Madrid as Performance Art

We were in Madrid for a day and a half. The city is one big piece of artwork. The buildings, the food, the gardens and the crowds of people moving along the streets and through the tapa bars make it a living piece of performance art.

It has a different feel from Barcelona. Mike and I talked about how our impressions of Madrid differs from Barcelona. Madrid seems more open and airy. The streets are wide and squares are everywhere. The buildings are uniformly sumptuous in their design street after street. I thought that Barcelona had lots of public art but that was before we saw Madrid. Let’s start with paintings. We started at the Prado the minute we arrived since it was closed the next day. It’s possible to spend hours and hours there but we ran out of steam early. A dozen or so Velasquez and Goya paintings and we were full. Sorry to disappoint all the art lovers (Wil) but sore feet and growling stomachs won out. It was a warm, (finally!) sunny day and we had fruit, cheese, and Iberico (pigs fed entirely on acorns) ham with us from a wonderful market in Barcelona. We had a perfect afternoon picnic and nap on the lawn of the Prado. I love days like that!

The next day we went to the Renia Sophia Museum. I liked it better than the Prado probably because the building was a little easier to navigate and the art more contemporary – at least the part that we saw. The highlight was Picasso’s Guernica. There’s no way to express in words the power, grief and horror that he communicated through this painting. It was moving as well as educational to see so his studies for the final painting. Of course, there were more paintings by Miro and Dali – again, too much to take in. And that’s just art through the medium of paint.

Sculptures literally dot the landscape across the city. They are on buildings, part of the fountains, and in museums. And of course, sculptures are throughout the parks which are themselves works of art. Gardens are integrated throughout the city and not little wimpy gardens. El Retiro, for example, was huge and included a crystal palace set on a lake. It was lovely in the early morning light. (By the way, Madrid sleeps in as well. There was no one in Starbucks at 8AM!) I was impressed with the foresight of establishing such a big park in the city center and investing in the landscaping at this grand scale. The Prado Museum sits along the Avenue Prado. It is a piece of landscape architecture, too. The lanes are separated by a wide landscaped median with a forest of huge trees. You can walk down the center of the busy street and feel that you are in a peaceful place – well, almost.

Let’s move on to music and dance. This past weekend was a big celebration for the patron saint of Madrid, marked with little celebrations throughout the city. Consequently, we stumbled on several groups (dance clubs, maybe) dancing on street corners outfitted in traditional dress. Most were much older couples all decked out (Mike says they were even older than him). They were so cute! The women were wearing Spanish shawls and the fringe on shawls were flying as they twirled! In another spot, a stage was set up for a performance at 10PM (we didn’t make that). But before, they played recorded Spanish music of different types. People were packed on the dance floor doing the cha cha cha, paseo doble, and rumba.



Food became art as well. Tapas bars displayed an enticing array of beautiful, mini dishes. There were deeply colored hams, tiny fish in oil, bright red pimentos, black and green olives and more. It was hard to choose! Lastly were the street performance “artists.” You know the ones. These are the people who pretend to be statues or who dress up to have their picture taken with tourists. Our favorite was pudgy Spider Man!

We left Madrid early for Arcos de la Frontera and the white villages of southern Spain. More on that later. But, finally, a last word from our Barcelona experience. We went to hear Manuel Gonzalez play the Spanish guitar at the Barcelona music palace. It was fabulous! Their music palace is stunning with intricate designs of mosaics, stained glass and sculpture. But the music…..there was one man on the stage with his guitar. The sound was almost ethereal. It was a solitary sound like it was meant to be heard sitting under the stars in the country on a dark evening. We sat transfixed with the cadences, rhythms and trills of the guitar floating through the air. It’s amazing how music and art add depth to our experiences. It makes every day feel like a performance.

ET Lives in Barcelona!

I know….we thought he’d gone home, too. But we discovered ET outside the Joan Miro Foundation in Barcelona. There were lines of people queued up to get inside. I guess they wanted to know more about ET. Instead we learned about Miro’s art. There was an extensive collection that showed how his style evolved over time. It helped to understand the evolution in order to appreciate what was described as “his iconography.” It was an unexpected pleasure to be at the foundation – even if ET wasn’t. We also went to the Picasso Museum which was another excellent experience. The museum’s pieces focused on the evolution of his art from his early years as a school boy. The work he produced as a teenager was equivalent to excellent realist painters. We arrived at the museum at 10AM in the pouring rain to find a long line winding down the narrow ancient street. We joined in the line of umbrellas to wait. Fortunately, it moved quickly and we were inside in about 20 minutes. It was fascinating to see how Picasso, like Miro, evolved his style over time. The striking thing with both Picasso and Miro was that they mastered realism early in their lives and moved on to express themselves in the simplest ways possible. Their art evolved to lines and colors. I loved a quote from Picasso, “Je ne cherche pas. Je trouve.” - “I do not search. I find.” For me, that quote speaks to his life-long striving to uncover the simplicity of what already exists. We traveled to Barcelona from Avignon by train. We had some time before boarding the train so we wandered through the gates in the original city wall. As it happened an exhibit on roses started that day at the Palais des Papes (Palace of the Popes). We had just enough time to take a quick trip through. The interior of the Palace was filled with more than 20 varieties of roses. They were beautiful. Kids and adults were browsing the pretty colors and textures of the flowers. Flowers seem to make everyone smile! As we exited the Palace, the bells in the adjacent church chimed noon. It was an ensemble of magic - flowers, sun and chimes. The train trip was lovely with beautiful views along the coast from the large river deltas in France to the coastal hill towns of Spain. The train stopped twice at the border. The first stop was for the French police to board the train and check passports. The second stop was for the Spanish police to board the train and check passports. After we crossed the border into Spain the train announcements were only made in Spanish. It’s as though the culture changed at the border. We’ve noticed it in the meals as well. In France, dinner is a minimum of an hour and half with leisurely service that extends the meal to become an event. Spain is completely different. Food appears in a flash, and there’s no tracking down the waiter to get a check. They are there as soon as you finish. I thought I’d be happy with more prompt service but either we’ve become used to the French approach or the Spanish are too fast. But, it feels rushed to us now. I have to make one other observation. The French seem to have a reputation for rudeness but since we’ve been in Spain we’ve encountered more rude, impolite and abrupt wait staff and service personnel than anywhere we’ve been. We’ll see if it is just a city thing. I hope so. Nonetheless, we’re enjoying the tapas and last night we had the “world’s best chocolate cake” – at least that’s what the tour book says. It was very yummy. Thankfully, the portion size was tiny. This morning was beautiful and sunny. I discovered the perfect time to experience the beauty and peace of Barcelona – 7AM on a Saturday morning. There was no one out but me, a handful of runners and bars full of people drinking beer. Yes, beer. But they were in the bars and I was exploring the wonderful waterfront (including the Christopher Columbus statue) and parks. A delightful way to start the day. However, it was an especially “blond” morning. As I walked through the park I remarked to myself that the birds in Barcelona were unusually loud and raucous. They must have some special birds around. That’s when I noticed the big “Zoo” sign. We spent the morning with Gaudi. La Sagrada Familia, his unfinished masterpiece of a cathedral, was simply astounding. I won’t live to see the completion but it will be a work for the ages. We saw the death façade (still under construction) and the birth façade (the closest thing to finished). The two facades were striking in their contrast. The birth side exudes life and activity while the death side is stark and angular. The scope of his vision is inspiring. He conceived of and launched a daunting project knowing that he would not see it through to completion, and yet he proceeded trusting that it would be finished someday. Impressive. We walked by his apartment building and through Park Guell – and were exhausted. Lunch of tapas and a walk through the mercato (market)examining (and maybe sampling a little!) all the types of ham and stunning fruits were enough to get us through to a nap. We’ll need the nap because we bought tickets to a Spanish guitar concert tonight. It STARTS at 10:15PM. Oh dear! As we prepare to leave Barcelona for Madrid tomorrow, I am struck by the beauty of this city. It’s hard to compare with Paris, but Barcelona has a vibrancy that is contagious. People are milling about everywhere and the streets bustle with life and activity. There is a scenic spot around almost every bend, and a clear appreciation for art. Public art – old and new - is all over the city. As I write, a concert is playing under our hotel window in front of the cathedral, and spontaneous dancing has broken out. It be the national dance as groups are circled up and in step. How nice is that? And a block away, protesters are marching down the street. Their voices mingle with the music to make a statement about the coexistence of beauty, pride of country and unrest. I think that sums up Barcelona.

Bad Weather and Good Times

I’m not sure how it happened, but David and Bernadette seemed to have brought bad weather with them from Florida. It’s just that Florida didn’t have any bad weather to bring. Unfortunately, Provence is having a record cold and wet spring.
David and Bernadette were good sports about it and we did our best to enjoy everything we could even in the rain. And we did a good job!

In our last blog we shared about the dinner in Lorgues and meeting the owners of Bistrot Gourmand, Dany and Jean-Luc. They graciously invited us to their house, Bastide de Maurier, for tea. It was a delightful afternoon filled with attempted sentences in English and French, much gesturing and lots of laughter. They are delightful people and we look forward to seeing them again.

We introduced David and Bernadette to life around Cotignac including our daily trips to the bakery and the people who we see frequently – like Frank. Frank runs The hardware store in Cotignac. Mike estimates that it’s 325 square feet and filled with just about everything you could need. We go there almost daily for some thing or the other. We’ve had a couple of adventures with Frank. The first adventure was when we needed a variety of items including plastic gloves (gants plastiques) and garbage bags. Things were going well with me describing what we wanted until I got to garbage bags. That’s when I realized that I didn’t know how to say “garbage” in French. And so began the pantomime. Picture me and Mike trying to act out “garbage”. Frank finally joined the fun and acted with us. Between the three of us and lots of laughter we found the garbage bags (sac poubelle). The next visit we were looking for ant traps. But this time we were prepared. We had our iTouch which has French/English translation software. We walked into the hardware store with the word for “ant” (fourmi) already pulled up on the screen. Mike leaned over the counter and handed the iTouch to Frank and pointed to the word “forumi”. Frank looked at us quizzically and pointed to a stack of green boxes next to Mike’s arm on the counter. In 2” letters was the word “fourmi.” As my grandmother would have said, “If it’d been a snake, it’d bit me.” We had another good laugh with Frank. I think he’s looking forward to our next visit.


It so happened that there was a big boule tournament in Cotignac on Mother’s Day (their Mother’s Day is in late May, so Bernadette got the whole day for just her!). The rain let up enough for the tournament to go forward. We walked down to the Boulodrome to experience the festivities. Lucky, it was very carefully signed just in case we couldn’t find our way! The senior event was the prior day so we got to see the kids tournament. They were so cute. Boys and girls play together and they were very intent. It appeared that parents are the same everywhere as the area was roped off with signs that read, “Players only. Parents remain on the exterior.” The kids would cluster around with their teammates and point to where the next ball should land. It was impressive how accurately they could aim the balls. And, like sporting events everywhere, refreshments were for sale. They had sandwiches (sausage, ham, and beef hache – their version of a hamburger) all served on a baguette. There were fries (I had a container all to myself and they were excellent!) and fruit (no candy or chips), and, of course, wine. You could get a sausage sandwich, fries and glass of wine all for 4 Euros. What a bargain!


Mike created a wonderful meal for Bernadette on Mother’s Day, and we invited our leasing agent, Ruth, to join us. Ruth has lived in France for 19 years and was able to fill us in on good information about the area. For example, she explained about harvesting olives. One of my goals is to help with an olive harvest and, as it turns out, Ruth has olive trees! She explained that they are harvested in November at the time that the olive cooperative deems best. You pick them from the trees by hand and haul them to the cooperative in big baskets. They in turn provide freshly pressed olive oil. I can hardly wait! And, Mike’s dinner was a hit with everyone. He bought five caille which we later translated as quail. He stuffed them with oregano, garlic and lemon. We also had fresh asparagus (they are in season now and available at all the local markets) and potatoes and carrots with rosemary cut from the yard. We topped it off with some excellent rose wine from Bandol. It was fabulous – from the food to the company.

Not a bad way to spend a rainy day! And we managed to get a couple of days of sun which we took full advantage of. One of them was spent in St. Tropez and the other wine tasting in the Bandol area.

Our trip to St. Tropez was lovely. The sun was shining, the water was blue, and there was a Harley Davidson rally. There were beaucoup motorcycles in town with no shortage of black leather. There was one group of cyclists who were wearing biker jackets with red plaid kilts…hmmmm. We enjoyed walking around town and soaking up the sun. We even had a chance to eat lunch outside along the waterfront. It was delightful even with the periodic roar of a Harley passing by. One of the interesting attractions in St. Tropez is the public toilet. It’s a large silver cylinder in a parking lot. Coins are inserted, a door opens, you go in, do your thing, come out, door closes and the whole things goes into a wash cycle. You can hear the water swishing around inside so that the whole thing shakes, rattles and rolls. Once it finishes (and it seems to take forever when you really gotta go!), it allows more coins to be inserted and the process begins again. It was good entertainment.

Our other day trip was to the Bandol area along the coast near Marseilles. Bandol is known for the wines from that region. We set out that day armed with a French wine book and a hope for sun. We got both sun and excellent wines. Our first stop was at Domaine du Gros’ Nore. The woman at the shop was most helpful in explaining their award winning wines and helping us discern the flavors in the wine. (You can become reasonably good a faking it…”I think I’m getting hints of raspberry or is it dark cherry?”…worked every time.) Mike was great at asking questions that made us more knowledgeable about the vines and production. We’re surrounded by vineyards in Cotignac and have been watching as the vines begin to put out leaves. Many of the vineyards have blue tubes in the ground among the smaller vines. Thanks to Mike, we now know that the blue tubes are there to protect young vines from the rabbits. We hadn’t even seen any rabbits…except in the markets, and those rabbits weren’t going to bother any vines!

We tried to find the next vineyard on our list, but somehow missed it. As we were turning around we saw signs for Bunan. We took a chance and wound our way up a long narrow driveway to a beautiful spot on top of a hill overlooking rolling vineyards with a glimpse of the Mediterranean Sea just beyond. Lovely. Once again we were treated to rich descriptions of what the French call “terrior”. It means the character that the wine derives from the land. Bunan bottles two types of wine because the land is different and gives different flavors to the grapes. We had excellent wines there as well.

With all the wine tasting, it was time for lunch in Le Castellet. Le Castellet is a charming medieval village perched on top of a hill surrounded by vineyards. It was fun to wander around town browsing the shops and looking in the windows. Lunch was great and Bernadette had her first taste of rabbit. It was probably one of those that tried to eat a grape vine.

One thing about bad weather, it forces quiet time and reflection. I was able take my morning walks before the rain, as well as get in some writing time. The rain seemed to make the mornings even more quiet than usual. Heavy mist hung in the air and in the trees along the pathway to the Notre Dame sanctuary. That's become my favorite walk. It's peaceful and quiet. All you hear are the birds and the wind in the pine trees. We've been in France for almost five weeks and I'm beginning to realize that I've been carrying around more stress than I thought. I always congratulated myself on leaving work at the workplace, but as I settle into the quiet I appreciate that more stress came home with me than I thought. It's surprising, but I can feel layers falling away - from the commute, work pressures, the negativity from daily political events, and just keeping all the balls in the air that go along with managing life. It adds up. For now, I think I'll just enjoy each quiet moment and figure out how to add those things back into my life later. Yep....that's the plan.

Editorial note: Each time I write a blog, it is a challenge to find only a few photos to illustrate our experiences. This time, both Mike and David were taking photos so there are even more great pictures from which to choose. I can't fit them all into the text so I'm including a few of my favorites here so everyone can enjoy them.

Cowboys, Wine and Swine

Saturday night was a big evening in Cotignac. It was the Cowboy Soiree. What a hoot! There were about 20 dancers, all but two were women. They were in their black outfits with gold embroidery, gold cowboy hats, boots and US flag kerchiefs. The room - a small version of the VFW hall in Smithville - was packed! This was clearly a big event. Dinner was part of the show so tables were lined up and we had assigned seats - a first class event. The room was fully decorated from 4' tall paper cacti, a mannequin on a western saddle and both US and Confederate flags.

It started at 7:30PM so in French fashion that meant that the show and dinner started at 8:45PM. We visited (as much as possible) with our neighbors over chips, salsa and guacamole while they served apertifs - kir. That was a first! I was sitting next to Theirry. His wife, Marie, was part of the dance troupe. He had clearly been through this routine before. The program started with the troupe doing line dancing to John Denver and Achy Breaky Heart. After a couple of performances they invited the audience to learn a line dance with them. I danced with my partner, Eva (a man). It was a bit amusing with our difficulties in communication. Following the group dance, dinner was served. We had "chili con carne" or so they said. It was served with rice and lacked any chili-like spice. But by now we were starving so we ate everything they gave us. More line dance demonstrations and a group dance followed this course, too. This time I recognized the steps - it was the electric slide! Let the record show - I did the electric slide in France. The next course was cheese (camenbert and emmentaler) and salad. That was followed by an apple tart and coffee. Of course, the entire meal was served with an endless supply of red and rose wine. We ran out of water but not wine! You gotta love this place. We thought that was the end of the Cowboy Soiree story, but, no.

David and Bernadette arrived on Sunday and brought recommendations with them from a friend who lives in the nearby town of Lorgues. Last night was went to Lorgues to a recommended restaurant, Bistrot Gourmet. As we settled in I noticed a woman who looked like Marie - one of the dancers. Sure enough, it was her. She spoke less English than her husband, Theirry, but he had told her enough of our story that she knew we were living in Cotignac for ten months. Apparently, Marie shared our story with the restaurant owners.
Turns out the owners live in Cotignac as well. We had a reasonably understandable conversation and determined that we live close to one of their employees. The owners, Dany and Jean-Luc are former owners of our favorite restaurant in Cotignac. At the end of the evening - during which they treated us to a glass of champagne (you gotta love this place) - they invited us to their house on Wednesday afternoon! We jumped at the opportunity and are compiling all our questions about the area. Bernadette and I will translate the questions to French tonight and hope we can understand the answers. We'll have more to report tomorrow.

I should also mention that dinner was wonderful. Between us, we had entrees of risotto with morelles, a vegetable tart, and fois gras. Dinner was lamb, grilled fish or lobster. Desert was an assortment of goodies - chocolate mousse, creme brulee, berry mousse and a pastry. All were marvelous. And on our way home we encountered a dog in the middle of the road - but on closer inspection it was a wild boar. Not a dog at all! It ran along the road in front of the car before darting off into the trees. Our first glimpse of wildlife!

We've already had a good time visiting with David and Bernadette and showing them around - in spite of a downpour of rain today. We successfully picked them up at the Nice airport. That was our first time to navigate the various terminals, and parking lots. They were already in the terminal when we found our way there. We'll be more proficient the next time.


At David's suggestion, we went to the Chagall Museum in Nice, partly to keep them awake and on their feet. The museum was fabulous. I'm not a big Chagall fan, but his work exceeded my expectations. The images and his use of color created emotion on a canvas. It was impressive. Other adventures included a trip to the Thoronet Abbey and wine tasting at St. Janet vineyard. More excursions are to come!

Rainy Day in Cotignac

It’s a rainy afternoon in Cotignac so this is a good time for a short blog. The weather has been great for the last week – sunny and warm afternoons, cool evenings. We can deal with a little rain today. Besides, it keeps the flowers and the streams flowing.

The flowers are lovely. Iris – dark purple, pale lavender and light yellows – poppies, lilacs, wisteria, and these lovely yellow vining flowers are all over the village and in our yard. It’s beautiful. I picked some lilacs and they perfumed the entire first floor.

Since we’re going to be here for awhile we’d like to introduce you to the people we meet around town. We’ll start with Andre – the pool guy. Andre and his helper, Tio, arrived this week to uncover and clean the pool for the summer. The pool looks great! Unfortunately, the temperature is 65 degrees! Don’t think we’ll be jumping in anytime soon.

Mike and I have continued our afternoon walks around the area. We enjoyed one beautiful walk along the top of the hills that went by a pretty natural spring (source St. Martin) and an old (1700s) glaciere or ice house. The best I could decipher from the description, the spring water flowed into the glaciere and on cold nights the water would freeze into thick ice that was sold in the village. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

We also hiked to a waterfall outside of Sillians. It was also a lovely walk. The trail went to the base of the waterfall and along the stream. The stream had a series of falls along the pathway. We found a big, sunny rock for a little nap. While I napped, Mike was entertained. First, a duck came bravely swimming down the stream. We couldn’t imagine what he’d do at the little fall – go tumbling down? He seemed completely unconcerned and for good reason. He swam to the top of the fall, stood up, walked down the rocks part of the way and jumped to the bottom to continue swimming. Mike captured it all on video. After the duck, two women and a man came over and settled on the same rock. While Mike sat and I slept, the two women calmly undressed and changed into swim suits…..all in front of Mike. He did NOT get a video of that….at least as far as I know.

Mike’s brother and sister-in-law, David and Bernadette, arrive tomorrow – our first guests! We’re looking forward to seeing them and exploring some other areas around Cotignac. We went shopping today so that we’d have some yummy munchies when they arrive after the long flight. That’s when we discovered that May 1 is a national holiday in France. Who knew? It’s Labor Day. It seems that the US is one of a few countries who celebrate Labor Day in the fall rather than on May 1. Everything was closed – except the outdoor markets. We were successful at getting munchies but they’ll have to wait a day for milk!



PS: The laptop crisis is over. Yeah! The local computer guy, Joe, was able to retrieve all our files. We have them all – fully backed up this time. In addition, he fixed the computer! While Dell had already sent the new hard drive, Dell was unconcerned with the loss of all our software and data. We weren’t sure how we’d replace much of it. Since Joe fixed the laptop and cleaned up old files and programs, it’s running better than ever now. We are once again a two computer household. Good thing. That could have gotten ugly!