Specialties of Provence: the white brandade (a paste of salted cod and olive oil) and green tapanade vert (a paste of olives and capers) and pain artisenal (real bread baked by real bakers):
Provence
Join the Legion!
No, I’m not planning to join the Legion Etrangier, also known as the French Foreign Legion.
But I did visit their recruiting truck, which I thought made an amazing site parked just across from the Roman Coloseum in the French city of Nimes,
Inside the truck, with the music of Bolero playing in the background, I spend a wonderful time practicing my French with two older legionnaire officers who you could tell from their body language that they had seen a lifetime of combat.
Outside, I also chatted in French with some of the younger soldiers, who all told me they were mostly from other countries, not from France itself, although there were some French among them. Sadly, my French is not yet that good to understand when they tried to explain why there were French in the Legion, not just foreigners.
Interestingly, when I returned later in the day, the truck was full of young men – so I guess they were successful in their recruiting efforts.
Home of blue jeans
Just as the villages and towns of central and northern Europe are filled with ancient buildings dating back to the Renaissance, the villages and towns of southern Europe are filled with ancient buildings dating back much further, to the Roman empire.
Here is a Roman building, still in wonderful condition today, at the heart of the town of Nimes in Southern France:
It’s here in this town (Nimes) that the fabric used for blue jeans (denim) was first made famous.
A very secluded medieval town
If you’ve ever visited the very end of the Mississippi River, then you know how it is: a truly exciting environment, unbelievably remote, and visited by very, very few people.
The medieval town of Aigues-Mortes is the French equivalent. It’s a beautifully preserved medieval town, in the French region known simply as The Camargue, where the Rhone River forms a delta emptying into the Mediterranean Sea:
Interestingly, this is the spot where famous 7th Crusades were launched in 1248. But today the locals are more interested in shopping for bread
or bowling
rather than marching on Jerusalem!
World’s most famous Roman aqueduct
This is Pont Du Gard,
It is located just outside the city of Nimes, in Southern France.
It is pretty impressive, to be sure, and if you are in the area, it is probably worth a visit. However, it is very, very developed for tourists. There are still some wonderful Roman aqueducts in Spain that are still in their natural state.
Pillar of Moss and Slime – 3
Continuing the series, arguably the world’s oldest and best-known pillar of moss and slime, located in Aix en Provence, shows that my own name for these objects, pillars of moss and slime, is not half bad: this one is officially known as Fontaine Mossue. Interestingly, it is a natural hot water spring that dates back to the Roman times.