We are in Saint Remy-de-Provence, a little town 90 km northwest of our previous place in Vauvenargues. It is much bigger than Vauvenargues, but still a small town. It has the ring-road circling the old town centre like many other towns around here, but in this case it takes less than five minutes to walk from one side of the town to the other. Our Airbnb is just outside that road, so we can walk into the town in 3 minutes - a big change from Vauvenargues to Aix. The site has been occupied for thousands of years, and a roman town (Glanum) has been excavated just south of here.
The centre of St Remy is filled with many shops and cafes, and the streets are very neat and clean. In places the perfect paved streets feel almost as smooth as the inside of someone's home.
Saint Eloi Parade
The Saint Eloi parade honours the patron saint of farmers, and we stumbled upon it when we went out that day. The streets were full of spectators, and the parade participants were lining up ready to start their parade. A few minutes later they all wound into action and we were treated to an excellent spectacle passing before us over the half and hour or so. Everyone was dressed in traditional costumes, there was music, lots of horses, and a troupe of young whip-crackers. Saint Eloi was carried at the front of the procession, and it was finished off at the tail by a large decorated cart.
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| The head of the procession, warming up before the start. |
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| The band played a pipe with one hand, and the drum with the other! |
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| Many fine horses - must have been at least fifty. |
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| The whip-cracking team. They took great delight in cracking their whips. |
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| Full family group on horseback, some sidesaddle. |
That was a great treat, especially since we had not realised it was on. After that we learned that we missed another parade, on the day we arrived, when sheep are driven through the streets..jpg) |
| Plane trees along the main road into town. |
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| A quiet side street. |
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| White star jasmine is abundant at the moment. |
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| Plaque marking the house where Nostradamus was born in St Remy. |
The Wednesday Market
Every Wednesday most of the town is taken over by a street market, and crowds of people come to browse and buy, or perhaps to have a coffee and a pain-au-raisin. Some regular places don't open, because they are swamped by the market stalls.
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| Sue admiring the Nostradamus fountain. One of many excellent market-day buskers. |
There were hundreds (thousands, maybe?) more people in town, crowding the little streets and filling the cafes. There is a great range of stuff on sale, bigger than the Nelson market on a summers day I'd say. The crowd was almost gridlocked at some of the busy intersections of the narrow streets.
Even though we've been here a while now, we are still discovering tiny streets and bits of history each time we wander through the town.
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