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.