Provence or Riviera? Which one are you?
... and some Paris updates.
After a recent visit to Provence, I came back to Paris with one major takeaway.
There are essentially two kinds of people in the world: French Riviera people - and Provence people. I can’t really explain why this makes perfect sense to me, but I feel that for every person, one of these holiday destinations sums them up perfectly.
And rather unexpectedly, I realized that I am a Provence person and my wife is the Riviera. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Riviera and she loves Provence. But she is just a Riviera gal and I’m a Provence guy. It’s obvious.
And I’m not just talking about me and Lina. Nor people who’ve actually been to the places. It works for everyone. On our recent Provence podcast episode (embedded below), Lina was throwing out celebrity names and I was placing them where they so clearly belonged. Tom Cruise? Riviera. Bob Dylan? Provence, no doubt.
Two regions of France, geographic neighbours but worlds apart. For me, there’s something about those lavender fields, tiny stone villages, food markets, antiques… something that just calls my name. For Lina, the sea is part of her DNA and according to me, she loves a little dusting of that Dolce Vita.
Lina, of course, and quite rightly so I suppose, said the whole thing was ridiculous.
But how fortunate that we were just in Provence for a whole week, exploring the region. We rented a car (a must!) and we visited a handful of lovely little villages. And then we talked it over on the podcast.
In short, the towns we visited were these:
Isle-sur-la-Sorgue
Oppède Le Vieux
Ménerbes
Saint-Rémy-de-Provence
Avignon
You can read more of my thoughts on each of those towns in this blog post.
Also, here’s the podcast, embedded right below. You can get it wherever you get podcasts too.
So the big question: Which are you? Provence or Riviera? Why? Let me know in the comments below, and equally, let me know if I’m being ridiculous. I don’t mind. I like to see some response :)
In other news…
Last week we had a mega Earful Tower member meet-up. We rented out a gin distillery in the Viaduc des arts and spent a night mingling with like-minded Francophiles from around the world.
The guys from the distillery put on a great event, with gin and pastis from their own distillery, plus cheese and meats from the local marché d’Aligre.
Before the event started, one of the owners took me aside and said: “Do you think your crowd will like andouillette? I got some - and it really stinks.”
I said: “Let’s find out.”
The andouillette got a mixed response. They said they found some chewed up and spat out in the sink. I added a pic of it to the gallery below. Would you try it? (Here are way more pictures from the event via Patreon).
A while after the andouillette did the rounds, a guy called Carl came up to me and said: “So Oliver, I listened to your latest episode, and I was curious: Do you think I’m a Riviera person or a Provence person?”
I took one look at the guy (who is incidentally a long-time member, and was quite happy to be pigeon-holed in such a manner), and I said:
“Definitely Provence. Case closed.”
Both his eyebrows raised at the same time.
“Yep, you got me,” he said.
I can’t explain it. But so it is.
As for the event, what a treat to meet so many Earful Patreon members. I remember six or seven years ago when I started on Patreon and I’d do the live videos, and only one person would watch them. Now we can fill a distillery - mostly with people who just happened to be in Paris on the day!
Now we have a whole Earful Tower family, at least according to the sign they put out the front of the distillery. I like it. A bit Godfather, but that is one of my favourite movies, so we’ll go with it. You can join the family here.
In other news, we released a new podcast episode today about Gay Paris. I really wanted to feature the topic on the show again, it has been a while since I’ve done it. It was particularly interesting to learn what gentrification has done to the Gay Quarter in the Marais.
Look, I’ve embedded the episode below! Featured on the show is Bryan Pirolli of The Gay Locals tours and Nicolas Wanstok from the city’s most famous gay bookshop Les Mots à la Bouche.
Good things from the episode: I learned what a gay cafe is and what they’re for. I learned about gay literature and gay bookshops. I met some lovely people.
Bad things from the episode: I chose the words “Queer Paris” for the headline, which I now realize is a triggering word for some people. You live and you learn, the power of words is never to be underestimated!
What next? Well, I’m enjoying this new platform, Substack, which started off as my newsletter replacement but appears to be offering so much more. I love the embedded podcast option, for example. And I’m glad you’re here for it. Some of you even signed up as annual Substack members, which is a real vote of confidence. Thank you. As I said last week, I’m not sure yet what that will unlock, so I won’t push it yet.
I’ll be back soon with more Substack posts, more podcast episodes, and more events. Thanks for being here for it all.
Oliver Gee, The Earful Tower
Is this a separate subscription from Patreon? Am I expected to pay both (twice?), I do not understand. Thanks for helping me figure this out. Deborah Ball
We rented a house about 8 km outside of L'Isle Sur Le Sorgue for a bit over a week and used it as a base to explore Provence. It was a lovely experience. There's an enormous SuperU in town which has everything imaginable, plus a smaller one that just has food-type things.
Recently spent a week in Nice. No car this time. Normally a total beach person, I was not enthralled exactly. Mostly because it was so darn hot, being July. So, if I have to choose, I would say I'm a Provence person.
A bientot.