Les Gorges du Verdon

The final stop on our tour of Provence last week was the incredible Gorges du Verdon. Also known as the European Grand Canyon, this is the world's second largest gorge and an incredible natural wonder.

We started out with a hike en route to the Gorges, outside the town of Sainte Laurent du Verdon. Our hike took us along a winding river with some incredible cliffs, but certainly just a prelude to the Gorges themselves.

We stayed at a cute inn just outside the town of Moustiers Sainte Marie and had a great time hiking around Moustiers, a unique site in itself (above).

The Gorges have to be accessed by car, which induced some perilous driving on the Route de Cretes, an incredibly windy scenic road that works its way around the Gorges and provides some breathtaking views.

Although it wasn't quite warm enough for rafting on the river, but we were fortunate sure we arrived before tourist season so the roads were relatively empty and we were able to cruise at our own speed, enjoying the many lookouts along the way.

One of the other interesting features of the area are the lakes, which were man-made over the past 80 as part of an electricity scheme. The lakes shimmer an unnatural bright blue, more like the Caribbean than a man-made reservoir.

Finally, we encountered quite a bit of the local wildlife, from hawks soaring over the Gorges to mountain goats, feeding on the surrounding hillsides. These animals seemed completely nonplussed by the cars / humans around them.

We definitely would call this a "must see" sight. Also, Moustiers is a wonderful town with some great restaurants and a great way to explore a different part of Provence.

South of France (Provence / Cote d'Azur)

We are currently in Paris (arrived on Friday) and will be here until May 27. Prior to Paris, we were in the South of France (Provence and the Cote d'Azur), the subject of this post.


After a week-and-a-half of traveling around the South of France (by car), we have already started planning future visits. A combination of trips to the beach , incredible hiking, visits to local markets and the beautiful countryside scenery left us never wanting to leave.


We spent a perfect day on the beach in Cannes. With the weather already in the high 20’s (that’s Celsius), it was even hot enough to dip in the Mediterranean. The seemingly never ending stretch of beach was busy with locals, but not yet packed with tourists. Taking a break from the lounging, we walked around the city and saw the Palais des Festivals and docks full of incredible yachts. We also spent a day exploring Juan-Les-Pins and Antibes, which took us to some more beautiful beaches and the incredible peninsula Cap d'Antibes, home to some incredibly palatial homes and hotels.


Away from the waterfront, we picked up a couple of hiking maps at the local tourist office and embarked on some of the most phenomenal hikes.

Our favourite was a hike that started in the Massif d’Estrel and took us along cliffs and beaches in St. Raphael - some of the most spectacular scenery we have scene anywhere.



We also visited the perfumeries of Grasse (above) and toured their facilities. A bit of an overrated experience, but fun nonetheless.



We also loved the food in the region and have consumed almost exclusively local produce. Even at this time of year, the markets are full of wonderful food, with every vendor eager to give you a taste of what they have on offer. They are so proud of their produce that one vendor even remarked to another vendor (in French) “I wish there were a way to give away samples of eggs”. Some of the delicacies that you might have found in our reusable market bag over the past two weeks ncluded: apricot nougat, fennel salami, duck ravioli, a bouquet of purple artichokes, a smorgasbord of local cheeses and always a baguette.


Getting around to the beaches, hikes and markets has been almost as exciting as arriving at our intended destination. Some of the roads have led us through “Villages Perchés” (literally tiny villages that are perched on the top of a mountain), through rolling green hills, past fields entirely covered in bright yellow flowers and along streets lined with overhanging trees that make you feel as though you’ve entered a tunnel.

We visited tons of small towns like Fayence, Seillans, Mons, Callas, Moustiers Sainte Marie and Foncalquier all of which looked like just small dot on a map, but took on lives of their own as we walked around cobblestone streets and visited small markets and bakeries.



A natural extension of our time in Provence was a visit to the L'Occitane en Provence factory, where we saw how they make soap, candles, fragrances, etc. and also learned about the history of the company. Naturally, Kristi was enthralled with this visit and we were able to pick up a few products at the factory store after our tour.

Although we are now in Paris, we are still working on a post of our visit to the European Grand Canyon - stay tuned.

Nice / Monte-Carlo

Side note: This blog post comes a little bit late because it has been significantly trickier to track down free WiFi (often pronounced weefee in many of these European countries) in France than it was in Estonia. Though only free from communism for the past 17 years, Estonia has one of the highest internet penetration rates in Europe and free WiFi (the Estonians use the North American pronunciation) can be found virtually anywhere in the country.

Since we were looking to warm up after two weeks in a still somewhat chilly Estonia, we headed to Nice (that’s niece, not nice), France on April 15th. We were greeted with warm sunshine on day one and took advantage the much needed vitamin D boost.

The Monte-Carlo Masters Series tennis tournament was taking place while we were in Nice and with Monte-Carlo being only 20 minutes away by train, we decided to take the opportunity to see some of the tour’s best players in action. Very sadly, it was pouring rain on the day we had tickets. As avid tennis fans and eternal optimists, we set out from Nice to the Monte-Carlo Country Club anyway, with umbrellas in hand. We quickly learned that Monte-Carlo does not get a lot of rain, since there was only one covered area at the whole tournament. Luckily we had arrived early and were able to secure two seats in the covered section, where there were approximately 1,000 seats at a tournament that hosts over 10,000 fans daily. After what seemed like ages of waiting for disorganized ushers to seat soggy fans, Jon finally remarked that they would be better off using the more experienced ushers who seat people in synagogue during the high holidays. Though we were excited to watch some of our favourite players, including Federer, Nadal and Djokovic, warm up, we quickly realized that the relatively low canopy providing shelter from the rain was too low to accommodate an actual match. We finally decided to head into Monte-Carlo for a look around, since there would clearly be no matches played in the ongoing pouring rain.



Monte-Carlo is a surrealistic experience. Virtually everyone in the city is at least a millionaire (literally) and every car on the road is incredible (other than those with an F or I designation on their license plates, which single out the French / Italians just passing through). The architecture is beautiful and the setting of the city overlooking the water is spectacular; however, beyond casinos and very expensive shops, there is not a whole lot to do in Monte Carlo on a very rainy day. Fortunately for us, by the time we had eaten a sandwich for lunch, the sun finally started to peek through the clouds and we decided to make our way back to the tennis tournament, hoping to see the first match of the day.



Back at the tournament, we were excited to find that the sun was out, the weather had warmed up and Federer was getting ready to step out onto centre court. Being a Masters Series tournament, the men only had to win two sets to take the match (as opposed to winning three sets in a Grand Slam tournament). Federer’s performance was surprisingly weak and he just managed to lose (6-4, 7-5) to his fellow Swiss countryman, Wawrinka, before it started pouring rain again. Unfortunately that was the only match we wound up seeing that day, as it continued to rain after the Federer match, and they wrapped up the tournament for the day at that point.


Inspired by the athletics and muscle we had seen in Monte Carlo, we decided to take on a little physical activity ourselves and on April 19th we joined approximately 10,000 other joggers in running the Nice Semi-Marathon (as previously noted). The Semi-Marathon is a pretty bid deal in Nice and most people in town know that it is going on. Luckily, for this event we got clear sunny weather and we both had a great time running 21.2 kilometres, most of which was along the waterfront. The support throughout the city, including all the people that hung out their apartment windows to cheer the runners on, was much appreciated and made for a fun event. Though still a little bit sore from the run, we pulled ourselves together and were back out hiking in the French countryside a few days later.


We will be back in Nice briefly on April 30th, which is lucky, because there is one restaurant that we didn’t make it to on our first trip through, Chez Palmyre. The menu changes daily, and the old woman who does the cooking runs the restaurant as though you are eating in her home - can’t wait!

Saint Raphael

We have been busy enjoying the warm weather in the South of France, so apologies for getting behind on the blog (including the belated Southern Estonia post that just went up).

Today we went for an incredible 6 km hike in and around Saint Raphael. The hike started in the Massif de L'Esterel, an incredible mountain range that surrounds the coast, and ended along the beaches outside of the cityl. It was an incredible hike and I think that the pictures tell the story better than words.

Southern Estonia

Despite being a relatively small country, Estonia has a lot of history and a lot of beautiful places to discover. After our visit to Saaremaa, we were back in Tallinn for a couple of days for a Passover Seder, then traveled south to Tartu, Estonia’s biggest university town.

We ended up enjoying Tartu more than Tallinn, mainly because the “old town” seems more oriented towards locals than tourists, so restaurants are more authentic / less stereotypical. As well, Tartu has some beautiful parks mixed amongst the city and the parks are dotted with sculptures, ruins or other points of interest.

We were also in Tartu for Jon’s birthday (April 11) and enjoyed a great home-curated lunch from the Tartu market, including a variety of herring and salmon, as well as some moose salami, coleslaw and home-made pickles (which were good, but not up to Ellenzweig / Tupholme standards).

We also toured the A. Le Coq Brewery in Tartu, definitely a non-Estonian name (Mr. Le Coq was a Belgian) but the leading producer of beer in Estonia.

After Tartu, we rented a car and toured around the countryside, including Viljandi, birthplace of Kristi's step-grandmother and home to another great park and castle, and we ended up spending the night in Parnu, a beachside resort town.

We finagled a sea-view room in Parnu and the weather crept up into the mid-teens, so we took a great walk along the beach / boardwalk and explored some of the other highlights.

We returned our car the next day to Tallinn and spent our final night in a hotel that also houses a pool / spa facility, with about 6 different hot tubs, multiple saunas, steam rooms, etc. - a relaxing way to end our stay in Estonia.

Nice - Semi-Marathon

Kristi and I just completed the Nice Semi-Marathon this morning! A beautiful day and an awesome setting with most of the race along the Med. Race info is here.

Saaremaa

Having enjoyed our volunteer experience in Spain, we decided to embark on another volunteer program in Estonia. We found an interesting project on Saaremaa, Estonia's largest island, located just off the west coast. We stayed in Kuressaare (population 16,000), the island's largest city.

Our host was trying to start a wool cooperative on the island and our project was to help put together a business plan, as part of an application for EU funding. Despite a large number of sheep on the island (approximately 11,000), the locals currently have no place to process the wool that is sheared from their sheep; however, many have shown interest in seeking a local solution.

Before we could commence the report writing, we had to get an understanding of both sheep and wool. Several days were spent visiting local farms with our host and learning about the farmers' wool-related needs. Fortunately, we quickly took a liking to the sheep.

The locals we met were very kind and we enjoyed learning about Estonian farm life. After touring around one of the farms, we were very excited to be presented with a snack of locally made food. On the table we found: bread, honey, lamb pate, milk, pickles and coffee (everything came from the farm, except for the coffee). At the end of our visit, we were also each given a pair of homemade socks, this was truly a local experience!

Apart from our volunteer project, we found some time to visit a few of the sites on the island, the best of which was the Kuressaare Castle. The castle is the best preserved castle in the Baltics, originally built in the 1200's, but reconstructed in its present form in the 1400's.

Overall, we had a great time in Saaremaa, but after having eaten at almost all the local restaurants in the span of five days, we didn't mind getting back on the bus and heading back to Tallinn, the big city, for Passover.....more to come on that in a later post.

Tallinn - Sporting Events

We are currently in Tallinn Estonia and have been in Estonia for the past week. Since arriving on March 31st, we have spent time in both Tallinn (the capital city) and on the island of Saaremaa (subject of a future post).

We have tried to stay on top of Estonia's sporting scene since arriving (which is pretty easy to do), and have attended a World Cup 2010 Qualifying Match as well as an Estonian Basketball League game.

Estonia does not have a very rich football (soccer) background, which has shown in their World Cup 2010 qualification efforts (Europe - Group 5). Thankfully, they were playing one of the few teams in Europe ranked below them, Armenia (Estonia is ranked #115 in the world and Armenia is ranked #124 - click here for the full rankings).

The match took place at Estonia's largest football field, A. Le Coq Arena, sponsored by A. Le Coq, one of Estonia's largest breweries (and the one with the most interesting name).

Positive notes on the match:
1. Both teams tried their best.
2. There were a decent number of Estonian fans that turned out, despite the early start time (6:00 PM on a Wednesday).
3. Surprisingly, some Armenian fans made it to the match.
4. Estonia won, 1-0.

Room for improvement:
1. The grass was very brown and patchy.
2. Neither Estonia nor Armenia are very good at football. Lots of players on both sides either play in their local leagues or in places like Iran, Kazakhstan, Georgia, etc.
3. No beer was sold during the match (a FIFA rule, not a local one).
4. The concession stand sold out of Estonian Garlic Bread (a GREAT local snack, not like Italian garlic bread) before half time, so we didn't get any.

Next up on our sporting tour-de-force was a match in the SEB Korvpalli Maestriliiga, more commonly known as the KML or the Estonian Basketball League. You may be asking yourself, something like "Hm. I didn't know that Estonians play basketball. I don't recall seeing any of their players in the NBA or in the Olympics". Well, due in part to their Nordic ancestry, there are some tall Estonians out there and at some point, they got together and started playing basketball. Unfortunately, they are not very good, which is why we generally don't see Estonians in the NBA. They do, however, also participate in the Baltic Basketball League, which is typically dominated by Lithuanian teams.

The game we went to was between one of the local Tallinn teams, BC Kalev (mascot pictured above) and its chief rival, Tartu Rock. Thankfully, the local team won (boxscore) and the 1,200 (or so) fans in attendance all went home happy.