Friday

A day by the pool for most of us !!

 It's a beautiful blue sky and so we breakfast on the terrace outside. Well you have to chill sometimes...and so far this week we have been rather busy bees...some of us more than others I have to admit but still....

Marian and Isabel tackle my hair (it needs teamwork) as it is fairly long and shaggy by now - almost unmanageable. I get a nice cute bob which is easypeasy to maintain. Perfect.

 I have such thick wild hair and poor Marian is a little uncertain where to start on it all !! Still she does a marvellous job and I am really happy with my new 'look'.


Takes years off me as they said, well actually what they did say was that I looked like Molly - the Bichon Frisee I used to walk !! She used to be groomed every 6 week and her ears were 'bobbed' so she looked very very cute.

 I can live with that.

Then Isabel tackles Marian's hair.....just a little trim to tidy up the ends ...while Marian browses the internet in readiness for their trip to Sicily next week.

Sometime in the morning the youngsters tackle the cherry tree again - but this time with more gusto !! We have a resident jay who seems to spend his life in the tree happily spitting out the cherry pip when he's eaten one! 

He's become quite fearless of us by now and hops around all over the place merrily.

Trystan and Leila feel very energetic and walk over to the next local village - Goult, another of these amazing hilltop villages in this area of Provence. It is slowly being restored to its former glory and even has its own windmill with sails. Cultural events are often held in the grounds there too.


They arrive back in time for lunch and don't even look as if they worked up a sweat despite having just covered about 12 km!!


I'm envious.

Dad has spent practically the whole morning washing the caravan and car. All gleaming. They had been very grimy and dusty after our journey down through France.

Mid afternoon Marian, Ben, Isabel dad n I go to Coustellet for a food shop at Simply U. The supermarket at Roussillon is tiny and not very well stocked with fresh foods really, a bit disappointing. We are tempted by the giant squids and sardines - Ben's favourite fish. It is their turn to cook and he will prepare them on the BBQ for bruschettas.


One amusing thing was the BOGOF surprise - you know how in the UK you get a buy one get one free offer, well they had this on one of the sardine packets. But, when we got home and opened them all up - underneath was a packet of sea bass and not more sardines as we'd expected !! a bonus.....and funny !!

well we thought so ... hey, look at this !!

I get to grips with skinning and gutting the huge squids - I have prepared them often but never with quite so much ink involved. They smelled very very strongly of the sea and at the mealtime wasn't sure if I could eat them - but I did and they were delicious.

Amazing what a bit of garlic, lemon and a good cook can do......well done Ben.

Dad produces an amazing cake for our pudding - see I told you he can't resist the sweet stuff .


While we'd been shopping in the supermarket he'd found a little cake shop nearby called La Vie en Rose, roughly translated as Life in the Pink ! and everything in the shop was pink, fluffy, girly and totally over the top but very cute.

A little pink palace dedicated to confectionery of all sorts.

He chose a gateaux (one of the new creations) and the chap asked if he'd like something written on it ?? Dad had a think and asked to have Happy Holiday - which they promptly iced on to a pink heart (what else?) and they spelled it very prettily as Happy Hollyday !!

Aaaaahhhhh..

To round off the evening is a game of pickupsticks !

There was a giant cupboard in the sitting room and in it were loads of different board games, cards, computer games etc for our use, but pickupsticks it was !





A very tense and exciting game which was won by Leila. A good steady hand is needed for this game.

A last clear up and it's bedtime !!