Hi Again -
Let’s conclude our visit to St. Remy, which today is a town of 10,000. By the way, Van Gogh was in the mental hospital (The St. Paul Monastery and Hospital) in 1889-1890.
The old town/center city is fairly typical of other cities. They are charming and really intriguing. It’s amazing that folks live in houses in these rather cramped old town sections. It’s also amazing that the French were wise enough to preserve these old center cities.
We grabbed a photo of a typical narrow street in the center of St. Remy. Restaurants tend to be in some very unusual locations, including the restaurant located at the end of the dead-end street (yes, cars do drive through most of these streets). I posed in front of a couple of houses. We went to the mental hospital and got a shot of the entrance used when you take a tour. By the way, it is still a mental hospital today. We didn’t take the tour due to time restraints, but plan to go back with Sophia and Keaka. The arch you see was the entrance to the Roman village of Glanum. The arch just sits in the wide open spaces at the side of the highway, adjacent to the tower, which was actually a mausoleum. Glanum was at its peak with 2,500 residents in the 1st century B.C., located on the trade route between Italy and Spain. There are significant ruins remaining, which we’re saving to see until we return with Sophia and Keaka.
Marlene and I went to the movie tonight (Saturday) and saw “A Slave For 12 Years”, which is quite a story. Many American movies have the original English with French sub-titles, while some American movies are dubbed in French. Last Sunday we went to the movie (a pretty large auditorium) and did not see a single person eating. Tonight we saw one patron with a bottle of Coke and another with a candy bar. That was it, besides us. By the way, we read during the week that the French get very upset when folks make noise eating in a movie theatre, including the noise from chewing popcorn. I’m sure they love us being there. Considering they’re essentially offended when you eat in a movie theatre, it’s amazing that they sell stale popcorn in a very noisy plastic bag (how about a quiet box?).
We acted like an old retired couple earlier today. We went to the opening day of a new grocery store in the nearby town of Luynes. It’s about five minutes away and is where the kids get the bus to and from school. The nearest grocery had been a huge store with a department store as part of it, which meant lots of walking (possibly larger than a Costco). Anway, Casino is a huge grocery chain. They have five different style stores, from the Gaent Casino, which is quite large, down to the Petit Casino, which is much like a large 7/11. Our new Casino is a Casino Shopping, which by U.S. standards would be a quite small grocery store. In keeping with the local cultural there are plenty of non-straight line features. The main entrance actually has steep steps leading up to it and a very long ramp, which they managed to design with curves. The aisles inside are actually curved, rather than straight. I swear the French are in love with anything that doesn’t have straight lines. That appears to be true for anything from streets to women. Anyway, we’re down to going to Grand Openings. Which reminds me, grocery stores and department stores have cashiers sitting. True also in Japan, England and Australia. So, why do we make checkout cashiers stand? Is that a plan to wear out their legs and feet and get them to the doctor and help out the medical industry in the United States, which doesn’t seem to be short of money?
The village of Les Baux is yet to come.
The Wilsons
