We Are Village People

Don't worry. We haven't become confused about being THE Village People.

But our recent traveling has led me to do some thinking about how we relate to places and about the choices we make about where we will visit and stay. Now that we've transitioned to being in one place for longer than the usual touring time, it has crystallized the fact that we really prefer small towns. This should, of course, be no surprise to me or to anyone that knows us. We studiously avoid crowds, so why would we seek out cities? (We have been known to make some serious exceptions for Paris though and also loved our time in Chicago, so there may be hope for us yet.)

Village People Thought #1: We are part of a village right now. Antibes is a very touristed city, as it turns out. We had visited here just once before--1989--to see the Picasso Museum. The town seemed charming and quaint to us, on that very first trip to the European continent. I remember nothing but the museum, the beautiful church next door, and the old ramparts and sea wall. Those bits are all still here, but they're in a small old part of a much larger, vibrant and bustling city. A city full of tour groups and tourists (yes, I know we are some too). Families on vacation, lots and lots of Italians (we're not that far from the border after all), annoying motorcycles, and little tourist trains. Lots of people.

We have rented a house in the old town--Vieux Antibes. It is very historic, and it is indeed very charming. The street our house is on is the rue du Bateau. Since we are literally only about 50 feet from the entrance to the Picasso Museum, we get our share of foot traffic during the day, but it gets very quiet after dusk and actually is quite quiet most of the time. We are only about a dozen steps from a very pretty little spot where we can look out to the sea or go down a few stairs to the promenade along the sea wall. We are also within about 100 feet of the daily Provençal market. Fresh veggies and meat and fish and cheese and olives, all just a stone's throw away. Within 6-8 blocks, we have our choice of at least 6 boulangeries (bakeries). And there is no way to count the cafés, restaurants, pizzerias, and gelato shops.

We are settling into a certain rhythm, mostly focused on foraging for foodstuffs with a soupçon of exploring. We are on foot now, the car a thing of the past. While we were very surprised to find Antibes so peopled and crowded, we are taking pleasure in learning our way around its rabbit warren of narrow, twisting streets in the old section--our village within a city.

Village People Thought #2: Traipsing about the past couple weeks, it has been abundantly clear that we prefer the villages and towns and countryside. We've had the opportunity to visit a number of cities--Montpellier, Narbonne, Beziers, and Perpignan--but have carefully avoided them. We've skirted around their edges, then headed for the smaller towns. It could be that we've simply wanted to avoid crowds and searching for parking lots. Or, as we suspect, perhaps we are just Village People.

The larger the towns or cities, the more homogenized they seem. They have great history to them, of course, but large parts of them could be anywhere. In the villages, we're more likely to feel the very Frenchness of them. After all, we didn't travel all this way to experience places and things we could find just anywhere. We are here to feel and sense France and all the little quirky things that make France France. For us, at least, that's to be found in the villages.

After our two weeks in Antibes, we will be spending the last few days of our trip in Nice. I don't think we'll be able to avoid its city-ness, but don't be surprised if we spend most of our time in the old town.

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