Sunday

Today feels like a fresh start, we are rested, well sort of, and ready for the day ahead and its adventures....

Breakfast is outside in the sunshine on the terrace by the pool - hooray, a blue sky at last with hardly a cloud in sight !! What we came here for .... hopefully it will continue.

Still a bit cool, but we can cope.....It's normally 32 degrees this time of year here apparently. Spit, spit...

We decide to go to the local brocante market at Roussillon, which is just a couple of miles up the road. This will be our first visit there and I am excited about seeing this most famous town of the ochres.

Online, when I checked it out it seemed beautiful and in reality it was even more impossibly beautiful and full of the most picturesque nooks and crannies.

Cherry picking

A painter's dream, but also a photographer's dream. Never have I seen so many cameras in action !! but who could blame them as it was all so amazing, even the decrepitude was enchanting but we always find it so.


Newness can be so bland that the odd sign of ancientness is somehow comforting - the thought that it is still all here after the many many years..... and will still be here in many many years to come too ...all that sense of a continuing history....



a project ?

I actually feel like this about ageing and try not to be worried at all about all the crevasses appearing on my face and the general sagginess of the ageing process on my body ! I have to remind myself that I am very lucky to be still alive and in fairly good health so far at least.

So to me, old age is a blessing and I feel blessed to be still chundring on....

I sometimes feel a bit like the house on the right there - in need of a little love and care ....

We decide to take the car (I suppose in case we buy 'things') and so my hubby empties the car and boot, and fills up the hallway with our 'stuff' sadly.

 I am getting to the stage where I hate clutter as it saps me of energy I feel, all that shuffling around and wondering where it all is and what is it all for ?

 Still, hubby loves having everything he could possibly need just to hand, even when camping !! His explanation is - why not be comfortable all the time ?

why not indeed ??!!


Anyway, he rearranges the seats and we all pile in for the short drive to the village. We park up, after a bit of driving around - luckily for us the car can accomodate all 7 of us in one go, and even the seats in the boot are comfy and have a surprising amout of leg room we discover - in fact almost more than the middle row !!

A family conflab...

The market itself was in a small square and full of stalls with beautiful old Provencal knick-knacks, artworks, jewellery, pottery, costumes and so on and I wanted to buy everything !! but in fact bought nothing as how much can you carry round in a caravan ? We are pretty well laden as it is and really have no room for more 'stuff' apart from food, wines and chemicals - our daily needs.



My husband (who never has any idea of the time) almost bought himself an old gold watch, it had a beautiful clear face and was nice and big so he could see and read it without his glasses on - the lady did a good job of trying to sell it to him with details of it's history and manufacturers etc but still the price tag of 250 Euros was the final deciding factor not to buy it in the end. We might still return in a week or so and see if it's still there and then start the bargaining process...

There was one particularly interesting stall which had lots and lots of old school posters - by the look and style of them we decided that they were from the 50s. Beautiful soft colourings and lovely thick sugar papers and they made me very nostalgic for my youth and particularly for my mother as these were just the sort of wall posters that I remembered from her teaching days.

Leila actually bought one of the posters which had the counties of France printed on it. A beautiful souvenir of her holiday in Provence.

Bon appetite...

It being lunchtime, one of the stall holder families had rearranged the tables and chairs they had for sale and were organising themselves a very grand picnic. No burgers and chips or sandwiches here in France, but almost a proper meal with wine and bottles of water.

The french are great for enjoying all their meals all the time it seems to me. A trait to be admired and which we try and emulate as much as we can these days.

Well, actually as a family we have always sat down to proper meals together.

No grazing allowed !!

We then wander off at random around the little village snapping madly with our cameras like real tourists, which of course we are !! At every turn it's cries of 'oh my god look at this......' and the whole village is crawling with tourists which in some ways rather detracts from its charm but then again without the tourists it would not survive as well as it does.

 Cafes and shops all sell local produce and the whole place is buzzing with life and money being spent.



I quietly decide to come back mid week and in the very early morning so we can wander in peace with only the locals around. The tourists seem to arrive in hordes either on foot, by car or in coach parties. 
Really, hardly a french word is heard on the streets !

After a while hunger gets the better of us and we head back to the maison for mid day feast which in fact is more like mid-afternoon !

 Still food is good at anytime !!

Lunch is on the terrace, well you have to make the most of any fine weather and we all tuck in with gusto.



It's blinking freezing !

We potter around the house and garden and of course the pool.... a few lengths, a few dives, a few somersaults (the boys are much much braver than the girls when it comes to cold waters....)

and a very lengthy game of

Petanque.....

serious stuff.....





Leila is just amazing. She is a profession illustrator and now writer too, and whenever she has a spare moment gets out her sketch papers and her favourite blue pencils and gets to work observing and noting down anything that catches her eye.




Apart from just enjoying the drawing, she also realises that everything could be of use to her as inspiration in the future.

 How wonderful to enjoy your life's work so much and be so enthusiastic about it all the time.

That evening we are in for a little celebration without realising it just yet !!

Ben and Marian have previously announced their engagement, and went down to the Lanes in Brighton the weekend before to choose the ring.

 They had already been round the obvious shops in London, had a lot of good advice but had not made the final selection.

All so exciting.

Marian has always loved the colour green (all her childhood bedrooms were green of various shades) and so an emerald was the obvious choice. The actual ring they'd chosen was too large and so an adjustment had to be made and it was going to be sent to Ben's office when ready. She was looking forward to receiving it when they eventually returned to the Uk after the holiday.

Little did she know though ??!!

While we potter about, they went for an evening stroll down the lane and around the vineyards before supper, a glass of local rose in hand - and we carried on with lighting a fire, setting the table, lighting candles etc.....

After a while, they returned and I notice Isabel crying and also Marian wiping a tear away..... she very proudly showed us her engagement ring. Ben, bless him, is quite full of surprises ...... lucky girl. It is a really beautiful ring, almost oval shaped with a stonking great chunk of emerald (1.8 carat) in the middle and surrounded by dainty diamonds all round. Quite quite lovely, we girls have a little weep.

Can't quite believe that my little girl is getting married, is now officially engaged and starting to plan her wedding already.....we think Ben is wonderful and that she is a lucky girl to have found him.

We enjoy a lovely evening. Trystan and Leila prepare supper for us all - baked stuffed aubergines with french beans and tomatoes and a lovely fresh red cabbage salad too. Crikey.....

A game of Risk to finish off the evening again ..... this time dad sneakily wins, but only because they are kind to him early on at one stage..... never does !! He is merciless if he has even a little chance of winning ....!! men ??



happy wanderer !

Another 'perfick' day..... we love the Darling Buds of May.....in fact we love them so much we had them playing on tape whilst going over a mountain on a most horrendous track in Italy one time.....another story..... I still shudder when I think of that journey.....

Today I start my fourth mohair stole. Leila loves the colour and so I am happy to knit away for the next few months and will send it to Oz when all finished and pressed. Mohair is actually quite tricky to knit with as I've discovered !! those long fluffy strands need careful watching as you knit or you suddenly discover than you've knitted a bit of fluff and not the actual yarn.... all very disconcerting when you find dropped stitches and have to rescue the situation.



Dad being heroic

Pays to be attentive, normally I can just knit without having to look at the needles at all.....still the stoles look beautiful and are as warm and cosy as a ball of fluff can be !!


P.s. As we have taken so so so many pictures of the village of Roussillon I have decided to add an extra page to the blog - this will be mainly all photos with a little comment here and there.

The colours alone deserve their own blog.....

A week in Provence !

 

I thought I'd write about our time together as a family on holiday in Provence. Having just reread the book - A year in Provence - I thought a good title for this next series of reminiscences would be ....guess what ?

yes, you guess right..


We are actually here for 10 days all together, but the first and the last day will be a picking up/dropping off and moving on day - so actual free holiday days are in total 8 which is just over a week !! So, here we go .....

Papal fortress !

Saturday

arabesque ?

This is our first proper day all togther, as my husband and I had arrived at lunchtime yesterday, and got settled in before he had to drive over to pick up family from Avignon where they'd arrived from London via the TGV.


My son and his partner arrived by car from Toulouse also late at night by which time I had nibbles ready and a roaring firelit as it was decidedly chilly indoors. We stay up late chatting and catching up with each other's life till it was time to drop off.

The day begins for me with a trawl round the garden for some flowers for the table, there are some quite beautiful rose bushes in the garden so I get handy with the scissors and finally have a little

Dad does his 'manly' stuff and gets in the firewood from the surounding woodlands. Handy having it all on site !


We have a leisurely breakfast on the terrace of whatever we have in the fridge, coffee and bread !! then off to Avignon to drop off the hire car and to do a quick shop for 'nouriture' for the family. Trystan actually had a deadline of about 10.30 am for the return of the hire car but this seemed quite flexible and also on holiday one doesn't want to rush things ??

We admire and admire the beauty of the region on the way in to town, cope with the TGV terminal (where the hire car office is sited) with its horrendous cadt iron bollards and very very narrow driveways (practically all the bollards had been rammed over by various cars at some stage or other.

 

I definitely decided that the architect drove only a deux chevaux!!! why else would you have such incredibly narrow road ways and umpteen sollid bollards just waiting for the impatient motorist ?? if you only drove a toy car yourself and so never had to worry about the odd prang to your bumpers ?!).

Anyway the car survived (dad is an absolutely amazing driver) and we made our way into town for a sightseeing session walking around the historic part of the old town.


Eventually we need a very long and leisurely french lunch at a local bistro where luckily for us the food was good and the service equally so. 

 

We enjoyed our meal and the general ambience and were well entertained by the waitress who was quite a character and by the look of her also enjoyed her food greatly.

A fun and rewarding couple of hours.

a living wall

THE pont ....

To wear off our lunch we wander some
more and find the ancient and original Pope's Palace, well, fortress really, and grounds with some amazing views over the town and the river - including what is left of the original Pont d'Avignon - about 4 arches !! the rest having been dismantled and reused in the town.

We head back to the car just as the heavens open and start our hunt around for a supermarket and find a Carrfour where we all wander around for the next hour picking up various delicious foods and trying to sort out menus for the next few days. We decide to take it in turns cooking as this simplifies the deciding factors.

 First is the BBQ as Ben is a whizz and we have a dry evening ahead of us hopefully. The rest of us select our choice of edibles and wines and the trolley is piled with deliciousness.

This is France after all, the home of gourmets and cuisine proper.

A stately drive back to the maison and we all pile in with sorting food, chopping up goodies, baths, whatever and light a fire, lay the table, light the candles and look forward to the evening ahead.

After supper I retire early as the rest of the family are engrossed in a game of Risk .....and I am not in game playing mood and feel I just need to rest up after a week of travel and catch my breath !!

My poor old bones feel weary... dad carries on though .....he has amazing stamina ....




Ben taking over the world ?

I think this first game is won by Trystan ? but we reckon he's played it a few times over the years. It was not one that we had at home as I remember anyway.

Flaked out !

All in all a really wonderful start to our holiday. No dramas and lots of fun, bit like the old christmases really. Bliss for a mummy !....

Good night all.

To Villa Verriere...

The next morning, in bright sunshine,

 we set off to the nearest village - Langes - to buy some provisions for the next couple of days.

We find a tiny village, a local farmer's stall set up in the square and the local tiny shop - but all the goods on offer were fresh and exciting so we spend a small fortune on goodies...

....my husband can't resist anything edible and I had to practically drag him out of the shop as it was filling up with the locals awaiting their turn patiently.

The young man (a dude) who served us and his mother who owned the shop were most helpful and full of suggestions of things to buy and how to cook them - good business sense when you have an eager englishman in the shop.

We also bought a bottle of the local rose to sample - well, you just cannot can you !! One thing of interest to us was the fact that about a third of the shop shelf space was given over to local wines !! Where else but in France would you see such a thing ?

On the way back to the campsite we pass a wonderful sight - a whole field of bright red poppies so we pull over briefly and get the camera out again. This is a sight that one doesn't see often if at all in Britain these days.


We load up the caravan and head off at a stately pace along the rather narrow lanes over to the Villa Verriere where we are to spend the next 10 days in great comfort I hope !!


We are a little late arriving - having arranged to meet there at mid-day - simply because hubby didn't follow my instructions !! Well, in fact they were rather vague when it came to the difference between roads and tracks and so we headed left along the road when in fact  right down a track was needed.

Anyway, half an hour later after having driven down the longest, roughest, bumpiest track ever we manage to find the house and park up safely. Phew.


The reception committee was impressive - the owner Marie, her sister-in-law and the local lady, Isabel, who was going to be our contact in the area for anything whatever to do with the house. Lots of chat, walking about and useful advice later they left to have lunch before heading off back to Geneva.

The house was originally owned by Marie's grandmother and was only used by the family sporadically now that the children had all grown up and were off having their adventures abroad so 2 years ago it had had a total makeover and was very welcoming.

We decide to have our lunch on the terrace by the pool, open a chilled bottle of rose left us by Marie and tuck into some french deliciousnesses.

Later we start the process of settling in....offloading our 'stuff' from the caravan and dad gets busy collecting firewood from the woodlands around the house and lights a very welcome fire.



At last we have decamped from the caravan and made ourselves very cosy with a fire roaring in the huge fireplace and heaters on in the bedrooms as sadly it is unseasonally chilly in this part of France.

 All that remains is for the younger members of the family to turn up !! Phil has gone to Avignon to pick up our two daughters and partner, and the TGV is apparently running 15 mins late! London to Avignon is about 6/7 hrs, about the time it takes to get from London to Tenby by car.....


So, that is how we got here, to this most most beautiful corner of Provence. Looking forward to a very happy holiday indeed now that we are here and I can start to enjoy the surroundings and am most incredibly excited about our family gathering.


just like the old days ...

I am feeling very weary as it is now 11.19 pm and way way way past my usual bedtime and the family are all just arriving ! Hooray !!


Now I just need to wake up a little .......