Hi Again From France -
It’s still Sunday and we’ll be back in Portland in less than eight weeks. I heard Marlene say yesterday, “I’ll be glad to get back home”.
We’ve been busy over the last days and we’ve been taking photos, so hang in there as we record the journeys and events.
Right after our tour of Glanum, we made the visit to St. Paul Hospital (a short walk away), where Van Gogh spent 53 weeks in 1889-1890. It is still an active mental hospital, so a portion has been set aside for a Van Gogh gift shop, a replica of his room, the gardens he painted in, etc. During his 53 weeks at the hospital he painted about 150 paintings and 100 drawings. The originals are on display around the world, but there are copies on display throughout the tour.
The entrance walkway to the hospital is beautiful and you see Sophia & Keaka in a photo of the walkway. There’s a church, and in another photo you see the church with Sophia wandering in the left of the photo. There’s a beautiful courtyard garden surrounded on four sides by a very old pillars and Sophia is sitting along side the garden in another photo. Behind the main building and the church is a series of gardens captured in a photo and another photo features Keaka (our always willing subject) in the poppy garden. It was an amazing setting for Van Gogh to do his work.
The visit was very worthwhile. Van Gogh’s simple living quarters and the room where they had metal bathtubs was very interesting. They really did a nice job telling the story. None of us knew that upon his release Van Gogh moved to Paris, where within a couple of months he shot himself to death.
After the tour we dined in St. Remy. Even though it’s very tourist oriented, the restaurant we wanted to eat in was closed because it was after 3:30 pm. So, we found a more liberal eatery down the street and had the obligatory pasta dishes for lunch, followed by a stop at the chocolate store we visited on our first trip, again purchasing a jar of the finest caramel ever tasted by human beings. It’s now in our cupboard, awaiting a trip to the grocery tomorrow to purchase some ice cream (grocery stores are closed today – Sunday).
From our array of side notes, we may have mentioned previously, but it never hurts to repeat, that there are now almost universally full toilets here in France. On our first two visits (some years ago, but certainly not in Roman times), it was common to go into a toilet (water closet) and see nothing more than a hole in the floor with a ceramic rim around the hole. There’s been advancement. And, back in the day it was common to see a hunk of soap on a metal rod to be shared by all. Now there is the typical supply of liquid soap that we see in the U.S., with either paper towel or hand dry blowers.
Next we’ll be talking eating AGAIN. We had lunch with friends in Aix-en Provence on Friday and a seaside dinner last night in Marseille with some other friends. Get ready.
The Wilsons
