Zadar

Zadar Old Town is surprisingly beautiful.  It is the gateway to the North Dalmatian coast in Croatia and it sits on a peninsula to the west of the modern city of Zadar.  Two sides are still surrounded by the old city walls, while the other sides have been opened to create a sea front with views out to the islands just off the coast.  The city has over the past 1200 years been under constant attack and has been occupied by everyone from the Romans, the Venetians, the Ottomans, the French under Napoleon, the Austrian/Hungarian Empire of the Hapsbergs, and after WWII until recently was incorporated into Yugoslavia.  Despite this, or maybe because of this, we were surprised at how little damage is visible in the buildings.  They have made a huge effort to repair  and restore their buildings, and preserve and display the city's patchwork history.  Most of the streets are still paved with the old marble and are polished smooth from the millions of feet that have walked them over the years.


We flew into Zadar as it was the rendezvous point for the next leg of our trip and thought we'd spend a few days exploring it!

Beautiful polished streets

Sunset

The old entrance gate to the walled city.

Some random facts about Croatia (mostly pillaged from the Lonely Planet):

• Dalmatian dogs are thought to be one of the oldest breeds, however, there is no conclusive evidence that the originated in Dalmatia. Some experts believe that the were brought to Dalmatia by the Roma.
• Sibenik born Fraust Vrancic (1551 - 1617) made the first working parachute.
• The neck tie is a descendant of the cravat, which originated in Croatia as part of military attire and was adopted by the French in the 17th century.  The name 'cravat' is a corruption of Croat and Hrvat.
• The ball point pen and the fountain pen were invented in 1906 by the Croatian Slavoljub Penkala (1871 - 1922), who also introduced the hot-water bottle and a laundry blueing agent.

We stayed in a backpackers near the town square in the centre of Old Town.  The 4 flights of the winding staircase nearly killed us at 8:30 in the morning as it was already over 25 degrees, but the view from our room over the town was fantastic!  The streets are narrow (almost entirely car-free in the old town) and it is amazing how none of the city blocks line up, so the roads meander a few metres this way or that at each intersection.  Most restaurants are a cluster of tables and chairs in a slightly wider part of the road with just the kitchen in the building.  The beer (pivo) is fantastic, the pizza's great and there are many many ice-cream shops (prices are comparable to South Africa which is also a huge consolation after France!).  Some of the squares become bustling markets during the day, fruit, vegetables, cheese, clothes, souvenirs, and more.  

Pizza on the Promenade

Dinner at a street cafe

Due to the heat during the day, there are very few people around from midday till late afternoon and then the streets start to fill as tourists and locals flock to the seafront to swim or to one of the restaurants for drinks.  One of the big open squares is the old Roman Forum around which many different churches cluster and the pavements are scattered with worked marble 'debris'.  The colours are fantastic - bright white marble, terracotta roofs, bright blue sky, green trees and shimmering blue sea.  We quickly headed to the sea front to seek relief from the heat in the water and found ourselves at the Zadar Sea Organ.  This is an amazing piece of public artwork cum public recreation area.  At first it just looks like a series of staggered steps leading into the sea, but as you draw nearer, you hear the hypnotic organ music created by the waves pressurising different chambers within the promenade.  It was designed by the Zadar architect Nikola Basic and is unique in the world.  What a fantastic way of using the sea's energy to create a public space used by locals and tourists alike.  Next to the sea organ is the Sun Salutaton, also created by Basic.  This is a disc, 22m in diameter, and set into the promenade.  During the day this looks like a blue disc with small solar cells in it.  By night, it is a light spectacular with LED bulbs creating ever changing coloured light patterns.  The Sun Salutation collects enough energy to power all the street lights along the promenade too! 

The Sea Organ is the most pleasant piece of marine architecture that we've ever experienced.

The Sun Salutation during the day - this odd blue disc covered in solar cells.

A crowd collects at dusk in anticipation of the display.

Dusk and the spectacular display begins.

The light spectacular is best once the sky has turned black

We thoroughly enjoyed exploring the cool gardens in the old town, wandering polished streets and being surrounded by old architecture.  Another highlight for us was a visit to the Museum of Ancient Glass which showcases the history and invention of glass with displays of the old tools and examples of early vessels from Egypt and Mesopotamia.  During Roman occupation it was thought that there was a large glass factory set up in Zadar and a large number of items are on display that have been recovered from within the city's boundaries.  Many of these are exquisite and of unusual shapes and include everything from goblets, jars and plates, to jewellery, amulets, funeral jars etc.  They have 2 glass artists stationed at the Museum - one who works with glass blowing (who unfortunately had the day off when we visited) and one who makes glass beads.  We spent about an hour watching the lady making beads, heating the glass, dabbing on colours, pricking the glass, redabbing on colours and always heating, heating, heating to bring out the different colours of the glass.

Lucy looking out at the islands from the Promenade.

St Anastasia Cathedral is a marvel of ornate marble work with a simple wooden planked ceiling and that famous radial 'rose' window typical of medieval churches; while the Church of St Donat (which dates from the 9th century) is now a museum space.  The latter is built on part of the old Roman Forum and the foundations for the church use broken pieces of marble from the old Roman temple that stood in the vicinity.  The display in St Donat was fascinating and exhibited artefacts that show evidence of what they think was Roman Cinema!  These consist of bronze wedges that make up a circular slide projector and a collection of (broken) hand painted glass slides showing images that vary slightly from plate to plate - almost like those flick movie books that you get.  It was fascinating and if it is indeed evidence of an early projector, then this puts movie making almost 1000 years earlier than previously thought.

Some of the remaining Roman architecture.

The Roman Forum with St Donat Church and St Anastasia Cathedral

St Anastasia's radial rose windows at night

A recent statue addition to the Forum

The view from the top of the bell tower for St Anastasia gives a 360 degree vista of Zadar Old Town and looks out to the nearby islands.  Well worth the climb up the 4 long flights of stairs!

Looking down on the Roman Forum and St Donat Church from the bell tower

After 2 and a half days exploring the city by ourselves, the rest of our team for the yacht charter started to arrive.  First Lucy's parents Neville and Diny arrived and while we were exploring the town with them, we bumped into Jenny and Jamie Hart who were also joining us. 

Next stop: Olive Marina where we pick up our charter yacht and meet up with Geoff's folks and his aunt Jenny.

Provence - a summary

While most of our entries have been about specific places, we thought we'd reflect on impressions of simply being in Provence, as this was one of the objectives of staying in this part of the world for a couple of weeks. 

Scenic Provence

Provence is famed for its lavender fields, and rural lifestyle. Ironically the lavender is only in bloom in late June and July, but the poppies and other spring flowers were out in abundance while we were there.

A farmhouse in an olive orchard

With Pascal and Laetitia, our friends from Cape Town, having arrived in France we joined them and their extended family for a Sunday lunch at Pascal's parent's place.  Jean and Helenna have lived on a small holding for over 40 years and have developed it entirely from scratch. We were honoured to be included in their family get together.  An excerpt from one our journal's sums it up pretty well:

"It was a massive family gathering.  21 of us.  Aperitif's by the pool, then on to the lunch table laid in a clearing in the trees.  Lunch was very French and amazing (this was expected) and it was so great to just sit around the table and let the musical language wash over you.

I felt like I was at a Nouveau Movie - a French culture one.  Their faces and bodies were so animated.  Their features beautiful but unconventional.  Teasing, joking, telling stories and teaching.  Everyone was involved: grandparents down to children.  I felt totally submerged in something so familiar yet so foreign.

Lunch ran for almost three and a half hours, yet I only spoke about a hundred words - a blissful afternoon of observing and listening."

The provencians are proud of their culinary tradition and were quick to point out that their food is different - lighter often - than that of their counterparts north of Lyon.

Most of our days in France were spent slowly organising ourselves in the mornings - often there was admin from home to sort out - and then heading out before lunch to some or other destination recommended by Annie or Laetitia. We drove a fair bit, but spent time every day walking and exploring. One of the hikes that we really enjoyed was from the town of Buoux to Sivergen and back.  This was not really all that significant considering how close towns are in France - but the hike took us through beautiful forest, we got to swim in clear running streams and gaze longingly at limestone crags we wouldn't get a chance to climb - this time.

"The Tree of Knowledge" - a fig growing up an overhanging cliff face.

cool clear pools

Inviting limestone crags.

We saw the double edged burden of tourism on towns which were once self-sufficient, but now rely heavily on tourism in the summer. It is one of the major sources of income in the south, but a huge frustration as the traffic swells enormously. Their provencial lives are interrupted by stress and crowds when the summer is at its warmest…  Our friends had recommended we visit France in May and early June as, "The tourists haven't really arrived and the locals will be friendly. After mid-June however the French get fed-up with the tourists and just get stereotypically rude!"

The food in Provence is good. It is also remarkably affordable. Basic products like bread, milk, cheese, French salami (saucisson) and fruit and vegetables (in season) are comparable to South African prices (out of season products were much more expensive). Provided you purchased your food from a local grocer or supermarket you could eat for the same price as at home. Restaurants however were a lot more pricey - but then again the quality was also often excellent. We were treated mostly to meals prepared by our friends, and they were generally multi-coursed and very good!

Choosing the perfect olive is a hard job reserved for the expert!

We had opted to travel in a rental car which we picked up in Nice and returned to Marseilles. While it is relatively easy to get around on public transport, we were going to be in rural areas most of the time, so having the freedom to drive made a huge difference. We were also able to drive such amazing roads. We had borrowed a road map from Lucy's aunt which highlighted the more scenic routes which we tried to always take. The sacrifice of carrying a heavy detailed small scale map book was definitely worth it!  We loved the driving. Often Geoff felt jealous that he wasn't on a bicycle as the narrow roads were almost too small for a car, but would be perfect for cycle touring.

The towns and cities are relatively small. Instead of large sprawling cities surrounded by rural areas as we have at home, the centres are relatively compact and small towns radiate outwards at small distances. Historically the distances were set by how far the people could travel to reach their church and market, often this was no more than 10km and so it has stayed, even though a car would cover this distance in a matter of minutes. Unless you were on the highway, the rapid succession of towns resulted in very slow progress across the pages of the map book!

We came across this ruined Roman aqueduct in an olive orchard.

As towns are laid out based on their historical grid, the centre of the town is typically the municipal hall with the church and town square, and then the houses radiate out. Petrol stations and supermarkets being recent additions to the town are often only located on the very outskirts of a town. As a result there would be as many signs to the next supermarket as to the next town as they were difficult to locate! The historical layout has meant that a pedestrian lifestyle remains common for most people, and their support of the local artisans and shops, especially on market day, remains strong. We will never forget the distasteful look that Laetitia gave us after Geoff admitted having gone to purchase groceries at the nearby Lidl - a german supermarket!

Bonnieux - a typical Provencial village

Despite the utopia of provincial life that we experienced, it was also very interesting to hear the problems that the French face, and to learn how similar we are. Issues like immigration, particularly from north africa and the middle east, and social security are very topical and the French have some significant obstacles to overcome in their relatively near future, not considering the future of the Eurozone. There is little incentive to work with unemployment pay out quite high, and there are some very skewed economic incentives: medical doctors earn a pittance due to government regulation of the medical aid system, while a vet will charge what he wants.

The language barrier has been challenging. Geoff has a smattering of French, and Lucy can interpret body language really well - and charms locals easily with a smile! We have made the most of the experiences we have had - but on our return, and we really hope to return, we'd like to be able to communicate more easily. There seems to be such  wealth of knowledge, humour, literature and music to discover here that we cannot yet access.

Anyways, we have really enjoyed Provence and can recommend highly a certain hostess in La Roque-d'Antheron who will ensure you have a highly memorable Provencial experience.

Croq' Jardin - a teaching garden

We'd heard about a garden project in la Roque-d'Antheron, and decided we needed to check it out. 

Croq' Jardin is an educational organic garden with a range of activities around the themes of biodiversity, history and uses of plants. The garden covers 1 hectare and is made up of:

• about twenty allotments used by families or groups (including school groups), 
• a nature trail on the history of vegetables and organic gardening, 
• a garden of medicinal plants, 
• a water path showing different mechanical ways of lifting water (great fun for kids) 
• an orchard with many different varieties of fruit trees, many of them 'old' varieties 
• they have a community project where 10 local families work in an small commercial greenhouse tunnel growing veggies for themselves while learning the skills of commercial vegetable production. 

A section of the garden with only old varieties of veggies and flowers - roses here.

Two of the allotments used by community members.  The tunnel in the background is one of the classrooms.

Geoff being a water engineer.

The concept of organic gardening is to create an environment where the biological components are in balance and there is no need for the use of pesticides or chemical fertilisers.   They practice companion planting (plants that discourage certain bugs are planted next to plants that those bugs normally attack).  The fruit trees stems are all painted with a clay and manure mixture to prevent insects laying their eggs under the bark and thus prevents the subsequent larvae damage.  They have a mobile chicken coop in the orchard to help control insects there.  They encourage the planting of mixed crops and of many different varieties, to prevent plagues of insects breaking out.  They make all their own compost and have almost finished constructing a compost facility that can handle 40 tonnes of organic matter a year and will be a place where locals from the town can take their organic waste matter.  They have a chipper and chip branches for use as mulch to prevent water loss.  They have numerous 'insect hotels' in the garden that create space for 'good' insects to live, and they have many bird feeding stations.  There is a small wetland pond with a wide variety of wetland plants creating habitat for frogs and insects that live near water.

**disclaimer** this is what we understood from Jean who runs the garden, but who's english is limited and our gardening french non-existent, so insect names/types were unfortunately lost in translation/charades.

We were amazed to find a section of the vegetable garden which grows with no watering! Just specially prepared soil. Here they were growing all sorts of things from peppers, tomatoes, beans and even lettuce! They run programmes and workshops for all age groups of school children as well as adults, pensioners and disabled people on composting, insects, biodiversity and vegetables and they have a solar cooker going every day as part of the programmes. They have 2 types of composting toilets (including a Ventilated Improved Pit-latrine from South Africa!) and explanations on these form part of the education programme. Once a year in spring, Croq'jardin holds an "All in the garden" party where people come and exchange seeds and seedlings and gardening knowledge and they run workshops on the environment and gardens.

The waterless veggie garden. Note the lettuce on the left which looks remarkably happy!

When we were there they had a school group of about 40 3-5 year olds who were learning about scented plants, different leaf textures, fruits and flowers, and there was this great activity where they had to walk through containers of different materials and describe how it feels (sand, aggregate, round pebbles, dry leaves, green leaves, sea sponges, etc. What fun!

Kids feeling different textures with their feet.

We were lucky enough to have the manager of the garden show us around and learnt that the garden hosts around 2000 children a year - about the population of kids aged 3-10 in the surrounding four towns!

The Idyllic Porquerolles Island

The Porquerolles Island lies off the French south east coast near the cities of Toulon and Hyeres.  Friends of ours from Cape Town, Pascal and Laetitia Riera, have spent many years at the Porquerolles and every year when they head home to France, they spend some time there.  We were lucky to be in France (with Laetitia's mum Annie) at the same time that they were heading out to the island, so we escaped out there for a couple of days for some island living.

Lucy, Pascal and Laetitia

The island has a small population of around 450 people in winter and about 6000 visitors per day in the summer season.  There is a small town on the island, a few vineyards and olive orchards and some holiday accommodation, but for the most part, the island is a nature reserve and visitors hire bicycles or walk around the island.  The main attractions are the warm, clear water with excellent diving and the white sandy beaches.  There are also a few black sandy beaches and the southern (Mediterranean) side of the island is steep and rocky.  The island is strategic in protecting the French Mediterranean waters and over the years many forts were built on the island, the most recent being just after World War 2.  They are now all disused or converted - one we visited is now a monastery.

Porquerolle Marina with the mainland in the background.

Beautiful beaches on the north side of the island

Steep and rocky calques (fjords) on the southern side of the island

Plage Noir - the black beach - with a fort in the background.

Enjoying the sunset on a shelly beach.

Pascal and Laetitia stay every year with some friends of theirs, and we were blown away by Tristin and Virginie's generosity.  They have a small flat in town and then rent a cabin just outside the town, and we stayed out there.  It was lovely to have no lights around and be right on the water's edge.

The cabin that we stayed in.

Sunset fun and games

Lucy jumping for a change....

 Tristin and Virginie lent us bicycles and we cycled all over the island.

The summer colours are fantastic!

Heading off for the day - baguette-in-bag

Lucy and Laetitia admiring the view over the vineyards. 

We cycled up to the highest point on the island - the semaphore tower.  The view was fantastic from up there.

There are plenty of forts to explore.

Another beautiful beach

Plage Notre Dame - the longest beach on the island with fantastic clear water for swimming.

YES!!!! sunshine and warm water!

Lunch and a swim.  What more could one ask for?

The steep rocky shore on the more exposed side of the island.

Sunrise is worth waking up for at 5:30am..... 

.....especially when you have tea and can enjoy the 1h30 light spectacular!

A traditional fishing boat heading back to harbour after checking the night's nets.

Virginie is employed by the Porquerolles Municipality to work in a team to clean the litter off the beaches and paths.  We were very impressed with how clean the island looks despite the number of visitors every day, so they obviously do a fantastic job.  We joined her one morning as we thought it was a great excuse to get out and walk many of the beaches in the early morning.

The glamorous side of being a rubbish-man!?!

Right-Sergeant Rubbish Buster Geoff on Plage Blanche.

Rubbish Buster wars with Laetitia and Geoff at odds.

Thank you so much Tristin, Virginie and Tahaa for opening your houses to us - we really had a fantastic time.  Pascal and Laetitia - our official unofficial local tour guides - this was definitely one of the highlights of our trip so far.

Just about to board the ferry back to the mainland.

Post script

Back on the mainland the temperature was a good couple of degrees warmer, and as we'd hot-footed it through the cities to miss traffic, we stopped in a little town to find ice creams.  Alas! there was no shop to be found that sold them.  We even tried a supermarket, but they only sold them in boxes of 6....... so, with no choices left, we bought a box and handed the extras out to people in the parking lot! The french are certainly a gracious lot! At least we got our cornetto ice creams though.

Geoff can multi-task despite reports on the contrary...