Brignoles and Sainte Baume

After Nice, we were undecided what to do next, the mistral was blowing, so we resolved to hunker down somewhere on the way to Aix en Provence, do an administrative day, plan, and try not to get blown away. We ended at Brignoles, a small town, staying at a welcoming Casino (supermercado) (same as we had stayed at in 2017) along with several other campeurs. We did the wash, reorganized, did some research and blogging, and also did a couple walks. After Brignoles, we decided we would take a look at the Massif of Sainte Baume, a big ridge and pilgrimage site nearby, famous because St. Mary Magdalene spent the last 33 years of her life here. Yeah sure.  Isn't interesting how just about all the apostles, et al., ended up in Europe? Sainte Baume, I presume was the "discovery" that knocked Vezelay off the Medieval pilgrimage sites itinerary (see http://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2013/09/vezelay-abbey-church-of-st-mary.html), safeguarding it for future generations, including ours.

Old Brignoles is a town of interesting murals...

New Brignoles has a Picard...

A Flunch, a LeClerc, an Intersport, and so much more; the
Flunch offer is pretty impressive

Part of the Sainte Baume massif

It was an interesting drive up a 1.5 lane mountain road to get this far, well below
the summit

It is said the angels carried Her every morning to the oratory on top to pray; note
cliff dwellings below

Thus

And thus; reminded me of Mesa Verde

The Hostellerie and resto in the valley below

Chapel

Helpful, etc.

Summit hike; not this day...

Vicki said don't miss the Calvary by the cliff dwellings...

Wait, there they are, center...

Further on, the Chapel of of Sainte Magdaleine

Well, not that old actually

Looking to more of Provence and another massif

A road warning prevented us from driving higher, so we headed on to Aix; here,
a sign hanging in a tree by a carpark...the giles jaunes have been here

Still processing this one

Having A Nice Day

Vicki had found a nice older campground in Antibes, the former Antipos, founded by the Greeks way back in the 4th century BCE, and we decided to relax there a couple days as well as visit Nice. Antibes is just a few miles west of Nice, and it was an easy bus ride on a beautiful spring day. Nice is one of our favorite places. Previous, more conventional blog posts about the city and its sights are:
http://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2010/07/nice-is-nice-1.html,
http://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2010/07/nice-is-nice-2.html,
http://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2010/07/nice-is-nice-3.html, and
http://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2017/11/nice-2017.html.
For this visit, and the previous one or two, we just wandered around, enjoying the abundant ambiance. And being back in France.

Heading for the old town, we first visited the large market

Street scene

Shoppes and restaurants in Nice have always struck us as among the more clever...

Alley storeroom for a non-gluten-free restaurant

In a cafe

Something we'd not done in previous visits was go up to the old fortress and park
that overlook the eastern end of the city; happily, there was a free elevator and
only a short wait; the elevator shaft was in the former well of the fortress, 16th
century or so, 85m deep

Grooming Nice's famed pebble beach

Sweep of the bay out to the airport; Antibes in the far distance...

Us, there

Big city

In the park, something about Ulysses, who was said to have sailed in these parts;
nothing about Penelope, however

Harbor with five-master we've seen at Amalfi and Capri; I think

Art nouveau touches all over

Lunch at the Bistro d'Antoine; another of Vicki's Michelin
Red finds

My anchovies 

Her duck

My fish

It was a pretty classy joint as bistros go, so we were
astonished and amused to see Frisch's Big Boy by the bar;
none of the staff knew what it was nor where it was from...

Mannequin art, something I could get into

"Trump is crazy"

A city of wonderful ghost signs

Cat shoppe

Artistes' shoppe

Gotta have one of these; definitely to visit the Charvin in Paris...

Did I mention all the art nouveau in Nice?

Italian Out-Takes

And so we descended eventually into Ventimiglia, turned right, got lost among the routes barrieres and deviations, but finally found our way to familiar Menton, and then to the peage, and on past Nice to Antibes and our campsite for the next few days. A week or more later, I'm still saying buongiorno instead of bonjour, and grazie instead of merci.

Why Starbucks will not make it in Italy: even at the McD's in Rome you can get
a cappuccino and hot chocolate and 2 pastries for under 5E

Italian waste sorting has gotten quite complex

Click to enlarge and you will see that this is the shuttered Gluteno Market,
founded perhaps just a bit after glutens were pronounced unfit...words matter

Also perhaps not destined for a long shelf-life

One of the realities of longer-term travel is that eventually
you need to wash, and to choose which lavandaria, and to
document...

Well, it's better than simply leaving your baby in the
dumpster, as in the USA

Sic transit, Gloria

"Better a lion for one day than a sheep for 100 days"--Mussolini; at a stand at
the market at Arezzo

More my sentiment

Much to our disappointment, this turned out to be a Moonie parade; they've
really upgraded their act

Edible Last Supper?

For you, Tawana

Still processing this one...maybe as intended?

Street scene in Florence

Door handle to a laundry

Can't remember why I took this, but the image and colors still appeal

Still processing this one too

Why the Gluteno Market failed

Someone important once lived here, but we couldn't decipher...an instance of
the KISS principle

At the cafe at the Arena Chapel in Padua..."a coffee," 3 euros; "a coffee, please,"
2 euros, "good morning, may I have a coffee, please," 1,10 euro

Lago Maggiore garbage scow