We started the day visiting hospital at Saint Paul-de-Mausole, just outside of St. Remy de Provence. It was the hospital that van Gogh (pronounced van Gog in France) spent the last two years of his life. It's a major attraction at St.Remy, though the real appeal was a very serence church, a pleasant cloister, and finally two spectaclur fields of lavendar and of poppies. I'm sure Kate will post photo's of them both.
We then drove a short distance away to see the Abbey of Saint-Roman. Unfortunately, it was closed, so we launched a spontaneous rondannee. It ended like an authentic one: a variety of groomed and rugged path, and confusion about directions. We finally stopped and asked a hiker/jogger (one of only two we saw in our hour of walking) for directions: 'Nous sommes perdu. Ou se trouve la parking pour l'Abbey?' It turns our that we a couple of hundred meters from it, though that was after having doubled back before asking the amused Frenchman.
We arrived in Avignon about 5. More on the city and apartment tomorrow perhaps.
For dinner, we stopped at a small shop, and bought some country pate, smoked salmon, tomatoes, lettuce and wine. A marvelous French meal, with no cooking.
Tonight's musical interlude...starting with some background from wikipedia.
Chanson réaliste, or realist song, refers to a style of music performed in France primarily from the1880s until the end of World War II. Influenced by literary realism and the naturalist movements in literature and theatre, chanson réaliste dealt with the lives of Paris's poor and working-class.
Chanson réaliste was a musical style that was mainly performed by women;some of the more commonly known performers of the genre include Édith Piaf, Fréhe and Yvonne George.
The chanson réaliste sentimentalised the plight of poor and dispossessed women, such as prostitutes, waitresses, failed singers in cheap bars, orphans, single mothers and the like. Some of the performers of the genre were also known to have lived the part—both Édith Piaf and Fréhel sang in the streets as children, were teenage mothers and lost their children very young—and many shortened their lives with drugs, alcohol and illness: Yvonne George lived an excessive lifestyle and died at the age of 34; Fréhel became an alcoholic at an early age, attempted suicide at 19 and eventually died in poverty; Piaf suffered from addictions tomorphine and alcohol and died of cancer.
However, given the dramatic and melancholy aspects of chanson réaliste, the withered and diseased aspect of their appearance became an integral part of the show.
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