Once around Vence

The French hilltop town of Vence lies at the intersection of art and money.  Nestled into the lightly forested hills above Nice, the climate and isolation likely drew in an artists colony.  In our geek-telling, the artists drew in girls, then galleries.  The curators drew in money, then summer homes.  The rich folk took all of the girls: the lonely artists then moved on, priced out of their lofts.  It’s the cycle of capitalism.

Begun as a castrum, a walled military defense point, the commune of St. Paul de Vence evolved from a border post (1400), to a walled medieval village 1550), the seat of the church (1660), and finally, into an artists commune (1920).  Dufy, Sinac, Matisse,; and Chagall all lived and worked here.  The Fondation Maeght opened in 1964, cementing Vence’s international reputation as a center for 20th century art.

Today, the commune is narrow walled streets, innumerable galleries, and beautiful people.  I was last in the area in the 90’s, when my teacher at Kirkland Arts Center suggested that I visit.  I was charmed by the colorful Miro sculptures dotting the gardens.  Today, the conference organizers arranged an afternoon walk through the Fondation and the village.

The Fondation is much as I remembered it, expansive views and colorful sculptures set into stone walls and reflecting gardens.  It always seems light hearted in its approach to art, playful with color and form set into the trees and ponds.

   

A 15 minute walk arrives at the medieval walls surrounding the village, cannon and gates still challenging entry.  There are sculptures posed along the walls and courtyards throughout the town, and galleries thick along the close streets.  Marc Chagall’s grave was intriguing, people cover the surface with coins and stones, many engraved with initials.

       

My favorite location was the17th century Chapelle des Penitents Blancs, decorated by the Belgian artist Jean-Michel Folon.  It’s done with his characteristic motifs of birds and colorful mosaics, over 1 million tiles around the altarpiece.  The central sculpture, patinated bronze titled The Source, depicts an ordinary man standing on God’s outstretched hand.  He unfortunately died in 2005, before the chapel could be completed in 2007.

 

We got a quick lesson in Pentanque, where metal balls are tossed / rolled to try to gain the most points coming closest to a target.  Taking turns, the strategy lies in positioning, blocking, and nudging balls around the jack. 

A few tries and I was doing well, but there were many more experienced players around our group, and the matches grew ever more competitive as the afternoon wore on and the beers flowed more freely.

The art and the food combine to make this a perfect getaway retreat during a trip to the French Mediterranean.  As a day trip, the best way to get up from Nice is to take a public bus:  1.50 euro from the Nice airport vs. a 65 euro taxi ride, each way.

More pictures, as always, on my Flickr site.

Exploring Alsacian cuisine

May I make a dinner reservation?

I’m sorry, monsieur, but we do not make reservations.

However, we open at 6:30. If you come before 7, I will hold you a table. But only until then.

Bien, merci; do you need a name to hold it?

Non, monsieur.  You, I will remember.

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The food in the Alsace is a blend, as with all things in the region.  The ingredients are unmistakably German: sauerkraut, grilled or dried sausages, potatoes or spaezles,  marbled pork slices, Muenster cheeses.  No fish; no red wine.  But the preparations are French (as is the attitude), peppered with unique regional specialties.

The Tarte flambée, a thin-crust crepe baked over an open fire and topped with cheese and bacon, is probably the most recognizable dish.   But, a bit beyond, the cheese and potatoes is delightful, and foie gras is always worth a sample.  I generally have at least one plate of choucroute aux viandes (mild sauerkraut with varied sausages and meat slices) and a Backeoffa, a slow-cooked meat and potato casserole.  Desserts are almost always ice creams with a coulis (a strained fresh-fruit glaze).

 

And in the mornings, the  inn had wonderful breakfasts, croissants, fresh preserves, and mirabelle plums, strong coffee and fresh juice.

 

 

The shops have a variety of local dried meats, honeys, and cheeses: I usually pick up a couple of sausages.  There was a great deal on truffle variants this time through, a nutty, smoky flavor that nicely offsets the smoked meats.

 

And then there are the local beers: watery and only interesting for the bottles….

And, yes, the owner did remember me, and had a lovely table set up in the garden, where there were only a half dozen other patrons all evening.  We both laughed about how businesses build demand as I paid to leave.

The Alsace: Barbary apes and Sylvaner wines

The Alsace is a complex boundary more than a defined region: both German and French influences, blended with a frontier adventurousness.  I’ve always enjoyed it for the blend of villages and vineyards, places to explore against niches to linger in.  Especially in late-summer, the crowds have gone and inventory is cheap, the restaurants are slow but the chefs are seasoned, and the vintners are cutting deals on old wines to make way for the young.

The weather couldn’t have been better, blue skies arcing over and green fields.  The pillowy pastel plaster walls glowed between traditional timbers, bright light in the squares against deep shadow in the alleys.

Incongruously, there are Barbary Apes in the Alsace.  Native to Morocco and Algiers (and infamous in Gibraltar), they have found a home at La Montagne des Singes, a nature reserve above Kintzheim.  The park is clear forest threaded with a meandering path:  visitors watch the apes and, to a limited extent, interact by giving them a tidbits handed out by the staff.  There are interpretive signs and lectures (French and German only) and lots of families visiting: it takes about an hour to tour.

   

It’s easy for animal parks to become exploitative,  bad for anima’s health and people’s perceptions, but this had the feel of the savannah exhibits popular in zoos.  The apes clearly believed that they owned the forest, and were generally relaxed and busy, ignoring everyone.  There is a busy staff that answers questions and keep the people we'll-separated from the simians.  It’s an interesting stroll on a nice day.

The big draw in the Alsace is wine, white Germanic grapes fermented in French styles.  I tend towards the drier wines rather than the fruitier ones, a pinot gris or riesling rather than a muscat or gewürztraminer. I spent time in the tasting rooms learning about two local variants, clevner and, especially, sylvaner.  The latter was the driest wine, tart almost to bitterness, but mellowed nicely if the bottle rested a year or two.  Very good bottles were costing 5-6 euro, far below the 20—25 euro price for serving in restaurants.

The best strategy is to drive the winding Route des Vins d’Alsace, stopping here and there when a modest winery strikes my fancy (family owned, good variety, a few cars and no busses parked outside).  They generally led me thought 4 different wines in some contrasting set: often age, grape, or palate.  A lazy afternoon is enough to grant some expertise in recognizing what to buy and getting a few good labels in mind, far better than the tasting experiences offered in the village cellars.

More pictures, as always, on my Flickr site

Early morning, Alsace

It’s nice that the French don’t get up so early.  ‘nice to walk the empty streets, to watch the light grow across the pastel buildings and misty vineyards.   Nice to find the coffee just brewed, the croissants just out of the oven.

  

The biggest challenge so far has been to try to decipher French handwriting to get the Internet password…

Anyway, it’s nice to be in the countryside for a few days change of scenery.

‘And very nice to follow my son’s first days out of  the Air Force and into college: congratulations on completing your service and we’re behind you for the future!

Happy time in Eguisheim

Two real delights of living in the lower Netherlands are the proximity to the Ardennes and the Alsace.

The Alsace is a strip of wine country along the French / German border four hours south of Maastricht.  There are lots of charming villages in the Hautes-Vosges foothills between Strasbourg and Colmar, each filled with excellent local cuisine, sparkling white wines, and enormous stork nests.  An evening in Riquewihr is complete sitting out in the sunset with a glass of chilled Muscat listening to the bill-clatter of storks tending their huge nests.

Eguisheim is a small village west of Colmar, the birthplace of Pope Leo IX in 1002.  His statue reigns over the fountain in the central town square.

The village is filled with houses and shops in the local style of irregular timberwork and pastel plaster.  The facades around the main square can look almost artificial, just a Disneyland-facade created to draw in the tourists.  This impression is heightened by the appearance of gardeners and streetcleaners early each morning, a backlot crew who set the stage for the flow of visitors throughout the day.  But, venturing off into the narrow back streets, you’ll find crowded local bars and small courtyard restaurants, built long ago into functional variations of the same themes (Note: cobblestones and crutches do not mix).

The inns and cafe’s are high-quality, reasonably priced, and the town serves as a base for exploring the expansive vineyards and family wineries beyond the circular town road.  A lot of these small vineyards offer an intimate tasting with the family in their homes, a nice change from the larger corporate kettles.  Especially if you can speak a little French or German, these family operations give a glimpse of their inter-generational crafts and the wide character of white and sparkling wines in the area.