Le Mas de Pierre, a truly special boutique hotel outside the village of St Paul de Vence

For several years I made frequent visits to the charming village of  St Paul de Vence in the south of France.  A walled  hamlet medieval town just 20 minutes above Nice airport, so when an invite to not only return to this gem of an area, but also to stay at Le Mas de Pierre my heart leapt. It was the last few days prior to the seasonal closing of this amazing Relais Chateau property, yet the weather and gardens made it feel like September not December .     

I felt the warmth of the property in each corner from the vintage collection of seamstress models to their greenhouse orchid collection, BUT , their service topped all. 

Not only were they there for every need on property but jumped forth in helping me out with my first ever serious travel booboo. I did a no-no, didn't  check the safe in my last hotel room and had left my passport there. The manager, Christian Baumgartner  drove to my last hotel in Cannes collected my passport,  and brought it back the next morning. I can't thank him and the staff at the hotel enough for such amazing support and service as they patiently called the hotel, tracked my faux pas  and sorted it all to have a happy ending.

St Paul de Vence,' famous for it's medieval charm of old stone buildings and cobblestoned streets  also has the most amazing collection of  art musuems and galleries including the Maeght Foundation. Marc Chagall lived in the village for many years and is buried here, naturally there is a lot of his art to see .
The local tourist office offers a selection of 10 different guided tours for group or individual .. Well worth while to chose at least one while
The luxury of having my own suite in the new building of just 6 units also comes with ones' own pool  and cabanas.  .

My one bedroomed suite

The farm to table vegetable garden

The outside of my suite

If I created this I'd have been laughed out of art school

A keep traveling through the suitcase moment.

An amazing herb garden

My welcome and farewell

On the isle of Capri

Had forgotten  that the island is pronounced CAPri not CapRI.   Truly beautiful. 

The 'Other' China Trivia

Beijing says, Yunnan face is dark, their face is light.
Yunnan says. Beijing lungs are dark, their lungs are light.

1380 kilmometer border between Yunnan and Tibet.
As the crow flies, just 250 miles from Lijiang to Myanmar

The Dongba chiefs are  intellectuals,  only 35 are left. There is a wonderful museum honoring their culture and knowledge.

Yunnan coffee grown in the south of the province is very good, made from an Arabic bean

Drivers call tolls, Highway Robbery.

The Yak is lovingly referred to as a hippier cow.

Young children are put out to play smoothered in  yak butter to help them adjust to extreme temperature changes. 

 

Who Knew that the endangered Red Panda I saw in China would be Google's widget for the day . They are giving it the high five as the Red Panda of the month of October..

Alas my photo is not as good as theirs.

The ancient Tea Horse trading of yesteryear could today be called the Caterpillar, Red Bull & Budweiser trade.

Tea portering ended when Mao came to power in 1949. The peasants loved Mao as he redistributed  the land and each got a parcel   The long treacherous  3 month route of carrying tea up to Tibet, returning with the small Tibetan Nangchen horses at only 4.5 ' high was no longer needed to maintain a home . The peasants could live off their own parcel of land. 

History shows that in  the 13th Century China  was trading millions of  pounds of tea for 25,000 horses a year.  The more tea the porters carried the more they got paid. 

The Tea Porters Lament
Seven steps up you have to rest,
Eight steps down you have to rest,
Eleven steps flat you have to rest,
You are stupid, if you don't rest. 

The black baked tea pots of Zhongdian ( Shangri-la)

 Compacted puer tea in it's purest form. I brought this home with me but it is such a beautifully packed cake of tea leaves I cannot bring myself to break into it. 

Today when visiting the area I'm told  the Yartsa Gompo caterpillar, called Chong cao in China , has replaced the horse. This caterpillar only lives above 10,000 ft above sea level and is sold within China as the cure all for the ravages of aging at a cost of $80 per gram and rather than drink tea there are plenty of cans of Red Bull and Budweiser. Maybe I should say, as well as drinking tea there are many signs of the love of Red Bull and Budweiser. 

.....and then the snow fell, all four feet of it on our temperate journey through Yunnan.....

We layered up with every piece of clothing we had with us. Warmed up besides  small coal fires, bought electric hand warmers and long-johns from the local markets, slept under electric blankets and wished we had this dogs coat. Then the sun came out. Snow covered Yunnan under a deep  blue sky  is something to behold.   

 

 

 

Some of the clothing of the minority tribes in Yunnan

Many of the villagers in Yunnan still wear their traditional clothing every day, but I'm no National Geographic photographer and no matter who I asked if I could take their photo I was turned down.  Either I don't have the communication skills required to persuade them or this Province is beginning to get too many foreign tourists eager to see this real corner of cultural pastures, pastimes and history where the locals are tired of being asked.
Nevertheless the main Han people  of China do  flock to this province for their vacations and timeshare units are everywhere, all built within the traditional cultural ways so that, yes there are a lot of buildings built within their cultural ways  but nothing resembling anything  one might have expected during the days of the cultural revolution. 

So.... I took some  photos of the clothing in the local markets, .......

The Baisha Naxi Embroidery Institute

Chinese embroidery has been around for thousands of years, sadly this was banned during the cultural revolution and is now making a slow come back.  An apprenticeship at this institute can take  10-15 years to complete and the resulting work is exquisite.  These young girls are encouraged to keep working on their skills with the promise of a good share of the profits from the sale of one piece, but in between each sale they survive on the basic shelter provided by the local government.   
The fine needlework using local silk threads looks for all the world as though it has been painted with ultra fine brush strokes. I wish my photos gave a better impression of the skill required to achieve such beauty

 

 

   

The wonderful friends one makes while traveling....

Preparing to join the early morning class of Tai Chi

So was this chicken neck skin afterall?

Myself  and Fransi ( from Surabaya)  at Leaping Tiger Gorge,