but first, i found more photos of provence! we visited the open air produce markets....
check out the eggs...so pure they don't need no fridge...
a table of endless curries piled high....
more perfect-looking fish than i could eat in a year....
and stall after stall of organic produce....
we also visited the town's rinky-dink natural history museum (kaydee got more photos--look for those soon--hilarious), where i spotted some fossilized dinosaur eggs...
we then headed for toulouse...
...where the town is nutty about 1. brick structures (see photo above), and 2. violets. we passed lines of violet shops filled with violet candy, booze, candles, you name it...if it was purple, it was there....
we caught the tail of a wedding down the street...click on the photo to zoom in as usual....
another highlight was the basilica of saint sernin--an interesting story. sernin was the first bishop of toulouse, and was accidentally martyred in 250 AD after being dragged through the streets behind a sacrificial bull...whoopsie. so in turn, the locals built the largest romanesque church in the world for him. his body rests here, along with a long list of holy relics sent by rome. (the first photo below is his gold tomb, which predictably holds a higher place of stature in the nave than the cross....).
we then headed west for san sebastian, a 3-hour drive. the GPS drove us crazy (and by us, i mean navigator kersten) because just when we'd hit a critical intersection or freeway change, we'd lose the satellite signal. it didn't ruin the scenery, though, as we were passing over the lovely pyrenees--low-slung green mountains with corn farms, vine-covered stone houses, and fields of white cattle sandwiched in-between. we saw several snow ski resort signs, which was hilarious, given how flat the "mountains" were--downhill skiing looked like it wouldn't be an option. we also passed signs advertising viewing spots for the tour de france--the race must climb the hills at some point, though we didn't see any cyclists along the route.
a few miles before the spanish border, we drove past the tiny river town of pau ("po"), which held special meaning for me. the morning we left for europe, i learned the shocking news that clay young, my good friend, college roommate, and performance art partner of the 90s, had passed away suddenly at 41. a hilarious, red-headed, freckled, skin-and-bones 6'4" francophile who'd always had his nose in a french dictionary, clay spent a semester abroad in pau around 1992, and we'd been dedicated penpals accordingly, sending each other postcards like crazy. i know it's out of chronological order for this blog, but while in paris i had the hotel front desk print out a photo of him so i could take him around the city--you can see a photo of him at the eiffel tower below, which i know he would've enjoyed. i've had to grieve in little bursts along the trip, so it was a wonderful coincidence that we got to pass pau.
and now, san sebastian: sun, sand, and ocean surf a few stories below our hotel room windows that open to pink sunset light and the breezy views of the santa clara bay. this is basque region, so most of the signs and menus are in the euskera language--the "spanish" that really doesn't look much like spanish with all of its T's and X's. the town is famous for its tapas (a.k.a. pinxtos...say "peenchos"), which vary ridiculously from bar to bar, making each dining experience a new humbling adventure in pointing at food and trying to eek out some semblance of meaning with my high school spanish. i tried throwing in some french, but they weren't having it.
as luck had it, we arrived on one of the busiest weekends of the year: the town's annual regatta, which brings thousands of crazed & drunken, boat-rooting, euskera-screaming mobs to san sebastian's old town--which also happens to be where the best food is located. we were insanely lucky last night with a meal from spanish heaven (kaydee will tell more i'm sure), but today the streets were so jammed with craziness (see photo of mobs below) that we had to escape down to the beach (poor us) and forget about trying to find locate more pinxtos.
besides the bay, my favorite sebastian views were inside the basilica of st. mary, which is situated at the center of old town. the gothic 15th-18th century sculptures were incredible...
...but the church isn't stuck in history: as you enter its doors, there are no votive candles in sight, which is odd because most catholic churches we've visited have offered them in spades--you can pay 2 euros and light a candle for a saint or loved one...but not at st. mary's, where instead, you'll see an array of light bulbs; drop a quarter in a slot and a faux candle light bulb comes on to represent the recipient of your prayer. it was a little unnerving, but it probably won't be long before even the bulbs are replaced by an iphone app.
tomorrow we drive to la guardia in the rioja region for a half-day wine tour. yesssssss....
--s
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