Just back from a wonderful side-trip to the Hotel les Stretlitzias just a few minutes' walk up the street.  That's the beauty of Juan---you just
do not need a car, for any reason.  If you want to go day-tripping, you can hire a driver or take the bus or train.  Much easier than renting your own car and then trying to find parking spaces all the time--we do
enough of that in New York, after all!

Jazz journalist Chris Porter and I were invited to this lunch at Le Patio Restaurant at the Hotel Les Strelitzias (which is a type of flower) in Le Patio restaurant and to an absinthe tasting beforehand.
I'd never had ansinthe, and was fascinated with the history of it.  It's
a drink you can have either before or after dinner, and has a rather
licorice or anise  base to it.  It's not made from grapes, but rather
from a small tree that grows in the Northeastern part of France.  The
bar at les Stretlitzias has 127 different types of absinthe--many
home-made by small purveyors-- but we contented ourselves with sampling
one galss of white and one glass of green absinthe before lunch, so we
wouldn't conk out on the table  before our meal.

Absinthe was illegal for a long while in France--the alcohol content was
too high.  These days it's legal again, but the alcohol content is much
lower. In order to partake, one must prepare the glass. Our wonderful
bartender did the honors with precision and panache.  He placed a
silver, leaf-shaped spoon with holes in it over the tops of our glasses,
which were filled half-way with absinthe.  On top of the spoon, he
placed one sugar cube. Then he positioned our glasses underneath a very
elegant-looking glass container with silver spigots.

When he turned on our individual spigots, water from the glass container
dripped ever so slowly down through the sugar cube and  through the
spoon, melting it into the glasses below.  Now we had a mix of absinthe
and sugar in our glasses.  To this, he added ice cubes and stirred up
the drinks.  A votre sante! (to your health!) and we had our first taste
of an exquisite, hand-crafted drink.  Very refreshing!

But we were cautioned not to drink too quickly or have too many glasses,
because it was after an entire day of drinking glass after glass of
absinthe that genius painter Vincent Van Gogh thought it would be a
great idea to cut off his left ear!  Ok!  No need to warn us twice!

Out onto the patio of this beautiful boutique-style hotel for
gastonomical experience that was well thought out and beautifully
presented.  Small dishes, artfully assembled and made with fresh local
ingredients were a treat for the tongue and paired nicely with a local
red wine from nearby Provence. Tuna tartare with foie gras, grapefruit
gelee (I love the French word for grapefruit--it's pamplemousse!) and
lychee glace' to cleanse the palate. Later, local dourade fish (dorado)
in papillote (cooked in a skin) and stuffed with tasty local olives and
greens, with sweet potato puree on the side.  Absolutely delicious!
There was also a stunning julliene of local vegetables that tasted of
the very sun we sat under. MMM!

Dessert featured different fruits cut up into tiny pieces and marinated
in--what else?--absinthe! Sort of like a cold fruit soup.  Perfect for a
warm summer afternoon.  Our host, Elizabette, was one of the people
responsible for several of the jazz group bookings and was quite
interesting to talk to about the local music scene.

Also joining us for lunch was the great musician Mario Stantchev,
who'd escaped many years earlier from Bulgaria during 'the bad years'
and now is living in France. He told us the story about how his mother
was living in France  and he was living with his father in Bulgaria
during hard political times. His mother hatched a plan to find someone
who looked just like her son Mario...it was an extensive search by
automobile, all across the country. She finally located a man who looked
just like Mario, except his hair was curlier.  Somehow, she convinced
this man to give her son his French passport.

The night before using the other man's passport to escape Bulgaria,
Mario spent the night wearing curlers. When he awoke, his hair matched
exactly the man on the passport picture. Now he just had to remember his
new name and all the information on the passport correctly--like how to
pronounce the name of the Paris suburb he was supposed to be from.  He
convinced the border guards, made it across to France, and has lived and
thrived here as a much-heralded musician ever since!

The music on the patio where we lunched was provided by true pros---the
group led by Jesus Fuente Aldama and Eddy Gaulein-Stef.  First rate!
From the lovely ballad "My Romance" to Afro-Cuban renderings, it was
paradise dining on this delicious cuisine while the gently invigorating
music carressed our ears.  Pretty special stuff!  It's all waiting for
you, too, here at the Hotel Les Strelitzias!  A final note--in the
patio, the tops of the very modern chairs are silver, and shaped exactly
like an absinthe spoon.  Tres clever, non?

It's getting late in the afternoon, and I want to do some more
exploring, so I'll check in with you later. Hope you're having a nice
week and that the trains are all working again!  I haven't turned on the
tv once since I've been here, so I'm completely out of touch!

Bon Soir!