Saturday morning were were off early to see the sound and light show at the underground halls cut out in a former quarry in Les Baux de Provence. Here our host Paul and his uncle Guy lend perspective to the size of the quarries, a rough kind of sculpture in the side of a cliff that remind me of the more spectacular historic carvings in Jordan.
This might sound unlikely, but it turned out to be as spectacular a show as you will ever see.
It was so good that I managed to forgive being sucked into watching a short film by Jacques Cocteau (who is in the picture on the right and featured in the film) that was strategically located in a hall just by the washrooms or WCs where I start most of my visits to arts venues. This bizarre film deserved to be located there and I thought that I would have enjoyed it more if it was actually projected on the wall of the urinal I had used. It wasn't all bad as it featured a woman painted white with wings a nice pair of bare breasts, but she only go a cameo so couldn't save the whole film which included a number of apparently famous French actors walking about in ancient Greek clothing to no apparent purpose while Jacques Cocteau drifted through them and a narrator purported to make sense of the whole.The main show was very different and frankly, quite fabulous. I took some dark video of it but can't seem to add it successfully to this post. So you'll need to make do with the (dark) photos I took with my IPhone.
Music from various centuries played in the dark while dozens of projectors cast fabulous paintings onto the walls and floor. The colors from paintings by Monet, Renoir, Chagall and others saturated the darkness. We walked around to take in the performance from various perspectives. There were some "balconies" and "ramps" as well as columns and wider and narrower "walls" of the quarry to walk, encircle and view.
The site of the quarry is also in a spot that is quite spectacular:
The site is close to St. Remy, a town made famous by the artists who painted there, Van Gogh perhaps most notably. St. Remy, is now a tourist destination catering to the well off and bargains are hard to find, but not totally absent. We had a very good meal in St. Remy at the le Gousse d'Ail (the Garlic Clove). We had a delightful 2012 Chateau Romanin Alpilles from St. Remy de Provence, a local white wine that is biodynamically produced. I ate a pissaladiere (a tart with onions and anchovies) surrounded by lettuce leaves, anchovies and diced tomatoes. Cristina loved her vol-au-vent au fruits de mer (a patty shell full of sea food in a white sauce. Cristina then had a filet of Loup de Mer (Mediterranean sea bass I believe in English, a white fish that looks like a trout) with tomato sauce that was equally good. I had Dorade with a typical Provencal ratatouille. The fish had a lovely crisp skin and melted in the mouth. This meal armed us for the hour long drive home.
On the way, home, however we stopped at one of the huge supermarkets France is known for, Auchan. It was an utter zoo. All of the recent immigrants to France must have been in this one store on the outskirts of Avignon and the cues to check out were impressive. We didn't buy enough to warrant standing in one of these cues but did so anyway. I cased out the wine section and managed to find a nice Bordeaux, a 2007 Chateau L'Evangile from Pomerol that was exciting enough to make the cue something I could put up with.
When we got home we prepared a supper with our hosts and sat down to the table with them and their relatives, Guy and Monique. The lovely supper was washed down with a couple of excellent wines. The 2009 Domaine Janasse red Chateauneuf de Pape Chaupin was a super concentrated wine that was hedonistic and complex even at this pubescent stage in its evolution and me with the approval of all. We then followed that with a 2010 Smith Haut Lafitte red wine I had purchased from the "Somellier's Club" at a Casino supermarket under their house label. This Bordeaux from Pessac Leognan was a steal at 20 Euros under this label and an equally big hit with all around the table.
After sampling all these French arts it was off to bed to get an early start the next day.
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