Time has flown since our last post a week ago. With my now very advanced age it is difficult to remember what we have done each day. After coming down from the excitement of having the internet connected last Wednesday, we called on our friend Severine to see how she was. She is still lamenting the loss of Manu but seems to be moving on. We haven't quite managed to get her out of the house to shout her a coffee yet but hope to soon.
Friday saw us load far too much stuff into the back of our little car and point its wheels northwards towards Provence. Needless to say, if we'd been taken the scooter, we still would have had enough clothes with us just using it's small storage areas, but it would have been a little difficult to carry John's 22" computer screen. We were in fact very thankful we weren't taking the scooter because it was pretty windy on the roads north, and we ended up taking the 130km/hr toll roads for quite a way. We cut it pretty fine to make our 1pm appointment to meet up with Ian, Erin and their daughter Ursula outside the Pope's Palace at Avignon. Only a few minutes late and after a group hug we promptly found ourselves a lovely little eatery to while away two hours over a leisurely lunch. It was fantastic to hear all Ian and Erin's news, which included a debrief on their 12 day walk around the base of Mount Blanc. It sounded pretty arduous but a great accomplishment.
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Lunch with Ian, Erin and Ursula in Avignon. The petite, moyene and grande bieres we ordered were somewhat larger than anticipated, i.e.. the grandes bieres were a full litre each!
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| Avignon |
John and I then had a quick wander around and enjoy the sights of Avignon before jumping in the car again to head southeast to Le Thoronet, to stay with our friends Lew and Jean, also from Nelson. They have been doing a house and garden sit since the new year, with less than one month to go. They are living on a wonderful property just outside the village, complete with gorgeous swimming pool, outdoor terraces and large grounds adjoining the river. While looking after the house and grounds they've still been able to take plenty of time off to tiki-tour around their part of France, western Italy and Corsica.
Lew and Jean were exceptionally generous with their time and spent the next three days taking us a variety of villages and towns in the area, on two lengthy walks into the hinterland, and out to a neighbour's party for an evening of pastis, petanque, evening meal and socialising. Plenty of time was also spent talking, wining and dining and we had a wonderful time (except for watching the debacle of the America's Cup racing on the laptop each evening). It got to the point where Lew was losing sleep over it so no pressure tonight Team NZ! It's your last chance!!
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| Hot chocolate and pain-au-raisin with Jean and Lew at Villecroze |
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| Outdoor lunch at Jean and Lew's place |
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| Playing petanque on Pascal's rather challenging gravel driveway. |
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| Superb tiles at a ceramic museum we visited at Salernes |
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| More tiles |
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| Soon after we left Jean and Lew's we came across a winery selling splendid Cotes de Provence wines for E1.99 out of the barrel or a just a little dearer for a bottle. We bought a dozen (bottles not barrels!). |
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Crazy snails that climb up fences, stalks, grasses, anything they can to gain altitude.
They border both sides of the roads and it looks bizarre. |
After a typically leisurely breakfast on Tuesday morning we hit the road again, this time off to Oraison only 1.5 hours away to the north. We are staying in a home here, in exchange for a woman and her teenage son who stayed at our place at Walters Bluff in January this year. We arrived after 4pm after making two great stops on the way, one at Barjols (a town with 42 fountains) and another at the gorgeous village of St Julien, which is perched high up on a hill, with the lookout giving a complete 360 degree view of the surrounding countryside. It did in fact seem a little odd to us, that the orientation board showed 400 degrees - this is France however so no real surprise there.
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| One of the 42 fountains at Barjols. |
Our home exchange is a little disappointing. We didn't realise (or weren't told by Edith) that we would be sharing the house with her, an older son, and her aged slightly senile mother. We have our own en-suite room but it feels awkward using the dining room and kitchen. To be fair, she made us a meal last night, which we shared at the table, and Edith and her mother are leaving at the weekend, but we would much prefer to have the place to ourselves. We've just found out another son is coming here for the weekend. Also, they are smokers, and the place smells of smoke which we find pretty detestable. We didn't know Edith smoked because she certainly didn't inside our place in Nelson.
John and I think we will just do about four day-trips from here and then head back towards Avignon. Today we visited Forcalquier, 20 minutes west of Oraison. As with most places we have visited, it has an immensely impressive historic centre and some lovely little squares and nooks. Each place we visit has its own peculiarities, either in size, scale, ambiance, location or surrounding terrain and land-use. We are very much enjoying comparing the differences, and also seeing the country change as we go through it. Around Le Thoronet it is pretty densely forested but driving west towards Barjols it opens up into more rolling country. We have passed paddocks full of sunflowers, unfortunately now past their flowering time, and lavender (also been cropped). We would love to come back when they are in full bloom, and in fact we might skip some of the sights going back home so we see them on our next trip. Having driven from Ceret to Le Thoronet easily in a day, including a four hour stopover in Avignon, we figure we could quite readily drive to the Nice and the Italian border in one day if we set our minds on a tiki-tour in northern Italy at some stage. We would both love to return to Italy sometime.
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| Walk up to the citadel at Forcalquier |
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| Lovely courtyard |
