Kir and frozen balls

Dear Reader,

I do tease my husband a lot but he dishes it out as well as he takes it. We were just laughing about this story awhile ago so he gave me permission to write about it.

It was on one of our many vacations in France that we decided to return to Provence and spend a week in a Gite', a rental house, in the countryside. I chose one nearby the great city of Avignon so we would be close to the major sights and towns such as Arles, Orange, Aix en Provence, and the little hill towns made famous by Peter Mayle. The gite wasn't exactly what I had in mind though. It was off a long and dusty dirt road into the countryside, a good 16 km from Avignon, so not at all convenient for dinner. When we first arrived it reminded me of a 60s commune. There were scattered little houses and laundry hanging outside and a barbeque pit and people were just sitting around playing guitars and smoking. Like a blast from the past.

Our little house was pleasant enough but the big draw for me was the swimming pool. It can be extremely hot in Provence in the summertime and the heat had come in force. Driving around all day and walking around on cobblestones and Roman ruins can build a big sweat so I couldn't wait to hit the pool. John and I changed into our swimsuits and went straight there with our towels and books for relaxing. We were looking forward to some wine and reading by the pool. Almost immediately I noticed something awry. There was a woman lying on a chaise lounge topless. I've seen this before many times at the beach but never at a hotel or gite'.

We jumped into the pool and started cooling off. It felt wonderful. Than a 20s something man showed up with a little boy and they both stripped off all of their clothing and jumped into the pool. This totally creeped me out. I know, when in Rome do as the Romans do but this was a bit too close a proximity for comfort and John was escpecially uncomfortable so we left. Every day after that we would peak at the pool to see if it was empty so we could swim but it rarely was. As a result, we didn't spend much time at our gite' at all which is a shame and a bit of a waste.

Provence is a bit like Sacramento in the summer except it can also be hilly and have narrow winding roads. Around every turn is a hill town it would seem or a charming town such as Fontaine des Vaucluse, where the Rhone River originates from a cave. It's a bit cheesy yet fascinating. The colors can also be quite vivid such as in Rocamador, a town on top of a orange and ochre colored mountain. It's absolutely brilliant. This is where the rock for the paint color, ochre, comes from. We sat on a cliff drinking a bottle of wine and watched the sun change the colors on the rocks. Another charming village called Isle Sur La Sorgue has canals running through it and makes you want to stay forever.

But for our money, the big working class city of Arles, has it all. It has a great Roman coliseum which is still in use today for bullfights, ruins of a Roman theater, a very old abbey and a Roman forum where artist Van Gogh loved to paint his favorite bar, the Cafe Nuit, which is still there and just the same. What we like the most about Arles is the food! I don't know why and I can't explain it but we both agree that the food in Arles is the best we've had anywhere ever. It's worth a visit just to eat there.

But I digress. Just to try something new on that particular visit to Provence we decided to visit the coastal city of Cassis on the Mediterranean because that's where the liquer Cassis is made. I also thought they might have a nice swimming beach supposedly of sand rather than rocks. So we drove to Cassis. It wasn't much to write home about. A pleasant enough looking place with some nice houses and a few shops but rather modern to the eye. The watefront was pleasant with the bobbing yachts and sailboats so we sat at a waterfron bar and drank Kir, which is the favorite drink as an aperatif in all of France. It's a simple drink made from white wine, cassis and a twist of lemon. Very refreshing and cheap. Cassis is a raspberry liquer.

We got quite hot at the bar and decided to take a swim in the ocean since we had our gear with us. One of the things I find so civilized about Europe is that they always have changing rooms at the beach which we used to get into our swimsuits. I didn't even see very many nudes on this particular beach which was a nice change. Once I took of my sandals I realized how hot the sand was. It was bloody hot! Burning hot. I started jumping up and down like a hot potatoe and then made a run for the water. Then the shock came. The water was cold. Not just cold, it was freezing. I had run all the way up to my chest before I realized how cold it was and had trouble breathing from it. But I looked around and saw several other people standing or swimming so I figured I wouldn't die. I waived at John to follow me in and as I watched him zig zag across the hot sand to reach the water I tried to warn him about the temperature but the ocean was too loud.

When John did reach the water he only made it up to his waist and started whooping loudly in shock. It was funny to watch him trying to walk on top of the water doing a strange funny dance as if that would keep him dry, the whole time whooping, whoop, whoop, whoop! Then I heard the funniest laughter like a catawalling high pitched laugh and looked around to see a lady standing there just howling. She was British and announced to John "Thank you for that. You just made my day." I guess she was bored or it had been a long while since she had seen a comedy but John was happy to oblige her, I think.

After we got out John told me it was so cold his balls hurt. I suggested we go sit on the hot chairs at a bar and get another kir. I'm nothing if not sympathetic.

Salud