its rooms are quiet and comfy and many come with views guests enjoy internet access and enticing breakfast buffet and the Shady Provencal Chic Courtyard the calendar provides just the mix of comfort and economy I look for when researching my guidebooks okay so I just wanted to stop and talk about the calendar because one of the things that I think that France still does so well are these small family-run budget hotels they're getting harder and harder to find in other places I don't know if you just read Cameron's blog about the the demise of bnbs in England but the French still seem to be doing this and they still seem to be doing it in a very budget-friendly way France outside of Paris is a pretty affordable destination and I wanted to give my two cents because I am a big hotel fan yeah Airbnb is okay and there are some ethics that come into it but for me if I'm staying somewhere for one two or three nights it's got to be a hotel because you cannot underestimate how valuable just a hotel sign is when you're taking a taxi in from the train station or the the airport and you want to find your hotel it's so much easier to find a hotel that's signed as opposed to being dropped off in front of the wrong apartment or Airbnb because that's only happened to me twice um and you are the king of finding these hotels so you also just wanted to add something briefly uh there are so many advantages hotels offer I agree that that the airbnbs don't and then there's that issue of airbnbs starting to dominate certain neighborhoods of cities where they become more tourist ghettos that aren't real anymore so that somehow and the French are they're good at controlling this kind of thing Paris has already really cut back on Airbnb so I don't worry about it too much in Paris whereas maybe in Venice and other cities in Europe you might worry about it um but the the really the advantage of a hotel has nothing to do with worrying about the ethics of Airbnb you have somebody to check in with a map of the city if you want help getting that a big part of your trip is getting that restaurant that you want I'm not saying about a michelin-starred restaurant it may be 25 Euros for your menu for the night but you liked what I said in the book or the what Rick had to say in the book the hotel can call and book that table for you again sometimes just um the day of and it's not easy to talk on a French telephone on it for a lot of Americans and I'm not sure how well their cell phones work and this kind of thing so hotels and they provide service versus calling a taxi for you if your Uber doesn't show up and Ubers are very good in big cities in France and that's like about four and after that they really tail off so you're working with cabs after that so you're speaking French and you're not on your phone anymore for the most part anyway you could imagine if your air conditioning doesn't work there's somebody at that desk yeah so yeah right yeah am I right am I right you are so right okay and then and I love this hotel I just it's so I love it it comes with the internet access did you say that was a good product oh my goodness okay so we had one last tip that we wanted to share with them um before we do want to have some time for questions I know that especially we want to address some current events so um we're going to wrap up with a video that Steve Took um and I'll and actually you can talk over this one so let me let me get to that while you're looking can I introduce it or should I wait for you yeah no go ahead this is from my Village it was July um third in our village in in burgundy in southern part of burgundy where in um July 3rd 1943 and our village is 150 200 people by the way um a royal Air Force a British Airman plane of six people bomber on a bombing mission was shut down okay and now you want to keep talking you have about a minute and a half of this just this is this is an annual event and this is the 80th anniversary of this event because it was in 1943 the villagers in the Hills behind it you can see that's our little Town Square in our village came up when they they saw the plane shot down and occupied France at that point Germans all around and um I uh um under probably dangerous um conditions pulled the bodies out and buried them and they are buried in our village cemetery and every year the uh to honor those six Airmen who died trying to liberate France is honored and here is this years I just want to point out [Music] she's involved in this as well so if there's anything else you want Oh Dave this is the Marseilles part okay yeah [Music] okay that's what's happening all right yes so every year the fellow in the khaki suit is is represents the Royal Air Force from England um with the mayor of the village and then the county um commissioner those are the three people you see County Commissioners in blue women are running the show by the way France these days in the mirror in villages like ours and then the Scottish bagpipers that serenadedness okay so this is edited yeah so you know a second we're going to show you walking up to the great okay good yeah so this is so everyone's saying everyone's saying the French national anthem right the um it's hard to hear the um my point on this is throughout France they haven't forgotten this is 80 years ago we're coming on the 80th anniversary of D-Day next year it's a big deal to the French today not just in the village I live in but everywhere you go these celebrations they haven't forgotten that their country is liberated by Canadians Americans Brits and others and This Is Us walking up to our village Cemetery where the rest of the ceremony took place I I honestly I think the entire Village came out for this and yes it's an older Village like maybe we are although they're getting younger these days with the ability to work remotely you can hear the back Pipers isn't that nice they sang the breakfast powerful New Year to see my dad you guys you can see Dad in a second here I think this is there he is that's dad almost 98 go Dad hmm he's been doing that celebration for 30 years I don't know that he's missing okay so um thank you Lisa you're very welcome thank you for sharing that with us um I'm gonna stop the screen share and I'm just gonna do a work from our sponsor now that I'm all choked up we have mentioned this fabulous book many times this evening um I as a person of the family always appreciates Steve's Hotel selections because he always lets us know if they're good family rooms I think that's one of the things that makes this book shine so brightly um and I just appreciate your hard work that you and Rick do for all of us readers out there and I would just say this is just updated right it came out last so this is post covered lockdown so all good information and then whenever you buy this book you can always go to our website and you can see the guidebook updates and we'll put fresh out of the rucksack information there as well so thank you Steve Provence guidebook for example and now we have some questions um I want to get to something that's been on a lot of people's minds let's see where is it um Kathy wants to know what are Steve's thoughts about the current unrest in France and I would break that down into there has been some racial unrest that was very explosive very recently but has since died off pretty substantially but then there were the strikes about the working week before that and that's still ongoing that's my understanding so what do you what do you know about that what do you think about that no the uh the strikes that have to do I mean there's little things but they've they've pretty much absorbed the working to 64. that's pretty much a done deal what happened recently in Paris what we do when I was just before we left uh about the police shooting of a young African North African uh I think he was Tunisian um is a big deal because gun violence in France is really rare compared to the United States so when it happens it's a big deal but this is hardly the first time and it's Americans will relate to this it's very much the same issue that we've we've faced we're faced with um how police react to people who look differently than they do not necessarily than all of them but um for us as Travelers it makes the news I don't see a thing the same thing by the way I mean if you were in Paris during the the longer term um resistance of the strikes during the uh the eight re raising the age of retirement weed is a thing in the small towns nothing and I mean nothing in Paris there was a crash on the streets because people went and the Metro Zone strike some days of the week we were running tours throughout that time and yeah certain days we had to grab taxis or buses when the when the subway wasn't working but like anywhere it's usually much more um uh blown up in the news than it really is that that said it is important and France is struggling and I think that's an important issue and a good question from her I they have serious issues to resolve as as we do in the United States with how they deal with the north Africans and and it's a big it's a huge deal in France because these are colonies these people have the right to be in France and they are um they're coming north from North Africa for a better life and this is particularly um happening also in southern France because that is the closest port corre I mean the one thing we haven't talked about it's a funny thing and I noticed in in that TV show Marseille is a part of false but we don't we didn't in his TV show that I was giving Lisa our time about because it's a little bit old yeah Marseille is the I mean oh I think 20 of the population at least in Marseille doesn't speak French but it's huge and that bothers certain French people and it is the port of arrival you're absolutely right Lisa it also makes a terrifically fun and exhilarating City to visit I don't I mean I don't want to be out in dark alleys anywhere not in big cities in Marseille I pay more attention to than other cities at night but I mean as a day trip or yeah spending the night staying in logical areas you're it is a brilliant City I really had a really great visit to myself thank you you're welcome good question all right okay Susan has a question what is the best place to uh the best place to home base in Vermont's for a full week if you want to do slow travel do you have a car she better have a car okay if she well no you don't need one if you have a car so so if you have a car and you don't need a city and and by virtual mix Saint Remy is the most Central and a lovely little town that is so Central to so many things that's where I would suggest I love other Hill towns but they're too removed basil our men for example um they're they're too far away Sarah and me has a great Wednesday market and it's a beautiful city and it's 20 minutes tomorrow 15 minutes from Lebo 20 minutes from Avenue so that that's what I would if if I don't have a car Avignon and are all those two cities um but mainly Abigail I would say I don't wanna I like San Rami a lot Center me is very elegant it's a little bit Posh it reminds me of Carmel so my it has a lot of good restaurants that I said already but my favorite place to home base it's secret can we say this uh it's a little village called phone VA f-o-n-t-v-i-e-l-l-e um has three really good restaurants I was there in July and there was very few people speaking English um good point I I think it is a secret back door that doesn't get a lot of people and I would highly recommend it and it's not that far it's not that far from San Ramon nope so that remains better though okay all right it is the problem is I won't give me that but it is she's right about that povier won't have many tourists and it's really well located yeah it's a really good one and if you happen to be there over Bastille Day they do have a fantastic little parade through town with the Kamar Cowboys and they have the bowl games and um the bowl games are not the bull fights that you see in Spain which I have not been to I do not plan on going to but the bowl games are um very athletic young men in an arena trying to grab a ribbon off the Bull's forehead and the bull is just just like it's a free-for-all for the bowl to get to chase these men around and the only way they can defend themselves is by actually jumping out of the ring so they're very athletic um very local thing to do there's no blood um I think that that's something that people should know about and told me it does a good job with that I agree let's see um and Cecilia wants to know what do the French think of American wines they're getting that's a that's a good they don't know much about our wines the the more they travel to the states though the more they get to know our wines it's not easy to find American Wines in France um for obvious reasons they are what I would say a good question 10 years ago very skeptical 15 now more and more aware of the Blends we do particularly in the Northwest we do good red blends um and the Pinot Noir is from Northern California are very respected from Oregon you mean no from northern the the the well you're okay it it's just nobody can tell you what you like again I the the Oregon Pinos are very good too but those from the Russian River Valley are hard and the French find the most similar that's what I should say rather than being judgment yeah and from Santa Barbara County remarkable yeah but they have to have traveled the French do to to have appreciated American wines yeah but it's it is again a much more favorable opinion than it used to be because they know it now they're getting bit by bit to know it are ones okay and the last question um what's what's visible price for a good but affordable wine in French from Provost I think we kind of touched on this but so I'm I'm so if you're in a restaurant it's one thing right 30 Euros in a restaurant 25 I never went over 30 years about 32 maybe Euros in a restaurant um and in a store 15 10 15. oh and you can go less than that and have some fun drawing them out um but 10 to 15 is a good range to find a nice wine a kotoron white red roses so this qigon Das from Total Wine was like 32. the White coderon and the the rose were both around twelve dollars good and I thought that they were delightful and um please come back next week when our friend Ben is going to be hosting Pat O'Connor and they're going to be talking about Northern Ireland thank you

Channel: Rick Steves Travel Talks

Views: 8,697

Keywords: Rick Steves, Rick Steves travel skills, Rick Steves travel lectures, Rick Steves travel talks, Rick Steves Europe, travel advice, travel tips, europe travel tips

Id: fLBxStNwa_g

Length: 87min 41sec (5261 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 19 2023