September 22, 2026 Breakfast - Toasted Baguette spread with apricot preserves and garnished with slices of Leyden cheese and slices of red plum, Lunch - Petit Monde Dinner - Baked fish with green beans with pinon nuts

September 22, 2026  Breakfast - Toasted Baguette spread with apricot preserves and garnished with slices of Leyden cheese and slices of red plum,  Lunch - Petit Monde   Dinner - Baked fish with green beans with pinon nuts

I awakened at 7:00. Suzette woke up at 7:30 and made us coffees while I blogged about yesterday’s travels.

For my second cup of coffee I toasted two slices of whole wheat bread and spread them with butter and apricot preserves and garnished them with slices of Leyden cheese and sliced a red plum.

                                      The view from the living room at 7:10

We then walked to the market with the intention to buy fish to bake with onions, leek, tomato, and potatoes in the Spanish style.

                                            Suzette in the living room at 7:45

Suzette bought two medium filets of black cod and some larger potatoes. We also bought 12 clams. We looked for saffron and a pimiento but did not find them.

We then walked to the optical shop where Suzette found a frame she liked and I bought it for her.

I started back to the village but was diverted by the Patisserie on the corner. I stopped in and bought two Mont chocolate pastries for dinner and an almond croissant for breakfast.

We then walked back up the stairs to the villa.  I rested for a few minutes and drank a bottle of cold water to cool down, but Suzette and Elaine walked to Portosolis beach to swim and Billy followed soon after.

In about twenty minutes I drove in the car. When I arrived Billy called to tell me he had a table at Petit Monde for lunch.  I walked down from the parking lot to meet him and the girls for lunch. Petit Monde is another mediocre 3.5 rated restaurant but with moderate prices, a terrific view of Portosolis bay and moderately interesting food.

Suzette and I ordered an appetizer of foie gras soup served in a bowl with mushrooms and an egg. It was interesting but not great then we split a bouille that is a baked fish dish with cooked potatoes, carrot, shrimps, sautéed Loup, fennel, garnished with a sheet of fried shrimp toast with turmeric flavored mounds of seasoning on it and the waitress poured a flavored sauce onto the dish in a large bowl. It was not to Suzette’s liking and she decided to do better for our dinner.

Billy ordered duck with creamed mashed potatoes that was quite good. The same two rectangles of duck breast seared on both sides lightly. Elaine ordered ceviche of fish with a pickled fennel garnish that was slightly sweet.

The girls drank beers and I drank a glass of Bandol rose’. After lunch Billy and I joined Elaine and Suzette to wade in up to our knees in the water at Portosolis beach. Elaine had swum about 800 meters earlier and Suzette swam also. Then Billy and Elaine walked back to the Villa and Suzette and I drove up the coast to look at homes and stop for gas. There was no gas a5 the main station, so we drove to the station at the other end of town in Four Sixes. The first pump we tried malfunctioned but we finally filled the tank and drove back to the village. 

Billy suggested watching the Peter Weir movie, Master and Commander, the far side of the World. I enjoyed it and though Russell Crowe was terrific.

Then at 6:30 we cooked dinner.

Elaine had prepped green beans, potatoes, tomato, onion, and 1/2 of a red bell pepper while  we watched the movie. When we arrived in the kitchen Elaine was blanching the green beans. Suzette took over the cooking and combined the fish, potatoes, onions, garlic, bell pepper in a deep dish pan a baked it for 45 minutes at 375 degrees. She then sautéed the green beans with pinon nuts and a pad of butter and steamed the clams open and we added them to the dish.

I poured rose’ and Elaine cut slices of bread and we ate

a good dinner. The potatoes were a little undercooked, so we decided to get more seafood tomorrow and recook the dish for dinner tomorrow night as fish stew

After dinner I served the mont chocolates with Marc for Elaine and me and Billy and I made a cup of Earl Grey for me. 

I walked 5675 steps today and the market gained again today with a strong close. My portfolio held its gain from yesterday and increased by .607% today. I keep waiting for the ballon that is the market to burst and my portfolio with it and it just keeps growing bigger.

Bon Appetit

September 21, 2026 a day in Cassis Breakfast - Yogurt with Mirabelle Plums. Lunch - Clos de Aromes. Dinner - Cheese and Pate’ and fruit

September 21, 2026 a day in Cassis Breakfast - Yogurt with Mirabelle Plums. Lunch - Clos de Aromes. Dinner - Cheese and Pate’ and fruit

I have begun going to bed by 10:30 to 11:00 and waking up as the Sun rises around 7:00. 

This morning I showered and dressed and ate a quick breakfast of 1/4 of a lovely round pastry filled with custard and garnished with an apricot and a bowl of yogurt with mirabelle plum halves.

At 9:30 we drove to Cassis to take a boat excursion of the the Parc National de Calanque at 11:00. The park was created in 2012 to preserve the rugged coastline around Cassis. As we discovered on the excursion most of the coastline and land in and around Cassis is rugged, more vertical than flat, like a more compact, densely hilly San Francisco. We drove up and down hills to get to the municipal parking lot from which bus service was available to the port.  When we arrived at the port it was crowded with tourists. The port was narrow with steep hills and rock cliffs, rising on all sides, not like Sanaray that is located on a wide bay surrounded by low hills.

For some reason the Brits have discovered Cassis, perhaps because they remind them of the cliffs of Dover. The limestone cliffs at Cassis rise 200 to 300 feet straight up out of the water, but are interspersed with deep channels/eroded cuts in the rock face that lead to lagoons with beaches at several points in the rock face, called calanques in French.

We sat beside a middle aged couple from London who recommended the restaurant Clos de Aromes, so when we returned to the port around 12:30 we walked the four or five blocks up the steep road from the port to the restaurant that helped me accumulate 4000 steps today.

The Clos de Aromes is a small hotel and restaurant in a lovely shaded terrace beside the hotel. Unfortunately, it was also a tourist trap.  

Billy and Elaine ordered a 1.2 kilo grilled sea bass/Loup that was beautifully grilled and served with a medley of grilled vegetables, carrot, potato, sweet potato and parsnip, but the price was 12 € per 100 grams, so the entire fish lunch cost €144

 

                                              My paradilla of seafood

                                                  The grilled sea bass 

                                        The street outside the restaurant

Suzette ordered a pork flank steak with vegetables and I ordered a mixed seafood grill with a squid steak, a large shrimp, an octopus tentacle, a small Loup filet and about 7 or 8 steamed mussels sauced with an interesting sauce of shrimp roe mixed with cream that was slopped on willy milky with some of the pan drippings from the grill for €38. It was a mess but a delicious mess that did not raise my meet my expectation of its 4.5 rating as a restaurant. We also ordered a bottle of dry Cassis rose wine for €42 that seemed wildly inflated as there were vineyards everywhere.

We were a bit shocked by the experience and tired and hot after the boat ride in the sun, so we decided  to call it a day and drive back to the Villa after lunch.

That was essentially the end of the day of tourism, but by no means the end of one of the most eventful days in my investing career and an important health  issue.

The time differential between Albuquerque and France is 8 hours. In Albuquerque time the market opens at 7:30. Since France is 8 hours ahead of Albuquerque, the market opens in France at 3:30 and closes at 10:00 p.m.

With the fed raising interest rates last week and the prospect of that slowing inflation, interest rates and crude oil went down and the market went up. I had the best day ever in the market with an increase of my portfolio of 3.2%.

I was startled and thrilled and sad that I had earned more passive income in one day than many must work hard for a year to make.  Of course, I could lose it tomorrow. 

The other thing that thrilled me was that i discovered that eating plums are a natural laxative and there are lots of species of plums in France, small mirabelle, green, red, and purple at least.  I hope to try them all.

At 6;00 Suzette and I drove tI the Instamarche supermarket and bought, the whole wheat baguette I love, red plums, sliced cooked ham for sandwiches, another wedge of Leyden, milk, chocolate mousse, Dr. Pepper, mushrooms, and a lemon.

At 9:30 I finally became hungry and sliced four slices of the whole wheat bread and spread them with pork pate’ and goat cheese or garnished them with Leyden and ate 4 Mirabelle plums and some squares of melon with a glass of Burgundy Pinot Noir.

                                              Another lovely sunset

Finally, after the market closed at 10:00 I went to bed.

What a day.

Bon Appetit 

September 20, 2026 Breakfast - at Mas des 4 Fontaines Inn. Lunch - Chateau Olive et Raisin in La Fontaine du Vaucluse.

September 20, 2026 Breakfast - at Mas des 4 Fontaines Inn. Lunch - Chateau Olive et Raisin in La Fontaine du Vaucluse. 

Today was a day of unexpectedly pleasant surprises starting with the selection of cheeses served with breakfast at Mas des 4 Fontaines Inn near Gordes where we spent last night. Suzette described the Inn as, “Quiet, quaint, and perfect for a stay in the French country side. The rooms were spacious with charming French Accents.”

I tried a Corsican Beer and chestnut cheese, an aged goat cheese, and a delicious reblochan.  I then tried the homemade banana and chocolate chip bread that was too dense for me for breakfast, but I loved the fresh apple juice and the hazelnut bread spread with butter and homemade plum jam topped off with a strong cup of coffee. Billy and I made ham and cheese sandwiches between the sides of a baguette spread with butter and mustard for our emergency food for the day and wrapped them in Saran for the road.

We then drove to L’ Isle de Sorgue for the Sunday market, but on the way Billy discovered a natural mystery, a waterfall streaming from the bottom of a cliff at a town named La Fontaine du Vaucluse near L’ Isle de Sorgue. Billy asked if they could take the car to La Fontaine and I decided I would rather go to see the fountain than walk around a massive market. So we dropped Suzette off at the circle where the market began and drove to La Fontaine.

Our visit to La Fontaine de Vaucluse turned out to be one of the best days of the trip. It is a charming small town on a beautiful stream fed by the Fontaine that is a spring fed by a karst at the bottom of the 315 meter high cliffs beside the stream. The water is brilliantly clear and there is sun bathed rich aquatic vegetation growing in the spring fed stream that the happiest mallards in the world feed upon.

We parked above the center and walked the 1/2 mile along an easy path to the source and then back to the town plaza dominated by a water wheel connected to the main bridge across the stream that was once used to power a paper making factory. On the way back to the plaza we decided to cancel our lunch reservation at a restaurant in L’ Isle de Sorgue and eat at a restaurant along the stream in La Fontaine. I checked the ratings and found that on the stream across the River at the bridge was a 4.9 rated restaurant named Chateau Olive et Raisin. Before we returned to pick up Suzette at 12:15, Billy made a reservation for 1:00 at a table beside the open window overlooking the plaza, bridge, water wheel and stream.

When we returned from L. Isle  to La Fontaine 

We parked and walked to the Chateau Olive et Raisin.We were seated at a table with the above wonderful view.

Soon after we returned Billy said, “I would love to return here. This wonderful,  charming and not very crowded.”

We then looked at the menu and I instantly saw three dishes I wanted to try for the daily formula, or pris fixe menu, an appetizer of zebra green tomato with ham.p, duck breast for the entree, and floating islands for dessert. Billy also chose the three course formula, but with an appetizer of sautéed shrimp on a bed of zucchini, trout for the entree, and floating Island for dessert.  Elaine and Suzette simply chose the trout with the understanding that we would all share the appetizers and dessert.

We asked the waitress, who spoke English. about a wine and she recommended a Luberon rose’ named Sol produced by Les Infermieries Winery that had a connection  to Ridley Scott and a quote by him on the bottle. 

When we googled the winery and it’s website showed that there was a cinematic Ridley Scott VIP. experience for €100 that told us he was affiliated with the winery ownership. We also discovered that Les Infermieres was closed from September 7 until deep into October that told us it was fully devoted to its wine production. It was the best rose’ we had tasted and when we asked the waitress to recommend a winery of similar quality, she recommended la Verriere Chateau. When we googled La Verrerie we discovered that it was open, about half way back to Sanaray, and we did not need a reservation, so we decided to stop there.

Then when the food was served we realized that this was a restaurant that fully deserved its 4.9 rating. Two incredibly delicious sautéed shrimp were mounted on a round bed of shredded zucchini that was so lightly cooked in a vegetable broth that it hardly lost it freshness, but the real surprise were the small Green and beige puddles of thick foam. The green was emulsified parsley and the beige was citrus. Their intensity of flavor was amazing.

The other appetizer was equally amazing, the green zebra tomatoes had been emulsified with cream and some crème fraiche or some kind of light cheese and garnished with slices of ham and a ball of Stracciatella cheese that had been foamed to an incredible softness and garnished with a sprinkle of carbonized dread crumbs and a sprig of fresh oregano. This was an incredibly delicious thick cream soup dominated by the flavors of ham, cheese, and tomato with the added textures of softness of foam and the crunch of bread. It was a dish that worked in lots of different ways.

The two waitresses spoke English and answered our questions about the ingredients. When Billy asked the older waitress what the weather was like in La Fontaine in the winter she said, “I don’t know. This restaurant closes and I return to Paris.” She said she waits tables at a restaurant in Paris in the winter.

Billy decided he wanted to return in September.

The other thing I liked about the service was that the waitresses waited for us to finish each course and then tell her when we were ready for the next course. I have not encountered this level of care and civility in many other restaurants. I felt like the dishes were being made individually for each of us when we requested, which they were.

The two entrees were not as elaborate but were equally interesting. Billy, Elaine, and Suzette ordered the trout and I ordered the duck. The trout was a rectangular filet of red trout on a bed of perfect 1/4 inch squares of potato with strips of sun dried tomato, olives, and grapes in a cumin and turmeric flavored broth, a signature treatment aligned with the name of the restaurant. How could anyone ever forget this dish.

But everyone agreed that my duck dish was better, a duck breast cut into two long rectangles seared evenly so that each piece retained an even deeply reddish-purple color throughout, yet was perfectly cooked. I saw no grey color that indicated marks of contact with the heat source.

I suspect the duck was grilled with constant flipping a couple of inches above red hot coals, like they grill asada in Argentina.

The duck filets were laid on a puddle of Demi-glacé sauce and accompanied by a grilled slice of pumpkin and a slice of grilled quince,  a fall vegetable and a fall fruit, respectively, a mound of creamed turnip, and a steamed, salted baby Bok Choy.

All of us cleaned our plates with pieces of fresh baked dark roll served with the meal to taste the last drop of sauce. Dessert was easy, Billy and I both ordered floating islands. What was unique about this rendition was that the egg white was not cooked and the creme anglais was flavored with chocolate. It was amazing.

After lunch we drove to La Verrerie Chateauneuf in the Luberon next to Les Infermiables.

Suzette and I tasted two or three whites, a rose, and three or four reds. All of them were distinctive with both clarity and smoothness that was impressive. 

We decided we loved the wines of Luberon, which is in the Rhone River Valley just upstream and east of the Côtes du Rhône, but as the lady who served us the wines said, “It is the same valley.” La Verrerie is formidable, comprising 150 hectares of grapes. Here is a map of the Vineyard.

When we returned home we rested and were not really hungry. Later in the evening I ate 1/2 of the ham and cheese sandwich I made at breakfast with a glass of rose’.

Bon Appetit